He Came To Seek And Save The Lost
What Jesus Came To Do – part one
In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn't make. Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. God sent John the Baptist to tell everyone about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. John himself was not the light; he was only a witness to the light. The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was going to come into the world. But although the world was made through him, the world didn't recognize him when he came. Even in his own land and among his own people, he was not accepted. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan--this rebirth comes from God. So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father.
2,000 years ago the Word became human and lived on earth. THINK – about that… 2,000 ago years God, in the person of the Son – lived among us was here…in the flesh…. HEY – if you heard that Jesus was speaking on the hillside outside of Galilee would you have gone to listen?
QUESTION – why did Jesus come? Why was he here? What did he hope to accomplish? What things did he want to teach us? AND - how did he want human life to different, after he was gone?
TODAY – we begin a brand new series called, “What Jesus Came To Do…” AND – some of the topics that we will be discussing in the coming weeks are - Jesus came; to replace rules with relationships; to be our King, to set us free, to tell us the truth, to open our eyes, to change our lives AND – as the heading for your outline reads – to seek and save the lost…
Luke records these words of Jesus – in chapter 19 of his gospel;
“…the Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost.” (19;10)
THIS morning what I want to do or at least attempt to do – as we take a look at Luke chapter 15 is to reveal the heart of the Father in regards to lost people; How does God feel about the lost – what is his desire for them (Luke 15 contains the parable of the lost; sheep, coin & son).
Prayer…
OKAY – raise your hand if you have ever played the game hide & seek…
Now hide and seek is a very simple game. One person seeks and everybody else runs off and hides. And, if you are playing hide and seek, the fun part is to be one of the hiders. BECAUSE - If you are one of the hiders, you get to be in control. You get to decide where you are going to go. You get to keep your eyes open. You get to call the shots.
YOU SEE - the hard job in hide and seek is to be the one who has to seek. I mean – after you get this job you have to let everyone run away from you – AND THEN, you have to keep looking for people who are trying to evade him, people who are laughing at your inability to find them (which usually makes them easier to find them). That’s why nobody wants that job, because if you take it, everybody is going to run from you.
AND – have you noticed that in the game of hide and seek, that the one who gets stuck with the job of seeking doesn’t even get much of a title. I MEAN - in other games you at least get an exalted job description. TAKE – basketball for instance, you have a center and he is the one around whom the action flows. Then there is a forward, and at least that has a progressive kind of sound to it. The guard is somebody who is protecting something that matters. But in hide and seek, it is not that way.
QUESTION – what do you call the one who seeks in hide and seek? Anybody know? "It, they are called it.." Not "Commander It," not "C.E.I. - Chief Executive It," not “Mr. it” not even "Cousin It" (for old Adams Family fans), just plain old "It." And nobody wants to be "It." In fact, at the start of the game, what does everybody say? "Not 'It.'
ALRIGHT – another question, what happens at the end of the game, if people have hidden themselves too well, what happens if everyone has successfully eluded "It" through the entire game? (or if it gets called home for dinner?) . WELL - "It" will yell a few words that end the game.
"It" cups its hands and opens its mouth and shouts as loud as it can, words that penetrate the entire neighborhood. "It" ends the game by saying 4 words, "Ollie, Ollie, Oxen free."
QUESTION - did you ever wonder where that phrase comes from? WELL - it is a Latin phrase that means, "Liberate the oxen." No, I’m just kidding – I really don’t have any idea what it means or where it came from.
BUT – whatever ‘ollie ollie oxen free’ means – in hide & seek – it means you can come home now. It is safe to come home. No one will chase you. No one will tag you. You won't have to suffer any penalties – YOU won’t have to be “it.” YOU SEE - ollie ollie oxen free, is the cry of grace to people who are hiding, that it is now safe and it is now time, to come home.
WELL – in Luke 15 Jesus is telling a kind of hide & seek story…. A story where there is someone who is seeking and someone who is lost or hiding. AND – do you what the really Amazing thing is, that in this all important game of hide and seek – God has chosen to be ‘it.’
A few years back there was a bumper sticker campaign that was trying to spread the word about faith, that was trying to spread the word - about God and the possibility of knowing him. AND – all over the place you’d see bumper stickers and bill boards with these 3 words on them, "I found it."
IT was a way of striking up a conversation… What did you find? WELL – I found faith, I found truth, I found God… BUT LISTEN – from a theological perspective this is actually backwards. BECAUSE – what the bible teaches is NOT, that I found it – BUT that it found me…
LISTEN - there is a reason why Jesus tells the story this way. YOU SEE - very often people who are on spiritual journeys, think of themselves as "seekers" or as "searchers." Why? BECAUSE – they searching for truth, they are and searching for God. And that’s an awesome thing. They ask questions, read books, they go to classes and they attend church in their search for the truth… AND LISTEN - it really is a good thing to search. In fact, the Bible says in Jeremiah 29:13, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” YES - we are searchers.
BUT - that is not the whole story about us, is it friends? YOU SEE - the truth about us is, that we are not just searchers, we are also hiders. LISTEN – it is important for you and I to come face-to-face with our tendency to get lost – to hide from God.
QUESTION - who hides from God?
The man whose priorities are so messed up that his kids don't even know him and he can't remember the last time that he prayed or thought seriously about God. NOW - he knows that there are things that he should be getting around to, and he says, "I'll do it some day when there is time, when things settle down…." He’s hiding.
The woman who is so filled with anger… SHE IS – angry at her mother, at her husband, children AND she’s even angry at God… Because God hasn't given her the kind of husband or children that she wants & deserves. BUT - it is kind of a frozen anger. Not many people see it. BUT - every once in a while it comes to the surface and it frightens her. She is hiding from God.
The person who comes to church week after week. And they’re friendly, they’re nice, they’re respectable. But there is a problem. They are involved in some kind of a sexual behavior or addiction that they cannot control anymore. And it is eating them up with guilt and shame and they want to stop. HOWVER – they don't want to stop it enough to get help for it, or to confess it. They are hiding.
UNDERSTAND - everybody in this room knows what it is to hide from God. BECAUSE – everyone of us has messed up in our lives (at some time or another). AND – perhaps for some this morning, the mistakes, the sin, the fallenness, the lostness, is fresh – is still on the front burner. I MEAN – you are fully aware of an act of in, of betrayal or of cheating or of rage that has just recently damaged you or somebody around you.
AND - for other people here, the hiddenness tends to recede. And you are not even aware of it a lot of times. But the truth about all of us is, we have all hidden from God. We have all been involved in dishonesty, in greed, in arrogance, in laziness or some other sin – acts that have hurt ourselves or hurt other people. “All of us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God's paths to follow our own.” (Is 53:6)
FRIENDS – hide and seek is a game that people have been playing with God since the garden. YOU REMEMBER – after the fall, after they ate the forbidden fruit – Adam & Eve hid from God in bushes… “I can’t believe we did that, Oh no I hear God coming.. quick let’s hide.. I hope he can’t see us…’
QUESTION – have you ever wondered how God feels about you when you are lost? When you are hiding? When you have strayed away? When you left God’s path to follow your own?
WHEN – God sees lost people – what does he see, how does he feel? How does he feel about them? What is His desire for them?
OKAY LET’S TURN – in your bible to Luke chapter 15, beginning with the first verse…
“Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."
QUESTION – what are the 2 groups of people gathered around Jesus at this time? Sinners and tax collectors and Pharisees and teachers of the law…
Why were the sinners & tax collectors gathered around Jesus? They wanted to hear him… They wanted to hear the words of life from the master teacher…
Why were the religious leaders ticked off? BECAUSE - Jesus wasn’t hanging out with them. YOU SEE – in their minds, if Jesus really were the Son of God he would have treated those sinners like outcasts that they were… AND – talked religious stuff with them…
What did this guys misunderstand about both God and His one and only Son? That lost people; regardless of race, education, color, looks, economic or social standing mattered to God – which brings us to the first point in our outline…
Lost People Matter To God…
Then Jesus told them this parable: "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
OKAY – what we have here is a lost sheep… AND – let me ask you, what do you think the odds are that this sheep will make it back home on his own? NOT – too good. And do you know why? BECAUSE – a sheep is (now let me try to find a way to say this delicately, a sheep is seriously lacking in the gray matter)…
HEY – have you noticed that most animals that have any high IQ at all ultimately get some kind of a television series of their own or a movie in our society.
For example, dolphins--very intelligent creature. Anybody here remember the name of a dolphin that had his own television series? Flipper.
How about dogs…Lassie, Rin-Tin-Tin, Beethoven
There are cats like Garfield.
Famous horses like: Black Beauty, Mr Ed
Even spiders get their own story: Charlotte's Web.
Even Pigs: Anybody here ever watch a show called "Green Acres?" Remember the pig's name? Arnold Ziffel. Arnold Ziffel, whose tail could actually forecast the weather.
BUT – can anybody here come up with the name of a great sheep? Lambchop. I hate to say this, friends, but Lambchop was actually a puppet. Lambchop was not a legitimate sheep. It was Sherri Lewis' hand talking the whole time. I hate to burst your bubble, but get a life, friends. Lambchop is not a sheep.
One writer has this to say about sheep, "Sheep are notorious creatures of habit. Left to themselves, they will follow the same trail until it turns into ruts, graze the same hills until they become desert wastes, pollute the ground until it is corrupt with disease and parasites."
BOTTOMLINE – sheep are just not bright animals. AND sheep are not proactive. They are followers. HERE is what happens there is a whole flock of sheep traveling, and one of them goes over the side of a cliff. Do you know what happens to the whole rest of the flock? They all will just follow right over the cliff--every one of them.
NOW - you would think that a least one of them, would pause for a moment and say to himself, “you know, Molly went over the cliff and she never returned…. I think I’ll stop and reflect on this truth for a few moments before I go any further. But no, it never happens that way. The sheep just says to himself, "Well, okay. I'll give it a try. Doesn't sound like a 'baaaad' idea to me."
QUESTION – what is the only hope this lost sheep has? That His Shepherd will search for him and find him…(that’s it – that’s the only hope – and it is our only hope as well) AND – why would a shepherd do this? BECAUSE – the lost sheep matters to him!
QUESTION - have you ever felt insignificant, like you didn't matter, like you don't count? Do you ever feel alone in a crowd, like no one really cares for you or about you? Have you ever tried really hard to matter to someone, to be valuable in their eyes, Have you ever wanted someone to really care about you -- but despite your best efforts they wouldn't.
LISTEN - God cares about you.... Yes, He cares about even one. Notice that God didn't say, "well I still have 99, so losing just one doesn't really matter, it's not that big of a deal...." FRIENDS – let this truth sink down deep and warm your heart…. You (warts & all), YOU matter to God – you matter to the father. You really do.... [if God has a wallet your picture would be in it – if he had a refrigerator your face would be all over it – God ii crazy about you]
THIS - is what Jesus is trying to get us to understand.... And, isn't that why Jesus came to the earth -- because we matter to God. “I matter to God…”
LOST PEOPLE – matter to God; I love how Bill Hybels puts it; “you will never locked eyes with anyone who does not matter to God… Look around this room – when you leave and go out to eat or to the mall…
LISTEN - our shepherd loves his sheep -- He cares for them.
He wants them to lie down in green pastures
He wants to lead them beside quiet waters
He wants to restore their souls.
He wants to guide them in paths of righteousness
He wants to lead them through the dark valleys of life
He wants to protect and comfort them
He wants to overflow their cup
He wants goodness & love – to follow them all of their lives
But He can't do that if we like sheep have wandered away and have strayed from HIS PRESENCE. Have you wondered away? Are you lost?
Now the sheep in Jesus' story has only one thing going for it. YOU SEE – this sheep knows that it is lost. The sheep does not say to the shepherd, "I'm not in such bad shape. There are other sheep far worse off than me." NO - the sheep doesn't say that. The sheep is not in denial. The sheep's eyes are open, and it knows it is lost. It knows it needs to be saved.
AND - it is interesting to look at what the shepherd does not say. The shepherd does not come to the sheep and say the things that I would be tempted to say--"You stupid sheep. You have only yourself to blame. What were you thinking of, wandering off like this? Why couldn't you be more careful? Didn't you know the path was narrow, and the cliff was steep and the countryside was filled with wolves? Didn't you know you would be in for trouble? Don't come bleating to me now that you have gotten lost."
NO - the shepherd doesn't say these things. The shepherd just opens his arms and gathers the sheep around him and goes home…. No condemnation, no lecture, just a shepherd so filled with compassion towards the sheep that when he finds it, his heart melts. And what does he do he throws a party
QUESTION – what do you think is going through the minds of the sinners and tax collectors as they heard this? “No way Jesus – I can’t matter that much to the father… Not me. “ AND Jesus would say – “Oh yes you do – in fact – the Father has had party plates, cups, napkins and a banner with your name on it since the day he carefully knits you in your mothers mom – waiting to stop all the activity of heaven and throw a party for you on the day you come home…” THEN - Jesus would look at them and say – “Ollie Ollie oxen free - you can come out of hiding it is safe to come home.”
YOU – matter to God… The next point in your outline is;
Lost People Are Valuable To God
"Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.' In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
Now this was more than just a coin; it was kind of like a wedding dowry. In that day there were 10 coins a married woman would wear around her headdress. SO YOU SEE – that this wasn't just any coin— losing it would be like losing the diamond in your wedding ring.
AND – what did she do, she light the lamp, swept the house and searched carefully until she found it! QUESTION – why did she search for it so intently BECAUSE the coin was valuable to her.
NOW – how can a lost coin be valuable? I mean what can you buy with a lost coin? Try going
into Wal Mart and buying something with a lost coin. “Yes, I’ll take 2 of those over there.” AND – the salesman asks will this be credit or debit – and you say, “neither, I will be making my purchases today with a lost coin?” SO – how would that fly?
QUESTION – where is the value in a lost coin? LISTEN – the value of the coin is NOT determined by it’s lost condition but by what it can do when it is found. YOU SEE – the woman knew that when she found that coin, when that coin was once again in her possession that she would have something valuable in her hands.
AND – just like that lost coin, sometimes we may not feel very valuable. We may look at ourselves and our life and say, “no, sure can’t buy much with this… BUT UNDERSTAND – in our lost state we are not the best judge of our value. LISTEN – right now God is looking at everyone in this room, even you – and when he looks at you he sees something of extreme value. YOU SEE – God knows that once he has you in his possession – one you really surrender to Him - that He will be holding something valuable in His hands. UNDERSTAND – our value is not determined by what we are when we are away from god – BUT by what we will become when we are with Him… LISTEN – human eyes are a poor judge of value…even our own.
AFTER ALL – how valuable did Moses look after killing an Egyptian, fleeing into the desert – and hiding out for 40 years? I MEAN - how many offers do you think came his way to lead a nation’s army? BUT – God saw Moses and said he will be the deliverer of my people.
AND HOW ABOUT DAVID – even his own father didn’t think that he could possibly be a king. AND – when the prophet Samuel came to look at Jesse’s sons – Jesse didn’t even bother to call David – Jesse thought, ‘surely David would never wear a crown…’ BUT – when others saw a shepherd boy – God saw a king… AND – the giant feel and nations trembled when they stood in his way.
CHECKOUT – what the Word says in 1 Samuel 16:7;
But the LORD told him, "Samuel, don't think Eliab is the one just because he's tall and handsome. He isn't the one I've chosen. People judge others by what they look like, but I judge people by what is in their hearts."
God doesn’t care what you look like – if you have short hair, long hair, straight hair, gray hair, curly hair or no hair – He does not care if you are tall or short – fat or skinny – YOU SEE – God looks much deeper then that…
QUESTION – what do you think God sees, when he looks at you? What do you think he sees at this very moment? What did Jesus see as he looked into the eyes of the sinners and tax collectors?
LISTEN – UNDERSTAND THIS – YOU are valuable to God… The Bible says you are!
“I am valuable to God” “You are valuable to God”
QUESTION – would you give all the money in your bank account for this pen? Why not? It’s not worth that price, it isn’t THAT valuable.. YOU SEE – the value of something is determined by the price that people are willing to pay for it….
FRIENDS – I don’t think you have any idea of how valuable you are to God… CHECKOUT these words in 1 Peter 1:18-20; maybe it will begin to help you see…
For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him for this purpose long before the world began, but now in these final days, he was sent to the earth for all to see. And he did this for you.
FRIENDS – could you get anymore valuable then that? And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God…
LISTEN – you are valuable – you are priceless – you are worth the precious lifeblood of Christ…. AND – don’t let anyone or anything tell you, OR make you feel, otherwise… NOT YOUR; parents, wife, husband, parents, children, boss, friends, enemies or even your past…
We are valuable and God will light the lamp and sweep the floor – he will search and pursue until us he finds us…
FRIENDS – 2,000 years ago Jesus Christ, cried from that blood stained cross, “Ollie-Ollie oxen free!” You can all come out now – it’s safe – and there is no penalty – I paid it for you…
Lost people matter to God
Lost people are valuable to God
AND – the third point in your outline IS;
God Wants Lost People To Come Home.
Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
The father had everything he could for his Son, but it wasn’t enough. AND – one day the son comes to his father (and remember we are the Son and the father is God). One day the son comes to his father and says, “Dad, I don’t want to be here anymore, I don’t want to live in this house any longer… AS a matter of fact, I’m sick of living here – I gotta get out of here. AND – I don’t want to wait for my inheritance either. I want you to give it to me – I want what’s mine and I want it now.
NOW – the father could have refused his son’s request and made him stay, BUT – he knew it wouldn’t really solve anything.
AND – not long after this the son gathered up all he had and left home. AND – not only did he leave home – he left the country – he went as far away as he possibly could from His father’s from house/presence. QUESTION – how do you think the father felt as he watched his son turn his back and walk away down that dirt road?
AND – in that far off country, the son forgot all about his father… He didn’t call, he didn’t write, he didn’t come home for the holidays – he didn’t even send an e-mail… He just stayed in that far off land….
AND – this guy really lived it up – I MEAN – non stop partying it was like FT Lauderdale Spring Break time… drinking, drugs, woman…. He was in 5th gear with the top down… BUT – then something happened, the money ran out…. The well went dry and all of his so called friends – scattered like rats on sinking ship…. (ever had friends like that )
AND – Jesus tells us that this guy hit rock bottom… REMEMBER – he is a Jew, and Jews and pigs were not on speaking terms…
AND – what kind of job does this guy wind up getting? Feeding pigs…
AND – what starts looking good to him? Pig food….
Now I am all for a hunk of bacon or a pork chop – but muddy smelly pig food…(I think I’ll pass)
ONE MORNING – as this guy was staring at and lusting over a pig pod – I MEAN – he was about to take on the biggest hog in the trough – the light bulb came on – and he came to his senses… “Hey, wait a minute, I don’t have to live like this… I don’t have to be here… I don’t have to sit with the pigs and starve to death… I’m going home… Yeah – that’s what I’ll do – at my fathers house there is food to spare…”
OKAY – here’s what I’ll do – I tell my father – Father I have sinned against heaven and against you and I am no longer worthy to be called your son – but could you let me be one of your servants..”
NOW – I have a question for the prodigals out there. WHAT – is it going to take for the light bulb to come on in your life? What is going to have to happen in your life, before you come to your senses? How far do you intend on going from your fathers house? When will you figure out that if they are keeping you away from your father, they are not really your friends. When will you get it – and figure out that you don’t live or feel this way – and that there is no better place to be then your fathers house!
PRODIGALS – don’t you understand that it is when you are away from God that the famines come, the friends run out on you, and pig slob starts to look good…. LISTEN – this is no way for a child of God to live… settling for pig scraps when you could be feasting at the king’s table..
NOW – the son in that pig sty learned something that many people never learn – that all sin is against God.. So – don’t ever allow yourself to say or belief – ‘hey it’s my life, I ain’t hurting anybody…” WAKE UP – that’s not true you are hurting God – It matters to him – it offends him (and we don’t want to do that)
QUESTION – how do we know that the son really repented – he got out of the pig sty… LISTEN – that is what repentance does… it gets out of the pig sty… it makes a change.. UNDERSTAND – you can’t be a Christian and stay in the pig pen….
When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' So he
got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. "The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' "But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.
Son, rehearing speech,
father sitting on porch every day,
looks like my son, runs… something fathers in that culture never did..
only time we see God in a hurry
forget that servant stuff
robe – mark of honor
ring – pledge of love & sign of authority
sandals – a sign of son ship
fatten calf – a sign that it’s party time
I want to conclude with a story about a woman in Korea right after the Korean War took place. This woman had gotten pregnant by an American soldier. The soldier went back to the United States and she never saw him again. She gave birth to a little girl. But this little girl was very different than the other little girls. Her hair was light colored and curly so she stood out. In that particular culture that meant that child and the mother would be severely rejected by society.
In fact some mothers in Korea who gave birth to children from American fathers actually killed their babies because they couldn’t stand the humiliation, the rejection, the heartache of the way they were treated by other people.
This woman kept her baby and she tried her best to raise this child for seven years she. But the rejection and the humiliation and the taunting and the harassment that she experienced was too much for her. So she did something nobody here could imagine anybody doing. She abandoned that seven-year-old girl to the streets. That little girl wasn’t alone though, because there were packs of little children living on the streets. They would live under bridges and in abandoned buildings and they would go outside of town and live in caves. And they would just eat whatever they could find. They would find stuff on the street – bugs and locusts and roots and things like this.
This little girl was ruthlessly taunted by everybody she would encounter. They would call her the ugliest word in the Korean language. The word that means “Alien devil”. After a while this little girl began to draw conclusions about herself. This is what she would say years later, “When you hear what you are as a little child day after day after day you begin to believe that about yourself. I believed that anyone could do whatever they wanted to me physically because I wasn’t a person. I was inhuman. I was dirty. I was unclean. I had no name. I had no identity. I had no family. I had no future. And I hated myself.”
For two years she lived on the streets. Finally there was a new orphanage that opened up. It had very little money. It was a very primitive kind of place but at least it was safe and it was a place she could go and not be assaulted and attacked and harassed. So they took her into the orphanage. Pretty soon word came that a couple from America was going to come to that orphanage and they were going to adopt a little baby boy. The word went out among all the orphans in the orphanage. This was the best news of all. Some little boy among them was going to have a fresh start, a new chance, a future. Somebody was going to escape from this orphanage. So this little girl, who was now nine years old and who was the oldest child in the orphanage, began to bathe the little boys and clean them up and get them all ready wondering who was it that this American couple was going to choose and adopt and take back to America.
The next week this American man and his wife came. This is what the girl recalled: “It was like Goliath had come back to life. I saw that man with his huge hands lift up each baby and I knew he loved every one of them as if they were his own. I saw tears running down his face and I knew if they could they would have taken the whole lot. Then he saw me out of the corner of his eye. I was nine years old but I didn’t even weigh thirty pounds. I was a scrawny thing. I had worms in my body, lice in my hair, boils all over me and I was full of scars. I wasn’t a pretty sight. But the man came over to me and he rattled off something in English and I looked up at him. And then he took this huge hand of his and he laid it on my face. What was he saying? He was saying, ‘I want this child. This is the child who I want’.”
Then an incredible thing happened with that little nine-year-old Korean girl. An amazing thing happened at that moment. As that man was reaching out to her, “The hand on my face felt so good and inside I said, ‘Keep that up, don’t let your hand go.’ But nobody had ever showed that kind of affection to me before and I didn’t know how to respond.” She said, “I yanked his hand off my face and I looked up at him and I spit at him and then I ran away.”
Can you imagine that? Here’s her window of opportunity. Here’s her future. Here’s hope and what does she do? How does she respond? She spits at him and she runs away.
The next day they came back to the orphanage. And because they understood what was behind that little girl’s hurt and they understood the trauma she had gone through and all these things she had suffered, they understood all that and in spite of her initial rejection of them, they looked at all the children in the orphanage and they went back to that little girl, the one who spit in their eye, and they said, “We still want this child.” And they adopted her. They cleaned her up and they got her the medical attention that she needed. They raised that child like she was their own. She’s married today and she’s a follower of Jesus Christ…
