Matthew 18:12-14

Lost Sheep
Do you desire God? Do you delight in spending time with Him? Do you feel empty when you don’t? I can openly and honestly answer yes, yes, and yes to all three questions. When I get busy and give God my lukewarm leftovers I feel like I am missing something terribly important. I feel.....I don’t know...I just miss Him. I miss being in the presence of the Most Holy God. I love reading His Word and seeing what He has to tell me through it. I love talking about Him and learning what He is doing in the lives of others. I just can’t seem to get enough of Him lately.

Does that describe your feelings for Him? You know what....it describes His feelings for you!! As we see in this chapter, God has an incredible desire to be with us. It is His will that none of us perish, it says so right there in verse 14. Go ahead, read it again. Do you believe that? I do. I already gave you a cliff notes version of my testimony. Suffice it to say that I was one of the lost sheep and Jesus pursued me vigorously for 34 years. He never gave up until I was back home where I belonged. I am so grateful for that. Many times He could have just thrown up His hands and said, “You know what Cipriano, to hell with you!” But He didn’t. He doesn’t want anyone to go to hell. And many times in His word it says that when another person comes to join the family that Heaven rejoices!! When you and I became born again God and all the saints in Heaven and all the angels rejoiced!! Imagine being in Foxborough the other night when the Patriots scored the go-ahead touchdown. The place went nuts!! Fireworks, music, cheering, and yelling in pure ecstasy and joy as 70,000 people all cheered for the same reason. Well, in Heaven it is going to dwarf that by a million times whenever a person makes a decision to follow Jesus.

God loves us. He doesn’t want us to be away from Him. He loves us so much that He doesn’t want us to stay the same. He wants to change us from the inside-out. Sometimes that change hurts. Sometimes we have to give up something but what we get in return is far better.

Are you a lost sheep? Jesus is looking for you. He will rejoice when He finds you. Let Him find you.

God bless.