LOST PEOPLE MATTER TO GOD (2 OF 6)
by Rick White
Scripture: LUKE 15:1-32
This content is part of a series.
Lost People Matter to God (2 of 6)
Series: Bridge Builders: People Reaching People
Rick White
Luke 15:1-32
Message Truth: The Bible reveals the wonderful truth of God’s love for all people. Once we are in Christ, there is nothing in life more exciting as befriending, loving, and leading wayward people toward faith in Jesus Christ.
Introduction:
I-1 He’s Looking For You
The heading of the Ann Landers column read: ‘‘Search for God: Lonely and Painful.’’ It featured a letter from a man who described himself as ‘‘middle-aged, very ill, and agnostic.’’ He said he had been on a long, fruitless quest for God and that he envies believers who speak of God as a personal friend. This man commented that he often feels so alienated and alone that he wonders if he is suffering ‘‘the pangs of the Biblical hell.’’
1. Hide and Seek: Author Robert Folgum writes: ‘‘In the early, dry, dark of an October Saturday evening, the neighborhood children are playing hide and seek. How long since I played hide and seek? Thirty years, maybe more. I remember how, I could become part of the game in a moment if invited. Adults don’t play hide and seek. Not for fun, anyway. It is too bad.
Did you ever have a kid in your neighborhood that always hid so good nobody could find him? We did. After a while we would give up on him and go off, leaving him to rot wherever he was. Soon or later he would show up all-mad because we didn’t keep looking for him. And we would get mad back because he wasn’t playing the game the way it was supposed to be played. ‘There is hiding and then there is finding,’ we would say. And he would say, ‘It is hide and seek, not hide and give up.’
And we would all yell about who made the rules and who cared about who, anyway, and how we wouldn’t play with him anymore if he couldn’t get it straight. And who needed him anyhow. And things like that. Hide and seek and yell. No matter what, though, the next time he would hide too good again. He is probably still h ...
Series: Bridge Builders: People Reaching People
Rick White
Luke 15:1-32
Message Truth: The Bible reveals the wonderful truth of God’s love for all people. Once we are in Christ, there is nothing in life more exciting as befriending, loving, and leading wayward people toward faith in Jesus Christ.
Introduction:
I-1 He’s Looking For You
The heading of the Ann Landers column read: ‘‘Search for God: Lonely and Painful.’’ It featured a letter from a man who described himself as ‘‘middle-aged, very ill, and agnostic.’’ He said he had been on a long, fruitless quest for God and that he envies believers who speak of God as a personal friend. This man commented that he often feels so alienated and alone that he wonders if he is suffering ‘‘the pangs of the Biblical hell.’’
1. Hide and Seek: Author Robert Folgum writes: ‘‘In the early, dry, dark of an October Saturday evening, the neighborhood children are playing hide and seek. How long since I played hide and seek? Thirty years, maybe more. I remember how, I could become part of the game in a moment if invited. Adults don’t play hide and seek. Not for fun, anyway. It is too bad.
Did you ever have a kid in your neighborhood that always hid so good nobody could find him? We did. After a while we would give up on him and go off, leaving him to rot wherever he was. Soon or later he would show up all-mad because we didn’t keep looking for him. And we would get mad back because he wasn’t playing the game the way it was supposed to be played. ‘There is hiding and then there is finding,’ we would say. And he would say, ‘It is hide and seek, not hide and give up.’
And we would all yell about who made the rules and who cared about who, anyway, and how we wouldn’t play with him anymore if he couldn’t get it straight. And who needed him anyhow. And things like that. Hide and seek and yell. No matter what, though, the next time he would hide too good again. He is probably still h ...
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