Searching Love

In Luke 15, Jesus tells one parable in three movements — the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost sons — showing God’s relentless pursuit of the lost. Whether wandering, misplaced, or joyless, we have a Shepherd, a Bride, and a Father who search us out and rejoice when we are found.

Transcript

Me to the Gospel according to Luke. You should know this by now. Gospel according to Luke. And we're plugging right along here, journeying with Jesus. We're in Luke 15.

Notice these words as we find them in Luke 15. When you found the gospel of Luke, chapter 15 and verse 1, go ahead and stand with me for our gospel reading this morning.

Notice these words.

This is the word of God. All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, this fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them. So he told them this parable, which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it. When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices.

And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and 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 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. Or what woman having 10 sinners silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it. When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, rejoice with me, for I found the coin that I had lost.

Just so. I tell you, there is joy in the the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

Jesus, we thank you for your word.

We thank you that you are the word of God. And today, as we've already been challenged, would we listen to your word today? Help us to have ears to hear and eyes to see. We pray in your name. Amen.

You can be seated.

Years ago, when Blakely was little, we went on a trip to Disney World. And this is kind of in DAG lore now, and Jessica and I kind of disagree a little bit about how this exactly happened, but here it goes. We were going to eat at one of these places that cost $5,000 to eat at. And so we were trying to get the kids, and of course, they could care less about eating. And so I'm already annoyed about that because I'm about to shell out all this money.

And so we quickly. You know, if you've ever been to Disney World, you know that there's literal parking, not park stroller jams, if you will. Do you know what I'm talking About everybody's got these strollers, and there's, like. Instead of car, you know, jams and whatnot, it's. It's strollers, and they're everywhere, and there's, like, parking.

You have to walk 5 minutes to go park a stroller, if you can believe that or not. Anybody know what I'm talking about here? Okay, so we're trying to park the stroller. Blakely's in the stroller. We park her there, and we shoot to the restaurant, you know, because we're wanting to get ahead of all these other people that are just now pulling up in their little parking spaces, you know, and we get in line, and all of a sudden, I said, where's Blakely?

And we're like, oh, you know, and there's this moment of panic, right? Because she's back there in the stroller, you know, and the stroller's like. I don't know. It feels like five minutes away. It really wasn't, but.

But nevertheless, she had one of those coverings, you know, and just nobody really. It was parked there and left her, you know, and there's this moment of panic when you realize this kind of thing, right? Like you've lost something very precious to you. I mean, if you know our household. Blakely's kind of my favorite, you know, in some sense.

I mean, I just. Why lie? Why lie in church? You know? Let's just be real.

We've got four boys, and then Blakely, and she's Blakely, so she has to be somewhat of a favorite, okay? So let's just be real about that. And here I am. Everybody's like, what in the world? Till we run.

I mean, everybody just. Well, maybe we kept somebody in line. I don't know. Hey, you stay here. Hold the line, you know?

And then we ran, and we recovered her, obviously, and she's still with us today, thankfully. So disaster averted, right? We've probably all had that feeling of losing something, right? Whether. Whether it's a charger for our phone, which seems to be a normal thing for people to lose, or maybe it's something more precious than a physical thing at all.

Maybe we lost the luster of life. You know what that's like? It's like going through your life that normally brings joy, but now you go through it, and there is no joy. Anybody ever been there? It's like a dark.

It's like what they show in the cartoons, you know, where there's this. Just this dark cloud that seems to just be over there. You and you're thinking, everybody else is having fun. Why can't I? Sometimes we lose more than just physical things.

And I think there's an interesting thing that's going on in our text today which has to do with lostness and also of being found, of course. Now all of this is prompted by the Pharisees, okay? Jesus is, because of who he is, sinners are coming to him. And we're kind of given tax collectors and sinners just to show a concrete example of the type of people it was, the type of people who betrayed, or so the Jews thought betrayed their own kind, right? So sort of the worst of the worst, if you will.

At least in the 1st century Jewish understanding is. And they were coming to Jesus, and that didn't make people happy. You know, when your enemy comes to get forgiven, it wasn't making them happy. So what do they do? They did what the Israelites had done in the Old Testament, and they grumble in a sense.

They did what Jonah did. Remember, God says, go to the Ninevites. That was the Assyrians, by the way. Very nasty, nasty nation. Lots of suffering brought into the world by the Assyrians.

And he says, go to the Assyrians. And more than likely, Jonah had been impacted directly by the evil that the Assyrians were placing in the world and enacting in the world. And yet God calls him to go to his enemies and preach. And he preaches the, you know, and you know the whole story, right? He goes the opposite way, right?

He was supposed to go this way, he went that way and tried to get away. And it's a long story. You need to go read it. But at the end of the day, he goes and he finally just begrudgingly preaches the lousiest sermon in the whole Bible. You know, it's like nine words and everybody repents.

And he's mad about it. I mean, he's fit to be tied. He wanted to see them destroyed. He wanted to see justice enacted.

And so do we. So do we. We think we like justice, but justice is one of those tricky things. Justice is good, no doubt. But dear brothers and sisters, justice is not the highest good.

Grace is greater than justice. If not, then I'm still stuck in my sins and going to bust hell wide open, I can tell you that. Vile sinners we are. And yet God has applied his grace. God has become one of us.

To save us, in fact. And I think that's exactly what's going on here. Jesus, he is interesting at the first. Here, you can see. So he told them this Parable.

Not parables, but parable. And yet we get three. You know, in chapter 15 here, we get three parables, or at least the way we typically divide it. Jesus just sees it as one. And it's three movements.

You've got the good shepherd here, you've got the sweeping woman, and then you've got the prodigal son and the older brother or some have called this. The two sons. Three different parables with one clear message about being lost and then found again. So notice in this first one, Jesus tells us which one of you. So he puts us in the seat.

He puts that first century Jew in the seat of the person like which one of you. Right. Because Jesus is a good teacher. And so he wants them to imagine this for themselves. He doesn't just start teaching didactically here, by the way.

He tells stories to invite you in. And so we want to be invited into these same stories today. And here's the. Here's the easy way to say, look, if you had a hundred sheep and you lose one, who doesn't go and go find the other. But here's the way he says it.

You leave the 99 to go after the 1. And of course, any first century Jew, and they would have been very familiar with shepherding. The Israelites have been shepherding ever since Abraham, okay? They would have all said the same things like, well, no one would do that. That's ridiculous.

You've already got 99. You only lost one. Are you kidding me? You cut your losses, keep the 99. It'd be insane to go after 1 when you've got 99.

But aren't you glad he goes after the 1?

It's a crazy thing, but that's kind of the point with a parable. He's normally pitting something that you typically wouldn't think about and disrupting us with that.

You know, I often just like, I make up a name when I'm making up a story. Jesus never does, but I do. And in my story, it's always Bill who gets lost. Okay? Now that's not directed toward anyone in my family, okay?

But nevertheless, it's always Bill who ends up getting lost. You know, like if you think about, you've got all that, you got this flock of sheep, you're the shepherd, remember? That's what Jesus wants to be. He's wanting us to think, I'm the shepherd. I got all these sheep.

It's be who always gets lost. You know, it's like that family member that's always getting into trouble. And it's like, that's the one. What in the world? Why?

You know, you remember that reel? It was very popular maybe five years ago, and it's probably still going around because every time it goes around, it goes viral again. It's this guy pulling by the leg. You're thinking, man, he's really gonna break that leg of that sheep. You know, it's a sheep stuck in a crevice, okay?

And they have a lot of those, by the way, in where Jesus was here, Judea and all. And they're just pulling. It finally pops out. And, you know, because a sheep's woolly, right? You know, and you're like, oh, wow, there's a whole sheep down in that little crevice, you know?

And then next thing you know, literally two hops, boink, boink, get stuck again. And it's like, bro, how many more times are we going to have to pull you out of this thing, Right?

You know, just being frank, I. I can't tell you how many times that's me. You say, what a doofus. Can he not see there's a hole there bouncing around. He gets stuck. And, you know, that's one of the ways to get lost, is to get stuck.

And I've been stuck before. I've been stuck before, and I could not get myself out. Anybody in here been like that? Like, you just got yourself in a situation, sort of just wandered off the path. I mean, it, a couple inches over, and he wouldn't be stuck.

And, you know, I'm so thankful that no matter how many times I got myself stuck, as soon as I start bleeding. Help. Help. Right? Guess who comes?

The good Shepherd. It's embarrassing. How many times do you hear what I'm saying? Like, it's not like some virtuous thing of mine. It's embarrassing how much I've gotten myself stuck in this or that and needed his help.

And yet that shepherd, that good shepherd, he'll go after the one who is calling for help. Who he doesn't go after is the 99 who don't think they need help. You see, the Scriptures and the Gospels particular are very clear that the righteous quote, unquote, just simply means here, not the people who are doing right. It's the people who think they're doing right and don't see their need for God.

And here's what's neat. I love the imagery here that Jesus gives. He adds this little section, I'm convinced. He says, when he has found it, the sheep bill, right? He lays it on his shoulders and rejoices.

And then you all of a sudden see this picture, right? That famous painting of Jesus the good shepherd, where the sheep is draped across his shoulders.

It's a very moving image. It should be for us.

And one of the times where it really came home for me was when I was in India and I went to a gift shop. I was about to leave after being there for two weeks. Went to a gift shop. I've been surrounded by gods and goddesses. They have 350 million plus gods and goddesses that they worship, Some locally, some nationally.

And I go to this gift shop, and there's all these carved idols, right? All of them. And I'm like, yeah, there's Shiva and Hanuman and et cetera, et cetera. And then all of a sudden, I'm like, whoa, there's Jesus. He was there.

Like, it was literally the good shepherd one. It was the good shepherd. He had the sheep draped across his shoulders. And here's Jesus amidst the gods. Now, I know a little bit about Hinduism and some other religions, but particularly Hinduism.

Saw it in person and, you know, had already studied it before I went over there. And I know this about the gods. They ain't coming after nobody. To put it in good southern lingo, they ain't coming after nobody. You come to them for help.

But you know what our God does? He comes after us. It's embarrassing almost that he has to come after somebody like me. The God of the universe would get his hands dirty and somebody like me. And yet it's exactly what he does.

And then he puts us on his shoulders to carry us. Notice what the scripture says in the old testament. Isaiah 53. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Anybody been grieving?

A little bit? Anybody been sorrowful? A little bit?

Listen, he bears our griefs and our sorrows. The God who is immaterial, not able to be touched by our stuff, makes sure that he gets down in the mix, Comes down to us, reaches into our. And pulls at our leg to release us. And then doesn't just, you know, I would be like, bill, get on. Come on, get your butt over here.

You know, I'd have him in a headlock kind of. Right? No, on the shoulders. Praise God. The sheep that I lost has been found.

Peter says this in First Peter. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.

My sins? Your sins. His blood was spilled for me and for you.

And then he says this. He says, when the shepherd gets back, you know what he does? He invites his friends, right? He invites his neighbors, say, come on, let's celebrate, Bill, right? You know, annoying bit.

And they're thinking, oh, my goodness, Bill. Yes, Bill. Even Marshall. You know, you can suit my name there. Maybe he says this.

There'll be more joy in heaven. Think about this. Over one sinner who repents than 99 righteous persons again, who. Who need no repentance.

Okay, now what about this second image? It's even more interesting than this whole shepherd thing, right? And we're the sheep now, he says, or what woman having 10 silver coins? And by the way, there's probably some background that's helpful here. These were probably dowry coins that went along with her wedding, okay?

So that were given to her, probably 10 of them. This was typical. And so if you lost one of your 10 coins, I mean, that'd be like me losing this ring that's been on my finger since Jessica and I married. You know, I'd be pretty sad about that. You know, I'd be looking.

So he sets up this imagery here of a woman who has lost a coin, and now she's diligently looking for it. Notice what woman having 10 silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp. So as you can see. And then sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it.

Now, in this instance, the early church fathers, I think, are helpful here. This is the church. This is an image of the church who is the bride of Christ. Right? That's the way the Bible talks about the church is to be the bride of Christ.

And the bride is now looking for those who are welcome to the what, marriage? Supper of the lamb, the feast for the marriage. The table again. Right. That's why in our worship service, the table is the center, because it's the table that is Christ.

Preaching comes from over here, right? Our scriptures come from over there. And Christ is to be symbolized here with the. In the shadow of the cross, if you will.

And here the church in this instance is looking and sweeping and searching for those who are lost.

We just sang about how the church was born. The church was born from Christ because the church is the body of. Of Christ. And so we, like that good shepherd, like this woman, are to be diligent in searching out our relationships. Those who are lost, in other words, Christ gives us something to do here.

But, you know, the lostness here with the coin is quite different than that sheep, isn't it? The sheep more than likely wandered off, got lost. Okay? I mean, that's what, you know, that's typical. Okay?

If you're not paying attention, you just wander off. But here, we're dealing with a coin, right? So coin doesn't just wander off on its own. It probably was misplaced. You ever misplaced something before?

Jessica sometimes will do this, and it's kind of funny to me. She's, like, frantically searching. I gotta leave. Honey, where's my sunglasses? I'm like, babe, they're on your head.

You know, pops them up there, completely forgets about them, right? Some things sometimes just get misplaced and we forget about them, don't we? Yeah, I'll say. Like, I actually never lose anything. I just forgot where it was, you know, so it's still somewhere, but oftentimes I can't find it.

And one of those times, you know, was I lost my charger to my computer. And of course, for some of us that do a lot of work on our computer, your computer is sort of like an arm. If I lose my arm, I'm not going to be worth much this week, you know? And I looked everywhere for this chart I'm talking about. I was tearing up my car.

I was destroying every house or every room in our house, and I could not find it. And I remember it was a Saturday night. I was up late. I was thinking about the sermon for the next day and all this, and. And I didn't have a charger, so I went ahead and ordered one, you know, went online and ordered one.

And then it was like the Lord just sort of, hey, you never asked me. Like, you could have asked me for help, you know? So I'm like, okay, certainly I will. I will pray, Lord. And I prayed.

And it's no joke. I mean, you know, believe what you want, but I prayed. And all of a sudden, the Lord was like, by the way, it's in your bag. It's in your bag, okay? And I'm like, in my bag.

So I look in the. You know, I had put it in the. I had never used that before, but I did. And then all of a sudden, it was gone. But now it was found.

Here's the thing. This kind of lostness is inside. You see what I'm saying? In other words, the first one you're wandering out, okay? This one you're actually in and yet still lost.

There's different sort of phases of being. Most of the time we think, oh, yeah, well, I'm not lost, of course, because I know exactly like, I'm in. I'm in the mix. I'm in the. That doesn't Mean that you can't be lost.

In fact, the Pharisees here, right, we would probably agree, like, they're the ones probably Jesus saying, you're lost, which means maybe us who are already here, right, in church, attending church, maybe we need to make sure we're not misplaced. Maybe we need to make sure that we haven't accidentally sort of rolled under the stove. Because whatever rolls under the stove, it's in the house, but it ain't being used. It's been misplaced.

And then it's interesting that we find a rhythm again of this once it's found. Come over and rejoice now, again, this is a drachma. So this is like a day's wage. We're talking $100. You know, if your friend told you, like, hey, I got a big party tomorrow, you're like, oh, yeah?

What's it about? Well, I found $100. It's like, oh, okay. Well, means there are free food, because I'm not really going to come if there's not free. Yes, we're going to have a big celebration because this little thing that was lost.

You see, here's the point I think Jesus is trying to make with this one, is no matter how small, when it's found, we're going to rejoice. And. And not only this. Not only am I going to rejoice, but we're going to gather to rejoice together. You see, it's a communal joy that we're supposed to have.

And the scripture, of course, teaches this. Weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. But unfortunately, in our time, our big temptation is to really just focus on ourself. Head down in the phone, in our own world, connected to the world, thinking we're getting smarter by connecting ourselves to the world and missing those that are around us. What a tragedy.

Missing our kids to be connected to what? What are you going to do about it? When you can do everything about your children, you can do everything about your neighbor. How many of us even know our neighbor? And listen, I'm preaching to myself.

Don't think I'm like, ooh, you know, No, I just moved somewhere new. I got to get to know all these folks, and we're slowly doing it. And it's always interesting. By the way, I'm not really a people person. I've already said it multiple times this past month.

You know, you got to be a people person if you're a Christian, because Jesus is a people person, and he's not tired even of those annoying people. Maybe they need Jesus the most. Maybe we're the annoying one.

We should at least consider it. And so you get this rhythm here, searching, finding and rejoicing.

And then it sets us up, these two stories of a sheep and a coin for two sons that do the exact same thing. And we don't have time to go into this beautiful story of what's oftentimes called the prodigal son. But really, more accurately, probably the two sons or the one father, whichever way you want to look at it. But either way, the first one, the prodigal one. Remember, prodigal just means you're spending it all, just frivolously blowing it all.

That's the sheep, of course, that wandered away. And the older brother, who's embittered. Remember, joyless in the house. In the house, access to the whole thing and bitter mad about it. Well, that's the coin.

That's the coin. That's the one in the house. And lost are we. Either one of these, you say? Well, Pastor, listen, I baptized, followed Jesus, gave my heart to Jesus.

Great. But did you get lost somewhere? Did Joy get lost somewhere along the line to now? You're just sort of doing it just to do it. Just because it's maybe seen by others is good.

Listen, he wants to find us. And here's the awesome thing about God. We don't have to climb our way up to him. He's already come down to us. He became one of us.

That's the whole good news, that's the whole gospel, is that God came after us when we needed rescue. We didn't have to go to Him. He came to us without us even asking. By the way, you are one of his precious creations without even asking.

My children didn't ask to be, but they are. And here we are. Let's not be mad about it. Let's not be lost about it. Let's not be confused about it in our own time.

We've got a problem with what is a human. We've got to recover a biblical understanding of that. And I'll tell you point blank, the scripture's very clear about this. The end of man is to know and love God and then to love your neighbor as yourself. That's it.

That's it. That ought to be the absolute concrete foundation that we build our life on. And from there, you can build all kinds of things. You can pursue all sorts of things. In fact, we're meant to be creative in our work.

We're meant to bless others. Not just ourselves. We're not just trying to get out of hell. Free card. We're not just trying to get fire insurance in some way.

We are moving toward the King who is beautiful. If you think this world is beautiful, anything in it, you think your work is beautiful, your kids are, guess where that came from. Go to the highest source, stop messing around in all the smaller things and go straight to the Source Himself, who is love Himself, the great Hound of heaven, as some have called him, because he's searching us out. You see, the funny thing, for those of us who have given in to his grace, who've been caught in the net of grace, we all realize after the fact that we thought we were searching for him, when in fact he was searching for us.

What a God. What a God. And so between the shepherd, the woman and the Father, we have the shepherd as Jesus, the Father as the Father, and the Church united with the Holy Spirit, all seeking to save the lost. Jesus says clearly, I came to seek and to save the lost.

Which means to be a Christian, you have to first know you're lost. Are you lost in the house? Are you lost wandering? Either way, the shepherd, he's coming. He's coming to search.

The church, even this morning, is coming to sweep through our lives to make sure we understand what matters most and that is God's love in us. And so here's the application this morning for us here that are following Jesus is this. We too are to seek and to save the lost.

We too are to find those in all kinds of lost situations, not to look down on them because we were lost and then are found. And quite frankly, we get lost even after we got found. And we keep having to be found by our Savior. That's what sanctification is all about. And if you think church is like some kind of pristine place this morning with no sinners, you've misunderstood.

Jesus says clearly that the wheat and the weeds will grow together until the end. He's not going to pull them up. So right here in this place, they're sinners and there's fellow sinners. And here's the good news. We can be not only forgiven, but changed.

And oh God, how we need a changed heart.

It's not about how much you know. You can just keep learning and learning and that never be enough. Until he applies his knowledge in us in faith. That's what faith really is, is a gift of God to us as we look to Him. Then, yeah, we'll be lost.

Just like. I don't understand what. What the big deal is here. I know. I get it.

But when we are born again, born of the spirit, everything changes. I mean, you just have to experience it for yourself. There's no way I can ever describe that joy of finding what you need, of finding who we all are seeking for. And that is God. And here's the thing.

When we do find, when someone finds, we rejoice. We rejoice. The past is gone. And I love this. Last week is over.

Dear brothers and sisters. This is a new week. We have a new week to do good. And here's what the Bible says. We, we overcome evil.

With what? More evil? Of course not. It's asinine. No, with good we overcome.

So if you're troubled by evil, then let's press the gas on doing good. Let's start seeking to save the lost. And there are those who are lost. Even in our own family, there are parts of us that are lost that we need to God's light. We need that broom to sweep across us, to purify us.

And so God's crazy love is after you. He's after you.

Why don't you give in today? Why don't you just say yes today? You've given so many other things a try. Why not Jesus? Why not his way?

Why not today?

There'll be a party in heaven if you do. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, may we find you, O God. Amen.

Total Duration 00:34:35