Introduction:
1 John 2:19 - They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
How to Rescue a Stray (James 5:19-20):
- Learn how to Recognize a stray. (Jas 5:19a, 20a)
Matthew 9:13 - For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.
Romans 5:8 - but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us...
- Remember what's at stake. (Jas 5:20b)
Revelation 21:8 - But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
- Take Responsibility . (Jas 5:19b, 20a)
2 Corinthians 5:18, 20 - All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation... Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.
- Encourage Repentance . (Jas 5:19b, 20)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:39-01:18
Open up your Bibles, please, to the book of James and chapter 5. Our series is "Intentional Faith, a How-To Guide." That's what the book of James is about. And the The title of today's message is "How to Rescue a Stray." You know, when a dog wanders away, we do all kinds of things to try to get that dog back, don't we?
01:19-01:28
We make signs, we put up the posters on the telephone poles, We get on social media with a picture of the dog.
01:32-01:39
But the question on the table today is this, what do we do when a person wanders away?
01:42-01:44
I'd like you to bow your heads with me, please.
01:46-01:59
I'm gonna ask that you would pray for me and I will pray for you as we take some time in getting the God's Word together.
02:05-02:13
Father, today again, as we open up your Word, once again, we're gonna be talking about something that's very important to you.
02:16-02:25
And I just ask for my brothers and sisters here, that this is something that would be important to us.
02:31-02:34
Give us your heart, Father.
02:37-02:49
Let your spirit manifest the mind of Christ in a powerful way in this church.
02:52-02:53
We pray in Jesus' name.
02:54-02:57
And all of God's people said, amen.
02:58-02:58
Amen.
02:58-03:05
As we've been going through the book of James, we've been evaluating, right on cue.
03:05-03:10
As we were going through the book of James, we've been evaluating my walk, right?
03:11-03:17
We've been forced to examine how I'm walking with the Lord.
03:21-03:23
We've talked about how to handle trials.
03:25-03:28
We've talked about how to handle temptations.
03:28-03:31
We've been talking about how to be impartial.
03:33-03:38
We've been talking about the place of good works and the life of a believer.
03:38-03:40
We've been talking about how to watch your mouth.
03:43-03:45
We've been talking about how to have right relationships with people.
03:48-03:51
We've been talking about how to speak the truth.
03:52-03:57
We've been talking about how to pray and how to see answer to prayer.
03:58-04:10
And all through James, as we've been going through this, I've been concerned about my walk and you, as you've been going through this with me, you should be concerned about your walk with Christ.
04:16-05:17
I also need to be concerned about other people's walks with Christ. And you need to be concerned with other people's walks with Christ. So James closes this letter with one final appeal, and it's for evangelism. Look at verses 19 and 20 in chapter five, he says, "My brothers, "if anyone among you wanders from the truth "and someone brings him back, "let him know that whoever brings back a sinner "from his wandering will save his soul from death "and will cover a multitude of sins." So you see this appeal isn't directed at any unsaved person that's been hearing this.
05:17-05:19
This appeal is directed to the saved.
05:21-05:23
And this is it, this is the sermon.
05:24-05:31
Go after the unsaved who stray from church.
05:34-05:45
There are those in every church including this church, who are not born again believers.
05:47-05:56
There are people that are sitting here and will be sitting in the next service who will be watching this stream that they're not born again, transformed followers of Jesus.
05:57-06:00
They are really better described as churchgoers.
06:00-06:01
That's in every church.
06:03-06:18
And these people will attend and they'll get involved, and they'll even make connections in the church, but they're not saved.
06:23-06:28
That was me for the first 20 years of my life.
06:29-06:34
I went to church every week, but I wasn't saved.
06:37-06:46
And eventually, people that go to church, but really aren't following Jesus, eventually they leave.
06:47-06:48
Why?
06:50-06:51
Well, I think it's pretty obvious, isn't it?
06:54-06:56
You start to feel hypocritical, right?
06:57-07:12
You're just, you're too invested in your sin, and you realize you can't be living in and for your sin Monday through Saturday, and then just show up on Sunday and pretend like you're this follower of Jesus.
07:12-07:17
You can't sustain that for an indefinite period of time.
07:18-07:22
Sometimes people leave the church because they're challenged on their walks.
07:23-07:25
Like, are you following Jesus right now?
07:26-07:31
Are you really pursuing him with your whole heart the way the Bible calls you to?
07:31-07:33
People get called out on their sin.
07:33-07:37
Hey, you're professing to be a believer, but you shouldn't be living like this.
07:40-07:42
And you wander away from the church.
07:43-07:45
This is who John was talking about, 1 John 2, 19.
07:47-07:49
He says, look at this, do we have that verse?
07:50-07:51
There it is.
07:51-07:57
It says, "They went out from us, "but they were not of us.
07:58-08:14
"For if they had been of us, "they would have continued with us, But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
08:16-08:19
So the question here is believers, believers, I'm talking to you.
08:19-08:23
Those of you who are born again believers in Christ, this is for you, okay?
08:24-08:32
What do you do with unbelievers who used to come to church and left?
08:34-08:46
That's why in your outline, it says, "How to Rescue a Stray." How do we do it?
08:49-08:50
This is important to God.
08:51-08:52
It's important to us.
08:52-08:52
All right?
08:53-08:54
So, let's get on board.
08:54-08:57
Number one, learn how to recognize a stray.
09:00-09:01
Learn how to recognize a stray.
09:02-09:03
Look at verse 19 again.
09:04-09:16
He says, "If anyone among you," in the church, okay, "wanders from the truth." Now we get to clarify here.
09:17-09:19
"Wanders from the truth," note that.
09:20-09:24
That is not talking about the guy or the girl or the family.
09:24-09:26
It's like, hey, you know what?
09:26-09:27
You know what, Dan?
09:27-09:32
I've loved coming to Harvest here, but there's a church closer to my house.
09:32-09:34
is just much easier for me and my family.
09:35-09:36
So we're gonna be worshiping there.
09:36-09:39
That's not who's in view here, okay?
09:39-09:47
Or somebody that's like, yeah, I really, I like harvest, but like Northway just has better coffee or something like that.
09:47-09:48
So I'm gonna go worship there.
09:48-09:55
We're not talking about the person that is going to another church because for some reason it's a better fit for their family.
09:55-09:56
That's fine.
09:56-10:00
You go where God is feeding you and you go where God is using you.
10:00-10:02
That's how you should select a church.
10:02-10:04
We're not talking about those people.
10:05-10:06
He's very clear here.
10:07-10:10
We're talking about people who wander from the truth.
10:11-10:19
That word wanders in the Greek is where we get the word planet, because a planet was viewed as a wandering body.
10:20-10:23
And it's used to describe unsaved people.
10:23-10:25
That's why, again, look at verse 20.
10:25-10:31
It says, "Let them know whoever brings back a sinner, A sinner.
10:32-10:34
Again, he's talking about an unbeliever.
10:36-10:41
A sinner is a term that's used for someone who is committed to their sin.
10:42-10:44
All right, this is an important distinction, right?
10:44-10:47
A sinner is someone committed to their sin.
10:47-11:07
That's why Jesus said, Matthew 9, 13, "For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." That's why Paul said one of my favorite verses in the New Testament, Romans 5, 8, "but God shows his love for us, "and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Listen, born-again believers are not labeled as sinners.
11:10-11:18
If you're a born-again believer, God does not call you a sinner, he doesn't view you as a sinner, and you need to stop calling yourself a sinner.
11:18-11:19
Well, I'm just a sinner.
11:19-11:20
Okay, then go sin.
11:22-11:23
That's not who you are.
11:24-11:26
You're a blood-bought child of God.
11:28-11:31
And while we struggle with sin, everyone does.
11:32-11:33
We're not sinners.
11:33-11:35
This is talking about unbelievers.
11:36-11:51
But also notice in verse 20, it says, "Brings back a sinner from," look at this phrase, "his wandering." That's speaking of somebody's lifestyle.
11:52-11:53
His wandering.
11:53-11:54
That's talking about somebody's path.
11:55-12:01
That's talking about somebody that has made a decision that they are going to actively be committed to their sin.
12:01-12:03
Okay, this is my wandering.
12:03-12:05
This is the direction that I'm going to go.
12:06-12:10
I'm going away from the truth and I'm going to pursue my sin.
12:10-12:11
That's who we're talking about.
12:13-12:15
You're like, okay, I got it.
12:15-12:16
Why are we being so emphatic about this?
12:16-12:20
Because if we're going to rescue a stray, we need to know what a stray is.
12:22-12:31
It's someone who's avoiding church because they don't wanna be around the truth, because they wanna live in their sin.
12:34-12:40
So if we're going to obey this command, church, step one is knowing who we have to go after.
12:43-12:49
And I just have to insert here that this is why relationships are so important in the church.
12:52-13:01
You know, if you come to church late, and you scoot out early, and you never go to small group, no one knows what's happening in your life.
13:03-13:04
That's a dangerous place for you to be.
13:06-13:10
We have to be connected to each other so that we can look after each other.
13:11-13:22
That way, when someone starts to wander, and they're avoiding any kind of fellowship, they're on our radar, okay?
13:22-13:25
So we gotta learn how to recognize a stray.
13:25-13:30
Number two, you gotta remember what's at stake.
13:31-13:32
What's at stake?
13:32-13:33
Look at verse 20 again.
13:34-13:48
It says, "Whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering," look at this, "will save his soul from death." That word for soul in the Greek refers to the whole person, okay?
13:51-13:57
You're not a body that has a soul, you are a soul that has a body.
13:57-14:00
And that's what this is talking about, the whole person.
14:00-14:05
And when he's talking about death here, save his soul from death, he's talking about eternal death.
14:06-14:07
He's talking about hell.
14:07-14:10
He's talking about Revelation 21.
14:10-14:28
Look at this, it says, "But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
14:29-14:32
That's what he's talking about here, eternal death.
14:34-14:47
James is saying here that if someone is avoiding God's people, and they're avoiding God's truth, and they're more committed to their sin than they are to Jesus, It's evidence that they're unsaved.
14:47-14:53
And if that's the case, they're heading to hell.
14:56-14:57
And hell is a real place.
15:00-15:03
And real people are really going there.
15:07-15:08
Do you care?
15:10-15:11
I mean, does that bother you?
15:15-15:17
I've challenged you before church.
15:17-15:22
Imagine that you drive home from church and you see that your neighbor's house is on fire.
15:23-15:31
And you look through the picture window of their house and you see that your neighbor is asleep on the recliner while the house is burning down around him.
15:31-15:31
What do you do?
15:31-15:32
What do you do?
15:34-15:37
Would you say, well, it's not really my business.
15:39-15:50
Would you say, I don't wanna force my beliefs on someone else about fire and the danger of being in a burning house.
15:50-15:55
I wouldn't wanna enforce my beliefs on someone or like try to force my beliefs on someone.
15:55-15:58
You know, live and let live, that's what I always, is that what you would do?
15:59-16:00
If you did that, you'd be a monster.
16:02-16:03
I know exactly what you do.
16:03-16:14
You would throw something through that window and you would kick that door down and you would go in there and you would grab him by the seat of his pants and the scruff of his neck and drag him out of there.
16:17-16:29
Shouldn't we be even more motivated knowing that somebody who is walking away from Christ who obviously never was really transformed is heading to hell?
16:29-16:30
Shouldn't we care about that?
16:34-16:47
I gotta tell you, over the last 27 or 28 years I've seen this so many times.
16:48-16:58
Someone walks away from church and they live their sinful lifestyle and they die suddenly.
17:02-17:03
Maybe it's a drug overdose.
17:03-17:04
That happened to my family.
17:06-17:11
Maybe it's a tragic car or motorcycle accident.
17:11-17:12
I've seen it so many times.
17:15-17:16
(congregation laughing)
17:17-17:22
And we're left with family and friends saying, if only I'd reached out.
17:23-17:26
Oh, you know, I was gonna call them and I didn't do it.
17:28-17:34
If only I'd said something, if only that day I was gonna go to their house, if only I'd gone over.
17:37-17:44
And I've had too many people come to me and say, Pastor Jeff, what if they're in hell right now I didn't say anything.
17:49-17:50
You know how many times I've had to answer that question?
17:53-17:55
To tell people, you know, God is just.
17:57-17:58
God always does the right thing.
17:59-18:04
And he will deal with that person in perfect, holy justice.
18:04-18:04
He will.
18:06-18:10
Nobody's gonna show up in heaven and say, well, God, you really blew it on that one.
18:11-18:15
Everything God does is perfect, and we will glorify Him for that.
18:15-18:30
But at the same time, it should step up our urgency in going after others so that whatever happens to them, we can honestly say, I tried my hardest to go after Him.
18:31-18:32
Don't you wanna be able to say that?
18:33-18:34
Like, yeah, He strayed.
18:34-18:38
Yeah, He was living a sinful lifestyle, but I have a clear conscience that I went after Him.
18:42-18:46
You've got to remember what's at stake, saving a soul from death.
18:47-18:49
Number three, how to rescue a stray.
18:49-18:52
Well, you've got to recognize a stray and you've got to remember what's at stake.
18:53-18:58
Number three, take responsibility, man.
18:59-19:00
Take responsibility.
19:05-19:10
A couple of words you need to take note of here.
19:13-19:22
Verse 19, it says, "And someone brings him back." Someone, that's the word, someone brings him back.
19:22-19:23
Then look at verse 20.
19:24-19:35
"Let him know that whoever," oh, there it is again, "whoever brings back a sinner." someone, whoever.
19:37-19:39
Like what does that word whoever mean in the Greek?
19:39-19:40
You know what it means?
19:41-19:41
It means whoever.
19:46-19:54
Like whose job is it when someone walks away from the church and they're living in sin, whose job is it to go after them?
19:55-19:57
And you're like, it's the pastor's job, right?
19:58-19:59
It's the pastor's job.
20:01-20:02
Yes, it is.
20:04-20:08
And no, it's not, both.
20:10-20:14
Yes, it's my job.
20:15-20:17
Yes, it's Taylor's job.
20:18-20:20
Yes, it's Rich's job.
20:21-20:21
Yes.
20:25-20:28
And no, it's not just us.
20:30-20:31
It's everyone.
20:32-20:34
And look, as this church grows, have you noticed?
20:35-20:36
Have you noticed?
20:36-20:41
As the church grows, it is harder and harder to keep tabs on everyone.
20:42-20:42
It just is.
20:43-20:47
When our church was 20, it was super easy.
20:50-20:54
When our church was 60, still pretty easy.
20:56-21:02
where we are today and the way we're going, it is getting harder and harder to keep tabs on everyone.
21:03-21:17
But listen, so many of you are involved in these ministries, like small group, like mom to mom, like precepts, like fishermen.
21:20-21:23
You have relationships with people that I don't have.
21:26-21:27
And do you know what that means?
21:29-21:36
That means it's your responsibility to go after a stray because we can have somebody straying and I don't even know that they're straying.
21:36-21:41
I might not even know their name, but they've been faithfully coming to your group.
21:45-21:48
It's your responsibility, okay?
21:50-21:59
So when you sit here and hear a message like this, You can't just be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, the church really needs to do a good job of going after people that walk away from Jesus.
21:59-22:02
No, you need to do a better job on that.
22:02-22:04
That's all of our job.
22:08-22:11
Look at 2 Corinthians here, a couple of verses.
22:14-22:38
Verses 18 and 20, it says, "All this is from God, who through Christ "reconciled us to himself "and gave us the ministry of reconciliation." Then verse 20, it says, "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ." Look at this last phrase.
22:39-22:47
It says, "God making his appeal through us." Do you see that?
22:47-22:53
Those verses, us with the ministry is the same us that God reconciled.
22:55-23:01
And the gospel of Jesus Christ is staggering to me.
23:02-23:03
It is so staggering to me.
23:03-23:19
Do you understand what's happening in the gospel is that we have rebelled against our creator and God in His holiness is going to pour out His wrath who has rebelled against him.
23:20-23:29
But in his love through Jesus Christ, God is saving us from his own wrath.
23:30-23:31
Isn't that mind blowing?
23:34-23:46
Jesus reconciled us to God by dying on that cross in our place, taking our sin away and resurrecting to give us eternal life.
23:46-24:03
But you know what's almost as staggering to me as the gospel is that God has chosen to use us to reach the lost with this message.
24:07-24:12
That is absolutely staggering to me, that God gave the job to us.
24:12-24:19
The Bible says we are ambassadors, that we represent Jesus Christ to this world.
24:21-24:26
Jesus is in heaven, he's coming back, but in the meantime, we are his reps.
24:29-24:49
And the fact that God is appealing to the world, to these lost people, to come back to him through the provision he made, God's making that appeal, And God says, "I wanna make this appeal through you." It's absolutely staggering.
24:52-24:59
When we were kids, I have a little brother, seven years younger than me.
25:00-25:01
Don't tell him I told you this.
25:06-25:09
But we were little kids, he was really little.
25:10-25:15
But there was a Christmas play at the Methodist church.
25:15-25:20
We went to the Methodist church by our house growing up and they had the Christmas play, right?
25:21-25:23
And the kids all did the Christmas play.
25:23-25:24
I was in a million of them.
25:24-25:24
I was awesome.
25:25-25:28
Not really, but I wasn't.
25:28-25:34
But anyways, this one year, he had one line.
25:35-25:38
He was supposed to close the whole thing out.
25:39-25:39
This was a big deal.
25:41-25:46
He was supposed to close the whole event out, and here was his line.
25:47-25:56
"Before we leave, we'd like to wish you "a Merry Christmas in Gaelic." And you're like, why were you wishing a Merry Christmas?
25:57-25:58
I don't know, I don't know, it was a long time ago.
26:00-26:02
But I know for sure that was his line.
26:03-26:04
Do you know how I know for sure?
26:06-26:10
Because weeks leading up to it, That was all he said.
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He walked around the house all the time.
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Before we leave, we'd like to wish you a Merry Christmas in Gaelic.
26:16-26:18
Before we leave, we'd like to wish you a Merry Christmas in Gaelic.
26:18-26:21
Before we leave, we'd like to wish you a Merry Christmas in Gaelic.
26:21-26:23
Before we leave, we'd like to wish you a Merry Christmas in Gaelic.
26:23-26:24
Is that annoying you?
26:25-26:26
Okay, think of how I felt.
26:27-26:29
Before we leave, we'd like to wish you a Merry Christmas in Gaelic.
26:29-26:31
You got it, okay, you got it!
26:32-26:33
Nailed it.
26:36-26:39
I think you got your line, Robert DeNiro, okay?
26:39-26:44
"Before we leave, we'd like to wish you a Merry Christmas in Gaelic." I mean, we were so annoyed.
26:47-26:48
Well, the day came.
26:50-26:51
Christmas Eve service.
26:51-26:51
Picture it.
26:52-26:55
This little Methodist church, every pew filled.
26:56-26:59
The overflowed big garage doors that led to the annex were opened.
26:59-27:00
All the chairs set up.
27:00-27:01
That was filled.
27:02-27:03
The place was packed out.
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He gets up, closing it out.
27:08-27:09
Always a glorious night.
27:10-27:21
He gets up, steps up to the podium, and he says, "Before we leave, we'd like to wish you a Merry Christmas in stupid."
27:21-27:22
(congregation laughing)
27:27-27:30
On a scale of one to 10, how happy do you think my mother was?
27:30-27:31
(congregation laughing)
27:34-27:35
No explain-o.
27:42-27:44
He had one job.
27:44-27:45
He had one job.
27:48-27:49
Here's the point of the story.
27:50-27:54
When it mattered, he didn't do it.
27:59-28:00
And it mattered.
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He didn't communicate what was supposed to be communicated.
28:10-28:20
Now look, God is trusting you with something much more important than one line in a Christmas play.
28:22-28:25
God says, "Here, I have the message of salvation in my son.
28:26-28:28
Here, go tell people.
28:29-28:30
Go tell people what I've done for them.
28:31-28:32
I got this message for you.
28:32-28:34
Go, take it, take it.
28:37-28:40
So how seriously are you taking your responsibility?
28:44-28:49
Because you're an ambassador of Christ if you're called by his name.
28:52-28:53
Church has a mission.
28:54-28:58
And I gotta tell you, I am so thankful to be a part of a church that gets that.
28:58-29:18
We have, you know, a group, this life-wise group that's reaching, you know, public school kids, Pine Richland, Vision Appalachia, that our church has been involved in, and Bob Brown has been so faithful, working with Jesse Boggs and that whole ministry.
29:19-29:21
We got a group going to India to build a church.
29:24-29:28
We got a couple Thailand trips, one happening in March, We're planning another one for October.
29:29-29:32
Ben and Mandy Mall's daughter Paige is in the Dominican Republic.
29:33-29:34
And there's so many others.
29:36-29:43
I just love to be a part of a church that's like, they get it, there's a mission, and we're going after that.
29:44-29:46
And all of these things are important.
29:46-29:50
And if I left one out, please, it's hard for me to keep track, it really is.
29:51-29:52
They're all important.
29:55-29:58
But evangelism has to start here.
30:02-30:04
Evangelism has to start here.
30:04-30:06
Yes, go to India.
30:07-30:07
Yes, go to Thailand.
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Yes, go to the Dominican.
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Yes, but what are we doing here?
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Do we care about the people that need the gospel right here?
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It has to start with our own people.
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And the only way that we're going to be effective is if we all take responsibility.
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How to rescue a stray.
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Well, you gotta learn how to recognize him.
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You gotta remember what's at stake.
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You gotta take responsibility.
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And then finally, encourage repentance.
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Encourage repentance.
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Look at these verses again.
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It says, the end of verse 19, look at that.
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It says, "And someone," look at this phrase, "brings him back." That must be important, 'cause he says it again immediately in verse 20.
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Do you see that?
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"Let him know that whoever," there it is again, "brings back a sinner "from his wandering will save his soul from death." We talked about that.
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and will cover a multitude of sins.
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Encourage repentance.
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The goal is to save his soul, right?
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That's salvation.
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The goal is to cover sins.
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That's also salvation.
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That's them receiving the forgiveness and becoming the new creation in Jesus Christ.
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Again, salvation.
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But what I want to focus here on is this bring him back thing, right?
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Because we see it twice.
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19, end of 19, beginning of 20, bring back, bring him back.
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Like, what does that mean?
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Well, again, that's salvation, but that terminology is specifically focusing on repentance.
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What is repentance?
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Repentance is literally changing your mind.
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That's what repentance is, changing your mind.
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It means, you know, I'm loving my sin.
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I'm enjoying my sin.
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Repentance says, no, I'm changing my mind.
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I hate that.
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And I want to be done with that.
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That's what repentance is.
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It has to start in your mind.
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It's turning from your sin and turning to God.
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But it has to start in changing your mind about your sin, because when you change your mind about something, your actions will follow.
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But when you go after a stray, listen, this is so important.
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You have to encourage repentance.
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There is no forgiveness without repentance.
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I've been challenging this, I've been challenging people with this, probably my whole ministry, to say, "Show me one verse.
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"Show me one verse in the Bible, Old Testament or New Testament, where God offers forgiveness without repentance.
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And I'll give you a nickel.
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Taylor, do you have a nickel?
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I'm good for it.
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But you know, I'm not worried about it.
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I'm not gonna have to pay up, because it's not in there.
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Nowhere in the Bible does God say, "You know what?
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"I will save you, I will transform you, "and I will promise you glory, "and you can just live however you wanna live.
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"Go for it." "Just you do you.
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"You live however you want, you do you." And you just never see that anywhere in scripture.
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Where God says, "I'll forgive you, "and you can just keep your sinful lifestyle too.
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"You can have both worlds." I just, I don't see that anywhere in the Bible.
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What I do see is we are saved from our sin, we're not saved in our sin.
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And you can't have what Christ wants for you if you're holding on to what you want for you.
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It's repentance that we're going after.
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And that is what you have to want for the stray.
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You see, it's not, hey, make sure you bring, she's straying, bring her back to church because we need her in the nursery.
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Our rotation's a little off with her not working in the nursery.
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That's why we want her back.
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That's not the goal.
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It's not, well, we gotta, he's straying, but we need to bring him back because he's the only person on the worship team that knows how to play the oboe.
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I'm fine without the oboe.
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That's not the motivation.
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You have to encourage repentance.
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What that means is you gotta bring them the gospel again.
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You're like, what do I say?
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You need to say this, here's what you say.
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Hey, do you believe that Jesus loves you and wants better for you?
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Look, we love you too.
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So come back to harvest.
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Come back to small group and let's get on track.
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And I know you can't force someone to repent.
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I know that.
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Because if there was a way, I'd be doing it.
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You can't force someone to repent.
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You can't save anyone.
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It's not your job anyways.
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You push him to Jesus.
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He's the one that saves.
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He's the one that transforms.
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But you, what you have to do is to make the effort to bring them the gospel again.
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You have to take the initiative.
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And look, it might be an uncomfortable conversation that you go after the person.
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Like, well, what if it's uncomfortable?
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It might be uncomfortable.
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But let me challenge you with this.
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What's the absolute worst case scenario?
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You go after a stray.
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What's the worst case scenario?
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That they're like, I'm not interested, I'm not coming back, I'm doing what I wanna do, stop bothering me.
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But you tried, right?
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And if that's the case, what you say is, "Okay, you know what?
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I'm not going to bother.
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I just want you to know that we love you.
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And if you ever change your mind, we'll welcome you back with open arms.
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And again, you can rest knowing that you tried.
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This whole thing is something that, if I can just get personal with you for a second, this is something very near and dear to my heart.
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This is something very personal for me because I was astray.
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And it's a long story.
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If you want to hear the whole thing, you know, we'll meet up at Pantera Bread and you can toast me a Cinnacrunch bagel and I'll tell you the whole story.
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Here's the short version.
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Somebody had shared the gospel with me through the book of James.
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And I realized that I wasn't a Christian.
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And I remember being at a crossroads in my life, because now I knew the gospel in a way that I never knew before.
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But I still had a sinful lifestyle that I was quite accustomed to.
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And I remember this person coming after me, and I said, you know what, I think I'm just gonna go back to, I think I'm just gonna go back to living how I was living.
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And I will never forget what they said to me.
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They said, Do you have any idea how much God loves you?
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And when they said that, I was crushed.
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And I thought to myself, I am such a fool.
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And I am such a wicked piece of garbage that the God of the universe would send his son to die for me. And I would even entertain the thought of turning my back on Him.
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And I'm going to tell you, since those words were spoken, do you have any idea how much God loves you? Since those words were spoken, my life has never been the same.
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I'd like you to bow your heads as our worship team makes their way back to the platform.
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With your heads bowed, I just want to ask you, who do you know that is straying?
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Who is God putting on your heart right now?
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Maybe it's somebody used to sit near you here in church, maybe it's somebody that was in your small group or your fisherman group, precepts, mom to mom, whatever.
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But who do you know that seemed to be pursuing Christ and walked away and has been avoiding fellowship?
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Who is that person?
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What I want you to do is write their name on your outline somewhere.
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You can write their initials, write their name, just write something.
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Write their name down.
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And today, not tomorrow, not next week, today, today, reach out to them with the love of God.
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Shoot them a text, give them a call, stop by their house, rescue a stray.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, your word just so clearly commands us to be watching each other's backs, even people who don't want their backs to be watched.
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But it is the love of Jesus Christ that compels us.
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It is your gospel that moves us.
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So Father, I pray that we would be a church that makes the effort.
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And it's so hard to keep track.
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But that's why you've called us all to do it.
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This responsibility doesn't rest on a couple of leaders, but your word is very clear, Father, that you have called us all to rescue strays.
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Father, I pray today that you would motivate us, that this portion of your word would burn in our hearts and minds that we wouldn't be able to rest until we reached out to that person that we know that we're supposed to reach out to.
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Glorify your name through your people, Father, we ask in Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read James 5:19-20
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
How do you know when someone is “wandering from the truth”? How do you know when to stop pursuing a stray?
What is the motivation behind rescuing a stray? How much does this motivation move you?
Why is repentance a necessary part of receiving Jesus? Can you receive Jesus without repenting? Why or why not?
Have you been going after a stray? Share your experience with the group (no names!).
Breakout
Who do you know who has “wandered away” from Harvest? Pray for them, and call / text them NOW.
