Lost and Found

Introduction

A few years ago, I read a book entitled, “The Cold Vanish,” which chronicles how many people disappear in national parks each year.

Hundreds of thousands of manhunt hours to try to find missing people.

The book highlights the number of people who are missing and have never been found, those who were found and what it cost to find them, and the open ended cases.

I read the book, because I like a good thriller and I love national parks. I never expected to be confronted with what a family faces when they lose a child in the middle of a vast wilderness.

In one of the stories, Randy Gray drove from Santa Cruz, California to Olympic National Park in Washington consistently to look for his son. His relationship to his job, his friends, his family, and every aspect of his life in California changed.

To us, those stories are just stories. But to Randy, it isn’t a story. It’s his son.

As Christians, we look out over the world, and we see the vast lostness. Those who are far from God. And they seem like just stories to us. But to God, they are his children. And He desires that the lost would be found.

Read Luke 15:1–10

Explanation

Luke 15:1–2 “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.””

1. The Pharisees sin in his passage is their neglect of valuing people the way God values them. We struggle in the same way: (1) We struggle to value others the way God does and (2) we struggle to value ourselves the way God does.

Who are the people that, if this passage listed Jesus eating with them instead of the tax collectors, would wrinkle your brow. There is not a soul alive today who Jesus doesn’t value.

On the other side, we look at our heart and wonder how God could love us.

2. We see in this text something very clear - God’s rejoicing over those who have been lost who are found.

Charles Spurgeon // Consider how precious a soul must be, when both God and the devil are after it.

Luke 15:3–7 “So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

We can marvel at the love of God for his children in many ways in this passage.

We marvel in that Jesus sees our lostness or isolation from Him as a tragic and horrid loss.

Jesus wants you. Not simply to tolerate you.

If a shepherd would go after one sheep and a woman would overturn her house to find a days wages, how much more does God delight in you? How much more does God overturn all things past to find you?

We marvel in that God is willing to incur loss for the sake of finding the one sheep.

Jesus is not weighing the importance of the 99 sheep vs the lost sheep. He is showing the immense value of it each and every one of his sheep.

Isaiah 40:11 “He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.”

On the cross, Jesus became that shepherd for you and for me. He left eternal bliss and glory and stepped into our mess to find us, to redeem us, to make us new in Him.

Jesus rejoices over every one of his children who are found.

It is no exaggeration or speculation for us to attempt to imagine the eruption of heaven that took place the moment these precious girls prayed to give their lives to Jesus.

The Lord delights no less in finding you than any other. He looks at you as a prized possession.

As a church, its why I think we can up our celebration when someone is baptized here. That person was once lost and they are found. Imagine the shouts and the weeping for joy and the party that ensues after someone lost for days in a national park is found.

If anything ought to cause us to lose our minds, its that God is still rescuing the lost.

Let me ask you a question: Does your heart mirror the heart of heaven? I see heaven making the most noise around two things: the glory of God and the finding of the lost.

What gets you up in the morning? What puts wind in your sails? It ought be that God is glorious, and He saves! Everything else you do - your job, your hobbies, your family, and your mental and physical energy - have to serve that purpose.

William Carey, the great Baptist missionary to India, labored for eight years before seeing the first South Indian man come to know Christ. EIGHT YEARS!

Luke 15:8–10 ““Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.””

Jesus doubles down with this parable. The only difference is, in the second parable, he is showing how precious those who are lost to him are.

This coin, a denarius, is only worth a small sum. And there is the point - what would be considered a small sum to those listening to the story is precious beyond measure to the woman.

What does it meant to be lost? You don’t know where you are, and you don’t know where you are going.

Spiritual lostness isn’t “lost in Kroger” kind of lostness. I mean. we have a big Kroger in Versailles, so no shame… No, spiritual lostness is Bermuda Triangle lostness. National Park kind of lostness. There is no one coming, and there is no way to get out.

What does it mean to be personally lost? You don’t know where you are or where you are going.

You wake up and do the same routine, but you have this restless “lack-of-centeredness” feeling that lies below the surface of your life, and it greatly unsettles you.

Lostness it the incessant bouncing from one thing to another seeking satisfaction only to bang your hands against the wall in frustration that another toy, another pleasure, and another ideology didn’t satisfy.

What does it meant to be found?

Augustine of Hippo was a brilliant young man from Carthage around AD400 who moved to Rome and began to make a splash in the capital of the Roman empire. He was a brilliant rhetorician, and this caused his fame to grow.

He used this fame to amass for himself everything he wanted - wealth, women and prestige. But something was deeply missing.

He describes what his soul felt in this time: “I fretted, sighed, wept, and was distracted, and I had neither rest nor counsel. I bore a shattered and bleeding soul, and I found nowhere to rest it. Not in calm groves of trees, not in games or music, nor in fragrant spots, nor in curious feasts, nor in the pleasures of the bed, nor in books or poetry could I find rest.

Augustine eventually gave his life to the Lord and found rest for his soul.

Augustine of Hippo, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds rest in thee.”

Invitation

Augustine of Hippo // “For what am I to myself without You, but a guide to my own downfall?”