Now just listen real close and
stay with me. I got some bad news for you.
I heard it while I was gone. The problem is this, really it's
horrible news, Jesus has been lost. Now, I don't know, that
pretty well shakes me up to know that Jesus has been lost. And the greater part of the preachers
in America and religion as a whole are hoping that somebody, somewhere,
will find Jesus. And I'm sure you will agree with
me, if Jesus is lost, if God come to earth is lost, then we're
in a mess. And as I listened last Sunday
to the preacher preach, my thoughts went something like this. Could
it be? Of course, I was answering my
own questions. Could it be that actually the
glorious condescension of God come to earth God got down here
and somehow got lost. That the One who performed all
of these earthly miracles, He who turned water into wine and
then walked on the water, is now lost. I heard it again this
morning. That Jesus was lost. And there was the hope that somebody
in the congregation would find Him for Jesus. Can you imagine
what he must feel to be lost? He who was once king of kings
and Lord of lords is now lost. Can you imagine what his heavenly
Father must feel? Have you ever been in a department
store? Or here a few weeks ago, we took
Hayden to Rochester to one of those little PlayStation places
where you can order pizza and stuff and the kids can play.
And she hid. Her Majesty and I got to running
through that little area trying to find her. And Pam said to
me, she's gone. I went and checked the exit doors.
We couldn't find her. We were calling her. Finally,
we got everybody up that was there, all the adults. We had
a search party. And she and some other little
girl were hiding. I said, Hayden, didn't you hear
us calling you? Yeah. I don't know whether we told,
y'all didn't know about it. No. Well. Oops. But I can tell you this, there
was terror. I could see somebody running out that back exit door.
And the lady said, no, that couldn't have happened because the alarms
would have gone off. But at any rate, if Jesus is
lost, the Heavenly Father must be panic stricken. Can you imagine
God panic stricken? We need to form a search party
here so we can find him. I'm positive that if it be true
that Jesus is truly lost, some of you are going to be good enough
and your will is compassionate enough that you would want to
find him and restore his kingship. Think of what a tragedy this
is. He has died, suffered, bled in vain. And now he himself has
amnesia. The Jesus of the Bible, the Jesus
of the cross, the Jesus of the empty tomb, the Jesus who ascended
back. Think about that. If he's lost
and doesn't know where he is, you don't have a lawyer. I'm
telling you, I need a lawyer in heaven. I've messed up all
week. How about you? Of course you
have. If Jesus is lost, If he's not
sitting at the right hand of God, making intercession for
us, we're in a heap of trouble. Think about this. If Jesus is
lost, how is he going to come back again? He said, if I go
away, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I
am, there you may be also. Think of the consequences of
Jesus being lost. You say, well, Preacher, I've
really never heard Anybody say that? No, because the devil disguises
it like this. You must find Jesus. Jesus wants
you to find him. I wanted just to sink in a bit.
Who is Jesus? Where is Jesus? The preacher
said last Sunday that some people had found him. He did not say
where they found him. And it did not seem that those
who found him were telling others where he was. I mean, when we
found Hayden, all those adults that were around us, I began
to say things like that. They were hiding behind the wall. I wanted them to rejoice that
we had found her. The preacher also said that he
did not know why some found Jesus and some did not. What's up with
that? It would seem that something
is wrong big time here. Jesus is lost. Some find him,
some don't. Maybe only the good ones find
him. Maybe only the lucky ones find him. Well, maybe he's at
church. But then, I've been in lots of
churches, and I'm sure he wasn't there. In fact, I'm sure he wasn't there
last Sunday. And I know some of you say, he's so critical.
I'll tell you how critical I am. The apostle Paul said this. There
are folks going around preaching another gospel, though I or an
angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that
you have received. Let him go to hell. That's what
Paul said in the Galatian letter. Let him be condemned to hell. We ought to be asking people
to come to church. But why? Why would we ask people to come
to church if Jesus is lost? I don't think Jesus was there
last Sunday. You know, I'm, of course, you
know what I'm doing already. And so if I say I'm so confused
and I thought about people sitting in the auditorium who are thinking
people. Jesus is lost. You want me to
come to church? You want me to invite others
to church? So is Jesus at church? And how do we find Jesus? And
why do some people find Jesus while others do not? Well, after
hearing the message last Sunday, I decided I would try to find
Jesus. Somebody has to find Him or this whole thing is going
to blow up in our face. Somebody's got to find Jesus.
I mean, if He's lost, somebody needs to find Him. And I thought,
well, if I was going to find Jesus, I was going to have to
have some kind of map. So, I got out my Bible. I think that would be a good
map. And I started in the book of Genesis and see how other
people found Jesus. Now, go with me to the book of
Genesis. And let's go to chapter 3. Chapter 3 of the book of Genesis,
we're looking to find Jesus. Well, Genesis chapter 3, verse
2. And the woman said unto the serpent,
we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the
fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God
has said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it,
lest you die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, you shall not surely die, for God knows that in the day
you eat thereof, then your eyes will be opened and you shall
be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw
that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the
eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of
the fruit thereof, and did eat, and said to her husband Adam,
hi big boy, not exactly, but she gave to Adam, and he did
eat. And the eyes, verse 7, of both
of them were opened, and they knew they were naked, And they
sewed fig leaf aprons together and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the
Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God
amongst the trees of the garden. Huh. And the Lord God called
unto Adam and said unto him, Where are you now? I said to myself, that's strange.
The preacher said that God was lost. It would seem here from
the book of Genesis just the opposite, that God is not lost. Does it seem to you like maybe
God sought Adam and Eve? Don't leave me here. I kind of
get this picture. that after they sinned, they
went and hid from God. They were hiding from God. And
God had to find them. God had to find them. Now, I will tell you this, either
the preacher was wrong about Jesus being lost, or this map
is wrong. I mean, right from the beginning,
the map says the problem is not with God. The problem is with
men and women. I'm not going to try to get you
to feel sorry for Jesus today. Because even if you did, that
wouldn't be salvation. Jesus isn't asking for your pity.
You need His. You and I need His. Romans 3.11
says, There is none that seeketh after God. There is none that
seeketh after God. Well, what was that preacher
saying last Sunday? He seemed to be saying that the
Godhead was totally confused and in confusion, and that the
only way that God was ever going to be found is for some human
beings. And he couldn't explain why some
did and some didn't. That's what he said. He said,
I don't know why some find Jesus and some don't. Isn't that sad? Wouldn't that be sad if that
were true? You have to be found before you find. This is the
truth of the Bible. Get this. And Jesus says it very
plain in Luke 15. In Luke 15, Jesus says, now this
guy, he had 99 sheep. 99. And one was lost. One was lost. The shepherd wasn't
lost. It was the sheep that was lost. All God's sheep were lost at
one time. And the Bible says, and Jesus
says this, will not the shepherd leave the ninety and nine and
go and find his lost sheep? There's no emphasis on that silly,
stupid sheep finding his way back. The parable goes like this. He went through the mountains
of vanity and the slew of sin. He tracked that lost sheep that
was marked in election. And he lay hold on that lost
sheep down in Lodibar, down in the hood, out in the crack house,
and he put the lost sheep on his shoulder. And he brought
the lost sheep back to the fold. Now, who gets the glory there?
Can you find anywhere in the Bible where Jesus is lost? Not
at all. It's another gospel. I'm telling
you, those of you who wrestle with grace are in a heap of trouble.
Because you will not lay down that self-glory thing. Rest assured
of this, your will is never the will of God until God's will
is done in you. Never. You can talk about your
free will. All you want to talk about is
your free will. Your will is not free. You are a silly, lost
sheep. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to his own way. Oh, you're slick, alright. You're fast. But I'm telling
you, there's one that can outrun you. And aren't you glad? He not only outrun you, he caught
up with you. and lay hold on you. You are
only here today because there was someone faster than you. You've been apprehended. You
remember being pulled over when the blue light came on with the
police car? What's about to happen? You got
apprehended. Aren't you glad that God came to you? That God
apprehended you? This thrills me. I sat there
on the front row with Greg, thinking to myself, I'm glad that's not
true. I'm glad that's not true. I said, well, that wasn't very
respectful. I didn't say it out loud. I just
sat there very politely and grinned. That's not true. It's not true. And really, this is at the heart
of why religion is old and stale and dead and ineffective. Because
churches all over this world are trying to give mankind some
of the glory. And God won't have it. You're
not going to take any glory. It's not your will. It's not
your works. Listen to this. Here's a very
plain statement. Jesus came to seek... Say the word seek. Seek. And to save that which
was lost. Jesus wasn't lost. And I rejoice
in that today. Sometimes we sing it here. It's
amazing to me how much truth is sung in churches where the
truth is not preached. I heard an old, old story. How
a Savior came from glory. He sought me. He what? He sought me. He bought me. And
he caught me. That's good news, isn't it? We
sing there's victory in Jesus, not Jesus is lost. And I encourage
you, you have every right to sit and listen to the preacher
and give him the acid test. And the acid test is who gets
the glory, who gets the praise, who gets the honor. And my heart,
actually, besides me being kind of a smart aleck this morning,
my heart was grieved last Sunday. So I sat there with 500 people
and listened to a hopeless message. Just a hopeless message. And
the man doing the preaching had his doctorate, was teaching in
the university there. He didn't know the gospel. I
mean, if that's what he really believed, He just didn't know
the gospel. We sing this. Amazing grace,
how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was
lost. Now I'm found. We never say Jesus
was lost. How come we sing one thing and
preach another? You see, the old hymns are still
around and in many churches. That's why it's so important
to me that we sing the truth here. It's just as bad to sing
a lie as it is to tell one. So our songs ought to be full
of grace. It was not you, it was God. It
was the Lord came to seek and to save that which was lost.
And that's why this gospel of God's grace, the gospel of the
glory, is so important. God isn't going to bless anything
else. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And as
soon as you start down that road of Jesus needs you, Jesus is
helpless, poor little Jesus, it's your will, it's your works,
it's something you do, God has done all He can, and now He's
left it up to you. If that's true, we're all going
to hell. And let me tell you this, religious person. And this
I talked about with the men of grace yesterday. This is the
way I introduced myself yesterday. I said, Hi, my name is Kent. I'm a hypocrite. That's what
I said. I'm a hypocrite. And I said I
was born a hypocrite. When I got eight years old, I
was converted. Now I'm a converted hypocrite. I thought at eight years old
that night I got saved, I thought, man, all the bad stuff is over
now. The hypocrisy is over. I got
up the next day and I was worse than I was the day before when
I got saved. That's when all the trouble began. I learned early on from church
to be smooth and slick and religious. Now I'm a religious, lying Pharisee. I'm acting like I'm better than
other people. I remember when some of the kids
in the church committed fornication and had to come up front and
confess it. Not me. All my stuff was done
in secret. All my lust. It was committed
all up here. Am I talking to anybody? OK,
Jesus is not like you don't need a savior who's lost. And then
on top of that, I went off to school, started getting my degrees
and stuff, and I became the young Pharisee, lying, hypocritical,
young Billy Graham. And I got put up here on this
roster way up here. I was way up here. Humpty Dumpty
sat on the wall. That's where I sat, miserable,
knowing that in my flesh dwelt no good thing. I didn't need
a Jesus who was lost. I needed one who would begin
a good work in me. One who would reign in me. One
who would work all things for my good in God's glory. I can
remember as I went to school and got my pedigree built up,
got my credentials, I didn't even know who I was. I think
when Miss Pam and I were dating, I would say to her, I don't even
know who I am. Because I felt like I could trust
her. Oh, she said yesterday morning, she said, so what are you going
to speak about? I said, I'm going to tell them
I'm a hypocrite. I said to her, what should I
wear? And she said, whatever a hypocrite would wear. So I
put on my suit and tie that she picked out and I went over and
talked to those men about God. When I went off to school and
became a preacher, you didn't have to look me up. If you weren't
a Calvinist, I'd look you up. Because I had some things I wanted
to tell you. You see, I believe that Jesus
died for the elect, that he paid their sin debt in full. Only
back then, I believed it like this. That was a chip on my shoulder.
Oh, you don't believe in limited atonement? I dare you to knock
that chip off my shoulder. And then if you didn't use the
right kind of Bible, I love those folks who used another
kind of Bible besides the King James. Listen, and there's no one in
here that doesn't know what I'm talking about. I told those guys
yesterday. I said, because it got kind of quiet and only my
amen section, the men of grace, I'd look over at them, you know,
for help. But I said, all you guys in here
struggle with lust. Every last one of you. I'm telling
this to big shot business people. And so we got real quiet. I said,
let me tell you a story. My dad went into a grocery store
in the South. They would play checkers. They
had checkerboard in the grocery store, like Cracker Barrel. Anyway,
there was two old men in their 90s sitting there. And my dad
knew them really well. My dad said to them, Brothers. In the old Baptist
church, we used to call our men brothers. We'd say brother. Anyway,
my dad said, brothers to these two 90-year-old men, when do
you ever stop dealing with lust? One old man looked up and said,
you'll have to talk to somebody older than me. That's getting real. That's getting
real. You know what makes this church
a great church? We know Christ is all and we're nothing. And we don't judge one another.
Not really. Not really, we don't. If God
has showed us grace and mercy, we're gracious and merciful.
That's right. And you pray for the pastor because
You know he's just like you. I told those men yesterday this,
too. If I'm the holy, righteous man
of God, I'm the reverend, and they have this picture of me
dressed in white, and I'm the holy man, they kiss my hand.
How's the little mother who sold her children to the crack man
ever going to approach me? But you know, I have a gospel
to preach to that little mother who's burdened down, who's broken
down, whose shame base is so low she can't raise her face,
that there's power in the blood of Christ. It's true. And I'm going to tell you, many
of you who attend here on Sunday mornings, Really don't know what
goes on here during the week, and I want you to know. And we're
going to start having a film every week of something that
happens here that you wouldn't see if you were over in Sterling
Heights or Utica or Warren or wherever. You weren't here during
the week. I want you to see 300 people that don't come to this
church working on the street. Houses being transformed. I want
you to see the ponies and the little bouncy, bouncy things.
What went on here yesterday? I want you to see that. This
week on Thursday, National Day of Prayer, I'm going to be hip-scopping
around different places leading in prayer. But one of the places
I'm going to be is right across the street here, when those two
houses are coming down on the corner. Absolute miracle. Listen, if
you're not experiencing God, how pitiful. Years ago, I wish
I could find this. I wish I could find this picture.
But in the Philippines, they had a mudslide and the mud came
into the temple Buddha. And there was about eight little
Filipinos. It was about this high. And underneath
the picture was Filipinos rescue their God. Now, if you've got
a God that needs rescuing from a mudslide, you're in a heap
of doo-doo. Am I right about that? No. I need rescuing. We used to call
it Pontiac Rescue Mission. You know why? People that came
in there needed to be rescued. I needed to be rescued. So anytime
you hear about Jesus, listen, the lingo has changed over the
years. Over the years and very slick,
you know, a counterfeiter, he's going to counterfeit twenty dollar
bills, he'll make them look exactly like the real thing. And the
counterfeiters of the gospel, they make it sound real. And
the message of the gospel, the true gospel, has been lost in
a mudslide of mess, which is simply this. God needs you. But where were you when God said,
let there be light? God has never needed anyone.
He's the creator. Amen. You see, God walked into
empty space one day and said, let there be. We are His workmanship. We Christians are the workmanship
of God. He took nothing and made something. We've been created in Christ
Jesus. Now, we need the Old Gospel back,
which is the power of God unto salvation. Let me tell you, and
let me make it plain. Eight or eighty, unless God comes
to you. and does something for you you
cannot do for yourself, you will perish. And I know, I know there's
some of you are sure shooting, sitting in here because you've
heard it all your life, you think it's true that God's giving everybody
a chance. And I want to tell you this,
you don't need a chance. You need to be saved. His name
shall be called Jesus. Sound like He's proactive? For
He shall save His people from their sins. Do you need saving
from your sins? Only Jesus can do that. Let's
go to the book of Isaiah. And I know some of you are sitting
there and you're probably thinking something like this. Well, you
know, when I gave my heart to Jesus. Now, wait a minute. I
know you've heard that already. You've heard that already. I
gave my heart to Jesus. You've heard that lingo. And
by the way, With hearing that lingo, you can be saved. You
can be a real Christian simply because you, you know, used the
wrong lingo. The truth is, God has to give
you a new heart. What would He do with your sleazebag
heart? From your heart, you've had enough thoughts this morning
already to damn you. You've wrestled with lust and
lasciviousness and all kinds of mess. He doesn't need your
heart. You need a new one. Listen to
this. You say, well, you know, Pastor,
I truly wanted to be saved. I truly sought the Lord. I know. Listen. Isaiah chapter
65 and verse 1. I am sought of them. Aha! There it is. I am sought. There it is, preacher. There's
somebody seeking the Lord. Watch this. I am sought of them
that ask not for me." So there was a time when you
weren't seeking the Lord, and something happened. You began
to seek the Lord. Well, look at the verse. I am found of them that sought
me not. What is all that? I don't understand
that. Here's what he's saying. You didn't seek the Lord until
He found you. And when He found you, you were
made willing in the day of His power. Listen, you will never
come to Christ except God work power in you to come to Christ.
Your willer has to be changed. God has to work on your willer.
He has to give you a new will. Otherwise, you'll will heroin
and crack and Susie and John. God's got to make you thirsty
before you come to the water of life. You'll never drink unless
he makes you thirsty. And so what God does, he comes
and makes us hungry. And you go like this, I want
to be saved. I want to be saved. I want the Lord to save me. Oh,
you're really hungry, aren't you? Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved. And you go, I believe, I have
trust in Christ. Good. Always remember this, here
in His love, not that you love God, but that He first loved
you. That's it. I am sought of them that ask
not for me. I am found of them that sought
me not. One other passage, Psalm 62 and
verse 12. And they shall call them the
holy people. the redeemed of the Lord, and
thou shalt be called sought out." What's your name? Sought out.
That's your real name? Yes, sought out. What do you
mean by that? I mean, Jesus sought me out.
Duane, where are you when I need you? Jesus sought me out. Right? Well, we haven't sung
that. We haven't heard that for a while.
Jesus sought me out. He sought you out. I know you
must be happy to know this. Every little child of God in
here is rejoicing in this. He sought me out. When I would
not come to him, he came to me. All right, let's stand.