I was saddened today by the ice because we had such a wonderful service planned. But we are the church with no walls, so I have decided to leave all of you with a short message to give you something to think about until we meet again.
We have been talking about the Gospel, the good news, and the life changing power of the Gospel. I have also been mentioning that we need to begin fulfilling our mission as believers by bringing the Good News to those who still do not know Jesus. That we begin “fostering” people into God’s family with all the blessings that come with being in His family.
There is a parable Jesus teaches in Luke 15:4-7 The parable of the Lost Sheep:
“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”
Imagine you and your family go on an overseas vacation. It’s mom, dad, brothers and sisters and you are in a foreign land visiting the sites. While touring the countryside one of your siblings wanders off and you cannot find them. You can just imagine the panic. Our entire focus would shift from enjoyment and vacation mode to locating the lost child, that would be our absolute top priority. We would probably call our relatives back home and inform them of our desperate situation and notify the local authorities. Why? Our loved ones life could be in danger, it’s just an awful unknown and we would be devastated until we found them. The pain we would be feeling is because we love all the members of our family dearly. Now imagine after a days search we find our sibling and we are reunited with them. What a celebration that would be, the relief, the joy, the happiness? This is what the above parable is all about.
God has assigned us, the believers and followers of Jesus, to go into the world and help bring those who are lost back into the family. Why? because we are all God’s children. We are all brothers and sisters with God as our common father. There are many people who are lost in our midst and God is relying on his church, true believers, to gather them up. Why? Because God loves everyone dearly. He does not want to leave anyone in a foreign country lost and alone. He’s shown us to what great lengths He will go to save us by allowing his son to endure the cross. The entire bible from Genesis to Revelation is about reconciliation of his children to Himself. God want’s all of His children to be reconciled with him so that we can all enter eternity together as one large loving happy family. But the work of finding and saving the lost is placed on us, his church. We are Jesus’ hands, feet, and mouth in this age. He has given us the responsibility. And sometimes the lost are those who have already become part of our church family! They wander off and lose their way. Belonging to Jesus means we too share in the shepherding duties.
We have our work cut out for us and it is a work of love. The PCF family is going to become equipped to be disciples this year so we can become an effective search party to find the lost and reunite them with their true family, God’s family.
Missed a service but still want to hear the sermon? Go to our website where you can listen to past sermons. Go to https://praisecommunityfellowship.com
I miss you all and will be in touch. See you soon. Love, pastor kent