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.
What we need to see just in this first part of the story is that a life apart from God is one of spiritual lostness. The younger son got what, and where, he wanted. He squandered his inheritance on what he thought would satisfy him. We’re almost like that sometimes. You see it a lot when someone wins the lottery. They get this huge sum of money but statistics show that usually within a year, most of them are bankrupt. They squander what they have on what they thought would satisfy them.
But then the famine struck. He hadn’t saved anything. He didn’t have anything to fall back on. It can happen to us, too. The things we were seeking or planning on can disappear in a moment, and we find ourselves without resources to stand on. Our path of choice is gone and we’re lost.
Of course, we know now that Jesus’ story of the younger son is pointing to a greater danger: spiritual lostness. Here me on this: we are lost when we choose our own path—when we choose to go our own way, do our own thing apart from God. And the root of this choice is sin.
Our culture, even today, wants to downplay sin, making us think that it isn’t as bad as it sounds. But behind our efforts to please ourselves is self-centeredness—that choice to do what I want rather than what God wants. And that, plain and simple, is sin. A life apart from God is sin.
Now where do you fit into the story so far? Think about your life’s pursuits. Are you striving to fulfill your own goals and agenda or are you seeking to honor God and His desires? Now is the time to get it right with God. Admit to Him any area of your life where you’re not seeking to follow Him and ask Him for forgiveness.
READ Luke 15:17-18. Do you see the answer to this? To turn toward God, we must first admit how lost we are. If you’ve read LORD OF THE RINGS, you’re familiar with the phrase “not all who wander are lost.” It sounds like a reasonable and philosophical statement. But when it comes to our lives, we don’t need to wander through life. If we don’t have a purpose that’s grounded in Christ, we do more than wander—we’re lost.
The younger son came to that very realization—he was lost. Verse 17 says he came to his senses. At one point all his “wants” had been at his disposal, but now he realized he couldn’t even meet his “needs”. He had reached the absolute bottom; he finally got work feeding the pigs. Can you even imagine what that meant for a Jewish boy? To the Jews, who were forbidden to eat pork, feeding unclean pigs was as low as a person could get. Yet, as despised as the pigs were, even they ate better than this young man.
You know, most times we aren’t willing to see our sin as God sees it. But now, this young man discovered just how lost he had become. He saw himself in his current state, filthy and starving, and came to his senses. Only then did he reach the point where he could admit, “I am dying of hunger.” “I have sinned against heaven.”
Coming to his senses was more than just realizing he was lost; it led him to change his mind, and change his direction. So, he acted on how he felt. When we see our sin as God sees our sin it should cause us to come to our senses, too. But, is seeing our sinful state enough? DECIDING to do something isn’t the same as actually doing it, is it? When we finally see our sin as God sees it, it should cause us to turn around and go in a new direction—toward God. We call that repenting. Another one of those holy words.
To repent means to change direction—to turn away from our sinful ways, and turn to God. READ Luke 15:19. The younger son continued on the path of repentance by recognizing his sin. He was quite sure that he had probably burned his bridges with his father, that he might not have a way back home, or be allowed to come home.
So, he started preparing his speech for his father. Did you ever do that when you were a kid? You know you were wrong in doing whatever it was that you did and you knew you were going to have to tell dad, or mom. So, you practiced this elaborate story to tell them so that you didn’t look so bad. Well, that’s what this young man was doing.
He prepared his speech, “Dad, I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.” He knew he had no one except himself to blame for his predicament. He admitted that he had destroyed the relationship with his father. Now ready to come crawling back to his father, he didn’t know how his father might react.
So, figuring that his father might say, “I told you so,” he thought about how well his dad treated all of his servants. As he thought about his dad’s servants, it dawned on him, “Hey! Even THEY have it better than me right now.” “So, if dad will just take me back as one of his servants, I will be a lot better off than I am right now.” As one of his dad’s servants, he knew he wouldn’t go hungry, AND he would be rejoined with all the things at home that he had come to love. He had been separated from all that.
In much the same way, when we sin, we sin first against God. Our sin separates us from God. Before we can be made right with Him, we have to acknowledge our lostness and our unworthiness to even come to Him. As a sinner, we are unworthy to come before God. Let me say it this way: there is such joy when we are forgiven.
Psalm 32: Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight! 2 Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt,
whose lives are lived in complete honesty! 3 When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. 4 Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. 5 Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt.
I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.
6 Therefore, let all the godly pray to you while there is still time,
that they may not drown in the floodwaters of judgment. 7 For you are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of victory.
8 The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.
I will advise you and watch over you.
9 Do not be like a senseless horse or mule that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control.” 10 Many sorrows come to the wicked, but unfailing love surrounds those who trust the Lord. 11 So rejoice in the Lord and be glad, all you who obey him!
Shout for joy, all you whose hearts are pure!
The psalmist David expressed those feelings in Psalm 32 about how forgiveness really feels.
That’s how being forgiven feels. This young man was hoping to feel that when he returned home.
READ Luke 15:20. The father saw his son from a distance, as if he had been eagerly watching for him every day. He was filled with compassion. His love for his prodigal son was so intense, he shed all fatherly dignity and ran to his son.
Just as it is with us, when we finally wake up from our sin and return to our heavenly Father, He is ready to welcome us with open arms. And note this: His welcome has nothing to do with any wealth, or abilities, or accomplishments we claim as assets. Any righteous acts on our part are as Isaiah wrote in Is. 64:6, “like a polluted garment.”
As we return to God where we once were, we are as destitute as this prodigal son. But, at the same time, no amount of sin, no matter how harsh that sin may be, none of it diminishes the love and the embrace of our heavenly Father.
But the good part is that it doesn’t stop there. Here me on this. In Christ, we’re offered more than forgiveness. Just as the father did more than just let his wayward son back in the house, God does more than just save us from death. Yes, He saves us FROM death, but he saves us FOR life—a full, rich, abundant life.
Surely, this young man isn’t going to just sit outside the house and be thankful for his father accepting him and make no steps to enjoy all his father had for him. Yet, too many Christians do that: they are thankful for God’s grace, but take no further steps to grow in Christ. They fall just short of enjoying all that God gives. God wants us to have so much more. A life spent following Christ is marked by peace, joy, and purpose. God offers us an abundant life. And if you aren’t experiencing the peace, joy, and purpose that God gives, then you must not know my JESUS.
READ Luke 15:21-24. The son finally got his chance to give his father his speech that he had practiced. But the father interrupted him before he got to the part about making him like one of the hired workers. Jesus didn’t tell us why the son didn’t make any further attempt to finish his speech. The father’s actions buried the confession the son had intended to make.
Now, here’s the part I want you to see more than anything else I have said today. I mentioned repentance a while ago. I see 2 things about the son’s confession that shed light on the concept of repentance.
1. Although he rehearsed his confession of sin and the shame he brought to the family, the son’s ACTUAL RETURN and, not the rehearsal, made the reconciliation possible. That tells us that good intentions alone will not heal broken relationships.
2. While the young man didn’t finish his rehearsed speech, which included his proposal of a new servant relationship with his father, the father was already planning a full restoration celebration based solely on his son’s return. The son had demonstrated biblical repentance, turning from his life in the far country, and returning to his father.
Many people think that when they come back to God in repentance they owe God something in order to earn and maintain their standing with Him. But we serve such a loving God. God waits with a watchful eye longing for that day when we will humble ourselves and return to Him. When we come to God, He will open His arms wide to welcome us back to Himself, FREE OF CHARGE. We can’t earn a right relationship with God.
The gift of God’s love is a free gift. Paul said it this way, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
God’s gift is free, and He is offering it to you right now. But it’s not yours until you reach out and take it. Won’t you accept God’s love for you by accepting Jesus Christ as your very own Savior?
Come to your senses. You don’t need any practiced speech. God has been watching and waiting for you to come. Now the question is, will you?
