all the lonely people
TRANSCRIPT
“All the lonely people Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people Where do they all belong?”
Series - ‘How can I make sense of life?’
Today
‘All the lonely people’
Ecclesiastes 4:1-16
All the lonely people
“The most terrible poverty is loneliness,
and the feeling of being unloved”
Mother Teresa
All the lonely people
'People who need people are the luckiest people in
the world‘
Barbra Streisand
All the lonely people
“It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely”
Albert Einstein
All the lonely people
“If I am such a legend, then why am I so
lonely?”
Judy Garland
All the lonely people
“I'm perpetually lonely”
Lady Gaga
All the lonely people
“Everybody has something that chews them up and for me, that thing was always
loneliness”
Tom Hanks
God doesn’t want us to be lonely
"It is not good for the man to be alone”
Gen 2:18
Solitude & Loneliness
"Loneliness isn't being alone. That's solitude. It's feeling alone."
The Pursuit of Happiness – David G. Myers
Jesus often felt the need for solitude
When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a
solitary place
Matt 14:13
Solitude & Loneliness
Jesus often felt the need for solitude
But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed
Luke 5:16
Solitude & Loneliness
Jesus also knew the pain of loneliness
About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"
- which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Matt 27:46
Solitude & Loneliness
David knew the pain of loneliness
Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted
Psalm 25:16
Solitude & Loneliness
Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed
- and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors -
and they have no comforter.
Oppression can result in Loneliness
3 million children, infants and mothers
were evacuated from Britain's cities in the early days of September 1939
Oppression can result in Loneliness
And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s
envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind
Ecc 4:4-5
Competitiveness can result in Loneliness
Fools fold their hands and ruin themselves
Ecc 4:5
Competitiveness can result in Loneliness
Better one handful with tranquillity than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind
Ecc 4:6
Competitiveness can result in Loneliness
There was a man all alone; he had neither son nor brother. There was no end to his toil, yet
his eyes were not content with his wealth. “For whom am I toiling,” he asked, “and why
am I depriving myself of enjoyment?” This too is meaningless - a miserable business!
Ecc 4:7-8
Isolation can result in Loneliness
Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to heed
a warning ... I saw that all who lived and walked under the sun followed the youth, the king’s successor ... But those who came later
were not pleased with the successor
Ecc 4:13-15
Power can result in Loneliness
It’s lonely at the top
“The more you stay in this kind of job, the more you realize that a public
figure, a major public figure, is a lonely man”
Richard Nixon
It’s lonely at the top
“People may spend their whole lives climbing the ladder of
success only to find, once they reach the top, that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall”
Thomas Merton
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labour: If either of them
falls down, one can help the other up … Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm ... Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three
strands is not quickly broken.
The value of human companionship
Mutual encouragement when we’re weak
Mutual support when we are vulnerable
Mutual protection when we’re under some form of attack
Chuck Swindoll
Two are better than one
"You can make more friends in two months by becoming really interested in other people
than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. Which is just another way of saying that the best way to
make a friend is to be one."
Dale Carnegie
Two are better than one
Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how
to heed a warning - Ecc 4:13
The value of Godly wisdom
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom - Prov 9:10
Are you too busy to cultivate friendships?
If you are lonely
Are you waiting for others to befriend you? Are you using opportunities to befriend others?
“All the lonely people Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people Where do they all belong?”