Peter Barnes: Eccles 4:!-16; 2 Tim 4:9-22 NO AUDIO
(12 August 2018)
SERMON NOTES : FACING LONELINESS (Eccles.4:1-16; 2 Tim.4:9-22)
This year (2018) the British government appointed a Minister for Loneliness! Paul Tournier calls loneliness ‘the most devastating malady of this age’.
1. We were created for companionship.
– companionship was an issue even before the Fall – Gen.2:18. Note Eccles.4:9-12. Jesus in Luke 10:1 did not send out 72 individuals but 36 bands of two each.
– 1 Sam.18:1; 2 Tim.4:9-11. See the ‘one another’ passages: exhort one another – Heb.3:13; build up one another – Rom.14:19; confess your sins to one another and pray for one another – James 5:16; love one another – John 13:34. And there are many more.
– In the fourth century the monastic movement broke out in Egypt. But ‘Do not love the world’ (1 John 2:15) does not mean ‘Escape to the desert’, and ‘Flee youthful lusts’ (2 Tim.2:22) does not mean ‘Stay away from all human beings.’ God did not make us hermits.
2. Those who are godly can experience loneliness.
– Ps.25:16; Ps.88:8, 18.
– Prov.16:7; Rom.12:18, but see Jer.15:17. ‘I sat alone’ – there is hurt in those words. Look how Jesus describes His disciples (Luke 22:28). Aslan: ‘I would be glad of the company tonight.’
3. God is sufficient but companions are helpful.
– God is the sufficient – Ps.73:23-28.
– look at 2 Timothy 4:9-12. Now read verse 12 – read. Does he want human company? Yes. Does he depend on human company? No. See 2 Tim.4:16-17.