Have you ever put a precious item in a special place so it would be safe—then forget where the special place was?  Do you give up looking?  Sometimes.

Have you ever laid your keys down only to have someone else pick them up and put them back on the hook where keys are hung as a favor but forget to tell you?  Do you ask for help or give up?

Have you ever gone to shopping with your children and one of them stays focused in one area of the store as you continued gathering supplies?  And now you can’t find that wandering child?  Do you decide that you have enough children anyway so you leave without the lost child?

Have you ever walked into a room to find what you need only to forget why you walked into said room?  Do you stay there until you remember?  Or decide it’s not worth the time or effort?

Have you ever begun a conversation with another person, lose focus, derail, and begin a new conversation until the first topic comes back to mind?  I have many times. Losing focus is a disease most of the population seems to have!

Have you ever walked into a room of your beloved children wrestling in a brawl similar to WWE and lose your mind over what you see?  Do we give up and let the strongest one survive?

Have you ever had a child who once knew and followed Jesus to wander away, is now lost with little to no belief in the One who loves him/her most?

There are many ways to be lost but only one way to be found.  Jesus begins another trilogy of stories about lostness but with a twist—all are found!  Not only are the lost found—being found is celebrated! Don’t you want to be around a Person who always knows where the lost are with the Way to be found?!

Let us begin with part one of lost and found.  However, we must realize the attitude and posture of those listening in to Jesus’ stories. He is speaking to religious leaders who are not only appalled but disgusted at the “company” Jesus befriends with love and compassion— “the lost.”  We must also realize that these leaders are also lost but don’t know it—but Jesus knows.  

Jesus does not give up until lost people are found and brought back to God, the Father.  And I was one of them…I am so glad He never gave up on me? Can I get an amen?!

Luke 15, The Message

The Story of the Lost Sheep

15 ^1-3 By this time a lot of men and women of questionable reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, “He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends.” Their grumbling triggered this story.

^4-7 “Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Celebrate with me! I’ve found my lost sheep!’ Count on it—there’s more joy in heaven over one sinner’s rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Luke is known as the gospel writer bent on celebrating all the ways the Lost are found by believing in Jesus.  Dr. Luke is adamant in telling us that no matter who is lost, all are pursued by Jesus who relentlessly seeks lost people and forgives their sins.  All who believe are no longer lost but found!  Believing in Jesus reconciles no longer lost people to God, the Father! 

Found people are restored to a growing, loving, intimate relationship with Him.  Found people are given new life with purpose and significance. 

Found people are now called “children of God.”  “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”  1 John 3:1 

Found people are no longer lost but now belong to the One who knows us better than we know ourselves and never loses His love for us.  The apostle Paul, once a lost Pharisee like those Jesus is talking to in our passage, was driven to destroy believers in Jesus.  But Jesus found him on the road to Damascus and blinded him from his mission.  He then transformed his zealousness from death to life!  Here is his testimony:

“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”  Philippians 3:7-12, NIV

 “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Jesus reminds and repeats often to followers and hecklers of His mission.  Jesus will say it again as he brings salvation to the home of Zaccheus, (another questionable sinner) as we will read later in Luke 19:10.

Our response?  Be found by Jesus, believe in Him, and be saved because of Him.  He knows us and knows where we are.  He is running after us with open arms of love.  Turn, run toward Him, not away from Him in fear.  Jesus not only saves us but is preparing a special place for all found people in God’s Kingdom!  So…

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” John 14:1-4

Lost but now found people might doubt like Thomas who said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”  John 14:5-7

Only One way to be found—Run to Jesus!

Lord,

I love to tell your stories again for once I was lost but now I am found in you.  I trust you with all my life.  My hope is in You for you are Hope eternal.  I am so glad you never gave up on me!  I believe.

In Jesus Name, Amen

Your love never fails
It never gives up
It never runs out on me…