Don’t You Care? Part 3
Does He care?
3 Hebrews was being burned, and He got in the fire. …
Dan 3:22 Therefore, because the king’s command was urgent, and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. 23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?”
They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.”
25 “Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”
Oh, King God can deliver “but if not” you lose oh King
Nevertheless
Sometimes we must get the old stuff tying us down burned off.
The fire freed them of their binding. And He was with them through it all.
When we are in the fire He is there with us.!
We never never never go through the fire alone.
He is there with us in the fire.
Does He care?
Job …
Job’s Repentance and Restoration
Job 42:1Then Job answered the LORD and said:
2 “I know that You can do everything,
And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.
3 You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
4 Listen, please, and let me speak;
You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’
5 “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,
But now my eye sees You.
6 Therefore I abhor myself,
And repent in dust and ashes.” NKJV
It comes with a price but look what you learn, you learn more about God through the trials
Charles Spurgeon “God is too good to be unkind, to wise to be mistaken, And when you can’t trace His hand, trust His heart.”
Does He care? How much dose God care???
John 3:16-17
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
The most important question you must ask yourself is what Brennan Manning said in the book “Ragamuffin Gospel,” “Do you believe that God loves You?”
Does He Care????
John 11:23 Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.
24 Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
27 She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. KJV
I think God allows us to go through stuff just to ask, “Do you really trust Me.?”
He was in the Ship with them. They were never alone.
Heb 13:5-6
5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we may boldly say: “The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” NKJV
Even Jesus was in the middle of the Storm. Listen they were never alone.
“Intense Moments” with the Savior by Ken Gire
INTRODUCTION
Our Savior’s life was not an unbroken succession of intimate moments that changed people’s lives, or incredible moments that captured their attention, or instructive moments that challenged their thinking. There were intense moments too. Moments when he overturned the tables of moneychangers and moments when money changed hands, and his enemies turned the tables on him.
As we focus on these intense moments, we see the Savior as a son who learned obedience through the things he suffered. But through this apprenticeship of suffering,
Jesus learned something else.
He learned to feel…?
He learned the feeling of hunger from his forty days in the wilderness and thirst from his feverish hours on the cross. But he learned to feel a greater hunger in the wilderness than bread alone could satisfy and a greater thirst on the cross than mere water could relieve. He learned the pain of rejection and the sorrow of unrequited love.
We learn to feel in much the same way. We learn to feel when our faith is tested in some wilderness. When our best-laid plans go awry, and our bravest prayers go unanswered. When we’re belittled by a crowd or betrayed by a colleague. When we’re deserted by our friends or done in by our enemies.
Whether it is a single thorn in the flesh or a crown of them mashed on our heads, suffering teaches us to feel
We learn from the storms!!!…. from the fire from the disappointments from the rejections from the heartaches .
This is why.
2 Corinthians 4:7-18
Cast Down but Unconquered
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 8 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed — 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death is working in us, but life in you.
13 And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak, 14 knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. 15 For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.
Seeing the Invisible
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. NKJV
Back to our text:
He never answered their question!!! “Don’t, you care?” it’s to ask questions but pay close attention how He answers.
39 Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.
Could you imagine what that was like? Jesus got up and the winds lay down, then He got up and the storm sat down!
Winds listen (His deity)
40 But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”
Look at what you have been through before and now this is what it takes to lose your faith?
We often doubt what God will do because we have forgotten what God has done!
Why are you so fearful and have no faith? 365 times the Bible says to fear not.
Back to our text:
41 And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be,
(What manner of man is this,) that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”
Here is the whole reason for the story. Fear God more than circumstances.
After Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection they feared very little.
Hebrews 13:6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. KJV
Next week: What manner of man is this?
