The Lost Sheep

INTRO.

What’s up everybody? Like Matt said, my name is Dave—I’m one of the pastors around here, and I’ve got to tell you, I am SO pumped for this week. Aren’t you?

Now some of you are looking at me like, “Are you sure you’re pumped? You’ve got some pretty big bags under your eyes and you look like you haven’t slept much…”Fair. I’m also a new dad.

Fair. I’m also a new dad.

This is my wife Shelby, and our son Marshall. [Family Picture]

He's really cute – which make it worth it because there’s a lot of things that I used to do before we had him that I don’t do anymore…like sleep or travel or hike. We used to hike a lot actually.

Which is pretty ironic because I’m terrible with directions. Waze is my most used app. If I don’t have a map there is a 100% chance I’m going to end up lost.

TENSION.

Have you ever gotten lost?

A few years ago, Shelb and I went hiking up in Asheville and found this random trail deep in the woods.

The way up was perfect. The overlook was incredible. But the way down… not so much.

We weren’t sure if the trail looped or if we needed to double back. While we were debating, we saw some hikers heading down the backside of the mountain—so we did what everyone else was doing… and followed them.

About an hour in, we knew—we were not on the right trail. But by that point, we were too far in to turn around. So we just kept walking…hoping something would look familiar. Eventually, we made it to a road and started following it. And that’s when a beat-up truck full of Florida men pulled up beside us and rolled down the window.

The guy leaned out and said, “Hey, just so you know… y’all are on 200 acres of black bear hunting property. Might wanna throw something bright on if you’ve got it.”

And while I’m talking to this man, I notice Shelby is completely silent—just staring into the bed of the truck… at a dead bear.

For a while, we were lost and didn’t know it. But once we realized it—we weren’t just lost. We were in danger. And finding our way back felt impossible.

Here’s the thing: Being lost is not just a hiking problem. It’s a human problem.

And just like Shelby and I on the hike, I think some of us are lost right now but don’t know it yet.

We might not say we’re lost…and no one else would say we’re lost…but deep down we’re not sure we’re going in the right direction either.

We’ve been doing what everyone else is doing.

We fit in.

People around us seem to like us.

It looks like we’re doing everything we’re “supposed” to be doing. Our life looks successful, things look put together…but on the inside, something just feels off that we can’t quite put our finger on. Some of us are lost and don’t know it.

But others of us KNOW we’re lost.

We’ve made mistakes we don’t talk about.

We’ve hurt people.

We’ve hurt people.

We’ve crossed lines we said we wouldn’t cross.

We’ve crossed lines we said we wouldn’t cross.

And we’ve been carrying stuff—shame, regret, fear—that feels too heavy to hand to anyone else.

And we’ve been carrying stuff—shame, regret, fear—that feels too heavy to hand to anyone else.

Maybe you feel like you’ve already blown your shot. Like if there’s a God, He probably gave up on you a long time ago. Or if He hasn't, then He’s at least disappointed—and waiting for you to fix yourself before He’d ever want you back.

Or maybe you've just been lost for so long, you wouldn’t even know where to begin.

You hear people talk about forgiveness or grace or purpose… and part of you wants to believe it’s real. But the other part of you whispers, “Yeah, maybe for them. But not for you.” Because when you’re really lost, the idea of being found doesn’t feel comforting. It feels impossible.

I guess what I’m really asking is, whether you’re lost and you don’t know it, or you’re lost and you do: if you’re lost…can you be found? Or can you be too lost to be found?

TRUTH.

Believe it or not, that’s the exact question being wrestled with in Luke 15.

At the start of that chapter, Jesus is surrounded by two very different groups of people: One group was made up of sinners and tax collectors—people who knew they were lost. The other group was the Pharisees and religious leaders—people who were lost…they just didn’t know it.

Luke 15:1 says,

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

The Pharisees saw who Jesus was spending time with—and started to complain. ‘Why would someone like Him welcome people like them?’ In their minds, the sinners and tax collectors had messed up too badly. They’d wandered too far. They were too lost to be found.

And in the middle of that debate, Jesus responds by telling 3 stories about “lost” things: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son.

Tonight, we’re going to look at the lost sheep…but isn’t it interesting that as Jesus listens to the complaints of the Pharisees about the sinners and tax collectors that He responds with stories of something being lost? To Jesus, their complaints about the Son of God keeping company with “lost” people showed that they had lost something about the heart of God.

So, Jesus tells three stories—and He starts with the lost sheep.

4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?

If I were in the crowd, my response would be…no?

If I have 100 sheep and I lose 1, I’m not leaving 99 to go find 1. I’ll just replace the one. Leaving 99 of anything in order to go get 1 of something feels like a TERRIBLE trade.

1 out of 99 feels like an acceptable loss.

And if Jesus were really talking about sheep, that might be true. But He’s not just talking about sheep. He’s talking about us. And He’s not the first to do it. In fact, all throughout Scripture, people are described like sheep.

One of the most famous passages in the entire Bible, Psalm 23, starts with

1 The Lord is my shepherd…

David is likening himself to a sheep.

Isaiah 53:6 says,

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray..

Isaiah compares us to sheep who have wandered off and gotten lost.

Jesus isn’t really talking about sheep. He’s using a story of sheep to talk about us. Leaving 99 to go after 1 only makes sense in that light, because you realize that the 1 lost sheep is as irreplaceable to the Shepherd as a kid is to a parent. When it comes to kids, there are no acceptable losses.

So, the Shepherd goes after the lost sheep.

But let’s talk about the sheep for a moment, because I can relate to the sheep.

We do not know how the sheep became lost; we just know that it is lost. I imagine that the sheep was just chasing down some grass to eat and didn’t realize that it was lost for quite some time. But there would have been a moment when the sheep looked up and realized that it was lost and it would have been overwhelming. First of all, a lone sheep wandering the land would be susceptible to attack. Wolves eat sheep, and a lost sheep that has gotten away from its shepherd would be a prime candidate for a wolf to attack.

But not only that, sheep rely on the shepherd to be led where they need to go. The sheep separated from its shepherd is directionless. And once the sheep realizes that it is lost, not only is it in danger, but it has no hope of finding its way back on its own.

The sheep is not just lost. It is in danger and it is hopeless to find its own way back.

But the shepherd goes after the sheep…

5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home.

Not only does the Shepherd go after the sheep…the Shepherd finds the sheep. The text does not say “if he finds it,” it says, “when he finds it.”

Also notice that the shepherd didn’t just find any sheep. This wasn’t about the shepherd replacing the 1 that he had lost so that the flock could be back up to 100 again. The shepherd found THE sheep that had been lost. He looked for a specific sheep and he found THAT ONE.

And once he finds it, the shepherd JOYFULLY puts the sheep on his shoulders and goes home.

Have you ever had a pet run away from home before? Don’t put your hand up if it’s a cat…they run away from home like every week. That doesn’t count.

I had a black lab growing up named Stella. And if she EVER went outside and wasn’t on a leash, she BOLTED. And every time that she would run away, I had to go out to find her and bring her back. And let me tell you something, I was never joyful about bringing her back after she ran away. I was annoyed that she made me get up from what I was doing to have to go look for her. I was mad that she never learned and kept doing it. I always gave her a good talking to after I found her to make sure she knew how bad she was for running away.

The shepherd isn’t like that. It brings Him JOY to find the sheep that was lost. And not only that, he willingly does all of the work to bring the sheep back home. In the parable, the sheep never takes 1 step back home – the sheep is carried the whole way home by the shepherd. And once they get home…

Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’

What’s Jesus’ point?

Well, remember, the story is a response to a question: If you are lost, can you be found? Or can you be too lost to be found?

And while some people—like the Pharisees—might say, “Yes. Some people are just too far gone…” And while you might even believe that about yourself...

That’s not what God says. God says:

Everyone that is lost can be found.

APPLICATION.

That’s the heart of this story. And it’s the heart of the gospel.

But there’s one more part of the story that’s easy to miss—and I think it matters. Jesus said earlier that the shepherd leaves ninety-nine sheep to go after the one that’s lost. But then He closes the story by saying, 

7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

And that made me wonder: Who are the ninety-nine who don’t need repentance? Who are the 99 sheep that the shepherd left in order to find the one?

You know what I discovered?

We’ll never know. Because they’re none of us. We’re all the one sheep.

We’ve all wandered. We’ve all been lost. We’ve all needed to be found.

Which means every person in this room falls into one of two categories:

You are a lost sheep who has been found by the Shepherd—and carried home by His grace.

Or… you are a lost sheep who hasn’t been found yet—but could be.

GOSPEL.

The gospel is bad news before it’s good news. And the bad news is this: All of us, like sheep, have gone astray.

We’ve wandered from the voice of our Shepherd.

We’ve wandered from the voice of our Shepherd. We’ve chased things that looked good in the moment but led us further from home.

Scripture tells us that every one of us was made in the image of God—made for relationship with Him. But sin—our decision to go our own way—has separated us from the Shepherd who made us.

And it’s not just that we’re lost…We’re in danger.

A sheep separated from its shepherd is vulnerable, directionless, and unable to find its way back on its own.

The cost of our sin is death—eternal separation from God, and a life marked by a broken version of who we were made to be.

But the good news?

We have a Good Shepherd, and His name is Jesus.

John 3:16 tells us:

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him

Jesus didn’t wait for you to find your way back. He left heaven to come after you. He came to seek and to save what was lost.

Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life—the only one who ever walked this earth and didn’t stray from the Shepherd’s voice. And even though He didn’t deserve death, He laid His life down—like a Lamb led to the slaughter—to pay for your sin and mine.

But the best news?

The Shepherd who laid down His life didn’t stay dead. Three days later, He rose again—victorious over sin and death—and now He’s alive, seated at the right hand of God, interceding for us. And now, anyone—any lost sheep—who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved.

Romans 10:9 says:

9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

You can be found.

You can be carried home.

You can be restored into the flock—into the family of God.

And not just for eternity in heaven—but starting now. You can walk with the Shepherd today.

So, here’s the truth—everything we’ve talked about tonight, all the good news of the gospel, every ounce of grace and rescue and restoration—it all starts with one thing: You have to admit that you’re lost.

That’s what repentance is. It’s not getting your life together. It’s not fixing everything. It’s simply saying, “I’m lost… and I need to be found.”

That’s the moment the Shepherd moves. That’s the moment heaven rejoices. That’s the moment everything changes.

So tonight, if you're sitting here and you know deep down—I'm lost—but for the first time, you're starting to believe… maybe I could be found…Then this is your moment.

Let the Shepherd carry you home.

Here’s how you can respond tonight: If you would say, ‘I’m lost—and I want to be found by Jesus,’ I want you to stand in just a moment with your hand raised like you’re trying to get someone’s attention that’s looking for you.

But before you do I want you to know that sometimes churches ask everyone to close their eyes during moments like this. But I want everyone to keep their eyes open because this is a moment that you shouldn’t be ashamed of, it’s a moment that you should be really excited about.

I want everyone in the room to see it because, like I said, everyone here is the one sheep. And there are many formerly lost sheep that have been found that are in the room, and seeing you be found is a beautiful reminder of why we do what we do.

So, if you’re lost but you’re ready to be found by your Good Shepherd and become a follower of Jesus, stand up!

C’MON CAMP 2025, let’s join Jesus and the rest of heaven and CELEBRATE our friends who were lost that have been found!

[Pause to celebrate]

Thank you for your courage. This is a special moment, and I would love to pause and pray together so that we don’t move past this too quickly.

All of us in here are going to pray the prayer on the screen out loud, but for those of you who are standing, you’re going to pray this and it will be that moment of confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. This is the moment where you get to be found by your Good Shepherd.

So, let’s pray together.

Jesus, I admit that I’m lost. I’ve gone my own way. I’ve wandered from You. But I believe You came looking for me. I believe You died for me. I believe You rose again. And tonight, I want to come home. I’m putting my trust in You. Be my Shepherd. Carry me. Lead me. Save me. In Jesus’ name, amen.

What just happened tonight is why we do this. Some of you went from lost… to found. If that was you—welcome home.

But I need you to hear me: This isn’t the finish line. This is the starting line.

We don’t want you to just have one great night with Jesus. We want to help you live a great life with Him. The best way we can do that is together.

So if you stood up tonight—or if God was just doing something real in your heart—I want to challenge you to do something before the night ends: Tell your small group.

Tell them what God stirred in you. Tell them what you prayed. Tell them how you want to live differently because of what happened tonight.

You weren’t made to follow Jesus alone—and your group would love to walk with you and teach you not just how to believe in Jesus but how to follow Jesus.

And for the rest of us, maybe you’re frustrated because you already have been found by the Good Shepherd, but you still feel lost.

Don’t forget—Jesus didn’t just tell one story about something lost being found. He told three.

Tonight is just the beginning of what I believe God wants to do this week.

Don’t check out. Don’t assume this moment was it.

Stay locked in. Stay expectant.

And who knows—maybe your moment is closer than you think.

Let’s pray together and thank Him for what He’s already done—and ask Him to keep showing up.

[Pray to close]