Welcome to PowerPoint with Jack Graham. You got your Bible, you have hope. Even if you can't even get the church. Open your Bible. Listen to God's word.
And let God's word comfort you. His living presence is with you wherever you go. On today's PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message on how obedience to God will guide you out of loneliness.
Now, here's Dr. Graham with his message, all the lonely people. Take your Bibles and turn To Psalm 102. Psalm 102. Loneliness is a common problem.
Everyone experiences being lonesome or lonely whether it be just something as simple As A breakup when you're a teenager. or homesick when you leave home for the first time. Are things more dramatic? As in the death of a loved one, or just that eight, that sense of. being abandoned and alone in life.
And you know so many people. Feel lonely all the time. They just don't feel as though they fit in anywhere. They feel left out or left alone and they're really not apart, unwelcomed, and many people feel even unloved. Because you can be lonely in a crowd.
You can be lonely in a big stadium full of people cheering. And yet you feel all alone. There's even a Psychological uh condition that they call cosmic loneliness. Which is to feel alone, abandoned in all the universe. That's the human condition.
Everyone at one time or another feels loneliness, but some live. with loneliness every day of their lives. From generation to generation, loneliness has been a problem. It's a problem way back here in the day of David in Psalm 102. And this is a song because it's in the songbook of the Bible, the Psalms.
And so listen to David's song. It's a sad, sad song. Verse 1, Lord, hear my prayer. Listen to my plea. Don't turn away from me in my time of distress.
Bend down your ear and give me speedy answers. Isn't that just like us? Lord, answer me right now. Right now. For my days, watch this.
My days disappear like smoke. This is in the new living. My health is broken and my heart is sick. It is trampled like grass and is withered. My food is tasteless and I have...
Lost my appetite. I am reduced to skin and bones because of all my groaning and despair. I am like a vulture in a far-off wilderness, or like an owl or a pelican alone in the desert. And then watch this. I lie awake.
One way. as a solitary sparrow. On the roof. What a picture. A little small sparrow, the least of the birds.
Birds often flock together. But this little bird This little sparrow. Like many of you. Alone. on the rooftop.
David said, I'm like that sparrow. I'm here to tell you that God, Jesus, said, I know the sparrows and I even care for the sparrows. Jesus said: if a sparrow falls from the sky, my father knows about it. And he does. But maybe you feel like that sparrow today, or like that pelican, that desert owl.
Alone in the desert, abandoned. Every generation has felt it. And it often, like in David's song, shows up in our music. Yes, our music. And you think about all the lonely songs.
In fact, I googled it. I said, give me lonely thoughts. And I got seven pages. Single space. From the 40s, 50s, 60s, all the way to now, groups that I've, some of them I've never heard of.
The white stripes, anybody know them? Oh, here's George Michael. My mother had a brother.
So I'm like that. But I thought, wouldn't it be fun just to check this out from generation to generation? Was the great generation lonely coming out of the 40s?
Well, listen to what. Hank saying in the 40s.
Somebody couldn't cry. And then let's roll on to the 50s with a little rock and roll. There was a boy from Mississippi. by the name of Elvis. Are you long soon tonight?
Do you miss me tonight? We'll come back to the 60s in a minute, but... You know, people in the 70s, your loneliness sounded a little bit like this. Oh but don't be afraid. We get to the 80s.
Here I go again on my own Going down the only rock Then the nineties All these songs, like David's sad song of loneliness.
So many, many years ago. And yet we're still singing these songs. about being lonely because they resound in the heart. Back in the 60s. The greatest group of all time, the Beatles.
Wrote a song about loneliness written by Paul McCartney, and it goes a little something like this. I look at all the lonely people. I look at all the lonely people. And so the title of this message is All The lonely people. All the lonely people.
Where? Do they all come from? Paul McCartney grew up in England in the projects. He's the author. It is really a story, the author of the song Eleanor Rigby.
And it's an anonymous name, a name that he made up, he said. But as a boy in the project, he often visited with the older women who lived in the neighborhood. He would go get them groceries. And so on. And he got to know the stories coming out of the Second World War in England, in London, told by these elderly ladies.
And later on, when he wrote the song Eleanor Rigby, He thought of those older women, and many of them were so alone. And he wrote of Eleanor Rigby. An older Woman, church-going lady. Who kept her face in a jar. By the door.
Who went to a wedding? Picking up the rice where the wedding had been. Maybe she was. A housekeeper at the church. But this lonely woman and then He introduces us to Father McKenzie, the second lonely person in the Psalm.
Darning his socks in the night. Preparing a sermon that no one would hear. No one came near. And then Eleanor Rigby dies. And she's buried.
along with her name. Nobody came. Nobody came. Father McKenzie wiping The dirt from his hands. He did a funeral service.
And he says, no one Was saved. Nobody came. Nobody was saved. One really is the loneliest number. And so, this loneliness that people experience, what is it?
It's an ache in the soul, it's a lack of companionship. A sense of not being loved, not being wanted. It's that feeling of sadness that can creep over us, often in and out of our lives. But again, so many people live with loneliness as their constant companion. They just don't believe that anyone really cares.
And It's a dangerous condition.
So much drug abuse and alcoholism comes as a result of loneliness. Suicide, some people decide There's no reason for me to be here. I'm all alone in the world, all alone in the universe. You can be Alone everywhere you go around crowds of people, as I said, but. to be alone.
Ultimately, it is to be empty on the inside. And so people try to fill that hole, that emptiness within, that sense of being alone and abandoned with all kinds of things.
So, what is loneliness? Let's speak for a few moments about the loneliness of sin. The loneliness of sin.
Now Loneliness in and of itself is not Sinful. It's not a sin. to be lonely. is human to be lonely. But Sin can certainly lead.
to loneliness. Ask The prodigal son, that young man who had it all living at home. Under the care of the nurture of his father, He demanded his inheritance early. He couldn't wait to leave. He leaves with money in hand.
He goes to the far country. He spends it all in what Jesus said in the parable of Luke 15: in riotous living, wantonous living, prodigal living. He just throws everything away. And when he's wasted, All of his friends abandoned, and so here he is in this country far away. It was aptly named by Jesus.
He said it was the far country. Far away from the father's house, far away. From the people who loved him and his friends, who were his friends as long as the party was on and the money was running. But now they're gone. And he's all alone in this far country with all the glitter and the glamour.
of this great city. He couldn't wait to get away from home and get to the city, but now he's alone in the city. He's out of money. No father, no future. And so he gets a job, Jesus said.
Feeding the pigs. For a good Jewish boy, that was about as low as you could go, hanging out with the pigs. But you know sin will turn you into an animal if you allow it.
Now he's living like an animal and he's all alone. That's what sin will do to you. If you try to fill your soul. This part of you, inside of you, that is made for God, then ultimately it will let you down. That's what happened to the woman at the well that Jesus met.
Out there in the middle of the day, this woman who's been married five times and now living with another man, she sought to fill that hole in her heart with relationships. And she went from one person to another, one husband to another, but she's never satisfied until she meets the one who is the water of life. That story can be told again and again, and Jesus often spoke. of people who are alone in life because they chose to walk away from God. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message: All the Lonely People.
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Now let's get back to today's message. All the lonely people. That boy in the pig pen woke up one day. And he said to himself, I'm going home. If he'll take me, even as a servant, even as a slave, I'm going home to my father's house.
And you know the story, if you know your Bible a little bit, that son went home, and the father went out to meet him and embraced him. And when you turn around and come back, God's right there. He's right there loving you, waiting for you. And if nobody else cares and nobody else loves you, I promise Jesus loves you because Jesus died on the cross for your sins, for sinners like you and me. You think that church and Christianity is for all the good people?
Not at all. We've all sinned and broken God's commandment. It's what put Jesus on the cross. And Jesus died alone on the cross. Suspended between heaven and earth.
Rejected By man he came into his own, and his own received him not. and even forsaken by the Father. Because in the moment that Jesus was dying, this incredible mystery that we can't understand took place. When God the Son is forsaken by God the Father, He who knew no sin became sin for us. I believe it is in that moment when He was bearing the weight, the wrath of God upon him for your sins and mine.
God, who is of purer eyes than to even look upon iniquity, turns His back on His darling Son. And Jesus cried out, Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabatani. My God, my God, why? Have you forsaken me? God forsaken of God.
Impossible to understand, and yet it happened. Many people believe this Song of David in Psalm 102 is a messianic psalm. That means it's a portrait of Christ in advance of his coming. It's a picture, certainly it's an illustration of what happened to Christ. When it speaks of his bones drying up and his bones being on fire and his life ebbing away and the despair and crying out.
Uh to God. of being like A vulture In the desert, an owl in the desert, a sparrow on a rooftop. That was Jesus alone dying for you and for me. He bore our sins. He carried our sorrows.
He was a man despised and rejected. carrying our sins to the cross. That's what sin does to us. Separates us from God. But what Jesus will do for us.
is to connect us with God. And bring us to the Father. Bring us into the presence of God. He is Emmanuel, God with us. But there's the loneliness.
of sin. And you can be forgiven of your sin, and Christ can change your life and live in your life, and His presence will fill you. That's a promise. From God's word. But yet we still deal as Christians with loneliness.
There's the loneliness of suffering. The loneliness of suffering. All kinds of pain in people's lives, physical pain. And emotional pain. And pain.
Has a way of parting us from other people.
Some people. Right now, I'm speaking to some of you watching, and you're in a hospital room. And because of your physical illness, you've been separated from maybe family or friends at church. But it separates you. Maybe you can't work anymore.
I mean, those are just a few examples of how pain and suffering. Physical pain means suffering. Can separate you from the people. That you love. Emotional pain can do the same thing.
We've talked about. The struggles that people have in their soul, the soul pain. Psychological pain, whether it's depression or stress or anxiety or grief or all of those things, that kind of sorrow. Or rather, suffering in your life can cause you to feel very alone. Very low.
The classic example in the Bible, of course, is. Job. Job is Is sick. He's dying. He loses his family.
He loses his. His personal property and possessions, he's lost it all. God allowed Satan just to tear down this man's life. And he's sitting on an ash heap, cutting himself with. with pot share stones.
His skin, his bones, he's aching. His wife. Tells him to curse God and die.
Now that was helpful. And then he had so-called friends. And so much of the book of Job is a conversation between Job and these would-be friends who come and they often accuse him of because of his mistakes or failures or whatever, try to. Put blame on Job for his sin, and he ends up really all alone in his suffering. And in his pain.
And so in Job. Chapter uh And verse 13, here's what it says. He has put my brothers far from me, and those who knew me are wholly estranged from me.
Sometimes, if you're going through pain, emotional pain, and struggle, and grief, even the people that you thought would be there for you. Leave you. It's what I said about You've got friends out there in the world. I know there are problems sometimes with people in churches, and church people can be. Church people sometimes.
But I tell you who'll really Treat you poorly when you're in trouble, when you're hurting, and that's the world. The world will run. like rats from a sinking ship. when you really need them. Yeah.
Here we are suffering. Alone. Maybe emotional pain.
Sometimes people who have Psychological or emotional problems. Maybe they live in shame or live in fear. They don't want to get close to anybody because There are They're living with pain in their lives. depression in particular. turns people inward and often into self Pity.
is suffering. Real suffering. But in suffering, you can experience the living presence of Christ. Who said, I will never leave you or forsake you. You can know the presence of God.
Your Bible is filled with hope, God's promises for those. who suffer. I read a quote. From Billy Graham, who lived Basically, 10 years of his life homebound, a man who had traveled the world preaching the gospel to more people than any person in history. The last time I visited him, it occurred to me in his small house up in the mountains that he.
He was alone here, this man who had been everywhere with millions of people. Was now confined to basically his bedroom and a small chair outside of his bedroom. And yet There was joy. In this man, and I read a quote. I wonder, how could you be so.
Full of God's presence, even like this. He made a statement. He said I'm never alone. when I'm reading my Bible. I'm never alone when I'm reading my Bible.
Why is that true? Because this Bible is not just a book. This Bible contains the living presence of God, the Holy Spirit breathes through his word. And God's word. Fills our hearts and our minds, and the very presence of Jesus steps out of the pages of Scripture and into our lives.
Yes, get alone. You've got your Bible. You have. You have hope. Even if you can't even get to church.
Open your Bible. Listen to God's word. And let God's word comfort you. His living presence is with you wherever you go. Jesus died alone.
He walked through the valley of the shadow of death. David said, When I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me. But Jesus walked that valley all by himself. For you and for me. And now when we're in the valley, when we're in the deepest of sorrows, He's promised.
Never to leave us. never to leave us. Alone. Then there's the loneliness of sorrow. As a pastor, I've walked with so many people, the trail of tears.
funeral services, memorial services. The ministry is It's a wonderful place to serve God, but is often accompanied. By grief. in people's lives and A loved one goes to heaven, a child. A father.
A mother, a brother, a sister, or A husband or wife. And you go home to An empty house. And an empty bed. and an empty heart. And the pain, the grief is so great.
And the tears flow. That's a loneliness. That you can't describe unless you've experienced it. But aren't you grateful? For a day when God's going to wipe away all tears from our eyes.
in heaven when we truly get home. We will be with him. We will be his people. No more suffering, no more sorrow, no more tears, for God's gonna wipe away all the tears from our eyes. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, All the Lonely People.
We're excited to announce that we've been offered a $200,000 matching grant that will double your gift today to help proclaim the life-giving hope of Jesus to people all across the globe. Because your gift is so important, we want to send you a thank you for your generosity by sending you two copies of Dr. Graham's book, Triumph, to encourage your faith and equip you to share the hope of Jesus with someone who needs it. Please give generously knowing that your gift will be doubled and make sure to request your copies when you give. Text the word overcome to 59789.
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One of the most important things to remember in the midst of the difficult times of life is that God cares about your pain. Jesus came to this earth as a man in order to share in your humanity, to identify with our sufferings, and to provide a way that we can have healing and hope in life. and in the life to come. And no matter what's happened to you in the past or what you're going through right now, Jesus is right there with you. If you are following Christ, if you have trusted in Him, He is your friend and your comforter.
And His desires to come alongside your wounded heart and to bring health and healing and restoration and a new beginning. You see, God is able to turn your situation around, any situation, to heal any kind of brokenness and to heal every wound. Especially yours.
So to day, why don't you bring your broken heart to Jesus? He is the friend of the wounded heart. Why don't you give Him your burdens and your fears and your brokenness, and all the wounded places of your heart? As you offer these areas of your life to Jesus, He will begin to bring about healing and peace. and restoration in your life.
And when he does, don't be surprised when God lets you share your comfort with others. You will become a wounded healer. And because God has comforted and strengthened you, you will be able to comfort and strengthen others. Just as it says in 2 Corinthians 1.3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all of our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. That means you can now comfort others because you have been comforted.
Jesus truly is the friend of the broken heart, the wounded heart.
So let him work in your life and through your life today. And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember, when you give a gift of $10 or more to PowerPoint, we'll send you two copies of Dr. Graham's book, Triumph, as Our Thanks. Text the word overcome to 59-789.
And join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message on how you can defeat loneliness by spending time with God. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.
