He Came To Seek And Save The Lost Series

He Came To Seek And Save The Lost

What Jesus Came To Do – part one

In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn't make. Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. God sent John the Baptist to tell everyone about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. John himself was not the light; he was only a witness to the light. The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was going to come into the world. But although the world was made through him, the world didn't recognize him when he came. Even in his own land and among his own people, he was not accepted. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan--this rebirth comes from God. So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father.

2,000 years ago the Word became human and lived on earth. THINK – about that… 2,000 ago years God, in the person of the Son – lived among us was here…in the flesh…. HEY – if you heard that Jesus was speaking on the hillside outside of Galilee would you have gone to listen?

QUESTION – why did Jesus come? Why was he here? What did he hope to accomplish? What things did he want to teach us? AND - how did he want human life to different, after he was gone?

TODAY – we begin a brand new series called, “What Jesus Came To Do…” AND – some of the topics that we will be discussing in the coming weeks are - Jesus came; to replace rules with relationships; to be our King, to set us free, to tell us the truth, to open our eyes, to change our lives AND – as the heading for your outline reads – to seek and save the lost…

Luke records these words of Jesus – in chapter 19 of his gospel;

“…the Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost.” (19;10)

THIS morning what I want to do or at least attempt to do – as we take a look at Luke chapter 15 is to reveal the heart of the Father in regards to lost people; How does God feel about the lost – what is his desire for them (Luke 15 contains the parable of the lost; sheep, coin & son).

Prayer…

OKAY – raise your hand if you have ever played the game hide & seek…

Now hide and seek is a very simple game. One person seeks and everybody else runs off and hides. And, if you are playing hide and seek, the fun part is to be one of the hiders. BECAUSE - If you are one of the hiders, you get to be in control. You get to decide where you are going to go. You get to keep your eyes open. You get to call the shots.

YOU SEE - the hard job in hide and seek is to be the one who has to seek. I mean – after you get this job you have to let everyone run away from you – AND THEN, you have to keep looking for people who are trying to evade him, people who are laughing at your inability to find them (which usually makes them easier to find them). That’s why nobody wants that job, because if you take it, everybody is going to run from you.

AND – have you noticed that in the game of hide and seek, that the one who gets stuck with the job of seeking doesn’t even get much of a title. I MEAN - in other games you at least get an exalted job description. TAKE – basketball for instance, you have a center and he is the one around whom the action flows. Then there is a forward, and at least that has a progressive kind of sound to it. The guard is somebody who is protecting something that matters. But in hide and seek, it is not that way.

QUESTION – what do you call the one who seeks in hide and seek? Anybody know? "It, they are called it.." Not "Commander It," not "C.E.I. - Chief Executive It," not “Mr. it” not even "Cousin It" (for old Adams Family fans), just plain old "It." And nobody wants to be "It." In fact, at the start of the game, what does everybody say? "Not 'It.'