A young boy about seven years old went to Disneyland with his family. But in the excitement of all the rides accompanied by cotton candy, snow cones, and popcorn, he became separated from his family. He was having such a wonderful time that it became a long time before he realized that he was alone and lost. When he discovered the predicament he was in, he at first figured that he could find his way back to his family. But, after a time, it finally hit him that he didn’t know where he was going or how to get there. He was lost, really lost!

The same has been true for all of us and is still true for many today. The Bible says that “all we like sheep have gone astray. We’ve turned away from God (our Father), and have gone our own way” (See Isaiah 53:6 and Romans 3:23). Even King David, the man after God’s own heart admits that he too has gone astray. He writes in Psalm 119, in the last of 176 verses, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep.” The allurements of “vanity fair” (As John Bunyan puts it in “Pilgrim’s Progress”) sing their siren songs that probe into each of our hearts. The excitement of the world and the dramas and thrills of life have truly distracted us and very often it takes a while for us to come to our senses. We may not even know that we’re lost yet, because we may still be having a wonderful time, but we are lost all the same. Sooner or later it’s going to hit us that they don’t know where we are going or how to get there.

Two things were necessary for the boy to be reunited with his family, the sinner to be reunited with His Father. First, he had to recognize his condition. Second, someone had to show him where he could find his family. John 16:8, teaches us that the Holy Spirit’s role is to convict us of our lost condition. But God has called each of us believers to show those who are lost the way home. The passage from Isaiah goes on. It says, “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all.” We are all in the same boat. .It is not a “better than you” situation at all. It’s a “look what I found, I want you to find it too” situation. D. James Kennedy used to say that evangelism is one beggar showing another beggar where he found bread.

Chuck
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10