“There is no misery like a lonely heart.”
“And son, would you like to know the cure?”
“So you can tell my people tomorrow?”
I said: “Yes!”
The cure is to be alone with Jesus.
Now that means loneliness is different from aloneness.
Jesus wants time alone with you.
In John 4, you have the story of the Samaritan woman, okay?
Jesus at the well.
Do you remember that?
She had five husbands and she was living currently in adultery.
But God arranged everything so that the woman can be alone
with the wonderful Shepherd who sought her.
Amen!
The cure for a lonely heart is to be alone with Jesus,
who knows everything about you, but yet draws so near to you.
A God who stooped down so low to even be dependent on her
for a drop of water to quench His thirst.
What a God, what a God!
Amen!
And He says to her: “Give Me water to drink.”
And she says: “How come”
“You are a Jew, asking me, a Samaritan for water.”
“The Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.”
And Jesus says: “Woman, if you knew who is the One”
“talking with you, and who is it that says to you,”
“‘Give Me a drink,’ you would ask Him,”
“and He would give you living waters.”
And she says: “How can you do it?”
“You don’t have any rope, nothing, how can you”
“draw from this deep well.”
And Jesus says: “The water that you drink from here,”
“you would thirst again.”
Alright, now don’t forget, later on we find out she has
had five husbands.
So do you think Jesus was talking about the water?
When you drink this water you would thirst again.
Obviously, He’s talking about her search for love,
her thirst for true love.
If you drink from human relationships,
alright, just solely from human relationships,
you can be thirsty again.
But Jesus says: “But if you ask Me,”
“I’ll produce in you a well of living waters”
“and you will never thirst again.”
So a lot of people, they have a thirst.
I’m not talking about physical thirst.
I’m talking about emotional thirst, spiritual thirst.
You know, they think that the thirst can be quenched
by going for a holiday.
They come back thirsty, sometimes more thirsty.
They feel like the thirst can be quenched by
getting into a relationship, alright, illicit even,
but the thirst is not quenched.
So they are looking for the quenching of their thirst outside them,
when Jesus says:
“I’ll produce inside you a well, springing up into everlasting life.”
Are you listening?
When you are alone with Jesus, I can’t begin to tell you the
number of times, you feel that something is flowing on the inside.
Amen!
And when you meet people, you just speak, people are refreshed,
people are blessed, people are helped.
They love to have you around.
Amen!
Why is it that Jesus revealed her sin to her?
Why is it that Jesus wanted her to know that He knows
she had five husbands?
Is the Lord just exposing our sins to shame us?
No, don’t forget I told you, God arranged in such a way,
even His disciples are not around to hear this.
Alone with Jesus.
Do you know why He wanted her to know that He knows
everything about her?
Because you will never know that you are loved until
you know that person knows everything about you
and still loves you.
What’s with us, that with all our
advancement in technology, with all the social media,
we are supposed to be more connected, isn’t it?
And yet, we are not connected.
We are supposed to have more friends,
and yet we are never so lonely.
What is it about all the luxuries of modern life
and the easy access with a fingertip, with a touch that we have
for this generation that yet, of all generations,
we are the most unsatisfied.
You don’t look to the likes to get your joy.
Amen.
So we are so connected to the point that we
look for affirmation.
We are such a me generation.
Alright, we have me-fi, we-fi, it’s all about me, you know.
In the previous generation, we don’t have that.
But now, it’s like we want the affirmation, we want people
to see what we are doing.
We want them to see we are eating Char Kway Teow,
we are doing this now.
I am now in the toilet, sitting on the toilet bowl, you know.
I mean, in our minds, we think that people really bother,
when actually a lot of people don’t care.
Amen.
So, we cannot get our affirmation from people.
And a crowd can be screaming your celebration,
alright today, and shout for your crucifixion next week.
Jesus found that out.
Amen.
1 week they were shouting: “Hosanna to the son of David!”
The very next week, they shouted: “Crucify Him!”
And here, Jesus was entering Jericho, this city of curse.
And the Bible says:
“He made His way through the town.”
“There was a man there named Zacchaeus.”
“He was a chief tax collector.”
Look at verse 3.
“He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see”
“over the crowd”.
Again, there’s the crowd.
Sometimes we are so conscious of the crowd, we don’t see Jesus.
It’s not important what the crowd thinks of you.
It’s not important how many likes you get on your social media.
It’s not very important what people say about you.
The question is: “Can you see Jesus?”
Because if you can see Jesus, you will see His eyes of love for you.
You will see that He is longing for you.
You think you are looking for Him.
He is looking for you.
Amen.
So here Zacchaeus was trying to see Jesus.
Can you imagine, right now, whenever there is a crowd,
there is a lot of noise, a lot of din and bustle
and the cacophony of noises in the midst of the crowd,
and he is trying to jump over the shoulders of the people
to take a look at Jesus.
And he can’t because the Bible says that he was short.
“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
Right.
So he trying to see.
He can’t find a way to see Jesus, but he wanted to see Jesus.
Whenever you want to see Jesus, Jesus is looking out for you.
Let me tell you something else, the more you want to see Jesus,
the more Jesus wants to see you.
There is something about the crowd.
Amen.
In the midst of the cacophony of all the noises and all that,
He will look up and He will pay attention to one person
who is out to look at Him.
“But Pastor Prince, all the crowd is trying to see him right?”
No, there’s a kind of look that looks to you like—
It is one thing to look at a person swimming in the sea.
But if you are in the sea and you are drowning,
and you look for the lifesaver, you look at the life guard,
the way you look is different.
This is looking unto.
Amen.
And Zacchaeus had a look unto, and that kind of look
is what brings life.
Amen.
One look for the Saviour and you will live.
One look and you'll be transformed.
One look and you'll be healed.
This is how the Lord is like.
So all the while Zacchaeus thought he was looking for Jesus.
He didn't realise Jesus was looking for him.
Have you heard of the prayer called:
“Just tell it to Jesus.”
“Do you have any cares or anxieties?”
“Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus.”
Do you feel like your friends have forsaken you?
What a friend we have in Jesus.
Tell it to Jesus.
Have you ever told it to Jesus before?
Have you ever taken a walk, and said:
“God, I don’t know how to pray.”
“Lord Jesus I feel You are walking with me because I know”
enough that You never leave me nor forsake me.”
“And can I just tell you Lord, I am worried about this,”
“I am worried about that.”
You don’t know that you are actually casting your cares on Him!
Now don’t let anyone hear it.
It’s just you and Jesus.
And I’m telling you.
Just talking to Him.
I can’t begin to explain to you.
Not exactly everything in those words,
I am just illustrating.
But the more honest you are with Him,
I can’t explain to you.
Even before you ask: “Lord give me the grace.”
It’s amazing you know that He has imparted strength to you.
By the end of that walk, with Jesus, it’s like:
“Wow!
Something has changed.
I don’t know what it is.”
“I don’t feel—I am not so anxious and careful anymore.”
“Something happened.”
Just tell it to Jesus.
And then you’ll realise He is really a friend.
It’s not just a song.
“What a friend we have in Jesus.”
“Is my voice louder than his?”
“All our sins and grief to bear.”
What is going on?
This is not Mr. Bean.
It’s no more a hymn.
All of a sudden you realise:
“He’s my friend!
He’s a friend that I can share with.”
And no wonder—prayer!
You know, spending time over coffee with a dear friend.
Hours pass and before you know it, my goodness!
But prayer, it’s like you look at the clock.
Those days, they say the one hour prayer,
so you look at the clock.
And I remember they used that statement, or that question
that Jesus asked His disciples.
Jesus asked: “Could you not tarry one hour.”
Actually He asked the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane.
It was not a law.
We even twist a question into a law.
And we say: “Can’t you tarry one hour.”
So we do our best, we put our clock, alright?
And then we pray.
And then we really, really, really pray.
And we really thought we prayed for a long time.
We look up—ten minutes.
“Oh my goodness!”
Can you imagine me going to my wife and saying:
“Alright.
You’ve been asking me to spend time with you.”
“Communicating with you.”
“You told me that communication is the lifeblood of marriage.”
“Alright baby, your time starts now.
Phoosh!”
She will say: “I’m going home.”
Right?
Amen.
No.
So there is a place for a prayer of faith.
There is a prayer.
In fact to talk to Him is faith!
You are not happy about somebody, talk to the Lord.
You are angry with somebody, talk to the Lord.
Hey you can even tell the Lord you are angry with Him.
But talk to Him.
Tell it to Jesus.
He cares.
The Bible says casting all your cares to Him, upon Him.
The reason?
Because He cares for you.
He cares for you.