"God’s Agent"

How important is one soul? How far do you go before you shake the dust from your feet and move on? What is your personal role in helping a fallen Christian to come home again? Let us become agents of God's work in restoration.

God’s Agent

(James 5:19-20)

Introduction:

A.   There are some verses in the Bible that are really tough.  I mean the way they are written you can feel and anger of God as people who claimed to be Christians turn away from God and turn back to sin and the ways of the world.  Just listen to a few:

1.  1 Tim. 4:1-3

2.  2 Pet. 2:20-22

3.  Heb. 10:26-31

B.  There is a word that was used when I was a child to talk about these type of people: apostate.  It is not a word that used very much today.  It is found in scripture only twice, once where Paul is accused of apostasy from the Jewish traditions and once by Paul to the Thessalonians when he talks about the man of lawlessness.  It means the “state of fallen” or to “forsake” your spiritual teaching.

C.  A Christians can turn away from the very truth they once held and can die in darkness instead of walking in the light.  Without the grace of Jesus covering our sinfulness, we will stand before him condemned to hell.  I don’t know if that bothers you, but it should.  If you know anyone who has walked away from the truth of God and returned to the cares of the world, then listen.  If you heart is hurting because you think there is no hope and you have hurt others too much to be forgiven, then listen.  This lesson is for you.

I.  The Problem

A.  Let me start with the first few words of verse 19.  “Brethren, if one of YOU should wander from the truth.”  Let’s make this personal.  There isn’t a person here who has not struggled with some type of sin.  I know that we are people who strive to do that which is right, but the truth remains, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  The truth remains, that each person here, when fighting against the schemes of the devil sometimes looses.  Paul gave a warning to the Corinthians, “if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!”  James tells us that that sometimes we struggle with inaction, weak faith, favoritism, our tongue and humility.  This ending could be you or me.

B.  Just before Paul wrote those words, he wrote these at the end of chapter 9, “I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” (verse 27)  Brethren, sin may be universal, but falling down and staying down doesn’t have to be.  James also taught that we need to persevere in time of trials.

C.  A congregation I know has struggled and lost 100 members.  The leadership has made changes and some of the people “voted” about those changes with their feet and left.  I don’t think they left God, but they left that congregation.  When I talked with a member of that church who is not in their leadership but left the congregation I asked him why.  His reasoning, “I didn’t disagree with the leadership, I left because the leadership didn’t care about the sheep that were leaving.  They didn’t know when to hurt for them.”

D.  Can a Christian wander from the truth?  Jesus told a parable about 100 sheep, and one of them wandered away.  Remember, this was a sheep, it belonged to the fold, it was not a stranger, but a part of the fold.  Do you know what the shepherd in that parable did?  He went after the one.  The conclusion of that parable Jesus said, “I tell you that in same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over the one sinner who repents than over nine-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”  Heaven rejoiced when that sheep was brought home, but don’t think for a minute that sheep came home on his own.

II.  The Solution

A.  The ending of verse 19 of our text says, “and some one should bring him back.”  There is a problem.  Too many Christians have wandered from the truth.  But there is also a solution.  You can go after them.  I have job to preach the truth to you.  The elders have a job to shepherd the flock and to go after the wandering sheep, but they are not alone in that love battle.

B.  When Peter met Jesus on the shore after a fish breakfast, Jesus asked him three times, “Do you love me?”  Each time Peter said he did.  Each time Jesus told him to “feed or tend my sheep.”  Sometimes the best person to go after a sinner, is the sinner that someone else got.  Jesus sent a forgiven sinner named Peter to go after other sinners that needed forgiveness.

C.  You may have walked down some dark roads in life yourself.  You may have hurt God deeply by your sins, but you have also experienced grace, forgiveness and love.  You have tasted the goodness of God and are feasting at his banquet table.  But there is room for more to come to the table.  Someone has to go out into the highways and byways and compel them to come.  That person can be you.  “I’m not perfect!”  “I am not like the elders or you.”  I don’t speak for them, but I would challenge you to take up the mantel and go after the brother or sister you love that has gotten lost along the journey.  It is there own sin that took them away.  James taught about how “each one is tempted when, by his own evil desires he is dragged away and enticed.”  (James 1:14)  I know this brother or sister hurt you, maybe deeply.  They said or did some things that caused the wounds in you to feel like they could never be healed, but God healed them.  I am not letting the sinner off the hook.  I am saying, go after them.

D.  You want to know why?  “Remember this, whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.”  That’s way.  Because that brother or sister could die in their sins.  Because those multitude of sins can be covered over by the grace of God.  Because the nails that were driven into the hands and feet of Jesus were driven there because of those sins, and the empty tomb’s power is victory over them.  That’s why.

Conclusion:

A.  I would like to close by telling you a story that Max Lucado wrote in his book “No Wonder They Call Him Savior”

“Longing to leave her poor Brazilian neighborhood, Christina wanted to see the world. Discontent with a home having only a pallet on the floor, a washbasin, and a wood-burning stove, she dreamed of a better life in the city. One morning she slipped away, breaking her mother’s heart. Knowing what life on the streets would be like for her young, attractive daughter, Maria hurriedly packed to go find her. On her way to the bus stop she entered a drugstore to get one last thing. Pictures. She sat in the photograph booth, closed the curtain, and spent all she could on pictures of herself. With her purse full of small black-and-white photos, she boarded the next bus to Rio de Janeiro.

“Maria knew Christina had no way of earning money. She also knew that her daughter was too stubborn to give up. When pride meets hunger, a human will do things that were before unthinkable. Knowing this, Maria began her search. Bars, hotels, nightclubs, any place with the reputation for street walkers or prostitutes. She went to them all. And at each place she left her picture – taped on a bathroom mirror, tacked to a hotel bulletin board, fastened to a corner phone booth. And on the back of each photo she wrote a note.

“It wasn’t too long before both the money and the pictures ran out, and Maria had to go home. The weary mother wept as the bus began its long journey back to her small village. It was a few weeks later that young Christina descended the hotel stairs. Her young face was tired. Her brown eyes no longer danced with youth, but spoke of pain and fear. Her laughter was broken. Her dream had become a nightmare. A thousand times over she had longed to trade these countless beds for her secure pallet. Yet the little village was, in many ways, too far away. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, her eyes noticed a familiar face. She looked again, and there on the lobby mirror was a small picture of her mother. Christina’s eyes burned and her throat tightened as she walked across the room and removed the small photo. Written on the back was this compelling invitation. “Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn’t matter. Please come home.” She did.”

Max Lucado, No Wonder They Call Him the Savior, pp. 158-159

B.  No matter what you have done, no matter what you have become, it doesn’t matter.  Come home.  Won’t you come as we stand and sing?