Lost People Matter

Let God Dislocate Your Heart With His Love For The Lost

SYNOPSIS: Every time you look into the eyes of another person, you’re seeing a soul God so loves that He sent his Son to die for them. So if lost people matter to a missionary God that much, then crossing borders—the street, the railroad tracks, the ocean—to reach them with his love must become our driving mission as well. Now that will require the realignment of our priorities, it will take our focus, and it will demand our sacrifice, but it will be worth it because it will put us squarely on mission with God.

Lost People Matter

“The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we become.”

So if getting more intensely missionary means getting closer to Jesus, and if getting closer to Jesus requires getting more intensely missionary, then sign me up!

How about you?

But that’s easier said than done. You see, if you’re like me, your fallen nature is self-centered. We focus on ourselves … we put our wants, our needs, our preferences ahead of everything else.

So being on mission with God requires the realignment of our priorities and sacrifice and focus. It requires fierce conviction that becomes our driving force for being fully on mission.

Bottom Line: Lost people matter to God, so they must matter to us, as well!

Click below to hear an inspiring story of a woman in East Africa who has given her live to take the Good News of Jesus to her own people.

I invite you to partner with me today to tell the whole world about Jesus, one unreached village at a time.

Did you know that when you partner with Petros Network it only costs $3600 to plant a thriving reproducing church in a difficult, hard-to-reach place through an indigenous missionary?

Check out the different ways you can give today and join me in being intensely missionary at petrosnetwork.org/donate.

You Are God’s Harvester of Souls

Lost People Matter to God - They Should Matter to Us, Too!

SYNOPSIS: There is a very real harvest of human souls that will spend somewhere in eternity—either heaven or hell. To the Lord of the harvest, the in-gathering of these unsaved souls is his primary “business,” if you will. Moreover, the Lord of the harvest has recruited you and me into his field to do the harvesting of these souls on his behalf. All that to say, since lost people matter that much to God, they must matter that deeply to us as well! As Elton Trueblood observed, winning souls “is not a professional job for a few trained men, but is instead the unrelenting responsibility of every person who belongs to the company of Jesus.”

Project 52 – Weekly Scripture Memory // Matthew 9:37-3

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest”

This verse represents a clear view into the compassionate heart of a seeking God, and more than anything, it reveals the compelling core of his very being.

Moreover, Jesus’s words remind us that there is a very real harvest of human souls that will spend somewhere in eternity—either heaven or hell. And being Lord of the harvest, it tells us that the gathering in of these unsaved souls is God’s primary business, if you will.

Finally, it tells us that we are those he has brought into his field to do the harvesting of these souls. In other words, you are God’s harvester!

All that to say, lost people must matter to us because they matter to God!

John 3:16, the most compelling of all the verses in the Bible, is compelling for a reason. It reminds us, in no uncertain terms, that the salvation of the lost, both near and far, both next door and across the ocean, is the driving conviction of God’s being:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Now if lost people matter that deeply to God—enough to send His only Son to die for us—they ought to matter deeply to us as well. And that is a critical issue since, as Christian author Jacquelyn Heasley puts it,

How we believe God perceives people determines how we will respond to them.

Every time you see the face of another human being, you’re seeing a soul that’s so loved by God that he sent his Son to die for their redemption—illegals crossing the southern border, the homeless camping along the interstate, anarchist breaking windows downtown, your next-door neighbor who won’t cut his grass. They matter to a missionary God and crossing international borders as well as our own comfort to reach them with his love is called missions. So, they need to matter deeply to us as well.

So reaching them with the Good News of salvation and the free gift of eternal life is the mission of God that has been assigned to you and me. In that sense, you and I are missionaries—albeit to our next-door neighbor, or to our classmate at the next desk over, or to our coworker in the cubicle next to us.

May I implore you to not only memorize this verse this week but to see it from a whole new perspective from now on? Let it remind you of the ripe harvest all around you. Let it give you a clear and constant view into the very heart of the seeking Father. And let it shake you to the core that God is depending on you to be the gatherer in his great harvest of souls.

May this be the compelling call that transforms you into a Christ-follower who has become intensely missionary. Henry Martyn, the nineteenth-century Anglican missionary to India who died, incidentally, at the age of thirty-one bringing the Gospel to Iran, said:

The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we become.”

God help you, and God help me, to become intensely missionary!

Reflect and Apply: Perhaps a prayer today is in order. Ask God to help you to see lost people as he does. Ask him to give you his heart for those who don’t know him and are, therefore, headed for a Christless eternity. And ask him to use you to influence someone to him today. And remember, he hears your prayers.

What Drives You Crazy Drove Jesus To The Cross

When you watch the evening news and see people in foreign lands or in the streets of your own city who are acting out in hostility to your Christianity, who display behavior that is morally repugnant to your faith, who would rather kill you than allow you to live, you are seeing the very kinds of people Jesus came to seek and save. They matter to God. Jesus came to seek and save them just as much as he came to seek and save you. And since Father, Son and Holy Spirit see people that way, there ought to be a big difference in how you see them, too. Just remember, the people who drive you crazy drove Jesus to the cross.

The Journey: Luke 19:10

“For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”

“Finding lost people!” Those three words pretty well sum up Jesus’ purpose in life. That very phrase would have likely been his mission statement if those statements had been around in Jesus’ day. Finding people who were spiritually lost was first and foremost the foundational conviction that led Jesus, the Son of God, Second Person of the Eternal Trinity, to leave his throne in glory, come to earth as a man, and die the horrific death of the cross.

Beyond the ability of human language to adequately describe the love that fueled this passion, simply put, lost people mattered to Jesus. And lost people mattered to his Father. John 3:16, the most compelling of all the verses of the Bible, reminds us of this driving conviction of God’s being: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Obviously, the truth of Luke 19:10 and John 3:16 is so vitally important because you and I are the eternal beneficiaries of Jesus’ passionate pursuit and God’s unstoppable love for lost people. But as indescribably wonderful as that is, there is more to it. You see, since lost people matter so dearly to Father and Son (and Spirit, too—see Luke 4:18), they ought to matter deeply to us as well. This is so fundamentally critical because knowing how the Godhead perceives people ought to make a difference in how you think of and respond to them.

In other words, as you go about your day today, you cannot look into the eyes of another human being without seeing a soul so loved by God that he willingly gave his only Son to die for their redemption. When the unbeliever sitting in the cubicle next to you or in the locker beside yours or in the unkempt house across the street from you is rubbing you the wrong way, just remember that they matter to God as much as you do! When you watch the evening news and see people in foreign lands or in the streets of your own city who are acting out in hostility to your Christianity, who display behavior that is morally repugnant to your faith, who would rather kill you than allow you to live, you are seeing the very kinds of people Jesus came to seek and save.

They matter to God. Jesus came to seek and save them just as much as he came to seek and save you. And since Father, Son and Holy Spirit see people that way, there ought to be a big difference in how you see them, too.

Just remember, the people who drive you crazy drove Jesus to the cross.

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, I confess that lost people don’t matter to me like they do to you. Please forgive me, and truly take over my life until I bleed with a compassion that leads me to see all people as you do.

What God Prioritizes (Must Be Our Priority)

What God prioritizes we must make our priority! If heaven celebrates repentant sinners, we ought to throw a party when even one solitary soul finds salvation. Lost people matter to God; they must matter to us as well!

The Journey: Luke 15:7

In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!

The message of this chapter is unmistakable: Lost people matter to God!

Jesus tells three parables that make up the entirety of Luke 15: The parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Each story features something lost—something of such value—that no expense and no effort are spared to see to their return.

At the end of each of these three stories Jesus uses a line to speak of the unmitigated joy expressed in their recovery:

In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away! (Luke 15:7)

In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents. (Luke 15:10)

We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found! (Luke 15:32)

Again, the message is clear: God’s highest priority is the reclamation of lost people. They matter to God. And all of heaven celebrates their return.

Likewise, there is a clear application of utmost importance here for you and me: Since lost people matter to God, they ought to matter to us as well. No expense and no effort should be spared to aid in their recovery. Furthermore, we ought also to celebrate what heaven celebrates—the return of even one sinner to God.

But with these stories comes a clear warning: Watch out for we might call E.B.S.—Elder Brother Syndrome (see Luke 15:25-30). E.B.S. resents the attention and effort made in the recovery and repentance of the sinner, and it is so easy to slip into it. It grows out of self-righteousness. It questions the authenticity of the sinner’s repentance. It refuses to rejoice at what heaven celebrates.

And it couldn’t be further from what is at the very the heart of heaven, and our Father who resides there. Honestly, have you been infected with E.B.S., even just a little? Perhaps you should go to God and ask for forgiveness, and his help in getting a right attitude.

The call of Luke 15 must be our calling, too! What God prioritizes we must make our priority! If heaven celebrates repentant sinners, we ought to throw a party when one finds salvation—even the no good, dirty rotten, undeserving ones. (Hint: we all fit into that category apart from God’s grace!) Lost people matter to God; at the deepest part of our being, they must matter to us as well!

Considering God’s heart for sinners, Charles Spurgeon compellingly captured what our heart toward them ought to be: “If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for.”

If lost people matter so much to God that he goes to such great lengths to rescue them, then we should pull out all the stops to do the same.

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, since unrepentant, unredeemed sinners be damned for all eternity, then cause me to be so broken for them that they have to leap into hell over my body. May there never be one of them in my life whom I didn’t warn and for whom I didn’t unrelentingly pray.

What Matters Most To God

Why Heaven Throws A Party

What God prioritizes we must make our priority! If heaven celebrates repentant sinners, we ought to throw a party when one finds salvation. Lost people matter to God; they must matter to us as well!

Enduring Truth // Focus: Luke 15:7

In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!

The message of this chapter is unmistakable: Lost people matter to God!

Jesus tells three parables that make up the entirety of Luke 15: The parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Each story features something lost—something of such value—that no expense and no effort are spared to see to their return.

At the end of each of these three stories Jesus uses a line to speak of the unmitigated joy expressed in their recovery:

In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away! (Luke 15:7)

In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents. (Luke 15:10)

We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found! (Luke 15:32)

Again, the message is clear: God’s highest priority is the reclamation of lost people. They matter to God. And all of heaven celebrates their return.

Likewise, there is a clear application of utmost importance here for you and me: Since lost people matter to God, they ought to matter to us as well. No expense and no effort should be spared to aid in their recovery. Furthermore, we ought also to celebrate what heaven celebrates—the return of even one sinner to God.

But with these stories comes a clear warning: Watch out for we might call E.B.S.—the Elder Brother Syndrome (see Luke 15:25-30). E.B.S. resents the attention and effort made in the recovery and repentance of the sinner, and it is so easy to slip into it. It grows out of self-righteousness. It questions the authenticity of the sinner’s repentance. It refuses to rejoice at what heaven celebrates. And it couldn’t be further from what is at the very the heart of heaven, and our Father who resides there.

The call of Luke 15 must be our calling, too! What God prioritizes we must make our priority! If heaven celebrates repentant sinners, we ought to throw a party when one finds salvation. Lost people matter to God; they must matter to us as well!

Thrive: Honestly, have you been infected with E.B.S., even just a little? Perhaps you should go to God and ask for forgiveness, and his help in getting a right attitude.

Lost And Found

Reflect:
Luke 15:1-32

“I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.” ~Luke 15:7

The message of Luke 15 is unmistakable: Lost people matter to God!

Jesus tells three parables that make up the entirety of chapter 15: The parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Each story features something lost—something of such value that no expense and no effort are spared to see to their return.

At the end of each of these three stories Jesus uses a line to speak of the unmitigated joy expressed in their recovery:

“There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15:7)

“Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:10)

“It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.” (Luke 15: 32)

Again, the message is clear: God’s highest priority is the reclamation of lost people. They matter to God. And all of heaven celebrates their return.

Likewise, there is a clear application of utmost importance here for you and me: Since lost people matter to God, they ought to matter to us as well. No expense and no effort should be spared to aid in their recovery. And we ought also to celebrate what heaven celebrates—the return of even one sinner to God.

But with these stories comes a clear warning: Watch out for what we might call the EBS—Elder Brother Syndrome (see Luke 15:25-30). EBS resents the attention and effort made in the recovery and repentance of the sinner. Sadly, it is so easy for God’s children to slip into it. Elder Brother Syndrome grows out of self-righteousness. It questions the authenticity of the sinner’s repentance. It refuses to rejoice at what heaven celebrates. Mostly, it couldn’t be further from what is at the very the heart of heaven, and our Father who resides there.

The call of Luke 15 must be our calling, too! What God prioritizes we must make our priority! If heaven celebrates repentant sinners, we ought to throw a party when one finds salvation. Lost people matter to God; they must matter to us as well!

If they don’t, then see the Great Physician. You likely need treatment for Elder Brother Syndrome—maybe even a heart transplant.

“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for.” ~Charles Spurgeon

Reflect and Apply: Here is a simple prayer that could make a huge difference in the way you do life in the coming days: Lord, use me today to lead some lost person to faith in you!”

God’s Passion

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Luke 19
Meditation:
Luke 19:10

“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Shift Your Focus… This is the first and most foundational conviction that led Jesus, the Son of God, Second Person of the Eternal Trinity, to leave his throne in glory, come to earth as a man, and die the horrific death of the cross: To seek and save the lost.

John 3:16, the most compelling of all the verses of the Bible, reminds us of this driving conviction of God’s being: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

The truth of that verse is so vitally important, obviously, because you and I are the eternal beneficiaries of God’s passionate, unstoppable love for lost people. But as indescribably wonderful as that is, there is more to it. You see, since lost people matter so dearly to God, they ought to matter deeply to us as well. This is fundamentally critical because, as Jacquelyn Heasley has said, “how you believe God perceives people determines how you respond to them.”

In other words, as you go about your day today, when you look into the eyes of another human being, no matter who they are and what they are doing, you are seeing a soul so loved by God that he gave his only begotten and dearly loved Son to die for their redemption. When the “godless heathen” sitting in the cubicle next to you or stationed in the locker beside yours or living in the unkempt house across the street from you is rubbing you the wrong way, just remember that they matter to God as much as you do! When you watch the evening news and see godless communists in China, or rioting Islamists in Cairo, or murdering tribesmen in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or suicide bombers in Gaza, or gang-bangers in your inner city, you are seeing the very kinds of people Jesus came to seek and save.

They matter to God. Jesus came to seek and save them just as much as he came to seek and save you. And that ought to make a big difference in how you think about them today.

Just remember, the people who drive you crazy drove Jesus to the cross.

“God loves each and every one of us as if there were only one of us.”  ~St. Augustine

Prayer… Lord, give me your eyes, that I may see all people as you see them.