Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

On August 31, Pastor Dave continued the Retold series with one of the most powerful and beloved Old Testament stories: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. He began on a light note, recalling the abrupt end of summer and sharing a family story about backyard barbecues. Every weekend, his dad would fire up the grill—literally—because he refused to clean it. Every cookout ended with flames and smoke billowing from the porch, and every week his dad would laugh and say, “I guess I should probably clean it now.”

That moment of humor set up the sermon’s deeper question: What do you do when the fire comes? When life catches flame—when the smoke thickens, when you can’t see straight, when pain, loss, or fear leaves you gasping for air—it’s natural to wonder: Where is God? Has He forgotten me?

Pastor Dave acknowledged how easy it is to feel abandoned when life burns hot. Whether it’s a diagnosis, a broken marriage, lingering depression, or the daily griefs of a broken world, we can begin to wonder if God has stepped away. But that’s why the Retold series exists, he said: to remind us that these so-called “children’s stories” are actually stories about God showing up in violence, chaos, and fear—and using it all to reveal His glory and grace. “No matter how hot the flames get,” he said, “God has not forgotten you.”

Turning to Daniel 3, he invited the congregation to follow along in their Bibles. “We’re not here to hear my thoughts,” he said, “we’re here to hear from the living God.” As he read, he slowed down the story to let it breathe. Nebuchadnezzar, furious that three young men refused to bow to his golden image, threatened them with death. “Who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?” he mocked. That question, Pastor Dave noted, is one every believer faces in some form—the voice of pride, fear, and despair whispering, No one can save you from this—not even God.

But Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s response was stunning: “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us... But even if He does not, we will not bow.” That, Pastor Dave said, is furnace faith. “This isn’t Sunday-only faith,” he explained. “This is the kind of faith that stares fire in the face and says, ‘Even if I burn, I trust Him.’”

Then came the turning point: obedience didn’t cool the furnace—it intensified it. The king ordered the fire heated seven times hotter, so hot that the soldiers throwing them in were burned alive. “Isn’t that how life feels sometimes?” Pastor Dave asked. “You take a step of obedience—you forgive, you tell the truth, you do what’s right—and suddenly things don’t get easier, they get harder. The heat gets turned up.”

But it’s right there, he said, that the miracle happens. Nebuchadnezzar looked into the flames and was astonished. “Did we not throw three men bound into the fire?” he asked. “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”

That fourth figure, Pastor Dave said, was no mere angelic vision. “That’s Jesus—long before Bethlehem, long before the manger. He shows up right there in the middle of the fire.” Three miracles took place in that moment: the men were unbound, unharmed, and not alone. “The fire that was supposed to destroy them,” he said, “set them free. The trial became the place of encounter. The suffering became the stage where God’s presence was most visible.”

And then came the gospel connection: centuries later, Jesus would step into the ultimate furnace—the fire of God’s judgment on sin. “Unlike Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,” Pastor Dave said, “He wasn’t spared. He was consumed—so that you never would be.”

That’s why this story isn’t about being rescued from the fire but about meeting God in it. “The real story isn’t whether God will keep you out of the furnace,” he said. “The story is that He will never leave you in it. The God who met them in the flames is the same God who meets you in yours.”

He drew out three truths from the passage:

First, reframe the furnace. Trials aren’t evidence that God has abandoned you—they’re often where His presence becomes clearest. “Could it be,” he asked, “that the furnace you’re in right now isn’t proof that God has forgotten you, but the very stage He’s using to show you that He hasn’t?”

Second, build furnace faith. Courage like Shadrach’s doesn’t appear overnight. “Furnace faith isn’t formed in the flames—it’s revealed there,” Pastor Dave said. It’s built in quiet devotion, daily obedience, and small acts of faithfulness long before the heat rises.

Third, see Jesus in the fire. The Son of God who walked with those men now walks with us. Because of the cross, no believer will ever face that ultimate fire again. “You will never be abandoned,” he said. “Because the One who was forsaken on the cross has promised, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’”

The sermon closed with a tender invitation. For those already in the fire—grieving, struggling, or afraid—the message was simple: You are not alone. You are not forgotten. For those not yet in the furnace, it was a call to prepare their hearts now—to decide whom they will bow to before the heat comes. And for those who had never trusted Christ, it was an invitation to surrender to the Savior who took the fire for them.

“The fire will never be the end of your story,” Pastor Dave said in closing. “Because the God who met them in the flames has not forgotten you.”