I Once Was Lost

We can’t understand what it’s like to be lost and then remain indifferent to people who are. And God help us if we reach a point where we say we don’t understand what it’s like to be lost! Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost.

(III. For Those Who are Lost - you need to know that the Father is waiting for your return)

Joke – A man in a suit and a nice car pulled up to a backwoods shack where a guy was sitting out on the porch sucking a piece of straw. Obviously in a hurried panic, he rolls down his window: "Say, can you tell me which way it is to Hicksville?" "Nope." "Well, do you know if this road goes to US 42?" “Nope.” "Well, do you know if I’m in Dekalb county?" ”Nope.” "You don’t know much do you?" "Nope, but I ain’t lost!"

I realize today that there may be a few people here who for the first time thinking about themselves being "lost." And we’ve been talking about you. There’s something you need to know today. You need to know that in John 10, Jesus said, "I am the good Shepherd." You need to know that the Father is waiting for your return.

Look again in the parable of the lost son. Look again at a father whose son has shamed and abandoned him and then hit hard times. Look again at what the Father does when His son returns: He welcomes him with open arms and open home and love that never once failed while he was gone.

That’s what you need to realize - that there’s a Father waiting for you with open arms -- a Savior Who loves you and Who would rather Himself die than to have heaven be without you. And though the Church He loves sometimes fails to reach out to you as it ought to, He has never failed, and He is reaching out to you right now in the same way He always has, only now the plea is more urgent than it ever was before, because the time is shorter now than it ever was before, and the time when it will be too late is closer now than it ever was before.

Conclusion: Corrie ten Boom, Amazing Love - If I straighten the pictures on the walls of your home, I am committing no sin, am I? But suppose that your house were afire, and I still went calmly about straightening pictures, what would you say? Would you think me merely stupid or very wicked?

We’re not to straighten pictures today. We’re to yell that the house is on fire!

We’re here to tell you, “I once was lost. I know it’s a hard place to be. But I’ve been found, and today you can be found too!”