WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.200 We're going to read together from the New Testament, from the Gospels, from the Gospel 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:06.200 of Matthew. 00:00:06.200 --> 00:00:13.660 We're going to read chapter 26 at the very end, 69 to 75, and then move over to chapter 00:00:13.660 --> 00:00:20.000 27 verses 27 to 46. 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:21.000 This is God's Word. 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:26.800 Now, Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a servant girl came up to him and said, 00:00:26.800 --> 00:00:32.560 You also were with Jesus the Galilean, but He denied it before them all saying, I do 00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:34.399 not know what you mean. 00:00:34.399 --> 00:00:38.480 And when He went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw Him, and she said to the 00:00:38.480 --> 00:00:43.320 bystanders, This man was with Jesus of Nazareth. 00:00:43.320 --> 00:00:47.480 And again, He denied it with an oath, I do not know the man. 00:00:47.480 --> 00:00:52.359 After a little while, the bystanders came up and said to Peter, Certainly you too are 00:00:52.359 --> 00:00:55.519 one of them for your accent betrays you. 00:00:55.520 --> 00:01:01.240 And then he began to invoke a curse on himself and swear, I do not know the man. 00:01:01.240 --> 00:01:03.560 And immediately the cock crowed. 00:01:03.560 --> 00:01:08.240 And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus before the cock crows, you will deny me three times. 00:01:08.240 --> 00:01:10.520 And he went out and he wept bitterly. 00:01:10.520 --> 00:01:14.240 And chapter 27 verse 27. 00:01:14.240 --> 00:01:18.079 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus and of the governor's headquarters and they 00:01:18.079 --> 00:01:20.640 gathered the whole battalion before him. 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:24.760 And they stripped him and they put a scarlet robe on him and twisting together a crown 00:01:24.760 --> 00:01:25.800 of thorns. 00:01:25.800 --> 00:01:30.040 They put it on his head and they put a reed in his right hand and kneeling before him. 00:01:30.040 --> 00:01:33.480 They mocked him saying, Hail, King of the Jews. 00:01:33.480 --> 00:01:37.640 And they spat on him and they took the reed and they struck him on the head. 00:01:37.640 --> 00:01:42.400 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:46.080 him and they led him away to crucify him. 00:01:46.080 --> 00:01:50.800 As they went out, they found a man of sirene, Simon by name, and they compelled this man 00:01:50.800 --> 00:01:53.160 to carry the cross. 00:01:53.159 --> 00:01:59.280 And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means place of the skull, they offered 00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:01.599 him wine to drink, mixed with Gol. 00:02:01.599 --> 00:02:04.200 But when he tasted it, he would not drink it. 00:02:04.200 --> 00:02:08.840 And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. 00:02:08.840 --> 00:02:12.120 Then they sat down and they kept watch over him there. 00:02:12.120 --> 00:02:16.639 And over his head, they put the charge against him, which read, This is Jesus, the King of 00:02:16.639 --> 00:02:17.840 the Jews. 00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:22.199 And then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right hand and one on the left. 00:02:22.199 --> 00:02:26.839 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, You who would destroy 00:02:26.839 --> 00:02:30.879 the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. 00:02:30.879 --> 00:02:33.719 If you were the son of God, come down from the cross. 00:02:33.719 --> 00:02:39.799 So also the chief priest with the scribes and the elders mocked him saying, He saved others. 00:02:39.799 --> 00:02:41.159 He cannot save himself. 00:02:41.159 --> 00:02:42.639 He is the king of Israel. 00:02:42.639 --> 00:02:46.879 Let him come down now from the cross and we will believe in him. 00:02:46.879 --> 00:02:47.879 He trusts in God. 00:02:47.879 --> 00:02:49.299 Let God deliver him now. 00:02:49.300 --> 00:02:52.719 If he desires him, for he said, I am the son of God. 00:02:52.719 --> 00:02:57.400 And the robbers who are crucified with him also reviled him in the same way. 00:02:57.400 --> 00:03:01.320 Now from the six hour, there was darkness over all the land until the ninth. 00:03:01.320 --> 00:03:07.760 And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, Lima, Lima, 00:03:07.760 --> 00:03:09.200 suboxone. 00:03:09.200 --> 00:03:10.720 That is my God, my God. 00:03:10.720 --> 00:03:13.840 Why have you forsaken me? 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:21.560 We are looking in this Advent series, Advent season at Jesus Christ, the wonderful counselor. 00:03:21.560 --> 00:03:26.439 And the more reading I've been able to do on the problems of the soul, the problems 00:03:26.439 --> 00:03:31.039 of the soul, the turmoil that we face in our inner lives as modern people, all the counselors, 00:03:31.039 --> 00:03:33.680 all the psychologists tend to say the same thing. 00:03:33.680 --> 00:03:40.319 That the three great issues that we face most often as modern people are anxiety, boredom 00:03:40.319 --> 00:03:42.439 and loneliness. 00:03:42.439 --> 00:03:48.759 And anxiety, we said in week one of Advent, is a state of fearfulness. 00:03:48.759 --> 00:03:54.960 It's when you are perpetually fearful because you think about hypothetical circumstances 00:03:54.960 --> 00:04:00.840 of loss in the future and you allow that to eat you up from the inside out. 00:04:00.840 --> 00:04:04.840 And boredom is the sense of apathy and purposelessness. 00:04:04.840 --> 00:04:10.439 We defined it last week as a disgust for the responsibilities God has given us for today 00:04:10.439 --> 00:04:11.879 right now. 00:04:11.879 --> 00:04:15.400 So it's the sense of a lack of meaning and purpose in your life. 00:04:15.400 --> 00:04:19.439 Loneliness, what is loneliness? 00:04:19.439 --> 00:04:25.560 Loneliness is an emotional pain that we experience deep down in the heart, deep down in the soul 00:04:25.560 --> 00:04:31.959 that comes from an experience of a lack of interpersonal relationships that we expect 00:04:31.959 --> 00:04:34.319 to have in our lives. 00:04:34.319 --> 00:04:39.920 Loneliness is an emotional pain that we sense because of a lack of interpersonal relationships 00:04:39.920 --> 00:04:43.480 we expect to have in our lives that oftentimes we might not have. 00:04:43.480 --> 00:04:48.120 Now, Stuart Andrew, do you know who your UK Minister of Loneliness is? 00:04:48.120 --> 00:04:50.160 It's Stuart Andrew. 00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:53.960 And Stuart Andrew is the second UK Minister of Loneliness. 00:04:53.960 --> 00:04:56.520 The first was appointed in 2018. 00:04:56.520 --> 00:05:01.080 So we now have a minister that oversees the problem of loneliness in the modern world 00:05:01.080 --> 00:05:02.520 and in Britain. 00:05:02.520 --> 00:05:08.720 And we have that because we seek community online more than in person. 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:14.760 And it doesn't work because we have moved towards remote work, work from home. 00:05:14.760 --> 00:05:18.080 And we don't have the interpersonal connections with our colleagues we used to have. 00:05:18.080 --> 00:05:24.960 We have a minister of loneliness because of the idols of modern people, careerism. 00:05:24.960 --> 00:05:29.520 Careerism breeds superficial relationship because we're focused on ourselves. 00:05:29.520 --> 00:05:34.360 We have a minister of loneliness because of our individualism because of the fact that 00:05:34.360 --> 00:05:40.240 for modern people all the factors in our lives, people are getting married less and less, 00:05:40.240 --> 00:05:41.319 getting married later. 00:05:41.319 --> 00:05:46.639 And that means that in every facet of life, relationships tend to be far more superficial 00:05:46.639 --> 00:05:47.879 than they used to be. 00:05:47.879 --> 00:05:50.400 And so people are overwhelmingly lonely. 00:05:50.400 --> 00:05:55.520 In 2018, the UK Minister of Loneliness was established because they found that 9 million 00:05:55.520 --> 00:06:02.560 people, 9 million people in the UK have some relationship to chronic loneliness. 00:06:02.560 --> 00:06:05.480 And so they established this post. 00:06:05.480 --> 00:06:10.639 Jesus says, don't be anxious, little one. 00:06:10.639 --> 00:06:12.519 Don't be anxious, little one. 00:06:12.519 --> 00:06:13.800 I come to bring you peace. 00:06:13.800 --> 00:06:15.000 Seek first the kingdom of God. 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:17.639 Make the kingdom of God the most important things in your life. 00:06:17.639 --> 00:06:20.360 Don't chase things that you can lose. 00:06:20.360 --> 00:06:22.600 And that's the best way to fight anxiety. 00:06:22.600 --> 00:06:25.199 Jesus says, don't be apathetic. 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:26.199 Don't be bored with your life. 00:06:26.199 --> 00:06:27.199 How can you? 00:06:27.199 --> 00:06:28.199 I've appointed you. 00:06:28.199 --> 00:06:29.399 I've given you such purpose. 00:06:29.399 --> 00:06:30.920 I've given you such meaning. 00:06:30.920 --> 00:06:32.640 I've told you, abide in me. 00:06:32.640 --> 00:06:35.840 I've offered you friendship with God forever. 00:06:35.840 --> 00:06:38.720 He offers peace for the anxious, joy for the bored. 00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:40.680 What does he offer to the lonely? 00:06:40.680 --> 00:06:42.680 The wonderful counselor to the lonely. 00:06:42.680 --> 00:06:44.400 And the answer is Christmas. 00:06:44.400 --> 00:06:48.920 The answer is unexpected, but the answer is Christmas. 00:06:48.920 --> 00:06:49.920 He says peace for the anxious. 00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:50.920 He says, don't be anxious. 00:06:50.920 --> 00:06:51.920 He says, don't be bored. 00:06:51.920 --> 00:06:52.920 You've got purpose. 00:06:52.920 --> 00:06:56.200 But to the lonely, what is the primary thing the wonderful counselor does? 00:06:56.200 --> 00:06:59.000 And the answer is he gives himself. 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:01.800 Jesus Christ himself for the lonely. 00:07:01.800 --> 00:07:04.360 So let's think about that briefly. 00:07:04.360 --> 00:07:05.759 Why are we lonely? 00:07:05.759 --> 00:07:07.959 Secondly, how Jesus counsels us? 00:07:07.959 --> 00:07:10.000 Thirdly, what you can do to fight your loneliness. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:13.279 So first, why are we lonely? 00:07:13.279 --> 00:07:16.720 Loneliness is not being alone. 00:07:16.720 --> 00:07:21.199 We see all throughout the Gospels, Jesus would go away in solitude and he would pray. 00:07:21.199 --> 00:07:22.199 He would be by himself. 00:07:22.199 --> 00:07:23.199 He loved that. 00:07:23.199 --> 00:07:24.199 We all need that. 00:07:24.199 --> 00:07:28.759 There are some of us who are alone more than not, but don't feel lonely. 00:07:28.759 --> 00:07:33.120 And there are some of us who are constantly around people and even sometimes people who 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:38.139 really love us, but we feel lonely, chronically lonely at the very same time. 00:07:38.139 --> 00:07:40.839 We read the story of the cross here. 00:07:40.839 --> 00:07:44.879 And if you just look at it with me for a few minutes, this is the very end of Jesus's 00:07:44.879 --> 00:07:47.240 life, the cross, his death. 00:07:47.240 --> 00:07:53.279 And Matthew, this writer here does not give hardly really a single word of interpretation. 00:07:53.279 --> 00:07:57.719 So if you read John's account of the cross, John is regularly interpreting the cross for 00:07:57.720 --> 00:07:59.720 you and telling you what it means. 00:07:59.720 --> 00:08:01.480 Here Matthew does not do that at all. 00:08:01.480 --> 00:08:02.720 He just gives you the facts. 00:08:02.720 --> 00:08:06.480 He just gives you exactly what happened. 00:08:06.480 --> 00:08:11.280 And the way he does it most commonly is he focuses on all the people who were there at 00:08:11.280 --> 00:08:15.440 the cross and tells you what they did, how they reacted to the cross. 00:08:15.440 --> 00:08:19.480 And so if you look, you can see in the second half of the passage we read from verse 27 00:08:19.480 --> 00:08:24.840 on verse 27 to 31 is all about the soldiers, the Roman soldiers. 00:08:24.839 --> 00:08:31.159 And just scan your eyes across it, you can see that they mocked Jesus. 00:08:31.159 --> 00:08:32.799 They took him to the governor's headquarters. 00:08:32.799 --> 00:08:34.759 They stripped him naked. 00:08:34.759 --> 00:08:35.879 He died on the cross naked. 00:08:35.879 --> 00:08:42.000 They put a purple robe on him, a mockery of his quote unquote kingship, his enthronement, 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:45.759 an ironic enthronement all throughout this passage. 00:08:45.759 --> 00:08:49.959 They twisted together a crown of thorns and embedded that into his head. 00:08:49.959 --> 00:08:51.839 They beat him with a reed. 00:08:51.840 --> 00:08:54.840 They mocked him saying King of the Jews, right? 00:08:54.840 --> 00:09:00.160 And they spat on him and then they appointed Simon of Cyrene to carry his cross for him, 00:09:00.160 --> 00:09:02.360 the cross beam in particular. 00:09:02.360 --> 00:09:08.000 This is because in the first century, if a Roman governor or King emperor would enter 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:13.040 a city, there would be somebody that would come before them in a parade carrying a cross 00:09:13.040 --> 00:09:16.840 beam as the opening sign that the emperor was about to come. 00:09:16.840 --> 00:09:22.600 And the cross beam would have etched on it hail the emperor Julius, whoever is coming. 00:09:22.600 --> 00:09:25.120 Gaius Octavius is coming into the city. 00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:26.120 This is a mockery. 00:09:26.120 --> 00:09:28.920 They're saying Simon, you carry the king's cross beam. 00:09:28.920 --> 00:09:33.240 This is his kingly parade and the soldiers are mocking him at every level. 00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:36.840 And then it turns in verse 39 to the civilians. 00:09:36.840 --> 00:09:41.960 You see, if you look down at verse 39, it says the civilians who passed by derided him, 00:09:41.960 --> 00:09:45.040 wagging their fingers at him, making fun of him. 00:09:45.039 --> 00:09:48.039 This is because you would be crucified on an open road. 00:09:48.039 --> 00:09:52.079 They were always careful to do that so that anybody who passed by could see it. 00:09:52.079 --> 00:09:56.159 And so these are people who are going about their day and they're mocking him. 00:09:56.159 --> 00:10:02.959 And then from there in verse 40, verse, well, down to verse 47, that the civilians continue 00:10:02.959 --> 00:10:03.959 to mock him. 00:10:03.959 --> 00:10:06.679 They, when Jesus says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:10:06.679 --> 00:10:09.199 They said, is he calling Elijah to come and help him? 00:10:09.199 --> 00:10:13.039 And this is because in Aramaic, the word Eli is also the word for Elijah. 00:10:13.039 --> 00:10:15.159 It sounds like Elijah in Hebrew. 00:10:15.159 --> 00:10:20.439 And so they think he's crying out for Elijah when he's saying, my God, my God. 00:10:20.439 --> 00:10:23.679 And so they say, wait, verse 49, they say, wait, let's wait here. 00:10:23.679 --> 00:10:26.000 In other words, they're saying, this is going to be a spectacle. 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:27.559 This is something to watch. 00:10:27.559 --> 00:10:29.799 Let's all sit down and see what happens. 00:10:29.799 --> 00:10:33.079 So they're mocking him, saying, this is a great show. 00:10:33.079 --> 00:10:36.319 Verse 41, the chief priests, they make fun of him. 00:10:36.319 --> 00:10:38.719 Verse 41, they say, save yourself. 00:10:38.719 --> 00:10:41.959 If you're so strong, if you're the king, save yourself. 00:10:41.960 --> 00:10:44.120 They're saying, you're a fool. 00:10:44.120 --> 00:10:46.120 Come down from the cross if you have such great power. 00:10:46.120 --> 00:10:50.519 And then in verse 44, we're told in one little sentence, the robbers, the criminals who were 00:10:50.519 --> 00:10:54.879 being crucified next to him, they mocked him as well. 00:10:54.879 --> 00:10:57.600 And you see what John's doing, Matthew's doing. 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:03.920 He's saying that every type of person at every level of society mocked him in the event of 00:11:03.920 --> 00:11:04.920 the cross. 00:11:04.920 --> 00:11:07.600 It didn't matter what race you were, Roman, Greek, Jewish. 00:11:07.600 --> 00:11:11.200 It didn't matter what socioeconomic status you had. 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:16.480 You were rich, elite, wealthy, lower class, you mocked him. 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:24.080 And we can say one of the great reasons that maybe we struggle with loneliness, maybe one 00:11:24.080 --> 00:11:30.440 of the reasons loneliness exists is because of an alienation that we feel in the face 00:11:30.440 --> 00:11:33.360 of other people, around other people. 00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:39.560 And when you look at Jesus' life, when you look at the cross, the cross typifies the 00:11:39.559 --> 00:11:45.000 loneliness that Jesus Christ experienced throughout the whole of his life. 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:50.879 And at the moment of the cross, you see that loneliness at its absolute climax, every level 00:11:50.879 --> 00:11:55.119 of society, leaving him, mocking him. 00:11:55.119 --> 00:11:59.759 And you know, mockery is one of the reasons we do feel lonely sometimes. 00:11:59.759 --> 00:12:01.879 Maybe it's loneliness at its worst. 00:12:01.879 --> 00:12:05.919 C.S. Lewis wrote a wonderful essay called The Inner Ring. 00:12:05.919 --> 00:12:10.559 And in this essay, he talks about how we all have this desire for relationship. 00:12:10.559 --> 00:12:15.559 And in this desire for relationship, we long to be known, we long to be loved. 00:12:15.559 --> 00:12:17.199 And this is what he says. 00:12:17.199 --> 00:12:23.360 Because of our desire for deep relationship, I believe that in every person's heart, every 00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:28.959 person's life, he writes, at certain periods and in many people's lives, at all periods, 00:12:28.959 --> 00:12:34.360 between infancy and extreme old age, one of the most dominant elements is the desire 00:12:34.360 --> 00:12:39.800 to be inside the local ring and the terror of being left out. 00:12:39.800 --> 00:12:46.080 And what he means by the local ring is the group, the person, the relationship, the part 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:49.560 of society that you desperately want to be on the inside of. 00:12:49.560 --> 00:12:51.800 And all of us have different ones that we want to be a part of. 00:12:51.800 --> 00:12:57.240 And he's saying, one of the greatest terrors of life is to desire someone, to want to be 00:12:57.240 --> 00:13:00.920 a part of that group and to be left out. 00:13:00.919 --> 00:13:06.039 That's even worse, is to desire the inner ring, to be left out, but even more to be 00:13:06.039 --> 00:13:10.559 made fun of, to be mocked by that group and that society. 00:13:10.559 --> 00:13:16.639 The greatest, possibly the greatest experience of loneliness there can be. 00:13:16.639 --> 00:13:21.559 This is an aside, but we're a culture of banter. 00:13:21.559 --> 00:13:26.240 I enjoy the banter of this communion here. 00:13:26.240 --> 00:13:33.320 But be weary of it, because banter can oftentimes be, you can call it banter and it can be a 00:13:33.320 --> 00:13:34.519 disguise. 00:13:34.519 --> 00:13:39.240 You can say, you know, my culture, when we make fun of you, it just means we love you. 00:13:39.240 --> 00:13:42.000 And it's true and sometimes it's not. 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:46.080 And it just be very weary, because you can actually be creating, curating loneliness in 00:13:46.080 --> 00:13:48.799 a person's life through banter. 00:13:48.799 --> 00:13:51.120 Mockery is one type of social loneliness. 00:13:51.120 --> 00:13:53.680 We experience all different types of social loneliness. 00:13:53.679 --> 00:13:57.959 And awareness of a lack of interpersonal connections that we long to have, that we expect to have 00:13:57.959 --> 00:14:01.879 in our lives, you can be single and not want to be. 00:14:01.879 --> 00:14:04.000 You can have moved to a new place. 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:08.199 And in a previous place, you felt like you had so many connections, but in the new place 00:14:08.199 --> 00:14:09.199 you don't. 00:14:09.199 --> 00:14:14.479 You never feel like you can quite get the connections that you longed for when you move. 00:14:14.479 --> 00:14:18.279 You might care for a person who feels, who's sick. 00:14:18.279 --> 00:14:23.519 And in your caring, in your love for them, you're incredibly lonely, because you've lost. 00:14:23.519 --> 00:14:28.799 In their disease, in their sickness, you've lost the connection you once had. 00:14:28.799 --> 00:14:34.019 Some of us have a broken relationship, a breakup that produces incredible loneliness. 00:14:34.019 --> 00:14:38.919 Some of us are surrounded by people, but we never feel like we have any depth of relationship. 00:14:38.919 --> 00:14:40.799 It's all superficial. 00:14:40.799 --> 00:14:42.000 It never goes beyond the surface. 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:47.120 Some of us maybe are moms or dads caring for little babies all the time. 00:14:47.120 --> 00:14:48.439 And we're at home all the time. 00:14:48.439 --> 00:14:50.039 And we feel real loneliness in that. 00:14:50.039 --> 00:14:52.399 We never have adult conversations. 00:14:52.399 --> 00:14:54.819 And there's a thousand ways to experience loneliness. 00:14:54.819 --> 00:14:56.079 Every single one of us is different. 00:14:56.079 --> 00:14:58.879 Every single one of us will experience loneliness at different times. 00:14:58.879 --> 00:15:02.159 And some of us chronic loneliness. 00:15:02.159 --> 00:15:08.159 And there's also what Jesus is going through here is cultural alienation, cultural loneliness, 00:15:08.159 --> 00:15:13.399 where you are holistically rejected within a culture that you should belong to. 00:15:13.399 --> 00:15:18.439 Some of you feel that when you are a Christian going to school, going to university, going 00:15:18.440 --> 00:15:23.800 to work, and you feel on the outside looking in all the time around your colleagues, some 00:15:23.800 --> 00:15:28.640 of us feel that especially maybe when we move from the village to the city. 00:15:28.640 --> 00:15:33.680 And we just think, I don't know that the city is a place where I can really connect. 00:15:33.680 --> 00:15:39.160 There's a million ways this can happen, this breaking, this lack of expectation in our 00:15:39.160 --> 00:15:40.560 interpersonal relationships. 00:15:40.560 --> 00:15:41.760 Why does it happen? 00:15:41.760 --> 00:15:43.760 Look at the cross. 00:15:43.760 --> 00:15:46.600 Why are we lonely? 00:15:46.600 --> 00:15:50.639 The reason that we're lonely is the reason that the cross happens. 00:15:50.639 --> 00:15:51.639 It's the same reason. 00:15:51.639 --> 00:15:58.159 And if you were around earlier this semester for our Genesis 1 and 2 series on foundations, 00:15:58.159 --> 00:16:02.080 we said that we are made for deep and abiding relationships with God to be in His joyful 00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:03.080 presence forever. 00:16:03.080 --> 00:16:07.920 And we said we are made for deep and abiding relationships with other people that are full 00:16:07.920 --> 00:16:08.920 of love and joy. 00:16:08.920 --> 00:16:12.519 And we are made for a relationship with the land and with our work and with every creature 00:16:12.519 --> 00:16:17.039 that God has made all meant to be full of fruition and delight. 00:16:17.039 --> 00:16:22.199 And as soon as Genesis 3 comes and rebellion, human rebellion, our rebellion enters into 00:16:22.199 --> 00:16:24.199 the scene. 00:16:24.199 --> 00:16:25.699 What happens? 00:16:25.699 --> 00:16:31.279 God comes and says, thorns and thistles, the ground will give to you when you try to work. 00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:34.159 The curse of the thorns, the theologians call it. 00:16:34.159 --> 00:16:36.679 And it means that we are now alienated from the land. 00:16:36.679 --> 00:16:38.639 We're alienated from the joy of good work. 00:16:38.639 --> 00:16:43.199 We're alienated from all the things we expect in our physical life. 00:16:43.199 --> 00:16:44.399 And what else happens? 00:16:44.399 --> 00:16:48.080 Adam turns to God and says, she did it. 00:16:48.080 --> 00:16:50.519 This is her fault entirely, the woman you made. 00:16:50.519 --> 00:16:56.919 And we immediately see the beginning of interpersonal human alienation, loneliness. 00:16:56.919 --> 00:17:01.120 And the very next story is that Cain murders his brother and Cain is exiled away from his 00:17:01.120 --> 00:17:02.360 family. 00:17:02.360 --> 00:17:06.920 And we see this development of alienation and alienation on top of alienation, loneliness 00:17:06.920 --> 00:17:11.039 arising and you can trace loneliness throughout the whole Old Testament. 00:17:11.039 --> 00:17:15.519 Jeremiah thrown into a pit for his faithfulness. 00:17:15.519 --> 00:17:19.160 Joseph imprisoned for two years because he was forgotten. 00:17:19.160 --> 00:17:22.480 So many stories of loneliness that arise from this alienation. 00:17:22.480 --> 00:17:30.840 And then most importantly, God comes into the garden and Adam and Eve hide and God says, 00:17:30.840 --> 00:17:32.880 where are you? 00:17:32.880 --> 00:17:39.560 You see, the real source of all loneliness is the break of spiritual communion that we 00:17:39.560 --> 00:17:40.560 were made for. 00:17:40.560 --> 00:17:42.320 It's spiritual alienation. 00:17:42.320 --> 00:17:46.280 Every bit of our loneliness comes from our alienation before God, that we were made for 00:17:46.280 --> 00:17:48.680 God, made to be in his presence. 00:17:48.680 --> 00:17:51.680 And our relationship to everything else flows out of that. 00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:55.960 And that break that we had from the beginning with God is the result, is the source of all 00:17:55.960 --> 00:17:59.400 loneliness, spiritual loneliness. 00:17:59.400 --> 00:18:06.720 If you're in a state of loneliness right now, it may be hard to let this sink down into 00:18:06.720 --> 00:18:12.480 your heart, but it's so important for you to hear and see, loneliness is the pain of 00:18:12.480 --> 00:18:19.160 alienation from the depth of relationships you were made for with God. 00:18:19.160 --> 00:18:22.400 Spiritual loneliness is the source of all loneliness. 00:18:22.400 --> 00:18:27.040 A lack of deep and abiding joy in the holy presence of the living God is the beginning 00:18:27.040 --> 00:18:29.200 of all loneliness. 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:30.640 Spiritual communion. 00:18:30.640 --> 00:18:35.039 And because of that, we experience loneliness in all sorts of other ways, all the way to 00:18:35.039 --> 00:18:36.920 the point of existential loneliness. 00:18:36.920 --> 00:18:42.600 And existential loneliness is when loneliness comes to the max, it comes to its highest height. 00:18:42.600 --> 00:18:50.240 And existential loneliness is a breakdown of peace in your heart to such a degree that 00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:56.279 you have a disregard for even yourself, where you think, I don't know that I'm a person 00:18:56.279 --> 00:18:59.399 that people can have relationships with. 00:18:59.399 --> 00:19:00.599 That's existential loneliness. 00:19:00.599 --> 00:19:06.279 It's when loneliness has become chronic and it's breeding upon the plasticity of the 00:19:06.279 --> 00:19:07.279 soul. 00:19:07.279 --> 00:19:14.720 The soul is plastic, not like Barbie plastic, but malleable. 00:19:14.720 --> 00:19:18.519 The more you feel the pain of something, the more you start believing the lies that it's 00:19:18.519 --> 00:19:20.160 true. 00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:24.720 And it's a cycle, a perpetual cycle, and then you experience existential loneliness, where 00:19:24.720 --> 00:19:27.360 you say, I'm not sure that I'm fit for relationships at all. 00:19:27.360 --> 00:19:28.799 And it's a lie. 00:19:28.799 --> 00:19:35.319 It's a lie, but it arises in the soul all the way from the condition of spiritual loneliness. 00:19:35.319 --> 00:19:36.319 That's the beginning. 00:19:36.319 --> 00:19:37.319 That's the beginning. 00:19:37.319 --> 00:19:40.059 Now, look at Jesus at the cross. 00:19:40.059 --> 00:19:43.839 They twisted a crown of thorns into his head. 00:19:43.839 --> 00:19:45.400 Why? 00:19:45.400 --> 00:19:49.960 Because he was experiencing in this moment the alienation that we all experience with 00:19:49.960 --> 00:19:52.160 the ground, with the land, with our work. 00:19:52.160 --> 00:19:56.040 He experienced the very curse of the thorns from Genesis 3. 00:19:56.040 --> 00:19:59.360 And the soldiers mock him and the priests mock him and the people mock him. 00:19:59.360 --> 00:20:03.120 Every level of society, his family abandoned him. 00:20:03.120 --> 00:20:07.880 Peter, his great apostle in the story we read at the beginning, left him. 00:20:07.880 --> 00:20:08.880 Why? 00:20:08.880 --> 00:20:12.040 Because he's experiencing the breakdown of all interpersonal relationship that we see 00:20:12.040 --> 00:20:14.040 from Genesis 3.4. 00:20:14.040 --> 00:20:15.560 What happens? 00:20:15.560 --> 00:20:17.360 The cry of dereliction. 00:20:17.360 --> 00:20:18.360 Why? 00:20:18.360 --> 00:20:19.960 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? 00:20:19.960 --> 00:20:27.000 And Jesus in that moment is confessing out loud to us so that we can see what's invisible, 00:20:27.000 --> 00:20:32.360 the total loss of all spiritual communion, utter spiritual loneliness. 00:20:32.360 --> 00:20:40.360 And because of that, he experiences utter existential loneliness, no peace, utter chaos, 00:20:40.360 --> 00:20:42.120 death, total death. 00:20:42.120 --> 00:20:47.960 Now, that means, secondly, how does Jesus come to counsel us today? 00:20:47.960 --> 00:20:52.600 Every single one of us will experience loneliness sometimes in our lives in different ways at 00:20:52.600 --> 00:20:54.559 different times. 00:20:54.559 --> 00:20:59.840 And so it's impossible, obviously, for us today, for me today, to talk about the specificities 00:20:59.840 --> 00:21:04.440 of fighting the battle of loneliness, because every single person is different. 00:21:04.440 --> 00:21:09.319 Every single person has to fight in a very specific way. 00:21:09.319 --> 00:21:13.880 But the most important single thing I think that you can come today and see is that Jesus, 00:21:13.880 --> 00:21:20.480 the wonderful counselor, comes to counsel you by becoming lonely. 00:21:20.480 --> 00:21:23.200 Jesus Christ, the lonely. 00:21:23.200 --> 00:21:25.080 Your Redeemer, the lonely. 00:21:25.080 --> 00:21:31.480 He counsels by compassion, because he became utterly lonely. 00:21:31.480 --> 00:21:36.320 You know, the incarnation, the Son of God, become flesh. 00:21:36.320 --> 00:21:40.440 Sometimes we get lonely when we move cities, when we move places, and we can't quite connect 00:21:40.440 --> 00:21:44.279 with people in the new place, talk about the ultimate move. 00:21:44.279 --> 00:21:46.160 Jesus came from heaven. 00:21:46.160 --> 00:21:49.440 From heaven, he came to seek us, heaven to earth. 00:21:49.440 --> 00:21:55.480 Boy, the cross, every alienation experienced in this moment. 00:21:55.480 --> 00:21:59.160 And if you think back through the Gospels, I mean, we could sit here for hours and talk 00:21:59.160 --> 00:22:00.440 about Jesus' loneliness. 00:22:00.440 --> 00:22:04.240 Jesus, John chapter 7, verse 5, was rejected by his family. 00:22:04.240 --> 00:22:07.480 Jesus, in Mark 14, was abandoned by all his friends. 00:22:07.480 --> 00:22:10.039 They couldn't help him in the Garden of Gethsemane. 00:22:10.039 --> 00:22:13.159 Remember that his hometown rejected him, Nazareth. 00:22:13.159 --> 00:22:19.200 Remember that in Matthew 26, the last of his great apostles left him. 00:22:19.200 --> 00:22:24.720 And in this moment, the climax of this scene is what theologians call the cry of dereliction 00:22:24.720 --> 00:22:26.319 down in verse 45. 00:22:26.319 --> 00:22:32.079 In verse 45, you can see from the six hour to the ninth, there was darkness over all 00:22:32.079 --> 00:22:33.079 the land. 00:22:33.079 --> 00:22:39.720 Now, in this moment, everything that was good about the world is coming to utter darkness. 00:22:39.720 --> 00:22:44.920 The darkness signals a complete turn on the purpose of creation. 00:22:44.920 --> 00:22:48.360 We see that in the Old Testament, and then we see it here at Jesus' death. 00:22:48.360 --> 00:22:53.000 The darkness of the land signals that there is an alienation about to be experienced, 00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:55.319 that we cannot understand. 00:22:55.319 --> 00:23:01.160 Lots of biblical thinkers have talked about it being the utter moment of decreation. 00:23:01.160 --> 00:23:07.160 The moment when all that was meant to happen in creation becomes chaos. 00:23:07.160 --> 00:23:11.279 Something that should never take place in this world happening at the cross. 00:23:11.279 --> 00:23:14.880 The cross is the one thing that should never have happened. 00:23:14.880 --> 00:23:23.080 God, the Creator, dying at the hands of His creation, darkness. 00:23:23.080 --> 00:23:30.120 In Psalm 22, we sang Psalm 22 earlier, and we sang the three great stanzas in Psalm 22 00:23:30.120 --> 00:23:31.960 that talk about this. 00:23:31.960 --> 00:23:34.200 Psalm 22 is a Psalm of David. 00:23:34.200 --> 00:23:38.840 So David is saying this Psalm, but what does David say? 00:23:38.840 --> 00:23:42.559 David says, verse one, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? 00:23:42.559 --> 00:23:48.440 Verse seven and eight, David says, my garments are stripped, I'm naked, my bones are broken, 00:23:48.440 --> 00:23:52.720 my heart melts, you lay me in dust in the ashes of death. 00:23:52.720 --> 00:23:55.880 We read all these things about David, but we look at David's life and think, this never 00:23:55.880 --> 00:23:58.120 happened to David. 00:23:58.120 --> 00:24:01.120 This is not anywhere in David's story. 00:24:01.119 --> 00:24:06.079 When you realize that you think, you come to this moment in Matthew 27, and Jesus quotes 00:24:06.079 --> 00:24:10.279 the words of Psalm 22, one, and he was stripped naked. 00:24:10.279 --> 00:24:14.959 And you realize that from the Old Testament, from the moment David spoke these words, it 00:24:14.959 --> 00:24:18.759 was the Son of God speaking these words about himself through David. 00:24:18.759 --> 00:24:22.599 This was always meant to be, it was always about Jesus from the moment, the time it was 00:24:22.599 --> 00:24:24.639 spoken. 00:24:24.639 --> 00:24:31.079 And when Jesus cries out in the cry of dereliction, my God, my God, this is covenant language. 00:24:31.079 --> 00:24:35.599 You can think about, if you know the Old Testament at all, all throughout the Old Testament, 00:24:35.599 --> 00:24:41.599 every time God would make a covenant, he would say, I will be your God, and you will be my 00:24:41.599 --> 00:24:43.159 people. 00:24:43.159 --> 00:24:49.919 And receiving that covenant meant you saying, the Lord is my God, my God. 00:24:49.919 --> 00:24:55.399 This is Jesus pronouncing this covenant reality from the Old Testament. 00:24:55.399 --> 00:24:58.679 And that means that Jesus came. 00:24:58.680 --> 00:25:02.279 Jesus came to be the Israel, Israel never was. 00:25:02.279 --> 00:25:06.600 Israel received this covenant promise in the Old Testament, but they could never obey. 00:25:06.600 --> 00:25:08.880 They always ran away. 00:25:08.880 --> 00:25:10.400 They are us. 00:25:10.400 --> 00:25:11.779 We receive these great promises. 00:25:11.779 --> 00:25:13.480 We could never keep them. 00:25:13.480 --> 00:25:14.480 We could never obey. 00:25:14.480 --> 00:25:20.960 Jesus came into the world, and he obeyed at every level, at every step. 00:25:20.960 --> 00:25:26.120 He is the only person in all of human history who deserved to have total spiritual communion 00:25:26.120 --> 00:25:27.519 with God. 00:25:27.519 --> 00:25:29.879 He's the only one. 00:25:29.879 --> 00:25:36.680 And when the clouds cover this place, when darkness comes down, this image of hell arises. 00:25:36.680 --> 00:25:40.799 We're being told here that Jesus Christ in this moment descended into the darkness of 00:25:40.799 --> 00:25:41.960 hell. 00:25:41.960 --> 00:25:46.279 The only person who never deserved that, it happened to him. 00:25:46.279 --> 00:25:48.000 He took it on. 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:55.839 And that means the only one who shouldn't have received this received utter loneliness, 00:25:55.839 --> 00:26:00.079 total spiritual loneliness, total isolation. 00:26:00.079 --> 00:26:03.279 He heard the deafening silence of divine wrath. 00:26:03.279 --> 00:26:05.839 He said, my God, my God, he heard nothing. 00:26:05.839 --> 00:26:06.959 He was left alone. 00:26:06.959 --> 00:26:10.439 His father broke relationship with him. 00:26:10.439 --> 00:26:12.359 And he died in hell. 00:26:12.359 --> 00:26:15.559 In utter agony here, he was excluded. 00:26:15.559 --> 00:26:16.720 He was alienated. 00:26:16.720 --> 00:26:19.519 He became truly and finally lonely. 00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:23.679 There is no greater degree of loneliness that can ever take place in anybody's life in this 00:26:23.680 --> 00:26:26.960 moment. 00:26:26.960 --> 00:26:33.680 John Stott writing about this, he says, I could never myself believe in God if it were 00:26:33.680 --> 00:26:35.480 not for the cross. 00:26:35.480 --> 00:26:42.279 In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who is immune to pain? 00:26:42.279 --> 00:26:45.720 I have entered many Buddhist temples in different countries. 00:26:45.720 --> 00:26:48.799 I have stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha. 00:26:48.799 --> 00:26:49.799 His legs crossed. 00:26:49.799 --> 00:26:50.799 His arms folded. 00:26:50.799 --> 00:26:52.400 His eyes closed. 00:26:52.400 --> 00:26:58.800 The ghost of a smile playing around his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the 00:26:58.800 --> 00:27:00.600 agonies of this world. 00:27:00.600 --> 00:27:06.040 But each time, after a while, I've had to turn my face away. 00:27:06.040 --> 00:27:11.720 And in imagination, I've turned instead to that lonely twisted, tortured figure on the 00:27:11.720 --> 00:27:15.240 cross, nails through his hands and his feet. 00:27:15.240 --> 00:27:22.000 Back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn pricks, mouth dry, intolerably 00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:26.640 thirsty, plunged into Godforsaken darkness. 00:27:26.640 --> 00:27:29.160 That is the God for me. 00:27:29.160 --> 00:27:32.539 He laid aside his immunity to pain. 00:27:32.539 --> 00:27:34.559 He entered the world of flesh and blood. 00:27:34.559 --> 00:27:37.319 He entered tears and death. 00:27:37.319 --> 00:27:39.400 He suffered for me, for us. 00:27:39.400 --> 00:27:43.940 Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of him. 00:27:43.940 --> 00:27:48.119 There is still a question mark on human suffering. 00:27:48.119 --> 00:27:54.919 And over it, we boldly stamp another mark, the cross, that symbolizes divine suffering. 00:27:54.919 --> 00:27:59.839 The other gods were strong, but thou wast weak. 00:27:59.839 --> 00:28:03.919 They rode, but thou didst stumble to the throne. 00:28:03.919 --> 00:28:07.899 But to our wounds, only God's wounds can speak. 00:28:07.899 --> 00:28:11.399 And not a God has wounds, but thou alone. 00:28:11.400 --> 00:28:19.920 Look, if Jesus had only died physically, he would not be an effectual savior for you. 00:28:19.920 --> 00:28:21.320 Jesus did not merely die physically. 00:28:21.320 --> 00:28:22.480 He died to the uttermost. 00:28:22.480 --> 00:28:27.519 He died a spiritual death, utter loneliness, all the way to the depths of hell. 00:28:27.519 --> 00:28:33.600 And so what makes the cross so powerful and so effective for us is his loneliness in this 00:28:33.600 --> 00:28:35.560 moment. 00:28:35.559 --> 00:28:41.480 He became utterly alienated, so you don't have to be forever. 00:28:41.480 --> 00:28:45.000 And let me move on to the final point, but let me say this. 00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.919 In the loneliness of Jesus, we've got to look up and say, I've never experienced loneliness 00:28:49.919 --> 00:28:55.559 like he did, but that is not to say, that is not for a second, for a moment to say, 00:28:55.559 --> 00:29:00.759 therefore, I can pull up my bootstraps and just be better about it, get over it. 00:29:00.759 --> 00:29:02.319 I'm lonely, yeah. 00:29:02.319 --> 00:29:03.319 But look at Jesus. 00:29:03.319 --> 00:29:04.319 No, not at all. 00:29:04.319 --> 00:29:10.919 When you realize Jesus experienced loneliness, loneliness, yeah, there it is. 00:29:10.919 --> 00:29:14.599 Nobody else ever has. 00:29:14.599 --> 00:29:19.919 You've got to say, it's because the pain of loneliness is so serious to him. 00:29:19.919 --> 00:29:24.879 It's because he took my loneliness so seriously that he entered into a loneliness I never 00:29:24.879 --> 00:29:25.879 have to. 00:29:25.879 --> 00:29:27.839 That's what you have to see here. 00:29:27.839 --> 00:29:32.759 Hebrews chapter four, verse 15 picks up on this and says these great words, we have a 00:29:32.759 --> 00:29:39.079 high priest, we have a high priest who suffered with us in every way. 00:29:39.079 --> 00:29:44.839 We have a high priest who is not unable to sympathize with our weakness. 00:29:44.839 --> 00:29:50.440 And the word weakness there means our emotional suffering. 00:29:50.440 --> 00:29:52.879 Sympathize means sympathos. 00:29:52.879 --> 00:29:55.879 He feels the feelings with us. 00:29:55.879 --> 00:29:58.519 Jesus Christ feels the feelings with you. 00:29:58.519 --> 00:30:03.079 He is not unable to suffer, to know what it's like, to feel the emotional turmoil of your 00:30:03.079 --> 00:30:04.279 life. 00:30:04.279 --> 00:30:06.240 He really does. 00:30:06.240 --> 00:30:13.759 You can say today, at least this, my Redeemer knows, my Redeemer knows. 00:30:13.759 --> 00:30:15.480 Lastly, what do you do? 00:30:15.480 --> 00:30:17.799 How do you fight? 00:30:17.799 --> 00:30:19.319 Try to be a bit practical. 00:30:19.319 --> 00:30:25.079 Again, can't be specific because every single one of us need specific counseling, specific 00:30:25.079 --> 00:30:29.159 reflection on the struggle and the plight of loneliness. 00:30:29.159 --> 00:30:31.399 Let me tell you that the cross gives you four things to do. 00:30:31.399 --> 00:30:32.679 They're very brief. 00:30:32.679 --> 00:30:37.519 First, enter the fight against loneliness. 00:30:37.519 --> 00:30:39.039 There's no magic bullet for anxiety. 00:30:39.039 --> 00:30:41.199 There's no magic bullet for getting out of boredom. 00:30:41.199 --> 00:30:44.199 There's no magic bullet for loneliness. 00:30:44.199 --> 00:30:49.720 I think the first thing to fight, the first way you can fight is to really meditate on 00:30:49.720 --> 00:30:54.960 and contemplate the reality of the cause of your alienation. 00:30:54.960 --> 00:30:59.720 So there's all sorts of causes of loneliness and alienation in our lives, and they're different 00:30:59.720 --> 00:31:06.039 for every one of us, but you've got to be willing to truly reflect on the deepest cause 00:31:06.039 --> 00:31:09.319 of alienation and that spiritual alienation and loneliness. 00:31:09.319 --> 00:31:15.440 That's a separation from the living God, a break with spiritual communion. 00:31:15.440 --> 00:31:17.319 To our anxiety, Jesus, what does Jesus say? 00:31:17.319 --> 00:31:20.840 He says, don't be anxious, little one. 00:31:20.839 --> 00:31:28.639 Speak first the kingdom of God, fight to care about the kingdom of God more than your career, 00:31:28.639 --> 00:31:32.480 more than the stuff you can lose in this world, more than your money, and that's the real 00:31:32.480 --> 00:31:34.000 beginning of the fight against anxiety. 00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:35.000 What does he say to boredom? 00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.480 He says against boredom, don't be apathetic, fight apathy, fight purposelessness, fight 00:31:39.480 --> 00:31:45.959 disgust for the present by realizing you have been given friendship with God. 00:31:45.959 --> 00:31:49.599 You have a purpose you've been appointed to something that's so enormous and so grand 00:31:49.599 --> 00:31:53.679 and so meaningful that you don't have time for boredom. 00:31:53.679 --> 00:31:54.679 What does he say to loneliness? 00:31:54.679 --> 00:32:02.199 He says, fight your spiritual loneliness by first recognizing that your spiritual alienation 00:32:02.199 --> 00:32:06.879 has truly and forever been satisfied in Jesus Christ, that you really have been offered 00:32:06.879 --> 00:32:09.079 spiritual communion. 00:32:09.079 --> 00:32:10.879 The feelings of loneliness are very real. 00:32:10.879 --> 00:32:16.199 It's a very real problem, and it is not your permanent condition. 00:32:16.199 --> 00:32:18.000 You have been offered spiritual communion. 00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:23.039 That has to lead us to something like saying loneliness is not good. 00:32:23.039 --> 00:32:29.519 It is a product of alienation, but there is a good in loneliness, an opportunity. 00:32:29.519 --> 00:32:34.279 The writers who write books about loneliness talk about the good of the restlessness that 00:32:34.279 --> 00:32:36.200 we feel in loneliness. 00:32:36.200 --> 00:32:39.240 Here's what they mean by that. 00:32:39.240 --> 00:32:41.240 Loneliness is inescapable in this life. 00:32:41.240 --> 00:32:42.240 That's really what they mean. 00:32:42.240 --> 00:32:43.240 Loneliness is inescapable. 00:32:43.240 --> 00:32:47.220 There are times that it has to be there, that it will be there in this bruised and broken 00:32:47.220 --> 00:32:51.120 world, but there's a good in it. 00:32:51.120 --> 00:32:52.279 Here it is. 00:32:52.279 --> 00:32:59.519 It helps us to recognize that there is an inner life, you, the true you, the soul, that nobody 00:32:59.519 --> 00:33:00.880 really knows. 00:33:00.880 --> 00:33:03.039 Do you know that? 00:33:03.039 --> 00:33:05.039 That nobody really knows you? 00:33:05.039 --> 00:33:07.000 Words of comfort. 00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:10.200 Nobody knows you, and you don't even know yourself. 00:33:10.200 --> 00:33:13.319 Not really, not ultimately, not to the bottom. 00:33:13.319 --> 00:33:15.279 Only God knows you. 00:33:15.279 --> 00:33:16.600 Truly. 00:33:16.599 --> 00:33:20.240 There are aspects of your soul you do not yet know about. 00:33:20.240 --> 00:33:24.559 You need other people in your life to tell you about them sometimes, but not even they 00:33:24.559 --> 00:33:25.559 can see. 00:33:25.559 --> 00:33:30.679 Only, only God sees the depths of your inner life, and that means that in the midst of 00:33:30.679 --> 00:33:36.879 the pain of loneliness, it can drive us, it can help us to sense the restlessness of our 00:33:36.879 --> 00:33:41.919 longing for God, that God knows us, God knows me. 00:33:41.919 --> 00:33:42.919 Truly. 00:33:42.919 --> 00:33:44.359 He's the only one. 00:33:44.359 --> 00:33:47.759 Here is a homelessness that you've got to experience in this life. 00:33:47.759 --> 00:33:52.079 There's a restlessness that will never go away in the life of this world, and it's got 00:33:52.079 --> 00:33:54.679 to lead us to sense, I belong to God. 00:33:54.679 --> 00:33:56.439 I'm made for him. 00:33:56.439 --> 00:34:01.199 Steve DeWitt is one writer who's written a couple books about loneliness and his own 00:34:01.199 --> 00:34:05.159 wrestling lifelong chronic loneliness, and this is what he says. 00:34:05.159 --> 00:34:11.199 When a wave of loneliness hits me, I try to consciously think, why do I feel this way? 00:34:11.199 --> 00:34:13.920 I feel this way because I was made for God. 00:34:13.920 --> 00:34:15.840 I say that to myself. 00:34:15.840 --> 00:34:20.840 Following the counsel of Elizabeth Elliott, I turned my loneliness into solitude, and 00:34:20.840 --> 00:34:23.119 I turned my solitude into prayer. 00:34:23.119 --> 00:34:26.480 And in this way, loneliness ceases to be the devil to me. 00:34:26.480 --> 00:34:32.280 Actually, it becomes a painful guide, but this is only true when I respond to it in 00:34:32.280 --> 00:34:34.519 the way that God intends for me. 00:34:34.519 --> 00:34:39.440 If I go on a shopping spree, which I'm prone to do, I sit astew over the person who left 00:34:39.440 --> 00:34:47.440 me all those years ago, I stunt loneliness, profound ability to deepen my walk with God, 00:34:47.440 --> 00:34:51.119 to draw me to the one I belong to. 00:34:51.119 --> 00:34:53.119 Third, Louis, C.S. 00:34:53.119 --> 00:34:58.639 Lewis talks about breaking the cycle of the desire for the inner ring, looking at the 00:34:58.639 --> 00:35:01.039 example of the cross. 00:35:01.039 --> 00:35:06.960 When you've let Jesus become your redeemer, the one who's rescued you out of all alienation, 00:35:06.960 --> 00:35:08.519 then he can also become your example. 00:35:08.519 --> 00:35:10.159 The cross becomes your example. 00:35:10.159 --> 00:35:12.440 And this is what Louis says. 00:35:12.440 --> 00:35:18.519 This is a paraphrase, but he says, one of the dangers of deep desire for that ring, that 00:35:18.519 --> 00:35:23.519 person, that circle, that relationship, that we always hunger for that, that, that, one 00:35:23.519 --> 00:35:28.960 of the real dangers, he says, is it will create the fear of always being on the outside, of 00:35:28.960 --> 00:35:35.759 being lonely, and it may prevent us from using the great gifts God has given us and taking 00:35:35.760 --> 00:35:41.040 hold of the relationships we actually do have around us in our lives. 00:35:41.040 --> 00:35:45.520 And so Louis says, one of the greatest ways to fight loneliness is to become a servant, 00:35:45.520 --> 00:35:51.360 is to seek servanthood, is to dive headfirst into servanthood, and using your gifts, and 00:35:51.360 --> 00:35:56.080 looking around and saying, I want to give myself away to other people. 00:35:56.080 --> 00:36:00.520 And it's oftentimes in that activity of giving yourself away and really focusing on that, 00:36:00.520 --> 00:36:04.720 that the relationships actually do begin to emerge all the more. 00:36:04.719 --> 00:36:09.679 He talks, one writer, Lydia Brownback, she talks about how we can become our own worst 00:36:09.679 --> 00:36:11.959 enemy when we experience loneliness. 00:36:11.959 --> 00:36:17.719 We can enter into a downward spiral of negativity, experiencing the plasticity of the soul, where 00:36:17.719 --> 00:36:22.719 what we believe about ourselves reshapes us to the point where we stay away from people 00:36:22.719 --> 00:36:25.759 and don't want to use our gifts. 00:36:25.759 --> 00:36:29.159 And she says that instead of that, we've got to fight, we've got to get out of our heads, 00:36:29.159 --> 00:36:31.519 we've got to say, I'm made to be a servant. 00:36:31.519 --> 00:36:36.639 The cross gets me out of my head, out of myself, and pushes me to give myself away. 00:36:36.639 --> 00:36:37.639 It's a way to fight. 00:36:37.639 --> 00:36:40.360 It's a way to fight. 00:36:40.360 --> 00:36:43.199 Just a word before the final point. 00:36:43.199 --> 00:36:51.719 To those who are not presently lonely, beware of existing in a closed inner ring. 00:36:51.719 --> 00:36:56.239 And know that the church means, the existence of the church today means that no one in this 00:36:56.239 --> 00:36:59.920 community should ever be without a great friendship. 00:36:59.920 --> 00:37:02.200 No one should ever be without a great friendship. 00:37:02.200 --> 00:37:05.079 And to the degree that we are, we've got closed inner rings, that we've got to break. 00:37:05.079 --> 00:37:09.559 We've got to be aware if we're not lonely, are we creating loneliness? 00:37:09.559 --> 00:37:20.360 Lastly, Hebrews 4.15, Jesus sympathizes, feels, sympathizes, feels with you the feelings of 00:37:20.360 --> 00:37:22.240 loneliness. 00:37:22.240 --> 00:37:25.280 You have a redeemer that does that. 00:37:25.280 --> 00:37:31.760 And you don't only have a wonderful counselor that feels loneliness, that felt loneliness. 00:37:31.760 --> 00:37:37.080 Boy, if that was it, it wouldn't be good news. 00:37:37.080 --> 00:37:41.000 It's not just that Jesus felt loneliness. 00:37:41.000 --> 00:37:44.880 It's that he's not only a wonderful counselor, he's also mighty God. 00:37:44.880 --> 00:37:49.720 He has the power to break it, to end it, to put it away forever. 00:37:49.720 --> 00:37:53.320 When you look to the cross at your redeemer who experienced utter loneliness for you, 00:37:53.320 --> 00:37:58.720 you can say, I have loneliness, I may have chronic loneliness, but joy is your permanent 00:37:58.720 --> 00:38:00.680 condition. 00:38:00.680 --> 00:38:02.960 Communion is your permanent condition. 00:38:02.960 --> 00:38:06.600 Utter and abiding relationship is your permanent condition. 00:38:06.600 --> 00:38:11.080 And so the words of Fannie Crosby, the great hymn writer from the states in the 19th century, 00:38:11.080 --> 00:38:13.840 she says this. 00:38:13.840 --> 00:38:15.960 He knows it all. 00:38:15.960 --> 00:38:16.960 That's the title. 00:38:16.960 --> 00:38:24.639 A heart bereaved and lonely whose brightest dreams have fled, whose hopes like summer 00:38:24.639 --> 00:38:31.599 roses are withered, crushed, and have fled. 00:38:31.599 --> 00:38:39.440 Though link by link is broken and tears unseen may fall, look up amid thy sorrow to him who 00:38:39.440 --> 00:38:40.599 knows it all. 00:38:40.599 --> 00:38:46.000 O clean to thy redeemer, thy Savior, brother, and friend. 00:38:46.000 --> 00:38:50.239 Even trust his promise to keep thee to the end. 00:38:50.239 --> 00:38:51.239 Let us pray. 00:38:51.239 --> 00:38:55.039 Father, we ask now that you would come and speak to the plight of the lonely. 00:38:55.039 --> 00:38:57.800 And we thank you, O Jesus, that you know what it's like. 00:38:57.800 --> 00:39:03.719 We ask, O Lord, in your mighty power that you would help those with great comfort, peace, 00:39:03.719 --> 00:39:11.039 and ultimately the pursuit of the permanent condition of joy to find relief in this life. 00:39:11.039 --> 00:39:17.679 Even until then, Lord, Holy Spirit, come and give us help to enter into the fight. 00:39:17.679 --> 00:39:19.920 O God, we ask for that. 00:39:19.920 --> 00:39:24.079 Come and strengthen us by this supper we are about to receive by this great meal of communion. 00:39:24.079 --> 00:39:26.679 Lord, commune with us in these next moments. 00:39:26.679 --> 00:39:28.719 And we pray for that in Jesus' name. 00:39:28.719 --> 00:39:41.359 Amen.