10 Ways to Identify Those Who Are Lost

Those who are lost do not know they are living the bad-news life. Those we have been sent to raise do not know they are dead.

Jesus said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick…. For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:12-13).

Then we read, “Seeing the multitude, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).

Whether they know it or not has no role to play in our assignment.

In her book A Severed Wasp, Madeleine L’Engel relates a graphic image from an old George Orwell essay. He wrote, “A wasp was sucking jam on my plate and I cut him in half. He paid no attention, merely went on with his meal, while a tiny stream of jam trickled out of his severed esophagus. Only when he tried to fly away did he grasp the dreadful thing that had happened to him.”

We think of the freshly shorn Samson. “(Delilah) said, ‘The Philistines are upon you, Samson!’ And he awoke from his sleep and said, ‘I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.’ But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him.’ (Judges 16:20)

Before we can rescue them, they need to know they are among those who are lost. Our task is to penetrate that lostness with the gospel of Jesus.

Jesus said the Holy Spirit would convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16:8). It’s a job far too much for humans.

Some have estimated that of the 340 million Americans, fully two-thirds (258 mil) are lost. Likewise, of the world’s 6.8 billion population, some 4 billion have little or even no access to the gospel.

In a town where I once lived, I was struck by the irony of a small residence being used as an office for an insurance company. The sign out front read, “World Insurance Company.”

A missionary says, “Each church must become its own missional strategy center.”

Your church is a world evangelism center. Your church and my church.

You and I.

It’s our assignment.

This article about identifying those who are lost originally appeared here, and is used by permission.