Together

Ecclesiastes 4:^{9 &12} “Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed… A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.”

God creates people and puts them in community because we are designed for community. Do you know that the number one problem of man was not sin? The number one problem of man was isolation. Genesis 2:¹⁸ “Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” In other words, God was saying, I need to create a community for this man because it is not good for him to be alone. The solution to loneliness, interestingly, is outside of you. You cannot solve it by yourself. I need you and you need me; we need each other. That is how it works. You cannot say you do not need anybody, because the truth is you do, you need people.

Even right now some of you are saying that scripture talks about marriage, so what about single people? Scripture does not just talk about marriage, scripture talks about companionship. Do you know that it is possible to be married and be lonely? Very possible; some very married people are also very lonely. And some single people are not lonely because they are surrounded by people, with community. A lot of people think that marriage will eradicate loneliness. If the marriage functions properly, it should help. But what happens when you discover that the person you are married to is dysfunctional?

Meanwhile, the lady already knows that she is dysfunctional, she just needs someone to help with her dysfunction. Then the person she marries comes with his own dysfunction — dysfunction squared. She says to him, “Are you not supposed to be solving my problem?”, and he too says, “Are you not supposed to be solving my problem?”. The problem is that we do not really realize that community goes beyond all that. You need to take your eyes off yourself and be of value to the people around you. And the more you add value, it is like you are sowing a seed; the more you sow, the more you receive a harvest. The more you make people smile, the more people make you smile. Some people are so stingy that they are even stingy with compliments. Just say she is fine, but you refuse to because she might get arrogant. Newsflash, that is not your problem.

As a church, we do organizational feedback time and again. So, someone is giving me feedback as the Pastor and he says, ‘Pastor, I cannot give you ten out of ten points’. I say, ‘That is fine, tell me, what is wrong with me?’ He says, ‘there is actually nothing wrong, you just need to keep growing, but you cannot get ten points. Take nine points, I will put the remaining one point in my pocket’. I am not saying I deserve ten points; I am just saying that if you see someone that actually deserves ten points, give the person ten points.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, please help me, teach me, and guide me, in Jesus Name. Amen!