In this sixth and final message in the series “Lost and Found,” Rev. McMahon addresses the fact that one of the main attributes of heaven is joy, and that a great source of that joy is found in the salvation of sinners, of lost people coming into the Kingdom of God through repentance and following Jesus.
Jesus makes it very clear to us through the parables in Luke 15 and also through the rest of His teachings, life, death and resurrection, that the thing that gives God the greatest joy is the repentance and return of sinners.
When you love someone, you desire to please them. Therefore, if we want to please God, it would follow that we would take what He has revealed to us about Himself very seriously, and be doing our best to first of all make sure of our own salvation, and then do our best to bring as many others into the Kingdom as possible.
If this is so, why do you suppose this is not the church’s main priority any more? Why is it that instead, in many church-attending homes in the United States that the words “salvation,” “lost,” “sin,” and “repentance” are not used at all? That the children in those homes do not know these basic words of the Christian vernacular? Could it be that we have slipped into the same trap that the Pharisees and Scribes had fallen into, and become religious people who are actually keeping people out of the Kingdom instead of inviting them in?
Rev. McMahon thinks so, and shares in this message some of the things we need to do to turn things around.
