God Is Looking For You and For Me
Scripture: Luke 15:1-32; Matthew 6:33
Introduction
Webster’s dictionary defines the word lost as “ruined; destroyed; not to be found; missing; having wandered away.” Spiritually we often think of the “lost” as those persons who have not accepted Christ and are headed to hell and this is accurate from our understanding of what the Bible teaches. However, this morning I want you to expand your definition to include Christians who because of their own circumstances have lost their way or they cannot see their way through a situation. Furthermore the Bible tells us in 1 Peter 5:8 to “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” In the Greek, the word “devour” means to swallow; to gulp down. Our adversary encourages that “lost” feeling within us so that we can devoured spiritually. Think about the animals in the wild – the predators isolate the one they think they have the best chance of capturing and our isolation and feelings of being lost can lead to our being devoured. Keep this in mind today as I share with you the message that came to me early Thursday morning.
On Monday afternoon of last week I received a phone call from a co-worker that her sister-in-law had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. Having received the diagnosis, she was immediately scheduled for a mastectomy and chemotherapy treatments. Because the cancer was so aggressive, they also scheduled her for tests to determine how much it had spread – not if it had spread, but how much it had spread. I shared with my co-worker that I would be praying for her sister-in-law along with the others who were praying. As you can imagine, everyone was worried and concerned. She had her initial tests done on Wednesday. I will share with you what those tests showed at the end of this message.
On Tuesday morning I was in a meeting in Topeka when I received a phone call from my brother telling me that my niece had been in a one car accident. She was being rushed to the Emergency Room and at the time, it was not looking good. Her airbag did not deploy and at the time that we talked, she had paralysis in one of her arms and was paralyzed in both legs. I stepped away from my meeting for a few minutes to talk with him and to pray. I shared with him what immediately came to my spirit that the paralysis was “possibly” due to swelling on her nerves due to the accident. They were scheduling her for more tests to determine how extensive the damage was. I will share with you the test results at the end of this message.
I wanted to share these two incidents with you because they have something in common. In both cases there was a feeling of “loss”, physical and emotional. There were feelings of uncertainty – you know that feeling when you’re driving to an address and you are having trouble finding it and you do not know exactly where to turn. That is the feeling of being lost. When traumatic things happen in our lives and we get to the point of giving up, that is the feeling of being lost. If you are experiencing these feelings right now – whether it is because of a circumstance or repeated circumstances in your life, God wants you to know this morning that He is looking diligently for you. If you are not having that experience right now and things are going good in your life – God wants you to know that He is also looking for you to send you out on a rescue mission to find those who are spiritually lost and our Christian brothers and sisters who are experiencing something right now that makes them think they are lost.
I. Confused About God’s Desire
We often think of the lost (sinners) as someone whom God despises. They are obviously in their current state because of something they did or are doing and therefore God does not want to be associated with them. That is the farthest, most ridiculous teaching that ever came from someone’s mouth. The lost does not just include those who have not accepted Christ, but also those who may have turned their backs on Him for whatever reason and those who because of their circumstances are feeling that way even though they are still coming to Church. In each and every case, regardless of why and how it happened, God is searching for each person. He is searching and will not give up until either the person dies or they are restored to their place of recognition by Him. Contrary to popular belief, a Christian’s life is not a prosperity message, it is a restoration message. Regardless of what you see on TV, we are about restoration. Turn to Luke the 15th chapter. Let’s begin reading at verse one.
“Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, ‘This Man receives sinners and eats with them.’ So Jesus spoke this parable to them saying.” (Luke 15:1-3)
We all understand that Jesus came to seek those who were lost. The Pharisees and scribes did not understand His true purpose. To them, religion was about procedures and following all of the rules. It did not matter what was in the heart as longs as you followed the rules and did things the way you were supposed to. So imagine their thoughts when they witnessed Jesus, who was thought to be a “Teacher” and had a following, sitting down and fellowshipping with sinners – especially tax collectors who were the worse of the worse in their eyes. They could not understand how this supposedly self-proclaimed, righteous Savior of the world could sit down with sinners. So Jesus shared with them a parable. Let’s read verses 4-7.
II. Lost Sheep
“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which was 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 neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost! I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15:4-7)
In this situation I want to share with you a few points that apply to both those who are lost spiritually because they have not accepted Christ and those who are lost because of their circumstances and are wondering if Christ is there with them or if they are alone. The first point is that of ownership. When we were conceived the breath of life was placed within us. That spirit part of us comes from God. Even though some may not accept Him, He is our creator and therefore we belong to Him. So the first thing we need to understand is God’s ownership of us. We did not do anything in and of ourselves to exist, that was done by God. Because of this, God has a vested interest in every person that takes a breath. He does not forget about us just because we do not acknowledge Him or turns our backs on Him – He continues to seek us out for that relationship. He does not care how many times we say no, He will keep searching for us.
The second point I want to call your attention to is the extent of His search for us and His response when we are restored. Jesus used the example of a man who has a hundred sheep and loses one. He leaves all of the others to go and find the one that was lost. That is about value. If you have one hundred dollars in your pocket and you lose one, you will not search your whole house until you find it – that lost dollar does not carry that much value to you for you to sacrifice a whole day looking for it. Also once you found it, you definitely would not call all of your friends together to celebrate. God values each and every one of us to the extent that if He had a billion of us worshipping Him and one fell away, He would stop what He was doing and search for that one person. That is how important we are to Him, not just because we have accepted Christ, but because He is our creator and He loves us. That same value that He has placed on us is the same that He has on those who do not know Him and those who have walked away from Him. Whenever someone is saved or returns to God, there is rejoicing in heaven; there is a celebration. Can you imagine the celebration that took place in heaven when you accepted Christ? Now consider this, when you were going through your most difficult time and came through, there was a celebration. There were high fives being given on your behalf with your proud heavenly Father saying “I knew he/she could do it – WOW!” Whenever Satan is running us down and we stop running; turn around and face Him; and he runs the other way because we refused to give in, there was a celebration in heaven. God celebrates our victories and every single time we turn to Him versus walking around feeling lost – every time! That my friend is how the God we serve responds when a life is changed for the better.
II. The Woman’s Lost Coin
When Jesus finished the first parable, He immediately went into another one pertaining to a woman who had lost her coin. Let’s read this story in verses 8-10.
“Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece which I lost!’ Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Now I would guess that everyone in this room has lost a coin before. Maybe you dropped a penny or a dime and you could not find it. Today it is no big deal to lose a dime or quarter or even a dollar. But when I was growing up, It was a big deal. Let me put this in perspective. Next door to my grandmother’s home, a local pastor, Rev. White, owned a small grocery store. In his store he sold candy, cookies, and a small quantity of an assortment of other goods. One of the things he had in his store were cookies that were bigger than my hand at the time. Of course my hands were smaller, but for us, those cookies were huge. He sold those cookies 2 for a penny, so even when I just had a penny, I could get two cookies. When I had a nickel, I could get ten cookies. Now here is the good part, if I had five nickels, I could get ten cookies, a bag of chips and a soda – for twenty-five cents! So if you were me back in the sixties and you lost a nickel, you would search high and low, sweep the house, and look everywhere for that nickel. This is the position this woman was in.
When we read this parable, we think about how we feel when we lose a coin. We do not feel that bad and we keep moving forgetting about the lost coin. We definitely do not spend hours trying to find it or calling friends to rejoice with us when we have found it. For years this parable did not make a lot of sense to me because I was thinking about the coins that I have lost in my lifetime. So let me explain this parable as Jesus told it. The coin the woman lost was probably a drachma, a Greek coin worth a day’s wage. So if you made $50 a day that would be the value of that coin to you – your paycheck for a days’ work. Now thinking about it this way, if you lost your daily paycheck at your home would you not tear the house apart looking for it? If you had bills waiting to be paid with that money or you had a purchase you had to make, would you not keep looking for that coin until you found it? This is what Jesus was speaking to in this parable.
As with the first parable, the main point was the value the coin had to the woman. The coin was so valuable to the woman that she went searching for the coin when the coin was not where it was supposed to be. All of us, Christians, non-Christians, and sinners are that valuable sheep or coin to God. Whenever we are not where we are supposed to be, God comes looking for us. This means if we have not accepted Christ and are headed to hell or if we have accepted Him but not where we are supposed to be, God is searching for us and when He gets us back to where we should be there is a celebration in heaven. If we are where we are supposed to be, then we are the ones God sends out on those rescue missions. The reason God is searching for us so He can bring us back to where we are supposed to be is because we are extremely valuable to Him. In fact, we are His most prized possession!
The last parable that Jesus tells in this chapter (verses 11-31) pertains to the lost (prodigal) son. You know the story. The younger son of a man became impatient and asked for his inheritance. When his father gave it to him, he left home with his money and lived a life of the foolish. While he had money, he had plenty of friends to help him spend it. When his money ran out, so did his friends. There was a famine in the land and he really fell on hard time. He got to the point that he took a job feeding the pigs and while he was feeding them he thought that he would gladly eat what he was feeding them because no one gave him food. He finally came to himself and went home. His father, seeing him afar off and recognizing his son, ran to him, hugged him and threw a party in his honor - restoration. This was the response of a father to the son that took his money and spent it all and came home totally broke. To this father it was not about what the son had done, it was about his son coming home. You see, with a good father you can always come home. This father valued his son more than his money or anything else that he had. His sons were the most important things in his life. Our heavenly Father values us as the most important thing to Him and therefore He is always checking in on us. Whenever we are not where we are supposed to be, like a good Father, He sends out the search party to find us. He does this because He loves us.
Now let me take you back to the two incidents that I referenced at the beginning of this message so that I can tie this all together.
Conclusion
My co-worker’s sister-in-law who was diagnosed with breast cancer went in on Wednesday to have the additional test ran. Prior to the tests, she was scheduled for a mastectomy on Thursday with chemotherapy following. Prior to the tests, there was a sense that things were bad and was going to get worse. Emotions were running high as there was a lot of concern. Prior to the tests prayers began to go forth – specifically about her situation. On Wednesday afternoon they got the results back and the cancer had not spread. They decided that they could push back the mastectomy until they get some other things done and there was a change in everyone’s disposition. You see, when the news was first came with her diagnosis there was a feeling of loss and I believe God came searching for her and those connected to her to bring them back to a place of peace. She must still be treated, but everyone’s mind is in a different place today versus before.
Now I will share with you the results from my niece’s tests. After my initial conversation with my brother on Tuesday morning, I contacted my siblings and we all began to pray. I also had friends and co-workers praying for her. By early afternoon she had the feeling back in her arm. Later that afternoon and early evening she had feelings back in her legs. By Wednesday evening she was back at home fully functioning. Do you not believe that there was a celebration in heaven? My niece is not out of the woods yet, but God has shown her that she is special and valuable to her. When she was lost, He came and found her. When we experienced a feeling of lost as we heard the news, He came and found us.
As I shared at the beginning, we often read those parables and think, rightly so, that God cares primarily about sinners being saved. But we must understand that a sinner will not find their way to Christ unless there is someone who is able to lead them. If we as Christians are lost because of our circumstances, we will not be in a position to help anyone else. This is like going on a trip and the lead car, which is supposed to lead all of the other cars to the destination, gets lost. When the lead car is lost, all of the cars following it are lost. Well if we are the light of the world and we are lost, those following us will also be lost. This is why it is so important that we understand how God feels about us. He is constantly checking on us to ensure that we are where we are supposed to be spiritually, emotionally and even physically. He is constantly celebrating in Heaven when we come back to Him in every situation and are able to lead others back to Him. I want to make one thing clear. Every one of us started out belonging to God. I do not care what country you are from; your race; or your family’s religious preference, every child belongs to God until they come to an age of making their own mind up with a clear understanding. So if your parents were atheist and you were born and died at the age of two, you would have gone to heaven because my God will not send a child with limited understanding to hell. That being said, everyone started out belonging to God, so that is why God is constantly searching to bring His children home, especially His lost children.
I know some of you are wondering about your lives. You are wondering about how you’re going to handle your situation. There is a feeling of being lost in the deep woods and you cannot find your way out. Others are depending on you and yet you know that you are not able to show them the way. God wants you to know today, right now, this minute He is searching for you. He has not given up on you and never will. Will you reach out for Him? Will you search for Him? “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33) What things will be added? Those things we need to ensure that we are never lost!
May God bless and keep you is my prayer.
