SPEAKER_00: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow down before Nebuchadnezzar's golden image.
SPEAKER_00: Nebuchadnezzar called them before him to give them one last opportunity to bow down, or else they would be thrown into the blazing furnace of fire.
SPEAKER_00: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said to King Nebuchadnezzar, you don't have to give us another opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to play the music.
SPEAKER_00: We will not bow down to you.
SPEAKER_00: For our God is able to save us from the fire.
SPEAKER_00: But even if he doesn't, we're not going to bow down.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the most incredible statements in the whole of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: It teaches us a lot about the fact that they did not know.
SPEAKER_00: They knew that God is able and capable, but they did not know.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't have a promise of God at that moment, but they stepped out in faith.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the furnace is ordered four times hotter.
SPEAKER_00: The men are thrown in.
SPEAKER_00: The guards die who take them to the furnace.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens in the fire?
SPEAKER_00: There is a fourth man that joins them.
SPEAKER_00: And he who looks like the Son of the Living God is walking around amidst them.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Jesus met them in the fire.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus met them in the fire.
SPEAKER_00: On Wednesday nights this fall, we've been walking through how we know the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And this last portion, we've been talking about areas, locations where you know the Spirit of God will meet you.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you feel Him or not, God's word is clear that the Spirit of God meets you in His word.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit of God meets you in prayer, intercedes for you.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit of God meets you as you bear witness to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Well, tonight, I didn't want this to be the last one because I figured, man, well, let's not end on a downer.
SPEAKER_00: So the second to last one, the Holy Spirit meets you in your suffering, in your trials.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna overwhelm us with verses because I want to convince you that the scripture has much to say about this, and then I'm just gonna share a personal story or two.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians 3, 10 through 11.
SPEAKER_00: Uh one of my favorite sections of scripture where Paul is saying that I have put off an identity in every worldly thing, but now I put on this identity in Christ, and in that he says, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings.
SPEAKER_00: This verse is poignant with the fact that there is a unique fellowship, where most of the time these scriptures that we're gonna look at, they're gonna talk about the presence of Jesus meeting you in your suffering.
SPEAKER_00: That's the Holy Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: But the reason that the scripture speaks about in personal terms of Jesus is because you need to understand that that the Son of the Trinity, okay, the second person of the Trinity took on flesh and suffered in your stead.
SPEAKER_00: He knows and he understands what it is to suffer, and that's why the scripture highlights that the presence of Jesus, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So here, that there is a fellowship with him as you suffer.
SPEAKER_00: Next verse.
SPEAKER_00: Second Timothy 4, 16.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is describing that he went, made it all the way to Caesar, that he gave uh a defense, he had his first trial, and he said, at that defense, everyone abandoned me.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to show you a real life practical example where he's giving verbal testimony.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, everyone fell away, but in that moment, Jesus was with me.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit of God was with me.
SPEAKER_00: Next verse.
SPEAKER_00: Second Corinthians 1, 5.
SPEAKER_00: For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.
SPEAKER_00: See the connection between the trials and the suffering, the circumstances in your life.
SPEAKER_00: See the connection at the heightened comfort and meeting of the Spirit and the presence of God tying those together.
SPEAKER_00: I know you don't want to hear this because none of us want trials.
SPEAKER_00: But I am pointing this out because every one of us goes through trials.
SPEAKER_00: The promised presence of the Spirit of God in the midst of our trials.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Next verse.
SPEAKER_00: For we also are weak in him, but live with him by the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: But live with him by the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: Next verse.
SPEAKER_00: We also exalt in our tribulations.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who was given to us.
SPEAKER_00: Again, accepting trials that come from the Lord, accepting suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you know that the Spirit of God meets you in the midst of that.
SPEAKER_00: There's a refining fire.
SPEAKER_00: He is producing a work in me, both modifying me and making my faith into something that is a gift back unto him.
SPEAKER_00: And only the Spirit of God can do that, and it's through suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're going to walk through the same way that Jesus walked.
SPEAKER_00: Even though I walk through the valley of shadow of death, I fear no evil.
SPEAKER_00: For you are with me.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're with me.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah, all of chapter 43.
SPEAKER_00: You could read this whole section.
SPEAKER_00: I want to highlight, right?
SPEAKER_00: This constant promise, do not fear, I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Pastor, that uh scripture is referring to Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, guess what, New Testament believer?
SPEAKER_00: You have been grafted into the people of God as Israel.
SPEAKER_00: These promises are for you too.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: He calls you by name.
SPEAKER_00: He calls you his own.
SPEAKER_00: When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: I will be with you.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: The rivers are going to overflow, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, fire is not going to scorch you.
SPEAKER_00: You are mine.
SPEAKER_00: I love you.
SPEAKER_00: I call you my own.
SPEAKER_00: I will be with you.
SPEAKER_00: Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, he has had a thorn in the flesh that he has asked to be removed.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, Paul, whose clothing healed people, who resurrected people from the dead, has a thorn in the flesh that he asked to be removed three times, and God says this instead.
SPEAKER_00: For power, right?
SPEAKER_00: For my power is perfected in weakness.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, the underlines are way off here.
SPEAKER_00: Most gladly, therefore, I will boast rather about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
SPEAKER_00: I will boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
SPEAKER_00: About sixteen years ago, my wife and I'll tell you a little bit of my story.
SPEAKER_00: Lane and I had dealt with infertility.
SPEAKER_00: It was a hard it was uh we dealt with infertility for um about seven years.
SPEAKER_00: It's a very difficult road because um as you as you work through this this uh desire to have children, uh you realize that it's it's a good thing, and it's it's a good thing in the eyes of the Lord, right?
SPEAKER_00: You're you're not wishing for something that's not a good thing, and we couldn't have kids, and so then it was like, well, then adopt, but part of the problem there was uh I'd left my engineering job in the engineering world to uh uh to become a pastor, and so I'm in seminary and we're we're struggling to make ends meet, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's it takes everything we can.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if you know adoption here in the states uh uh uh is expensive for for our first child for us.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't want to go through the foster care system uh just because of the the uh foster care's purpose is to reunite with uh with parents, all of that.
SPEAKER_00: So enough of the backstory.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is where we were.
SPEAKER_00: So walking through all of that, it was there was a lot of wrestling with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Well, fast forward, um we're about seven years into marriage, and uh we begin to uh it's finally time to begin to adopt and uh praise the Lord, uh the doors start to fly open.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we had someone uh anonymously donate ten thousand dollars to our adoption fund.
SPEAKER_00: Um I had the week before emptied my bank account.
SPEAKER_00: Five thousand dollars is all I had to my name.
SPEAKER_00: I emptied it to start the adoption process, and and then someone anonymously donated to us.
SPEAKER_00: Incredible story.
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you the details later.
SPEAKER_00: But doors start to fly open.
SPEAKER_00: Turns out a friend of the family was also pregnant.
SPEAKER_00: It was supposed to take two and a half years.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we put$5,000 down, they say, great, in two and a half years you might have a child.
SPEAKER_00: We actually drove home and my wife just wept and said, Why can't anything ever be easy?
SPEAKER_00: And uh so as a husband, I'm just you know, what can I do?
SPEAKER_00: Um well, suddenly doors start to fly open.
SPEAKER_00: We had$10,000 given to us.
SPEAKER_00: We had uh suddenly uh like a a few weeks later a connection with within our family uh that was with the same adoption agency, and doors start to fly open.
SPEAKER_00: As a husband, I had one prayer, and my prayer was Father, if if this child is not ours, if this is not for us, um please close this door.
SPEAKER_00: That was my one and only prayer.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to be selfish, I did I didn't, okay.
SPEAKER_00: I just said, God, if this is not for us, please close this door.
SPEAKER_00: But doors just kept flying open.
SPEAKER_00: Real quick aside, I'm sharing this testimony with you.
SPEAKER_00: In in no way do I, this is our perspective, in no way am I, because I'm gonna share some details in a second, in no way am I undermining uh the difficulty of the other people in the story.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so our story.
SPEAKER_00: But that's my one prayer.
SPEAKER_00: My one prayer is Lord, if if this is not our child, close the door.
SPEAKER_00: But doors just kept flying open.
SPEAKER_00: And and suddenly we're getting closer and closer, and we're supposed to be there on uh we have a great relationship with birth mom, and uh we're supposed to be there when when uh the son is born.
SPEAKER_00: And suddenly as as things get closer and closer, we start to hear radio silence from the other end.
SPEAKER_00: We can only talk through our adoption agency.
SPEAKER_00: And um and then suddenly we just got a phone call one day that said uh he's been born.
SPEAKER_00: It was a big shock to us because we were like, ah, we were so we were supposed to be there.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I wonder what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: In the state of Texas, you're not allowed to sign your rights away until 48 hours.
SPEAKER_00: So we were kind of on pens and needles for the next uh two days, and we we were at Lane's mom's house, and I remember it was a Friday morning, we we got a phone call, uh, and the phone call was uh she's keeping the baby, and that was it.
SPEAKER_00: And uh we were devastated.
SPEAKER_00: Um as a as a husband, as someone who desired deeply to protect my wife.
SPEAKER_00: We've been it's been a long, difficult road, and and now uh it it feels like one of the biggest gut punches of my life.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how to describe to you, but I will try the best I can of the peace and the goodness of the presence of God as Lane and I wept.
SPEAKER_00: Um I remember I would walk, I would take long walks through the woods, and I would just, there was a hymn that I just receipt recited over and over again in my head and in my mind.
SPEAKER_00: And and the Spirit of God comforted me and my wife in the most profound ways.
SPEAKER_00: Long story short, that next Tuesday, we get a phone call that said, Come pick up your son.
SPEAKER_00: He's yours.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, wouldn't trade those five days for anything.
SPEAKER_00: It hurt as much as I could possibly describe, and the peace and comfort of the Lord was even greater.
SPEAKER_00: I I wouldn't change the way any of it went down.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because what I learned about my Savior and His presence and his spirit, meeting me and Lane in the depths of despair, like there's no exchange for that.
SPEAKER_00: Um similarly, when my father passed away, and processing that, that that's the biggest loss I've I've ever experienced personally.
SPEAKER_00: And the the love and comfort of the Lord that that met me, that has met me in the depth of of those dark places.
SPEAKER_00: Like the Spirit of God, believer, listen, promises to meet you in the fire, in the depths.
SPEAKER_00: I I know you don't want to, we never want suffering.
SPEAKER_00: I showed you these verses because I want you to understand, right?
SPEAKER_00: As as much as you do everything you can to avoid all of it, and you pray, just take this away.
SPEAKER_00: So much about learning to meet God, to experience God, is in the difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: It's in the suffering.
SPEAKER_00: And he promises, he promises, not me, but he promises a fellowship in the midst of those sufferings that you don't get any other way.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, we praise you.
SPEAKER_00: There is no God like you, King Jesus, who meets us in the depths and in the misery of life, in our trials, in our own sin, in our own difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: You are there and you meet us, and we praise you for that.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I pray that your people are greatly encouraged.
SPEAKER_00: I know across this room that people are walking through trials, and I pray that they would take your word and believe your promises and spirit, that they would experience you in profound ways.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: God bless you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm available down front if anyone wants prayer.