For the Sake of Others // Find the One

Welcome to the lookout.

So if you have your Bibles with you this morning, let's uh let's we're gonna start in uh Second Corinthians and then quickly get over to Luke 15, okay?

So you can open up if you don't have your Bible, if you do the phone thing or the screen thing, you can look at it on your screen.

Um but last week, if you were with us, I started to share a little bit about kind of thematically a season that we are in as a body and one that we're gonna continue to move towards.

And it really is around this whole theme of for the sake of others.

Let me read 2 Corinthians 5, starting in verse 14.

Paul says this he said, For the love of Christ controls us, because we have been, we have concluded this that one has died for all, therefore all have died.

And he died for all, but that those who might live, those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

Everybody say, for their sake, for their sake died and was raised.

And so Paul is making a giant conclusion that all of this, all of life with Jesus is about living from the fuel and the rocket fuel, the engine of the love of God.

The love of God controls us, propels us, compels us, moves us forward.

And because of that, we we make this conclusion that he came and he died for all, so that those that he died for, not we don't have to live for ourselves either.

Isn't that so beautiful that Jesus died for you that you don't have to live for yourself anymore?

It's a liberating thing.

And so what that means is that we join him in this for the sake of others kind of lifestyle, which is the love of God, it's the flow of God moving through us.

It is that spirit breakout moments where we actually move towards the people that God loves.

Uh, it was William Temple who said maybe a hundred years ago, or actually, I don't even know what era he lived in.

He said the church is the only society on earth that exists for the benefit of its non-members.

It wasn't Graham, I said Graham Cook last week.

It wasn't Graham Cook, it's William Temple.

The church is the only society on earth that exists for the benefit of its life of its members.

So discipleship to Jesus, and as he forms us into its in to his image, it's not just for the sake of self-improvement, it's for the sake of others.

Yeah?

Somebody shout back at me.

And this is the life, this is the good life, actually.

So last week, one of the things that we did is we passed out these cards, um, uh, these prayer cards, it just said for the sake of others on it.

I know that you guys didn't all get one, so we're gonna pass out some cards this week.

And so uh, if you were not here last week and didn't receive a card that says for the sake of others on it, just raise your hand across the room.

I'm hoping that we have enough cards here uh to go around.

So these guys are gonna pass out some cards.

How many of you, well actually, just yeah, with with the sound of your voice, how many of you did get a card last week?

All right, that was yeah, that's probably worth a woo.

How else would you respond to that?

Um so uh so you had a card last week, and we're gonna explain these a little bit more.

But one of the invitations for this year, as we're moving through this year together, is on this card to think through who is one person that God has given you this year?

One person in your life that you can hold before God every day in prayer, believing that God wants to encounter them with his love.

Okay?

Just one person this year that you can say, God, I believe that you've given them to me.

And maybe that's multiple people in your life, but I'm just saying, for just for the sake of this exercise, who is one person in your life that either is estranged from God or has never yet met God or doesn't understand the love of God, or who would need, you know, you want to pray for an encounter with the real Jesus this year?

And what would happen if every day this year you actually took them before God and prayed for them?

All right.

Now, we do an exercise like this, and the first question we get to is just one?

Like that's that's what we're doing, just one, like with all of the needs in the world.

Isn't it limiting to just say, just have one person we are praying for?

Which is a good question.

Now, you can be drawn to pray for all kinds of things, but there is something about putting a target on just one.

There's something about putting a target on just one.

And why is that?

Because let's remember today that Jesus is relentlessly after the one.

Jesus is relentlessly after the one.

In fact, when he was pressed on this by the Pharisees and the experts of the law, he responded to them by telling them three stories.

Okay, and that's we're gonna go today.

Luke 15.

If you have your Bible, Luke 15.

Okay.

Now, Luke 15, this is the first sermon I've ever I ever heard in this church.

When I was just in high school and I visited this church from Indiana, I was here, Pastor Walt Robertson was preaching from Luke 15, in which Jesus goes through three parables, all right?

It's the story of the lost sheep, the story of the lost coin, and the story of the lost son.

Okay?

You guys with me?

All right, Luke 15.

I'm gonna open up in my own Bible here, starting in verse 1.

Let's read this together.

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to him, and the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them.

See, he told them this parable.

What man of you having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after that 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.

Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Or what woman having ten 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, 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.

Now there's a third story here, it's a little bit longer, so I'll paraphrase it for you.

It's a story of the lost son.

It's actually the story of two lost sons.

It's just one of them didn't know they were lost.

But one of them did know they were lost.

And it follows a similar similar, kind of similar format.

The lost one ends up coming home, and and there was great rejoicing, and there was a party for the lost one, and he was received back into his home.

So the story of the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost brothers.

Now, this is uh this is a great passage because of the way it starts out.

We see very before he even gets into these parables, just note it says that as the tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to Jesus, they were gathering around Jesus.

People like to gather around Jesus.

He had a magnetic personality, he had a magnetic presence for all, for everybody.

They loved, he was the life of the party everywhere he went.

He's just a likable guy.

And so they were drawing near to Jesus.

This ruffled the feathers of the Pharisees, the experts of the law.

They were wondering why, as he doing this, they that he would receive sinners and to eat with them.

Let's just park here for a moment.

See, the heart of Jesus is always to create space for people, to be in the most intimate places with him.

And and it is really the heart of hospitality, but it's the heart, the heart of Jesus to hold a space that even he would come near, he would receive them.

He actually developed, he had an inner capacity to receive whoever the Father had brought him, no matter how dirty, how shameful, how rotten they were.

He had the inner capacity to hold the space with them, and then even to dine with them.

And as you guys know, in first century Israel, to dine with somebody is one of to share one of the most intimate spaces of relationship, which is why we celebrate our relationship with God through the Lord's table, through the the the the bread and the cup, is because there is no other symbol that symbolizes right relationship than the table of God.

And so this was this was freaking the Pharisees out.

And they started grumbling.

I love I I love the word grumble too, because the word grumble kind of sounds like grumbling, right?

Grumbling, you know, it's like they're just I always like read that word, I'm like, yeah, that's probably what they were doing.

It just sounded like this revving engine, you know, just everywhere they went, just just murmuring and grumbling.

So Jesus tells these stories, and like we already said, these three stories are all just a hair different, but they have they have different characteristics, they have different context, but the emotion, if you guys can just go into these stories for a moment, the emotion of the stories is all the same.

Have you ever lost something that mattered to you?

Have you ever lost something that mattered to you?

Uh I remember a couple years or gosh, probably a couple months into my marriage, I lost my wedding ring, which is not not good, all right?

And uh, and I I lost it, I was cleaning out even a room here at the church.

I lost my wedding ring and just never could find it, right?

And so I had to get get a new one.

I I do if if you've ever parented like a young child, that moment in the grocery store where you take your eyes off them for half a second and they disappear out of your sight.

There's this moment, this is panic.

Um, just you know, you just pucker up real quick.

It's like there's there's like where did my kid go, you know, and then hopefully, you know, you find them around the corner somewhere else where somewhere where they weren't supposed to be.

I I have to confess, I lose things all the time.

Um, I lose things so much that I have to have devices attached to my things that I can ring from my phone.

So I have like two of like on my keys and in my wallet, and even in my sunglass cases, I have devices that as soon as I lose them, I can just from my phone go find out.

Okay, I and I don't know why that is, it's just part of my personality, I just walk into a room and just throw my keys across the room, apparently.

And you know, anytime you lose something, anytime you lose something, um, it generates emotion.

It generates emotion, and and and you start walking through certain steps together.

And so the purpose when when Jesus starts telling these stories of what is lost being found, the purpose of his stories, listen to this, it was not to explain how evangelism works, but to understand how it feels.

It's not to explain how it works, but to understand how it feels.

He he shares three stories because as he wanted them to feel what he feels.

And this is very important that discipleship to Jesus is knowing it's not just good theology, it's not just good practice, and you need both of those.

It's also entering into the very heartbeat of God to feel what Jesus feels, to long for what he longs for.

That's how we know we're growing in Christ's likeness.

Are we wanting what he wants?

So he shares these stories that all end with a picture of heaven, and the rejoicing that's happening in heaven as soon as a lost one is found.

And what the angels felt, and what all of heaven was feeling, and what this person was feeling, once what they were looking for was located, once it you know, in the in the parable of the sheep, once that sheep was it was was picked up and carried on the shoulders of the shepherd, once the lost son came home, there was something that happened in the heart of the one who was doing the pursuing.

And so Jesus was doing the best he could with his language to invite the Pharisees, invite his listeners.

Would you feel what all of heaven is feeling when we sit with those who are estranged from God?

And and it's important that we know that this is not just about those out there, this has to do with you and I too.

Can we just be reminded for a second, for a moment together, for those of you who have said yes to Jesus, for those of you who have been found by God, that something happened the moment that you were found in your sin and turned towards him, or even maybe we were picked up and carried by him back home, that something happened in heaven, and there was a great robust celebration, and all of the angels look down on that moment, and every moment that you have said yes to Jesus, they said, Look, they're coming home, that's the one I love, and we found them, we found her, we found him, they are on their way home.

Can we just take a moment and celebrate that?

Do you realize that that happened for you?

Do you realize that every time that you say yes to him and you turn, you turn in repentance towards him?

Repentance is kind of a heavy word, but it actually just means to turn towards him and you turn your face towards the Lord and you come home.

Do you do you know that right now is in a there's the party of all parties that is happening in heaven?

Every time a lost one comes home, there's an eruption, there is a feast that happens.

And maybe you're even here right now and you're in a season where you're learning maybe to say yes for the first time, you need to know.

If you've counted yourself out, if you think I am not good enough to do this, I am not my life isn't put together enough to follow Jesus.

Like these guys look like they they should follow Jesus, they sing really well, they look like they look put together when they come to Jersey.

I don't know about that, but I'm willing to give it a shot.

I'm just telling you, if you take one step towards Jesus, all of heaven says, Yes! If that's true for you, and it's true for me, it's true for every single person.

And what Jesus is doing is he's moving them out of stagnation, he's moving them out of apathy and moving them into the heart of God.

And so there's a series of emotions that happens when you lose something that is valuable.

And you know what this feels like if you search long enough.

The first thing that happens is longing.

When you lose something that's valuable, there's a longing that takes place in your heart.

It's the burden of seeking, of knowing that something valuable is lost and needs to be found.

There's an ache, there's a grief, there's an unresolved that keeps you on edge, maybe even keeps you up at night a little bit.

And something you lost needs to be found.

It affects you.

There's an ache.

And that ache leads to another kind of emotional state, and we just call it determination.

There's a resolve that happens in the heart of somebody who has lost something, the drive and the persistence that I am going to look as long as it takes to find this coin that was valuable to me.

I'm going to look as long as it takes to find that sheep, to find for my son to come home.

It's the shepherd scanning the countryside, it's the widow lighting a lantern and burning up precious oil, turning over the mattresses until she finds that coin.

It's the father standing on the front porch with his binoculars, wondering if tonight's gonna be the night.

See, there's a determination, a persistence, a resolve that comes over our hearts when we realize that something has been lost.

And it's not rational.

It's not really rational.

Because when you lose something, you're you're not rational anymore.

Right?

Like when I lose my keys, I don't look in rational places.

I'm like, well, gosh, I don't think I left them on the roof, but I guess I'll go double check, you know.

You don't you think you're thinking, where are all the possible places?

Where could this go wrong?

Rash, you're not thinking about what makes sense, you're thinking about what love requires or what your desire and longing requires in that moment.

You guys with me?

Longing leads to determination and persistence that eventually, as you stick with it, as you look for what is lost, it leads to a moment of relief, of elation, when the moment comes and you find what has been lost has been found, what's valuable has been discovered.

It's the relief of finding what matters to God, and that's that's on a personal level, there's a relief that happens.

But here's here's the great kind of fourth movement we see in these parables.

It doesn't just end with individual relief, like, oh, glad I found that.

It ended, it ends with communal celebration.

Every one of these stories ends with a communal celebration.

The lost coin is found, and all the neighbors are invited over for a party.

The lost son comes home, somebody go get the best clothes, somebody go find me a ring, go kill that fattened calf, which I was gonna do anyways, because it needs to get in the smoker, right?

We're gonna do it tonight.

We're gonna expedite that because something amazing has happened, and everybody needs to be in on this.

Everybody needs to be a part of the rejoicing.

And so Jesus is, as he's walking through the longing, the determination, the relief, the celebration of the lost ones being found, he's he's describing what heaven is like.

Okay?

And I just want to ask you, can you feel what heaven feels?

Do you have the capacity to feel what heaven feels?

We pray those songs, God, let heaven come to earth.

Well, Jesus, or we sing the songs, let heaven come to earth.

It's in the Lord's Prayer.

Let it be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Well, Jesus makes it really easy what's happening in heaven.

What's happening in heaven is a lot of partying.

So if we actually were like lived into what Jesus was saying, we'd be doing way more celebration and partying every time you or I or somebody we know says yes to Jesus.

Anytime somebody is found that has been lost, and sometimes that's us.

How many of you have ever felt lost even while you're trying to follow Jesus?

Yes, to find me.

I'm just so thankful that following Jesus isn't about me finding God, it's about God finding me.

I didn't find God, He found me.

I didn't even know where to look.

He made it easy for me.

He found me.

So Jesus is saying, listen, if you want to know what heaven is like, you need to feel what heaven feels.

And you need to respond the way heaven responds, and you need to search for what heaven is searching for, and organize your life around what seems to matter to the angels and to the Father and all of creation in heaven.

Are you guys with me?

So the question that we should ask then, if that's true, then when was the last time we experienced these very emotions towards those who are far from God?

When's the last time your heart broke?

When's the last time you felt the longing?

The determination, the persistence?

Have you walked with somebody long enough to see them start to wake up to the love of God?

And that to bring joy and then to bring them into family.

So there's celebration and rejoicing that happens.

Do you do you feel those are emotions?

Maybe the opposite.

Maybe you feel the opposite of emotions than the ones Jesus is describing.

Maybe you feel something more similar to the ones Jesus is talking to.

Judgment.

Maybe, maybe, maybe when we think about those who are far from God, it's they deserve that, or they deserve to be where they're at, or they made those decisions and they should face the consequences of those.

Maybe it's just a number.

And it's a numbness that sometimes comes from uh I don't know, I don't even know if I have time to think about anybody else because I'm trying, I'm overwhelmed myself.

So I don't even know what I think about my neighbors or my coworkers or the people in my life, my family members, because I'm just trying to keep my head above the water.

It's okay to admit that, right?

Maybe it's just we're just too busy.

I haven't even seen anybody, really seen them to know what they're walking through.

Or it could be like the envy, the envy of the older brother.

Like, why do they deserve such rejoicing?

Like, I'm I'm the one who I've been doing this for a long time.

Nobody's throwing a party for me, right?

And so all of that means this we need God to awaken our hearts.

We need God listen, guys, we need Jesus, we need the Holy Spirit of God to awaken our hearts to his reckless pursuit of us and his love.

First for us, and then for others.

First for us.

Which is why it's good to take a moment and just to listen in on heaven.

When it comes to you, do you believe that's the case for yourself?

Do you still believe that you are the beloved of God?

Do you still believe that you're a beloved son, your beloved daughter, your beloved son?

Do you believe that heaven, that Jesus is beside himself?

That the Holy Spirit, the Father, they're behind, they're beside themselves to think about you waking up, the glorious freedom of the sons and daughters of God.

That Romans 8 says that all of creation is groaning for the awakening of the sons and daughters of God.

That means that we have to be the ones who wake up to what all of heaven has woken up to.

Because when we first, when we live our lives in the love of God, that it changes the way, it changes the way that we go about our lives.

Otherwise, if we are numb to the love of God, we will always be numb to the cares and the pains of this world.

If we are numb to the love of God, we won't have a capacity.

The best thing you can do to make an impact of the world is to be loved by God yourself.

Let's just put it that way.

You have to start there.

If you're not starting with the love of God, we have nothing to offer.

You can only give what you possess.

So we wake up to the love of God and then we move out.

And so this is a heartbeat.

I believe that this is a question that Jesus wants to ask us, even here at this church in this time and this season.

Will you feel what I feel for the world?

Will you feel what I feel?

Will you su will you search with the same ferocious love for the ones that I'm leading you to?

And will you stick with them long enough until I can find them?

I I love the the definition of discipleship.

It's kind of in a discipleship or evangelism, it's kind of you can kind of call it one and the same.

Discipleship is meeting somebody where they're at and journeying with them to where God wants them to be.

Meeting somebody where they're at and journeying with them to where God wants them to be.

It's a coming alongside and persistence for the one.

Right?

So the reason we have to get into this is because there's all kinds of obstacles from living the life that feels what God feels.

There's all kinds of obstacles that keep us from searching for the one, okay?

And this year we're gonna get into some of those.

We're gonna we're asking the Holy Spirit of God to identify these obstacles in our own hearts, in our church, in our culture, that keep us focused on our own interests rather than following Him to where God is leading us, right?

Um, and it's gonna require all of us to rethink how we do things, to rethink our practices, to rethink the way we pray, so we can lean in with Jesus for the sake of others.

You guys with me?

So I'm gonna walk through four like four or five things here real quick.

Um these are kind of invitations, and you're gonna hear more about these as we go through the year, but I just want to lay just a few pieces down and uh only if you want me to.

Uh, you guys want me to do that?

Okay, all right, cool, cool.

All right.

So, number one, we already talked about that.

Um, this year, we are gonna pray for the one, um, and we're gonna make a practice.

I'm gonna do it every day at noon.

I invite you to do just join me every day at noon or whatever time works for you to take out your card, or if you just remember, pray for your one.

I hope you're thinking about your one right now, even if you don't have your card with you right in front of you.

Think about your one.

Who's the one person that God's given you?

Because you can't pray for somebody without falling in love with them eventually.

The longer you pray for somebody, the more your heart moves towards them.

So if your heart isn't moving towards anybody, just start praying for them and you will love them as you.

You can't pray for somebody without eventually loving them, which is why Jesus told us to pray for our enemies, by the way.

Because we have we're we're invited to feel what God feels for them.

And it allows us, even for a moment of the day, to kind of step outside our small insular world.

And then we can get right back in, okay?

You know, if if you need to do that.

But we can step outside and we're gonna pray for the one.

We're gonna do that together this year.

There's other tools you can do.

There's a great app on your phone called Electio 365.

There's morning, midday, and evening prayer.

The mid the midday prayer they release every day is a is a reflective prayer that invites you to think about those who God is trying to reach.

Okay?

So your part is to commit to prayer.

Your part is to find the one, right?

When we gather, find the one that God is looking for.

Number two, um, we're going to do something really fun uh starting next week.

And this one I'm just gonna call put love into action.

Sometimes we overthink what it looks like to live the Jesus life for the sake of others.

And sometimes the greatest barrier to us actually moving with the Holy Spirit is we think that we have to do extraordinary things.

And so what we're gonna do though is we're gonna flip that on its head next week.

And I want I'm inviting you back next week.

We're gonna launch an initiative that we're just calling this, we're calling So Loved, A Thousand Moments of Love in Action.

And what we're gonna do starting this week is we're going to stir one another up.

We're going to challenge each other to from now through Easter find a couple one or two people every week to stop, to serve them, to linger with them, to pray for them, to to give, to share a meal, or share a coffee.

We're gonna do just the challenge is one person a week.

We're gonna we're going to put a challenge out to this church that between now and Easter, that we create a thousand moments of love and action.

And the point isn't, no, uh the point isn't everybody necessarily getting saved or giving giving their hearts to Jesus.

That's not necessarily the point is us eliminating the barrier, interrupting our lives to move towards the people that God has put in front of us.

All right?

It's gonna be really fun, it's gonna be really good, and that's gonna start next week, okay?

And so we're gonna give you some more to do next week.

And so a lot of that though is about both us interrupting, finding ways as a community that we're gonna live just a season of, we're gonna allow ourselves and push ourselves to interrupt our the flow of our lives to love others.

But then in doing that, we're gonna create micro testimonies.

So every time you do something, we're gonna actually share those stories, and then over time, we're gonna see all hundreds, hundreds of stories coming in of every one of us actually taking a moment to see who God sees, to love who he loves, to serve who he serves, because that's what we do when we follow Jesus.

All right?

Cool.

Next week you'll be way more excited about that.

But for now, I just wanted to cast that vision a little bit.

And then along that, along that road, this year, we're gonna be doing some work on learning how to share our stories.

When somebody asks you for the reason that you believe what you believe, the reason for your faith, what is it that you say?

How do you share about what God has done in your life?

See, a lot of Christians, we've either become afraid or we just are assuming that nobody actually cares.

And so we've stopped actually telling the stories of God at work in our life.

The power of the gospel, and the scripture says the gospel is the power of God for salvation.

So the thing that the enemy wants to do is shut up the mouths of the saints.

But this year we're gonna learn how to testify, just like that video you saw a little bit ago, just one moment at a time, testify about what God is doing so that we can release it into the world, that we can actually release it to the people that we live with and that we work with to tell them that God is a good God and he is worth following.

Amen.

A testimony culture is what we're gonna be working on.

We're gonna be working on more.

You're gonna see this year, uh, we're gonna be more diligent even with some of our events, uh, the outreach events.

We're gonna do another serve day in the Heatherwood and some of the schools around.

We're we're gonna be doing kids' nights out where we're inviting our neighbors in Gun Barrel and Nywat to actually bring their kids.

We're gonna baby, you know, do like child care for a night so the parents can go out for a date night.

Um, we're gonna be doing fall fests again, community events designed to invite people to to engage our neighbors.

And it's we're gonna be working more on building bridges, not just uh events for our community, but events to invite people to because we want to become the kind of people who don't just live for our own self-interest but for the sake of others.

Okay, and you might and I just want to tell you now we're gonna do some of these events, and you're gonna be like, too busy, not interested.

An event like Fall Fest, for instance, it's easy to kind of check out and say, Well, I don't have kids, so I'm not coming.

It's like, no, your commitment now is when we do these events, you're gonna come and show up and serve because it's not for you, it's for the one that God is trying to reach.

All right?

When we do a kid sign out, and I don't care if you don't have kids, you're gonna show up and you're gonna serve and you're gonna you're gonna serve the the neighbors.

It's not about you.

This isn't about what you're getting out of it.

You're not gonna get anything out of it, except you'll get everything from it because you're giving your life away.

Yeah?

So the fifth part here, and we'll wrap up here in a second, okay?

In fact, I'll have the worship team come up here.

Um, the fifth part you're gonna hear about this year, and this is kind of more of a this is something fun.

Behind the scenes, we've been really working on how to uh um strengthen some of our global missions.

You know, I've talked a little bit about some local things we're doing, but on a global level, um, there's some we have important partnerships uh that we're gonna be sowing into more diligently this year.

These are people that we're already doing financial partnerships with as a church, but uh more specifically in prayer and action, just finding ways to receive them when they come into town.

We're doing work all around the world, but there's kind of five key areas.

One is with Willy Rumanera in Rwanda, with Comfort My People Ministries.

Uh, one is with Amigos of Mexico and four key areas of Mexico of serving the orphans and the widows.

You guys know a lot about that.

Um, one area is with emotionally healthy discipleship and their work to create resources for churches in Africa and Asia, all around the world, to grow healthy leaders around the world.

One is uh with uh um uh actually some closed work that we're doing uh uh here at the church.

There's individuals in the church who are doing very important work around the world that actually can't be talked about publicly just because there's some safety and privacy issues.

But but we're we're supporting them behind the scenes, and we're doing some work to support other missionaries that are going to Lebanon and Beirut, equipping pastors and churches.

Five key areas that over the course of this year you're gonna hear about how we can, as a church, not only support them financially, but in prayer, make sure that they're winning on the mission field because they need to know that there is a church somewhere that is championing them, praying for them, holding them in our hearts so that the gospel can be spread in every nation of the world.

So good, Luke.

The lost one, praying for the one.

All of this comes back to you.

Jesus desire for every single one, including you and I, to know his life.

NC Wright pointed out in Luke 15, NC Wright pointed out that the real challenge of these parables for the church today is to ask this question: what would we have to do in the visible public world if we were to make people ask the same question questions to which Jesus told these stories?

What would we have to do to elicit the same kinds of questions?

What might today's Christians do that would make people ask, why are you doing something like that?

I just want you to think about this.

Jesus was stopped because he was doing something out of the ordinary, which caused some people to come to him and said, Why are you doing something like that?

I want to think about think about your own life.

Think about the invitations from God before you this year.

What would you need to do that would cause ears to perk up, that would pique curiosity, for somebody just to lean into you and say, Hey, why are you doing that?

To which you can share your own stories of God searching for the lost and finding it.

Amen.

So here's what we're gonna do before we leave, we're gonna put this into practice today.

I just want you to think about your one.

I want you to think about your one, your prayer card that you have.

If you have it in front of you, just hold it in front of you.

If you don't have what, just you can visualize that person, okay?

Visualize a person.

And we're gonna do this consistently throughout the year.

We're gonna take time in our gatherings to hold them before Jesus in prayer.

Okay?

You guys have them?

Shout out me.

Tell me you got your one.

This is your plus one, alright?

If Jesus was throwing a party, this would be your plus one.

Who would you bring with you?

This is your plus one this year.

Who is your plus one that you're bringing to the party of heaven this year?

Alright?

And let's just do this together, Jesus.

Let's actually stand together.

Let's do this.

Let's get active.

Stand before him.

You can, as I pray, you can say their name out loud.

You can use your own words.

I'm gonna pray, just form a prayer for us to gather around today.

So, Father, we thank you.

We thank you, Jesus, that you so loved us, that you gave your only son to us, and we proclaim that we are a church that is not for ourselves, but for the sake of the ones you have sent us to.

And right now we hold each person before you by name, by face, every circumstance, every need, believing that you so love them and you want them to know you.

I thank you, Lord Jesus, that you are in a pursuit for them.

You will rearrange heaven and earth in order to find them, Lord God.

And I thank you, Lord Jesus, if you can use us, use us.

If you need to bypass us, bypass us.

But we thank you, God, to go find every name and person represented in this room.

Go win them, God, win their hearts to you.

Show them your goodness, show them your love, Lord God.

And I thank you, Father, to let light erupt from our lives, Lord Jesus, that as we pray for them, that love awakens, that we can feel what you feel, God.

We ask that you would speak to their hearts, reveal your love, break down every wall, break down every obstacle that keeps them from you.

Would you get their attention, pique their curiosity, and help them turn towards you wherever they are in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

If you've been found by God in this room, would you release a shout of praise with me right now?

Thank you, Jesus.

We thank you, Jesus.

We thank you, this is who you are.

We thank you that you're relentless, God.

You're relentless towards us.

And we thank you, God, that you are sending us with your same heart to the ones you care about.

We thank you for an awakening and a release of your love this year.

God, just pray over this journey we are on together, Lord God, that as a church.

We can move in your heart, in your flow, in your kingdom to all the places that you send us and all the people you send us, God.

We thank you for your reckless love, Jesus, and we give you a shout of praise in Jesus' name.

Amen.

God loves you.

God loves you.

Say yes to Jesus is the best thing you'll ever do, and never stop saying yes.

Amen.

Listen, as we go, we're gonna have our ministry team up front here, our prayer team.

If you want prayer for anything, these individuals, you can come and bring anything if you need prayer for healing uh or or relationships, anything in your life, you can trust them to pray with you.

But as we go, I'm just gonna read a prayer over us, just kind of a closing blessing here.

Jesus said, As the Father sent me, so I am sending you.

So may the Spirit anoint your words, steady your steps, and fill you with the courage to love as Christ loves loves, to serve as he serves, to speak as he speaks, for he is with you always to the very end of the age.

Go in peace, friends.

Love you.