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Pagosa Springs SDA

Skip Dodson

The Divine Prospector

Before we enter into our time of study in God's Word, I would like to just invite you to pray with me as we just prepare our hearts to receive God's message to us today.

Father in heaven, we thank you for the opportunity to come together this morning to assemble in your house to pray, to sing, to give, and to listen.

And we ask that you would open our eyes to your word.

Please give me the words to speak that will be helpful in illuminating that word.

We invite your Holy Spirit to come and dwell in our hearts today, Father.

Please, Lord, hear our prayer, and we trust the words that Jesus spoke when he said that you are more willing to give us your Holy Spirit than the best earthly parent would be to give good things to his children.

So we take that promise to heart today, Father, and we thank you for it.

On February 5, 1869, 2 gentlemen named John Deason and Richard Gates found something buried in the ground at the base of a tree about 9 miles northwest of Dunnelly in Victoria, Australia.

It wasn't buried very deep, about an inch and a quarter underneath the surface.

It was a little bigger than a watermelon, but quite a bit heavier.

They found the biggest gold nugget in recorded history.

I found varying reports about its weight, but apparently the initial weight of the nugget was about 241 pounds.

When netted out, its weight was 192 pounds because of course nuggets aren't pure gold.

But actually the ones that were discovered in Australia, there were several big nuggets found in Victoria and they were roughly 23 carat, which is pretty pure gold.

So I checked the price of gold this morning.

That's not something I normally do on Saturday morning.

In fact, this is the first time I've ever checked the price of gold.

But in terms of today's prices, that nugget would have been worth about $5.8 million.

So you can imagine the thrill that Deason and Gates felt when they discovered this thing.

But friends, what is that to the euphoria that God must feel when he seeks and finds a lost soul?

In fact, I want to modify the title to the message this morning.

It is definitely part 2 of our series on God seeking the lost, but I want to put another part to the title and refer to it as the divine prospector.

Because you see, God looks at human beings as being more precious than gold.

And he seeks and rejoices when he finds them.

Today we will consider again this chapter that we looked at a few weeks ago, Luke chapter 15.

In this chapter Jesus gives 3 parables that relate to God's action in seeking and finding lost people.

Now I want to point out that these parables fitly represent the 2 groups of people that were present with Jesus at this particular season.

There were tax collectors and sinners present that were fitly represented by the lost sheep who recognized that they were lost and responded to the call of the shepherd when he came to them.

The Pharisees and scribes who were also there at that particular time, by contrast, are analogous to the coin, just as lost as the sheep, but lost in the house or the church, and unaware of their condition.

But there is another group that Jesus wanted to address.

You see, there are some who have known the pardoning love of God, who perhaps have been raised in the Church, but were tempted to view God as a restrictive, overbearing tyrant.

God has deep compassion for those who, for whatever reason, have received an inaccurate picture of his character and he seeks to draw them back to himself.

And I want to begin this morning by rereading this touching parable together that Wayne read a few minutes ago.

I think it is always important to have the text in our minds as we begin.

So please join me there in Luke chapter 15, verses 11 through 24.

Now we won't consider the entire parable.

This is not simply the parable of 1 lost son, it's the parable of 2 lost sons.

The other son was just as lost as the 1 who went away.

We'll have to consider his situation on another day.

Then he said, a certain man had 2 sons, And the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.

And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.

But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want.

Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no 1 gave him anything.

But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger.

I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

But when he was still a great way off, His father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.

And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight and I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

But the father said to his servants, bring out the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet and bring the fatted calf here and kill it and let us eat and be merry for this is my son this my son was dead and is alive again he was lost and is found and they began to be married now I want to make some observations about this parable that I think are extremely important.

1 thing that we cannot miss in all the parables in this series, and I think I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but it bears repeating, is the fact that people who choose to live their lives apart from God are referred to as being what, everyone?

When you're lost, in what kind of state are you well you're in a state of confusion is that true How many of you have ever been lost driving before?

You see the things that are around you but you have no idea how to interpret them.

You don't know what's, when you see a sign that says, you know, such and such street, and you're saying to yourself, yeah, but I don't know what that means.

Lost people are in this very same state of mind.

Now I don't suppose that this is a very politically correct way to describe people that choose to live apart from God.

Telling it like it is always cuts against the grain of human nature and against the devil's plan to publicize his propaganda.

He never wants anyone to come to the place where this young man finally came, the place of reflection and repentance.

But regardless of its unpopularity, friends, I solemnly declare to you this morning that the confusion of being lost is 1 of the most fitting characterizations of life apart from God.

And if you have, by the grace of God alone, come to your senses and repented after living that way, you know that this is true.

And I can testify myself that it is true.

But we need to go beyond this general point to notice some particulars of this life, this life apart from God.

And the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.

Now that is a very interesting and really sort of an impertinent thing for the son to say.

But this illustrates life apart from God.

People who choose to live that way typically do so for 1 main reason and that is this.

They believe that they are better capable to manage their lives than God is.

Maybe if you're in that situation, you think you know better.

This younger son decided that he knew better than his father did how to manage his affairs, and therefore he asked for his portion of the inheritance.

And soon after he received it, according to the next verse, verse 13, If you notice, what did he do?

He gathered all his stuff together and he left.

Now let me ask you, what is it that drives someone to do a thing like this?

I mean, let's assess this situation rationally.

This young man's father was clearly a man of considerable means, with a thriving farm business.

Otherwise, he could not have afforded to nonchalantly hand over this considerable sum of money to his son.

He must have been a skilled manager of money and of people to achieve this kind of success.

What practical reason could we come up with for this younger son to desire to disconnect himself from a man like this, from whom he could learn so much.

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The Divine Prospector

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