Looking for the Lost

As believers, the fact that God is a Good Shepherd brings great security and peace to our hearts. It’s something that we cling to in times of distress, heartache, and trouble. What a gift it is to be the sheep of His fold! 

In Isaiah 53:6 we are reminded of how we—those sheep who “have gone astray”—are brought into His fold, “the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” It wasn’t our church attendance, our “goodness,” our acts of service that made us His sheep. It was the death, burial, and resurrection of “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

Jesus carries that thought on in John 10:14-15 when He says, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.” But Jesus also goes on in verse 16 to say, “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” 

While we relish in the fact that we are in His fold and He is our Good Shepherd (as we should!), He sees those outside the fold, and He says He must bring them in. In fact, this is a priority for Him, as He tells us in Luke 15:1-7, 

“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’

So he told them this parable: ‘What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’  Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.’”

Let’s look around us. We all have “sheep of another fold” nearby. They are in our oikos (those close to us but far from God…people with whom we live, work, or “play”. They are in the restaurants and businesses we frequent. 

And then there are those people groups far away. People groups who have never had the opportunity to hear that there is a Good Shepherd. People groups who have no Scripture translated in their language. People groups who have no laborers in the harvest advocating for them, crying out to the Father on their behalf, even looking for them.

God’s concern for lost sheep should be our concern! As a people who have been given the gift of eternal life, we should be going in pursuit of those in the other fold. That’s why we must be a sending church and a going people! From our oikos to the ends of the earth, may we demonstrate the Good Shepherd’s love for the lost sheep and renew our commitment to go in search of them with the Good News!

What does going after the lost sheep look like here at Taylors?

• Training the Body to share our testimony and the Gospel 
• Equipping in Disciple Cycle to help believers not only grow in their faith but become disciples who make disciples
• Weekly Prayer for the Harvest
• Tuesday mornings at 7:00 am in the Taylors Rec Center 
• Weekly Times in the Harvest every Thursday
• Homework Club in Spring Grove, and prayer walking, and outreach in local neighborhoods 

Taylors FBC members serving in many community ministries:

• Child Evangelism Fellowship
• Band of Brothers 
• Greer Christian Learning Center
• Greer Community Ministries
• Piedmont Women’s Center
• Taylors Free Medical Clinic
• Woodland and Taylors Elementary with Child Evangelism Fellowship
• Brook Glenn Elementary 
• Connie Maxwell Children’s Ministries 
• Just For Today
• Bella’s Bag
• World Relief
• Village Wrench

Reach trips in 2025, focusing on areas where there is a great concentration of lost sheep. Teams have gone to:

• Los Angeles to host a marriage conference for church planters who have been laboring long and hard.
• South Asia to invest in local believers.
• Myrtle Beach to equip a church plant in how to share the gospel and to help them with a block party.
• Jamestown, NC’ to support a church plant ministering among South Asians in the community.

There are still nine more trips to come in 2025! Stay on the lookout so you can pray for them and join in seeing more lost sheep enter His fold!