# Standing Alone

Category: Integrity & Godly Character
Speaker: Anthony Aaron
Date: December 16, 2024

I know those are fired. I mean, I’m better—no, I’m just kidding. But, no, for cold in Texas, it’s when you walk outside and you can see your breath, all right? Then you know it’s too cold. Just go back inside. You’re done for the day. But I am thankful that you’re here today. If you need a prayer request card, the ushers can get those for it. If you just slip your hand up, they will hand you one of those.

I did not write one down, but Ms. Mary Dempsey is having gallbladder surgery at 8:30. So pray for her for that, and don’t have that listed on there. Okay, good, you’re good.

Okay, we’ll take a minute, get that. I have some announcements here. Preacher, how many got Preacher’s email today? All right, pretty much everybody did. That’s great. If you did not, I would be glad to send that to you specifically, just kind of giving you details of what has happened. Ms. Tammy, they found out on Monday that Ms. Tammy has gotten coronavirus. So just continue to pray for her. Preacher said that she…

She was sick for a good little bit, but she is feeling better. So that’s a blessing. Praise the Lord for that. But just continue to pray for them. Again, if you need that email, it kind of gives you some details about what’s coming up in the next couple weeks. But because of that, Preacher, Miss Tammy will be out for the next two Sundays. So just pray for them. Pray the Lord will be lifted up and glorified through it all. But again, Ms. Tammy is doing well. Preacher said he’s not feeling sick.

He was wanting a project to do. He was taking the shuttle bus. We wanted to sand it down. He was doing that yesterday, Monday or something like that. So just pray for them, pray for health for Preacher and Miss Tammy as well. Just pray for that. But if you need that email, if you need that email, I can text it to you or send you an email. Just write it on a piece of paper, bubble gum wrapper, whatever you need to do. If you give that to me, I’ll make sure to send that your way.

I would like to point out we do have one Angel Tree bus angel left. So if you would like to take that, it’s just one child that’s in need of Christmas presents this year. So if you would like to do that, it’s a little boy. But if you would like to take that up, it’s on the back there on the tree. Just grab that. You can grab that now if you’d like to or after the service. But just letting you know about that Angel Tree, if you can get those presents in by this coming Sunday, that’d be great.

And then also this Sunday, Brother Caleb Terry, he’s planning a church in Gallatin, Tennessee, but he will be with us this Sunday preaching in both the morning service and the evening service. So just remember to pray for him and be here in your place, either here in church or online. But make sure that you’re here to listen to him. I enjoyed his preaching last time he was around, but we will enjoy having him this Sunday. So that’d be great.

Also for this Sunday, we’ll have adult Sunday school combined. I’ll be teaching this Sunday, and next week it’ll be combined as well. We’ll determine the teacher here in a little bit. But just let you know about that. That’s coming up as well. And also this Sunday, December 20th, is the Christmas offering, the special Christmas offering. There are some little handouts and little flyers in the back if you need any more information on that. But we are shooting to have $20,000 as our goal for this Sunday.

So just remember to pray, be praying towards that end, what the Lord would lay on your heart to give, and then make sure you have your offering this Sunday. Anything that’s coming in other than what is designated will be going towards that goal. So just kind of be praying for that and also bring your offering this Sunday. That’d be great. And then on Wednesday, this next Wednesday, Brother Dunpert will be preaching for us. I’m looking forward to that. And we’ll also have a gift exchange after the service.

So that is—I think that’s—I’m trying to think, it’s Wednesday the 23rd, pretty sure. So if you would like to bring a gift, it could be $10 is the max, but anything around there, you know, close to that amount. But we’ll be doing a gift exchange game after the service. We’ll kind of get around in a circle, whatever how big we need to, and then we will be doing the gift exchange that way. So that is coming up there.

And some exciting things happening. Thankful for you being here in church today. If we’ll have the ushers come at this time, if you’ll collect those prayer request cards, if you hold those up, and they will collect those. And Brother Kevin, if I can get you to lead us in prayer, that would be great. And so if you have your prayer request card, pass it down to the middle of the aisle, and they will collect that. And Brother Kevin will come up and pray for us and pray for the offering as well.

All right. The first one is from Mikhail Verge. Prayer request: Ms. Tammy to get well. Amen. Pray for Ms. Tammy. Next one is Bird family. Praises: Great message on Sunday spoke to our heart. Amen. Prayer request: A dear friend, Paula Baxter, lost her dad to a heart attack yesterday. So pray for the Baxter family. And we’ll take those to the Lord. Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you and praise you for our means and our ability, Lord, and our freedom to come to this church tonight, Lord, to worship you. And we thank you that we not only can worship you inside these walls, Lord, but we can worship you outside these walls as well in our country. We thank you for our freedom. We thank you, Father, for just assembling us together tonight, Lord. The Holy Spirit will move tonight, Lord. I trust that.

People will have their hearts open to what Brother Anthony has for us, Father, and just draw us close to you, Lord. And we thank you so much for the great messages on Sunday, Lord, speaking to our hearts. Father, we thank you that you do move inside of our hearts, and you draw us to you, and you speak to us, dear Lord, and we just thank you so much for that. And, Lord, we want to take this time to lift up these requests, Father. We thank of Miss Tammy.

And Pastor, Lord, Ms. Tammy’s got the COVID. Lord, we just ask for healing. We ask that her symptoms would just be mild and that she’d get over it really quickly. And Lord, we just asked that Pastor wouldn’t get it and that he would be totally healthy through this all as well. And Lord, we think of…

Can’t think of her name, Lord, but the lady that’s going up for surgery, gallbladder surgery—just, yeah, Ms. Mary Dempsey, Lord—we just ask that you would guide the doctor’s hands, Lord, keep them steady. Just ask that it would be a complete success. The surgery would go well, Lord, and that you would touch her and heal her body, Lord, and help her to not have a lot of pain, and just ask that that surgery would just be completely successful.

And Lord, we know that you’re the great physician, and we know that you can do that. And we thank you so much for the Bird family, Lord, and their request. Ms. Paula Baxter lost her dad, Lord, to a heart attack. We ask for comfort, Lord, with that family. We ask that you would intervene there and just reveal yourself to that family, Father, and just show them your love and care during this time. We also think of…

The Davila family as well, Lord, Moses. Just ask that you comfort that family, Lord, and draw them to you as well. And Lord, we praise you and thank you tonight. We just continue to pray for our country and the elections, Father, and just intervene there. And Lord, again, we’ll give you all the praise. Open our hearts to you. Help us to tune out the world. Help us to think about you and what you have for us tonight with your word. And Lord, again, we thank you for the opportunity we have to come before your throne.

We’re excited to see how you’re going to answer these prayers in Jesus’ precious name. Amen. Go ahead and have y’all stand. And we’re going to sing on page 116, “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.” Decide, decide to follow J. To follow J. Oh, no, cross me. Thank you. Y’all may be seated.

Again, thank you, Brother Bird, for singing. Thank you all for singing out. That’s great. Those are some of my favorite songs, and I’m thankful we’re able to sing those tonight. I feel a little out of place being here, being up here at the pulpit. Usually I’m sitting down, so I’m thankful that I’m able to have the opportunity to preach to you tonight. I hope it’ll be a blessing. If you turn to Daniel, Daniel chapter 3, I’ve enjoyed the book of Daniel.

Reading through that, reading through your Bible, reading the book of Daniel has been a blessing, encouragement to me. Things have stuck out a lot to me this time around, and I’m thankful hopefully something will be a blessing to you today. I feel a little nervous. It reminds me of the nervous preacher in the country church. He was preaching; it was one of his first times to get up to preach, and he—he says, “I want you to open your Bible,” and he starts talking about Adam and Eve.

And he reads through the passage, and he says, “And God took the rib, the fifth rib out of Adam and she…” And he flipped the page, “…was 50 cubits wide and 70 cubits tall.” He flipped too many pages. But I feel like that a little bit here, so I’m just trying to get my bearings straight. But I’m thankful that you’re here tonight. Anybody cold? Anybody warm? Okay, those cold switch places with those that are warm.

And that should be great there. Okay, so everybody’s doing good. That’s great. Daniel chapter 3, let’s stand. And we are going to read verse number 12. Daniel chapter 3, verse number 12.

All right. If you’re there, say, “Hallelujah.” All right, good, good, good. The Bible says, “There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Mishael, and Abednego. These men, O king, have not regarded thee. They serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” Let’s pray.

Dear Lord, I thank you so much, Lord, just for examples throughout your word, examples throughout history, Lord, of people that have stood—people that have stood no matter of the consequence, no matter of the challenge, Lord—people that we can look up to that have stood the test of time. And I thank you, Lord, for that. Thank you for these heroes in the Bible, Shadrach and Abednego. And I just ask you, please help us to learn something about standing tonight, Lord. I just ask that you just be with me, help as a preacher, maybe to say something that would influence somebody, Lord, and be a blessing. I just ask that you have your will tonight, your way done. And I just ask that you be lifted up in the preaching. Jesus’ name, amen.

Thanks so much. You can be seated. We look here at the third chapter of Daniel, and we know the story of Daniel, and I’m not going to belabor the story of the three Hebrew boys that got thrown in the fire. One of my favorite songs about this is “The Fourth Man,” is what it’s called.

And I was listening to it a little bit ago: “They didn’t bend, they didn’t bow, they didn’t burn.” And talking about these Hebrew boys, I often thought when I was younger, I would hate to have been the mortician, the guy that burned, you know, if they had, whatever they had to do for the urn, you know. Those three Hebrew boys, they didn’t burn in real life. I would imagine after they died, you know, that guy probably had a hard time in the cremation trying to get them to cremate. All right, never mind. Okay.

Sorry, all right, there we go. Just when I was younger, not today or anything. But we know the story. We know the story about the three Hebrew boys: Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah—their Hebrew names. And as they went into Babylon, they were given these names. Let’s look at verse number one here. We’ll kind of lay the foundation for the message tonight. But the title of my message is Standing. Standing Alone. Standing.

Standing alone. Let’s go ahead and look at verse number one. The Bible says this: “Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.” Now, what we know about Nebuchadnezzar is he is faithfully a narcissistic person. He is just one of those guys that he’s very prideful.

And the Lord still used him. The Lord caused him, in the Bible, that he was one of his servants. And, you know, we see here in the next couple chapters where Nebuchadnezzar lifted up his heart in pride, and the Lord sent him out into the field, and he grew feathers like eagles and claws like an eagle, and was eating grass like an ox, before he realized that, all right, everything that I have, everything that I’ve accomplished came from God. But before that point, we see Nebuchadnezzar faithfully…

…being selfish, faithfully being prideful. And we see here just another point. Nebuchadnezzar had made this image of gold. We believe that this image was about 90 feet tall, about nine feet wide, just a huge image of gold that Nebuchadnezzar had built. Anything, when you talk about gold in the Bible, it can become an idol.

And what this represents in the Bible here in this passage is this idolatry that happens here. He did not build this statue so that it was not a statue of Jesus. It was not a statue of anybody in the church history. This was a statue of probably himself, a gold image. He was very proud of it. And because of that, he wanted people to worship it. But anything that is lifted up above Christ is idolatry.

We have to remember that. When we look at this story, it’s not just that the Hebrew boys didn’t bow. It’s because they didn’t want to put anything above Jesus Christ. And that’s what Nebuchadnezzar wanted them to do. Anything that is lifted above Christ is idolatry. There are little Nebuchadnezzars, maybe in your job, maybe we know they are in the government that are placing maybe science or maybe politics above God. And we know that anything put above God is idolatry.

And, you know, we hear it all over the place, but, you know, there’s a side that wants us to lift up even America. And I’m for America. I’m an American through and through. I would die for our country, 100%. But I’m not going to lift America above God. There’s a reason in our Pledge of Allegiance that says that we are one nation under God. And there’s also a reason why a certain side wants to take that out of our Pledge of Allegiance, because they don’t want it to be about God.

We are indivisible because of us being under God. If we are above God, man, then we’re a kingdom that can’t stand. But that’s what happened here. Nebuchadnezzar had made this king, this idol, this golden image, and he was trying to put something above God. And so we’ll kind of see here. Look at verse number 2 through 7. I won’t read it for you for sake of time. But this is where they’re commanded to fall down and worship this golden image.

We see the different instruments that are listed there. And the music—when the music starts playing—then you are supposed to fall down and worship this golden image. You know, I had some questions about that, and it doesn’t really say it here. But when is that supposed to end? How long were they supposed to worship this golden image? And how often were they supposed to worship this? We see listed just from the story that there was just one occurrence that happened.

And then we see that the Chaldeans went to the king. Now, I don’t know how long the king was going to just keep having this done. He was going to keep having this ritual done for this golden image. I don’t know what was going through Shadrach, Mishael, and Abednego’s head, but one time was enough for them. They didn’t think, “Well, I’ll just comply this one time, and then we’ll see if maybe it’s going to happen, if things are going to change later on.”

No, they decided from the beginning: I’m not going to bow down, I’m not going to worship this idol. So we see that’s verses 2 through 7, just the command to fall down. Verse number 8, we’ll read here—we’ll start reading here—verse number 8 of chapter 3 of Daniel. The Bible says, “Wherefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near, and accused the Jews. They spake and said to the king Nebuchadnezzar,”

“O king, live forever.” You know, they just butter him up, right? “Thou, O king, hast made a decree that every man that shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, shall fall down and worship it. And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth, that he should be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.” There are certain Jews—this is what we read at the beginning—there are certain Jews,

“…whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Mishael, and Abednego. These men, O king, have not regarded thee. They serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” Very interesting that they added to it. All right, it wasn’t enough that they didn’t bow down and worship the golden image, but they said that, look, read what it says here in verse number 12: “They have not regarded thee.”

“They serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” So they kind of took it a little bit further. I don’t know about you, but sometimes when you were younger, maybe you would go to your parents and you’d say, “Well, you know, hey, little Timmy, he was getting his hand in the cookie jar.” Okay, well, I mean, it’s okay. But he also took your pen and was writing all over the walls as he was going over to it. All right, you have to add a little bit to it to build it up. And that’s what they did here.

Is they kind of tattletailed to the king. They kind of brought this to the king. But my question is this: How did they know that these people didn’t bow down in worship? Well, you know, the rule was for everyone to bow down in worship, but these Chaldeans said, “Hey, these guys over here didn’t bow down or worship.” You know, my question is, how did they not know? How did they know? Were they—you know, they themselves were not doing it? And there’s a double standard that was there. And we see that even back then.

But we see here now, in verse number 12, they didn’t worship. So they told that before the king. So in verse number 13, we’ll continue to read there. They brought the men before the king. Verse number 13: Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Mishael, and Abednego. And they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar spake unto them, “Is it true, O Shadrach, Mishael, and Abednego?”

“Do not ye serve my gods nor worship the golden image which I have set up?” Now, if you think about this, I don’t know when this took place. This could have happened. They would have had the worship service or whatever the music would have played, and let’s say it lasted for 10 minutes, or maybe even 30 minutes. And then after it was done, we don’t know what time has elapsed before they brought Daniel—or not Daniel, but Shadrach, Mishael, and Abednego—before Nebuchadnezzar.

But I like to think this was an immediate thing. This is something that happened very quickly because this is what they were shooting for. They brought the men up to Nebuchadnezzar. If Nebuchadnezzar was so proud of this image, if he was so proud of this golden idol, where do you think Nebuchadnezzar was during this whole thing? He was probably standing right next to it.

And all the people are facing this image, all the people are looking at this image, worshipping this image, and Nebuchadnezzar standing right there, making sure and watching everybody do this. So when they brought Shadrach, Mishael, and Abednego to Nebuchadnezzar, they were in front of everybody. It was not only—they didn’t only have to stand when they were alone, if you will, maybe not a lot of people could see them. But now here they bring Shadrach, Mishael, and Abednego in front of everyone.

They bring them in front of the king. Look at verse number 15: “Now if ye be ready at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, the flute, harp, sackbut, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made: well: but if ye will not worship, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.” So he kind of gives them a little bit of a, okay, all right, maybe you just didn’t understand.

Let me explain it to you again. We’ll get the band. Come on, y’all get ready back up again. Once they start playing, then you can go ahead and we’ll do this again. Now that you’re in front of everybody, let’s get the band to play again. And then he says this statement there at the end of verse number 15: “And who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?” Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? That was a statement that he made. That was a very direct question.

And you know what? He gets a very direct answer back. Look at verse number 16: “Shadrach, Mishael, and Abednego answered and said unto the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thy hand, O king. But if not,”

“…be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” You know what’s amazing is they spoke the truth disregarding the consequences. They didn’t care what the consequences were. They were going to speak the truth. There’s a man you probably know: William Tyndale. William Tyndale probably wrote most of the Bible that we have today. They used a majority of William Tyndale’s notes when they wrote the King James Bible.

But William Tyndale was just a very educated man, but he spent his life to write the Bible. And on his death, they put him on a stake, and they had most—they had Bibles that he had made, and they had them around him—and they were burning those Bibles while he was burning up alive. This is what he said: “Open the praying out to God. Open the King of England’s eyes.”

He knew the truth. William Tyndale knew what the truth was: that we needed to have a King James Bible. We needed to have an English Bible for the common man. And he made that statement on his last dying words. Why? Because he wanted to speak the truth no matter the consequences. No matter the consequences. You know, they spoke with boldness. I can think of a man named John that spoke with boldness when Herod took his brother’s wife. And this is what John said: “It is not lawful for thee…”

“…to have thy brother’s wife.” He didn’t say, “Well, hey, you know, if you get time, I wrote out a little pamphlet, I’ll put a sticky note on your door. It’s just not a really nice thing, maybe not a good thing for you to have your brother’s wife.” Now, that’s not what he said. He pointed that Baptist finger right at him, and he said, “Look, it’s not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” He was bold about what he said. He spoke the truth no matter the consequences.

You know what? I think about Christmas parties. Christmas parties are coming up. If you’re working, you have a business Christmas party or even a family Christmas party. And when that alcohol comes around or when those dirty jokes come around, will you stand? Will you give the truth no matter the consequences? It might be embarrassing, but are you going to stand? Working at Chick-fil-A, the only day that we had off was Sunday, all right? So that was just how it was. And they planned the Christmas party on Sunday, of course, right here in church.

And I was working with my brothers, all right? So this is kind of a—this is a modern-day Shadrach and Abednego—but I had two younger brothers. And we went to our manager and were like, “Look, we want to go, but we have church. And we’re not going to miss church.” “Well, come on, it’s just one service. You can miss it. Come on, we’ll have a lot of fun.” No, we’re not missing even one service. We’re not missing because we’re not missing church.

And so he changed the Christmas party. Everybody else was—we got a lot of dirty looks from all the other employees—but they changed the Christmas party just so we could get there in between services and still make it to the evening service. But we stood, we spoke the truth, even, you know, despite the consequences. You might get some looks, you might get some discouragement, but you have to stand, you have to speak the truth. You know, will you approach your children about wrong behavior?

Will you approach a friend that maybe you see is going down the wrong path? Will you speak the truth to them? You know, if there’s somebody that’s in a house fire, I’m not going to sit there, “Oh, man, they’re sleeping. Well, I’ll just wait for them to wake up. And then once they wake up, then I’ll start screaming at them.” They need to get out of the house.

No, we’re going to scream. We’re going to scream to them. We’re going to speak the truth no matter of the consequences. That goes the same with soul winning, with giving out the gospel. We have the truth. And sometimes it’s embarrassing. Sometimes, you know, to us, in our world, it’s embarrassing. But to God, God sees it and he’s pleased with it. But for us to go out in faith and just knock on those doors, or we’ll go talk to a random person to give them a tract, and maybe there’s fear that comes there.

But we have to speak the truth no matter the consequences. No matter what people think, no matter what’s going to happen to us, we’re going to speak the truth. That’s what they did: they spoke the truth despite the consequences. Third thing here. So the first thing is they knew who God was. Second thing, they spoke the truth despite the consequences. And the third thing is they realized that they were never alone. Look at verse number 25. Daniel 3, verse number 25, the Bible says this. He answered and said—this is Nebuchadnezzar—“Lo,”

“…I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, for they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” And I just take a minute here, but I’m thankful for the King James Bible. Other versions say like one of the sons of the gods, or whatever they want to put in there. But we know that in the fire was not just one of the angels or one of the sons of the gods or whatever they want to put in there. That was Jesus. That was the Son of God.

And that’s what Nebuchadnezzar saw. These boys, these men, they were not alone. They knew in their mind: “Yes, I may look like I’m alone. It may look like I’m standing alone, but I know deep down inside I’m never alone.” Hebrews 13:5 is still in the Bible. They put up with a temporary discomfort to gain the real prize.

They put up with a little bit of embarrassment. They put up with a little bit of being bound and thrown into the fire. They didn’t just lightly cast them into the fire. They were thrown. They hit the ground hard. The Bible says that they were still bound when they went into the midst of the fire. But while they were in the fire, in the midst of the fire, that’s when those chains fell off, whatever they were used to bind them up with, and they were walking freely. That’s what had happened here. They put up with a temporary discomfort to gain the real prize. Imagine.

Imagine this. They got to see Jesus Christ. But imagine if they didn’t. Imagine if they said, “All right, okay, Nebuchadnezzar, we’ll go ahead, we’ll bow. You know, everybody else is doing it. You’re going to throw us, we’re going to die. We’re just going to go ahead and do it.” Let me tell you, they didn’t know that Jesus was going to be in the fire. They didn’t know that they were going to live and not even have a smell of smoke on their hair. They didn’t know that was going to happen. But they said, “You know what?”

“We’re just going to go ahead and bow. We’re just going to be done with this so that way we can just get on with our lives.” And then, you know what? They would have missed the opportunity—a great opportunity—of seeing Jesus work, of seeing Jesus move. So often we are so close to watching a miracle in our lives, watching Jesus do something great in our lives because we just have a fear, or we get held back, and we just miss those opportunities that God has for us sometimes.

Just as an illustration here, sometimes my dad would walk us through the toy aisle, all right? This is what he would do. He walked us through the toy aisle. You know, it was me and my two younger brothers, and we’d get the Nerf guns and we’d start fighting each other with the swords, whatever we did, all right? You know, beating each other with hula hoops. Anyway, but he would walk us through that aisle, and then he would just keep walking on. And then we would just be fighting or playing with toys or whatever for a little bit. And then we’d look up and we’re like, “Oh no, where’s Dad at?” And he just kept walking.

And he just kept walking. And we thought we were lost. We thought, “This is it. We’re at Walmart, so it’s okay. We’ll just go eat some food.” But this is it. We’re lost. We’re not going to see your mom and dad anymore. And I remember crying. My younger brothers were crying. I didn’t—I consoled them to make sure they were okay. But I just remember the fear that came into my life. And I was like, “Man, this is it. We’re goners. We’re lost. Somebody’s going to take us in a van somewhere.” But my dad would hide around the edge of the corner of the aisle.

And he would just watch us to see, because he was trying to teach us, “Hey, I need you to stick with me. I need you to stay with me.” And we’d get scared, and he’d come walking around. He’s like, “Hey, what I tell you boys to do?” “We can just stay with you, Daddy.” And that’s what we needed to do. But you know what? We were never really alone. We were never alone. We were going through that trial; it seemed like the end of our lives right there. But we were never alone. My dad was right there, most of the time.

We would go to the front, you know, “Party for Aaron up at the front, party for Aaron up at the front.” And then they just got tired of that, and then they just started saying, “Jack and Gary, come get your boys. We’re tired of them.” But that’s what would happen. But we were never alone. My dad was there. And it’s the same thing with God. We may feel like, “Man, there’s nobody around. It’s just us. We’re just fighting this by ourselves.” But we’re never alone. God is right there with us. I think of a man, a great man in the Bible, Elijah.

What did Elijah say? “Only I. I’m the only one that’s left. It’s just me. I’m the only one that’s doing something for God. I’m the only one left.” And he goes out and he sulks under the juniper tree. And what happened? What does God tell him here? It’s in 1 Kings 19:18: “Yet have I reserved to myself seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.” The world wants to isolate us.

The world wants to put us and pull us apart, thinking that we are just standing for a lost cause, thinking that we’re the only ones doing it. We’re the only weirdos left on earth, right? That’s what they want us to think. But what the world doesn’t know is that they have presented us a wonderful opportunity to show God’s power. When they take us apart, when they try to isolate us and say, “Man, nobody’s going to church anymore. Nobody’s reading their Bible anymore. Nobody has standards and convictions. Why do you do all that stuff?”

“Uncle, Aunt, why do you keep doing that stuff? You know, Dad, Mom, why are we doing this stuff?” And the world likes to isolate you. The world likes to pull you apart and make you think that you’re the only one doing it. But when you stand, we’re never going to stand alone because we always have God with us. The song, “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus,” we sang that this evening. And I think it’s just got such a great history to it. And I’ll read this to you.

But it is a Christian hymn that originated from India. The lyrics are based on the last words of a man in Garo, Assam. About 150 years ago, there was a great revival that was happening in Wales. As a result of this, many missionaries came to northeast India to spread the gospel. The region known as Assam was comprised of hundreds of tribes who were primitive and aggressive headhunters.

Into these hostile and aggressive communities came a group of missionaries from American Baptist missions, spreading the message of love, peace, and hope in Jesus Christ. Naturally, they were not welcomed. But one missionary family succeeded in converting a man, his wife, and his two children. This man’s faith proved contagious, and many villagers began to accept Christianity. Angrily, the village chief summoned all the villagers.

He called the family who had first converted to renounce their faith in public or face execution. He wanted them to face execution for their faith. But moved by the Holy Spirit, the man instantly composed a song, just the words, which became famous down through the years. He sang this: “I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back.”

Enraged at the refusal of the man, the chief ordered his archers to arrow down the two children. As both boys lay twitching on the floor, the chief asked, “Will you deny your faith? You have lost both of your children. You will lose your wife too.” But the man sang, he said these words in reply, “Though no one joins me, still I will follow. Though no one joins me, still I will follow, no turning back, no turning back.”

The chief was beside himself with fury and ordered his wife to be arrowed down. In a moment she joined her two children in death. Now he asked for the last time, “I will give you one more opportunity to deny your faith and live.” In the face of death, the man sang the final memorable lines, “The cross before me, the world behind me, no turning back, no turning back.” He was shot dead like the rest of his family, but with their deaths,

A miracle took place. The chief who had ordered the killings was moved by the faith of the man and his family, and he wondered, “Why should this man, his wife and his two children die for a man who lived in a faraway land on another continent some 2,000 years ago? There must be some remarkable power behind the family’s faith, and I too want to taste that faith.” This is the chief that said that.

And in a spontaneous confession of faith, he declared, “I too belong to Jesus Christ.” When the crowd heard this from the mouth of their chief, the whole village accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. This song is based on the last words of Knoxing, a man from the Garo tribe of Assam. Now it’s Assam there in India. It is today the song of the Garo people. Because of one man, he stood up. He stood. Him and his family, they stood for what they believed in.

They stood, whether they were going to be persecuted, they stood. Shadrach, Mishael, and Abednego, and many countless other examples that we have in our Baptist history, in the Bible that we have, that have stood no matter what. And my challenge for you today is, will you stand? The Bible says in Ephesians 6:13, “Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.”

Verse number 14 opens up by this: “Stand ye therefore.” That’s what we need to do. That’s what the world needs is Christians that will stand. That will stand no matter what. Do you know God? If I ask you to stand up and give me just 15 minutes, just tell me what you know about God. Tell me what you know about Jesus. Would you be able to do it? What do you know about God? What do you know about what Jesus has done for you? What are some things that God has done for you in your past? And are you willing to speak the truth no matter what?

Are you willing to stand? Are you willing to stand? Let’s bow our heads.

We’ll have the instrumentalists come and play here in a minute. But I just want to ask you a question. We’ll have—if you’ll stand with me here—but I’ll just ask you a question. If you can raise your hand, if you say, “Brother Anthony, I want to take this as a challenge. I want to know more about God,” whether that be reading more of the Bible, reading more about the different names of God, or maybe some things that God has done in my life, I want to be able to pass that on to someone else.

If that’s you tonight, you want to take that on as a challenge, would you just raise your hand? Would you raise your hand? Thank you so much. You can put your hands down. Last question here. Would you be willing to speak the truth, no matter the circumstances, no matter the consequences? Would you say, “I’m going to speak God’s truth. I’m going to speak God’s truth to my neighbor, to the guy walking down the street, to the guy I meet at the grocery store. I’m going to speak God’s truth.”

“I want to take that as a challenge tonight, that I want to do that. I want to speak God’s truth.” If that’s you, would you raise your hand?

Amen, you can put your hands down and I’ll pray. And as soon as I say, “Amen,” if the altars are open, you can go ahead and use them and just make a decision tonight that you’re going to stand. No matter what comes your way, I don’t know what’s going to happen in your life, but would you stand? Would you stand for Christ? Dear Lord, I ask you, please be with the invitation. Lord, I ask you, please have your will and your way tonight. I thank you, Lord, for just many people that have stood, Lord, that have stood and Lord have perished because of them standing in you, Lord. Just thank you for those examples. I ask you, please help us just to catch a spirit of that, Lord, that we’d be able to stand when our time comes, when that decision comes, when someone asks us, “Who is the God that’s going to save us out of their hands?” Lord, will we be able to know? I just ask you, bless the invitation now as we pray. Amen.

Original File: Standing Alone - Brother Anthony Aaron Wednesday 121620