Introduction: I look forward to this time of the year for a couple of reasons. First of all, I really enjoy deer hunting, which my father and I were able to do for a little while yesterday. But something I enjoy as much as hunting is just being out in the woods with my father, which is something that we have done almost every Fall since I was 13 years old. My dad taught me a lot over the years about hunting. He taught me how to shoot and handle a gun safely. He taught me how to find the best spot to hunt, and how to clean the game we killed. He taught me how to find my stand before daylight and how to find my way back to the truck after dark. However, I’ll never forget the time I got lost in the woods. I was about 15 years old and was hunting with my father and brother in Land Between the Lakes. It was a woods that we had hunted for a couple of years and I thought I knew it like the back of my hand. I was hunting about half way down a ridge, and just up from a power-line. In order to get back to the truck I had to go up the hill, take a right onto an old logging road and then all I had to do was follow it back to the main highway. It was something that I had done many times before. I’m still not sure how but I managed to get turned around but I did. I realized my mistake when I ran into the power-line at the bottom of the hill. So I went back to my stand and started over. Well, undoubtedly I made the same mistake, because I ended up back down on the power-line again. This time I stopped and listened for the traffic up on the main highway, but couldn’t hear any. So I did the only thing I knew to do, I started yelling “DADDY.” And sure enough, Dad yelled back, and I was able to follow the sound of his voice out of the darkness.
In the Bible the word Darkness is often used to describe sin, or the world without Christ. I want us to look at two passages of Scripture out of the book of First John that compare and contrast Darkness and Light. Read 1 John 1:5-10, and 1 John 2:8-11.
This morning I want to share with you several Characteristics of someone who is Lost.
I. Lost people are very self-oriented.
They mistakenly believe the world revolves around them. They focus more on themselves than they do other people. They are more concerned about their needs and wants than they are about others. They are like the man that Jesus talked about in the 12th chapter of Luke. The man was a very wealthy farmer, and God had blessed him with a bumper crop of grain. In fact there was so much grain that his old barns weren’t big enough to store it. So the man decided to tear his old barns down and build bigger barns so he could store all of his grain. So that’s what he did, he didn’t bother sharing any with his neighbors or with the poor, he kept it all for himself. He was convinced that he had plenty of grain for years to come. In fact he thought he would be able to just kick back and relax. He said, “I’m going to eat, drink and be merry, but Jesus called him a fool. And sure enough the man died that very night and wasn’t able to enjoy any of the fruits of his labor.
Illustration: It was a cold winter’s night. The wind was howling and a bone chilling rain was falling when the telephone rang at the home of a doctor. The man that was calling said that his wife needed urgent medical attention. The doctor was very understanding and said, "Sir, I’ll be glad to come and see what I can do for your wife, but my car is being repaired, could you come and get me?" There was indignation on the other end of the phone the man angrily shouted, "What, in this weather?"
One of the characteristics of someone that is lost is that they are self-centered.
II. A second characteristic of a person that is lost is that they tend to be very self-sufficient.
In other words they think they can handle anything that life throws at them. They pride themselves on not needing anyone and that includes God.
Daniel Boone marked off the wilderness road that brought settlers into Kentucky and Tennessee through the Cumberland Gap. He often wandered over vast areas of forest, living off the land and dodging arrows. Someone once asked Daniel Boone if he had ever been lost in the wilderness. He quickly replied, “No, I’ve never been lost, but I was a mite confused once for about three or four days.” Perhaps it doesn’t matter that Daniel Boone’s pride would not allow him to admit that he’d ever been lost, or in need of guidance. But it matters a lot, however, if our pride keeps us from admitting that we are lost without Christ.
When I first started hunting with my dad, he would take me to my deer stand and come back and pick me up after dark. But the older I got the more self-sufficient I became. I got to the point that I thought I could do it on my own, and with the exception of that one night I did.
But the Bible clearly teaches that no matter how hard we try we cannot save ourselves, that we cannot find our way out of the darkness on our own. Paul understood this and in Colossians 1:13 he writes, “For he (talking about God) has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.”
E. Stanley Jones tells of a missionary who got lost in an African jungle. He eventually stumbled across a native hut and asked the native if he could lead him out of the jungle. The native said he could. "All right," said the missionary, "show me the way." The native said, "Walk." So they walked and hacked their way through unmarked jungle for more than an hour. The missionary got worried and said, "Are you quite sure this is the way? Where is the path?" The native responded by saying, "in this place there is no path. I am the path." Which is essentially what Jesus said in John 14:6 when He said, “"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Of course that doesn’t keep people from trying. Many people today are wandering around in a Spiritual jungle. They don’t know which way to go or which way to turn, but their pride keeps them from calling out to God for help. They, like Daniel Boone don’t want to admit that they
are lost, and need someone to lead them out of the darkness. Which leads me to the next point.
III. A third characteristic of someone that is lost is that they tend to be Helpless.
Lost people like to think of themselves as being self-sufficient, but in reality they are helpless. In fact Jesus often compared people to sheep.
In Matthew 9:36 it says, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
The picture I want you to see here is of a sheep that is being harassed by a wild animal like a coyote or wolf. Sheep are very timid in nature and are not very good at defending themselves against attack. Thus when Jesus saw the crowds and said they were “harassed and helpless” he was saying that like sheep, the crowds were being harassed, bullied or even oppressed by the forces of evil and that they, like the sheep were helpless, and powerless to do anything about it.
May I remind you that Peter describes the Devil as a “roaring lion” that is prowling around looking for someone to devour.”
Many people today are wandering around in the darkness “like sheep without a shepherd.” A good Shepherd protected his sheep. So if the sheep were without a shepherd, then one of the reasons Jesus had compassion on them was because they were vulnerable to Satan’s attacks.
A Good Shepherd not only protected his sheep against attacks but also provided food and water for them. He provided them with ‘green pastures’ and ‘still waters’ where they could receive the necessary nourishment that they needed to sustain life.
A good shepherd not only protects and provides for his sheep but He also guides them. He gets out in front of them and leads them where he wants them to go. In the 10th chapter of John Jesus says, “The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice, He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.”
Illustration: Lynn Anderson, in "They Smell Like Sheep," relates this story: “Several years ago in Palestine, Carolyn and I rode a tour bus through Israel’s countryside nearly mesmerized as the tour guide explained the scenery, the history, and the lifestyle. In his description, he included a heart-warming portrayal of the ancient shepherd/sheep relationship. He expounded on how the shepherd builds a relationship with his sheep—how he feeds them and gently cares for them. He pointed out that the shepherd doesn’t drive the sheep but leads them, and that the shepherd does not need to be harsh with them, because they hear his voice and follow. And so on… He then explained how on a previous tour things had backfired for him as he was giving this same speech about sheep and shepherds. In the midst of spinning his pastoral tale, he suddenly realized he had lost his audience. They were all staring out the bus window at a guy chasing a ‘herd’ of sheep. He was throwing rocks at them, whacking them with sticks, and siccing the sheep dog on them. The sheep-driving man in the field had torpedoed the guide’s enchanting narrative. The guide told us that he had been so agitated that he jumped off the bus, ran into the field, and accosted the man, ‘Do you understand what you have just done to me?’ he asked. ‘I was spinning a charming story about the gentle ways of shepherds, and here you are mistreating, hazing, and assaulting these sheep! What is going on?’ For a moment, a bewildered look froze on the face of the poor man’s face, then the light dawned and he blurted out, ‘Man. You’ve got me all wrong. I’m not a shepherd. I’m a butcher’” This poor unwitting fellow had just provided the tour guide and all of us with a perfect example of what a ‘good shepherd’ is not.” Not only that He gave us a good example of what Satan wants to do to us. Satan wants to mistreat and assault us and even butcher us if he can.
Jesus is the good Shepherd He wants to protect us from the ‘fiery darts of the devil. He wants to provide us with the spiritual nourishment that we need to grow in our faith. And He wants to lead us down the paths of righteousness, so that we can make a positive contribution to the Kingdom of God.
IV. A fourth characteristic of someone who is lost is that they are ‘spiritually blind.”
The people of Israel, especially the Pharisee’s are good examples of people that were spiritually blind. Even thought they saw the miracles that Jesus performed, and heard the lessons that He taught they did not believe. In the 12th chapter of John, John refers to them by saying, “Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in Him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: ‘Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD BEEN REVEALED?” For this reason they could not believe, because as Isaiah says elsewhere: “He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn and I would heal them.”
Satan had filled the Pharisee’s with Pride and self-righteousness to the point that they could not see the truth even though it was staring them right in the face.
For years the military has been looking for ways to use laser beams in battle. In the war in Iraq we saw the pinpoint accuracy of laser guided smart bombs. But a company in China has reportedly developed a weapon that uses laser beams to damage the eyes of enemies. The weapon is called the ZM-87 portable laser ‘disturber.’ According to the Chicago Tribune, ‘one of its major applications’ is ‘to injure or dizzy’ the eyes of an enemy combatant with high-power laser pulses, ‘especially anybody who is sighting and firing…(by means of ) an optical instrument, so as to cause him to lose combat ability or result in suppression of his observation and sighting operation.” The ZM –87 is said to be effective up to a range of two miles. Blinding a soldier essentially renders him worthless in battle. Satan knows this, and so he too has weapons to blind the eyes of unbelievers.
2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.”
And During his testimony before King Agrippa, the Apostle Paul told him that Jesus had sent him as an Apostle to the Gentiles to “open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they might receive forgiveness of their sins.”
Conclusion: People who are living their lives without Christ are Lost. They are very self-centered and self-sufficient. But they are also helpless and blind.
What about you ARE YOU LOST? I have to admit it was kind of a frightening experience to be lost in the woods at night. Every tree and every path I came across looked the same. I was glad I wasn’t out there by myself. I was glad my Father was there to help me find my way out of the darkness.
You know what, our Heavenly Father is willing to do the same thing. Some of you here this morning have been wandering around in the darkness for far too long. You’ve been trying your best to find your way out, but it seems like the harder you try the deeper into the wilderness you go. All you have to do is cry out to him for help, and God will guide you safely out of the darkness just as my father guided me out of that woods so many years ago.
God is speaking to some of you here this morning. He wants to guide you out of the darkness and into the light. He loves you and wants what is best for you, but He will not force you to follow Him. You have to be willing to put your faith and trust in Him just as I had to trust my father to guide me safely out of the woods. I knew dad loved me and would not lead me down the wrong path. As much as my father loves me, my Heavenly Father loves me even more. Some 32-33 years ago I called out to God, and asked Him to lead me out of the darkness and into the light, which is exactly what He did. He’ll do the same thing for you today, why don’t you stop trying to do it on your own and put your faith and trust in the Lord. He’s waiting with open arms ready to welcome you into the light and into the family of God.
2nd Stanza, “Receive Him and all of your darkness will end, within your heart He’ll abide
