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by Charlie Wolcott

One of the sermons that has left a lingering effect on me is David Wilkerson’s “The Hunter From Hell.” The sermon is about how the enemy goes after the “precious life,” especially those young people whom God has called from an early age. Throughout the sermon, Wilkerson gives example after example of these teens who he has ministered to and whose lives were totally wrecked through the gangs, drugs, drinking, violence, poverty, etc. and yet had a call from God early in life. He described a pastor who discovered his teenage sons were mainline heroin addicts and instead of receiving help, they just walked out stone cold. He describes Nikki Cruz, who was caught up in gangs, being a violent gang warlord, only to discover later that Cruz remembered a calling to ministry as a little boy. He described others who lived the “standard good kid” life of some who never amounted to much, but the one son of this family who was treated as a black sheep was the one who thrived. That has made me think that the enemy can sense when God is moving, and he is going to try to take that calling out while it is still young, but God is going to prepare that person for something powerful.

I am reminded of myself in that sermon. I am easily one who “the system” tried to push through the cracks and just move me along. They had no intention of actually helping me. But my parents would not let that happen, and they fought for me because they saw I was worth it. Early in my fencing career, I was NOT a good fencer by any means and yet my coaches were very patient with me for about 12 years before they finally retired (coinciding with my college graduation as well). But that sport has done wonders for me, and when I was planning to start the fencing program for my school, one demographic I had in mind all along was that “non-athlete” and the one that never had a program to belong to. With a number of kids on my team now, that has been the case. The administration of my school loves it, and teachers who were initially skeptical about the program are in total support after seeing what it has been doing.

All of this is an outflow of the heart of Jesus. It’s Jesus who loves the outcasts, the downtrodden, the societal rejects, the ones only deemed useful for the menial labor tasks no one wants to do. If they are not even useful for that, the view is that they should be “discarded.” The mindset of eugenics and seeking to reduce the world’s population sees anyone who will consume resources more than produce resources to be useless and deserving to die, especially the disabled and elderly. But Jesus does not do that; He treats such lives as precious in His sight. We see this in three different occasions (among others) in Scripture.

Jesus went to Sychar, a town in Samaria, a place where Jews would intentionally go around and avoid due to racial tensions. The Jews hated the Samaritans, and the Samaritans hated the Jews. Jesus went to the well of Jacob and met a woman there, a social outcast, because she couldn’t go with the other women. Jesus used small talk about the well to introduce true water and life and hope to her. He knew she had a very troubled life with marriages, and He told her the truth without condemning her, and she realized He was the Messiah. Jesus came to that little town just to meet her.

Later, Jesus went to Jerusalem and met a man at the pool of Bethsaida, hoping to get healed by the hot spring or whatever stirred the waters. This man had been paralyzed for 38 years, and he wanted to be healed. Jesus came to him and healed him. He didn’t heal anyone else; He came for that one man and that one man alone. Why no one else? We don’t know. But we know that of the group at that pool, Jesus went after this one.

In Luke 15, we get three parables about the searching for the one – the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the Prodigal Son. Each of these is about leaving the safe and secure ones and going after the lost one. It is also about welcoming the returning one back with open arms. And it is no coincidence that I am writing this when I am. I am writing this post on January 20, 2025, though you are reading it over a month later. Literally yesterday, we had a young man in our church return after a few years of going prodigal. I don’t know what he got caught up with or even if he was involved with sin, but he did no sin against my church and he was met with nothing but loving and open arms. While we may help him deal with past issues, we really don’t care what he did; we care that he came back. My church and I got to be the father of the Prodigal Son and welcome him back, without being the elder brother who despised the younger one for what he did. It was so cool to be on the welcoming side of that and be Jesus to those who think they are lost and worthless.

Jesus had compassion for the lost and the hurting. He knew that the one was worth going after. But it wasn’t everyone. He had specific people He was looking for, and when He found them, He brought them home. Some may have come kicking and screaming, but Jesus found them. Some of you have been among those whom Jesus has saved when many others around you were not. Some of you have seen others saved near you but may not have been saved yet. If you are reading this and your heart is being tugged at, it means you either have been through this or you have seen it before in others, or you are being the one Jesus is coming for. Come to Jesus. It doesn’t matter what you have done or where you have been, just come home. Come to Christ. He is worth it; He is so worth it. And unlike any sinful master we have had before, Jesus is a good master, and none will truly take care of us like He does. If you are one of those that the devil went after to devour, you are held as precious in God’s sight. Come home.

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