“I’m lonely”

“He said, I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places. I lie awake. I am like a lonely sparrow on a housetop. I'm just kind of lonely. Now, thankfully, Jesus answered that sparrow mentality. In the book of Matthew, I love this passage, 10, 29. Jesus speaking to his disciples said,”

“No, no, Paul said, I need you and I need you to come now. And that's important because Paul took the initiative to identify the very thing that would become destructive in his mind and heart. I say that because when we're lonely, you know what the most likely thing is for us to do? To withdraw. When we're lonely, we start backing out and saying, I'm just so lonely. And it moves us away from the very place that we need to be. the place where we need to be engaged and nothing thrills the enemy more than when we isolate and”

“saying to me, you may feel lonely, but you're not alone. I'm here. I'm with you. And that's just one instance, and it was a very serious instance in my life. Yes, I did manage to go along and to make a recovery and thank God all of that's in the past. I did from that moment forward have to use a backlit screen because I struggled with light and reading when I preach and teach. But God has met those needs. But I say that to say there have been many other instances that I could”

“and to look to him. David had to deal with this in his life. David in Psalm 25:16 said, "Turn to me and be gracious to me for I'm lonely and a afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged. Bring me out of my distress. He wrote again in Psalm 102:6. I'm like a desert owl of the wilderness. Like an owl of the waste places, I lie awake. I am like a lonely sparrow on a housetop. Like a”

“for your body. You need to get sleep. You need to eat. You need to do all those things. And for the rest of us who maybe are thinking, well, I'm sure not lonely. I wish he'd finished this sermon. But for the rest of us, you know people that are lonely, and they need you to care for them. Think of practical ways that you can step into the world of someone who is lonely. One of the greatest things that our deacon ministry does on our Augusta campus,”

“life. And you need that and I need that because we're never more vulnerable than when we are isolated. That's why Peter wrote in First Peter 5 and verse 8, "Be sober minded. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." Have you ever watched a documentary on lions? Who do the lions go after? They go after the isolated. They go after the vulnerable. They go after the weak. And I'm telling you, when you are lonely, you are prime”

“and it's that disconnectedness that so often becomes something that causes us to become very self-depreciating and causes us to feel the isolation. David, I mentioned him earlier in the Psalms said it this way in Psalm 102 verse 6, I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places. I lie awake. I am like a lonely sparrow on a housetop. I'm like that one”

“it's because of what Christ has done that we can have a relationship with God and that we can know that we are never, never, never alone. So I don't know what you're facing today, but I want you to know there's one, one who is with you and one who loves you. You may today be feeling forgotten, ignored, misunderstood, overwhelmed, but I'm here to tell you today, feel lonely, but you're never alone.”

“your loving kindness has welcomed me. Though I'm unworthy of majesty, you wrap the lonely in royalty. and I will lay my crowns down at your feet.”

“and you guys may do it here. I'm not absolutely sure how this translates campus to campus. But we have a group of deacons who every Wednesday night take some of the meals that we prepare on the Augusta campus and take them to shut-ins in our community every week all over the county and I just love the fact that they go and knock on the door and they become a friendly face and a gift that can be given and we do this in a lot of different ways it doesn't just have to be that but I'm saying that to say if you know somebody who's lonely look for a care point and meet a”

“all of these things can happen to us so what did paul do what do we need to do when we're lonely number one you need to connect with god's church i'm not talking about the building i'm not talking about programs I'm not talking about activities who is the church we are the church so when I say connect with God's church I'm talking about people we need to connect with God's people”

“everywhere I'm seeing everywhere around me over and over this message. We are living in a lonely world. People are lonely. People are desperate. And loneliness is one of the defining struggles of our generation. Reports have shown that as many as one in five Americans experiences loneliness on a daily basis. The US Surgeon General two years ago reported that half of US adults are experiencing measurable loneliness and chronic social isolation.”

“wrong with you, with all that's wrong with others, with all the suspicions, and your mind just runs away. One of the greatest imaginations that comes when you're lonely is the whisper of Satan's voice saying, "If you feel alone, you are alone." But I'm here to tell you today, if you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and God as your heavenly father, you are never alone.”

“when life is bringing disappointment, When future is unsure, we struggle with those issues that can lead to loneliness. But now let's go to the last question, and the one that I'm most eager to get us to, and that is, what should I do when I feel lonely? What should I do when I feel lonely? It's not a sin to feel lonely. Loneliness comes and happens to us, but what should I do? And here's something great. While the Bible is an incredible book of precepts, literal instructions, standards,”

“loneliness. It's the second thing that causes loneliness. And it's not only life circumstances, but changing seasons. I'm talking about the actual seasons of life. How many seasons of the year do we have? Four great opportunities to get lonely. Did you know that? Right now, we're turning the page from summer back into school structure and schedules and all of that. And some of you are already feeling that lonely sense of I've got to let go of all this freedom and this lack of structure. And there's a sense of I wish we could have done more. I wish I”

“we're talking about. What is loneliness? What is loneliness? Well, let me quickly say that loneliness is more than being alone. Loneliness is not simply solitude. Solitude is something that we all need in our lives. In fact, we try to encourage every person who's a part of the life in the church known as Warren to start their day every day with a time alone with God. We all need time to be alone, to read, to reflect, to pray. And so, solitude in and of itself is not loneliness.”

“alone. It's not just being alone or being by yourself. You can be alone in the state of your body, but loneliness is a state of mind and of heart. Actually being alone is a good thing. We all need to have some time alone. We all need to have places and moments of solitude. Solitude is a spiritual discipline that every Christian needs to cultivate. Jesus was frequently alone when he would go out and pray early in the morning or late at night. And we”