Commitment To The Lost

INTRO.- God, our loving Father, wants no one to be lost, but sometimes we act like we don’t care.

ILL.- A Tea Party

I had a little tea party

This afternoon at three.

‘Twas very small –

Three guests in all –

Just I, Myself and Me

Myself ate all the sandwiches

While I drank up the tea;

‘Twas also I who ate the pie

And passed the cake to me.

We live in a very selfish or self-centered world. It’s every man, woman, child, and dog for themselves.

Even in our churches, it seems that we are primarily concerned about ourselves. Almost everything we do in the church is FOR the church, not FOR those outside the church. We don’t think in terms of ministering to those outside the church. We think most of the time about ministering to ourselves.

ILL.- Dr. Kermit Long said, "With all our education, our fine buildings, our image of the church, we are doing less to win people to Christ than our unschooled forefathers did. We’re no longer fishers of men, but keepers of the aquarium, and we spend most of our time either swiping fish or swapping fish from each other’s bowl."

Brothers and sisters, we should be interested in catching fish that have not been caught before.

ILL.- Whenever I go bass fishing and catch like maybe 6 or 7 fish, some smart person always says to me, “How do you know you didn’t catch same fish 6 or 7 times?” And I say, “because I know they are not the same fish.” They don’t come back bite again that fast. They are not that eager to have a hook in their mouth.

Brothers and sisters, what good does it do to keep catching fish that have already been caught? I mean, if all we do is keep swiping fish from one another’s bowls (from other churches), what good are we really doing?

I believe that most of the time all we are doing in our churches is moving people around from church to church. WE ARE NOT WINNING NON-CHURCHED PEOPLE AND NON-BELIEVERS TO CHRIST!

We should not neglect one another in the church, but at the same time we must not, we cannot ignore those outside the church who need Christ!

II Pet. 3:9 “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” The Lord wants no one to perish. And It is our responsibility to reach the lost for Him.

PROP.- Let’s think about some various aspects of reaching out to others, to those who do not know Christ or have Him as their savior.

1- The motivation for reaching the lost

2- The method of reaching the lost

I. THE MOTIVATION FOR REACHING THE LOST

ILL.- Just two weeks ago I told about a 4 month-old girl who died (was smothered in Oshkosh, WI) when her drunken 27 year-old mother fell asleep on top of her while breast-feeding.

Lorinda Hawkins told police she fell asleep about 15 minutes after she started breast-feeding the baby because of her intoxication. When she woke up about an hour later, the baby was pale and wasn’t breathing.

The 27-year-old — who was on probation for child neglect — had consumed six double-shot alcoholic beverages at a bowling alley before going home.

It’s hard to believe that a mother could be so stupid and sinful as to do that to her baby. We cannot begin to imagine the horror of that death. But we do believe that child is with the Lord at this moment and suffers no more.

How do we know this? Do you remember the story of David in the Old Testament? Perhaps you recall that David committed adultery with Bathsheba and she became pregnant. In II Samuel 12 we are told that the child became ill and died.

Afterward David said in II Sam. 12:22-23 He answered, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ’Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and let the child live.’ But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me." I WILL GO TO HIM.

Brothers and sisters, we know that when any child dies in infancy they are with the Lord to be loved and cared for eternally.

But what about that 27 year-old mother, Lorinda Hawkins who caused the death of her child? What is going to happen to her? More than likely she’ll go to prison. She was charged with one count of child neglect causing a death. If convicted as a repeat felony offender, she could be sentenced to 29 years in prison and fined $100,000.