Sermon Tone Analysis

What is the problem this message is trying to solve?

Feeling lonely, alone, isolated, unaccepted, unworthy, unloved.

Understand how love will make you and the church a hero!

Introduction:

The world is more connected now than it has ever been.

When I was recently in India, Margaret and I were able to talk via text.

It is on the other side of the world, 8, 735 miles away, yet we were connected.

We live in a time when we more about what is going on all over the world than we ever have.

If you want, you can follow what is going on with the people and governments of countries all over the world.

I learned this week that in early May, Omar al-Bashir, the dictator of Sudan for the last 30 years, was deposed and is in jail.

Sudan has been one of the most oppressive countries in the world toward Christians.

Hopefully this is good news for Christians but no one knows yet who is going to follow him.

It may be better and it may be worse.

One of the amazing things about this is that none of us has ever been to Sudan and most of us couldn’t find it on a map.

When there is a devastating flood or an earthquake anywhere in the world, we see photos of it on TV.

Two famous American actors died this week.

For just a moment don’t say their names.

How many of you heard about these two famous American personalities that died this week?

We seem to be better connected than ever.

Yet, a Cigna Study Reveals Loneliness at Epidemic Levels in America.

https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8294451-cigna-us-loneliness-survey/.

A recent survey of 20,000 U.S. adults found that nearly half of people suffer from feelings of loneliness.

New Cigna Study Reveals Loneliness at Epidemic Levels in America.

https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8294451-cigna-us-loneliness-survey/

A recent survey of 20,000 U.S. adults found that nearly half of people suffer from feelings of loneliness.

Nearly half of Americans report sometimes or always feeling alone (46 percent) or left out (47 percent).

One in four Americans (27 percent) rarely or never feel as though there are people who really understand them.

Two in five Americans sometimes or always feel that their relationships are not meaningful (43 percent) and that they are isolated from others (43 percent).

One in five people report they rarely or never feel close to people (20 percent) or feel like there are people they can talk to (18 percent).Americans who live with others are less likely to be lonely (average loneliness score of 43.5) compared to those who live alone (46.4).

However, this does not apply to single parents/guardians (average loneliness score of 48.2) – even though they live with children, they are more likely to be lonely.

Only around half of Americans (53 percent) have meaningful in-person social interactions, such as having an extended conversation with a friend or spending quality time with family, on a daily basis.

Generation Z (adults ages 18-22) is the loneliest generation and claims to be in worse health than older generations.

Social media use alone is not a predictor of loneliness; respondents defined as very heavy users of social media have a loneliness score (43.5) that is not markedly different from the score of those who never use social media (41.7).

What do you think are the greatest barriers to church growth?

What are reasons why people who used to go to church don’t go any more?

What are the biggest complaints by the non-churched about church?

1. Problem: Loneliness

Can you love someone if you don’t know them?

Can you know someone if you don’t spend time with them?

Which is easier to do, grow in Bible knowledge or grow in love?

2. Solution: Love

This isn’t even something I need to prove, is it?

3. God is the source of love.

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Because God is love.

Because God is love.

It’s hard to understand this and not limit God.

If we were to think of love as water, flowing from a spring bubbling on the mountainside we would begin to see God

We can’t know love apart from God.

We can’t experience love apart from God.

This is where we come in.

4. God entrusts us to love others.

God is the solution to the problem of loneliness.

,

God isn’t just the source of the solution.

2. The church’s message is love.

Love is the family characteristic that identifies us as Christians.

Love is the family business.

Aren’t you glad that God isn’t a brain surgeon and expects us all to be brain surgeons?

Aren’t you glad God isn’t an accordion player and He expects us all to follow in His footsteps and be accordion players?

We love as we are loved.

He loves us enough to fill the void in our lives, the emptiness.

“One of the most important aspects of love is the ability to turn enemies into friends.”