Lost Series

Last week we began a series on our Holy vocabulary—the words that we use as Christians that we or others might not fully understand. We talked about the word HOLY and God explained to us what makes Him holy. Today we’re going to talk about being lost.

When a Christian thinks about being lost, it’s a whole different concept from what the world sees as lost. So, let’s see how we can use the word lost in such a way that even a non-Christian will understand.

When I was in high school, my dad and my brother and I would go deer hunting in Leakey, Texas. Now, I don’t know if you have ever been in the Texas hill country when the sun goes down. But when the sun goes over those hills, it gets dark. And I mean black dark. You literally can’t see you hand in front of your face.

We would leave the camp at about 5am to get to the deer blinds before the sun came up so that we would be in place when it became light. We would all walk together up to a certain point and then we would split up. It was so dark all you could see were the goats trails in the white limestone ground.

One time I couldn’t figure out exactly where I was. I couldn’t find the brush blind I had built. So, finally, I just sat down right where I was. When the sun came up, I saw that I was 20 feet from the blind. That was an eerie feeling of being lost. Kind of like driving in a thick fog and you can’t see the road signs and you lose all sense of where you are. You’re lost.

But today, I want to talk about a different kind of being lost. I’ve been lost in a wholly different, and far more serious, way. And just like on that hunting trip, whether I realized it or not at the time, I was lost. And just because I thought I was on the right trail doesn’t mean I was. WE ARE LOST WHEN WE”RE NOT WHERE WE’RE SUPPOSED TO BE.

But the good news is we don’t have to stay lost. When we talk about being lost in our HOLY VOCABULARY, we’re talking about our sin and rebellion against the holy God. “Lostness” is a key theme in Scripture, but God’s love for us is an even greater theme. Jesus told a parable in Luke 15 that brings these two themes together. We’re lost, but we can be found!

PRAYER

Here’s the key: without Christ, we are hopelessly lost. We’re spiritually lost because we choose to live apart from God.

Most of us can remember, and many still do use the folded paper maps to plan a trip. I never could get that thing folded back the way it was. But I would open that map up to reveal the whole state, study it, and then choose the best route to take to get where I wanted to go.

Nowadays we have GPS. That stands for Global Positioning System. It’s almost scary knowing that somewhere out there in outer space is this device that knows exactly where you are at all times. It works through a process known as triangulation. There are 24 Dept. of Defense satellites constantly circling our earth at a very precise orbit of approximately 1200 miles. These satellites send signals back to earth and our GPS units need to pick up signals from 3 to 4 of these satellites and calculate the time it takes for that signal to arrive from each of them. Based on that information, the GPS can tell you where you are within 50 feet.

Although GPS can help eliminate wrong turns and missteps, it can’t choose the right destination for us. WE have to know where we want to go. It gets back to it being our choice. Sometimes we choose right. Sometimes we choose wrong, and we become lost.

Let’s turn to Luke 15, the story of the prodigal son, and see where it takes us. READ Luke 15: 11-14. In this parable, a young son thought he knew where he wanted to go. It was a destination framed with lavish living and everything revolved around money. The good life was up ahead. Or so he thought.

Now, to those that were first hearing this parable, the son’s request for “the share of the estate I have coming to me” was a shocking request. He wasn’t entitled to any inheritance while his father was still alive. This was like wishing his father were dead, so that he could have now what he thought he deserved.

But even though it was out of sorts, his father graciously filled his request and gave the younger son his share, which would be at most 1/3 of the estate. With his portion, the younger son liquidated his assets. V. 13 says he gathered together all he had and traveled to a distant country.