Advice for Christian Loners

00:00:00.000 | A podcast listener named Joe in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey writes in to ask this, "Pastor

00:00:09.560 | John, on Facebook you once wrote this, 'Christ did not die to create saved loners.

00:00:14.840 | He died to create Christ-exalting friendships.'"

00:00:17.760 | Can you please explain this?

00:00:20.040 | A lot of Christians are loners.

00:00:22.180 | Many of them are hurting, perhaps victims of the church or perhaps are victims of the

00:00:25.040 | lies that they believe.

00:00:26.660 | How would you encourage or motivate Christian loners?

00:00:30.800 | There are a lot of Christian loners, some by choice and some not by choice.

00:00:37.840 | And my point was God's aim in the death and resurrection and work of Christ today is to

00:00:48.440 | move people beyond that stage.

00:00:52.800 | If they're in it, if you're in a stage where you are a Christian loner because you want

00:00:57.440 | to be or you're a Christian loner because you feel like people have given you no choice

00:01:02.600 | but to be, God sent his Son to change that.

00:01:07.200 | He wants to move you not just to be a soul-satisfied friend of Jesus, but to be a soul-satisfied

00:01:19.980 | friend to friends so that you experience Jesus through others as well as directly.

00:01:26.760 | And here's where that came from, Tony.

00:01:28.560 | I preached a few months ago from 2 Timothy 4 where Paul said, "At my first defense, no

00:01:36.920 | one stood by me.

00:01:39.980 | Everybody deserted me, but the Lord stood by me and strengthened me."

00:01:45.840 | Now you could take that verse and say, "See?

00:01:49.520 | He didn't need people.

00:01:50.840 | Jesus was his friend.

00:01:52.280 | Jesus will never fail.

00:01:54.000 | People will always fail you.

00:01:55.280 | I'm tired of dealing with people.

00:01:57.520 | They're just fickle and they let you down, and I'm going to be like Paul and have the

00:02:02.480 | Lord stand by me, and if everybody forsakes me, that's their problem.

00:02:07.480 | I've got Jesus."

00:02:08.480 | That is totally not what Paul experienced in that chapter because he said just a little

00:02:16.880 | bit later to Timothy, "Do your best to come to me before winter."

00:02:23.480 | And he said a little earlier, "Luke alone is with me.

00:02:26.560 | Get Mark.

00:02:27.680 | Bring him with you.

00:02:28.680 | He is useful to me in the ministry."

00:02:31.040 | This is Paul's heart in all of his letters.

00:02:33.800 | Paul hated being in ministry alone.

00:02:36.440 | When he was forced to go alone to Athens, the first thing he did was send back, "Please

00:02:40.800 | get Timothy and the team down here as soon as you can.

00:02:43.080 | I don't want to be here in this city by myself."

00:02:47.160 | And so I think it stands that Christ died so that we would not be Christian loners but

00:02:59.960 | would be in Christ-exalting friendships because, if you say, "Why?"

00:03:05.800 | It's because there's more of Christ to be known in Christ-exalting friendships.

00:03:10.200 | You know, I don't want to twist the arm of a loner and say, "You ought to do this, and

00:03:15.240 | it's your duty to do this."

00:03:16.440 | I want to say, "You're missing something, really missing something.

00:03:20.400 | There is more of Christ to be known.

00:03:23.120 | There's more of God to be known.

00:03:25.720 | God said to a happy man, 'It is not good for you to be alone.'

00:03:31.400 | And Paul said to a church, 'The eye can't say to the hand, "I have no need of you."

00:03:37.880 | The head can't say to the feet, "I have no need of you."'"

00:03:41.080 | They can't.

00:03:42.080 | And if you're a head or an eye or a hand or a finger or a pinky or a big toe standing

00:03:46.260 | off by yourself saying, "I don't need them," you're wrong.

00:03:49.680 | Paul says you're wrong.

00:03:52.440 | So here's my encouragement.

00:03:54.440 | First of all, to the loners who think they don't need others, I would say, "You're kicking

00:03:59.700 | against the pricks.

00:04:01.600 | God has more for you, much more of himself than you will have on your own."

00:04:09.760 | And the thing I'd say by way of encouragement to the Christian loner who feels that he or

00:04:14.600 | she has no choice, that they've been kicked into loneliness, I would say, "I'm sorry for

00:04:25.680 | what has happened to you.

00:04:26.880 | I'm sorry that that's been done to you."

00:04:30.840 | And I would say, "Please, don't give up on the one never-failing friend because other

00:04:37.320 | friends have failed you."

00:04:39.480 | And I would say, "For the sake of Christ, forgive those who have failed you."

00:04:47.760 | Unforgiveness is suicidal.

00:04:50.160 | It hurts you more than it hurts them.

00:04:52.900 | And I would say, "Move toward a Bible-preaching church with the prayer that God will guide

00:05:00.800 | you.

00:05:01.800 | He has a community for you.

00:05:02.800 | Trust him for this."

00:05:04.620 | And I would say, finally, "Be for others what you long for them to be for you."

00:05:14.240 | Yes.

00:05:15.240 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:05:16.240 | And thank you for listening to this podcast.

00:05:17.840 | We will be back next week with all new episodes.

00:05:20.660 | Until then, please continue to email your questions to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org.

00:05:25.080 | And of course, you can visit us online at any time at DesiringGod.org to find thousands

00:05:29.380 | of books, articles, sermons, and other resources from John Piper, all free of charge.

00:05:33.080 | I'm your host, Tony Ranke.

00:05:34.320 | Thanks for listening.

00:05:35.160 | [END]

00:05:36.160 | 1

00:05:37.160 | Desiring God's Preciousness 2

00:05:38.160 | Desiring God's Perfection 3

00:05:39.160 | Desiring God's Perfection 4

00:05:40.160 | Desiring God's Perfection 5

00:05:41.160 | Desiring God's Perfection 6

00:05:42.160 | Desiring God's Perfection 7

00:05:43.160 | Desiring God's Perfection 8

Advice for Christian Loners

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