Sometimes We Stand Alone
Doing Hard Things • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
There is a story that comes from the Viking times around the year 1066.
The Vikings had raided into England and were at Yorkshire.
The Viking warriors had raided many towns and sacked them and were enjoying their loot when the English Saxon army arrived.
The Vikings were not ready for this battle and the Viking king fell.
The Vikings were retreating across the bridge sure they were going to die.
Then this one large lone Viking with his battle axe walked onto the bridge.
He blocked the path that would only allow for three men abreast to cross.
He stood firm and slayed 40 of the Saxon soldiers before one floated under and struck him dead from the river.
He gave his men time to regroup and prepare for the fight coming their way.
This one lone Viking risked it all to stand alone to help his fellow Viking soldiers.
Or the story of the 300 at the Battle of Thermopylae.
These 300 hundred faced the whole of the Persian forces to give their fellow Spartans time to get ready for the Persian forces coming.
The 300 hundred stayed behind in this gap to guard their fellow soldiers being flanked by the Persians.
They stood alone against a far superior force and died in the gap.
There are hundreds more stories of men who stood alone to give a chance for others.
On the Netflix series “Medal of Honor” we see several of those men who stood tall alone to give others a chance.
Standing alone is something that is celebrated in warfare but it can be mocked in the Christian faith.
This is especially true for today and the way the world is now.
If we stand for biblical values people will almost laugh themselves silly when they hear that is what we are standing for.
But that is okay, because Sometimes We Stand Alone.
We are not alone in this standing alone.
We have examples in Scripture of those who stood alone and did the Hard Thing of glorifying God.
Today we examine the life of Noah.
A man who was Alone and probably considered a Loon.
Think about it a little bit.
Noah lived in the desert and he was building this massive boat.
People probably saw this and thought “this crazy God zealot has finally lost it.
“He is building a ship in the middle of nowhere and look at the size of this thing.
“What in the world is this guy building this for?”
Then on top of that, Noah was preaching a message of condemnation to all who were near Heb. 11:7
7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;
Noah stood alone in a world that was not for the Lord.
Look at Gen. 5. In this chapter we read the genealogy of Adam to Noah.
In this genealogy we see a common refrain that is from the fall of man.
This refrain goes like this “So-and-so lived for such-and-such years and fathered so-and-so and then fathered other sons and daughters and all the days of such-and-such were so-and-so years, then he died.”
Death was reigning in the life of man.
Then in this death wickedness became prevalent.
The Sons of God, which I take as fallen angels, began taking wives and making illegitimate children and not only this, but the
wickedness–perverseness, evil, harmful actions,
was great–abundant, abounding, numerous, or much on the earth.
Basically as the text tells us Gen. 6:5
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Only evil continually.
All of mankind was evil and wicked.
They were out for their own gain and pleasure.
Just as in Gen. 4:23-24
23 Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say: I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. 24 If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.”
People were doing what they wanted and if anyone crossed them, they were dead.
Evil was everywhere.
It was in every aspect of life except in one man.
8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Noah was a shining light in this wicked and depraved world.
He was a light because he was doing the hard thing and obeying God.
He was...
Light that Stands out in the Dark
Light that Stands out in the Dark
God saw the faithful life of Noah in a perverse generation.
He saw the bright light Noah was amongst the evil, deep darkness of the rest of the world.
You see in Gen. 6:7
7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
God was not pleased with man now.
Man had gone away from Him rather than toward him.
That is what happens when we decide we can do things without the Lord.
Eve ate the fruit and Adam ate the fruit, their eyes were opened.
They felt they knew more than God.
They started this wickedness and it just got worse.
We see the same today.
We see the world getting darker and darker.
I don’t care what anyone says this world is darker and more evil than it was when I was a child.
People have begun to do all that their hearts desire and man is it making this place darker.
In Noah’s time there was perverted sexual situations, we have the exact same today.
There was great evil, people running around like there is not a God, we have the same today.
Hearts desires being done which is evil only continually, we have the same today.
Noah was a light that jumped out in that darkness.
He was righteous and faithful.
He did not go with culture.
He was not in sync with the world.
Which tells us
Not Being in-Sync is Okay
Not Being in-Sync is Okay
Chuck Swindoll said of Noah here, “Noah was out of sync with the world. He was out of step with them and no doubt the ridicule of the world. Public opinion said he was a fool, but public opinion is not God” (Insights, Hebrews, 171).
Noah stood alone. He stood righteous and had favor with God.
He was faithful and acted on that faith as we see in this chapter in verse 22.
Maybe you are standing alone and feeling the pull of ridicule.
Maybe you are beginning to waver and think that maybe we have been too stodgy in our faith.
Maybe you are being drawn over to the dark side because what God has said seems too harsh and mybe those in the “Love is Love” crowd are right and we are too uptight.
Remember public opinion is not God.
You see as the text reads to us from Gen. 6:11-12
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
The earth was ruined, corrupt carries that meaning. It was overly evil and like spoiled fruit it was rotten.
We have the same struggle today.
The earth, public opinion is rotten and spoiled.
It is ruined and of no value.
If the world is telling you to follow their perverse views and concepts, you know it is nothing more than rotten spoiled fruit calling you.
They promise joy and love and wealth, but only deliver misery and hate and poverty.
The world’s heart is not any different today than it was in Noah’s time.
It is still only evil continually.
People desire their own wants and passions and reject anything that goes against their views.
This is why we must be a light amongst the darkness and not be in-sync with the world because to be in-sync with the world is to be out of sync with the Lord.
If we are in-sync with the world then we are burying our faces into a rotten and worm infested fruit pie.
We are thinking we are getting a delicious peach cobbler only to cut into it and take a few bites and find it is nothing but worms and fruit flies.
That is the world we live in and that is the good it offers and that is what being in-sync with the world will get you.
It is better to be like Noah and have the court of public opinion condemn you but have the favor of God upon you.
This is a hard thing to do when everyone is flocking to all the vile and perverse things the world offers.
But when that happens remember that worm filled cobbler behind that false front.
When we are not in-sync with the world but in-sync with God we do what Noah did
Put Our Faith to Work by Believing God not Public Opinion
Put Our Faith to Work by Believing God not Public Opinion
Noah believed God.
We see this in Gen. 6:22
22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.
What did Noah do?
He built the Ark as God told him to and he made ready his family for the flood to come.
You remember back in verses 11-12 that said the earth was ruined and like spoiled fruit.
Well in verses 13 and 17 we see that God is sending a flood to ruin the earth, spoil it for those who thought all was good.
They were all running around like this was great and nothing would ever change.
They had the life and nothing was going to end that.
God says differently.
He says you have spoiled my good creation, I will spoil your so-called fun and celebration.
Noah believed God over the people and he obeyed Him.
He went to work and as I said at the beginning, he preached to those around.
Noah knew that with this faith in God would come a lot of work, he had to prepare an Ark to store two of every kind of animal and seven of the clean types, and build the Ark.
Think about this.
These animals were going to be on this large boat for several months.
That is a lot of work.
If you have ever tended a barn with twenty or more horses in it and you had to muck the stalls, you had a small taste of the work to come for Noah and his family.
But Noah believed God was going to do what He said He was going to do and he made ready and was willing to work.
Are we as ready?
We know Christ is coming again to judge the living and the dead.
We know that those who die without Christ do not go to a better place but to hell.
We know what sin is and many of us smirk at it rather than calling it out.
We know God desires us to meet together as one body and worship Him for our growth and encouragement to face the world and we fail to meet regularly.
We know we need to be open with our funds and time because it all came from God but we hoard money and never volunteer anywhere.
We know this is what we must do but rather than being like Noah and acting on our faith and putting it to work, we sit back and act more like the world around us.
A flood is coming, not like this flood because God promised never to flood the earth like this again, but a flood of judgment and misery is coming to this world.
Are we doing all we can to reach people and live our lives as a light in this darkness by being in-sync with God over the world?
Sometimes we Stand Alone.
Sometimes we are like that unnamed Viking from 1066.
Sometimes we must be like the Spartan Warriors at Thermopylae.
We may be struck down and we may only hold back the evil for a moment but that moment is more than enough when we are doing it for the Lord.
We hear of people doing things like this and being rewarded great rewards here on earth like the Medal of Honor but those rewards are absolutely dirt compared to the rewards awaiting all who are faithful to the Lord in this world.
So, when the world mocks and scorns us, we can look up and look to God and remember what He has said, Matt. 5:8
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Keeping our hearts in-sync with the Lord is what is best and it will bring great gains not only in the life to come but here now because with the Lord always front and center in our lives we have peace in chaos, joy in heartache, genuine love amongst hate.
Rest in Him and know the work you are doing for Him will be blessed to abundance in the life to come.
Conclusion
In the operating room of a large hospital, a young nurse was completing her first full day of responsibilities.
"You've only removed 11 sponges, doctor," she said to the surgeon. "We used 12."
"I removed them all," the doctor declared. "We'll close the incision now."
"No," the nurse objected. "We used 12 sponges."
"I'll take full responsibility," the surgeon said grimly.
"Suture!"
"You can't do that!" blazed the nurse. "Think of the patient."
The surgeon smiled, lifted his foot, and showed the nurse the 12th sponge. "You'll do," he said.
We need to be like this nurse in this world and stand regardless what the consequences are because in the end we will hear true praise.
So I encourage you in the Lord to go and do hard things and
be the Light that Stands out in the Dark
Not be in-sync with the World
and to Put your faith to work by believing God not Public Opinion.
When you do you too will hear that you have favor in the Lord’s eyes and that you too will do.