Seek, Save, Send, Repeat

By Bill Valine

For the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which is lost. – Luke 19:10

“The sea is like a wet desert: There's no food, water, or shelter, and in every direction, the view is simply a glistening sheet of nothingness. Not to mention, dangerous predators abound, lurking just beneath the depths.”

Three teenage boys from the small island of Tokelau found out how dangerous a desert it is.

Shortly after sailing into the ocean on October 5, 2010, Filo Filo, EtueniNasau, and Samu Pelesa lost sight of the shore and became disoriented. Not knowing which way was home, the group became lost, drifting further and further from land. After drifting for 50 days and over 500 miles, they were rescued when they were spotted by a fishing boat halfway between Samoa and Fiji.

LOST

Avery Thompson’s account, modified from the July 2021 Popular Mechanics article “Lost at Sea,” gives a very real sense of how it feels to really be truly lost. This is very different from simple wandering.

When you are really lost, you do start out having a definite destination – certainly, at some point, you intend to go home – but you have no idea of how to get there. We, like those three teenagers, are lost. Each of us has a destination, yet we do not have the first idea of how to reach it.

I have often thought that it would be a revealing exercise to ask people on the street the question, “How do you get to heaven?” Most of those who respond will not actually answer that question. They may tell you who they think will wind up going to heaven – you will go if you are a good person, for example; you will go as long as your good deeds outweigh your bad. They may even tell you that you must give your life to Jesus. But even that response reveals who goes to heaven, not how to get there. How would you answer?

If we are truly honest, we would have to say, “I have no idea.” We do not know where heaven is, and we do not know how to get there. And not any amount of earthly success nor even any length of time lived as a Christian will ever alter the fact that we are truly lost!

SEEK

When someone is lost, a search party is sent out to look for them. We are lost, and God has sent out a search party to find us. Luke 19:10 says, “The Son of Man has come to seek and save that which is lost.” But God’s search party involves more people, as well. Jesus said, “Therefore indeed, I send you prophets, wise men and scribes..” (Matthew 23:34).

The problem is that most people, since they are completely unaware of the destination we all have, do not know they are lost. Therefore, they are not looking for the search party that God has sent out to find them. As it says in Jeremiah 25:4, “And the Lord has sent to you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear.”

SAVE

Since we do not know how to get to heaven, we need a guide. In John 14:6, Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life; no man comes to the Father but by me.” Jesus is our guide, for he has been sent down from heaven (Jn 6:38) and He knows the way. He promises to take us there in John 14:3: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

Jesus has come not only to find us, but to save us as well. After all - the name Jesus means the Lord saves (Matthew 1:21), and this rescue is offered to everyone: “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1Timothy 2:4).

God will not give up. He will search for us for as long as it takes: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

But will we respond, or will we refuse to be found?

When you know that you are lost, and you become aware that a search party is near, what do you do? Do you hide from the searchers? No, you begin to shout and try to attract their attention. Being that we are spiritually lost, the same should be the case for each of us. We must call out to the Lord! “And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21).

What does it mean to call upon the name of the Lord? Peter answers that question in Acts 2:36-39: “‘Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.’ Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’ Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.’”

To repent is to turn around – to acknowledge that you are guilty before God, to ask for His forgiveness, and to decide to obey Him. To repent is to believe in Jesus - to believe what He has said and to set our hearts to act accordingly.

John 3:16-17 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.” Romans 10:13 tells us that this salvation is promised to everyone who calls out to be rescued.

SEND

“How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?” (Romans 10:14-15).

When we are saved, we automatically become part of God’s search party, as we read in John 20:21: “So Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace to you! As the Father has sent me, I also send you.’”

REPEAT

We have a God-given obligation to seek out the lost and tell them how Jesus found us and saved us. This seeking, saving, and sending is to be repeated in an unending cycle. Jesus has charged us: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mt 28:18–19).

Paul tells Timothy: “And the things you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2).

We must always keep in mind that we are lost and that God has sought us; that He has pursued us and saved us, and that we now have the privilege of being used by Him to see others saved as well. And He has given everyone who is part of His search party this tremendous promise: “Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever” (Daniel 12:3).