Ignorance is something we see in all areas of life.
Illus: When Vice President Al Gore was seeking to be president, he was running against President George W. Bush, who is known as a man of FAITH. God is a big part of his life. Gore knew that the polls indicated that the American people liked that about George W. Bush. So to counteract him, Vice President Al Gore gave a big speech about how his faith is "important" to him. In this attempt to convince the American people that we should consider him for President, he announced that his favorite Bible verse was John 16:3. His writers, in preparing for the speech, meant to say it was John 3:16, but they knew so little about the Bible, they put John 16:3, which says, “And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.”
Ignorance is prevalent in all areas of life.
We can laugh about all the ignorance out there in the world, but there is also a lot of ignorance when it comes to the church. When we read God’s Word today, we see that the church seems totally ignorant of God’s purpose for the church.
LOST people are dying and going to Hell in great numbers, and churches across this nation are making no effort to reach them.
• Stirring worship music won’t attract them because worship isn’t even on their radar screen
• More comfortable pews cannot compete with the easy chairs or the beds that already serve the lost person so well
• Church events cannot effectively compete with what the world has to offer
The only thing the Church can provide that no one else has is a life-changing, on-going relationship with Jesus Christ.
If the modern church continues on this path of SPIRITUAL IGNORANCE, focusing on buildings, programs and activities, we will continue to fail the Lord in the mission He gave us! Only God knows how many lost people are in Hell today because God’s church has been derailed.
Do you realize how difficult it is to get professing Christians to witness to their family and friends?
Illus: Norman Cates tells the story of a guy who prayed every morning, "Lord, if you want me to tell someone about you today, please give me a sign to show me who it is."
One day he found himself alone on a bus. At the next stop a big, burly man got on the bus and sat right next to our praying friend. The timid Christian anxiously waited for his stop so he could exit the bus. But before long, the big guy sobbed and began to weep. The big guy’s crying got louder and louder, and then at the height of his tears he shouted out,
• “I feel so empty inside,
• I need something to give me peace,
• I need to be saved, and I need someone to show me how to get to the Lord.
• Won’t somebody tell me how to be saved?”
• He then turns to the Christian and pleaded with him, "Please can you tell me about Jesus, can you show me how to be saved?"
With that, the Christian immediately bowed his head and prayed, "Lord, is this a sign?"
We can lower the bar and call our big buildings, big budgets and big programs proof of our success, but we can have all these things and still be a miserable failure in God’s sight. These things are important, no doubt about it, but when it comes to the church, that is not WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT!
Illus: There is an old saying, “The world will not care how much we KNOW until they know how much we CARE!”
The Lord has laid on my heart how the church should deal with the lost. We see that -
I. WE MUST LOCATE THE LOST
Listen to these powerful verses in Romans 10:13-14, we read, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?”
Illus: Steve Green in his song states the situation for God’s Church, and that is, “PEOPLE NEED THE LORD.”
Today, God’s Church has lost it’s burden for the lost. We are told that 160 million never set their foot inside of a church building except for special occasions.
• Some of these people are hostile
• Some are hurt
• Some are antagonistic
• Some are neutral
• Some are open
Some are on the verge of making a commitment, but few of them will unless we reach out to them !
Listen, a person can say that the reason they do not make the effort to reach the lost is because:
• They do not know how
• They do not have time
But they can not say they are not out there, because there are 160 million out there!
We know some of the 160 million that do not attend church.
• They are our family members
• They are neighbors
• They are friends
• They are acquaintances
• They are coworkers
• They are classmates
They are lost and we need to reach them!
When we speak of a LOST PERSON, what do we mean?
Illus: In the late 60’s, Dr. Odell Belger attended a meeting in London England at the church where C.H. Spurgeon preached. He was only a young minister then, and when he arrived in England with hundreds of other preachers from around the world, there were buses to take the preachers to the hotel where they would be staying. As soon as they got on the bus, they were told they would be taken to a new hotel and that they would be some of the first people to ever stay there. When they arrived, it was obvious it was a new hotel, in fact, it was so new it did not even have a sign outside to identify it. Dr. Belger had never ridden on a subway. He saw a friend, Dr. Bob Gray, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida. He went to him and said, “Bro. Gray, I have never ridden on a subway and I do not know a thing about them, can I go with you tonight? He said, “Yes, I will be happy for you to go with me!” They went and had a delightful service. Literally thousands were in attendance, and God really blessed the preaching of His Word that night. But on the way back, he and Dr. Gray walked into the subway station.
As Dr. Gray got his token and was walking toward the subway doors, a bunch of preachers started talking to him and as he stepped on the subway the door closed and he saw his good friend Dr. Belger on the outside but it was too late. Dr. Belger was now on London’s subway system trying to find his way back to the hotel, and he did not even know the name of the hotel.
Anyone who knows anything about London’s subway system knows it is complicated, and there are literally hundreds of places you can get off or on. Dr. Belger rode the subway all night trying to find his way. At each stop, he would run to the top and see if he could recognize the new hotel. About one or two o’clock in the morning, a dear lady who discovered he was lost, rode with him, helping him to find his hotel. The subway people got to know him so well that they just charged him one admission because they knew he was lost. Finally, about 9 O’clock, he ran up to the top and he thought he recognized the hotel because of the new construction. He was going through the lobby, and Dr. Gray got off of the elevator on his way to breakfast and said, “I am really sorry about last night….what time did you get back?” He looked at him and said, “I am just now getting back!”
But God had a purpose in that situation. Dr. Belger has told thousands of people that it is a terrible thing to be physically lost and that it is even more terrible to be spiritually lost.
When a man is lost, HE NEEDS SOMEONE TO HELP HIM!
Spiritually speaking there are a lot of lost people and they do not know which way to go.
• Some are trying the alcohol route
• Some are trying the drug route
• Some are trying the pleasure and entertainment route
• Some are trying the money route
These routes do not lead to the peace and joy their souls long to have. We, as Bible-believing Christians, know CHRIST IS THE WAY, and we have an obligation to LOCATE the lost and direct them to Christ.
WE MUST LOCATE THE LOST and -
II. WE MUST LEARN ABOUT THE LOST
Illus: A man was saved and baptized at the age of twenty-seven. When he was thirty-one, he taught a class of Intermediate boys in Sunday school. One day a class member, a fine boy fourteen years of age, was killed by lightning.
• In the home, just a few minutes before the funeral, the teacher asked the father of the boy, "Are you a Christian?" The father answered: "Not a very good one. I was a member of a church before moving here six years ago, but haven’t joined a church here."
• Then the teacher asked, "Was your boy a Christian?" The question startled the father and he answered, "I don’t know.”
• The father asked the teacher, “Do you know?" The teacher was startled, too, and answered, "No, I do not."
What a shame that no one cared enough about this fourteen year old boy to LOCATE him and direct him to Christ.
The LOST are to be LOCATED! It is not enough to just bring them to church so we can raise the number on the attendance board. We are to TEACH them the truth about their LOST CONDITION and show them from God’s Word how they can be saved.
If we are to reach the lost, we must develop and build relationships with them. We must learn:
• Their names
• Their faces
• Their families
• Their concerns
• Their needs
We must learn what we can do to help! We must show them that we are real... genuine... that we can be trusted. We must not forget God’s ultimate purpose for leaving us here on earth.
When it comes to the lost, WE MUST LOCATE THE LOST, WE MUST LEARN ABOUT THE LOST and -
III. WE MUST LOVE THE LOST
Illus: An old man whose face was hardened and eyes bloodshot by the life of drink, came to the rescue mission for a meal and a place to sleep. He was turned away, but then the minister’s conscience bothered him and he went in search of the man, finding him on a cold park bench. The minister told the man he loved him and God loves him. A tear fell down his crusty cheek and he said, "No one has ever told me that since my daughter died, and I turned to drinking."
Love reaches out!
Illus: Last spring, Mr. Alter's fifth-grade class at Lake Elementary School in Oceanside, California, included fourteen boys who had no hair. Only one, however, had no choice in the matter. Ian O'Gorman, undergoing chemotherapy for lymphoma, faced the prospect of having his hair fall out in clumps. So he had his head shaved. But then 13 of his classmates shaved their heads, so Ian wouldn't feel out of place. "If everybody has his head shaved, sometimes people don't know who's who," said 11-year-old Scott Sebelius in an Associated Press story (March 1994). "They don't know who has cancer, and who just shaved their head." Ten-year-old Kyle Hanslik started it all. He talked to some other boys, and before long they all trekked to the barber shop. "The last thing he would want is to not fit in," said Kyle. "We just wanted to make him feel better." Ian's father, Shawn, choked back tears as he talked about what the boys had done. (Sherman L. Burford, Fairmont, West Virginia. Leadership, Vol. 15, no. 3.)
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Christians had this kind love for the LOST?
Some churches are comfortable just where they are. They have been derailed so long from God’s purpose, that they no longer want to be bothered with LOVING and reaching the LOST! They just want to be left alone:
• In their nice buildings
• In their comfortable pews
• In their socials and activities
You can almost hear the church today saying, “Do not disturb us, we like things the way we are…leave us alone!”
The problem is that we do not love people! If we do not have a love for people...a love for the lost, then our relationship with God is on life support!
Notice what Christ did in his ministry, in Matt. 9:10-12. “And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.”
Illus: It was a bitter cold evening in northern Virginia many years ago. The old man’s beard was glazed by winter’s frost while he waited for a ride across the river. The wait seemed endless. His body became numb and stiff from the frigid north wind. He heard the faint, steady rhythm of approaching hooves galloping along the frozen path. Anxiously, he watched as several horsemen rounded the bend. He let the first one pass by without an effort to get his attention. Then another passed by, and another. Finally, the last rider neared the spot where the old man sat like a snow statue. As this one drew near, the old man caught the rider’s eye and said, "Sir, would you mind giving an old man a ride to the other side? There doesn’t appear to be a passageway by foot."
Reining his horse, the rider replied, "Sure thing. Hop aboard." Seeing the old man was unable to lift his half-frozen body from the ground, the horseman dismounted and helped the old man onto the horse. The horseman took the old man not just across the river, but to his destination, which was just a few miles away. As they neared the tiny but cozy cottage, the horseman’s curiosity caused him to inquire, "Sir, I notice that you let several other riders pass by without making an effort to secure a ride. Then I came up and you immediately asked me for a ride. I’m curious why, on such a bitter winter night, you would wait and ask the last rider. What if I had refused and left you there?"
The old man lowered himself slowly down from the horse, looked the rider straight in the eyes, and replied, "I’ve been around these here parts for some time. I reckon I know people pretty good." The old-timer continued, "I looked into the eyes of the other riders and immediately saw there was no concern for my situation. It would have been useless even to ask them for a ride. But when I looked into your eyes, kindness and compassion were evident. I knew, then and there, that your gentle spirit would welcome the opportunity to give me assistance in my time of need."
Those heartwarming comments touched the horseman deeply. "I’m most grateful for what you have said," he told the old man. "May I never get too busy in my own affairs that I fail to respond to the needs of others with kindness and compassion." With that, Thomas Jefferson turned his horse around and made his way back to the White House.
Love is a wonderful thing. It reaches out to help those in need.
When it comes to the lost, WE MUST LOCATE THE LOST, WE MUST LEARN ABOUT THE LOST, WE MUST LOVE THE LOST and -
IV. WE MUST LIFT UP THE LOST
How? Through prayer. Look at 1 Timothy 2:1-4, "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
To really reach out........we must lift-up !
• There was a time when you could hear parents stand up in church and request prayer for their lost children
• There was a time when you could hear people praying around the altar for lost family members and friends
• There was a time when Christians would get in their cars and drive to a lost person’s home and talk with them about the Lord.
But today we hear very little about this and it is because Satan has derailed God’s church.
When will we ever learn that -
• The music can be right
• The preaching can be good
• The facilities can be beautiful
• We can have all the programs
But without prayer......we will not be able to reach the lost.
Something strange happens when you start to pray.
• Did you know that you can start praying for missions and you will become burdened for lost souls abroad?
• Did you know that Sunday School teachers can begin to pray for the little boys and girls that they teach each Sunday, and soon they will develop a great love for them?
• Did you know that a parent can begin to pray for their lost children and soon they will begin to plead with their children to come to Christ?
• Did you know that you can pray for your lost neighbors, and soon you will begin to talk to them about the Lord?
I tell you prayer does that to us! It is like a magnet that draws us to the thing that we are praying for.
Determine, develop, and be dedicated to a specific time of prayer for the lost! Ask God to lay the lost upon our hearts!
Conclusion: Many of us who know the Lord would not be here if some church had not reached out to us.
Illus: One Mercedes Benz TV commercial shows their car colliding with a cement wall during a safety test. Someone then asks the company spokesman why they do not enforce their patent on the Mercedes Benz energy-absorbing car body, a design evidently copied by other companies because of its success. He said "Because some things in life are too important not to share."
The Gospel of Christ is the greatest news a man can receive, and we need to share it with everyone we come into contact with.
We see that . . .
I. WE MUST LOCATE THE LOST
II. WE MUST LEARN ABOUT THE LOST
III. WE MUST LOVE THE LOST
IV. WE MUST LIFT UP THE LOST
