Pursuing Love

Good Morning and welcome! Today we begin our new sermon series entitled “The Jesus Story.” Over the next 6 weeks we’ll talk about Encounters with Jesus and we’ll do so through the Gospel of Luke. Through each message we’ll encounter Jesus’ Love, His divinity, His forgiveness, His values, His sacrifice, and His resurrection.

We pray you’ll get much from this series and put the things you learn from encountering Jesus into use as you go about your life each and every day, thinking deeply on each subject - discovering how to act on it.

Again - today we begin the first sermon in the series and its entitled “Pursuing Love” – we’ve called it “Pursuing Love” because that’s exactly how Jesus pursued you if you are His follower … or like He is pursuing you if you have yet to turn away from your sins, confess His name as Lord, and believe in His resurrection. Jesus is in love with you …. He loves you … and He wants you to be His… He wants you to believe in Him …. He wants you to follow Him …. He wants to be Lord of your life ….. He pursues because He loves. He chases after you because He loves. He loves you and proved it to you by sacrificing Himself on the Cross so you could be forgiven of your sins. He loves you that much ….. He will continue to pursue you until your life is over …. Until you die ….

According to Ecology.com in 2011, 55.3 million people die in this world every year …. That is a rate of 8 per 1,000 …. That is 151,600 people every day …. Or 6,316 people every hour, or 105 people every minute, or 2 people every second ….. According to the Pew Research Center in 2015, there were 2.3 billion Christians in the world out of a total population of 7.3 billion …. that leaves 5 billion people that do not believe in Jesus … that do not follow Jesus.

Using the death rate, That comes to around 52.5 million nonbelievers that die every year, people that are lost from ever knowing salvation through Jesus ….. 52.5 million people that Jesus loves …. People treasured by Jesus…. and are now lost …. They have missed out ….. That number is staggering and should break our heart ….. 52.5 million people lost every year, missing out and never to know Jesus. Its just sad and heartbreaking … and here is an interesting tidbit…. According to Dr. Dave Early from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary … one of my seminary professors … if you gave each of those 52.5 million lost people 2 feet of space and lined them up side by side ….. the line would wrap around the world at the equator a total of 70 times…… can you imagine that? ….. 70 times …. these numbers are staggering …. they are why Jesus left us here once we came to know Him …. We are here to share Jesus with all those people so they can know Him before they die …… but us Christians seem to have our priorities misaligned with that of our Savior …

What I am about to say may or may not be true of us at LifeSpring Church – it might not apply to any of us – or it might apply to some of us – you know and God knows if it applies to you …. Some might even apply to me …. and it does apply to many Christians around the country and around the world …. If you are in Christ Jesus, No one is called to be a church consumer …. No one was called to come and sit in a church service once a week, sing a few songs, shake a few hands, share some pleasantries, and take in a bunch of information and then do absolutely nothing with it for the rest of the week. No one was called to read their bible over and over again, memorize a few inspiring verses, and fill their head with bible knowledge and then do nothing that it says to do. No one was called to see the needs of their neighbors, their families, of strangers, or acquaintances and have the means to meet their needs and then do nothing about it. No one was called to go into the workplace and be with a group of people day in and day out and never get to know them … and do nothing for them, doing nothing with them, and never share their life or Jesus with them.

No one was called to live where they live and stay in the house, and never get to know their neighbors and others down the street. No one was called to come and make a confession of faith and say yes to Jesus and then do nothing else. No one was called to sit on their hands and do nothing. No one was called to see people that need Jesus and never share the Good News of our Savior. God has not called anyone to do nothing.

We are all here for a purpose. God has called each of us to LifeSpring Church. It belongs to God and its our church! We are responsible to God for its operation, care, and maintenance … And we are all called to do something. That something is to make disciples. Its in our church mandate. And something has to happen first in order to make disciples. One of those somethings is for God’s people to share their life in relationship and share the Gospel with people that do not know Jesus.

Once those people come to confess Jesus is Lord and believe He was raised from the dead then they become disciples … and a disciple is a learner … a learner of the things of God. That is God’s will for your life …. His will is that we make disciples.

Now we need to understand some things based on what’s been said so far … I am not saying that anyone here is specifically doing nothing … no one is being called out … there is no finger pointing.

If anyone feels offended, or has feelings like they are being told off,

or feels like they’re being convicted, or has feelings that some of these things might apply personally …. that’s likely the Holy Spirit talking to you …. making those feelings or convictions you are experiencing being something you need to rectify before God … its between you and Him. God loves you and wants you to do His will …. He wants you - the Christian - to help reach a lost and dying world for Him. Because He loves the people of this world – those made in His image …. He is pursuing those people in love … And he told us so.

We read in the Gospel of John chapter 3 verse 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” And who does He want to have eternal life? … who is it that He wants to save from hell? We learn this from second Peter chapter 3 verse 9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” God does not want people to die in their sins and be sent to hell for all of eternity …. He wants everyone to turn from their sin and believe in and follow Jesus! God pursues people in love. Amen!

Now … the term “lost” that I used previously, that you’ve heard me say several times means people lost in their sins, people separated from God due to their sin …. People cut off from God due to their unbelief in Jesus, people not sealed by God the Holy Spirit …. people at odds with God …. people living in lawlessness …. people dominated by the evil one…. people living like and believing they do not need a Savior. Their minds are depraved …. darkened in their understanding of the things of God…… they are lost in the wilderness …. And yet Jesus loves them and wants them and He values them …. And there is also a lostness among Christians… lost Christians are those that wander away from God foolishly… they have gone astray …. Christians that have fallen away from the narrow path … they have gone off in their own direction … away from the voice of The Shepherd… away from the voice of Jesus…. they are indulging in the things of this world with little regard for anything but themselves …. indulging in their sin. Jesus values people … He pursues lost people in love …. Jesus has a heart for lost people, and He told us so in the Gospel of Luke - in the parable of the lost sheep … so please go ahead and turn in your Bible or Bible app, to Luke, Chapter 15, verses 1 to 7 or follow along on the screen.

Starting in verse 1 we read “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.”

Now that we’ve read this passage of scripture… let’s go back and break it all down and provide some insights.… So back in verse 1 we see that Jesus was hanging out with some tax collectors and sinners. Have you ever noticed when reading your Bible that tax collectors seemed to have their own category? Have you ever wondered why that is? To put it into context ….. a first century, Roman, Israel-dominated context - tax collectors where generally Jewish men that were commissioned by Rome to gather taxes from the citizens… but they also gathered more than was required for Caesar…. They would collect Caesar’s taxes and pocket the excess for themselves … so tax collectors were rather wealthy … they received their wealth by stealing from their own people….

collecting taxes for the hated Romans and stealing from their own people ….. and the people despised them for it …. they were outcast from Jewish society… were banned from the synagogue … and basically hung out together… they were thought of as less than a normal everyday sinner in Jewish society.

So knowing this, Dr. Luke, the writer of the Gospel of Luke and careful investigator of everything concerning Jesus, gave tax collectors their own category when writing Chapter 15 of the Gospel. Does that make sense to you now?

Going back – then - to verse 1, you notice those that did not know Jesus wanted to know Him, and wanted to be with Him, and wanted to learn from Him …. so they gathered close to hear what He had to say.

At the same time in verse 2, we read the religious leaders of the time were grumbling because of who Jesus was associating with …. who He was hanging out with …. the reason they grumbled was due to Jewish tradition and their own hypocritical personal views .... they, the Jewish people, were not to associate with sinners …. they had to stay away from sinners …. sinners - to them – were disgusting subclass, lowlifes that didn’t deserve the time of day …. They were religiously dirty … So the religious leaders could not understand why Jesus would associate with sinners …. It was against everything the Jewish religious leaders taught and practiced. What Jesus was doing was wrong in their eyes ….. they did not see or recognize the sinner needed a Savior. In response to the grumbling of the religious leaders, Jesus told them a parable …. a story designed to teach a lesson… to illustrate values or standards … So starting in verse 4, Jesus immediately asked a question which seems to be designed to get the listener to see the issue from a proper perspective …. shepherds had to account for all the sheep in their care … they had to find the lost sheep and if they could not find it alive and safe – they would have to provide an explanation of what happened to it … like finding the remains of a sheep killed by a predator and present those remains to the owner of the herd …. there was not a man among the group of tax collectors, sinners, and religious leaders that did not understand this …. He got the religious leaders to see their grumbling, judgmental comment was not in proper perspective …. It was not in line with God’s view of people – of the sheep - what we also see is an illustration of God’s heart for lost people …. the sheep …. His love for lost people ….. the value He places on the people He loves …. the value He places on those that stray from Him …. We see Jesus’ heart in loving pursuit of the lost …. Jesus left His dwelling in Heaven with the Father, came to earth as a human – fully God and fully human – to sacrifice Himself for all of mankind so they could be saved from their sin and be sealed by His Holy Spirit.

Just as a shepherd would - Jesus leaves those already with Him to find the ones lost from Him …. Jesus - our Shepherd - doesn’t leave the ones with Him – the sheep that knows His voice - in a dangerous situation …. He doesn’t leave them vulnerable or without protection … an open field provides no cover for a predator and it allows a shepherd to see everything with no obstacles that would hinder a rapid response to a predator’s attack …. the open field provides adequate protection of the herd …. in pursuit of the lost sheep the rest of the herd is protected. Jesus pursues the people lost to Him in love.

Continuing in verses 5 and 6 we see rejoicing …. We see the great joy of the shepherd once the lost sheep is found safe …. the lost sheep that is saved from harm …. The lost sheep that is saved and in the protection of the shepherd …. what we see is the joy Jesus has when a lost person is saved from their sins and freed from eternity in hell …. being joyfully united to God …. the joy He shares with His followers ….. the joy we have when a lost person repents, believes, and turns to our Savior …. And what a joy it is! What a joyous occasion when the lost sinner is saved!!

And continuing in verse 7 Jesus ends the parable by explaining the meaning …. Explaining the meaning to the religious leaders and in some ways to Christians as well …. the religious leaders of that time thought they were sinless and better than the sinner because they practiced the rules they put in place so that they did not break God’s law … the rules they seemed to place as more important than the actual intent of God’s law. And there are Christians today that act in much the same way …. that they are somehow better than the unsaved sinner ….

In verse 7, Jesus tells those gathered around Him to hear the parable - though there is great joy in heaven over all the people that had already been saved by Jesus …. There is even greater joy experienced in heaven when a single lost person repents of their sin and is saved by the blood of Lord Jesus …. Lost people are valued …. they are loved ….. and there is an explosion of joy experienced by God, and the angels, and followers of Jesus when a lost person accepts what Jesus offers because of what Jesus did on the Cross ….

Though we do not read in this parable about any joy experienced by the lost person once they are saved …. But we know they were very joyful - having experienced that joy when we were saved. Jesus lovingly pursues the lost and rejoices beyond comprehension when they respond to His offer of love and accepts Him as Savior! Amen!

The parable of the lost sheep shows us the value God places on the lost sinner …. we see Jesus’ loving pursuit of lost people …. We see the great joy experienced when a lost person is saved …. we see God’s heart – the heart of our Lord Jesus concerning the lost ….

So … as followers of Jesus …. Let’s think through some questions we need to answer:

- Do you value lost people in the same way Jesus values them?

- Do you, instead, look at sinners as the religious leaders did in the parable – do you look down on lost people? Do you think you are better than them?

- Are you a consumer of the things of God or a conduit to the people of this world for God?

- Do you actively seek to engage your lost friends and family members concerning the love Jesus has for them?

- In your personal relationships with people – whether a sinner or a saint - do you demonstrate God’s love for them by serving them, helping them, caring for them, taking care of their needs?

- Do you actively seek to know your neighbors and co-workers to win them for Christ? Do you actively seek to serve them?

- Do you actively seek to share Jesus with people that do not know Him?

- Are you intentional in living out your faith in our Lord Jesus?

- Do people see Jesus in you?

- Are you actively making disciples?

- Are you fully participating in the life and mission of this church using your time, treasure and talent?

- Are you actively engaged in fulfilling LifeSpring’s mandate:

which is…“To grow the Family of God, by sharing Christ’s love and life to all generations.”?

From our mandate we see the following elements…. to grow God’s family means lovingly serving and pursuing lost people by sharing your life and faith in relationship with lost people so they can become followers and disciples of Jesus … and it means we lovingly disciple and serve one another. We grow God’s kingdom and we grow in knowledge, service, and love of our Lord God …. that is LifeSpring’s mandate – it is our mandate - and it aligns with God’s will for us – it is in line with God’s heart – it is in line with His values – its aligned with His loving pursuit of lost people … the people valued by our Savior!

If you are a follower of Jesus, then you know that Jesus went after you …. that He values you …. You know He lovingly pursued you ….

You know the joy you experienced when you surrendered yourself to Him … today you also learned of the great joy experienced in heaven when you were saved ….. Jesus wants all people to experience what you experienced ….. He wants none to perish in their sin …. He wants you to share the heart He has for people that do not know Him …. you are the light of the world …. you are the city on the hill …. Jesus has left us here in this world to join Him on His mission to lovingly pursue the lost and making disciples for Him.

If you are not a Christian …. Please know that Jesus loves you … He is pursuing your heart … He wants you to be with Him forever …. there is nothing you have done that He cannot and will not forgive …. You do not need to get yourself together or correct any wrongs before making the decision to follow Him …. come as you are right now …. He is there for you – He already did everything for you so that you can become His … so pray with me now….

“God… I confess that Jesus is Lord, I believe in His resurrection, and I now turn away now from my sin and I ask that You forgive me for all my sins and make me yours! Thank you for your forgiveness and Lord Jesus! I ask in the Name of my Savior Jesus Christ – Amen!”

If you prayed that prayer and wholeheartedly meant it – and God knows if you meant it – then you belong to God and said yes to being a follower of Jesus! There is great joy in you – amongst believers here – and taking place in heaven right now because you repented of your sin and turned to God through Jesus Christ ….

Amen, Amen and Amen!!

Now I ask the band to come back up on stage while we pray….