The Faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Sunday March 30, 2025)

Br. M. K. Shivakumar

The book of Daniel records the incredible incident about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who were put in an uncommonly challenging situation on account of their faith.

These young Jewish men were thrown into a fiery furnace because they refused to bow down to a human leader who demanded worship for himself. The account of their supernatural deliverance is both awe-inspiring and encouraging and has strengthened and provided hope to countless believers during their times of challenge.

Listen to this recording of a message about the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and God’s supernatural intervention on their behalf.

God of the Valleys, Deserts, and Wilderness (SUNDAY MARCH 23, 2025)

"But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.” ‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭2‬:‭14‬ ‭

“but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” ‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭15‬:‭57‬ ‭

Our Christian life is a victorious life. It's a life in which the LORD has already gained the victory and we live it out in our own lives.

“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” ‭‭John‬ ‭16‬:‭33‬ ‭‬‬

However, our experience of victory is sometimes not aligned with our expectations of victory.

In my observation, the exuberance that follows Christian conversion or initial salvation often gives way to the reality of Christian life which is quite different. We eventually come to realize that isn't all mountain tops. There are valleys that we deal with. There is the experience of wilderness. There are long paths that you go through alone.

Life isn't perfect after you become Christian. There is messiness in life itself. These are not unique to Christians. But the reality is that the Christian is not immune from the challenges of life. We too have physical challenges, financial challenges, career challenges, relationship challenges, emotional challenges. We deal with ill health, poverty, job losses, broken relationships, toxic relationships, unmet expectations, disappointments of every kind.

A couple of examples.

Just a week ago, I truly believed in my heart that God was going to heal brother Vasanth in Austin. Vasanth and his family used to fellowship in this congregation a few years ago. He is a brother who came to know the Lord at age 13 from a Hindu background. His life was dedicated to serving the LORD, even while working in some very large high-tech organizations. He poured out his life to the service of his God in reaching out to others and in supporting poor missionaries in India. A few weeks ago, he suddenly felt a discomfort and needed heart surgery and never really recovered from there. Our congregation along with hundreds of people in different parts of the world raised their requests to God. However, God chose to call him home.

A few weeks ago we were praying for a sister in Trivandrum, Molly George. She was a missionary in different parts of the world. She was an aunt to Omana Aunty and sister Jainamma, but as someone so close to them that they played together in their childhood. A missionary who was suffering so much due to cancer and in so much pain. When we met to pray for her, we prayed that her death would provide her relief. Eventually her death was what brought relief to that pain.

Why do bad things happen to good people?

We might have theological or philosophical answers to that question, but those answers will not bring back the father and husband to the family that lost him. It does not change the situation concerning their future which has now become extremely different as a result of this incident.

In the middle of these circumstances we pray. Because the difference we have as a result of our conversion is that when we go through these challenging circumstances, we do not go through it alone, but we go through it with God by our side.

In our walk with Christ, there are often heights or mountaintops : where things go well. We experience reasonably quick answer to prayer. We are celebrating and declaring the glory of God.

Then there are valleys. Where we experience low points and setbacks. We pray, but prayer does not immediately yield answers. In fact when we pray we sometimes feel like things get worse. We feel fear in valleys.

We go through deserts where we are devoid of nourishments, where our throats are parched and we feel like we do not have strength for living our life, let alone doing something for the LORD. We experience lack in deserts.

There are periods of wilderness where we are not sure if we are going in the right direction. In fact we do not even know which way to turn. We sometimes go in circles, but we do not realize we are lost. We feel in these times, sometimes that God is distant. That He is not near us. We experience confusion in these times.

We may feel that God is absent from our lives. We do not doubt His existence or that He is good in His nature. But we feel like He is not in our lives. He is good to others. But He no longer seems to be involved in our lives. We pray for some other people and God answers those prayers. But our own prayers seem to go nowhere and receive no answers.

Paul himself writes thus:

“For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us,” ‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭1‬:‭8‬-‭10‬ ‭‬‬

1. Correct your ways and seek His face

“I will go away and return to My place Until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.” ‭‭Hosea‬ ‭5‬:‭15‬

Examine to see if your ways are correct before Him. God allows affliction in our lives to help us draw close to Him. Sometimes God allows situations in our lives to change us. We pray for the situation to change, but God wants us to change something. As we grow close to a holy God, His Spirit might convict us of something we need to change. God often wants to remove the influence of the world upon our life, that the power of the flesh in our life can be curtained, that the old nature will be fully crucified. The situations we are in could help change us to become more like Him.

2. Rejoice in Him always

The joy of the LORD is your strength. Neh 8:10

Rejoice in the LORD always and again I say rejoice. Phil 4:4

The Christian's greatest weapon is the joy of the LORD. It is a defensive force as well. When we are filled with the joy of the LORD, we can face all circumstances and come out victorious.

Do not let the enemy steal your joy. When your joy is lost and despair fills you, you provide a breeding ground for all kinds of issues. That's why the devil tries to bring despair into your lives.

Let us rejoice in the LORD for who He is, not for what we are going through. We are commanded to be joyful in practice. We are commanded to be joyful by choice.

‬‬3. Praise Him privately and publicly

“Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise You. So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭63‬:‭3‬-‭4‬ ‭‬‬

“At night my soul longs for You, Indeed, my spirit within me seeks You diligently; For when the earth experiences Your judgments The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.” ‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭26‬:‭9‬ ‭‬‬

May we be people who always praise His holy name. But let us first be people who praise the LORD in our most private and personal space, by ourselves. God deserves and desires that praise from us.

4. Look to Jesus

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” ‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭12‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭

Jesus is the greatest example of endurance and purpose that we have in front of us. When we go through difficult situations, let us fix our eyes upon Him, who endured such hostility by sinners against Himself so that we will not be weary or lose heart.

In the Valley, God is able to keep you close to Him

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭23‬:‭4‬ ‭

In the wilderness, God is able to send you His word

“In the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. When they set out from Rephidim, they came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness; and there Israel camped in front of the mountain. Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.” Exodus‬ ‭19‬:‭1‬-‭6‬ ‭

You may be going through a wilderness period, without direction and a word from the LORD. But when you seek Him more, God might give you a new revelation, a fresh word that you need for this season and for your life. Wait on the LORD for Him and He will provide a word for you. The promise to Israel that they will be God’s own possession among all the peoples, and that they will be to God a kingdom of priests and a holy nation found its fulfilment in the church as we read in the new testament.

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;” 1 Pet 2: 9

In the desert, God is able to bring forth gushing streams of living water

“Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert.” ‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭43‬:‭19‬ ‭‬‬

In the season of your lack and emptiness, God is able to bring for a roadway showing you direction and rivers that flow with fresh, pure, energizing, and nourishing water.

"But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.” ‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭2‬:‭14‬ ‭

God leads us in victory through the valley, through the desert, and through the wilderness. In all these things He leads us in victory, that we may spread the sweet aroma of the knowledge of our God in every place.

Preaching Christ, the Power and the Wisdom of God (Sunday March 16, 2025)

Today's message is from 1 Cor 1:18 onwards.

Paul is writing to the church at Corinth. We know from the book of Acts that right before Paul comes to Corinth, he was at Athens. There he spoke the very famous sermon, often called the Mars Hill sermon.

Athens was the intellectual capital of the world at the time. Many of the greatest philosophers of that age are even today considered the primary leaders of the Western philosophical system. They include names such as Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato and preceded the time of Paul. Much of the foundations of even modern philosophy traces its roots to the frameworks established more than two millennia ago in Athens. It was there that Paul Paul delivered this message. It was a very intellectual and interesting message. At the end of his message, we read that many mocked Paul when they heard about the resurrection. The scripture says, "Nevertheless some believed." We read that says that he went to Corinth and started working among the Jews and the Greeks. There were people who were from a Jewish background and there were those from a Gentile or Greek background.

Paul writes:

"For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

The message of the cross is foolishness to those that are unsaved. What is the word of the cross? It is the message about the death of Jesus Christ and what it accomplished. It is difficult for many people to accept the news about the death of Christ:

• Some do not even believe that Jesus died. "He was crucified, but did not die," they say.

• Others do not believe it has any significance beyond being the death of a person. "People die all the time. There is no meaning beyond that."

• There are a few who think Christ's death was trivial. "Oh, it was nothing. Just a weekend of trouble."

• There are others who do not believe that He rose from the dead. "How can that ever happen?"

There is only one person who did not deserve of death. The Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, lived a pure perfect, sinless life, and was the only one who did not earn death, He did not deserve to die. That is why His death has power. We heard during worship that “the sting of death is sin.” Jesus had no sin in Him, so there was no power of sin, no sting on His death. That is what makes His death on our behalf powerful. 

Because of God's holiness and His justice, it requires that the soul that sins must die. The wages of sin is death. We also know that each of us deserve sin, because we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. 

Every sin, even the ones that are trivial in our eyes are sins that deserve death in the eyes of a completely holy God. No one who has committed any sin has any claim on heaven. But in His graciousness, the LORD has forgiven our sin and has made us heirs of that promise through the death of His Son on our behalf. The only person in this world who did not deserve death, our Lord Jesus Christ, died in our place so that we could enter into His presence. 

No wonder that it sounds like foolishness to those that are perishing. 

To those that do not believe in Christ, we know it is the power of God. To the Romans, Paul writes that he was:

“not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone that believes first to the Jew and then to the Gentile.” Rom 1:16

Jesus walked to the cross willingly to pay the price for our sin. His coming to the earth was not to have three years of public ministry. The purpose of His coming was His substitutionary death on our behalf. Even though this statement is breathtakingly powerful, to the unregenerate mind, the message is foolishness. It makes no sense to the regenerate mind.

For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.” This is from Isaiah 29:14

The wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever people or the understanding of the prudent, or the intelligence of the intelligent, God will frustrate.

We are never going to influence God with our cleverness. We may influence or impress some people, especially those that are unconverted. But the godly people know when the power of God is at work. 

Paul was tired of the worldly wise people. He was tired of intellectuals who he had encountered at Athens. There is so much knowledge that the philosophers try to acquire. They ask the big questions:

• Questions of origin - "Where did I come from?" 

• Questions of meaning - "What is life? What is its meaning?"

• Questions of purpose - "What am I to do?"

• Questions about knowledge - "How can I know something? How do I acquire it?"

• Questions of destiny - "What will happen to me after I die?"

When man uses human thought powered by human language and human resources to try and find answers to questions that are deep, the end is often not satisfying. It sounds learned and sophisticated; but it is not lifegiving. The lessons of philosophy, when you look at it closely, make you miserable. Unlike the gospel of Christ that gives life, because it is God's word. 

God's word teaches us:

• That our origin is from God. We come from Him. We were created by Him and for His good pleasure.

• That mankind fell away because of sin. The only religion in the world that identifies the source of mankind's problems acccurately is the Christian faith. We know from the scriptures that the problem is sin. Even a beautiful, harmless little baby that grows up will have a tendency to do things that go against rules and laws. With training, conditioning, and controlling of environments, we often try to limit the amount of damage that can be done. But the fundamental problem is sin.

• That the remedy is the cross of Christ. The substitutionary death of Jesus Christ has paid the price for sin.

• Faith in Him and in His finished work on the cross is how we are saved from sin.

“Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” 1 Cor 1:20, 21

The intellectual powerhouses of that time and of this time could not and cannot understand the message of the cross using their intellectual abilities. Because it does not make sense to the natural mind. "How can God die for mankind?  "Who would die willingly for another person?" "How can the death of Jesus save us from sin?"

“For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” 1 Cor 1:22-24

Often, Jesus would speak to the Jews, especially the Pharisees, and someone would ask to see a sign to show that He was from God. It was an important part of their thinking. Jesus did miraculous signs at many occasions, proving that He was the Son of God. However, seeing them, most of them responded in disbelief still. They would argue whether it was lawful for Jesus to heal a cripple, a paralytic on Sabbath. 

The Greeks, the intellectuals, demanded knowledge. However, to them the preaching of the cross was foolishness. But to the saved, it is the power of God that saves them! God was well-pleased through the seeming foolishness of this message preached to save those who believe.

We all notice that it is not the message itself. The same message could be preached to two people with a similar background, upbringing, and thinking. However, only the one that God draws is likely to respond to it. To the other one, it seems foolish. It has no appeal.

We could also try and gather every argument in favor of the message we are preaching. Everything from apologetics. Anticipating the objections raised and preparing with counter arguments. "I am not prepared enough!" "What if they ask another question?" "What if they ask about another topic I am  not familiar with." The ones that are most equipped with all these arguments are not the ones evangelizing the most. They are busy in seminaries talking to Christians and intellectually advocating on these topics. Often we realize that that is not what brings people to the saving knowledge of Christ. It is the exuberant testimony of a simple witnessing Christian that often brings the knowledge of Christ to others. So stop waiting to be more prepared and start sharing the gospel.

Begin talking to others about Christ. To your family, your friends, your neighbors, your colleagues. If we're not ready to do that, let us cry out to the Lord to enable us. To strengthen us to do that. And He will give us the words to speak.

Peter said this:

"Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;" 1 Pet 3:15

When someone comes and asks you the reason for the hope in you, it is okay to be defensive and present logical arguments. But in sharing your faith, speak from your heart what the Lord has done for you. If the Lord was able to change your life, He is able to change the lives of others as well. 

To the Jew and the Greek who are not saved, the message of the cross is foolishness. It does not make sense to them. They are not able to understand it. But to those that are ready to believe, this same message of the cross is the power of God unto salvation. 

To those that believe, both to the Jew and the Greek, the gospel of Christ is the most precious message to them. It is God's power and God's wisdom. At the cross, we see the light, and the burden of sin is rolled from our hearts. Jesus takes our sin and holds us close. And by the power of God and by the wisdom of God, He lifts the burden of sin from us and sets us free. Hallelujah!

By natural ways of cleverness and intelligence and thinking and enquiry and human wisdom, we are not going to be able to understand God’s message of salvation. It happens when by the mercy of God, He draws us and in humility we approach Him. The message becomes the life-giving, life-changing message of salvation in our lives.

May the Lord touch our hearts and embolden us to take His message of salvation to those around us.