Loners
From a sermon by Pastor John on May 14, 2014
These meetings are supposed to be a foretaste. Paul said, “We meet in heavenly places.” Another way to translate that is, “We meet among heavenly creatures.” Either way, that’s where we meet, and such a gathering has authority. Any body of believers has authority over individual souls who belong to that body; this body here that God has put together has authority over the individuals within it. That’s why I’ve always tried to stress that a loner is not going to do well. A loner doesn’t recognize the authority of the body to direct, to counsel, to reprove, and so forth. Anyone in God’s family who goes through life doing his own thing is “in the flesh”. That not how God’s kingdom operates. Nobody will be saved in the end who lives this life as a loner. You’re not going to make it; you’re going to fail if you are a loner. That’s why I sound the warning. I don’t scream and yell or throw bricks to make my point, but please understand the authority that’s behind what I am saying. You are not going to be saved if you are a loner. I hope you understand that because that’s the way it is.
God is a God of relationships. Relationships are what is most important to Him. That is why the first thing He created was somebody to love. Right relationships mean more to Him than anything else, beginning with His relationship with His Son, and then through His Son to us. He loved us so much that He gave up His Son so He could have a right relationship with us. God is a God of relationships! He is not a loner. And He’s not old, either. Get that idea out of your head. God is not old, and He’s not a loner. If He were a loner, He would never have created anybody. He would have just sat there and created things for Himself to enjoy alone. But that’s not how He thinks. And everybody who thinks that way, everybody whose great joy is doing things for themselves – everyone of them – is going to end up in the Lake of Fire. Every single one. There will be no exceptions.
If God hadn’t commanded John the Baptist to stay out in the desert, John would have had all kinds of wonderful relationships. Unless you are a John the Baptist that God has commanded to stay out in the desert until it’s time to send you to do His work, don’t try to act like him. Don’t set yourself apart. Get in there and develop relationships with your brothers and sisters. Let me tell you something, when John came out of that wilderness, he became all about relationships. That’s why he preached to people to repent, and everyone that repented, he took right in and baptized. He was not on his own time; he was not doing his own thing. He was doing the will of God to make relationships that would last forever. Remember that. John spent a lot of his life alone, but he was not a loner.
You don’t have to be around people every day of your life to escape being a loner. We have known precious souls who spent much of their time alone, but not by choice. I’m talking about a spiritual condition. Where your thoughts and deeds are all for self. That makes you a loner in the middle of a crowded room.
