Lost People Matter to God - Life of Christ Part 51

Now you know tomorrow the White House is going to award two medals of honor to two servicemen, two army commandos who were killed in Somalia in October of last year. This will be the first two medals of honor, the first of any kind medals of honor given since the Vietnam War. And you say, well, wow, that's kind of impressive.

What do you have to do to win one of these things? Well, I'm quoting now, the Medal of Honor is given for gallantry at risk of one's life above and beyond the call of duty, end of quote. What do these guys do? While they were in Somalia, they were off, they were relaxing, and suddenly they heard that an army helicopter had gone down in a firefight, and these two men volunteered to go out on another helicopter searching for the helicopter that had gone down. It was just the two of them and the pilot on this helicopter. Well, they located, they spotted from the air this downed helicopter, and they spotted four wounded crewmen who were in the wreckage, and they also could see from their vantage point the Somali troops closing in on this downed helicopter. So they told their pilot to drop down low enough so they could jump out, and the two of these men jumped out of their helicopter and ran to the aid of their four downed friends. They succeeded in pulling them from the wreckage, and then there was nobody else to help, and so the two of them held off the Somali troops until they ran out of ammunition, and then, of course, when they ran out of ammunition, there was nobody to hold off the troops. They were both killed. Three of the four men who were downed were killed.

The only one that survived was a fellow named Michael Durant, and you probably saw his puffed-up, beaten-up picture on Time magazine or Newsweek or on the news. They dragged the bodies of these commandos through the street, and, of course, they captured the one pilot. The pilot said, I'm convinced I would have been killed 100 percent if it had not been for those two guys being there, and a military spokesman said both of the men jumped out knowing what they were getting into.

They knew they were on their own, that there was no help coming. Now, when I read about that, I'm driven to ask myself, why did these guys do this? They both were married.

They both have families. Why would these guys go out volunteering to go search for these downed crewmen? Why would they leap out and risk their own lives to try to rescue and protect these men?

Why would they do that? The only answer I can come up with is that these four crew members who were downed, they mattered to these two men. They mattered to them.

Their lives mattered to them, so much so that they were willing to risk their own life to try to help them. Now, this is what our passage this morning is all about. It's all about the fact that you matter to Almighty God and that everybody in the world matters to Almighty God and that God is willing to do the things He's willing to do because people matter to Him. And I want us as we study this whole chapter, Luke chapter 15, to keep reminding ourselves that this is the heart of Almighty God, that people matter to Him. You know, if you were to ask what's the greatest chapter in the Bible, be interesting the answers you get. A lot of people, I think, might say John chapter 3. You know, that's the chapter that has the verse, For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. And that's a great chapter. Other people might say other chapters. But if you were to ask me, Lon, what do you think the greatest chapter in the Bible is? I think I would probably pick this one because I don't think there's a chapter anywhere else in the Bible that exhibits the heart of God and lays open the heart of God regarding people the way this chapter does. And in my opinion, it makes it perhaps the greatest chapter in the Bible. Now, we're not going to cover the whole chapter this morning. We're going to cover a part of it. But as we move in the next couple of weeks through this chapter, I hope that you'll let God change your life because of this chapter of the Bible.

Let's look at it together. Verse 1. Now, the tax collectors and the sinners, quote, unquote, were all gathering around to hear Jesus and the Pharisees and some of their other rabbis.

They were there, too. Now, you see, folks, whereas the rabbis repelled sinners, Jesus attracted sinners. Everywhere Jesus went, sinners gathered around him. He was kind of like a sinner magnet.

You understand what I'm saying? And everywhere sinners kind of went and stuck to him. And so this is what's happening here. The tax collectors are coming to see him. These were Jewish people, tax collectors were, who were working for the Romans. They collected taxes from their own countrymen, their own Jewish countrymen, and then they gave that money to the Romans. They were looked on by the Jews as the worst of the worst. I mean, the lowest of the lowest, the scum of society, the ultimate traitors of the world. They were like the Benedict Arnold Steens of the Old Testament.

You understand what I'm saying? They were the lowest of the low. And then there were the sinners. These were the prostitutes, the drunkards, the beggars, the homeless people, and all the other folks who didn't live the kind of pious life that the rabbi said you were supposed to live. You know, people who are not really with the program or the rabbis.

You understand what I'm saying? And we need to understand that the rabbi's religion had absolutely nothing to offer these people. The rabbi's gospel was a gospel for the saved, not for the lost. Their religion had lots of things to say to self-righteous people, but to wayward people, to lost people, to hurting people, to hopeless people, to erring people, to wayward people.

The rabbi's religion had absolutely nothing to offer them except rejection and contempt. That's all they had for them. But you see, it was to these folks that Jesus offered so much. He offered them forgiveness of sin.

He offered them acceptance. He offers them freedom from guilt. He offered them release from the power of sin. He offered them unconditional love. He offered them hope and purpose and meaning in life and a chance to start over again. No wonder these people flocked around him like bees around honey.

He had something to offer them. The rabbis didn't. They had nothing for these people. Well, the rabbis didn't like the fact that all these people kept gathering around Jesus.

Look at verse 2. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, they muttered. They complained. They grumbled. Can you believe it?

You know what I'm talking about? Talking like that and going, can you believe all this? And what really bothered them, look, it says, this man welcomes sinners. And he eats with these kind of people. He hangs around with these kind of people. He let these kind of people get close to him and touch him. Oh, how could he let these people get near him? Doesn't he know what these people are?

Doesn't he know what these people do? Well, you see, it was bad enough that Jesus let these people hang around him. What they really hated even more is that Jesus not only let these people hang around him, Jesus seemed to like these people. Jesus seemed to enjoy these people. Jesus actually seemed to invite and want these people to come around. Jesus seemed to seek out these people. They couldn't believe that.

No rabbi in his right mind would seek out people like this. Jesus did. All the time. Remember Jesus and Zacchaeus? Remember? Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was? Zacchaeus climbed up in the Sycamore tree because the Lord he wanted to.

And when the Savior came passing by, he looked up in the tree and he said, Zacchaeus, come down. Why? Because I'm going to your house too. Very good. Very good.

Proud of you. Now, who took the initiative there? Who invited himself over to Zacchaeus' house for lunch? It was Jesus, right? The rabbis could not deal with this.

What is this guy doing seeking out the riffraff and the scum of the world? They just could not get it. They did not get it. And that's why Jesus told the parables that he told. That's why he told these three little stories that he told in Luke chapter 15, because these guys didn't understand.

They didn't get it. They didn't have a clue what the heart of God was for people. And Jesus wanted to explain it to them. And so he told them the three stories, the story of the lost sheep, the story of the lost coin, and the story of the lost son. Now, we call it the story of the prodigal son, but it's really the story of the lost son. The lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son.

Now, would you notice in Jesus' mind the word that he chose to describe these tax collectors and sinners? What was it? Three times I've said it. It was the word what? Lost.

That was the word he picked. If you look up lost in Webster, you know what you find? Webster says to be lost means to be separated from your home or to go astray.

And in Jesus' mind, that's exactly the right word to use for these tax collectors and sinners. They had become separated from God, separated from home, and they had gone astray from God. And folks, could I say to you that this is exactly how Jesus sees every human being alive, outside of Jesus Christ, that they're lost. They've gone astray. They've lost their home.

They're separated from their home. And if you're here and you've never trusted Jesus Christ personally as your Lord and Savior, then that's how Jesus Christ sees you. He doesn't hate you. He's not mad at you. He just sees you lost. You lost your way. Every human being starts off like that.

Nobody ever starts off found. We all start lost. And that's what makes Luke chapter 15 so meaningful, because it means this is a chapter that belongs to every human being alive.

Even if you're found now, you once were lost. And this is our chapter that explains to us the heart of Almighty God for people like us, for lost people. Marvelous chapter.

Let's look at it together. Verse 3. Then Jesus told him this parable.

He said, Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and he loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the ninety and nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep? Look, until he finds it. He doesn't stop halfway and go, ah, I've looked two hours.

That's long enough. He looks until he finds that sheep. And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and carries it home. And then he calls all of his friends on the phone and his neighbors and says, Rejoice with me. I'm throwing a party.

Come on over my house. We're going to party. I found my lost sheep. I tell you, Jesus said, in the same way, there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety nine of you righteous people like you rabbis who don't think you need any repentance.

We throw a party in heaven, too, when that happens. Now you say, well, Lon, this is kind of interesting. Why do you think Jesus chose a shepherd as kind of the motif or is the imagery for his first little story? You think it was maybe because shepherds were very common back then.

Everybody would have known what shepherds did. Maybe. But I think it goes deeper than that. I think there's something Jesus is trying to do here that we've got to go back in the Old Testament to figure it out.

You don't need to turn. But listen, this is Ezekiel 34. And in this passage, Ezekiel is talking to the leaders of Israel.

And listen to what he says. He says, The word of the Lord came to me and said, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel and say to them, Woe to you, shepherds of Israel who take care of only yourselves. Should you not as shepherds take care of the flock? But you have not done that. You have not strengthened the weak. You have not healed the sick.

You have not bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays and you have not searched for the lost sheep. You have instead let them be scattered so that they became prey for all the wild animals.

You let my sheep wander all over the mountains and be scattered because you were not willing to search or go out looking for them. Now, do you think the rabbis knew that passage? I think they do. And do you think that Jesus choosing the imagery of a shepherd going out to look for a sheep? Don't you think they got the point? Don't you think that they understood he was giving them a tongue lashing for not doing the job that they were supposed to be doing? They should have been the ones that would have glad to have the tax collectors come. They should have been the ones who were glad to go out and touch the lives of the prostitutes and the drunkards and the beggars and tell them about God. But not only were they not willing to do it, but they murmured against Jesus and complained when he went out and did the job that they were supposed to do. Do you understand?

Oh, they got the point big time. Now, you know the story. The story is that there was a guy that had 100 sheep and he would count them periodically during the day to make sure they were all there. You know, 97, 98, 99, 100. Ah, all's right with the world. 97, 98, 99, 100.

Okay. But then one day he went, 97, 98, 99, 99, 99. Where's George? George is gone again. What happened to George? And George was gone.

And the Bible says, what does he do? Does he say, oh, well, I still got 99. 99 out of 100 is not bad.

Any major league hitter that hit 99 home runs out of 100 would think he's doing great. Eh, let George find his own way home. I don't have time to deal with that.

No, sir. This shepherd left the 99 and went out looking for George. Why? Because George mattered.

That's the point. Because George mattered. He just wasn't one of 100. He was George. And he mattered as an individual sheep. And the Bible says he looked and looked and looked and looked and looked until he found him. And when he found him, what did he do? Did he get mad at him? Did he scold him and beat him and punish him and say, you stupid sheep. I missed my whole afternoon.

I was going to take a siesta. Because of you, I went out looking, you stupid sheep. And did he drive him home and kick him and go, get back here. Get back, you stupid sheep.

No. What did the Bible say? The Bible said he picked him up.

What? Put him on his shoulders and carried him home. Knowing there was a good chance tomorrow George might go again. And in which case he'd go out, find him, put him on his shoulders, and bring him back again. And then there's the story of the lost coin.

Verse 8. Suppose a woman has ten coins and loses one. Doesn't she light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully for it?

You say, what's she sweeping the house for? She's looking for a coin. Yeah, well, in ancient Israel the floors were made out of big blocks of basalt that they would lay together. But they couldn't lay them perfectly together and so there were cracks between these slabs. And coins would roll and roll right down in that little slab. And in the dark house the best way to find it was take a broom and use that broom in between those cracks to kind of brush it up and sweep it up. And you'd pop that coin right up and have it tinkle along and then you'd go find it.

So this is exactly right. That's exactly what a woman would do. It says she looked at it until she found it. And then when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors and says the same thing. Come on over.

Party time. Wow, I found my lost coin. In the same way, Jesus said, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Now as far as I can see, the second story is simply another way of saying the same thing the first story said.

I don't see there's any real difference in it. A woman has 10 coins. Suddenly she realizes one of them is gone. And it matters so much to her that immediately she goes after it and keeps looking until she finds it. Now those are our two stories. One other thing before we stop with our stories, would you notice one other real important fact here? Not only the idea that they searched hard for something they lost, but would you notice second of all the joy that they had, the shepherd and the woman, when they found it? They threw a party.

They threw a party. And Jesus said in verse 7 and in verse 10 that this is exactly the way it is in heaven. You know what's really interesting? If you got assigned a paper in school and they said, write a paper in school and here it is. Go write a description of what goes on in heaven. The Bible is your source book. So go write a paper.

You'd be hard pressed to write more than about a page. You realize that? The Bible doesn't tell us much about what goes on in heaven. The Bible gives us very little insight. We get very few glimpses into heaven. This is one of them. And here Jesus said that in heaven they're having parties all the time.

That's kind of different twist, isn't it? They're having parties all the time. They have permanent party hats that they just keep on the shelf.

And then all of a sudden comes old loudspeaker. Party time! They put on a hat and out they go into streets and dance. I'm sure they dance to hymns, by the way, but whatever they dance to, they go out there and they're partying.

Why? Because somebody else just came to Christ. So party time! Let's go. Punch a clock out and let's go. Now that's kind of a different twist on heaven, isn't it?

Now that's the end of our story, the end of the two stories Jesus tells, but it leaves us with a really important question. And you know what that is, don't you? What is it? So what?

Yeah, Lon, nice stories. But I live in 20th century high tech, fast paced America. You know, so what? I drop a penny.

I don't even stop. Forget it. Coins don't matter in America.

Neither do dollar bills much anymore, you know. So what difference does it make? Well, what's the truth now? What's the real bottom line that both of these stories are based on?

Let me see if you don't agree this is it. Here's the bottom line. That if something matters to you and you lose it, you don't just go, oh well, but you go look for it and you keep looking till you find it.

Isn't that basically it? Now if something doesn't matter to you, then you go, forget it. But if it really is important to you, you're going to put out the energy to go look for it. Like, ladies, if you lose your engagement ring, I don't know many ladies who would go, oh well, I don't think you'll really care.

Right. You look for that thing. How about if you lose a pair of diamond stud earrings? I'm not talking about, you know, the rhinestone cheapo jobbies.

I'm talking about the one that has real pieces of coal in them. Like, you know, we're talking hundreds of dollars here. You lose one of those things, you look for that, right? You lose something that's a $15 stud, you throw that thing away, but man, you lose a diamond earring, hey, I would tell you something.

We've been down on our hands and knees in my house before, looking, and we don't stop till we find it. If something really is important to you and something really matters to you, you lose it, you're going to look for it. Is that true? Do you agree with that?

Isn't that what this is all based on? Back in 1986, I had the privilege to go away with our singles for a weekend and do a retreat for them, and I spoke a couple times. And then, on the last day, we had lunch together, and we had kind of a typical, you know, retreat-type lunch. I mean, we had pizza, we had salad with, you know, institutionalized French dressing.

We had chocolate pudding that came out the big old cans, you understand what I'm saying? And we had coffee, and we had tea, and, you know. So we ate, and everything was cool, and I had my children along with me, and Brenda was there. And so after it was over, we chit-chatted for a while, and about an hour later, everybody's packing up and getting ready to go home.

And my oldest son, who was then nine, my oldest son Jamie, came up, tapped me on the shoulder and said, Dad, come here a second. Okay. He said, come here, come here. I said, all right. He said, I don't want mom to hear this. Come here.

Okay. He said, Dad, I lost my retainer. I don't know where my retainer is. He just got his brace off. I said, what do you mean?

Typical dad response. What do you mean you don't know where your retainer is? Well, I don't know where it is.

Is it in your mouth? No. Okay.

Where was the last time you saw your retainer, Jamie? I'm not sure. Well, think, son.

Think real hard. Okay. Well, I took it out to eat, and I wrapped it in a what? Ah, some of you have been here.

I wrapped it in a napkin, and I put it on the table, and I think that's the last time I saw it. Okay. I said, son, come on with me. We're going to go back and visit the kitchen. Brenda said, where are you going? I said, we'll be right back.

Trust us. So off we went, because I didn't want to tell her either. So off we went. Off we went, and we get to the kitchen, and I say to the lady, hey, did you, you found a retainer, right, right, right? She said, no. I said, oh, you didn't?

She said, no. I said, it was wrapped in a napkin. You know, he left it on the table, and she said, well, we don't ever look through the, I said, don't you ever look through the napkins? And she said, look through the napkins?

No, we don't. She said, we just kind of, you know, take a big old plow and just plow the whole table off into the trash bag, and that's what we do. And she walked me out to the back, and she pointed to the trash bags.

There were two of these humongous big old trash bags. And she said, you know, you're welcome to go through it if you want. You know how much retainers cost? I mean, retainers, I'm talking hundreds and hundreds of dollars here. My dentist already warned me, if he loses it, Lon, it's your problem.

But then I looked in his trash bag, and I mean, we're talking cold pizza and French dressing and limp lettuce and old chocolate puddings swimming around and coffee grounds and iced tea. I mean, you see, we understand the problem. What did you do?

What did you do? Folks, I got to tell you, I may be saved, but I'm still Jewish. You understand what I'm saying to you? And I said to Jamie, Jamie, roll them up, Jack. We're going in.

And we did. We went into those bags. And I mean, I'm talking elbow deep, folks. We're just going through it every napkin. And there were some things in napkins.

I understand why they don't look in napkins. I mean, it's like, oh, whatever that is, that goes over here, you know. And about two thirds of the way down, we found that retainer. And we said, here it is. I said, Jamie, put it in your mouth.

He said, can I wash it off? No, put that thing in your mouth right now. See, that retainer mattered to me. You understand what I'm saying? And that's why I went through French dressing and pudding and all that other muck looking for that thing. Something matters to you.

You can look for it now. Isn't that what Jesus said? Isn't that what this story is all about? I mean, the point of the story is that God's like the shepherd. God's like the woman. God has lost something that matters to him, except he didn't lose a sheep and he didn't lose a coin. He's lost people. God's lost people.

Five billion of them right now, to be exact, on the face of the earth. People that God made to walk with him and talk with him and commune with him and have relationship with him. People that God made to be his friends. And sin ruined all of that. Sin came into the world and put a big old breach right in our relationship with God. Made us cold to God, alienated from God, separated from God. God lost mankind to sin. But God is not about to throw his hands up and go, Oh, well, I still got the angels. I'll hang out with them.

No way. God decided he's going after man, every single man, every single woman. God's going to go after them.

And, you know, friends, he's been doing it ever since the world began. Think back. You remember the story of Adam and Eve in the garden?

Remember that? And after Adam and Eve had sinned and then God came to walk with them that day, the Bible says Adam and Eve ran off and hid behind the trees and it was God who called out and said, Adam, where are you? Would you notice that it was not Adam who went looking for God or Eve?

She didn't go looking for God. God came into the garden looking for them. And that's the way the world has been ever since. That's the history of the world as far as God's concerned ever since.

We're going to do a musical here real soon, a children's musical called Go Go Jonah. But when you think about it, why did God ask Jonah to go to Nineveh? Why would he do that? It's because those people in Nineveh matter to God. And why did God send prophet after prophet to Israel? To try to get them to turn around and come back home to him because those people mattered to God. And why did he take the apostle Paul and send him out to the Gentiles to share the message of Jesus Christ when the Jewish people didn't want to go out and talk to the Gentiles because the Gentiles matter to God. And why has Jesus Christ sent thousands of missionaries ever since out to reach people?

Sometimes people who can't write their own language, who don't wear any clothes, who have no education and wouldn't know what to do with a computer if it dropped in their lap. Why? Because they matter to God. That's why. And why did he send his son into the world to die on a cross for your sin and mine? Because we matter to God. Folks, if we don't understand that this is the driving, unrelenting passion of God's heart, then what God does makes no sense. But if we understand that this is what drives God, that God is seeking men and seeking women and seeking children, doesn't matter their race, doesn't matter their age, doesn't matter their status, doesn't matter their location, he's seeking what he's lost. This drives God. Then what God does makes all the sense in the world. Why does God do it?

Because lost people, what? They matter to God. Now if you're here and you're not a Christian, or you're here and you've been running, maybe you are a Christian, but you've been running from God for a long time, I want to say that you matter to God, individually.

You matter to God. You say, no I don't. If you knew what I've done, Lon, if you knew where I've been, if you knew some of the things I've been involved in, Lon, you just don't understand. You don't know how lost I am. You don't know how bad I've been. You don't know how alienated I have become from God.

Doesn't matter. God wants you back. God wants you back. And friend, you may have been beat around by the world and chewed up by the world, and you may not believe that you matter to anybody in the world anymore, but I'll tell you something, you matter to God.

Yes you do. And if you're here and your life is lost and you say, Lon, that's a good word for my life right now, then I want to tell you, Jesus Christ wants to take you and put you on his shoulders and carry you back home where you belong. In just a moment, I'm going to give you a chance to make that decision. But just before I do, let me talk to those of us here who could sing Amazing Grace, which says, I once was lost, but now I'm found. You say, Lon, if I can sing that and I know Jesus Christ has found me, well then this doesn't have anything to do with me.

I mean, I've already met the condition. I'm okay. I'm back in the fold. I'm part of the 99.

Yeah, you are. But that doesn't mean this doesn't have meaning for us. Folks, listen. The challenge of this passage to those of us who are Christians is what kind of heart do we have for lost people? What kind of heart do we have for lost people?

Do we have the heart of Jesus for lost people or do we have the heart of the rabbis? See the rabbis, friends, lost people didn't matter to them at all. They wouldn't spend one dime reaching a lost person. They wouldn't go one inch out of their way looking for a lost person. They didn't want these people around.

Even when they showed up on their own initiative, they didn't want them around. They didn't care about lost people. They knew nothing of the heart of God for lost people. My question is, as 20th century Christians, what kind of heart do we have for lost people?

The heart of the rabbis or the heart of Jesus Christ? You know, one thing I've learned, I've been in church work now over 20 years. One thing I've learned about church work and about Christians is it's far too easy for us to decide we want to become a country club. I've told you this before. I'll keep telling it to you. You know, where we only want to be around people like us, where we only want people around who just, you know, go with the program, nobody who steps outside the program.

We don't want to be around people, you know, who in any way are kind of like, you know, just not exactly the kind of people that we are. And I want to tell you something. That's fine for country clubs. That's not fine for the church. And you know why it's not fine? You say, yeah, because you say so, Lon. Wrong.

Wrong. That's not the reason. The reason is that the person who established the church didn't have that kind of heart. If the Lord of the church doesn't have that kind of heart, then I don't think the church can afford to have it.

We need to have the same kind of passion that the person who set this whole thing up had. And what kind of heart did Jesus Christ have? He had a heart where lost people mattered to God.

Now, if that's his heart and he's the Lord of the church, it better be the heart of the church. If Jesus was here in town today, folks, you know where he'd be this morning? I don't think he'd be in most churches in Washington.

I don't think he'd go to them. I think Jesus would be in Dupont Circle. And I think Jesus would be over in Southeast talking to the people who are shooting each other up over there. And I think Jesus would go to American University and confront the professors over there and go down to Georgetown University and confront the people there. And I think he'd probably go into the hospitals and walk around and talk to the people who are in hospital beds. And I think maybe if he visited you at work on Monday, he wouldn't be at the church building on Monday. He'd be at your office, but he wouldn't be there to talk to you.

He'd say, we can talk later. I want to talk to your friend here who's shacking up. And I want to talk to your friend over there who's cheating on her husband. And I want to talk to this guy over here who's drinking his way and drugging his way and smoking his way to an early grave. And I want to talk to your other friend over here who has AIDS.

Introduce me to all these people. Those are the people I'm here to talk to. How come you haven't talked to them? How come I had to come down here and talk to them?

Why didn't you talk to them? That's where I think Jesus would be. Now, if that's true and I believe it is, then, you know, we're our hearts. I think this is what we have to constantly keep saying to ourselves as Christians. Are we willing to go through pizza and pudding and old French dressing to try to reach lost people because they matter enough to us? Are we willing to spend money and exert energy and inconvenience ourselves to help bring lost people to Christ? Do we want to be an exclusive country club or are we going to be a church and follow the mandate of the person who set the church up? What gospel are we giving out here, folks?

Are we giving out the gospel of Jesus or the gospel of the rabbis? Good question, huh? And I'll tell you something. When I look at my own heart, I don't always like what I find there. I mean, there's far too much a country club living in my heart, maybe yours too.

You say, well, Lon, what do we do about that? Well, my suggestion is you get on your knees and say, God, root the country club out and put the passion for souls in. Heaven's a country club. Right now, I'm down here to work hard for Jesus. I want to tell you, as a church family, we've dedicated ourselves that this is the kind of church we're going to be. We're not going to be a church that just maintains the already convinced. We're going to be a church that reaches out and tries to bring in people who aren't convinced and help them understand what Jesus Christ offers them, because we've got a message for those people and we're going to give it to them. And I hope that's the kind of church you want to be a part of, because that's the kind of church we are. And that's the kind of church we're committed to be. Seems to me that's the kind of church Jesus wants churches to be.

So I hope you can buy into that, because that's where we're going. And I hope you buy into it for your own individual life, because that's just not the way God wants the church to be. That's the way God wants Christians to be.

Searching question. I hope God will change your life as a result of seeing the heart of God partially displayed this morning. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for challenging our hearts this morning.

We confess to you, Lord, that as Christians, there's more country club living in there than we're probably proud of. Forgive us for that, Lord, and bring us to the place where our number one priority, our number one motivation, is to be concerned about lost people the way you are. And now with our heads bowed and our eyes closed, if you're here and you've never asked Jesus Christ to be your personal Savior, but you say, you know, Lon, I've been listening to you this morning and the word lost is a pretty good word for me. I thought I had my life all knocked. And man, now I don't know where I'm going or what I'm doing.

I'm lost. If you'd like to open your life up this morning and invite Jesus Christ to come in and pick you up, put you on his shoulders, carry you back home where you belong and give you a new life, then I'd like to give you a chance as we close this morning to do that right where we sit. If you'd like to do that, I wonder, nobody looking around, if you just slip your hand up right where you sit.

Anybody like to do that? Thank you. God bless you.

Anybody else? Thanks. Well, whether you raised your hand or not, doesn't matter. I want you to pray right along with me if you want to do that. Pray silently. Lord Jesus, I feel real lost.

I need help. I've tried to live my life my own way and it's a mess. And this morning, I want to open my life to you, invite you to come in and be my personal Savior and Lord. Lift me up on your shoulders and carry me and give me a new life that's better and different than the one I'm living. I surrender my life to you as my Lord and Savior this morning. In Jesus' name I pray. Father, I pray for the folks who've prayed that, whether they raised their hand or they didn't, that you would immediately this morning confirm in their lives that you've answered their prayers, that you've entered their life, that you're going to lift them on your shoulders and that things are going to be different. And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.