Loneliness - Summer in the Psalms - Sermons - Colin Provart - 7.19.26

**Colin Provart** (0:01)
Good morning, Storyline Church.
Turning it on would help. Good morning, Storyline Church. Hey, we have an exciting thing coming up in the life of our church this upcoming week. We have student camp starting tomorrow. 160 students and leaders are going to go hang out. And so I would encourage you just in the next week, as you think about it, would you pray for them? We're expecting that God's going to do some amazing work, that students will encounter the good news of the gospel for the first time, surrendering their lives, that students in the coming months will get up here on the stage and enter the waters of baptism, proclaiming new life that they found in Christ this week. And so would you pray alongside our church family for what God would do this upcoming week? This morning, we're going to be continuing on in our series through the Psalms as we look at emotions. How to bring our whole lives, all of our emotions before God. And this morning, we're going to be in Psalm 25 So if you have a Bible, Psalm 25 is where we're going to be. And as you turn there, we're going to look at loneliness. And as you turn there, I have a question for you. Does summer lead anyone else to having nostalgic moments? Anyone else feel like summer is full of nostalgic moments? I feel like I'm getting them more and more these days. As I have two young kids, and we're doing things over the summer that I used to do when I was a kid. So a couple weeks ago, I got to bring my kids to Northern Minnesota, where I grew up going to this little cabin on a small little lake in Minnesota. And as I got there, seeing my kids run into the water, I remember doing that when I was a kid. And all the memories come flooding back of thinking that I knew what it was like to really take high risk by getting on a tube that's tethered to the dock as boats drive by. And I'm like riding the waves, you know. I think I know what it's like to surf. And then you kind of like, kind of grow up a little bit and you tube behind the boat. And then you keep going, you ski and wakeboard. And I remember the first time I surfed behind a boat in Minnesota. And I was like, I have arrived. Like I know what it's like to catch a big wave. This is awesome. And I went to the ocean for the first time. And I start a dead sprint to jump in the water myself, and my dad grabs me. Colin, you can't get in the ocean. You don't know what the waves are like. You know, and I'm young, I look at my dad. Come on, dad, I know what big waves are like. I've been riding them in the lakes of Minnesota my whole life. He said, Colin, you know what lake waves are like? You have no idea what ocean waves are like. Because ocean waves are different. They come fast, they come sometimes unexpectedly, and they always come stronger than you think. And if you're not prepared, they're gonna rock you. The undercurrent is gonna suck you in, and it's gonna pull you out from the shore. You can't get in the water without me, son. Ocean waves, they come fast, unexpected, and always stronger than we think. I think that's sometimes how it is with loneliness. Loneliness, sometimes we see it coming from a mile away, but sometimes it sneaks up on us. And loneliness always comes in waves, always comes in waves that are harder than we expect them to be. So the main question we're gonna look at today is, what do we do when the waves of loneliness crash? What do we do in the waves of loneliness crash? Maybe for some of you, you don't think that we need to talk about loneliness. But the reality is that we have a loneliness epidemic. We have loneliness all around us.
Loneliness because of tragedy, loneliness because of sin, loneliness because of pain and waiting, loneliness because of choice. And the scary thing is, we have no idea what to do when the waves of loneliness crash. We have no idea what to do when the waves of loneliness crash. But again, maybe some of you think, man, I'm the exception. Like I'm going off to college in a few short weeks, and I'm going to meet the best friends that I've ever had in my entire life. I'm never going to be lonely again. Just for welcome week to come around. And it feels like everyone has plans by you. You find yourself in your dorm room feeling lonely. Or for you, you think, man, I've never been lonely, and I'm never going to be lonely. Because what you don't know, Colin, is that in a few short weeks, I'm getting married, and I'm never going to be lonely again. Couple married, couples chuckle, right? It's like all the friends go out and do something or our first marital disagreement, and all of a sudden, I'm in this house with this life I thought I wanted feeling lonely. Or maybe you feel mature in your marriage. We're in the golden years of our marriage. We've kind of figured it out. We don't feel lonely anymore, just for death to rob you of the golden years of life. And you find yourself feeling lonely.