Lost: Part 1
Notes
Transcript
God’s Heart For The Lost
God’s Heart For The Lost
For God So Loved The World
For God So Loved The World
16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
3-Part Series looking @ God’s Love for His People
Enough to seek us out
Enough to Welcome us Home
Enough to send us out to find more lost!
Week-1 - God seeks lost People
Week-2 - God Welcomes the Lost to Return
Week-3 - We are mandated to GO TO the Lost w/ this message.
God Created, Man separated
God Pursued, because He loves us.
His choice, His Love
God Desires the Lost be found.
For the Son of Man* came to seek and save those who are lost.”
They are so lost that they need saving, but they are also so lost that they need seeking.
Charles Spurgeon
God Seeks Lost People
I was once LOST
My conversion experience:
Life was Good, Had Family, Car, Friends
Didn’t know anything was missing
I was “Christian” (Grandparents went to church)
VBS - (Outreach) Heard the Truth
Found out I was Lost (I Didn’t even know it!)
Until I had opportunity to respond to God’s Salvific Gospel Message
20/20 - God had been planting seeds throughout my life
Aunt Mary & Uncle Jerry
Summer Salt
Church Camp
Prior to my conversion, God was at work in my life through THE CHURCH
They were the hands & feet of God as He sought me out!
God Seeks Lost People
We all were lost once
10 As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous— not even one.
QUESTION:
Who presented the Gospel to you in a way you understood & could respond?
Grew up in Church
Parents / SS Teacher
Came to Faith in Teens
Youth Leader / School Friend
Later in Life
Friend, coworker, family member
All these ways = OUTREACH
God Seeks Lost People
Scripture gives 3 Parables about the Lost
1st two = God values the Lost enough to search them out
Third Parable = Reflects on God’s perspective of people returning to Him
NEXT WEEK
This WEEK the first two
The Divine Search Party: A Celebration of Redemption
The Divine Search Party: A Celebration of Redemption
1. Persistent Pursuit of Love
1. Persistent Pursuit of Love
Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!
So Jesus told them this story: “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?
Context:
Jesus ministry to all, drew “all”.
Self-righteous Pharisees ø like this
Jesus used a parable to explain the conundrum of associating w/sinners when on a mission of saving souls.
Sheep Context
Value:
Practical: wool, milk, meat, manure
Economic: Trade, wealth, bartering
Religious: Sacrifice & temple rituals
Social: Status & dowries
Symbol of life, community, & blessing
100 sheep = medium herd (middle-class)
Shepherd was in charge of their care
Food & water, care for injuries, protect from poachers & wild animals
Loosing one was impactful!
Shepherds “CARED” for their herd.
All of them!
There was value in the sheep to the shepherd that the sheep didn’t understand.
Similar to the value mankind has God
Not for anything we can produce or do, but value known to God that we can’t comprehend
So the Shepherd notices one missing, and takes off to find it.
Explain safety of the 99
Other shepherds or sheep’s pen
The shepherd will search for that one lost sheep:
UNTIL HE FINDS IT
ø for an hour, 15 minutes, until he is tired…
…UNTIL HE FINDS IT!
Jesus is making a connection:
Sheep to Shepherd = People to God
Not one of us is insignificant in the eyes of the Divine Shepherd!
God values every one of us as worth leaving the 99 to find if lost.
His love pursues us all, no matter how far we have strayed!
2. Profound Joy in Restoration
2. Profound Joy in Restoration
And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 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!
That shepherd will dutifully carry the lost sheep back to the flock.
Whether injured, exhausted, or stubborn/confused…
…the shepherd returns that lost sheep by his own power & strength, not the sheep’s
Just like God does with us when we are lost.
It is not by your power, strength, or intelligence…
…but by the power of God!
By Grace alone, through Faith alone, in Christ alone
This is not a burden!
The shepherd carries that lost sheep JOYFULLY!..
…inviting his community OIKOS to join him in that JOY of finding that Lost Sheep
So to does God joyfully carry us.
And Jesus tells us that like a human OIKOS would celebrate the return of a lost sheep..
..HEAVEN rejoices over a lost person returning to God!
It’s a communal rejoicing on earth & in heaven that is Bigger than the Super Bowl!
We get to join God, Angels, Those who have gone before us, the heavenly council, ALL OF HEAVEN in cheering for a lost soul now reunited w/God!
Jesus then drives home the preciousness of every soul!…
3. Preciousness of Every Soul
3. Preciousness of Every Soul
“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? 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.’ In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”
The value of 10 silver coins:
3-5 sheep
3,000 liters of barley
(Enough to feed a family for a year)
Plot of Farmland
House
Dowry for a bride
ALOT of money for a typical person!
This woman meticulously searched her house.
Symbolizing the careful & deliberate nature of God’s love for us.
Like the woman searching for something of value…
…God values each of us as irreplaceable treasure.
YOU ARE IRREPLACEABLE!
There is no other person in existence like you!
…nor will there ever be!
God values YOU individually.
Enough to search His entire house (all of creation) for you!
Of course, God knows where you are.
We are speaking metaphorically here.
But imagine the lengths God goes through for your salvation.
Jesus on the †
The Scripture in your hands
Working thru all the people in your lineage
Working thru all the people in your life who pointed you to Christ
All seeking to “find” you!
By the example set in these parables, we should be COMPELLED to mirror God's diligence and commitment in seeking and restoring the Lost.
Going back to the reason Jesus was telling these parables: The Pharisees were condemning him for associating with sinners..
…we should be especially be seeking those who feel forgotten or marginalized, recognizing their intrinsic worth.
Divine Search Party’s Success
Divine Search Party’s Success
God’s way of making this happen once & for all is JESUS
God’s way of making this happen once & for all is JESUS
16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
He did it for you!
He did it for you!
And everyone else in the world
You may have accepted this free gift…
…but what are you doing with it?
Example of spending $$$ on yourself vs others
God sought you to reconcile you to Himself
Are you keeping that all for yourself, or are you sharing it?
If God asked you to help Him find a sheep, would you be willing to help Him look?
How about a coin?
Hall Balloons Example
Entire floor of classrooms emptied into the halls
Each person was to find their balloon and return to their classroom and sit down
Once everyone sat in their seats in their classroom, the game was over
UTTER CHAOS
Took almost the whole class period
Started over, one rule change…
…find the nearest balloon, and hand it to the person whose name is on it.
< 5min
If the seats in our classroom represent those who are saved
…and the hallway represents the cooridoor of lost people
…and the balloons are the Gospel message…
…instead of waiting for each person to “find their own salvation”
…we could just point the nearest person to Jesus!
How quickly would that hallway empty?
How quickly could our community change?
Luke 15:7 “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!”
Luke 15:10 “10 In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.””
How much rejoicing would there be in Heaven if we each participated one for God?
Know anyone within your sphere of influence who needs to be handed a balloon of salvation?
