Priceless People

November 26, 2023

At least 40% of Americans are lonely. Even if people who are married and live with family can be lonely. Loneliness is a risk factor, like smoking, for heart disease and death.

We’re in a mental health crisis. Many suffer from mental illnesses like anxiety and depression. Drug and alcohol abuse have increased. Youth are suffering and schools need help to deal with mental health issues because they don’t have enough counselors. The elderly are also particularly suffering.

Part of the issue with this loneliness epidemic and mental health crisis is we don’t have enough people in our lives! If you experience loneliness or mental health issues, you may feel like you’re alone. But there’s an awful lot of us feeling this way. You’re not alone in feeling alone!

What does our faith offer to help us in these struggles?

We’ll look today at some Scripture to give us help and hope.

Ecclesiastes is a book that comes after the Psalms and after Proverbs in the Old Testament. Eccles. 4:9 says, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor.” When Kevin and I and our kids moved to Tamaqua, a group of people from his church were going to help unload the truck in Tamaqua. But when we went to get the U Haul, the rental place didn’t have our reservation. We signed up for the truck online and they didn’t look at it. So, we couldn’t move until the next day. The group in Tamaqua couldn’t help the next day. Boy did I wish for a friend! Finally, someone from his church came later in the evening. Has a friend ever helped you move? That’s just about the greatest love a friend can show, right?

Verse 10 explains why two are better than one. “If either of them falls down, one can help the other up.” Before there were mental health counselors, there was this thing called friends to help when you had trouble, and to pick you up if you fell. Apparently, friends also served as the ambulance to come help when you fell! It continues, “But pity the one who falls and has no one to help him up!” Do you know that 12% of people say they have NO close friends? Not even one? How do you cope without friends?

Verse 12 says, “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.”  So back then your friend was also your security guard. The verse finishes, “A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” We are stronger together!

Today we have professionals to help us, you can hire someone to move your stuff. You can get a counselor, call the ambulance, and get help from a security guard or the police. But if you don’t have a close friend? It takes the joy out of life.

Jesus was very intentional about making friends. He didn’t do ministry alone. He invited the 12 disciples to be his followers, his friends, and his team. We talk about the 12 disciples a lot. But there were more. Luke 8 says the 12 disciples were going to villages with Jesus, as well as Joanna, Susanna, Mary Magdelene, and other women who were helping financially support Jesus and the disciples.

Then in Luke 10 and John 10 Jesus sends out 72 disciples, two by two, to minister in towns and other places! There were 12 disciples, plus there were some women, but there were even more! There were 72! Jesus built a big team and sent them each out with a friend to minister. Two are better than one! And the more friends, the better!

In our gospel reading today, John 17:20-26 Jesus prays to God, and we hear the purpose he has for his disciples: Jesus says his prayer is not just for his disciples. “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me, and I am in them.” Jesus has built a big team of disciples. His purpose is that they will go out, united, supporting each other, so that people who don’t know God and don’t know Jesus will come to believe, and will be united as Christians. Jesus is about to die and go to heaven. His ministry will continue through his friends, to new people who are not yet friends.

That’s where you come in. Jesus has a mission for you: that you will have good friends and good support from your team, to enable you to go out to change the world! God’s plan to change the world involves you having close friends who help you through life, so you can go out and be a friend to many in Jesus’ name. God blesses us with friends to do life with, so we will bless others.

What could go wrong with this plan?

There are three things, three excuses, that cause us not to pursue people like Jesus did.

The first excuse is “I don’t have time for this. I’m too busy. It takes work to make friends, and my schedule is full. I don’t even have the time for the friends I have! I haven’t gotten together with some of them in a long time!”

Think about it, if you’re too busy to talk to a friend, your life could be so much better. At the end of your life, you won’t say, “I wish I had worked more hours, spent more time at work and less time with the people I care about!” No, you’ll be thinking the opposite! Friends don’t have to take up ALL your time. You can do things you need to do with your friends. You can work on your car, with a friend. You can run an errand with a friend. Jesus didn’t do his ministry all alone, then go out to lunch with Peter, and go alone to Matthew’s party, and then visit the temple with just James. No, most of the time Jesus and the 12 did everything together! You can spend time with a friend doing things you need to get done. And that’s more fun than doing your errands or chores alone.

The second excuse is, “I’ve had a friend hurt me and I don’t want any more friends.” That’s tough! We’ve probably all had a friend who hurt us. Jesus did, his friend Judas betrayed him! But living a hermit’s life, isolated and protected from the world, doesn’t make life better. Your friends, good, encouraging people are out there waiting for you.

The third excuse is, “I’m just always gonna be alone. I’m not like other people.” Or “I’m an introvert. I’m not an extrovert who likes being around lots of people!” But introverts make even better friends! They may not go wide and have lots of friends, but they go deep with their closest friends. Or maybe you feel isolated and alone and think, “That’s just the way it will always be with me.” But if you believe in God and Jesus, who said all things are possible with God, then it’s possible to make friends! If Christians are called to live in community, then God will make it happen! You can have a community of friends.

My challenge for you this week is to reach out to someone and ask to get together. Maybe it’s a friend you have been neglecting that you feel called to reach out to. Maybe it’s someone who is not yet a friend but might be. Put yourself out there and see what happens!

Before there were people you could hire when you needed help, there was something amazing: friends! Even today they pick us up when we fall, they encourage us, and they help us move! Friends were a key part of how Jesus did his ministry. Friends are how you and I can change the world. The more we all build friendships and spend time with friends, the less anxiety and loneliness there will be. Be a friend, fight for someone. Be brave and reach out. I don’t want to miss out on the best life. You don’t want to miss out. So, let’s love others in Jesus’ name! Amen.