A Passion For You

A PASSION FOR YOU

Luke 15:1-32

S: God’s love

Th: God seeks us out

Pr: GOD HAS A PASSION FOR YOU!

?: Who? Who does God have a passion for?

KW: Inductive

TS: We will find in our study of Luke 15 three

The _____ person God has a passion for is the…

I. WANDERING (3-7)

II. MISSING (8-10)

III. DERIDING (11-32)

Version: ESV

RMBC I1 April 04 AM

INTRODUCTION:

1. Have you ever had trouble losing things?

ILL Notebook: Find (Detroit)

Mary Brumbaugh’s husband, an airline pilot, often has difficulty locating items around the house. One day he asked Mary where the salt was. Annoyed, she responded, "How on earth can you find Detroit at night in a blizzard, but you can’t find the salt in your own kitchen?"

"Well, darling," he replied, "they don’t move Detroit!"

Mary W. Brumbaugh, St. Augustine, Fla.

Perhaps it is good they don’t move Detroit, but sometimes I wish someone would move Buffalo further south!

Well, I don’t know about you, but I hate losing things.

2. When we lose something that is important to us, it is so frustrating.

Like when you get up in the morning, and you can’t find your keys.

You are scurrying all about, calling out to your spouse, “Have you seen my keys?”

And the classic response is, “There right where you left them.”

Oh, that is so much help!

How frustrating to lose those keys, the wallet, and especially the checkbook!

Or those shoes, socks or earrings…

But, you know, when we lose them, it is an all out search, isn’t it?

We don’t sit around and say, “Oh, that’s too bad.”

It becomes such a high priority.

We look everywhere.

We retrace our steps.

We try to remember when we last saw them.

In the passage we are considering today, it revolves around the concept of things that are lost.

For…

3. In Jesus’ day, there were people that didn’t understand His priorities (15:1-2)

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them."

It was the Pharisees and the scribes that didn’t understand Jesus.

They were among the religious leaders of the day.

It was their conclusion that since God is infinitely righteous and holy, God only likes those who are righteous and holy.

And, as a result, He doesn’t like or want to be with those who are not.

But they misunderstood,

You see, people are God’s priority.

God is vitally interested in every person in His creation.

They are His beloved creatures.

So, when Jesus came to earth, He reflected God’s priority.

You see, in the same way…

4. People were Jesus’ priority.

He came to seek for those that were lost.

He came to help those that had lost contact with God.

And to do it, He didn’t pre-qualify people before He spoke to them.

No, He sought them out.

Now, these Jewish leaders didn’t understand this kind of thinking.

So Jesus told them three stories to help them get the point of what God was really like.

OUR STUDY:

Here is the first story He told…

"What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his 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 ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

You see, God loves the…

I. WANDERING (3-7)

God values those who have been distracted.

Jesus tells a story and uses sheep as a picture of people that are distracted and wandering.

You see, sheep are not good at knowing exactly where they need to go and what they need to do.

If they get lost, they can’t find their way home.

If they are left in a field, they will stay there until the grass is gone and then starve to death.

Sheep need help.

They are followers, and sometimes, when they are not paying attention, they wander off.

They get lost.

They don’t do it on purpose.

They don’t do it out of rebellion or maliciousness.

They are simply distracted or they are deceived and lured away.

But the shepherd loves the sheep!

They are valuable.

They are important to him.

And this is how God feels about us.

We may be distracted.

We may be deceived.

We may wander.