EVERYONE
Jenna Worsham
Today’s Scripture: “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13, NLT
Theme: All people will be saved when they call on Jesus.
EVERYBODY ALWAYS
That’s not my title: Bob Goff wrote a book entitled Everybody Always. The book describes this simple concept regarding whom we should love. The subtitle includes “difficult people.” Those are the ones hardest for me to love. Jesus doesn’t struggle to love difficult people or different people. For Jesus, it is simple: He loves, saves, cares for, concerns Himself with, and prioritizes even the least “lovable.”
Who is difficult to love? Someone different can be hard to love. Hard to love people live in “bad” neighborhoods, in a shelter, in Hollywood mansions, or in the White House. Hard to love people need assisted living, are in psychiatric wards, are homeless, and in prison. Hard to love people live in my home, work at my office, and attend my school. Hard to love people won’t pay their bills, or they steal, cheat, and deceive. It’s difficult for me to love everybody, always.
OFFENSIVE SINNERS
We don’t do a good job of including and respecting everyone equally, but we like to pretend we do. Let’s set aside class, race, and cultural biases... and talk about sin bias. Sinners are difficult to love, especially while they are sinning! As followers of Jesus, do we see “sinners” the same way we see ourselves? That seems like a silly question. Of course, we are all sinners. Yet do we believe we are all the same kind of sinner?
What kind of sinner offends you? What kind of sin is difficult to bear? God does not wonder if a person of any gender can be saved, nor does He exclude anyone because of a struggle with lust of any kind. I am full of depravity that offends God (although it may not offend others who struggle in the same areas), yet He saves me. Even when I don’t control bad behavior, He saves. He saves me even when I make the same mistake again. He saves me even when I don’t know how to change, when I don’t want to change, or when I don’t recognize sin in my life.
God, in His mercy, chooses to redeem everybody, if we will have Him. The only people disqualified from God’s mercy disqualify themselves by rejecting God permanently.
LOST PEOPLE
“The Son of Man came to find lost people and save them” (Luke 19:10, ERV). Lost is a word that I would use to describe everybody without Jesus. In life, everyone occasionally feels lost, or is lost, or both. “Lost” is universal. Is there a person that is so different, because of mental capacity, upbringing, culture, religion, or nationality that excludes them from being “lost”? Even someone we think of as the worst person imaginable could be described as lost.
The person Jesus was talking about in this passage was Zaccheus, a despised tax collector who had cheated many people. To me, that kind of white-collar crime isn’t as offensive as violent crime. The mass murderer is lost. The suicide bomber is a lost soul. The person who opened up with gunfire on a school is lost. The person who hurts children, because of their predatory sexual appetites, is lost. Who came to find lost people? Not me. I’d call some people a lost cause. But Jesus came to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10b, NIV). This is scandalous grace. It hurts my stomach to think of the people who might yet be saved, the people I might choose to exclude. Because of that prejudice, I too, am lost.
Make It Personal: What kind of person seems beyond salvation to you? Can you bring yourself to pray for the person who you really don’t want to see saved? Let’s try. What friend of yours, maybe a “good person,” might also be lost and living without Jesus? Can you overcome your pride and share with them this scandalous grace? It’s for everyone. Not just us. Not just those we are comfortable sharing with.
Pray: Dear God, I don’t have the urgency You do to reach the lost. Help me. Show me my friends and neighbors who need to know You. Help me to share the light of Jesus and the gift of salvation. I also don’t have it in my heart to pray for some people. I know You love all of us, even though we are messed up, depraved, and broken. Lord, I pray for the most difficult people I know. I pray for the people I don’t know, but who seem detestable to me. I pray for those who literally smell bad, who don’t seem to care, or who use terrible language. I pray for the person who has hurt me most and isn’t sorry. This isn’t easy, God. Your power is sufficient to accomplish this. I trust You for wisdom and justice. Give me a heart of flesh for this heart of stone. Quiet my concerns and help me to give over my controlling spirit to Your omnipotent one. You alone are good. You alone are worthy. Amen.
Read: Luke 2:10-11, 19:1-10; Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21; Romans 10:12-13
Weekly Memory Verse: “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” Philippians 2:1-2, ESV