Sermon Starters -- "But if not"

Title: "But If Not"
Date: November 14, 2020
McCrae Brook Wesleyan Church, Eldred, PA

Text: Daniel 3

Introduction

• We know the story--Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
• Central verses: Daniel 3:13-18
• Thesis: We don't always know what God is going to do. (We know he'll do what's best.) We just need to be faithful.

1. Sometimes we don't know for sure what God is actually calling us to do.

• The current evangelical divide -- two groups, both of which with spiritual, godly people, who are totally convinced they know what God wants to be done.
• C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle -- the Ape and the Donkey. Confusion -- after all, "Aslan is not a tame lion."

What should we do?

• Seek God's face. Prayer, Scripture, Christian community
• Love and listen to the other side of the church.
• Be faithful. Step forward in faith. You have to live by your own faith (Rom 14; Isa 30)

2. Sometimes it works out.

• The 3 Hebrew men of Daniel 3.
• Beware victory -- "power corrupts." The fake Spurgeon quote about the Baptists not burning anyone at the stake.
• The story of Jehu -- the tension between 2 Kings 9-10 and Hosea 1 -- a tale of two prophets with a different vision. Those in 2 Kings want decimation. Hosea sees a basis for the fall of Israel.
• At least to some extent, Jehu must have done the right thing for the wrong reason.
• We need to be faithful even in victory.

3. Sometimes it doesn't work out.

• God can allow defeat or persecution for some greater purpose.
• Job -- it's a heavenly bet
• The strangeness of God's blessing, when loss turns out to be victory
• Hebrews 11:32-39

Conclusion

• "One step at a time"
• Love and listen to others in the church who disagree with you.
• Seek God's face and be faithful.