"Seeking the Lost" (Luke 19:10)

"Seeking the Lost" from Luke 19:10 was preached by Dr. Mark McElreath at the City Baptist Church of Atlanta on March 8, 2026. 

Find out more about the City Baptist Church of Atlanta at www.mycitybaptist.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Welcome to the City Pulpit. Bible messages from the pulpit ministry of the City Baptist Church in Atlanta. Please take your Bibles with me. Let's go to Luke chapter 19. Luke chapter 19. And I'll read one verse as we begin the Bible message this evening or this morning. One verse, Luke chapter 19, verse number 10. The Bible says, For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Let's read it one more time. Luke chapter 19, verse number 10. For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Mark two words, if you will, in that verse, these two words, to seek. To seek. And we'll take for the theme of the Bible message this morning this thought, seeking the lost. Seeking the lost. Now we find the Lord Jesus Christ, it says, He is come. And some people you may ask, you may say, well, why did Jesus Christ come to this earth? And they may have lots of different ideas. They may say, well, he came to heal sick people. He did that in his earthly life and ministry. That's true. They may say, well, he came to raise the dead, and he did that in his earthly life and ministry. They may say he came to be a good teacher. Now he taught many good things. He was much more than a good teacher. He's a very son of God. He did teach many great things in his earthly life and ministry. But there is one thing we may say that Jesus came to do in his earthly life and ministry, and it is to seek and to save that which was lost. Now we cannot save. We do not have in us the power to save a lost soul, but here's what we can follow in his example. We can seek. And I want to preach this morning about us seeking the lost. You know, we seek what we find value in. I've found a number of interesting stories online. You know, there's a new feature. Any of you, I wonder, any of you have a ring doorbell camera? Maybe there's a few. All right, I thought I'd get a few hands. You know, there's a search feature on there now. It's called Search Party, and it looks for lost dogs and lost animals in neighborhoods. In fact, it uses your camera to watch for them. In fact, I got a notification the other day. It said, Have you seen this dog? And it found a dog walking through the parking lot here, and it said, Is this this dog? And it showed someone else's dog that they were looking for, wondering if we'd seen it on our property. That's that's a pretty big deal that they're using my camera to do that, but that's another thing. In fact, in the first 90 days of search party, they reunited 99 dogs with their owners, just using that one feature on a ring doorbell camera. You know, there's some other things that people are looking for. I read a story about a 2015 Vancouver woman who accidentally threw away her engagement ring while she was cleaning. She went to the local landfill and got permission to dig through, some believe, at least 10 tons of trash over the course of two days until she found her trash bag and her engagement ring in the landfill. If it was important, you'd go digging through it to find it, wouldn't you? There's a story of a man in 2015 or 2013, James Howells, by accident threw away a hard drive that contained 8,000 Bitcoin. If you don't know what that is, that's a big deal. But it depends on what day, I guess, he bought it. Today, those 8,000 Bitcoin, because of when he mined them, they're worth as much as$750 million. He is still petitioning that landfill over a decade later. He's asking if he can build AI search bots that will cost$10 million to search through the entire landfill to find his hard drive. If you thought it was that important, you would go seeking after it, wouldn't you? Look, we seek after what we find value in. And we find the Lord Jesus Christ, what did he come to do? He came to seek and to save that which was lost. And we've got to ask ourselves, why is the church here? What are we doing here on this earth as Christians? Many good things we can do, many needful things. I get calls every week. Lots of needs, lots of organizations, lots of things that are looking for a church to help out, many of them good causes. But the thing we need to be doing as a church is seeking the lost. And we want to look at that this morning. I've given you evangelism statistics there in the bulletin, and I they were so shocking, I wanted you to see them. I'll read them again here. 95% of all Christians have never won a soul to Christ. That's amazing. I hope hearing a message like this, you'll have you'll want to, if you've never won a soul to Christ, you'll want to win your first soul to the Lord. 80% of all Christians do not consistently witness for Christ. Less than 2% of Christians are involved in the ministry of evangelism. 71% do not give toward the financing of the Great Commission. And 75 to 90% of people who accepted Christ as Savior were led to him by a friend or a family member. You say, who would I lead to the Lord? God's given you a friend or God's given you a family member that needs the Lord, and they need to hear the gospel. In fact, seeking is going to the lost, or may I say, pursuing the lost and giving them a clear presentation of the gospel. The gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. It's a very simple message. It's given to us in the Word of God. Romans 3.23 tells us all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Anyone we speak to is a sinner and they've come short of God's perfection. Now the Bible tells us in Romans 6.23 that the wages or the price of that sin is death. In fact, that's spiritual death, that separation from God for eternity in a place called hell. God did not create hell for us, he created it for the devil and his angels. But anyone who dies that does not know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, they go to a devil's hell, which is a place of torment to spend eternity there. In fact, there was a man, I think it was George Mueller, said, if for just a moment we could open the portals of hell and get one glimpse, we would be the greatest soul winner that the world ever saw. Because we don't want people to go there. The Bible tells us, though, even though that's all the bad news, that our sin separates us from God. Romans 5.8 says, But God commendeth or he proved his love to us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Even though we are sinners and we are separated from God, God made a way for us to have our sins forgiven and for us to have a home in heaven with him. That's something to say amen about, isn't it? Amen. Good. He's made a way. And here's what he did. You realize the Lord could have written that gospel message in the tree bark of every tree he created. He could have written that gospel message in the stars in the sky. He could have had the very waves of the ocean shout that gospel message, but he didn't do that. What did he do? He gave that message to you and I, and he gave us a voice to seek the lost and bring that message of the good news. So what are we going to do? Consider these things with me. If you're making notes this morning, I hope you'll write a few things down. Would you write this down? Number one, we're seeking the lost by seeing every person in need of the gospel. Every person in need of the gospel. If you're in the book of Luke, would you turn to the next book with me, the book of John, John chapter 3. And here in John chapter 3, we probably find the most well-known Bible verse in all the world. I'm going to begin not in John 3.16. I want to begin with verse number 15. The Bible says in John 3, verse number 15, the Bible says that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Two destinations at the end of this life, perishing or eternal life. The Bible then says in John 3.16, the Lord Jesus Christ speaking, he says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. There he says it again, you're either going to perish or you're going to have eternal life. In fact, he says here, it shows how much he is seeking mankind, that he sends his own son, his only begotten son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come to this earth and be the payment for that sin debt. He says in verse 17, for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, because they're already under condemnation, but that the world through him might be saved. Look at verse 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Right there in the center of verse number 18, he says, He that believeth not is condemned already. You know what he's showing? Every person walking the face of this earth, when they are born, they're condemned under their sin. You know what that also means? If someone says, Well, look, I'm just, my decision is I'm not going to make a decision about Christ. Not making a decision is making a decision. Because all of those who have not believed, they're already condemned. We will seek the loss when we understand every person is in need of the gospel. John wrote in 1 John 4, verse 9, he said, In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent, there's our word, sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And if it was important enough for the Lord Jesus Christ to take on flesh and come to this earth and be sent, then we should also be seeking the lost, seeking sinners with the gospel message. We should also see every soul as having worth. Luke chapter 5, verse 31 says, Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Sometimes we may look at people and we may say, Ah, I don't think they're going to want to hear what I have to say. I spoke with someone just this week. They were telling me, they said, God had been speaking to them, convicting them about how they needed to be a witness to their brother. And this man said, I didn't know how he'd take it. I didn't know if he'd listen. I didn't know how it would go, but God was just telling me you need to speak to him. And he said, It went incredibly well. He said, Everything I said, my brother said, Yeah, that's what I need to hear. Yeah, you're exactly right. He said, He didn't get saved, but he said, You give me a lot to think about. His brother told him, I go to bed every night under the weight of guilt and shame of the things I've done in my life. And what you're telling me shows me there's an answer for it. Well, we have an answer for that. You may be here today and you may say, Yes, I bear the weight of shame and guilt of my sin. Every day I feel it. You realize you're not meant to carry it? The Lord Jesus Christ said, I've made a way for that shame and that guilt to be cared for. I've made a way for that shame and that guilt to be taken off of you through salvation. We find here every soul has worth. He called the sinners to repentance. Matthew chapter 9, verse 12 says, But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that behold need not a physician, but they that are sick. Go ye and learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. We're going to seek the lost when we understand every soul is in need of the gospel. Would you make note of a second thing? We're seeking the lost by preparing ourselves to give a gospel testimony. By preparing ourselves to give a gospel testimony. You say, Pastor, yes, I need to seek the lost. I need to be ready to give the gospel. What do I do? Well, if you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, just be ready to tell what the Lord did in your life. You know what that looks like? It's very simply, here's what I was before I came to know Christ as my Savior. You don't have to go into detail. You don't have to give all the ins and outs of all the things you did. You just have to say, look, I was a sinner and I knew. I had one, I had one person tell me one time, they said, I was a real stinker. They knew it. They understood. They were a sinner. I was a sinner. And then you could tell them the verses that I just mentioned. I realized my sin separated me from God, and the weight of my sin was death and separation from him. And then you just tell them how you got saved. In fact, Romans 10 13 says, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You can tell them, I just, I just called out the Lord and asked him to save me from my sin and to come into my life and save me. And then you know what you can tell him? And here's what he's done in my life since. He's given me fulfillment, he's given me guidance, he's worked in my life, he's put me in a good church. I hope you can say that. You just have to tell him your own testimony. Just be ready to speak about the Lord. You can learn these verses. I can give you verses. In fact, if you have one of our gospel tracts, you could just take that gospel tract and you can find those verses. And you can just look at them and you can just be ready to speak them. Not rote memorization. You don't just want to spit out all the verses, right? But in a conversation, you use those verses. And you know what it happens when we use the words of Scripture? You realize that's where the power is. That when we speak the words of Scripture, that's what the Lord uses to penetrate a heart and to penetrate a soul. He said, the Holy Spirit's going to convict of sin, righteousness, and judgment. And he uses the words of Scripture to do that. We are preparing ourselves to give a gospel testimony. In fact, Paul said this in 1 Timothy chapter 1. He said, This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. How be it for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. You know what Paul did in two verses? He very simply gave his testimony. He said, Oh, I was a sinner, and I was the chief of sinners. But thankfully, Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And now I'm saved, and I'm trying to be a pattern of those that believe on him to life everlasting. It's what I was before I got saved, how I got saved, and what the Lord's doing in my life now. And he did it pretty quick. We're preparing ourselves to give a gospel testimony. You know, not only are we realizing that every person needs the gospel, we're preparing ourselves to give a gospel testimony. Would you make note of a third thing? We're seeking the lost by engaging every relationship with the gospel message. Engaging every relationship with the gospel message. I want you to think this morning, and maybe if you have a piece of paper there, you have the bulletin there, I hope you jot names down of people you say, I'm praying this person gets saved. If you don't pray for them, who is praying for them? I have I have a journal where I keep notes and I keep a number of things, and I have I have a little list of names of people I'm praying through, and I'm keeping in touch with them. Some of them live in this area, some live in other places. And as God gives opportunity, I'm giving the gospel. I'm speaking to them about the Lord, and I'm praying, God, I pray you break through and you save them, show them they need to be saved. It may be I'm the only person in the world praying for their soul salvation. Many of them coming from a part of the world where I'm sure no one's praying for their soul salvation. And God has put someone in your path that you work with, that you live in a dormitory with, that you're in class with, that you're in a neighborhood with, that you pass in in clubs or associations or organizations you're a part of, and you know they don't know the Lord. You say, Pastor, how am I gonna talk to them about God? It's gonna be so awkward. You know what you can pray? Lord, you open a door of opportunity to speak about you, and I'll walk through it. Now I'm gonna tell you, you pray that, and God will do it. God will open a door of opportunity. Something will happen in their life, or they'll ask you some question you never thought they'd ask you. And when he does, you and I have got to be ready to speak. You and I have got to be ready to speak a word for the Lord and to speak clearly about him and about salvation, engaging every relationship with the gospel message. If you're still in the book of John, would you turn back with me just a couple of chapters to John chapter 1? John chapter 1. Look with me, please, at verse number 35 of John chapter 1. John 1, 35, it says, Again, the next day after John stood and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold, the Lamb of God. This is John the Baptist. You know what John the Baptist did? He just pointed people to Jesus. Also, one thing John the Baptist did, he just pointed people to Jesus. I mean, if one thing could be said of us, could it be? Yeah, he just points people to Jesus. Look at verse 37. And the two disciples heard him speak and they follow Jesus. Now think about that. John's been working all this time, he's got two followers. And then he points people to Jesus, and what do they do? They leave John and they follow Jesus. Now, some people would be like, I only had two followers to start with, and now they both left. And they get upset about it. But with if they're following Jesus, there's nothing to be upset about. Look at it says in verse 38, then Jesus turned and saw them following. And he saith unto them, What seek ye? And they said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted master, where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, Come and see. And they came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. And one of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. Now make note of verse forty-one here. It says, He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah which is being interpreted the Christ. And mark that first phrase of verse 42, and he brought him to Jesus. It's pretty simple in verse 41 and 42 here. He said, Look, we've been looking for the Messiah, we've been looking for the promised one, we found him. I'm going to show you who he is. And you know what really just speaking about the Lord and giving our testimony is? It's really just saying, I found Jesus. I want to show you how you can find him too. I heard an old preacher say one time, he said, really, it's just one old lost beggar looking for bread, finding bread, and finding another old lost beggar and saying, Hey, look, I found bread. Let me show you where I found it. When we come to know the Lord as our Savior, he gives us an opportunity with our own personal testimony to point others to Christ. And here we find, it says, He found his own brother Simon. By the way, this is Simon Peter. Peter's going to wind up being the leader among the disciples. But there was a brother that loved him enough to say, You need to find the Messiah. Here he is, and he comes to know Christ, and God cleans him up. Now remember, you don't need to try to find people that are already cleaned up, you just find the people God cleans them up, all right? And he brought him to Jesus. Look what Jesus says in verse 42. He brought him to Jesus, and when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah, thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone. Now, when you looked at Peter on this day, you probably wouldn't have said he's a stone. You said, That guy's a hot head. He's got a temper. He's an impetuous person, just acts on feeling. But Jesus saw something much more than anyone else saw. He said, No, you're going to be a stone. You're going to be something that we're going to work with. You're going to be something I'm going to build upon. Oh, the Lord always sees much more than we see. He always sees far beyond how far we can see. He saw in Peter what no one else could see: a stone. We're seeking the lost by seeing every person in need of the gospel. We're seeking the lost by preparing ourselves to give a gospel testimony. We're seeking the lost by engaging every relationship with a gospel message. Make note of the fourth thing, please, and turn with me to John 4. Turn to John 4. We're also seeking the lost by traveling every path with gospel intention. Traveling every path with gospel intention. You ever find yourself some days and you say, Oh, I didn't think I'd be in this part of town today. Well, God knows. You being that part of town. I try it. I don't always think about it. But whenever I get turned around, wherever I find myself somewhere, or I didn't think I'd be, or I had to go back or backtrack or take a different way, I always think, why did God send me this direction? Why did God put me here? Look at John chapter 4, verse number 3. The Bible says, He left Judea and departed again into Galilee. Verse 4, and he must needs go through Samaria. Jesus is traveling here. And he comes through Samaria. By the way, Jews didn't go through Samaria because they didn't want anything to do with Samaritans. This was against culture. This was against sensitivity, against everything. The Jews don't have anything to do with the Samaritans. Samaritans don't have anything with the Jews. That was an ethnic thing. You don't come to our part of the country. We don't go to your part of the country. Look at verse 5. Then he cometh to a city of Samaria, which is called Sikar, near to a parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour. The sixth hour is noon. Noon is the hottest part of the day. No one goes out to get water at the hottest part of the day, but Jesus knew someone's coming to get water. Look at verse 7. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. You know why she'd come at that part of the day? Nobody wanted to be around her, and she didn't want to be around anybody else. Jesus is going to call out her sin in a moment. He's going to say, You're living with a man, it's not your husband. And you had five other men you were with before him. That's why nobody wanted to be around her. And look, she didn't want to hear all the hearsay about herself. And she goes out at noon, the hottest part of the day, to draw water, and Jesus saith unto her, verse 7, Give me to drink. That's about the most simple thing, simple conversation, right? I need water. Do you have a way to get the water? Can you give me a drink of water? Look at verse 8. For his disciples were gone away to the city to buy meat. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou being a Jew askest drink of me? Which am a woman of Samaria? She knew exactly who he was, didn't she? You're a Jew, I'm a Samaritan. She says in verse 10, The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. And Jesus said in verse 10, Jesus answered and saith unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked him, asked of him, and he would give it thee living water. What does Jesus do? He takes something as simple as getting a drink of water and he turns it into a gospel conversation. You know what we all have to work at? Turning every conversation into a gospel conversation. I mean, Jesus took the most simple thing of getting water and started talking about living water and how he was the Messiah. And eventually you read to the end of the story, this woman gets saved. And she's got to go back in the city. And she just starts telling everybody, all the people in the city, that knew all the bad things about her, by the way. She goes in and she says, I found the Messiah, and you need to come out, and you need to find him too. You say, Well, if I get saved, there's people they know a lot of things about me. I don't know that they'll believe me, Pastor. You probably hadn't done much worse things than this woman here at the well here in Samaria had done. But she gets saved. And she goes back and she can't help but tell everybody else in town about it. And a revival breaks out because a woman at the well that gave Jesus a cup of water got saved and started seeking others with the gospel message. We're going to seek the lost by traveling every path with gospel intention. Every path God brings us down, every road we walk, every business we find ourselves in, every restaurant, every every place God sends us, this is an opportunity for the gospel. I know many times we pass people quickly. You know, you can just hand them a gospel tract. Recently I was I had to go into the bank for something. I never have to go into the bank. I couldn't tell you, I can't even remember why I was in there. Had to go into the bank.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

And I began talking with the teller. Find out a young man.

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In the little time we talked, said he knew the Lord is a savior. Well, we started talking about the Lord and talking about the Bible, you know, through the glass, you know. I'm like talking through the little thing underneath, you know, so he can hear me. Well, the teller next, she's not helping anybody. She says, Oh, you're talking about the Bible. She comes over, wants to find out about it. We talked for five minutes. I hope they didn't, I don't think they got in trouble. Hopefully not. No, I wouldn't hold anybody up. They wanted to know, what are you preaching on? Oh, you're a pastor, where's your church? Great. Just this truest, right here on 17th Street. So I was in a rush. I had to drop something, I had to make a deposit. I went through the drive-thru line. This was two or three weeks later. Went through, put the, got the machine, sent it up, waiting in the car. The little video comes on, they say, Hi, how can I help you? And he goes, Pastor. He said, Why didn't you come inside? I said, Well, I'll have to come inside next time. I got so convicted, I made, I did the, which I wasn't trying to, you know, not be there. I finished the uh transaction, I went and parked, and I went inside. We talked about the Lord for five minutes. What am I saying?

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Everywhere we go, we're a Christian.

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And by the way, if you're in a place of business and you can't talk about the Lord there, because you know you shouldn't be there anyway, and a Christian shouldn't be talking about Christian things in that place, it's probably not a place you should be, okay? But everywhere we go, we take the Lord with us. Leave them a gospel track. Just say, hey, this will tell you how you can get to heaven when you die. I hope you read these verses. In fact, you can call my pastor's phone numbers on the back of this. You can call them or text them if you have any questions. You can do that. I don't mind, I don't mind that. By the way, people start treating you a lot nicer when you usually when you tell them you're Christian too. They really they stand up straight and they start acting right. Most of them, not all the time. But what are we doing?

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Here's what we're doing: we're just realizing we've been sent and we have the gospel. And look, we can do everything under the sun.

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There are good things, but if we have forgotten the thing of giving people the gospel and seeing souls saved, then we've missed the mark. Can you imagine a fire truck? We hear fire trucks and we hear emergency personnel up and down 10th Street all the time. Can you imagine if we found a fire crew and they pulled up in front of a burning building? And no one got out of the truck, no one rushed in. They were just out in front of the burning building, and they were lining all the hoses up, making sure they were all in line perfectly, and they were shining all the brass and all the metal on the firetruck, and they were washing the tires and making sure the rim shined, and they had all their boots and all their equipment where it was supposed to be, and they were shining all the boots, and we said, What are you doing? They said, Well, we're trying to make sure everything's taken care of here on the fire truck, while the smoke is billowing from the building behind them. If we're not careful, we'll clean tires and shine boots and get fire hoses all in order and forget we're not here for that. We're here because there is a world that is on fire, and the smoke is billowing, and souls hang in the balance, and we've been sent to them. God help us to be awake spiritually, that we have been sent with the gospel message to see souls saved. Jesus Christ came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost. And he's given us an opportunity to get in on what he's doing. Seeking the lost with the gospel. Take that hymnal. Would you turn with me? I want to show you. I want to show you 524. I want to show you these words. 524. Look at this. I want you to look at these words, 524. Look what it says. Seeking the lost, yes, kindly entreating, wanderers on the mountain astray. Come unto me, his message repeating, words of the Master speaking today. Seeking the lost and pointing to Jesus, souls that are weak and hearts that are sore, leading them forth in ways of salvation, showing the path to life evermore. Look at verse 3. Thus I would go on missions of mercy, following Christ from day unto day, cheering the faint and raising the fallen, pointing the lost to Jesus the way. Look at the chorus. Going afar upon the mountain, bringing the wanderer back again into the fold of my Redeemer, Jesus the Lamb for sinners slain. Let me give you one final thing. We're seeking the lost, number five, by overcoming obstacles to the gospel. Turn back with me to the book of Luke, verse number, chapter number 15. Luke 15, Jesus is speaking here. And he gives a parable in Luke 15, verse number 4, and he says this What man of you having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety-and-nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost until he find it? And when he had found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing, and when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety-and-nine just persons which need no repentance, seeking the lost by overcoming obstacles to the gospel. What will keep us from seeking the lost? The possibility of not having an answer, the possibility of being rejected, the possibility of being called a sold-out Christian. Here we find Jesus as the shepherd. He left the 99 and he went out in the wilderness. He went over hill and dale and through the valleys and across rivers to find the one lost sheep. By the way, if you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior today, there was someone who came to you with the gospel. Someone sought you out. We've got to be willing to overcome any obstacle to get the gospel to those who need to hear it. Let's seek the lost. Let's be faithful to do the main thing God has given us to do with our lives in seeking the lost. Thank you for listening to the City Pulpit. For more information about the City Baptist Church of Atlanta, please visit www.mycitybaptist.com.