The Ninety Nine

"Then Jesus told them this parable: ^'Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not 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.'"
Luke 15:3-7 


I've been thinking about foundations lately. What is the foundation of my faith? What is the foundation of the church? What is the foundation God wants to renew in my life? The more I ask these questions, the more I understand that there is one great truth about God that is absolutely foundational to us and our experience here in the world. God is concerned about the lost. He loves them and he has called us to be the ones who present his love and message of reconciliation to those who have yet to meet him. 
    In Luke 15, Jesus told three parables: The lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Obviously the emphasis was on that which was lost. God is more than concerned for the lost. He is in fact, distracted by them. The parable of the lost sheep clearly illustrates God's willingness and desire to leave the ninety-nine who are already found, to seek the one who is lost. After all, Jesus did come to seek and save the lost. Those who are found are already in the fold. They are already destined for heaven and eternal life. But the lost one, he is in darkness, destined for hell and eternal separation from God. This is so critical to God that he longs to go get the lost one. Over the finding of the one, there is great rejoicing. God loves the lost enough to search for them and find them. 
    God has chosen to use us to find the lost ones, share the good news of Christ with them and see them join those who are destined for eternal life. This is the foundation of the church. We don't exist so we can receive only our own blessing, we are called to extend it to the lost. This is our mission. It is the entire reason that we have been empowered by the Holy Spirit. We are to go into all the world, starting with our Jerusalem, our Judea, our Samaria. There, we will find the lost and gather them for the kingdom of heaven. This is the foundation of our lives as Christians, sons and daughters of God. 
    There are 4.9 billion people alive on the earth who do not have a relationship with Jesus. This means there are 4.9 billion people who, if the world ended today, would spend eternity in hell, separated from God. If we lined those people up, one in front of the other with their heels touching the toes of the one behind, the line would reach around the earth, not once, not twice, not five times, not ten or twenty or even thirty times. It would reach around the world 37.3 times. This many people are alive today and do not know Jesus. And they all have faces, they all have souls, they are all eternal beings just waiting to find a Savior. Can you see them? We can offer them the truth of the only true Savior of the world. If this is not our heart today, it should be. Look at the faces of the lost. They're all around us. See them as God does. Be distracted to the point that you must tell them the good news. This is our mission, our one ultimate goal. We are the ninety-nine. We are the safe ones, and God is calling us to go get the lost ones.