Well, good morning, Burnt Hickory. How is everybody this morning? All right, all right, welcome to our online community as well. Man, it has been an awesome day for me, if you have been aware at all. I've had Matthew, my son had some extensive surgery and about 15 hours’ worth, and so he is in ICU at Emory. And so, I got here this morning, went in to pray with the Deacons at 7:45 like we do before preaching. And so, they had there were some tears there already. They already had church as Matthew had had called in from ICU and had kind of able to talk and encourage them and tell you what, that just thrills the heart of his dad also. Of course, they told me they had already had church. They didn't need to hang around for the sermon. So, yeah, just like deacons, right? 

Well, hey, listen, did you get your penny when you came in? If you did pick it up, hey, if you're watching online, go grab a real, shiny penny, if you didn't get one. There's more when you leave. Yeah, it has come to this. I'm now paying you to come listen to me. That is exactly right. Hey, have you heard the story on the guy that made it on the news? His name is Otha Anders. And so as far as we know in recorded history, he has been hunting for lost pennies longer than anyone 45 years. Otha has been watching. He is from Carey's neck of the woods there in Louisiana close to Monroe. And so, after 45 years, so here's his philosophy. He would look for lost pennies and everyone he would find he felt like that was a gift from God and that he would turn it around and give thanks to God. And so, he has intentionally done that. 45 years finally came to a point where he decided to put them all in five-gallon water jugs, and he filled up 15 of those things. He got a buddy of his to come over. They loaded those on a pickup truck, went to the local bank where the branch manager had a cardiac arrest. I don't think that they had a counting machine there, so they had to figure out what to do with them. After all was said and done, they counted over a half million pennies. Not money. I bet Otha would have wished it was money. So anyway, so ended up. He walked away with over $5,000, though from it, not bad. So, he was able to pay for some dental surgery and he was a happy man.

So, what a great illustration. So, what if I told you that every day when you start today that there are going to be some lost pennies there, lost coins that God has placed there just for you? Of course, these for us would represent a lost soul. That he has lined up. And he has you in a unique position. To be able to reach out and to touch those and to make a difference, would you be willing this morning, in the coming week to pray a big, bold prayer and to ask God to help you to go on the hunt every day for those lost coins, for those lost souls to be used by God in those? Well, let's go to him in prayer. Father, we come to you this morning as we look at your word, we just invite your lord. We pray that all distractions will be put aside, that our hearts, our minds would be open so that the seed of the word that is sown would find fertile soil and that your Holy Spirit would be free to work and to do as only you desire. We love you. Pray in Jesus name. Amen. Well, let's turn over to Luke Chapter 15 in whatever kind of scripture you have there, whether it be paper or electronic.

We still love the word of God. Last week, in fact, this week is the last sermon in the parable series. Been awesome. Matt has done a phenomenal job like usual. He actually preached on the back end of Luke, 15, last Sunday. And so, I'm going to preach the front end of it this week. It's known as kind of the lost chapter, the parables of the lost. And so, let's dove in here, verse one now the tax collectors and the sinners were all gathering around here, Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, those are the scribes, they muttered. Can't you hear the muttering? They were there muttering. This man, he welcomes sinners in the eats with them. Can you believe it? Well, Jesus. Knew this was going on. He told them this parable. I suppose one of you had 100 sheep, you lose one of them. Doesn't he leave the 99 in the open country and go after that little sheep until he finds it, and when he finds it, he joyfully he puts it on his shoulders.

He goes home whistling a happy song. He calls his friends and his neighbors together, and he says, Rejoice with me. I have failed my lost sheep, and I tell you that in the same way, there'll be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent. And without pause, he goes right in and he says. Or suppose there's a woman who has ten silver coins. She loses one of them. Doesn't she immediately light a lamp, sweep the house, search carefully until she finds it? And then when she finds it, she calls her friends and her neighbors together and says, Rejoice with me, let's have a party. I've found my lost coin. And in the same way I tell you there is a cosmic celebration that goes on rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. How amazing. 

Hey, have you ever found there's somebody in your household who is always losing something? Now, is that you or is that the other person? Now, who knows where everything is? In your house, Mom. You haven't figured that you guys will ever figure that out. Have you and husbands? I learned this early in marriage. I used to get exasperated with Becky because I would say, Hey Beck, have you seen so-and-so? And she'd say, Well, yeah, have you looked in so-and-so? And it's like. Of course, I did. That’s the first place I looked, you know, and then I'd look everywhere else. And then, lo and behold, I go back there. It was right where she said, You'll ever figure that out, guys. Moms can do the same thing for whatever reason. I don't know because I end up having to help Becky find her keys all the time. I'm the same as Beck, come on. Put them in the same place, in the same place all the time, but I'm not going to tell her that. I just hope. She went in the earlier service. So just keep that between us. OK, guys? 

Anyway, hey, it reminds me. So, I went on this mission trip to this place. It's on the coast of Nicaragua called Corn Island, Little Bitty Place and impoverished, and they had an electricity twelve hours a day from 3:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. You went to bed with light. You woke up without electricity. They had one phone on the whole island. There's this guy who had kind of a fish factory, and he had most resources. There were dirt roads, yet nobody had a car. They walked it. He had a car. He had a driver. We went down there, took a team kind of do an evangelistic crusade, and we're going to be there for the better part two weeks. And so it was, man, it was hot, and we were going to be outside about the whole time I took these coolers, pair of sunglasses, inexpensive ones, Bill Dance polarized fishing sunglasses, man, I don't know if you've ever been there or not, but boy, they're very cheap at Wal-Mart anymore. So, I took them down there with me. Early part of the trip, they went missing and I went into panic mode.

I have these blue eyes, real sensitive squint, and I thought, Man, I'm going to have headaches. All this kind of stuff couldn't find them anywhere. The driver comes to pick us up to take us to one evening's crusade. I look. And he's got Bill Dance sunglasses on. I'm thinking, how many pairs are there? There are no stores, by the way. I couldn't just go buy another pair, OK? He's got my sunglasses on and I'm like. How do I tell him those are my sunglasses and ask for them back? He probably needs them a lot worse than I do. He doesn't have very much. So, I'm like, Hey, man, you know, I don't wear sunglasses just like those in the, yeah, you know, and he's like. And I'm like, Yeah, hey, you know what? I will be here a while. You know, would you be willing to take $20 for those sunglasses? I end up paying him more than what it cost me at Wal-Mart. But I wanted him to have the money he if he wanted to go feed himself or if he wanted to go get him a new pair, he could do that. But I tell you what, sometimes when there's just one of something, there is great value, and you go to extremes to try to find it. Well, here's the message here Jesus. He sees the Pharisees and the scribes.

These are religious leaders of the day. We usually villainize them. We think that they are the worst things because they're always walking behind Jesus, trying to find the bad stuff on him, get him in trouble, get him crucified. Yet they are the protectors of the faith. They are, in fact, the scribes. We can give them credit for helping to keep our Old Testament as accurately preserved as it is today. God used them. So, it's no accident. When Jesus came along, they still had their defense shields, making sure that no one took the faith that God had given them and these scriptures and went outside the lines. The only problem was it had become more of a religion to them, more of a formality and less about a relationship. Jesus says Guys listen. Listen. He says, you know, he basically said I've not come to do away with law. I've come to fulfill the law, so he's showing them a whole different side to it. But he makes three points to them.

The first point is that Jesus is keenly aware of people's lostness. Now I want us to understand this. He is saying, I don't care if there's 100 sheep in one's lost. I don't care. In Jesus' eyes, he was using it for illustrative purposes. But he's basically saying if there are 1,000,000 sheep in one of his lost, I'm going for the lost one. I'm paying attention. I'm not taking them for granted. Jesus came to die for us while we were yet sinners. He came to die for us. He is keenly aware of people's lostness. The second part of the parable is that he wanted them to know that he is willing to go to great lengths to serve to save those who are lost.

He wanted them to understand that because the third point he wanted him to understand is that the religious should be less concerned about their religion and more concerned about seeing the lost found. OK. Very simple, very simple what he was getting, trying to get across to them right now. The importance of lostness in his eyes and his willingness to do anything he could. And that here they were hung up in their religiosity, missing the bigger thing. But there were two things that motivated Jesus when he was on this earth. The first is that his heart was broken, and it still is this broken over those who are lost. In Matthew, 9:36, it says that he was looking out over the people. The crowds and he had compassion on them to the core because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. So, he had a heart that was broken over these and guys, listen, this is not when you look out and you see some people who are sick and all this kind of stuff. It's like going and looking at this crowd of humanity. And you see them scurrying about. You see him pursuing possessions. So much so they're spending more than what they have, just so they can impress other people. They're in debt. Yet they're trying to be prideful. They're trying to pursue power positions.

They want to be the best at whatever they're doing, and they want to make sure that you know, that they are the best at what they're doing. They're pursuing pleasure at whatever cost. And these are the things that they are pursuing, and they're taking pride even in their sinfulness. These are the people that we see when we look at the masses. And yet he did not stand in judgment of them. He didn't. It didn't turn his stomach and say, Oh, the level of sin around here. He did just the opposite. Following Christ is counterintuitive, when you follow Christ, you die to be able to live when you see lost humanity, if we are becoming more Christ like, we should be moved with a compassion, not a judgmental spirit, not a spirit to want to run and isolate ourselves and our family and hide from them and stay in this Christian bubble and hope that Jesus comes back before long before it gets much darker. But he's moved with compassion. The second thing is that he operated out of a clear sense of purpose. Jesus said for the son of man came to seek and to save the lost.

Now here's the thing, guys, is that the word Christian means little Christ. Romans 8:29 says that all the things that happen in our lives, it is to conform us to the image of his son, Jesus Christ. It's the work of sanctification in our lives. After we become believers, it is to make us more like Christ himself. Here is the question. When you look at disreputable people who were lost in their sin and they're proud of it and they're acting like it and they're hard to be around and you despise what they're doing is in total conflict with what you do and have and say, what is your response and what is my response to that? Do you see them as lost? Or do you vilify them, do you make them the enemy when it is Satan, who is the enemy? Satan has blinded them to the truth. We're told in scriptures that they cannot understand spiritual things because they're spiritually appraised, and they do not have the Holy Spirit living in their lives. So how is it that we, as Christians, expect lost people to act as Christians should?

Don't Christians have a hard enough time acting like Christians should? And we have the Holy Spirit living inside us. How can we expect lost people to act like they have the Holy Spirit living inside them? We cannot. They are acting out their very character. This is why Jesus came to Earth. This is why Jesus outlined our purpose. What is your purpose in life? Do you know it? I remember one of the biggest enlightening periods I had was when I was in my early thirties. I was challenged to write my life's purpose statement or mission statement. I found out then that we tend to have one for like work, one for our family, one for our spiritual life. And God says No, no, no, no. Put them together, you have one life, one purpose in life. You don't have a secular side and a sacred side; your life is all sacred. Your purpose should be the same, whether it is at work, whether it be in your extracurriculars, wherever school, wherever you may be.

And by the way, Jesus outlined pretty clearly what our purpose is, and it is to love him. And it is to love others and to make disciples. And guys, when have we taken our eyes off of the very purpose of why we exist? We exist to, on a daily basis, look for those lost coins. That's why he's left us here on Earth. Do you know God's Plan A to reach the loss of this Earth is his church? And there is no Plan B. That's the good and the bad news is we are his Plan A. And the bad news is there is no Plan B, so like we're it. He calls us in fact in Romans 10:14, he says. How then can they call on the one they've not believed in? And how can they believe in the one in whom they've not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And preaching does not mean bring them to church and get them saved. It means you are the one that carries the good news.

Here is a key point I want to make this morning as the darkness of this world increases. And it is and it will. The temptation will only increase for Christians to become more religious like the Pharisees and scribes. However. This is the time when the church needs to become more like Jesus. Church, these last two years have been an incredible opportunity for the church there. Right now, the level of depression anxiety is an all-time high. We took some analytics from Google, from folks in the Atlanta area who were sitting in the evenings when the TV is on Google and on their phone doing searches. The top three searches in the last six months. Prayer, loneliness, and sadness. That's the world we live in, that is our community. That reflects what is going on. Now, what is the answer for that? Well, number one, it is a relationship with God through Christ Jesus. Yet depression and anxiety are also at an all-time high among believers. One of the reasons that is so is because we are not living out of a sense of purpose that we have. You know, you've always heard, well, one way you can always feel better about yourself is give yourself away to somebody else, do something for somebody else.

That's even the secular way to do it. And I know, I know myself. It's like, Yeah, but man, I got so much on my own plate in my own emotions. I don't have the bandwidth for anybody else. Exactly. It is not up to you. It is you making yourself available for the creator of the universe who came and died in our place to live through you. You see, I'll be honest, this week for me has not been much fun with Matthew there. My mom is not doing well. And one of my prayers before God yesterday was God. Thank goodness my flesh is weak because when I get up to bring your word tomorrow, I need your spirit because I am too weak, and I can't bring it. My head wasn't even in the right place for a concern with Matthew and other things, and I know you feel the same way. I know I look at you and I know many things going on as a minister, a pastor here. These last two years exponentially, we're more aware than ever of what's going on in your lives. And there are great. And it's not to downplay that, but God is it wants to use those hurts and those things in your life to turn them and to pour out with him to others. Live on purpose.

One of the things that I have found great joy in here is that right now I find just that the number one thing that people need is someone to care for them. Prayer. Becky started this few years ago. She started helping the Holy Spirit out, we would just be out wherever we were out in the driveway, visiting her neighbors, taking walks and would visit with him in the summer and they'd say something happened in their life. And she'd say, Well, why don't Marty, why don't you just pray for him right now? I'm like. Well, I'm still I mean, I've got just I still got the clothes, I just mowed the grass and I mean, this is not church or anything, and I'm like. I couldn't get mad at her, and I'm like, well, God, how about it? I actually, even though this feels weird, I think this is supposed to be normal for Christians and all of a sudden God's start working in my heart and it's like, Yeah, you are doggone right. When did we get so uncomfortable praying with people? Guys, listen. Look, in the Book of Acts, man, the whole time, praying with each other, praying with each other as believers for the loss, praying with the lost man, their heart.

We can't even pray with our spouse. How can that be? The divorce rate is arguably one out of every two. For spouses that pray together, it's one out of 1052. That's how important it is to pray together. Yet as southern Christians, we are so good. Not only do we throw in bless your heart, but we say, I'll pray for you. If there's anything I can do, let me know. I'm not saying that. That's anything wrong with that. It's just not even in the town that's worthless, let's be honest with you. So much so that sometimes we come away and it's like, Yeah, they probably won't think of that again ever. Like, Really? Are they really going to pray for me? And what would be even more powerful is if they stopped at the end and just said, Can we just take it for the father right now? You know, I have started. I've started looking for opportunities this morning on the way in to church. I had to pick up something at Publix. And so going through, there's this lady standing there and I'm like, Hey, I'm on my way to church.

Have you ever felt guilty? I mean, you're on your way to church. They're these people. They're doing whatever they are. They don't get to go to church and here you are, holy and righteous. And then you say hi to them. So, I said, Hey, let me ask you, I'm headed to church. How can I pray for you this morning? And she said, Wow. She said, Well, hey, I'm Tanisha And I said, Hey, Tanisha, I'm Marty. And she said, Thank you so much. She said, I'm looking at a career change. And she said, I really appreciate your prayers. I said, Man, you bet. You bet. It'd be my honor. And then I went across the street to Wendy’s. I'm telling on myself, and I got a biscuit there, primarily because Chick-fil-A's not open on Sunday. And Martin's line is way too long. So not very many people go to Wendy's for their own reasons, but that's OK. So, I go through the line. The same young lady was there that was there, like last Sunday morning when I went through.

And I said, I said, Now, aren't you the one that when I ask you, I can pray for you told me to remember your grandmother? She said, Yes, sir. She had a mask on this week. Last week, she didn't have a mask on, and I had to make sure she said, Yes, sir, she's in recovery now, and I said she had surgery. You didn't share that with me last week, but I've been praying for. And she said, Yes, sir, and I said, Well, I know how that feels. My son is in recovery, had surgery, said, I'm so glad she's doing well. And you know what? I think she just about lost it right there because number one, we often just treat them like they're nobody and no. two, I actually cared enough to pray and then to follow up with her. It's one of the most powerful things we can do. Guys pray for people and pray with people. Do we care enough about people to do that? Here's what I'm asking you this morning. So here this is where this is, where the penny comes in.

You're probably wondering, OK, this is where the penny comes in. I won't lay a challenge before you this week. This is the Burnt Hickory challenge of the lost coin. Put a stake in it, OK, right now. Here's what I want to ask you to do. Are you willing this week to pray bold, big prayers every morning, asking God to number one, make you aware of people's lost condition? Hey, students, you know what? One of the things and I didn't know this when I was your age, but one of the reasons that some of those folk’s act and treat you like they do and stuff you don't know the Lord. And it's hard for them to act much differently. I'll just be honest with you. But that's why you need each other. Because you need Christian community, that's why we need each other. Hebrew says that's why we come together for the encouraging of each other, as we said the day drawing near. So, are you willing to ask God to make you more aware to break your heart on their behalf? So that you would move outside of your comfort zone to talk with them.

Are you willing to do that? I am going to put up here a QR code. Surely you know how to do that after these months of having to do that at restaurants and it will not give you a menu. Even though last week with Wild Game Banquet, one of my best of friends took a picture of a QR code and asked me what he needed to do with it then. I told him it's too late, a picture of a QR code won't do anything. OK, if that's you, I'm not making fun of you. OK, but you might ask someone else to show you. Or better yet, you need to open up the sermon notes on the app. In the sermon notes, there's this button that says the challenge of the lost coin, and you just press it.

When you do that, then it has a form, put your name and your cell number. Why would you want to do that? Number one, it's because I would love to see you put your yes on the table. And that's what that signified. Number two, the pastors at this church are going to pray over your name every morning this week. And number three, we will send out an encouraging scripture and prayer mid-morning as you began your day as a reminder of God using you that day. So please, I lay that challenge before you are you willing to step outside your comfort zone to do that? I was thinking about it because God loves divine appointments, and they're fun. Let me tell you what, guys, more times than none. The reason our quiet time is dry and even our spiritual walk is dry, is we expect nothing. That's why we don't even pray is because we don't expect it'll change anything. It's like, well God is just going to do what he wants to do anyway, regardless, whether I ask him or not. Come on, guys. And no wonder you're going nowhere as a Christian, let's be honest with us.

But I'm talking to myself, too. You get it. I'm not making fun of you. I'm making fun of us collectively. But here's the deal. So, when I'm bold enough to pray that, let me tell you, here's one of my favorite divine appointments. But keep your eyes open as you go through the day. It is a dog gold as things happen that that divine appointment. one of my favorites, I took these a bunch of friends up to where I'm from, Mccaysville. Some of you have taken the train from Blue Ridge and you get out and you say, OK, ready to go back to Blue Ridge. What do I do here? Well, I took him to Horseshoe Bend, which is a park on the Taccoa River. So, we were cooking out. We put the watermelon in the side of the river there, and then as we're eating, I hear something. And since I'm used to fishing in the Taccoa River, I quickly recognize that they're generating electricity at Blue Ridge Dam and the river has risen and more than likely the watermelon is gone.

And sure enough, it was. So, it's like, well, no watermelon today, guys. So here before long there was a pickup truck pulled up and I thought, Hey, this is the guy, bring us our watermelon. Sure enough, this guy gets out this older guy in his bib overalls. He's holding a watermelon. I can't make this up. And he says, Hey, is this yell’s watermelon? Oh, yeah, yeah, that is our watermelons. I went over and introduced myself to him. His name is Mr. Galloway and I said, Well, Mr. Galloway, there's a lot of Galloway's up there. I said, Mr. Galloway, why don't you stay and eat with us? We wouldn't have it if you hadn't brought it to us. He said, Yeah, I saw it coming down. I thought somebody may have lost it up here.

Yeah. And I said, Hey, Mr. Galloway, I got to be honest with you. I said, You know, I pray, and I ask God for just divine appointments. And I said, This is the weirdest thing I've seen. I don't believe this is just by happenstance. I believe that God wanted me to meet you today. And I said, Can I ask you a question? Most important thing in my life is my relationship with God. Have you ever come into a relationship with him through Jesus? And Mr. Galloway is like. I, no I sure haven't, he said, my wife and my kids, have been talking to me about it. But I haven't done that. And I said, Mr. Galloway, man, I would be honored. And I said I'd be honored to just pray with you right now if you want to make that decision. I said, it's the greatest thing you'll ever do. You come into relationship with him. He'll forgive your sins, make you a brand-new person. The one that your wife and your kids are praying for you to be. And he said, I'd like that.

And so, man, Mr. Galloway bowed his head and prayed with me right then. And I'll be honest, I just went away from there praising God. And you know, I said. Let's go down and let's buy a whole truck load full of watermelons. We'll start a watermelon evangelism. Well, bring them back. We'll pray over them, lay hands on them, dump them in the river. We'll wait on them just to bring them back to us. Praise God. We'll see hundreds, thousands saved with this new watermelon evangelism. Of course, I will say that that's what us Christians do. We pray that God just brings them to us, so we don't have to do anything. We make program out of it too.

It's easier that way. So, listen, are you willing? Are you willing to take this penny, put it in your pocket where you feel it in the course of the day to keep it the top your mind? Place it somewhere where you can see it to keep it the top your mind and live expectantly during the course of the day. There’re only three things that you do with the divine appointment. Number one is you love them. You love the person. Number two, you listen to what's going on in their lives. And people, nobody is willing to. Have you ever noticed; nobody even wants to listen to you? And you have friends. They don't listen to you. They love it when you listen to them. Very few will actually take a concern in you. Christians should. Love them, listen to him, point them to Christ. There are some things I want us to remember because, you know, we get scared, we always, we always think it’s bigger and harder than it really is. It's really very simple. It is so simple, guys. And listen. one of the reasons that. Do you think that the Pharisees and the scribes, did they have a happy countenance? They actually, their religion had become a burden on them.

Jesus was going about, and people were being set free. Yet those who were religious were heavy. Oftentimes that's the heaviness we walk with because we don't allow God to live through us. It's like the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is dead because the fresh waters of the Jordan River pour into it. It's the lowest place on Earth, so there's no outlet for the water to go to. Just sit there, stagnate the sun, causes it to evaporate. The salt content gets larger. Nothing lives in it. It's dead. Many of us as crass as this may sound, we have spiritual constipation. Hmm. You know what that is? You want to go to one more Bible study? Go to one more Bible study. See how much good that does you. Now, I love a Bible study. Don't get me wrong, because I love to teach the Bible. But guys, listen, one more Bible study and another church service and something else and something else. What's it going to do for you? What are you looking for it to do for you? It's not what it can do for you guys. It is what God can do with that through you. He wants to live through us. That's when we will experience incredible joy and purpose in our lives. When he is able to use us in a way that goes beyond ourselves. And guys, remember just there's five points I want you to remember as we close. 

Number one, the search for lost souls is not an individual sport, it's a team sport, it's a team sport. In other words, I remember a few years ago our Sunday school class, our LifeGroup went out. Somebody had surgery. We went out and we had a bunch of guys went out and mowed the grass and edged weed ate and everything. The neighbor across the street comes out. He's got something wrong with his legs, and so he's got, I forget what those are called. He came out and he's watching us. I noticed, and I walked over to him, introduced myself to him. His name is Tony. And Tony said, Oh, I just noticed how you were, y'all were mowing Ed's yard and, you know, wondered how he got you all to do it. And I said I looked at his and I could tell. And I said, Well, Tony, man why don't we? We're about finished. We'll just come over here and knock yours out. Oh, I couldn't. I said was sure you could. And so, I motioned some of the guys, they started coming over. And so, we started talking. I said, Yeah, these are guys, you know, from our church. And I said, We're just doing it because we love Ed. And he just has some needs right now. We're just coming alongside him. And so, God opened up the door and I said, Tony, man, hey, now where are you in your faith journey? Where are you with the Lord? And he's like, Well, I'm, you know, I don't, I don't know.

And so, one thing led to another. I just was able to share with him. And he ended up praying to receive Christ with me. And I said, Tony, let me tell you, man. I said, You have a Bible? You can start reading, love for you to read the book of John. He said, Wait a minute, I'll go get one. He brought it to me still in the box. I opened it. I could see highlighted verses in it. I said, Tony, where did you get this Bible? He said, My sister sent it to me. I said, Let me tell you what, brother, your sister's been praying for you. I said, I may have had the opportunity to pray with you today, but man, let me tell you what, she'd been praying for you a long time. I said, You need to go, and you need to call her as soon as I leave here, and you need to tell her the decision you made. And you know, I have found time and time again, guys, that God uses a number of people.

It isn't. It is not an individual sport. You're not a superstar. It's not even you. He just wants your willingness. So first, it's not an individual sport. Secondly, salvation is a point in time. But evangelism is a process. Hear me on this. I've in fact, I've done the wrong thing in some respects by telling you these harvest stories. Harvesting is the fun part. But listen, you don't just harvest. You know, if you go to Mercier's in Blue Ridge to pick apples, somebody has already done a lot of hard work to bring it to that point. If you go to the strawberry farm, pick strawberries, someone's already done that. In the Christian world. If somebody has had and this is a point of salvation, if somebody had bad experiences with the church or whatever, they may be back here. If you love them, care for them, pour into then and share your story with them and bring them one step closer. Amen. You're as much a part of that as the person who finally prays the prayer with them.

Third, it is not your job to save someone, God involves us in the process, but he does the work of salvation. You remember that. It is not your responsibility, but it is your response to his ability. Bill Bright started campus crusade for Christ. He said it this way. Successful witnessing is taking the initiative to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and what? Leaving the results to God. Leaving the results to God. In fact, number four, it's not about convincing somebody or winning a religious argument. It's about showing somebody how to have a relationship with God. Remember that. 

My favorite way to share the gospel is to contrast religion versus a relationship religion versus a relationship. So many people say, you know, I'm just not a religious person or I don't like religious people to which I answer I don't either. I don't I mean, that's the Pharisees they're talking about, he's talking about those people that that, you know, they drive out on Sunday morning, go to church, they come back, but they don't even take time to talk to them, develop relationship with them. Nothing. And then they see judgmental spirit coming from those religious people and they don't like it. You know, I was sharing with a men's Bible study, the guys on my tennis team. And the guy that owns La Parrilla, Martin. Martin was in there and I shared about a relationship versus a religion, and it connected with Martin, and he prayed and asked Christ into his life. And later that summer, we saw each other at the pool in the subdivision. And Martin, said, Marty, that relationship versus religion has made all the difference, he said. Would you be willing to come share with my staff at the restaurant about that? And I said, Yeah, absolutely I would. And it would be a thrill. 

See, people need a relationship with God. They don't need more religious duties, responsibilities. Every other religion in the world is about trying to be good enough to please God. Ours says there is nothing you can do to please a holy God. That's why he sent Jesus to die in our place. Ours is one of great grace extended to us. And if you look and if you and if you are not the worst sinner that you see that you know, then you're worse off than you thought. Paul said, I am the greatest of sinners. If you and your eyes can look down upon others in judgmental spirit. Then you need to ask God. In fact, number five is remember, if you want God to do something through you, first, ask him to do something in you. Are you willing this morning? Are you willing to ask God to do a fresh work in you? Will you join me this week on the challenge of the lost coin? Would you be willing to do that, or are you just going to go back to the way you usually live and just kind of forget about things? Come back, go to another Bible study, come to another church service. Guys, it's time for the church to step up. It's what Jesus was telling Pharisees and scribes he was trying to help them to understand that this is the time to seek after that which is lost. And he has uniquely positioned us to do that. As we close this morning, I want us to use this time of invitation to ask God to reflect on our hearts. Where are we? Where are we? Does he need to break our hearts? He does every day and it's not a once and done decision. Every day I have to bring to him my heart and ask him to break it for the right reasons. A broken and contrite heart is pleasing to God. 

Let's pray, father, as we seek our time of invitation right now. May you be free to work in us. Lord, there are people here this morning that do not even know you, and they need to come to a saving relationship with you before they can ever start looking for other lost. If that's you this morning, come talk to us this morning. Talk to the person next to you. Get to know the savior. Father, we love you. Thank you for all that is ours in Christ Jesus. It's in your name. We pray. 

Amen.