9.18.22 - A Church for People Who are Lonely (Kenny Camacho)
SCRIPTURE: Genesis 2 & John 3:16
“Feeling lonely doesn’t mean you’ve done something wrong! It means you’re sensing that something is missing in you, and you are hungry to fill it. And what’s missing isn’t any one thing, it’s three specific things: wholeness in your relationship with God, wholeness in your sense of purpose, and wholeness in your relationships with other people. God’s story with Adam is complete when He has helped Adam receive and accept all three. And if we, as a church, are going to mirror God in the world, we have to be about all three, too: a church for the lonely pursues God, is at work in the world, and draws people into relationships. That’s the task in front of us.”
REFLECTION/DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
When have you felt lonely? What caused that feeling? If you were able to find peace, how did you do it?
A key point this morning is that loneliness is not sin: in fact, the first person God created felt it, even when the world was perfect! Why is this so important to remember?
The story in Genesis 2 reveals three important points about loneliness. The first is that God alone isn’t enough. How do you feel about this point? Is it true? In what sense? How do we–as individuals, as churches–lean too heavily on this solution to loneliness?
The second is that work alone isn’t enough. Is this true? Have you experienced it? What does it look like when a church focuses on “the work” over and above all else?
The third is that people alone aren’t enough. Is this true? Have you experienced it? Why is it risky to put all of our hope for love in other people alone?
Kenny argued that the space in us, which when left unfilled makes us experience loneliness, is there because we are made for love. Talk this through together: do you feel like you are “made” to receive and share love? What can get in the way of pursuing this?
How can we truly be “a church for people who are lonely?” What can you do?