Grace Pursues the Lost: Mercy Not Judgment

We see that blank canvas. God looks into our life and he sees a masterpiece. We see an ugly black lump of coal and God sees a diamond in the rough. We see a Jacob, the deceiver. God sees an Israel. We see Simon. God sees Peter. We see Saul of Tarsus and God sees the apostle Paul. God looks into your life and he sees you, not as you are, but as you were originally created and designed to be. [00:35:17] (40 seconds)  #GodSeesMasterpiece

But God does it out of pure grace, unmerited, undeserved favor. We've not earned it, and we never will. But by applying unmerited favor to our lives, this amazing grace we sing about, we are transformed through the indwelling power of God's holy spirit to be people of grace as well. People who look at others and don't see fault, but see potential. [00:36:45] (37 seconds)  #TransformedByGrace

Now you might think this encounter with Matthew was like a coincidence. Jesus was just strolling through the marketplace and he happened to see Matthew, but I don't believe it. I don't believe in coincidences. I believe in God incidences. God is sovereign. And just so you know this, nothing touches your life, believers, unless God okays it. Nothing. You are indestructible until God is done with you. So this was not a coincidence. [00:29:14] (38 seconds)  #DivineAppointments

And Jim made the decision to end it all, and he made a plan. he had promised his AA coach who who had been marvelously saved a few months earlier that he had come to church with him. And as Jim came in that morning to the service, God began to speak to him. He began weeping during the music. And then during the sermon, he was inconsolable, it appeared. At the invitation, Jim came forward and and with tears of joy running down his face, I prayed for him and he was amazingly, gloriously saved. But he said to me that morning, he said, I cannot believe God chose me, a nobody. [00:27:04] (47 seconds)  #ChosenFromBrokenness

And then there was silence from his son. And then he asked in a concerned voice, well, dad, what did you do? He said, I got all the glory. That's the grace of God in your life. Jesus took our place, did what we couldn't do. He bore our sins, and we stand forgiven and bask sheep sheepishly triumphant in Jesus' glory. Unworthy people tend to be people of grace. [00:39:37] (38 seconds)  #GraceGivesGlory

Jesus planned to meet Matthew that morning. He walked by that booth on purpose. He stopped, he turned to Matthew, and uttered those fateful words, follow me. And the implications are gigantic. A a teacher who was asking someone to to follow them, that was an invitation to that person to become a disciple, a close personal disciple of that teacher to live with, eat with, minister with, and learn from that teacher. [00:29:52] (37 seconds)  #FollowMeInvitation

When you look closely, you see that Jesus takes the initiative to seek out unworthy, undeserving people and call them his own. Look at verse nine. As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. Follow me, he said. Matthew got up and followed him. God doubles down pursuing those who they're who are the farthest from him. [00:31:13] (41 seconds)  #GodPursuesTheLost

When when you look at these three parables, it's pretty clear that God really, really, really cares about lost people. like the woman cared about the lost coin, the shepherd, the lost sheep, and the father, his lost son. When a person is lost, it calls for an all out search. No effort is too extreme, no expense spared, and it calls for enormous celebration when that lost person is found. [00:32:56] (37 seconds)  #AllOutForTheLost