Winning the Lost
Journey Through The Gospels • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 3 viewsWho are the lost, the least, and the last? Those who are separated from God or those who are separated from the fold?
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10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 18:11 (ESV)
For the Son of Man came to save the lost
12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?
13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.
14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
What does this story mean to you?
Who is the man in the parable?
Who are the 99?
What do you think of when you think of the one?
What are some qualities of a lost lamb?
Who is the emphasis of the parable on?
Who is the one doing the work, the man or the Lamb?
Why would a lamb be separated from the flocks?
Why would a person be separated?
One who was with the flocks but now is not!
1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.
2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”
3 So he told them this parable:
4 “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?
5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
6 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.’
7 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.
Same story right? A little different back drop. Who are the 99 and who is the 1?
Who needs to go after the 1?
Who benefits?
What is the reaction of the man?
What is the heart of the man?
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
Who is the emphasis on?
The responsibility?
What is the hope or intended result?
3 Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him,
4 and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
6 And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
Does it now make a difference that the one little lost lamb has sinned against you?!
How many times…. As many as it takes!
15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
DON’T STOP THERE! DON”T WRITE HIM OFF!
15 “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.
16 If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing,
17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days.
18 The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely,
19 then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
20 And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you.
21 Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Compared to
7 “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!
8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.
9 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.
It is far better to own up to our transgressions and receive temporal punishment - than to get away with sinning and violating others and receive eternal punishment.
Jesus is advocating Church discipline and separating forgiveness from consequences. Whereby consequences actually help people - not hurt them.
17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
NOW GIVE HIM OVER TO JUDGMENT - In hopes of reconciliation and restoration!
1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife.
2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
3 For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing.
4 When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus,
5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
There was no “trial” - there were enough witnesses that Paul heard about it from very credible sources - not gossips - but ones who were sent with the purpose of reporting events.
Paul didn’t even go in person.
Look at what results in his next letter...
5 Now if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure—not to put it too severely—to all of you.
6 For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough,
7 so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.
8 So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him.
9 For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything.
10 Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ,
11 so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.
The man was repentant - so forgive and restore.
Doesn’t mean to TRUST. He clearly needs accountability.
James Newton, in his memoir, “Uncommon Friends,” records a story that when his friend (and boss) Thomas Edison was working on the light bulb it took about 24 hours and numerous scientists to produce one bulb in the lab. The fine wires and vacuum bulb and insulated contacts all had to be meticulously made. [I wonder how many tools they invented over the whole process.] One time, when a bulb was finished and ready to go be tested, it was given to a boy to take it up the stairs to the test room. Nervously, he carried it and made it to the top of the stairs before he dropped the bulb and shattered it in pieces across the floor!
They quickly set to work on fashioning another bulb.
A few days later, when the next bulb was finished, Edison handed it to the same boy to bring to the test room. The boy performed the task without fail!
Remember, Edison is the man who said, “I didn’t fail, I just learned 10,0000 ways not to make a light bulb.”
He is author of the phrase, “If at first you don’t suceed, try, try again.”
How do think that effected the boy’s life?
Jeffrey Stibel, Chairman and CEO of Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp., in his article Why I Hire People Who Fail, disclosed,
“Often when interviewing, I poke around and see if I can get the candidate to acknowledge a failure. It’s a red flag to me if a candidate can’t admit a mistake with a bit of self-deprecating humor. The tendency to dodge direct questions with a Miss America-style answer may indeed be a great asset to someone else’s company, but it’s not a great fit for success at mine.”
Everyone fails, everyone makes mistakes, and everyone even makes ‘on-purposes’ that we’re not proud of. If we can’t admit those, and repent, we can’t move forward. We are stuck and will continue making such failures time and time again.
If you make no mistakes, you cannot learn from them.
I want to welcome a culture where mistakes and failures are readily acknowledged and learned from.
If we can’t be “fail-safe” then let us be “safe-to-fail”
Not an excuse for laziness or sin, but taking risks of failure to achieve success in excellence.
Some call it “failing forward.” Some call it “successful failures. “
THE CONTINUATION OF THIS MESSAGE IS “At Any Cost”