Chapter two. Daniel chapter two. Actually, I think we'll start in chapter three. I'll read one verse and then we can go back to chapter two. Things you can see from the fire. That's what we're talking about tonight. Things you can see from the fire. I'll answer one question, maybe. I'll answer that one statement. And then really, I want God to work in your hearts and make you all think. And then maybe you'll see more things from the fire. I don't need to tell the whole stories. I don't need to tell you every detail. We'll let God do that in his word. But things you can see from the fire is what we're looking at. Look at Daniel chapter 3, and we'll read in verse 15. We'll come back to this. Probably a very familiar passage, which makes it easier to go through. I'm not going to read every verse. I just want us to think tonight, and I want us to praise God. I want us to praise God. We are asking for prayer for these folks because we believe it's real. Because we believe God wants to save Joe. We believe God wants to save Ashton and her dad. We believe God wants to save Barry. And we believe God wants to change their lives. Right? You're looking at one right now. It is amazing how it works. We believe that God gives grace and strength when we need it. We believe that God never leaves us nor forsakes us. We live it, but tonight we're just looking at scripture. We're just seeing God. Old Testament God's the same as the New Testament God. No difference. No difference. And so I'm excited to see that tonight. I want you all to see it too. And I want God to just work on us and open us up and pray that we could rejoice and find hope tonight. But look at Daniel chapter three. Here's a question, not sure Nebuchadnezzar knew that this was the question, but God's gonna answer it for him like God does. And he is lovely. God is pursuing and he's pursuing all kinds of people. He pursued me, he's still pursuing me. He's a good God. No matter what you see, or think, or experience, He's a really good God. And He's after you. And He's after me. What does Charlie say? Good, great, and gracious? It's true. Okay, so let's read verse 15. And you know this, we'll come back to it. Here's what he says. Now, if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, the flute, the harp, the sackbut, the psaltery, the dulcimer, and all kinds of music, You fall down and worship the image which I have made well. But if you worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?" And I believe that that is the question right there that God's answering. And it's been a question on his mind. and God's pursuing him. So we're gonna go back through Daniel chapter 2, we'll read through some verses, and we'll end up in chapter 3, we'll end up through this. God is after Nebuchadnezzar. He is so amazing. He's not after just Nebuchadnezzar. He's after every soul on the planet. To show him, because this is Nebuchadnezzar's question, but it's really everybody's question. He's just vocalizing it. Who is this God? And we're going to see, as you know the story, we're going to see the whole world bow down to an idol. How is that possible? How could the whole world be deceived and just go whoop, whoop? They're not supposed to. I know we study these three heroes, these Jewish heroes, and we know according to the law that God's law, Ten Commandments, are not supposed to bow down. Hey, the whole planet's not supposed to bow down. The whole planet's supposed to bow to God. Right? God used the Israeli people to show him and to show that the Messiah is coming and to show him that relationship and to show him how you could never be perfect and you need a savior. He used them for that. But God's after every soul. And so that's what we're gonna see. I love to see that question. And you're gonna see this balance of power. You're gonna see Nebuchadnezzar build up all this power, all this earthly power. And he wields it in front of these three Hebrews and says, bow down. as if he has something there. And so I'll encourage us to beware of scope as we're going through our life. Beware of what's being spun in front of us and just make sure you're looking at the big picture. Nebuchadnezzar was not. He's like, who is this God? That's really what every soul is wondering. Who is this God? Every soul has to deal with it. We represent it. We're praying because we know people need to understand. So you just watch. What I want us all to be aware of, as we go into the fire, we're going to end up in the fire, and what we're doing is we're in this moment where those three Hebrew fellas hit the ground in the fiery furnace, and they look back, and what do they see? They can only see it from the fire. Right? They see it, and they're going to look and see. What do they see? So let God work on us as we go through it, okay? God's after Nebuchadnezzar. This isn't some story just for a children's book that we remember back and go, ha ha ha, so cute. God's after the world, and he still is today. The world's just as deceived today. The world goes just like this and bows down today. Sometimes we bow down right with it. All right, so we're just realigning with God tonight and praising him for how good he is. So let's go back to chapter two. Chapter two, Daniel chapter two. And you all know the story of Daniel. He was moved in captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon, and God did it to judge his people. God said it was gonna happen. He used King Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was his servant, his tool to pull his people, and so some of those folks came right into Babylon. Daniel's one of them, and he was trained up in the king's service. All right, God gave him wisdom. So let's look at Daniel chapter two, verse one. And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams wherewith his spirit was troubled and his sleep break from him. Then the king commanded to call the magicians and the astrologers and the sorcerers and the Chaldeans for to show the king his dreams. So they came and they stood before the dream." What does God say about wisdom? Just keep it simple. What's the source of wisdom? Fear of God. Proverbs 1, verse 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. For all of us in here, all ages, that's going to be true our entire lives. It's going to be true for eternity. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So if you see a king doing something else, if you see a ruler of the whole known world doing something differently, they're wrong. That's just baseline. This is baseline wisdom. We go to God for wisdom. All right? So look, here's what he does. He dreams a dream. In verse two, he calls on all of the known wisdom. Who's missing? Then the king commanded to call the magicians and the astrologers and the sorcerers and the Chaldeans for to show the king his dreams. So they came and they stood before the king. The king is upset. The king is troubled because God's after him. God's after him. Why? Because he has this question. Who is this God? Just like God was after me. Just like God was after you, is after you. This is what he's doing. And I watch. So wisdom, like I said, we've got to understand, but you're going to see the king frame everything in earthly perspective. And it looks very powerful. We feel that, we fear that too, but he's framing everything earthly. Remember, we set our affections on things above, not on things of this earth. So let's read through here. I'm not gonna go through all of this because you know this. It is interesting, Ezra chapter five, verse 12, Nebuchadnezzar is referred to as a Chaldean himself, so I don't know if that's where he came from or if these are his special sect of people, but they're very familiar, these wise people. Let's read down verse 10. So the king has a dream, we know this. No one can answer it, but look at how his wise people refer to it. Verse 10, Daniel two, verse 10. The Chaldeans answered before the king and he said, and said, there is not a man upon the earth that can show the king's matter. Therefore, there is no king, lord, nor ruler that asked such things that any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean. And it is a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is none other that can show it before the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh." You can see what they're wrestling with, and so I love that God's gonna blast right into this and across the whole world and say, you're right. There's me. Okay, look at verse 12. For this cause the king was angry and very furious. And he commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon, kill them all, they're worthless. And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain. And they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain." It's interesting to me, because if we apply this to our life, I'm not going to apply it to everything, but if we just look at kind of the balance of power in life. The king, all these wise people that people would be following, all of a sudden, they're worthless. You know, God never ever changes. Just be careful who we follow. Be careful where our minds are, where our roots are. Let's keep going, though. Go down to verse 17. Because here's wisdom. Here's how we find wisdom. Here's how we get it, practically speaking. Verse 17, this is Daniel now. Daniel's considered one of the wise men, and the folks are helping him. Hey, Daniel, can your God help us? Look at how Daniel goes for wisdom. Verse 17 of chapter two. Then Daniel, just a young, young Hebrew guy, went to his house and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, his buddies, that they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret, that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon." They go right to the source of wisdom. Same source for me and you today, every single problem that we're trying to face. Right? This is why I say, and this is for me, the God of the Old Testament is the same God today. We go to Him for wisdom the same way Nebuchadnezzar should have. I'm not beating up anybody. God's after Nebuchadnezzar. God troubled his heart. God's going to set him up and use him and use the Hebrew folks. He's going to use this moment to show himself to the entire world in a second. He's going to take the whole balance of power. The whole world is into this thing. The whole world is bowing down. He's going to take it all, swipe it to the side and say, It's me. I love him. And I'm glad he did that for me. I'm glad he did it for me. He's just opening their eyes. He's going to shatter it. Right before him. So he's building it up here. So let's go down to verse... Same chapter. Daniel's reasoned back and forth. Let's go down to verse 27. So God gives Daniel the dream. He shows him what's going on. Verse 27 of Daniel 2, Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, the secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and soothsayers show unto the king. Very clearly he's saying to the king, hey king, everything that you trust in for wisdom, did you all hear that? Is useless. Could that be? Could that be? And so, especially for younger folks, too, as you're thinking about this, the world dumps all kinds of stuff on us and says, follow me, follow this, this is wisdom. And we have access to more information now than ever, I think. We follow the wisdom of God. Start there. And there's a lot of really good stuff, other information, but start with God's wisdom. We start there. Alright, so here he says, and you can see the two sides. Daniel's painting the picture. Yep, this is everything that you are following, but God is here. He's making a clear distinction between the two. But there is a God in heaven, capital G, that revealeth secrets and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream and the visions of thy head upon thy bed are these. As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to hereafter? And he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass." Hey, God's talking to you, Nebuchadnezzar. But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom. This is not about me getting any glory. This is not about me whatsoever at all. This is about you and God. Believers, do you know as for our whole entire life is not about us anymore? Remember we died? My entire existence, my entire breath now is completely 100% that others might have life and have life more abundantly. Isn't that true? It's hard. It is hard. It is hard. But it's a grand life that we have. and you're gonna watch these Hebrew boys, and Daniel's saying right here, this is not about me whatsoever, this is about you and God. And as we're working with folks, we just mentioned it tonight, as we're working with folks, if Brother Larry's talking to somebody, he's down there talking to the furnace person, it's not about him anymore, it's really not about his furnace, even though he needs his furnace taken care of, it is about that gentleman and God Almighty. That's what our life is about, and it's awesome. It's awesome. And as we go through, we just yield. And we're watching that in place. This account here is not written so that we lift up these Hebrew guys and their faith. We worship God. And we say, God, help us to be willing vessels. Like this. Help us to see you. Pull us into what you're doing. Okay? So let's keep reading. Verse 30. But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have, more than any living. But for their sakes, that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart." In Nebuchadnezzar, what you most need to know is that you're not the king of the earth. It's God Almighty. You need the Savior. That's precisely what God's showing him. There's more to this life than you, king. Okay? Let's go down to the end, and you all know how this goes. He tells them what he saw. In this one, go down to verse 44. Daniel chapter 2, verse 44. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven, there he is, he's talking about the two, shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. He's just going through the truth with him. And the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. He's talking about himself. Just like we would hope to talk with anybody about the Lord. All right, let's get down to the truth of the matter. You need the Lord. Verse 45. For as much as thou saw'st that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it break in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God hath made known to the king. Who's talking to you, king? It's the great God. Wake up. And we see multiple times. Wake up. Open your heart to him. "'The great God hath made known to the king "'what shall come to pass hereafter, "'and the dream is certain, "'and the interpretation thereof sure.' "'And we know the response,' verse 46, "'and the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face "'and worshiped Daniel and commanded "'that they should offer noblation "'and sweet odors unto him.' "'Verse 47, the king answered unto Daniel and said, "'Of a truth it is that your God is a God of gods, "'and a Lord of kings, "'and a revealer of secrets. "'Seeing thou couldst reveal this secret.'" And I'll just say that he's just lip service. He doesn't know him. God's after him. And you're gonna see it next. And next time, in chapter three now, next time the king's gonna jump off of his chair and he's gonna see it one time even more clear. He's gonna see God and he's gonna realize in a second it's not him. Because God just set up everything and said, it's not you, it's me. God is after Nebuchadnezzar. We see God's mercy, his grace, his love, his pursuit of really the world. because you're going to see at the end of chapter three that it's going to affect everybody. All right. Chapter three, verse one. Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold whose height was threescore cubits, so he's 90 feet tall, and the breadth thereof six cubits, and he set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. So he's still in worshiping gods. He's worshiping himself. Verse two, the Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. And you know, I wondered, I didn't write, I did not write scripture, this is the Holy Spirit. I wondered why he, they don't, God just didn't say he invited the people. Like, why do we have to repeat it over and over? One thing I know for sure coming through it is that he invited everyone. And so as I look at this, and I look at this kind of this balance of power, and I have God over here and what he's setting up. He is setting up the entire world, and he is showing the entire world that they're missing him. I think that is love. He's making it very clear. And he repeats it. Everybody is going to be there, and when everybody bows, it's the whole world. Except for three. They're going to see God. So I just want to point that out. Okay. And so here's what he says. Here's where we're moving towards the fire. I'll read verse three. Then the princes, and the governors, and the captains, and the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces. So this would have gone around all of Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom, every ruler of the province. So that means they're going to have representation. Every one of these folks were gathered together unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Verse four. Then in herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages, hey, world, that at what time you hear the sound of the cornet, the flute, the harp, the sackbut, the psaltery, the dulcimer, and all kinds of music, you fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up, and whoso falleth not down and worshipeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning, fiery furnace. Whoa. How do the kings of this earth rule? Fear. You see this image that he's painting. Nebuchadnezzar's doing it. All of the rulers are there. The whole world is watching, and the image and the expectation that the king is setting up is, bow down or you die. What does Jesus himself tell people as he's walking in Matthew chapter 10, I believe. In fact, let's turn over there, Matthew chapter 10. Matthew 10, and this is why, this is another thing I say, we need, as believers, we need to watch scope at what people are saying. Remember, we represent the truth. Go to Matthew chapter 10. Let's look at verse 27. The king's setting this up, he's telling everybody, he has the ceremonies going, the music's gonna play, and everybody's gonna bow to the image. You all are going to bow down and worship me. That's wrong for every human being, just so you all know. That's wrong for every human being. There's one God. One God. Not just for Jewish folks. Look at Matthew chapter 10 and look at verse 27. Verse 28, Jesus says, fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him, which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. King Nebuchadnezzar, there's more to life than killing this body. King Nebuchadnezzar, you're acting like you have power, but there's a God who has power. It's not you. God setting this up is plain as day for these folks. Don't fear the ones that can cast our body into hell, or can kill this body. Fear the one that can kill our soul. These Jewish folks, these three Jewish boys, they knew this was coming. If you're gonna have a ceremony like this, a tent's not put up in a night. This is put up, everybody knows that the whole world's watching. The whole world's preparing. If you look at verse 6, the whole world knew what was happening. This whole thing was staged. And we see in chapter 3 as we read down through it, the king was close enough to where the fiery furnaces were. This was a show. This was completely him, with his power, leveraging the whole world to bow down before him. It's not the first time this is gonna happen. This is what man does. Pay attention to who the real king of kings is. That's the message here tonight, it's the message God wants to get through to Nebuchadnezzar, that God wants to shock into the world at this time. He's coming, there's a day coming where the whole world will bow down to him. Do you believe that? Yeah, we do. It's coming. These three Hebrew boys, as they look up out of the fire, they see an astonished face. We're gonna see this, it's God's judging, folks. We're not gonna be judged. And I don't say that arrogantly. The Father already judged the Son for us. But we're gonna watch this happen. What's that gonna look like? Man. We represent truth. We represent truth. We represent a loving, gracious God. But in here, here is a stage, I think, for God's love. You're watching, he's Aphrodite Bacchaneser. We think it's a story, and it is. We think it's a story of a golden statue and they're bowing down in pride and Hebrew faith. We're watching a God pursue a man. We're watching a God pursue the world. So that's verse seven. You know what happens, look at verse eight. Wherefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near, there's the Chaldeans again, and accused the Jews, because three of them wouldn't bow down, and they spake and said to the king Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live forever. So the music had gone off, the whole ceremony's going on, everybody bows down, and these Chaldeans come up, the wise men come up. Daniel just saved him not too long ago, but they have something out for him. They come up, hey king, hey king, I've got something to tell you. And he tells them, and what happens to the king? He gets mad, because this whole thing is his power. This whole thing is earthly power. Today, Satan is just spinning this whole world, deceiving this whole world, distracting this whole world with all the glitter, and he's making them think that he's got all this power. No, the truth is that God does. And the truth is that every soul needs to bow down to Him. So watch this. Look down at verse 13. Nebuchadnezzar finds out. Nebuchadnezzar, in his rage and fury, commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? Is this true? And he's going to bring them into, he's going to put this little false world perspective in front of them and say, Is this true? Remember, they're setting their affection on things above. Just like we do. King, you can put together whatever story you want to, and my God's just gonna take it and slide it over, and we're gonna see the truth. That's the truth we live for. All right? That's the truth we live for. You're gonna watch God take physical, the physicalness of what, I don't know how to say it. These folks are gonna be in the fire, they don't even smell like smoke. They're gonna be bound up, and the ropes are gone. God defies all of that. We don't live by these rules. Right? I know we deal with it, we've gotta work through it. I wonder too as I come down through this, maybe somebody can do the math on it, how long did it take? How long was this process? When did the ceremony start? And when were these guys in the fire? And when was it all over? How long of this period of time? Was it an hour, was it two hours that we went through? God's setting it all up. If we were the Hebrew guys, we would have a different perspective. We would be praying differently. We'd be saying, you all know they're not going to bow down. You all know we're not going to pray for him. Peter's in jail. Pray for him. He's going to die. We pray for each other, hey, they're in harm's way, pray for them. We know this is true. God controls, he's powerful over everything, then and today, same God. But watch this, verse 14. Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? Now if ye be ready, that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, You fall down and worship the image which I have made, well, but if you worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace, and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?" It is dreadful to me that every single person there except for these three bowed down. That should astonish us. That really should alarm us, that folks can be duped like that. Because our world is no different, like I said. Our world is exactly like this now. And God is pursuing people right now. And he's using us. He's using us. So as we find ourselves in a fire, we look around. What do we see? Verse 16, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up, because we serve the living and true God. Just like we do today. All right? And we trust Him that He takes care of us. This is not about these guys. This is not about the stress they're under. This is not about what they're about to face. This is 100% about God and His pursuit of men. And their willing vessels. And that's where we find ourselves today. Living. Come down to the verse. You'll know as we come through what does the king do? What are his weapons? Make it hotter, seven times hotter. I'm gonna make sure. He's using this little earthly power, and when God has, he controls it all. They're about to find out that doesn't matter how hot it is, God just moves him right on through. Remember Elisha and his servant? In the Old Testament, the servant's worried because they're surrounded by the enemy, and Elisha prays and says, God, open his eyes, and he opens his eyes, and what does he see? He sees all those angels and the chariots of fire. Is God afraid of fire? No. God's very comfortable in the fire, he made it. Is God afraid of the storm he sees? No, he made it, he can speak and it stops. I don't know what kind of power that is, I don't know how it works. It's God. That's who we serve. And that's who God's trying to show Nebuchadnezzar. That's what he's trying to show all of us. I think it's awesome. So he says, make it hotter, and then who does he bring? Does he bring the weakest soldiers? No, he brings his mighty men. Grab those guys, bound them up just like they are. Let's go, let's go, let's go. Get the strongest ones, bring them right up there, and they throw them in the fire. And we know those mighty men died, because they're so hot. So let's join him right now in verse 23. Verse 22. And I'm looking what time it is. All right, let's go fast. Because here it is. Believers, as we find ourselves in the fire, I know we get worked up about it, I know it, because it's real physical things that God puts us through. Think about what God's doing for mankind in this moment. In these next seconds, everything's staged. If God did not do this, if God did not put those Hebrews right there, if God did not show up, then it just looks like a ceremony to the king. It is a ceremony to the king, it's a ceremony to himself. And what does God say if he be lifted up? I will draw all men to myself. That's what he's after. He's after Nebuchadnezzar, he's after every one of them. And who knows what these Hebrews are learning as they're in the fire looking around and we know who they see. They see God. So look at verse 23. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down, bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Boom. The end of their life. The Nebuchadnezzar, the king, was astonished. So as they look back, here's what they see. You just freeze it. Here's what the whole world sees. Because every leader of every province was watching. You'll see it here in a few verses. And they're going to take this same exact story, and they're going to take it back to all people, so all people are going to know. King Nebuchadnezzar is not the king of the earth. The king is this god of Daniel. of this God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And God's going to be working on their hearts to draw all men to himself. It's the love of God that we see here. So lovely. But watch, as they turn around and they see, this is what they see if they could freeze it. You never see them mad at Nebuchadnezzar. You never see them saying a bad word. You never see them being disrespectful. They are just obediently going through this process We're just walking right on through this process. So, then Abakinezu the king was astonished, and he rose up in haste, he jumps up, he's close by there, and he spake, and he said unto his counselors, did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, true, O king. He answered and said, lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. God is 100% after Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar is me. Me. You see how he uses his people? You see the stage that he set up? He wasn't trying to hurt them. He was lifting himself up so all the world could know. Because there's a day coming when all of these people will stand before God. And there won't be this fake kingdom, and this fake statue, and this fake music, and this fake pressure. This fear of death will be gone and they'll be facing eternal death. Eternal separation from God. Whoa. And right in this moment, God takes it all and just slides it aside so the whole world can see the truth. And we praise God for it. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and he must have been yelling, and spake and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you servants of the Most High God, come forth and come hither. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth out of the midst of the fire, watched twenty-seven, and the princes, governors, captains, kings, counselors, being gathered together, saw these men. upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was a hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them. Nebuchadnezzar spake and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any God except their own God." Man, praise God that he glorified himself there. I want to read one verse and we'll close here. Romans chapter 12 verse 1 and 2. Romans 12 1 and 2. As God takes us through life and he puts us in situations that we cannot explain, as we anticipate situations coming up and we anticipate outcomes, think about what we can see from the fire. Think about it. I hope God brings this story back to our mind. What did those guys see in that fire? What did they learn that day about God? As God took the power of the world and swept it aside and said, here's power. What did they learn that day? What did the king learn that day? Romans chapter 12, verse one and two. And you all know it, but I just want you to read it because this is what those guys were doing. And this is our prayer. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And we will close there and just praise God for his love. Praise God for his mercy. We'll ask him to keep pursuing man. Show him that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. God, in whatever situation you put us in, give us the grace and the strength, faith, the trust in you, obedience to go forward, be respectful, and we love you, and we wanna see you work in men's lives. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for your word tonight. Thank you for the story, the true account here of Daniel's three friends. I love to see your love, your pursuit of men, even hard, arrogant, proud, cruel men. men who get angry because there is a God greater than them. I have the same issue, and I'm thankful that you saved me from my sin. Lord, please help us with our pride. Help us not to forget that. Thank you for paying for the sins of the world. I pray for this world. I pray for man in all of our pride. You look down and say, There's none righteous, none outlying. That's what you see. I pray for man's heart. As you lead us through these years, until you come back, Lord, shake man's heart. Help him to see you. Take the powers of this world, there's so much deception, sweep it aside so they can see you. Use us as vessels, however you see fit, to point to you, to set the stage so you can be glorified. That's what we want. And I praise you. Thanks for these folks here tonight. Thank you for their love for you, for their faithfulness. Please encourage them. Please prepare them. Please watch over them. Please deliver them from evil. We love you and I pray that our hearts would rejoice. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thanks for being here tonight. Thanks for listening.