One is Too Many

Three back to back parables in Luke 15, a whole chapter dedicated to describing how God pursues the lost and doesn't want a single person outside of Him.

I recently was listening to another one of Dan Mohler's sermons and he had come to a piece of scripture that said many will fall away from the faith in the end. As a new Christian when he read this, he realized that out of a crowd of people that he was preaching to, many will fall away and he became overwhelmed with that thought. He then asked God, what's the point if many will fall away or not come to you and God replied, one is too many.

When I heard that story I crumbled. I cried as I realized God truly thinks one lost soul is one too many. Human nature just gives up on people that don't come to Christ yet God pursues continually trying to rattle the cages of those in personal prisons built with guilt, condemnation, self imposed pain and much more. He wants the captives to be set free and to come to know Him where glorious joy and peace abound. 

In Luke 15 the three parables are: the lost sheep, where the shepherd goes out to find the one lost; then there's the woman with the lost coin, then there's the prodigal son.

Each story is telling the reader the same thing, that God will rejoice and extensively seek out those that are lost and He will rejoice when they are found.

They are stories of love and triumph. Stories of redemption. Just look at one of the most famous parables in the Bible, the prodigal son. You have to put the story in context with the times it was written about. Sons were a treasure to a father. They were the sole heirs to the family wealth and name. Family in Jewish culture is very important and sons were treated as princes to the fathers legacy. In the story, the first peculiar thing we should notice is that the father let the son take his inheritance and leave without argument. That in itself is an act of love. The father never for one moment thought about himself in this case. He never said you'll bring shame to my house or you will make me look like a bad father if you leave. Instead, not thinking of himself, he let the young son go not knowing if he'd see him again or not. 

I myself had to do this very thing for my son. He wanted to move away and pursue a young girl that we knew wasn't right for him but I also knew if we told him no or gave him an ultimatum, he would of never came home when things eventually went wrong. Same as the prodigal son. The door was open the whole time for him to return to the father. As soon as he ran out of money and into hard times he could have came back. Yet pride often stands in our way of returning. Assumptions of how we will be treated when we come back is also a factor.

One is too many, must be a battle cry for our hearts to submit to Him even more. If one soul is lost and that is too many for Him to bear then we ought to have the similar response. That doesn't mean get convicted and go out street preaching tomorrow, it means let God use you in a mighty way. We've all by now heard the term logistics. It's how Amazon can get a seller of goods coordinated with a buyer then overseeing the delivery of that product safely to the buyers door. It takes a massive amount of people to do it, from IT people, to computer programmers, to drivers, warehouse workers, deliverers to much much more. Yet it all flows together in harmony to produce one thing, the sale of goods. God in a way coordinates the world in a similar fashion. A seed, which is a word, is spoken by you in a casual conversation. Yet that word landed on someone's ear and at first it did nothing but coupled with a few sprinkles of water by the Holy Spirit through other interactions and the seed begins to grow. We can only play a small part of the grand puzzle called the kingdom of God. We throw out seeds in daily interactions, acts of random kindness, words of love, acts of love and in those small seeds, the potential for them to grow and flourish is there. We through the seeds out but someone else comes and waters. It's not a coincidence that someone gets multiple signs. 

A non-believer runs into the grocery store for one item and when he goes to the checkout, the line is huge. You have a large buggy full and you let him in front of you, he says thanks and you say its no problem at all. It looked like you were in a hurry so I thought I'd bless you today. Again He says thanks and goes on. You never see him again but the seed is planted. Holy Spirit starts to work on him as he drives home. The next day someone else drops another seed or the first seed is watered, so on and so forth until he finds himself in the arms of the Lord. God uses each and every one of us who let Him work through us to soften hearts all around the globe. 

Be careful to not act on your own. I also had to learn this the hard way. If you go out and seek people to heel or to talk to or to do anything without God doing it through you, then it wasn't Him and it won't work. Often times those that do are doing it for the wrong reasons. Have faith in Him to work through you and walk where He has you walk. Say what He has you to say. It doesn't take anything but faith in Him to have Him work through you. If He can make a donkey talk then I know He can use someone that is fully submitted.

Can we say that our hearts are also convicted that one is too many? I know mine is now.

To God be the Glory!