What I would say is Jesus came to save lost sinners like you and me, and if Jesus Christ has a burning desire to seek and save the lost, and then you should, too, if Christ is living within you. If you don’t have a concern for the lost, then I am concerned about your salvation because the Holy Spirit wants the lost to come to Christ. ~ Kirk Cameron

My humble prayer is that all men everywhere may understand more fully the significance of the atonement of the Savior of all mankind, who has given us the plan of salvation which will lead us into eternal life, where God and Christ dwell.~ Harold B. Lee

WORTH SAVING 3

Luke 23:34

³⁴ Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Luke 19:10

¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Forgiven

Forward Thinkers, Jesus asked God to forgive the same people who were wrongfully accusing him of a crime that he did not commit. Can you imagine helping people, feeding people, healing people; they eventually betray you and your response is to immediately forgive them? Forward Thinkers, Jesus is modeling Christianity right before our very eyes and he expects us to follow His lead.

We must also remember the object of forgiveness is “us”. All of us have had to come to Jesus and ask to be forgiven for something; the great news is Jesus is waiting on us to simply ask.

Forgiveness (My personal definition):

God saw the direction I was headed in and He sent His Son Jesus to save me from me.  Forward Thinkers, Jesus died and shed His blood so all my junk could be canceled.

Forgiveness is Rated “R” (Really needed)

Forward Thinkers, I’ve heard someone say that a member of the church did not act like a Christian and I paused and reminded them that Jesus did not come for us to become actors. He came because He desired to take people living under their full potential and give them new life because He considered us worth saving throughout it all.

Biblical Background

Forward Thinkers, for all of you who have forgotten, it was grace and mercy that saved you and for all my self-righteous saints who take pleasure in being a part of the finger pointing ministry, let me remind you of the biblical background.

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God

Proverbs 24:16 though a righteous man falls 7 times, he rises again

Romans 5:8 God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us

Our Background

Forward Thinkers, a few years ago R&B singer R Kelly had an ongoing series of songs and videos entitled Trapped in the Closet. The underlying theme of the songs was, he was trying to hide his secrets in the closet, hoping to never be discovered.

We all have a past. As matter of fact, I’m willing to bet we have all done things in our past that we pray the closet door will forever remain locked and closed shut.

Forward Thinkers, in the midst of it all, we’re still standing because we serve a God that FORGIVES and counts us worth saving!

***NEWS FLASH***

All Our Secrets Are Really Not a Secret- three sources are aware of everything you have ever done in your entire life.

1) You 2) God 3) Satan

Forward Thinkers, God desires for us to come to Him so that He can forgive us and set us free. Forward Thinkers, remember Jesus told the woman go and “sin” no more. Jesus knew the woman would not be perfect but, He commanded her not to get caught up in that sin again after He had set her free; Jesus desires to free us, not condemn us.

Forward Thinkers, Satan desires to remind us of everything we’ve ever done wrong or even thought about doing wrong as often as possible to keep us in bondage, shame, and guilt. Satan wants to create what appears to be a curse in our lives and convince us that God is punishing us because we messed up.

Forward Thinkers, Jesus throws our junk into the sea of forgetfulness while Satan tries to drag all our junk back to shores of guiltiness.

Case Study Peter (Simon)

Forward Thinkers, Jesus handpicked his first twelve personal disciples and among them was Simon, the “cussing” fisherman. After Jesus called Simon to leave the fishing business and follow Him, Simon replies to Jesus, “I’m a sinful man.”

Luke 5:8

⁸ When Simon Peter saw this; he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”

Forward Thinkers, Peter starting following Jesus but Simon (our old self) wants to keep following Peter (our new self) and Satan desires to reclaim Simon before he fully embraces being Peter. Thank God the Holy Spirit jumps in and rescues us from the grips of Satan.

Peter will end up denying Jesus three times just as Jesus said he would and that should be a warning to all of us not to become overconfident in our own self-righteousness.  Forward Thinkers, without “grace and mercy” we are all just one bad decision away from falling. Peter goes back to his old life and it appears Jesus is dead but thank God that’s not how the story will end.

Mark 16:7

⁷ But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”

Forward Thinkers, Jesus forgives Peter and asks him once again to follow Him (remember the stories of lost sheep, coin, and son) which remind us of the fact that Jesus came to seek and save the lost.

Peter will spend the rest of his life being greatly used in the Kingdom of God because God never gave up on him and God never stopped declaring Peter was “worth saving”.

Jesus saw in the beginning that Peter was worth saving and Jesus is declaring today you are also worth saving.

Pastor E. A. Deckard is the Senior Pastor/Founder of the Green House International Church now located, in both Houston, Texas, and the Woodlands, Texas. To contact Pastor Deckard for speaking engagements contact him at pr.ghic@gmail.com, follow him on Facebook, Instagram and Periscope @ Pastor E A Deckard or the church website www.ghic.net