sermonette: We Are Not Alone

God's Promises
Ted E. Bowling
Given 08-Mar-03; Sermon #600s; 14 minutes

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I was thinking about what it means to be alone, and I thought about the movie Castaway. I thought this is a perfect example of what being alone is all about. In this movie, the character Chuck, who is played by Tom Hanks, is on a plane over the ocean, a FedEx plane, and it goes down. He is the only survivor, and he washes up on a very small island. There is no one else on this island, there are not even any animals on the island, and he spends approximately four years alone by himself on this island. And he has no one to talk to and no voice to listen to—only his own voice. He does have a friend though, a volleyball named Wilson. This inanimate object becomes his companion and friend all the time that he is there.

While on this island, through the good times when he is finally able to start a fire, he has to celebrate alone. Wilson is right there beside him, but there is no one to talk to, or be happy with. And then at his lowest point when he considers suicide, he has no one to counsel him or talk him out of it. He is alone in every way in his life. And even after he gets off the island, it seems that the feeling of loneliness never really seems to leave him.

So today I would like to talk about being alone.

Now the word alone has several definitions. The first is, “being apart from others; solitary, which is being isolated from others.” You could be alone in a crowded room or someone that is alone in their thoughts.

The second definition is, “without anyone or anyone else,” which in this movie, that situation, being isolated from others.

The third definition is, “considered separately from all others of the same class.” This means that like, “cannot live by bread alone.” Or “I'll have this car and no other car.”

The fourth definition of the word alone is, “being without equal; unique.” This definition I felt was very interesting because I think it really classifies the Father and Jesus Christ, because it also means, “unequaled and unparalleled.”

You see that all these definitions, one or the other, come into play with all the members of the church of God. And there are times in our lives that we all have to deal with loneliness. It can bring on a sense of emptiness and discouragement, disconnected from your family, your friends, and the church, and it can be accompanied by sadness, resentment, and even anxiety.

Since the breakup of the Worldwide Church of God, the church has been scattered with the majority actually leaving the church, and this left many of the greater church of God and those of the Church of the Great God being separated apart from the other members. And those who are scattered today, many of them meet by themselves, often they feel alone. They only have the phone hook up, or they may be on their computer live streaming (as right now), but they are alone, separated from the congregation of God.

If you recall the recent series by Martin Collins, “The History of the Church,” he showed us that this was a common situation throughout the age of the church—individuals and families isolated from the rest of the church—so they are going through feelings of detachment. That separation makes it difficult in the good times, and especially in the bad times when going through disappointments, tests, and trials.

People find themselves without their families. People find themselves alone, especially if they have lost a mate. There are single parents that are struggling alone raising families by themselves. We have young people that cannot find a mate to marry, and they feel all alone. But I say to you today: Be strong and of good courage; you are not alone.

Please turn to Isaiah 41.

Isaiah 41:9-10 ‘You are My servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away: Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

God is faithful to His people. He has been faithful through all the ages, and He is faithful today. We all know that God is faithful to perform all His promises. In all the promises He has made He is there for us.

I recently saw a little map on the TV showing the country of Israel (under the circumstances they have been under recently); it was in white. And I noticed all the countries around it, they showed in red. And it was just a sea of red. And I was thinking, “You know, Israel really is alone!”

And for each of us, we find ourselves in the same situation as spiritual Israel of today. We are in a sea of people that not necessarily dislike us; some hate us, but definitely Satan the Devil does hate us. Each and every one of us are going through personal battles, fighting the influences of this world, striving to overcome the temptations of this world. In our daily routines, we go to work, some go to school, even going to the store, no matter what you are doing, we are battling the influence of the world, and the distractions of the world. Our daily goal is to walk upright, striving to be more like Christ, to live as He lives, and to think as He thinks, committing ourselves to the principles of God.

A person's commitment to principle will be tested in many ways, and those who refuse to compromise in this world with God's standards are going to suffer. Often one of the ways they suffer is by being alone. As we look back through the Bible, we see many examples of those who have suffered trials and tests of being alone. We see how Abraham left his home and ventured into a land that he did not know. We see how Joseph was thrown into a pit. Then he was sold as a slave. He was wrongly thrown into prison. All these difficulties in his life that he was going through, he went through them alone. Even Elijah thought at one point in time that he was alone on the earth serving God.

Last week, Clyde Finklea talked about how Satan tempted Christ and that He had gone 40 days without food and water. Christ was physically weak. And He was tempted there by Satan, and He was there alone in a weakened state. He refused to give in to sin. He was likely alone in His thoughts, possibly; in every way physically He was by Himself.

But this was not the greatest trial that Christ went through though.

John 16:32 “Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.”

Now Christ knew that in His final test that He was about to physically go through He would be alone. He knew that no man would be standing with Him because He did understand the fulfillment of the prophecies. We read in chapter 26 of Matthew, the last portion of that verse states, “I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.” And this came true in the Garden of Gethsemane when the soldiers took Christ, and they all turned and forsook Him and ran. And so Christ began to endure at that moment the greatest trial of His life.

But Christ was not alone, because as in John 16 says, “The Father was with Him.” The Father gave Him the strength to endure this injustice. The Father was with Him through all the physical pain that He went through. Christ was physically tortured. He was beaten around the face. He was whipped with a cat o’ nine tails to where all the flesh was torn from His body where His bones could look at each other. He had a crown of thorns placed on His head. He was forced to carry the stake to that hill, and then the nails were driven into His hands, and hung there completely naked in all humiliation of the world, dying a very painful and agonizing death.

The sacrifice of Christ was the beginning of our eternal life; as the Comforter for us—each and every one.

We will be taking the Passover in a few weeks. This is a memorial of that sacrifice when we eat of His body and drink of His blood; a time that we renew our relationship with Jesus Christ and the Father.

It is a time of renewal of that promise that we will never be alone.

Please turn to Hebrews 13.

Hebrews 13:5 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."

And in Young’s Literal Translation, you can really see that these final words are very emphatic. There it says, “No, I will not leave. No, nor forsake you.” And in a sermon by John W. Ritenbaugh in October 2,000 on “Hebrews: A Message for Today,” he made a quote about this verse. He stated:

I want you to look at the last phrase in verse 5 again. I will never leave you nor forsake you. According to Adam Clarke, this verse is peculiarly emphatic. There are five negatives in this short sentence, so that a literal translation is scarcely possible, but it goes something like this: “No, I will not leave you. No, neither will I not utterly forsake you.” In common language, if it had been written, it says: “I will never, never, never, never leave you.” What an expectation!

And we also find this same promise all through time. This is the very same promise that He made in Genesis 28:15, when He made the promise to Jacob at Bethel. He made this same promise in Deuteronomy when Moses delivered His promise to all of Israel right before they entered into the land. His promise was made to Joshua right after he took over to lead the people. And even when David was preparing Solomon for his kingship, he passed His promise on to him. And this same promise is for us, each and every one today.

In the movie Castaway, all Chuck had was a volleyball; an inanimate object that could not show him love or affection in any way.

But we have a God that loves us very much; a God that knows how to give us the needs that we have before we even ask for them; a Friend that strengthens us even when we do not know that we need it.

So no matter the situation, the difficulty that we find ourselves in, no matter the trial that comes upon us, be strong and have good courage. Do not fear. We are not alone.