Have you ever been lost? When you were a child did you ever get separated from your parents in a busy shopping mall? How did that feel? What was it like to be found again? The people around you are spiritually lost. They’re separated from their Heavenly Father and don’t know how to get home.
As you have more spiritual conversations with people around you, you’ll notice that the way you see people changes. We call this developing a “redemptive vision.” You learn to see them as people deeply loved by God and you want them to experience that love.
Jesus told a simple yet profound story to remind the religious leaders how much he cares for lost people. It’s a story that every person who wants to follow in Jesus’ footsteps needs to hear again and again.
Take a look at Luke 15:1-7:
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”
Jesus describes a man who loses one of his sheep.
- How does this man feel about his lost sheep?
- What is he willing to do for the sheep?
- What does this tell us about the way God sees lost people?
Think about the people you know. Are any of them “lost sheep”? How does Jesus feel about them?
Luke 19:10 says, For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Pray and ask God to give you the same attitude Jesus has toward the “lost sheep” around you.