Hi, my name is Karen, brother Michael. This message comes with much appreciation and thankfulness. I do not remember when God led me to your teachings online, but I am truly thankful He did. Daily, I am up at 4.30 in the morning and listen to God's message to me through you. Thank you for the uncompromising biblical truth-filled messages. One morning I was crying out to God regarding an issue and just wanting an answer. I went to the next message in the series I was listening to at the time called, It is Supernatural. God spoke to me through you.
The tears fell and I knew God was holding me and helping me. Thank you for being the voice proclaiming truth. God bless you, Michael. Thank you for making time for Leading the Way, the listener-supported ministry featuring pastor, author, and international Bible teacher, Dr. Michael Yousaf. Jesus connected deeply with all those who heard Him by often using what we call parables, stories with deep yet somewhat veiled messages that touch the heart of all.
These parables engage with the topics of the day, topics that were commonly discussed with family and friends. Today on Leading the Way, Dr. Yousaf takes you inside one of these parables in a message called, God's Expansive Pursuit. You'll gain a deeper understanding of God's passionate desire for relationship with you.
So join me now in listening to Dr. Michael Yousaf as he begins. At the very core of every religion, there is that desire and longing to find their God or gods as may be the case. At the core of just about every religion, there is this trying to appease their God and gods. They try to pursue their God or gods because by definition, religion is that search for God, is trying to reach for God, trying to find God, trying to know that God. And that is why Christianity is not a religion.
Now, if you agree with me say, Amen. It is not a religion. The Christian faith is not a religion because the Christian faith and the Christian faith alone is the only faith that says that the one true God, the Creator and the Sustainer of the world, the all-powerful, the almighty God, He is the one who reaches down to humanity, not the other way around. He is the one who pursues us. He is the one who seeks after us. Only the Christian faith is the only faith that declares that the only one and true God is not, and never been lost, but people are. The Christian faith is the only faith that declares that a person's effort, no matter how good they may be, no matter how hard they may work to please God, they cannot do it.
They cannot find Him that way because He finds us. The Christian faith is the only faith that declares that we can know God personally. None of the other religions declare that. The Christian faith is the only faith that says that you can have an intimacy with the Creator God. The Christian faith is the only faith that says that you can talk to God as a friend talks to a friend and you know that He is more than happy to listen to you and converse with you. He is the one to invite you to come and know His heart and know His mind. And therefore, Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship with a person, God Himself. Some would say, well, Michael, how do I get that? How do we confirm that?
How can I defend this? Well, very simply, Jesus Christ, who is God of very God, became man of very man, who through Him, the whole world was created. When He walked the earth, gave us three illustrations to make this point. And they're all in Luke chapter 15. All of these three illustrations are designed to show us what God is like. All these three illustrations are designed to reveal to us the very heart of God. They are designed to uncover for us the very essence of God. They are designed to show us the very nature of God. They are designed to show us how the one and only true God wants to relate to us. They are designed to show us that God is the one who finds us. He is the one who seeks after us.
We don't necessarily seek after Him. And the first illustration is to do with the lost sheep. The second illustration is to do with the lost coin, valuable coin. And then the third illustration is a true story that the Lord Jesus uses about the lost son.
Most people call it lost son, but there really are lost two sons, as we will see later on. And so I want you to turn with me, if you haven't already, to Luke chapter 15. I want you to notice how the first verse says, the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him. And immediately verse 2 it says, the Pharisees and the tax collectors murmured. Do you know what murmuring is?
You murmur when somebody says something that you don't like. You see, the Pharisees saw themselves and their own view of God as the sophisticated way. They saw themselves and their understanding of God to be the intellectual way, to be the intelligent way. Like all elitists and pseudo intellectuals of our day, they were just like them, today.
Two thousand years, nothing changed. They saw the sinners and the tax collectors who acknowledged their sin, who acknowledged their need for repentance, who acknowledged the need for the forgiveness from the hand of the Lord as weak and helpless and not very bright. You get them in the schools today, you get them in the churches today, many mainline churches. They see those who recognize that they need repentance, they look upon those who are glad to receive forgiveness from the hand of the Lord as ignorant and unsophisticated people. You see, in the media all the time, they view the idea that man is totally lost without God as non-thinking person. They see the teaching that says that only the humble and those who are broken over their sin can find peace with God and can have intimacy with God. They look upon this as backward thinking. This is how many people in our culture today think and behave just like the Pharisees of old. These folks who murmur at Jesus' love for lost people, they are like the folks of today who are more concerned with the rituals, the traditions, political correctness, their own perceived idea of what the truth is, it's rampant today just like it was in the days of Jesus. And that's why in verse 4, Jesus turns to the Pharisees and the scribes and he says to them, suppose one of you has one hundred sheep and lost one of them.
Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? Now, I want you to really listen good. I mean, listen with your ears and listen with your heart and listen with your mind. This is powerful stuff.
Most city slickers have probably never seen a sheep except on a picture. And so, how would Jesus relate this to us? Listen carefully. If Jesus was speaking today, he would say this, who of you who have worked so hard in building your nest egg and then all of a sudden you saw that whole shooting match is about to go down the drains or down the tubes and you would not work hard and you would not work day and night, you would not burn the midnight candle until you put things together. Or, who of you who sees your marriage is about to fall apart and your children are going to pay a heavy price? Who of you would not do whatever it takes in order to put that marriage together and save the marriage? Or, who of you who sees one of their children turning their back on all the teachings and the biblical truth that you have taught them and who of you would see that happen, embracing themselves not only in spiritual harm but even in physical harm, would not work hard, would not do all it takes in order to see that that child turned back to the Lord?
Who of you wouldn't do that? The Pharisees of course did not like this one bit. They were miffed. They saw themselves you see as the elite and these were the religious snobs of the day and they did not like the fact that Jesus was liking them to the lowest of the low and that's the shepherds. This is the lowest socioeconomic level.
It's the least of the least. The least sophisticated, the least educated, the least of all. Here, Jesus, who is God of very God, is not intimidated by those religious pseudo-intellectual snobs. He was not intimidated by their false belief concepts. He was not intimidated by their stupendous ignorance. He was not intimidated by the deliberate misinterpretation of the Old Testament, the Word of God. He was not intimidated by their elitist attitude and above all else, he was not intimidated about their ignorance of who he is and what he represents and what he came to do. They were as far away from knowing him as the Messiah and the Savior of the world as he could come.
But something else you need to know. The Pharisees, who would have had a hundred sheep of that day, if any of them owned a hundred sheep and many of them have, they and lost one, they would never, never in a million years would do the searching themselves. No way. They would never personally go after that sheep. They had hired hands to do all the dirty work for them. They had shepherds and under-shepherds and they would go out and find the sheep. In fact, the shepherds and the under-shepherds would be penalized if they don't find that lost sheep. They would pay it out of meager wages. They would send their workers out to look and to find their sheep or never get their job back. That's how they operated at the time and that is why those words of Jesus are very biting words.
They would never humble themselves to do something so menial as to search for a lost sheep. And Jesus is saying to them, God is not like you. God is not like you.
God is the one who does the searching. God is the one who sacrifices. He sacrifices his comfort. He sacrifices his reputation. He sacrifices his ease. He sacrifices his time.
He sacrifices his convenience. He sacrifices his energy and he personally search for his sheep. What is Jesus doing? He was reminding them of their Bible that they claim to know. He was reminding them that in Psalms 23 and Psalm 100, God is described as the good and great shepherd. He was reminding them of the truth of Isaiah 40 verse 11.
Like a shepherd, he tins his flock in his arm. He was reminding them of the truth of Isaiah 53 and 6. All of us like sheep have gone astray.
Each one of us turned to his own way but the Lord has laid the iniquity of us all on him. He was reminding them of the truth of Ezekiel 34 when God was incensed at the so called shepherds of Israel who refused to feed the flock of God on the word of God and took care of themselves. Well, some of you might be asking, well, how come in Jesus' illustration said the shepherd would go after the one and leave the 99 in the wilderness? I'm going to explain to you what he, the double meaning of that 99 in a minute but generally speaking, if you understood the culture of the day, the head shepherd would go looking for the lost one. He has under shepherds who have been taking care of the 99 sort of as an aside but I want you to think about this. Think with me. Going after the lost sheep gives real security to the 99.
How? It causes them to think that my shepherd cares enough to go after the one. That my shepherd loves deeply enough to never forsake the one. That my shepherd is vigilant enough to pursue the lost one. That my shepherd is faithful enough to chase after the one sheep. That my shepherd is committed enough to seek after the welfare of the one sheep. Oh, and finding that sheep is not the end of the road for the great shepherd.
That was the beginning. When he find that lost sheep, he put that sheep on his shoulder. Basically get two legs on this side and two legs on this side and carry him with the strongest part of our bodies according to scientists is the shoulder and he carries them. When he found the lost sheep, he carries that sheep and he goes rejoicing and he carries him all the way home, not half the way, not part of the way. He carries the sheep all the way home. He goes the whole journey home with the sheep on his shoulder. He never abandons nor forsake the found sheep until he takes him all the way home.
Listen to me. I was one of those people that when I became a believer in Jesus Christ, I used to think that God was lost and I found God. I used to think that I was the one who decided that is a good thing to follow Jesus. I thought that I was the one who should take all the credit for receiving Jesus into my life as my savior and my Lord and then I began to read the scripture and I began to read those words and I began to realize that it was God who pursued me. It was God who had gone after me. It was God who opened my blind spiritual eyes. It was God who quickened my dead spirit. It was God who went after me when I was running away as fast as I could. It was God who's carrying me and is carrying me right now on his shoulders.
It is God who carries me on his shoulders until he takes me all the way home to heaven. That's our God. Amen. Amen.
Amen. My whole life changed and I pray it will change your life to realize it's a good shepherd who pursues you, who goes after you even when you try to run away. He is the one who loves you enough to cause people to come your way until you come home. What does Jesus want us to know about this? He wants us to know that God never rests until he finds a lost sheep. Just as God never rests until he finds a lost sheep and when he finds that lost sheep he puts that sheep on his shoulder and takes him all the way home. You and I must never give up on lost sheep. We must never give up praying for lost sheep.
Whether that lost sheep is in your home or in your neighborhood or in your workplace, whatever it may be, never give up on the lost sheep because God doesn't. Jesus' search is an all-absorbing search. Jesus' search is a personal search. Jesus' search is an all-pursuing search. Jesus' search above all is an all-sacrificing search. Look at verse 5. When he finds the lost sheep he placed it on his shoulder rejoicing. Not only that, he held a party. He held a party and he invited the friends and neighbors and he said, rejoice with me for I have found my lost sheep.
Listen to me. In his incarnation Jesus came after the lost sheep. In his life he sought after the lost sheep. In his death Jesus laid the lost sheep on his shoulders.
In his resurrection Jesus bore the lost sheep on his way and in his ascension he brought his lost sheep all the way home. Now beloved friends, not only that Jesus finds you, not only that Jesus saves you, not only that Jesus redeems you, not only that Jesus delivers you, but for the rest of your earthly life he carries you on his shoulders. Your burdens become his burden. Your pain becomes his pain. Your suffering becomes his suffering. Your emotional and physical infirmities are carried on his shoulders because you are carried on his shoulders.
All of your needs are carried on his shoulders because you are carried on his shoulders all with your needs. Finally don't miss verse 7. Jesus said there is rejoicing in heaven when sinners repent. Don't miss Jesus' sense of humor here. There really is and I guess you have to understand the subtlety of the Semitic language to get that.
I'm sure some of you already got it. What are the Pharisees were doing? Well they were accusing Jesus of welcoming repentant sinners, right? That's what their accusation was. Something of course they would never do.
They would never do that because their self-righteousness looked down on anyone who saw themselves as sinners in need of repentance. They saw themselves without too many faults. There might be one or two, but not too many faults.
You met people like that? I'm okay. I'm good. I do some good things.
I've done some good things in my life and I'm going to get some good things my way down the road. They saw themselves as not really needing salvation because they keep all the ritualistic laws. In fact, they were, and this is a double meaning here, the 99 that are not in need of repentance. Let me ask you a question. Who is not in need of repentance?
No one. Oh and Jesus said 99 who don't need repentance. What is he saying?
He's making fun of them. Jesus had a sense of humor. He was saying, you think you don't need repentance? You don't think you need salvation? You are in the fold in the people of Israel, the people of God in the Old Testament, but you don't realize that you're desperate for salvation because all of your prophets from beginning to end have declared that I, the Messiah, will come and when I come, I'm the only one who can give you salvation, but they missed it.
They missed the whole thing. It is my prayer that nobody here would miss it. If there's a person here today who's going through confusion in your life, maybe a person here who thinks that they are working hard trying to find God. Beloved, God has never lost. God is the one who's trying to find you. He is the one who's chasing you. He is the one who's pursuing you.
He's the one who's going after you. He's the one who's searching for you, so stop running and invite him to come in and when you do, you will have joy. Your family will have joy. Your Christian family will have joy and Jesus said heaven will have joy. Father, it is impossible for us to comprehend the death of your love. It's so hard to even fathom that the God who said let there be light and clicked his fingers and there was the universe is the God who counts every single hair on our head and that not one of them came out in the brush this morning without his permission. Father, we rejoice in the fact that one day in heaven we will begin to comprehend all this, but for now we thank you that you have given us spiritual eyes to see what a caring, loving, passionate about us you are. And Father, I pray that we would in gratitude and in thanksgiving put all of us on the altar for Jesus' sake.
Amen. Thank you for joining Bible teacher Dr. Michael Yusef for this episode of Leading the Way. And if what you heard has sparked God questions, please consider speaking with one of the Leading the Way pastors or counselors. The place to start that conversation is ltw.org slash jesus. All right, I am really excited about the content of Dr. Yusef's series, The God Who Pursues Us. I mean, listen to that title, God Pursuing You. And as we listen, I think we'll get a clearer understanding of God's heart when it comes to his relationship with each one of us. This series really reflects what Leading the Way is all about to reaching the lost, equipping the saints of the ministry by passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth. Now, one way we get this done is through Leading the Way Navigators. These are little MP3 players preloaded with messages from Dr. Yusef, actually in one of 28 different languages, and it also includes an audio Bible. These little navigators are distributed worldwide to people in their native language who have no means to listen to radio or watch TV.
Think remote villages where regular media is not even an option or think international prisons. Learn how you can stand with Dr. Yusef and Leading the Way. Go to ltw.org or call us.
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