The One | Donovan Rillion | The One Who Has Wandered

And something I think we need to hear as we start

a new year is that God wants everyone to be a

part of his family. And I don't think that should

be news. I don't think that should be a new idea.

But for some reason, it needs to be said. It

needs to be a reminder for all Christians to

hear, for all people to hear that God wants everyone

to be a part of his family. Because sometimes

we look at the church, we look at God and we

say, that's a very exclusive thing. The truth

is, it is not an exclusive thing. It is a very

inclusive thing. The question is, is are you

going to be included? It's up to you. But it's

also up to me to tell you what you should be

included in. It's like if I was throwing a party

and I'm having this party and I invite everybody,

but I don't invite you, you would be very upset

with me, right? Because everyone else got invited

except for you. The same is true for Christians

that walk around. We talk about how good God

is and we say, yes, God has done so much good

in my life. God has blessed me. He saved me.

He's given me the promise of an eternal life

with him in heaven. And he's done all of these

good things for me. But we don't tell them what

he can and wants to do for them. God's party

is not exclusive. But sometimes we have made

it exclusive. I want to start this series talking

about the one. I want to start it by telling

you about all the friends that I have. Believe

it or not, I do have friends. I have a lot of

friends from different backgrounds. I have a

lot of friends that come from different places.

They come from different life experiences, different

socioeconomic statuses, different religious groups,

different just cultures in general. I have a

lot of friends that are different. But because

we live in the South, one thing that is pretty

consistent with our friend groups is most of

our friends have some type of a church background.

They have some type of Christian background.

Maybe they grew up in the Catholic church or

they grew up in a Baptist church or they grew

up with parents that did pray and said they believed

in God. They didn't really go to church, but

they had some type of a faith background. We've

all got friends that have some type of connection.

to the church. When I think about my friends,

I can place most of them into just a few categories,

and I'm going to have those on the screen. Maybe

a little bit small for you to read, so I'll read

them out loud. I have some friends that grew

up in the church, but they've wandered from the

faith. Maybe they just kind of walked away. It

wasn't that they intentionally walked away, but

you go to college and you stop paying attention

to go into church on Sunday morning. Or maybe

you moved away, you joined the military, and

it was kind of a hassle to get a ride off base

to the church. They drifted. They wandered from

the faith. Some grew up in a church or in church,

and they were hurt by the church. They were hurt

by people in the church. Things happened. That

really just kind of pushed them away. So they

walked away. Maybe they just really hated the

doctrine. Maybe they just couldn't deal with

the legalism. Or maybe they couldn't deal with

the hypocrisy. Or maybe some really traumatic

things happened to them. So they walked away.

And they said, I'm done. I'm done with the whole

Jesus thing. I can't do it anymore. Maybe they

just walked away from church, not Jesus. Some

believe they found a better way. to live apart

from the church. They believe maybe in a different

religious group or maybe they've kind of subscribed

to a different way of thinking. But whatever

it is, they've walked away because they feel

they found a better way. And then some would

call themselves Christians. They would say that

they are Christ followers, but they're trusting

more in their own goodness than in his. They're

trusting more in their own self -righteousness

and their own ability to do right and their own

ability to do good than they are trusting in

God's. And then some are genuine followers of

Christ. They're still flawed, but they're faithfully

following. So we've got these different categories

of our friends. And I think if you're honest

with yourself, you could probably put a majority

of your friends in those categories. Maybe you

have friends that come from different faith backgrounds

altogether, and we'll talk about that at some

point in the series. But this morning, what we're

going to talk about the most is the first friend.

The friend that has the church background, but

maybe they just kind of drifted. They didn't

walk away on purpose. They didn't run. They weren't

pushed out. They just kind of drifted. Because,

again, in the South, We have a lot of friends

that have Christian backgrounds. This is the

Bible Belt, after all. And so we might assume

that they're okay because they have a church

background. But what I want to be very clear

about, and this is one thing that can be painful

for some people to hear, it can feel very judgmental.

And so I want to clarify before I say it that

I am in no way being judgmental. But the truth

is, is a church background is not the same as

a relationship with Christ. You can come to church

every Sunday. You can be here every time the

doors are open. You can participate in all the

events. You can be in all the Bible studies.

You can do everything that the church does. But

it does not qualify as a relationship with Christ.

Claiming Christianity is not the same thing as

following Jesus. I am a very. Christ follower

type person. I don't really even like to say

Christian that much anymore. If you'll notice,

sometimes I'll post things on Facebook and I

like to qualify that these are posts for Christians

because I have a lot of friends on Facebook that

aren't Christians. And I don't want them to hear

me say something about Christians and think I'm

talking to them because I'm not. I'm talking

to the Christ follower. And so we have to understand

that we can claim to be Christians all day long.

But to the world, all that sounds like is a bunch

of people who occupy a seat on Sunday mornings

and tell everybody else they're going to hell.

I want to be a follower of Christ, someone who

looks and lives like Jesus. That's what we're

called to. If we're being if we're willing to

be really honest, there may be someone sitting

in this room today who fits in one of those categories

that we just mentioned. That fits in the category

of the person that maybe they drifted away or

they were pushed away. Maybe you've been hurt

by the church and so you walked away. I don't

know which category that we just touched on that

you fit in, but I would imagine you fit somewhere

in there. And we don't want to sound judgmental,

so we avoid using the word that the Bible uses.

And hear me again when I say not being judgmental

at all, because I fit in this category some days

of the week. And the word. that we have to use,

if we're being very honest, is lost. But I want

you to understand that calling somebody lost

is not a judgmental, it's not a hateful thing

to say. Calling someone lost isn't an insult.

To say someone is lost is to say that they have

value, that they matter. Because you don't lose

something that doesn't matter to you. It's just

gone. I'll give you a story, and I did get permission

from Eliza to tell this because I don't want

to get in trouble. A couple of years ago, Eliza

lost one of the keys to her car. Conveniently

enough, just a few months before that, she lost

a key to our other car. So just going to tell

you really quickly, don't give my wife your keys.

Don't do that. Love her to death. Hopefully she

doesn't listen to this sermon. But yeah, she

lost one of her car keys and her car is, well,

it was fairly newer. I don't know if you know

this, but new car keys are not cheap to replace.

So I started calling around like, hey, how much

is it going to be to get a new key? Well, for

her car specifically, it was going to be like

$300. Car keys today cost anywhere from $100

to $400 to replace. It seems kind of silly to

me, but whatever. We looked everywhere for this

car key. I mean, we checked in the garbage. We

checked in all of our clothes. We checked every

inch of that car. We checked all over our apartment.

We looked everywhere for that key. Why did we

look for it? Because it had value. Because it

mattered. And so to say we lost, well, she, make

sure that's clear. She lost her car key was to

say she lost something of value, of something

that mattered. And so when we say that people

are lost, when we say that people have wandered

from God or maybe they've walked away from God

and they are his lost sheep. They're his lost

children. That's not to insult them. It's not

to say anything bad about them. It's to say they

matter to God and they matter to us. If we look

around this room and we see people that maybe

used to go to church with us or be a part of

our church family, and we say that person is

lost, it's not to say anything bad about them.

It's to say, I miss them. I need them. I want

them. And so when God says one of his children

is lost, he's saying they matter. Because to

God, every single person has a measurable value.

They cost a lot more than a car key. And when

they are lost, God does everything to track them

down. We saw that with the Israelite people.

We see that in the way that Jesus goes to the

lost. God values every single person. That's

why our theme verse for this series is Luke chapter

Luke 19:10

19, verse 10. For the son of man came to seek

and to save the lost. That's the mission of Jesus.

That's what Christ came for is to seek and save

the lost. And if we're followers of Jesus, if

we're going to be like Christ, if we're going

to do the things that Jesus did, then we don't

just believe in him. We follow him into his mission.

And if his mission was to come seek and save

the lost, then what are we supposed to be doing?

Seeking. Now, we don't do the saving. I want

that to be very clear. But we are supposed to

be seeking the lost. We introduce them to the

one who saves. Every one of us has been lost

at some point. Again, that's why I said calling

somebody lost is not an insult. We've all been

lost at some point and some may be sitting here

today. In the state of being lost, whether you

realize it or not. That's why for the next month,

we're going to focus on the people that Jesus

values. The lost. Specifically, we're going to

focus on. The one in your life that may be lost.

The one person that you know. The friend that

you have. The co -worker. The family member that

is lost. That they're not in a relationship with

Christ. The person that you can be praying for.

That you can be thinking about in your time of

meditation with God. In your time of prayer.

In your time of scripture reading. In your fasting.

We're going to be doing a 31 days of prayer and

fasting throughout the month of January. I'm

just throwing that on you right now. So starting

on, I think it's Wednesday. and New Year's Day?

Yes, Thursday is. Thursday is New Year's Day.

So starting on Thursday, you're going to give

up something. You don't have to. This is completely

up to you. I'm encouraging you to. You're going

to give up something for a month. I'm going to

give up Dr. Pepper. Well, Dr. Pepper and root

beer. I'm going to give up Dr. Pepper and root

beer and desserts. The desserts part can be amended.

I'm going to give up sodas for a month. And that's

going to be what I fast from. And we'll have

a prayer and fasting guide that we're going to

send out to you. And each week, the week's prayer

prompts will be printed out for you. But I want

you to think about what you can fast from so

that you can invite God in to do some really

incredible things. But I also want you to be

praying. And our prayer focus is going to be

on the one. The one in your life that is not

in relationship with Christ. The one in your

life that's not a follower. Because sometimes

the Great Commission, that whole go into all

the worlds and proclaim the gospel can feel kind

of like a daunting task that I have to give the

gospel to everybody. So the challenge is if we

can just start with one, maybe we can just change

the world. We did the math a few months ago in

a sermon where I told you, you know, there's

100 people in the room. If you multiply 100 by

two, you get to 200 and you keep multiplying.

If we just start with one, we can change this

county. In just a matter of years, we can bring

everyone to Christ if we just start with one.

And so today we begin with the one who has wandered.

So in Luke chapter 15, and this is where the

Luke 15 · chapter mention

series is going to kind of be anchored is in

Luke 15. We start in verses one through seven.

We see Jesus, he's receiving some criticism from

the religious elites for the things that he's

teaching, the things that he's doing. And this

is how he responds to them. It's on the screen,

but again, it's a little small. So if you want

to turn there, it's Luke 15 verses 1 through

Luke 15:1–7

7. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all

drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and

the scribes grumbled, saying, This man receives

sinners and eats with them. So 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

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. 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. I want you to notice first who Jesus

attracts. He attracts religious people, obviously,

because he's a rabbi. He's a teacher. And so

religious people are curious about him. But Jesus

also attracts sinners. He attracts outcasts.

He attracts the people that everybody else would

have avoided. He attracts those people. I got

to be very honest here. Sometimes I think Christians

push those people away. We kind of scare them

off. Again, I want to be a Christ follower, a

disciple of Christ. And if Jesus attracted those

people, then I want to attract those people.

Now, what I want to be very clear is I don't

want to attract those people by doing what they

do and fitting in with them. But I want to attract

those people by being so different that when

they look at me, they see somebody and say, what

in the world is wrong with that guy? I got to

know some about him. I got to know why he's so

different. Just imagine what the world would

think, what they would see if Christians actually

look like Jesus. If Jesus attracted those people,

maybe we could too. And so what I want to do

is live a life that attracts the people that

everybody else avoids. And Jesus gets criticism

for this. And the religious leaders, they can't

stand it. So Jesus tells this story. He talks

about a shepherd. The shepherd leaves his 99

sheep because he has 100, math, 99 sheep to go

find one. He goes to find the one, the one that

wandered off. And without hesitation, when he

finds him, he rejoices. He doesn't scold the

sheep. He doesn't shame the sheep and beat him

over the head with a stick and say, you stupid

sheep. How could you run away? He doesn't do

that. He puts the sheep over his shoulders. He

carries them home and he throws a party. He calls

his friends. He says, celebrate with me. What

was lost has been found. You know, something

we were. I was talking with somebody the other

day about clapping when somebody gives their

life to Christ, celebrating when somebody gives

their life to Christ. Y 'all, heaven throws a

party when someone comes to know Christ as their

Lord and Savior. Heaven rejoices. And so when

somebody gives their life to Christ in these

waters. What are we supposed to do? Just stand

here like good for you, dude. Happy for you.

I'll send you a card. No, we celebrate because

what was lost has been found. Here's the point.

Jesus values the one who wanders. He looks at

the one that kind of drifts off. He says, I still

love you and I'm going to do things. I'm going

to send people your way. I'm going to send things

your way so that you can be found. I want you

to be a part of my family. Jesus says the person

that wanders matters. And if we truly value something,

we go looking for it. So if we're going to be

like Jesus, then we've got to look at the person

who's wandered off. And we've got to say, I value

them. I'm going to go find them. And when I find

them, I'm going to celebrate. So let me ask you

today. If someone you love has wandered from

Christ. Why would you not go after them? Why

would you not chase them down? You know, I think

about when my kids, they start, they got, Peyton

got a four -wheeler and Easton got a little go

-kart for Christmas and they were driving down

the hill right there, the driveway, and Peyton

started going a little too fast. So I had to

run and catch him, right? Because I didn't want

him to drift down the hill. Because what's at

the bottom of the hill? A highway. Right. When

Jesus sees us drifting, he does what he can to

catch us. And when we see the people we love

drifting down a hill, we know what's at the bottom

of that hill. So why would we not chase them

to catch them? And I use the word wander. I use

the word drift because a sheep doesn't typically

leave intentionally. Sheep aren't they're not

the type to run away and just go do their own

thing because they want to. Sheep are kind of

dumb. And so if a sheep gets lost, it's because

it wandered off or drifted off from the rest

of the flock. And so we look at a sheep and we

say, well, it's gone. It's lost because it kind

of slowly, subtly. sometimes unnoticed, drifts

away from the flock. I want you to think about

a car that's not actively being steered. If you

take your hands off the steering wheel, maybe

if your front end alignment's good, you can stay

in the lane for a good while. But if it's not,

you're going to just slowly drift. And before

long, you end up in the median, or hopefully

that's all that happens is you just end up in

the median. I can remember one time when I was

in high school. My grandma and I, we had to drive

to Jackson, Mississippi. So about a three hour

drive. And well, I say my grandma and I, I drove

because my grandma doesn't drive far. And so

I drove, but I was really tired. And so on our

way back, I fell asleep and I had sunglasses

on. So my grandma didn't realize I'd fallen asleep.

And so all of a sudden the truck just starts

drifting into the median. And I guess my grandma

maybe wasn't paying attention because before

long we were in the median and I kind of had

to. Get back on the road. I wasn't paying attention.

I wasn't being conscious about keeping it on

the road. And before long, we were in danger.

That's what happens sometimes. Life gets busy,

right? We go to, like I said, we go to college

and we stop. going to church on Sunday or maybe

work gets busy and we miss Wednesday night because

it's been a long week or things get hard. So

we don't pray as much as we should. And life

is kind of chaotic. So we don't have the time

to sit down and read our Bible and spend time

with God. And these things happen and things

build up. And before long, we have not been to

church in a long time. We haven't talked to God

in a long time. And it's not because we don't

want to. We just aren't thinking about it. We

drift. You know exactly what that's like because

it's happened to you. I mean, I shouldn't just

put that on you, but I would imagine it's happened

to you, especially if you work and have kids.

Things get chaotic. And all of a sudden, the

thing to take the back seat is the God that you

can't see with your eyes. And so it's easy to

just put him on the back burner. We drift. That's

why I'm preaching this, because there are people

in this room that have drifted and there are

a ton of people out there that have drifted.

And I have three specific reasons for this lesson.

The first one is we have to be intentional if

we want to stay close to the shepherd, if we

want to stay on the road, if we want to stay

on the path that leads to that home in heaven

with God. We've got to be intentional about it

because it can be very easy to just drift off.

And before long, we're the sheep that's wandered

away that needs somebody to come find him. And

if we're not careful, we may never be found.

We've got to be intentional. The second thing

is, is if you've wandered, if you are lost. I

want you to hear this clearly. You can come home.

There is not a better time than right now to

come home. And the third is, is if someone you

love has wandered, you better go find them. I

better go find them. If someone you love has

wandered and if you want to be like Jesus, if

I want to be like Jesus, I better go find them.

Because they're not just going to find their

way home on their own. That's another thing about

sheep. Again, sheep are dumb. I'm not calling

our loved ones dumb. I'm just saying we're all

sheep. Sheep, when they wander, they're stuck

because they're not smart enough to find the

shepherd, to find the flock. They're not smart

enough. You know, if you get lost in the woods,

it's like, OK, if I just walk this direction

long enough, I will find my way home. Right.

It's not like that. Sheep, when they get lost,

they're lost until someone goes to find them.

And so if our friends are lost, we better go

find them. To follow Jesus is to see people the

way he sees them. And Jesus doesn't look at the

lost sheep and say, well, that was their fault.

I hope they find their way home. He looks at

them. He goes after them. And there are thousands

of people in our community with church backgrounds

who have simply drifted away from Christ. You

know those people. I don't because I'm new here.

But you know those people. The people that sat

in these chairs not too long ago. The people

that you grew up going to church with, the people

that you went on the youth group trips with,

the people that you maybe went to a Christian

college with and now they could care less about

talking to God. You know those people. And if

you see them the way Jesus sees them, we should

go find them. The next thing I want you to notice

what happens when the sheep is found again, and

I really want to emphasize this point, is there

is a celebration. There's not condemnation. Full

transparency, I got the idea for this series

from a preacher in Texas named Rick Ashley. And

one thing that Rick says in his sermon on the

sheep is he doesn't pick the sheep up and beat

him over the head with his club and say, you

stupid sheep, how dare you walk away? And he

doesn't do that. He throws a party. And I say

that, I said that twice now, maybe three times

in this lesson, because I want that message to

be very clear. I can't speak for all of you,

but I know I can speak for myself. And I think

I can speak for Chad and Phil as the shepherds.

We're going to celebrate when people come to

know Christ. And we're going to be a church that

welcomes the lost. We're going to be a people

that when people say, I want to know Jesus, we're

going to do everything we can to make sure they

get to know him. And when they find him, when

they give their life to him, we are going to

be a people that throw a party with heaven. Now,

we may not have a real party, although that'd

be kind of fun, right? Baptism parties. We should

work on that. We're going to be a people that

celebrate when somebody comes to know the greatest

gift. that was ever given. When somebody comes

to know the good shepherd, when somebody comes

to know the God that loves to give abundant life

to his children, we're going to celebrate that.

The church should reflect the heart of heaven.

So this month, we're committing ourselves to

prayer. We're going to commit ourselves to fasting.

I couldn't think of a better way to start our

new year, my first full year with you as a congregation.

I couldn't think of a better way to start us

off than praying to God for the people that we

know that are lost. to praying to God for our

church to be a church family that welcomes the

loss. I couldn't think of a better way than saying,

I'm going to give something up. I'm going to

pour something out so that God can fill me up

in a better way through fasting. That's a spiritual

discipline that we neglect, but I think we need

to focus on a little bit more because I'm going

to let something go so that God can give something

better. And y 'all know how much I love Dr. Pepper.

To say God can give me something better than

Dr. Pepper is saying something. But let me tell

you, if we have one baptism this year, that'll

be better than a month without Dr. Pepper. Because

that is what we're here for. We're here to find

the lost. So this month we commit to praying

for the lost. We commit to fasting so that God

can open our eyes for the lost. This isn't a

ritual. This isn't something that we're doing

because it's a cool thing to do. This is about

love. This is about loving our neighbor and loving

each other as God has loved us. So we're starting

with one because trying to reach everyone can

feel a little bit intimidating. And our prayer

and fasting guide is going to be, well, it's

already made. It's designed to help us do this

intentionally so that daily we can pray for our

one and daily we can listen for God's leading

and maybe look for God's prompting. And really

intentionally what we want to do is we want to

prepare prayer with loving and faithful action.

Because we can pray all day long. We can ask

God for things. We can talk to God about things.

But if we are not a people of action with our

prayer, then we're just people that make wishes

to God. And every time you see people in Scripture

come to know God, there's an action that they've

got to be involved in. You look at the blind

man. Jesus tells him. He says, go. Wash your

face in the pool. You look at the lame man. He

says, get up, walk. We can't just be people that

say, I'm going to pray. I'm going to trust God

to do it. We got to work with him. We have to

serve with him. So we do this not to fix people,

not to argue with people, but to seek, to invite,

to care, trusting that God will do what only

God can do. And as people return. whether they

come quickly or they kind of trickle in, as people

return to God, we rejoice together. We celebrate.

This morning, if there's somebody in here with

a heart that is troubled, if you feel like you're

that sheep that's wandered off, if you feel like

you fit into the category of lost, wherever you

stand today, if you're just hurting, if you need

to come to know Jesus for the first time, if

you're ready to give your life to him, the water

is always ready. If you need anything, We're

a church that loves to pray for people. We're

a church that loves to serve people. We're a

church that loves to sit with people, grieve

with people, rejoice with people, whatever you

need. This is a time of invitation made specifically

for you. I hope you'll take it as we stand and

as we sing.