When Things Heat Up (3 of 12)
Series: Thrive
Craig Smith
Daniel 3
Big Idea: Things change when God's greatness goes viral because his people refuse to fear the furnace.
I. Introduction
Let's review:
1. We thrive when we refuse to compromise our allegiance to a God who is bigger than our Babylon
2. We thrive when we seek Godly wisdom, because Godly wisdom turns slippery slopes into solid ground
II. Main Body
A. Mission the Point
King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, sixty cubits high and six cubits wide,1 and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. (Daniel 3:1)
Now this interesting. In chapter two, God gave Nebuchadnezzar a vision of a statue with a head of gold...and Daniel told him that head represented Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom. Now the vision was kind of a double-edged sword: the fact that the part of the statue represented Nebuchadnezzar was all gold was flattering...but at the same time, part of the point of the vision was that no human kingdom, no matter how powerful, including Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom...was going to last.
But Nebuchadnezzar kind of missed the point. He seems to have picked up on the fact that his kingdom was represented in the vision by gold...so now he's made a big statue made entirely of gold! Do you see the arrogance in that? As we used to say back in the 80's Nebuchadnezzar thinks he's all that...and a bag of chips. I don't know why we used to say that, but we did. It just means he's obsessed with his own might and majesty...in other words, what we're seeing here is a display of his arrogance.
And as soon as we begin to see his arrogance on display, we should start to hear the Jaws theme...because one of the repeated themes of the Bible is that God rebukes arrogance and rewards humility.
B. Pavlov's People
2 He then summoned the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials to come to the dedication ...
Series: Thrive
Craig Smith
Daniel 3
Big Idea: Things change when God's greatness goes viral because his people refuse to fear the furnace.
I. Introduction
Let's review:
1. We thrive when we refuse to compromise our allegiance to a God who is bigger than our Babylon
2. We thrive when we seek Godly wisdom, because Godly wisdom turns slippery slopes into solid ground
II. Main Body
A. Mission the Point
King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, sixty cubits high and six cubits wide,1 and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. (Daniel 3:1)
Now this interesting. In chapter two, God gave Nebuchadnezzar a vision of a statue with a head of gold...and Daniel told him that head represented Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom. Now the vision was kind of a double-edged sword: the fact that the part of the statue represented Nebuchadnezzar was all gold was flattering...but at the same time, part of the point of the vision was that no human kingdom, no matter how powerful, including Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom...was going to last.
But Nebuchadnezzar kind of missed the point. He seems to have picked up on the fact that his kingdom was represented in the vision by gold...so now he's made a big statue made entirely of gold! Do you see the arrogance in that? As we used to say back in the 80's Nebuchadnezzar thinks he's all that...and a bag of chips. I don't know why we used to say that, but we did. It just means he's obsessed with his own might and majesty...in other words, what we're seeing here is a display of his arrogance.
And as soon as we begin to see his arrogance on display, we should start to hear the Jaws theme...because one of the repeated themes of the Bible is that God rebukes arrogance and rewards humility.
B. Pavlov's People
2 He then summoned the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials to come to the dedication ...
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