God’s Plan

Sermon Summary:

This profound exploration takes us back to the very beginning of creation, where we discover a fundamental truth about our design: we were never meant to be alone. Drawing from Genesis 2, we encounter God’s first declaration that something is ‘not good’—human isolation. This isn’t merely about marriage or romantic relationships; it’s about the core of our humanity. We were created in the image of a God who exists in perfect community within the Trinity, and therefore we’ve been hardwired for connection. The epidemic of loneliness sweeping across modern society—particularly affecting young adults—isn’t just a social problem; it’s a spiritual crisis reflecting our distance from God’s original design. The message challenges us to examine our own relational health across every sphere: family, friendships, community, church, and work. Like Jesus, who intentionally cultivated relationships at various levels of intimacy, we’re called to move beyond the ‘elevator etiquette’ of modern life where we can be surrounded by people yet profoundly alone. The habitat God designed for human flourishing is community, and when we disconnect from that habitat, we suffer in ways that affect our mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing. This isn’t about fixing what’s broken; it’s about returning to what was always meant to be.

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Sermon Points:

COMMUNION: As Christians, we gather at the Lord’s Table in community with our God and with each other.

Key Takeaways:

• God exists in plurality and perfect community within the Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit)
• Human beings are created in God’s image and therefore designed for community
• “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18) is a foundational statement about all humanity, not just marriage
• Loneliness is an epidemic in America, the UK, and Japan, with young adults being the most affected demographic
• Loneliness has severe health consequences comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes daily
• The two primary causes of loneliness are technology and broken families
• God has created a habitat for every creature to flourish; for humans, that habitat is community
• Relationships exist across multiple spheres: family, village/neighborhood, education, vocation, friendships, and church
• Jesus modeled healthy community through His family, His village (Nazareth), His broader group of disciples, and His inner circle (Peter, James, and John)
• Meaningful connections require intentionality and cultivation

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Scripture References:

Sermon Transcript

Thank you, Michael and our worship team for leading us today. Well, you know that our theme here at First Baptist Arlington is flourishing together. That has been our focus for this entire year. As a matter of fact, it’s going to guide us for these next three years. We are using the phrase rooted in Christ to, just point our attention to what we’re doing this particular year.

And, you know that every season of the year, we’ve explored a different facet of that theme. And so for the fall, which begins today, we start a new series today. And, I’ve entitled this series, It Is Not Good to Be Alone. And here’s what we’re going to do over these next eight Sunday mornings. We have eight sermons prepared for you to help us address this conversation about relationships, and we are looking forward to unpacking these with you.

We also have prepared curriculum for all of our adult Bible study groups. And, Ryan Chandler has actually written the curriculum for us. And, it is called the Upper Room. And so our adult Bible study classes, most of them begin that journey today as we are using the upper room discourse recorded in John’s Gospel. As the basis for our conversations and our Bible study groups for the fall.

There are eight of those lessons, and they focus around discipleship in community. Let me read you a quote from Ryan’s curriculum where he says, discipleship happens in community. A community is shaped by love, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and united by a common mission, and invites us not only to study Jesus’s final words, but to live them out together.

And that’s really what this fall is going to be about. You know that we’re involved in this human flourishing conversation that’s being led by Harvard and Baylor. And one of the domains that’s currently being research in the global flourishing study is what’s called close social relationships. There are six of those domains. This is one of them. This will be our fifth one, I believe, to address this year on Sunday mornings.

And some of you were here in January when we launched this whole flourishing journey. And when Kate Long and Scott here were with us and we took the flourishing measure. And some of you may be newer to our church, and you weren’t a part of that. So here’s what happened that day. That weekend, our church took this test.

It’s a self-assessment. In each one of the domains. There are two questions or two comments. And we were asked to rate ourselves on a scale of 0 to 10, zero being the worst, ten being the best. When it comes to relationships. Here were the two statements. I’m content with my friendships and relationships. How would you rate yourself on a scale of 0 to 10?

And the second one, my relationships are as satisfying as I would want them to be. How would you rate yourself regarding that particular comment? Well, the global flourishing study has been ongoing for this past year, so they’ve already published some of the results. And here’s what we’re learning. After one year, 220,000 people across the world and 22 countries are part of the survey.

We’ve discovered, according to the research, that social relationships, the health of them are directly connected to our mental health and emotional well-being. Now, we’re not surprised by that, are we? Because we know how important fundamental relationships are. So here’s what we’re going to do today. We’re going to just start the series and have a foundational conversation. Okay. And we’re going to go. We’re going to go all the way back to the very beginning. So if you have your copy of the old Testament, I want to ask you to turn to the book of Genesis.

The second page. We’re in the Creation Narratives IV, entitled The Message God’s Plan, God’s Plan for relationships. That’s the lens I want you to put on this morning. Genesis one and to compose the creation narratives in the Scripture. Genesis one is the macro story. Genesis two is the micro story telling the same story from two different perspectives. But it’s the it’s the message of God’s plan for his creation.

And in particular this morning for humanity. So look at Genesis two, verse 18 where the text reads, the Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky.

He brought them to the man to see what he would name them. And whenever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock and the birds in the sky, and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep.

And while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs, and then closed up the place with flesh. And then the Lord God made a woman from the rib which he had taken out of the man. And he brought it in a man. And the man said, this is now bone of my bones, and flesh, and my flesh.

She shall be called woman. For she was taken out of man. That is why a man leaves his father and his mother and is united to his wife. So they become one flesh. Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. I want you to notice the intimacy of that language. Bone of my bone. Flesh of my flesh.

Adam said. Notice how close this original human couple is, and notice how they’re in harmony in their relationships with each other. They’re in harmony with their relationship with God’s plan for them. To ten the garden God told them they’re in harmony with their in their relationship with God. It’s a beautiful, beautiful portrait for us. And to me, it reveals God’s plan to us.

Well, I know that somewhere posted on some elevator is a list of rules that defines elevator etiquette.

Because there’s a certain etiquette when it comes to elevators. You get on. You don’t touch anybody. You look straight ahead and you don’t speak. I’m sure it’s written down somewhere. It doesn’t always happen. I, years ago, I was in Washington, D.C., visiting my brother Tommy, and, we were wanting to see the 4th of July fireworks in downtown D.C..

As an aside, if you’ve never seen the fireworks on 4th of July in Washington, D.C. in person, go. It’s pretty awesome. Well, their pastor had a friend who had access and where they live in their apartment complex for us to go to the top of the building and actually go to the roof and just peer out into D.C. and watch these fireworks.

So my brother and our family, we got on the elevator in the building, along with some strangers we didn’t know. The door closed and nothing happened. And we waited and nothing happened. And we waited and nothing happened. And all of a sudden a little alarm went off and there was a lady on that elevator and said, we’re trapped.

We’re gonna die. And our friend Murray looked at her and said, we we haven’t moved. We’re still on the ground floor. She starts pushing at the ceiling. We have got to get out of here. So Murray and I grabbed the elevator doors and we got him about this far open and boom, out she went. Rescued and I’m assuming into the darkness.

I’m not sure. And we we escaped. Everything was fine. We hadn’t moved. But it’s interesting about elevators. You know, you get on, you just don’t touch. So the only thing you can say is something like this. Would you press floor number four for me? That’s it. That’s all this allowed. I’m a terrible elevator rider because I’m fine with having awkward conversations.

If I ever get on the elevator in this crowded and I have to get on and I can’t even turn around. I might say something like this. You all may be wondering why I’ve called this meeting today.

I just like to see people how they react. We all know there’s an etiquette. I mean, unless, of course, you’re a buddy the elf. And then you can just press every button and it’s like a Christmas tree. And then when you get off, you can say, oh, I forgot to give you a hug. So one of my favorite parts of that show all time, greatest Christmas movie ever.

Here’s what’s interesting about being in an elevator. You can be alone in a crowd. It turns out it’s not just an elevator. There are people in your life right now who are alone in a crowd. As a matter of fact, that’s actually an epidemic in our country right now where people are surrounded by a crowd, but they’re alone.

The epidemic of loneliness is being researched right now by psychologists and sociologists from across the spectrum in our society. Our former US Surgeon General, Doctor Vivek Murthy, declared it an epidemic in America two years ago. Let me read to you a quote from his declaration. He said, this loneliness is far more than just a bad feeling. It harms both individual and social health.

It’s associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety and premature death. The mortality rate of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarets a day, and even greater than that associated with obesity and physical inactivity. And the harmful consequences of a society that lacks social connection can be felt in our schools, workplaces and civic organizations where performance, productivity and engagement are diminished.

It turns out that loneliness is anything but a laughing matter. It is a serious situation in our society today, and it’s not just in the US. It’s an epidemic in various places across the world. Do you know, a few years ago, the Prime Minister of England named a new cabinet member that still exists today. The Minister for loneliness today, right now in the UK, Stuart Andrew is the minister for loneliness in the UK.

And he leads an entire team of people who are trying to address the epidemic of loneliness throughout the United Kingdom. Loneliness, according to the research I’ve read, is a state of mind. It’s a distressing experience that results from perceived isolation or inadequate, meaningful connections. And, you know, all kinds of people are researching it right now. Obviously, the global flourishing study is touching upon it.

But there’s another independent group at Harvard and the Harvard Graduate School of Education that’s involved, distinct from the global flourishing study in a project known as Making Caring Common. And these researchers are asking Americans, are you lonely? And what they’re discovering is that that loneliness index is increasing in the US at an alarming rate. And one of the reasons that that’s so concerning is because when they ask people who self-described themselves as lonely, 81% of them also experience anxiety and depression.

And when they’re asked, what’s the cause of your loneliness? If you had to isolate 1 or 2 factors, why do you think you are so lonely? Hands down, two answers are given by these folks who say themselves. They self describe themselves as lonely. Do you know the two major causes of loneliness? According to those who say they’re lonely in the US?

Nothing else has even close technology and broken families. And here’s what’s also alarming. All these groups that are studying loneliness in the US and in the UK, the loneliest segment of society. In other words, the group of adults who self evaluate themselves as most likely to be lonely are young adults in both the US and the UK.

So much so that in the US, in the UK and in Japan, it’s been declared an epidemic. Well, you and I this fall are going to spend these eight Sundays focused on relationships. It turns out it’s an incredibly important conversation. There are so many people within your circle of friends who go to school with you. They’re in class with you, they work with you.

They’re in your family. They go to church with you. And according to the research, a great proportion of them, unfortunately, are lonely, even in a crowd. So here’s what I want us to do. We’re going to begin this series with some theological reflection, and then we are going to walk through some practical suggestions based on the teaching of the Scripture about how we might improve and deepen our relationships.

But just like the last series on mental health, we started with theological reflection. We’re going to do that this time. So these first two messages are really an opportunity for us to reflect together theologically. Then we’re going to move into more practical conversations that okay. Okay. So let’s do that. Let’s think about Genesis two and what we’ve learned in both Genesis one and Genesis two about relationships.

Y’all might remember, face at home. We had as our guest speaker, Justin Whitmer Early. He wrote habits of the household. He’s also written a book called made for people. Let me share a quote with you from that book. He says in Eden, Adam had the one thing you would think he needed, right? You would think that God was sufficient, right?

But God himself said, no, it is not good. It is crucial to see that our capacity to be lonely with God is not a sign of God’s insufficiency. So your lack, it is a sign of his unfathomable generosity. God designed us to need people. You cannot experience God the way you were made to until you experience him alongside others.

Are full of spirituality is only possible with others. Our intended existence only works in community. Our highest call is only realized when we pursue it alongside others. I would add to that a hearty amen. You and I have been uniquely designed by God to live life alongside each other. So with that said, let’s think together theologically. Let’s start with our creator.

Our God exists in plurality and in perfect community, in eternity. I want you to notice the hints at that in some very basic scripture. Genesis two. If you back up just a little bit. Genesis one and that first creation narrative, the Bible says, God said this let us make man in our image as he spoke in plurality. This past week I have been at Baylor, at Truett Seminary all week, every day, teaching, facilitating a doctoral seminar at Truett Seminary.

A group of doctoral students from across the US in the UK are in our cohort, and we have been studying what it means to proclaim the kingdom of God, primarily through the book of Isaiah. And you’ll remember in the book of Isaiah and Isaiah’s call in Isaiah six, the Lord says, whom shall I send? Who will go for us?

Speaks in the plural. Just like here in Genesis one. Now, it’s not that unusual, because there’s this royal we that you’ve heard of. It’s not uncommon for royals to speak of themselves in the plural, but as the Scripture unfolds, this is much more than the royal we. Because as we begin to study the Scripture, what we discover is this that God exists in plurality.

He reveals Himself as God, God the spirit, and God the word. The Word of God, the Spirit of God and God all exist together. There’s plurality in his very nature, in his very being. The New Testament will even give fuller expression to that, so that Christians believe in a triune God, because God reveals himself in the New Testament as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Now, we don’t have time this morning to look through all the Scripture that would teach us that, but let’s just assent to that this morning. We believe in a triune God. There are numerous places in the Scripture that will point us to that and teach us that even though the word Trinity itself is not in the Scripture, the teaching of the Trinity is.

For example, in Matthew 28, when we are told to go and baptize disciples in the name singular of the father, son, and the Holy Spirit, plural. So there’s a plurality to the nature of God. So God Himself exists in community, in relationship within the Trinity for eternity. So it just stands to reason that when it comes to community, since human beings have been created in the image of God.

We’ve been designed by God to live in community with other human beings. As a matter of fact, this is God’s plan. God designed us. He’s hardwired us to live in community with each other. Just don’t leave your Bibles open. Let me just remind you. Genesis two, look at verse 18. Here’s what we’ve read already in the creation narrative.

And behold, it was good. And behold, it was good. And behold, it was good, and behold, it was very good. And then we come to verse 18 of chapter two. And the Lord God said, here’s the first not good. It is not good for this human being to be alone. Now hear me clearly this morning. This is not a text just really about marriage.

It’s not about singleness. This is a statement about humanity in general. It is not good for human beings to exist. Isolated, distanced. Disconnected. That’s not how God designed us. God designed us to flourish in community. Yesterday morning, many of us gathered here at our church for the 35th anniversary of our intercessory prayer ministry, and our intercessors hosted a breakfast and it was a beautiful day together.

Testimonies. Mark Wade was one of our speakers and Mark shared a very powerful message about prayer. But one of the things that Mark said to us, he used John Eldridge’s latest book, Experienced Jesus really? And one of the quotes from Eldridge’s book just jumped out at me. I’ll paraphrase it. It goes something like this. God has designed a habitat for every created creature to flourish.

In other words, throughout God’s creation, all of God’s creatures have been designed to flourish. And God has created a habitat for them in which they may flourish. I believe that wholeheartedly. And so God has designed me and you as human beings to flourish in our habitat, this community. In other words, as human beings, we are to live in community with others.

So with that said, let me just say this to you. In conclusion, connections are so important across the spectrum of our lives. We have the opportunity to develop meaningful connections with our fellow human beings. It’s just how God’s designed us. Here’s the good news. God has equipped you. He’s designed you. He has hardwired you for your habitat, and he’s created the habitat for you.

Have you noticed that every single human being born on planet Earth. All human beings, regardless of their station in life, human beings are born into families, into a family context. All human beings, none of us are born on our own. That’s not how it works. We’re all born into families. And you know what? Every single family on earth has a certain level of brokenness and dysfunction.

Can I get an amen, somebody? Thank you. Some more broken than others. There’s some of you in this room right now. Or maybe within the sound of my voice, you put the dis in dysfunction. That’s just how it works. So the family may be dysfunctional and have levels of brokenness, but it’s still the context in which you show up on planet Earth.

It has a shaping influence in your life. That’s how God designed it. But you’re not just born into a family. You’re born into a village. You’re born into a tribe. You’re born into a neighborhood. You’re born into a community. There are these social surroundings that serve as the context for your development. There’s these. There’s this web of relationships, if you will, that provides the communal aspect of your life.

You find your way somehow through a journey in education. It may be formal or informal, but it still happens. All of us are somehow educated and given experiences by which we learn how to live in the human community, and then we find our way to careers and work and home and communities. And so it begins with the family.

And then you have a certain friendship base, and then you live within a community. And if you’re a Christian, you live within a church and you find yourself also living out your vocation. So here’s what we’re going to do in this sermon series. We’re going to address all of those. We’re going to look at what the Scripture says about every one of those relational contexts, to help you and I find our way in them and learn how to more deeply engage in them so that we might be as healthy as God’s designed us to be, and we might flourish in a way that will honor him and will be a blessing to others.

Now, I want you to think for just a second in closing about how Jesus did it, because he’s a great example for us. You think about how Jesus was born into a family and his life was immediately in peril, if you remember. And he had a family that surrounded him and protected him. Do you remember this story? When King Herod decided that he was going to put all these babies to death, his family intervened and they covered him, and they carried him to Egypt as a baby.

Jesus was unable to do that himself. He was a human child, totally dependent upon the context of a family, and they protected him and cared for him. How many times you think he heard that story as a boy growing up, that his mom and daddy stepped in and shielded him from harm? That’s what families do. And then Jesus would be reared in a village in a community known as Nazareth.

He’s a Galilean. There’s a certain connotation for being a Galilean in first century Israel. And not only that, he was a tradesman. He was given a craft that was derived from his father, and so he was engaging in a web of social relationships and business relationships that would have been very common in his day. But then, so there’s a broader context for Jesus.

But then Jesus answered the call in his life to become an itinerant teacher and preacher, a prophet. And certainly we believe the Messiah. But you remember what Jesus did once he engaged in that particular vocation. He chose friends. He chose a whole nother web of relationships. And then, even within that web of relationships, are you all still with me?

Even when that whatever relationships he chose a group of core relationships. Peter, James and John. There are times in the scripture where Jesus will look at all those friends. How many ever were traveling with him? And then he would look at those 12 closest friends, and then he would look at those three special friends, and he would say to them, Peter, James, and John, you three come with me.

There was a deep mentoring relationship. So Jesus himself modeled it for us. He was in a family. He was in a certain social construct. He was a part of a synagogue community of faith in Nazareth. He went and priesthood there, if you remember, as an adult. And then he had friends, and then he had these core friends. And so you and I are on that journey, and we’ve been designed by God to live in it fully and to flourish within that context.

So let me just ask you this. How connected are you in community? How intentional are you in cultivating the relationships in your community? And it could be that some of you need to get to work.

Could be instead of griping about what you don’t have.

Get to work and find what you could have. The point is, the Lord wants us to flourish and relationships are so much a part of our flourishing. Let’s find our way in it. Let’s spend the fall learning more about it together. Let’s pray together.

Lord, today we are grateful for your design in our lives and how you’ve chosen to create us in your image. And because of that, you’ve designed us to live in relationship with one another. We thank you, Lord, for those relationships, how vital they are, how important they are, how significant they are, as can help us find our way in them.

And right now, Lord, there may be those within the sound of my voice that are lonely in a crowd, that life is like that of life on an elevator surrounded by other humans, but feeling disconnected, isolated, alone, awkward. Not sure what to do. So we come to you on their behalf today. Praying for healing, for openness, for connections, for community, for health.

We pray, Lord, that we’ll be sensitive as well to those around us who might find themselves in those situations that you would guide us gently, graciously to develop meaningful relationships throughout the spectrum of our lives in a way that will honor you and allow us to flourish in your Kingdom. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.