In his sermon titled 'Love for the Lost,' Steve Hopkins emphasizes the Christian duty to share the gospel with those who do not know Christ. Using a personal anecdote about his wife Sandra's act of kindness towards a woman in need, Hopkins illustrates the principle of helping those in need with what we have been given. He stresses the importance of praying for opportunities to share the message of Christ and highlights personal experiences where God has provided such opportunities. Hopkins references 2 Corinthians 5:20, explaining that Christians are ambassadors for Christ and have a mission to reconcile others to God, just as they have been reconciled through Christ's sacrifice. He invokes the imagery of a drowning person to underscore the urgency and necessity of sharing faith with the lost. The sermon concludes with a powerful quote from Charles Spurgeon, urging believers to ensure that no one perishes without having been warned or prayed for.

A couple of months ago, I told you the story about how my wife, Sandra, and our daughters were in Austin. They were about to go into the store to do some shopping. As they were about to go in, they saw a woman on the sidewalk and she was pulling food out of a garbage can and different things in eating out of the garbage can. And I said, of course my wife did what any one of us would do and bought her a meal and fed her. When we see someone in need, Christians, if we see someone who's hungry, well, if we have food, we give them food.

We share our food with them. If we see someone without sufficient clothing and we have clothing, or if they're thirsty and we have water, well then we share what we have been given with them. And I say this because, brothers and sisters, we have Christ, and people all around us don't. Everywhere we go every day, people all around us don't. And I've been thinking a lot this last week or two about love for the lost and how many souls are perishing every day without Christ and how many opportunities we had to share what we've been given freely with others.

And yet how very few times, and I'm talking about myself as well, we do not avail ourselves of those opportunities. And I just want to encourage the congregation to share Christ, to share with others the gospel by which your soul was saved. You know, I've never had a time where I prayed, oh God, put someone in my path and allow me to preach the gospel or share the gospel or share Christ with someone, and that opportunity did not arise. This past week I prayed, I was with Sandra, actually it was the week before this week, And I prayed with Sandra, we were on our way to a particular business in the community, and I prayed, Lord give me the opportunity to share the gospel, to share Christ with this particular business owner. And it was just so obvious when God opened the door to me to graciously share with this man what God has done for me and turning me from my sins and to his son.

And I put my hand on his shoulder and after I talked to him for a little while and I said, you know, I'm not standing here saying, you're a sinner, I'm not. That's not the Christian message. I'm saying, if God saved a really bad sinner like me, then he can save you as well. And so I told him about Jesus and who he is and how he went to the cross and died for our sins, sins of his people, to reconcile us to God and how everyone who repents and believes on his name puts their trust in him is forever forgiven and reconciled to God, saved. And there was no response that would indicate that a work of God had begun at all, except for the fact that this man, probably 35 years old, seems subdued.

And I'll tell you that a few days later I'm out in Burnet and God ordained that that same man would enter the same business at the same time that I entered that business and come around a corner and come literally face to face with me again. And I can't ever remember seeing him face to face in public as long as I've been in Bernit. So, you know, I think God ordained that so that our previous conversation would come to mind again. And I say all this to say, if we ask God, I believe if we ask God to give us opportunities to share Christ, I believe that he will give us opportunities to share Christ. He'll bring those about if we're sincere.

And I've never seen a time where I prayed that and he did not. 2 Corinthians 5 20 says, now we are then ambassadors for Christ, representatives, right? As though God did beseech you by us, Paul says, we pray you that as we implore you, in Christ's stead be reconciled to God. That's our mission We want others to be reconciled to God even as God has reconciled us to himself by the death of his son That's our mess our message even as we've been reconciled to God, we want you to be reconciled to God. We're commanded to love our neighbor as ourself.

You love, you have love for the lost. We're to love them as ourselves. That old Keith Green song always comes to mind. It's not doctrinally perfect, but it shows us a heart of love for the lost. Really shines forth.

Can't you see? Can't you see all the people sinking down? Don't you care? Don't you care? Are you gonna let them drown?

You know, it's the imagery of a drowning person, passing by a drowning person without concern for them would be unthinkable to us, and of course, we're talking about people dead in trespasses and sins, which is a far worse condition than the analogy of someone drowning. But as ambassadors of Christ, we need to be sharing Christ, in season, out of season, when it's convenient, when it isn't. That song goes on, God's calling and you're the one. God's calling and you're the one, but like Jonah you run. He's told you to speak, but you keep holding it in.

Am I loving my neighbor as myself? Do I love the lost? I was lost, but now I'm found. Here's something that's true of every believer in this room. Someone shared Christ with you.

Maybe it was a pastor, maybe it was your mother or your father or sister or brother or somebody out in public, someone shared Christ with you and so and the Spirit worked a work in your heart and so you believed. Inevitably we will share of the gospel with some who will never believe, with some who will perish eternally. I'll end with this, if sinners will be damned, these are the words of Spurgeon, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies and if they will perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let none go there unwarned and unprayed for."