Have you ever been lost? When did you realize you were lost, and how did it make you feel when it dawned on you?
Our mission is to "turn lost students and faculty into Christ-centered lifetime laborers." With this as our mission, it is imperative that we understand what it means to be lost. Luke 15 has three different parables that help us understand what it means to be spiritually lost. We want to look at the middle parable, the story of the woman with the lost coin.
A few observations:
- Woman loses a coin – worth a day’s wage for a laborer.
- She has nine others. However, the 9:1 found to lost ratio doesn’t keep her from looking for the lost one.
- Searches diligently. Doesn’t rely on the coin just “turning up” in front of her.
- Finds it – this must be celebrated!
- Her community is part of the find – calls together friends and neighbors
- Jesus compares this to angels rejoicing when a sinner repents. Clearly, someone being “found” is cosmically huge.
- Jesus compares a coin being found to repentance (?!?)
- From these parables, it seems to be lost is to reside outside of the relationship you were designed for. When people live outside of the relationship with God they were designed for, they are lost.
- The lost can’t save themselves. Finding the lost is a work of the seeker, Jesus, who came "to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19:10).
- There is very little to be said about how they got lost. Little in the way of moral judgment. The main thrust is how the lost get found…by God.
- Have you been found by God? “Lord, you’ve found me.” This is repentance! We were lost, but someone found us. Since Jesus sent out the 12, Jesus has been using the found (fishermen) to find (fish).
- A story that illustrates the darkness of being lost, the celebration of being found, and the burden of seekers to find the lost.
Are there lost people around you that God may be uniquely calling you to help find?
No comments:
Post a Comment