Chris, the Sunday school teacher, was telling the children about his friend who bought a very nice goat one day. He brought the goat home and put him in the barnyard. When he went to get him in the evening to put him into the barn for the night, the goat was gone! The friend and his family started looking everywhere for that goat. It took them about two hours, but they finally found the run-away goat and put him safely in the barn for the night.
Chris asked the children, “If they hadn’t found him, do you think they would have kept looking for the goat all night? Or if it took a week or a month or even a year to find him, would they have kept looking?”
“No, they would have gotten tired of looking,” the children said.
Chris agreed. Then he read them the story from Luke 15:4-74What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? 5And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. 7I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. (Luke 15:4‑7) about the shepherd who looked for his lost sheep UNTIL HE FOUND IT. He told the children, “If any one of you is one of Jesus’ lost sheep, He’s going to look for you until He finds you, because He loves you. And then He’s going to take care of you until He takes you safely home to heaven.”
Chris asked the children if they could remember anyone in the Bible who had hidden from God. The reason they had hidden was because they knew they had sinned against Him, and they didn’t want God to find them.
The children all remembered about Adam and Eve hiding behind the trees of the garden. Did God know where they were? Yes, and even though He had to punish them for disobeying Him, He was very kind to them and made them coats of skin to wear.
Another story the children remembered was about Jonah. He was running away from God and hid in the bottom of a ship. But God could see him there and prepared a great fish to swallow him and carry him safely to land. Then Jonah decided it was much better to obey God than to try to run away from Him.
Boys and girls, God sees us wherever we are. Sometimes when we have done something bad, we wish He couldn’t see us, but Job 34:2121For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. (Job 34:21) reminds us, “His eyes are upon the ways of man, and He [sees] all his goings.” And when we tell a lie or say something naughty, we wish He wasn’t listening. But Psalm 139 tells us, “There is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it.” God sees everything, He knows everything, and He hears everything. But that is good!
If you have already accepted the Lord Jesus as your Saviour, He has paid the cost for every single one of your sins when He was hanging on that awful cross and shed His blood. What if God didn’t know about every one of our sins? Some wouldn’t be washed away, and it would only take one sin to keep us out of heaven. So we can be thankful that God sees every single one, and Jesus paid the cost for every one. “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:1818For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18)).
Not one sin will ever be in heaven because God hates sin, but He loves sinners. If you are still in your sins, come to the Lord Jesus right now and tell Him you are sorry for your sins and that you want Him to wash them away. He will take care of every single sin so that not one is left!
Don’t run away or hide any longer. Come to Jesus before it is too late. He loves you very much and will be your very best friend.
ML-04/28/2013