Pray for one

Where do we start?

As we enter a new year, there is no other time when we feel more motivated to take action steps. A new year provokes in us a fresh start. Some will create new years resolutions that will change their lives. But even if you are, like me, not the type to make a resolution you still feel this sense of a fresh start. A chance to start something new or a chance to re-try. With this in mind I want to propose that our church takes this momentum and begins anew. But not new in the sense of revamping a ministry, trying something controversial, or the ever popular in American churches a guilt driven “give the church more money” vision. NO I want us to do something that matter’s. I want us to move toward the changing of our mindset. A re-adopting of the same mindset the early church and the Apostles possessed. Their vigor and passion to spread the Gospel has been unmatched since the first century. They were bold and fearless. They truly cared for the lost and loved the flock. They spurred one another on to love and good works. I think one pastor found a way to kind of rekindle that passion for the LORD’s Kingdom. His name is Bo Chancey and he wrote the book, “Pray for one.” We are going to take this same approach in this series.

There have been all kinds of ways which people have tried to grow closer to the LORD. Maybe you can relate. In your pursuit of growing closer to the LORD, you fell into a legalistic relationship with God. Meaning, your relationship with God stepped out of Grace and now your relationship with Him is now built upon your obedience. Your performance dictated whether or not you were close to the LORD. Maybe you are living this out as we speak. But an obedience driven relationship will not produce a relationship of intimacy. When one must perform in order to be accepted. At best it produces an obedience but relationally it creates resentment. There is no way we can tell someone Gospel when we are, first of all are functioning apart from the Gospel, and also we are trying to tell people about someone we resent more than we love. “Excuse me can I tell you about my relationship with God which is draining, separated from any assurance, and only leaving me bitter?" God wants no such legalistic fellowship with us. We will address this in a moment.

But there have also been all kinds of ways that people have tried to get the message of the Gospel out into the world. We have tried to repackage and re-brand the Gospel. We want it to be more palatable for people. This spawned the most oxymoronic movement ever to be done, the seeker-sensitive movement. Let’s starts a church that focuses not on feeding the sheep, rather, let’s make a church for non-believers. By doing so we have removed the purpose of the Gospel. We want only to emphasize God’s incredible love and mercy apart from His justice and wrath. The other side of the coin are the Legalist’s who will emphasize the justice and wrath and leave out His love and mercy. The Gospel requires all. We cannot tell someone about Jesus by changing Jesus. This is why the American church is filled with false converts. They have submitted to the lordship of a god of their making. We have tried to make the Gospel more palatable. How arrogant and foolish can we be? There is no greater message than the Gospel and We want to change it? The Gospel tells me, that I, a rebellious creation, who lived according to my own will and purpose. I was at odds with God and I did not care. My actions were in direct conflict with His Law and I did not care. I saw no need for a Savior and in fact I found one to be a nuisance. But He stepped in any way. He stepped in when I wanted nothing to do with Him. Romans 5:8 “8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” There is not greater news than the Gospel. Both for the legalist and the lost alike.

In both these ways the church has attempted, in error, to grow closer to the LORD while drawing in more people. But how can we do that an not compromise the Gospel. How can we grow in the LORD while at the same time bringing more to know Him? This is where we begin, no surprise, with the Gospel.

I want to begin by asking the question, why is the Gospel to transformative? The answer is important to us as we pray for one. The Gospel is retold by Jesus in a Parable, the Parable of the lost sheep.

Luke 15:1-7 “1 Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. 2 Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” 3 So He told them this parable, saying, 4 “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 “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 which was lost!’ 7 “I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” What jumps out to us first is how Jesus is surrounded by those the religious refused to associate with. This should immediately draw us in. Why would Jesus be among, eat meals with, and spend so much time with sinners? The Pharisee’s asked the same question. But they asked in their condemnation of Jesus. They thought they had the Scriptural authority. We see a clear prohibition with God’s people associating with sinners. Psalm 1:1 “1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!” We see more clarity in Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth, 1 Corinthians 15:33 “33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.” What is going to important for us moving forward as we pray for one, Jesus models that one can in fact go and reach out to the lost, and not be influenced by them. Paul did the same. In fact Peter recieved guff about it as well in Acts 11:1-3 “1 Now the apostles and the brethren who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those who were circumcised took issue with him, 3 saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.”” There is a difference in being around and being associated with. There is a difference in reaching out and participation. The early church knew this. We also need to remember this.

Jesus responds to the Pharisee’s in verse 4, “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?” What makes Jesus’ statement so interesting is the audience. On one side we have tax collectors and sinners. The lowest on the social ladder. Then we have the Pharisee’s who were much higher on the social ladder. Jesus asks a question to the crowd which requires them to step in the shoes of the person in the parable. On one side we have an upgrade and on the other a severe demotion. A shepherd was just above a tax collector in the eyes of the Pharisee. The shepherd was often uneducated and spent 7 days a week with the flock. This would exclude them from the pharisee's man-made ceremonial laws. They would be deemed unclean. So Jesus in this question calls the pharisee to demote themselves and be a shepherd. Funny how, Jesus has no problem referring to Himself as a shepherd, both in the OT and New God speaks of Himself as a shepherd. “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?” If you have 99 sheep and one goes missing, our first thought is, “I still have 99 why would I leave them?” We might also ask, “Who will protect the 99.” In the parable there is a focus and that focus has a point. The focus is not the 99, it is the one. That is what makes the parable such a beautiful image of the Gospel. We might think it is silly to leave the 99 as losing one sheep is not of great loss in the big picture. One commentator rightly says, “Reason would dictate that the shepherd should cut his losses, count his blessings, and go—happily. This the shepherd does not do. He is not predicating decisions on strategies and outcomes. He is concerned about one lost sheep. One sheep in danger takes precedence over all other sheep well and safe.”

It is not about the strategy, the numbers as a whole, another notch on the belt. That’s what churches have forgotten. Its about the one. The one that has gone astray. The one which is lost. Other’s might say, “Why them?” But why not them? This is how the pharisee’s saw those who they deemed as unclean and less than, “Why them?” This is where legalism brings us. While the other side of the coin would not only place us in the fray among sinners, which is good, but it would require us to praise and even participate in the very sin which those we are trying to reach are participating in. Jesus, the Apostles, and the early church did neither. Here is what I want us to take way from Jesus’ Parable, as He sits among the very sheep who have gone astray. 4 “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 “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 which was lost!’ 7 “I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” First, let’s address the irony of Jesus statement in verse 7, the Ninety-nine who need no repentance. Does such a person exist? No! Romans 3:10 “10 as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one;” But the Pharisee’s, in their self-righteousness believed they were in no need. Not like those sinners Jesus hung out with. In light of this, they would have to stare at the glaring reaction of the shepherd in verses 5-6. The shepherd rejoices not over the ninety-nine which in no doubt were right where he left them, but the one. The which was lost. If sheep could talk perhaps they would ask, “Why them? Why such rejoicing over that one who wandered off? We stayed. We did the right thing.” This sounds an awful lot like those in Matthew 7 who stand before God and say, “Look at all this we did for you. We stayed. Look at our works.”

This is at the crux of our problem as Christians, we have forgotten how valuable that one is to God. But if anyone should understand what is at stake should it not be the Christian?! We know what it means to be the sheep who has wondered and dies apart from the shepherd.

In the Gospel of John Jesus teaches one of His “I am” claims. He says, “I am the Good shepherd” and He compares this to a hireling or hired hand. Jesus says in John 10:12-13 “12 “He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 “He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep.” This description of a hired hand should convict all of us. It should convict us because we see the heart of God in the Shepherd. We know how far Jesus went to save that sheep and it was at the cost of His very flesh and blood. We know how far He would go to save that one. The shepherd goes after his sheep because he loves them. he loves that one and He goes and finds it and he celebrates in the rescue, the salvation of that sheep. But can we say, that we share in this? Do we have the heart of a shepherd or the heart of a hireling? Its a question that leaves me convicted.

Augustine when writing about the parable of the lost sheep said this, bear with me because this quote can seem confusing you will see its easy to understand and brutally convicting. He said, “The sheep moreover are insolent. The shepherd seeks out the straying sheep, but because they have wandered away and are lost they say that they are not ours. “ Why do you want us? Why do you seek us?” they ask, as if their straying and being lost were not the very reason for our wanting them and seeking them out. “If I am straying”, he says, “if I am lost, why do you want me?” You are straying, that is why I wish to recall you. You have been lost, I wish to find you. “But I wish to stray”, he says: “I wish to be lost”. So you wish to stray and be lost? How much better that I do not also wish this. Certainly, I dare say, I am unwelcome. But I listen to the Apostle who says: Preach the word; insist upon it, welcome and unwelcome. Welcome to whom? Unwelcome to whom? By all means welcome to those who desire it; unwelcome to those who do not. However unwelcome, I dare to say: “You wish to stray, you wish to be lost; but I do not want this”. For the one whom I fear does not wish this. And should I wish it, consider his words of reproach: The straying sheep you have not recalled; the lost sheep you have not sought. Shall I fear you rather than him? Remember, we must all present ourselves before the judgement seat of Christ.”

Augustine is saying that the lost will be lost and not even know that they are lost. Why are we searching for them. Why do we want them to know Jesus. We are to go searching and finding and when met with resistance, as Augustine said, “You wish to stray, you wish to be lost; but I do not want this.” Who cares if they want to be lost, if anyone should know what it means to be lost and the eternity which awaits it should be us and our vigor must grow all the more. I don’t care if you get uncomfortable. I don’t care if dinner is ruined. I don’t care if you hate for telling you that you sins lay bear the verdict which awaits you. You may want this but do don’t! It is the heart of a hireling which backs down. It is the heart of the hireling who has no burden for the lost. But God has not called us to have the heart of a hireling. We are to have a new heart, transformed by Him, and sanctified in Him which beats the very same burden for the lost. Dear brother’s and sisters, with the burden of our sin no longer upon our shoulders, having been swallowed up on the cross of Jesus Christ, with the burden of our sin gone, surely we can acquire God’s burden for the lost.

I want to leave you with this quote from Charles Spurgeon, “Oh, my brothers and sisters in Christ, if sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies; and if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay... If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.”

During this time of invitation though the call for sinners to come to repentance. The sheep who has gone astray to be found is always available. But I would also ask you, as you examine your life as I have examined mine, and you find in the heart of a hireling, as I have would you meet me down front and pray with me for God to give us the heart of a shepherd. To give us a burden for the lost. That our hearts would be prepared to pray for one. We cannot even begin the daily task, of praying for God to bring us one person every single day that we can give the Gospel to, if we have the heart of a hireling. I have searched my life, and I see a hireling. I cannot remember the last time I told someone the Gospel. I have answered questions and challenged objections, but that is not the Gospel. To answer a skeptical question is worthless without the Gospel. I need that to change in my heart. So how about you? During this time of invitation, if you are like me, come forward and we can pray for one another.