WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.000 You can't break the power of depression, isolation, anxiety, if you're a loner, if you're a Lone Ranger. 2 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:16.000 The Lone Ranger Christian days are over, and I believe God's calling us to community. 3 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:20.000 And community is where we find identity. Community is where we find inclusion. 4 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:35.000 God's cure for loneliness, depression, anxiety is something that everybody struggles with, and God does have a cure. 5 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:44.000 And in 1 Peter 4, we have this one passage that, in my opinion, as a counselor, a pastor, and a leader, 6 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:52.000 really sums up some key points in how to break the power of depression, anxiety, and loneliness in our lives. 7 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:57.000 And it's 1 Peter 4, 7 through 11. 8 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:03.000 But the end of all things is at hand, therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. 9 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:12.000 I gave an episode back on the power of prayer and how prayer is so important in breaking depression, 10 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:15.000 breaking loneliness, breaking anxiety in our life. 11 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:22.000 Even what the experts in science and psychology are saying about the power of prayer. 12 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:29.000 And above all things, have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins. 13 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:35.000 So in the last episode, I talked about the power of love and the power of solid relationships 14 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:40.000 and why we need a fervent love for other people in our lives. 15 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:49.000 You know, here's the thing. Sin separates us. Sin separates us from people. Sin separates us from God. 16 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:52.000 Now listen to what I'm going to say next. Sin separates you from yourself. 17 00:01:52.000 --> 00:02:01.000 So sin and that law of separation has to be bridged in order to break the power of depression 18 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:06.000 and break the power of loneliness and break the power of anxiety in our lives. 19 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:13.000 And so having a fervent love, and I talked about the importance of going after relationships. 20 00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:19.000 So wherever you are, whatever your circumstances, there are people around you. 21 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:23.000 People that need love. People that need your forgiveness. 22 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:30.000 They need your inclusiveness by showing them the kingdom of God through your love for them. 23 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:32.000 That's so vital and dynamic. 24 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:37.000 But then next the verse says, be hospitable to one another without grumbling. 25 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:45.000 So I would say thirdly, we open up our environment to other people. 26 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:49.000 The reason I say that is because you may be in a tiny apartment. 27 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:52.000 You may be, my goodness, you might even be in a prison cell. 28 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:55.000 You might be in a neighborhood. 29 00:02:55.000 --> 00:03:03.000 Wherever you are, he's not saying open up just anything that you're living in that's your shelter per se. 30 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:05.000 He's saying be hospitable. 31 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:11.000 And what that means is can you be open in your location to other people? 32 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:15.000 Letting them into your life. Letting them in. 33 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:22.000 And in my life, in a home with my wife, we constantly have people over to our house. 34 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:25.000 We're constantly allowing people to come into our house. 35 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:30.000 Currently we have little lab puppies that we've raised up. 36 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:33.000 They're about to go to their owners soon. 37 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:38.000 But lots of friends and colleagues have wanted to see the puppies. 38 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:43.000 So almost every day someone's coming over to our house to see our puppies. 39 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:45.000 So we open up our home. 40 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:47.000 We open up our life to others. 41 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:50.000 We give them the opportunity to see how we live. 42 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:58.000 Opening up our lives to others breaks unhealthy cycles of isolation and loneliness. 43 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:07.000 So for many people, they kind of run to their home or run to their room or to their apartment, wherever they're living, 44 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:09.000 and just isolate themselves there. 45 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:16.000 Open up your home to others so that they can come in and enrich you. 46 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:18.000 So what is it to be belonging? 47 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:21.000 I mean, we all long for belonging. 48 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:35.000 And belonging is defined as the feeling of security and support when there is a sense of acceptance, inclusion, and identity for a certain group. 49 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:43.000 It is when an individual can bring their authentic self to others, including friendship, family, and work. 50 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:47.000 So that's inclusion that comes through belonging. 51 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:50.000 All of us are longing for belonging. 52 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:58.000 In our lives, we're looking for those that love us, understand us, accept us the way we are. 53 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:00.000 And that's pretty hard. 54 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:03.780 If you're not going to allow yourself to have other people in your life. 55 00:05:03.780 --> 00:05:09.480 So I want to challenge you, you can't break the power of depression, isolation, 56 00:05:09.480 --> 00:05:15.800 anxiety, if you're a loner, if you're a lone ranger, the lone ranger Christian 57 00:05:15.800 --> 00:05:21.860 days are over, and I believe God's calling us to community, and community is 58 00:05:21.860 --> 00:05:26.320 where we find identity, community is where we find inclusion, community is 59 00:05:26.320 --> 00:05:29.840 where we find belonging, and all of us are made for that. 60 00:05:29.840 --> 00:05:37.560 You're wired for relationships, God wired you for connection, he created Adam in 61 00:05:37.560 --> 00:05:43.880 the garden, and he did not leave him alone, he brought Eve to Adam, and then 62 00:05:43.880 --> 00:05:48.840 through Adam and Eve, they started a family, from the family came a village, 63 00:05:48.840 --> 00:05:54.720 from a village became a city, from a city became a nation, so everything about 64 00:05:54.760 --> 00:06:01.440 this earth, everything is about connectivity, it's about belonging, and 65 00:06:01.440 --> 00:06:06.720 what we tend to do is we start to belong to a certain kind of group, and it's in 66 00:06:06.720 --> 00:06:13.880 that grouping that we find some of our deepest meaning, but also sometimes when 67 00:06:13.880 --> 00:06:19.600 we create a group, it can become a clique, it becomes a clique, and you might as 68 00:06:19.600 --> 00:06:25.920 well call it a gang, it almost becomes a gang, where we start then to go back into 69 00:06:25.920 --> 00:06:32.480 this separation mode, and so I think when he says be hospitable to one another 70 00:06:32.480 --> 00:06:37.720 without grumbling, remember he's writing to a church, he's writing to a church in 71 00:06:37.720 --> 00:06:46.720 Asia Minor, Peter is, and he is wanting us to understand that we, even as a church, 72 00:06:46.760 --> 00:06:50.840 have to open up ourselves to each other, open up our homes and our lives to each 73 00:06:50.840 --> 00:06:55.880 other, because even within a church we become cliquey, even within a church we 74 00:06:55.880 --> 00:07:02.320 tend to separate from each other, and so God gives you a group of people that you 75 00:07:02.320 --> 00:07:08.520 identify with, I think that's the best place to start, is just right there with 76 00:07:08.520 --> 00:07:13.520 that group, developing a relationship with those people, but then I think 77 00:07:13.520 --> 00:07:20.760 there's something to be said about the power of inclusion when we open up our 78 00:07:20.760 --> 00:07:25.560 homes, we open up our lives to people that are really different than us, that 79 00:07:25.560 --> 00:07:34.560 don't necessarily fit in the carved out little exclusivistic club that we set up, 80 00:07:34.560 --> 00:07:41.280 that we would be open to others and allow them into our group, and so some of 81 00:07:41.280 --> 00:07:46.840 the richest times in my life has been where I've been sitting around a fire pit 82 00:07:46.840 --> 00:07:52.120 or I've been having dinner with people that I really kind of don't necessarily 83 00:07:52.120 --> 00:07:58.760 relate to, but I ask good questions, I ask good questions, I try to pull out of their 84 00:07:58.760 --> 00:08:04.560 heart who they are so that I can get to know them, and I'll admit I'm a weird guy 85 00:08:04.560 --> 00:08:10.800 in the sense that I'm very curious, I really enjoy meeting new people, I enjoy 86 00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:18.000 hearing their story, and so I think being hospitable means asking good questions, 87 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:24.480 it means including people into your atmosphere, into your world, it breaks the 88 00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:31.880 power of clicky thinking, it breaks the power of being a gang or being a tribe 89 00:08:31.880 --> 00:08:35.240 that's just exclusive to only our people. 90 00:08:35.240 --> 00:08:42.440 Loving one another as Christ loved us breaks the power of isolation by also opening up 91 00:08:42.440 --> 00:08:47.040 our lives to others and letting them see how we live, and I think some of the 92 00:08:47.040 --> 00:08:53.360 greatest lessons that I ever learned when I was single was being around married 93 00:08:53.360 --> 00:08:58.120 couples that I thought were super cool, and them inviting me into their home for 94 00:08:58.120 --> 00:09:03.960 dinner, and as a single guy watching a couple relate to each other in their 95 00:09:03.960 --> 00:09:09.560 kitchen, relate to each other in their atmosphere, because it was very natural, 96 00:09:09.560 --> 00:09:15.240 it wasn't contrived, it wasn't fake, but it was very natural, and I learned way 97 00:09:15.240 --> 00:09:19.640 more than any classroom training or any book that I could read, was just watching 98 00:09:19.640 --> 00:09:25.320 the interaction of people, and same for you, if you have a home, if 99 00:09:25.320 --> 00:09:31.080 you're married, if you have a roommate, whatever your circumstances are, to kind 100 00:09:31.080 --> 00:09:36.880 of invite people in, don't be a clique, don't set yourself in a place of being 101 00:09:36.880 --> 00:09:44.280 separate, rather learn to belong and let other people into that group, and in our 102 00:09:44.280 --> 00:09:49.480 church, with the Road Church, we have community groups, and that's a powerful 103 00:09:49.480 --> 00:09:54.960 way to be hospitable, is to invite people into these different house groups that 104 00:09:54.960 --> 00:10:00.040 we have. You may be in a situation where there's groupings, and in that groupings 105 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:03.800 It's with other believers, it's other Jesus people 106 00:10:03.800 --> 00:10:05.320 that you're relating to. 107 00:10:05.320 --> 00:10:06.420 Keep growing that. 108 00:10:06.420 --> 00:10:08.680 In other words, don't become so cliquish 109 00:10:08.680 --> 00:10:10.920 that nobody else can come in, 110 00:10:10.920 --> 00:10:14.800 but invite people in and love them there, 111 00:10:14.800 --> 00:10:16.120 and there's power in that. 112 00:10:16.120 --> 00:10:19.920 And so, I guess what I'm saying in this episode 113 00:10:19.920 --> 00:10:23.720 is the power of community, 114 00:10:23.720 --> 00:10:28.660 how important community is to break the power of isolation, 115 00:10:28.660 --> 00:10:31.140 to break the power of loneliness, 116 00:10:31.140 --> 00:10:34.840 which often leads into depression, anxiety. 117 00:10:34.840 --> 00:10:37.660 So I challenge you, if you're in a group, invite others. 118 00:10:37.660 --> 00:10:41.700 Don't become closed off, but invite others into that group. 119 00:10:41.700 --> 00:10:44.900 Constantly be open and honest 120 00:10:44.900 --> 00:10:48.100 about just how important community is, 121 00:10:48.100 --> 00:10:51.260 and give other people who have no community 122 00:10:51.260 --> 00:10:53.620 the opportunity to enter into your community. 123 00:10:53.620 --> 00:10:55.660 So God bless you, I hope that's helpful.