Amen. Well, I invite you to turn in God's Word to Daniel, the book of Daniel in the Old Testament, chapter 3. And if you are using one of the Bibles in the seats in front of you, the page numbers are listed on the top of the sermon handout, the sermon notes there, a little sheet for you to take notes on if you're inclined to do that. But Daniel, chapter 3, with God in the flame. And in this chapter, indeed, we find a story about worship and about a fiery furnace. And this directly follows the story of Daniel 2, where King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, he had a terrifying dream. And he saw a bright and a mighty human image in that dream that was made of various metals, starting with gold, and it was standing before him. And the image was soon obliterated by a supernatural stone. And the stone then became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Well the point of the dream As we learn in chapter two is that God's eternal and indestructible kingdom would one day exterminate all human kings and kingdoms, including Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon, and that kingdom of God will one day fill the whole earth. Well, when we come to Daniel chapter three, we learn that the tyrant king, the tyrant king isn't quite ready to let go of his kingdom. And so let's hear the story of Daniel chapter 3. I'll start in verse 1 and read the story in its entirety. This is God's true and living word. Verse 1. King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits and its breadth 6 cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon, and 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. Then the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And they stood before the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And the herald proclaimed aloud, you are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, 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. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. 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 worshipped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Therefore, at that time, certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. They declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, O King, live forever. You, O King, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music shall fall down and worship the golden image. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. 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." Well, then King Nebuchadnezzar, in furious rage, commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. So they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? Now, if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made well and good. But 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? Verse 16, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning, fiery furnace. Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished, and he rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, did we not cast three men bound into the fire? They answered and said to him, or said to the king, true, O king. 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. 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. And then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. 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. 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. 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. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. This is the word of the Lord. Let me lead us in prayer again. Our most high God and Father you alone are worthy of our full and constant worship. But oh how we need your help to be resolved to worship you whatever the cost. We confess that we are weak, and we are poor, and we are needy. We know that left to ourselves and our own strength, when temptations come to worship false gods, we would quickly cower and compromise. But you are merciful, and you are gracious, and you are able to deliver us again and again and again. And so, Father, please help and teach and strengthen us even now. Please help me to rightly and to clearly speak your word to preach the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ, even as we pray in his name, amen, amen. Well, Old Testament scholar Dale Ralph Davis recounts that in the late 1930s, in the heyday of communist dictator Joseph Stalin's reign in the Soviet Union, his name was mentioned in a provincial town meeting. And this triggered a standing ovation and a standing dilemma, for no one dared to be the first one to sit down. Finally, an elderly man, unable to stand any longer, took his seat. They noted his name and arrested him the next day. He had failed to worship the idol long enough. or there was a man named Paul Schneider. He stood lined up with other prisoners at Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany, and it was April 20th, 1938, Adolf Hitler's 49th birthday. And so in tribute, the prisoners were ordered to remove their berets and venerate the Nazi swastika flag. at once all whipped off their headgear, but guards observed one man who would not bow to the swastika, one man named Paul Schneider. They beat him 25 lashes with an oxhide whip, and that was only the first oxhide treatment he received, because he refused to worship the idol. Well, much like the story in Daniel 3, we recognize that history is sadly filled with tyrannical autocratic rulers who demand total allegiance and worship. But the most high God of heaven, in the beauty of his holy and unchanging love, righteousness, and power, is the only one worthy of our total and constant allegiance and worship. God lovingly demands this of all humanity and certainly of his people as this was expressed in Exodus chapter 20 verses 3 to 6 in the first of his three ten commandments. And we hear there, you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. Well, those life-giving commandments in Exodus chapter 20, they're really the foundation for the resolved worship of the three young Jewish exiles in Daniel chapter three, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And the story here is about worship. And it's about a fiery furnace. And it's about deliverance. And here's the main point. Here's the big idea of the entire story. It is this. Resolve to worship the Most High God who always delivers. Resolve to worship the Most High God who always delivers. Now if you've been here for any of the previous sermons that I've been doing here in the book of Daniel I think this is sermon number five this morning. But if you've been here for any of the previous ones you may be thinking to yourself this this call to worship this main idea to worship the Most High God is starting to sound kind of really repetitive. I mean that's what you're saying every time to worship the Most High God. Well guess what. It is repetitive. Because that's the very essence of the book. That's the heart of the entire book, this call to worship. This is the theme, it is the call of the whole book. But with all that God has been pleased to reveal through this book, he is showing us many different aspects, many different dimensions of how and of why we're to constantly worship the God who is most high. And so the call of Daniel 3 is just that. Resolve to worship the Most High God who always delivers. Beloved, God knows that this day we live in an idolatrous, hostile, godless world. The form and the expression of all of that is different than what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew as exiles in Babylon, but it's the same idolatrous, hostile, godless world. And God also knows that we are indeed, as the hymn says, we are prone to wander rather than worship this God. And so God aims here in Daniel 3 to comfort and to strengthen and to purify our worship and our hope in him. That's what he aims to do because he knows the world that we live in and he knows the inclinations of our own heart to be drawn away to many different forms of idolatry. And so what we find revealed in this story are four expectations. Four expectations that help us to resolve to worship the Most High God who always delivers. And what I'm planning to do hoping to do is to address the first two of these four expectations this morning and then Lord willing next week we'll look at the remaining two. I was thinking at one point I was gonna put all of this into one sermon but it's just too much. So we're gonna chew on the first two expectations today and then save the next two for next week. So let's look at these expectations as they unfold in the story. Expectations to help us resolve to worship the Most High God who always delivers. Here's expectation number one. First, expect powerful pressure to worship Expect powerful pressure to worship false gods. This is what we see happening in the first part of the story in verses 1 to 15. The madman, Nebuchadnezzar, in proud defiance against the God of heaven, and the gracious revelations that God has given in chapter two, in defiance of that, Nebuchadnezzar makes a massive golden image. It's of a monstrous size. It's roughly 90 feet tall and nine feet wide. And the king sets it up in a flat open area for maximum visibility. This golden image is intended to shock and to awe and to dominate. And then he gathers all of his government officials. Their titles are repeated to just emphasize. He's gathering the entire leadership of the government, which is ultimately all of his yes men. And they represent all of the people's nations and languages. And then, with an absolutely gross abuse of his position and his power, the insecure king demands that when the music is played, everyone is to fall down and worship the golden image that he's made. Compliance with this command is coerced through fear. with the promise of an immediate fiery death for anyone who refuses to worship the image. Well, enter three young Jewish exiles. They're probably teenagers. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They pay no attention to the king. They refuse to serve his gods or to worship the golden image. As a result, they're maliciously accused by the Chaldeans, those Babylonian priest scholars that we meet in Daniel chapter 2. These wise men, as they presumed themselves to be, who were absolutely shamed in chapter two because they could not interpret the king's dream. And they are no doubt seething with jealousy toward these three youth because we read at the end of chapter two that the king had actually promoted them to high places of leadership in Babylon. Well, upon learning of their noncompliance, The furious or the king in furious rage brings them in before him and he confronts them and then he offers them with the same threat of the fiery furnace, he offers them one more chance to comply, one more chance to fall down and worship his image and his gods. And really the sick evidence of the king's self-exalting pride is seen when he says at the end of verse 15 in absolute mocking, who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands? Well, the king's about to find out, isn't he? He's about to find out. But oh, what powerful pressure to worship false gods This satanically controlled king puts on these three godly young men. What amazing, overwhelming pressure. And if you think about it, it's of course not just the king, but it's the peer pressure of the whole mob of his kingdom. Everyone who has bowed down in compliance. And beloved, this is the world that we live in, this satanically filled world and satanically controlled culture that overflows with all kinds of idols and false gods. And we must expect the same intense pressure to worship these false gods. If you think about it as the human King Nebuchadnezzar was the instrument of Satan's pressure in Daniel chapter 3, we can't expect, we must expect that Satan is going to pressure and tempt us even through many different people in our day. So whether it's through the civil authorities, whether it's through family members, whether it's through friends, whether it's through coworkers, whether it's through employers, whether it's through teachers and professors, whether it's through neighbors or celebrities or any other kind of influencer, we must expect powerful pressure and temptations to compromise. And of course, this pressure and these temptations can have all kinds of different forms. Maybe it comes in the forms of deceitful and enticing seduction. Maybe there's intimidation. Maybe there's manipulation. Maybe there's forceful coercion. Maybe there's marginalization. Maybe there's mocking and slander and rejection. Maybe there's threats of physical violence, even death. Satan has a lot of different ingredients in his cookbook for compromise. But do you remember how Jesus rebuked his disciple Peter when Peter pressured Jesus to avoid the suffering of the cross and really was pressuring Jesus to worship the false gods of security and of self-preservation. In Matthew chapter 16 when this event unfolds in verse 23 Jesus responds to Peter and you remember what he says? Get behind me Satan. Get behind me Satan your hindrance to me for you are not setting your mind on the things of God but on the things of man. He's speaking to his disciple whom he loves who is one of his chosen. He calls him Satan because he's setting his mind on the things of man and not on the things of God. It's intriguing that many years later, a much more spiritually mature Peter exhorted Christians with these words that we hear in the letter of 1 Peter, chapter four, verses three and four. He says, for the time that has passed suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you. So to be sure, we probably won't be pressured by some 90 by 9 foot golden image with the call and the demand to worship such a golden image. But we must expect, and we understand experientially, strong pressures and temptations to worship giant false gods like pleasure and like comfort and like acceptance from other people. and like pride, and like respect, and like selfishness, and like greed, and like lust, and all kinds of sexual sin, and like laziness, and like the love of money, and the approval of others, and worldly success, and on down the line. So you see, beloved, the first expectation from this passage that we are exhorted with is that we are to expect this pressure to worship false gods. To expect it, to expect it. Well, this leads to the second expectation that should help us to resolve to worship the most high God. Number two, expect specific moments of black and white decisions. Expect specific moments of black and white decisions. And so in verses 16 to 18, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they faced just this kind of moment that required a black and white decision. Would they cave into the king's pressure, worship the golden image, and escape the fiery furnace? Or would they trust and obey the God of heaven even if it killed them? You see, the force of this is intended to cause us to think to ourselves, what would I do? What would I do? What have I done in similar moments that required black and white decisions? You see, this was an either or moment for these three. It was a clear black and white decision. There was no middle ground. There was no gray area here as they stood before the raging king. There was no wiggle room. There was no fuzziness. This was a black and white decision that had to be made. It had to be made. An answer had to be given. Either worship the golden image or worship the Most High God. It's one or the other. And it's always that way in our lives, isn't it? whenever we face specific moments of black and white decisions. Well we know that these three made the right decision and their response in verses 16 to 18 is immediate, it's direct, it's respectful, you don't get any sense of cockiness or arrogance and it's courageous. Their resolute confession is really the center point and the focus of the whole chapter. So just hear again what we read of this in verses 16 to 18. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 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. 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." Oh, what a powerful, faithful, resolute confession and declaration this is from these men. These men bearing witness to the one true God of heaven. Now, we know how the rest of the story goes and we know how it ends. But with ferocious insanity, King Nebuchadnezzar has the three bound, thrown into the fiery furnace where God meets and delivers them through the flames. But at the crucial moment of their decision, these young men did not know what the actual outcome of their obedience would be. And yet they knew and they hoped in God. So they resolved to worship only Him. You see, they trusted God's reality as God had revealed through His Word. And they trusted God's good authority as they obeyed and submitted to His commands from Exodus 20 to worship Him and to Him alone. And they trusted in God's ability, knowing that he was able to deliver them. And they also trusted in God's sovereignty, knowing that God may or may not choose to save them from death. And in all of this, you see, beloved, they trusted in God's unchanging supremacy and sufficiency. They feared God rather than man. And so they did not flinch in boldly setting aside the king's man-made command to worship his man-made image that he as a man had set up. And so we just marvel at this stunning display of courage. And maybe we ask the question, where did this come from? Where did this resolve come from? And the answer is that it came from the power and the provision of the God whom these young men worshipped. It came from the power and the provision of the God that these young men worshipped. You see, the truth is that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they were able to make this big black and white decision as they stood before the raging king, because they had no doubt made countless smaller black and white decisions in all the previous moments of their lives that led up to this one. So just think about it. When they first heard of the King's image worshiping command, right then and there, they had made their decision to not bow down come what may. And that's really miraculous, isn't it? Given the pressure, given the force of the temptations that were coming their way. It's really the bigger miracle, let alone the miracle of God delivering them from the fiery furnace as we see at the end of the chapter. But the miracle is that they made that decision immediately once they learned of that command. When they were directly confronted by the raging king, there was absolutely no hesitation at all, because the decision had been made long beforehand. You see, that's the key. They were resolved to trust and worship this God, and it was God, it was God who strengthened them to be able to do this. This wasn't about their own strength, about their own toughness, about their own inherent resolve just in and of themselves. It's about the God that they're worshiping strengthening them, enabling them to do this. Now, how do we know this? Well, it's evident from Daniel chapters 1 and 2 that the pattern of life, the pattern of life for these young men along with Daniel was to worship God. In other words it was their pattern already to trust and to adore and to depend on and to obey God. You see what we're to understand in this story and in all these stories in the early part of Daniel is that these young men were saturated in and they were submissive to God's word. They had the scriptures that God had given up to that time. And so they were saturated in the books of Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy and some of the other Old Testament historical books. They would have known many of the Psalms and Proverbs and also some of the prophets who either were before them or contemporaries with them like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel. These were men who were saturated in and submissive to the word of God and that informed their obedience. They understood and they believed and they submitted to God's command in Exodus 20 to worship him and him alone. So there was no ambiguity about the will of God they knew what it was because they knew God's word but also Also, hand in hand with God's word, these young men knew how to pray. They knew how to pray. Earlier, back in chapter two, verses 17 and 18, at the time under a different death sentence from Nebuchadnezzar, these teenagers and Daniel were told they sought mercy from God in prayer. That was their first reaction when this death threat came and when Daniel sought an audience with the king so that he could interpret the dream. Daniel goes to his three friends and he says, guys, we've got to pray. We've got to seek the God of heaven and seek mercy from him that he would give us the interpretation so that we can tell the king his dream. And that's exactly what happened in their lives and the lives of all the wise men in Babylon whom the king was going to kill were spared. These were men of prayer and this constantly goes hand in hand. The word of God in prayer, the word of God in prayer where we express our dependency upon him through prayer and we receive his love, his mercy, his grace, his truth, his authority, his will for us through his word. It's this dynamic of communion with him, of intimacy with him, of seeking him in these matters through his word and in prayer. And so for these three young men, this was no doubt their habitual practice to be depending on God in prayer. And so it is that God enabled them to faithfully worship Him without compromise in the moment of intense pressure and temptation and with a black and white decision. They knew and they experienced God's promise as he says in 2nd Chronicles chapter 16 verse 9 and they probably knew this promise. We're told there 2nd Chronicles 16 9 the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. That's what they were experiencing. That's why they were enabled to. be strong and to be resolved in the face of such intense pressure and temptation. We're weak, but God is strong. Beloved, it's true, isn't it? You and I face many specific moments of black and white decisions every day, every day. Will we worship the most high God of heaven? or will we worship the wicked idols of this world? It's always the decision. Will we live by faith in God, trusting his salvation, his promises, his commands, and his provision in Jesus Christ? Will we live by faith in him or will we live by sight and give in to worldly pressures and temptations? And you see the key to being faithful when the big moments of decision come is to be faithful right now in every small moment of decision. And so when we're tempted and when we're pressured with whatever it is, fear or worry or unforgiveness or gossip or lying in some way, or pornography or other sexual sin or cheating on school assignments or tests or selfishness or a host of other temptations. Is it our resolved pattern of life to worship God in obedience to his word, in dependency upon him in prayer, to worship him even if it kills us? You know it's interesting, Psalm 119, as many of you know, is the longest chapter in the Bible. What is it, 176 verses I think, is that right? It's long, it's long, it's the longest chapter in the Bible. And it's possible that that psalm written through the inspiration of God was written by Daniel and maybe his three friends. The human author of the psalm is not identified in the psalms as many of the psalms are identified with David or with others. Psalm 19 has no human author identified and many scholars think for good reasons and very reasonable arguments that it's very possibly Daniel and even his three friends who were the author of the psalm. And certainly the content of Psalm 119 fits the context of Daniel and his three friends and their experience. Well, in light of that, and maybe sometime even this afternoon or this evening, go home, read, pray through, think through Psalm 119 with that in mind regarding Daniel and his friends. But for instance listen to what we hear in verses 9 through 11 of Psalm 119 which is both a kind of a declaration as well as a prayer. And make this your own resolve, make this your prayer. So the psalmist says verse 9, how can a young man keep his way pure? by guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." What a prayer. What a resolve. And it's not incidental that this longest chapter of the Bible echoes those similar themes again and again and again, even in the midst of fiery trials and difficulties and pressures to compromise. You know, it's very likely that maybe today, maybe right now, some of you need to make some black and white decisions. Maybe some of you have never come to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, which is to say, despite what you may think and feel, you are enslaved to Satan and to sin, and you are enslaved to God's judgment. And so even now, he calls you to decide, to turn from your sin and to turn to Christ in faith. Maybe you need to make that decision. Why are you waiting? Why are you hesitating? What are you looking for? Maybe you need to decide now to come to faith in Christ and to taste his love and his mercy and his goodness and his forgiveness and his comfort and his life and his hope. Maybe you need to make that decision today. Maybe there's some of you who are Christians, but if you're honest, you've been caving in to satanic pressure and temptation. You've been neglecting God's word. You've been neglecting prayer. And I plead with you, young man and old man, young woman and old women, if that is you, cry out to the Lord. Confess your sin. Trust the full and abundant and never ending provision that God has given in the Lord Jesus Christ but confess your sin to him. And then get your Bible. Turn off your computer. Turn off your smartphone. Turn off your telephone. Turn off your video games. Put away your magazines and your novels and whatever else may be a distraction to you. And then go to your closet. And get on your knees before the face of God. Maybe start in Psalm 119. Or maybe start in Proverbs chapters 1 to 9. Or maybe go to the Gospel of John. Start in chapter 1. Get alone with God. Seek the face of God. God has revealed himself through his word. He's given us a book. But the book isn't about the book. The book is about the God who gave us the book. He's real. He's powerful. He's sovereign. He's good. He's wise. He's righteous. He rules over everything. And he aims to be known. He wants you and he wants me. He wants every single one of us to taste and to see that he is good. So get on your face before God with his word. Pour out your heart. Confess your sins. Cry out to him for mercy and for grace to open your eyes to strengthen your heart to help you to trust and adore and depend on him and obey him. Come what may. Come what may. Friends have you sinned? Have you sinned? Perhaps guilt and shame and regret because you've compromised in specific moments of black and white decisions. I know that's true for me sometimes, sadly, but it is. Maybe you've been experiencing God's loving discipline because you've given in to worshiping false gods. That's the entire context of the book of Daniel. God's people have been sent into exile as an expression of God's discipline because they were idolaters. They were worshiping false gods. God's seeking to yet pour out mercy and grace to them even as he disciplines them. And may I say to you that if this is true of you, that you've been worshiping false gods in whatever way they're expressed, you've been caving in when the moment of decision has come and you've run away from the fiery furnace as it were, that even now Jesus is eager to restore and to forgive and to cleanse you. And friend, he pleads with you in this way even now. Hear these words that he expresses in Revelation chapter three, verses 19 to 20. He says, those whom I love, I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent. He says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me." Would you hear Jesus's voice? Would you repent? Would you open the door? to let him rule and reign in your life? And would you know such sweet, filling, nourishing fellowship as you commune with him through his word and prayer in all that he is and all that he's done and all that he's given? Well, I need to close things up for now. As I said, next week, Lord willing, we'll look at the remaining two expectations that come from Daniel chapter 3. They have to do with how God controls our circumstances and how he always rescues us through the flames not from the flames but through the flames. And that may mean he takes us to heaven or it may mean he continues our life on this earth. But one way or the other he always rescues he always delivers and we'll look at that more fully next week. But the call for today is hope, hope, hope in the most high God of heaven and resolve to worship him because he always delivers. He always delivers. Let me lead us in prayer. Oh, Father, you know what you have intended in speaking to each one of us today through your word. Father, may your purposes be realized. May the fruit that you have designed to produce in each one's life through your life-giving word and through your spirit, may that fruit be realized. And may there be the sweetness and the fullness and the delight and the joy of knowing and walking with you, worshiping you, even within this wicked world that we live in and even within the inclinations of our own sinfulness. God help us. Thank you for your provision in Christ and for your goodness in all of these things. We pray in his name. Amen. Amen.