The Lost Need a Guide

Title:  THE LOST NEED A GUIDE

Text:  1 Peter 2:21-25

            Have you ever been lost in the woods?

            I almost never have a problem with a sense of direction.  But I got lost one time, and I vividly remember the fear that overcame me and gripped me for about half a day.  I was elk hunting in Colorado with my brother.  I was new to the area, but my bother had hunted there before.  It was stormy, with a light drizzle.  I went up hill, he went down hill.  We were going to comb the mountainside in the same direction and hopefully flush out some game.

            The storm settled in and the clouds came down.  They hid the mountains on the other side of the valley that were my bearing point.  I neither saw nor heard any game, nor could I see my brother.  I remember going through a flat area and then back down.

            Then the storm lifted about noon.  When I could see for a distance, the whole valley and opposite mountains were unfamiliar – totally different.  I was lost, I knew it, and I was alone.  Real fear set in.  It gripped me.  I remember my Dad’s words to sit down and wait; don’t keep walking farther away.  So I did for half a day.  No sun.  No game.  Nothing familiar.

            Towards evening when I realized I had to seek shelter, I started retracing my steps.  Then for the first time all day, I ran into someone else.  I asked him where I was.  He asked what road I came in on, and where my camp was.  When I told him, he said, “You’re on the wrong side of the Continental Divide.  Go back that direction and you’ll end up on that road at the bottom of the valley.”

            As I crossed over I found familiar bearings and I knew once again where I was and how to get back to camp.  I walked in after dark when my group was about to form a search party.

            This long story has some spiritual applications.

            First, life with all of it’s distractions has a way of causing us to take our eyes off our spiritual Guide.  When we lose sight of Him, our righteousness is compromised and we lose our bearings in our spiritual walk.

            Second, when God lifts the spiritual fog to let us see our true condition – our state of lostness – fear sets in, and we don’t know which way to turn.

            Third, when lost, you need a guide to show you how to get back to camp.  When you realize that the Guide who knows the way through every difficult circumstance is Jesus, and you accept His guidance in your life, you are on your way back home!

            Read Text.

            Song – “Show me Thy ways, teach me Thy paths, free me from all of my fears, trusting in You is so easy to do when I see You as You really are.”