How to Serve VIPs (Part 1)
Luke 19:10
At our church we call the lost, who doesn’t have a relationship with God, who doesn’t go to church anymore, who has not heard about Jesus Christ, who heard but hasn’t accepted Jesus, who goes to church but doesn’t have genuine relationship with God, VIPs. But in the Bible, they are called the lost. VIPs is not a term in the Bible.
Luke 19:10: why the Bible says they are the lost, what did they lose in their life? Why do we call them the lost?
When we have something in your possession and we don’t have it anymore, we call it lost. When something or someone is attached to us or when we have a connection with a person and we don’t have the connection anymore, then we say we lost this person, also this person lost me. If it has materialistic meaning then we lose this material, but if this material has life then when we lose something, those things lose us as well.
In the Bible, the ones who are called the lost, lose God because they lose their relationship/connection with God. Also the Bible mentions that God is light, God is love, God is truth, God is peace, and salvation. When the lost lose their connection with God, they lose life, light, love, true, and salvation.
What does it mean that Jesus came and saved us? It is not to merely accept that Jesus died and paid for our sins and we will go to heaven. Jesus came to this world to find the lost, meaning he came to find something we have lost and brought the light, the love, the peace, the salvation to their life. Do we have this connection with God? Do we have light, truth, salvation from God? If not then how are we so sure that we are saved?
The meaning of Salvation is the connection we have with God or we are reconnected to God and our lost relationship is restored. People might say they don’t lose anything and they have light, peace, truth, but the Bible says no, what we have is not the original, it is just imitation. They don’t have a genuine relationship with God, so they are anxious and worried about their life and everything.
The purpose of Jesus came to this world is to save the lost/us, if there are other ways to save people then Jesus died for us for nothing and he came for nothing. If we can save ourselves, if we can save others then Jesus didn’t need to come. It is obvious that we can’t do it without God. In the NT, there are 92 passages in the NT that mention the word ‘save’, in most cases the word save is used in passive form, the Bible didn’t say we go and save the lost, but we are the one who needs to be saved.
We call ourselves creator of many things in this world, but we are God’s creature, we need to be saved, we can’t save ourselves or others. We can only do this through God. To serve VIPs better, we need to acknowledge that we have no power to save anyone, only God can do it. If we understand this, we don’t have to be stressed. God asks us to do what we can, not what we can’t. So, we need to acknowledge what God can do and what we cannot do. Next week we will talk about what we can do.
Reflection Questions:
What is your take away from the message?
Are you connected to God?
