John 10:10

The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)

We are the most connected generation in history—and the most isolated. Jesus came to give the abundant life of connection we were created for.

The Greatest Health Crisis: Isolation

In a June 2016 interview, the Surgeon General of the United States said this: "Our greatest public health crisis isn't cancer or heart disease, it is isolation." That is a powerful statement from a man who has access to all the data from the National Institutes of Health, the CDC, and every level of medical and welfare research in our nation. After seeing all of it, he says our greatest health crisis is social isolation.

It is almost hard to believe, because I think you would agree that we are the most connected people in all of human history. Technologically and practically, at just about any time and from virtually any place, you and I can instantly connect with almost any person.

I experienced this even in 2010 in Mozambique, about a hundred miles from any real civilization. We were in a grass-hut church getting electricity from solar panels, and in the middle of my message—translated as I went—I was interrupted by a cell phone ringing. There's no difference between that and being interrupted here at 1675 Seven Oaks Road.

Constantly Connected, Yet Alone

Even people we don't know can connect with us. This last Monday, on my way to pick up two of my kids from preschool, I got notified of a message from someone I've never met. They didn't have my number or email, so they searched Twitter, found @PastorMiles, and instantly we were connected.

About the only place modern Americans aren't connected is in the shower or the pool, and Samsung and others are working on that with waterproof devices. This has become as normal as brushing your teeth. For a growing number of people, looking at their device is the first thing they do in the morning and the last thing they do at night. If you're shaking your head saying "not me," I'd bet you're over 40 and have kids or grandkids who are exactly like that.

The iPhone turns ten this year, and it has completely transformed society. We've all had the experience of looking up in a room full of people—I did this at my parents' house on Christmas Day—and seeing nothing but glowing faces, no one talking to anyone. At the San Francisco airport last year I saw 200 people, and virtually every one of them was buried in a device. Over in the youth ministry you'll see groups of teenagers sitting together, sending each other text messages and laughing—communicating by text instead of talking.

Facebook turns thirteen on February 4 of this year. There are now 1.79 billion people connected through it. If Facebook were a nation, it would be the largest on earth. Sixty percent of American adults are on it; 160 million Americans check it every week, spending an average of 39 minutes a day. Gallup and others found that the number one source of news for Americans today is Facebook—which means you only see news liked and promoted by people you already agree with, and your perspective narrows. You can instantly reach out and touch someone on another continent you've never met.

Social Media Makes It Worse

And yet the Surgeon General says our number one health crisis is social isolation, and it is on the rise. The amazing thing is that social media doesn't reduce it—it increases the feeling of loneliness. Within the last ten years the American Psychological Society added a new classification: Facebook depression. People feature only the good things—the great meals, the beach trips—so everyone's life looks awesome all the time, while yours doesn't. Then you post something and get no likes, and you're down. Two weeks ago a 12-year-old girl hanged herself while live-streaming it on Facebook Live. I guarantee you she was suffering from social isolation, and social media was not fixing it.

Twenty percent of Americans and climbing suffer from chronic loneliness, which is associated with significantly greater risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and even more rapid progression of Alzheimer's disease. A 2010 National Institutes of Health study found that regardless of age or gender, stronger social connections increase the likelihood of health and thriving, while a decrease in connectedness contributes to loss of mental and physical health.

Point one: You cannot and will not experience an abundant life without connection.

We Were Designed, Not Evolved

I read a scientific article that opened: "Humans were not designed to be solitary creatures. We evolved to survive in tribes. The need to interact is deeply ingrained into our genetic code, so much so that the absence of social connections triggers the primal alarm bells as does hunger, thirst, and physical pain." I agree completely—but notice the conflict. The first sentence says we were designed; the second says we evolved. So which is it? I believe the former. We were designed. We were created for connection.

God said it is not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18). So He created a comparable helper, woman, that the two would become one flesh, and He commanded them, "Be fruitful and multiply" (Genesis 1:22, 28). Why? Because it is not good for man to be alone.

Point two: We were created to live life in connection with one another. God never intended that we would live independently. This is by design, not by evolution or social construction. Independence and isolation bring death; at the very least, in scientific terms, disconnection is "non-optimal." What God has said for thousands of years, science and medicine are now confirming over and over: it is not good for man to be alone.

The Harvard professor who wrote Bowling Alone around 2004 documented the rise of social isolation in our nation—and he wrote it at the same university where Facebook was being developed. Thirteen years later, the very thing we thought would bring us together has only increased our isolation.

The Push to Decrease Population

If God designed us for connection and population keeps growing—there are 7.4 billion of us now—you'd think there would be more connection. Instead we're more divided and isolated than ever. And among the elite influencers of Western culture, the message is that we need to decrease population, contradicting God's command to be fruitful and multiply.

Look at Western Europe over the last quarter century. In France, the Netherlands, Denmark, and many other nations, birth rates are no longer at replacement rate—2.1 children per family. That's why there has been such a push for open immigration in the European Union: they need people from the Middle East and North Africa to fuel declining populations. And no one has a good answer for how to handle that, other than this: they need the gospel; they need Jesus. Yet at the same time there has been a warring against God. Scotland—where the English Bible came from—is now considered an unreached people group, less than 2% evangelized. Get rid of God, decrease people.

Sin Destroyed Connection

So where did this isolation come from? Genesis 3 records humanity's rebellion against God's command. Sin entered the world, and from sin came death. God had said that the day they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they would surely die. When they ate, they didn't immediately keel over, but a death was experienced instantly: they saw they were naked and made coverings for themselves. There was a separation of oneness, a shame, a death of connection.

Point three: Sin destroys connection. Every person in this room has felt this. There are people in your life—a brother, sister, parent, cousin—you no longer have any connection with because of bitterness or anger that, when you dig down, has sin at the root. Sin always separates, always alienates, always fails. The result of sin is always death in some form. This side of Genesis 3, we live in a world of broken relationships and division, and the rhetoric in our nation this past year only amplified it.

The Universal Longing to Belong

And yet, resident in every human being—churchgoer or not—is a desire for deep relationship and oneness. Everybody wants to belong. Most of you remember a moment in elementary school or junior high when you were isolated from a group you wanted to be part of, and the pain it caused. I've watched my own kids come home from our new neighborhood with tears in their eyes after being put out of a group.

It shows up early. My three-year-old loves to entertain himself with his cars for hours. But he does not want to be in a room by himself. He'll follow me around, sit five feet away, never say a word—but if I leave the room, he wants to know where I'm going. That isn't evolution; God created us that way.

Some object: "I don't like crowds, I'm an introvert." The majority of people identify as introverts and feel some anxiety in large groups or with new people. But that doesn't mean they want to be alone. Nobody wants to be alone, unless some rift or brokenness has made them afraid of the group. We desire oneness, and sin hinders it.

Jesus Came to Deal with Sin and Death

This is exactly what Jesus came to deal with. He came to seek and save that which is lost, to find the one who's been isolated and bring them back in. He dealt with sin on the cross, dying in our place for the penalty and effects of sin. And He dealt with death by dying and conquering death in His resurrection, which we'll celebrate in four months, so that He can say, "O death, where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin." That is great news.

The night before He died, Jesus prayed to the Father in His high priestly prayer in John 17. Some struggle with the idea that Jesus is God yet prays to God the Father—but the prayer itself answers the question.

Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world... Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. (John 17:11)

How can the Son pray to the Father when both are God? This is the doctrine of the Trinity—God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit—three persons, one God in total unity. The perfection of oneness, the very thing we desire at the deepest level, exists in the Godhead. And Jesus' prayer for us is that we would share in it.

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. (John 17:20–21)

Jesus prayed for you and me two thousand years ago, that we would be united as one in Him—connected to God and to one another through Jesus. And notice the purpose: "that the world may believe that You sent Me." This oneness is evangelistic. It is the very good news this world is longing for, because at the deepest level people long to be connected to the divine and to one another. When they see it actually worked out, it's attractive.

And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me. (John 17:22–23)

Point four: Jesus destroyed sin to restore connection.

Reconciled in One Body

How does He make this happen? Ephesians 2 tells us.

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation... so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace... that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. (Ephesians 2:14–16)

Jesus came in His own flesh to deal with war, sin, and death on the cross, and through His death He reconciles warring parties to God in one body. What is that one body? The church. This is where the oneness God desires is experienced and expressed on the earth. Because of our fallenness we see denominational division, but within the local church it is amazing what God does. Look at the diversity reflected in this room and in the global church. The gospel and the church are supracultural—moving beyond the borders and boundaries of culture.

At the birth of the church in Acts 2, after Peter preached, those who gladly received the word were baptized—introduced into the body of Christ—and about three thousand souls were added that day.

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers... Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common... So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart... And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42–47)

Point five: The church is God's plan for the restoration of connection.

Life in Connection

This is why our vision and mission is life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus. This connection only happens in and through Jesus. All the efforts of politicians and non-profits to join people together, break down racial divides, and heal socioeconomic divisions apart from Jesus will always be vain and yield little. Only in Christ is this abundant life of connection found. This is what people are longing for at the deepest level.

In part it happens when we gather corporately, as the early church did, worshiping God through prayer, His Word, and song, growing together. But ninety minutes on a Sunday is not sufficient. That's why at Cross Connection we have connect groups. We've done them for a couple of years and they've been very fruitful—but about 80% of our church is not involved, which means most of you are not experiencing life in connection the way God desires. I'm convinced that without that connection, you won't experience that abundant life. And we want you to.

What a Connect Group Is

A connect group is simply a gathering outside the church, just like the early church—"breaking bread from house to house." Every other week people gather in homes and bring something to share, like a potluck. The early church called it an agape feast, a love feast. Is there a Bible study? No. We just gather to be with one another. It sounds simple, and that's exactly what it is, because God has woven into a shared meal an amazing power to unite us as one. That's why even secular society pushes hard for families to eat dinner together—there's a oneness generated through it.

Our family has been involved for a couple of years; ours happens to be at my parents' house. Every time I put my four kids in the car, they ask, "Are we going to connect group?" There are nights after a long day when I don't know if I want to take four little ones, but my kids insist, "We have to go to connect group." Even the littlest one loves that connection. It's life-giving.

If you're not plugged in, you need to be. Go to the connection point afterward and we'll log you onto the website. Go to lifeinconnection.com/groups, click "join," and you're connected with a host who will welcome you in.

And maybe you have a heart for people, you'd open your home, serve your guests, and you love to talk about Jesus. You could be a host—H‑O‑S‑T: a Heart for people, Open your home, Serve your guests, Talk of Jesus. Come let us know and we'll plug you in.

The amazing thing is that your neighbors and friends who don't know Jesus can be invited too. They notice the cars in front of your house every couple of weeks, ask what it is, and come over—and they discover Christians aren't as weird as they thought. We're still weird; the Bible calls us a peculiar people. But it's evangelistic, because people want connection, and Jesus came to restore it. That's good news.

Closing Prayer

Father, I pray for those here right now to whom this sounds good—who come faithfully on Sunday but have never plugged in. Draw them by Your Spirit to grow in connection with You and with one another within Your body. Draw them out to be part of a connect group. And there are some standing here who have a heart for people and a home they're willing to open, who already talk about You because You've given them the gift of hospitality. Lord, You are calling them to be connect group hosts. Help them take that step and say, "I might be interested in that." Because, Lord, You want us to live as Your people in life-giving and life-satisfying abundance of connection. Make that a reality for us. We pray this in Jesus' name, and all those who agreed said, Amen.