Have you ever felt that your life was out of control? That you were just lurching from one difficulty to the next? That you were just like a ship being tossed and driven by the storm? Maybe you’ve felt like that in the past, maybe some of you are feeling like that right now. If so, God has some good news for you this morning. God cares about you and your life’s circumstances. He has a plan and purpose for your life. When you’re following His plan, than nothing is out of control, because God is in charge. God doesn’t just want you to survive in life, He doesn’t want you to just get by in today’s world, He wants you to Change Your World. Rather than having the world wreak havoc on your life, God wants you to impact and influence your world. What that means is that God wants you to impact and influence the people around you for Him.
In the sports world, a common truth is that the best defense is a good offense. The same is true in the spiritual world. You’re in the safest place in life when you’re following God’s plan to influence people to find and grow in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Proverbs 14:26 (NIV) He who fears the LORD has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge.
What does it mean to fear the Lord? To fear the Lord is to trust in, follow and obey the Lord in all of life. To fear the Lord is to go and make disciples for Jesus. When you walk in the fear of the Lord, the Lord protects you and your family.
Today, we’re going to talk about Reaching the Unlikely. There are people all around us who do not know Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. Jesus loves all of them and so should we. Jesus is seeking for all those who are lost in St. Louis to find Him and so should we. Too often we find excuses not to speak to people about Jesus. If we think about it too much, we come to the conclusion that a particular person is unlikely to respond, so we shouldn’t waste are time on them. The unlikely include:
- People who are different from us
- People who we think are too great of sinners
- People who are too far above or beneath us in education, wealth or knowledge.
But God wants to use me, you and our church to reach the unlikely people that Jesus loves. And not just reach them to see them saved, but to see them saved, discipled and part of the church family. Today, we’re going to look at a story of Jesus reaching an unlikely man in Luke 19. Jesus loved to reach unlikely people. In Luke 17, Jesus reached out to lepers, the unclean outcasts of Jewish society. In Luke 18, Jesus reached out to a tax collector, little children, a rich ruler and a blind beggar. The only one who did not follow Jesus was, you guessed it, the rich ruler. It didn’t matter how unlikely or despised a person was, Jesus loved them and sought to bring God’s truth and healing power into their lives. Today, God wants to teach us how to Reach the Unlikely.