Lost & Found

Well hello and good morning. My name is Mark, I'm one of the pastors and I wanna welcome all of you, those of you that are here in this room live in the balcony on our live stream. We are so glad that you are with us. Truth Stories is our summer series in the parables of Jesus. And today, let me ask you something. Have you ever wondered what God is like? I have, you're here in church, you probably have thought that before. Today we're gonna see a parable that's like a window into the heart of God. It is one of the most amazing chapters in the entire Bible. It's in Luke 15. And at the top, I wanna acknowledge two pastors who were helpful in forming my thoughts, Andy Stanley and Andrew McCourt. Andy and Andy. And so I just wanna mention, they were helpful in kind of, again, in forming what I'm saying here today.

Like I said, Luke 15 is this amazing portal into the heart of God. It begins like this. It says, "Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus." Now we gotta hit the brakes there because tax collectors, do people love the tax collectors? No, they hate them. They're dirty thieves who line their pockets with their own people's money. Collecting taxes on behalf of the Romans and the portion that they give to the Romans, well, that goes to build a big, well-fortified army so that they can keep people like the Jewish people and other people under their thumb. So thank you very much tax collectors for being a part of that terrible system.

Tax collectors are so bad, notice they have their own distinct category. It's tax collectors and sinners. You can't just lump them in with the rest of the sinners. You gotta kind of call them out for who they are. And it is the tax collectors and the other sinners who are gathering to hear Jesus. Now don't miss that because church, if we get this right, specifically, if we get Jesus right, we will attract people who do not look or act like church people. And when that happens, it may be confusing. It may be uncomfortable for some.

For example, verse two, but the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, this man welcomes sinners and eats with them. Now bear in mind, they have the best of intentions. They're trying to preserve the integrity of the faith. These are good, upstanding people committed to God. And yet they are offended, grumbling among themselves. Jesus, he hangs out with these people, he eats with them. It's almost like he accepts them as they are. So to help them understand how God views tax collectors and sinners, how God views people like you and me, Jesus is going to tell them, not one, not two, but three parables in a row, three parables that are all about the same thing, how much God loves people.

It's about God's heart for people. And so here's the scene. You know, you've got the tax collectors and the other sinners and you've got the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. They're all part of his audience. And then it says that Jesus told them this parable. Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? You can imagine this. It's the end of the day. The shepherd's like, okay, 97, 98, 99. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, a hundred and fifty, seven, fifty, a hundred and ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine. One's gone. He's gone.

And all those listening, they know a little something about sheep and they know that sheep don't intend to go missing. You know, they just kind of drift away. I've told some of you before, one day I'm pulling out of my driveway, I look up the street to the left and I turn to the right and there's the sheep just trotting up the street. He hangs the left right of my driveway, comes up the driveway, past my car, and onto my lawn where he starts munching away on the grass. This was some years ago when my lawn was actually still green. I don't have sheep visiting my lawn anymore. But back then, this sheep, it's down the street somewhere where he lives and he's just nibbling a little green here, a little green there. Oh, there's a little green outside that open gate. I'm just gonna eat that and up the street. Oh, well, the Spurlock's got a green lawn. I don't think I'm gonna get munch on that. Little by little, they just drift away.

They're not rebellious, you know? It's not like the bad sheep get together and go, hey, wanna go score some grass? No. They just drift. And maybe you can relate to this. Maybe you worked your business really hard, year after year, or you were going for that promotion and so, man, you worked overtime, month after month after month after month, you told yourself it wouldn't be this way forever, but, man, it went on a lot longer than you ever expected. Or perhaps you wanted your kids to have every possible opportunity. And so, you know, you shuttle them to and from school. You shuttle them to and from after school stuff, you know, sports and music lessons and all sorts of other activities and braces. And then you set them up with a phone so that they could text you to let you know where they are, right?

All of that stuff's going on month after month, year after year, and suddenly you find yourself wondering. Is our family closer? Or is it drifting apart? 'Cause all this stuff. Our marriage, are we drifting? Our relationship with Jesus, have I drifted in the midst of all of this activity, all this pursuing? Am I drifting from Jesus? Are we drifting away from other brothers and sisters in Christ, little by little? Well, shepherd doesn't say, oh well, hey, 99's fine. I don't care about that one that drifted away, no. I mean, listen, your kid, your grandkid, they get 99 on an exam, you're thrilled, right? And you're bragging to your friends, and they're, you know, smart my kid is. But the shepherd, no. He doesn't rest until he finds the lost lamb.

It says, and when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, rejoice with me. I have found my lost sheep. And in the crowd, there's both the good religious people and the not so good people who are also religious, but they're called sinners here, and they are all nodding their heads because they know that even one sheep out of 100 is precious. And then Jesus says, verse seven, I tell you that in the same way, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent.

Now that's inside information on heaven, where high fives and cheers and celebrations erupt every time one sinner repents. And I have to imagine that among the tax collectors and the so-called sinners, there's a little shift in their heart. 'Cause like, is it possible that God still loves me after all this, God loves me? Little ray of hope. No wonder they flocked to Jesus like they did. No wonder. But in case they didn't get the point, Jesus goes on and says, or suppose a woman has 10 silver coins and loses one. Wow. If one in 100 is precious, how much more one in 10? Jesus is kind of ramping up the intensity there and starts talking about a woman in the next few verses who keeps the only money she has in a little leather pouch.

And it's money that's there for if the crops don't come in or there's some sort of rainy day event in her life and she hides it in her house, but every so often. Because it's so important, she needs to reassure herself and she pulls out the pouch, she pours the coin, she counts them, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Her heart skips a beat. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. What's gone missing? It's gone missing. And she didn't even know when it went missing. It just slipped through her fingers, just a moment of carelessness and it was gone. It just slipped away. And so she lights a lamp and she starts to sweep methodically every square inch of that floor.

Maybe it's a dirt floor or in some cases, there were flat rocks that were used for floors as well. And the coin perhaps fell into the crack. Archaeologists have found coins in the cracks of floors in a home just like this woman's. And again, the coin didn't just drift away. Clearly it didn't run away like, hey man, I'm outta here, I'm going to Vegas, I'm gonna make something of myself. No. Just slipped through her fingers. One little careless moment. Several years ago, friends invited us to see their new home. They found a place right in the heart of Capitola Village and they were so excited to be there. It's got a really cool setup. This tall house right by the trestle. Three stories and views.

And so we show up in the sidewalk or outside the home and there's much excitement and talking and stuff like that and all this. Wow, this is so cool. Can't wait to see your new place. And about that time, our son Jack, he was about five. Luke was probably two and a half or three and Anna was maybe two, three months old. Just a toddler. Barely a toddler. And Laura and I, we were adjusting to kind of the new parenting thing because prior to that with just the two boys, it was kinda man to man, right? We could each cover one but now we had to shift over to zone because there's more of them than there are of us. And so we go in the house and go up the three flights of stairs and start to take in some of the views. Ooh, ah, this is so cool. There's ocean, there's shadow broke across the way.

And suddenly I go, there's Jack, there's Luke. Where's Anna? And Laura and I look at each other in that moment. It's not a great time to blame your spouse but telepathically we're looking at each other and we're thinking towards each other. I thought you had the baby. And so I go flying down one flight, two flights, three flights, go out the front door, go to the car on the sidewalk. There's Anna inside their inner car seat. Just kinda go, like when's daddy and mommy gonna come get me? I unlock the car and I sweep her up into my arms where she stayed the rest of the night. I know we're terrible parents. Some of you have been in that same situation though. One little moment. Just kinda slip through our awareness in which for two, maybe three minutes she was off the radar. Praise God it ended the way it did.

Some of you were entrusted to somebody else and yet you slipped through their fingers. And maybe it wasn't just for two, three minutes but it was day after day after day. It got to the point where you're like, I don't think I'm slipping through their fingers. I think I'm being dropped over and over until you felt abandoned because you were. And it made you feel worthless. Made you wonder, do they even miss me? Or have they found another shiny coin to replace me? This woman, she is relentless. She will not give up. She keeps searching until she finds the lost coin and when she does, she calls her friends and she says, rejoice with me. I found my lost coin. And again, in the same way, Jesus says, "There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Are you hearing what Jesus is saying about how much God loves you? How much God loves the people that you love? Well again, Jesus doesn't want us to miss the point and so he tells now a third parable, even more dramatic because it begins like this. Jesus continued, there was a man who had two sons. And there's a gasp in the audience 'cause they've picked up on how these parables are going. Something is going to happen to one of those boys. Now we're one out of two. Not one out of 10 or one out of 100. This is intense because what is more precious than a child? Could anything be more precious to us than a child? Our own flesh and blood.

After our second son, Joseph was stillborn just two and a half weeks before we expected him to arrive. Laura and I went into a season of grief obviously and eventually we started to long for another child. And whereas our first two, Laura's first two pregnancies happened rather quickly, wasn't happening this time. Month after month after month after month. And so alongside the grief, there was also longing for another child. And so when Luke eventually arrived, let's just say there was much rejoicing over his arrival. I couldn't, it was like, Lord, we lost a son but you gave us another one. It's not like we were owed that. It's just a gift. And I can remember, I don't know, 18 and a half years ago standing on this stage where we were going to dedicate Luke to the Lord in one of our baby dedications.

Here's that moment on screen there. And I'm holding Jack our oldest. Laura's got Luke. I don't know who the other guy is on the right hand of the screen. Oh, that's René. Yeah, that's past René, not present René. Anyway, notice I'm biting my lip because I'm holding back tears. Thinking in that moment, Mark, you are the richest, most blessed man on the planet. Holding this precious child. What, my wife has my other son. And this man in the story, he has two sons. They're just as precious to him. And yet one day the younger one comes to him. And he says, Dad, I'm tired of this farm. I'm tired of this life. I'm tired of waiting around for you to die so I can have my share of the inheritance. So give it to me now. Give me what's due me.

And everyone listening from the most righteous to the least, they're all appalled. What kind of son does this? Insults his father, insults his family, insults his community. And yet, remarkably, the father agrees. Divides his property. And the word in the original is the word for life. We got our word bio, like biology. He divides his livelihood. Gives this boy his portion, quickly liquidates it. And then leaves, goes off to a distant land where he burns through his cash in wild living. And wouldn't you know it? Right when he spent his last coin, a pandemic hits. Everything shuts down. Okay, it was actually a famine, but you know what that kind of feels like when the world rapidly grinds to a halt.

But in his case, you know, there's no unemployment benefits, there's no COVID benefits, there's no payroll protection plan, there's no check in the mailbox from the government. There's none of that. And so he starts to get progressively more desperate to the point, the only job he can find is feeding pigs, which in his culture, that is the lowest of the low. You cannot go any lower than that. And if that, when they hear this, that crowd, they're thinking, well, good, good. That punk got what he deserved. Or if the Bible was trying to make a point about karma, you know, it would have been, whoa, hey, what goes wrong comes wrong. You know, you got what you deserved. That night, those people go home and bedtime they'd say, now, this is what happens to bad boys and bad girls, end of story.

But it's not the end of the story. This kid, and by the way, if you or I ever got what we fully deserved, we'd be in a load of trouble, wouldn't we? But this kid, he's so desperate at this point in the story. He's feeding the pigs, whatever nasty stuff those pigs are eating, there's kind of pods that grow on trees, it's not appetizing. And yet he's drooling. He's drooling. Watching the pigs eat. You know, there's a saying, you gotta hit bottom. He's officially there. Bottom, rock bottom. And it says, so when he came to his senses, he said, how many of my father's men have food to spare and here I am starving to death. I will set out and go back to my father and I will say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired men.

And so he got up and went to his father and along the way, I imagine, he's rehearsing his little speech there, you know, I have sinned against you in heaven and make me like one of your hired men. So sorry, Lord, father. And yet it says, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with what? Anger? Indignation? Bitterness? No, his father saw him, he was filled with compassion. Compassion for him. And he ran to his son, you know, had to pull up his robe and show his old man legs. It's not a good look, but he doesn't care. And it says he threw his arms around him and kissed him.

And the son said to him, here comes the speech, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. And he's trying to get through the speech, but the father said to his servant, quick, bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his fingers and sandals on his feet. That's how you dress a son, not a servant. And bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and let's celebrate for this son of mine was dead and he's alive again. He was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate.

And at the exact same time, a party erupts in heaven. And they're like celebrating this moment. Meanwhile, older brother's finishing up out in the fields. Older brother takes his responsibility seriously. Older brother knows that the day's gonna come when he's expected to take over things for his dad. And as he's heading back to the house, he starts to hear the thumping of the bass. And he's hearing the sounds of people laughing and dancing and celebrating. So he calls a servant, he says, what in the world is going on back at the house? And the servant says, you're not gonna believe this. Your little brother is back. He's come home. Who would have thought? And not only that, but remember that calf that you and your father were fattening up for a special occasion like, you know, maybe your wedding day or some other special occasion. Yeah, that calf, it's on the grill right now.

And older brother thinks to himself, my little brother should be on the grill right now. Not that precious calf. And so it says the older brother became angry and refused to go in to the house. Let me ask you something. You might not like this question, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. Anyway, you know any angry Christians? Know any angry Christians? What makes you angry? Who makes you angry? Be careful. Be careful. Because there is a difference between righteous anger, like when innocent kids are gunned down in their school, and self-righteous anger, like with the older brother here. And listen, you know, we can be faithful in church, responsible in life, you know, ethical in our affairs, and perpetually angry at other people who don't have their act together as well as we like to think we do.

This father, he goes out to the brother, and it says he pleaded with him. But he answered his father, "Look, Dad, all these years, I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. You never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends." You ever have someone tell you in so many words, you know, this Christianity thing's not working for me. You know, I tried to follow Jesus and didn't make me any happier. In fact, I think it made me less happy. You know, what's the point? I'm not really getting anything out of this. Don't I deserve to be happy? It's like the older brother here saying, "Where's my goat? Where's my goat, my reward for all my good behavior?" But he's not done yet. He says, "But when this son of yours," can't even say brother, "This son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes," yeah, Dad, sorry to break it to you, but that's how he spent his money, prostitutes. Might wanna keep that from Mom, but that's the way it was. He comes home and you kill the fatted calf for him.

Wow. Remember the Pharisees, teachers of the law at the beginning? Sounds a lot like big brother here, don't they? Grumbling over the Father's generosity and grace. This parable ends starting at verse 31. "My son," the Father said, "You are always with me, and everything I have is yours." You haven't lost anything? Well, we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and he is alive again. He was lost and is found. This isn't about your performance here or his performance here. It's not about better or worse, it's about the fact you were always with me, son. He wasn't with us. He wasn't with us. He was good as dead. He wasn't with us. See, we gotta celebrate. He's alive. He was lost. He's always found. Always where he belongs. That's how much the Father loves us.

If you have some thoughts or some takeaways from this, you might wanna jot 'em down, although good luck, 'cause I didn't leave you a whole lot of room in your notes. There's too many verses to cover, but just to kinda prime the pump, let me suggest just my own thoughts and takeaways. First is what these three parables make abundantly clear is that God could not love you more. God could not love you more than he does right now. You wanna know what else? Nothing you could ever do will cause him to love you less. He just loves you more than you can imagine. Do you believe this? I hope so, because it's true. And Jesus has gone out of his way to impress this point upon us. It's what he's been saying all along.

God is like the good shepherd who goes after the lost sheep. He's like the woman who searches for the lost coin, and he's like the father who runs to his son and embraces him and celebrates his return. That's our God. And I got a glimpse of this some years ago when a young man in our community went missing, didn't come home from work, not just at the regular time, but at any time that evening. And so the next morning, there were search crews with dogs combing the streets of our neighborhood and the surrounding hillsides. About midday, they found his motorcycle laying on its side in the bushes off of a dirt road. Foul play? Nobody knew, but it wasn't a real encouraging indicator.

And so later on, late in the afternoon of that day, somewhat spontaneously, neighbors started showing up at the parents' house, 50, 60, maybe 70 people all saying, "What can we do to help find this lost son?" And so they had drawn up a bunch of maps and given us all different places to look. And we literally were sent out two by two, knocking on doors with a picture of this young man saying, "Have you seen this young man? Is it possible you have a camera with a street view? Maybe, you can see the motorcycle go by, get a timestamp or something like that." And we knocked on door after door after door. And yet, a couple hours later, we had not turned up really any new information.

Walking back towards our house with a group of people, what are the neighbors? He's just trying to break the tension. He says, "Man, you know, if this young man does turn up and he's fine, well, that's when his parents are actually gonna kill him." But again, he's just breaking the tension. 'Cause what we knew was that the longer he stayed missing, the longer the odds were, was that he would be found. And as I'm walking down our street on every telephone pole, now there's signs, paper sign with his picture on it and a big red letters, missing. And as night fell, it was the somber evening, "Will this young man be found?" Next morning, he shows up. Like, "What happened?" Well, it turns out he was kind of stressed out and needed to clear his head and he just kind of bolted.

And yeah, he could have saved a lot of people, a lot of worry if he would have told somebody, but you know what? It didn't really matter because he was home. He was okay. He was alive. It was nothing compared to the joy that he was back. He was with his family again. I went down to end of our driveway where there's a telephone pole and with, I'm just yelling out, the neighbors are coming out of their houses out into the streets and everyone's going, "Woo-hoo, yay!" And I pull that sign down like, "Yes." "Yay, thank you, God." Is it possible, some of us here in this room, some of us on the live stream, maybe you're watching this at some other point, is it possible that there's a missing sign hanging in somebody's heart for you? It's not on a telephone pole. It's in the heart of somebody that loves you. Or even more in the heart of God. Where's this missing? It's your face.

Maybe for some of you, you've never actually come to the Father. Jesus has called you before, but you just put it off and so you're still out there and yet today he's saying, "Come home. My arms are open wide." You could not be more welcome. Maybe this is the day that you say, "Jesus, I'm ready to do that. I'm ready to come home. I am tired of being lost." Or maybe for some of us, again, we're a follower of Jesus, but haven't actually been doing a whole lot of following, if you know what I mean, in our hearts and our attitudes. Christian, but I don't look a lot like Jesus. Maybe today he says, "Come home, come on." Maybe you just drifted or you slipped or you ran, but now come back. "My arms are open wide," he says, and I have to know that there are many of us here, someone you love. "I was drifted, slipped, run away." And you agonize and you scan the horizon and you beg God, Lord, bring them home.

If any of this relates to you, I just wanna pray for you. I wanna pray for lost sons and daughters, whether it's you or it's someone you love. And I'm gonna invite you when I pray, if this is a personal thing for you, I'm gonna invite you to stand. Not because God will hear your prayer better that way, but for you to say, "Lord, this is so important. I just wanna stand before you and testify, Lord, I'm not giving up yet, so Lord, I'm trusting you're not giving up either. And so I bring my prayer to you." If that's you, any of these categories that I've laid out, whether for yourself or for someone else, I'm just gonna invite you to stand and then I will pray. Yeah, go ahead.

Heavenly Father, we come before you, Lord, with some of the most important precious stuff we could ever bring to you. Lives of people you love. And Lord, there are people here, people, Lord, who, this is the day, this is the moment. They know they need Jesus, they know that they have a debt, they'll never pay that back, there's no way none of us can. And yet, Jesus did on the cross. And if that's you, you could say, "Jesus, right now, I believe you, I trust you, I thank you, and I wanna follow you. I wanna be one of your disciples. Show me how to do that, Lord." And you know what, He will, you just keep doing what you're doing, keep coming, keep listening to His word, keep reading His word. He will meet you and He will transform your life.

And for those, Lord, who, they've come to you before, but they've drifted away. Maybe it was intentional, maybe it wasn't, but suddenly they just woke up one day and went, "Wow, how did I get here?" Lord, on their behalf, would they know the welcome could not be more wide, that your heart could not be any bigger? And may they say, "Lord, today, I'm coming back." I'm putting one foot in front of the other. I'm gonna apologize to whoever I need to apologize to or make amends or whatever I need to do, but Lord, nothing's gonna keep me from coming back to my Father.

And Father, now we get to the part that is perhaps, perhaps represents the most pain in this room right now. Sons and daughters, loved ones. Lord, we just ask that you would scoop them up in your loving arms today, right now, that there would be loving Jesus followers in their lives, that would reflect your love to them and that Lord, whatever it is that has alienated them from you and perhaps those who love them, Lord, would you bring them back? Bring them back to you, Lord. And bring them back to these dear people. Lord, we lay these requests before you, knowing that you hear us, that you love us, and you love the ones that we love us well. We pray this in the matchless name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and all God's people said, amen.