Cleave to the LORD in True Relationship!

Minister Denise teaches from Daniel Chapter 3 about Cleaving to the LORD in a true relationship. Click to listen. 

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Come on, let's lift up thename of Jesus Christ. There is none
other in heaven or on earth.Welcome to another episode of Hope in Christ
with Denise here on Kingdom Influencers Broadcast, where we place our hope in the
only hope there is Christ, ourLord. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome,

(00:37):
Welcome back to Hoping Christ with DeniseHea on Kingdom Influencers Broadcast. I am
your host, Minister Denise, andI'm excited to be back with you again
for another episode of Hope in Christwith Denise. Today we want to focus
on I want to focus on walkingin relationships, So I want to go
onto this series. The series istitle in Relationship with Christ and the first

(01:03):
episode today I want to share aboutclean cleaving to Christ. So we want
to cleave to the Lord. Wewant to plead to the Lord. And
the scripture that I want to focuson in reference today is going to be
from Daniel three of how the HebrewBoys cleave to the Lord. And so

(01:23):
before we jump in, I'm goingto open us up with a word of
prayer. Father, I thank youfor your word and I thank you for
your truth. God. I thankyou, O God for you a God,
and there is no other. AndI pray, Father God, that
you would help us in this timeand this age and this season of God,
to cleave to You and not letgo of God, and we would
be children and walking in relationship andholiness and righteousness before you owe God,

(01:49):
and walking with you as you needingguide us into the right path of God.
He said, narrow is the waythat leads to life. So Father,
we pray in the name of Jesusthat we shall find it. In
the name of Jesus, we prayand we give you glory and honor in
Jesus name a man and man andAmen. So again, thank you our

(02:13):
fortuning in to Hope in Christ.For Denise. Here, I'm Kingdom Influences
Broadcasts. Again, I am yourhost, Minister Denise Walker, the founder
of Hope in Christ Ministries. Andremember at Hope in Christ we are healthy,
we are overcomers. We have purposebecause God gave it to us,
and we must maintain an eternal perspectiveas we go forth and taking the message

(02:36):
of across to the world as wego forth and doing the will of God
in our lives. Again, thankyou, thank you, thank you.
So we want to talk about againthe theme for the next few weeks.
I'm going to be represent what iswalking in relationship with Christ. And so
today we want to talk about cleavingto Christ. Cleaving to Christ. So

(03:01):
well, here is a relationship.A relationship is a romantic or passionate attachment
connection like a marriage. So theway God set up the institution of marriage
a marriage. What is marriage unitinga man and a woman for life,
the union between a man and awoman. And in the word we have

(03:23):
marriage between man and a woman.And we also have the union or the
marriage of Christ to the Church ofChrist to the Church a man and by
the covenant of Grace according to Revelationnineteen and so today we want to talk
about what that relationship looks like andwhat does cleaving really look like? And

(03:44):
so we want to the definition ofcleve or join, to be joined together
is something that is made one,something that is made one. According to
First collect in six and seventeen,to seemen to to glue, to become
closely attached, to seemen, tofasten, to glue, to become closely

(04:09):
attached, is to cleave, tocleave, to become closely attached. And
so we want to understand that thesame word that's being used here, the
same word that is used in FirstCorinthians sixteen and seventeen, is the same
word that is used for marriage,the same word that's used for marriage.

(04:31):
So we would go to First Corinthiansixteen, sorry, not sixteen. First
Corinthian six, verse seventeen, VerseCorinthians six, verse seventeen. And so
it says, but he who isjoined to the Lord becomes one spirit with

(04:55):
him. He who is joined tothe Lord becomes one spirit. And we
know that the scripture on marriage saysto leave and cleave and become one,
to become one, and so onceagain we want to make sure we understand
that the definition of joined or cleavingis something that is made one to cement,

(05:21):
fasten, or to glue, orto become closely attached, become closely
attached. And so today we wantto talk about cleaving to the Lord God
and want to use an example ofthose who plead to the Lord, where
the three Hebrew boys set chad ratNischek and the Vinbigo. And so we

(05:42):
want to look at that today aswe walk through understanding what God means to
clean, what God means to cleavea man. And so again we want
to go to Daniel, chapter numberthree, and it starts with verse twelve.
Well, I'm gonna start from fromverse twelve, and it doesn't it

(06:05):
doesn't start with verse twelve, butI'm going to start there in verse twelve.
Amen, mm hmm. So itsays there was a certain certain Jews
whom you have appointed over the affairsof the province of Babylon, Shadrak,

(06:25):
Mishak and the Bendigo. These men, O King, paid no attention to
you. They do not serve yourgods or worship the golden image that you
have said apart, Amen, theynever can. As an infurious rage commanded
that Shadrak Nishek, can the Bendigobe brought. So they brought these men

(06:45):
before the King never can answered andsaid to them, is it true,
oh, Shadrak, Mishak and Bendigo, that you do not serve my gods
or worship the golden image that Ihave set up. Now, if you
are ready, when you hear thesound of the horn, hype, the
heart, the bagpipe, and everykind of music, to fall down and

(07:10):
worship the image that I have madewell and good. But if you do
not worship, you shall immediately becast into a burning, fiery furnace.
And who is the god who willdeliver you out of my hands? And
so shad wrapped me shack can abiitygo answered and said to the king,

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Oh, never, Kanesza, wehave no need to answer you in this
matter. If this be so,our God who we is able to deliver
us from the burning firey furnace,and he will deliver us out of your
hand, o king. But ifnot, be it known to you,
o King, that we will notserve your gods or worship the golden image

(07:58):
that you have. Seven and weknow the rest of the story. King
Neb is filled with fury, andexpression on his face changes. So he
is in a rage, and heorders them to be placed in the fiery
furnace, whether heat is seven timeshotter than it is normally set. And

(08:22):
so we see a group of youngpeople who are cleaving to the Lord.
They said, even if God doesn'tdo it, we will not worship your
gods. We will not bow toyour image, We will not worship your
image, and we will not wewill not worship your gods. And so

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we see this happening here now weunderstand the backstory here where King Nebka commands
all peoples under his run to worshiphis golden image, and though his officials
from other nations obey. We seein the scripture and the context of the
scripture that Daniel's friends and Daniel refuseout of loyalty to the living God a

(09:09):
man. And so Daniel's three friends, who served neverthing as officials, refuse
even under threat of a horrible deathand a firmness. And so again we
want to come back to that wordcleaving to the Lord. So they were
so dedicated, they were so joinedand fastened and glued and closely attached to

(09:31):
God that they were willing to die. They were willing to die. They
knew. They said, even ifGod doesn't do it, we will not
worship anything that you, that's relatedto you, anything that's not God.
And in other words, that's whatthey were saying to him. And so
we see a group of young people. I thought the other one thing that

(09:56):
I felt was very awesome was thatthey are you young. They were young
individuals and they chose God. Theychose God and mayn and so let's go
a little bit further with this particularscripture. And as again we see the
scriptures being you know, played out, we see the rage of King Nebka

(10:20):
and all of that, and we'regoing to talk about how do we see
their faith? How do we seetheir faith and how they are cleaving to
the Lord in these scriptures? Howare they cleaning too the Lord? So
we want to look at King Nebukanessa. So the first part was King Nebukanessa.

(10:41):
So we want to look at himand look at whether there was any
kind of faith in him and washe cleaving to the Lord in this first
part of these scriptures? And sowe see we see here that King Nebukanaza's

(11:03):
actions are after he was told thatthe Hebrew wars weren't listening or they weren't
following, they weren't following the instructionsto bow and to worship. He calls
them over to him and gives themalmost like another opportunity to do what is
commanded of them. And so hisactions were of pride or I'm the one

(11:26):
in control, I'm the one whois in charge of you. Now,
this is when they were banished tothe Babylonian Empire, where they were in
exile because of the sins of thepeople. And so they're in exile,
they're in another land, they're inanother place, somewhere they are not familiar

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with, first of all, andthe king of this land is commanding them
to worship him, to worship him, and so we see that their relationship
with God is solid. They arecleaving to the Lord. And so one
of the things that we notice inhis actions and king never has his actions,

(12:11):
we see that there's an intimidation,there is a rulership in arrogance.
Yes he is the king, buthe has there's such a such a high
mindedness in him that he even doesn'tcontrol himself. He is in raged that
they are not following his command.And then we see that they're that his

(12:37):
words are to cause them to fear, to cause them to tremble before him,
and they don't. So his wordsare and so he's he's he's shocked,
he's surprised. What do you mean. Everybody else is afraid of me?
Everybody else is bowing, everybody elseis obeying. Every time the command

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comes, they do it. Butthese Hebrew boys were different. They had
a relationship with the Lord, andthey were crieving to him. And so
this to me is what true relationshiplooks like. Because they're in a culture
that is counter the God of creation, and so there they don't know anything

(13:20):
about their culture. They don't knowanything about their god. I don't know
what I'm saying. I'm referencing Kingthat and the people of Battlon they don't
know neither do they want any parts. They worship and serve all these pagan
gods. And so their their thoughtsare you're wrong. They felt that shad

(13:41):
Rack and Mishek and the biby Goodwere wrong for not following what the culture
was doing. Come on, now, hear those words, what the culture
was doing? And so how didKing Nebuk affect the people? Affect the
people? So one of the thingswe look at to see their faith and

(14:03):
to see are they cleaving to theLord, is how are the other people
responding? And so the other peoplewere responding to King never Commenza out of
fear, out of terror. Theywere terrified of him. So his effect
on them was terror, and thatneeds their heart posture was towards him and

(14:24):
not God out of fear. Butshad Ratneyschek and the Vindigo, and so
was Daniel. They all were unbothered. You know, we have this phrase
in our culture today. Let's sayI'm unbothered, I'm unbothered. Were the
kids saying unbothered by specific things thatwhat somebody said, what somebody did,

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I'm totally unbothered. And so ShadratneyShack and the Vinigo were totally bothered by
the commands and the rage of Kingnever Canenza because of their faith and their
heart posture towards the Lord. Andso their heart posture had everything to do
with their humility and their fear ofthe Lord and not King Nevocandism, and

(15:11):
so walking in relationship with God haseverything to I believe it begins with the
fear. The Word says in theBook of Proverbs that the beginning of wisdom
is to fear the Lord. Andso these young boys feared the Lord.
They fear the Lord, and theycleave to him no matter what the circumstances

(15:37):
they were going to encounter a man. And so let's look at the next
part of the scripture. So wehave now Shadrack Mischek and the vinygo answer
King Nevergandism, and they say,old Nebucandism. We have no need to
answer you in this matter. Ifthis be so, our God, whom

(15:58):
we serve, is able to deliverus. So they were telling King Nebukuza.
First of all, they made itknown that he wasn't their God,
and that statue that he was commandingthem to worship was not their God.
They made it known to him.They made it known to him. He
said, our God whom we serve, So we don't serve you, We

(16:22):
serve God. And it said heis able to deliver us from the burning,
fiery firma his hand. He willdeliver us out of your hand.
Why because your power is not greaterthan God. And so walking in relationship
with God is understanding that nothing isgreater. Nothing else has greater power,

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not family, not friends, notfoes, not anyone in the high statue,
somebody who is in a high office, somebody who is a celebrity that
has a high they have a stagepresence, whatever it is, they have
what will call influence, and allof that. In our culture, it

(17:07):
doesn't matter who they are. Theyare not greater. And so the Hebrew
boys made this known to Nevaganism andtold him that it doesn't matter, but
he will deliver us out of yourhand, he said. If this be
so, he said, if weif this happens, if you choose to

(17:32):
kill us. Basically, our Godis able to deliver. Our God is
able to deliver. So when wewalk in relationship, when we walk intrue
relationship with the Lord, we understandthat nothing else matters, nothing else matters,

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nothing else is greater. And sowe are clinging to that. We
are semented, we are fastened tothe power and the authority of the Lord
of Christ Jesus in our lives,and so we don't fear. And that's
what we see here in their character. We see that they did not fear,

(18:15):
no matter what was taking place aroundthem. And then and then they
go on to say, but ifnot being known to you, o King,
that we will not serve your godsor worship the Golden image. And
King Nebukaneza became filled with rage,filled with rage, and he ordered the

(18:37):
furnace. Heeded seven times more seventimes more. So he was so full
of pride and so full of himself, full of having faith within himself,
because there was no his heart.Posture was not his part, it was
not postured low, it wasn't posturewith humility. His heart was posture in

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pride. He was prideful, andhe had a God complex. He believed
he was God. And so hebecame furious and simply because they said,
and God doesn't do it, Istill won't do what the culture is calling

(19:21):
for me to do. I stillwon't do what you're commanding for me to
do, which is to serve yourgods or worship your golding image, I
will not do it. And soin our time, in our time,
in order to walk in true relationship, we have to be like Shadrack mischek
individuo. We have to make surethat we are not serving the gods of

(19:44):
the culture. We are not worshipingthe golden images of the culture. We're
not worshiping money, We're not worshipingstatus. We're not worshiping those in celebrities
and actors and actresses and those evenin public office, even in leadership,
even in the church, we arenot worshiping them. And because and we

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have not made them to be ouridols for gods to us, or we
are serving and worshiping the truth andliving God, and we're cleaving to Him.
No matter what the culture tries tothreaten us with no matter what the
culture tries to make us believe thatsomehow they're going to come after us,
they're going to cancel us as asthe new Lingo is. But we stand,

(20:33):
and we stand firm and fleck footedin the power and authority of Jesus
Christ. And that's one of thethings of walking in relationship is being able
to be counterculture, being able tounderstand that I don't care how things change
it before my eyes, that I'mgoing to stand and I'm going to stand
as Chad Rack Reanshep and the Mendigo, and stand firm and fleck footed against

(20:59):
the enemy and tell the enemy thathe doesn't win. But the power of
Christ still prevails in this world,in this nation, and in and around
us, and no one is greaterthan he is. Hallelujah, blessed the
name of Jesus. And so that'sone example. This is one example of
making sure we understand that we mustclean and clean to the Lord, and

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we must walk in true relationship withhim. We can go back and forth
and teeter totter from one end tothe next, because of our love for
people, because of our love forthings and status and fame and fortune.
None of that that should never becomea god to us, None of that.

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That's what the golden image represents.That's what the servant of the gods
represents. And even king never canrepresents someone in the leadership above us that
has the power to destroy us right, has the power to try to destroy
our lives, deshore our livelihood.But we stand in Christ Jesus, because

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we know his power is greater.Amen. And then we see at the
end of the verses, in versestwenty five and twenty six of Daniel,
we see it says he answered,and said, but I see four men
unbound, walking in the midst ofa fire, and they are not hurt.
And the appearance of the fourth islike a son of the gods.

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And so Jesus shows up. Evenin the Old Testament, we see the
pre in chronate Christ in the OldTestament, and we see King Nebukaneza is
confused here because this is his voice, this is him speaking. He's confused
because he's trying to understand where's thisfourth person come from? And why aren't

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they bound any longer? Why aren'tthey bound any longer? See, when
we walking relationship and true relationship withChrist. Are not bound by our enemy.
We are not bound any longer.We are free because of the power
of Christ and the authority of Christ. And so as they walked, they

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walked in the midst of fire,seven times hotter than it was normally.
And they continue walking wide because Christwas in the midst of them. The
Lord God was in the midst ofthem. Hallelujah, blessed the name of
Jesus. And it says the appearanceof the fourth is like a son of
the gods. So that there wassomething different about the fourth one that was

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walking among the flames of fire.My God. See, Jesus has the
power. He has the authority tobring us out of anything. It doesn't
matter what it is, he cando it. He has the power to
do it in our lives. Andthen it says, then Nick King never
came near to the door of theburning, fiery furnace. He came near.

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Now, let's back up a moment. The people who put him,
the ones who he commanded to putthe boys into the furnace, died because
of the heat. Died because itwas too hot for a human being to
stand the fire within. It wastoo hot for the human beings to stand.
And these three boys survived. Andhe sees this fourth among them and

(24:26):
has loosed them from their shackles aman. And so it says, then
King Nebukanza came here to the doorof the burning, fiery furnace. He
declared, shad ratne shak and theVindigo servants of the most High God.
So he begins to acknowledge God.He acknowledges God. He said, come
out and come here. And itsays, then shot rape shack and the

(24:51):
vinego came out from the fight.They weren't bound because Christ had loosed them.
Amen. And so we want tojust as we close out this short
message, I wanted to keep itshort so that we can get some good
nuggets here. What were their actions, their characteristics of faith, their actions
that we see here that shows thatthey cling to the Lord, that they

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cling to the relationship with the Lord, God Almighty, the True and Living
God, the one who created heavenand earth. Their actions was they even
in the furnace, they had faith. They stood in faith, They stood
and they spoke the words of faith. They I'm sure in a human sense,

(25:37):
because they're human like us. Oh, they were human like us.
They were terrified, I'm sure theywere, but they stood in faith,
knowing that the power of God wasgreater than human the commencing, they stood
in faith. So that was theiractions. And then their words were,
we still won't no matter if Goddoesn't show up on our behalf, still

(26:00):
will not worship anything but anything.But you know, that's what they were
saying to him. In essence,we will not worship anything else but the
Living God we know in the inthe Bible and the Old Testament worries L
O R D in capital letters.That means that self existing, eternal Yahweh

(26:22):
and self existing Lord God, thecreative Heaven and other that we will not
worship any false things, but wewill worship the Living God. And that's
what the worst want to keep.Never be listen of all. How did
it affect him? How did theeffect of the Lord showing up on their

(26:45):
behalf and the fire of furnace andsaving their lives? And they did not?
It affected him because he acknowledged Godin the spirit and the thing he
not. He acknowledged the truth aboutGod. He said, you are we
go back to that scripture, hesaid. He called them out and he

(27:10):
said, servants of the Most HighGod, coming, servants of the Most
High God, of the Most High, the God that's above any other God,
any other false idle, any otherpagan god that had been erected in
their lives the Most High God.Don't that those servants come out? And

(27:34):
so he acknowledged that. Amen.So it affected him because he came to
understand that nothing that he worship wasgreater than the God of Heaven, than
other Amen. And then what didthis tell us about their heart posture,
about their feaving to the Lord,about their relationship with God. It showed

(27:59):
that one they feared the Lord,their faith was great. They were willing
to die. And that's how weshould be in our relationship with Christ.
And I walk with the Lord,we should be willing to die. In
the counter culture, the culture thatis anti Christ, the culture that comes
against God in every angle, inevery way that they can, we still

(28:25):
have to walk by faith and notby sake, knowing that He is God
and there is no other. Nomatter how loud somebody speaks, no matter
how much somebody tries to intimidate usas believers in Christ, no matter what
He is God, and there isno other. And then and so I
pray that this blessed you to thatI pray that you understand that as we

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walk through examples of people who walkedin relationship with the Lord, and the
people who walk and not fear shadwightmix check and then they they I'm sure
in their human sense and their humanness, they feared, but they loved and
feared God greater. They loved andfeared the Lord, far greater than the

(29:12):
fear they had for King. Nevercommisa. Amen, Let's pray hallelujah,
blessed the name Lord. I thankyou for your word. I thank you
for your truth. Father. Youare God, and there is the word
the Father. I pray for thosethat need to hear this, pray for
those that will listen to the repray. Oh and oh and over God,
halleluja God. I pray Father God, for transformation from the inside out.

(29:34):
I pray, Father God, forheart surrendered unto you, for cleaving unto
you, for fastening ourselves unto youGod, for being so connected with you,
Oh God, and we know thatthere is nothing greater and nothing to
fear, because you are the onewith all the power in your hand.
Father, we give you going honorfor those who are listening, those who

(29:55):
will listen, and those who arelistening in the future. God, whoever
you have this for, let itbe so. In the name of Jesus
God, I bless you, andI give you going on in praise in
Jesus' name, Who's above every name. Hollyween yah that at the name of
Jesus, demons tremble, and atthe name of Jesus, every need shall
bow and every tongue shall confess thatJesus Christ is Lord. We give you

(30:19):
glory in Jesus name, a man, a man and a man. Hallelujah.
Thank you, Lord God, soagain, thank you, thank you.
Thank you for tuning in too,Hoping Christ with the ease here on
Kingdom Influences Broadcast. I am soelated and I am so thankful to the
Living God for allowing you to hearthis world today. I pray that it

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will go to the nations. Oneof the one of the missions of Hoping
Christ ministry is to take the messageof a Cross to the world. And
God has been faithful in that thathe has been doing that thus far,
that many people have heard the wordof the Lord and then and if God
has called you to speak the word, and God has called you to write

(31:04):
whatever it is, God has calledyou to go forward and so that someone
can hear the message of across thatsomeone can be healed, someone can be
delivered, as someone can be setfree. If you enjoyed this message and
you enjoyed even the strategy that youheard, and share about the actions and

(31:25):
the words and the thoughts and thehow they affected other people and their heart
posture. That was a strategy frompart of our ministry which is helping people
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(31:45):
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(32:08):
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