10/9/22 - People Matter to God - Luke 15:1-7 - Pastor Jason Fritz

Last week I shared about Illuminate’s humble beginnings, “Only God” moments, and where He is leading us into the future. We use three words to describe this. 

Bigger, Smaller, Deeper

Bigger refers to what Jesus said in Matthew 16:18, "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."  In John chapter 12, Jesus gives us the method for growing His church.

"And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” - John 12:32 

We lift up Jesus at Illuminate - therefore, we expect the church to grow and by God’s grace, He is doing just that.

As we grow larger in number, we want to grow smaller in community by connecting people to life-changing groups. This is the place where you can know others and be known. As things get bigger, it's easier to remain anonymous. We don’t want that for you, so we encourage everyone to take the leap of faith and join a smaller gathering. The ultimate goal was given to us by Jesus. We are to become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ, that is - a disciple. This is what it means to go "deeper."

Now, it should be clearly stated that the reason for all of this is because people matter to God. We know this because Jesus came to the earth and died for humanity. Jesus paid a high price, which means people have the utmost value. If anyone claims to have the heartbeat of Jesus, then he or she must understand Jesus' purpose for coming to the earth. He lays it out for everyone to make it crystal clear. 

"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." - Luke 19:10

The lost refers to those who don’t yet have a relationship with God. To be spiritually lost means not being a part of the family of God. A spiritually lost person has no personal relationship with God, no forgiveness of sins, and no grounding in spiritual truth. There is an innate spiritual longing in every human, but those who live apart from God are going to empty wells in order to meet this thirst. It’s like they are wandering the desert looking for water that will satisfy, but in the end, they are aimless. Jesus tells a series of parables about lost and found items to illustrate this point. This is the heart behind why we do what we do at Illuminate. People are important to God!