For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.” Luke 19:10

In God’s eyes, there are only two kinds of people saved people and lost people. Every one of us falls into one of these two categories. And, ultimately, no other human distinction matters.

God loves all people, regardless of gender, race, or culture. In fact, he created them with those characteristics. And he doesn’t distinguish people by their education, looks, wealth, or talent. What matters most to him is whether people are spiritually saved or lost, whether they’re in his family or not.

The words “saved” and “lost” imply value they mean that God sees you as being worthy of seeking, saving, and finding. “Saved” and “lost” are expressions of his love.

The Bible says, “For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost” (Luke 19:10). That’s how valuable you are. Jesus Christ came to earth to seek you and to save you.

Only valuable things get lost; invaluable things just get misplaced. In other words, nobody loses a toothpick. You may misplace a toothpick, but you don’t lose it, because it’s not that valuable.

If I lost my wedding ring, it would be a real loss because it represents decades of commitment to my wife. Not only that, but Kay gave it to me, and I love her. I could never misplace my wedding ring; I could, however, lose it.

So, when we talk about whether a person is spiritually saved or lost, we’re not talking about their value. Every person—saved or not is incredibly valuable to God.

But God doesn’t want anyone to be spiritually lost. Why? Because it means they are disconnected from him and don’t have a relationship with him.

Over the next couple days, we’re going to look at the question, “What do you actually lose when you’re spiritually lost?” The answers to this question will help you understand how much you matter to God and help you share this encouraging news with others.

When you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:32

When you’re in the middle of a failure, it can seem like nothing good will ever come from it. But God can always bring good from your failures. In fact, your worst failure can become your greatest success. If you let him, God will use your failures to build his church!

Jesus told Peter in Luke 22:32, “When you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers” (NLT). Before Peter had even failed, Jesus gave him a vision of how God could use his failure for good.

After Peter’s failure (when he denied Jesus three times), Jesus died and then was resurrected. And when he and Peter met again on a seashore, Jesus pointed him to the good God would bring out of his failure. Here’s how the conversation went:

“Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ he said, ‘you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Feed my lambs.’ Again Jesus said, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He answered, ‘Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Take care of my sheep.’ The third time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ He said, ‘Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Feed my sheep’” (John 21:15-17).

Three times Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love me?” Why did he ask that three times? He was giving Peter the opportunity to make up for the three times he had denied Jesus.

And each time, Jesus gave Peter another way he could use his failure for good: “Feed my lambs. . . . Take care of my sheep. . . . Feed my sheep.”

On the same night that Peter had denied Jesus, another disciple, Judas, also failed Jesus. But, ultimately, Judas became a traitor to Jesus, while Peter chose to become a teacher and a leader.

In Matthew 16:18 Jesus says, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”.

God is still building his church by using people who’ve failed. In fact, God only uses failed people because there aren’t any perfect people!

What are you going to become in light of your failure? It’s your choice.

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23

Failure can be isolating. When you’re in the middle of a failure, you often feel ashamed and just want to be alone. But Jesus is with you always, even in your greatest failure.

To help you through your failures, Jesus does three incredible things:

Jesus prays for you. Even before Peter had failed, Jesus told him, “I have prayed for you, that your faith will not fail” (Luke 22:32).

Even at this very moment, Jesus is interceding—praying—for you. The Bible says, “He is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf” (Hebrews 7:25).

Jesus believes in you. In fact, he expects you to heal and recover. That’s why he told Peter before his big failure, “When you have repented and turned to me again . . .” (Luke 22:32).Jesus knew Peter would sin and fail and eventually come back to him.

The truth is that we all fail, and we fail repeatedly. Your biggest weaknesses are often habitual. It’s likely you don’t just do them one time and that’s it. But God isn’t only there for the big, one-time failure. He’s there for the mistakes you make over and over again. Though you fail repeatedly, God will always believe in you.

Jesus shows you mercy. Jesus is more willing to show mercy than you’re willing to ask for it. When you’re down, Jesus doesn’t beat you up or add to your guilt. Instead, he saves you.

In John 21, not long after Peter had denied Jesus, Peter and some other disciples went fishing. Though they fished all night, they caught nothing. At dawn, Jesus called to them from the shore and told them where to throw their nets. “So they did, and they couldn’t haul in the net because there were so many fish in it” (John 21:6). 

When Peter followed Jesus’ instructions, he caught more fish than he could possibly handle. Jesus is ready to do the same for you. He can do more in five minutes than you can do in 50 years of planning.

Here’s more good news: God’s mercy toward you is not dependent on your performance. The Bible says in Lamentations 3:22-23, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness”.

Friend, you may give up on God, but he’s never going to give up on you. Jesus is praying for you, believes in you, and will always show you mercy. No matter what you do, God is faithful.

Immediately a rooster crowed, and Peter remembered the words Jesus had spoken, ‘Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.’ And he went outside and wept bitterly.” Matthew 26:74-75

When you experience failure, it sometimes feels like you’ll never recover. But you will. Whether you’ve experienced a failure in your finances, marriage, career, or something else, you can recover.

Recovery starts with grieving your failure. Don’t minimize it or pretend it didn’t happen. Don’t rush to try to feel better. Instead, take the time to feel the pain.

This highlights an important life principle: To get past something, you’ve got to go through it. That’s true in so many areas of life, but it’s particularly true with failure.

Grief is the way through failure. When you fail, you just want to forget it, to stuff your emotions and quickly move to the next thing. But that’s a mistake. Grief is the way you learn failure’s lessons.

When you swallow your emotions instead of going through them, your stomach keeps score. It’s like taking a can of soda, shaking it up, and putting it in the freezer. It’s eventually going to explode!

Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples, experienced the grief of failure firsthand. In a time of crisis, he denied that he even knew Jesus, and that failure led to deep grief.

The Bible says, “Immediately a rooster crowed,and Peter remembered the words Jesus had spoken, ‘Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.’ And he went outside and wept bitterly” (Matthew 26:74-75).

Imagine how disappointed Peter must have felt in himself. He had walked alongside Jesus, watching him teach, do miracles, heal people, raise the dead, and offer mercy and forgiveness over and over again. Yet when he was put to the test about his commitment to Jesus, he denied him three times in a row.

But instead of ignoring his failure, Peter did the right thing: He was humble and regretful. He owned up to it and grieved—and that’s the key to healing.

Many people want to take shortcuts when they have a failure. They want to bypass the affair and pretend it didn’t shatter their marriage, so they rebound into another relationship. Or they pretend it was someone else’s fault the business failed and start another one right away. They simply never learn the lesson. 

But there is no shortcut to grieving and recovering from failure. The greater the failure, the more time it’s going to take to heal. Let God work in your heart. You can’t force healing. Recovery is an act of God’s mercy, and it will come in time.

It is dangerous to be concerned with what others think of you, but if you trust the LORD, you are safe.” Proverbs 29:25

Every time you make a decision based on what other people might think, you unknowingly sow seeds of failure in your own life.

You may not realize it, but fearing the disapproval of others causes more problems in your life than almost anything else. When you worry about what other people think, you tend to do the most popular thing, even if you know it’s wrong. You make commitments that you can’t possibly keep, simply because you’re trying to make everybody happy. This is a recipe for failure.

And it’s one of the reasons Peter failed Jesus by denying him three times. He was more concerned with what other people thought than with being faithful to Jesus.

The Bible says, “But Peter followed along at a distance and came to the courtyard of the high priest’s palace. He went in and sat down with the guards to see what was going to happen . . . While Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, a servant girl came up to him and said, ‘You were with Jesus from Galilee.’ But in front of everyone Peter said, ‘That isn’t so! I don’t know what you are talking about!’” (Matthew 26:58, 69-70).

Peter had just spent three years with Jesus, the Son of God. Yet when he had a chance to acknowledge this privilege, he denied Jesus. Peter was more concerned about what other people thought than he was about identifying with Christ.

Think about how many times you’ve had the opportunity to share Christ and said nothing because you were worried about what other people would think.

Whose opinion matters more to you than God’s? When you allow another person to be more important than God, they become your god. That’s called an idol and it’s a setup for failure.

The fear of disapproval always comes from a hidden wound. Maybe it was a rejection in the past. It might be an unmet need or a trauma you experienced growing up. It’s a deep pain, so it’s hidden deep in you. I call it soul pain.

That soul pain is always related to your identity. If you don’t know who you are, you will be manipulated by the disapproval of other people the rest of your life. You won’t stand up for what you believe or do what’s right. 

The Bible says in Proverbs 29:25, “It is dangerous to be concerned with what others think of you, but if you trust the LORD, you are safe”.

When you recognize the hidden wounds in your life, God can begin to heal them. And you can live in the freedom of knowing that God’s opinion matters most.

If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall.” 1 Corinthians 10:12

Failure is part of life. No matter who you are or what your story is, you’re going to experience failure at some point. It’s part of living as an imperfect person in an imperfect world.

Before Jesus went to the cross, on the night that he was arrested, his friend Peter failed him in a significant way. Peter denied Jesus—not just once but three times.

During the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples he was going to be arrested, die, and three days later come back to life. He said to the disciples, “Tonight all of you will desert me” (Matthew 26:31 NLT). Yet Peter kept insisting he would never deny Jesus. In fact, Peter said three times, “I will never”!

Peter overestimated his strength and it eventually led to his failure.

Overestimating your strength is still a common cause of failure today when you think you’re stronger than you really are—when you believe you can handle temptation.

When people overestimate their strengths, there are dire consequences: Businesses fail, battles are lost, and spouses are tempted into affairs.

You might think, “That could never happen to me.” But 1 Corinthians 10:12 says, “If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall”.

No one is exempt. Given the right situation, you are capable of any sin, and so am I.

When you don’t pay attention to your strengths, they become weaknesses. In other words, an unguarded strength becomes a double weakness because you have a sense of pride about it. 

Peter’s biggest failure, denying Christ, happened right after the Last Supper, a very intimate and powerful experience. The very area where you’ve had a major victory may be exactly where you stumble next.

Resist the temptation to overestimate your strengths. Instead, remember you are a sinful human who needs God’s grace and mercy. Keep your strengths in perspective so they don’t become your point of failure.

These sufferings of ours are for your benefit. And the more of you who are won to Christ, the more there are to thank him for his great kindness, and the more the Lord is glorified.” 2 Corinthians 4:15)

When you use your pain to help others, God will bless you in ways you can’t possibly imagine.

The apostle Paul went through enormous pain in his life, which is why God was able to use him in enormous ways. He was shipwrecked, beaten, and robbed. He went without food, water, and sleep. Yet God used him to spread the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire. In fact, if you were to ask Paul, “How’d you put up with so much pain?” He’d tell you it was because he wanted to bring people to Jesus Christ. He wanted to help others.

Paul said in the Living Bible paraphrase, “These sufferings of ours are for your benefit. And the more of you who are won to Christ, the more there are to thank him for his great kindness, and the more the Lord is glorified” (2 Corinthians 4:15).

You may never suffer the same ways Paul did, but you will go through pain in life. So you might as well use your pain for good and not waste it.

There are actually three kinds of suffering God uses to help others: self-imposed suffering, innocent suffering, and redemptive suffering.

Some suffering is the kind you bring upon yourself. You cause some of your own problems by making poor judgements. You don’t always eat the right foods, make the right decisions, or respond the right way to others.

Innocent suffering is when, through no fault of your own, you get hurt by someone else. Whether you were abandoned, rejected, or scammed, everyone has been hurt by the sins of other people.

But the highest form of suffering is redemptive suffering. This is when you go through pain or problems for the benefit of others.

This is what Jesus did. When Jesus died on the cross, he didn’t deserve to die. He went through that pain for your benefit so that you could be saved and go to heaven. In the same way, God will use your pain to bring hope and healing to others.

Who can better help somebody going through bankruptcy than somebody who went through bankruptcy? Who can better help somebody struggling with an addiction than somebody who’s struggled with an addiction? Who can better help parents of a special needs child than parents who raised a special needs child? Who can better help somebody who’s lost a child than somebody who lost a child?

God will never waste a hurt. God will work in your life so that he can work through you to encourage others.

Praise God and rejoice during trials, because suffering will build your endurance and help others in their pain. God can use all three kinds of suffering for good. Start by giving each of your hurts to him and say, “God, I want you to use my pain to benefit others.”

Our message is not about ourselves. It is about Jesus Christ as the Lord. We are your servants for his sake.” 2 Corinthians 4:5

If you want to be used by God, you need to remember this: It’s not about you; it’s all about Jesus.

“It’s not about you” is the exact opposite of everything you’ve been taught. Our entire culture appeals to self-centeredness. Advertisements everywhere tell you, “You’re number one! Do what’s best for you! Think of yourself first!”

But you’re not the center of the universe God is. That’s why, when you make every problem, opportunity, and criticism about yourself, you become frustrated and unfulfilled. And you eventually become bored because life is so much more than living for yourself.

The Bible says, “Our message is not about ourselves. It is about Jesus Christ as the Lord. We are your servants for his sake” (2 Corinthians 4:5).

Twice in this passage, Paul says it’s all for Jesus. It’s “about Jesus Christ,” and it’s “for his sake.”In other words, learning to follow Jesus is about motivation.

There may be a hundred different things you could do with your life, and God might say: “Because I made you and shaped you, any of those things would be fine with me.”

But God is far more interested in your motivation for doing something than in your methodology. You could be using the right method and be very successful in life. But if you have the wrong motive greed, competition, envy, or guilt it won’t count with God.

On the other hand, you could do everything wrong and fail in so many ways. But if you have the right motive Jesus then God says, “That’s good enough.” God is more interested in your “why” than your “what.”

The Bible says, “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Colossians 3:17).

Have you found yourself bored or frustrated with life? Choose to make Jesus your motivation today. You’ll find the joy of living for something bigger than yourself.

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Ephesians 2:10

God didn’t create you to be somebody else. When you get to heaven, he’s not going to ask you why you weren’t more like your sister, your father, or your neighbor. God made you one of a kind, and he wants you to be real.

He wants to use you as you.

The Bible says, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10). 

The problem is, many people try to be someone they’re not. They live for the approval of others. Or they think God would love them more if they acted differently. But God’s love isn’t based on how you act. He loves you no matter what you do.

One barrier that often keeps people from being used by God is the fear of being real. You’re afraid people won’t like you if they find out who you really are, so you live an insecure life. But the Bible says, “The Spirit we received does not make us slaves again to fear; it makes us children of God” Romans 8:15.

The antidote to insecurity is God’s Spirit at work in you. When you live as a child of God, despite your mistakes and weaknesses, you’re liberated to be who God made you to be.

Did you know your imperfections are actually a good thing? People don’t grow from strengths; they grow from weaknesses. Showing only your strengths to the world won’t make others feel close to you; it may even make them feel jealous or distant. But when you admit your imperfections when you’re real with others people draw closer to you.

So you have a decision to make. Are you ready to be real? You can be stuck and enslaved by fear. Or you can be the real you and enjoy the good things God planned for you long ago.

We don’t become discouraged, since God has given us this ministry through his mercy.” 2 Corinthians 4:1

You were created to make a contribution with your life not to just exist and live only for yourself. God shaped you to serve him, and it’s all because of his mercy.

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:1: “We don’t become discouraged, since God has given us this ministry through his mercy”.

Some people think “ministry” is a churchy word. It’s something only ministers do. But anytime you use the talents, gifts, and abilities God has given you to help somebody else, you’re doing ministry. Even your job can be your ministry, whether you’re an accountant, teacher, or truck driver!   

When you understand that everything God does through you is because of his mercy, two things happen:

You don’t have to prove your worth. Do you ever try to prove your worth through your work? Maybe you think that the more successful you are, the more valuable you are. But your worth has nothing to do with your work. Instead, your worth is found in the fact that God made you, loves you, and sent Jesus to die for you. Understanding God’s mercy takes you off the performance track. 

You don’t have to wallow in your mistakes. We’ve all made mistakes. We’ve all sinned. But because of God’s mercy, you don’t have to dwell on your past. You can repent and turn away from your sin. Your past doesn’t have to hold you back from doing the work God has given you to do.

In fact, God has never used a perfect person because there aren’t any, except for Jesus Christ. When you look through the Bible, you’ll find all kinds of people who God used despite their mistakes. Jacob was a chronic liar; Rahab was a prostitute; Jonah was fearful and reluctant; Martha worried a lot; the Samaritan woman had several failed marriages; Peter was impulsive; Moses, David, and Paul were all guilty of murder. Yet God used each person in incredible ways.

So there’s nothing that would prevent God from using you. Because of God’s great mercy, you can live out God’s purpose for your life.