Daniel 8: The Strength of Trusting God

Notes
Transcript
Handout

Bookmarks & Needs:

B: Daniel 3:8-18
N:

Welcome

Again, good morning and welcome to Family Worship with the Eastern Hills family!
One thing I’ve been thinking about a lot this week is just how blessed I am to be a part of this church family for as long as I have been. This church body is loving, friendly, supportive, and encouraging, and I pray that if you’re visiting with us today, you’ve already caught a glimpse of that fact. We invite you, if you are a guest with us today, to fill out a communication card, which you’ll find in the back of the pew in front of you. Then you can drop that in the offering boxes by the doors on your way out after service, or you can bring them down to me at the front following our benediction at the end, as I would love to meet you and give you a small gift to thank you for your visit with us today. If you’re online, and visiting with us today, feel free to head over to our website ehbc.org, and fill out the communication card on the “I’m New” page. Whether you’re here in the room or online, we just want to be able to send you a note thanking you for your visit today, and to see if we can pray for you or minister to you in some way.
I want to say thanks this morning to a ministry that usually only gets noticed when something goes wrong: the Audio-Visual Ministry. Beyond Sunday mornings, these guys come to band practice, funerals, weddings, school events… and they make sure our stream is running every week. It’s often a thankless job, so I want to thank all of the folks who serve in our AV ministry.

Announcements

I have one special announcement that I need to make this morning that we intentionally left out of our opening announcements. We are going to have a Special Called Business Meeting next Sunday, March 3, immediately following Family Worship. The purpose of this meeting will be to vote on whether to enter into a Church Consulting agreement with Auxano, the church consulting arm of Lifeway, who worked with us for the Endeavor campaign in 2022. I’ve written an extensive letter explaining why I believe that this is the wise thing to do at this time, because if I covered all of that information here from the floor, it would take the entire service, and we’re here to worship the Lord and examine His Word together, so I didn’t want to take a lot of time on that this morning. So when you leave at the close of service, there will be a packet of information available for you in the foyer, which contains my letter as well as the proposal from Auxano and a couple of other informational pages from them. I’d like to ask all church member families to take this packet home (we made 200 copies), read through it, spend time in prayer on it, and if you have questions, we have a couple of ways to get those in and answered ahead of time:
First, you could email any questions or thoughts on the proposal to me at bill@ehbc.org. I won’t promise you that I’ll get back to you before Wednesday, though, because of the Evangelism Conference.
Next, we created a new messaging group in our church app called “Auxano Proposal Questions.” This is a public, open group, so if you’re in our app, you should just be able to find it and join it. We’ll only keep the group available until after next Sunday’s vote. But you can post your questions or thoughts there if you’d like, and we’ll get back to you through that medium as well.
Don’t have the app? Just search for EHBC Albuquerque on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store to find it and get involved! And don’t forget that you can use the web on your computer to engage in our church messaging system as well. Just click the EHBC Messaging link on the Family Life menu on the website.

Opening

I want to say thanks to Rich for preaching through the first seven verses of Daniel 3 last week, as we looked at the tyranny of false gods, and how he painted a picture for us that the context of Daniel is really no different from some of the things that we see in our world today, calling idolatry a “cosmic outrage,” because only the Lord God is entitled to our worship—nothing made by our hands or created in our minds is worthy. This morning, we are going to look at the next 11 verses as we see the next part of the story of Daniel’s three Hebrew friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, who are referred to in this chapter by their Babylonian names of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
So grab your copy of the Scriptures, whether analog or digital, turn to the third chapter of Daniel, and let’s stand as we are able in honor of God’s holy Word as we read our focal passage from there this morning:
Daniel 3:8–18 CSB
8 Some Chaldeans took this occasion to come forward and maliciously accuse the Jews. 9 They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, “May the king live forever. 10 You as king have issued a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, drum, and every kind of music must fall down and worship the gold statue. 11 Whoever does not fall down and worship will be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire. 12 There are some Jews you have appointed to manage the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men have ignored you, the king; they do not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.” 13 Then in a furious rage Nebuchadnezzar gave orders to bring in Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king. 14 Nebuchadnezzar asked them, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, is it true that you don’t serve my gods or worship the gold statue I have set up? 15 Now if you’re ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, drum, and every kind of music, fall down and worship the statue I made. But if you don’t worship it, you will immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire—and who is the god who can rescue you from my power?” 16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “Nebuchadnezzar, we don’t need to give you an answer to this question. 17 If the God we serve exists, then he can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he can rescue us from the power of you, the king. 18 But even if he does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.”
PRAYER (Special Called Business Meeting)
In 1513 through studying the Bible and reflecting on the state of the Catholic church at the time, the great church reformer Martin Luther (who wasn’t a great church reformer yet) came to the realization that the traditions of the church had some serious issues, and that he didn’t need the mandates of the pope to tell him how to walk with God—it was all right there in Scripture. As this understanding kind of unlocked his thinking in this regard, he eventually codified what has become known as his 95 Theses, wrote them in Latin, and then posted them on the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517, in order to prompt scholarly debate among the clergy about church immorality, corruption, and abuse. Well, his 95 Theses were translated into German and then disseminated throughout what was then known as the Holy Roman Empire.
The Catholic church vehemently disagreed with the things that Luther suggested, and constantly called for him in writing to retract these ideas. Luther published several pamphlets arguing for the validity of his positions, and in January of 1521, Luther was excommunicated from the Catholic church and called to appear before the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at a meeting called the Diet of Worms. He did so in April of that year.
On April 17, 1521, the charges of heresy were brought against Luther, citing his writings on the disputed church matters, and calling him to recant or face punishment. Luther asked for a day to compose his response, knowing that if he did not recant of his writings, then he would likely be branded a heretic, and quite possibly face being burned at the stake.
The next afternoon, he gave what has become known as his “Here I Stand” speech. The speech ended like this:
“Since your most serene majesty and your highnesses require of me a simple, clear, and direct answer, I will give one, and it is this: I cannot submit my faith either to the pope or to the council, because it is clear that they have fallen into error and even into inconsistency with themselves. If, then, I am not convinced by proof from Holy Scripture, or by cogent reasons, if I am not satisfied by the very text I have cited, and if my judgment is not in this way brought into subjection to God's word, I neither can nor will retract anything; for it cannot be either safe or honest for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.”
—Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms, April 18, 1521
Luther faced a difficult situation: recant or (possibly) die.
Just to remind us all of where we are in chapter 3 of Daniel, a quick recap:
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon (the most powerful empire in the world at the time), created a massive gold statue—90 feet high and 9 feet wide—possibly of himself, and likely inspired by the dream that he had and that we looked at in chapter 2. He decided that his statue was so great that he would use it as kind of a test of loyalty for those who served in the government of Babylon, and he invited all of them to come and attend a special dedication ceremony for the statue.
He gathered all the leaders together, and told them that when the crazy cacophony of all kinds of instruments happened, then they were all to fall to the ground facedown in worship of the statue, and that anyone who didn’t do so would be immediately thrown into a furnace of blazing fire. So the music played and the people bowed to this gigantic reflection of Nebuchadnezzar’s pride and arrogance.
Among the leaders in that crowd that day were the three Hebrew men that Daniel had gone into captivity with: the three who as teens had decided that obeying God was more important than eating well (chapter 1); the three who Daniel called together to pray when they needed God to show up in the impossible situation with Nebuchadnezzar’s dream; the three who were promoted to become managers of the province of Babylon, the most important province in the empire… a promotion that landed them on the Plain of Dura outside of the city of Babylon in front of a huge gold idol and being told to bow down and worship it. Those three men.
They found themselves in a difficult situation similar to Martin Luther: bow down and worship the statue or die by fire. What good could come of this difficult situation? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego could take it as an opportunity instead of an obstacle, because:

1: Difficulty provides an opportunity to trust God.

Trusting God in the midst of difficult situations was no new thing for these Hebrew men. They refused to eat the king’s food and thus defile themselves. It was a risk, and they trusted God in the midst of it. And God brought about His own glory through what He did in their lives. And here in chapter 3, we find that they make the same decision regarding Nebuchadnezzar’s statute. They refuse to bow down to it.
Daniel 3:8–13 CSB
8 Some Chaldeans took this occasion to come forward and maliciously accuse the Jews. 9 They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, “May the king live forever. 10 You as king have issued a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, drum, and every kind of music must fall down and worship the gold statue. 11 Whoever does not fall down and worship will be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire. 12 There are some Jews you have appointed to manage the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men have ignored you, the king; they do not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.” 13 Then in a furious rage Nebuchadnezzar gave orders to bring in Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king.
Remember that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had been promoted to very high ranking positions when Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. They had essentially been promoted over other wise men (here called Chaldeans) that served king Nebuchadnezzar. This step that the Chaldeans take is motivated by revenge or jealousy. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn’t bow when the music played. They didn’t make a big deal about it. They just didn’t bow. The guys were simply obeying the command they had been given back in Exodus 20:
Exodus 20:4–5a (CSB)
4 Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. 5a Do not bow in worship to them, and do not serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God,
They weren’t trying to get other people to disobey. They just knew that they could not, and so would not, bow down and worship a false idol. So they didn’t.
But perhaps the crowd was too big for Nebuchadnezzar to see that they didn’t bow. Well, that wasn’t going to stop the jealous wise men from ratting them out.
The phrase “maliciously accuse” is interesting in Aramaic. It literally means that the Chaldeans took this opportunity to “eat the pieces” of the three Hebrews. We might say that this was their chance to “take a bite” out of them, or to “sink their teeth into” them in order to do them harm.
The Chaldeans started by blessing the king (which sounds to us like some deep flattery, but to be completely fair: it was the standard way of addressing the king in the Babylonian and Persian empires). So they blessed the king, and then they reminded him about the decree that he had issued about worshiping the statue and the consequences if you didn’t.
Then they point the finger: “There are some Jews YOU have appointed to manage the province of Babylon… These men have ignored you (not true)… they do not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up (true).” So, their finger pointing goes two directions: first, “those guys didn’t bow, king.” And second, “YOU are the one who appointed them as managers of the province of Babylon… maybe your judgment isn’t very good.”
This tactic of blaming the ruler for the people’s sin goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Remember what Adam did when God called him out on his sin? In a similar kind of sneaky way, he blamed God:
Genesis 3:12 CSB
12 The man replied, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.”
Nebuchadnezzar was furious, and so he called for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to be brought before him, which they were. And suddenly, the opportunity to trust God is borne out of an extremely difficult situation.
We don’t usually see things this way. When we face troubles or tribulations, we tend to ask, “Why, God?” as if belonging to Jesus should exempt us from the normal difficulties that go with living in our own Babylon: the fact that we are broken people living in a broken world with other broken people. I mean, sometimes we manufacture our own difficulties, and sometimes (like for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego), the difficulties are thrust upon us by someone or something else. Even Jesus Himself, God in the flesh and not broken in any way, faced very real difficulties during His earthly ministry. But whether our difficulties are of our own or someone else’s making, the fact is that difficulties can often be allowed by God as a means of deepening our faith and developing our trust in Him. Why should we see ourselves as immune to those things? Think about it: if we never faced difficulties, would we ever mature?
In fact, God wants to use our difficulties so that when we face them, they become a way of being made more into the image of Jesus. Peter writes explicitly about this in chapter 4 of his first epistle:
1 Peter 4:12–14 CSB
12 Dear friends, don’t be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you, as if something unusual were happening to you. 13 Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may also rejoice with great joy when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are ridiculed for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
James and Paul are in agreement in this regard. Both of them write about the usefulness of facing trials or afflictions for developing godly maturity:
James 1:2–4 CSB
2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
Romans 5:3–4 CSB
3 And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, 4 endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.
So we are to pay attention for how the difficulties that we face might be a means of growing deeper roots of trust in God. This is what living the life of faith looks like.
And the world? The world might look at us and think we’re crazy, because:

2: Trusting God seems irrational to the world.

One question that you might have raised in your head at this point is: “Where is Daniel?” Well, we saw at the end of Daniel 2 that, “Daniel remained at the king’s court.” Likely Daniel did not have to attend the dedication of the statue due to his responsibilities with the king’s court.
So back to the guys: There’s actually a hint of disbelief in Nebuchadnezzar’s words when he addresses these young men. It’s as if he’s thinking, “There’s no way what the Chaldeans are saying could be true… it makes zero sense that they would not obey what I ordered them to do.” Check it out:
Daniel 3:14–15 CSB
14 Nebuchadnezzar asked them, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, is it true that you don’t serve my gods or worship the gold statue I have set up? 15 Now if you’re ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, drum, and every kind of music, fall down and worship the statue I made. But if you don’t worship it, you will immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire—and who is the god who can rescue you from my power?”
The king seemed to ask them a rhetorical question that he doesn’t actually expect them to answer, because it can’t possibly be true! It’s almost as if Nebuchadnezzar was thinking: “They didn’t understand the instruction, or they just weren’t ready to do what they had been told to do, or they didn’t understand the consequences promised for failing to bow down and worship the idol. That must be it.” So Nebuchadnezzar actually violated his own edict by offering them a second chance at obedience, because the edict had stated that, “whoever does not fall down and worship will IMMEDIATELY be thrown into a furnace...” (3:6).
From his worldly perspective, he just couldn’t believe that they would refuse this command—so much so that he actually seems to issue a challenge to Yahweh through another rhetorical question: “who is the god who can rescue you from my power?” His pride was on full display, because if you think about it, he was even saying that his gods—the ones that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were named for—were not powerful enough to rescue them.
Similarly, our modern Babylon simply cannot fathom that we don’t have the same priorities as the world around us. Just before what we saw a moment ago in 1 Peter 4, we read this:
1 Peter 4:1–5 CSB
1 Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding—because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin—2 in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for God’s will. 3 For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the Gentiles choose to do: carrying on in unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry. 4 They are surprised that you don’t join them in the same flood of wild living—and they slander you. 5 They will give an account to the one who stands ready to judge the living and the dead.
There are those in the world who are actually surprised when we don’t do what they do, when we don’t act like they act, or have the same priorities as they have. And in some ways, we’ve reached a similar point as we see in Babylon—it seems that the safest people to insult, mock, parody, or ridicule in the media right now are Bible-believing, Gospel-sharing, faith-walking Christians. It seems outlandish to many in the world that we actually believe that truth exists, that morality matters, that we have inalienable rights that come from God, and that our government exists to protect those rights—it does not provide them.
So what were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to do? I suppose our three Hebrew friends could have rationalized their obedience to the king’s command. They could have just bowed down and not actually worshiped: an empty gesture…just going along to get along. I mean, wouldn’t God know that they didn’t truly worship the statue?
But it had been their uncompromising faith that had brought them through to this point. Remember that in chapter 1, God had blessed their faithfulness, making them “ten times better than all the magicians and mediums,” (the very same guys who were plotting their downfall). They were supposed to be different, and that difference is what God had used to this point to protect them and bless them. No, they needed to cling in trust to the truth of Scripture:
Proverbs 3:5–8 CSB
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight. 7 Don’t be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil. 8 This will be healing for your body and strengthening for your bones.
And we also need to heed this passage from Proverbs, holding fast to our trust in the Lord when difficulties arise. Our own personal understanding of what is going on around us is limited, so we cannot trust it completely. But God does know what the truth of our situation is, and He is not surprised by it in the slightest, so we can walk by faith in Him by the direction of His Word, standing for what is right and true, and we should look radically different from the world around us.
We can trust God, believing that He will do what is best in His will and in His way, even if that doesn’t look exactly like we think it should look, which takes us to our final point:

3: Trusting God means believing that God will do what He KNOWS is best, not necessarily what we THINK is best.

This is where the rubber meets the road for these three Hebrew friends. They had been told now twice to bow down and worship the idol, and Nebuchadnezzar was about to strike up the band one more time just for them. But that would not be necessary, because God is the hero of the book of Daniel, and these three Hebrew men would not turn away from Him. They knew that only God is worthy of their worship, and they determined that only God would receive it, no matter what:
Daniel 3:16 CSB
16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “Nebuchadnezzar, we don’t need to give you an answer to this question.
You have to admire their chutzpah: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego just call the king by his name, and refuse to defend themselves against Nebuchadnezzar’s indictment. They didn’t need to. Nebuchadnezzar wasn’t wrong—they did not serve the gods of Babylon, and they would not bow down to the idolatrous statue. Their trust in God had given them strength to face even the possibility of death by fire.
But the challenge that Nebuchadnezzar had issued to God, now that was a different matter. These three men issued what is one of the greatest declarations of faith ever uttered in the face of this power-tripping tyrant:
Daniel 3:17–18 CSB
17 If the God we serve exists, then he can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he can rescue us from the power of you, the king. 18 But even if he does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.”
One thing to clarify. We might look at this statement and say that it’s not a great statement of faith because of how it starts: “If the God we serve exists...” This makes it seem as if they aren’t certain that Yahweh is real. But that is not the case. They’re reminding Nebuchadnezzar of what he himself has said about their God. Remember in chapter 2, after the interpretation of the dream, what the king of Babylon said about the God of Daniel:
Daniel 2:47 CSB
47 The king said to Daniel, “Your God is indeed God of gods, Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, since you were able to reveal this mystery.”
The king had already declared that God exists, and that He is the “God of gods.” Nebuchadnezzar seems to have forgotten this fact. They are reminding HIM, not saying that they aren’t sure themselves.
Then they declare what they believe: that Yahweh is fully capable of delivering them from the furnace should He choose to do so, fully capable of rescuing them from Nebuchadnezzar’s “power.” But verse 18 is vital.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are certain that God can deliver them, but they also know that He is not required to do so. He is God. He is sovereign. He is in charge. They see and understand that it might be in God’s best interests for His purposes and glory that they are NOT rescued in miraculous fashion. And that’s where their faith shines: even though that might be the case, they still refuse to bow down and worship a false god, because God’s will for them is best.
Alistair Begg, in his book on Daniel Brave By Faith, wrote this:
“Faith is not believing in spite of the evidence; rather, it is obeying in spite of the consequences.”
— Alistair Begg, Brave By Faith
Throughout Scripture, we see places where people of faith had to take a stand and trust God, even if the consequences that they faced for doing so were going to be steep.
Job’s wife told him to “curse God and die” after Satan had been allowed to inflict great difficulty on his life. His friends told him that his troubles were probably all his fault, but Job knew that wasn’t the case. Yes, he had difficulties, but he would not turn from God:
Job 13:15a (CSB)
15a Even if he kills me, I will hope in him.
After Peter and some of the apostles were arrested in Jerusalem for proclaiming the name of Jesus and told to stop doing so, they said:
Acts 5:29 CSB
29 Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than people.
Paul from prison, knowing that he could be facing death, declared that he wanted Jesus to be glorified in him, whether in his life or in his death:
Philippians 1:20–21 CSB
20 My eager expectation and hope is that I will not be ashamed about anything, but that now as always, with all courage, Christ will be highly honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Each of these examples show us that we must decide beforehand what we believe, and if we’re willing to trust. Sinclair Ferguson writes:
“Faith means trusting God and His Word. Faith does not mean that we either know or understand what His specific purpose in our lives may be. It means a ready willingness to follow Him whatever His purpose.”
—Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 21: Daniel
Since God is God, then we can trust that He will accomplish His purposes in the world, because He is in the process of taking history to the end which He has planned for it. For Him to be God means that we don’t have to know all the answers, because He knows them. He is in charge, and though we may have our opinions about how we think things should go, He is under no obligation to forego His plans and purposes because we desire a particular outcome.
Even the perfect Son of God faced this same dilemma. On the night before He was crucified, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus faced the prospect of taking God’s holy wrath against humanity’s sin on Himself, and prayed that there could be another way. However, while in His flesh He desired a different path, He was determined to submit to the will of the Father:
Matthew 26:39 CSB
39 Going a little farther, he fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Matthew 26:42 CSB
42 Again, a second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”
And so Jesus went to the cross because there was no other way for our sin to be atoned for. He died in our place, taking the punishment that we deserve for our rebellion against the sovereign Lord, willingly sacrificing Himself so that we could be saved. And He overcame death by rising again, so that those who belong to Him will live forever with Him. It is only because of what Jesus has done that we can be forgiven. And if we believe in His work on the cross, surrendering to Him as Savior and confessing Him as Lord, we are forgiven of our sin and promised eternal life. Trust in what Christ has done to save you this morning.

Closing

And if you’re already in Christ, decide now that God is trustworthy, that God’s plan and will is what you want for your life, and that you are willing to submit to His direction no matter the consequences. Choose to put God first in your heart and in your life, to not try to take His place on the throne, and to follow Him… even if it means staring into a fiery furnace, which we will look at next week.
But for this morning, the question is this: is God God? Do you trust Him? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego staked their lives on their faith in God. Are you willing to do the same? In some ways, it’s harder to live for God than it is to die for Him, because living for Him means dying to ourselves every day. But Christian, this is what we are called to: to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to our sovereign Lord and King, who gave Himself to save us. Will we submit to Him in trust, repenting of demanding our wills, giving ourselves to His? During our time of invitation, spend time in prayer, asking God to reveal to you places where you are not submitted to Him, where you don’t trust Him, where you don’t want to obey His plan and purpose for your life. If you need to come and kneel at the steps or pray with one of us, feel free to do so.
If you’ve never believed in Jesus, then this morning I call on you to surrender to God, trusting in what He has done to save you, giving up going your own direction, and submitting to His plan for your life. Only He is worthy of our worship, not any idol that we might create or imagine. Bow before Him in submission and surrender this morning. And come and share with us if that is what God is doing in your life today, so that we can celebrate with you and pray for you. If you’re online and today are surrendering to Jesus, please let me know by email so we can help you as you start your walk of faith.
If you’ve been praying about whether Eastern Hills is a church family that you can worship, serve, and grow with, and you’d like to talk about formal membership, please come and let me know so that we can set a time to sit down and talk, share our testimonies with each other, talk through our Statement of Belief, and answer any questions that you might have.
Giving.
As the band comes, let’s stand and pray.
PRAYER

Closing Remarks

Bible reading (Catch up day for Exodus, Psalm 56)
Pastor’s Study tonight
Prayer Meeting Wednesday
Instructions for guests

Benediction

Psalm 56:10–11 CSB
10 In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, 11 in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mere humans do to me?
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