Sermon Tone Analysis

Stairway to Heaven

9~/7~/02 and 9~/18~/02

 

-No, I’m not talking about a rock song from a 70’s English rock band.

-I’m going to look at some steps that can lead others to a saving relationship with Jesus.

-I’m drawing to a close on the subject of reaching the lost but hopefully we get to a place where we do it.

-I know you have been hearing this for a while, I can’t preach anything else right now.

 

*/1.

/**/LOST PEOPLE MATTER TO JESUS/*

*/ /*

Luke 15 – The Message

*15 **/By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently.

The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased.

They growled, “He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends.”

Their grumbling triggered this story./*

*/     “Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one.

Wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it?

When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Celebrate with me! I’ve found my lost sheep!’ Count on it—there’s more joy in heaven over one sinner’s rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue./*

*/The Story of the Lost Coin/*

*/“Or imagine a woman who has ten coins and loses one.

Won’t she light a lamp and scour the house, looking in every nook and cranny until she finds it?

And when she finds it you can be sure she’ll call her friends and neighbors: ‘Celebrate with me!

I found my lost coin!’ Count on it—that’s the kind of party God’s angels throw every time one lost soul turns to God.”/*

*/The Story of the Lost Son/*

*/Then he said, “There was once a man who had two sons.

The younger said to his father, ‘Father, I want right now what’s coming to me.’/*

*/     “So the father divided the property between them.

It wasn’t long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country.

There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had.

After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt.

He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs.

He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any./*

*/     “That brought him to his senses.

He said, ‘All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death.

I’m going back to my father.

I’ll say to him, “Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son.

Take me on as a hired hand.”’

He got right up and went home to his father./*

*/     “When he was still a long way off, his father saw him.

His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him.

The son started his speech: ‘Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son ever again.’/*

*/     “But the father wasn’t listening.

He was calling to the servants, ‘Quick.

Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him.

Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it.

We’re going to feast!

We’re going to have a wonderful time!

My son is here—given up for dead and now alive!

Given up for lost and now found!’

And they began to have a wonderful time./*

*/     “All this time his older son was out in the field.

When the day’s work was done he came in.

As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing.

Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on.

He told him, ‘Your brother came home.

Your father has ordered a feast—barbecued beef!—because he has him home safe and sound.’/*

*/     “The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in.

His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen.

The son said, ‘Look how many years I’ve stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends?

Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!’/*

*/     “His father said, ‘Son, you don’t understand.

You’re with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate.

This brother of yours was dead, and he’s alive!

He was lost, and he’s found!’”/*

*/ /*

-This a great story by Jesus.

-Really its three great stories that are all saying the same thing.

-What triggers it all is the attitude of the religious people to the “sinners”.

-The common people heard Jesus gladly.

-The problem comes in if the religion gets in the way of Jesus and His message.

-Jesus then tells them three stories:

THE LOST SHEEP

 

THE LOST COIN

 

THE LOST SON

 

-The real point of the parables is how the one who lost the items value them.

-The main characters are the ones who lost something.

v.

6 tells the attitude of the shepherd for the one lost sheep.

It mattered to the owner.

v.

7 make the connection.

Heaven has a party every time someone comes to Jesus.

There was a day when I was the theme of one of those parties.

-Angels get excited when humans repent and respond to God.

 

-The woman who lost the coin had a party when she found it.

-This was a very costly coin-probably a very important part of her inheritance.

-Jessica lost an expensive ring and we looked everywhere.

Why?

Because it mattered.

-Lastly we see the son who wishes his father was dead and heads off for the city.

-The father of course is a picture of God watching for us.

-A side thought is that there were two prodigal sons, the one who stayed and the one who left.

-The one who stayed felt like it wasn’t fair to give any attention to the rebel…….YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE THAT DO YOU??

 

-What is the point?

-God is telling us how valuable we are to Him.

 

-Lost people matter to God.

 

-Jesus was demonstrating to the religious people that GOD VALUES THOSE PEOPLE HE WAS HANGING WITH.

*/-Jesus came to seek and save the lost.

It is the sick who need a physician./*

2.

DEVELOP A STRATEGY

 

-If this is God’s value system, what are you planning to do about it?

(Parable of a lifesaving station)

 

-Next week I am going to give away some little books called: Team Mate.