Sheryl Brady - Outlasting Loneliness

I want to talk today, and I really want to talk. I pray that you’ll open up your heart and that you will allow me to open up my heart to give you today the word of the Lord. I want to talk from this subject: Outlasting Loneliness. If truth be told, there are a lot of lonely people in this room, a lot of lonely people watching online, and a lot of lonely people around the world. You can’t always tell it by looking at them, especially if they go to church, because we have a way of coming in, dressing up, and acting like everything’s okay. But the truth of the matter is there are many lonely people in this world, and I want to talk about outlasting loneliness because it is possible to do just that. Spirit of the Living God, I love you today. I ask that you would come into this room, hold us close, and speak to our need today. Speak to our pain, speak to our brokenness, and speak to our past, if you have to, but please make sure that you speak to our future. I thank you today that your word will find every person under the sound of my voice, and I just pray that they will open up their hearts and receive the seed that comes forth. Let it go down deep in their lives and let it bring forth a harvest—a harvest that blows our mind. Speak to us, Lord Jesus, with the voice that we need to hear. It’s your voice that we need to hear. Do that, and we will praise you. In Jesus' name, Amen and amen. On your way down, just touch somebody, shake them if you want to wake them up. If they look sleepy, tell them they need this message today: Outlasting Loneliness. Most of you know that I am a Detroit city girl. I grew up there. Is anyone from Detroit or near Detroit? Love Detroit? I’m going to preach to all five of you today; it’s me and you! Okay, I grew up in Detroit, and because of that, there are many good memories that I have from living there. I love certain things about it. I love going to the Coney Island places; you know there’s one every five feet. You will find an American Coney Island and a Lafayette Coney Island. You have to be from there to really understand what I’m talking about, but I love the Coney Island restaurants. I love the rice pudding they serve at those restaurants. I love the Better Made chips that you can only get from there, yes, Lord, that will increase you more and more. Yes, I love Vernors ginger ale; nothing like it. Fortunately, you can go to a grocery store here and get it, but that’s where it originated from. I don’t know if you Detroit people know this, but I love Faygo Red Pop. Those are all great things about Detroit. I love Tiger Stadium; my husband used to take me there on dates, so I have lots of good memories about being there. I love Greektown; it’s downtown, and you go down there to eat. I grew up eating Greek baklava. It’s very unique; you just have to experience it if you’re from there. I also love going to Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village and touring all those kinds of places. I love Motown; I love the artists that came out of Motown. I wasn’t supposed to, because I was a church girl and I was supposed to know all that stuff, but I love Aretha Franklin singing «Respect.» Yeah, I love Diana Ross singing «Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.» Y’all have been saved all your lives; you don’t know this. Okay, reach out and touch somebody’s hand. Make this world a better place if you can. See, with that kind of music, that was one of those songs that you could possibly know, but I like that, and I like The Temptations’ «Papa Was a Rolling Stone.» Y’all are singing louder about The Temptations than you are about Jesus! What about Stevie Wonder? «Isn’t She Lovely? Isn’t She Wonderful?» Okay, if we go one stanza too long, God is getting us; He’s going to get us, and He starts with me! Okay, what about Anita Baker? «I Love You Just Because, Yes, Just Because I Do»? I’ll tell you I was saved, but I was barely saved, better than Smokey Robinson four times. I don’t know about all that stuff. Okay, now let’s take it to a safer side. Also, out of Detroit came people like Fred Hammond, people like The Clark Sisters, like Mattie Moss Clark, like Keir Share, like her mama, Karen Clark Sheard, and then also came the Winans, B.B. and C.C. Marvin, Mama Pop Winans, Vanessa Bell Armstrong, Commissioned, Marvin Sapp, Thomas Whitfield, Vicki Winans, Cheryl Brady. I’m telling you, Detroit rocks! How does all of that talent come out of one place? Well, I love a lot of things about Detroit, but the thing I love the most, I think, is that we have four seasons: winter, spring, summer, fall. There’s a clear line of demarcation. I grew up with a clear line. If it’s winter, you know it’s winter. If it’s spring, you know it’s spring. If it’s summer, you know it’s summer. And if it’s fall, you know it’s fall. In Dallas, we don’t know—it’s cold today, it’s hot tomorrow—winter, spring, summer, fall. I love that the Bible says in Genesis 2:22 that as long as the earth remains, there will be springtime and harvest.