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Sep 27, 2020

Worship

Worship

Passage: Daniel

Speaker: Andrew Kerhoulas

Series: Of Kings and Kingdoms - Daniel

Keywords: worship, idolatry, deliverance

Daniel 3’s fiery furnace is a familiar story about a familiar topic, namely worship. Here we discover what worship is, what it does, and the impetus for choosing to worship the true King, namely, God Himself.

9.27.20 GMR Online Service from Grace Mills River on Vimeo.

Order of Worship

Opening Prayer: See below
Call to Worship: See below
New Testament Reading: 1 Peter 4:12-14, 19
MESSAGE TITLE: Worship
CENTRAL TEXT: Daniel 3
Confession of Faith: Heidelberg Catechism
BENEDICTION: Based on Isaiah 43:1-7

Children's LessonsChildren's Activity Packet

Readings & Scripture

OPENING PRAYER:
ALL: Lord, be with us this day,
Within us to purify us;
Above us to draw us up;
Beneath us to sustain us;
Before us to lead us;
Behind us to restrain us;
Around us to protect us.
- St Patrick, c.389-461, missionary and bishop in Ireland

CALL TO WORSHIP:
Leader: In Christ, the God of heaven has made his home on earth.
Christ dwells among us and is one with us.
Highest of all creation, he lives among the least.
He journeys with the rejected and welcomes the weary.
Come now, all who thirst, and drink the water of life.
Come now, all who hunger, and be filled with good things.
Come now, all who seek, and be warmed by the fire of love.
All: Let us worship.

New Testament Reading: 1 Peter 4:12-14, 19
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you...19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

CENTRAL TEXT: Daniel 3 (excerpts)
King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its breadth six cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. 2 Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent to gather the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up...

4 And the herald proclaimed aloud, “You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, 5 that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. 6 And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace.”7 Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

8 Therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. ... 12 There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, pay no attention to you; they do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

13 Then Nebuchadnezzar in furious rage commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. So they brought these men before the king. 14 Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them... 15b “...if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?”

16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 18 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated. 20 And he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. 21 Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace. 22 Because the king’s order was urgent and the furnace overheated, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning fiery furnace.

24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” 25 He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.”

26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace; he declared, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. 27 And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king’s counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them. 28 Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. 29 Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.” 30 Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

Confession of Faith: Heidelberg Catechism
Q1. What is your only comfort in life and in death?
A1. That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

BENEDICTION: Based on Isaiah 43:1-7
As you go from here, remember this:
You have nothing to fear.
For God has created you, and shaped you.
He has chosen you and named you as His own.
When you face stormy seas, God will be there.
When it seems as though you’re walking through fire,
God will be there. So go with joy and confidence,
knowing that the loving presence of God goes with you.

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURES:

  • Psalm 115:8
  • Isaiah 43:1-4a
  • Romans 12:1-21
  • 1 Peter 4:12
  • Revelation 7

ILLUSTRATIONS:

Inview Media Album: 9.27.20 Album

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. Consider your life over the past six months. Has there been a fiery trial that has nearly overwhelmed you? What has your response been?
  2. In what ways does Daniel 3 comfort you, either for a current trial you’re in or for a trial to come?
  3. Why should your hope increase because you know that God came down to rescue the three friends?
  4. What angers you lately? What is the root cause of that? How does the Holy Spirit factor in here?

QUOTES:

  • “In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship — be it J.C. or Allah, be it Yahweh or the Wiccan mother-goddess or the Four Noble Truths or some infrangible set of ethical principles — is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things — if they are where you tap real meaning in life — then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already — it’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness. Worship power — you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart — you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.” --David Foster Wallace
  • “The philosopher Charles Taylor suggests that the difference between believers and unbelievers is not what they think as much as how they deal with three things humans experience: fullness, that feeling of euphoria and rightness you get when you’re happiest; absence, the exact opposite; and the middle condition, the things-are-pretty-okay place in which many of us are fortunate enough to live our daily lives. Everyone wants to experience fullness, and most everyone structures their lives around that pursuit, Taylor argues. But to believers, the place to find fullness is God, or something godlike; for unbelievers, it’s to be sought within ourselves.” Alissa Wilkinson
  • “We become like what we worship, either for ruin or for restoration.” Greg Beale

BOOKS / DOCS

  • James K.A. Smith, You Are What You Love
  • Greg Beale, We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry
  • David Zahl, Seculosity: How Career, Parenting, Technology, Food, Politics, and Romance Became Our New Religion and What to Do about It