Concord Baptist Church

How To Fare Well In The Fire
Dan 3:13-27

Intro: It is a FACT of Christian experience that some times we must go through the fire.

There are the fires of:

1 – TESTING – 1 Peter 1:7
7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

2 – TRIALS OF SATAN – 1 Peter 4:12
12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

3 – FIRES FROM THE TOUNGE – James 3:6
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

We all go through the fires of adversity, what really establishes the true maturity of a Christian is how they handle the fire!

Some Christians cant even handle the smoke much less the fire!

It is easy to shout when everything is going good, that takes no courage, no spiritual guts, but when things are falling apart and you still can sing a song that is true courage!

Now, notice that in this story these men were not out of the will of god! In fact they were doing what the lord wanted and they still faced the fire!

A lot of times the devil sees someone going forward for god, so he turns the heat up a notch to try and get them to back slide!

These men faced the fire and yet they fared well, and you can too! You can face the fire and still come out on the other side victorious!!!!!

Here is how

1 – THEY HAD FAITH IN THE FIRE

Now, we all know that faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things unseen!

In other words, faith is trusting god for what you can’t see!

If we can add it up and figure it out that is not faith!

Hudson Taylor the famous missionary took his first journey to china by sail boat, in the middle of the sea the wind went calm and the boat came to a stop, the captain came in and told Mr. Taylor to pray for wind, you first put up the sails and I will pray he replied, the captain was unwilling to put up the sails with no wind fearing he be made fun of by his crews, never the less at Mr. Taylor’s insisting he hoisted the sails, then the captain came in and said, do you continue to pray for wind? Mr. Taylor said “yes” the captain then said “well stop, the wind is about to rip the sails!”

A black congregation once met to pray for rain, the preacher said to the congregation, you folks know why we are here, so I have only one question, where are your umbrellas?

A – THEY HAD A STATEMENT OF FAITH VS 17

A lot of people have what I call silent faith!

They wait for something to work out and then they say, “oh I knew that this would work out!”

real faith says “this will work out for my good” before the outcome is known!

these boys had peace before they ever went in that fire and they were not afraid to tell others about it!

if your faith is week in the fire the outcome is not going to be what you would like!

A – THEY HAD A STATEMENT OF FAITH

B – THEY HAD SERIOUS FAITH

MOST PEOPLE HAVE FAITH AS LONG AS IT DOES NOT INVOLVE THE MORE SERIOUS THINGS IN LIFE!

A – THEY HAD A STATEMENT OF FAITH

B – THEY HAD SERIOUS FAITH

C – THEY HAD A SONG OF FAITH

the reason that they would not dance to the kings music is because they did not recognize the tune!

they had a song in their heart and it did not come from the kings palace or the billboard top 40!

1 – THEY HAD FAITH IN THE FIRE

2 – THEY HAD FELLOWSHIP IN THE FIRE

Shadrack did not face the fire alone, he had Meshack and Abednigo, ect….

anyone who says that you do not need the fellowship of the brethren is a moron!

you may not always have this fellowship in the fire, there may be times that you have to face the fire alone, but most of the time if you will look down the pew from you, you will find a brother or sister to help bare your burden!

in 1765 John Fawcett went to pastor a small church in Wainsgate England, he had a hard time supporting his family, he got an offer from a much larger church and decided to take it, when he loaded his wagon to move his congregation showed up to beg him to stay after seeing their out pouring of love he exclaimed “unload the wagon” the experience caused him to write these words “blest be the tie that binds our heart in Christian love, the fellowship of Christian mind is like to that above”

1 – THEY HAD FAITH IN THE FIRE

2 – THEY HAD FELLOWSHIP IN THE FIRE

3 – THEY HAD SOME FIGHT IN THE FIRE

I do not know about you, but it does not seem to me like these men were beet down or about to give up!

they still had some fight in them!

when you work steel in the fire you learn some things about it!

when you heat it, it becomes soft and bendable, however, if you poor oil over that steel as it cools you temper it and make it stronger than ever before!

if you will allow the oil of the holy spirit to poor over you in the fire you will come out stronger on the other side!

John Wesley – give me 100 men who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but god and I will shake the world!

1 – THEY HAD FAITH IN THE FIRE

2 – THEY HAD FELLOWSHIP IN THE FIRE

3 – THEY HAD SOME FIGHT IN THE FIRE

4 – THEY HAD A FRIEND IN THE FIRE

what made the difference was the 4th man in this fire!

A – THEIR FRIEND WAS NOT AFRAID OF THE FIRE

did you realize that the thing you are dreading so badly, Jesus is not afraid of at all?

I always liked to run around with someone who was not afraid!

B – THEIR FRIEND WAS NOT AFFECTED BY THE FIRE

it did not bother him to tread through the flames with his friends!

no matter how hot the fire may get, it will not affect this friend! for he abideth faithful!

C – THEIR FRIEND WAS ACCUSTOMED TO THE FIRE!

He is no stranger to problems!

Isaiah said that he was a man of grief and acquainted with sorrows!

Conc.:
These men would not bend, bow, or burn!

It is hard to burn someone that has rivers of living water flowing from their belly!