Lost and Found - Sunday, March 26, 2023

Amen. Amen. Amen.

. . . . . There we go. Good morning. Apparently Greg is not here, so technology has been a bit of a challenge this morning. We will just go a cappella if we have to, but it's going to be Erica coming up here and doing it, not me, if that happens. Believe me, you do not want my version of these songs a cappella. Okay, so we will, if you guys want to stand with me, we're going to open with a verse, and I believe there's something about there's going to be a bunch of names on the screen. You don't have to read the names, okay? We're going to start after the names. We're starting at stand up, unless anyone wants to volunteer to come up here and say all the names. Anybody? Okay, good. So this is from Nehemiah 9. That's the second half of verse 5 and verse 6. It says this:

"Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts, the earth and all that is on it. The seas and all that is in them. And you preserve all of them, and the host of heaven worships you." This is the word of the Lord. Will you bow with me in prayer? God, we love you and we just thank you for this beautiful day that you've blessed us with. We're so grateful for the opportunity to come here and worship you. We're grateful for the words that we get to read in the Bible, Lord. We're grateful for the men and women in history that have recorded these words, that saw fit to pass them down,

so we get to see the history of the Bible and the history in the Bible, and that we can connect with the time of Jesus. And we just thank you for that. We pray that the things that we say and do here this morning will be honoring to you. Help us to have hearts that are set towards you and set towards your people here on earth, Father, that we would find in our hearts to love the people around us, just like Jesus commanded us. Bless our time here this morning. We love you and praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Alright, our first Song is going to be "Blessed Be Your Name." And it will not, in fact, be acapella, hopefully.

Blessed be your name, in the land that is plentiful. Where the streams of abundance flow. Blessed be your name. Blessed be your name. When I'm found in the desert place. Though I walk through the wilderness. Blessed be your name. Every blessing you pour out, I'll turn back to praise. When the darkness closes in Lord, still I will say. Be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your glorious name. Blessed be your name. When the sun's shining down on me. When the world's all as it should be. Blessed be your name. Let you be on the road marked with suffering. Though there's pain in the offering. Blessed be your name. Every blessing you pour out, I'll turn back to praise. When the darkness closes in the door, I will say.

Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your glorious name. You give and take away. You give and take away. My heart will choose to say. Well, blessed be your name. You give and take away. You give and take away. My heart will choose to say. Well, blessed be your name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your name. Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be your glorious name. Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be your name. Blessed be the name of the Lord, blessed be your glorious name. Alright, our next song, ooh that's loud, is going to be a Revelation song.

Sing a new song, to Him who sits on Heaven's mercy seat. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Holy, holy is He. Sing a new song, to Him who sits on Heaven's mercy seat. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. For was and is and is to come. With all creation I sing praise to the King of kings. You are my everything, and I will adore You.

Clothed in rainbows of living color. Flashes of lightning, rolls of thunder. Blessing and honor, strength and glory and power be to You the only wise King. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty. Who was and is and is to come. With all creation I sing praise to the King of kings. You are my everything and I will adore You. Filled with wonder, awestruck wonder, at the mention of Your name. Jesus, Your name is power, breath and living water, such a marvelous mystery. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. With all creation I sing praise to the King of kings. You are my everything, and I will adore You. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is done. With all creation I sing praise to the King of kings. You are my everything, and I will adore You. and share time. And on the live stream, I will be muted during that time, but there is a number for the rest of the world. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.

For our communion song, we're going to be singing Cornerstone. I'm going to think that I need to hit the Resume button. Damn it. My hope is built on nothing less. Than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame. But trust in Jesus' name. My hope is built on nothing less. Than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame. But wholly trust in Jesus' name. Christ alone, cornerstone. Weak made strong. In the Savior's love. Through the storm. He is Lord. Lord of all. When darkness seems to hide his face. I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale. My anchor holds within the veil. My anchor holds within the veil. Christ our Lord, call us Lord. Weak, made strong, in the Savior's love. Through the storm, He is Lord, Lord our Lord.

Christ our Lord, call us Lord. Weak, made strong, in the Savior's love. Through the storm, He is Lord our Lord. When He shall come with trumpet sound, O may I then in Him be found. Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultlessly for the throne. For the throne. Christ alone, call us though. Weak, may strong, in the Savior's love. Through the stone, He is your Lord, Lord of all. Lord of all. Christ alone, call us though. Weak, may strong, in the Savior's love. Through the stone, He is Lord, Lord of all. Amen.

All righty. This past couple of weeks, as we've been cleaning and organizing, getting ready for some projects downstairs. We've been going through a bunch of old paperwork, a lot of stuff not sure why we kept, a lot of stuff that's really good things that need to be kept. And one of the things that we ran into during one of the closet organizations to make it a little easier to get to some of the craft supplies and office supplies, was we found these big long sheets of rolled up paper, and it turns out they're probably the original plans for this building. And one of the interesting things, as we were spreading them out and looking at them, is that I had never known this, is out here in the front corner, it's labeled on the plans, there's a cornerstone. So we went out, Matt and Evelyn and I went out, Evelyn was like, it was like national treasure,

we're searching for whatever is out there. And interestingly enough, I don't know if there ever intended to be a plaque there, or if there is something behind the brick, but if you go out in that corner, you can see there's kind of a weird square of brick. And so if you see me out there one day with a chisel, just don't ask any questions, we'll try to put it back the way that it was. Now for us, when we think of a cornerstone, we're primarily thinking about something commemorative, right? This is the date on which we broke ground, this is the year that this was built, this is what it was originally built to be, and in some cases, cornerstones and more modern buildings will be like an empty block, and you'll hide some memorabilia,

some remembrances for the building there. Now biblically, when we talk about a cornerstone, we're talking about something just a little bit differently. When you were getting ready to build a building in ancient times, you would set a stone, the first stone that you placed would be your cornerstone, and the width and the length and the height of your building would be measured from that stone. It was from that stone that everything else was defined. And so when we read these words in Ephesians chapter 2, we see that the church also has a cornerstone, and it says this, speaking to us, "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, so we are no longer outside of Christ, but you are fellow citizens with the saints of the household of God, built on a foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,

in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you are also being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit." And as Paul talks about the good news of the Gospel, and that Jews and Gentiles are no longer separated from each other, and we're no longer separated from Christ, and we're part of the household of God in this wonderful, overflowing picture of the Gospel in Ephesians chapter 2, he points out to us that the measurements for our life, for our relationship with others, and for the church are not measured by what we think or by what we feel, but they're measured by Jesus and who he is. And so one of the ways in which we remind our hearts, one of the ways that we encourage how we think and how we act in this is by coming together around the table.

One of the reasons that we come and do this, because Jesus commanded us to remember him, to remember that he is the one who saved us, he is the one who builds us, and he is the one from whom we measure all things in regards to what we believe and how we go about living. So we are going to pray, and then we will fix our eyes on you through this meeting. Father in heaven, thank you for Jesus and for grace. I thank you for the hope that you give us, and I thank you that you are the one who built your church, and so we just ask that we would look to you, that you would be our cornerstone. The way that we measure and evaluate and look at things around us will be through you.

And so, in this moment, remind us of our dependence upon you. Remind us that you are what is good and what is righteous, that you are our strength and our salvation. Be with us during this time. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If you would take the bread with me, as Jesus did with his disciples, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and he said, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." And in the same way, he took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." In just a minute, we'll be in Luke, the 15th chapter. As we do, we are on the way to Jerusalem with Jesus.

We begin last week as we move toward Palm Sunday and as we move toward Easter and all the events that happen between Palm Sunday and Easter, we find in Luke chapter 9 that Luke writes these words, that he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And everything from Luke chapter 9 to the end of the book is Jesus on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus in Jerusalem, rising and rising again in Jerusalem, and then ultimately we finish out with Jesus' resurrection appearances. And so as we come to the Easter season and that time of celebrating the good news of the gospel, not just for Christians, but a holiday that is celebrated by so many, we want to sort of walk to Jerusalem with Jesus. And one of the things that characterizes Jesus' walk to Jerusalem is this sort of constant conflict between him and the religious leaders,

sort of growing to a crescendo where eventually they will arrest him and kill him. So we're going to look at the first couple, the first few verses, I guess the first 10 verses of Luke the 15th chapter this morning. Very familiar chapter, three parables, lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son. We're only going to look at the first two this morning. So let's go ahead and pray and we'll dive into it. Father in heaven, I thank you for grace. I thank you that you have spoken to us, both through the world in which you have made and the word in which you have given us. So this morning I ask for understanding, I ask for clarity, I ask for your spirit to be at work on us and in us, that we would, as we see this good news that Jesus is preaching to two kinds of broken people,

that whether it's proud of our accomplishments or fearful of our brokenness, that you would bring us to you this morning. And so we just ask for your grace and for your strength and for your wisdom during this time. It is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So I'm going to go ahead and read this just very briefly, very familiar section to us. Luke records it like this: "Now the tax collectors and the sinners were all drawing near to hear him, and the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled saying, "This man receives sinners and he eats with them." So he told them this parable: "What man among you, having a hundred sheep, if you lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?

And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing, and when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, "Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost. Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, "Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost. Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents." So one of the ways that I know that I am getting older

is that sometimes I struggle to understand what my kids are saying. I don't mean to understand the words that are coming out of their mouth, but one of the things that's fun when you're a kid, at least it was for me, is try to speak in a way that the adults have no idea what is going on. And so, you know, they'll come in and go, "Hey, are you guys ready for dinner, or do you want dinner?" And they'll just go, "No." And I'm like, "Okay, that's weird, but okay." They go, "Oh, no, no, it's opposite day." So everything we say means the opposite. So I'm going to say, you know, "I'm not going to eat all of your candy," and then they get all mad. And one of the things that happens is vocabulary changes, but as we're kids, like, we talk differently,

and sometimes we intentionally, not just as kids, but as adults, kind of try to hide our meaning, or we try to communicate in a way that maybe doesn't communicate any information at all. So, for example, if you've ever watched a political speech, you'll hear a lot of words, but maybe not a lot of anything that you can understand. And so when it comes to how God speaks to us, we live in a world filled with things that are either hard to understand unintentionally or intentionally. And one of the wonders about how God has interacted with us is that He speaks to us in ways that we can understand. So in the 19th Psalm, it'll talk about how creation speaks to us. And so if you've ever stood and watched a sort of a beautiful view over, you know, in the wilderness and your heart sort of is encouraged and lifted,

or you look up at the stars and you feel the greatness of the universe, that is God saying something to you. He's pointing to His greatness and His beauty through the beauty and the greatness of creation. But additionally, God hasn't just spoken to us through His world, but the 19th Psalm will tell us that He's also spoken to us through His word. And in many ways to complicate and obfuscate, God speaks to us in a way that we can understand. And one of the ways that that happens is in the New Testament is in parables, where Jesus will tell sort of a physical story that points to a spiritual truth or a spiritual reality. And in this case, the one we're primarily going to be focusing on this morning is a shepherd with a flock of sheep.

And for Jesus' listeners to hear this, it would be a common sight, a common picture, and something that they understand. And so Jesus is communicating in this way so that they would understand the joy of the shepherd who finds a sheep and brings it home would have been something that they understood. And something that Jesus will then say, "This is how God feels as he sees the one sinner who repents." And so God is speaking in a way intending to be understood. And the purpose of parables oftentimes is to bring our hearts in line with God so that we want the same thing at the same time and in the same direction as God. And so he uses parables not just to address our actions, but he does, but also to try to address our hearts as well, to move our hearts.

In this parable specifically, Jesus isn't just addressing the hearts of those who are outside of his followers, but very important, I think, for us as we sit in a church, Jesus is addressing the hearts of people who have been around the Word of God and have been around this Jewish religion for a long time. He's speaking to those who are, according to their own views, established in their faith. This is not just a message for outsiders, but it's addressing the heart of insiders as well. And so this parable, I want you to understand, this is both for the lost and it's for the found. Those who are near to God and those who are far away. So, for those who are not near to God, this is a picture of God's coming to find you and coming to save you and coming to bring you home.

And this is also for the hearts of those of us who think we're found, right? If we're a Christian, this parable is also for us. They show you what God values. They show you what God desires and what we should value. And honestly, if I can be just very blunt for them, these parables are a whole lot harder for those inside the church than those who are outside. Because oftentimes you and I think we've got it down and we've got it figured out. And so when Jesus says something like this, it can be a struggle to bring our heart into line with his. And so let's take a look at the context. And the very first verse just says this, "Now the tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to hear him." And so he starts with two kinds of sinners. The first, tax collectors.

Which if you've been around the church, you've heard about tax collectors and how they were hated. And the reason for this hatred is essentially they are traitors to their country. They've gone to work for the occupying Roman government in terms of collecting taxes. And now the way that this would work in our day, we have specific tax rates, right? You're going to pay this percentage up to this amount of money, and this percentage on that next chunk of money. And we have a delineated tax code, and we have deductions, and we have income, and we have all of these different things written down, legally interpreted for our tax. Now in our case, it's incredibly complicated. Now in Jesus's day, the Romans would say, "This is the tax we expect." And rather than collecting it themselves, they would hire contractors who would say, "Yes, I will collect this tax."

And the way that the contractors made their money was collecting on top of the percentage that the Romans called for. And we're not talking about, "Well, you collect, and then there's a 2% fee." We're talking about, "They collect, and they go, "Well, how much do I owe?" And the tax collector in some cases would respond, "Well, how much do you have?" And so taxes were incredibly burdensome, not just because a foreign occupying government was collecting them, but they're onerous because the people who are collecting them are stealing from the people they have known their entire life. Yeah, I know you're not going to be able to feed your children because I'm taking your money, and I don't care. And so the tax collectors are uniformly hated because they're corrupt, they're greedy, and they're greed because they're outside of the Jewish religion.

They just kind of live however they want. And in fact, they are so hated that if they show up to the synagogue or to the temple and try to give money to God, it will be refused and returned to them because we don't even want your stolen money. So that's the first group that surrounds Jesus to hear him and eats with him is the tax collectors. The second are sinners. And this is not just a general term for sinful people because even the religious leaders would agree that everybody is sinful and needs to be reconciled to God. They would disagree on the amount of sinfulness in life. So this refers not just to ordinary people who make mistakes and go make their sacrifices in the temple and are restored to being with God. This is a picture of those who willfully are abandoning the commands of God to live in a way that is absolutely opposed to his will and to his moral standard.

And so the two people that are eating and fellowshipping and spending time with Jesus are those who are incredibly corrupt, immoral, greedy, seeking their own desires, and those who have completely turned their back upon God's standard. Not just a little bit of mistake, but intentional sin. And these are the people that have been attracted and gathered to Jesus. And so the Pharisees and the scribes are going to see this, that they are drawing near to see Jesus, these bad people, and they're going to say, "This man receives sinners, and he eats with them." And they begin to accuse Jesus. So let's talk about the Pharisees and scribes for a minute. So the Pharisees and scribes, one of those is a theological position, what you believe, and one of those is a profession, what you do.

And so scribes is a profession. Those who, remember, there's no printers or photocopiers, their primary role would have began as making copies of parts of the Old Testament. In some cases, the entire Old Testament. In some cases, just portions and parts of it. And as a result of hand-copying the Word of God, they begin to know the Word of God very, very well. And so when somebody knows something very well and you have a question you want to ask, you go to the person who knows it very well. And so these scribes are essentially experts in the law, not necessarily the heart and the spirit of the law, but in the letter of the law. And so people will come to them and ask them, "Is this right or is this wrong?" And remember, they are interpreting what they have read, and so they become incredibly legalistic.

Now right next to them are the Pharisees, which is a theological position. And what's remarkable about the Pharisees is in a lot of ways they sound like us. Because the Pharisees began looking at the Jewish religion and seeing how many things have been corrupted. The Pharisees, and this will sound familiar to you, will say, "You know what we need to do is we need to go back to the Word of God." And that was their initial theological position. We need to go back to the Word of God. We need to restore the Jewish faith. But what starts with such good intentions and a good heart quickly turns into legalism. And so what happens is the Pharisees care more about the law and the rules than they do about God Himself. And they have sucked all of the joy out of things. So for example, one of the board games that I dislike the most is Monopoly.

It's monotonous, it leads to broken friendships, like sometimes it leads to broken furniture. And there's a particular person, and I won't mention his name, but some of my family members will know who I'm talking about, that I will never, ever, ever, ever, and I can't stress this enough, ever play Monopoly with again. And part of the reason is this particular person is a rules lawyer. And you've probably met these people maybe playing a game, or it's the letter of the law. So you go to do your thing in the game that you've always done, and they go, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's not in the rules, right here in the rules." And then he's like, "You can't play that, and so you have to do whatever the rules say." And then three seconds later, they do something shady, and you're like, "Hey, I just tried to do that, and that's not in the rules."

And you're like, "Rules? Well, you don't understand. This rule is only for this circumstance, but then there's another rule for this circumstance that applies to me." So that rule applied to you, but it doesn't apply to me because of this. Now you're already angry, and then this particular person will do something completely outside the rules. He goes, "Oh, that's a house rule, the way we've already played it." You've got to declare the house rules before you play the game, not when you're losing and trying to win, right? It's like you're playing with a three-year-old, and it sucks all of the joy out of it. I don't know if you can tell I'm still angry about this happening. Like, before Rachel and I were married, and I am still filled with rage about this. This is what the Pharisees do. They'll go and go, "Oh, you're not following the rules."

When someone asks them a quote, they'll go, "Well, no, here's another rule that counteracts that rule." And they suck all the joy out of worshiping and following God, and they turn everything to themselves. In fact, in Luke 18, there's a Pharisee. Jesus tells another parable about a Pharisee praying. And if you listen to the content of his prayer, it goes, "I thank you, Lord, that I am not like other men. I fast, I pray, I give." And in his prayer, you know what you hear over and over? You don't hear God talked about at all. But you hear about how good he is, and what he has done, and his accomplishments, and his spiritual resume. And so you have these two groups: one, the theological position of legalism, and one, the professional position of legalism.

And they're going, "You're eating with tax collectors and sinners." Now, for us, that's not a big deal. In Jesus's day, culturally, who you ate with was a declaration of who your friends were. So we can eat with people we're acquaintances with. We can even eat with strangers. If you ever want to eat with a stranger, go sit at Waffle House at the counter, and some guy you never met comes and sits next to you. We don't have a problem with that. In Jesus's day, who you sit with is a declaration of your loyalty, your allegiance, your friendship, and your approval. And so when Jesus sits with tax collectors, and when he sits with sinners, what he is saying, according to the Pharisees, is this guy loves sinners. This guy loves tax collectors. And what's strange to me, and this is incredibly remarkable, is that when Jesus comes, the promise of God from Genesis chapter 3, that there is coming a one who will crush the serpent and set things right.

The one promised to Abraham, through him all the nations of the earth will be blessed. The one that everybody has looked forward to, when he gets there, the religious people who are supposed to be desiring his appearance can't stand him. And the broken, hurting, sinful people who should be afraid of his appearance are drawn to him. It's an unexpected reaction to Jesus, and one of the reasons for that is the broken and the hurting, they see their need, and the religious and righteous only see themselves. They only see how they depend upon themselves. And so you come to this accusation that Jesus eats with them. Let me tell you something about this. This is wonderful, and it's true. That Jesus eats with sinners, right? Jesus is the one who receives sinners, right? He receives sinners to forgive them.

He receives sinners to sanctify them. He receives sinners to make them ready for heaven. It's His purpose to do so. Jesus will say in Matthew 9, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." J.C. Ryle will say this about Jesus, "Jesus who walked this earth and who sits at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us." J.C. Ryle will say this, "He is emphatically the sinner's friend." And so what you see is Jesus, as He eats with sinners, He's demonstrating the kind of love that God has for the broken. And I want to take a look just very quickly with you at this love. The first thing you see is that this is a pursuing love. It's not a passive, "I kind of love them as long as they stay over here." This is a chasing kind of love. This is a pursuing kind of love. If you were here during that phase of our life,

where every Sunday morning, Dodger went blasting out our front door because he felt like he was being left out of going to church. And here I am in my church clothes, chasing him down the street, screaming at him at the top of my lungs, and threatening unspeakable things to him if he doesn't come home, right? The kind of love that we see for Jesus is not just, "Oh, you headed out the door." But it's rather Jesus running to catch the lost and the broken and those who are in danger. This is an active love. What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in open country and go to the one that is lost until he finds it? And this parable says that the shepherd doesn't hope that his sheep comes back.

And we had a few sheep growing up, and our sheep generally, and I don't know if this is true of all sheep in general, but our sheep specifically, they were dumb, right? So when the trees came out around their little shed, and they couldn't see the door to their little pen, and we let them out in the yard to kind of wander around, they didn't know where to go. Like, it's like, "Oh, sorry, home's gone. I guess we live here now," right? The only way you get them back, you gotta get a grain bucket, and you shake them, they're like, "Oh, we hear food." Sheep generally don't find their way back. In fact, you can look at all of these news stories that sheep, when the shearers come, the sheep takes off in the wilderness, and four years later, somebody's gonna find this sheep,

and he can barely walk, and they're gonna have to get a truck to load him in, and to shear this sheep, because the sheep went out and got lost, and had no idea how to get home, right? Sheep are not, like, fun, cool animals. They're not real smart. They may be light and fluffy, but they're not incredibly intelligent. And I want you to see this. Notice when God refers to us as an animal. He doesn't use a cool animal. He's not like, "You guys are a bunch of lions," or, "You guys are a great big bear. You guys are something powerful and intelligent." He goes, "You know that fluffy thing that can't keep itself alive, right? The one that goes out and gets lost? That's you." God continually refers to us as sheep. It's who we are, right?

Sheep aren't scary. They're not ferocious. They're just sort of fluffy and squishy, and they're cute. But they're not very strong, smart, or terrifying. And the shepherd goes and looks for this sheep. And the same is true with this second parable. Jesus talks about this woman who has lost this coin, probably part of her sort of headpiece for when she got married. Something with deep emotional significance. She doesn't just go, "Oh, I hope it turns up." But she lights a lamp, and she searches for it until it is found. And I want you to see that the love of God pursues you. Think about this: that Jesus, although He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be held onto. But He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant,

being found in the likeness of men, and being found in this form. He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Here Jesus comes to get us. Jesus is the shepherd that comes and finds us. And if you think about this picture, it's not very flattering to our pride. We're the dumb sheep who wanders off and gets lost in the woods. Jesus is the heroic shepherd who comes and finds us. And we can't even get home on our own, but He picks us up, puts us on His shoulders, and He brings us back. Jesus pursues the loss. And He does so, not inexpensively, but at great cost. Look at what He says, "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, but he has lost them, does not leave the ninety-nine in open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?

And when he finds it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing." And you might say, "Well, how is this costly?" First of all, He's got to find some people to watch His sheep. When He leaves them in open country, it's not likely that He just sort of parks them in a field in hopes they'll stay. He has hired shepherds likely that He's going to now have to pay to watch ninety-nine sheep while He goes and finds the one that has wandered away. Secondly, this is risky for the shepherd because he now has to traverse into the wilderness. We're not talking about a big urban area and your lost dog where you can walk down the street going, "Hey, doofus, come home." We're talking about hills and valleys and rocks and rivers and ravines, and this shepherd is risking his injury to go and find this lost sheep.

It's also costly because he is searching instead of resting. He's searching instead of working with his other sheep. He's searching instead of sitting with his family. He's searching, and then he finds the sheep, and then here's what he does: he picks them up and carries them. If you've ever had a child who, when you're traveling in maybe a museum or you're on a hike, and they decide that they're done walking, and you have to pick them up and carry them. At first it's not too bad, but after a while it begins to get heavy and begins to become difficult, and it is a struggle. And so it's costly to the shepherd because he doesn't just get to walk out and walk back, but he picks up the weight of that sheep and carries him home.

And my question, and maybe a different perspective than Jesus' day, is: is it worth it? Like, you've got 99 other sheep. Why are you going after the dumb one that got itself lost? Write this off as the cost of doing business, right? Deduct it. Save your time, save your energy, save your risk, and stay with the sheep that want you. But that's not the kind of love that Jesus has. The kind of love that God has for us is one that pursues, one that is costly. Think about the life of Jesus. Born to an unimportant set of parents. You know, humble, stable, on the run for his life to Egypt, growing up in Nazareth, this tiny little town. A lot of roads going through it, but not a lot of people who want to live there.

His ministry and his conflict. And then hear what Isaiah says about Jesus. "All we," speaking about us, "are like sheep who have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." And Peter will say, "He himself bore in his body your sins on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you are healed." And then, here is this joyful love. So I want you to see the love of God pursues. The love of God for you is costly. And third, the love of God for you is joyful. And this is a big deal. God's love isn't grudging. It's not, "Well, I guess I have to rejoice over them." But it is filled with joy. Listen. "And when he had found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

And when he comes home, he calls his friends together, and his neighbors says, "Rejoice with me. Celebrate. Have a party with me. For I have found the sheep. I was lost." And here's what Jesus will say. "Just so." He tells us what this parable means. "I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, and over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance." Now, so he finds this sheep. And I want to try to put ourselves in this position. And he comes home rejoicing. I don't rejoice like that when I find something. And I was thinking about my general response, or maybe not just my general response, but the response in our house to when we find something, right? And I think for us, the number one response to finding something in our house

that is lost is smugness, right? And so here's what I mean by that is, for example, I will ask Rachel where something is, and she will tell me where something is, and I will go look for it, and I will not find it. Now, this can go one of two ways. So in one way, right, I look for it, and I don't find it, and I go back, and I go, "It's not there." And then she says the words that every husband dreads, "Well, I'm going to go look myself," right? And so I'm just sitting there, like sweat pouring down my face. I'm like, "Is she going to find it?" And here's where the smugness comes in. She comes back and goes, "Man, I can't find it. It's not there." And I'm like, "See, I told you so!" Right? That's my response. And then there's other times where I will say, "I can't find it."

She says, "It's right here." And she goes, and I come back and say, "It's not where you told me it was." She goes, and she looks, and she comes back, and she's like holding it. She goes, "See, I told you so!" Right? So our response in our house, generally, to finding something is smugness. On whoever's able to find it, it's like, "Hey, maybe you don't see real well, but like it's right here, and I was able to find it." We don't often rejoice when finding something. It's not my normal experience to rejoice in finding something. And with this text, doesn't it seem like the celebration is bigger than what it warrants? Like, who throws a party because your stray sheep has been brought home? The one who deeply loves that sheep. And the reason Jesus says it this way is not to make us go, "I wonder why."

He does it so that we will look at this and say, "The love of the shepherd for that sheep is so great that I struggle to understand it." It's beyond my experience because I don't react that way when I find something. How much must the shepherd love the lost sheep to celebrate with his neighbors when the sheep comes home? The purpose of this is to help us see that God's love for us is bigger and more wonderful than you and I have ever experienced anywhere else and bigger and more wonderful than we can imagine. Because the size of the rejoicing shows how much the one who finds it really cares about it. And for some of you, you hear this and your thought is, "I'm not worth any rejoicing." Jesus says, "Absolutely not. I will throw the biggest party you have ever seen when you come to me."

So this rejoicing is included so that we see that God's love is real. I want you to see that it's not just to help us understand the love of God, right? It's not just to bring into us a warm and fuzzy feeling, right? This is designed to call us to run to God. Because in our sin, our first response is often to hide, or to cover up, or to make excuses. And Jesus, in part speaking to people who are sinners, is saying, "Look, I'm coming to get you. You don't have to hide. You don't have to lie. You don't have to make excuses. My love is big, and it's coming towards you, and it's costly, and it's full of joy. And I want you, and I want you to be part of my family." And so Jesus' point in this is to call us to repentance.

And it's really easy for us as Christians, especially if you've been in the church for a long while, to say, "Yeah, that's great for them. I don't need repentance." But the call to repentance in this text is not just for the unrighteous tax collectors, the unrighteous sinners. It's for Christians with an unrighteous attitude toward the love and the grace of God. This is a call for those who are living in opposition to the will of God, those sinners and those tax collectors, right? To see the wrong, to understand that it's wrong, to feel the wrong, and to turn around and run toward the one who will save them. But it's also a call to repentance for the church, to say, "Look at how I have looked down and spoken down and talked about these people who are living differently, and I see that God loves them and He wants them,

and He has called me to seek them and pursue them just as Jesus has done." You see, this is a call of repentance, right? Repentance simply meaning that we change our mind about how we think, our heart is changed about what we feel, and our actions are changed, and we turn around in 180 degrees and change how we're walking. So God is calling all of us here to repent, whether you're religious or irreligious, whether you're a Christian or not. And I would say this, because as somebody who is religious and has been in church, like, since the weekend after he was born, right, this is a call for those of us who have been Christians for a long time. It's really easy to lose our joy, right? Just like the religious leaders who began to focus on the rules and on themselves rather than on the grace that had

been poured upon them, the fact that God had spoken to them and promised them and had preserved them and protected them and cared for them, they had switched their focus from the goodness of God to their own selves. And it's really easy to have this happen. And we begin to lose our joy, and I was talking about this a little bit with some friends yesterday, right? So with our kids, they love animals. And so what I found is before I had kids, I could drive down the road and I could see a million cows and I never would have to say anything. Now when I drive down the road, even if my kids aren't in the car, like just me and Rachel, we're going on a date, like, "Cow! Look, there's a cow!" It's because our kids find joy in cows, and because their joy is contagious, now I sort of have to point out

all of the cows because I'm excited about them because my kids are excited about them. And one of the things that happens is as we grow, Jesus says, He talks about how we must be like children, excited, joyful, trusting, innocent. We begin to, as we grow sometimes, we begin to lose that joy, and sometimes even we become a thief of joy for others. And so you sometimes see this in the church when a sinner comes to Jesus. And the response maybe sometimes of the church is, "Well, do they really mean it? We'll see if it sticks." And when we see change and transformation in somebody's life, instead of celebrating it, we become skeptical. And so this call in this parable is a call not just for those outside the church to repent, but those inside.

Those of us who have become cynical in our hearts. We begin to look down on others. We begin to sort of steal joy instead of sharing in it. Because the issue with the Pharisees at the heart was they had become proud. And it's easy for us to do the same. And so I would call you, if you're a Christian this morning, to see the good gifts of God. To see that this joyful, pursuing, costly love is not just for those outside the church, but it's for me, and it's for you. And when we see that, and when we begin to glimpse it, it overflows out of our life into others. And if you are not a Christian, the call on your life is the same thing, right? To repent, to stop trusting in yourself, and to seeking your own plans and your own agenda, and to see the one whose love pursues you,

who is costly, and who rejoices in your repentance. You see, the call for those inside and outside the church is to look honestly at our lives, and to run to the goodness of the Father. Let's pray. Father in heaven, help us to not steal joy, but to participate in it. Help us not to take people's joy, but to seek to make it bigger by pointing to you. We ask this morning that you forgive us for those areas in which we have begun to look at our own selves and trust in our own selves, and to try to live in our own strength, that you would point us to you. I ask that you would move our hearts to see your goodness and your pursuing love as we pray. Amen. We're going to stand, and we're going to sing "Graves into Gardens."

I searched the world, but it couldn't fill me. Man's empty praise and treasures that fade are never enough. Then you came along and put me back together. And every desire is now satisfied here in your love. Oh, there's nothing better than you. There's nothing better than you, Lord. There's nothing. Nothing is better than you. You change to dancing. You give beauty for ashes. You turn shame into glory. You're the only one who can. You turn graves into gardens. You turn bones into armies. You turn seas into highways. You're the only one who can. Oh, there's nothing better than you. There's nothing better than you, Lord. There's nothing. Nothing is better than you. Oh, there's nothing better than you. There's nothing better than you, Lord. There's nothing. Nothing is better than you.

I want to thank you for joining us this morning. Just a couple of announcements. First of all, Wednesday night Bible study is at 7 p.m. here at the church. We're getting close to the end of the book of James, and so we are meeting together Wednesdays at 7. Also, next Sunday is Palm Sunday, the celebration of Jesus entering into Jerusalem. To come and join us as we celebrate joyfully as Jesus arrives in Jerusalem. It also begins the last week, sort of biblically, of Jesus' earthly ministry. And so we'll do some different things next week. One of those things is we will not have Wednesday night Bible study the week following. So the week after, next Sunday, we will not have Wednesday night Bible study. On Thursday, we're going to gather together at 6 p.m. You're invited to join us Passover. And the Bible was a picture of families and groups getting together to celebrate the good promises of God with a meal.

And so we're going to do that together. It's been several years since we have been able to do this. And so I'm very excited. We'll walk through a little bit of a symbolic Passover meal. We'll eat a real meal together. We'll see some wonderful pictures of how God has worked through the Old Testament that point forward to what Jesus is doing. We'll understand a little bit more about the institution of the Lord. So there's just a lot of good, fun, and exciting things, and very serious things as well to that meal. And one of the things I love about that is that, biblically, this was designed to be a whole family meal, right? We've got kids that are learning, adults that are being encouraged, and so the one thing we do ask is if you're planning to join us that Thursday night for that meal.

I think probably a lot of you haven't been here since we've done this one. We just need an RSVP because there's a lot of sort of special stuff we need to get together specifically for this symbolic Passover meal. And so we just need to be able to make sure that we have a count so we can have everything we need. And then on that Friday night we're going to do at 6 o'clock a short Good Friday service, kind of more of a time of worship and Scripture, and we'll spend some time kind of thinking through and learning about what happens with Jesus on the cross. I think it's going to be somewhere between like 35 and 40 minutes, but kind of a devotional time of worship of us together, and that's Friday. And then the following Sunday is Easter Sunday, and we celebrate the resurrection.

And so next week is a pretty special week from Palm Sunday to Easter. It's one of those weeks we get to see the goodness of the gospel, sort of all in one big chunk, from Jesus coming into Jerusalem to his death on the cross to his resurrection, we get to see this wonderful picture of the gospel. So if you have any questions, just talk to me afterwards. If we'd like to RSVP to our Passover meal, just let me know, and we'll get our count continuing. So we're going to go ahead and pray. I'll read a verse of Scripture, and we'll sing the doxology. Father in heaven, thank you for Jesus and for grace. Thank you for hope. Thank you for strength, and thank you for your church. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Paul ends Philippians like this, "And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen." Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.