Ask Sam: You Are Not Alone

Ask Sam: You Are Not Alone

May 17, 2024

Host: Dr. Isaac Crockett

Co-Host: Hon. Sam Rohrer

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program originally aired on 5/17/24. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.

Disclaimer:         While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning this dialogue.

Isaac Crockett:   Welcome to the program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett, pastor at East Lawrence Baptist Churchill Little church, a little chapel that’s been out in the kind of middle of the hay fields of northern Pennsylvania since 1843. And not much has changed in our church building or in the area around it other than electricity has come and things like that. But the roads and things still feel like you could see wagons going down them on these dirt roads. But I’m on the show today with our regular host, the Honorable Sam Rohr, who’s down in our main office. And if you want to watch us, we will have the video of this on our YouTube channel. So you could watch us do radio, if that makes sense. Some of you maybe listen to us all the time and would help you to maybe see us talking using our hands.

Isaac Crockett:   We both use our hands a lot as we speak. But welcome to the program today, it’s a Friday edition. We’re doing an Ask Sam Friday edition, and as I talk with a lot of different pastors and I communicate with Sam and other folks on our team behind the scenes about what are people asking you, what are some of the kind of common threads of questions coming through? One of the things that was coming through, in fact, it was interesting, I was just speaking for a pastor’s conference for New York and Pennsylvania just before coming onto the radio, and several of the pastors were mentioning this as well today. And that is that there’s a lot of loneliness. There are a lot of people that feel separated from others. Of course Covid. We had a lot of things going on with that. But even since then, just people don’t seem to be spending maybe as much time around family or friends or other people.

Isaac Crockett:   Last night we had a man from our church over who is going through a lot of things. He’s feeling very alone, especially this last week. The Lord used sickness in his life to bring him back to this area and he had a very godly relative who was kind of a mother figure for him, and he was helping her together and his aunt, and she just died suddenly of a heart attack. And he has a lot of health issues himself. And one of the things that as he was going through this, I sent him some music on different days and I’ve done that different times with him and others. And one of the songs I sent him a week ago right after his aunt passed away was, we are not alone. God is with us and he’s facing a lot of changes. He’s not going to have a house soon and things.

Isaac Crockett:   And that song, he has been playing over and over and over and listening to that and reading some passages along with that. And it’s helped him and it’s helped him focus that his heart issues and his cancer issues, that God is using that and has brought him closer to him as a result of that. And there are many of you out there probably that have either right now or had a time in your life where you felt very alone. Remember a very well-known pastor, I won’t say his name, but he was talking about for a couple of years, he would just burst into tears not knowing why, what he just felt very lonely and had these things going on. And some of it was over the sin of the people in his congregation in our nation. But many of us will go through times of feeling alone.

Isaac Crockett:   But I almost think that now we’re going through that maybe more than most times in history, which is strange with all the communication technology that we have. But Sam, I would like to ask you some questions about that today. But before we go into some of that and looking at a biblical worldview of loneliness and things and what we can glean from the scripture passages I want to ask you right now is it’s May and there are a lot of graduates, high school graduates, college graduates, all sorts of graduates going around. And sometimes when you get done, when you finish and you get in that diploma, it’s kind of overwhelming and you can feel kind of alone like Now where do I go? I’m kind of like my normal routine is off. What would you say, having had six children and now grandchildren, you have a lot of graduation parties to go to, what advice would you give to a new graduate who might find it kind of scary or lonely out there?

Sam Rohrer:       Well, the first thing is I will say just like you’re being self efface, my oldest grandchild grandson is graduating this year. So this question is really pertinent because I’m just starting on this long trek for grandchildren, graduations. But you know what, thinking back to when I graduated from high school, which was quite a ways back, I had uncertainty. I didn’t know for sure what I was going to do. So I’m going to say the uncertainty of graduates getting out of high school and transitioning into the life that they’ve been thinking about for all these years is very normal. It’s very normal. So don’t sweat it if you don’t know exactly what you’re going to do. But secondly, I’m also say that feeling alone is not something that even you restrict just to a graduate, that somebody young getting out of high school, I think biblically, I think of the life of Elijah just after he had been there with the prophets of Baal on the mountain, Jezebel threatened him after that and he ran and he hid the cave and he was feeling very lonely.

Sam Rohrer:       He said, I’m all launders. Nobody left but me. And the Lord had to remind him, no, no, no, no, no. I’ve got a lot of other prophets by the side. You’re not alone. So I think that as just one thing just to say it’s not abnormal to not know exactly where you’re going to go, and that could create some loneliness, but it’s something that happens to all people. I think Isaac, I’ll just leave with this, is that it depends on how we respond to that. I’m going to say a believer’s response. A person who knows the Lord as their savior will approach times of uncertainty and all transitions in life transitioning from one job to another, transitioning from unmarried life to married life, transitioning from high school to college or high school to a workforce. Any time of type of transition are times of unknown. And that is a time, I’ll say that if we respond properly, our walk with God and our dependency upon him can make all the difference and we can go through those transitions because we will go through them. We can come out the other side of those transitions more confident than ever, or we can come out perhaps more lonely than ever. So a lot of that’s a choice and we can get into some of those things.

Isaac Crockett:   Amen. That’s so true. And you were talking about Elijah, I think of the New Testament counterpart, the last Old Testament prophet, John the Baptist, and as strong of a faith as he had when he was imprisoned by Herod. In Luke chapter seven, starting a verse 18, I think through verse 23 or 24, he sends messengers to Jesus to ask, are you the one? Are you really the Christ? Even though even from the time before he was born, he leaped in his mother’s womb at the joy of her seeing Mary who was pregnant with the Christ, he’s now in prison. Those hardships, those changes that transition. A guy who was used to roaming the wilderness, the prairie and his camel hair coat, he’s now confined in prison and he starts to have doubt, but he did what we need to do when we feel lonely. He took it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus.

Isaac Crockett:   He’s a friend that’s well known. And we want to encourage you today to listen. If you ever have gone through a time of in your life where you felt alone, maybe you’re retired and it feels different not going into a normal work schedule. Maybe since Covid things have changed for you, maybe you are a student and you’re finishing up or you’re looking at the summertime or you’re a young person that just feels overwhelmed from all the anxiety inducing things around us, or you’re watching the news or you or a relative has received news of cancer, we want to take it to Jesus. I was just preaching to some pastors today before it came. And Habakkuk at the very end of the book, he praises the Lord and he says, oh, even though the fig tree doesn’t blossom and there’s no food and the fields, there’s no produce of the olive, there’s no herds anymore.

Isaac Crockett:   And he says, yet, and there was an Indian pastor there who said sometimes yet is a three word message, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. And that’s what we want to do today. Yet all these things we want to rejoice in the Lord. We’re going to talk about that today and ask Sam some questions about it. Don’t go away. We’ll be right back on staying in the gap today. Talk about what do we do when we feel lonely? Well, welcome back to the program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett and I’m talking with the honorable Sam Rohr. We’re having an Ask Sam Friday edition, and we’re talking about loneliness. This has been one of the topics that as we’ve asked and said, what do you want us to talk about on the program? Different people that I know and pastors and folks behind the scenes here too have said, well, I’m getting a lot of people asking about or mentioning that they feel lonely as a pastor.

Isaac Crockett:   I see this on a regular basis. In fact, a lot of pastors feel lonely and kind of separated from things. Sam, we saw a lot of damage done during the forced covid lockdowns, especially certain states and cities had more of that than others. And I think hopefully we’ve learned something from that. But unfortunately, it feels like even though things have supposedly gotten back to normal, there’s still been a lot more almost self-isolation or something going on out there. You and I both, a lot of people talk to us asking us about this pervasive loneliness and feeling disconnected that they’re still having even after the covid lockdowns. What do you see, maybe anecdotally, maybe you’re looking at some of the data, I don’t know, but what do you see might be some of the contributing factors to this issue in our culture?

Sam Rohrer:       Well, Isaac, I think ultimately loneliness, which is an interesting word itself. It really comes back to how one views, I would say their identity. And God has created every human being with a insatiable need and a desire for purpose. The questions that we think the most fundamental questions that every person has to deal with is who am I? Why am I here? Purpose? Where am I going? Ultimate goal. Those are the three questions of life. And everybody will deal with them either consciously or unconsciously. And I think with in that is how one responds to that depends upon or determines whether or not a person experiences what we would term loneliness and have this contrast. It’s how a person can be alone by themselves but not lonely. A person can be lonely in a room full of people. So what’s the difference? It’s that relationship that they have.

Sam Rohrer:       Do they know who they are? Can they answer? I have a purpose in life for being here and this is where I’m going. I think those are the three things that are there. And of course reality. How are those questions answered? Well, they’re only answered through the word of God, and that’s what the word of God is all about. That’s that’s the reason that God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son Jesus Christ to come and die for our sins so that we can, all of us being in that position at some point in our life then can choose really well, do I want fulfillment? Do I want to know who I am? Do I want to fill that loneliness in my heart that exists because we were born as sinners and we have no connection to anything that’s enduring? Do I want to fix that?

Sam Rohrer:       Well, the Lord says it can. And how that is that we call it the plan of redemption. So trusting in Jesus Christ alone gives us a relationship that restores us to God for now all of a sudden then we have an identity and we have a purpose and we know where we’re going, eternal life. So anyways, I’ll just turn it back to you at this juncture on that. But I think some of those elements are a part of understanding where we are. And I think back to Covid, you mentioned that I think in reality, Isaac covid didn’t create the loneliness that people have. Like many things, it was a test and how people responded to that. It determines whether or not on this side, looking back, whether they are more strong and firm and confident in their walk with God in the internality of God’s word and more certain now than perhaps they were before with where they are going and their purpose for being here, or perhaps did they not bring God into the equation and they listen to the idol and the false words and promises of those in government as an example, and didn’t go to God and are now finding themselves perhaps addicted to something, which we know that as a result of covid, the addictions are just through the roof, and that’s because people are searching.

Sam Rohrer:       How you respond has made a difference. So I’ve put a number of things on the table, but just some thoughts that I have

Isaac Crockett:   That is a number of things. And now I want to ask you questions about each of those different things you put out there. I don’t think we’ll have time for all of them, but you’re bringing up so many really helpful things. So you’re talking about these felt needs that we have as creatures. We are creation, we were created in the image of God meant to have fellowship with God and others. There’s a felt need there for interaction. You might be more outgoing or you might be more introverted, but there’s some sort of need there for fellowship. And so you brought that up and then you brought up the with Covid especially, but well, our friend George Barnett, we refer to his research a lot, but he has found in the younger generations that there’s increased loneliness, there’s increased addiction, there’s increased anxiety. All of those things seem to be connected.

Isaac Crockett:   While there’s a lack of knowing what my purpose is, and I guess to us with the biblical worldview, this sort of makes sense because the secularists have tried to destroy that. We’ve created an image of God, and that’s our purpose is to glorify him and enjoy his work forever. And when they say, oh no, you’re just a creature. You’re from stardust and oozing out of primorial, slime and slowly evolved, this is the effect we’re seeing of it. So I guess Sam thinking about this increased loneliness, not just in what George Barna finds in the younger generations, but anecdotally, at least I find it in a lot of older generations as well, that we have people doing this, but some of these same people that are reporting this lonely feeling, this feeling separated, like you said, they could be in a room full of people, but they still feel separated. Many of them are involved on the internet, they’re doing things on the internet and they’re involved in groups, even social media, this tricky word, they’re social media. It’s not always actually social, but it doesn’t seem to fulfill the needs. They have to be in community with others. Why do you think that is?

Sam Rohrer:       Because as believers and most watching us and listening to us right now would say they probably, and I’d say most maybe have put their firm and faith and trust in Jesus Christ. But when a person does that, what do we understand? What we understand that salvation, redemption, trusting in Jesus Christ as our savior is a personal relationship. And that goes to the heart of what we’re talking about. True salvation restores a broken relationship. Fellowship used to be in the Garden of Eden designed by God, but sin broke in and Adam and Eve because they sin. Now, we are all faced with that loneliness. When our minds get to the point as a child where we can begin to really understand things, we find that there’s a loneliness, there’s a need, and that need is only met with what are we looking for? Well, it’s a filling, a meeting of a need that restores back to the way God designed it to be, which is fellowship.

Sam Rohrer:       And God’s way is only one way. And Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life. And anyone who tries to get the benefits of what God says comes only through Jesus. Christ, Jesus says is an imposter. He’s a thief. He’s trying to come in a back way. So in this thing called life, we are all starting out the same way. We are lonely. We’re dead in our sins. We have no hope. There’s no hope except until we come to faith in Jesus Christ that gives us an identity. Now, Jesus Christ, the person, real life person, Christ, not just a thought, he’s a person. Now, a person trusts in Christ the Holy Spirit, the person of the Holy Spirit comes and lives in us, lives in our lives, in our souls and our hearts. That is a relationship that no social media, that is nothing that no technology can ever replace.

Sam Rohrer:       It’s a foreign entity. It cannot. So that’s why Isaac, I think as people go to social media for action and for movement and for all of that, it becomes an addiction, not a fulfillment of an innate need because it’s not a person, it cannot fill what only the person of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit can fill. So it’s worlds apart. There’s two contracts. It’s as clear as day and night light and darkness. But that’s where what we’re talking with, that’s why the gospel is what brings such hope in a dark world. And for all of those who are listening or watching us right now who say, I don’t have what you’re talking about, Sam and Isaac, I am lonely. Well, the solution is what it’s always been. It’s a faith. It’s faith in Jesus Christ and experiencing that person of the Holy Spirit coming to live within our lives. It literally, it truly is. It’s night and day.

Isaac Crockett:   Well, and that’s why we need to share that if you are a Christian, if you have accepted Christ, the people around you are really confused in many cases and they’re seeking, and we need to be that light. Paul tells the Ephesians to walk as children of light. Again, this pastor’s group today, I was sharing an illustration of a gentleman who was very poor, his wife was of very poor health down in Guatemala, central America, and yet I would bring college students who are learning Spanish language to go see him because he had the joy of the Lord. And I would try to debate them about communism and socialism and about creation and salvation and all these things, and it didn’t always go very far, but when they met this guy who had every reason to complain because of his suffering, and he had the joy of the Lord and the love of God, they wanted to know more every time.

Isaac Crockett:   So maybe you’re in that situation, maybe you’re lonely, maybe you know somebody who is lonely, but the thing that we need is the joy of the Lord through Jesus Christ and the salvation he brings. We’re going to come back and talk more about that and look at some of the changes happening in the traditional home or maybe not so traditional home that could also be leading to more loneliness in our country. We’ll be right back on Stand in the Gap today. Welcome back again. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett and I’m joined by my co-host, the regular host of this program, the Honorable Sam Rohr, and we’re having an Ask Sam Friday edition. But Sam, before I go back to asking you questions, maybe we can get one of the guys behind the scenes here. Tim Schneider, our program producer. Tim, if you’re available, could you come to the mic and just talk to us a little bit about some of the things going on at the American Pastor’s Network and staying in the gap media, some of the different offers and ways that some of our listeners might be able to get more involved or have more resources and tools they could use in their everyday life?

Isaac Crockett:   Yes, I

Speaker 3:           Could. Good afternoon to everybody. Thank you very much, Isaac, for that pass along, want to ask you a question? Do you ever find yourself too busy to listen to the whole Stand in the Gap Today show? Well, did you know that we have shorter audio segments of somewhere between two and 11 minutes covering various topics discussed on our Stand in the Gap today radio show? We call these podcast q and as. These podcasts are good for listeners who desire to hear a short segment on a certain topic. We have lots of different topics we covered through these podcast q and a’s, finances, Islam, current events, cultural issues, biblical worldview, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. There are a lot of podcast q and as. If you like the podcast q and a, you can go and check it out in our archives and if you like it, you can go and find our full program, but check out our podcast q and as on our app and at our website stand of the gap media.org.

Speaker 3:           Also, you can subscribe to our podcast through any of the major streaming platforms, apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, tune in. We’re basically on all the major podcasts, streaming platforms. You can subscribe to these podcasts here, truth Every Day. And if you sign up to get our podcast downloaded, it will get downloaded to your smart device every time a new podcast is released. And also additionally, if you’re subscribing to our podcast through any of these platforms, please rate us ratings will allow other like-minded individuals to find us as they search for podcast and thank you in advance. Also, just encourage you to check out our two websites, American Pastors network.net and stand in the gap media.org. Sign up for our e-newsletter if you’re over on American Pastors network.net, and check out our archives of TV and radio programs on stand in the gap media.org and lots of other stuff on those two websites. Stand in the gap media.org and american pastors network.net. So that’s what I’ve got for here, Isaac, and I’m going to go ahead and send it on back to you.

Isaac Crockett:   Well, thank you very much, Tim. I know that there are a lot of people involved behind the scenes helping get a lot of that together, but you do a lot of that work, not just producing these programs, but getting those podcast Q and some of this other information that’s out there, out there and in a format that we can all use and share with other people. So if you’re not already making use of those online resources, I would highly encourage you to look at them, see how you could use them maybe to help somebody else who doesn’t watch or doesn’t listen to the radio program, how you might go to share with them as well. Well, welcome back to this program. We’re talking about the loneliness that seems to be hitting many in America, and there’s a lot, Sam, you’ve been talking this week about the five steps in defending biblical marriage, and God has designed marriage for a lot of things as an object lesson, but for our good and yet for decades now, there have been people in America, even within religious groups in America trying to say, oh, you don’t have to get married.

Isaac Crockett:   You can sleep around and party and experiment, and you don’t have to be a man and a wife and all these things. It can be whatever. And just changing all the concepts of it and the further we get away from God’s plan when it comes to things like family and marriage, like church, like believing the Bible, the more that people feel lonely and less purpose and so on and so forth, it seems to go well. There’s an article from, well, there’s a lot of articles about this, but I’m looking at one particular one from a b, C news that just came out this Wednesday of this week. Here’s the title. You can kind of see which direction they’re leaning just by the title, but it says, Kansas City Chiefs Player faces Backlash for Graduation speech criticizing working women calling Pride a Deadly Sin. And in this article they quote this NFL player, this Harrison Buter, who’s the Super Bowl champion kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, and many are upset about what he told students.

Isaac Crockett:   He was speaking at a Catholic college for commencement graduation thing at Benedictine College, and they were many who were very upset about what he said, especially to the ladies there. And so I’m going to read some of the article and they’re quoting him. So right here, they’re quoting this NFL player. He says, some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you talking to the young ladies are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world. And this is Butcher. They’re quoting. Now, butcher 28 years old said, I can tell you that my beautiful wife, Isabelle, would be the first to say that her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and mother. They go on, they quote him, he says, I’m on stage this stage today and able to be the man that I am because I have a wife who leans into her vocation but continued.

Isaac Crockett:   I am beyond blessed with the many talents God has given me, but it cannot be overstated that all my success is made possible because the girl I met in band class back in middle school would convert to the faith, become my wife and embrace one of the most important titles of all homemaker. It goes on, I’m quoting the article, it says, the football player also said men should step up for family saying this absence of men in the home is what plays a large role in the violence we see all around our nation. He told the men, he said, be unapologetic in your masculinity, fighting against the culture of the emasculation of men. He said, adding that men set the tone of the culture and then he also do hard things. He added never settle for what is easy elsewhere in it. He did criticize pride month, L-G-B-T-Q, pride Month.

Isaac Crockett:   He said it was a deadly sin. And so as you might imagine, Sam, he said a lot of things out there that can stir the pot maybe, and this was at a ceremony on a Catholic college, but people have been taking videos of it and sharing it all over the world. So Sam, as you listen to this young husband and the father, he and his wife, they’re in their twenties, they have two children, he’s gotten a lot of attention just in the last day or two. What do you think about, I’ll ask you two answers. We need two things from you if you can, what your thoughts are about what he was saying and then how his thoughts, what he’s saying there, how that compares to what the average guy who’s 28 years old is saying and doing and living his life. If you don’t mind trying to answer both of those, just getting your opinion on this. Well, in reality,

Sam Rohrer:       Isaac, I couldn’t have said it better than him in that setting, and it’s interesting that in these days what he said has found some negative response, but not that long ago what he said, nobody would’ve objected to it. What it indicates is a change, and it should remind us all what people think, the values that they hold do change, they can change. Now, that is a whole different story. How has that gotten to that point? Well, to some degree what he said deadly sin in regard to pride month, what he said, Isaac, we know even from our friend George Barna, the majority of pastors won’t say that from the pulpit. Isn’t that a shame? But that’s what the Bible says. So to the extent that he shared what he said, father, mother, children, fulfillment, vocation, mother, children, homemaker, those words that he used for most people listening to the program today, they would say, yeah, he’s right because we hold to a view, and again, we’re back to the same thing we talked about even with this concept of the loneliness part of it, who am I?

Sam Rohrer:       Why am I here? Where am I going? It brings us right back again to the whole aspect of purpose and there’s God’s way and there’s way. It reminds me so much of the verse that says, and there’s a way that seems right unto a man, but the ends there of the ways of destruction. The Lord himself told the people of Israel, you’re going to be a light of the world. Here are my commandments. I want you to know why I created mankind and gave them the command to be fruitful and multiply, go out and take dominion of the earth, starts in creation, and as that was to be carried out. God said, if you do that and you do the other things I’m telling you to do, you’d be faithful to your wife. The 10 commandments came along worship God only. Don’t worship idols, don’t envy, don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t lie.

Sam Rohrer:       God says, you take and you put these into place, you will not only be fulfilled, you’re going to be blessed. I’m going to bless you with many children. I’m going to bless you with wealth. I’m going to bless you with security from your enemies. Everything that’s in the book of Deuteronomy, and again, it’s all back to the same way again. God has a way and when we submit to God’s way, we find fulfillment. What this fellow is just talking about was in that aspect of father, mother, children. He just identified God’s way, and when you do God’s way, whoever they are, there will be blessings that will come with it. It’s it. We just can’t get away from it. Isaac, there are two ways, a narrow way that leads to blessing, a narrow way that leads to heaven through Jesus Christ in a broad way that the world pursues that offers a counterfeit and it ends in loneliness, it ends in death. It ends in the exact opposite. It’s just that simple. It’s not overly complicated.

Isaac Crockett:   Sam, real quickly here, just kind of a follow up to that, what do you think causes, because when he said that, I think there are a lot of people reading it, looking at it in the news that are probably agreeing with him. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised. Maybe there are more people agreeing with him than hating on him for what he said, but what we hear in the news, what we hear on social media, like you said, a lot of pastors are silencing themselves. Just in the few moments we have before our break, what do you think leads to so much silence on these issues?

Sam Rohrer:       Well, it’s the fear of, let’s put it back. When one fears man more than God, that’s what it comes down to. The result is loneliness, frustration, anxiety, addiction. When one fears God more than man, he will follow the word of God through the person of Jesus Christ and relationship with him and find fulfillment and blessing with a knowledge that he’s going to end up in heaven when that person dies, when that’s where we are and therefore offers the complete opposite.

Isaac Crockett:   Well, that’s great. That’s great, Sam. Helpful if you’re out there, maybe you’re a pastor, a preacher, a Sunday school teacher, parent, aunt, uncle, somebody with influence over other people, don’t be afraid to speak the truth because it’s the truth that sets us free. It’s the truth that helps us find our purpose. It helps us find Jesus Christ, and so don’t be scared to be that light in the dark world that we live in. We’re going to take another brief time out to hear from some of our partners and Sam and I’ll come back from you to ask Sam some of our final questions on this edition of Stand In the Gap today. Welcome back again. I’m Isaac Crockett, and this is an Ask Sam Friday. Sam is Sam Rohr, the president of the American Pastors Network, and Sam, as we wrap this up, we’ve been talking about this topic of loneliness, which you said is something that people can experience even when they’re around others.

Isaac Crockett:   It has to do with their place, their felt needs and their knowing what they’re there for, and you could be in a room full of people and feel lonely and you could be alone and understand that God is with us and that there’s still community and communion with him. So it’s very interesting. But as we close, one of the things I’d like to do is do you have any maybe scripture passages or biblical pieces of advice that you would like to give someone listening right now who is going a period where they are feeling maybe alone or separated from others? Maybe they’ve lost a loved one or they’re far away on deployment or work somewhere. What might be some biblical advice that you could lend them?

Sam Rohrer:       Well, Isaac, I think I would go here with the idea that we had perhaps laid out already. One of them is to understand that the scripture provides to us many examples of people, which is why God has given us the word of God. I’ve given it to you said for your examples. So we go to scripture because God put in it the lives of people who are just like us, who experience things as a part of life just like us, so that when we experience times of need just like they did, we can go to them and see what they did and how God met their needs. I’ve mentioned one earlier, Elijah, wow, did he experience the power of God, the miracle of God and sending that flame down there and the challenge to the servants of Baal, but he got tired out afterward and he left and he went hidden the cave and he thought he was all alone.

Sam Rohrer:       Sometimes in a life, even those who do great things for God will experience times because of physical tiredness or other things will feel low. Alright, what did he do? Well, God went to him and had to remind him he was hungry, he was tired. God gave him food. Sometimes we just need to eat. Sometimes we just need to get away and focus. God went to him and said, look, Elijah, hey, I want you to know you’re not alone. Alright? Scripture tells us that we’re not alone. I think King David, a man after God’s own heart, he was pursued by Saul. He felt alone, and I think even, I’m just looking down here in Psalm 25, 16, it, David talks here, turn unto me. Oh Lord have mercy upon me for I am desolate, alone and afflicted. And then he goes to verse 21 of that chapter.

Sam Rohrer:       He says this, I wait on thee Isaac. I think that there’s the principle I just told to leave this point. There are many, many, many scriptures, but that when we experience a point of tiredness, despondency, loneliness, the sense of loneliness can come, so not be shocked, but when it does come, where do we turn? As David, we must turn to the Lord, wait on the Lord. The promise then that we will have, if we know Jesus Christ’s personal savior, we can have the promise that the Lord Jesus himself gave to disciples and all of us. Today at the very end of Matthew verse 20, when he says that He concludes with these words, and lo, I am with thee even until the end of the age, Isaac, that is what God says. That’s what Jesus himself said, our action is, do we run to him in time of need because the times of need will come. Do I look to him with trust that he will meet the need as he did for David, as he did with Elijah, and do we really believe him that he is with us and will never leave us nor forsake us if we believe that because he said it, Isaac, that loneliness that the world’s experiencing right now that drives them to addiction will not be our temptation, but our walk with him will be evermore secure.

Isaac Crockett:   Well, that is great, Sam. That’s wonderful. Biblical advice and just remembering that and seeing those ones who’ve gone on before us and seeing how God used that. Well, I’m thinking now, and you have been a parent, you have six children and you’re a grandfather, and it’s important for parents and grandparents to train their children before they may be in a place where they are separate, maybe away from home or something, but while they are still home, one of those times comes around this time of year as school gets done, there will be kids going, mom, dad, I’m bored. I’ve got nothing to do. And of course there’s a lot they could do. I know as the kid, occasionally our family would go to a buffet, all you can eat buffet, and our goal was to try to try everything there pretty much. But I remember when we used to travel with college students, we’d go to a buffet and one of the kids would come back and she would’ve nothing on her plate pretty much, well, there’s nothing here.

Isaac Crockett:   I’m like, nothing here. It’s a whole buffet, and sometimes kids can feel like that and they can push our buttons and things, but this idea of learning not to be bored can be a great opportunity in teaching them how to rely on the Lord so that they don’t find themselves kind of annexed away and bored and lonely with life, but they find that support and they find the purpose for life that God has for them. What are some of the things you’ve learned, Sam, and some of them maybe you’ve learned the hard way and some of them you’ve learned from other folks who have passed it on to you and you found what works. What are some things you could give as a fatherly or grandfatherly advice?

Sam Rohrer:       Isaac, even last night in my life group, we were talking about this very thing. One of the reasons the Lord says forsake not the assembling of yourselves together is that as believers, whether we’re children or we are adults, God made us to cherish to need the relationship, the fellowship, which is what it means with others because we understand that we are not independent islands into ourself. If we know Jesus Christ is our savior, we’ve been made a part of a very large family, a family of God, we’re children of God. That’s part of our identity. Now, as a true believer, we have a purpose to glorify God until he comes. I hope he is coming soon.

Sam Rohrer:       Why is this important? Well, it gives us that purpose, but it also, Isaac and I tried to communicate it to our children and grandchildren that if we are living out a true relationship with Jesus Christ, our life is never about ourself. If it isn’t about ourself and we’re only thinking about ourself, we’re pretty lonely. But if we are thinking about sharing the truth, sharing the light, how can I serve my fellow man? How can I serve my family or asking somebody, is there something for which I can pray for you? How? If we’re thinking of others in light of glorifying God, Isaac, there will never be bored. I guarantee that it will be fruitful because we’re engaging in the lives of others and we’re communicating the truth and being able to see the power of that truth in the lives of others. That’s what God’s word is all about. That’s what the life of a true believer is all about. Never bored, never, never bored.

Isaac Crockett:   Amen. That’s right, and it sounds so simple, but it’s not always easy to live that. Well, Sam, we’re almost out of time, but I think there’s just enough time. Would you take just a moment here to pray for us as we close out our

Sam Rohrer:       Program? Absolutely. Heavenly Father, we’re thankful, Lord, that you have given us your spoken word and you’ve given us the word that’s before us. You’ve given us the plan of gospel. You’ve given us the hope of eternal life. You’ve given us a roadmap for living, and I pray, Lord, that for all of us who know you, that we would be confident in that fact that we would simply live out, live out what you’ve given us to do, and that we would share that with others who in this world of loneliness and darkness and confusion, Lord, that they can also have direction and fulfillment, which comes through only your word and salvation. In Jesus Christ, we pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

Isaac Crockett:   Amen. Amen. Thank you, Sam, and I would ask every one of you listening to us right now, would you take just a little time right now to pray for us? Pray for us here at the ME Pastors Network and Stand of the Gap Media, all of our co-hosts and behind the scenes people just pray for us and what the Lord is doing. We appreciate that. We appreciate you listening to us and telling others about staying in the gap of what we have going on, and until next time, I would encourage you and hope that you will stand in the gap for truth wherever you are.