And something I think we need to hear as we start
a new year is that God wants everyone to be a
part of his family. And I don't think that should
be news. I don't think that should be a new idea.
But for some reason, it needs to be said. It
needs to be a reminder for all Christians to
hear, for all people to hear that God wants everyone
to be a part of his family. Because sometimes
we look at the church, we look at God and we
say, that's a very exclusive thing. The truth
is, it is not an exclusive thing. It is a very
inclusive thing. The question is, is are you
going to be included? It's up to you. But it's
also up to me to tell you what you should be
included in. It's like if I was throwing a party
and I'm having this party and I invite everybody,
but I don't invite you, you would be very upset
with me, right? Because everyone else got invited
except for you. The same is true for Christians
that walk around. We talk about how good God
is and we say, yes, God has done so much good
in my life. God has blessed me. He saved me.
He's given me the promise of an eternal life
with him in heaven. And he's done all of these
good things for me. But we don't tell them what
he can and wants to do for them. God's party
is not exclusive. But sometimes we have made
it exclusive. I want to start this series talking
about the one. I want to start it by telling
you about all the friends that I have. Believe
it or not, I do have friends. I have a lot of
friends from different backgrounds. I have a
lot of friends that come from different places.
They come from different life experiences, different
socioeconomic statuses, different religious groups,
different just cultures in general. I have a
lot of friends that are different. But because
we live in the South, one thing that is pretty
consistent with our friend groups is most of
our friends have some type of a church background.
They have some type of Christian background.
Maybe they grew up in the Catholic church or
they grew up in a Baptist church or they grew
up with parents that did pray and said they believed
in God. They didn't really go to church, but
they had some type of a faith background. We've
all got friends that have some type of connection.
to the church. When I think about my friends,
I can place most of them into just a few categories,
and I'm going to have those on the screen. Maybe
a little bit small for you to read, so I'll read
them out loud. I have some friends that grew
up in the church, but they've wandered from the
faith. Maybe they just kind of walked away. It
wasn't that they intentionally walked away, but
you go to college and you stop paying attention
to go into church on Sunday morning. Or maybe
you moved away, you joined the military, and
it was kind of a hassle to get a ride off base
to the church. They drifted. They wandered from
the faith. Some grew up in a church or in church,
and they were hurt by the church. They were hurt
by people in the church. Things happened. That
really just kind of pushed them away. So they
walked away. Maybe they just really hated the
doctrine. Maybe they just couldn't deal with
the legalism. Or maybe they couldn't deal with
the hypocrisy. Or maybe some really traumatic
things happened to them. So they walked away.
And they said, I'm done. I'm done with the whole
Jesus thing. I can't do it anymore. Maybe they
just walked away from church, not Jesus. Some
believe they found a better way. to live apart
from the church. They believe maybe in a different
religious group or maybe they've kind of subscribed
to a different way of thinking. But whatever
it is, they've walked away because they feel
they found a better way. And then some would
call themselves Christians. They would say that
they are Christ followers, but they're trusting
more in their own goodness than in his. They're
trusting more in their own self -righteousness
and their own ability to do right and their own
ability to do good than they are trusting in
God's. And then some are genuine followers of
Christ. They're still flawed, but they're faithfully
following. So we've got these different categories
of our friends. And I think if you're honest
with yourself, you could probably put a majority
of your friends in those categories. Maybe you
have friends that come from different faith backgrounds
altogether, and we'll talk about that at some
point in the series. But this morning, what we're
going to talk about the most is the first friend.
The friend that has the church background, but
maybe they just kind of drifted. They didn't
walk away on purpose. They didn't run. They weren't
pushed out. They just kind of drifted. Because,
again, in the South, We have a lot of friends
that have Christian backgrounds. This is the
Bible Belt, after all. And so we might assume
that they're okay because they have a church
background. But what I want to be very clear
about, and this is one thing that can be painful
for some people to hear, it can feel very judgmental.
And so I want to clarify before I say it that
I am in no way being judgmental. But the truth
is, is a church background is not the same as
a relationship with Christ. You can come to church
every Sunday. You can be here every time the
doors are open. You can participate in all the
events. You can be in all the Bible studies.
You can do everything that the church does. But
it does not qualify as a relationship with Christ.
Claiming Christianity is not the same thing as
following Jesus. I am a very. Christ follower
type person. I don't really even like to say
Christian that much anymore. If you'll notice,
sometimes I'll post things on Facebook and I
like to qualify that these are posts for Christians
because I have a lot of friends on Facebook that
aren't Christians. And I don't want them to hear
me say something about Christians and think I'm
talking to them because I'm not. I'm talking
to the Christ follower. And so we have to understand
that we can claim to be Christians all day long.
But to the world, all that sounds like is a bunch
of people who occupy a seat on Sunday mornings
and tell everybody else they're going to hell.
I want to be a follower of Christ, someone who
looks and lives like Jesus. That's what we're
called to. If we're being if we're willing to
be really honest, there may be someone sitting
in this room today who fits in one of those categories
that we just mentioned. That fits in the category
of the person that maybe they drifted away or
they were pushed away. Maybe you've been hurt
by the church and so you walked away. I don't
know which category that we just touched on that
you fit in, but I would imagine you fit somewhere
in there. And we don't want to sound judgmental,
so we avoid using the word that the Bible uses.
And hear me again when I say not being judgmental
at all, because I fit in this category some days
of the week. And the word. that we have to use,
if we're being very honest, is lost. But I want
you to understand that calling somebody lost
is not a judgmental, it's not a hateful thing
to say. Calling someone lost isn't an insult.
To say someone is lost is to say that they have
value, that they matter. Because you don't lose
something that doesn't matter to you. It's just
gone. I'll give you a story, and I did get permission
from Eliza to tell this because I don't want
to get in trouble. A couple of years ago, Eliza
lost one of the keys to her car. Conveniently
enough, just a few months before that, she lost
a key to our other car. So just going to tell
you really quickly, don't give my wife your keys.
Don't do that. Love her to death. Hopefully she
doesn't listen to this sermon. But yeah, she
lost one of her car keys and her car is, well,
it was fairly newer. I don't know if you know
this, but new car keys are not cheap to replace.
So I started calling around like, hey, how much
is it going to be to get a new key? Well, for
her car specifically, it was going to be like
$300. Car keys today cost anywhere from $100
to $400 to replace. It seems kind of silly to
me, but whatever. We looked everywhere for this
car key. I mean, we checked in the garbage. We
checked in all of our clothes. We checked every
inch of that car. We checked all over our apartment.
We looked everywhere for that key. Why did we
look for it? Because it had value. Because it
mattered. And so to say we lost, well, she, make
sure that's clear. She lost her car key was to
say she lost something of value, of something
that mattered. And so when we say that people
are lost, when we say that people have wandered
from God or maybe they've walked away from God
and they are his lost sheep. They're his lost
children. That's not to insult them. It's not
to say anything bad about them. It's to say they
matter to God and they matter to us. If we look
around this room and we see people that maybe
used to go to church with us or be a part of
our church family, and we say that person is
lost, it's not to say anything bad about them.
It's to say, I miss them. I need them. I want
them. And so when God says one of his children
is lost, he's saying they matter. Because to
God, every single person has a measurable value.
They cost a lot more than a car key. And when
they are lost, God does everything to track them
down. We saw that with the Israelite people.
We see that in the way that Jesus goes to the
lost. God values every single person. That's
why our theme verse for this series is Luke chapter
19, verse 10. For the son of man came to seek
and to save the lost. That's the mission of Jesus.
That's what Christ came for is to seek and save
the lost. And if we're followers of Jesus, if
we're going to be like Christ, if we're going
to do the things that Jesus did, then we don't
just believe in him. We follow him into his mission.
And if his mission was to come seek and save
the lost, then what are we supposed to be doing?
Seeking. Now, we don't do the saving. I want
that to be very clear. But we are supposed to
be seeking the lost. We introduce them to the
one who saves. Every one of us has been lost
at some point. Again, that's why I said calling
somebody lost is not an insult. We've all been
lost at some point and some may be sitting here
today. In the state of being lost, whether you
realize it or not. That's why for the next month,
we're going to focus on the people that Jesus
values. The lost. Specifically, we're going to
focus on. The one in your life that may be lost.
The one person that you know. The friend that
you have. The co -worker. The family member that
is lost. That they're not in a relationship with
Christ. The person that you can be praying for.
That you can be thinking about in your time of
meditation with God. In your time of prayer.
In your time of scripture reading. In your fasting.
We're going to be doing a 31 days of prayer and
fasting throughout the month of January. I'm
just throwing that on you right now. So starting
on, I think it's Wednesday. and New Year's Day?
Yes, Thursday is. Thursday is New Year's Day.
So starting on Thursday, you're going to give
up something. You don't have to. This is completely
up to you. I'm encouraging you to. You're going
to give up something for a month. I'm going to
give up Dr. Pepper. Well, Dr. Pepper and root
beer. I'm going to give up Dr. Pepper and root
beer and desserts. The desserts part can be amended.
I'm going to give up sodas for a month. And that's
going to be what I fast from. And we'll have
a prayer and fasting guide that we're going to
send out to you. And each week, the week's prayer
prompts will be printed out for you. But I want
you to think about what you can fast from so
that you can invite God in to do some really
incredible things. But I also want you to be
praying. And our prayer focus is going to be
on the one. The one in your life that is not
in relationship with Christ. The one in your
life that's not a follower. Because sometimes
the Great Commission, that whole go into all
the worlds and proclaim the gospel can feel kind
of like a daunting task that I have to give the
gospel to everybody. So the challenge is if we
can just start with one, maybe we can just change
the world. We did the math a few months ago in
a sermon where I told you, you know, there's
100 people in the room. If you multiply 100 by
two, you get to 200 and you keep multiplying.
If we just start with one, we can change this
county. In just a matter of years, we can bring
everyone to Christ if we just start with one.
And so today we begin with the one who has wandered.
So in Luke chapter 15, and this is where the
series is going to kind of be anchored is in
Luke 15. We start in verses one through seven.
We see Jesus, he's receiving some criticism from
the religious elites for the things that he's
teaching, the things that he's doing. And this
is how he responds to them. It's on the screen,
but again, it's a little small. So if you want
to turn there, it's Luke 15 verses 1 through
7. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all
drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and
the scribes grumbled, saying, This man receives
sinners and eats with them. So he told them this
parable. What man of you, having a hundred sheep,
if he has lost one of them, does not leave the
ninety -nine in the open country and go after
the one that is lost until he finds it? And when
he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders
rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together
his friends and his neighbors, saying to them,
Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that
was lost. Just so I tell you, there will be more
joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than
over ninety nine righteous persons who need no
repentance. I want you to notice first who Jesus
attracts. He attracts religious people, obviously,
because he's a rabbi. He's a teacher. And so
religious people are curious about him. But Jesus
also attracts sinners. He attracts outcasts.
He attracts the people that everybody else would
have avoided. He attracts those people. I got
to be very honest here. Sometimes I think Christians
push those people away. We kind of scare them
off. Again, I want to be a Christ follower, a
disciple of Christ. And if Jesus attracted those
people, then I want to attract those people.
Now, what I want to be very clear is I don't
want to attract those people by doing what they
do and fitting in with them. But I want to attract
those people by being so different that when
they look at me, they see somebody and say, what
in the world is wrong with that guy? I got to
know some about him. I got to know why he's so
different. Just imagine what the world would
think, what they would see if Christians actually
look like Jesus. If Jesus attracted those people,
maybe we could too. And so what I want to do
is live a life that attracts the people that
everybody else avoids. And Jesus gets criticism
for this. And the religious leaders, they can't
stand it. So Jesus tells this story. He talks
about a shepherd. The shepherd leaves his 99
sheep because he has 100, math, 99 sheep to go
find one. He goes to find the one, the one that
wandered off. And without hesitation, when he
finds him, he rejoices. He doesn't scold the
sheep. He doesn't shame the sheep and beat him
over the head with a stick and say, you stupid
sheep. How could you run away? He doesn't do
that. He puts the sheep over his shoulders. He
carries them home and he throws a party. He calls
his friends. He says, celebrate with me. What
was lost has been found. You know, something
we were. I was talking with somebody the other
day about clapping when somebody gives their
life to Christ, celebrating when somebody gives
their life to Christ. Y 'all, heaven throws a
party when someone comes to know Christ as their
Lord and Savior. Heaven rejoices. And so when
somebody gives their life to Christ in these
waters. What are we supposed to do? Just stand
here like good for you, dude. Happy for you.
I'll send you a card. No, we celebrate because
what was lost has been found. Here's the point.
Jesus values the one who wanders. He looks at
the one that kind of drifts off. He says, I still
love you and I'm going to do things. I'm going
to send people your way. I'm going to send things
your way so that you can be found. I want you
to be a part of my family. Jesus says the person
that wanders matters. And if we truly value something,
we go looking for it. So if we're going to be
like Jesus, then we've got to look at the person
who's wandered off. And we've got to say, I value
them. I'm going to go find them. And when I find
them, I'm going to celebrate. So let me ask you
today. If someone you love has wandered from
Christ. Why would you not go after them? Why
would you not chase them down? You know, I think
about when my kids, they start, they got, Peyton
got a four -wheeler and Easton got a little go
-kart for Christmas and they were driving down
the hill right there, the driveway, and Peyton
started going a little too fast. So I had to
run and catch him, right? Because I didn't want
him to drift down the hill. Because what's at
the bottom of the hill? A highway. Right. When
Jesus sees us drifting, he does what he can to
catch us. And when we see the people we love
drifting down a hill, we know what's at the bottom
of that hill. So why would we not chase them
to catch them? And I use the word wander. I use
the word drift because a sheep doesn't typically
leave intentionally. Sheep aren't they're not
the type to run away and just go do their own
thing because they want to. Sheep are kind of
dumb. And so if a sheep gets lost, it's because
it wandered off or drifted off from the rest
of the flock. And so we look at a sheep and we
say, well, it's gone. It's lost because it kind
of slowly, subtly. sometimes unnoticed, drifts
away from the flock. I want you to think about
a car that's not actively being steered. If you
take your hands off the steering wheel, maybe
if your front end alignment's good, you can stay
in the lane for a good while. But if it's not,
you're going to just slowly drift. And before
long, you end up in the median, or hopefully
that's all that happens is you just end up in
the median. I can remember one time when I was
in high school. My grandma and I, we had to drive
to Jackson, Mississippi. So about a three hour
drive. And well, I say my grandma and I, I drove
because my grandma doesn't drive far. And so
I drove, but I was really tired. And so on our
way back, I fell asleep and I had sunglasses
on. So my grandma didn't realize I'd fallen asleep.
And so all of a sudden the truck just starts
drifting into the median. And I guess my grandma
maybe wasn't paying attention because before
long we were in the median and I kind of had
to. Get back on the road. I wasn't paying attention.
I wasn't being conscious about keeping it on
the road. And before long, we were in danger.
That's what happens sometimes. Life gets busy,
right? We go to, like I said, we go to college
and we stop. going to church on Sunday or maybe
work gets busy and we miss Wednesday night because
it's been a long week or things get hard. So
we don't pray as much as we should. And life
is kind of chaotic. So we don't have the time
to sit down and read our Bible and spend time
with God. And these things happen and things
build up. And before long, we have not been to
church in a long time. We haven't talked to God
in a long time. And it's not because we don't
want to. We just aren't thinking about it. We
drift. You know exactly what that's like because
it's happened to you. I mean, I shouldn't just
put that on you, but I would imagine it's happened
to you, especially if you work and have kids.
Things get chaotic. And all of a sudden, the
thing to take the back seat is the God that you
can't see with your eyes. And so it's easy to
just put him on the back burner. We drift. That's
why I'm preaching this, because there are people
in this room that have drifted and there are
a ton of people out there that have drifted.
And I have three specific reasons for this lesson.
The first one is we have to be intentional if
we want to stay close to the shepherd, if we
want to stay on the road, if we want to stay
on the path that leads to that home in heaven
with God. We've got to be intentional about it
because it can be very easy to just drift off.
And before long, we're the sheep that's wandered
away that needs somebody to come find him. And
if we're not careful, we may never be found.
We've got to be intentional. The second thing
is, is if you've wandered, if you are lost. I
want you to hear this clearly. You can come home.
There is not a better time than right now to
come home. And the third is, is if someone you
love has wandered, you better go find them. I
better go find them. If someone you love has
wandered and if you want to be like Jesus, if
I want to be like Jesus, I better go find them.
Because they're not just going to find their
way home on their own. That's another thing about
sheep. Again, sheep are dumb. I'm not calling
our loved ones dumb. I'm just saying we're all
sheep. Sheep, when they wander, they're stuck
because they're not smart enough to find the
shepherd, to find the flock. They're not smart
enough. You know, if you get lost in the woods,
it's like, OK, if I just walk this direction
long enough, I will find my way home. Right.
It's not like that. Sheep, when they get lost,
they're lost until someone goes to find them.
And so if our friends are lost, we better go
find them. To follow Jesus is to see people the
way he sees them. And Jesus doesn't look at the
lost sheep and say, well, that was their fault.
I hope they find their way home. He looks at
them. He goes after them. And there are thousands
of people in our community with church backgrounds
who have simply drifted away from Christ. You
know those people. I don't because I'm new here.
But you know those people. The people that sat
in these chairs not too long ago. The people
that you grew up going to church with, the people
that you went on the youth group trips with,
the people that you maybe went to a Christian
college with and now they could care less about
talking to God. You know those people. And if
you see them the way Jesus sees them, we should
go find them. The next thing I want you to notice
what happens when the sheep is found again, and
I really want to emphasize this point, is there
is a celebration. There's not condemnation. Full
transparency, I got the idea for this series
from a preacher in Texas named Rick Ashley. And
one thing that Rick says in his sermon on the
sheep is he doesn't pick the sheep up and beat
him over the head with his club and say, you
stupid sheep, how dare you walk away? And he
doesn't do that. He throws a party. And I say
that, I said that twice now, maybe three times
in this lesson, because I want that message to
be very clear. I can't speak for all of you,
but I know I can speak for myself. And I think
I can speak for Chad and Phil as the shepherds.
We're going to celebrate when people come to
know Christ. And we're going to be a church that
welcomes the lost. We're going to be a people
that when people say, I want to know Jesus, we're
going to do everything we can to make sure they
get to know him. And when they find him, when
they give their life to him, we are going to
be a people that throw a party with heaven. Now,
we may not have a real party, although that'd
be kind of fun, right? Baptism parties. We should
work on that. We're going to be a people that
celebrate when somebody comes to know the greatest
gift. that was ever given. When somebody comes
to know the good shepherd, when somebody comes
to know the God that loves to give abundant life
to his children, we're going to celebrate that.
The church should reflect the heart of heaven.
So this month, we're committing ourselves to
prayer. We're going to commit ourselves to fasting.
I couldn't think of a better way to start our
new year, my first full year with you as a congregation.
I couldn't think of a better way to start us
off than praying to God for the people that we
know that are lost. to praying to God for our
church to be a church family that welcomes the
loss. I couldn't think of a better way than saying,
I'm going to give something up. I'm going to
pour something out so that God can fill me up
in a better way through fasting. That's a spiritual
discipline that we neglect, but I think we need
to focus on a little bit more because I'm going
to let something go so that God can give something
better. And y 'all know how much I love Dr. Pepper.
To say God can give me something better than
Dr. Pepper is saying something. But let me tell
you, if we have one baptism this year, that'll
be better than a month without Dr. Pepper. Because
that is what we're here for. We're here to find
the lost. So this month we commit to praying
for the lost. We commit to fasting so that God
can open our eyes for the lost. This isn't a
ritual. This isn't something that we're doing
because it's a cool thing to do. This is about
love. This is about loving our neighbor and loving
each other as God has loved us. So we're starting
with one because trying to reach everyone can
feel a little bit intimidating. And our prayer
and fasting guide is going to be, well, it's
already made. It's designed to help us do this
intentionally so that daily we can pray for our
one and daily we can listen for God's leading
and maybe look for God's prompting. And really
intentionally what we want to do is we want to
prepare prayer with loving and faithful action.
Because we can pray all day long. We can ask
God for things. We can talk to God about things.
But if we are not a people of action with our
prayer, then we're just people that make wishes
to God. And every time you see people in Scripture
come to know God, there's an action that they've
got to be involved in. You look at the blind
man. Jesus tells him. He says, go. Wash your
face in the pool. You look at the lame man. He
says, get up, walk. We can't just be people that
say, I'm going to pray. I'm going to trust God
to do it. We got to work with him. We have to
serve with him. So we do this not to fix people,
not to argue with people, but to seek, to invite,
to care, trusting that God will do what only
God can do. And as people return. whether they
come quickly or they kind of trickle in, as people
return to God, we rejoice together. We celebrate.
This morning, if there's somebody in here with
a heart that is troubled, if you feel like you're
that sheep that's wandered off, if you feel like
you fit into the category of lost, wherever you
stand today, if you're just hurting, if you need
to come to know Jesus for the first time, if
you're ready to give your life to him, the water
is always ready. If you need anything, We're
a church that loves to pray for people. We're
a church that loves to serve people. We're a
church that loves to sit with people, grieve
with people, rejoice with people, whatever you
need. This is a time of invitation made specifically
for you. I hope you'll take it as we stand and
as we sing.