Hi, my name is Nick, and through our ministry
at Life Without Limbs, I’m so glad that I can connect with you through these virtual
event series that we're calling “Relentless.” The Relentless Series, where monthly I’m going to be encouraging you, we're going to talk about a topic. Last time we talked about despair and how
to overcome despair. Today I want to talk about something that
I feel like is one of the biggest disabilities that any human being can have. It’s the fear of being alone, and so today's
topic is called “Loneliness.” I want you to know that it's one of the things
that, as I have many friends around the world who are experiencing the same thing, that
we're all experiencing which is quarantine. The terminology “social distancing” in
some countries is defined as safe distancing. As you can imagine, I’m washing my hands
all the time so clean you can't see them! You know the masks? You know, like I just, like wow! It’s so uncomfortable and all this newness
of what this means that I can't see my friends or you can't go to school or we can't go to
church—all these normal routine things that you and I can say, we took it for granted,
or maybe we didn't really appreciate how needful we are as human beings, and needy to have
social engagement. In fact, that's why some people are not calling
it social distancing because we need to be social and if the methodology is different,
let it be, but us being social, it means that I’m talking to you, you're listening to
me. When you talk to me, I can hear you whether
it's text or email, we're engaged, and we know that from the beginning of time the first
problem that Adam had was—this sucks—“You’re sure God? I have You. I have You rustling through the garden, letting
me know that You’re coming toward me, too. God didn't have to do that, but He even did
that and he heard God come through the garden In the Garden of Eden. He went through this whole process of seeing
all the animals and naming them one by one, and his first problem was, “I know God,
I’m with You, but I need… and I’m not lonely, but I need another human being, and
God made Eve and they had each other, and they interacted as family members within God's
family that are, if you will, the way that we were created to interact, and I look at
people and you know when I look at you, you look at me, and I meet you, you know people
like get awkward around me. You know they want to shake my hand. It’s just, you know, a little awkward. I don't shake hands, right? and so I just
hug people. They called me a hugging machine. I actually broke the Guinness Book of World
Records once for 1769 hugs in an hour! My arms fell off, but the beautiful thing
about interacting and looking at people is also something beautiful. When I look someone in the eye, we know that
the eyes are the windows to your soul, and when someone is listening to me and they're
looking at my eyes, I feel heard. I feel that I’m not alone. There were many times where in the times where
I’m going through my childhood years feeling different, I was physically surrounded by
people I know that I wasn't alone, but I felt lonely. Sometimes you can have people around you that
you're talking to that are looking you in the eye, and you kind of feel subconsciously,
they're not really listening to you. They’re just thinking about what they're
going to tell you so that you can hear them, but when a friend comes and says, “Hi.” Can you practice that with me? “Hi.” “Hi,” Right? The person at the cashier register checking
us out at the grocery store, I look him in the eye because it's social. It’s not transactional. It’s social. Human beings, not human doings. It’s human interaction, being and enjoying
how God has made us to know that we are not alone. Now we know that when we feel like we're alone
that there is One Person who is always there: the Holy Spirit part of the Trinity of God,
that no matter where we are at, God is with us, and I know that as a child, as a kid,
I went to mom and dad, I said, “I don't want to go to school.” I’m surrounded by all these people, but
I feel alone because I feel different because I feel like an alien. Because of my bullying experiences that I’m
having the thoughts of depression were so suppressing that I even attempted suicide
at age 10. Why? Because I felt alone. It's the worst disability of all. It is the worst oppression of all where people
are there and you can have things. You can even want things and then get exactly
what you want. You can be successful, Nick, at doing this,
this and this and even when you accomplish it, it doesn't always satisfy our soul because
our souls were designed to interact, to engage, and to know, first of all, our Creator and
then to enjoy creation around us, and each other as a family of God to encourage one
another. First of all, I mean physically. I needed help, right? And so, no one knew that Nick felt lonely
or depressed or suicidal until I told someone. We’re so good at hiding what's really happening
deep, deep down, at hiding our anxiety, at hiding our fear, and especially our loneliness,
and eventually over time, we get comfortable with just sharing with body language, right? Loneliness oozes out of us without us even
knowing and then when we figure that out when we interact with interacting with people,
people kind of like, ““Oh, are you okay?"and you're like, "Yeah." and then you become comfortable
in people understanding that you are lonely, and it's the way that you sometimes have communicated
that you're lonely in your body language. Now with safe distancing, and I’m not seeing
you, you're not seeing me, you're not shaking my hand, I’m not hugging you, we can hide
loneliness really easily right now, can't we?—through our texts, even on the phone,
because they're not reading my body language, and when you're lonely, you don't feel like
talking to people, we kind of like, okay we retract and go into a cave. I was there and I was becoming comfortable
in one of the greatest, most dangerous swamps of the devil—loneliness—and I started
convincing myself in that swamp, thinking, “Well then, I’m always going to be lonely.” Was that true? No. What I learned about loneliness was I needed
to first communicate to God to say, “God, I feel lonely. Help me to have the courage to reach out to
someone.” If Nick Vujicic never asked for help Nick
Vujicic wouldn't be who he is today. You see my eyes? I have strength and confidence and humility,
and the boldness that I have is not in my strength and my capability to overcome loneliness. It's the fact that I know I can't overcome
loneliness on my own. I need God and friends. I need God, my faith, and my family, who care
for me, and some of us don't have family or friends that really share the care or interact
in a way that they really make us feel that they love us. Maybe some of them really love us and maybe
really some of them don't love us, but there's One Friend that I realized I could always
hold onto, and His name is Jesus. We know that the Holy Spirit is present in
every time of need. He is our refuge in all of those needs, and
I love how Apostle Paul—let me read this to you. Romans 8 38-39, “For I am convinced that
neither death, nor life, neither angels, nor demons, neither the present, nor the future,
nor any powers, neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be
able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And also in 1 Peter 5:7, “Cast all your
anxiety on Him because He cares for you,” and I love Psalm 23 where it says, “Even
though I walk through the valley of shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are
with me.” Now we know that God is with us, just like
Adam knew that God is with him, and God interacted with Adam, and Adam interacted with God. We, you and I, can interact with God right
now. We don't need to go through a priest necessarily. Jesus is our Priest. We can talk to our Father in heaven directly. That's right! That's what the Bible says, and we know that
sometimes though, we can't even pray for ourselves and in that depression, in that oppression,
I encourage you to step out with the courage that God's going to give you to the right
person, and he's going to supply to you and say, “Hey, text him. Call him. I’m not in a good spot right now. Can I talk to you?” And guess what? They'd love to, and maybe you feel like, “Well,
they're going to judge me?” or “What are they going to do, anyway?” Or, “Nick, they're going through the same
thing anyway,” or “Nick, they'd never understand what I’m going through.” Guess what? I understand how that feels. No one around me knew how it felt to have
no arms and no legs and feel like I’m a burden to my parents and feeling like God's
forgotten me, and feeling like there is no purpose to my life. So I might as well commit suicide. I want you to know, my friend, you're watching
this, you're listening to this right now. Don't give up on God. God will not give up on you, and He allows
us to go through seasons in our life where sometimes we put anchors of hope in routine,
or our anchor in hope of a hopeful career that doesn't exist anymore, or we have actually
given up ourselves, our false anchor of hope because we could, you know, bring in that
check that supplies money for our family to eat, and now we're thinking, well, we might
lose our house in six months. There is nothing that God doesn't know, my
friend, There is nothing that God cannot do that's impossible for Him. He can do all things. He can supply you another job. He can turn a heart around. He can give us anything our heart desires,
but what we can know is that sometimes He says no to our desires, but He always gives
us what we need, and right now, maybe He's helping you discover the need you have as
His child to call upon Him to pray, and when we have no words to say, to just sit in His
presence to turn on some worship music, and to remind our soul and our spirit, we are
not alone. It's no surprise that God, from God's point
of view, that that we're going through what we're going through. We know many stories in the Bible where many
of His children felt alone, but were they alone? No! Are God's children ever alone? No, when we feel alone, remember this: Jesus
knew exactly how it felt to be alone—when the Father, when He was on the cross—the
Father turned His face away, and Jesus said, “God, My Father, why have you forsaken Me?” He felt the Father's face turn away from Him. Why? So that I could tell you, Jesus knows how
it is to be alone to the epiphany of loneliness as the King of kings and Lord of lords. He knew how it felt to be alone. He knew how it felt that He couldn't depend
on His disciples sleeping in the garden on the night that He was going to be arrested. He knew that He couldn't even depend on His
disciples, His closest. Sometimes we can't depend on circumstances
or people and even feel at times that God Himself has turned His face away from you. Here’s the truth. “I will never forsake you,” says God. “I will never let you go through more than
you can handle. My grace is sufficient, and I will never ever
leave you.” There is nothing that you can do that will
make God's love change. There is nothing that you can do to make Him
love you more or love you less. He loves you. Why? because you are his child, and even when
I hated God personally and said, “God I hate you! You don't make any sense to me! If you're a loving God, why is there pain
in the world? Why did you make me this way? Why didn't you give me arms and legs?” And I had those stern conversations, and I,
because I feel like He didn't talk to me, and I felt like He turned His face away from
me, I turned my face away from God for five long years. I was depressed. I walked away, but God's love still pursued
me. How great is that! How kind and patient is God that even when
we turn our face away from Him, even when we walk away from Him, even if we run a million
miles an hour away from the life that God has for us, even if my own son spits in my
face, will I still love my son? Yes, because he is mine. That is the love of a father, the Heavenly
Father for you. It’s unconditional and He'll never leave
you or leave your side. I want you to know, my friend, today that
it's so important to know that when we hold onto God. God holds onto us, and we're never alone. In fact, He’s not against us. He’s for us, and when someone persecutes
us and judges us falsely, we pray for them. We don't have to fear. We know that God prepares a banquet table
in front of the enemies that are yelling at us, persecuting us, judging us, doing whatever
it is that they're doing to us. We cannot be afraid because God is bigger,
and He’s going to take care of them, but pray that their scales of their eyes that
blind them are taken. We pray for their souls. We love our enemies. That’s the power and confidence we can have
approaching the throne of grace. When it's about people, and then when people
are hurting us and making us feel oppressed, talk to someone. Talk to someone at a church. Talk to a friend. Talk to a counselor. If you're suicidal, call the suicidal hotline
right now. I want you to know, don't give up, because
you don't know what beautiful things God can still put together with our broken pieces
if we give him a chance in our lives, and He will use these times of loneliness to reflect
back and say, “Yes, God, looking back now, I know that You were with me even when I walked
away, and I didn't want to talk to You for four or five years. I know that Your love still pursued me. I love that, and I want you to hear that and
know that from me today because I have experienced the love of God that has never failed me. I have failed God. People have failed me. Jobs, right? and circumstances. Maybe it's not just people, and circumstances
change. Things change! People fail us! Our plans fail us! We fail us, and God, but God never fails.Today,
my friend, are you ready to lean upon the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you really asked God to be your refuge
and comfort in this time of need? It doesn't mean that you're going to hear
His voice. It doesn't mean that you're going to see an
angel. It doesn't mean that miracles are going to
happen right now, but what the miracle is, is that you meet your Savior today—to know
that your intellect, your hopes, your plans, your dreams, the trust that you had in relationships
that are failing you, right now, the trust that you had in your own plans that now have
crumbled to the floor. Stop leaning upon your own strength, and lean
upon the strength of Jesus Christ today. He's ready and He's capable and He's willing
and He's asking you. He’s knocking at the door and saying, “Will
you let Me in? Will you trust Me and let Me sit with you?” Will you worship God and remind yourself of
the sacrifice that Jesus did for us? You know we've got first world problems. We've got problems all around the world. You know what our biggest disability is? The disabilities of our soul—sin and death,
which have both been cured because of the blood of Jesus Christ. I’m complete. I lack nothing. Is everything going great? No, but I know that God's still on the throne,
and as I've prayed and read the Bible and surrounded myself with people who also believe
in Jesus, and I call them, and they call me. They encourage me. You don't have to do this alone, my friend. you are not lonely because of God's relentless
pursuit for you! He loves you. Would you pray this prayer with me? Dear Lord Jesus, I want to know You. Take my heart. Take my brokenness. Take my fear, my anxiety, Lord. Take right now my loneliness, and hold it. Lord, help me to work through what I’m feeling. Help me to sit in Your presence and thank
You for what You’ve given me. Help me to sit in Your presence with worship
music on, because You’re God, and I’m not—You’re in control, and I’m not. God, forgive me of my sins and help me to
know You as not some kind of force, but my Friend, my Lord, and my Savior. Holy Spirit, fill me right now with strength
for today, and help me to know that You’re with me every step of the way. One day at a time, teach me to read the Bible. Teach me how to pray and help me to know that
I'll never be alone. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen. Friend, if you just said that prayer and you
do not have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and if today was your last
day here on earth and you took your last breath and you were not sure if you'd go to heaven,
if you said that prayer, I want to help you now with the next steps, and please follow
the instructions there below and how to get some exclusive videos from me to help encourage
your journey with Jesus Christ. So please go ahead and do that right now and
go through those videos. These videos are not seen anywhere else on
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other instructions below because we'd love to connect with you. Also if you're watching and you really believe
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and our activities with those friends who were not watching tonight. If you ever feel to pray for us, please know
that we are so grateful for your prayers, and if God ever moves you to support us financially,
please go to lifewithoutlimbs.org to check out how you can help us to continue to preach
the gospel to all nations. Love you all very much, and I'll see you next
month.
