Jesus Came to Seek and Save the Lost | Furgus Tunnell | Luke 19:1-10 — Furgus Tunnell

Record attendance, 8:30, because they announced that Furgus Tunnell was preaching here. Simple. But you know what's funny is, he said that I preached this year at the men's retreat, and it was, it was basic. Like that's a surprise every time I preach. It's pretty, basic, for sure. Hey, it's great to be here at Canyon Ridge Baptist Church. Want to say thank you to Canyon Ridge Baptist Church, Pastor Chadwick, of course, for the support of the Haven of Hope Children's Home. So thankful for your involvement with that. But what I love about Canyon Ridge, Baptist Church is the spirit of Westbrook Baptist Church. and the fun, the atmosphere that we have here. I met, Cody and Mia when you guys came in. Where are they at? There they are back there. Mia, get mad at... You already left? Cody and Mia, he walked in today. I met him as he walked in. He says, "First time back in two years."

Moved away, he's back now two years, if I remember the story right. And he said this, "It's exactly the same." The spirit, the energy probably is what he's referring to there, and, so thankful, for them. And just so you know, Seha and Michelle heard I was preaching today, so they showed up, so. Is that what you said? No, that's not what they said. All right, let's get to Luke chapter 19. Luke chapter 19. Great to be here. Thankful for the opportunity to be here. I love your pastor. He's a great dear friend of mine. best friend of mine for sure, no doubt about it. And, I'm thankful for his touch, his influence in my life and my family's life. so thankful for that. In Luke chapter 19, we're gonna read the first 10 verses here, this morning. Luke chapter 19. A familiar story for many of us here no doubt this morning.

The Bible says in Luke 19:1–10, ‘And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.

And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.’ And Father, would you bless our time together in your Word? Father, would you allow this, story to impact us in a way that would bring change to our lives? And Father, I'm thankful for, your love. I'm thankful for salvation, which we've even sung about this morning, and for what, the whole reason you came, to seek and to save that which was lost. And Father, I was lost, and you found me. And Father, I found you. I'm so thankful for that. So would you bless our time together? For it's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Amen. Amen. These words weren't spoken, that Jesus was saying, these weren't spoken in a church. They weren't spoken in a synagogue or a temple. They weren't spoken on, a mountaintop.

we would see that Jesus was speaking these words with, when he met Zacchaeus. He wasn't sitting in a committee meeting. He wasn't sitting in a crowd of disciples talking. He was speaking to a group of people, and really, he was speaking to a house, a household. He went to Zacchaeus's house, a crook, a dishonest man, a tax collector. you would know the song if you... Your pastor asked me to sing this morning, and I refused to do so. Zacchaeus was a Don't make me start singing. Yeah. Was a wee little man, a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. And Christ walked by, and Jesus walked by, and he looked up in the tree, and he said, "Zacchaeus, come on down. Make haste." And he's, he's engaging himself, the Savior of the world, the Messiah, he's engaging himself into a life of someone that many of us would walk away from. Many of us we wouldn't wanna rub shoulders with.

We wanna, wouldn't wanna hang out in their, in his home. This crowd was there, and Zacchaeus couldn't see the Lord, wanted to see the Lord, and wanted to lay eyes on him, and maybe listen to what he was teaching or preaching. And he, and he knew that because he was short, he was, he was hindered by being short. He had to climb up in the tree to see Jesus just to get a glimpse of him. But I would tell you this morning that Zacchaeus wasn't the only one looking for something. And Jesus was looking for him. Amen. And I just wanna pause for a minute. I I'm so thankful Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. Amen. I'm so thankful that Jesus knew my name. Yes. I'm so thankful that Jesus came to, find me, to die for me on the cross, to offer salvation to me. I'm, I'm so thankful that Jesus came looking for us.

If you're here this morning, you know Christ as your personal Savior, you can rejoice in that also, and that you have forgiveness of sin, that you've received eternal life. You can rejoice in the fact that Jesus knew your name. Amen. But you don't have to be saved here this morning to understand the fact that Jesus knows your name. Amen. He knows your name. He knows who you are. He knows the things that you have done. He knows what you did last night. He knows what you did Friday night. He understands. He may not approve everything you've done, but He knows Amen... and He's looking for you. Amen. And that's the whole reason Jesus came. He left the portals of heaven, and He walked upon this earth, not to make a name for Himself. He came for one reason, and that one reason is you. Amen. Amen. He loves you.

I'm sure your pastor, told us about the people group in his pastoral prayer, the Tartar people, 19 million people that needs to know about Jesus. And really, the question would be simple this morning: Who's going to tell those 19 million people? Yeah. 0.1 to 0.2% of them may know something about Christ, may know something about religion or church, or maybe even know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, but we're talking millions of people that needs Christ. You look, around your city, you can't walk through a mall or along the beach without seeing hundreds if not thousands of people that probably don't know anything about Jesus. The Meacham's as they serve in Cambodia. Millions of people, I think, I don't know the population, but I mean, talking thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of people that need to know Christ as their personal Savior. And someone needs to take the gospel message to them.

And as Jesus was walking by in that crowd of people, He passes by a tree. And I'm gonna tell you this morning, it wasn't a glimpse of a person in the tree that caught His attention. He knew Zacchaeus by name. Yeah. He called him by name. "Zacchaeus." I'm just thinking, "Whoa, how did He know my name?" I've been in places before and someone will come up and say, "Pastor Tunnell," or "Brother Tunnell" or "Ferg," or, whatever they would say, and I'm going, "How do you know my name?" Yeah. how do I, how do I merit to be on your radar screen? well, how, what do you know about me? Why, how do you know my name? But the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, called Zacchaeus by name. Now, some might look at that situation and say, "Well, that's because he was a crook and everybody knew who he was. He's a chief of the publicans. Everybody knew to stay away from him." I'm gonna say it wasn't because of that that Jesus knew his name.

That's right. Jesus knew his name because, well, the Bible tells us, "For God so loved the Amen. Amen. Good... that He gave His only begotten Son." And Jesus knows each and every one of us. "Zacchaeus, make haste. Come down, for today I must abide at thine house. I'm going to your house. I'm, we're gonna go eat, we're gonna have some fellowship. I'm going to talk about your great need." And the crowd starts bickering about that and murmuring about that and say, "Man, here goes Jesus again going after those sinners and hanging out with those people He shouldn't be Doesn't He know He needs to be worried about who He's hanging out with?" He doesn't let that deter him from doing what he's here for Bible tells us, Jesus tells us that He came to seek and to save that which was lost. That's why He came. That'd be His heartbeat. That would be His driving passion. didn't come to establish a Christian religion. I'm thankful for the church.

He's the foundation of the church. He started the church. We understand that. We're not taking away from the local church. We're not doing that, but He didn't come just to improve society. Yeah. He didn't come to put His people in political office. Yeah. He didn't come to make sure that every city was religious in nature. He didn't come to make you or me comfortable, or to improve our income, or to make sure our, everything goes the way... He came on a rescue mission. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. That's His mission. And if that was the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ, as Christ followers, as Christians, as little Christs, that ought to be our mission also. Amen. You and I should engage in the great work of the Gospel ministry. You and I should be interested in those that some of the world would turn away from, that would just drive by and roll their windows up and not be kind to. We should engage in people's lives.

Jesus came to seek, to look for. That's the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. The word seek, it implies several things. Initiative. He's, He's taking initiative. He's, He's looking for something. Like when you lose your keys to your car and you're running late for an appointment, or a doctor's appointment, or church, or work or whatever it is and you're frantically searching for your keys. You're, you're taking out, the couch cushions. You're turning the, everything upside down looking for it. Maybe a wallet or something else that you've lost. You're, you're pursuing, "Now where did I put that?" And if you're like me, you blame somebody else for it. "Jeanette, what did you do with my keys?" She goes, "They're your keys. You find them." No, pursuing that. It gives us, it gives us, implies this, there's an intentionality that's taking place here. Yeah. You're not gonna find your keys by accident. You're not just gonna sit in the...

Well, we're not to that point yet. technology will probably get to the point where the keys will find you But that's not the way things, that's not find lost things don't find themselves. You have to go looking for them. You have to look for it means, it means to go after something that will not come on its own. And so Jesus didn't wait for sinners to get good enough before he found them. Amen. You know, he, we, he, someone says, "Well, whenever I, whenever I clean my life up, then I'll start going to church. Whenever I start living better, then maybe I'll, I'll start living for the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe I'll find him for salvation." I, He didn't wait for them to deserve him, he went looking for them. Amen. That's right. He's walking down the street and he's, he looks up in the tree and there's Zacchaeus. "Zacchaeus, what are you doing up there? You better get down there. You're gonna break your neck."

No, he wasn't worried about him breaking his neck. He's worried about his eternal soul. Amen. He's worried about, finding him and saving him. Left the portals of heaven and walked upon our earth. He created it, but it was sin-cursed. And now he has to put up with all the filth and the garbage of this world to go into the, oh, the junkyard, the trash pile. He left heaven's gates and the streets of gold and his father's house. We, I'm, I'm thankful he left heaven because he came looking for us The story would tell us in the Bible, if you remember in Samaria, he went to the well and he sat there and he sat at the well and talked to the woman at the well, the Samarian woman, the immoral person During the funeral possession, he would, he would stop for one grieving mother.

He would, he would go and he would touch lepers, those that had leprosy, those that, they weren't supposed to be around people, yet he would go and he would minister to them. He would, he would touch someone that no one else would touch dine with the chief of sinners, the chief of publicans. He called the fishermens to follow him, the disciples that we read about. He stopped here underneath the sycamore tree, Zacchaeus. When we think about the story and we think, "Well, it's a child story, and it's good for junior church. It really doesn't apply to me." But when we just stop to realize that Jesus stopped for a man, and Jesus stopped for us. Yes. He loves us. He was always seeking. Boy, was in Costco one day. I was reading about, and he got separated from his parents. Called him Junior in the first service. I don't know what his name was. I made it up as it went. But there they are in Costco. Dad's looking at electronics.

Mom is in the beauty department somewhere. Who knows where she is. And Junior just wanders away. And as he wanders away, they... Their dad's like we get sometimes. We're, we're not, sometimes we're not paying attention. It happens. We look around, "Where's Junior at? Junior? Junior?" And people all around, and mom's coming up and finding out what's going on. "Well, I can't find Junior. I can't find him." And they start running down the aisles and looking down every aisle. "Has anyone seen this boy? Has anyone seen my son? I'm looking for him." There's a, there's a, there's an urgency to find him. There's an urgency because it's my son, and I don't want him to be kidnapped. I don't want him to hurt himself. I want him to be found. I want him to be safe. I wanna protect him here. So that panic floods their heart. And Dad didn't just go back here and sit down and say, "Well, you know, if he really loves us, he'll find his way back to us."

That's right. "He'll come back. I'm not really worried about it. I mean, the prodigal son came back sooner or later." No, he ran aisle after aisle after aisle, calling his son's name, looking underneath the clothes, looking at, looking on the couches and everything. Where's he at? In the playhouses. He's probably up on the second level looking at the jungle gym up there or something. But he went looking until he found him. That's seeking. I'm looking for something. I'm looking for someone. And that's the heart of a father. We're not simply gonna leave our, let our son go somewhere. We're gonna, we're gonna find him. We're, we're gonna make sure he's safe. We're gonna make sure he's saved. And that's the heart of our Savior.

Verse 10 tells us, "He came to seek and to save that which was lost." Over in Luke chapter 15, it tells us a story about the shepherd leaving the 99 to go after the one. And someone could look at that story and say, "Well, he, the, he left 99. He had a responsibility for all 100 of them, and he left the 99 to go after the one." But listen, the responsibility is when there's one lost, he's gonna go find that one. Yeah. He's gonna bring that one back into the fold. He's going to make sure everyone is safe there for sure. He left the 99 to find the one He engaged the shepherd. He showed initiative. Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, came to seek and to save that which was lost. Yes, he gave us a wonderful message. I'm thankful for the Word of God. Amen. If it wasn't for the Word of God, we wouldn't be here today. You and I understand that for sure, no doubt about it. But listen, the Word of God won't, "Ah."

Someone has to take the word of God to someone I just, the idea here this morning is that we need to do something. We need to be involved in that. maybe I can ask this question this morning, what are you doing to seek the lost? Are you following His heart? Are you following His mission? Are we seeking? I love the singing. I love the fellowship. We were, pastor and I was sitting and we were, listening to the fellowship of the saints of God here. They were before church. I mean, just the energy, the fellowship, the conversation. He says it's that loud because it's hot outside and everybody's inside talking right now That's great. It's great to enjoy church Amen. We oughta come to church. We ought not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. You and I understand that for sure. We, it's easy to love the fellowship and to be engaged and to do that. It, is, I... Praise the Lord for the baptism this morning Yes. Amen.

If you trust Christ as your personal Savior, the next step is to follow the Lord in believers baptism and to commit yourself to living that separated life for the Lord Jesus Christ, and to testify to everyone else, "Look, I'm a follower of Christ." Man, we celebrate the ordinance of baptism. It's great to do that The question this morning is: who are you pursuing? Maybe I could say it this way, what tree have you stopped by and who have you called down out of the tree? Who's at the cubicle across from yours who needs Christ? Who's the neighbor that lives next door or upstairs? Who, are you pursuing them? What, are, when's the last time you intentionally spoke to someone with a Gospel conversation about their soul? I mean, we know this, from the verse that we read, Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. But when's the last time you took the precious Word of God or even, or even at the least just a Gospel tract? Yeah.

And say, "Hey, can I just, can I just tell you that God loves you today? Can I, can I be the first one that tells you that God loves you today?" I don't know how many times I've, I've said something like that and they go, "Well, you are the first one. Thank you." And they take it and they start reading it. But to show someone that there's a, they have a need. Listen, they have a need that they don't even know they have. That's right. Yeah. The world in which we live today, they, everybody thinks they're okay and they think they're, they're just living life and they're, they may be looking for something. They have a void in their heart. They don't know what they're looking for, but we know what they're looking for. Yeah. Looking for forgiveness or looking for the love that no one else has shared with them. They're looking for someone to take the Gospel message and say, "Listen, yeah, I used to be lost.

I was just wandering aimlessly in life. I was, I was like a pin, a ball in a pinball machine, bouncing from this thing and going for this high and going for this excitement, and I'm just racking up the score. I'm trying to get the best I can and, but there's no purpose in my life. Until someone took the Bible and told me, 'Dude, you're, you're missing the point.'" For all have sinned, come short of the glory of God. someone took the Bible and showed me, "Listen, you can't live good enough, you can't be perfect enough, you can't attend enough churches. Your good won't outweigh your bad." And that's not what it is. It's about someone who is seeking me, Jesus. And He showed his love toward us, John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

And someone very simply took the Bible and showed me, listen, I was lost, and I wasn't good enough, and I wasn't perfect enough. I wasn't smart enough. I wasn't religious enough. I needed something, and what I needed was salvation. I needed a changed heart. I needed purpose in my life. They showed me from scripture that what I deserve because of my sin isn't a gold star on my attendance chart. What I needed was salvation. And what God offers me, and what I deserve because of my sin was separation from God and His perfectness. Not just right now, not just like I'm grounded and I have to go to my room, and I'm gonna go in my room, and I'm gonna pout about it. No. That, the wages of sin is death. That's eternal separation from God. The Bible tells us that He's not willing that any should perish. It's God's plan that each and every one of us would come to know Him as our personal Savior. Amen.

That we would put our faith and our trust in Him, that we would ask for forgiveness of sin, that we would turn away from our sin and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's exactly what Zacchaeus did. He He called on the Lord. He trusted in the Lord. He was saved, and when salvation took place, when that repentance took place, we see the next thing that he did, he started paying restitution. He started living a changed life. Yes. Amen. Man, if I stole, I'm gonna give back. If I, if I'm giving half of everything I have to the poor. I'm going to... If I stole something, if I took it the wrong way, and by the way, he knew he did. Yeah. I'm gonna repay fourfold. That restitution took place, and as soon as he did that, as soon as he said that, Jesus came and said, "Hey, the..." Came to seek and to save that which was lost. And Jesus came to seek, not admire.

Sometimes we would be in the, in the, in the society in which we live, in the world in which we live today, we have sports stars or political figures, and we admire them. Jesus didn't come to admire anyone He came to save us. That's His heart. That's His heartbeat. And if that's His heartbeat, why do we not do that? Mission work is not easy work. Have missionaries here this morning. We'll have missionaries in our service here this evening. I'm so thankful for the mission, missionaries that we have to Romania here at Canyon Ridge, the Tylers that will be here tonight ministering to that group of people. We have missionaries all around the world serving. can I just say missions cost us something? Now we're in, we're in church and we pull out and we go, "Okay, it's offering time, so I'm gonna give some I'm gonna give some money to missionaries." Can I just say missions cost us more than this?

It's not about the money It's about the heart, how we serve Him. And see, when Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost, when we think about the mission that He is doing, it cost Him something His reputation, he was known to be hanging out with the publicans and sinners. And listen, he didn't allow that deter, to deter him from what God called him or sent him to do Cost him his comfort. The Bible tells us in Matthew that he had nowhere to lay his head. It cost him physically. It cost him no doubt with the relationships that he had and emotionally. Ultimately, we see that he laid his life down. It cost Jesus something. You and I, we study the New Testament, we understand that. But yet, why do we think it-- we can get through and it doesn't cost us anything? Love gives. Jesus gave. We love Him because He first loved us He sacrificed his life not to be a religious icon through the centuries. He laid his life down because of you.

He loved you so much, he died on the cross for your sins. He bled. And David said in 2 Samuel, "Neither will I offer that which costs me nothing." That, we're just he's just talking about sacrifice. He says, "Listen, I'm giving something, and what I give me, what I give to the Lord is gonna cost me something." That means that it's valuable to me One person said it this way, "If missions cost nothing, it means nothing." Thankful for missionaries that leave the comforts of their home and sacrifice their time and many times financial means, also relationships to go to a lost and dying world When the Titanic struck the iceberg, lifeboats were deployed and the passengers would, many of them, some of them, let me say it that way, made their way to the lifeboats. Women first, women and children first.

They were lowered into the freezing Atlantic Ocean, and they pushed away from the ship because they needed to get away from the sinking ship, 'cause a sinking ship would've pulled the lifeboats in with them. So they started pushing away from the ship even before they were full. Many of them were half full. There's people yelling in the water, crying out for help. There was, there was space, but because of fear, many of those lifeboat captains wouldn't go back and to try to rescue some of those that were in the water. But they could hear the cries of the perishing people, "Help me. Save me. Help." The story tells us that one went back. One of many. One of many went back Was able to rescue a few more souls. They rode back into the darkness.

They were allowing the voice and the cries of those that are anguishing, those that are drowning, they followed those voices and they knew that there was a risk that they could be pulled under also, but they had to do something. they couldn't just say, "Well, I hope they find us something." No, they went back and they rescued some. What, why did they do that? Why did that one do that? And it was told to us that they went back because they could not ignore the sound of dying people Canyon Ridge can you hear the voices of dying people? See, in the, in the workplace, your coworkers, they don't realize they're dying they don't realize they're headed toward a devil's hell. you're in the, a restaurant, they don't realize that. But does the Spirit of God move within your heart and encourage you? Maybe you should just give them a gospel tract. Maybe you should engage in a gospel conversation.

When's the last time that you were, where you were moved, with that? When's the last time that you... there's souls all across the world. There's people right here in San Diego that needs Christ as their personal Savior. And you may not hear audible voices, but listen, when you walk into a place, we ought to have our ears tuned to the Word of God and to the Spirit of God, that we hear the spiritual cries of people They're going after the passions of life and they're talking, listen, they're talking about, "Well, when I retire, I'm going to, I'm going to move to Nebraska and live in a house and get away from people. I'm gonna do that." listen, that, those are, those are people crying out for help I wanna make sure my retirement's there. I wanna make sure my kids go to this college. I wanna... And they talk about all these other things, and one thing that they're not talking about is their need for a savior.

We hear their voices Mission work isn't convenient. I'm not just talking about going to a foreign land. I'm talking about talking to your coworker At the cubicle next to yours Does your giving cost you anything? Does your faith promise or your giving to the mission program of Canyon Ridge Baptist Church, does it stretch your faith? Does it stretch us? Does the, does your, the announcements, this morning you'll see that there's two times of outreach this week. Does your, does your schedule bend to be able to tell others about Christ? Do you, do you, do you engage in gospel conversations? Do you... Well, I just go, you know, I only go a few times. Listen, I'm just saying Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost, and he was, he was intentional about seeking. Are we intentional about seeking people? Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost Jesus died on the cross for your sins and my sins He shed his blood.

Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. I'm thankful for the forgiveness that I can have. Listen, I'm a dirty, rotten scoundrel like everybody else. I'm just a saved dirty, rotten scoundrel. I'm on my way to heaven. I have forgiveness of sin. I have a sure... if I were to die right now, I know 100% for sure I'll go to heaven. Doesn't mean I'm a perfect person. Listen, there ain't nobody here perfect. The person sitting next to you, they need, they need salvation just as much as everybody else does. There's no one perfect. You... "Well, I have my my church attendance record is perfect. I'm here for everything that we do. I do all the outreach, I do all the work days, I do all that type of stuff." Those are all good things to be involved in, but that doesn't secure your soul to heaven. Amen. Putting your faith and your trust in Jesus, that's the only thing that does Grew up going to church and we had Awanas.

Around the Awana circle, we would, during game time, we would run the relay race, and we would have the whatever team you're on, a red or a blue or a yellow. I think there was another one, another color there. There's four of them, and we'd have batons, and we would line up. There'd be three or four of us that would line up, and we'd start running around the circle, and you'd have to run maybe two times around the circle, three times, whatever it was, and then you pass the baton. And that baton is being passed to the next runner, and you pass it off to, the baton. The new runner's running out, and he's grabbing the baton, and if you drop the baton, you're gonna lose the race Calvary wasn't Calvary wasn't the Wasn't the end of the race Jesus died on the cross, yes. He shed his blood. He went to the tomb. He came back forth from the grave. That, it, but the Calvary's cross, it wasn't the finish line. It was the handoff.

Let me say it this way. Now it's handed off. Jesus is handing it off, and as a Christian or as a church, we're accepting the baton, and now we need to continue running the race Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. The question is, are we seeking the lost? You and I know we can't save the lost. Only Jesus can save them, but someone has to tell them about Jesus. And someone has to do that. That, the, and if we drop the baton, it's not Jesus' fault we dropped the baton. It's our fault. It's 'cause we fumbled it. He's given it to us. It's 'cause we didn't care. And everyone here has to decide, "Am I going to continue the mission that Christ has given us to do? Are we gonna tell others about Christ? Are we gonna cry over the lost souls? Are we going to do those? Are we gonna continue it?"

For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost It's just not a verse It's a declaration It's a mission statement It's a heartbeat of God Almighty. Jesus came to seek and to save. If you're here this morning and you don't know Christ as your personal Savior, you're the reason Jesus came to this earth in the first place. Amen. We all are. Yeah. He came to save us. He came to save us from our sins. He came to give us forgiveness of sin. The question is, as Christians, does your, does the way you live your life reflect that? Now, does your, does your giving reflect His heart? Does your prayer list reflect His heart? Do, are you living your life the, does... Man, are we living for the Lord Jesus Christ? If everyone here this morning at Canyon Ridge Baptist Church lived exactly like you, would the lost be reached?

If everyone here this morning, member of Canyon Ridge Baptist Church if everyone gave like you, would missionaries be able to stay on the field or would they have to come home? If everyone, every member or everyone here witness like you do Would sinners hear the wonderful gospel message? I mean, the church goes through a great big expense to make sure you guys have these And they're not... Listen they're not just Bible markers It contains the gospel. A plan of salvation where someone can read it and they don't have to have one of these. They can actually read the Word of God in one of these and come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. If everyone witnessed the way you did, would the lost be saved? Zacchaeus climbed up in a tree 'cause he wanted to see the Lord. But I'd submit to you this morning that Jesus wanted to see him more It wasn't just about what Zacchaeus saw, it's what Jesus was seeing in Zacchaeus.

And the soul that needed to be saved. What would have happened if Jesus just walked by and didn't give him the time of day? Okay, can I ask this question? How many people do you walk by on a daily basis that you don't give one of these to? How many people that work in your workplace, on your ship or in your duty station, how many people do you walk by and you don't engage in a gospel conversation with them? Now, that's the thing. I know Canyon Ridge I know Canyon Ridge Baptist Church is intentional about the gospel. You're intentional about reaching San Diego for the cause of Christ. Getting ready to have a a frontline hero day. Is that what it's called, Brother Chris? Frontline? First responders, police officers. You look for opportunity to do mission San Diego, and you're, you're all about telling others about Christ. Man, that's wonderful. I commend you.

It's, it's, it's really a great example of what churches all across America should be doing. But all it takes to lose that testimony is for you to sit in the pew and not do anything 400 people. It takes one person to stop doing it, then it becomes two, and then it becomes five, and pretty soon out of 400, maybe two is doing it. You see how the equation kind of turns upside down? If you've been around churches any length time, you look back in the history of church history and you say, "Man, that church used to be... Man, I'm telling you what, Highland Park, man, that was a, that was a church." Or we could name churches and we could, "Man, they used to be so on fire for God, but now they're not even around anymore." Why is that? And I'd submit to you this morning because Christ's mission, his heartbeat it lacked in the hearts of the members of the church. They got distracted They got worried about other things.

Visitation and outreach were no longer as important. Gospel conversations were no longer important. Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost, and that's what we should be doing also.