"Lost" - Ronald L. Dart

you once upon a time a security guy in a large department store was wandering through the sports department and he spotted a little boy and the little boy would walk over one aisle and he would look light and he would look left and then he would walk a little further and he would look right and he looked look very disturbed in fact to the security guy he looked lost so he walked over to him and not be trying not to be threatening you know I said hi little fella he said are you lost little boy turned to him had tears running down his cheek he says no sir I'm not lost but my daddy is I think I can harken back to them to the dismay of the feeling of that little fellow I remember once when I was hunting with my father and another gentleman back up in the hills of the Ozarks we got out there one day we were going to hunt this patch of forest up there for deer and my job they set me in the middle and I was supposed to go straight line right down through the woods this way my dad was gonna go to make a little parenthesis around to the right and his friend was gonna make a little parenthesis around to the left and they thought me it had me in good shape because I couldn't get lost well they were wrong I got well and truly lost in hindsight we find they finally figure what I had done that I had actually carved a nice little arc and he gone right through the path of the friend on the left off over into a part of the woods that they hadn't even intended to hunt at all whole thing looked alike to me and I really had no idea I thought I was keeping a straight line straight as a die and it was very disturbing when I found that I was well and truly lost well my dad and his friend whistled me out of the woods as it were but I can tell you getting lost is a very unpleasant experience and that feeling of being lost is something that no one really wants to have to endure when I thought about it I recalled a man named Daniel who was never lost hundreds of miles away from his home and captivity in Babylon every day of his life he went to the wall of his chamber which was toward Jerusalem opened the windows toward Jerusalem lifted up his hands and prayed toward God in Jerusalem he did this as millions of Jews have done down through all of history who say they women when the right time comes they either opened a window or they turned toward and they pray toward Jerusalem I would say the chances are right now if I ask you in this room to point to Jerusalem we would have fingers pointed in every which direction I'm not absolutely sure where we sit myself of which way I would point if I had to point to Jerusalem but the fact the matter is down through history the Jews have always done this and I wondered do you know the genesis of this practice where it comes from where it originated and what it means the origins of it were coming a prayer made by Solomon and an answer that God made to Solomon himself the prayer was made at the delica dedication of the temple that Solomon had built for God you probably are familiar with the story how the David conceived the idea of building a temple he was he felt badly about the fact that he lived in a house of cedar and the Ark of God was in a tent and he said this isn't right and he conceived the idea of building a house for God and and while Nathan with God's Direction said this is a good idea but you can't do it David began the preparations which would eventually be completed by his son Solomon and in the preparation planning development and building of the temple took many years but finally the day came when the temple was finished and they went demand ceremonially went down ceremoniously went down and took the staves and put them and threw the rings that were on the ark lifted the ark up and with due ceremony marched it up into the temple through the holy place into the Holy of Holies and plunked it down right under the wings of the together the carribean that overshadowed the ark and they pulled out to lead the staves that they carried it with and put them in place with the handles that would protrude slightly from but from the curtain pull the curtain across the Ark left the building and the temple of God after all those years and all that work was at that moment finished and they came back outside it says and we are in second chronicles chapter 5 and verse 11 second chronicles chapter 5 in verse 11 it came to pass when the priest came out of the holy place where they were all present they were all sanctified they were not then waiting on the temple by course everybody's here on this occasion and that's not hard to figure out the Levites who were the singers all of them of Asaph of Heymann jadoo 'then with their sons and their brethren all arrayed in white linen with cymbals and psalteries and harps stood at the east end of the altar and with him a hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets big orchestra we've got here I don't know what this would have sounded like to the the modern Western ear but it would about thinking rather unfamiliar to our idea of music it came to pass as the trumpeters and singers were as one to make one sound to be heard and praising and thanking God and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music and praise the Lord saying for he is good for his mercy endures forever that when they finished that song the house was filled with a cloud even the whole temple the house of the Lord so the priests could not stand to Minister by reason of the cloud for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God nobody could even stay there the priests were on their belly they hid underneath the cloud to be able to find their way or crawl their way away from there they could not stand in this area because of the cloud that was there then said Solomon the Lord has said that he would dwell in the thick darkness but I built a house of habitation for you a place for your dwelling forever and the king turned his face and blessed the whole congregation of Israel and all the congregation of Israel stood up Solomon said blessed be the Lord God of Israel who with his hands fulfilled what he spoke by his mouth to my father David saying since the day I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt I chose no city among all the tribes of Israel to build a house in so that my name might be there and either chose I any man to be a ruler over my people Israel but I have chosen Jerusalem that my name might be there and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel now is in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel this is an interesting it's a an odd expression that he built a house for the name of God now I can almost guarantee you that the name Jehovah Yahweh or whatever you might think it might be or the Tetragrammaton was found nowhere on that building engraved in it it was still though a house for the name of the Lord our God the Lord said to my father for as much as it was in your heart to build a house for my name you did well with what was in your heart but the story goes David did not get to build the house Solomon did and on this occasion the dedication of the temple Solomon stood before all the people on a platform that he had made he spread his hands up toward heaven and he led the congregation in a prayer that this begins in verse 14 Oh Lord God of Israel there is no god like you in the heaven or in the earth that keeps covenant that shows mercy to your servants that won't be for you with all their hearts you who have kept with your servant David my father that which you have promised him and spoke with your mouth and fulfilled it with your hand as it is this day now therefore O Lord God of Israel keep with your servant David my father that which you have promised him saying there shall not fail you a man in my sight to sit upon the throne of Israel yet so that your children may take heed and to walk in my law as you have walked before me now then Oh Lord God of Israel let your word be verified which you've spoken to my servant David but then Solomon asks the operative question but will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth the idea that God would live in that temple was ludicrous Solomon knew that that thought never crossed his mind behold the heaven in heaven of heavens cannot contain you how much less this house that I have built well if it's not the house of God what is it and once it for he says have respect therefore to the prayer of your servant into his supplication Oh Lord my god to listen to and hearken to the cry and the prayer which your servant prays before you that your eyes may be upon this house day and night upon the place where of you have said that you would put your name there mind you it is not merely a matter of putting his name on Jerusalem the name is on the house which is in Jerusalem he said you had put your name there to listen to the prayer which your servant prays toward this place listen to the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel which they shall make toward this place here from your dwelling place even from heaven and when you hear forgive if a man sin against his neighbor and an oath be laid upon him to make him swear and the oath comes before the altar in urine in this house then hear from heaven and do and judge your servants by requiring the wicked by recompense is way on his own head by justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness this building was to be that the temple of Justice it was to be the very center of Justice in Israel he said if your people Israel are put to the worst before the enemy because they have sinned against you if they will return and confess your name and pray and make supplication before you in this house you begin to see what we're driving at here why this is crucial in Israel's history it was the prayer made in this house in this place where God's name was that was to be heard and responded to then you hear from the heaven forgive the sin of your people Israel bring them again to the land which you gave to them and to their fathers when the heaven is shut up and there is no rain another category because they have sinned against you if they pray toward this place and confess your name and turn from their sins when you do afflict them then hear you from heaven for give the sin of your servants and of your people Israel when you have taught them the good way when they should walk in sin reign once again every time toward this place in this house the prayer is heard the sin is forgiven the prayer is answered God in His justice and his mercy acts it's interesting how that he talks about the forgiveness he says in verse 28 if there is a dearth in the land or a pestilence or blasting or mildew or locust or caterpillars or of their enemies besiege them in the cities of their land whatever sore or sickness there be then what prayer what supplication that shall be made of any man of all your people Israel when everyone shall know his own sore in his own grief then he shall spread forth his hands in this house the continual references in this house and toward this place are the operative things that Solomon is asking for relative to this and it is the place you have to realize that the the way in which the word name is used in Hebrew is different from ours we you know when we talk about somebody's name all we mean by that as a phonetic appellation that says that's what we're talking about but when the in the Bible then a person's name is a part of his character and his reputation and in God's case his authority that God's authority was in this house so that when one came there prayed toward it prayed in it lifted up his hands toward it that he is praying toward the authority of Almighty God and has the power to forgive the power to give the power to relieve sins and oppressions he says here from heaven your dwelling place where does God live in heaven but the prayer is made where in or toward this place do you know this father when you you render to every man according to his ways whose heart you know that they may fear you to walk in your ways as long as they live in the land which you gave to our fathers and listen to this one this is neat moreover concerning the stranger which is not of your people Israel but has come from a far country for your great name's sake and it is just because he heard the name which may have fallen strangely on his ears he's come there because of the red mutation of God if he's come here because of your great namesake and your mighty hand your stretch dart on if the stranger comes and they pray in this house now a lot of people I think reading the New Testament we come to conclusion that the stranger was not allowed to pray in the temple and they would probably assume that the Old Testament didn't allow it no Jewish law was a problem in this regard with allowing Gentiles into the into the holy precincts but the law of God explicitly allowed the stranger to come and pray in this house then you hear from heavens even from your dwelling place do all that the stranger asks of you for also that all the people of the earth may know your name and fear you so everybody knows who you are so everybody knows your reputation and so that the fear of God goes all the way around the world from one thing the fact that people can come to this house call by your name which is your house and be heard and you answer if your people go out to war against your enemies by the way that you shall send them and they pray unto you toward this city which you have chosen in the house which I have built for your name then hear from heavens their prayer their supplication maintain their cause now he goes on with this there's several different we he attacks this question from all angles as to the way in which prayer might be made in the house toward the house spreading the hands toward the house you know looking to God that this house was the focal point of prayer and the focus of God's name and his reputation and his authority in the earth he says as he begins to conclude his prayer in verse 40 now my god I beseech you let your eyes be open and let your ears be a tent to the prayer that is made in this place now therefore arisal God in under your resting place you and the ark of your strength let your priests O Lord be clothed with salvation let your saints rejoice in goodness O Lord turn not away from the face of your anointed remember the mercies of David your servant then in chapter 7 verse 1 when Solomon had made it end of praying fire came from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices and the glory of the Lord filled the house and there was not one hair on anybody's head that wasn't standing straight out by the time this was all finished over the power of God demonstrated in the temple now this was a de Feast of Tabernacles season and they kept a feast for seven days and on the eighth day they had a holy convocation sometime in this weather it's right after this or just before it God came to speak to Solomon by night this is known in chapter 11 verse sorry chapter 7 verse 12 and why reason I want to go to this is because it's one thing to hear the repeated prayer of Solomon in this place toward this place about this place your name here and so forth now comes the question what does God say about this is this just man's idea you know that's just something that is a Jewish custom that got going somewhere back down or was God actually somehow cognizant of respectful love and accepting of this here's the answer chapter 7 verse 12 the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him I heard your prayer and I have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice if I shut up heaven and there be no rain you know if I command the locusts to devour the land or if I send pestilence among my people things have gone very bad he says if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven I will forgive their sin I will heal their land you know I can't remember the first time I heard that scripture read from a pulpit somewhere that is one of the most dominant themes you'll ever hear preached from any Christian pulpit if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways I will hear from heaven I'll forgive their sin I'll heal their land but listen to what else he says now my eyes shall be open and my ears attend to the prayer that is made in this place so what Solomon asked for Solomon God that the prayers that are made in and toward this place will have special cachet in the eyes in the ears of God for I have chosen and sanctified this house that my name may be there forever and my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually Solomon couldn't know well you and I know and you and you and I know leads us to realize immediately there's a problem here because that place it is no more the temple is not there there have been two long periods of history and you know from the time Solomon finished his when there was one time only ruins there and then subsequent to the Roman destruction nothing there that you could actually according to eyewitnesses at the time you could actually walk by where the temple of God had been and never realized that there had been a structure there at all but God continues to Solomon as for you if you'll walk before me as David your father walked and do what I've commanded you if you'll observe my statutes and my judgments I will establish the throne of your kingdom as I have covenant sit with David your father saying there will never fail you a man to be a ruler in Israel but if you turn away and forsake my statutes and Commandments which I have set before you if you shall go and serve other gods and worship them then I will pluck pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them and this house which I have sanctified for my name will I cast out of my sight and we'll make it a proverb and a byword among all nations right from the start if this set of things prevail my eyes and my ears will be open to this house perpetually forever if not this house will not be here forever this house which is high shall be an astonishment to everyone that passes by it and he shall say why has the Lord done this to this land and to this house and it shall be answered because they forsook the Lord their God of their fathers which brought them out of the land of Egypt they laid hold on other gods and worship them and serve them therefore he has brought all this evil upon them and so as long as the house of God was there Daniel and generations to come would pray toward Jerusalem and even Jesus called the second temple his father's house and a house of prayer for all people you know he this is my father's house he said you have made it into a den of thieves and his disciples continued to use the temple as a focus for prayer long after Jesus had ascended Peter and John are on their way up to the temple at the hour of prayer it was a part of their lives they knew these scriptures they knew all of them and all of their lives every bit of their that their front of time that they were a child and came to Jerusalem for the feast for the first time they knew that the temple was the place to go to pray to God and that one where ever one was prayed toward this place where God was there seems to be in the human creature a need for a sense of place a need to know where we are and to know where God is and in the process of that knowing where we are and knowing where God is we don't get lost we don't wander around in the fog we don't take our ship on the rocks that God is to be like a lighthouse to us it's like a firm beacon a rock that we can always look to and know where he is and know where we are in the process Jews continue to this day to pray toward Jerusalem just like Muslims pray toward Mecca it's a part of their sense of place it's a part of their identity and as far as I can tell it seems to be something that is very deeply rooted in human nature man needs to have a focus for his prayers a place where God is maybe God is up so I will pray up or because it mentions that God's throne is on the sides of the north well maybe God's to the north I'll pray north maybe I should pray towards Jerusalem play pray towards Jerusalem and the idea seems to be that well we will try to to find out where God is and we'll pray in that direction there was a day when Jesus is in Samaria at the well of Jacob and a woman came wandering out of town to draw water from the well and he asked her for water and an exchange took place between Jesus and the woman in question and in challenged and found in John chapter 4 verse 19 it's just a short little passage the woman said to Jesus sir I perceive that you're a prophet because he some things he just said to her our fathers worshiped in this mountain you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship here is the age-old sense of a need for place for the Samaritan Mount Gerizim was their place that was where they actually went to observe the Passover their sacrifices were done there and so everything for them was Mount Gerizim for the Jews it was Mount Zion or it was Jerusalem it was the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and this was a distinction that they made each of them had their own sense of place jesus said to her woman believe me the hour comes when you shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the father you worship you know not what we know what we worship because salvation is of the Jews but the hour comes and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father seeketh such to worship Him God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth now I wouldn't be a bit surprised as some of you had actually thought of the scripture before I ever got around to going here as we develop this theme of looking to a place or looking to a building or looking to Jerusalem but I suspect that this thing of worshiping God in spirit and in truth is a lot harder than it sounds and that it is accomplished much more rarely than we imagined that it is and we aren't careful our religion and our prayer can become totally unfocused and we can find ourselves lost wandering around the dark without a good feeling of where we are and where God is and what God wants from us what God expects from us where God wants us to go next where we should put our feet in this little dangerous journey and we can very easily substitute some focal point of our own making for the real thing because being physical we want to look for something physical that we can not worship necessarily but think we can use as something to focus our prayers and our attention something we can rally around something we can we can deal with at a human level they say that one of the main reasons for praying before a statue is not to worship the statue or the idol the reason for praying there is because it helps the person focus his thoughts in his attention it gives him a place in a sense of place and direction one reason for praying in a church or a chapel is that it gives a sense of place it gives a sense of purpose it helps bring one into focus in somehow in doing that I've noticed myself once in I was in a hospital praying for someone who was sick that I was wandering around the hospital and I came across the hospital's chapel and I went inside and I found that the quiet the peace of the place made it a better place to pray it seemed like than even praying at the bedside of the one who was sick as focused as that is as well I really think that that there is in all of us this need for something to bring us into focus to make us realize where we are and make us realize what the relationships are now there was a day when Jesus was going around all the cities of Jerusalem you'll find the account in Matthew 9 and I'll begin reading in a moment in verse 35 but he keeps encountering crowds and crowds of people and the more people he healed the more he taught the more people sought him out in Matthew 9 35 it says Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom healing every sickness and every disease among all the people but when he saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion because they fainted and were scattered abroad like sheep having no Shepherd he said to his disciples the harvest is really plenteous but the laborers are few pray the Lord that he will send forth laborers into his harvest what do you mean valo this well one thing Jesus realized that the people were lost I mean the temple was there and probably some of these people prayed toward the temple these these parts of their lives had been there all their lives some of them though just were lost they were sick they were hurting they were alone their families had come apart wife had left him husband had left him children had to head to head had gotten themselves into trouble who knows what kind of troubles their lives were in and it kept coming to Jesus and coming to him and he looked at them and he was moved with compassion because they were fainted and scattered abroad like sheep having no Shepherd now the idea of being lost entered into Christian jargon as a description of all non Christians you know if you're if you're a Christian you're saved if you're not a Christian you're lost but the word is much more profound than that I think there are a lot of Christians in the world who are lost even in our own faith in that they don't know where they are and they don't know where God is oh I don't mean that you could say that you asked them said where's dog visible God's in heaven I'm down here but that's something I mean this in a broader and a deeper sense than just where God's throne is they don't know where God is in their life they don't have a sense of direction about God and they live there alive from day to day Buffett around about whatever's going on around them and they're lost Christians who are lost just like these people and knew where the temple was they knew when they were supposed to be down there for what festival they knew what sacrifices they might be supposed to offer but they were still like sheep scattered abroad without a shepherd and I think in one sense of the word Jesus was also seeing their future that the temple would be destroyed and when the temple was gone and when God was no longer there praying to Jerusalem in the direction of the temple was an exercise in futility based upon the promise that God made to Solomon he would no longer be there when the temple was gone and this is what Jesus tried to tell the woman at the well in Samaria and it's what he realized as he looked out and he saw these people the dominant image in my own mind is the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem the house of God is gone and the Jews all the people of God have been scattered to the four winds of the earth we have a name for it we call them the Diaspora they are everywhere The Wandering Jew and still people come to an ancient wall of rock and they pray there they have shed tears for the house of God that is gone they write prayers on little pieces of paper and stuck that who stick them into cracks in the wall and when you go there and you look at this and you feel for what has happened a great sense of sadness is what comes upon me and the pathetic little efforts that people make to find their way back to the place where God supposedly is whereas in fact what they're trying to find is the place where God was because it's not even the ruins of the house of God it's all that's left of an ancient structure that was just close to the temple an outer wall but it's all that there is and all around the world used pray toward this place because God was there once upon a time so just as he said he would things would pass he is not there the house is gone and God is gone and all of his people are lost they are just lost sheep wandering around the world trying to find their way trying to attack to contact God trying to reach out from God praying in a direction in the hope that maybe that prayer as Solomon said when they spread forth their hands toward this place I'll hear them problem is it seems that God is not the people are like sheep shattered scattered abroad without a shepherd is there no place for God's people is there no focal point to which they can look no place that they can rally around and somehow get an anchor down and realize where they are there's a psalm it's just one verse you don't even need turn to it it's a hundred and the right at the end the last verse I think of 119th song says this I have gone astray like a lost sheep seek your servant for I don't forget your Commandments in other words it's a prayer to God come looking for me I'm lost and that's that is an honest heartfelt prayer that seems to me to be really one of the best things a person can pray in the modern world when there is no temple and there's no place you can go to find God it's just to say and to confess the obvious father I am lost come get me because that little boy in the department store wasn't going to find his dad his dad was going to have to come and find him there's a prophecy I find very disturbing in the 34th chapter of Ezekiel it's disturbing for a number of reasons but one thing that it does it underlines this question of a lost person of lost sheep and have certain obligations that that that the servants of God have toward them in Ezekiel 34 it says the word of the Lord came to me saying son of man prophesy against the Shepherd's of Israel prophesy and say to them thus saith the Lord God to the Shepherd's woe be to the Shepherd's of Israel that do feed themselves shouldn't the Shepherd's feed the flock you eat the fat you clothe yourself with the wool you kill them that are fed but you don't feed the flock now the metaphor is not that hard to figure out is it because when you talk about the Shepherd's of Israel you talk about the Sheep you're talking about the people out there and the Shepherd's are the leaders of the people either priests but in of course in those days and times of people who were the priests were like senators in our government today he says the disease do you have not strengthened three strengthen do you have not healed what was sick you haven't bound up what was broken you haven't brought again what was driven away you haven't looked for those that were lost but with force and with cruelty have you ruled them and they were scattered because there was no Shepherd and it became food to all the beasts on the field were and they were scattered I mean the metaphors of this fall all the way down to the 20th century and to churches far and wide some where people are cared for many where people are not well they're merely taken advantage of and where they can be taken advantage of by cults and other people who because those people are lost and because they are needy they can fulfill some of their needs while they makin captives my sheep wandered through all the mountains upon every high hill my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth and nobody went looking for them nobody looked nobody says let's go find these lost sheep there for you Shepherds hear the word of the Lord as I live and anybody ought to shudder a little bit when they hear those words from God because that is an oath as I live surely because my flock became a prey my flock became meat to every beast of the field because there was no Shepherd neither the Shepherd searched for my flock they fed themselves and not the flock therefore you Shepherds hear the word of the Lord I am against the shepherds I will require my flock at their hand and I will cause them to cease from feeding the flock they'll no longer be there and the Shepherd's shall not feed themselves anymore either or I will deliver my flock from their mouths that they should not be meat for them and then listen to what he says he's going to do thus saith the Lord God behold I even I will both search my sheep and seek them out like a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered I'm gonna go looking for them I'll deliver them out of all the places they've been scattered in the cloudy and dark day I'll bring them out from the people gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land and feed them on the mountains of Israel by the rivers and all the inhabited places of the country I'll take them to good pasture upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be they shall lie in a good fold in a pasture I'll feed my flock I'll cause them to lie down I'm gonna take care of this says the Lord because he found that he couldn't depend on anybody else to do it now this passage in Ezekiel correlates very strongly to a passage in Jesus ministry you'll find it in the tenth chapter of John and I'm hoping as we work our way through this we'll see that connection and something will begin to grow in our minds as to the the connection between the failures of the Sheep of the past between the removal of the temple the loss of location the loss of place the loss of contact with God and the work that Jesus was going to do in chapter 10 verse 1 he says verily I say unto you he that enters not by the door into the sheepfold but climbeth up some other way is a thief and a robber he that enters in by the door that's the Shepherd of the sheep to him the porter opened the sheep hear his voice he calls his own sheep by name and he leads them out and when he puts forth his own sheep he goes with them and the Sheep follow him because they know his voice and I don't doubt that at all that the Sheep would become attuned to the voice of the shepherd a stranger they will not follow they'll run from a stranger they know not the voice of strangers now Jesus spoke this parable to them and they didn't they didn't get it they really didn't understand what he was saying and jesus said verily I say unto you I am the door of the Sheep all that ever came before me are thieves and robbers but the Sheep wouldn't listen to them I am the door it buy me any man enter in he shall be saved and go in and out and find pasture the thief comes not but to steal and kill and destroy I am come that they might have life and that they might have it abundantly I'm The Good Shepherd the Good Shepherd life for the Sheep but the hired hand not the shepherd doesn't own the sheep he sees the wolf coming and runs for his life and the wolf catches and scatters the Sheep the hired hand flees because he's a hired hand and doesn't care I'm The Good Shepherd I know my sheep and I am known of mine as the father knows me even so I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep and other sheep I have which are not of this fold I got to bring them too and they shall hear my voice in the street one fold and one Shepherd and I'm the growing conviction that that other sheep thing is talking about Gentiles that he has to go after the Gentiles who have not yet been brought into that fold now there's one little verse in Matthew 18 you don't need to turn there because I'm not going to read at any length from it he's talking about first of all the bread brought little children to him and he talked about some things but he made this statement in Matthew 18 verses 1011 take heed be careful that you don't despise one of these little ones for I say to you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my father which is in heaven for the Son of Man is come to save that which was lost now somehow or other in our generation the word lost has for forgive me lost it's its cachet it doesn't it doesn't really ring through to us I think in Protestant jargon like I said before the world's divided into classes they're saved and the lost and I don't believe for a moment that using the word in the way that has been used and beat to death and thrown around conveys or carries with it the depth of despair that settles on into a person who is truly lost and the realization that they are lost and the awareness of the confusion that comes you know one of the things that happens to you when you're lost is you become confused in the directions are uncertain things are unfamiliar around you everything is strange the nothing in your life wants to work right anymore it's a it's a terrible feeling to be lost and what Jesus is saying is there really seems to be only one way that we can rectify this thing I am going to have to come and get you but there's another factor involved in this that I think churches have confused the issue still further by their doctrines of election to where the idea is that that most of people in the world are not going to ever be saved anyway it's only the ones that are the elect they've got her out there and they're God - they're the elect God knows they're going to be saved and he's going to go out and get those people and bring them in and that's the whole story then why is there this condemnation upon the neglect of the shepherds if there was no obligation for these shepherds to go out themselves and get these sheep if there was nothing they could do about it if they weren't expected to do it if it was not their job anyway if it was purely his in other words there is a confusion between the idea that we are supposed to sit still and wait for God to call people to us and become a part of the fold and it's not much of anything that we can do about it on the one hand or the awareness that out there there are hundreds and thousands of the people of God who are lost and have got to be found and I suppose it should occur to people somewhere along the line that if we belong to Christ if he is our Savior if he is our Lord and our master and this is his job and one would think we would begin to realize that it's also our job I think one of the reasons Jesus said he was to us would build his church was to give his sheep a fall to which they could belong to give them a place because human beings need a place and so a church is a good thing so is a church building and a minister who is a true Shepherd and cares for the Sheep is a real blessing and it's a good thing to have a set of beliefs that we all adhere to because that helps us maintain shape and form and we we are less likely to become confused in the processes so having a kind of a modest doctrinal statement can become a very important thing so that we don't forget who we are and who God is and what direction we're supposed to be going but I'm persuaded that you can have all these things and still be a lost soul and all these things may be a comfort but I don't believe that they can save a lost sheep because if you remember Jesus looked out at all here here was Jesus himself standing there and are in great crowds of people all around him and the temple was right down there in Jerusalem and Jesus looked upon them with compassion because they were like sheep scattered abroad having no Shepherd there was no leadership no one to rescue them no one to show them the way and along to point their feet in the right direction so what is our rallying point all the way down to the modern world is not the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem that's not where we focus our prayers in our direction that's not where we look and there is no temple is it the church is it a human leader is it a set of beliefs a Creed that we can nail to the wall and say this is what we believe no we all know better than that our rallying point is Christ now that is very easy to say it is not so easy to do it is not so easy to implement to make a part of your life in the way you live there is no direction we can pray there is no wall we can pray before there is no temple that we can enter and and pray in what we have is a Bible then in this Bible there are the words the worthy Word of God in the person of Jesus Christ he's our rock he's our wall he is our anchor we have our churches if they work we have our Shepherds if they're faithful we're gonna have our doctrinal statements if they're true and we can have our ideas about God as long as our ideas do not become gods themselves but if any of these things becomes a substitute for our rock will be lost again and we can be right in the middle of a right in the middle of a church set of doctrines nailed to the wall and be just as lost as anyone in the world for the pillar the lighthouse the rock the wall that we have to look to is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone there is a term people use in modern business called the organizing principle you know what is the underlying principle that organizes this effort that puts this thing together and makes it go one is the organizing principle of the organizing principle Jewish people was really the temple in the law wasn't it what's the organizing principle of the New Testament church it has to be the words and the teaching of Jesus Christ it has to be the instruction of Jesus to his disciples and it has to also be the leadership the steering of the Holy Spirit in our lives in our church now you can go out and get your car after church today don't turn it on don't start the engine sit there and try to steer it nothing's going to happen you can't steer something that isn't moving and this is the problem with being sensitive to and following the lead of a Holy Spirit in our lives for the Holy Spirit to steer us we have got to move that means we have got to do something even if it's wrong we have got to take steps so that they can be corrected we can actually got to actually make plans so that God can nudge us to one side of the other and we have to implement those plans he put us down here to learn from all of these and the dynamic that produces organization out of chaos for the Church of Jesus Christ are the words of Christ the teachings of Christ the commands of Christ and the steering of the Holy Spirit I realize that these things seem vague to us when we would prefer clarity but I really think sometimes we have got to make certain steps on faith and the clarity will come later the one thing we I think at this point know that is all too easy to become cheap scattered without a shepherd and to find ourselves it's lost as anybody else on the face of this planet the place the rock the lighthouse the anchor we have to know is Jesus Christ and our commitment to him

Channel: BornToWinCEM

Views: 1,442

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Born to Win, Ronald L. Dart, CEM

Id: -4fQno5nnow

Length: 46min 37sec (2797 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 02 2018