Lost Sheep And Lost Coin

Now we mortals love certain people, but if there are things in their life that we do not like, we generally brush them aside.

We all can be thankful indeed that God the Father loves everyone, He even loves the most ungodly sinner on the face of the earth. He does not love their evil deeds, but He does love them.

Sometimes, those who have been saved for a long time forget what it means to be lost. It is a terrible thing to be lost.

Illus: Years ago, Dr. Odell Belger went to a special meeting held in London, England. The meeting was held at the same church that C.H. Spurgeon was the pastor of many years ago. About three hundred preachers had chartered an airplane for this trip. When they arrived, they were transported to a brand new hotel. In fact, it was so new that they had not even put up a sign on the outside yet. But after the long flight, most of them were tired, and were going to get a good night’s sleep. But Dr. Belger was excited about going to this famous church, and he asked Dr. Bob Gray, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, if he could tag along with him because he had never ridden a subway before. Dr. Gray was delighted to have him, and put his hand on his shoulder and said, “I will take care of you!”

They had a great meeting that night, and as they began to go back to the hotel, Dr. Gray got his ticket and began to talk to some men as he began to walk toward the subway, but before Dr. Belger could get on, the doors closed. He was left on the opposite side of London, England from his hotel, and did not even know the name of his hotel because they had just arrived, and there was no name posted. After traveling in the subway for many hours, he asked a lady if she could help him. She stayed with him until he found his way back to the hotel.

To make a long story short, it was around 9’clock when he walked into the lobby, and Dr. Gray said, “I am sorry that we got separated last night, what time did you get in?” Dr. Belger told him, “I AM JUST NOW GETTING IN!”

Dr. Belger found out the hard way that it is a terrible thing to be lost. But to be spiritually lost is even worse.

It is a wonderful thing when in this lost condition you can meet someone who cares about your situation, and will help you find your way.

This is exactly what we Christians should be doing, helping the many who are lost to find their way to God.

• This parable of the “Lost Sheep” is all about us trying to help the backslider who has gone astray, find his way back unto the Lord.

• This parable of the “Lost Sheep” tells us about the Lord’s concern for the lost.

There are three parables that express His concern for the Lost.

• "The Lost Sheep" - Luke 15:1-7

• "The Lost Coin" - Luke 15:8-10

• "The Prodigal Son" - Luke 15:11-32

In this sermon we will deal with the parables of “The Lost Sheep” and “The Lost Coin”. Let’s look first at -

I. THE MOTIVATION FOR THIS PARABLE

The church today gets derailed in many ways. The devil will often take good things and use those things to keep the church from staying on track.

But the Lord always stayed focused on reaching the lost. For example, in this parable, the Pharisees and Scribes grumbled about Him associating with the lost of that day.

Look at, Luke 15:2, we read, “And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.”

The lost people knew that He cared for them.

Illus: Did you know that we are told that even dogs know if we love them or not? And I will tell you something else:

• A child knows if their Sunday School teacher loves them

• A lost person knows if a Christian loves them

These sinners knew that the Lord loved them, and that is why they “Drew” near to hear what He had to say to them.

Look at Luke 15:1, we read, “Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.”

Look at the word “Drew” this is the word “Eggizo” (Pronounced as “Eng-id'-zo”) TO MAKE NEAR, APPROACH, DRAW NIGH.

They loved to be in His presence, and He loved to be in their presence. Jesus was NOT OF THE WORLD, but He was OUT IN THE WORLD doing everything He could to reach the Lost.