Never Give Up On The Lost

The sinners flock to Jesus, not because He preaches a compromising message but for the way they were treated – Jesus loves them.

• The first thing needed for reaching the lost is compassion.

• We need to show more compassion to those we need to bring to Christ.

• Love makes the different. It separates Jesus from the teachers of the Law.

The lost matters to God – there is MORE joy over one sinner coming home than the 99 already at home.

• God is in a relentless pursuit of lost people.

• Here we must learn the heart of God. He wants to save one lost sheep at any cost.

• God sent his one and only Son Jesus to the cross as a ransom sacrifice for our sins. God sacrificed everything to save his lost sheep.

• God’s care for one person is absolute. He will make a detour to talk to a Samaritan woman at a well; He will change His itinerary and stay over at Zacchaeus’ house.

The second thing needed for reaching the lost is persistent effort.

• It requires sacrifice. It requires commitment.

Read Luke 15:4, 8

The lamb is lost, and so is the coin.

• Both the shepherd and the woman hunt and rummage around until they find what’s missing. They are persistent!

• One lost lamb is a little thing to find in so vast a wilderness. One lost coin is a tiny thing to find in the whole house.

• But that didn’t stop them.

The son has gone far from home, with the inheritance.

• There is nothing left to draw the son back home.

• The father receive no letter, no phone calls, no news of his lost son

• But there is no letting up of hope – we see the father watching, longing, and hoping for his return. Who knows how long he has waited…

They all showed a common attitude towards the lost – don’t give up!

• It’s a “never give-up” attitude – the hope is always there for the lost to be found.

• Tremendous time and effort are spent, but it’s worth it.

• Jesus’ life purpose statement is “to seek and save what was lost.” (Luke 9:10)

In order words, we cannot be PASSIVE, if we really want to find the lost.

• It cannot be a “wait and see” thing.

• They won’t come to us, if we do not go for them.

• Our lack of desire to start the search, or our failure to act, will mean they will remain lost.

Someone puts it this way:

In essence, we’ve condemned the lost before they’ve been given a chance at survival.

• By our passive indifference, we cause them to remain in their ‘condemned’ state.

See the account in Acts 10 – Cornelius’ house.

• Peter was called to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles.

• God tells him in a vision that he “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” (10:15)

• See Acts 10:28. It wasn’t easy. Peter obeyed, went and preached.

• As he was preaching, the Holy Spirit falls on those who hear the Word (10:44).

You see something here – God needs a carrier.

• They need to know Jesus, only then can the Holy Spirit works in their lives.

• One man did what he was called to do – and a whole crowd was saved.

God is looking for carriers – who are willing to make the connection (with lost people) and then He will do the rest.

• Which mean, we cannot remain in a passive mode.

• We need to connect with the lost in some way.

I need to say something here – we must not be discouraged by lack of results.

• We tend to look at results as the number of people coming to accept Christ.

• If I cannot convert anyone – if it’s the Holy Spirit that does that - then it is obvious that God is not looking at results but the efforts I put in.

• The question, “How many people have you converted?” is not correct. The right question is, “How much efforts have I put in, to reach the lost?”

We are just one ring in a long chain of events that will challenge the lost person to consider Christ.

• We’re just one ring, but we are critical! The chain is as strong as its weakest link.

• Every act of kindness and love is a ring built into the chain.

• One day, may be at a crusade or some outreach event, the person will come to accept Christ – not solely because of a 30-min sermon he just heard, but for the many encounters he had with Christians over the years.