06/05/2026
Sunday AM Sermon outline for June 7, 2026
Come to the Allegheny Valley Church of Christ on Marlboro Drive in New Kensington this coming Sunday morning at 11 to hear this entire message.
Faith the Fire
Daniel 3:14-15...Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, is it true that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden statue I have set up? Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the statue I have made, very good. But if you refuse to worship, you will be thrown at once into the blazing fiery furnace. Then what god will be able to deliver you from my hands?”
The God that brought Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego through their fiery ordeal is the same God that will bring you through yours.
God works with those who have the faith to live within the covenant He made with them:
Malachi 4:2 But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall.
The tassel hanging from the hem of a Jewish man's tallit represents the covenant that God made with Israel - the hem is the “wing”. The woman with a blood issue, took hold of God's covenant tassel “wing” on the hem of Jesus' tallit and was healed.
Read Luke 8:42-48
We now enter into a covenant with God though His Son's death, burial and resurrection:
Romans 6:4 We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.
To have the faith (to see) what and why the fiery ordeals happen we must be born again:
John 3:3-5 Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”...“Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.
Read: Acts 2:38
We may not be facing a fiery furnace, but the trials we must face are of a fiery kind:
James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy...when you encounter trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
God has a unique plan prepared for each circumstance we face. The help we seek may not be in the way we want it to be. We must trust God's plan and purpose for the ordeal:
Daniel 3:16-18 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar...If the God whom we serve exists, then He is able to deliver us from the blazing fiery furnace and from your hand...But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden statue you have set up.”
God's plan for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego was fulfilled by their faith:
Daniel 3:25-27 Nebuchadnezzar asked, “Did we not throw three men into the fire?” “Look!, I see four men, unbound and unharmed, walking around in the fire - and the fourth looks like a son of the gods!”...Nebuchadnezzar called out, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out!”...Not a hair of their heads was singed, their robes were unaffected, and there was no smell of fire on them.
Our Mission: Faith the fiery ordeals with an obedient trust that Christ is in that fire with us.
