I Once Was Lost

I’d never try to get someone to put on a show just because they’re told to, but I make no apology for rejoicing when someone accepts Jesus. That’s following the example of the Father.

The Church’s concern for the lost flows from the Father’s concern for the lost, so we need first to understand the Father is concerned for a lost world

There’s a message for another group of people here...

II. For Those Who are Indifferent - you need to remember what it’s like to be lost

Most of us don’t openly complain about the lost, but there’s another harmful attitude Jesus addresses in Lk 15.

Ill - Remember Joseph. In prison, he interpreted the dreams of the Pharaoh’s chief cupbearer and chief baker. 3 days later, the chief cupbearer was restored to his job. Joseph remained in prison, and the chief cupbearer forgot about him (Gen 40:23). He was back fat and happy, and it was 2 full years before he even remembered the guy who had given him hope in prison. Then Pharaoh had a dream, and the cupbearer said, "Today I am reminded of my shortcomings." Some of us are there today. We’ve been freed, we’re back fat and happy, we’ve become indifferent concerning the others back in prison where we once were, and we need to be reminded of our shortcomings.

Ill - A Quiz: What’s 750,000 miles long, reaches around the earth 30 times, and grows 20 miles longer each day? Answer: The line of people who are without Christ.

I’m here to burden you today! -- To increase the burden for lost people among the people of our congregation. "I came here to unload my burden, not get burdened!" Great! Unload your worldly burden and pick up the right one, the light one that Jesus says we’re supposed to take!

Quote - James Kennedy - "One of the saddest statistics of our day is that 95% of all church members have never led anyone to Christ."

-Ill - Do some number crunching here: About 8 out of 10 people who become a part of the church do so because of a personal invitation by a member of the church. That means you could potentially multiply those 8 by 95%. So if every Christian became actively involved in just bringing people to Christ, the number of people accepting Jesus at VHCC would jump by 15X! 15 people would change to 225. We’d have to start a building program right away!

Yet, indifference is a much more comfortable and common course. What can we do to break free of it? What will change our hearts to actually care about the lost? I think Jesus would have us remember what it’s like to be lost.

The Bible helps us do that each time it describes us like sheep.

Mt 9:36 - Jesus going through towns and villages - has compassion on the crowds because they’re harassed (bullied, oppressed, a mangled corpse) and helpless (thrown down, unable to escape), like sheep w/o a shepherd.

Num 27, Moses prayed that the Lord would provide a leader for Israel. Why? So the people wouldn’t be like sheep w/o a shepherd.

Ill - It’s not a good picture. Sheep, lost out in the wild, are goners. They aren’t very bright. They have no natural defenses. They can’t even run real fast. On their own they don’t do well at finding adequate food and water. Every time the word lost is used to describe a sheep, it’s a word in the original that carries a powerful sense - in fact it’s a word for absolute destruction, death, ruin. That’s what it means to be lost.