All The Lonely People

Today, let’s talk about loneliness. We’ve all felt it…we’ve all experienced it at one time or another. It’s something that regardless of age, demographic, background – this feeling of being isolated and alone that can result in sadness and despondency…it effects all of us.

It is a certainty in life. I know this to be true because I Googled this week, “best lonely songs ever written” and there is one for every generation!

The 50’s – Hank Williams – “I’m so lonesome I could cry.”

The 60’s – Elvis Presley – “Are You Lonesome tonight?”

The 70’s – Eric Carmen – “All by Myself”

The 80’s – Whitesnake – “Here I Go Again”

The 90’s – Backstreet Boys – “Show me the Meaning of Being Lonely”

And they are continually being written today. As the saying goes, listen to any country song backwards and what you will get is your wife back, your dog back, your truck back – no more loneliness!

We love listening to music about being lonely because we can identify with it and it helps us cope with our own feelings of loneliness.

And what we are going to see in this message today is that while you and I may occasionally FEEL lonely and battle bouts of loneliness, as Christians - it is a FACT of life that we are NEVER alone.

I want to begin this message with a theological truth that has some MAJOR implications for our life. Consider this statement: We are made for relationships.

Let’s take it back to the very beginning. Genesis 1:26a, 27– “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image after our likeness…So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

The “Imago Dei” – the image of God. What this means is that we are created in his likeness. As a mirror reflects our image, so too when looking at humans we reflect the image of God.

Now, as it relates to loneliness, God has never been alone. In Genesis chapter 1 (v. 26), we have the first reference to the Trinity in all of scripture…look at it again:

Genesis 1:26a – “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image after our likeness…”

God has always been in a perfect relationship with himself – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He didn’t create man because he was lonely and needed to be in a relationship with someone. He was in a relationship with himself from eternity past – One God, in three distinct persons – God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit in perfect harmony, unity IN relationship.

And when he creates man BECAUSE we are made in his image, we are made FOR relationships! A relationship with him AND a relationship with others.

It’s in our core make-up…

It’s a part of our DNA…

It’s what it means to be made in the image of God…

Listen to what pastor and author Tim Keller writes about this whole idea of being made in the image of God as it relates to loneliness:

“Adam was not lonely because he was imperfect. Adam was lonely because he was perfect. Adam was lonely because he was like God, and therefore, since he was like God, he had to have someone to love, someone to work with, someone to talk to, someone to share with. All of our other problems – our anger, our anxiety, our fear, our cowardice- arise out of sin and our imperfections. Loneliness is the one problem you have because you’re made in the image of God.”

We are made in his image and therefore we are made for relationships. This is why after God creates man in his image, he looks upon him and states according to Genesis 2:18 – “Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a helper fit for him.”

So, right out of the gate, let’s underscore this idea that we are establishing: we are made for relationships because we are made in the image of God!

When we think about this from a theological standpoint creation and redemption centers on this idea of relationships. God creates man in his image and instead of living in a perfect relationship with God and others, Adam and Eve choose to sin and therefore the image of God is distorted and that brings dysfunction in their relationship with God and with others.

And so, the whole of scripture points to Jesus coming…and this is the beauty of the gospel! Because he is God in the flesh, he is the only one who could die for us…in our place…and what does his death accomplish?

A: Our salvation – i.e. a restoration of our relationship to God which then enables us to have right relationships with others.