I Will Stand For Truth, Even If I Stand Alone

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

I have a message for you tonight.

It dropped in my heart like a bomb the second I was invited, kindly invited to speak here at the first conference.

And I call this message I will I will stand for truth even if I stand alone.

I will stand for truth even if I stand alone.

Now, this title is actually a quote, and I'm gonna tell you the story about the person who said that.

If you've heard me preach more than once, you know there are stories coming.

There are stories coming, but to me, the stories are just not stories, they are the word becoming flesh.

They're the testimonies that makes the word graspable and fathomable, so you can relate to it being a normal human being of flesh and blood, amen.

But I'm gonna save that story about that person who said that and lived that quote until the very last part of my message.

Just keep you on the edge for a little while.

But let's talk about truth in general.

Standing for truth is one of our most important callings as Christians and as churches, especially today.

1 Timothy 3 and 15 calls the church of the living God the pillar and the foundation of truth.

Now, the pillar is not something you put in for decoration.

The pillar is there for a purpose, right?

The pillar is supposed to hold up the ceiling, hold up the floors above, hold up the roof, bring stability to the entire construction, right?

Uh and what we're seeing now in society is a complete collapse.

We're seeing a moral collapse, an ethical collapse, we're seeing a sexual collapse and a spiritual collapse.

And it's very easy for us as Christians then to point our finger at the world and accuse the world for this collapse.

But maybe, honestly, if the structure is collapsing, maybe we should take a look at the pillars.

Maybe we should examine it, examine the foundation, and that is exactly why God is bringing you here to this conference so you can rededicate your life and your future in 2024.

That in this year you will stand for truth even if you stand alone.

See, Jesus said in in John chapter 8, verse 32 that you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

John 8:32

You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

And this is the truth we're talking about.

We're not talking about a uh political agenda, we're not talking about an ideological agenda.

When we say stand for the truth, we're talking about standing up for he who says, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life.

And we're talking about standing up for the gospel of truth that has the power to liberate any single human being who opens their heart for that message, amen.

But Jesus did not say that the truth will automatically set you free just because it's the truth, he says you will come to know the truth and the truth will set you free.

If you don't know the truth, the truth will not set you free, but the truth that you know, hallelujah, the truth that you know will set you free.

So when we rededicate our hearts in the face of this new upcoming year to standing for the truth, we rededicate them to proclaim the truth of the gospel and to shine Jesus to as many people as possible, and as they come to know the truth, the truth will set people free.

Can I hear an amen in church?

There's so many things that happen when we stand for the truth.

First of all, as we stand for truth, we awake sleeping giants.

Ooh, I love this part.

First Samuel chapter 17.

1 Samuel 17 · chapter mention

It's a wonderful story, well-known story about David and Goliath.

The context is that the Philistine army has uh challenged the Israeli ones for 40 days.

Their lead singer, a big guy called Goliath, every single morning he comes out and he speaks lies and lies and lies and lies throughout the entire day.

After 40 days, you know, there's a lot of lies in those 40 days.

And even though the Israeli army, every single soldier, had a covenant with God and had access to all the promises of God and could actually stand up and claim those promises, including the one about victory in battle, they were just so fed up with all these lies that they were paralyzed.

And here they are, just kind of listening to all these lies and becoming more and more paralyzed.

But praise God, an unexpected person was about to enter the stage.

A little teenage boy from the valley from the hills of Bethlehem.

Now, David, when he arrived, he didn't have any skills that the army didn't already have, he didn't have any training that the army didn't already have, he didn't have a lot of gifts that the army did not already have, but let me tell you, he had a different mindset because he came on the stage thinking, I will stand for truth even if I stand alone, even if all of you guys seem to have forgotten about God being with us.

I will not forget, I will stand for truth.

And he comes up against the giant, he proclaims this truth, and believing in the promises of God, he defeats this giant, and the giant falls to the ground.

But praise God, something else happened as well.

It says in 1 Samuel 17, verse 51 then the men of Israel and Judah surge forward with a shout.

1 Samuel 17:51

It's my favorite part of the whole story.

Because this story, my friend, is not just about one giant falling to the ground, it's about another giant rising up from the ground.

It's about the giant that is called a people of God that is now being stirred in their hearts, stirred in their faith because one person stood up for truth, even if he stood alone.

And I want to introduce you to another teenager.

This is a teenager from back home in Sweden, and her name is Rahel, and uh when this story plays out, Rahel was 16 years old.

Now, Rahel was going to school in one of the worst schools in the country.

A lot of gang violence, a lot of criminality, a lot of drugs, a lot of immigration without integration, which is never a good combination.

And Rahel was the only Christian student out of 1,200 students in that school.

The only Christian that she knew, she knew.

And this meant that she had adapted a bit of a survival mentality.

Her big goal for the upcoming years of studying was basically to keep believing in Jesus at the time of her graduation.

You know, if she could just stay away from being backslidden at the time of her graduation, that would be a pretty decent goal.

But then she came to one of our conferences, like the first conference, praise God, and she heard me speak about standing up for truth, even if you stand alone.

And the Holy Spirit knocked on Rahel's 16-year-old heart, and she opened up and she rededicated her life, saying, Even if I'm the only one out of 1200 students, I will stand for truth.

And I'm gonna believe that as I do, giants are about to wake up.

Rahel comes back to this school and starts wondering, what do I do now?

How do I shine the light of Jesus?

How do I stand up for the truth?

How do I communicate the gospel?

And then she had a great idea.

She found out by chance that three weeks further down the road, the United Nations Day of Peace was coming up.

Like me, uh, no one in this building has probably heard of the United Nations Day of Peace.

But it turns out that the United Nations has declared a certain day of the year as the International Day of Peace, when peace should be celebrated and we should talk about it, and so on and so forth.

Now, they've obviously done a horrible job because nobody knows about this day.

Neither did Rahel until she by chance found out it existed.

But she thought, mm-hmm, this is a great excuse for me to preach the gospel of Jesus.

She went up to her principal and she said, Dear principal, I'm sure you're aware that three weeks from now the United Nations Day of Peace is coming up.

And the principal went, Oh yeah, of course, of course, I I know that.

He so completely did not know that.

And he she and Rahel said, Well, I want to acknowledge the United Nations Day of Peace in this school, and and I'm sure you will give me permission to acknowledge such a worthy course.

And the principal was a bit confused now.

Said, what do you want to do?

And Rahel said, I want to buy and hand out free lollipops to each and every student.

And the principal thought, that's that's a nice idea.

So Rahel walked out the door going, she raised some funds, she bought 1,200 lollipops, then sat down to write 1,200 notes and attached each note to one lollipop.

Now on one side of the note, she wrote, Happy United Nations Day of Peace.

But on the other side of the note, she wrote, By the way, peace on the outside starts with peace on the inside, and only Jesus can give you that.

And on the United Nations Day of Peace, this 16-year-old girl who used to be a Christian submarine and survivor gave away 1,200 lollies to every single student in her school, planting a seed that said, Jesus, in all these young hearts.

Now she realizing that the majority of the students in her school were Muslim, she expected to get in some trouble.

But um actually another thing happened.

Do you know why?

Please say no.

Okay, I'm gonna tell you.

Herds of students started coming up to her saying, Are you Christian?

I'm a Christian too.

I thought I was the only one.

And then another said, Are you a Christian?

I'm a Christian too.

I thought I was the only one.

And another one said, Are you a Christian?

I'm a Christian too.

I thought I was the only one.

Turned out there were so many Christians in this school, and every single one of them thought they were the only one.

All that it took for this giant to wake up in that school was one person who stood for truth, even if she stood alone.

Can we just give a shout of celebration in the house of the Lord?

And this now huge group of Christian young people went on to influence this school for Jesus big time.

But I always remember that it went back to one initiative by a 16-year-old girl.

When we stand for truth, we awake giants.

There's so many more things that happen when we stand for truth.

When we stand for truth, God's miraculous power is released.

We see that throughout the Bible.

We see that when people like Abraham or Moses or Mary decides to believe in the truth of the word of God rather than the seemingly impossible circumstances.

When they take that step of faith and stand up for the truth, even if they stand alone, circumstances are changing, and God's miraculous power is being released.

It's just one thing we need to know, and one thing we need to realize, and and simply accept, basically, it is that standing up for truth will involve a level of pain that we just have to accept.

You know, Maria and I, we got this thing going for a number of years now that every single year we we learn something new together.

We come up with something that neither of us know about, and then we learn it throughout the year to constantly be on the route of exploring and curiosity and and you know, just doing new stuff together.

So one year we took a scuba diving license, well, then we one year we did motorbiking, one year we took cooking classes, and this past year, 23, we started working out together.

And um, that was a new experience for me.

But but uh yeah, she goes, Yeah, all right, tell him like it is.

Um but I remember when I started working out, my personal trainer, a new personal trainer, this guy called Lee, a great guy, he told me something that stuck with me.

He said, This you need to understand, you're watching is that that the human body is programmed to seek pleasure and avoid pain.

That's the way we're all set up, and this means that if you want to reach your physical goals, you will come to a point where pain kicks in, and your body will try to tell you now is the time to quit, seek pleasure instead, and that's where you just need to put your foot down and stick to your decisions and accept the pain because that pain is gonna eventually take you to your destination.

And being a preacher and being completely damaged by my profession, I always see spiritual principles in everything, and I told Lee, you know what?

That is not only true for the body of Joachim, but the body of Christ.

Woo! Because we tend to seek pleasure a lot of times, and we seek to and we tend to avoid pain a lot of times.

But when we come to the point where we simply look this world in the eye and say, even if it takes pain, even if it takes rejection, even if it takes persecution, even if it takes confrontation, we will stand for truth even if we stand alone.

Can we give it up for Jesus in the house of the Lord?

And here's what I want to reconnect to that initial story.

And that quote, I will stand for truth even if I stand alone.

I came across that story actually on a plane, on a Lufthansa flight.

That's the German airline, and I was randomly reading through the in-flight magazine and just reading the headlines basically, and all of a sudden, I read a headline saying the teenage girl that stood up against Hitler.

And I thought to myself, I'm gonna read this.

And I read it, and as I read it, it dawned on me that what I was reading was one of the most amazing stories of Christian bravery, right in the face of the deepest darkness that our world has seen in centuries, and I couldn't believe how in the world I hadn't heard about the story of this teenage girl called Sophie Scholl, even though I'm a European and Sweden is not that far away from Germany.

And immediately when I was invited to speak here tonight, the Holy Spirit said to me so clearly in my heart, you need to tell that story.

But rather than just telling it to you, I want to make I want to make sure that I make it justice.

So actually, a few weeks ago, I went over to Munich in Germany when this story is played out with my TV team, and we recorded a short little little documentary to tell the story about this young Christian girl who lived throughout her short life by the motto, I will stand for truth even if I stand alone.

And I'm just gonna assign most of my remaining uh speaking time just to show you this uh this film, if that's okay.

I hope it is okay, because I'm gonna do it anyway, so it might as well be okay.

But this is not just uh just a story.

I pray that as you hear this story and as you see this story, that God will speak to your heart, that he will inspire you, that he will encourage you, but also challenge you to make that commitment or recommit your life tonight to standing for the truth, even if you stand alone.

For most people, the name Sophie Scholl doesn't really ring a bell, but here in Germany, everybody knows about her.

National TV named her the most important German woman of the 20th century, and the youth of this nation voted her the greatest German who has ever lived.

And all this, even though she only lived to be 21 years old.

So, who was this Sophie Shaw?

Well, if she would have been around to answer that question herself, I'm sure she would have said, I am a Christian.

But Sophie wasn't just any Christian, but one who was convinced that the word of God can't just be heard.

You had to live it and you have to stand up for it, even in times when you might stand alone.

Sophie Magdalen Scholl was born on May 9th, 1921, in Fotenbach, Germany, and was only 12 years old when the Nazis took over in their homeland to indoctrinate the young generation as quickly and early as possible to do anything for their leader.

Almost every German child was recruited to Hitler Jugend.

Hitler Yug.

Sophie joined when she was 14.

She got to march in uniform.

She learned that she was such an important part of her nation, and how her race was superior above all others.

At first, it was exciting.

The pride of being taken seriously, that the nation counted on her, that she could give her life for something big, something noble.

But more and more, something started to feel wrong.

Sophie's father had raised her a Christian and had taught his daughter that all men are created in the image of God.

All precious, all equal.

And in her teenage years, she started to realize that what Hitler was saying was actually something completely different.

She was shocked when her best friend, a Jewish girl, was denied her human rights.

And when Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Sophie finally fully realized that the message of the Nazi party she was part of was actually the complete opposite of the message of the God she believed in.

By this time she had seen so much injustice, so much hatred, and so much humiliation, especially towards the Jewish people, that she knew in her heart that she had to do something.

How could she even call herself a Christian?

She asked herself, if she wouldn't stand up for Jesus and for truth in the darkest hours of her nation.

The Nazi reign of terror meant that standing up against Hitler would mean a certain death.

She knew that.

She was determined to do it anyway, and to do whatever she could for as long as she would survive.

Sophie and her brother Hans rented a small student flat in this house on Franz Joseph Street.

And what happened here was nothing short of history.

The two siblings, together with two friends, formed what they called the White Rose.

An underground resistance group that, based on faith in Jesus Christ.

Would try to do whatever they could to wake the German people up and encourage resistance against Hitler.

They bought a typewriter and an old manual duplicating machine and they started writing letters against the Nazi ideology.

Then they copied these letters by the thousands and mailed them out secretly to influencers and decision makers all over Germany, as well as placing stacks of letters in public places all over Munich, like restaurants and schools and restrooms, for people to pick them up and read the message.

And to this day, the letters of the White Rose are legendary examples of civil Christian resistance against the diabolical dictatorship.

Nothing is so unworthy of a civilized nation as to not speak out in protest while governed by an irresponsible group that follows their own unworthy instincts.

Every word that comes from Hitler's mouth is a lie.

When he says peace, he means war.

When he uses the name of the Almighty, he means the power of evil.

The fallen angel of Satan.

His mouth is nothing but the smelly mouth of hell.

Since the invasion of Poland, 300,000 Jews have been murdered in this nation in the most horrible way.

This is one of the worst crimes against all humanity, one that is unprecedented in all of history.

If the German people are already so spiritually damaged that they do not lift a hand against what is happening, if they have given up on man's supreme gift, the one that raises her above all of God's other creatures, our own free will, if they abandon their will to act and turn back the wheel of history, if they have already gone so far down the path of the cowardly mass, then they deserve their own destruction.

But in all times of great trials, prophets and saints have stood up.

Men and women of God who cherished their freedom, preached to one true God, and stirred the people to action.

Man is free, but without God, we are defenseless in the battle against evil.

We are lost ships in the storm.

We are infants without their mother, clouds that dissolve into thin air.

If you're a Christian but hesitate and wait, hoping someone else would raise this arm in your defense.

Has not God given you strength?

Has not God given you the will to fight?

We must attack evil where it is strongest, and its greatest power is Hitler.

Only faith can reawaken Europe.

Only faith can give people back their rights and restore true Christianity on earth as the only guarantee of peace.

We will never grow silent.

We are your bad conscience.

The White Rose will not leave you in peace.

Gestapo, the German police, was convinced that they had come from a large national underground organization and they worked like crazy to find and to stop it.

No one even imagined that these letters that affected more and more people and helped them understand that the Nazi message was contrary to God and his word came from a handful of Christian teenagers.

But they wanted to use the time they had in the best way possible.

On February 18th, 1943, Sophie and Hans were walking these university halls with bags full of the fifth letter of protest against Hitler.

With only minutes left before the bell would ring, they walked up to every single door and put a stack of these letters right outside the door to the lecture halls so that when the thousands of students would come out, they would all grab one copy each.

When the bell rang, Sophie was standing right on this spot, up on the balcony, overlooking the students below.

She saw her own generation.

Now faced with the choice of either blindly following a diabolical leader further into darkness or to turn back to God and build a society based on love and peace and equality.

Sophie's heart stirred inside of her and she took a stack, the final stack, of that fifth letter of protest against Hitler, and she threw it out from the balcony.

Surely she must have known when she saw the letters rain down over the students that she would be discovered and caught.

But at that point, probably her own life and safety was the last thing on her mind.

If only she could help the youth of Germany to wake up.

Sophie and Hans were arrested immediately, and the Nazis now found out that the white rose that had caused them so much fear only really consisted of a handful of Christian students.

Hitler wanted to get rid of this embarrassment as quickly as possible.

So after a quick mock trial without any defense, Sophie and her friends was sentenced to execution.

And as these young people were led to the Gileo team to be beheaded, Sophie looked up at the clear sky and said, such a beautiful day.

And I have to go.

But my life is a small price to pay if only my actions can lead to thousands of people being warned and alerted.

And the very last words of 21-year-old Sophie Shaw before her head was separated from her body was my God, my refuge into eternity.

But as an amazing and completely unexpected final chapter to the story of Sophie Scholl and the White Rose, it turned out they had actually written one more letter, one that they never had the chance to distribute.

This letter was smuggled out of Germany through Scandinavia and finally to England, where we had ended up in the hands of the Allied forces.

Loaded the copies on bomber aircrafts, flew in over Germany, opened the hatches, and let Sophie's call to stand up for God and resist the evil rain down over all the nation.

The letters she saw float down in the university auditorium now rain down for several months over her entire nation and her people.

In the presence of God for a while, and the Holy Spirit will just lead us to re-examine and also recommit our hearts to stand for truth in our time and in our world.

Father, I pray right now.

And in the face of this amazing story of courage from an ordinary Christian teenager, may our hearts be inspired.

Father, healing your presence, we pray and we will examine our own stability, the pillars and the foundations of our lives, Father.

In this time where so many are compromising with the truth to avoid pain, we proclaim before your holy presence that we will stand for truth even if we stand alone.

And as we stand for truth, Father, we thank you that you are about to wake up giants in 2024.

As we stand for truth, we thank you that you are about to release your power to do amazing miracles in 2024.

Not just to minister to us, but to change our society and our nation with a wave of revival.

Father, here we are before we seen anything of that.

And we just want to tell you from the bottom of our heart.

We will not make pleasure and avoid pleasure.

We will take our cross and follow you.

We will stand for you.

Even if you even if we stand alone.

I need to, before I enter into the rest of this year, I want to proclaim over my own life, over my family, over my future, that I will stand for truth.

And when the truth is released in and through my life, I'm ready to believe that people all around me are going to experience the freedom that is found in Christ.

I just want to pray a short prayer for you wherever you are, in here or in any of the gateway campuses.

If you want to be included in that prayer, just lift your hand.

Oh, there's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hands going on.

That hand is a holy hand because it stands for a commitment, a decision in your heart.

And let me just pray for you right now as you open your heart to the Spirit of God.

Father, you see every single hand in this house.

You see all the hands in the campuses, the hands of those watching back home, Lord.

We pray in Jesus' name that you will calibrate our faith, that you will strengthen whatever is weak in our commitment.

And Father, we stay standing before you and say, not by our power or by our might, but by the Holy Spirit, says the Lord.

But that little initiative that you require from us, that little step of faith that you need from us, Father, we are gonna take it for the glory of the name of Jesus.

Lord, I pray for the wave of the Holy Spirit in every single life that right now lifts their holy hand before your presence.

Bless them, Lord, bless their families.

But more than anything, in Jesus' name, I pray that through this commitment of standing for truth, even though we're not facing Hitler, we have a devil that we need to resist.

And we will resist him in the name of Jesus.

We will fight his kingdom wherever it raises its head, and we will stand for the truth that is Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, and the life.

So help us, God, in 2024.

This is our prayer, this is our commitment in Jesus' name, and all people said, and like that army, that giant who woke up at the example of David, on three, let's just give a shout of praise and a shout of joy to the Lord Jesus Christ, because we're gonna stand for truth even if we stand alone.

One, two, three.

Thank you, Lord Jesus.

Thank you, Lord Jesus.

Thank you, Lord Jesus.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.