Copy eSign Gender with airSlate SignNow

Copy eSign gender

[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] father of kindness you have poured out grace you brought me out of darkness you have filled me with peace give her mercy o my help in time of need [Music] lord i can't help but sing [Music] for you [Music] faithful forever [Music] all your promises are yesterday [Music] all your promises are yes [Music] [Music] redeemer you have set this sky lord i can't help but [Music] faithful you are faithful forever you will be [Music] faithful you are all your promises are yesterday faith [Music] forever you will be [Applause] oh your promises are yesterday all your promises [Music] i will rest [Music] in your promises my confidence is your faithfulness i will rest [Music] in your promises my confidence [Music] is [Music] all your promises are yes [Music] all your promises are yes and amen all your promises are yes all your promises are yes i need you to soften my heart and break you to open my eyes to see that you're shaping my life [Music] give me faith to trust what you say that you're good and your love is [Music] i need you to soften my heart and break me for and i need you to pierce through the dark and cleanse every part of me and all i am give me faith to trust what you say that you're good and your love is [Music] and i may be weak but your spirit is strong in me my flesh may fail but my god you never will i may be weak but your spirit is strong in me my flesh may fail my god you never will give me faith to trust what you say that you're good and your love is inside i give you my life [Music] give me faith to trust what you say that you're good and your love is i give you my life [Music] i may be weak your spirit is strong in me my flesh may fail but my god you never will praise them [Applause] his mercy is more and stronger than darkness new every morning our sins they are many his mercy is more [Music] oh [Music] our sins they are many his mercy is more so praise the lord his mercy is more it's stronger than darkness new every morn our sins they are many his mercy is more [Music] tender is calling us home he welcomes the weakness the part our sins they are many his mercy is more praise the lord his mercy is more and stronger than darkness new every morning our sins they are many his mercy is [Music] on us his blood was the payment his life was the cost we still need the dead we could never [Music] afford [Music] our sins they aren't any his purpose is more praise the lord his mercy is more it's stronger than darkness new every morning our sins they are many his mercy is more praise his mercy is more and stronger than darkness knew every morning our sins they are many his mercy is more our sins there are many his mercy is more our sins they are many his mercy is more [Music] lord thank you for the love that you have given us [Music] thank you for being our father and sending your son to die for our sins and [Music] thank you for the endless mercy that you give us god you are so good to us and we want to lift your name up and exalt you i want to praise your name thank you for all the things that you have given us [Music] god we desire to worship you and to know you thank you for calling us your children we love you so much god in your precious name [Music] amen hello and welcome to our service today we're so glad that you're gathered with us my name is wes i'm one of the pastors here at southridge if you're looking for more information about our church the message notes if you're looking for those or if you're looking for the family videos they're all available on our website at southridgefellowship.com we have a few events coming up that we want you to tell you about the first is that we have a date night date night is for couples to be able to get together to have dinner either create or make or buy it and then to sign on to this video where it's a kind of a date night comedy and encouragement video for you two to have an intentional date together so we want you to register for that on our website and we would love to see you participate in this event the second event is that we've got alpha marriage course and this alpha marriage course is happening at the end of february so if you are looking to just build a stronger relationship a stronger marriage this is led by a couple couples in our church so it's very familiar if you want to register for that go ahead go onto our website we would love to have you and to host you in that course it's a seven-week course and it's gonna transform your relationship the last thing i want to tell you about is the internet partnership class so it's on february 8th and we would love to have you be part of that if you're just thinking what's my next step at southridge you want to know what it means to be a member of southridge we actually call that partnership and that starts with the partnership class internet partnership class and that's again on february 8th you can sign up all for all of these things on our website at southwishfellowship.ca right now we're going to get into our daniel series into the message so grab a bible either your you version or your paper copy and get ready to hear what jesus has to say to you today [Music] albert hubbard was an american writer who with one of his works or his more well-known works was an essay on the titanic in which he chronicled the last moments of a number of people on the ship from eyewitness accounts and one of the stories he told was about department store magnate isadore strauss and his wife ida and they were as the sink as the titanic was sinking they were offered seats on the life rafts on the lifeboats and uh isidore refused to take the place ahead of other women and children and here's the astounding thing his wife ida wouldn't leave the ship without him either and so they ended up remaining on the ship arm in arm and sinking with the titanic and dying with the 1500 over 1500 people that also died on the titanic obviously uh mr hubbard was impressed with this couple and their story because he wrote this about the stroses mr and mrs stross i envy you that the legacy of love and loyalty left to your children and grandchildren the calm courage that was yours all your long and useful career was your possession in death you knew how to do three great things you knew how to live how to love and how to die mr hubbard reminds us that ultimately everyone will look death in the eye but not everyone does it in the same manner today we are continuing in our series in daniel and we are going to be in chapter three so i encourage you to open your bibles and follow along as i read the first part of daniel chapter 3 verses 1 to verse 12 and this is what it says king nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold 60 cubits high and six cubits wide and set it up on the plain of dura in the province of babylon he then summoned the satraps prefects governors advisers treasurers judges magistrates and all the other provincial officials to come to the dedication of the image he had set up so the sat traps perfect prefix sorry governors advisors treasurers judges magistrates and all the other provincial officials assembled for the dedication of the image that king nebuchadnezzar had set up and they stood before it then the herald loudly proclaimed nations and people of every language this is what you are commanded to do as soon as you hear the sound of the horn the flute the zither the liar the harp the pipe and all other kinds of music you must fall down and worship the image of gold that king nebuchadnezzar has set up whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace therefore as soon as they heard the sound of the horn the flute the zither the liar the harp and all kinds of music all the nations and peoples of every language fell down and worshipped the image of gold that king nebuchadnezzar had set up at this time some astrologers came forward and denounced the jews they said to king nebuchadnezzar may the king live forever your majesty issued a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn the flute the zeal the liar the harp the pipe and all kinds of music must fall down and worship the image of gold and that whoever does not fall down and worship will be thrown into a blazing furnace and there are some jews whom you've said over the affairs of the province of babylon shadrach meshach and abednego who pay no attention to you your majesty they neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up an interesting passage that repeats itself quite often and as i was reading this passage three things stood out to me about the image that we're told about the height the gold and the plane and i'm not sure the last time you whipped out your cubit measuring tape to measure something in qubits so you may not understand fully how large this image was but basically this image was 90 feet tall and nine feet wide or if you're a little more into metric 27 meters tall and 2.7 meters wide this thing was huge it was really tall and it was really skinny i get this image of a really super tall totem pole to kind of put it into perspective of what it might have looked like and so you have this tall image and then you have this image that is covered in gold and no one knows if it was solid gold or just wrapped in gold but i don't think it really matters because i think what is important is for us to understand why nebuchadnezzar was doing this maybe he had some thoughts back to chapter two and he had this image of his dream about being the gold head and he turned it into a statue but i think it was even more than that i think what he was wanting to do is have this entire gold statue so that the when the sun shone on it and it reflected everyone would see it and know it and then of course this is set up in a valley and so it's in the valley so that means it is the tallest thing there so it is the focal point everyone's eye is drawn to this image this huge image that he has set up and and really what i think he is trying to do is he's trying to set up an artifact for the people i mean we even do it these days where we build buildings or we build things monuments to help us remind us about special things or help focus us on special things i mean it was just a couple of weeks ago january 6th when we saw the news of all the rioters storming the capitol building in the u.s and the and americans were really upset that people were doing this and it had less to do with it they were storming a building but it had more to do with what the building represented the capitol building for americans represents the seat of their democracy this the one of the most important things that they hold dear and i think this is what nebuchadnezzar is trying to do with this image he's trying to create something that will draw the attention of his people and focus him on that and that's why it talks about all peoples of all languages and he has all his leaders there he wants them focused in one specific area and then in verse 5 it tells us that there's this call to worship and he uses music and he lays it out and and the way it's written it basically gives you this impression that there was no way anybody would disregard this order like it is written in such a way that over and over again it's repeated so that when the music played when this orchestra sounded that everyone would fall down and worship this image this monument this obelix that was standing there and of course verse 6 tells us that there was a consequence if you didn't you would be put in the fiery furnace in essence what nebuchadnezzar is saying is if you refuse to worship this image then i will offer you as a sacrifice to this image you got one of two choices the funny thing is as you're reading this you realize that shadrach meshach and abednego might have got away with not bowing down because it seems nebuchadnezzar didn't see them fall down on their faces standing there they just stood there he didn't see them and it wasn't until they were ratted out by the astrologers that it's brought to nebuchadnezzar's attention and as you read those verses around this ratting out you realize that there's a lot more going on behind the scenes obviously there's some court conflict some court drama these guys might have wanted uh the position that these three men held in terms because they were positions of power there's definitely some hatred against the jews going on in this moment but at the end of the day here you have these people ratting out shadrach meshach and abednego and you know as i was growing up i always wondered what it would take to become a police state where people ratted each other out i mean i thought about it and when i looked in history in world war ii in germany or in russia during the cold war where people would rat out others and get them arrested and all it took was a pandemic i mean think about it police get called now by neighbors if neighbors see a vehicle in front of their neighbor's house that they don't recognize people will call the police on their neighbors just for that because they think they're breaking the health orders it it it's amazing how fast we can descend into this uh ratting out each other even in big society settings but so the setting is set we're at verse 12 and then it gets to verse 13 so let me read 13 14 and 15 for you to see how nebuchadnezzar reacts it says furious with rage nebuchadnezzar summoned shadrach meshach and abednego so that these men are brought before the king and nebuchadnezzar says to them is it true shadrach meshach and abednego that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold i have set up now when you hear the sound of the horror and the flute the sither the liar the harp the pipe and all kinds of music if you are ready to fall down and worship the image i made very good but if you do not worship it you'll be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand it's kind of funny that it seems that nebuchadnezzar kind of maybe has a little bit of a soft spot for these three guys because originally we're told that if they didn't do it they would be immediately thrown in to the fire and yet here nebuchadnezzar it seems has given them a mulligan like he says maybe it's like he's saying maybe you didn't hear the orchestra play it's going to play again and this time when you hear it you need to to bow i'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and he ends by saying a very uh specific sentence and it's kind of the key sentence for the whole passage but i as i was reading this passage looked at and tried to understand why he would be so mad why would nebuchadnezzar be so furious because the text tells us that and i think there's actually two things at play here that as i look into try and look into his mind i try and think about put myself in his place and there's two thoughts that kind of come to me i think there's two things going on here and the first is this i'm not so sure nebuchadnezzar had never been told no i don't think when nebuchadnezzar said something ordered something mentioned something that someone stood up to him said no no we're not going to do that king everyone just did what he said and in essence these three guys are standing up and saying no to the king and what makes it worse is they're they're his officials guys that he put in places of power he would expect them to obey him and they're saying no to him and so i think in part that makes him angry but i think there's another thing at play as well i think there's a cultural thing at play and it's this nebuchadnezzar is from a polytheistic culture which meant that there was a culture that had a ton of gods there was many gods in their culture and so for king nebuchadnezzar to tell his people to bow to this image it wouldn't be a big deal to him he wouldn't think it's a big deal for the peop his people because they bowed to a number of different gods and so it probably doesn't even cross his mind that there would be people who wouldn't want to bow to this image for religious reasons it would seem foreign to him it would seem silly to him in many ways our culture is very similar thinking i mean as our culture approaches us as christians and as christians we enter into our culture and we have discussions about around things like gender identity or sexual orientation or even the right to die our perspectives are often so different than our culture that our culture looks at us and wonders how strange are these people like where do they get at this stuff like how do they not see or how are they not on the same page as the rest of our culture and they would look at us with these strange eyes and they just can't understand the different point of view that we have and our culture reacts i think in many ways the same way that nebuchadnezzar reacted they get mad because they can't handle that difference of opinion they don't know where how to deal with it and so nebuchadnezzar basically gives them an ultimatum turn or burn it's as simple as that turn or burn guys and really when you read verse 15 nebuchadnezzar doesn't think they have a choice because he says this then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand like how are you going to get out of this you three guys like you only got one choice worship the image or die there's nothing in between and um this is a similar position i think that everyone in our culture takes whether they're polytheistic whether they're atheistic whether they're post-modern whether they're agnostic whenever someone doesn't believe in god doesn't believe in yahweh the god of the old testament and the new testament when you come to a situation that seems hopeless they don't see a way out there's only one or the other way of looking at things and this in many ways is the same type of position the devil wants you to believe in he wants you to believe that no one can save you he wants you to believe that there is no way out of the things that you're facing and whether it's a health crisis whether it's a bad marriage whether it's an insurmountable debt whether it's destroyed relationships he wants you to believe that there is no way out of it or if you're overwhelmed with sin in your life the devil phrases it this way god would never forgive you in essence saying the same thing there is no way out of your life you see the devil wants to create hopelessness in your life he wants to put you and get you into a state where you have no hope and that's what nebuchadnezzar basically is doing to these three guys he's trying to paint a picture where he puts them in a corner and says you got no choice you gotta either bow down to my image that i've created or suffer the consequences and dies and this is how these guys respond starting in verse 16. shadrach meshach and abednego replied to him king nebuchadnezzar we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter if we are thrown into the blazing furnace the god we serve is able to deliver us and he will deliver us from it from your majesty and from your majesty's hand but even if he does not we want you to know your majesty that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up then nebuchadnezzar was furious with shadrach meshach and abednego and his attitude towards them changed he ordered the furnace heat is seven times hotter than usual and commanded some of the strongest soldier in his army to throw them into the blazing furnace so these men wearing their robes trousers turbans and other cloths were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace the king's command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up shadrach meshach and abednego and these three men firmly tied fell into the blazing furnace we can see that regardless of the consequences regardless of the threat these three men stand their ground they don't bow to the pressure they don't give in to king nebuchadnezzar's demands it's it's really a picture of faith being lived out in a very difficult situation and there's so much going on in these verses and sometimes i think we forget how much of life that we live requires faith in some capacity or form i mean every day we exercise faith every time you get it on an elevator you exercise faith every time you take take food out of a restaurant and take out you exercise faith you're exercising the faith that they've cooked it and you're not going to get sick i mean even getting up off the couch takes faith because you're putting faith that you're in your body that the message that your brain sends to your muscles is going to get there and that your muscles are going to respond in the way that you want them to respond to lift you off the couch to go get that coffee or that you know that dessert that you want to eat every day we do actions that require us living in faith and sometimes we gloss over that but what this passage really points out to us i think is this a faith that isn't tested can't be trusted and so these guys these three guys had been growing in their faith as we've seen in the first couple of chapters and and god had put them in situations but there came a point where their faith was going to be tested to the ultimate degree whether they would turn their back on trusting god or die and you see that these guys faith it's tested and it carries through and even though nebuchadnezzar gave them an ultimatum they lived through their faith tested and they passed basically what they said to nebuchadnezzar was this we're going to continue trusting in god and even if he doesn't save us we're not going to disobey him i mean it sounds so confident doesn't it it really does these guys are amazing guys but if you have a bible you might have a footnote that's attached to verse 17. and if you look at the bottom this is what it says there is alternate wording to verse 17. in their response it might read this if the god whom we serve is able to save us that little change in how the sentence is structured seems to indicate that there's a little bit more wiggle room in their certainty originally when we read it it seems like they're very certain if this is the way it should be translated it gives us it moves from a position of certainty into a position of possible divine inaction and as i was looking at this and as i was studying this i don't think that's necessarily a bad thing i can understand why the translators would want to put certainty into the text because there is certainty god can save them but as humans when we come to situations in our life that seem insurmountable that seem impossible the truth is is we often approach those situations wondering if god can save us and it's not that we have totally discounted that god can it's kind of wondering if god will save us in this moment in our situation it's fine to read about shadrach meshach and abednego getting saved but will god save me in this moment it's not that they doubt god's power but they also don't presume upon god and how he will act in their situation it's a reminder in many ways that any doubts that we have about god don't actually diminish who he is and his power just because we feel that god may not step into our situation doesn't change that god could i'm really amazed as i read this story at how calm these guys are you have this picture of a furious and out of control nebuchadnezzar and these three men who are facing death in a very calm manner how can they be so calm how can they be so certain i think there's three things that we need to look at and understand the first is this they knew that god is sovereign that in spite of in spite of of the appearances that to the contrary that maybe god isn't in control they really believe that he was and we have looked at that in chapter one and chapter two and now in chapter three it shows up again they really truly believe that god is in control of all things because this isn't the first time they've faced the possibility of death they have faced that before and god has seen them through this so they have a confidence that god is in control because faith means trusting in god even when it looks like he isn't there even when it looks like he won't act and then secondly i think they knew that what god required of them in this situation they knew that they needed to be obedient to his commands and specifically in this situation hit the first and second commands of the ten commandments of the old testament which we find in exodus chapter 20 where god says as the first commands you shall have no other gods before me and his second command goes like this you shall not make yourself for yourself an idol and you shall not bow down to them or worship them you see these guys didn't have to spend time wondering what they should do in this situation they knew exactly what they needed to do they couldn't bow down to this image because they knew god's word and they were committing themselves to be obedient to what god had called them to do i think sometimes we need to be reminded that faith means obeying god no matter how we feel in the moment and there are often moments where we don't feel like obeying because either it's too hard or that's too big a cost we are often happy to obey god when we see there's a reward or there's a positive outcome we're a lot less uh willing to jump into obedience when there might be a consequence that is painful or a loss in our obedience and we often ask this question okay god you want me to obey but what if you don't get me out of this mess what if you don't step into god we are tempted in those moments to turn our back to god we are tempted to doubt him when we don't see him working in our life and regardless of the outcome these three guys were going to continue to be obedient even if it cost them their life and that's the third thing they were ready to die for their beliefs they were prepared for it they knew that because of their beliefs and in the culture that they lived in it may all ultimately cost them their life and their courage is remarkable they don't shrink back from the possibility of death they don't step into a moment where they're going to betray god now you may never be faced with this type of life or death decision because of your belief you may never have to choose that but i'll tell you this that i think that whenever you are faced with a decision to obey god or disobey god and you step into that obedience especially when there is a risk or a cost i think you and i display the same type of courage these three men did even if it's not a life or death situation because it's about obeying what god has called us to do and then you see what happens because of their faith and they're stepping into obedience verse 24 then king nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisors weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire they replied certainly your majesty he said look i see four men walking around in the fire unbound and unharmed and the fourth looks like a son of the gods nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted shadrach meshach and abednego servants of the most high god come out come here so shadrach meshach and abednego came out of the fire and the satraps prefects governors and royal advisors crowded around them they saw them that they saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies nor the hair on their heads was singed their robes were not scorched and there was no smell of fire on them then nebuchadnezzar said praise be to the god of shadrach meshach and abednego who has sent his angel and rescued his servants they trusted in him and defied the king's command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own therefore i decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the god of shadrach meshach and abednego be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble for no other god can save in this way then the king promoted shadrach meshach and abednego in the province of babylon and you see the result here of their faith god did step in to that moment and nebuchadnezzar is watching them fall into this furnace and he sees not three but four men and i think he's thinking he's seeing a hallucination or a mirage and so he yells to his advisors do you guys see four people in there and i it seems that they agree that they see four and so he calls out to them and gets them to come out and scripture tells us that this fourth man looked like the son of the gods and we're not sure if he was an angel nebuchadnezzar thinks he's an angel others have postulated that he might have been a christophany which means that it's an example of a pre-incarnate christ who appears on earth before he comes in the new testament whatever it is what whoever this person is um sometimes it doesn't matter who it is it's just it matters that he was there and the power of this story of chapter three of daniel is this it's not that the three were rescued from the fiery furnace as amazing as that is that's not the power of the story the power of the story is this that during their test they were not alone that during their test god was with them and now yes they come out of this firing furnace un uh unsinged like i don't know how many times i've singed the hair on my hands or arms with you know around a candle or lighting something on fire and these guys come out of this amazingly hot furnace unsinged and it's an amazing miracle and sometimes when we are faced with the fiery furnaces of our life those hard places in life we cry out to god that he would rescue us and make us unsinged that it's like as if nothing happened we pray for that and yet that's not what god always promises god does not promise to rescue us miraculously out of everything that we face in life but what he does promise us is this that he will be with us every step of the way he will always be with us in those hard moments and sometimes the most powerful testimony we can have is not some miraculous story about how god miraculously intervened as powerful as those can be sometimes the more powerful testimony we have is to share how we went through the hard things the fiery furnace aspects of our life and realized and saw that god was with us walking every step of the way this message really struck with me this week as i was preparing it some of you may not know that i have a health scare and uh the cancer in my body has come back and so in just over a week i will be doing another round of radiation a really heavy dose of radiation and there have been plenty of moments where i wish god would just heal me and yet it seems that god wants me to walk this fiery furnace and realize that he is with me and i am going to trust as much as i wish i could go unsinged in this event i'm going to trust that god will be with me every step of the way here's the thing even though they were rescued shadrach meshach and abednego were ready to die because of their confidence in god albert hubbard was so impressed by the strauss couple that he wrote about them you knew how to do three great things you knew how to live life albert hubbard said this of the strosis and he was impressed you knew how to do three great things you knew how to live how to love and how to die but he went on to add this one thing is sure there are just two respectable ways to die one is of old age the other is by accident all disease is indecent suicide is atrocious but to pass as did mr and mrs strauss is glorious few have such a privilege i'm not sure i agree with mr hubbard i actually think we all have the possibility of knowing how to live and how to die and we can do this when we put our trust in god accept his son jesus and live a life of obedience to him we can face anything that comes our way with courage and certainty and that's how i'm planning to live my life even in the midst of a fiery fur for a furnace and i hope the same can be said of you let me pray for us dear only father this story of courage and of faith is such a great reminder to us that when we find certainty in you when we understand and know that you are in control when we are willing to step out in obedience we can trust that you will be with us i wonder lord if those three men as they fell in the furnace had isaiah 43 go through their mind and the promise that you gave isaiah and so lord i want to pray this promise over whoever is listening whoever is going through a hard time is facing an impossible situation i want to pray this prayer over them do not fear for i have redeemed you i have summoned you by name you are mine when you pass through the waters i will be with you when you pass through the rivers you will not they will not sweep over you when you pass through the fire you will not be burned the flames will not set you ablaze for i am the lord your god amen [Music] thanks for joining us again this sunday i really do pray that god has spoken to you in a powerful way through the message or through the rest of our service if you have any questions about what we're doing as a church i encourage you to find your answers on our website at southridgefellowship.ca and i encourage you to spend some time now engaging with the questions that we're going to post post service and really spend some time searching what god would want for you and what god has for you and remember this that god always promises to be with you even if you're in a fiery focus have a great week and see we'll see you back [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you