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The River ChurchSermons

REACH, GATHER, GROW

Love for the Lost

Caleb Combs · Sunday, 7 September 2025 · Romans 3:10-18; 3:23; 6:23; 5:8; 10:9-10; 10:13 · 44:29 · 6,259 words

Romans S20 · 3:10-18; 3:23; 6:23; 5:8; 10:9-10; 10:13 Holly

Listen to this message

Romans 9:1‑3, where Paul expresses deep sorrow for his people and a willingness to be cut off for their salvation, sets the theme of the sermon. The speaker calls the congregation to develop a love for the lost that is proactive, persistent, and rooted in compassion, not comfort. He challenges each listener to examine their heart and take authentic action to reach and share the gospel with those who are still searching.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

lost 66 persistent 15 proactive 13 desperation 11 love 84 compassion 13 key 12 search 9 mission 10 found 12 reach 14 church 42

Topics

Salvation 4 The Gospel 3 Sin 2 Prayer 1 Faith 1 The Flesh 1 Election & Predestination 1

Scripture referenced 25

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 9 4:21 Romans 9 4:26 Romans 8 4:34 Romans 1 5:22 Romans 1:1-3 5:28 Romans 1:1 5:31 Romans 8 6:05 Romans 9 6:05 Romans 9 7:33 Romans 8 7:42 Romans 8 7:47 Romans 9 8:23 Romans 9:3 9:26 Luke 15 17:38 Luke 15 17:55 Luke 15 19:33 Luke 15 19:51 Romans 9 23:13 Romans 9 23:38 1 John 3 29:33 Matthew 28 32:00 Matthew 28 32:21 Romans 10 40:20 Romans 10:14 40:34 Romans 3:15 40:48

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 9 lines, 0:41. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey, everyone. My name is Dave Hudgens, and thanks for checking out today's message.

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Thanks again for joining us, and we hope you are blessed by today's message.

My head just went real wonky. Sorry.

You know, it zooms in too much. I'm like, I need to read everything, so sorry.

Well, it's good to gather with you, good to sing with you.

If I don't know you, my name is Caleb, and I am the pastor here,

and I just love getting to gather with you, and so it's so important that we do that.

We'll preach on that next week, and the importance of gathering with the church,

and so I just love to point that out.

And so I think it's something for many of us we take for granted.

I did get a new jacket. I did, yes.

So you like it? I got it from a thrift store, I know.

Thank you, thank you. I appreciate it.

My wife's like, you're going to sweat today.

I know, I will. That's all right.

I'm already sweating, so it is.

It's good, it's good. Shoes did not come with it, in case you're wondering, all right?

Oh, you guys are real spunky this morning. I don't mind it.

I like it, I like it. Other people are like, you can't talk to the pastor like that.

I know you can. It's good, it's good.

Hey, before I jump into the message, I do want to point out something this week.

Pastor Ryan talked about growth communities.

It is, in my opinion, the easiest and best way to get connected to the church body, okay?

It is the vehicle here.

There's other churches that do great things of onboarding people, which is awesome.

I feel like us as the River Church, especially Holly,

the easiest onboard to get connected with other believers, get to know people, is growth communities, okay?

And so this week, if you're like, man, there's lots of growth communities.

I looked at the list, I looked online.

It's super confusing. There's so many things going on.

I'll be hosting a dinner, 5.30 to 6.30, this Wednesday night, okay?

Right in this room.

We're going to set up some tables.

You have questions.

You want to know which growth communities to get connected to.

You just want to ask some different questions about why this growth community is here or there.

And so we've got many, many growth communities happening throughout the week.

Some even during the day, some in the morning, some in the evening.

Wednesday night here at Holly is a great opportunity to jump on board with some growth communities.

There's something for everyone on site.

And so...

Zero to a hundred.

If you're over a hundred, we'll make a group for you, okay?

But plenty of opportunities for you to get connected on Wednesdays, okay?

And so it's students, it's kids, there's a men's group, there's women's groups.

And so we want to make that appropriate plea for you to be a part of different groups.

And so on Sunday mornings, we'll also have some groups as well on site.

But if you're missing out on the cadence and the clarity of what I'm saying,

get in a growth community.

I will beg you, I will plead with you.

I'll even probably bribe you if I have to.

But it's so important for our walk, your walk, us as a church to be connected with one another,

growing in God's word.

It's God's declaration for us.

Not simply to go, hey, you know what?

Follow me, come sit in a seat, hear a message, and then go try to venture out in your life.

We need one another, and it's a great uplifting time to grow in God's word.

And our...

Our study and knowledge of who he is, as well as encouraging and praying for one another.

So let's jump into the message this morning.

If you have a Bible, a device, we're going to be in Romans chapter 9.

Romans chapter 9 this morning.

Just for a few verses, and you'll kind of see where we are headed.

Last week, Pastor Roy kind of finished up Romans chapter 8, which I told him on Sunday afternoon.

I said, I was so excited.

I said, I'm going to have you preach that passage, because I was interested to see how you would take it.

And I told him after, I said, I would have preached a totally different sermon.

And it's interesting how the Bible, not that it would have been in conflict or contradiction to what he preached,

but I would have probably preached the nothing can separate us from the love of God.

I'm like, maybe I'll just preach it next week, but I won't.

I'm going to preach 9 today.

But just excited to continue in this book.

Looking to see how the Apostle Paul has written to the Christians in Rome,

as well as seeing how it applies in our lives today.

And so we're just going to look at the first chunk of verses in Romans chapter 1.

It should be 9, verses 1 through 3.

I am speaking, he says in verse 1, the truth in Christ.

This is the Apostle Paul, again, the author, writing to these Christians.

And he's saying, I am speaking the very truth.

And it's something that is okay.

It took you 9 chapters.

No, it's just a constant clarity.

I'm speaking truth.

I'm clarity of what God has, through the Holy Spirit, inspired me to write and communicate.

And so Paul is saying, I'm speaking the truth in Christ.

But then he takes a little bit of a spin.

And moving from chapter 8 to chapter 9, you'll see where and what he's doing.

He says, I am not lying.

My conscience bears me witness.

Witness in the Holy Spirit.

That I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ

for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh.

Let's pray and we'll jump into that this morning.

God, we love you.

We praise you.

We adore you.

God, thank you for this morning.

Thank you for your word.

Thank you for your...

Thank you for your church.

God, we are gathered here to celebrate you.

God, we just lift you up.

We praise you.

Just as it's been stated already in this gathering, we have so much to praise you for.

God, in the mountaintops and even in the valleys, God, we praise you.

God, in the lowest of lows, we praise you.

Because we know that you are with us.

God, we just praise you today.

Speak this morning through your Holy Spirit.

Help me to get out of the way.

And illuminate you, God.

In Jesus' wonderful name.

Paul opens up Romans 9 with, I would say, a change of tone.

Chapter 8 is culminating.

Nothing separates from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.

And celebrating the very gift of the Holy Spirit all through the chapter 8.

And we've seen this very progression of our separation of sin.

And realizing that God didn't leave us in our sin.

And gives us a way to be justified.

Made right by the blood of Jesus Christ.

And this has progressed here.

And we see this inner battle of conflict of the spirit and flesh as believers.

Wondering, why do I do the things that I hate?

That's what Paul says.

And I'm so glad he speaks to that tussle in each and every one of us.

But in chapter 9, he begins with, not necessarily a more serious tone.

But in a different tone.

I read this.

And Paul is saying, I want you to know what I'm saying here.

I want to make sure that this is truth.

This is not something that I'm just flippantly saying.

Or just, no, I'm going to take it back.

Or just, I'm unsure.

No, no.

He's speaking this truth with very clear conviction.

He says that, I'm speaking this truth in Christ.

I am not lying.

I'm not pretending.

I'm not having my fingers crossed.

Crossed behind my back.

Paul is saying, I want you to know this statement.

This is a monumental statement that he makes in this passage.

He's saying, I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish.

What is he saying?

This is something that is tormenting me on the daily.

But then in verse 3, Paul says something that, honestly, I struggle with.

I realize, I struggled with this.

He says, I would be willing to go.

I would go to hell.

Be separated from God for eternity if the Jews would all come to know Jesus as their Savior.

I don't know about you, but to me, I read that and go, my goodness.

That's probably a little crossing the line.

Like, you know what?

I'd be willing to give up all of the things that I had on this earth.

Like, okay, sounds good.

No, no, no.

Paul is saying, I'd be willing to be cut off from Christ for the sake of my brother, my kinsmen.

And he's describing, he says, my people.

These are the Jews.

They're his family.

Paul knew in this passage that this, if you would bargain or deal with God, was impossible.

But his emotions were intensely real here.

His passion, his desire to see them saved, transformed.

See, Paul had something that I want to talk about this morning just for a little bit.

A love for the lost.

He had a love for the lost.

You're going to hear me say that a lot this morning.

And I want it to resonate.

Not only in our ears as we hear that, but in our hearts.

A love for the lost.

He loved them so much.

He literally says to God, I would be willing to be separated for eternity from you.

A desperation, passion to see them saved.

I read this quote by Charles Spurgeon.

He said, if sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies.

He's saying, why do you read that?

That quote.

I read that quote because we see Paul's desperation.

And I believe that desperation should be the heartbeat of the church.

A love for the lost.

A love and a passion to see people saved.

The sad reality is culture in the church in America is we like what we like.

Don't bother me and take me out of my comfort zone.

Allow me to be me.

Sing the songs that I want to sing.

Preach the message, but don't make it too long.

And if you do something I don't like, I'll go somewhere else because there's opportunity.

Because I like us four no more in my club.

Can I say this to you?

I'm not bashing the church, but I'm talking about a real clarifying statement.

The church is called to be the city on the hill, shining a light with a love for the lost.

A passion to see people saved and transformed.

That's why.

When someone gets in the baptismal, they're not saved by the water in the baptismal.

The act of baptism doesn't save them.

But what are they declaring?

I've been transformed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

And I want to declare it to my family, my friends, my church, my community.

And what's crazy is now to everyone online that I've been saved.

And we as a church get to see that.

Not the literal transformation, but we get to see the outward expression of what God has done.

In their life.

And we should cheer them.

We should celebrate that.

Why?

Because it's a love to see people found.

Not found by a church.

Not found by a ministry.

Not found by a pastor.

Found by Jesus.

So I want to give you three things that a love for the lost should look like.

And then we'll, I guess, apply them in our lives.

Or maybe examine our lives against them.

The first thing, a love.

A love for the lost should be, is a proactive and persistent searching.

A love for the lost should be a proactive and persistent searching.

Have you ever lost something of value?

Come on.

Have you?

Yeah, okay, good.

I'm not the only loser in the room.

No, I'm just kidding.

That's, I don't know how to even say that.

So my buddy Lee over here, he loses everything.

So I knew he was okay.

All right.

And so a few years ago, I may have shared this story before.

I was at a fantasy football draft.

And so I was at my uncle Jason's house.

And so we were there.

It was at evening.

And so I had driven there and had a great draft.

I can't remember anything about the draft.

I ate too much food and hung out with some friends and went to leave.

And I couldn't find my keys.

You ever lose your keys before?

All right, just me.

All right, cool.

Couldn't find them.

And so it's like 10, 30, 11 o'clock at night.

And I can't find my keys.

And so now I'm getting free.

I'm frustrated.

And so I begin to look in the couches and everywhere and go to my car.

I'm starting to look in it.

I'm like, what?

And I'm not joking.

I'm not exaggerating.

I'm looking for a half hour to an hour.

Cannot find my keys.

And now I'm getting frustrated, more frustrated to myself.

And so when I lose things, I get angry with myself.

I don't know if you do this.

And so I'm like being like stupid.

No, I am just so frustrated.

I can't find it.

And I begin to.

I really, I, I, I, this is not, God is my witness.

I literally went in and dumped out the trash in the driveway because maybe I had accidentally

thrown my keys in the trash can.

Who would do that?

By the way, I didn't, but I'm digging through the trash in desperation because I want to

go home and I can't find my keys.

Can't find my keys.

It was now like multiple hours of trying to find my keys.

And of course they were under the seat of my car, but we don't have to get there.

I found them later.

All right.

And so super frustrated.

Super frustrated.

But I, I, I share that story one because I was passionate and persistent to find my keys.

Why?

Because I wanted to go home.

I needed to find them.

And so I was willing to do whatever, literally dig in the trash as people are eating, chewed

up Buffalo wings and all those things.

Like I'm not, I'm describing that because that's what I'm digging through to find my

Why?

Because I wanted to go home.

I was passionate in that desire, that feeling is I know I had to find something.

The truth of the matter.

It is the church should have that persistent searching for the lost.

They should begin to go.

A love for the lost should be proactive and persistent, not passive.

I have a buddy who's done outreach ministry, really his whole life is in his sixties.

Now he's mentored me.

He says, you know what the church has done now?

They've gone to build big buildings, sit in good seats and told the people to come rather

than to go into the highways and byways as the Bible describes and reach the lost.

Right where they're at.

He challenges me with that all the time.

I'm thankful to have a friend that does that.

Are you in the community?

Are you reaching people where they're at?

Are you saying, Hey, you know what?

We've got a comfortable seat for you.

Come sit in it.

There's nothing wrong with that, but being a proactive and persistent searcher.

Luke chapter 15, Jesus describes three lost objects, lost sheep, lost coin, lost son describes

the mentality, the heartbeat Jesus is telling three.

Parables Luke 15 describes when the lost sheep is found first five says, and when he found

it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing.

When he comes home, he calls together his friends, his neighbor saying to them, rejoice

with me for I found my sheep that was lost.

Just so I tell you, there'll be more joy in heaven over one center who repents than 99

righteous persons who need no repentance earlier.

He describes leaving the 99 to find the one.

What is that?

It's a love for the loss, a desperation to see people saved and transformed by the good

news, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That is so important for us as a church.

Now, don't get me wrong.

Don't get mixed up.

The church saves no one.

Okay.

You need to hear that.

That is only done by the power of Jesus Christ.

We get to be instruments, vessels in the hand of the masters.

We get to lead people to Christ and we get to celebrate and go, Oh my God.

Oh my goodness.

God, look what you have done.

So we don't go, Oh man, we've got a great program that saves people.

No, we don't.

Not even close.

That's why we prayerfully say, God, you bless this.

You do something.

You do a mighty work because we want to give you glory and praise and watch what you've

But the mentality of the church is to be persistent, be proactive in searching for the lost.

He continues in Luke 15, the lost coin parable.

He says, rejoice with me.

Found the coin that I had lost.

Just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over the sinner who repents.

And then he talks about the lost son, the prodigal son.

And Luke 15 celebrates the return of the lost son for this son of mine was dead and is alive

again.

He was lost and is found.

See, as we begin to examine our lives, as we begin to examine the ministry of the church,

the mission of the church, the goal of the church to live out that great commission that

Jesus has called us is we must ask ourselves, do we have a love for the lost that is proactive

and persistent?

Preach the sermon years ago, the balance of church reach versus one-on-one evangelism,

one-on-one care for people.

So what I think happens is, is we look and go, all right, reaching and loving the love of the Lord.

The lost is for the pastor.

It's for people that have, um, those are the growth community leaders.

Those are for the, the, the, the people that are on stage.

So those are, that's not for me.

Can I tell you, that's not, uh, written in the Bible called the love, the lost and be

proactive and persistent is for each and every one of us that calls ourselves a follower of Jesus,

a child of God.

We've been called an ambassador of him.

That ambassador is a representative.

We've been given.

We've been given the responsibility and the privilege to represent Jesus Christ in this world.

That, that, that to me is, is, is terribly humbling and also terribly, uh, a heavy weight.

I have a pastor friend that says this all the time.

I love when he says, he says, you know, God has chosen to use humanity as his instrument,

proclaim the gospel.

I feel like he could have choose chosen better instruments.

I said, yeah, you're probably right.

But yeah, he has.

And so are we proactive and persistent in searching the desperation?

See, Paul had a desperation to see people saved.

He had a desperation so badly that he says, you know what?

God, I would be willing to go to hell so they would be saved.

I read or quoted second Corinthians five.

Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ.

God making his appeal through us.

We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God, be saved, be transformed.

That's what that means.

So a love for the lost.

Is a proactive and persistent searching.

Second, a love for the loss is a heart of compassion and mercy is a heart of compassion and mercy.

Matthew chapter nine, Jesus looks on the crowds and what he doesn't do is like, oh my gosh, they are so messed up.

They are so screwed up.

They are, they, they have, they, they, they, they, they don't deserve me until they, they figure their stuff out then, then, then let them come back.

No, no, no.

That doesn't describe that at all.

He says.

He says in Matthew chapter nine, he says, when he saw the crowds, he had what compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.

Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord, to the harvest, to send out laborers in to his harvest.

I love that passage.

You pray.

If you ever went to a mission conference before that passage is always there.

They never want to talk about how hard the labor is by the way.

They're like, Hey, Hey, God's calling you there.

Yeah.

But the labor is difficult.

The hard and compassion is to look on someone caught in sin and not see ourselves as better than not see ourselves as I can't believe they would make that decision.

I can't believe they would struggle with that.

I can't believe they would fall into that temptation.

How messed up are they?

No, with compassion and mercy.

We look on them and say, I.

I was just like you caught in brokenness.

Yet God through his great grace and mercy loved me.

And now I want to come shine a light of love and care in your brokenness.

So that's what love for the lost looks like.

You know what I didn't say is, yeah, they're caught in their brokenness.

Love them and say what they're doing is okay.

Churches are battling with that right now, trying to figure out how do we determine, okay, is this sin?

Is it not sin?

Guess what?

I can say this very clearly.

That's not changed.

If the Bible says it's a sin, it's a sin.

We lean on the word of God.

However, we don't bash people over the head and go, Hey, you know what?

You're screwed up.

Guess what?

All of us were messed up, but yet some of us were saved by the grace of God.

Loving people in the brokenness, loving people in loss with a heart and compassion, not in

a heart of superiority, not a heart of pride, not a heart of I've got it all figured out,

but a heart of saying, you know, when I was a lost sheep, yet Jesus.

Left the 99 and carried me back there.

And I didn't deserve it.

Someone loved me in my brokenness.

I'm sharing this with a couple of pastors and some of the staff this week.

It's like, I didn't know if I was going to share this, but church ministry can make you cynical.

I don't know.

Somebody like really again.

Yeah, it can, it can harden you working with people in general can make you cynical.

We all know this.

And if you work in any area of the world that works with people, you begin to see the worst

of people and you begin to think, are people taking advantage of you?

Are they going to do it?

Are they going to do what they say they're going to do?

And she began to go, okay, how am I viewing people?

And so I know that in my own life, I have to constantly check myself.

I do.

I try to mix in my life, a mission trip a year saying you do.

I wanted to do a mission trip a year.

I know I need that.

It's a great perspective changer for me.

That doesn't have to be around the world.

It can be a local mission, but I know I need that in my life because ministry can make

Ministry can, can distort how you view.

Things that I know, I know I need, I need a reset.

And for some of us, that's a constant others, man, you have a heart that bleeds for people.

A love that's just so incredible where you're like, you know what?

They're, they're broken.

They're lost.

They're messed up yet.

I still love them and care for them and able to speak the truth to them and love as Ephesians

talks about.

I'm jealous of you.

I'm jealous of you.

I know some of you sitting here today, you, you have that heartbeat and that's incredible.

But as we examine a love for the lost, a love for.

See, Paul was a love and a passion for the Jews.

He had a love and passion for his family, his friends that were, that were, they were

enticed by the devil, enticed by lies so much.

So he said, I'd, I'd be willing to, to be separated from God for eternity so that they

would be saved.

It was a passion, a desire, and it came out of compassion and mercy because he knew they

had believed these lies.

I love first Peter three.

It says, but in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense

to anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that is in you. See, a lot of churches will preach that,

share that, and stop there. Give a defense. We are defenders, apologetics. This is the general

defense of the word of God. I've got nothing against that, but don't leave out the rest of

the verse. Yet do it with gentleness and respect. Do it with gentleness and respect. Give a defense,

but respect and love the person across from you. Not try to cut their head off with the Bible.

Try to demean them that we've become superior. See, a love for the lost is a heart of compassion

and mercy. A love for the lost is proactive and persistent. And lastly, a love for the lost

is a heart of compassion and mercy. And lastly, a love for the lost is a heart of compassion

and mercy. And lastly, a love for the lost is a heart of compassion and mercy. And lastly,

is authentic action, not just words. Action, not words. 1 John 3, little children, let us not love

in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. See, it's easy to love people that are easy to love,

right? Come on, let's really be honest. Man, there's some people, it's really not, they're

easy to love. It's hard to love people that are hard to love. I made a joke a few weeks ago. It

every family has someone that's hard to love. And if you're not sure who that is, that's probably

you in the family, right? And so I actually talked to some of you afterwards. You're like,

oh my gosh, I never thought about that. And I said, I'm sorry. In my family, it's Josh,

but don't tell him. All right, no, I'm just kidding. And so we begin to see these people

that are difficult to love. Guess what? When someone is lost, confused, doesn't like, or is

in contradiction to us, it's easy to put up a wall and go, hey, you know what? Stay away from me. Don't

bring that junk around me. Rather than having our hand out with gentleness and respect and action

and loving them. And I say this the way Jesus loves you. The way Jesus loved me. Authentic action,

not words. See, it's easy to say on a Sunday morning at 11, almost 1130, that we love the

lost. We're motivated to love the lost. Wow. Pastors pushing us to love the lost. Man, wow. We

love better ones that are headed to hell. It's easy to say that. But on Monday, Tuesday, other

days of the week, when we interact with them, you'll really see, does the rubber meet the road

and do I really, truly love them? Action, not just words. See, Jesus gives us this mission,

this calling. In Matthew chapter 28, not an option, not a, hey, you know what? I'll do this

when I'm with the church. I'll do this with people that I like. I'll do this when I can

understand exactly how the other person is thinking or what they'll, they'll embarrass.

No, no. Matthew 28, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded

you. And behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age. It is the great commission. It is the

mission of the church. Yet for many of us, the mission of the church has become about me, become

this morning. I was thinking about people. I think, well, no, no, no, no. This is just a desperation

and a love for the laws that it exceeds anything I could even think of or understand. Like, wow,

Paul, I don't even grasp how much you love them. And then I begin to think, I'll push anyone's

buttons here this morning. So know my heart. I begin to think of some of you with prodigal kids

or kids that are, have wandered away. And I think some of you make that, maybe make that same

statement. I'd be willing to go to hell so that my kids would go to heaven. And then you begin to

grandkids. I mean, you're going to think of this family that said that desperation to see the lost

people saved to see people transformed by the good news of Jesus Christ in a, an authentic action,

not just in a seat on a, on a Sunday or in a sermon, but every one of us banding together

to proclaim the good news of Jesus and celebrating when he transforms people.

And it not just comes out of our mouths, but as it transforms, how we communicate, how we act, how we

give, how we preach, how we sing, how we live, how we do our jobs, how we love our husband, how we love

our wives, how we do anything in this world. We begin to go, wow, God, I want to be a part of that

because I love the loss. I want to love them the way you've called me to love them. Begin to think

of my own life. There's things that I like to have a proactive and persistent search for, but, but I

can't say it's a love for the lost. It's based out of convenience, not a heart of compassion and mercy,

but a place of men got it together. Why don't you figure it out? It's easy to preach messages,

hard to live them throughout the week. This week I was driving and I stopped on Oak Hill road,

had stopped behind a bus. I watched the entirety of the bus with middle school kids get off the

bus. It was just like, Lord, I don't know if any of these students know you as their savior,

but God, I pray you give the river church an opportunity to, to, to do something. I sat there,

it was like so long bus stop, but I'm watching kid after kid, after kid, after kid, after kid,

getting off this bus and heading into Spring Grove and heading into Oak Hill and begin to go, God,

what opportunities, what opportunities can you give me? Can you give us? Then I begin to think

a true love for them is not just, Hey, you know what? We're going to do this program. No, no.

A love for them is proactive and persistent and loving a middle school kid that you, man,

have you talked to any middle school kids of this, in this generation? I,

I don't even know what they're talking like anymore. There's some bus drivers in here. Like

what? I didn't know the words that are using. Then I began to go, you know what? It was just

like that. Can I say this to some of you? You were just like that. You go, God, I want to have a love

for the loss that you give me. Reading a story this week, the early church deacon, early church

deacon was one that was in charge of caring for orphans, widows, the poor feeding. It was just a

cool story. This church was,

facing persecution, new government, new leadership was put in place. And they began to confiscate all

of the church's property and, and, and, and goods really. And so they ordered this deacon to bring

all of the treasures of the church and present them to the King. They gave him three days on

three days. This deacon got an idea, gathered up all of the sick, the orphans, poor, the widows,

and brought them with him on that day. He said, sir, I've,

I brought what you've ordered, brought the mission, the treasures of the church. And he was

martyred on that day, killed. So I realized Jesus is the treasure of the church. So I'm not demeaning

that, but I share that story. So I think this deacon understood something that the church has

lost sight of. See the church as a whole is begin to big, build big buildings and comfortable seats,

have stages, have doors. None of this is wrong by the way, but it began to lost sight, lose sight of

lost. I began to lose sight or lose passion to shine the light of Jesus Christ, like a city on a

hill, posting light into the darkness so that people that are lost, caught in sin, in the

brokenness, been deceived by the, the, the father of all lies, the devil. So we've lost the love

for them. Church, we've been given a mission, reached the lost. We can't reach the lost if we

can't reach the lost. We can't reach the lost. We can't reach the lost. We can't reach the lost. We

can't reach the lost. We can't reach the lost. We can't reach the lost. We can't reach the lost.

An incredible example in Romans nine, love them. Romans chapter 10. I'm going to step on some of my

preaching in a couple of weeks, but that's okay. We'll figure it out when we get there.

It says in Romans 10 verse 14, how then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?

And how are they to believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without

someone preaching? Verse 15. And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how

the feet of those who preach the good news. Church, that's not written to preachers. That's

written to the church. Proclaim, live out, be ambassadors, be lights, love the lost. Hudson

Taylor said the great commission is not an option to be considered. It's a command to be obeyed.

Living that out, shining that light into broken places. We examine ourselves. Do we have a love for the

lost the way God has called us? I'm going to leave you with the three things. Proactive and

persistent searching. Heart of compassion and mercy. The love for the lost is authentic action,

not just words. Let's pray. God, we love you. We praise you. We adore you. God,

thank you for this morning. Thank you for your word. Thank you for the challenge of it. God,

we seek to live out that great commission to love the lost, be passionate about seeing people saved

and baptized and discipled and transformed. God, you have placed us here to be that representation

of you. God, thank you for that. Forgive me in my failure of that. God, may we be that city,

city on a hill. God, banded together, arm in arm, hand in hand, walking across fields,

searching for the lost, looking at the highways and byways, being ready to share, always ready

to share. God, not for self-gain, not for self-glory, not so we can have the biggest church

here or there, not so more people can sit in the seats, but so that people could be saved and

transformed by the good news of Jesus. Their lives can move from lost to found. Thank you for letting

us see Paul's desperation for the lost. God, may that change how we operate as a church, not in a

tonic or accidental way, but in a way that we can be saved and transformed by the good news of Jesus.

name. Intentional. God, we praise you. Love you. Jesus, wonderful name.

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