Luke
15:4-7
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. NASU
The
church has become too complacent with losing people. The church is not the
leaders of your church or the teachers or the choir no it is you, each and
every one of us. Without the people in the in the audience (the congregation)
where would the next church leader come from, or the next teacher or the next
choir member/director come from?
There
won’t be any new ones. That is the fall of the church. We have stopped caring if
people stop coming to our church. I know I am one of those people. I have been
on both sides. I have not pursued the people that have left my church nor have
I been pursued.
We
have become too “politically correct” to chase after the ones that have quit
coming. After all they are just quitters, they never were part of “us” and they
don’t want to be bothered by us. It is best to just let them go. Go where? To
hell?
As
the parable says; one sheep is lost. If one of your possessions (livestock,
pets, money, etc.) was lost would you not search for it? Would you let a
predator devoir it? I think not. You
would find it, save it and restore it.
That
is the problem; we don’t own the people that walk away. But that is exactly
what we need to do “own them”. I’m not talking slavery here but ownership in
the sense that we own where we work, our school or even our church; that is my
job, my school and my church. The people that walk away are your family, your
brother or sister.
I
know that brothers and sisters fight and sometimes don’t want to be around each
other but don’t let someone else hurt them. That is the ownership I am talking
about. We need to make a nuisance of ourselves being sure that our siblings are
safe. If they go to another flock is that flock okay? It could be but we won’t
know unless we find out where they went. Is your brother or sister wondering in
the wilderness lost and alone, or is the person that left not even related.
Have they walked away from Christ?
We
cannot make everyone see the light of Jesus and some will choose to go their own
way but I want to do everything I can. They are loved and care for not only by
God but by all our brothers and sisters.
We need to own up to the fact that
if we don’t do it, it won’t get done.
