Week 1 | Stand Firm | Even If | Feb 1
Let me ask you a question to start today: what would it take for you to quit?
And I don’t mean to quit your job or to quit a habit. I mean quit on God. Quit on church. Quit on things like Jesus and prayer. What would it take for you to quit believing that any of this is actually real.
I want you to sit with that for just a second—because that question gets very real, very fast, if you’re honest.
Here’s the thing: most people don’t plan to walk away from faith. Nobody wakes up one morning and says, “You know what? Today feels like a great day to deconstruct everything I believe.”
But what usually happens is something hits us that we didn’t see coming. It’s a diagnosis. A friend that betrays you. It’s a season of depression that just won’t lift. Or maybe it’s a prayer that gets answered… with silence. And suddenly faith isn’t theoretical anymore. It’s not a topic. It’s not something you debate or discuss. It’s a test.
For me, that moment came when I was about nineteen or twenty years old. And it wasn’t dramatic. It wasn’t some huge injustice or scandal or public failure. It was quieter than that.
When I was a senior in high school, my family moved across the country. Almost overnight I went from a youth group where my faith felt strong and supported to a place where I felt spiritually isolated. I didn’t have the same community or rhythms, and the faith that once felt natural suddenly felt fragile.
And so i had a crisis of faith- because my faith had been based on a feeling and circumstances. And i wanted all those things back. And so things just didn’t spiritually make sense to me. And eventually I realized I wasn’t losing my faith because I was rebelling—I was losing it because my world had changed, and my faith hadn’t caught up yet.
That’s when I had to face this truth: my faith couldn’t stay an emotion; it had to become a decision. I chose to start here—God is real. And if God is real, then I can know Him. And that question kept bringing me back to Jesus. And from there, everything else began to rebuild.
Listen, each faith journey is a little bit different, but I realized later—that’s how it happens for most people. Not with a bang. With a drift. With questions that don’t get answered right away.
And here’s what I didn’t realize until later: when that drift starts to happen, most of us don’t walk away from faith intentionally—we renegotiate it quietly. Somewhere along the way, almost without noticing, we start making a deal with God. It may not be spoken but it sounds something like this: “God, I’ll follow you… if you protect me from the worst pain.” Or, “I’ll trust you… if you come through the way I think you should.” Or, “I’ll obey you… if you hold up your end of the bargain.”
And the thing is, those deals don’t feel rebellious. They feel reasonable. They feel honest. But then life does what life does. The pain still comes. The prayer still goes unanswered. The season doesn’t resolve as quickly as we hoped. And that’s when the contract gets exposed—not because God failed, but because the deal was never real to begin with.
And that moment—that space between what we expected God to do and what God actually does—that’s the moment where faith either erodes… or it gets rooted. That’s the moment where faith stops being about how it feels and starts being about what you’re going to stand on.
And that’s why we are stepping into our theme for 2026: Stand Firm. LOGO
Not because life is easy. Not because questions go away. Not because faith magically protects you from pain. But because there is a way to live with faith that doesn’t collapse the moment things get hard.
Today may feel a little bit like two messages in one…. but My hope is that through the next seven weeks when we talk about this— and when we bring it back throughout the year- that we’d become a community of Christ followers who would choose to stand firm in their faith- And we’d be the kind of community where we don’t stand alone, where we walk alongside one another, reminding each other of what’s true, cheering each other on when faith feels fragile, and helping one another stand firm when life gets heavy.
Now listen, when we say stand firm, we’re not talking about pretending. We’re not talking about denial. We’re not talking about gritting your teeth and powering through with religious optimism. Standing firm doesn’t mean you don’t doubt. It doesn’t mean you don’t feel pain. And It doesn’t mean you don’t ask hard questions.
It means that when life shakes you—and it will—you don’t let go of the thing that actually holds you.
Standing firm isn’t about trying harder to believe. It’s about learning how to be grounded. Standing firm is developing an even-if kind of faith that’s anchored in the unchanging faithfulness of God.
Even if life goes sideways, I’m not giving up. Even if the prayer doesn’t get answered the way I hoped. Even if the relationship doesn’t heal as quickly as I prayed. Even if the season lasts longer than I expected. I’m not walking away. I’m not trading my worship for relief. I’m not renegotiating my faith.
We are anchoring this theme and series in the Book of 1 Peter. And from the very beginning of the letter he’s not promising them a life of pillowy ease. He’s trying to help them develop a kind of faith that lasts.
He keeps coming back to this same idea: stand firm.
Stand firm in grace.
Stand firm in suffering,
stand firm in holiness,
stand firm when you’re misunderstood….
stand firm when it costs you something.
In fact, near the end of the letter, Peter says it explicitly. He writes,
1 Pe 5:12.
I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it.
There are two words that represent the idea of Stand Firm. Histemi and stēkō
Histemi means get on your feet, and then steko means don’t budge. It reminds me of when as a Kid we’d be in the ocean playing. And one of us would look up and see a wave approaching, and it’s about to crash around us— you’ve gotta get up or you’ll be swept away.. And plant your feet firmly. Get on your feet… don’t budge.
At the beginning of the book – he identifies who he is writing to:
1 Peter 1:1
To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout
This morning I want to zoom into that idea of the exiles. Who were the exiles?
The exiles were the people of God living in a hostile environment… living out faith in God.
•An exile is living in a foreign land- often not by choice.
•An exile experiences the discomfort of surrounding into the culture around them.
•An exile’s identity is different than what’s around them.
And when he uses that language EXILES- that was a culturally loaded word. Neon lights for those who knew the Old Testament and the story of the nation of Israel taken by the Babylonian empire by force. That actually becomes a really important lens that we need to approach the entire study through.
And when you read 1 Peter through that lens, you realize that Peter is saying that God’s people learn how to stay faithful in environments that don’t make it easy. That’s the charge, that’s the kind of mind set we need to have.
So for the rest of our time this morning, I want to zoom in on what a stand-firm kind of faith looks like for an exile—using one of the clearest pictures of that kind of faith anywhere in the Bible. Turn in your Bibles—or on your Bibles—to Daniel chapter 3. (Page 606)
As you’re turning there- Daniel chapter 3 takes place after the Jewish nation was taken as captives by the babylonians. So they aren’t in their homeland in their culture. It’s not their rules— they are trying to figure out how to trust in God and follow him in a world that doesn’t share their convictions and in a world that’s not especially friendly to their faith.
The beginning of the book tells us that these young Jewish men had just about everything taken away from them. Their language and customs and they were even given Babylonian names. They were taken and trained to serve the babylonian empire.
They were expected assimilate and blend in. And for a while, it looks like they were doing fine.
Until King Nebuchadnezzar sets up a massive golden image on the plain of Dura. He gathers all the leaders, all the officials, all the influencers, and he issues a command: when the music plays, everyone bows.
If you’ve watched Veggie tales— everyone must bow to the Bunny! Everyone. No exceptions. This isn’t a private moment of conscience. This is public allegiance. Bow—or face the consequences.
And that’s where the pressure really shows up. Because God’s people were told- you are not to bow to an image or a statue and treat it like it’s divine. And that’s exactly what they were told to do.
And these men- Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego- believed in Yahweh— and now they are faced with whether or not they are willing to stand out and honor and obey him even when it costs them something. Most people are willing to follow Jesus when it’s convenient and popular, but what about when it’s not?
So they refuse to bow. They’re brought before the king.
Da 3:12–15.
13 Furious with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king, 14 and Nebuchadnezzar said 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? 15 Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, 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 will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace.
And It kind of feels like the king gives them what sounds like mercy- but it’s really one last chance to compromise. Then he asks the question that sits underneath every moment like this:
Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?”
And what they say in the next three verses is one of the clearest, calmest, most unshakeable statements of faith in all of Scripture.
Daniel 3:16-18
16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.
Hold on a minute— Because this is not what we expect. There’s no panic here. No scrambling. No attempt to argue their case. No political maneuvering. They don’t even try to explain themselves.
They simply say, “We don’t need to defend ourselves.”
Man, this tells us something important here: their faith was already decided before the pressure showed up. And this is the first mark of a Stand Firm kind of faith—Stand Firm Faith predecides. Before the furnace. Before the threat. Before the consequences are clear. They had already settled the question of who they belong to and what they will worship.
Here’s the thing: when faith hasn’t been decided ahead of time, pressure creates panic. But when faith has been decided, pressure reveals peace.
Most of the time, pressure doesn’t create something new in us—it simply reveals what was already there.
Sometimes the most faithful response isn’t louder arguments or better answers. Sometimes the most faithful response is simply standing where you already decided to stand.
One pastor friend of mine said it this way— when someone is pushing you, when you’re feeling pressure— Don’t defend yourself, define yourself. You don’t have to give reasons for why you’re not gonna sleep around, you simply say “I’m a woman of God… I’m a man of God… this is who I am… this is what I’ve pre-decided”
Shad, Rach and Benny don’t defend themselves, because they’ve already defined themselves. This is who we are… this is what we’ve pre decided we are going to do.
And that sets the stage for what they say next. Because once you’ve decided who you trust, the next question becomes what you believe about God. They say:
17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it,
But I want you to notice what they don’t say-
•They don’t say, “We’re sure everything’s going to work out fine.”
They don’t say, “We’ve prayed about it, and we feel really good about the outcome.”
They simply state what they know to be true about Yahweh. The God we serve is able to deliver us.
A stand firm kind of faith pre-decides. And now we see that a stand firm faith proclaims. They say our God is able to deliver us— that’s his power. And then next their stand-firm faith proclaims the character of God:
and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand.
They’re saying, “King, you have power—but you don’t have ultimate power. You have authority—but you are not the final authority. Our God is able to deliver us from this furnace, and even from your hand.” Because we trust in God’s power and his character.
But notice what they don’t say: They don’t say how God will deliver them. They don’t say when God will deliver them. They’re not defining deliverance—they’re declaring who’s in control.
In other words, they’re saying, “King, one way or another, you don’t get the final word.”
They’re saying, “You may have authority in this moment, but you are not ultimate.”
Because deliverance doesn’t always mean escape.
Sometimes deliverance means rescue through something, not rescue from something.
They’re not saying, “We’re confident God will keep us alive.” They’re saying, “We’re confident God holds our lives.”
They are affirming God’s power, without presuming God’s plan.
Because real faith isn’t confidence in a specific outcome—it’s confidence in a faithful God.
And that’s what sets up the most important line in the entire passage—because now they make it unmistakably clear that their obedience is not dependent on how this turns out.
Verse 18.
18 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.”
And just let that line sit there for a second: “But even if he does not…” I think that just may be the most courageous phrase in the entire bible. This is where their faith is squeezed and what comes out reveals what’s inside. It’s truly remarkable faith. The kind of faith I hope I would have in their circumstance.
They’re saying, “King, we believe God is able. We trust His power. We trust His character.” And here’s the remarkable part-“ We believe all that’s true— But we’re not tying our obedience to the outcome.”
Even if God doesn’t intervene the way we hope. Even if the furnace still burns. Even if the miracle doesn’t come. Even if obedience leads to loss instead of relief. “We will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
I watch Christians all the time- and I think a lot of us are comfortable following God as SO LONG AS—- so long as life is good and SO LONG AS prayers are answered. So long as faith makes sense and feels rewarding.
But they don’t say “But SO LONG AS Yahweh does. we want you to know we will not serve or worship that image”. They say EVEN IF God doesn’t… we are not gonna bow down and worship.
They are saying “God you don’t owe me anything… and you don’t have to prove yourself in order for me to trust you. You are still worthy.”
A stand firm faith predecides what it will do
A stand firm faith Proclaims the power and character of God
And a stand firm faith Persists EVEN IF….
And here’s what makes this moment so powerful: they don’t know how the story ends. We do—but they don’t. They don’t know deliverance is coming on the other side of obedience. All they know is who God is. And that’s enough.
Which means that the real miracle in this story isn’t fireproof bodies; it’s fireproof faith.
And that’s where this story stops being about ancient Babylon and starts being about us. Because most of the time, the question we’re facing isn’t whether we’ll bow to a golden statue. It’s whether we’ll stay faithful when God doesn’t do what we hoped.
•Whether we’ll keep trusting when the season lasts longer than expected.
•Whether we’ll keep worshiping when obedience costs us something.
•Whether we’ll choose to faithfully lead our children to prioritize being a part of church even if that means they won’t be a starter on the team.
That’s where even-if faith is formed. And that’s the invitation in front of us—to pre-decide, to proclaim and to persist where we will stand—EVEN IF.
And I think one of the clearest places we understand this is in marriage.
I’ve had the privilege over the years of sitting with a lot of engaged couples. And if you’ve ever been around people who are engaged—or you remember being there yourself—you know that season. Everything is rosy. Everything feels effortless. They can do no wrong. You’re convinced you’ve found your forever person.
Jennifer and I are celebrating twenty-five years of marriage this summer. And honestly, most of the time, Jennifer doesn’t walk—she floats. She can do no wrong in my mind. But then …we wake up. And she wakes up. And life wakes up.
And what you realize pretty quickly is that the strength of a marriage isn’t revealed when things are easy. It’s revealed when things are hard. The essence of marriage isn’t how you endure when life is rosy—it’s how you endure when life gets stormy.
You move from What if
….They get sick
…We don’t make as much money
…He puts on weight
…We have to take care of one of our parents
…We can’t have kids.
Marriage isn’t built on WHAT IFs… it’s built on EVEN IF.
Even if we get sick.
Even if depression comes.
Even if our bodies change.
Even if we can’t have kids.
Even if sin surfaces and has to be dealt with.
The secret to an enduring marriage is the same secret for the Christian walk—It’s EVEN IF faith.
What if thinking constantly generates questions. It’s the fuel for an anxious engine. Your head gets stuck on a constant loop of worry- what’s gonna happen and what could go wrong. Some of you are masters at this. You can find WHAT IF’s in any situation. And the even harsher truth is you think it protects you, but it doesn’t…. Because it can’t tell you what to do… it just makes you unsettled and out of balance.
But even if does something different. Even if creates clarity. It anchors your attitude. It settles your soul. It gives you direction. Even if says, “I may not control the outcome — but I do control my response.”
•Even if we lose the big game, I’m showing up to practice tomorrow, and I’m going to work my tail off so we’re better next time.
•Even if I never get married, I’m going to honor God in my singleness and serve Him with my whole life. •Even if I don’t get the job, I’m going to give everything I’ve got in the interview and keep hustling until the door opens.
•Even if my work goes unnoticed and the review doesn’t go the way I hoped, I’m going to work as unto the Lord anyway.
•Even if the storm hits my house, I’m going to praise God that I had a house to begin with.
You see the difference? Even if moves you forward. It gives you confidence. It gives you direction. It gives you an approach instead of anxiety.
•It prepares you to step into whatever is in front of you and say, “I know who I am, I know what I believe, and I know what I’m going to do next.”
And that matters — because life is full of moments where something unexpected gets dropped in your lap. And in those moments, you really only have two options. You can live in what if… or you can stand firm with even if.
And here’s the honest part— Nobody drifts into that kind of faith. You don’t wake up one morning magically grounded. Even-if faith is chosen. It’s decided. And for many of us, it’s decided in advance—before the diagnosis, before the disappointment, before the prayer goes unanswered.
So let me ask you the question again—but now with Daniel 3 in front of us: What have you already decided?
Because the truth is, the furnace doesn’t create faith—it reveals it. And if we wait until the moment of crisis to decide what we believe, the moment will decide for us.
Some of you right now are standing at the edge of something hard. You don’t know how it’s going to turn out. You don’t know if God is going to deliver you from it or walk with you through it. And this message isn’t here to promise you a specific outcome. That’s not what Scripture promise.
But it does invite you to a kind of faith that says, “No matter how this turns out, I know who God is… and I know who I am… and I know where I stand.”
Our church is part of an international network of churches called the Charis alliance. And we have thousands of churches in Africa. Right now the church in Nigeria is undergoing significant persecution.
We received a report that a few weeks ago from our missions agency; that a violent militant group abducted one of our sisters in Christ from the Biu Grace Brethren Church. She was one of seven bus passengers that were taken. The others were released but this sister was taken and tortured because she courageously refused to deny Jesus.
This is one of OUR people…. this would be like my wife or Cathy or April being taken and tortured because they weren’t wiling to deny Jesus. I’m so proud to call her one of ours. It humbles me… I’m so impressed by that kind of Faith. She has an EVEN IF kind of faith. Would you have that kind of faith. Would I?
———-
So this weekend, I wanted to have a way we could physically respond to this. This last weekend, when everything was shutting down for the storm. I was clearing off the prayer wall from last year. And I felt kind of gnarly painting over all those prayer requests. And as I was looking at them, I’m realizing how many of those God faithfully cared for. And it also hit me how many of those prayer requests are still lingering. Things we are choosing to trust God for.
I don’t think an EVEN IF faith is just for our admiration, it’s for our imitation. So here’s what I’m gonna ask you to think about – whats the area in your life that God is calling you to an EVEN IF faith. And in just a moment, we are gonna sing a song about that EVEN IF faith. And during that song, I want to invite you to go to the prayer wall…. and I want you ask you to take a paper STAND FIRM TAG and on the back side write a word or a few words that represents that.
I will Stand firm even if…
… she never changes
…the test comes back positive
…sunshine never comes
…I don’t get the job
…he never loves me
And I want to ask you to take that Tag- and exchange it with one of the embroidered flight tags. You take the key chain/flight tag, and place it on your keychain, or on your backpack or your purse or whatever to be a visual reminder for the year. And you put your paper tag on the wall— and that becomes a focal point of prayer for us as a church.
This is you Pre-decidiing— Proclaiming and Persisting on an EVEN IF faith in a What if world.
K… that’s how we are gonna respond— but let me finish the story, because I don’t want you to miss what Daniel 3 is actually showing us.
Because right after Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego say “even if,” the king loses it. He’s furious. He heats the furnace up seven times hotter. He has the strongest soldiers tie them up. And they march those men right up to the mouth of that fire.
And the text says the furnace is so hot that the soldiers who throw them in are killed by the flames.
And here’s the part you probably remember from Sunday school—Nebuchadnezzar looks into the furnace, and he’s stunned. He says, “Didn’t we tie up three men and throw three men in?” And his advisors are like, “Yep.”
Dan 3:25-26
25 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.”
Most bible scholars theorize that this is the Pre-incarnate Christ in the fire with Shad Rach and Benny. And it reminds that our Messiah doesn’t avoid the fire… he walks straight into it.
And in the end it’s not the fire of Nebuchadnezzar it’s the fire of judgment and the weight of sin. It was the forsakenness we earned.
That’s why Peter can say “stand firm in grace.” Grace has a name. Grace has scars. Grace has a cross and an empty tomb. Grace entered the fire.
26 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!”
And then the king calls them out. And the same men who were supposed to be reduced to ash walk out with no burns, no singed hair, no smell of smoke on them. And everybody sees it. And Nebuchadnezzar, the man who asked, “What god can rescue you from my hand?” now has to say out loud that their God is real, their God is able, and their God deserves honor.
Now listen—here’s what I want you to notice. The miracle isn’t only that they didn’t burn. The miracle is that their faith didn’t break before the miracle ever showed up.
Because they didn’t say “even if” because they knew they’d be rescued. They said “even if” because they had already decided who God is and who they are.
Listen, there are gonna be times that God delivers you from the fire…. and sometimes God delivers you IN the fire. And the truth is both of those are Grace.
Because the reason you can stand firm isn’t that you’re strong. It’s that Jesus has already stood in your place. The reason you can trust God’s heart even when you don’t understand God’s hand is because God already proved His heart in the clearest way possible: He gave His Son.
•Some of you came in today with a furnace already burning.
•Some of you are one phone call away from it.
And Jesus is inviting you today—To move from “what if” to “even if.” Not because you know how the story ends. But because you know who holds the ending.
As we sing this next song- Just answer this question quietly and honestly between you and God: where is God asking you to say “EVEN IF”?
And if you can name it… if you can put language on it… I want you to have the courage to write on the tag and put it on the wall… and let the witness of these saints carry it with you.