Pilgrim No.5 The Problem of Loneliness

Then I'm going to read a few verses from Ephesians 5. You remember the story of how the prophet Elijah is fearful for his life because he's taken on the forces of the government, the forces of the crown, as he's endeavored to stem the flood tide of Baal worship, which was infiltrating into Israel. And because he's done this, I say he's imperiled his life and therefore he's had to escape, and he's now in a state of despondency and despair. And it's at this point, this crucial point in the life of Elijah that we take up the reading.

1 Kings 19 verse 4. But he himself went today's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper tree. And he, Elijah, requested for himself that he might die and said, It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my father's. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him and said unto him, Arise and eat.

He looked and behold, there was a cake, bacon on the coals, and a cruise of water at his head. And he did eat and drink and laid him down again. The angel of the Lord came again the second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee.

And he arose and did eat and drink and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb, the mount of God. He came thither unto a cave and lodged there. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou hear, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts.

For the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword. And I, even I, only am left, and they seek my life to take it away. Now from Ephesians chapter 5, and I'm reading from the 22nd verse.

The Apostle is putting down certain injunctions, certain teachings for the Christians at Ephesus. He goes on to speak about this wife-husband relationship. Ephesians 5 22.

Wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but it should be holy and without blemish.

So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself, for no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord, the church, for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh.

This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself, and the wives see that she reverence her husband. Amen.

I wonder if you've ever played a game or listened in on the radio to a quiz program when a series of nouns has been put down, and you've been asked to select which is the odd man out. A list of words, and most of them have something in common, and yet one has not. One is an exception.

Well, I dare to suggest that if you looked through the folder which indicated the program for our Bible school this session, and you studied the names of the problems that I wanted to inquire into, you might well have arrived at the conclusion that the odd one out is the one that we're going to look at tonight, loneliness. That perhaps doesn't strike some of you here as being a problem, and you might in any case, even if you do accept that it is a problem, wonder what on earth the Bible has to say about such a topic as this. Now, I reckon that the Bible has a great deal of relevance for my life, no matter what experience I might be going through.

This is one of the fascinations of the Bible to me. And when I look into the Old Testament and into the New Testament, as I have had occasion to do in recent weeks when considering this subject, I have felt assured that I have a great deal of warrant to engage in such a study as the study of the problem of loneliness tonight, because there are many occasions in the Old Testament and in the New Testament when men of God were positively lonely. I suggest that you read through or reflect upon the story of Joseph, and if loneliness didn't describe his condition as he awaited the good pleasure or the evil pleasure of his brothers having been thrust into a pit, if loneliness didn't describe his condition when he was sold to the Midianite tradesmen and they took him down to Egypt, if loneliness didn't describe his condition as he languished in one of the dungeons of Pharaoh, then I don't know what loneliness really means.

And not only Joseph, how about Job? Was there a man more lonely than Job as he sits near a refuse dump and reflects upon the sorrows that have come into his life, the way that he's been stripped of his influence, his prestige, his material possessions, and part of his family circle? And what about Elijah? An incident from his life I've already put before you as I've read the Word of God earlier this evening. Is he not the epitome of a lonely man as he says to the Lord, I, even I only am left? And you're going to the New Testament, and would you not say that the Apostle Paul was lonely on occasions when he was incarcerated in the dungeons of some of the Roman authorities? If you don't think that man was ever lonely, then it shows you haven't read his epistles. Because in the epistle that he writes to Timothy, the first epistle, he makes reference to a period of loneliness when no one stood by him, though he does go on to qualify the fact that the Lord was there, and that helped the situation immeasurably.

And what about the aged John on the Isle of Patmos? Would you like for your retirement to be thrust into, placed on a Mediterranean island with no one else around, you just alone with your thoughts? Oh, I say that in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, there are many examples that could be elicited and placed together to underline the fact that loneliness was a problem that some of the men whom God used had to face. But enough of the Old Testament and the New Testament, because those are referring to centuries, these incidents are referring to centuries gone by. What about today? Well, I would argue that loneliness is one of the greatest plagues that there is in Western civilization.

It affects the rich and the poor, the ignorant and the educated, the young and the old. There may be a difference in the population of bed-sitter land in London and bed-sitter land in Worthing, inasmuch as the former is generally populated by younger people and the latter by older, but the common denominator is this, and loneliness can be a killer. You remember it was Elijah who, in the fit of depression caused by his isolation, said to the Lord, take my life from me.

I don't want to live anymore. And alas, the twentieth century, the sophisticated society that we have in this country of ours has known many suicides prompted by the fact that people were lonely. Nobody to talk to, nobody to care.

What does religion to say about this? Well, according to Professor Whitehead, religion is what a man does with his solitariness. Now, I don't like that as a definition of religion. I think it's inadequate, but there's a germ of truth inasmuch as, if I have an understanding of biblical Christianity, if I have an inkling of what it's on about, it must relate to every experience that I have in life, so it must say something to me when I feel lonely.

So to this extent, I would agree with Whitehead that there is something to be said for his definition. Religion is what a man does with his solitariness, because when I feel alone, and when I feel that no one else understands, when I feel that I'm isolated, surely to goodness, if the New Testament message is saying anything to me at all, it says that there is a friend who will never leave me and never forsake me, a friend who will make the most horrific situation bearable and durable, because he's by my side. So you see, I think in these opening few minutes that we've spent together just mooting over the subject that we have in mind, I have justified the reason for placing this in front of you as a topic that requires inquiry, and I have justified the fact that Christianity has something to say to the lonely condition that often confronts people in the 20th century.

And there's one other observation I want to make in my opening preamble, and I'm not so concerned to follow my notes this evening, they're just something for you to take away, to mull over at your convenience if you feel that they will be of any help. Something else that I want to say about loneliness, and it is this, it's to remind everyone here that though Christianity is addressed to the individual, the very outworking of the Christian gospel in its infancy, in the New Testament period, and still down the centuries up to the 20th century, the outworking is to create communities. Communities that we refer to as a church, or the local church.

And if you could bring all these communities together, if you could form an amalgam, if you could bring them into one whole, do you know how you describe it? The body of Christ on earth. Now that's a fantastic expression, not plucked from my imagination, but taken from the Bible. The church of Jesus Christ on earth, the amalgam of every Christian, is His body.

That means that I have an intimate relationship to Jesus Christ. And if you follow the logic of my argument through, and it's a simple point that I'm trying to underline, it also means that you and I are intimately related, because we're in the same family, we're in the same body. So we can go a little bit further in our reasoning this evening and say this, that ideally speaking, the church of Jesus Christ and the local expression of that church in a given area, like here in Worthing Tabernacle, should be a factor that can absorb loneliness, should be able to eradicate loneliness in the lives of individual people.

Now I'm bringing before you what is the ideal situation, but alas there's often a great gulf, a great disparity between the actual and the ideal. And most of us would admit that in our society at large, and alas within Christian societies, within local churches, loneliness sometimes does exist. Well with all this in mind, let's come to the word loneliness itself, or let me express that a little more accurately.

Let's examine the condition of loneliness and try to work out what are the contributory factors that cause people to feel isolated and on their own, and perhaps unwanted, unloved, and therefore life has no purpose for them. Well I've not tried to analyze this in any psychological fashion. I share with you thoughts that are, that have come to my own mind as I've reflected upon the subject, and I've made a distinction which I think is acceptable, I trust it is, between two various conditions that contribute towards loneliness.

Two groups of circumstances, if you like, that contribute towards the condition of loneliness. And the first I've labeled external, external circumstances, external conditions. What do I mean by that? Well let's take as our illustration from the Bible, before I give you a modern illustration, the case of Elijah.

He was lonely. Why was Elijah lonely? Well because political circumstances had thrust him out on a tangent. Religious circumstances also had forced him out.

He had declared war, metaphorically speaking, against the royal household. Why? Well Ahab had married Jezebel. Jezebel was a Phoenician princess, and she was an evangelist of the Baal religion.

And she was spreading this heresy, this Phoenician religion, throughout the whole of Israel. And Elijah objected. And the net result was that he fell foul of Jezebel, and Jezebel used her authority, used her power to discomfort Elijah.

And so he escaped for his life into the wilderness. And in the depths of depression, having escaped for his life, he suddenly came to the conclusion that life in any case wasn't worth living, because there was nobody around who believed what he believed. Here he is, an isolated person, and he wants to contract out of life.

External circumstances, you see, created this condition. You can't blame Elijah. It's not that he was an unusual character, a difficult person to get on with.

It was just external circumstances, I say, that put him out on a tangent, and he doesn't want to live anymore. Now you get a similar sort of situation today in the 20th century. The circumstances themselves may vary, but the principle is the same.

People geographically are removed from others. Take, for example, a person who's ill, the person who has to live in one room here in Worthing, and there are hundreds of them, perhaps even thousands. And these people feel very lonely.

It's not that they can't get on with other people, it's not that they can't engage in the life of a small community, it's just that advanced years has brought its own limitations, and no longer can they have the friendship of other people as they would wish. And I say that these conditions can make for loneliness. These circumstances produce it.

But then there's what I would call internal circumstances that produce this condition. What do I mean by that? Well, you see, you can be lonely in a crowd. Now this is a strange thing, but it's basically true, and I don't think I have to spend much time convincing you of the fact.

I reckon you've latched onto it immediately. You can be in a crowd, and you can be absolutely lonely. When I was studying for some examinations at London University in education, I had to read, at least a little bit, into the subject of psychology, educational psychology, particularly as it affected boys and girls.

And any education psychologist will tell you that you'll always find with any class of youngsters, thirty or forty as the case may be, the lonely one. The kids will form into little groups, little cliques of their own, little clans, but there's always that person who stands out, and they've got no one to whom they can relate. There's something about their personality that causes them to always be on their own.

Well, I say you can be lonely in a community. You can be lonely in a church community, and that's a terrible thing, but we have to admit that this is true. There are a number of factors that contribute towards this condition.

It may not entirely be the fault of the people who come along to the local church. You may be shy and reticent, not easy for some people to engage in conversation. Some are born extroverts, others have an introverted nature, and it's very difficult for them, I say, to communicate to other people.

Or it may be that loneliness comes even to a member of a local church because they feel that their colleagues, fellow Christians, have let them down. There's been some misunderstanding, and you know how it is, the walls go up, the barriers are built round, and there you are all on your own. And I say that you can be lonely even in a church community.

Ideally speaking, you shouldn't be, but alas, most churches are a long way off the ideal. But you know, I could develop this point even further and say this, that you can be lonely in a marriage relationship. You can be lonely in a relationship that you may have cultivated over the years with one particular person.

Maybe someone of the same sex was very, very close to you. Maybe you've lived with them, and maybe you've made house together. But you can become lonely.

How? Well, you see, over the past, during the passing of time, your ability to communicate somehow, well, it's deteriorated. The very cement that held your relationship together, it's got worn. I don't know very much about building, but I do remember back home, my father on one occasion had to have our house pointed.

Not painted, pointed. And I gather from your chuckle that you know what pointing is. It's replacing the cement that's worn away.

The weather's come along, and the cement has crumbled, and there's a half-inch gap between the bricks, and that needs to be cemented up. It needs to be pointed. Now I'm saying that a relationship, a marriage relationship, a relationship between Christians on a very, very close level needs to be pointed.

There needs to be that cement always being reapplied. And if it's not, well, the bricks, so to speak, retaining my building metaphor, the bricks come apart. They're not held together.

And ere long, instead of having one big unit, you've got several units. Or in a relationship of two people that should be a unity, you've got two folks who have no common denominator at all. And the net result, I say, is loneliness.

So you get the breaking up of friendships, or the breaking up of marriages. And I say this, that there are these internal factors that can contribute to a state of loneliness. So a person could be lonely in a community, lonely in a local church, or even albeit lonely in a married relationship, in a relationship of marriage.

Well then, having looked at these circumstances that contribute towards loneliness, that make up the condition of loneliness, let's now approach the subject from the point of view of the local church, and to see what positive action we can take as people in a church to ensure that, as best we can, no one is lonely. And then let's apply our attention to folks who are going through a lonely experience, because there perhaps are some here this evening who are feeling extremely lonely, to work out from the Bible certain principles that perhaps will help us to rectify the situation, or to endure the loneliness that we suffer from. As far as the local church is concerned, what's the teaching of the Scripture in its responsibility to create a loving community, so that everyone feels that they have a vital part to play, everyone feels that they're loved by their fellow Christian? Well, as I point out in your notes, one of the great words that you find in the New Testament is the word fellowship.

And the word fellowship refers to that atmosphere that should pervade every community of local Christians. Fellowship is a warm word. Fellowship describes the intimate relationship that children of God ought to enjoy, not only directly from God Himself to the Christian, but from one Christian to another Christian.

And in one sense, the fact as to whether a church is a New Testament church or not can be judged by the quality of the fellowship that that church enjoys, that the Christians who gather there enjoy week by week or day by day, for that matter. Fellowship, I say, is a vital ingredient that is to be found within the local church. And if this fellowship is of a New Testament quality, then it goes a long way to erasing from our experience this condition of loneliness.

But how do you cultivate fellowship? Because this is something that certainly is to grow within the Christian church. God certainly gives a gift. God, if you like, plants the seed, but that seed is to be cultivated.

And there are certain things that you and I can do to improve the quality of fellowship that exists here in the Worthing Tabernacle. And I've listed a number of practical things that we can all engage in to preserve and to make better the fellowship that we enjoy. And no prizes for anyone who has anticipated these responsibilities that are ours.

They're obvious from a cursory reading of the Word of God. The local church is to be a prayerful church. We are to pray one for another.

The epistle to the Ephesians, chapter 6 and verse 18, you discover there the injunction of the Apostle Paul to the church at Ephesus. And he tells people, pray always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. In other words, you're not just praying for yourself, you're praying for all the other people who come along to the church.

This is one of the reasons why in a large fellowship such as ours, we have a prayer diary. Because unless you've got a phenomenal memory, which a pastor certainly doesn't have, you'll find it very, very difficult to retain the names of all the people. And so we try to encourage prayer for everyone who comes along to the tabernacle.

We make a list of the members. It's not that we're only concerned to pray for the members, we'll pray for everyone who comes into the church, who we get to know. And I say that this prayer is vital for the cultivation of and the improvement of our fellowship.

And then another word which I've set down to try to make these three or four ingredients, if you like, that produce fellowship to rhyme, another word is careful. And by careful there I mean being full of care, full of care for other people. This is again what Paul is enjoining to the Ephesians in the verse that I've just read.

He says that we are to pray for one another, and then he says with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. And he says watching thereto with all perseverance. What does that mean? Well, you are to look at your Christian friend, your Christian brother or sister, and be observant as you cultivate your friendship.

And you know when something is wrong with a person. They may look a little bit under the weather, a little bit drawn. They may give the appearance that they've got certain burdens, certain worries upon them.

And what do you do? Well, you show your care in a very diplomatic fashion. You offer help, if you can offer help at all. But certainly you show your loving concern for your brother and sister in Christ Jesus.

I quoted from Ephesians, let me quote from Romans, a very lovely verse here. Romans 15 and verse 1, we then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves. That almost sounds like a father telling his child to be good mannered, doesn't it? Well, this is good because the Apostle Paul is speaking under the inspiration of the Spirit.

And he says to Christian people who want to foster a spirit of fellowship, well bear the infirmities of the weak and don't just have a concern to please yourselves, but rather be observant concerning the needs of your brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Be prayerful, be careful, be hospitable. Yes, hospitality is one of the things that helps to create this spirit of fellowship and thereby to annihilate the condition of loneliness.

Scripture enjoins us that it's our responsibilities as Christian people to be hospitable. Our Lord was hospitable, was he not? Does not the feeding of the 5,000 indicate this? He was concerned to meet the needs of people and as best he could. And for him in the most remarkable fashion, in a wonderful way, he satisfied their needs.

Now God has given to some of us lovely homes, so what do we do? Turn our homes into a museum piece to exhibit what we have? No, God forbid. Our homes are given to us by the Lord for what? To use. For our own family, that family life is to be preserved and cherished, yes, but these homes of ours are to be used for all God's children.

And if you disagree with that proposition, then I'm bold enough to say, in the name of the Lord, you understand very little about New Testament Christianity. You're not your own, your house is not your own, your car is not your own, nothing that you have is your own. It's given to you on trust by the Lord, and God commands his people to be hospitable people.

There's a very interesting scripture in 1 Timothy chapter 4. The apostle Paul is talking about widows who need to be helped by the local church because advancement in years and not having the benefits of the social services that we have today means that a number of these widows were not looked after very well, not by the state at any rate, but they had to be looked after by the church. I said 1 Timothy 4, actually it's 1 Timothy 5. Now when Paul describes the qualities of these Christian widows, he reflects upon what these people were like during the time when their husband was alive, during the time when they ran their own families, when they ran their own home unit. And what does he say in the 10th verse? Well he says, these widows that you are now looking after in their advanced years, they must be well reported of for good works if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints' feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work.

Well that's a very interesting scripture, isn't it? Paul is not talking about some official in the church, he's talking about an ordinary church member, and he looks for this quality of hospitality, and he says a woman who's done this when she had her own home, my she qualifies admirably for hospitality to be given to her by the church in the later years of her life. So I say that one of the things that that fosters fellowship is hospitality, and then also we are to be reliable, reliable as Christian people in the affection that we have one towards another. You know it is said of our Lord Jesus Christ that having loved his own, he loved them to the end.

And this is the sort of love that you and I are to show to each other, a love that is constant, a love that is enduring. People don't like to be dropped in friendship, it's a very hurtful thing. And when we have met the acquaintance of a Christian brother or sister, then we cherish that relationship, we endeavor to improve it, we endeavor to cultivate it, because this is pleasing to the Lord.

Well I say all these are things in which the local church can practically engage. Prayerfulness, carefulness, hospitality, reliability, every ingredient causing fellowship to be the final result. And let us ensure that here in the tabernacle we're putting into practice these biblical injunctions.

But what about the lonely person himself or herself? What can we say? What biblical teaching can we adduce which will be of help to someone who's going through a lonely experience? Well let's immediately confess that there's no simple prescription that we can write out and say, now if you live your life by this particular formula, all loneliness will there from that moment on be abolished. But there are certain things which we can most definitely do if we feel that we are going through a lonely patch, if maybe we're living on our own and we do not have the intimate fellowship that some people who have families enjoy. There are, I say, certain things that we can do.

We can ensure, for example, that we befriend other people. The writer of the book of Proverbs says that he who would make friends must first show himself to be friendly. And you know, if you're lonely, it's a pretty good bet on your part to make that there is someone else who is lonely.

And when two lonely people get together, you can have fellowship and that fellowship can banish the loneliness. So one of the things to engage in practically when you feel lonely is to look to other people too who are in the same condition and perhaps in a more serious one than yourself and endeavor to befriend them. And then perhaps your loneliness has come about because of the regrets that you've had in your life.

Maybe you've got a chip on your shoulder. Maybe a chip on your shoulder against God for the way that he's led you in your life. You didn't quite want to be led along this line.

Maybe you wanted to get married and marriage never came your way. Or maybe you got married and you wish that you never had. And yet there you are, you're stuck.

What are you going to do? Are you going to feed yourself on regrets? Are you going to say, oh if only I could have my time again. If only I could go back a decade or two decades. My, the decisions that I made then I'd have made completely different ones and I wouldn't be in the situation that I find myself in today.

Do you know that's very unbiblical if that's your attitude. Why do I say that? Well because I believe in the sovereignty of God. Because the Bible says all things work together for good to them that love God, to those who are be called according to his purpose.

God directs our lives. God allows situations, even though sometimes they're unpleasant ones, to come. And God does all this for our ultimate good.

And to feed ourselves upon regrets I say, well it just aggravates the condition of loneliness. And what can we say to our friends who are bereaved? And here one speaks with tenderness and love in one's heart, realizing that these are experiences that are heart-rending for many people. And as I was saying last week, quoting a little proverb, he laughs at scars who never bore a wound.

And our hearts do go out to friends who have been bereaved. You cannot live with another person for twenty or thirty years, perhaps more or less, and suddenly steal yourself to the condition in which you are now in. Bereavement can bring loneliness, most often it does.

But it also brings with it a tremendous challenge. What is that challenge? Well it's the challenge to make the most of the life that is left to you. To make the most of it in honor of the one who has been called home to glory before you went.

For how would he, how would she have you live your life? As someone who's morose, as someone who's despondent, as someone who is depressed? Is this the way that they would like you to be living out your life during the months and years that are left to you? Would it not be more of a tribute to them and more of a tribute to your Lord as best you can by the aid of the Holy Spirit to live the life that is meaningful, that is purposeful, that is filled with activity in which you minister to other people, or in conditions that require your services and your love? So I say that along these lines, perhaps some help will come to the person who is lonely because of his bereavement, recognizing that they're not separated from their loved ones forever, but just for a brief while, and that it is a challenge to use those months or years as best one can as a tribute to the one who's gone on before. And then we make the suggestion, and very humbly and lovingly, that to develop a varied program is one of the best ways of absorbing or of abolishing loneliness. Life is an art.

It needs great expertise to be lived successfully, but the Christian doesn't live his life on his own initiative. He knows that part of the indwelling Holy Spirit and the Spirit who is within the Christian can help to make that life meaningful and challenging. When we were in Polpero a few days ago, I was looking around some of the art shops.

Actually, the shops were in Loo, which is just a few miles from Polpero, and I kept seeing pictures done by a lady who lives in Polpero who always signs her pictures Vashti, because this happens to be her Christian name, a name plucked from the Old Testament. I was reading a little blurb about this artist Vashti, and the description of her work says this, that she paints pictures from a limited palette. She paints pictures from a limited palette.

In other words, she only uses a few colors. She doesn't use a lot, just one or two, and from a limited palette, she paints spectacular pictures. I would have bought one if I could have afforded one, but I was very impressed by her work, and I can still remember some of the scenes that I saw as I was looking at her paintings.

From a limited palette, she painted something that was beautiful, and I say the Holy Spirit, using the limited palette of our lives, can paint something that is beautiful and meaningful as we allow ourselves to be used by Him, and as we develop a program for our lives, ensuring that each moment is packed with activity. Oh, I know one can be accused of making this sounding oh-so-easy, and I'm trying not to do this. I'm not trying to simplify something that is very, very complicated, but I am saying that from these common-sense principles taken from Scripture, there are ways by which you and I can absorb the condition of loneliness and perhaps abolish it.

And let me, my concluding remarks this evening, be to draw your attention to the fact that Jesus Christ could be described as a very lonely man in his ministry. I know he had 12 men with him for most of the three years that he engaged in public ministry, but you couldn't really say that they fully understood what his life's work was about. He was misunderstood by them and misrepresented by other people.

And there is a loneliness, I say, in the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. I give you a quotation, actually, the wrong verses are there, are down in your notes from John's Gospel, John chapter 8, verse 16, it should be, and verse 29. In that chapter, the Lord Jesus, when he acknowledges his human loneliness, says, and yet I'm not alone, for the Father is with me.

And he enjoyed the companionship of his Father, the ministry of his Father. But do you remember that on the hill called Calvary, even that companionship which the Lord Jesus had cherished for so long was plucked from him? For there the Father turned his back upon the Son. And here is the epitome of loneliness, the Lord Jesus Christ, bearing the sins of the world in his own body.

And it's because Jesus Christ has experienced loneliness in its most extreme form that he can minister to you and to me when we feel lonely and misunderstood. Hebrews tells us that we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. Why is he so sensitive? Because he's experienced all the problems of life that we have experienced, only he has known them in a more intense fashion than you and me.

And the net result is this, that the Lord Jesus Christ can minister to us no matter what our condition might be. And if our condition is that of loneliness, then we have his promise in Matthew's gospel 20 chapter 28 and verse 20, lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Well that's the greatest guarantee that a Christian can know relief from loneliness as he experiences the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But let me underline what I said earlier, that there are responsibilities that you and I have as members of a local church to ensure that everyone is made welcome, to ensure that everyone feels that they are loved and wanted here, certain responsibilities to which we must attend, then let us ensure that we do so in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our Father, as this evening we've sought to apply ourself to your word and to work out practical instructions and recognize afresh our responsibilities as members and friends of this local church, so we pray that we may not just have been hearers of the word, help us to be doers also in moments when we feel lonely and misunderstood, we pray that we shall know in an even greater fashion the presence and the consolation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in seeking, O Lord, to deal with our own condition, make us sensitive to the needs of other people too, that we shall be a caring community and that those who once were lonely will be able to say as a testimony to their God that their loneliness was abolished as they received the love of God through Christian people.

So, Father, take these our prayers and answer them in our own lives, and as we take our leave from one another this night, we ask again for your blessing to rest upon us, the blessing of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and always. Amen.