MTYC 2011: Able to Stand

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Montana Youth Conference

Nathan Shires

Lost and Found

Today I am here to share my personal testimony and I've titled it, I told Christina before, once lost, now found, but I changed it to lost and found.

I like that a little better, lost and found.

Gilbert, if you don't mind, let's begin with another prayer.

Our Father in heaven, Father, we don't ever want to enter into a study of your word without inviting your Holy Spirit to teach us.

Father, I know how weak and frail I am and that I can do nothing without you.

And I know, Father, that if it's just me up here explaining your word, then your message will not come across.

I know I don't have wisdom sufficient to teach.

So Lord, I ask for your Holy Spirit to come into my heart.

I give you permission to take possession of my mind and to fill my thoughts with a message straight from your throne.

And I pray that this afternoon, someone here will receive a blessing from what you have done in my life and what we look at in your word today.

And I ask for these blessings in Jesus' name, amen.

Well, there's 2 quotes I would like to read.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, who was an English, a prolific English writer and poet and journalist and many other things.

He wrote, the way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.

The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.

There's another, a man by the name of Francis Rodman once said, just think how happy you would be if you lost everything that you had right now and then got it all back again.

It's a good way to appreciate what you have right now, isn't it?

Well, the idea of losing something, frantically searching for it, and then finding it again is associated with a lot of feelings and emotions that, I mean you think, you know just to name a few, you think of worry, anxiety, distress, grief, then followed by joy, relief, rejoicing, peace.

These are just a few of the emotions you go through when you lose something, you frantically search for it, and then you find it again.

And this whole idea of losing something and finding it again, we're all very familiar with it.

You think of the Sabbath hikes, where you just hiked 5 miles, jumping over boulders, over streams, walking on logs, over the mountains, through the woods, and you get to your car, and your keys aren't in your pockets.

You think you're late to getting to the airport, and you can't find your wallet, and you think, oh no.

These experiences, we're all familiar with this.

There's a couple that I'm very familiar with.

I believe I've lost more phones in the past year than most people lose in a lifetime.

I remember when we were young, our childhood dog chewed through its rope 1 night and ran off into the woods after the coyotes.

And me and my sister's hearts were filled with a lot of anxiety and worry.

And from the following days as we searched through the woods, calling our dog, searching frantically for it, we were very worried.

But when we did find our dog, tangled up in some trees, still alive but very thirsty and hungry, we were very relieved.

And this whole idea associated losing something very dear and precious, and then finding it again.

We go through this over inanimate objects, over technological devices, over animals, but there's nothing that quite reaches your heart and fills you with such anxiety as when you lose a loved 1.

Maybe you're in the zoo and your child gets lost in the crowd.

Maybe you're at Walmart and I remember when I was young and I thought I lost my mother at Walmart.

I went crying up to the front desk, you know, and I, where's my mom?

And they announced it and my mom came looking for me.

I mean, these things, there's nothing that quite fills your heart with such anxiety as when you lose a loved 1.

And this is an idea that Jesus is presenting to the people in several parables in Luke chapter 15.

And we're going to look through this, if you would all begin to turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 15, we're going to look into this at this idea of lost and found as we go through these parables today.

We'll spend the rest of our time, I'll be sharing 3 stories that have had a particularly significant influence and impact on my life.

And as I share these 3 stories, a sermon isn't a sermon unless it comes from God's word.

So we're going to begin in God's word and then I'm going to be sharing these stories as we go along.

Luke Chapter 15, we'll read the first 3 verses to start with.

Then drew near unto him all the publicans and the sinners for to hear him.

And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured saying, This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them.

And he spake this parable unto them, saying, now just from those 3 verses alone, 3 things immediately jump out at you.

1, there's something strangely attractive about what Jesus has to say to these sinners and publicans.

They're drawing close to hear what he has to say.

2, you find that the Pharisees are diametrically opposed to the idea that Jesus is even allowing them to associate with him, but much more than this, that Jesus is actually receiving them is what they're grumbling about.

Then the third thing you find is that Jesus' parable is coming immediately after this complaint.

So Jesus' 3 parables he's giving is a direct rebuttal to the Pharisees' objection that the publicans and the sinners are drawing close to Jesus.

It's important to have this context in mind that these parables are given to address this complaint, that Jesus is receiving sinners and publicans.

It's interesting to look at the recent research study showing how your view of God shapes certain views you have in politics.

It shapes certain views you have on actions that you commit yourself, moral decisions that you make.

Your view of God shapes your ultimate, ultimately your entire lifestyle.

Depend, it all depends on how you view God.

There is a book by the 2 professors at Baylor University, the book was titled America's 4 Gods.

And what it was showing was that there's 4 different views, major views that people have of God in the country.

And they did a survey over of about somewhere in the 100, 000 range of people across America.

And this survey was taking different views and categorizing them and their different views of God.

And the survey, the conclusion they came to was based on how you view God in 1 of these 4 ways.

They could basically almost predict how you were going to respond to certain controversial subjects like gay rights, euthanasia, just to give a few.

How you view God shapes the way you think is what they were finding.

It's a very interesting study, fascinating study.

America's 4 Gods was the book they wrote from that.

But Jesus is dealing with a very similar situation here.

Jesus is dealing with the Pharisees who have a misconception of how God relates to sinners.

Because they view God as austere and judgmental, judgment is vengeance is mine saith the Lord.

The Pharisee stands in the synagogue or the temple and he says, I thank God that I'm not like other men, I'm not like these sinners, these publicans.

And because he views God in such a way, it shaped the way he lives his life where he's fearful lest if he come in contact with them, he would be ceremonially defiled.

So you see how this is a problem Jesus is dealing with, their misconception and how it shaped the religious leaders' view that day and Jesus' parables are addressing this misconception.

Now let's look into the first parable and we're going to look at 3 things as we go through them.

We're going to look at number 1, what was the crisis in the parable, what is the crisis?

Number 2, we're going to look at what is the response of the person in the parable.

In the case of parable number 3, we're looking at particularly the father of the prodigal son.

And we're going to look at the third thing is what is the conclusion that Jesus comes to as he reaches the end of these parables?

What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose 1 of them, doth not leave the 90 and 9 in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?

And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

And when he cometh to his home, he calleth together his friends and his neighbors, and saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost." In Jesus' first parable, he's appealing to the heart of a shepherd's love for his sheep.

And he says in this parable, the shepherd has a hundred sheep, and only 1 of his sheep is missing, and as he counts over them, he counts over them again and again, 1 sheep is missing.

He's filled with so much anxiety that 1 sheep is gone that he leaves the 90 and 9 in the wilderness and he goes searching after that 1 lost sheep.

And the parable says he doesn't stop until he finds him.

And when he finds the sheep, he doesn't drive it home, he doesn't scold the sheep for being lost, he doesn't even lead the sheep home, but he tenderly lays the lamb on his shoulders and carries this lamb home.

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