"God's Community is the Cure for the World's Disconnection (Ecclesiastes 4:7-12)", Will DuVal | 12/21/25
Ecclesiastes 4:7-12 | 12/21/25 | Will DuVal
Back in 2010, there was a climbing expedition attempting to summit Denali, North America’s tallest mountain. About ⅔ of the way up - at around 17,000 ft. - one of the climbers, Paul, began to feel weak and disoriented. He didn’t realize it at the time, but he was developing the first signs of severe altitude sickness, a condition that can turn fatal quickly. Most of the group was too focused on the climb to notice. But Paul’s close friend Mark, who had trained with him for years, noticed something was off. Paul was too quiet, he kept dropping his gloves. Mark checked on him and decided “We’re turning around”. The group protested - PAUL weakly protested - but Mark insisted. He clipped Paul to his own harness, and led him slowly back down the mountain. “By the time they reached lower altitude, Paul collapsed. Doctors said later that if he’d gone another hour higher - or even just stayed where he was - he likely wouldn’t have survived. Years later, Paul was asked what saved him [and he replied], “Someone who knew me well enough to notice I wasn’t myself - and loved me enough to [sacrifice] his own summit for my life.” [Story shared with help from ChatGPT]
Having a good friend might LITERALLY save your LIFE. You say, “Well, I’m not a climber…” - did you know that, according to a 2023 study by the Department of Health & Human Services, loneliness is “linked to a 29% increased risk of heart disease and a 32% increased risk of stroke… a 50% increased risk of dementia… and carries health risks equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a DAY. Loneliness increases one’s risk of premature death by up to 29%.” (Cigna, 2025; citing HHS, 2023) On average, chronic loneliness is estimated to shave about 4.6 years off one’s life expectancy. (WEF, 2021) It is the silent killer.
And yet, it’s on the RISE… rapidly. In 1990, only 3% of the U.S. population reported having no close friends; TODAY, that number has more than quadrupled, to 13%. (CUIndependent, 2025)
And that doesn’t account for folks who DO have close friendships, but STILL feel lonely:
* “Approximately 1 in 5 (20%) adults report feeling lonely "a lot of the day"; MORE than even just “DAILY” (Gallup, 2024).
* Roughly 1 in 3 (30%) feel lonely “at least weekly” (APA, 2024)
* “Other estimates suggest up to 58% of Americans experience loneliness at least some of the time.”(Cigna, 2025)
*And the problem is WORST amongst YOUNG people. As many as TWO-THIRDS of Millennials & Gen Z report feeling lonely “regularly” (Cigna, 2025).
What does all of this TELL us? As was the case with DISINFORMATION in Week ONE of our series, ANXIETY in week 2, BUSYNESS in week 3, and AIMLESSNESS last week, disconnection is nothing short of an EPIDEMIC in our society today. In many ways, we are more connected today than EVER before in human history. I don’t know if any of y’all ever used to play the “6 Degrees to Kevin Bacon” game, where someone named an actor and you had to try and connect them - in 6 links or less, through co-starring roles in different movies - back to Kevin Bacon. Well, the world today has become so global and inter-connected, that you can almost play “6 Degrees to ANYONE”; randomly pick someone on the other side of the PLANET, in Sri Lanka, and if they’re on social media, and they’ve got even a FEW “friends”, ONE of them is bound to have a “friend” who’ll be connected to another friend, etc, etc… just 6 degrees away from YOU. That’s CRAZY!
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And yet, we’ve never felt more LONELY, more DIS-connected. And especially so, sadly for so many people, that loneliness is especially palpable around the HOLIDAYS.
But this morning, God is offering us the CURE for our disconnection DIS-ease, namely: COMMUNITY.
“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity! ” In COMM-unity. (Ps 133:1)
“A faithful friend is the MEDICINE of life” (Sirach 6:16).
And friend: that medicine is available to you here.
Now FIRST of all, before we go any further, let me make sure you know MOST importantly (even though it’s not the specific focus of this sermon) that you have the greatest offer of friendship IMAGINABLE available to you - the “friend who sticks even closer than a brother” (Prov 18:24) - JESUS! Who assured us in John 15: “You are my friends if you do what I command you” (v14). And what does he COMMAND? He commands us to TRUST Him. To TURN from our sin, REPENT of our SELF-sufficiency, and humbly admit our CHRIST-dependancy: “Jesus, I NEED you, to be not JUST my friend, but my SAVIOR and LORD”. When we DO that, and call OUT to Him in FAITH - “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom 10:13) - and Jesus promises “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev 3:20); it’s this picture of INTIMATE fellowship and closeness with the Creator and deepest LOVER of our souls. NOTHING compares to that! No HUMAN friend on earth - the BEST of friends here is gonna let you down from time to time; Jesus never will. So if he knocked and you opened the door of YOUR heart to Him, and He’s now come in - sent His Spirit to dwell within you, that means you have a permanent, 24/7 friend for LIFE: “I will never leave you nor forsake you,” He promises (Heb 13:5).
But as if friendship with God HIMSELF weren’t enough, He’s offering us even MORE than that this morning. I’m gonna make a pretty BOLD assertion here, and we’ll see if any of you try and prove me WRONG this week by reaching out (which would be GREAT, cuz then we can try and help you find the right medicine - the right friends here - for YOU), but here it goes:
NO ONE here at West Hills - who 1) wants connection and is 2) willing to WORK for it, 3) with the right friends - as long as ALL THREE of those things are TRUE of you, I can PROMISE you that you will find life-giving COMMUNITY here, at our church. You will NOT be one of the statistics - the one in 5 experiencing loneliness DAILY; the one in THREE who are lonely WEEKLY; the 58% lonely periodically… You don’t HAVE to be lonely cuz we’ve got FRIENDS here for you.
Now, you heard my 3 qualifications: you’ve gotta 1) WANT it, enough to 2) WORK for it, with 3) the RIGHT people.
There are PLENTY of folks who don’t experience the kind of deep community I’m talking about because deep down, they don’t really WANT it… at least not more than they want their privacy, or their reputation, or their freedom. Real friendships will COST you. Privacy - to be known and loved deeply, you’re gonna have to be vulnerable enough to open up some closets and let that friend see a few skeletons that you’d frankly rather keep hidden away. Which risks your REPUTATION (“What is she gonna THINK of me?”). And friendship will UNDOUBTEDLY demand that we give up certain freedoms: the freedom to take the night off - Netflix & chill - when that friend needs you; a REAL friend is someone you can call at 3 in the morning and he’s THERE, no questions asked. (So pick your friends WISELY; they better not be TOO needy…).
Christian friendship means giving up the freedom to SIN without CENSURE. Cuz a GOOD friend is gonna love you enough to ADMONISH you: “Faithful are the wounds of a friend,” the Proverbs say (27:6); they help steer us BACK onto the straight and narrow, when we’ve wandered off the path. That’s why King DAVID prayed, ““Let the godly strike me! It will be a kindness! If they correct me, it is soothing medicine.” (Ps 141:5)
But some people don’t WANT the medicine; they’d rather continue on in sin… in secrecy… in good STANDING… in self-regard.
Second, and related, there are lots of folks who miss out on the beauty of community because while they DO want it deep down - they’re not SCARED of close relationships like the folks in the first category; they just don’t want it enough to have to WORK for it, to put in the time and effort.
I always LAUGH when someone leaves the church after 6 months, or a year, and they tell me, “I just didn’t feel CONNECTED…”; I ask, “Well, were you in a LIFE group… a DISCIPLESHIP group?”
Usually the answer is, “Well, NO”. Or, “Well, we TRIED one for a month or two, but then our schedule changed…”, and they didn’t care enough to KEEP trying, to PRIORITIZE it.
“Were you active in the MEN’s ministry, the WOMEN’s ministry, with the SENIORs, the Young ADULTS…”
“No…”
“Did you SERVE on a ministry team - the WELCOME team, the Worship & AV team; the Missions team, kids ministry…”
“No…”
“You participate in the Summer Supper Club? Night of Thanks? Our Quarterly Fellowship Nights?”
“No…”
“Well how exactly did you expect to feel “connected” when you weren’t CONNECT-ING with any of the MYRIAD opportunities that we offer you here for COMMUNITY?!
And then lastly, I can think of just two or three families maybe, who WANTED it… who were WORKING for it… but they were pursuing the wrong people. They were so desperate for connection that they accepted the first invitation they got from the life group full of 30-year olds with toddlers, when this couple’s in their 50s and never had kids; just a completely different phase of life. I’m all FOR inter-generational ministry and relationships, but that’s typically not where you’re gonna find your CLOSEST friends in the church. Or I had a couple - years ago now - who told me, “We’re LEAVING; no one wants to be FRIENDS with us…”
I asked, “Who’d you seek out for friendship?”
And they listed three couples… who could not have been more DIFFERENT from them! I said, “Well no WONDER! I mean, Sure - I know there’s no Jew or Gentile, no slave or free… no separate tables for NERDS and JOCKS anymore, for we are ALL ONE in Christ Jesus”. But if your idea of a great time is staying up til 1 in the morning playing strategy board games, and THEIR idea of a good time is spending the entire day watching the college football playoff triple-header (“Go HOOSIERS!”)... and they don’t know or really CARE to know what an “action point allowance system” is, and YOU think a “long snapper” is a type of fish and “intentional grounding” is how you punish your kids… perhaps this is not a match - a friendship - made in HEAVEN. And you can still LOVE each other, and be in the same LIFE group… without being best friends.
But HERE! Let me introduce you to THESE three couples who enjoy LARPING on the weekends; y’all are gonna hit it OFF…”
If you WANT it, you WORK for it, and you invest in the RIGHT relationships, you WILL find life-giving community here.
And I wanna spend the REST of our time together this morning making the case - or rather, allowing God’s WORD to make the case - for why it’s so IMPORTANT. So VITAL to our spiritual, our emotional, even our PHYSICAL health, as the statistics have already highlighted for us - we NEED relationships. For at least FIVE reasons. We could probably list FIFTY. But we’re gonna more or less restrict ourselves to just these six short verses from Ecclesiastes ch4; that’s where we’re gonna be this morning if you wanna begin turning there in your Bibles, if you have one. If you DON’T… (Info Bar… screen…) I invite you to stand… Ecclesiastes 4, vv7-12; Hear the word of the Lord:
“Again, I saw vanity under the sun: one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, “For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?” This also is vanity and an unhappy business.
9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! 11 Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? 12 And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” This is the word of God…
Let me quickly remind you of the CONTEXT for the book of Ecclesiastes; hopefully this will sound familiar to those of you who were here 3 years ago when we walked through the whole book together. But it was written almost 3,000 years ago by King SOLOMON, the wealthiest and WISEST man who had ever lived, but Solomon discovered that all of the MONEY and mental ACUMEN in the world, cannot bring a person true, lasting fulfillment. Hence, how he OPENS in v7: “Again, I saw VANITY”; the Hebrew word is hevel. It means “futility”, “emptiness”, NOTHING-ness; there’s no SUBSTANCE to it. Life is like that, according to Solomon, and almost everything IN life is like that: work, knowledge, progress, legacy, pleasure, riches, time, justice, folly, and even WISDOM is hevel. And that was all just the first three CHAPTERS! But then Solomon considers RELATIONSHIPS here in chapter 4. And FINALLY, he assesses, he’s found something worthwhile; more than that: something ESSENTIAL. Community with others is NECESSARY for us, for at least FIVE reasons he offers here.
#1) We need community for real, genuine SATISFACTION (vv7-8) in life.
The kind that MONEY can’t BUY you. “I saw… a man once,” Solomon says], “who had NO ONE in his life… and yet he never quit WORKING; he was a workaholic”; why? Probably because he was trying to fill the gaping VOID in his life that God INTENDED to be filled by OTHERS! According to the Bible, we are made in God’s image, his inherently relational image - God is TRINITY: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And we TOO were created for RELATIONSHIP with others. The first thing in all of creation that God deemed NOT good was… WHAT? Adam being ALONE. So God made EVE. But returning to our wealthy, withdrawn workaholic now, Solomon observes: “...his eyes are never SATISFIED with his riches, and he never bothers to slow down long enough to ask himself, “For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?” [It is not GOOD, not FUN, that man should be alone, that he should TOIL alone.] This is HEVEL and an unhappy business.”
Blaise Pascal famously and I believe TRUTHfully pointed out that ALL of us just want to be HAPPY. And everything that we DO in life - whether we run TOWARDS God or AWAY from Him; whether we throw ourselves into our WORK, or our KIDS, or our HOBBIES, or the BIBLE, or our FRIENDSHIPS - whatever we pursue, Pascal observed, we’re really pursuing the HAPPINESS that we think lies beneath it. “This is the motive of every action of every man,” he posited, “even of those who hang themselves.”
But according to the LORD, of all those rocks we’re looking under for happiness, MOST of them are gonna leave us disappointed, UN-satisfied. Solitary toil, unshared riches… they will not scratch that ITCH that we all have deep down for meaning and purpose in life, and MORE than that: for JOY and FULFILLMENT.
Because it can ONLY be satisfied - WE can only be satisfied - by intimacy with others, the LOVE of others. The Lord first - “[You] Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, [O Lord,] that we may rejoice and be glad all of our days”, Psalm 90, v14; “ in [God’s] presence there is fullness of joy,” David rejoices in Psalm 16:11, “at [His] right hand are pleasures forevermore.” We must be satisfied FIRST in Him.
But we really do need one ANOTHER as WELL. “It’s not GOOD that man should be ALONE” (Gen 2:18). Jesus went so far as to say, “A new commandment I give to you… By this all people will know that you [belong to ME], if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:34-35).
Don’t you wanna be HAPPY? Deeply FULFILLED in life? Of COURSE you do; we ALL do. We just don’t all know where to FIND it. But God gives us the MAP here: come to ME first and foremost; but secondly, pursue deep connection with others.
#2) We need community for SYNERGY. (v9)
Synergy is when “the whole is GREATER than the sum of its parts”. 1+1 = THREE.
One draft horse can pull around 8,000 lbs. But TWO working TOGETHER can pull 32,000 lbs; DOUBLE what you’d expect. So 1 + 1 = FOUR, in their case. That’s synergy.
Or as Solomon puts it here in v9: “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.” A good “return on investment”; the investment of their effort, their toil.
But I think Solomon’s pointing to even MORE than that here. Because at least part of the reward for their toil is the joy not only of having DONE it, but of having done it TOGETHER.
We just had our Staff - Elder Christmas party on Friday night. And I wanna tell you what I told them: that I am so incredibly blessed to “TOIL” alongside 12 of the most committed, caring, faithful, selfless, servant-hearted human beings that I know. I truly don’t know how SOLO pastors do it. Cuz I know that I couldn’t! Without my fellow co-leaders here.
Proverbs 27:17 says “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.”
Who is that for YOU? Who makes you BETTER? Who do YOU make better? Who do you work SYNERGISTICALLY with? You just complement one another. Like peanut butter and jelly. Like Chick-fil-A FRIES and Chick-fil-A SAUCE. You ever try eating their fries plain? Ehhh. I’ll WAIT. If I forget to ask for sauce (a mistake I’ve only made ONCE); I tried a fry and quickly decided, “Not worth it. I’ll wait and reheat ‘em in the toaster oven when I get home, to my stash of excess sauce packets, saved up for just such an occasion. But while you’re opening said SAUCE packet, does it ever kind of explode on your finger, so you lick it off by itself? It’s actually pretty GROSS, solo.
But MAN, you put that sauce on those fries, and I don’t understand the CHEMISTRY behind it; all I know is something HAPPENS; something MAGICAL.
Who’s your Chick-Fil-A sauce? I hope you’ve got someone like that in your office, who you consider it a JOY to work alongside. I hope you’ve got someone here at CHURCH, you look forward to serving with. Singing with - harmonizing; or making COFFEE with - you put me in the Cafe by myself, and I’m overwhelmed and socially intimidated; big crowd, and I’m back here all by myself. But you put me back there with Brad Castle, or Melissa Jaeger, and now I’m Chatty KARL; they’re gonna bring out some of my latent extraversion (“Oh yeah, people aren’t that scary…”), and now I can face the crowd, and do my job of making others feel welcomed here. I hope you’ve got someone you look forward to teaching the KIDS alongside every month. Jesus sent his disciples out two by two, to preach and cast out demons. We try and follow his example here: we send our teachers down to the Doxa… to preach and… YEAH; I HEAR things about that K & 1st grade class. When my son is like the FOURTH most disruptive kid in the class, one plus one BETTER equal four, cuz you got one lead teacher and one assistant teacher, and four absolute HELLIONS to manage.
But kidding aside, and most of all, more than at work, or here at church, I hope you experience synergy in your HOME. For YEARS Polly and I made each other WORSE, brought each other DOWN. I’ll never forget: we had a mutual friend at Div school tell us once, in our second year of marriage, that she’d happily study with me, or she’d hang out and watch TV with Polly, but she didn’t wanna come over if we were BOTH gonna be there, because we were so INSUFFERABLE to BE around when we were together. OUCH!
I HOPE that’s not any of our marriages here this morning… But it IS. I can think of a few, sadly. He’s pretty cool; SHE’s pretty cool. But put you together and… UGH! Like peanut butter and PICKLES. No thanks!
So what - you just need to SEPARATE? Maybe, for a season, until - 1 Corinthians 7:11 says - you’re ready to be “RECONCILED to [each other]”. Which means you’re BOTH ready to be SYNERGISTIC; better TOGETHER than you are APART from one another.
Listen: EVERY marriage has at least the POTENTIAL to be a total TRAIN wreck. You’re taking ONE sinner, with all of his dysfunctions and vices, his insecurities and insufficiencies and past baggage, and you UNITE him with ANOTHER sinner with a whole list of flaws of her OWN… and they can of course MULTIPLY, exponentially so. And bring out each others’ WORST.
OR… Or. You can choose to see the BEST in your partner. And give them YOUR best as well. “Love is patient and kind… it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful… Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor 13:4-7)
Staying married to a sinner can be hard work. But take heart: God promises a “good reward” for the “toil”. “Two are BETTER than one”.
#3- We need community for SUPPORT. (v10)
V10: “Two are better… For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! ”.
“We can take that literally, physically: you remember the LIFE Alert commercials? “Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” That’s when it’s time to put Grandma in the nursing home. She needs a roommate, a nurse, someone to pick her up. Don’t make her wait half an hour on LIFE alert to get there!
But it’s true EMOTIONALLY too. I used to coach tennis, and it always [bothered me] when I had to play one of the stronger players on my team at DOUBLES. You WANT to play her at singles, cuz every match counts for 1 point. So it’s more efficient to have your best players play singles. But when a girl was so MENTALLY weak, that she could make just one mistake and then totally UNRAVEL, I’d have to put her with a teammate who was athletically weaker, but emotionally tougher: an encourager, to SUPPORT her, pick her up.
And friends: you better BELIEVE it’s true SPIRITUALLY as well: “Woe to him who is alone when he falls SPIRITUALLY and has not another to lift him up!” No, Scripture exhorts us in Galatians 6: “if anyone is caught in any transgression [any SIN], you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness… Bear one another's burdens.” Or James 5:19 “My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth… someone bring him back”!” (DuVal, “Folly is Hevel”, Oct 2, 2022)
We ALL need folks in our lives who LOVE us enough to do that for us; to set us straight when we get outta line. Or perhaps more needed, more often: someone to simply SUPPORT us, lift us UP, ENCOURAGE us when we get down.
When Polly and I were GOING through those years to strife, part of what made them so harrowing was feeling like we were ALONE. None of our other friends in Div school were married. But I remember taking a trip to visit friends from college who had been married even longer than US, and hearing that THEY had struggled with some of the SAME ISSUES. And yet they were at least beginning to make some PROGRESS, working through it. So they were able to encourage us: “Your marriage is NOT hopeless; it’s NORMAL. Yes, it’s hard; but don’t give UP. Keep communicating, even when you want to shut down. Keep praying, keep going to counseling. And next time you have a fight like that, CALL us!”
Maybe some of you need a couple like that in your life; you need to seek out a marriage mentorship here. We’ve got a ministry for that.
Or you’re already divorced, but you are struggling to cope with it. And you need someone who’s a few years ahead of you down that road to come alongside you and ENCOURAGE you, “This too shall pass”. We’ve got those folks here; reach out.
Or you struggle with ADDICTION, and you’re just in the beginning stages of recovery, and you need a sponsor, a supporter in your corner. “WOE to you if you’re ALONE!”
WHEREVER you’re at in life right now, you don’t know what tomorrow may bring. That’s why we ALL need a handful of folks… SOMEONE - at least ONE; “two are better than one”, but “a THREEfold cord” is even STRONGER; and FOUR are better than THREE. When you go through YOUR “dark night of the soul”, can you really have TOO many people in your life who care about you? TOO many people who would answer your phone call and be there at the drop of a hat at 3 in the morning? Not possible! The more the MERRIER! Or at least more manageable.
Proverbs 17:17 “A [true] friend loves at all times [thick and thin], and a brother is born for adversity.”
If you don’t have ‘em already, better late than never… no better time than the present, to find… to start CULTIVATING some “true friends”, some “brothers” (and SISTERS) willing to stick with you through adversity, and love you at all times.
In the same vein, #4) We need community for SWEETNESS. (v11)
V11 reminds us: “if two lie together, they can keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?”
“How can one shave the back of his neck ALONE?
How can one unzip her dress ALONE?
How can one SEESAW alone?
Life is just [SWEETER, warmer,] more PLEASANT, isn’t it, and more practical, when you’ve got” someone to share it with. (ibid)
And that doesn’t HAVE to be a spouse (although I’m guessing it’s a pretty short list of folks who you’re CLOSE enough with to “LIE DOWN together” and SPOON…). But hey - JESUS was SINGLE. The apostle PAUL was SINGLE. And I guarantee you they experienced the sweetness of relational intimacy, of close friendship with others, like probably few if ANY of us do, even with our own spouses.
Proverbs 27:9 “Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and so does the sweetness of a friend…”
Who makes your life sweeter, warmer, more enjoyable, more worth LIVING? Thank them for it today. Thank GOD for them. And ask Him to bring even MORE friends LIKE them into your life.
The BEST part of being a pastor - I love to preach, but the BEST part - is y’all, 284 friends. Thank you for warming my heart. You make life sweet.
And lastly, #5- We need community for SAFETY. (v12)
V12: “Though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him”.
You say, “Well this was obviously written in a much rougher time and place; I’m not exactly getting ATTACKED on the regular…”
Oh, YES you are. You BETTER be. The only reason Satan WOULDN’T be regularly attacking you is if you are so completely ineffective for God’s Kingdom that he doesn’t need to BOTHER with you, lest he risk waking you UP. Listen: there is a spiritual BATTLE raging ALL around us - Light vs. Darkness - but if you’re so firmly planted on the SIDELINES, then yes, Satan will ignore you. It’s time to get in the GAME, brother, sister.
But you better not do it ALONE. You SOLO vs. the Prince of Darkness… vs. the “RULER of this world”... vs. the “roaring LION, seeking someone to DEVOUR” (1 Pet 5:8)... no match.
“How do lions hunt? They divide the herd. They separate the weakest prey from the rest of the herd. One water buffalo, alone, is NO match for a single lion. But did you know that just TWO water buffalo have been known to survive an entire PACK of lions, because they can stand rump to rump, and have horns in every direction.
Is that a picture of your MARRIAGE - you and your spouse, spiritually? Are your horns locked in battle with one ANOTHER, making you easy prey? Or do you have each other’s backs, in the daily fight against the enemy?” (ibid)
Is that a picture of your LIFE group? Your D-group? Of our church as a WHOLE - we NEED one another, Church, for SAFETY.
CONCLUSION: But EVEN more than we need each other, friends: we need a Good Shepherd. Cuz let’s be honest: we aren’t water buffalo; we’re helpless, defenseless SHEEP, who need a SHEPHERD.
One who offers us PERMANENT, ETERNAL satisfaction that even community with fellow sheep can’t; who promises us “life and life to the FULLEST”, and who laid down his OWN life to GIVE it to us (Jn 10:10-11).
One who now invites us to work synergistically with Him, as He fills and empowers us with His very own Spirit for the greatest calling and mission in the world: to seek and save the LOST.
One who offers us the kind of support that even the BEST of friends can’t; 24/7 access to God Himself, “the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction”; “Even though [we] walk through the valley of the shadow of death, [we can] fear no evil, for [HE - our Good Shepherd - is] with” us (Ps 23:4).
And He makes life SWEET. He promises ‘I will guide you in how to live, “that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (Jn 15:11)
Our hearts long for community, fellowship, close intimate relationship with ONLY One who can offer us all of his and MORE. His name is JESUS, the “friend of SINNERS”. Which is good news for you and for me.
Won’t you accept his offer of friendship today, and be forever changed. Let’s pray…