Power Of Lost and Found

Key Scripture:  “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 you found it, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing and call your friends and say, “I found it!”  Luke 15 1-6

Power Point:

     Recently I had lost something. I thought perhaps I had left it at church and the first thing I did the next Sunday was to make a beeline for the Lost and Found box.  Not there.  I searched through my car-several times, thinking it had fallen under a seat.  Nope.  I looked everywhere I could think of to look and then I finally said, “Holy Spirit, will you help me to see it?”  He did. He knows how to search successfully for lost things.

      This morning I was reading Luke 15.  The first two verses are priceless:

"Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained…”

     In response to their complaints, Jesus responded with not one but THREE parables to explain why He did what He did.  You see the Pharisees were the “religious” ones of the day.  They worked very hard every day to be sure they were good enough for God. It was easy for them to look at someone who outwardly did not seem to measure up to their standards and be critical of them-and of Jesus. It seems that He didn’t measure up either!

    The parable of the lost sheep is so encouraging to every one of us who has made mistakes in our lives isn’t it?  Wouldn’t YOU want a JESUS to come searching for you if you’d blown it?  If you look carefully, the scripture says, "the sinners and the tax collectors drew near".  The religious people complained and murmured against the grace and mercy of God. They were more concerned with being “right” than being in the “right place at the right time”.  

     The entire time that Jesus walked this earth, He was living proof of a God who searches for lost people until they are found. In those days, sickness was a definite curse.  People were outcasts who were sick. They were "set apart". They were not to be touched. Jesus touched them and healed them.  The tax collectors and the adulterers, the sick, and all the other “sinners” were the captive audience of most of His teaching.  When Jesus made His final journey to the Cross, He gave us the greatest example of the heart of God.  It was the ultimate act of the One who was seeking that which was lost. 

     Is there someone in your little corner of the world who is “lost”?

Is there someone who needs a touch of His grace and mercy?  A hug?

A gift? Could you write a note of God’s encouragement to them?

      Wouldn’t that be a lovely way to say “Thank You Jesus for coming to find me when I was lost."? It’s interesting to note that when sheep are lost, they lie down and give up.  They refuse to get up. They are "cast down". That’s why Jesus used the illustration that the sheep was picked up and put on the shoulders so that it could be carried back to the flock-to safety. 

     Beloved, God searches for us any time we lose our way. He's the Good Shepherd remember? He does that for everyone in the world. Perhaps we should too. Is there someone you need to forgive and begin again? Is there someone you know that has given up?  Is there someone you can seek and find today and bring them back to the flock? Can you be a shoulder for them to lean on until they get back to the place of safety?

     Jesus says, “Thank you!”

Power Thought:

I’m so grateful to have been lost and then found.  Aren’t you? It was His good pleasure to do that.