The Lost & Found Department

Bunbury

Sun pm

18/04/10

“The lost & found department”

Intro: *** After moving to Wollongong back in 1992 after being there for a few weeks we thought we’d drive up to Sydney for the day to visit our close friends. We went OK until we came to the outskirts of Sydney. Having never been in the city of around 4 million people b/4 we had no idea how big it was & more imptly how easy it was to get lost.

I made the big mistake when I began guessing the direction I needed to head in. I figured my wife could give me directions from the phone book size street directory along the way. The problem was I didn’t know where I was going & she didn’t know which way to look at the map – even when we could find which street we were on. Despite resisting several suggestions to stop & ask directions (men don’t do that – anywhere in the world) we stumbled on. The longer we went the more intense the atmosphere b/ca in the car. Finally we were snapping at each other!

But then when it seemed as though the tension couldn’t b/co any more intense my wife starting saying ..... IT’S A MIRACLE! IT’S A MIRACLE! What’s a miracle I snapped at her – our friends house was one block away! We had stumbled through several suburbs & driven for about an hour through Sydney streets & had stumbled upon the thing we were looking for.

We may be lucky when we lose our way in a big city but we may not be so fortunate if we lose something more impt – like God!

Our text is about people who lost the most impt thing in life – God Himself!

Now lost / w/o God they desperately needed to know how they can regain that which they’d lost.

The wonderful truth that we’re going to see tonight is that when we lose God He’s willing to be found by anyone desperate enough to search for Him.

T/n I want to preach a sermon about ‘The lost & found department’.

Text: Jeremiah 29:13 (NKJV) And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

# 1. A lost God?

A. Things getting lost is a reality that we all have to deal w/ from time to time.

a. We all know the feeling of losing something.

i. Lot’s of things get lost ..... wallets / purses / watches / passports ...... who has never lost their car keys for a few minutes / hours / days?

ii. The truth of the matter is that if you own it you can basically lose it somehow.

*** One day Coral & I were out walking getting some exercise when we came across a lost bull. Now that’s an unusual thing to lose!!! We made our way through to the farmer’s house & asked him if he were missing a bull – & he was!

*** Another time we borrowed someone’s car to go shopping in Sydney for the day. We went a Westfield Parramatta, parked the car & went shopping for a couple of hours. When it was time to go home we came out into the car park to discover that we had lost our friend’s car! You can imagine the uneasy feeling that began to come over us as we realised that we could find it. Eventually we went up to the highest rooftop car park ........ we remember at least that we had parked on the rooftop ..... & looked over the entire car parking area. After a few minutes we spotted the lost car on another rooftop car parking area some distance away!

iii. Many of the things we lose are inconvenient but in reality don’t cause serious problems for us.

iv. Losing & finding things is so much a part of our lives that n/p dedicate sections to bring back lost things.

b. But the more serious issue is when people get lost.

*** We have a national missing persons register in Australia. 35,000 people are reported missing each year in Australia - one person every 15 minutes! 95% of those are found w/i a short period of time. But there are still currently 1,600 long term missing persons, people that have been missing for more than 6 months & have not been found!

i. It’s a sobering thought to think that people are just missing – lost to someone – family members / loved ones / friends.

ii. And if that happened to you – where someone you loved / knew suddenly went missing / was lost you would probably be distraught.

iii. But God has to deal w/ this feeling / trauma every day ..... lost people / missing from his presence / missing from his will / purposes.