Today, I would like to revisit at topic I have already touched on in the past: Loneliness. I believe its important to look at this again given the condition of the world. More and more are suffering from the loneliness. Through difficult times we need to direct our thoughts to Him who sustains us. To Him who keeps us in the palm of His hands.
I know at times it can feel like we are stranded, forgotten. Moments when no matter how much we try to come to terms with everything, we feel alone. Thinking maybe, that nobody understands. It is then, that our confusion turns into worry, and the worry turns into anxiety and fear. In those moments we can forget that God is with us. This morning let me say to you; He is with you.
Many times in scripture we read that Jesus went to a lonely place to pray. He knows what we go through. He knows about loneliness. He was abandoned and forgotten by his bests friends. But we, his followers, need never feel alone because he is always with us.
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Join with me in song or just listen to: Heavenly Father
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Jesus Heals a Man With Leprosy
12 While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy.[b] When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” 13 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him. 14 Then Jesus ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 15 Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. 16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Amen.
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Let us enter into a time of prayer and sing; Here Is Love
Time Of prayer
Prayer is how we actively practice believing. Believing that God has the whole world in his hands. Prayer is where we let petitions and praises shape our worries into prayers, letting God know our concerns. Prayer is never the last resort of God’s people. It is our first point of action. I invite you now, just to take some time to pray. Pray for your family and friends. Prayer for our Church, Woodhouse Salvation Army. Pray for the sick, bereaved, lonely and afraid. Pray for our government and the world with all its hurt. Also, remember to pray for yourself. Then we will share together in the Lords Prayer.
Lets share together in the Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
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Before we go to the word, let us listen to the Staff Songster: Written In Red
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God Knows. God Sees. God Cares.
Loneliness is such a dreadful thing. It’s a hunger – a need to be loved and accepted and connected – that goes unmet. When we travel through those lonely places … where’s God exactly? One of the hardest things in life is being alone. It happens to different people at different times, a teenager growing up might feel misunderstood, that’s a lonely place to be. Someone who’s married can feel like their husband or their wife is so distant, that’s lonely. Work, children, pressures and responsibilities conspire against us and family life. In fact, we can be surrounded by crowds of people and yet still feel desperately alone.
It can even be that people are reaching out to us but somehow, we feel incapable of making that soul connection. We’re like a dry sponge that somehow can’t take any relationships in just now. As we grow older children leave and they have their own busy lives and perhaps a husband dies and the widow’s left alone. Whatever its form, loneliness can be a terrible place and it can go on for a very long time.
When I look back on my life there have been a number of times where I can point to when I was really lonely. Yes, I had friends, people at Church but there were no real “soul ties”. I’m not one to get lonely very much at all, I have a healthy outlook on life. I feel good and I truly enjoy peace and quiet and my own space and my own company and yet I’ve been in that deep place of loneliness, it’s like, a dark pit. A pit that’s hard to get out of at times.
How do you put words around this thing called “loneliness”? What’s the common thread, what defines loneliness? I read this definition of loneliness, which I think hits the nail on the head;
Loneliness is an emotional state in which a person experiences a powerful feeling of emptiness and isolation. Loneliness is more than just the feeling of wanting company or wanting to do something with another person, loneliness is a feeling of being cut off, disconnected and alienated from other people.
The lonely person finds it difficult or even impossible to have any form of meaningful human contact. Lonely people often experience a subjective sense of emptiness and hollowness with feelings of separation and isolation from the world. I can relate to that, and I think we all travel through some lonely places in our lifetime, some more than others. Some have a personality that’s more predisposed to being alone than others but that sense of isolation and emptiness, the lack of connectedness, the being pulled apart from other people is so evident. I was reading about Mother Theresa the other day and look at what she said about loneliness:
When Christ said, “I was hungry and you fed me” He didn’t mean only the hunger for bread and for food, He also meant the hunger to be loved.
Jesus himself experienced this loneliness, He came amongst His own and yet His own received Him not and it hurt Him then, it has kept hurting Him. The same hunger, the same loneliness, the same having no-one to be accepted by and to be loved and wanted by. Every human being in that case resembles Christ in His loneliness and that is the hardest part, that’s the real hunger. Isn’t that profound? Doesn’t it make you think? There’s a loneliness, a hunger, it’s our most basic emotional need going unmet. The need to be loved, the need to belong, the need to know that there’s someone out there, just one person who misses you, who’s thinking about you, who wants you.
That’s what loneliness is and it’s really weird because Jesus was followed by huge crowds, I mean He had rock star status and yet so often He was alone and it was those crowds, those very same people, they were the ones who demanded His crucifixion, but all the way along Jesus knew that. Look how John puts it, in John chapter 2, verse 23:
When He was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival many believed in Jesus’ name because they saw that the miracles and the signs that He was doing but Jesus for His part wouldn’t entrust Himself to them because He knew them all.
He had rock star status, He had huge crowds and those same crowds bade for His blood and deserted Him. He always knew public opinion, human acclamation, are a fickle thing. And Peter the apostle said, “Lord, I’ll stick by you, I’ll stick through everything, I’ll even die with you” and yet, you probably know the story, when he said that to Jesus, Jesus said, “Look here, it’s night-time, before that rooster crows in the morning you’ll have denied me 3 times.” And Peter said, “No, I won’t do that and sure enough, when Jesus was being led to trial before His crucifixion, 3 times Peter denies Jesus, 3 times. One by one the crowds, His closest supporters, His family, they all left Him. He was beaten and mocked and crucified and they left Him completely alone. But no matter how difficult and painful as that was, He was prepared for it. Have a listen to what Luke says about Jesus:
The news about Jesus spread all the more so the crowds of people came to hear Him and be healed of their sicknesses, but Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
Listen to that again: Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
I think this is the answer to loneliness, well, my loneliness anyway. Out there in that wilderness, out there in those lonely places, out there away from all the hustle and bustle of life. Out there in those lonely places is where Jesus spent time with His Father. There’s something in that. I believe that is the answer.
In the times where I’ve been desperately lonely, feeling that isolation, that disconnectedness and the pain that comes with that in those lonely places, they were the times when God stepped in. How do I explain it? Once I was sitting alone in my loneliness and I just had this powerful sense of God’s presence in that place, an overwhelming knowledge that I was being surrounded in his love. In that lonely place that’s where God came to me and said, “It is I, do not fear”.
Somehow amidst the darkness and the pain His light shone so brightly. I look back on those times as the greatest opportunity that God would ever give me, out there in the lonely places, and I believe that’s why God lets us go to them, that’s why God lets us walk in that loneliness, because it’s the opportunity He gives us to discover His Steadfast and Wondrous love. It gives us the opportunity to connect to Him on a deeper spiritual level. It gives us the opportunity to know Him for who He is. Our Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Amen.
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With All My Heart
Please have a quiet time. Praying for yourself, family, Church, community, our world. Take this time to rest and know that God in Jesus Christ is with you.
The Benediction
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:
The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
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