Fellowship of the Trinity

What if loneliness isn't just a social problem? What if it reveals something about how God created us?

In this Trinity Sunday message from 2 Corinthians 13:11-13, Pastor Jason Barnett explores the connection between loneliness, fellowship, and the nature of God. In a world filled with social media, texting, livestreams, and constant connection, many people still feel isolated, unseen, and alone.

As Paul closes his letter to the Corinthians, he calls believers to restoration, encouragement, harmony, and peace before ending with one of the most beautiful blessings in Scripture: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all."

This message reminds us that fellowship is not merely a church activity—it is rooted in the very nature of God. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in perfect love and relationship, and through Jesus Christ we are invited into that life.

If you've been struggling with loneliness, grief, discouragement, church hurt, or feeling disconnected from others, this sermon offers both hope and a practical invitation toward healing and community.

Because a people created in the image of the Trinity cannot thrive alone.

Linkoln shares his story on why he started coming to Ravenna Church of the Nazarene and shares why you should consider doing the same.

Ravenna Church of the Nazarene
530 Main Street, Ravenna, KY 40472

Transcript

Pastor Jason 0:00

Loneliness is becoming one of the deadliest epidemics in America. And it may reveal something about how God created it. I'm Pastor Jason Barnett, and this is the Dirt Pastorman Podcast. We live in a world where staying connected has never been easier. We can send a text message in seconds. We can see photos from across the country and even the world in moments. Yet many people are carrying burdens no one knows about. They smile for the picture, they answer that they're doing fine, and keep pushing forward alone. And that's why this message matters. Today we're exploring a short passage from the end of 2 Corinthians that reminds us that we were creative for more than connection. We are created for fellowship. The grace of Jesus, the love of the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit reveals something important about God. And something important about us. So whether you're driving down the road, sitting on the porch, finishing up a long day, or simply looking for a moment to hear from God, I'm thankful you're here. Let's open God's word together. Remember this? I know you guys are finishing up your TSA testing. And I know Ben just did his testing up at the school, but does anybody here remember the Scantron vests? My Sean and Nicole waving their hands. Yeah, because raised their hand there. Well, in school, we used to have these multiple choice tests, which were always my favorite, because you have one or four chances of getting the answer right. But it was this little sheet, and you had a text with a separate document, but whenever you made an answer, you had to mark it on the scantron. It was supposed to make it easier for the teachers to grade, because I just stuck it in the machine and it scanned it, and it might go wrong. Anyway. One of the requirements for these scantron tests is you had to have a number two pencil. It had to be a number two pencil. I don't know why it had to be a number two pencil, but it had to be a number two pencil. And every teacher, before you would take one of these tests, gave you the same speech. There were variations to it, but essentially it boiled down to these two points. Make sure you have two number two pencils. Make sure you have two. And if it breaks, if one of yours breaks, do not get up. That's why you have the second pencil. Now, if you're a student like me, you're doing good just to have one pencil that day. But those are your teachers' instructions. And so you would sit down and at some point, whether it was the first five questions or the first 20 questions, your pencil would break. Like sometimes it just snapping in them. Couple times I had the pencil completely snapped in half. I I pressed down hard when I write. And so I it would snap in half, right? And and and again, I'm a terrible student, so I only have one pencil. And so I'm in this dilemma of what do I do now? The teacher said, I mean, the teacher gave us this horror story of what happens if you get up and you go across the room to ask for help or even try and go reshrubbing your pencil. Now I could ask my friends sitting near me, but you know, some if they're usually if they're my friends, they didn't have an extra pencil either. But then again, even if you ask for another pencil, you'd be disrupting class, right? Also, they want to be accused of teach of cheating, right? Asking your friend for the answer, which again, I wouldn't trust any of my friends' answers. So you're kind of missing the lemma. Now, the logical thing, right? The right thing in your brain to do, is despite knowing the consequences, is to raise your hand and ask the teacher and say, hey teacher, I broke my pencil. Because I didn't want to be a problem, I'd just deal with it. Sometimes I'd pull the lead out of the pencil, right? And separate it from the lead with the number two and write with it that way. Sometimes I would take the pencil and try and hold it together and make it look like a pencil. I still had one functioning pencil. I'd do anything but ask for help. I would rather struggle with the dilemma than ask for help because I didn't want to be a bother. I mean, I'm sure some of you were kind of the same way, right? Maybe not. And here's the thing though, most of us, we never outgrow that. We never get past it. See when our marriage is struggling, we keep it to ourselves. We don't go talk to anybody now. We just we'll get through this. Hold on. When we've been through something and we're grieving, and that grief is crippling, rather than saying, hey, I'm struggling right now, there's something wrong. We're like, you know, I'm just if I just tough it out a little bit, if I just suck it up. I remember one time Ben fell off of playground equipment when we were living in Greensburg and he walked over and said, Yeah, I fell hurt. He's like, I hurt my leg. I was like, well, let's see, let's see how bad is walked that into. So that's what we do, right? So I'm gonna suck this up, make sure I'm okay. It's those dark clouds roll in, and we know we should talk to somebody, we know we should seek help, but we just don't want to be averted to anybody else. We don't want to drag them down into the pit that we're in. So we keep it to ourselves. Saying somehow we'll we'll figure it out. Then think about this too. Right now, we are living in an era we're in a generation where we are the most connected generation in history. Right? I I I probably have a way to contact most of you more than one way. We're connected. For some reason, as connected as we are, we are the loneliest generation. How does that make sense? We can give me technical text, we can video chat, and we can see everyone's lives on Facebook. We can watch church services online, sermons are available on podcasts. This one will be available on a podcast at some point this week. So, why are people so lonely? And I think we can find the answer to this in 2 Corinthians 13. I think Paul addresses this, and it's a very short passage in chapter 13 here. And 2 Corinthians is if you're if you're joined us for our 1 Corinthians study, we're doing a 2 Corinthians Bible study right now. But I've told you the Corinthian church is the church that essentially said we need to call the DS.

unknown 8:41

Right?

Pastor Jason 8:42

They've got to bring the DS in because it's a mess. Well, this is part two of that. It's a church that is deeply divided. Uh, there's a lot, and because it's divided, there's a lot of fractured relationships that Paul is dealing with. And so he's telling this church, you gotta you gotta repent of the sin. You've got to seek redemption, you've got to try and resolve these conflicts, you gotta offer forgiveness, right? That's what Paul is talking about in 2 Corinthians. Then let me get to these final words. These final words are not random. They are actually, Paul is taking all these things that he's been dealing with in 2 Corinthians and addressing this problem church, and he's going to, he's kind of summing them up here. He spent 13 chapters talking to a broken church about and a church that's fellowship is shattered, and he's gonna end up on a note. This is what the church should look like. Alright. Is everybody wiping the fuse yet? I think I am. Alright, well, let's look at verse 11. And I can't help but read verse 11. I grew up a WWE fan, and the rock was one of my favorites, and one of the rock's catchphrases, whenever he would come out and get on the micro, and he'd be like, Finally. And he would do that to, and then he would he would say, finally, and then he would cheer, like, I'm I'm back in whatever city they were in. So I saw Paul write finally last night, so I heard The Rock saying, Finally. So in part in verse 11, Paul's saying, finally, put things in order. This is his last words of advice to this problem to say, finally, put things in order. Now, this phrase in the Greek, it's it's more of urging them.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

Let's all put together.

Pastor Jason 10:43

And then he ends this verse with live be in harmony and live in peace. And again, that be in harmony, it literally means think the same thing. Now, if you've ever been in a church board meeting, you know, not everybody always thinks the same thing. In fact, in this room, if we were to go around this room and give our opinion, we all would realize that we don't think the same. Even though this literally means think the same, it's not saying that we have to have the same brain here. It's saying that we have to be focused on the same mission, the same purpose. That's what he's talking about. Because if you have the same mission, the same purpose, yeah, you might disagree about how to get there, but that that that shared focus, that shared drive, that shared objective, you will work together to achieve that objective. Even if you disagree a little bit. So Paul's saying, live in harmony. And he's also pointing out that there's a difference between peace with no harmony and peace that is in tune. Right? You can have a peace where everybody, nobody's actually getting along or saying anything or agreeing, right? We can have this passive exit passive aggressive existence where everybody's in disagreement. No one's fighting because they know we shouldn't fight, but they're not actually doing anything. There's all this problem bubbling them to the surface. That's not peace. That's ignoring the problem. That's different. Paul's saying live in harmony, put in the same mind. When you're on the same mission and the same purpose, that's gonna put you in tune. And here's the thing about harmony: God doesn't force it, right? God gave us all our own free will. We can choose what we're gonna do with our lives, and we can choose how we're gonna participate in the mission. But here's the thing as God's people, Paul is saying to these Corinthians, hey, if you're God's people, choose to live in harmony with each other. You're not ignoring conflict, but but still finding a way to unite and work for the same mission and purpose. You have to choose peace. I tell my kids all the time, it takes two people to fight.

unknown 13:04

Right?

Pastor Jason 13:04

If one person doesn't want to fight, it's no fun. There was this growing up, there was this pastor's daughter that was in the youth group with me and my younger brother Travis. And Travis picked on this, her name was Abby. Travis picked on Abby all the time. Like one time he he got he convinced her parents to let him into the house, and he he picked a bunch of phone books to rip pages out and comfortable and filled her car completely full with the phone book paper. And Travis would do because Abby would always react and get all upset because Travis would do these things to her. And her parents were like, you know, if you quit reacting, if you would choose not to react to what Travis is doing, he would probably stop. And that's the point that Paul's trying to make here. He's like, if you choose to live in harmony, all this conflict, all this division that's separating you, if you choose peace, you figure out a way to work it out. That's what Paul's saying. Alright, everybody still awake we have one person, that's all. Alright, let's go on to verse 12. Now, verse 12 is one of those verses if you're an introvert or a dreamophobe, you're like, you, let's not do that. Right? I would rather not have a holy kiss. Okay. We're not gonna have beetles standing there. When Paul Rice says, this is not a weird thing. It wasn't not, it wasn't a and it wasn't a romantic thing. This was common practice in this culture, right? It was actually common practice in families. It was one of the things that they did to show one another that they belonged to this family, that they were welcome there, that that you were part of the group. It was a family greeting. So what Paul is really getting at is just believers, Paul wanted them to know they they belonged to this church. Let other let these other believers know that they belong here. But this is this is they're part of your family. So nowadays you do that with a handshake, right? A hug, a high five, a fist bump, right? You let people know that they've always saying, let people know that you belong. And not just that though, he's he's pointing out because he goes on to say, and all the other believers say hi. Usually it's Timothy, but this time he groups all the other believers in there. All the other believers say hi. He's doing that to remind them that you're not just a part of this local church here. You're not just this church in Corinth. You're a part of something much bigger than what's happening in Corinth. It's funny to me so many times, you know, being a part of the church of Nazarene, we're in 165 world areas. That's a lot of different countries. We have six different world regions. And our general superintendents, there's six general superintendents, and their responsibility is to guide the church in all six of those different world regions. Do you realize every one of us is very different from each other? So people sometimes get mad at them that they're not addressing things here in our country the way they want them to. But they're like, Do you realize that's a problem here, but it's not a problem around the world? We're a global church, not us. We're bigger than that. We're bigger, there's a bigger picture at play. That's what Paul is saying. He's like, you're looking at your local church and seeing your problems here, Corinthians, but you are part of something much bigger, much more beautiful. Not there's not hide in where you're at, but there's something bigger working. Again, Paul's goal here is not church attendance. Right? Actually, you realize the goal of church attendance is not attendance. That's not the goal. Paul is talking about the goal of Christian gathering, the goal of the church gathering together, Paul is saying, is the goal is fellowship. Not just attendance, but fellowship, connecting with each other. And that thing that when he talks about greet one another or kiss one another, or you can't do those things from a distance. We can kind of do it, but but we have to be connected enough for me to have connection with you, right? It has to go beyond just connecting. It has to be it has to be a relationship there. So that's what Paul is getting at these verses. You you're you gotta have a relationship with each other. Now, many sermons, when we get to verse 13, many sermons have ended with verse 13. That seems to be the theme today, because nine I did a semi-school lesson from Jude. That was a common benediction in the service. This is a common benediction here in verse 13. Paul writes, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Now, here we read that, and you're thinking Jason just picked this because it's Trinity Son people. That did help influence it a little bit. But this is not a doctrinal stick thing here. Paul's not putting this out there to try and prove the existence of the Trinity. Paul is writing this because he's talking about relationships, he's talking about fellowship. Paul is ending this letter with a relational invitation. This church has been in conflict, that's deeply fractured and fighting with one another. Paul is saying is ending with a okay, let's let's let's let's return to fellowship with each other. And he's telling them how to do that. And now, again, he does this by highlighting the fellowship of the Trinity and the work of the Trinity in us, right? It's I've shared with you before, it's not just Jesus that died on the cross, which yes, that's important. Jesus died on the cross to save us of our sins. That was completely necessary. That's how grace impacts us. That was the love of God that sent Jesus into the world. When I say God, God the Father, it was the love of the Father that sent Jesus. It was the Holy Spirit that descended on the apostles. At work among people. So Paul is highlighting the truth because it's not this part of God that's working for our salvation and working to bring restoration, it's the fullness of God. The full Trinity is at work in the life of the church. Because it's at life, uh, working the life of the church, it's at work in the world through the church. Alright. Everybody's telling me I'm not saying that a lot to my swear. That's good. It's kind of murder here. But I'm I promise I'm gonna make sense of this right now, okay? But I'm I'm pointing out this part about the fraternity because it's really important to understand it. God created us, God created us for fellowship, not isolation. He created us for fellowship, not isolation. We were created to more than just exist in our own little bubbles, which is interesting because we had bubble boards Thursday night with the kids. And some of them were trying to make sure everybody experienced life in bubbles. Paul ends this letter by telling the Corinthians to repair not just the church, right? It's not just about getting the church numbers up. Paul is saying, hey, repair the relationships, repair the fellowship. And that was not something that God could do without the Corinthians' help.

unknown 21:19

Right?

Pastor Jason 21:20

God gave us all free will. And so Paul is saying, you've got to choose to participate in what the Holy Spirit, what the what the fullness of God is wanting to do in your midst. You have to participate in it. Paul couldn't do it. Like Paul wrote this strongly worded letter. You realize this is this is 2 Corinthians. Go read 1 Corinthians, and 2 Corinthians, he's addressing the same problems as he did in 1 Corinthians. Maybe not all of them, but most of them. And Paul, Paul, so Paul can't fix it. Strongly worded letters can't fix it, legislation can't fix those things, right? The generals, the district superintendents can make rules, their board can get together. And make rules for our church, but at the end of the day, that doesn't repair broken relationships. And the fellowship exists out of relationship, not just connection. So Paul is telling these Corinthians they have to practice fellowship by moving toward each other. You have to quit standing in your own little bubbles in your own little corners. You have to get out of your little holy huddle and cross to where the other side's at. And in doing so, and Paul points out, if you do this, if you if you try to seek to repair the relationship with one, you seek to repair the fellowship, then guess what? You will have fellowship with God. And by fellowship with God, he's talking about, and that's why he points out the Trinity. Right? The fellowship of God is the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. They're all three God, they're all three equally God. But they reveal, God reveals himself to us in these different ways. Think about the pizza illustration I gave the kids, right? I ripped the cheese off and I licked the sauce and all that stuff, right? It was all pizza. It was just in different parts. Think about you as a person, right? You as a person, you have a physical body. If I were to were to get in a fist fight within, right, there'd be physical damage to our bodies that we would feel. And your body's more than you as a person are more than just your physical body, right? You have a mind and your mind can be wounded. You have an emotional side of you, and your emotion your feelings can't get hurt. So so again, there's one you, but there's three different parts to you. God exists like that. But Paul, but Paul is saying is through faith in Jesus. You put your faith in Jesus, and if your faith's in Jesus and you're working together to repair the fellowship, then you will have fellowship with God the Father. God is pulling you into his relationship. And it's God's relationship that is the life of the church. Yet loneliness is still a problem. Right? This this study is from 2023. It says one in four young people in the world feels lonely. One in four. The issue is it's be it's lonely because they're connected, but they're not in fellowship. Again, people post on their Facebook and we can we can see them posting about their trips to see Mickey Mouse. We can see the pictures of how their kids growing up and their life on Facebook or whatever social media app you're using, and you see it from afar. We even gonna see pictures of the hot pocket that they've had dinner. We see all these things. But you see that that that's can that's still just connection because what we don't see when we're not in fellowship with each other is we don't see what's really going on with that person. We're just seeing what they put out there. They may look happy via our connection, but really they're grieving something alone. They're struggling or they're hurting and they're carrying burdens by themselves. And those are things no one will ever notice from a distance. When you're just connected, you don't notice those things. And here's the thing about that, we were not designed for that. We were not designed to just be connected. Genesis tells us we were made in the image of God. By image, that means we are we are we are the stamped imprint of God on creation. We are the reflection of God for the rest of creation. And and God tells us the fact that we know our God exists in this three-in-one being. He exists in fellowship, not in peace, it's in fellowship, perfect community, perfect community, no bickering, no hierarchy, no struggle with one another. It's perfect. And we were made in the image of that God. And so remember, God, God actually insists in himself, he makes Adam in the garden, breathes lice into him, and what does God say to Adam? He's like, it's not good that he's by himself. Now here's the thing: God was with Adam when he said that. Adam had God's presence. But God still looks at Adam and says, something is still missing. See, we read that, we apply it just to marriage, but it goes farther than that. God was looking at Adam and says, It's not good that this person is by themselves, they need another person. So just like the Trinity exists as a three-in-one God, there's God, and there's me, and then there's you. As we work together, as I love God and you love God, and we seek to have a relationship with each other, we grow closer to God together. Just as God has this perfect fellowship, God draws us into the into his presence, into that type of fellowship. Not just with him, but with one another. We were made to experience life with people just as God exists as Father, Spirit, and Son. See, a people as people created in the image of God, we cannot thrive alone. Remember that broken pencil I talked about? Yeah, the teacher warned you about it before you took the test. You're told to bring extras and be prepared. Yeah, when it snapped. I just sat there, would rather struggle with two halves. Or trying to figure something out. Matter of fact, I gotta make a confession. You know, here for a couple weeks I've been saying, hey, we can need some help with the kids on Thursdays, right? Well, this last Thursday, you know, Tracy's Chris has been helping us pick things up, and I really appreciate that. And he walked in this last week, we got 17 kids in there, and there's just Nicole and I. And now they were behaving themselves, but it was kind of controlled chaos. It's it was controlled, but it was there's 17 of them, but there's two of us. And I'm talking to Tracy. And Tracy, Tracy looks at me and says, Jason, do you need me to stick around? You know what my answer was? It wasn't. Oh yes, please stay home. That's what it was. Oh, we got this. Going home. Just going home, you're fine. We got it. Never mind, man. There's kids trying to stand on table. I'm staying. Never mind. Tracy, you got it, you're going home! I'll tell you what, the Holy Spirit convicted me on that way moment. Convicted me as soon as I said it, and Tracy got this car and drove off. To the point where I got I'm a church fan after I dropped Bailey off because she's used the first one or the last one. She's never in between. She was the last one that way, because I dropped Bailey off. I called Tracy and said, look, Tracy, I'm sorry. I lied right in your face. Because here's the thing, I I'd rather struggle than ask you for help. Why? Because I don't want to bother you. We want to push forward when we need help. And sometimes we do that because, you know, sometimes too, we can look at other people that are struggling and say, you know what? You know, I had to do that by myself. I had to do the one, so if I had to do it by myself, you should have to do it too. I did this by myself, you can do it. If I can do it, anybody can do it. But here's a that's not a true statement. That's not a true statement. I can read all the math books I want. I ain't never gonna be smart enough to build a rocket to go to the moon. If I ask you to get in one that I may, just don't say no. Forgive me now, there was so much bad grammar in that statement. I don't even know where to start. We keep others at a distance, right? And they're and they're there, and we don't want to bother them, we don't want to burn them, so we just keep them out there saying, just stay. I got this, I'm fine. In reality, you're not. That's not the picture Paul leaves us with here. His final words to this troubled church that's been broken and battered by their own choice and decisions was his final words were about fellowship. His final words were encourage each other. Hey, I know that you and that beetle have problems. You go low on me. Hey, greet one another.

unknown 32:26

Right?

Pastor Jason 32:26

Again, you can't use the things you can't use from a distance. You have to go to them. You can't leave the divide there. You have to go to where they're at. Greet them. Encourage them. Live in peace with one another. Now again, this is not a come to church more often sermon, right? Again, our culture defines church attendance regular church attendance as one to two times a month. That's how that's what the language, but this is not that soon. That's I'm not guilting people, right? I'm not gonna guilt you to come to church because I'd rather have a bunch of, I'd rather have 15 people ready to worship than 25 people in there because they asked me. It's like Gideon, right? I'd rather go into an army, I'd rather have an army of Gideon to feel that way, but God's like, am I giving you an army of 300 that are ready to five instead of 3,000, where half of them don't want to be there. But this isn't that sermon. This is not guilting or shaming anyone. But this sermon is about coming to church is yes, we connect that way, but coming to church has to be about more than just connecting with each other. It has to be about fellowship. It has to be about things about bread and bread together. The church, church center is like, uh, oh man, I know Michelle's still jealous about the one we just had. She's been quiet to me about it, Michelle. I've heard that's what the that's what the church is about. Y'all are gonna remember this sermon 20 years from now. But you might remember that, you might remember that church dinner 20 years from now. It's about us coming together and asking for prayers. You know, it's one thing for us to bring our knees before God, that's another thing. It's you know how brave it is to come to some this church and say, I have this prayer today, this is what's burdening my heart. That's an act of love and a sign of trust. Would you help me pray for this? Because it's something that's big on your heart. Hey, I know that these three girls are gonna pray for their dog Nick for how long now? A long time. Nick went missing. We're praying. It's important. We gotta share our needs with each other. Say, hey, I'm struggling with this, would you help me? It's it's studying the Bible together. I I love our Wednesday night study.

unknown 35:03

Right?

Pastor Jason 35:04

It's not just me up there droning on and on. Sometimes it is, but usually not. I love the questions, I love the dialogue that happens. Because that's not just me throwing stuff at you, that's us wrestling through scripture together. That's iron sharpening iron. And one of the things I love about us is the church is too, and even though I'm getting my go a little bit over, we don't just rush out the door after church is over. You all hang out a little bit. Why? Because the fellowship is important. That's where so much life and and things happen in the church. You know, as a teenager, my favorite parts of youth group just was not usually the event itself. I love the events themselves, but you know what I loved? I love those spontaneous moments of worship in the van. I love those moments where we sat down and cried and we shared stories about life together. Well, brother Rob, my old youth pastor, right? It wasn't, it wasn't, I don't, I can't tell you one lesson he ever taught me other than the Romans 12, 1 and 2. But I can remember him tackling that kid down the park hill. I can remember him showing up at football games. Actually, I could find my favorite Rob stories to share. And so I was playing freshman football, and our our practice field was right across the street from that Lawrenceville first church where we went. And so, and I used to tell him too, I said, my coach, he counts all the time at all the people that run that stop sign. I just tell him that's a joke. Well, Rob was headed into the church one day for whatever reason. And I remember I'm laying down to stretch and I hear this little geo, shetty geo, revving its engine. And Rob, Pastor Rob was about you know 200 yards away from that stop sign, and he was revving his engine up because he blew right through that stop sign. And he knew I was watching. You say, well, what does that have to do with it? That has everything to do with it. Because it showed it showed me Rob paid attention to me and listened to what I was saying. That's what I'm talking about. That's fellowship. That's what you and I are called to have. Where we trust and love each other enough that that ward doesn't have to tell me something's bothering me. I just know. And I don't have to beat him and drag it out of it. I just, you know what? Sometimes I'm just gonna sit there and beat with him. And we'll make fun of of LeBron James and we'll talk about how great Larry Bird is compared to these new guys. It's time to admit that the pencil we are the pencil that we have was broke a long time ago. Maybe maybe your pencil today is your maybe it's your marriage. Maybe your pencil today is your heart with broken somewhere. But whatever it is today, it's time to ask for help, but it's okay to ask for help. God did not create you to go through this life alone. God created you and me for fellowship, not isolation. As we come to the close of this message, I want to speak to those of you who know what loneliness feels like. Maybe you've been carrying something heavy for a long time. You've convinced yourself that nobody would understand. Maybe you've told yourself that everyone else has enough problems and you don't want to burden them with yours. So you just keep going it alone. You smile when people ask how you're doing, you post the pictures, you answer, I'm fine. But deep down, you're tired. Friend, I want you to know that God sees you. He sees the burdens you've never spoken out loud, he sees the grief you're tried to carry by yourself, he sees the nights when the house feels too quiet, and the days when you feel invisible in a crowd. You are not forgotten. The grace of Jesus Christ, the love of the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit are not distant theological ideas. They are God's invitation to you. An invitation to be loved, an invitation to belong, an invitation to stop carrying life alone. That invitation also extends beyond your relationship with God. God created us for fellowship with one another. The church is not a building, it's a family. It's a people learning to follow Jesus together. So if you've been isolated, take a step toward fellowship this week. Ask for prayer, call a friend, stay after church for a conversation, join a Bible study. Let someone know what is really going on. The pencil doesn't have to stay broken. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for creating us in your image and inviting us into your life. Thank you for the grace of Jesus, the love of the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. For those who feel lonely today, remind them that they are seen and loved. For those carrying burdens and silence, give them the courage to ask for help. For those who have withdrawn from fellowship, draw them back towards your people. Teach us to be a church that welcomes, encourages, and comforts, and walks alongside one another. Help us reflect the fellowship that exists within you. May no one listening today leave believing they have to carry alone. It's in the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. Well, if today's message encouraged you, would you consider helping others discover it? You can subscribe, you can follow, leave a review, or share this episode with a friend. Every chair helps this message, and other messages like it reach someone who might need hope and encouragement. And you can do that just by a simple chair. I also want to encourage you to support this show. By supporting this show, you support the Nazarene Compassionate Ministries. Through disaster response, child development, refugee care, clean water projects, and countless acts of Christ-like compassion. Nazarene Compassionate Ministries help churches around the world become the hands of feed of Jesus in life's darkest moments. So partner with me as I partner with them. You can do that based on the link in the show notes. Um, or you can just go to the Nasrin Compassion Ministries directly and find their disaster relief program on there. Now, before we go, let me offer a word of encouragement for those looking for fellowship. Find a church that loves Jesus more than personalities, that loves Jesus more than politics or preferences. Look for a church where people pray together, serve together, and care for one another beyond Sunday morning. Now, no church will be perfect because every church is made up of imperfect people. But don't mistake imperfections for the absence of God's work. And don't give up too quickly. Real fellowship takes time. Relationships grow slowly, and belonging is cultivated, not downloaded. If you don't have a church home, you're always welcome to join me here on the Dirt Pastorman Podcast. Uh while a podcast can never replace the fellowship of a local church. I hope these messages encourage you as you continue your journey with Jesus. And you can connect with me. Uh there's a message me in the show notes button. Uh you can email me at dirtpathpastor at gmail.com. That's dirtpathpastor at gmail.com. I would love to hear from walk from you, or just simply connect with me on Facebook. You are loved, you are seen, by God's grace, you do not walk this road alone. Until next time. Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus. Thank you for listening to this episode of The Castle Podcast. We're live, Ravina Church and Nat Street. Okay, that's 533. If you'd like to send me a message, I'll just go back to the video.