Lost and Found!

Build Connection

If you knew you had to lose one important thing in your life, what would you choose to lose?9

And no you can’t say excess pounds!

Nobody likes to lose things. Car keys, wallets, ID, credit cards.

As most of you know My mom passed away last Dec. When we lose loved ones, it is hard to deal with.

What you do when you lose something says a lot about how important that thing is to you.

Create Tension

Another way to tell how valuable something is to you is how you respond when you find what you lost.

The relief and joy you have when you find your wedding ring shows you important that thing is to you!

In the Bible there is something so valuable that has been lost that when it is found, it creates an abundance of Joy in Heaven.

Provide Solution

Luke 15:1–7

“1 Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. 2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them! 3 So Jesus told them this story: 4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!”

Le’s set the stage, Jesus is teaching people that the Pharisees and teachers of religious law identify as sinners. They question his decision making in this matter so he tells them a story about finding something valuable that you have lost.

Maybe he was hinting at them not doing their job…as we read in Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 34:1–6

“1 Then this message came to me from the Lord: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds, the leaders of Israel. Give them this message from the Sovereign Lord: What sorrow awaits you shepherds who feed yourselves instead of your flocks. Shouldn’t shepherds feed their sheep? 3 You drink the milk, wear the wool, and butcher the best animals, but you let your flocks starve. 4 You have not taken care of the weak. You have not tended the sick or bound up the injured. You have not gone looking for those who have wandered away and are lost. Instead, you have ruled them with harshness and cruelty. 5 So my sheep have been scattered without a shepherd, and they are easy prey for any wild animal. 6 They have wandered through all the mountains and all the hills, across the face of the earth, yet no one has gone to search for them.”

Whether Jesus was hinting at that or not we do know he cares about the sheep enough to go after them himself.

Ezekiel 34:11–12

“11 “For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search and find my sheep. 12 I will be like a shepherd looking for his scattered flock. I will find my sheep and rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on that dark and cloudy day.”

But Jesus doesn’t stop there about searching for the lost. Right after talking about the lost sheep he goes on to say.

Luke 15:8–10

“8 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.””

In both of these stories we see

something was lost

someone is searching for that lost item

the lost item was found

and rejoicing after the lost thing was found.

But Jesus doesn’t stop with these two stories, he goes on to tell them a parable about a lost son.

Luke 15:11-32 -

Let’s review this story

A father has two sons, one wants his inheritance early, gets it and spends it on wild living. Then a famine hits and he get’s stuck feed pigs and starving. When he comes to his senses, he returns home to be a servant in his father’s house. But instead his father celebrates his return. Then the other son, who stayed home like a good son, complains about the celebration. The father tells him

31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’ ”

All three of these stories are told to illustrate one important fact…how the Pharisees and religious teachers were acting toward the tax collector and sinners was not how God acted!

Maybe we should be happy when people come to know Jesus.

Romans 12:15 “15 Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep.”

Interesting little fact Jesus spends 190 words (in the greek) to talk about the son’s departure and decision to return home and 199 words (in the greek) to talk about his celebration and the older sons complaint.

While the main point in all these parables is the celebration of the lost thing that was found I want to highlight their differences.

It didn’t matter how the lost Item got lost, when it was found, there was a celebration!

Celebration is always the right response to the lost being found!

We see three different ways the lost got that way.

the coin was just lost.

the sheep wondered away without knowing it

the son knowingly walked away

It doesn’t matter how the lost gets lost, the important part is how we respond.

The one who lost something reacted in a way to indicate how valuable that lost item was.

With the coin and sheep, the owner looked for it until it was found.

With the lost son, the father eagerly kept an eye out for his son to return.

You need to know how valuable you are.

Genesis 1:26–27 “26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us…”

Luke 19:10 “10 For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.””

1 John 3:1 “1 See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!

Matthew 20:28 “28 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.””

Romans 5:8 “8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

Encourage Change

As we close, I want to invite you to respond to God, the altar is going to be open for you.

Maybe you are like the coin, your lost and need Jesus to save you.

Or maybe you are like to sheep, where you are lost because you unknowingly wandered away from God.

Isaiah 53:6 “6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.”

Or maybe you are like the lost son where you purposefully walked away to do your own thing.

Or maybe you are no longer lost, but your attitude has become like that of the Pharisees and religious teachers and you don’t really have a concern for the lost, or you do but you don’t celebrate their return.