Isolation

If you have your Bibles, I want you to turn to the book of Proverbs, chapter number one.

I'm teaching a message today entitled Isolation.

Isolation.

I want to deal with uh some important things uh from the Word of God uh that hopefully will encourage you and those around you to make sure that you're intentional to be a part of community.

How many of you all know we need each other?

We need each other, and there are certain seasons of our lives where um we can be pressed down and weighed down with the pressures of life.

Sometimes those pressures make us want to make us want to retreat from community, but we need to be sure that we are intentional about staying connected to community.

Here's what it says in Proverbs chapter number 18, verse number one.

This is from the King James, New King James Version.

A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire.

He rages against all wise judgment.

Short, so I'm gonna read it again.

A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire, he rages against all wise judgments.

Is there anybody in here besides me who has ever been around a person who has not been around people?

Maybe your assessment has come across like mine.

They're kind of weird.

People that withdraw themselves from community, they start getting a little crazy.

They start saying some things that are crazy, they start acting in ways that are crazy.

Because outside of community, the only voice you are hearing is your own.

I don't know if you know this or not, but for long periods of time, you only hearing you is not a good thing.

It's probably good for you know some time of reflection.

You get away for a weekend, retreat, that is fine, but you should not be going months and or years just listening to yourself talk.

Dare I say, answering yourself as well.

When a person isolates themselves, they start seeking their own desires.

And as a consequence, they start raging against all wise wisdom or just plain old common sense.

They think it's useless to them.

I don't I don't need that uh advice, I don't need you to tell me what to do.

I have my own relationship with God.

Only God can judge me.

Don't need anybody else to say anything to me.

I I know what I'm supposed to do in this situation where I want to show you in some scripture uh how God feels about that type of thing.

I have three points to this message because uh uh as Gateway Church, we are the Golden State Warriors of churches.

We shoot three-pointers.

That's that's just what we do, okay?

Sometimes there's a two-pointer, but by and large, there's going to be a three.

You're getting that today.

Point number one, write this down.

Now, when I make this statement, uh, several of you are gonna freeze up.

Okay, you're gonna lock up, you're gonna go, ah.

Everything that you've been taught theologically is going to just lock up on you.

Uh, and some of you, the more religious amongst us, might even reach for the stone that you keep handy for heretical purposes.

And so um uh I'm gonna I wanna preface my statement by saying uh that I know that God is all sufficient, I know that he is self-sufficient, I know that he is all-knowing, I know that he is omnipresent, uh, uh, I know that he is everything that we need.

But according to scripture and according to something that he has said, this is why I make this point.

That's my disclaimer, and here we go.

Point number one, write this down.

God is not enough.

I told you.

Some of you are like, in the name of Jesus, I rebuke him right now, and you're gonna say it again.

God is not enough.

It's not a statement that I am making, it's a statement that he made.

Here it is, Genesis chapter number two, verse 18.

It says, Then the Lord God said, It is not good for man to be alone.

Period.

There's a period after that statement.

I will make a helper who is just right for him.

Now, now many of us believe that this statement is a marital statement.

It's not a marital statement, it's a relational statement.

He makes the first statement, he puts a period behind it.

It is not good that the man should be alone, period.

It's a relational statement.

As human beings, we were meant and designed to live in relationship with each other.

And so this goes past your personality, this goes past the way that you're rewired.

I'm an introvert, I'm just not a people person.

No, yes, you are.

You came from a people.

You came out of a people.

We call them your mom.

Every person in here came.

I'm just not a people person, I just I'm better by myself.

Well, well, you you might think you're better by yourself, but you're really not.

We were created and designed to be in community and relationship with each other.

That is not enough.

He creates this incredible world, puts this man in it, has him name everything, and then steps back.

And Adam is not the one that looks up to God and goes, Okay, that's great.

I just named all the animals.

They seem to have somebody, I don't.

When are you gonna hook me up?

No, it is God that makes the statement because Adam is in a blissful relationship with him.

It's God that says it's not good for the man to be alone.

He's the one that makes the statement because he understands how important relationships are.

Here's point number two.

Please write this down.

God is okay with not being enough.

He's fine with it.

He completely understands.

Here's what it says in Exodus chapter number four, 13 through 16.

I'll give you context to the tone I'm using with Moses in a moment.

But Moses pleaded, but Moses again pleaded, Lord, please send anyone else.

Then the Lord became angry with Moses.

All right, he said, What about your brother Aaron the Levite?

I know he speaks well, and look, he is on his way to meet you now.

He will be delighted to see you.

Talk to him.

Put the words in his mouth.

I will be with both of you as you speak, and I will instruct you both in what to do.

Aaron will be your spokesman to the people, he will be your mouthpiece, and you will stand in the place of God for him, telling him what to say.

Let me remind you of what uh has culminated here before God goes into this conversation with Moses.

There is a bush that is burning that has not burned up.

Moses on the side of a mountain, he sees a bush that is being consumed but will not burn up, and the bush starts talking to him.

That would be one thing.

But Moses starts talking back to the bush.

That makes it another thing.

You are either dehydrated, or this is a moment where God is present.

God is clearly present.

He tells him to take off his sandals because the place that he is standing is holy ground.

He takes off his sandals, and God makes a statement to him.

He says, I want you to go down into Egypt and tell him to let my people go.

Go tell Pharaoh, let my people go.

Moses goes, There's no way I can go do that.

And God says something that is absolutely miraculous.

He says, Don't worry about it, I'm going with you.

Is there anybody in this room beside me that if God told you to do something, he said, He is the one going with you, that would be enough for you to go?

God, if you're going with me, I am going.

Well, amen in the yard, and we're not amen in Moses.

Because Moses' response is, ha ha ha ha ha no.

Not enough.

He goes, they're gonna ask me who sent you.

And then what I'm gonna say, God goes, I got something great for you.

Not only am I going, I'm gonna give you a name that the children of Israel has never heard before.

I am that I am is going with you.

If you don't know what that name means, that means I am the blank check God that becomes whoever you need me to be when you need me to be it.

If you need me to be a cloud by day, I'll be that.

If you need me to be a pillar of fire by night, I will be that.

If you need me to be bread coming from heaven, I will be that.

If you need me to be water coming out of a rock, I will be that.

If there's anybody that's ever needed a blank check God to come through for you, would that be enough for you to go down to Pharaoh?

Amen to you, not to Moses.

He goes, No.

He goes, Okay, take your stick and put it on the ground.

He puts his stick on the ground, it turns into a snake.

Moses jumps back.

Because that's what you do when your stick turns into a snake.

You are not that deep.

You do the same thing.

He takes the snake by the tail, turns back into a stick.

He puts his hand into his cloak, pulls it out, it's leprous.

He puts it back into his cloak, pulls it out, it's healed.

He then goes down to the Nile River, gets some water out of it, pours it on dry ground, it turns into blood.

Here's what God says to him.

If they do not believe, stick, snake, stick.

And if they don't believe, hand, ooh, hand.

Then they will believe when the water turns into blood.

Would this be enough to make you go now?

Amen to you, not to Moses.

Here's Moses.

See the thing is, is that I typically uh get tongue tied, and my my words don't come out correctly.

So so I sh shouldn't be the one tell Pharaoh t to to let my people go because it's going to it it will it would take too long for me to finish the the the um the sentence here here's God's response.

I uh I don't care.

Who made your mouth?

Who makes your eyes?

Who makes your body?

I know everything about you.

I want you to go anyway.

Here's Moses.

Oh God, please sit anybody else.

Look, ain't that your brother right there?

Isn't that Aaron coming?

Take him with you.

I don't care.

I know that you have a problem with this assignment, and I'm not offended that you don't think I'm enough.

See, here's what I want you to really get the essence of.

God is okay with the fact that you need help.

He is so secure in his relationship with you, and he gave you your best friend Sally.

So use her.

He knows for a fact that when you get into your quiet time, he's whispering some things to you, you're writing it down in your journal.

This is so good.

And then you go have coffee with Sally, and Sally's talking about something, and in the middle of the conversation, the Holy Spirit starts speaking in between both of you, and Sally says something, and you go, stop.

I can't believe you just said that.

Am I quiet timing this?

The Lord said the exact same thing.

And God's up there, like, really?

Really?

I said this to you and I meant it.

You wrote it down, but now that Sally has said it, it's all of a sudden confirmation to you.

God is okay with not beating enough.

He's not, he's not at all offended that every year when Presbytery comes by and you get an accurate word that matches something God told you five years ago.

You're like, ha ha ha.

And honey, that's exactly what the Lord said.

And he's like, you didn't cry when I told you.

Proverbs 27 and 6 says, wounds from a sincere friend are better than many kisses from an enemy.

Proverbs 27 and 9, the heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense.

Proverbs 27 and 17, as iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.

It's good to have good friends.

It's good to be in the type of community where you can be corrected.

It is good to be in the type of community where you can be challenged.

It's good to be in the type of community where you can be inspired by other people.

Because there's something about that horizontal connection that amplifies the vertical connection that we have with God.

So point number one is that God is not enough.

Point number two is that God is okay with not being enough.

And I want to show you something in scripture that is so cool to me.

Point number three, please write this down.

God won't let himself be enough.

Matthew chapter number 26, verses 36 through 46 says this.

Then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, Sit here while I go over to pray.

He took Peter and Zebedee's two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed.

He told them, My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death.

Stay here and keep watch with me.

He went on a little farther and bowed his face to the ground, praying, My father, if it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me, yet I want your will to be done, not mine.

Then he returned to the disciples and found them asleep.

He said to Peter, Couldn't you watch with me even one hour?

Keep watching, pray so that you will not give in to temptation, for the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.

Then Jesus left them a second time and prayed, My Father, if this cup cannot pass away unless I drink it, your will be done.

When he returned to them again, he found them sleeping, for they couldn't keep their eyes open.

So he went to pray a third time, saying the same things again.

Then he came to the disciples and said, Go ahead and sleep, have your rest.

But look, the time has come.

The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.

Up, let's be going.

Look, my betrayer is here.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I submit to you that if there was one person that was ever going to be born into the earth that could have justified being a loner, it would have been Jesus.

And he chose not to live life in isolation.

He chose to live life in community.

If there's gonna be one person ever born on the earth that could have used the excuse, they just don't get me.

They're not on my level.

When I talk, they just don't understand what I'm saying.

I'm at just, I'm just at a different dimension than them.

It wouldn't have been you, it would have been Jesus.

You were born into the earth through a virgin womb.

You are walking around.

You are the Son of God.

You can read men's thoughts.

If there was one leader that could have used the excuse, it's lonely at the time, it would have been Jesus.

Yet he chose to live life in community.

Anyway.

Not just his lowest lows, his highest highs.

Jesus, on the mount that he would be transfigured on, had the same three guys with him at his height that he had with him at his lowest.

Peter, James, and John.

See, the only time it's lonely at the top is when you choose to climb the mountain alone.

See, the dangerous thing about living in isolation is that after a while, it's not just you talking to you.

There's another spirit that comes to talk to you.

And it's a demonic spirit.

And that's that spirit that starts saying, everybody else is crazy except you.

You're the only one that has it figured out.

Let me tell you something.

Jesus chose community at its highest height and at his lowest low.

He says, I'm about to go into the deepest part of anguish as it relates to the burden that I've been uh uh asked to carry out.

And I know these guys can't do anything about it.

I know their prayers are not gonna even work before before the foundations of the world I was crucified.

I have to go do this, but it would just bring me some comfort if you're just here.

Here's what I love about having great friends.

Sometimes you can't do anything for me except be here.

Your prayers may not change the situation, nothing may not change the situation, but the fact that you are present.

Here's what Jesus was saying.

I'd rather have some friends that go to sleep on me and still be in community than to allow them going to sleep to offend me and not ever being in community again.

It's important for us to have community.

Let me give you some scriptures, Hebrews chapter number 10, verses 23 through 25.

Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm.

For God can be trusted to keep his promise.

Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.

And let us not neglect our meeting together, underline that, that is so good, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

Let us not neglect our meeting together as some people do.

James chapter number five, verse number 16.

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

That's very, very important.

The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power.

And produces wonderful results.

Now, 1 John chapter number 1 says that we can confess our sins to God who's faithful and just to forgive us of all unrighteousness.

Only God can forgive sins.

But let me tell you something.

People that only confess vertically and never confess horizontally, they don't get healed.

James 5, 16 makes it very, very, very clear.

If we can, when we confess our sins one to another, then we can be healed.

Scripture goes on to say it is the, and I have I read out of NLT, but it's everything's memorized in King James.

I'm so sorry.

The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

It's just stuck in there.

It's so grandiose, it's so beautiful.

The effectual, fervent prayer of righteous people avails much.

But I can't pray for you effectually, fervently.

You haven't told me what's going on.

For years, this scripture has completely revolutionized my life, and I'm a completely different person during altar ministry based on that scripture.

Because people will come down during altar ministry and I'll say, Hey, what would you like to pray for?

What would you like to pray for?

And they're like, you know, whatever the Lord shows you.

And I'm like, mm-mm, no.

Not whatever the Lord shows me.

You tell me.

Just whatever He brings to your mind.

I'm not about to waste my discernment on you.

Cough it up.

This is a safe place right now.

Why should I have to tap into the prophetic for something you already know?

Don't treat altar ministry any less than you treat the state the stranger at the doctor's office.

You walk right in there and be like, doctor, there is something wrong with me.

I need you to check everywhere.

Get this thing out of me.

I brought a sample, sir.

This is green.

This should not be happening in my body.

You don't even know this person.

Let me tell you something.

If you want to get healed, cough it up.

Just say what it is.

Because this altar ministry team has been trained.

There is nothing that you're going to say that's going to shock us.

We will not be shocked by whatever you're going through.

But we do want to help you with whatever you're going through.

But we can't help you if you don't talk.

We confess our sins one to another to get healed.

Finally, in Galatians chapter number six, verses one through three, it says this, dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path.

And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.

Verse number two, this blows my mind.

Share each other's burdens.

And in this way obey the law of Christ.

Now think about that.

Jesus said, Cast your burdens upon me because I care for you.

Right?

Well, I can't bring it to another person.

I need to cast that to the Lord.

The Lord's like, yes, bring it to me, and then go give it to somebody else too.

Share each other's burdens and in this way obey the law of Christ.

And I love verse number three, and excuse my tone, but this is the way I feel like Paul wrote it.

If you think you are too important to help someone else, you are only fooling yourself.

You are not that important.

I believe that's the exact tone that he decided to write that with.

You are not that important.

Many of you all know uh my testimony.

Some of you all may know it, maybe many of you may not, that I was uh sexually abused and traumatized at the age of eight years old by a neighbor that lived across the street from me.

At the age of 12, uh, I was exposed to pornography, and by the time I was 19, I was a full-blown porn addict.

Gave my life to Christ January 14th of 1996.

And I would love to tell you that on that day, that porn addiction went away.

But it didn't.

What you're taught to do when you've experienced trauma is to keep it to yourself, to isolate yourself, to withdraw from people.

Don't share that.

They they won't be able to understand it.

Don't don't tell them that you're struggling with this.

They they will look at you differently.

And I got tired of hiding.

I got tired of what it was doing to my marriage, I got tired of what it was doing to me.

I just finally just started coughing it up.

I didn't care how it looked, how I looked.

I just said, this is what I'm struggling with, this is what I've dealt with in the past, and I need help.

Let me tell you what happened.

Some incredibly loving people came around me and started helping me sort through my trauma, my pain, my struggles.

They didn't talk about me.

They didn't condemn me.

They actually drew closer to me, and they started loving some really dark and vile stuff straight out of my life.

To this day.

It is those relationships that continue to allow me to walk in freedom.

The things that I took to the Lord in private, it's almost like he scooted me out of my prayer closet and said, Okay, now great, now go tell somebody else that.

I'm like, no.

I took that to the Lord in prayer.

And there it shall stay.

He's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

That's great.

I'm glad you told me.

Forgive me.

Now go get healed.

Go talk to somebody.

You might be here going, well, no, I can't talk to anybody about that, Tim, because the last time I talked to somebody about that, they betrayed my trust.

They hurt my feelings.

You're good enough.

You're lucky I came to church today.

I've been hurt by church.

You've been hurt by a church, not the church.

Don't give the church any less respect than you give a restaurant.

I'm sure you got food poisoning somewhere.

You didn't go, no more restaurants for me ever again.

I'm never going out.

Home cooking from here on out.

Can't stand it.

I got hurt at a restaurant once, can't go back.

No, a church hurt you, not the church.

You can find a safe space.

And when you get in that safe space, cough it up.

Because there's a level of healing, forgiveness, peace, joy, and love that comes from community that will revolutionize your life in a way that being isolated never will.

So God is not enough.

It's a statement you have to deal with for the rest of your life.

That's okay because God is okay with not being enough.

And he's okay with not being enough because he wouldn't let himself be enough while he was here on earth.

That's the testimony of our Lord and Savior.

Should be the testimony for us as well.

Come out, come out wherever you are.

There's a greater life for you in community than there will ever be in isolation.

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes?

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?

My hope and my prayer is that as you take time to just allow God to speak to you right where you are, there is a boldness, maybe a peace that the Holy Spirit is giving you right now.

To let go of a secret, to let go of something that you thought has just been safe between you and God, and now God is saying, I need you to expand this from being me and you to me, you, and someone else.

Like I said before, maybe you've tried in the past and have been betrayed, you've been hurt, somebody misused a piece of information, they betrayed your trust.

Telling you to be brave enough to try again.

Living a life with no secrets is the greatest life you will ever live.

So in a moment we're gonna pray, and during that time, we're gonna stand and sing one last song.

If you need prayer for any reason at all, we're gonna ask you to come.

You may be here and you want to give your life to Jesus Christ.

Would be the coolest thing for you to give your life to Christ today.

Maybe you're visiting for the first time, didn't even know what was going on.

Holy Spirit has just revealed to you that Jesus is Lord and God raised her from the dead.

We want to pray for you.

You may be here, and maybe this message is resonating with you on a deep level, and this is something that is confirmation to a nudge you felt from the Holy Spirit for some time.

Now's the day that He's asking you to respond.

I'm just gonna ask you to be brave.

And we all stand you for comfort.

So, Holy Spirit, I pray that you would draw every single person that needs prayer in Jesus' name.

Amen.