The Value of 1 Part 1

Luke 15:1-7
1 Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach.
2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people–even eating with them!
3 So Jesus told them this story:
4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it?
5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders.
6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’
7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!

In this parable Jesus describes lost

as lost sheep. In each parable he

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the idea that

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soul,

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life, literally

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person matters to God and if they matter to God they should matter to us.

Lost sheep aren’t

sheep, they aren’t

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sheep, they are

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sheep. They have

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off the path and have gotten turned

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.

Matthew 9:35-36
35 Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness.
36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Matthew 9:37-38
37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;
38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Our world is filled with people who are

and

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, like sheep without a

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. Jesus has

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for lost sheep and he commands us to

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.

We

the lost through prayer; prayer is our

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of

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that brings people out of

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into God’s glorious

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.

2 Corinthians 4:3-4
3 If the Good News we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing.
4 Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.

Sheep are

animals, they are easily confused and helpless against the

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. When we

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in prayer, prayer removes the

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of the enemy; brings the

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, conviction and

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of God into their lives.

1 Peter 5:8
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

2 Timothy 2:25-26
25 Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people’s hearts, and they will learn the truth.
26 Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil’s trap. For they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants.