Isaiah 63:16-17 For you are our Father,
though Abraham does not know us,
and Israel does not acknowledge us;
you, O LORD, are our Father,
our Redeemer from of old is your name.
O LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways
and harden our heart, so that we fear you not?
Return for the sake of your servants,
the tribes of your heritage.
Matthew 12: He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep!
- Are you a lost sheep of the Lord?
- Stuck in the mud, are you… and think no one cares?
- Been a while since you have found your self in fellowship and worship with other believers?
God our Father welcomes the ‘prodigal son.” (Do you recall, beloved lost sheep?)
Jesus our Lord and Redeemer leaves the ninety-nine of the fold to rescue the lost one. (…That angels might rejoice. Do you recall?)
James 4 (ESV)
Warning Against Worldliness
4 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions[a] are at war within you?[b]
2 You desire and do not have, so you murder.
You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.
You do not have, because you do not ask.
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
4 You adulterous people![c] Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace.
Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Therefor be humble before the Cross. Bow down an worship your Redeemer.
Be NOT like a proud goat on his own hill,
But like a humble sheep,
Faithful to the call of the Shepherd.
