Never Alone

3.16.2025

Marie Hamilton

Let us pray:  LORD, you are!  Therefore I am who you say I am.  Lord, I ask that you come.  Fill each of us with your guidance.  Open my mouth to speak the words you want me to speak and open the ears of those listening to hear the words you need them to hear.  Amen.

Perhaps, you, like me, have heard many sermons about the last verse in this chapter of John…”In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  I am not going to talk about that today but rather will turn my focus on  verses 25-33.  These verses speak of three things: 1) God Loves you and me.  2)  God is available to each of us without a mediator. 3)  God is with us because Jesus overcame the world. 

I have read these verses before and never really grasped what Jesus was trying to tell us.  I think it comes down to this…We are never really alone.  That one statement is what I hope you walk out of the service today convinced of.  You are never really alone. 

Exodus 25:8 talks about the people building a sanctuary where God will dwell with his people. Jesus left this earth, knowing that the Holy Spirit would come to indwell (don’t you just love that word) in us. No Sanctuary needed.  And isn’t that what we are?  God’s sanctuary? Humbling, right? Yes, Jesus left us.  We don’t get the benefit of his physical presence but rather we get the benefit of the Holy Spirit…which means Jesus…which means God.  God in me.  Jesus in me.  Holy Spirit in me.  This is the part that blows my mind.  Hopefully it is blowing your mind as well.  Jesus is quite clear…“Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father.” He does this through the Holy Spirit.

We, as believers in Jesus, have a gift that the world can’t take away from us.  It is not given to us because we are led by a good pastor or had a loving upbringing or that we were raised in a church.  Jesus gave himself freely to us.  As my dear sister in Christ, Tara says; “Jesus gives himself freely, no charge, no expectations.” Jesus seeks us wanting nothing more than for us to claim him as our savior.  Nothing more is needed.  The Holy Spirit moves in and begins to help us see how we can grow and become more like Jesus.  

This does not mean we will not experience sorrow, however.  No, we will have sorrow.  However, from sorrow comes a greater sense of who our God is. Dr. R. A. Torrey, one of the great Bible teachers of a past generation and founder of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles shared this.  He and Mrs. Torrey went through a time of great heartache when their twelve-year-old daughter was accidentally killed. The funeral was held on a gloomy, miserable, rainy day. They stood around the forlorn grave and watched as the body of their little girl was put to rest. As they turned away, Mrs. Torrey said, "I'm so glad Elisabeth is with the Lord, and not in that box." But even knowing this to be true, their hearts were broken.

Dr. Torrey said that the next day, as he was walking down the street, the whole thing broke over him anew -- the loneliness of the years ahead without her presence, the heartbreak of an empty house, and all the other implications of her death. He was so burdened by this that he looked to the Lord for help.

These are his words…“And just then this fountain, the Holy Spirit, that I had in my heart, broke forth with such power as I think I had never experienced before, and it was the most joyful moment I had ever known in my life! Oh, how wonderful is the joy of the Holy Ghost! It is an unspeakably glorious thing to have your joy not in things about you, not even in your most dearly loved friends, but to have within you a fountain ever springing up, springing up, springing up, always springing up three hundred and sixty-five days in every year, springing up under all circumstances unto everlasting life!”

That is the peace that passes understanding.  I pray that each of you have or will have the experience of this kind of peace, the peace that passes all understanding. 

About 15 years ago, I was blessed to have just such an experience.  I had just been told that there was a 99.9% chance that I had kidney cancer.  My initial response was fear and anxiety.  Where could I turn?  What could I do?  I did not deserve this!  I slept fitfully that night.  The next morning I got up and did my normal routine.  I sat with my Bible and read, then talked to God.  Talking to God for me is done in the form of journaling.  Where I reflect on what I have read, ask God to show me how this applies to me and what I can learn from it.  I am sure I said “Why me?”  The answer came out of the blue In my head…”Why not you?”  The discussion that followed (a one sided discussion) was all the reasons it should not be me.  Perhaps you too know these arguments.  I am really busy, I have people depending on me, I am too young, I am…..you can fill in the blanks. 

Over the next few days I heard in my readings: 

Psalm 23: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me. 

Psalm 91:1-6: He is my refuge and my fortress 

Isaiah 41:10: Do not fear, for I am with you

Jeremiah 17:7-8: Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him

Jeremiah 29:11: God has a plan to prosper you and not to harm you 

Joshua 1:9: Be strong and courageous, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go

For years Psalm 23 was my go to verse.  My grampa shared it with me. Joshua has been my life verse since that time.  I realized that no matter what I face I never have to go it alone.  

I found peace.  God had a plan.  Within a month of being told my diagnosis, a new surgeon moved to Bozeman who had been trained and was proficient in removing kidney’s laparoscopically.  I became the first person to have this procedure done at Bozeman Deaconess.  He was kind, gentle, meticulous and a believer.  He was able to remove the kidney and he stated “I did not rush as I wanted to make sure we got it all and that no cancer cells escaped into your system.”  Two days later he came to my hospital room.  I already knew what he was going to tell me and I was not afraid.  “Be strong and courageous, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”  The diagnosis was confirmed.  However the cancer was totally encapsulated and had not spread to any of the surrounding tissue or into my lymph.  He declared me cancer free. WOW. The Holy Spirit/Jesus/God with me! 

But, what if God did not answer your prayers?  What if God seems to be silent?  Or perhaps you have heard, not yet?  Perhaps you are one of those who did not get to hear “Cancer free’? Believe me when I tell you; God is with you!

Jonathan Evans noted this in his eulogy for his mother.  “We need to trust in God because we don’t understand God’s ways.” Trusting God is the big ask.  Today, I am faced with a couple of new diagnoses.  Medical intervention is not an option that I am open to at this time.  I am trusting God to either heal me or not.  I have come to realize that no matter what, Jesus will be with me and will walk with me thru the whatevers. David Servan-Schreiber, an MD PHD, says this in his book ‘Anticancer: A New Way of Life’; “Yes, I may die earlier than foreseen.  But it is also possible that I’ll live longer.  Whatever happens, I’m going to live my life as well as I can from now on.”  

That sounds like good advice to me.  Mostly, because I am not in this alone. You are not alone in whatever your “this” is.

If you do not have a life verse yet, I challenge you to pick one.  The Bible is full of them.  And if you don’t feel like you can find one on your own, I offer you mine.  Joshua 1:9: “Be strong and courageous, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” 

Go and know that you are never alone.

Let’s pray:

God you know us.  We are like children. Often confused.  Often scared.  Our minds in chaos.  Lord, wrap us in your arms and help us to believe. Help us to know that we are never alone because you are with us wherever we go. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me.  Amen