A. One day, an antique collector was walking through the city when he noticed a mangy cat lapping milk from a saucer in the doorway of a store and he did a double take.
1. His expertise told him that the saucer was extremely old and very valuable, so he walked casually into the store and offered to buy the cat for two dollars.
2. The store owner replied, "I’m sorry, but the cat isn’t for sale.”
3. The collector said, "Please, I need a hungry cat around the house to catch mice. I’ll pay you twenty dollars for that cat."
4. And the owner said "Sold," and handed over the cat.
5. As the collector headed for the door he turned and said, "Hey, for the twenty bucks I wonder if you could throw in that old saucer. The cat’s used to it and it’ll save me from having to get a dish."
6. The owner replied, "Sorry buddy, but that’s my lucky saucer. So far this week I’ve sold sixty-eight cats."
B. An important question for each of us to answer is: “What is valuable to me?”
1. Is it antiques? Is it cars or cash? How about bling?
2. If you have looked at the title, then you know where I’m going with this question.
3. What do we value? How about people?
4. Do people really matter to us? And if so, how much?
C. In early June of 1995, the nation held it’s breath waiting to discover the fate of 29 year-old, Air Force captain Scott O’Grady.
1. As captain O’Grady few his F-16 over Bosnia on a routine air patrol, the Serbs fired a missile that ripped his plane in half.
2. As the aircraft erupted in flames, O’Grady parachuted to a wooded area below.
3. For six days, he hid in the woods, surviving on only grass and ants to eat.
4. Occasionally, he would send out a signal from a low-powered radio.
5. Back in the States, the government officials weighed the costs of sending in a rescue team to locate the pilot.
6. How many lives should be risked to save one man?
7. How much would it cost in fuel and the potential loss of further equipment?
8. The mission certainly would be very dangerous.
9. Yet despite all these considerations, it was concluded that the value of saving one life outweighed any of the potential costs.
10. It was a gutsy decision, but it turned out to be a successful one.
11. Tracing O’Grady’s signals as a guide the rescue team flew into his general location, and in just over 2 minutes, they had the downed pilot aboard their helicopter; headed for safety.
D. I know you can see the obvious spiritual parallels to that story.
1. The majority of people around us have been shot down by the enemy, and unless they are rescued will die in captivity.
2. How concerned are we about their precarious position?
3. How concerned should we be?
E. Bill Hybels tells about a conversation he had with an old friend who he knew to be a churchgoer.
1. He casually asked the man, “Are you looking forward to Easter Sunday?”
2. The friend replied, “No, I’m not. As a matter of fact, I never go to church on Easter.”
3. Hybels said, “You’re kidding! You don’t go to church on Easter Sunday? You can get arrested for that!”
4. Ignoring Hybels’ attempt at humor, the man said with intensity, “I don’t go to church on Easter because I can’t stand to see all those “oncers.” You know, the “annuals,” all the people who only come around once a year. They get themselves all dressed up to make their appearance, and they mess up everything at my church, especially the parking lot. Who do these people think they are fooling? They’re not fooling me and they’re certainly not fooling God! This has bothered me so much over the years that I just quit going to church on Easter Sunday. I have no use for “oncers.”
5. This man obviously had no use for those kind of people, and no doubt, was convinced that God doesn’t have any use for them, either!
F. Although I hate to admit it, it’s not uncommon for people like me and maybe like you, to fall prey to similar value judgments? Am I right about it?
1. We all have a tendency to make assessments of who God has use for and who He doesn’t.
2. And if we are not careful, we have reduced our mental list of those God really cares about to our own little group of select people.
3. Our list almost never includes the people “out there” who are different from us – whether that difference is economic, racial, or moral.
4. “We don’t want them to come in and change our church!” Can you see how dangerous this kind of thinking is?
5. Once we have bought into this kind of reasoning, we’ve imperceptibly but effectively removed any hope of getting motivated to spread God’s message of love and grace.
6. After all, if these people don’t matter that much to God, then why should we get all worked up about trying to reach them, right?
G. For me, one of the best places to begin to have a concern for the lost is to see the concern that God has for the lost.
1. One of the central thrusts of Jesus’ ministry was to address this issue and get His followers to have the right attitude toward the lost.
H. In Luke 15, Luke tells about a teaching occasion in Jesus’ ministry.
1. One day Jesus found himself surrounded by a large crowd of irreligious people.
2. These certainly were a group of “oncers.” Undesirables. The unconvinced and the confused. They were the morally bankrupt people of the town.
3. Certainly God wouldn’t have any use for people like these? Right?
4. Off to the side was a huddle of religious leaders who were shaking their heads and talking to each other in muffled tones.
5. They were complaining about the fact that Jesus, who claimed to be the Son of the holy God, was hanging out with…”those kind of people.”
6. Jesus, of course, knew exactly what they were thinking, so Jesus told three very pointed and powerful stories.
I. Jesus began, “There was once a man who owned a hundred sheep.”
1. “While he was tending his sheep, one of those woolly little critters wandered away.”
2. “So the shepherd left the ninety-nine behind and went out and searched for the one that was lost. And he kept on searching until he finally found it.”
3. “He tenderly picked up the sheep, put it on his shoulders, and carried it back to the flock.”
4. “Then he called some of his shepherd friends and said, ‘Let’s have a party. I found my lost sheep!”
J. Jesus paused for a moment, and everyone was still listening, so he continued, “Then there was a woman who had ten coins.”
1. “She lost one of them. So she lit a lamp, swept the house, turned over all the furniture, and searched relentlessly until she found it.”
2. “When she did, she was so happy that she called her friends and asked them to celebrate with her.”
K. Jesus stopped again and looked around. Was the crowd really getting it?
1. He continued, “There was a man who had two boys. The younger one got a little cocky. He got stars in his eyes. He wanted to taste life on the wild side.”
2. “So he talked his father into giving him his inheritance early, and he headed out into a distant land with his pockets full of cash.”
3. “There he found the fast lane and the fast crowd and he did some fast living.”
4. “But he soon found out that the kind of friends he’d found don’t stick around when the money runs out.”
5. “One day while he was feeding pigs to try to support himself, this disoriented, bankrupt boy finally came to his senses.”
6. “He decided he would go home. He figured he would apologize to his father for his naivete’ and immaturity, and then he’d offer to become one of his father’s hired hands, since he knew he had forfeited his right to be regarded as a son.”
7. “So he started off for home. His father, who had spent hours each day watching and longing for his son’s return, saw him when he was still a long way off.”
8. “Immediately, the hope-filled father ran down the road to embrace his son.”
9. “The boy started to say, ‘I made an awful mistake, Dad, and I don’t deserve to be your son…’ But his father interrupted. ‘Shhh, don’t talk like that! I’m so glad you’re finally home.”
10. “He rejoiced and ordered a huge party.”
11. “He said, ‘Invite everyone, kill the fattened calf, and bring out a fresh suit of clothes. My wayward son has come home!’”
12. “And did they ever have a party!”
L. Can you imagine the power those stories must have had on the people that day!
1. Here’s something amazing – this is the only recorded time Jesus ever told three parables in a row.
2. Surely everyone got the point that day, right?
3. How about us? Have we really gotten it?
4. What should these stories be saying to us?
M. First of all, in each of them something of great value was missing.
1. The missing sheep was important to the shepherd. It was a significant part of his livelihood.
2. The lost coin was vital to the woman. It was perhaps a tenth of her entire estate.
3. And, it goes without saying, why the wayward son mattered greatly to his father.
4. Through these stories, Jesus has shown us that all people are valuable to God.
5. Even though a person might get way off track, they still matter to God.
6. Now here’s an amazing thought - We never have and never will lock eyes with another human being who isn’t valuable to God!
7. The thief on the cross is a great example of that truth.
8. As those two thieves hung beside Jesus, one continued in rebellion, but the other turned to Jesus in repentance and requested his help.
9. Jesus could easily have rejected him. After all, consider what kind of criminal he must have been, how he had wasted his life, and how little he had to offer at this point.
10. But Jesus’ words, “Today you will be with me in Paradise,” herald the good news that that thief and everyone else matter more than we can imagine.
N. A second thing these stories should be saying to us is that which was missing was important enough to warrant effort to retrieve and restore.
1. The shepherd went looking and didn’t stop till he found his sheep.
2. The woman turned the house upside down until she found her coin.
3. And although the father respected the freedom and decision of his son, he waited for the first sign if his repentance in order to restore him.
O. Do people really matter that much to God?
1. Once glance at the glory and precision of this planet should convince all of us how much we matter to God.
2. But to make sure we understand his love and to ensure that we spend eternity with God he sent His Son, Jesus.
3. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…”
4. Jesus, speaking of his own mission and the value of people, said, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19:10)
5. A simplified translation says, “The Son of Man came to find lost people and save them.”
6. Right before Jesus returned to the Father, he said, “As the Father sent me, now I’m sending you.”
7. It is both our privilege and responsibility to be God’s agents of love and compassion.
8. It is our mission to seek those who are lost and to bring them to the Father.
P. The final thing that these stories should be saying to us is that the retrievals result in rejoicing.
1. What happened after the shepherd found his sheep, the woman found her coin, and after the son returned to the father? Each threw a party.
2. Jesus concluded, “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:10) God loves a celebration, and so should we!
Q. I believe that deep within every one of us is the awareness that we are on this planet for purposes greater than having a career, paying the bills, loving our families, and fulfilling our role as upstanding citizens.
1. We are called to be Christ’s ambassadors.
2. There is a mission that we are called on to embrace.
3. Today’s sermon begins a series that I’m calling “Embracing Our Mission.”
4. Over the course of the coming weeks we will be exploring what it means to embrace that mission.
5. As fearful as we might be about becoming more evangelistic and outwardly focused, what I hope we will learn is that we need only to be ourselves, to make ourselves available to God, and the results will come and will be cause for great rejoicing.
6. In addition to Scripture, I’ll be using a couple of resources. One is called Becoming a Contagious Christian, and the other is The Externally Focused Church.
7. So, please join me in praying that we will grow in our ability to Embrace Our Mission. And as a beginning point we will learn to value all people as much as God does.
(Much of this sermon was taken from "Becoming a Contagious Christian", chapter 1, by Bill Hybels and Mark Mittelberg)
