This sermon emphasizes the importance of reaching out to the lost and sharing the love of Christ with those who are in need of spiritual truth. It highlights the need to go beyond the walls of the church and actively seek out those who are weary, confused, and lost, just as Jesus did. The message calls for a shift in mindset towards the lost, focusing on prayer, leading by example, and being a witness in all aspects of life to bring others to Christ.

Jesus says the good shepherd leaves the sheep because they're taken care of. So many times people say, Brother Chip, why don't you go to this church or why don't you take this message and go to the church and do thus and so with it? Because they're handled, they're taken care of. They've got all the teaching, all the preachers, they've got everything that they need. They don't need me. Meanwhile, there are millions and billions of people out in the world who are hungry and thirsty for spiritual truth. They're not going to go to church. And furthermore, we shouldn't expect them to go to church. We should be going to where they are, not asking them to come to where we are. Inviting people to church to come be with us in our world is not the same thing as going into all the world. We invite unbelievers, the lost, the unsaved to come into our Christian world, come into my world. And that's not the same thing as going into all the world, going out into the highways and the byways and compelling them to come in. To come in where? Not to come into your church, but to come into Christ, to come into one flock with one shepherd, to lead people to Jesus. See Paul says, we teach every man and we warn every man with all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in church attendance. No, that's not what he said. That we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Each soul is valuable and precious to God. Jesus is concerned. Jesus loves the world. He came to seek and to save that which is lost. He loves you too. He loves me. But I want us to expand our vision, to dream this impossible dream, to enlarge our heart and to do a better job of representing the heart of God towards the lost. Matthew chapter 9, I want to tell you about the lost because it may have been a while since you were lost yourself and so you don't remember what it's like to be in the world without God in a world without hope. Matthew 9, 36 says that when Jesus saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd. And he said to his disciples, the harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. If the world is not saved, if the world is lost, it's not their fault, it's our fault. It's not the harvest's fault that the harvest isn't harvested. It's the laborers fault. It's the workers fault. You don't blame the harvest. You don't blame the crop. The crop is not going to pick itself up, put itself into the storage bin and go march itself into the barn. That's not the way crops are harvested. It requires people to go out. The fact of the matter is the lost are terrified. The lost are terrified. Think back to Sharon Roseman, five years old. When she first realized that she didn't know where she was, she was terrified. She was panicked as you and I would be when we are lost. The lost are afraid. The lost are confused. Jesus says, or Jesus felt compassion on them because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd. They didn't have any direction. They didn't have any guidance. They didn't know what to believe or where to go. So they were confused. They didn't know where to go. That's why just inviting people into our world is not enough. Lost people can't find their way into your world. You have to go and get them. You have to leave your world and go and get into their world. And that's what Jesus was so remarkably good at. And it's what we're so remarkably poor at doing. If the lost are lost, we would do well to remember that they can't help it. They can't help the fact that they were lost. It's a different analogy, but scripture also describes them as being blind. It says the God of this world has blinded the minds of those who don't believe, lest they see the glorious gospel, the glorious light of the gospel, and be saved. They're blinded. Well, you don't just say, oh, they're blind, so we can't do anything with them. That's like saying, oh, they're lost. They're a lost cause. Now, if they're lost, you're supposed to go out and find them. And if they're blind, you're supposed to go out, lay hands on them so that they can see. You shine the light so that they can see. All of this retreating behind closed doors and retreating into the four walls of our Christian society and leaving the world to its own devices, that's not why Jesus left us here on the earth to be light and to be salt. The fact of the matter is all of us were born in a lost condition. All of us were born with this undeveloped part of us in our heart, in our spirit, this void that cannot be filled apart from Jesus Christ. So remember that and don't ask them to be like you. Go and meet them where they are and bring Christ to them. Get into their world. What should our attitude be towards the lost? Well, I would say first and foremost that your attitude should at least be the same as the attitude of God, the Father, towards the lost. And the same as Jesus, the good shepherd. And remember what his heart is, is that all would be saved and would come to the knowledge of the truth. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And the reason we teach and preach the things we do, Paul says, is so that we can present every man spiritually mature, every woman as well, all of mankind, every person that we come in contact with, that we can present them spiritually mature in Christ. So that's beyond just getting them saved. It's also leading them to the Lord, to a place of spiritual maturity, spiritual growth, the path of discipleship. So what should our attitude be toward the lost? First, we need to realize that the lost need to be sought out and they need to be found. On the news, when you hear of a hiker or a group of campers or something, someone who is lost in the woods or lost in a mountain someplace, as soon as we realize that someone is lost, we don't just say, well, they're lost. We don't ask whose fault it is. We don't consider what's gonna happen if we don't find them. Maybe we should consider that, spiritually speaking. But when we hear that someone is lost, it's our natural inclination to what? Form a rescue party and let's go find them. Let's go save them. Let's go deliver them. Spiritually speaking, we need to take the same approach, that the lost need to be sought out and they need to be found. And that's the same approach that Jesus says when he explains his attitude towards the lost, the lost sheep. First, he has compassion on them, but then he realizes that they're sheep without a shepherd. And so he says, I am the good shepherd, and I am come to seek and to save that which is lost. He says, I'm not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And all day long, it seems like all we do as Christians is we wanna communicate with other Christians. I wanna work with other Christians. I wanna fellowship with other Christians. I want a Christian world where only Christians can come in. And fellowship is great and wonderful. But we're not here to call the righteous. We're here to call sinners. And we're not here to invite people to go to church and get a religion about Jesus. We're here to invite people to experience the freedom and joy of a Christ-centered faith that's not based on religion, but it's based on relationship. So that's the first thing that we need to change in our thinking about the lost. They're not going to find us. We have to go find them. We have to be where they are. That's the whole point. So how do we do it? Well, number one, I would say we do it through our prayers. I don't know how many people are praying on a daily basis that all men would be saved and would come to the knowledge of the truth. But if you're not praying that on a daily basis, I'd ask you to consider adding that to your prayer list. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, Paul says. Because he desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. He says, then pray for all men. Supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, he says. So that all would be saved and would come to the knowledge of the truth. And I think if you will pray along those lines and allow the Lord to touch you and to share something of his heart, you enter into the suffering of the Lord. You enter into his compassion for the multitude. I think if you try to do anything on any other basis other than prayer to begin with, it's going to come across as religious, canned, trite. And you'll fall back on the familiarity of just trying to get people to go to church. So I would say, first of all, begin to pray as scripture teaches us to pray. So that you can be more aligned with the will and heart of God concerning the lost. Secondly, I would say that it's by our example. Matthew 5.13 says that we are the salt of the earth. But Jesus said, if you lose your flavor, you're good for nothing. Why are you here? Why are you on the earth? Why doesn't God just save us and take us right up into heaven? Because we're here to be salt in the earth. Salt does two things. It preserves and it also makes thirsty. So we're here to fulfill a purpose. We can't leave it up to the church. Church can't do it. The institutional church can't do it. It's up to me and you as disciples of Jesus, as ambassadors for Christ, to be an example. In Matthew 5.14 through 16, Jesus says, you are the light of the world. And I really believe that the reason the world exists and the reason why judgment hasn't been poured out upon the earth and the reason why nations still exist when they should have been destroyed, is because of the presence of the righteous in these nations. We are the light of the world. And because God desires that all men would be saved and would come to the knowledge of the truth, he's not content with the remnant. He uses the remnant, but why does he use a remnant so that he can reach the whole? And that's where we've missed it, I believe. I believe that God uses a remnant. It's recorded in scripture. God uses a few. He uses a remnant, but what's the purpose of the remnant? What is he trying to achieve? He's not satisfied with just the remnant. He uses the few to reach the many. He uses the few to reach the whole. And that's the whole purpose of prayer and it's the whole purpose of everything that we do in the kingdom of God. To be an example of what it means to have a relationship with Jesus. So by our example, and finally by our witness. So by our prayers, by our example, and by our witness. Those are the three things. Jesus says in Matthew 28, 19, go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Mark 13, 10 says this gospel must be published, presented, preached, proclaimed to all nations, and then the end will come. We have such an amazing opportunity. It's to be a light to this world and to share with people our faith and be a witness, not by handing out tracts to people. That can be valuable. But what's more important than handing people something to read or knocking on doors and trying to talk to them is being a witness where you are. Letting your light shine where you are. Being a light in your home, being a light in the workplace, in the marketplace, being a light in your community. It's not just about being a light in church, or being a light in Bible study, or being a light when you're around other Christians. That's easy. Anybody can be a light in that environment. But the whole purpose of light is to shine in a dark place. And we've got to seek out those dark places so that we can shine. The darkness can't quench that light. The only person that can quench that light is you. You are the only one that can quench the light. That's why Jesus says it doesn't make any sense if you light a lamp to then cover it up. You're the only one that can do that. He says when I light a lamp, I'm speaking prophetically. When I light a lamp in you, I intend for you to shine. That's the purpose of that insight in that teaching there. No one lights a lamp and then hides it. The point of lighting the lamp is that it can shine so that it can push back the darkness. So I'm releasing you to let your light shine. Releasing you in the sense that I encourage you to let your light shine wherever you are. Stop waiting for the world to come to you. You go into the world. You go into your job, you go into your home, you go into your family, you go into your neighborhood, you go into your community, and you let your light shine. And I believe that as we do that in simplicity, that people, by our prayers, by our example, and by our witness, the way that we present ourselves, the way that we act, the way that we behave in the presence of others. I believe that more than any other thing in this world will create this hunger and thirst for Christ, more so than all the preaching and all the teaching. It's when people see a real example of a real person who has a real relationship with a real Jesus, then all will be saved. You've been listening to Crosswind, featuring the teaching ministry of Jeff Brogdon. We hope you enjoyed today's broadcast and found it challenging and encouraging. If you'd like to find out more about the school of Christ and how to get additional teachings, audio recordings, books, and other Christ-centered resources to help you grow spiritually, visit us online at www.theschoolofchrist.org.