What’s the value of a sheep in the scheme of things?  In light of everything happening in today’s world, I haven’t even heard one report of someone looking for a lost sheep, and even if there was, I’d still be a whole lot more concerned about terrorism, elections, wildfires, Zika virus and whole lot of other things that make me lose sleep.

But if I was the shepherd, the sheep would be my job responsibility.  If I was the owner, the sheep would be my livelihood.  If I was a wolf, the sheep would be my lunch.  You see, how we view the sheep depends on our relationship to it. 

Jesus told a parable in Matthew 18 about sheep.  “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away!  In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.”

Seems kind of crazy to me that Jesus, the creator of the universe would waste his time over one lost sheep, but that’s the point.  As the creator of the universe, he’s also the creator of the sheep, and therefore, it has deep, profound value to Him.

If something as seemingly insignificant as a lost sheep among a hundred, or a million or a billion, means so much to Jesus that He would leave the rest to rescue the one, shouldn’t we pay attention to that?

The fact is, one lost sheep means EVERYTHING to Jesus.  So shouldn’t a lost sheep mean that much to us?

OK, enough sheep talk.  Where am I going with this? 

Let me shock you. 

• Around the world today, there are more than 2.8 billion people who have never heard the gospel.  That’s right—2.8 billion lost sheep. 
• Ninety percent of the people living in the Islamic world will likely never personally meet a Christian. 
• Of the 150,000 people that die every day, about 70,000 of them enter eternity without even having a chance to hear the gospel.

I could go on, but I hope you get the point.  There are a lot of lost people out there that matter deeply to God.  It breaks His heart.  Jesus said that it was His Father’s will that not even one of them would perish. So why are there so many who haven’t heard the Good News?

Us….  That’s the simple answer.  Not to sound too harsh, but the fact is, being His witnesses to the ends of the earth was the job given to us as His followers.  If we take this command seriously, I want to give you four specific actions you can take to make Him known among the nations.

One sheep….  That’s what matters to Jesus.  That’s what causes angels in heaven to rejoice.  That’s what delights the heart of Father.  The lost--now that’s something worth losing sleep over!

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