In a small Lutheran church in Southern California, in a time they called a new pastor, a new minister

to come and be their pastor. And it wasn't long after he got there, he realized that this church

has not a clue about what being the body of Christ is all about.

And after a great deal of prayer, he decided to challenge them.

I mean, their feeling was that when you come to church, you don't talk to anybody,

you don't greet anybody, you come in and you get through that ordeal,

which is called the service,

and then you get out as fast as a lightning bug and talk to no one.

Well, finally, the pastor got up and he said, look, I'll tell you what I'm going to do.

As of next week, I'm going to challenge each one of you to turn around to their neighbor and greet them in Jesus' name.

Well, at the end of that service where the announcement was made,

a man turned to a lady who was sitting next to him,

and he was greeting her, and she said to him,

wait a minute, mister, this greeting business will not start until next week.

How common it is. For churches that are supposed to be a haven and a resource in overcoming loneliness often adds to loneliness in my last message we looked at the loneliness that stems out of guilt

and sin and disobedience to the Father,

because disobedience causes to run and hide from him.

And the scripture showed us how to deal with this.

In this message, I want to look at loneliness that is rooted in isolation,

loneliness that is rooted in alienation. Although isolation does not have to be

physical isolation, although physical isolation can be very painful, yet loneliness of isolation

can come from the feeling of not being appreciated, from the feeling of being taken for granted, from feeling of being ignored, from feeling of being taken for granted from feeling of

...