Life Ministries

“I Came” - “To Seek and To Save That Which Is Lost”
Luke 19:10

    This morning I am continuing with the thought that there were several reasons given in God’s Word as to why Jesus came. Yesterday I used the phrase “I came that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.”

Today’s focus is on the words “I came to seek and to save that which is lost.” This was – I believe – the number one reason why Jesus came. It is also the number one reason the church exists as this is its purpose. It is a theme that Jesus repeated in scripture and, as far back as the Book of Ezekiel we hear God saying “Indeed, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out. I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away.”
    We have always been obsessed with stories about the lost. Amelia Earhart and her missing plane; weird stories from the so called “Bermuda Triangle”; T.V. series like “Lost In Space”, The Land of the Lost, Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, and most recently a popular series simply titled “Lost”. We live in a world today where we pay much closer attention to missing and lost children. Their pictures are on posters and even milk cartons everywhere.
    What does it mean to be lost? (Webster) defines it as:
1.“unable to find one’s way; Satan has blinded the eyes of the wicked so they cannot see the truth of the Gospel.”
2.“something that is no longer visible; ( People have a hard time believing in a God they cannot see.)
3. “ruined or destroyed; ( God says that people are destroyed “for a lack of vision.”)
4. “hopeless; ( People without God have no hope for the future or life after life.)
5. “having no sense of direction”; As the scripture says, they are “tossed back and forth by the waves and the cunningness of man.”
   I think that pretty much covers what it means to be lost…with the exception of one thing; in our spiritual lives it means “to be without Christ.”  For, it is Christ who gives us direction and hope and vision and light in the darkness of this world.
    There is nothing worse than the feeling of being lost. There have been two times in my life that I think were the scariest for me. One was a time when it was not me that was lost but our youngest son, Mark. He was only about two or three years old and he wandered off at a county fair among hundreds of people. Judy and I were frantic as we called out and looked for him. The other time it was Fred Jr. and I as we tracked a wounded deer into the woods…and as it grew dark, we had no idea where we were. As we shined our flashlights around all we could see was trees in every direction…we were lost. I thought we would have to spend the night in the woods, until we heard a truck way off in the distance that gave us a sense of where the road was.
    Being lost is not a preacher word or a church word, it’s a God word. God’s Word says that if we are separated or alienated from the presence of God and without Christ in our lives…we are “lost.” We have no sense of direction, hopeless, like living in the dark unable to see, and having to feel our way through life.
    Do you know that’s how many people live? “If it “feels good” do it”… As long as I “feel” like it I will… As long as it makes me “feel” good I’m happy…Life is lived totally based on feeling. Even marriages and in fact many other relationships are based on “feelings”…living in the dark.
    But, rather than just looking at being “lost”, spiritually speaking, I want to look at and explain the process of being found…based on scripture.
    First, the process begins with the desire to be found or, you could say the desire not to be lost! Those that want to be rescued from darkness must have a desire to see the light. Scripture says those that come to God “must first believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek him.” When you seek some-thing, you have the desire to find it.
    When someone is truly lost, I mean in utter darkness and disarray and loss of direction… And, they see a light or they hear a truck, or they have a “spiritual experience” it creates the desire to find their way… spiritually, they seek God and they find him. There is not only a sense of relief from fear, but the second part of the process is a life changing experience. You realize that you are saved!...You are given a second chance… You “were dead, and now you are made alive” says the scripture… “you were lost and now you are found!”
    God is in the business of finding people or maybe we could say – allowing people to find Him… and the result of being found is changed hearts and lives. He wants us to come to Him because he desires to transform our lives and make us “new creations” in Christ Jesus the Bible says.
    I have said it before and I truly believe that no one, of any age or income, or social standing, or situation, can come to know Christ and not have their lives changed. My experience tells me that if there is no change, then there is a problem. Some may try to be better people and put on a Christian mask, but sooner or later, their true self will come out. Here’s why -  they may have even invited Christ in over and over, but they won’t let him in!  It’s because deep down, they don’t really want to change…or they believe that they really can’t change. But, in the process of being found, there will be change… there will be transformation. God loves us too much to leave us the way we are!
    Luke chapter 15 is all about lost things; Jesus speaks about a lost lamb; a lost coin; and a lost son… Clearly it is those are spiritually lost who are represented by the lost things in these illustrate stories. We need to consider the question: “Why were sinners so willing and even eager to listen to Jesus?” It certainly wasn’t because Jesus had an easy message that tickled people’s ears. It wasn’t because Jesus compromised on sin and said that what they were doing was acceptable. They weren’t gathering around Jesus because he was putting on some sensa-tional show of signs and wonders….Why did the "lost" seek out Jesus rather than run from him?...I believe the answer is in his compassion. Jesus loved them and showed that love with a compassionate rather than a condemning attitude.
    That was Jesus attitude toward those who were lost in sin. Jesus welcomed them; he was compassionate and accepting of them despite their sins and faults. He was a friend and not a foe. Jesus had an attitude that lost people were attracted to, do we? For us as individuals and as a church to reach people we are going to have to show and have that same love and compassion and acceptance. Jesus said that he came to “save the world and not to condemn the world” …but, much of the church today is responding to the lost like police officers instead of like paramedics. This is what the Pharisees and teachers of the law did. They were more interested in condemning and criticizing sinners than in showing them compassion. The lost have never flocked to hear those who were condemning and they never will listen to anyone who has that same attitude. If a sheep or coin was valuable enough to persistently search for, then people who are spiritually lost are too valuable to give up on.
    Illustration: Following an exhilarating performance at New York’s Carnegie Hall, celebrated classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma went home, slept, and awoke the next day exhausted and rushed. He called for a cab to take him to a hotel on the other side of Manhattan and placed his cello—hand-crafted in Vienna in 1733 and valued at $2.5 million—in the trunk of the taxi. When he reached his destination, he paid the driver, but forgot to take his cello. After the cab had disappeared, he realized what he had done. He began a desperate search for the missing instrument. Fortunately he had the receipt with the cabby’s ID number. After searching all day the taxi was located in a garage in Queens with the priceless cello still in the trunk. Ma’s smile could not be contained as he found that which was lost. Here’s the point, Yo Yo Ma did not quit but persisted because what was lost was too valuable to give up on. The spiritually lost are too valuable for us to quit trying to reach even though our efforts do not seem to pay off quickly.
    Jesus pointed out that the one thing that matters most to God is the lost. They matter so much to God that when the lost are found, even one of them, it says that all heaven rejoices! If lost people matter this much to God, shouldn’t they matter this much to us? Shouldn’t we be willing to give everything that is needed in order to reach the lost?
    In this life, there are only two directions; one is narrow and leads to life, the other is wide and leads to destruction …said Jesus… “I came to seek and to save that which is lost”…If it was the first priority for him, it ought to be ours as well.