God’s Heart

Thank you bro. Thank you, john, good morning, welcome. My name is Mike, one of the pastors on staff here at sewer church. It’s an honor to be with you this morning and I’m excited to look at this passage. I just disclaimer, I spent my childhood with sheep, my dad had market lambs at the Adams County fair, we would show market lambs sheep in colorado and and I spent many summers of a bad teenage attitude grumbling and complaining about sheep and what they were doing. And the thing about me is I was this size in high school and you have to get like really low to show a sheep. So they flex their back, it’s like a bodybuilding contest for sheep. And and I always lose to these, this little batik blonde girl would beat me every single year. Um and so I, this is sheep, my childhood, there’s a lot of memories in this passage for me. And so it’s good to, it’s good to spend time look at this passage. And if you look with me at parables, there’s a parable, the lost sheep and then the parable, the lost coin. And then next week dan will button up this three parable story set, jesus is rolling out with the parable of the lost son. So I get the honor of looking at the first two parables, the lost sheep and the lost coin. And so how do you read parables? How do you get handles of what’s up of a parable, jesus parables and what do you do with them? And so the parable is supposed to have one short 10.1 short point And so the short point from today’s passage is that I’m looking at that. I hope you can grab onto and walk away with is you should be able to see the heart of God towards sinners. The heart of God towards centers and these two parables. And so if you bow your heads, let’s let’s pray. And I’m gonna ask for some help to do this. Well Lord, I thank you for luke 15 verse one. I thank you for all of these verses. We gotta look at the word of God is powerful and effective. It’s alive and it can change our lives. Lord, I ask that you just help the word of God to fall in hearts that are soft and tender that want to hear from you. I ask that you just really instruct us, convict us, challenge us and change us. Lord, I ask that the Holy spirit would genuinely change our hearts and our disposition. As we look at these passages as you see where we were, what is happening in the all the characters in this. In these scenes, we look at Lord and we hear the story at the heart of God would ring loud and clear through this word into our eyes and we would see that and make that part of our lives. I pray you just really just imprint our souls as a congregation with these parables Lord, we love you and commit this time to you in jesus name. Amen. Okay look at me at luke 15 verse one page 5 10. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to him and the fair season describes grumbled saying this man receives sinners and eats with them, this man received sinners and eats with them. So if you remember last week we looked at some of the most hardest statements, jesus said some of the hardest words and hardest soundbites, jesus dropped about the cost of discipleship. I have to deny your own life, have to give everything you have have to you know, expect persecution from even your close family relationships. He laid an incredibly high standard of discipleship and the cause and effect of those hard words created a bunch of soft hearted centers who were sitting and gathering and spending time with jesus. So why were the tax collectors and sinners drawn to jesus? You should think that way. He says mean things to them, he calls them out on their stuff. He’s he’s got a very hard stance on sin and their famous sinners. The notorious sinners of their cities and they were drawn to jesus just had a morality that was more demanding than the religious leaders of the day. He had a higher standard for morality of what it meant to be following God and right in God’s eyes and what God valued than the religious leaders of his day, there’s that preaching saying hard words make soft hearts, but soft words make hard hearts, Jesus had plenty of hard words and he had a high standard. He called his people too. But the people couldn’t. They heard he was there and they came running. Jesus drew sinners. If you think even back to the same hard words to sin, Jesus’s sermon on the mount, his public address, his first grand opening massive sermon that you hear soundbites through throughout the rest of the gospels. Matthew 56 and seven. He takes the more a lot that the religious leaders were teaching about public sin and he made it even more higher, unreachable and made it the private sin, the private sin of lust, the private sin of coveting the private set of anger. And he said the end of that sermon, the sermon on the mountain, You must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect, but we all know no one’s perfect. Jesus had incredibly high standard when it came to sin. And he was very tough on sin. And the biggest wildest centers of the city would flock to him. Just didn’t draw people to him because he was soft on sin. And he had soft squishy sermons. He drew people to him because he was hard on sin and called them out. And they loved, they felt loved by him, Jesus has a purpose statement in Luke 1910, he said the son of man came to seek and save the lost and this is evident all throughout the gospels, Jesus seeking and Jesus seeing these people saved those who were once lost. Verse three. So he told them this parable. What man among you, having 100 sheep if he had lost one, does not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing 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. And if you hear that and you hear my story about some childhood memories and you’re like, what are we talking about sheep? For I haven’t seen a sheep in years, I haven’t touched a sheep since I was a kid at a, at a petting zoo and it almost bit my finger and I got scared. I mean sheep, what’s with these christians, sheep could have picked a better animal. We’re talking about sheep. We don’t see sheep in Nebraska. But you have to realize that this this, this context of this historical, you know, lens that these people are hearing these, this parable through, it was very common that shepherds would have communal shepherding. So they hang out and talk like we see when, when the angel visits the shepherds, they would be together if all their little flocks and the amount of pasture land that was gray Zobel was very limited and like it is today, like it is back in this day and they would have multiple flocks with multiple shepherds in this area. And if one of them lost a sheep, he would say to the other shepherds, hey, watch my, watch my, watch my sheep, I’m gonna go find that stray. And at the end of the day, the other shepherds would bring all the flocks to where they need to be kept at night and the city would hear mike’s out looking for that sheep again. I wonder if it’s that, that your link, I wonder if it’s Betty that, that you lamb got lost. We’ll see. And here comes Mike late in the evening carrying his bed and we’re like, well, well done shepherd, you didn’t lose that sheep, Good job, do your job. This is a normal celebratory part of life in Israel at that day. Even today, a friend told me from first Service, he remembers doing a tour of Israel and he looks over, he sees a random shepherd chasing a random sheep that’s running away. Even today, men and women. So there’s this cultural lens that this was common for them, The seeking, the finding and the celebrating of that which was lost. But who is jesus speaking to, jesus target audience of who he is speaking to? Is it the, is it the fair, is it the Pharisees it describes. Is it the famous centers, is it the tax collectors? Who is his target audience? Is it us today in the year 2023 jesus target audience. The scandal of this parable of who he’s speaking to, is he speaking to the religious people, the scribes and the Pharisees? So Jesus is self declared good shepherd and john 10 14, the good shepherd and the scandal here in this parable is that the scribes and the Pharisees were considered the under shepherds of the shepherd God. These men had a total apathy and a lack of care for the sheep of Israel. If you contrast that with Jesus who cared too much. These men cared too little. There’s a famous saying among the day of historians will tell you that the Pharisees said there’s great rejoicing in heaven when one sinner is obliterated, obliterated. There’s this, there’s this hatred towards famous sinners in the city, they would not teach them the word of God describes, will not teach them with the word the law says the Pharisees, the culture hated them and ostracized them. The Pharisees will not eat with people who are famous sinners. The only with good people, jewish people, not people who fell out of the jewish faith. They, if you are a notorious center, a tax collector, you wouldn’t, your witness in court was considered invalid? Your canceled by your culture, your canceled by the religious leaders of your cultures religion and they had nothing to do with you. They talked to me about you and they wouldn’t spend time with you. A new contrast that with jesus, who cared too much for these sinners, these tax collectors who spent his time with notorious sinners. But the fact the scandal is, these shepherds of the scribes in the fair seas were failing at their job. I don’t know if you get a job reviews, I get job reviews and if you got this scathing job review that God gave the Israel the leaders of Israel in in Ezekiel 30 for you would be worried. Ezekiel 34. It is on page 4 21 in your house bible And when I was writing it, reading it this morning, I underlined all of it so that no verses would feel left out. I underlined all of it. But Ezekiel 34 is a scathing reproach of God to the shepherds of Israel at that time. It is one of the most brutalist passages to read. If you’re a pastor and as we read it together, you’ll be like dang, that’s not fun. Let’s read it together. Ezekiel 34 picking up in verse one, the word of the Lord came to me, son of man prophesy against the shepherds of Israel prophesy and say to them, even to the shepherds. Thus says the Lord God, oh, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves should not shepherds feed the sheep, you eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool. You slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep the wick. You have not strengthened the sick, you have not healed the injured, you have not bound up the strayed, you have not brought brought back the Lost. You have not sought, and with with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beast. My sheep were scattered. They wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill my sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them, verse Seven. Therefore you shepherds hear the Word of the Lord as I live, declares the Lord surely, because my sheep have become a prey and my become a prey. And my sheep have become food for all the wild beast since there was no shepherd. And because my shepherds were not searching for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves and have not fed my sheep. Therefore you shepherds hear the word The Lord. Thus says The Lord God behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep. I will require my sheep at their hands and put a stop to their feeding the sheep no longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths that they may not be food for them, verse 11 for thus, says the Lord God behold I, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out and my shepherds seeking out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered. So I will seek out my sheep and I will rescue them from the places they have been scattered on on the day of the dark of clouds and thick darkness, and I’ll bring them out of the places the peoples and gather them from the countries will and will bring them into their own land, and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel by the ravines, and then in all the inhabited places of the country, I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. They shall lie down in good grazing land and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel, I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will may Make them lie down, declares the Lord God, I will seek the lost. I will bring back the straight, I will bind up the injured and I will strengthen the weak and the fat and the strong, I will destroy. I will feed them in justice. If you look at verse 22, I will rescue my flock. They shall no longer be pray and I will judge between sheep and sheep, and I will let and I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David and he shall feed them. He shall feed them and be their shepherd and I, the Lord will be their God and my servant. David shall be prince among them. I am the Lord. I have spoken if you were a jewish leader in the day of Ezekiel when that was said, you would take that very poorly. You would not appreciate the words of the prophet Ezekiel. If you are a jewish leader and you hear Jesus calling himself the good shepherd and hearing him using this parable, it would be a scandal. He is calling you out on your hypocrisy, your hatred and your apathy and your general discontent for people who are far from God. So what kind of sinners are in this parable? What kind of sinners are we looking at? Well we have sinners and sinners, sinners and so we’re gonna start with sinners. Sinners. It’s funny, Jesus knows all and and he knows that all have sinned and and to me it seems funny that if you’re a little sinner or a big synergies isn’t really concerned about being with you like in this global pandemic of sin, everyone’s contagious, everyone’s caught sin. And jesus not worried to worry about sin. He’s walking and he’s got the antibodies of sin in his blood and he’s not worried about being a uh center that has a mask or center that has vaccinated or a sinner who’s not mask and not vaccinated, jesus not concerned because he sees everyone as sinners and he’s there to fix the biggest problem. They have their sin problems. But the first group, the sinners, their their thoughts and their attitudes are far from God and they heard about this christ who has a strong standard against their sin, their morality and they want to spend time with him and their famous sinners. They’re the kind of people that everyone in the city knows their dirt. Everyone in the city knows their story, Everyone the city knows what got them here and everyone, the city is surprised that jesus, a religious man is spending time with these sinners. This this famous prophet, this rabbi, this guy who knows so much about God, can’t read the book in front of him that this is a famous center sitting across from him having a meal. So you have sinners at this parable. We also have tax collectors which are career sinners, they’re considered traitors to their jewish culture. They’re working for the occupied occupied country of wrong that’s oppressing them. They are taxing, extraordinarily taxing their coworkers. Kind of like Black Hills. Energy is doing some things to us right now. It’s your utility bill and you’re like what the heck! That’s, it’s amazing what is happening in our, in our city. It’s amazing what’s happening in these cities by these career centers, these tax collectors and they had an immoral lifestyle that went along with their occupation. They had to work with Rome roman occupying forces. And I’m assuming the win in Rome phrase came from tax collectors when in Rome, go to or jesus my boss when in Rome, get drunk at the temple with my boss. I mean the romans were notorious centers and they work for them and they spent time with them on and off the clock and they were sell outs for their local jewish people, oppressing them, taking their lands, their their crops, their homes, they were they were taking advantage of their people and they were barred from giving alms at the jewish temple. They weren’t allowed to come to church and give money. These jewish people, their their testimony in court was invalid. Their hated at every place they turned except for when they turned to jesus. And the next in this parable we have the scribes and the Pharisees, and these are career religious people. And they were not associated of sinners. They didn’t teach sinners the law, they were taught not to care about godless sinners. And they were mad that jesus associated and cared for and taught godless sinners. So in this purple, we have all kinds of sinners, proud and humble sinners and private and public centers. We have it all. And why are the Pharisees and the scribes offended by jesus. Well their denial denial sinners, the people that had an inflated view of self and their goodness and a deflated view of God and his righteousness. Next, Jesus jumps into a second. Parable verse eight We read or what woman having 10 silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it. And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors and saying, rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost. Just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Biblical scholars connect the dots for us that these coins were just 10 days wages, it’s two weeks of income and she lost a day’s wage. It wasn’t just that they said these 10 coins probably represented a marriage dowry, she needed to have these 10 coins to get married. This is a life altering 10 coins that would change her status in her country and her social status and her financial security. This was a life altering coin that she lost. And there’s some similarities in these two past. These two parables, a lost sheep. The lost coin. One thing is just the structures are saying both have, there’s a lost nous, there’s a searching, there’s a finding and there’s a great rejoicing, there’s also another similarity about both these that both these in the high level of the economy of the day. We’re not very pricey objects. One day’s wage and one sheep were not that high end thing wasn’t like they lost their Tesla. They didn’t lose anything fancy here. This is like that. It’s unfortunate. You’ll live with it. Move on. It’s not like this is earth shaking wealth exchanging hands that is lost. But the difference between these two parables A lost sheep. The lost coin parables a sheep is a pitiful, helpless animal. Its instincts are virtually useless and it’s got pathetic defenses. You’ve never seen a sheep do a good job of defending itself against a predator. Both had great value to the people that were searching for them. The man spent his time pursuing his sheep. The woman spend her time practically pursuing a good thing. I’m gonna skip the gender joke because none of us laughed at the first service about men and women’s differences and what we lose and stuff. They’re lost sheep. Pastors jokes don’t always work, guys, I’m sorry, lost sheep. The lost sheep wandered away, lame struck weak and it wandered away. The coin lost touch with the woman unintentionally got lost. But let’s let’s notice the last part of these. This passage in this parable. The rejoicing parts verse seven is the first rejoicing part in the first parable. Just so I tell you there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who need no repentance. That is flying in the face of the opposite of that, that the jewish teachers were teaching at that day about annihilating Centers and 99 angels rejoicing and that is not an accident, that is intentional flying in the face contrasting the heart of God vs the heart of these people. And then verses nine and 10 and when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors and saying rejoice with me for I found the coin that I had lost. Just so I tell you there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents this whole rejoicing doesn’t sound like only people that repents need to rejoice all need to repent and rejoice the sinners. The scribes the Pharisees, the tax collectors all need to repent. All have sent all have gone astray. Like we looked at in Isaiah 53 back on christmas day, both parables have an immense amount of joy found in them. If we want to have the hearts of God towards God’s heart, when he sees humanity, when he sees people, he sees the world and he sees people when we have a heart for God, When we want to have the same heart that God has, we should have the same joy. The same excitement that new faith, new converts bring into a community group, bring into a church, when people in your community group are trying to share their faith and people become saved and they’re making mistakes, saying things, christians don’t say when their testimony includes swear words, it’s exciting for me to hear people share their faith And if it’s a person sharing their testament for the first time and you’re like, yeah, that’s great. Maybe a few less customers, but that was great brother, you know, like kids say the darndest things, Baby christians say the darndest things and they’re cute. Hold them, kiss those little baby christian cheeks, take photos with them, give them space and pack them full of food of God’s word. And don’t be mad at christians, baby christians, people new to church new to Christianity that make mistakes. If we have a heart for God for the lost for the lost sheep, the lost coin, we should realize the reality that there are people that come to our church that have never heard that community devotion before. They’ve never sang that song before. They’ve never heard that prayer before. They’ve never looked at that passage before in luke or x Ezekiel, they’ve never done that before. That’s why we try to give some problems to help them navigate through this book. That’s a big book. It should remind you of where you were when God first called you and just celebrate the fact that there’s new converts, baby christians, pre christians coming to your community group coming to this church. And that’s a good thing, people that hear the word of jesus, they are drawn to it. It’s a bigger scandal for us to have a church with no baby christians in it than it is for a church that has baby christians coming and doing what baby christians do. If you have the heart of God for the people around you, you should rejoice greatly when you see people and these two parables from the Lost are being found, you should rejoice greatly because jesus came to seek and save the lost. Your heart is the same as your saviors to seek and save the lost. The last nine months. I was reflecting on this with some of our pastors about just what is happening in our culture of evangelism. It seems like our world, the world is so bad at friendship. It is shocking how bad friendship is in this world. People can have a horrible thing happen in their life. They post something online. And if I’m a friend that’s lost, supporting a lost friend ought to do is send in a sad face of teary face emoji, I’m done. That’s it. People in our world are such poor friends because of technology. They think they saw a picture, sent a quick little text message. Sorry, hugs and kisses sad face emoji, that makes them a good friend. Our world is is aware of the loneliness and the depravity of what’s happening on the country around the world. Our world is aware and they’re looking for answers. Our world is struggling and they’re looking for answers, they’re lost sheep and they know it, they’re lost coins and they know it and they intentionally walked away and they intentionally walked away. They walked away because they’re wounded and a predator got ahold of them or they just got distracted and people moved on and life moved on and they are lost and they’re looking for help. I’m amazed if just some analogies, if the evangelism isn’t your thing, you don’t like swimming in the waters of evangelism because it’s too cold and people are too harsh and mean, the pool got warm the last nine months. It feels like a jacuzzi in my opinion, sharing with people and I’m not, I am not an evangelist. Like you’re an evangelist. I am not, I have a spiritual gift assessment Many of you guys took and it wasn’t high on that either. But I’ve been jumping into the water and it’s warm. It’s like if you play basketball and the rims 10 ft high, 10 ft high and someone lowered it at the Y. M. C. A. To that six ft thing. And like I am the man. You know, that’s what if Angela’s like right now people texting calling, you know, befriending people saying, let’s go grab coffee. No one does that. We had a, we had a family over for a house for dinner and it wasn’t that great and my opinions are, you know, and they’re like, that was the best meal I’ve had in like years. That was amazing. Men and women. It is amazing how low the bar is for friendship and just relationships in our culture. The waters are warm. The hoop is lowered. If you’re not a baller, get on the court. This is the time. This is our time christians because there’s lost sheep and lost coins and no one’s looking for them, no one’s pursuing them. If you have the heart of God, the sea can save the loss like This passage talks about, come on church, this is our time. The point of this passage is God’s heart towards us. God’s heart towards us and we should see that heart and get excited about that heart. I my father is a pastor and he’s preached sermons growing up and he multiple times. He’s used this story, the hound of Heaven. This poem from Francis Thompson, talking about the Holy Spirit pursuing us, the hound of Heaven. I like to read it to you. It says this. I fled him down the nights and down the days I fled him down the arches of the years. I fled him down the labyrinth of ways of my own mind and in the midst of tears I hid from him and under running laughter up vista hopes I sped and shot, precipitated a down, titanic gloom of charmed fears from those strong feet that followed followed after ah found ist blind ist weakest I am. He whom thou sickest! The Holy Spirit is still pursuing people today. And christians that are following and walking humbly with the Holy Spirit are joining him in that pursuit. Today, God’s heart towards us is to seek and save the lost. We see that same heart in psalms 1 39 verses eight through 10. We see a seeking suffering savior. If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed and she’ll you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell on the uttermost parts of the sea. Even there, your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. God’s heart is to seek and save the lost and in that seeking and saving, there’s a suffering that follows. I understand that I know that jesus carried the cross of calvary so that he’s able to carry you and I the lost sheep. But the heart of God is you and he’s coming for you, we see the heart of God to reach the nations all throughout the bible. The heart of God to reach the nations later in Ezekiel 36 and that same vein, you see that about him, gathering the lost sheep and all over the nations of the world. And it’s a beautiful passage. I put a new spirit in a new work in the people’s lives. I I love the heart for the nation that God is helping grow in our church here today. If you if you look at these three prompt visuals, one is from the Joshua project. It looks at the amount of money and man hours that are being sent on the mission field America is the largest mission agency on the planet America, the second largest one is South Korea, the second largest country that’s sending money and people and the amount of green countries are fairly saturated with a significant church christian presence over North America. South America, Southern africa, Australia. You get what you see. The green on the map is from the Joshua project. You can download the Joshua project app or the website. This is where 99% of the money and missionaries are going is green and yellowish countries. Yellow is just beginning new works and red is unreached, unengaged people groups. I don’t know who you hang out with and Lincoln this week. But if you say to your friends and people you see this week, hey, you know anything about jesus Christianity, Your friends aren’t gonna look at you like who’s jesus? I haven’t met him. You know, Christianity, they have no idea what I’m saying. So red countries, they have no clue, jesus and Christianity is the statistical disproportionate amount of money and man hours, men and women hours that are being sent overseas as missionaries heart to seek and save the loss. If you go to the next slide here, this is the United States in our population and the amount of saturation we have of who prescribes to be christians. Obviously we’re not checking out of trying to reach locally here. We sent out sam a couple of weeks ago, we’re gonna keep reaching out effort in Nebraska, that’s not changing. We’re not checking out, we’re not spiking the Gospel ball and saying we’ve arrived, there’s plenty of work to do in our backyard, but if you contrast the United States, which is more saturated with, with the, the next slide here, this is Thailand, this is where I think seven people are going in our church for a 10 day mission trip in Thailand how they’re the population and like 1% of the country adheres to be christians, which is amazing who is jesus, They never heard of him before. What is Christianity? They have no idea there is a disproportionate amount of money and man hours that are spent overseas and we want to be strategic as a church and invest in the four corners of the outreach all over the globe. I think it’s not a coincidence that there’s a 3.5 story cross in front of our church. This is a massive cross. None of us bought and paid for, installed the church before us that gifted us this building. Someone in that church had the heart to buy and vision and pay for that cross. That is the tallest structure in the neighborhood and the four corner crossing is designed so that the gospel go to the four corners of the world, that is the heart of jesus to seek and save the lost the heart of God is for the lost nous that they would know him, we’re gonna try to lean into that more as a church, Isaiah 53 all have all of us like sheep have gone astray, we have all turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. If you’re here listening as we conclude, there’s different camps you can be in, you might be here saying like you know like I am that stray sheep, I am that lost coin christians in this church are pursuing me and I think the holy spirit God guys pursuing me and I’m figuring things out and that’s good, that’s okay, we want to celebrate that process of where you are, we have some great resources out there, there’s a great are you born again, resource out there, we can give you that’s been very helpful for people to kind of understand vocab and language and definition of what’s happening. It is a great tool out there. We have we have people here that love to buy a cup of coffee if you can talk and hear your story and continue to have conversations with you many are coming to christ and that’s encouraging but today is the day of salvation count the cost way the cost, but commit christ committed to you. If you are a teenage christian, you’re not an old O. G christian, but you’re not a baby pre christian, you’re you’re an adolescent teenage christian, I challenge you to have the same heart that God had for the loss when you see and hear lost nous in your community groups, in your church rejoice like those bridesmaids with the lost coin rejoice. Like the community of people rejoice when the shepherd brought back that lost sheep be rejoicing when baby christians act like babies and say baby things, rejoice with them. There’s a great spiritual multiplication class that we offered last summer in august uh Dallas led it for us. It we’re gonna offer it again March april and may, I think I’ve done like niners so tan ish evangelism courses to like learn how to share your faith in effective ways and this class has had the longest standing implications in my life. I am texting Dallas a couple of times a week, like sharing the, sharing my testimony as the kids piano teacher today, oops shared with one of my neighbors again today, oops, you know, like it’s actually happening and I’m not like making myself do it, I forgot all about the class, but the principles of the bible and what we learned in the Book of acts as we spent those 10 weeks looking at it have impacted my personal life and when I open my mouth and share people, I’m not like conjuring up courage to say things the word of God, understood rightly apply in your life rightly gives you the same heart of God for lost Nous. If you want to jump in that class, we can sign you up, just let us know we’re bugging you to sign up for those classes. Church doesn’t have to be your top gift to sign up for that class. If you’re mature christian continue to chase strays like the the good shepherd, jesus, the heart of God is chasing strays, the heart of God is finding lost Nous. If you want to join us with praying like luke tend to saying to pray to the Lord the harvest to send out more workers, more laborers into the field, you can set your alarm on your phone and be praying that prayer with us with me also that God will give us more workers more labors to reach and disciple more people. If you want to get alarms on your phone from the bible Joshua project app or the International Mission Board, I have to pray for unreached, unengaged people groups, you’re welcome to do so. But in this parable in these passages, we see the heart of God on full display and it’s a heart that loves and values you, you are immensely more valuable than a lost sheep or a lost coin, God sent his son, his very best jesus christ to reach you, it is in the B team or the C team he sent the A team jesus christ to find you and lead you to him, God’s heart for people is you to seek and save the lost as we follow God and we know more about God, we’re going to develop that same heart as christians as we mature in our faith, a lack of evangelism in your church and apathy to the gospel outreach and sharing of new people is not a theology problem. It’s a it’s a theology and live ology problem. It’s a discipleship problem and I love the heart that is happening and growing in our church, the heart of God is becoming your heart church of seeking and saving the loss of fishing for men. And that’s the thing we should celebrate. We should always celebrate people become new and take first baby steps in their faith and we should pay that God helps us take baby steps of opening our mouth and serving and texting a friend, calling someone, sending someone a funny mean that you haven’t seen for a while think of all of your faith journey, you you met God and got saved and really that happens in a vacuum where you’re walking along and like what’s this? Oh, it’s a book, I’ll read it. I’m gonna pray to receive christ. I’ve heard that testimony once in my life, heard a lot of testimonies many of you, there’s an on again off again, start stop relationship you had with God and there was people that came along beside you in front of you and behind you, showing the way pushing away, chasing you down God’s heart is for the nation’s God’s heart is for you, your neighborhood. God’s heart is for the lost. That’s about our heads. And pray Lord thank you for today as my personal prayer has been in our, my, my prayer time. Lord, I pray. We would be a church, that whole has a burden for the lost this heart. For evangelism, Lord of opening our mouth and sharing our faith with people I think, for the people who have gotten saved things, for the people who are in the process of getting saved or to ask that you just do work in people’s lives, especially all of us here in this room. Help us to hear and understand and obey and have the same heart as you do, jesus. We pray this in jesus name. Amen.