Ministries:
Adult | Teens | Children

Pastor's Pen's:
2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001

Sermon Series:
Following Jesus
Earthly Cross
His Name Is
Apostles Creed
Dealing with Feelings
Jonah
Get Real
Promised Land Living

Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

Email:
Pastor Scott Carson

Secretary Patti Hall

PASTOR'S PENS 2006

Grace Church of Burlington October 29, 2006   How does it feel To be on your own With no direction home Like a complete unknown Like a rolling stone? Bob Dylan             Charity bought a key chain a few years ago that said, “Keys that I haven’t lost yet” (and we haven’t lost it yet). All of us have lost something at some point in our lives. We’ve misplaced keys, forgotten our watches and wallets. We may even have lost a pet dog or cat (when I was growing up my family was famous for losing hamsters). What did we do when we noticed that these things were missing? Did we search for them? Often it depends on the need or the urgency at the time. If it’s something we need, we start searching right away.             What about people that are lost? What do we do when a person turns up missing? What if our son, daughter, husband or wife mysteriously disappeared like the teacher that recently went missing in Waterford? Would we search for them? Of course we would. Our family is near and dear to our hearts and minds. They’re not something that can be replaced. They’re critical parts of our lives. We would spend as much time and money as necessary to find our loved ones and return them to their homes.             All of us have seen posters in Wal-Mart stores, Post Offices and on the windows of restaurants explaining that a child and loved one is lost and needs to be found. We’ve made it a part of our culture by bringing the news of missing persons to the front of our television programs. We’ve determined that searching for people is so important, that we’ve forced our government agencies to set up police forces, fire departments and even special search and rescue teams to find, protect and save lives. We even have a system known as the Amber Alert to assist with finding kids. People are important to us and we dedicate our money, time and talents to search for those who are lost.             Not that long ago a plane, flying during a storm, crashed in the mountains of Montana with five people aboard. When the plane crashed, it started a fire in the tree line near where it rested. Due to the location of the crash, the fire, and the fact that the plane landed upside-down, the local Sheriff called off a search and declared all five dead. However, the following day two survivors were found. They had walked the 2 ½ miles from the crash site to civilization. A third person who also survived the crash, had died the previous night. Had he been found fast enough, perhaps he also would have survived.                         When someone is lost, there is no time to hesitate. We must respond immediately to ensure that that person can be saved. And if that’s true in the physical realm, how much more so in the spiritual realm. Here we are not just talking about life and death but spiritual life and eternal death. We do not know when death will come to our lost friends and family members. Yet how often do we fail to talk to those around us and explain the love of Christ to those we deal with, sometimes every day? How many times do we fail to search for those who we believe are lost? Do we know everyone around us has been found and saved? Often, we too call off the search before the lost have even been looked for.             The first two letters of the Gospel are “GO.” Most of the time in the contemporary church we wait for lost people to come to us. And it’s wonderful when they happen to wander in our doors. But that’s not God’s plan. Sadly, most lost people visit a Bible-believing church because of a Yellow Pages ad, rather than at the invite of a concerned Christian friend.             If we are not actively seeking the lost we have failed our mission and why God has placed us here both individually and corporately. Each of us must be involved in God’s search and rescue operation.             On November 12th, with our Harvest Celebration, we’ve put together an easy opportunity for each of us to reach out to our lost acquaintances. This is not a Grace potluck. It’s an evangelistic event and our prayer is that every person in the Grace Church family will utilize this opportunity. I mean, what could be easier than to ask a friend to come to a FREE meal. Many singles or those who are new to the area would love to have an opportunity to have a home cooked Thanksgiving Dinner. So please be praying and inviting!! We would love to have a standing room only crowd. We’ll have a great meal, a short program and a brief gospel presentation. It will be a great night. While we all need to pitch in with the food preparation, the most critical part is inviting our lost friends. So please invite, invite, invite and pray, pray, pray!