Jul. 24, 2022

What If I’m Lonely?

July 23 & 24, 2022

Primary Text: John 14:15-20          

Previous Teaching: What if I Worship Wrongly? 

1) Created Things 

Romans 1:24-25: Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. 

DQ 1) Define “worship.” Does everyone worship something?

 DQ 2) Is it possible to worship wrongfully? How? Why? _______________________________________________________________________________________

2) Spirit and Truth 

John 4:23-24: “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." 

DQ 3) What does it mean to worship in spirit and truth? _______________________________________________________________________________________

3) Personal Worship 

Romans 12:1: Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. 

DQ 4) How can each one of us be a living sacrifice? 

DQ 5) Fundamentally, why should we worship the One True God? _______________________________________________________________________________________

This Week’s Teaching 

1) Lonely and Afflicted 

Psalm 25:15-18: My eyes are ever on the LORD, for only he will release my feet from the snare. Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart have multiplied; free me from my anguish. Look upon my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins. 

DQ 1) What causes loneliness? 

DQ 2) Is it possible to be alone without being lonely? 

DQ 3) Is it possible to be lonely while being surrounded by people? _______________________________________________________________________________________

2) Never Will He 

Hebrews 13:5-6: Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you" [Deuteronomy 31:6]. So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid [Psalm 118:6]. What can man do to me?" 

DQ 4) Why is it impossible for God to forsake His people? _______________________________________________________________________________________

3) Father to the Fatherless 

Psalm 68:4-6: Sing to God, sing praise to his name, extol him who rides on the clouds--his name is the LORD-- and rejoice before him. A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land. 

DQ 5) How does God care for the lonely? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ 

4) I AM in You 

John 14:15-20: “If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever--the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” 

DQ 6) How is the presence of the Holy Spirit within each believer a guarantee of God’s continuous, prevailing love for us? ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ 

5) Always With You 

Matthew 28:18-20: Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." 

DQ 7) Will there be loneliness in Heaven? _______________________________________________________________________________________