Lost Sheep Series

The Lost Sheep

Tonight we meet Charlie. In the TV show “Lost”, Charlie is a member of the rock band “Drive Shaft.” He started out as the good brother; he was just interested in the music, not the drugs, not the parties, and not the lifestyle. From this point life takes a downward spiral. Charlie is Lost.

All of us have times in our life where things seem to get out of control. We seem to lose our way. But does God accept us? God not only accepts you, he seeks you out.

Tonight, I want to show you how much Jesus loves you, as I have said throughout this series—no matter what you have done or where you have been.

Look with me at Luke 15:1-7

1Tax 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 despicable people—even eating with them!

3 So Jesus used this illustration: 4 “If you had one hundred sheep, and one of them strayed away and was lost in the wilderness, wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine others to go and search for the lost one until you found it? 5 And then you would joyfully carry it home on your shoulders. 6 When you arrived, you would call together your friends and neighbors to rejoice with you because your lost sheep was found. 7 In the same way, heaven will be happier over one lost sinner who returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!

1. The Lost Sheep

Have you ever felt like the lost sheep? Weir all experienced this time in our lives where we don’t know where to go, what will happen next, or we are here. Some of you may be feeling like that tonight – you wake up each day and you realize that yes, you are still in Iraq, still in the desert – and you realize that you are completely lost.

In this passage, Jesus begins to talk about what it means to be lost and he gives the first of there stories about lostness – the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son, we discuss a couple of weeks ago.

Jesus is explaining what it means to be lost in the language of the people of his day.

The people of Jesus day understood what it meant to have a hundred sheep and for one to wander off.

The sheep is grazing in the field. He sees a green patch of grass and goes for it. The sheep looks over and sees an even greener patch of grass and goes for it. Then the sheep looks up and sees the grand daddy of all patches of green grass, but it is up on a little hill. So he slowly begins to walk toward the patch. When he arrives he sees that it is everything that he ever dreamed of, until he looks for his battle buddy.

The sheep suddenly realizes that he is lost.

Can we relate to this? We are just like this.

You go into the DFAC, minding our own business and having a good meal. You spot the soft serve yogurt machine – yogurt is good for you so theirs nothing wrong with and you make yourself a single cone. The next day you pass the ice cream bars – well, of course, you need your dairy for that day. The next day, you see the Grand Daddy of all ice creams – Baskin Robins. And before you know it your are lost – stuck in the world of gluttony, and your battle buddy, well he’s at the gym on the treadmill.

We know what it means to wonder off! We joke about the ice cream, but the same sequence happens with other sins as well

Adultery, Drugs, Alcoholism, Pornography, gossip – You name it.

Our sin nature is such that even though we know sin is wrong we do it anyway.

Romans; 7:14 Says

14 The law is good, then. The trouble is not with the law but with me, because I am sold into slavery, with sin as my master. 15 I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. 16 I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience shows that I agree that the law is good. 17 But I can’t help myself, because it is sin inside me that makes me do these evil things.

We get separated from Jesus because of our sins. But Jesus is the one to go get us and bring us back.