Kairos - You Are Not Alone (10/28/22)

You Are Not Alone

Hello, men, my name is Jim Noble and I am a clergy person. The Title of this talk is You Are Not Alone.

In the last talk, we examined choices. We have choices, hundreds or thousands a day, every day of our life. God places a VERY high value on the freedom of human choice.

God also values fellowship. God is an eternal fellowship of three persons, God, Jesus, and their Holy Spirit. In the second chapter of the Holy Bible, Genesis 2:18, God notices, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” That theme runs through the rest of Scripture as well.

Ecclesiastes 4:7-12 “Next, I saw under the sun something else that was pointless: There are people who are utterly alone, with no companions, not even a child or a sibling. Yet they work hard without end, never satisfied with their wealth. So for whom am I working so hard and depriving myself of enjoyment? This too is pointless and a terrible obsession. Two are better than one because they have a good return for their hard work. If either should fall, one can pick up the other. But how miserable are those who fall and don’t have a companion to help them up! Also, if two lie down together, they can stay warm. But how can anyone stay warm alone? Also, one can be overpowered, but two together can put up resistance. A three-ply cord doesn’t easily snap.”

So, what I am to this point and what I will become depend not just on my free choices but also on who I run with…and who runs with me.

Sometimes our freely made choices and our community around us are in conflict. We may have goals that go one direction but those around us steer us away from those goals. I have performed a number of weddings and even more funerals. One of the things I tell those gathered at a wedding is that as they affirm to “forever hold their peace,” as the old words said, they are making a vow to God. They are to view the new couple as one and NOT to interfere, work one spouse against the other, etc…Yet it happens all the time. I see the results of long periods of conflict…the rot, the stress, the division, sometimes at funerals. I remember years ago in middle school being accused of something I didn’t do. Two grade levels, hundreds of acquaintances and friends turned against me. I was on an island, with nobody to help. Thankfully, it all blew over. Have you ever felt completely alone? You aren’t!

God can work best and the best things can happen when we align our goals, our choices, and those we surround ourselves with. That doesn’t mean you can’t maintain distant contact with troublesome friends, family members, etc, but you can greatly reduce the power they have over YOUR choices, YOUR goals, YOUR self-talk, YOUR self-perceived value. I’ve been reconnected to the Christian faith in some form for almost a quarter century now. I can remember glimpses of what it was like before. I’ve been SO blessed by having a community of Christians around me wherever we’ve been since then. They’ve blessed me immeasurably. My dad died in 2014 of a long, slow, progressively crippling illness. We had just moved churches and communities when he died. Even though we were little more than strangers, our new Christian community joined many of our old Christian friends in surrounding me/us with such loving care. I don’t know what I’d do now without the Christians we share life with.

In the Old Testament, the first 39 books of our Bible, God promises to always be with us. For instance, in Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 32:37-41 “I will gather them from all the countries where I have scattered them in my fierce anger and rage. I will bring them back to this place to live securely. They will be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one mind so that they may worship me all the days of their lives, for their own good and for the good of their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them, never to stop treating them graciously. I will put into their hearts a sense of awe for me so that they won’t turn away from me. I will rejoice in treating them graciously, and I will plant them in this land faithfully and with all my heart and being.”

In the New Testament, God promises to be with us and guide us. Jesus taught, healed, and sourced many miracles during his ministry. Our 27 books of the New Testament record this for us. Even considering all the amazing things he did, he promised that those who follow (us) will do greater things (John 14:12-13 “I assure you that whoever believes in me will do the works that I do. They will do even greater works than these because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask for in my name, so that the Father can be glorified in the Son.”

God’s promise to be present with us becomes real to us through his Church. How do we believe in something we don’t fully understand and cannot normally see? The Holy Spirit empowers us to believe when we make a choice to believe.

How can we know that what we WANT to believe is real? We can know through action. We step out and trust God to fulfill his promises. Then, as we walk with God, we can look back at our old selves and see the path between the old and the new is full of evidence that God has indeed been with us.

The act of stepping out in trust when you don’t know is called Faith. When we see how God accompanies us, we become even more keenly aware of his grace..

All disciples of Christ are connected through seen and unseen ways…back to the seen in a minute…QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT? Now back to some of the seen ways…that also operate through the unseen!

PRAYER VIGIL CHAIN?

All over the world, there a re people who have been and continue to pray for us. We are the chosen people God has called to make up Kairos #51 at Robertson. They are not only praying for you, they want you to KNOW they are praying for you. They long for you to fall into a loving relationship with Jesus. There is a special Greek word we use to describe such expressions, AGAPE. It refers to personal and group prayer and to personal sacrifice on behalf of others, so that they might become more open to God’s loving embrace.

Many are praying for us as Christians, empowered by the Holy Spirit. They believe, we believe, in the power of prayer…we know God is active in our lives and that, though he won’t violate our free will, he loves us and longs for relationship with us.

ILLUSTRATE SOME BANNERS, LOCAL, STATE, INTERNATIONAL, ETC.

Brothers, we are loved! For the rest of our weekend together, we will be receiving more agape and be putting more on the walls for you to see. God is at work on our behalf, on YOUR behalf! He is preparing us for an eternity of loving fellowship as a community of believers!

Please bow your heads for two minutes of silent meditation.