Mars Hill Church - "Rebels Guide to Joy in Loneliness" - Mark Driscoll
- There is a decrease overall in hanging out, making friends, and unwilling to make the first move. Within just the context of CCF, one can see that. The sheer size of CCF was a deterrent for me when I first came in, and is still a deterrent for many in our group.
- Even within Christian circles, a survey showed that 40+% of the people feel lonely constantly. Make no assumptions that people are covered.
- God is Trinity -> the three aspects can fellowship with each other -> from this, we want to seek company. "It is not good for the man to be alone." I suppose that verse could be taken to mean more meanings than just wives.
- Sin caused distrust in God and in people...thus we're lonely
- Friendship isn't the solution. It's often invoked by physical proximity or affinity (like similar things) -> but when proximity and affinity change, the relationship changes too. The roots weren't there. Time and distance tests friendship; this is why.
- Paul proposed a Gospel-based relationship -> the sin that causes mistrust and distance between people needs to be addressed, by God, so that people can come together. Give and receive.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
- Philippians 1.2-11
- Note that Paul opened this with "grace to you"...that we're expected to give grace to each other as God gives grace to the repentant -> this leads to peace in the relationship
-Paul talks about joy...considering that he's in jail, have no family, friends arin't anywhere near by -> Joy is not an emotion. It's a state of mind. The understanding that Christians should be happy leads to people faking it all. Paul put his joy in the forward movement of the Gospel, thus he is able to a very bad shape, but still feel joy
- God is at work. Even if we can't see the seeds grow sometimes
- Remember that grace isn't pivotal on what we're doing. You can't wear out Christ's grace. Recognizing this will make you want to share this grace, thus you end up praying for them, and this type of connection (sharing of grace and prayer) is firmer than proximity and affinity. He will carry the rest
- Christ's renewing abilities will transform. Preserve, and keep your eyes focused. He will equip you with what you need.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.
- Hebrew 4.15
- Would Jesus understand loneliness? He was isolated for 40 days of temptation. His family denied him. His friends ditched Him. Hey...even..."My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?" ... what do you think?
3 comments:
an interesting topic, especially when reading your choice to worship alone this morning...
Hahaha. I didn't even realize the irony. I dunno. Perhaps skipping church isn't the greatest...the whole, "go to lecture and fall asleep" vs "skip lecture cuz you'll fall asleep anyway" debate never really reached a conclusion in me.
Do people choose their own loneliness? One thing I've learned over and over again via my work terms are...you don't reach out, how would people know? It really is a issue that involves some initiative on the newcomer and the locals.
I think there's a difference between aloneness and loneliness. You can be alone and not feel lonely, be lonely but not be alone.
When Jesus was in the desert I am not sure if he was necessarily lonely since it was also time in communion with God (and Satan too, let's not forget that), albeit a difficult time of temptation. Seeing his responses to Satan to rebuke him, the time being tempted in the desert might in fact have been a time when Jesus was in even greater intimacy with God, not lonely. Despite being rejected by so many people, Jesus still knew who he was in relationship with God.
I think what Jesus did understand though was separation from God. Which is even beyond loneliness. When he said "Why have you forsaken me" on the cross, that was when Jesus experienced for a period of time first hand the hell of what it means to be separated from God.
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