First Baptist Church Litchfield
July 19, 2026

      • Psalm 103:1–5ESV

  • To God Be The Glory
  • We Will Feast In The House Of Zion

      • Psalm 103:11–14ESV

  • Abide

      • 1 John 4:16–19ESV

  • The Love Of God
  • In The Valley
  • Give Me Jesus

  • When Sheep Wander

    There are few things more heartbreaking than watching someone you love wander away.
    Maybe it was a son or daughter who grew up in church but no longer follows Christ. Perhaps it was a faithful member who once served every Sunday but now hasn't been seen in months. Maybe it was a close friend who slowly drifted one compromise at a time. One missed Sunday became several months of Sundays missed. Their prayer life became no more than a supper time habit. Their Bible gathered dust as it sat on the nightstand beside the bed. Before long, they were somewhere they never imagined they would be.
    The frightening reality is that people rarely wake up one morning and decide, "Today I'm abandoning Jesus." Spiritual wandering usually happens gradually. Like a sheep drifting from the flock while grazing, people wander one unnoticed step at a time until they suddenly find themselves far from the Shepherd.
    What may be even more tragic is the church notices, but does nothing.
    You assume someone else will call. Someone else will visit. Someone else will pray. Someone else will pursue them. Eventually, you grow accustomed to their empty seat in the pew in front of you. Their absence becomes normal. You move on with the ninety-nine.
    Many churches have become comfortable counting sheep instead of looking for the little ones who wander. That shouldn't surprise us, because our hearts naturally drift in the same direction. Our sinful tendency is to overlook weak believers, become indifferent toward wandering Christians, and value our own comfort more than someone's restoration. It is often easier to maintain programs than to pursue people. It’s easier to criticize “wanderers” than to chase after them. It’s easier to protect our schedules than to interrupt them for someone's soul.
    But, thankfully, that is not the heart of our heavenly Father.
    As Jesus continues teaching His disciples about greatness in the kingdom, He shifts their attention from themselves to the weakest members of His flock. In Matthew 18:10–14, Jesus opens a window into the very heart of God. The Father treasures His little ones. He pursues them when they wander. He rejoices when they are restored. And He is committed to preserving every one of them.
    Even more remarkable is, before Jesus tells us how to treat wandering sheep, He reminds us how He treated us. Every one of us was the wandering sheep.
    We had gone astray. We were insignificant, helpless, and spiritually lost. Yet the Good Shepherd left heaven, pursued us through His life, death, and resurrection, carried us home on His shoulders, and promised that none of His sheep would ever perish. He did not love us because we found our way back. He loved us enough to come and find us.
    And because Christ has shepherded us with that kind of relentless grace, His church must now reflect the very heart of its Shepherd. Brothers and sisters, treasure every little one with the same shepherding heart your heavenly Father has shown to you. In other words, this morning, Jesus is calling us to

    Reflect your Father's heart by valuing, pursuing, rejoicing over, and protecting every wandering little one whom Christ has redeemed.

    Let us begin in verse 10, where our first point naturally begins.

    I. Treasure the Little Ones Because Your Father Treasures Them (v.10)

    I don’t use the word despise very often in my conversations about people. It’s a strong word that carries the idea of contempt for someone. You feel disdain for them, even consider them as worthless. I can’t bring to mind anyone I despise, but that is the very word Jesus uses in verse ten regarding the little ones in the church; do not despise on of these little ones.
    Once again, the little ones are believers in the church that appear insignificant or unimpressive. In reality, however, it can refer to any of us in the church. In verse five, Jesus says to welcome these little ones, and in verse ten he is commanding us to not to despise them. What he means is do not treat them with disrespect, fail to take them seriously, or not recognize their needs as important. To despise them is the very opposite of welcoming them. In the context of ministry, George Müller understood this well.
    George Müller became famous for caring for more than 10,000 orphans in nineteenth-century England. Society, in his time, often viewed orphaned children as a burden on the state and a drain on society. Müller saw them differently. He believed every orphan was precious to God. His orphanages were not merely places to feed children but places to disciple them, educate them, and remind them they had a heavenly Father who had not forgotten them. George Müller welcomed the little ones, and refused to despise them because he understood the Father's heart.
    He once said,
    "I desire more than this for the Orphans. I cannot be satisfied with anything concerning them short of this, that their souls be won for the Lord." — George Müller, A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings with George Müller, Part IV
    That is the heart of Matthew 18:10. Jesus is not only concerned that His little ones are cared for physically. He treasures their soul because they belong to His Father. That is the same heart we desire to cultivate at Litchfield Christian School. And it is the heart every church should have.
    Not only for children, but for every "little one" in Christ's kingdom—for the lonely, the overlooked, the struggling, the new believer, the elderly saint, and the wanderer. Why? Because the Father never forgets them.
    Jesus adds emphasis to his command by explaining that heaven deeply cares about these little ones. He says,“For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” Some have thought Jesus is speaking of guardian angels, as if every believer has an angel assigned to them by God.
    The idea of a personal guardian angel appears only indirectly in Scripture. Angels are sent by God to protect and deliver His people (Dan. 3:28; 6:22; Ps. 34:7; 91:11–12), and Hebrews 1:14 describes them as "ministering spirits" sent to serve believers. Scripture also speaks of angels representing nations (Dan. 10:13; 12:1) and churches (Rev. 1:20). However, none of these passages clearly teaches that every believer has a permanently assigned guardian angel. While later Jewish tradition and Christian devotion developed that idea, there is little evidence it was a widely held belief in Jesus' day.
    Furthermore, that is not Jesus’ main point.
    His emphasis is on the privilege and access of these angels. They continually stand before the Father, ready to carry out His will on behalf of His people. If the holy angels who dwell in God's presence concern themselves with the welfare of Christ's little ones, how much more should we?
    As the body of Christ, we should never measure a Christian's value by the world's standards. The believer whom society overlooks is never overlooked by heaven. The church member who receives little attention from others has the full attention of the Father. If God treasures His little ones so deeply that heaven itself is concerned for them, then we must treasure them as well.
    Brothers and sisters, ask yourself:

    Who in this church is easy to overlook?

    Who quietly slips in and out every Sunday?

    Who needs encouragement, a visit, a meal, a prayer, or a friend?

    The measure of a healthy church is not how well it celebrates the somebodies. It is how faithfully it loves the nobodies. May we become the kind of church that treasures every believer because our Father treasures every believer, and may we pursue them as he does.

    II. Pursue Wandering Little Ones Because Your Father Pursues Them (vv.12)

    Jesus continues by asking a question:
    "What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?" (Matt. 18:12)
    There is an old saying: "A chain is only as strong as its weakest link." While the church is not a chain but the body of Christ, the principle reminds us that we cannot ignore struggling believers without affecting the health of the whole body.
    Jesus begins with the question, "What do you think?" He is inviting His disciples to examine their hearts. They had been arguing about greatness, tempted to overlook the insignificant. Jesus now asks them to think like their heavenly Father. How does the Father respond when one of His children wanders?
    He tells a parable of a shepherd with one hundred sheep. After counting his flock, he discovers one is missing. A good shepherd knows his sheep well enough to notice when one has wandered. He refuses to write it off as an acceptable loss. Instead, he leaves the ninety-nine in a place of safety and goes searching for the one that has strayed.
    Notice that the sheep belongs to the flock before it wanders. Jesus is not describing an unbeliever who has never known the Shepherd, but one of His own sheep who has drifted from close fellowship and obedience. Throughout Matthew 18, the "little ones" are believers within the covenant community who are vulnerable, overlooked, or prone to wander. They still belong to Christ, but they desperately need to be restored.
    This is the heart of God throughout Scripture.
    Isaiah confessed,
    "All we like sheep have gone astray" (Isaiah 53:6).
    Our tendency is to wander. Yet God's response has always been to pursue His people with redeeming grace.
    That is exactly what the Lord promised through the prophet Ezekiel:
    "For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out… I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak." (Ezek. 34:11, 16)
    Those words were spoken because Israel's shepherds had abandoned the flock. Instead of feeding and protecting God's people, they exploited them and left them scattered. So God declared, "I Myself will become their Shepherd."
    Jesus is the fulfillment of that promise.
    He is the Good Shepherd who came "to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19:10). He pursues wandering sheep because they are precious to His Father. That has profound implications for us.
    Pastors must never become content when sheep wander. The Reformer Martin Bucer reminds the elders that pastoral care requires us “to seek and to find all the lost; to bring back those that are scattered…”
    We cannot simply say, "Well, they made their choice." We are called to pray for them, seek them out, plead with them, and lovingly call them back to Christ.
    But this responsibility does not belong only to pastors.
    James writes,
    "My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back… whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins." (James 5:19–20)
    Notice James says, "if anyone among you." God often uses ordinary believers to restore wandering sheep.
    So ask yourself:

    Who have you not seen in worship for weeks?

    Who has quietly drifted away?

    Who once walked closely with Christ but now seems distant?

    Have you prayed for them?

    Have you called them?

    Have you gone after them?

    The Father's heart is not to abandon wandering sheep but to bring them home. If we share our Father's heart, we will not merely notice wandering believers, we will lovingly pursue them until they are restored. And when they are restored, we will rejoice!

    III. Rejoice When Wandering Little Ones Are Restored Because Your Father Rejoices (v.13)

    Jesus continues,
    "And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray." (Matt. 18:13)
    Notice that Jesus doesn't say, "If he finds it, he scolds it." He doesn't say, "He lectures it." Nor does He say, "He keeps it at arm's length to make sure it has learned its lesson."
    He says, "He rejoices."
    The Shepherd's pursuit ends in celebration because restoration brings joy to the Father's heart.
    As a father of five children, I know how sin can disrupt fellowship. When one of my children sins against me through disobedience or disrespect, I can be tempted to hold on to my hurt longer than I should. I may forgive them, yet still struggle to rejoice in our restored fellowship. My heart is often slower to celebrate than God's.
    That is not our Father's heart.
    Throughout Scripture, God never delights in the destruction of sinners. Through the prophet Ezekiel He declares,"Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked... and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?" (Ezek. 18:23)
    Peter echoes that same truth, saying that God is “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)
    Zephaniah 3:17, one of the most beautiful verses in scripture, says when Israel repents and turns to the Lord, “17 The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” ( Zephaniah 3:17). God is not simply forgiving Israel, he is delighting in a restored Israel.
    One of the clearest pictures of the Father's heart toward repentant sinners is found in the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11–32). We know the story well. The younger son foolishly leaves his father's house, squanders his inheritance in reckless living, and eventually finds himself broken, hungry, and ashamed. When he finally comes to his senses and begins the journey home, he expects little more than to be treated as a servant.
    But that is not the Father's heart.
    Jesus tells us that while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him, was filled with compassion, ran to him, embraced him, and kissed him. Before the son could finish his confession, the father clothed him with the best robe, placed a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet, and prepared a great feast of celebration. Why? Because, as the father declared, "For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found." (Luke 15:24).
    That is the heart of our heavenly Father.
    He does not love wandering sheep from a distance. He pursues them. He restores them. And when they return, He rejoices over them.
    If that is how our Father treats wandering believers, then that is how His church must treat them as well. We labor to protect one another from stumbling. When a brother or sister wanders, we prayerfully and lovingly pursue them. And when God, in His grace, brings them home, we do not hold grudges, rehearse their failures, or keep them at arm's length. We rejoice. Why?
    Because every restored believer is a testimony to the pursuing grace of God. Every wandering sheep brought home is a reason for celebration. The church should be the one place where repentant sinners find open hands instead of folded arms, joyful restoration instead of lingering suspicion, and a family that celebrates God's grace because we know we are all trophies of that same grace. The gospel is so rich because God both forgives wandering sheep, and He delights to welcome them home. And his joy is os genuine and sustaining that He promises not one of them will be lost.

    IV. Protect the Little Ones Because Your Father Will Preserve Them (v.14)

    Why does the Father welcome the little ones? Why does He pursue them when they wander? Why does He rejoice when they are found and restored to the fellowship of the church? Because He has promised that not one of them will ultimately be lost.
    Jesus concludes this section by saying,
    "So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." (Matthew 18:14)
    The word perish refers to ultimate and eternal ruin. Jesus is not speaking of wandering for a season, but of final destruction. His point is wonderfully comforting: the Father is committed to preserving every one of His children. He treasures them, pursues them, restores them, and ultimately keeps them.
    If you are one of Christ's sheep, take a moment to let that truth sink in. Your salvation does not rest upon your ability to hold on to Christ, but upon Christ's determination to hold on to you.
    Jesus makes that promise unmistakably clear in John 10:
    I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me… My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand." (John 10:14, 27–29)
    What a glorious promise! The same Father who pursued you in order to save you has promised to pursue you in order to keep you. His saving grace is also His preserving grace. Paul declares the same confidence when he writes,
    He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." (Philippians 1:6)
    Yet this promise also raises an important question.
    Many of us know people who once faithfully attended church. They worshiped alongside us, served in ministry, professed faith in Christ, and then gradually wandered from the fold. Today they no longer gather with God's people, no longer submit to His Word, and no longer profess Christ with their lives.
    Did God forget them?
    Did the Good Shepherd stop pursuing them?
    The answer is no.
    Jesus Himself taught that, until the day of judgment, the wheat and the weeds grow together (Matthew 13:24–30). Throughout the visible church there are both genuine believers and those whose profession of faith is only external. They may look alike for a time, but eventually the fruit of their lives reveals the true condition of their hearts.
    Jesus said, “You will recognize them by their fruits." (Matthew 7:16)
    The apostle John explains,” They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us." (1 John 2:19)
    Some people ultimately choose sin over Christ. They reject loving correction. They resist accountability. They excuse their rebellion. They often search for churches that will affirm rather than confront their sin. Unless they repent, they will perish, not because Christ failed to keep one of His sheep, but because they demonstrated they never truly belonged to His flock.
    That warning should sober every one of us.
    The New Testament repeatedly calls believers to persevere in the faith. Hebrews warns,
    12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Hebrews 3:12–13
    One of the primary ways God keeps His children in the fold is by using His people to exhort one another every day. God has ordained that the church would be one of the means of grace by which He preserves His saints. Through loving encouragement, faithful warnings, earnest prayer, biblical correction, and gospel-centered accountability, He keeps our hearts from being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
    What a tremendous responsibility this gives to the church!
    Because the Father preserves His people, we must faithfully pursue our wandering brothers and sisters. We warn them because we love them. We pray for them because we know only God can change the heart. We seek them because that is the heart of our Shepherd. And we lovingly call them home because God often uses those very means to preserve His own.
    The Father loses none of His children.
    Therefore, let us never stop loving the little ones. Let us never stop pursuing the wandering. Let us never stop praying for the straying. For in doing so, we become instruments in the hands of the Good Shepherd, who has promised that not one of His sheep will finally perish.

    Who is your one sheep?

    Somewhere today there is an empty seat. A seat once occupied by a brother who sang beside you. A sister who faithfully served with you. A teenager who once sat with your children. A couple who once worshiped beside your family. A friend who didn't wander away from Christ overnight, but one unnoticed step at a time.
    The question Jesus leaves us with is not whether we know someone like that. We all do. The question is this:
    What will we do about it?
    Will we simply count the ninety-nine and move on?
    Or will we reflect the heart of our Father?
    Our Father treasures the little ones. Our Father pursues the wandering. Our Father rejoices when they are restored. Our Father preserves His children. And because that is our Father's heart, it must become ours.
    So this week, don't just attend church.
    Be the church.
    Notice the overlooked. Protect the vulnerable. Encourage the struggling. Pray for the wandering. Pick up the phone. Send a text. Make the visit. Open the Bible with them. Call a brother or sister home. Don't wait for someone else to do what God may be calling you to do. Perhaps the Good Shepherd intends to pursue one of His sheep through you.
    And if today you realize that you are the one who has wandered, hear the good news of the gospel.
    The Shepherd has not stopped seeking you. The Father has not stopped loving you. Christ still receives repentant sinners. Come home.
    For there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, and there ought to be the same joy in the church of Jesus Christ. Church, let us reflect our Father's heart by valuing, pursuing, rejoicing over, and protecting every wandering little one whom Christ has redeemed. Amen

      • Matthew 18:10–14ESV

      • Isaiah 53:6ESV

      • John 10:14ESV

      • John 10:27–29ESV

      • Philippians 1:6ESV

      • Hebrews 3:12–13ESV

  • Draw Me Close
First Baptist Church Litchfield
pastorjason.fbcl@gmail.com
217-324-4232
http://www.firstbaptistlitchfield.org/
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