Created For… - Trouble in Paradise

Some of you walked in lonely this weekend.
Married and lonely.
Single and lonely.
Dating somebody and lonely.
A house full of kids and lonely... how can THIS many people live here and nobody talks to me?

You are not imagining it. In 1990, three percent of Americans said they had no close friends. By 2021, that number had quadrupled to twelve percent. In 2023, the Surgeon General called loneliness a public health crisis and said lacking social connection can carry a risk of premature death, comparing the risk of death to smoking up to fifteen cigarettes a day. One in eight adults takes medication for depression. I thank God for medicine and treatment for depression. But medicine does not keep you company and fill the empty chair at your table.

 So where did the ache of loneliness come from? Not smartphones. Not the pandemic. Loneliness showed up in the book of Genesis at Creation…before the fall of man.

In the creation account, God created light, land and seas, plants and stars, fish, birds, animals…Over and over, God says the same word about His work.
Light... good.
Land and sea... good.
Plants and stars... good.
Fish and birds and Animals... good.

Then He makes ADAM and EVE in His own image and says…VERY good.

But BEFORE these first humans chose to SIN…while they were living in PARADISE. GOD recognized that ADAM being ALONE was NOT good. 

Genesis 2:18-25 (NLT2)
18  Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” 19  So the LORD God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. 20  He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him. 21  So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the LORD God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. 22  Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. 23  “At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’” 24  This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. 25  Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.

The very first thing I want to point out is that even before sin entered the world… 

Paradise was missingsomething.
(Gen. 2:18) (Psalm 68:6) 

The first NOT GOOD in the Bible arrives before the first sin. God looks at a sinless man in a perfect garden and says, "Something is MISSING." Adam had unbroken access to God. Yet he was still ALONE. 

If you wrestle with loneliness, understand- it is not a form of punishment from sin. If you struggle with loneliness, know that God wired the ACHE of loneliness into a perfect man on purpose…So a human being would always need other human beings.

If you FEEL ALONE, it is not a malfunction…LONELINESS has a PURPOSE.  It is not a sole result of SIN in a BROKEN world.  God created us with a need for relationship. Loneliness is the SIGNAL that tells us that need is not being met.

Psalm 68:6 (NLT2)
6  God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy. But he makes the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

In Hebrew, LONELY means the solitary one, and FAMILIES is literally a HOUSE. GOD places solitary people into HOUSEHOLDS. God’s solution to loneliness isn’t a follower count. His solution is to place people in a HOUSEHOLD. And GOD has been doing that at Beach Church.

So far in 2026, we have had over 1,000 guests walk through our doors. We have baptized 121 followers of Jesus. God is placing those who feel ALONE into a HOUSEHOLD of BELONGING.

In 2024, Outreach Magazine ranked us as the 58th-fastest-growing church in America. In 2025, they ranked us as the 44th-fastest-growing church in America…And now, in 2026, they ranked us as the 53rd-fastest-growing church in America.

People have relocated to Myrtle Beach, left family, left their community, left their people…and they are finding their PEOPLE here at Beach Church. God is designing Beach Church to become a household YOU belong to. A Lifegroup where you become KNOWN and KNOW others. A serve team where you encourage others.

It is important to recognize that Psalm 68:6 does not say that God places the LONELY in a MARRIAGE. You were created for RELATIONSHIP. With God. With people. Whether you are Single, married, widowed, divorced... if you feel alone, we have RELATIONSHIPS waiting for you to take the NEXT STEP.

According to God’s design – we really do NEED people.  All of us DO.

 Often, we think what we are MISSING is a spouse…BUT that is not ALWAYS the case.  Married people get LONELY if they don’t have FRIENDS outside of their marriage.

What gets dangerous and harmful is when you begin looking for a DATE or somebody outside of marriage to carry the same CONNECTION that a spouse is supposed to CARRY. If you are LONELY and want NOTHING more than to BE married, have a family, and “settle down.”  Be careful and as you date….

Do not ask a date to carry a spouse's weight.
(Gen. 2:19-20) (Song of Songs 2:7)

God designed Adam and Eve to carry for each other a weight nothing else in creation could hold. Emotional weight. Sexual weight. Physical weight. Mental weight.

Church Community carries RELATIONAL weight…but only the MARRIAGE COVENANT can carry covenant weight.
A life group cannot carry the covenantal weight.
A co-worker can not carry covenantal weight.
A boyfriend or girlfriend cannot carry it.

Dating is GOOD. Let it grow. Let it blossom. But when you hand covenant weight to a non-covenant relationship, you do not speed love up. You CRUSH it.

There is a book in the Bible that will make some of you wonder, "Are we allowed to read this in church?"

Song of Songs.
It is romantic. It is sexual. At times, it is HOT AND HEAVY. It celebrates the love and sexual desire God designed for marriage. And right in the middle of all that desire, Scripture gives this warning...

Song of Songs 2:7 (NLT2)
7  Promise me, O women of Jerusalem…not to awaken love until the time is right.

Solomon is seeking to PROTECT the WEIGHT that should only be SHOULDERED by a spouse in marriage.

If you awaken LOVE and ask somebody to carry the WEIGHT that GOD designed a SPOUSE to carry – that RELATIONSHIP is going to get CRUSHED…or it will CRUSH those around you.

When I worked construction, we would sometimes load wheelbarrows full of BRICK, MUD, or BLOCK to move them to the other side of the house.  The WHEELBARROW was designed to carry that weight.  My toes…were not. When the weight shifted, it could turn over and crush my toes.

Weight placed on the wrong person…CRUSHES. If you ask a date to carry covenant weight, and the relationship gets crushed under it…And some of you were crushed... because a spouse looked for somebody else to carry the weight of the covenant.

Or maybe you are the one who did the crushing because you chose to be UNFAITHFUL to your spouse. 

You both are working on your marriage – you are dealing with loneliness inside of marriage because of unfaithfulness. I want you to believe your marriage can be restored.  Your relationship can be revived.  But it is going to take HARD work, communication, and prayer.

My advice to you:

Rebuild trust with every honest day.
(Gen. 2:25, Gen 3:11-13, Psalm 32:3-5)

When God created Adam and Eve, there was nothing hidden. They each were fully seen. Fully KNOWN. There were no SECRETS between them. Then – they chose to sin and rebel against God…God told them not to eat from one tree.

The serpent tempted Eve.
Eve offered it to Adam.

And one of the first things that happened is they began to KEEP secrets. They covered themselves trying to hide from each other…When they heard God in the Garden…they hid from him…In that moment of rebellion – the BLAME game began…

Genesis 3:11-13 (NLT2)
11  “Who told you that you were naked?” the LORD God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?” 12  The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.” 13  Then the LORD God asked the woman, “What have you done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”

When we run from SIN – when we try to keep SIN secret…it can destroy relationships.

Listen to what David said about the SECRET he tried to keep:

Psalm 32:3-5 (NLT2)
3  When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. 4  Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Interlude 5  Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the LORD.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.

The secrets that you MAY be keeping cost you more than you realize.  David said his body wasted away, he groaned all day, his strength evaporated. Then – David confessed, and the weight shifted to the ONE who would pay the price for ALL our sin.

God can REDEEM everything SIN tries to destroy.

Adam and EVE were punished.  They were sent out of the Garden…they were EXILED from that intimate RELATIONSHIP with God. And since then – every single relationship has been impacted by SIN…BUT…Paying the price for our sin, Jesus died and rose again.

If you are in a COVENANT marriage – and you have been keeping SECRETS of SIN…Confess your sin to God.  You are not DESIGNED to carry the weight of sin and shame…Jesus was.

He was FULLY GOD. FULLY man.

HE alone can carry the weight of our SIN.

HE alone can restore your RELATIONSHIP with GOD.

And – Confession may BEGIN rebuilding trust with your spouse, but confession alone will not RESTORE trust. Trust will be rebuilt ONE HONEST day after HONEST day. If you LIVE honorably and HONESTLY and you continue to LEAN on JESUS, your spouse will stop tensing every time your phone lights up with a notification. Every honest day is a brick. Keep laying them until Jesus returns.

Some of you walked in lonely and alone. And when you walk out those doors, your circumstances may not have changed yet. But now you know what the ache is telling you. Remember, the ache is not a defect. It is a SIGNAL.

Sign up to join a Lifegroup.

Sign up to lead on a team.

Take that free Bible home and open it.

Discover what you were CREATED for and begin to live it out every single day.