(upbeat music) - Hey, new life church, Brunson Duke here. Thanks for listening in. The heart of our church is that you would know Jesus, that you would walk with Jesus if you would learn how to live like he lived. We hope this message equips you and empowers you on your journey walking with Jesus. - All right, all right. Hey, well, before Blake gets up here, you know, we announced two weekends ago, Marius and Jess are gonna be taking a major role and help leading the church. But then also we're gonna have a lot of communicators coming in and different pastors speaking. And this week you're gonna get to hear one of the best that we have at New Life Church. Did anybody here know Blake Polson? (audience cheering) That half of the room is part of his ministry. Him and Ashley started M18 recovery, and we don't see him here as much as we used to, but it's because they're going out and they're helping some of our other churches and they're cleaning churches and they're doing so many different things. But I just wanna honor you guys. Ash, was it six years ago? We sat down at a coffee shop, the four of us, and we were thinking about getting this church going and they were trying to get a recovery ministry. At that point, it was just a seed in their heart. They hadn't done it yet. And we got together and just said, hey, what if we did this together? Like, what if there was a church in the middle of downtown Little Rock, and at that time they were looking at like farmland, I was like, what if we had a church in the middle of the city where people from all different kinds of backgrounds came together and God has just breathed on this ministry. If you've been blessed by the ministry of Ashley and Blake, I just real quick, let's just give them a little bit of honor for what they've done. And Blake, come on up here, we love you. (audience clapping) - That's what I'm doing today. - Well, I don't want to get nostalgic because I'm wore out and I'll cry. I'm emotionally unstable right now. My wife and I, we went to LA and a bronzing text me and asked me if I'd be able to communicate. And at first I said, no, I mean, I'm in downtown LA. And then I thought about it and I said, you know what? I said, a long time ago, I said, here I am, Lord, send me. I said, if there's a need that needs to be filled, I said, I'll take care of it. And so what we're praying today is that the Spirit of the Lord rests upon me because here's the thing, just like David, when he danced, I don't care what I look like up here. If one of you guys will take away something from this message today, that's all I care about at all. Now, David, he may or may not have danced naked and you have my full assurance that that's not gonna happen. I might shed a tear, but we're not gonna get too wild, all right? But man, the craziest thing though, Bronston is, man, our kids, all right, there you go. (laughing) Dude, our kids have grown up together since the day they were born and we've prayed for Georgia every night since Blakely could talk. And the thing is, we're not gonna stop. I don't think we'll ever stop, man. But me and Bronston and Callie and Jess and Morris and my wife, we were, I don't know how to really say this, there was a woman conference one year and they prayed for fertility and the entire staff got pregnant. And so we were a part of the, I keep wanting to say mass impregnation, but like I don't really think that that's like, I don't think you can say that, but it's the only thing I can think of. But everyone at a woman conference, they came up and prayed for fertility and everyone got pregnant. And so since day one, they've been together, they've never been apart. And so the toughest part about everything, man, was, you know, breaking the news to Blakely that you guys were gonna be leaving. And so we just, we love you guys, man. And so I really do, everybody here needs to take advantage of getting some time with them before they leave. And so we just thank you guys for shepherding this campus and it's just been amazing. And we're looking forward to the cool journeys to come. But okay, so back on track, man, we only have one service. That's God's greatest gift to a communicator, man. I love it so much, there's no pressure. So yesterday, yeah, we got back from LA. We went out there to tour the Dream Center, the LA Dream Center, and another ministry called Homeboy Enterprises. Super cool what they're doing with gang intervention and how that they're creating this industry and this community so that people who don't stand a chance of making it or thriving. And so we went with Drew Davis, we went out there to look at it, to think about like what this could look like in Arkansas. Because LA is, let's face it, it's LA. I mean, it's huge. There's 3.4 million people just in LA. That's 400,000 more people in Los Angeles than the entire state of Arkansas. They have more homeless people in LA than we have residents in Little Rock. And so the needs look different, right? And so we're trying to figure out what does that look like here? Like how could we best serve the community in Little Rock through this church and the stuff that Coach Fitz is doing? If you guys were here last weekend, you were blessed by a message that Fitz gave and he's talking about the things that we're doing as far as outreach. And you see Zach and Eric and all the Dream Center and you see Marius and what they're doing all at the DC. It's just amazing what we have the ability to do through this church. One of the coolest conversations that I got to have, there's a lady running around. Amy, I got to meet her before church and she was talking about, she's an educator. And I said, well, do you know what we're doing with education? Like do you know and she wanted to hear more about it? Why? Because she wants to use her vocation and her gift sets and what God has equipped her with to build this kingdom. And so that's just an amazing conversation. Whenever somebody before church, you get to meet to talk to, they're serving at church and you get to equip them to build the kingdom of God. And so we want that for each and every single one of you guys. We want you to find purpose within your gift set. It's about the stories that are throughout this room. I see DeBrian, man, whenever I come in and I think about our relationship to how long that I've known DeBrian and things haven't always went right in his life, but six, seven years later, he's still at church every weekend. I see Jeff, man, sitting over there, man, with Jeff and I met, bro. Hey, it was the four year and I know things haven't went right for you a hundred percent of the time, man, but you're back, you're faithful, you're a part of this. I think if we were, to be honest, you would call this your family, man. And that's what we want for each and every one of you, man. Sam Emmerling, I don't know where you're at. You came here, I think because your son. But nevertheless, when Sam and I first met, it was because the radio or the TV did a story on us that for M18, 'cause we were opening up transitional living. And Sam said, "Hey, man, I wanna be a part "of whatever you guys are doing." He said, "I love the fact that you're participating "in the restoration of people's lives." And so get to know the people that are in here, man. Get to know the people that are around you. Get to know their stories. Because at M18, we get to see this transformative journey that people go on and we get to see their story from beginning until current. And hopefully we'll get to watch it until the end, man. We'll get to see what God does in their life. But there's something about whenever you input yourself into the transformational journey that Christ does in someone's heart. Man, it builds your faith. Like whenever you get to see somebody go from blind to now they can see, you know? Whenever you get to see the shackles fall off of someone, it does so much in your life. And I wanna show you this picture for what we recently did at Hebrew Springs. This was a baptism. I am so proud of each and every single one of these people. See Wally and Alexandria, man. Young couple engaged. We have to baptize them. They're going to get married. Hopefully within, you know, maybe a year or two. I don't know if that fits their timeline, but yeah, I get over them, man. It was an amazing thing to do. Then we see Frankie right next to him, man. This guy's story. Y'all continue to pray for he and his family. Dude's got like eight kids, plus or minus one. Like I don't even really know. After you get past five, I don't think you have to be exact. Not even on the census, I'm pretty sure. But Frankie, man, he came in here. And the first time we ever met him, he was trying to get his brother into the program. Then he ends up catching a charge. And so we go meet him and Jill. Well, the coolest thing is today, we're gonna get to take Frankie's wife, Michelle, right? And so now we're not just restoring one piece of the family, we're restoring both parents. And so these eight kids can have a significantly different life than Frankie ever had. Then we move down. We see, oh, Lily, Lily might be my favorite resident. You say you can't have a favorite resident. And to you, I will say, I don't come to your work and tell you how to do your job, all right? I will go ahead and throw that out there. Lily, 18 years old. She decided that she wanted to nix the weed and the alcohol before she went to college and graduated it into an actual gigantic problem with something much different. Lily has been the biggest blessing in our lives and we're willing to do whatever we can for this young lady, but taking a gap year in order to find true freedom in Jesus Christ before building the rest of your life. My goodness, man, no more bravery has ever been had by anyone. And then Katie, we see over there, she's wonderful, Katie. We see her, she's baptized to be a better mother, to be someone who can just live a Christian life. It's just so cool getting to see the people's stories in this group and I'll also let you know that if you want to be water baptized whenever we have these connect cards, let us know, man. Like get your baptism picture up on your heavenly father's refrigerator, come on. Like, let's go public with this and let's really get this journey started. It's just a beautiful symbol. Well, when we went to the dreams center, we went to their service and it's Angela Simple in downtown LA and it was crazy because we walked in and all of a sudden we see this pastor that's up on the front row and Drew looks and he's like, looked at me and I say, yep, that's crazy. It was a man that you guys might not know his name, but you'll definitely know his ministry. But his name's Brian Houston. You might not know that name, but if I were to say Hillsong, more of you would probably be engaged. And he had a message that he delivered and I want to share just a couple sentences from it that I feel like you're incredibly impactful. He said, the end of an era is not the end of your destiny. And like, say what you want about the individual. We're not on trial here. Whether you believe that the fire that he was in and his life was self-inflicted or whether you believed it was mass scrutiny, that's not what we're talking about. But what we're talking about is this man knows loss. He knows loss and he knows starting over. And so when he says that the end of an era is not the end of your destiny, this is something that he has to know more than a lot of people, right? I want to share this with you guys because collectively, I think that there's a lot of people out there that might see a season ending. They might be in a fire. The season might be forcefully being removed from them, but whatever it is, it's not the end. It's not the end at all. I think some of us have probably lost jobs. Some of us are desperately trying to start a new chapter in life. But the end of your era is not the end of your destiny. We have to stay faithful and continue to dig into Christ. You see, some seasons in your life, they're gonna be easier to transition than others. But some of them might be overwhelming. They might almost seem unbearable. They seem like that you're gonna just be crushed and destroyed, but lean into Christ. Like allow God to do this with you. And Christianese, we would say, you're going through a fire. Everyone that we pastor at M18 is going through something because you don't end up at rehab if you're not. There are several things. Whenever I ended up in rehab, it was a handcuffs, right? Like it wasn't a glorious, where I'm just like waking up one day. I'm like, you know what, rehab sounds fine. Like let's give that a shot. No, there was something that catalyzed it. There was a catalyst that pushed towards it. And that catalyst was me in absolute misery and agony. It was a season of fire that I was not enjoying. And that's what we're gonna be. If you got your Bibles today, we're in Daniel chapter three. We're gonna look at three young men and we're gonna see how to walk through a fire. Who here has ever been in an actual fire? Oh, love to hear that story. Yeah, yeah. So one of my friends, he's currently at M18. He's one of our staff, not every Arkansan, but when he was actually in my wedding. And so known him for a very long time. Whenever I knew that it was incredibly serious was when he called me and he said, "Hey man," he said, "I've burned myself pretty bad." He said, "There's been a fire." It's like, "Well, what happened?" He said, "Well, there were people out to get me." He said, "And so I fired up an aerosol can, "little lighter and sprayed it in my closet "so that I could create a diversion "so that I could get out of my apartment." Okay, let's take two deep breaths, right? And so the thing is, is you might be judging him right now, but after he said the fire, there weren't people in the house. So at least they got out. Yeah, look to your neighbor and say there's never people there to begin with. But now he is fully devoted and following Christ. And it's just awesome because you see how that whenever he was going through a fire, he decided to go ahead and press through it. And he decided to reach out to Christ and to reach out to M18. And now he's here, had another friend who was at a high end sushi restaurant. And as he was ordering, he ordered the dynamite roll or the fire roll or something like that, that it was symbolic. And so as the waiter is carrying out the plate of sushi, it was lit on fire. And he looked at the waiter and made eye contact with him and somehow, telepathically, he thought the waiter was saying, "Help me." The waiter was not saying, "Help me at all." The waiter had done this a million times and he knew exactly what he was doing. But my friend grabbed the napkin as he starts setting the plate down at his table and starts beating the fire out as if somehow it was accidentally on fire. And what happens is the accelerant from the fire and from the plate gets on his arm and catches him on fire. And so he, I don't know if he stopped dropping a roll, but there was a definite immediacy that came with this incident. And he said the worst part about it was he said, "The manager came out and got onto the server." It's like, how does that even happen, right? But the thing that we're gonna find is that whenever there is a fire, there is a sense of immediacy. And that's where we find ourselves. We find these men in an actual fire. We find ourselves with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, the literal, the heat is on, man. These guys, they've got heat for standing up for God. Here's what happens. So King Nebuchadnezzar, he builds this 90 foot statue of himself and he builds it out of gold. And he tells everyone in the land that whenever the music plays, that they're to bow down and to worship this statue. Basically his narcissism, it had grew to the point where he no longer wanted to be king. He wanted to be God, like he wanted to be worship. And we see this time, like Bronson was talking about in the opening in which that we had these men that are exiled, they're in Babylon. And so they're still maintaining their lifestyle while simultaneously being under a rule of people that are far worse than anything that we could ever even dream of or imagine. But they're not going for it, they don't bow down. Do you guys think that something like this could happen like today? Here's what I want you to think about. While there's not 90 foot statues being erected in kings that are forcing us to worship, our employers are introducing us to ideas, to concepts, to theories of radical secularism that are completely deviated from what we believe as Christians. And so while we might not be physically persecuted for the risk of death, we are persecuted for the risk of being canceled. For the risk of the volume of the attack to being so loud that we can't even bear it. But these three guys, what do they do? They refuse, they're a stand up type of guy. Hear me when I say this. As we get closer and closer to the end times, you're gonna have to pick what type of person you wanna be. Do you wanna be a stand up or do you wanna be a kiss up? There's gonna be a choice and it's gonna have to be made. And it's one that is really coming way closer than we ever thought possible. But see what happened was these guys were stand up. So the favor of God was upon him and infuriates the king. We see this in Daniel chapter three verse 19 where he says, "Nebek and Ezra became so furious that his face was distorted with rage and he commanded that the furnace be heated seven times hotter than usual." You see what Nebuchadnezzar, the way that he was gonna kill the people that wouldn't bow down to a statue was he was gonna throw him in a furnace. So why do you think Nebuchadnezzar, challenged it and made it to where the furnace was seven times hotter than it typically is? I mean, can't humans fry at normal temperature, right? Like grandma cook at 350, 2,500 will melt steel. Like what's wrong with like normal fire temperature? I feel like normal fire, we kill someone just fine. And here's the thing, I think that the king thinks, what if their God does show up, right? Like there might be something within him. There might be like a little bit of insecurity of like, let's go ahead and just make sure this goes down. Here's something that you'll find. Whenever you're in your life and you're dealing with someone who's insecure, they will overreact. And so a lot of the people that you have interactions with that you can't figure out why that they're overreacting about everything is because they're insecure. One time I spoke at a recovery conference and I'll never forget it. We got done presenting what it was that we do. We're willing to go the links to do whatever needs to be done in order for an entire family to be reconciled and we're doing it free of charge, right? Most people in the recovery world just can't say that. There's a lot to can, but the majority of it will not go to the links in which that we go. And I just know that already. And as I was speaking at the conference, at the end of the conference, the only thing that I got bombarded with were hot topic questions. Like people just wanted to bait just to see whether or not I agreed with their one issue. Like nobody cared about how many people we baptized. Nobody cared about how many families we reconciled. Nobody cared about us driving across the United States to pick up a residence so that we can bring them back here. Like nobody cared about any of that. The only thing that people cared about was how we dealt with their particular issue that they had. I'm here to tell you, there are people out there in this day and age that just want to know whether or not you agree with their specific issue and they are willing to do whatever they can to put you in a fire if you do not. But check it out. So whenever something is happening and it's over the top from Satan, it's the same thing. There's an insecurity that he has about you. Like hear me on this saying this is the scare to you at all. He's scared about the Christ that's within you. Like you stand alone? No, he doesn't care at all. But whenever you have emptied out your life and you have made a decision that all you want to do is serve Christ and that's it? Well, now he's intimidated. So what's he going to do? He's going to turn up the heat. Why? Because he wants to crumble you before you get solidified. Because when you become solid in Christ, when your faith has been tested to the point in which that now it's true and you know what you're doing for him and now you can withstand the attacks from the enemy. Well, now you're going to move the needle. If you think for one second that the day that you decide to make a decision for Christ and go into ministry that that's the day, like that's the day that life gets better, like here's what happens. You go under attack. Like I don't want you to get messed up about it. Life does get better because you have all the benefits of God. You have the peace that surpasses all understanding. You have joy that comes from the Lord and the Lord only. You have purpose in your life. You know that you are a part of the mission that God has here on earth. And so it makes it all tolerable and bearable. But you are not just going to go into this moment of bliss in which there's no attack. The other day we were about to get on a plane and the ministry almost crumbled. It does all about every couple of days. But the list of things that we had, I looked at the list and I said it to David and I was like, so here's a recap of the week. And we just started laughing, you know what I mean? We're like, oh my gosh, like is this crazy or what? But what's happening is the enemy does not want us to survive or thrive. And so what happened is they were over the top from Satan. They were about to be thrown into the fire and God had a plan for these guys life. You see, they were rock stars. The enemy knew that God had a plan for their life. If you look back at history, what happened was the Babylonian king took a group of people that were popular, if you will, within their culture. Like they wanted their influencers. Nowadays they would get the top tier Tiktakers or they would get the people that had the most subscribers on YouTube. Like that's what the Babylonians would have done. They would have scraped the influencers off the top. And then they would have taught on the Babylonian culture. Because if you could get the top tier influencers to follow after your culture, well then everybody else will come and assimilate as well. And Daniel one verse four, you can see what these men were like. And it says young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well-informed, quick to understand and qualified to serve in the king's palace. How many people wish that was your life first? Like that's the first they write in the Bible about these guys, like in the Bible. Like, I mean, girls, you need to be praying for your meat shack, right? Like I don't know if that is the prayer that you guys have on your lips right now, but Lord send me my meat shack, right? I need that event to go in my life. But the most, the awesome thing about all this is they were devoted to Christ. Like even though that they were influential, even though that they were in a new culture, they had decided that they were not going to assimilate with the Babylonian culture. They did everything in their power. And so the enemy turned the heat up. You see these guys, they had three, they're three men that had crazy kingdom potential, but they also had a correct theology of suffering. Nobody ever wants to suffer. I don't, we sing a song at this church that I don't sing the lyrics to. I want to be trod by fire, purified. Like, no, I don't, like, I don't want that. Like not at all, God. Like, keep me away, Rocky, how are y'all singing this? Like it's absolutely insane to me that that's a real song. And because it's not true, like I can't sing that with a pure heart. He wants people that are going to worship in truth. And that's not me, that's not true. But they had three people that had a crazy kingdom potential and a great theology of suffering in Daniel 3 17. They say, if this is their conversation with Nebuchadnezzar as they are about to be thrown into the furnace, they say, if we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us. And he will deliver us from your majesty's hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the image that you have set up. See, suffering has got two parts. First, God can deliver, and I believe he will. We all need to have that attitude. But secondly, we need to remember that if he chooses not, we'll still serve him. See, so, let's see what the king does and then what God does. In Daniel 3 19 through 23, Nebuchadnezzar was furious, was Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and his attitude towards them changed. He ordered the furnace, he did up seven times hotter than usual, and commanded the strongest soldiers in his army to tie them up. So these men wearing their robes, trousers, turbans, and new clothes were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace. The king's command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and these three men firmly tied fell into the blazing furnace. Point number one, we all have to remember this. God will walk through the fire with me. Remember this, he will be in the fire with you just because things are bad. Doesn't mean he's left. Doesn't mean he's left at all. It's a big relief, you will not be alone. God's presence, it will always be with you. And over and over again, he promises this. Side note, some people in life, they have heat on them because of their choices, right? Like Marcus says, he's got this theory and this theology that play stupid games, win super prizes. If you took the cops on a high speed chase through the middle of downtown Little Rock, God's not punishing you when you get arrested, you know that, right? Like you could eliminate a lot of the suffering in your life and a lot of the fires if you'll put down the matches. But even if you don't put down the matches, God will still get in the fire with you. Like that's the beautiful thing. Like my friend, he had an aerosol cannon, a lighter, and he was crying to create a diversion so that he could get, escape, you know, from the people who were watching him allegedly. But when he called out to God, God got in the fire with him and now he's on staff at a ministry, right? Like whenever we start these fires in our lives, we have to remember that God, he's not sick of you continually doing this over and over again because that's what the enemy wants you to think, right? Like the enemy wants you to think that, well, you did this to yourself, man. Like what are we reaching out for God for? If you just stop doing this, like things will be better. Okay, yes, that is true. If you could stop doing that, things would be better. But what's false is the fact that God's tired of hearing from you. God wants to hear from you regardless of how the fire was started, right? Like God wants you to reach out to him in any situation. In recovery ministry, all the fires that we have in our life were started by us. But yet God still rescued me from it. In recovery ministry, there's a pretty common parable. It's about a man who was stuck in a hole. And we see this man and he's walking down the street and he fell in a hole and he's so deep in it that he can't get out by himself. And he's yelling, help, help, help. And Dr. walks by and writes a prescription and throws it in there to him. And then a little bit later, somebody else is walking by and I'd say it's a businessman and a businessman, he writes a check and he throws it into the hole and the guy still can't get out. And all of a sudden, man, he sees another guy and he's getting weaker because he's been in the hole for so long and he yells help and you can barely hear the voice. And he sees the guy and he just walks by and he thinks that that's the end of it. And all of a sudden, man, he sees this crazy dude running and jumping into the hole. And he's like, what are you doing? He said, I've been down here for days, there's no way out. He said, now we're both gonna die. And he said, no, he said, that's where you're wrong. He said, I've been in this hole before. He said, and I'm gonna help you out. What happens, man, whenever you get delivered from the fire and you allow God to jump in the fire with you is now you have access and you have a way to get out of the pit so that that story and that fire that you had in your life can now be useful to build the kingdom because you can jump down in the hole with people who are going through fires and you can help 'em out. You are no longer just an individual who's trying to act like you know what's going on in their life but somebody who legitimately has done this. See God, he gets in the fire with you. Some of you, man, you might have trouble accessing the power of Christ whenever you're going through a fire. Like it might not seem like something that's attainable and to you what I will challenge you is do you have anyone around you? Like do you have friends? Do you have a family? Like do you have a community? Do you have people that can speak the word to you in these times of desperation because there's gonna be a time of your life in which that you need a friend. You need somebody that can jump down in that hole with you. You need somebody that can hear from God when your ears are plugged, whenever they can't see God anywhere in the situation. You need those people that can point out exactly where he's sitting. It's on the front row cheering you on because I know that the enemy wants you isolated, he wants you alone, he wants you desperate but God wants you restored. And so whenever you see the name Shadrach, you're always gonna see the name Meshach and Abednego right behind them. Why? The threefold court, they were covenant friends, man. If just one of them would have got caught up, I don't even know how the story would have handled but whenever the king threatened to throw them in the fire, they looked at each other and said, all right, we're doing this, right? And so they stood up together because they have people beside them. And so if you cannot call this your family yet, man, let's figure out what it's gonna take to make that because you need people surrounding you. And so Daniel chapter three, verse 24 and 25, we see what happens when God jumps in the mix. Says, "King Nebuchadnezzar, leave to his feet in amazement and ask his advisors, weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire? Like they threw him in the fire." And he asked, "What happened to the three men?" They replied, "Certainly your majesty." He said, "Look, I see four men walking around the fire, unbound, unharmed and the fourth looks like the son of God." Right? He says, "The son of the gods." But we all know who it was, it was Jesus in the Old Testament. It is amazing whenever you see this, the phrase son of God, he almost had it right. And whenever we are in the fire, Jesus is right there in our mix. And Hebrews chapter one, verse four, says, "Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit eternal life and salvation?" We have angels in our midst that are ready to go to battle with us. You see, this is Jesus. He says, "I'll never lead your side, and I'll never forsake you." Number two. God will burn off the things tying me down. You know, some of us are in bondage. Some of us know it, some of us don't. Some of us look at bondage just like things like addiction, but you don't look at fear of man, you don't look at fear of failure, you don't look at anxiety and things of that nature as actual bondage. But what happens in verses 24 and 25? You see that they were in the fire, unbound and unharmed, healed and whole, nothing on them, not even their eyebrows got sensed, right? They were in a fire that killed the guards that threw them in it and nothing happened. What has you tied up? Start thinking about that. Is it fear of rejection? Is it fear of failure? Is it fear of man? What are the things that God needs to burn off in your life? You see, one thing that you need to remember is that anytime you're going through a fire, a lot of times we look for the quickest exit, we try to get out of it, sometimes that's not what God wants. Like God doesn't wanna remove you from the fire, God wants to walk through the fire with you. So you can learn more about who He is, the character of Him. You can have these things that are holding you back in life burnt completely off. Whenever you live in a fire for God, it promotes you. Here's the thing y'all need to understand, pain that we've experienced in our life, it's not gonna leave us the same. It can either crush you or constrict in you. If you'll allow God to go through the fire with you, the pain that we have in our life will actually promote us to our next season in life. It's Psalm 75 verse six and seven. It says promotion doesn't come from the east or the west or the south, promotion comes from the Lord. When your character has been tested, when it's been refined, when it's been stretched, man, that is somebody that I wanna be around. Have you ever been around somebody like that that has just gone through everything that you can possibly imagine, but somehow they're still praising God on the other side? It's because they found what is most important in life. They have found how to follow Christ in good times and bad in the heart and everything else and all the trials and the obstacles. They've watched God firsthand. I see people in the recovery ministry that have gone through so much turmoil in their life, but at the end of it, they're thankful for the fire and they're some of the most devoted faithful people that you've ever met in your entire life. I think about Fitz and what he does with mob sad, man. The mothers of black sons standing against death. You see these women that have lost sons due to urban violence and you just see them and they're just angry and they're mad, but yet they've got a piece from Christ, knowing that they're gonna be a part of the solution, right? Like they might have lost their son, but God mess with the wrong woman. Why? Because they're gonna go out and they're gonna do something about it. They're gonna rally up other mothers and they're gonna help them grieve in their process and they're gonna lead them to Christ and they're gonna use the things in their life that the enemy meant for harm and they're gonna use it for God's glory and God's good. In Isaiah chapter 48 verse 10, it says, "I have refined you, but not in the way silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering." Sounds like an 80s metal band, right? Like furnace of suffering, like it just sounds awful, but nevertheless, God is there with you and that is how that we become refined. Number three, it will bring unbelievers to God. When you go through a fire with dignity in your life, like when you go through something that should just kill you and all your coworkers can see the things that are going on and they know that you're still devoted to Christ. Man instantly, I just think about Damon, one of our staff members, his daughter, walked through cancer and it's crazy, man. They're watching her and she's just grew up and now she's beat it. And so it's like Damon going through that season, he just had to remember 828 Romans. That's what he would always say. All things happen for the greater good and those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose. And he just had to keep reminding himself that even in this moment of pain and in this moment of suffering that God is here with me, right? Like he was dignified in his response to the way that it happened. And I mean, now Lizzie, something will happen. She's like, "Dad, chill out, I'll be cancer." You know what I mean? Like, and so getting to watch her, now she's an ambassador at Children's Hospital. And so she gets to help other kids who are going through the same thing that she's gone through. It's just a beautiful thing to watch. I think about one of our staff members, Daniel, we'll call him Dandy Ball. So my daughter called him and it boy is stuck. (laughs) And to the boy where his family is now the Dandy Balls. We just changed her last name. Hey, they did it in the New Testament. You get a new name every now and there, right? But Daniel, man, he was going through a fire and he had some charges. Did he do it? Yeah, he did it. Of course he did it. But he was already on probation and parole and they were gonna revoke it. And he had arranged because he's fully restored. I mean, he's been on staff. He works here. His wife, Leslie, came into the ministry. Their whole family is just a testimony and a power of God's power. And he had everything worked out with a prosecutor in Randolph County. Everything was worked out. Everything was fine. They was gonna sign. They was gonna give him a suspended imposition of sentence which basically means that if you don't get it anymore trouble, we'll take care of all this. We'll like right at the last second, like two weeks in and all of a sudden the prosecutor moved somewhere else and the new prosecutor wasn't playing ball. So for six, seven, eight months, everything's been okay. Now everything's not okay. And they're demanding prison time. Crazyest thing ever. And we went in and spoke this message at one of our other campuses and spoke it to our BB campus. And Daniel, he told me he said the only thing, the word that he got that morning was mercy. Like that was the word that he got that morning. And as we were there at the MC, they spoke and they said, if they could send the gospel up in one message and one word, he said that word would be mercy. So it was confirmation that the Lord was with him. Sometimes we need to know. Like we just need to know that God's with us. And so we go to court the next day and whenever all they were offering was prison. And there you go, Daniel's signing for SIS. That is the most redneck picture ever. Taking court picks. We got made fun of a little bit, but look at that face, man. Like just how happy the stress, the relief, man. But he was faithful in all of it. Like he was never wavering. Like even whenever his family was freaking out, like thinking, oh my gosh, how are we gonna do this? Putting together plans of action. Daniel was faithful. He said, look, he said, the Lord's gonna deliver me from this. He said, I know he will. And he said, here's the thing. He said, even if he doesn't. He said, I know there's somebody in jail right now that's waiting on me to get there. I said, hey, if that's what you think. I said, let's change the prayer. I said, Heavenly Father God, I said, if there's somebody in jail right now that needs Daniel, I said, send them to us. I said, that would just, that'd be so much easier. You know what I mean? Like on everyone, if you could just do that. And so I'm not saying it was my prayer, but not saying it wasn't. No, so to hand you all, man, we watched him go through this season. And it was just amazing, like what happened and the fire that he had gone through and the people that grew in their faith, man, because of it, because we've got a lot of residents that are looking towards Daniel because a lot of people have a lot of heavy, heavy stuff going on in their life. And so they need to see, man, that God is still a God of deliverance, that God is still a God of redemption, that God is still a God of second chances, that God is a God of mercy. And even if he doesn't, God is a God of purpose. He's not gonna pull you away from what you're currently doing serving him if he doesn't have something better for you. And we just have to believe that. So it's a testimony, it's a witness. A faith that can be tested is a faith that can be trusted. Man, we go from being a travel agent to a tour guide. Travel agent is someone in the books of vacation for you. A tour guide is somebody that walks along life with you and shows you wherever things are. And that's what I wanna do, man. I wanna be a tour guide for Christ. I wanna get in the game, walk alongside of people and teach them and show them about the miracles of God. That's what we're here for. Daniel chapter three, verses 28 through 30. Says the Nebuchadnezzar said, "Praise be to God of Shadrach and Abednego." This is Nebuchadnezzar, right? 90-foot statue guy, like he says, "Praise be to God of Shadrach and Abednego "who has sent his angel and rescued his servants. "They trusted in him and defied the king's commands "and were willing to give up their lives "rather than serve or worship any God except their own God." That's the faith I want. And look, here's what happened. Nebuchadnezzar said, "Therefore I decree "that the people of any nation or language "who say anything against the God "of Shadrach and Abednego be cut into pieces "and their house be turned into a pile of rubble." I mean, he was a work in progress, right? You know what I'm saying? Like, come on. The God just had a 90-foot statue. Like, you don't expect like a full transformation day one. Come on. Like, but nevertheless, it was a beginning. It was a beginning of something different inside of the lives of the people that witnessed that. And you have that same ability today. There's people in your sphere of influence that need to see you make it. There's people that are watching you whether you know it or not. There are people that you don't even actually have to go back into their lives and put yourself in harm's way in order to rescue. You walking it out, your story, I promise you that if you'll do what God has asked you to do and continue to lean in and press on towards him, that people will come to know the Lord because of your walk of your life. And just like Bronson said in the very beginning, that we live in a world. It's just like they were living in there in which that instead of isolating yourself and cutting it aside, like that we live in a world in which we have to assimilate. We have to be insulated. We have to be like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And we have to give our lives to God and be able to do it so the general public can see. So as we bow and pray, I want you guys to think about the things of your life that you're willing to give your life up for. Just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they were willing to give their life up for their God. Those things that you will be willing to die for, God's not asking you to die for it. He's asking you to live for it. Right, Roma says that we're called to give our body as a living sacrifice. Jesus died for us. We don't need to do it again. We need to live for the things that we will be willing to die for. And so I'm gonna pray for each and every one of us right now and if you are here and this message has done something aside of you, if it started you up and you're even curious about the things that you would live for. And you wanna take a step closer to Christ and you know before you came in today, that there was no way that you would go into that fire, but you've got things that are moving aside of you, things that you've picked up, things that are stirring. And you wanna make a decision for Christ today. Whether that be for the first time, whether it be for the 50th time, if you wanna ramp up your life today and say, Lord, I am all in. I would just love to see just to show a hands of the people that I will be praying for today. Let's see you guys. Let's see. Let's see. Let's see, let's see. Well, Heavenly Father God, we just pray that the people that have raised their hands today, Lord, are just the people that have been moved in their heart, God, that you'll just strengthen us, Lord, that you'll just show us what vision you have for our life, God, and how that we can best serve you, Lord. Pray that you will just give us boldness, God. We see an ax whenever the spirit came upon us, God, that we just couldn't help but speak of the things that we've seen in our heard, Lord. And I just pray that same Holy spirit that was an ax, God. I pray that it fall down because it's the same spirit that has always been since the beginning of time and the beginning of creation, Lord. And I pray that you will continue to just pour that spirit out on each and every person in this audience, God, to just give us that boldness to go do your will and that boldness to share and proclaim the gospel, God. Now just pray that as we continue to make this decision for Christ, Lord, that we just wake up every day and you just give us a fresh anointing, God. And that whenever we wake up in the morning, Lord, that we just know that you're with us, God, that you will allow us to fill your manifest presence within our lives, Lord. And I just pray, God, that you will strengthen us, Lord, and I pray that you will just surround us by people, Lord, that can help us walk this life out. And I pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. (upbeat music) - Hey guys, thanks for listening in. I hope that this message blessed you and it helps you in your journey with Jesus. If it did, leave a comment, leave a review, things like that help us spread the message of Jesus. If you wanna connect with us, the best way to do that is to follow us on Instagram @NLCDown10LittleRock to follow along with the life of our church. 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