Lost but not Least
Suppose for a moment that you were at a bus stop, and a friend came by and gave you a small bag
and said, "I no longer need this, it’s yours." You take the bag and get on the bus. When you get
off at your next stop, as the bus pulls away you, realize that you left that bag on the bus. You
wave at the bus, but its too late.
You go on about your business the rest of the day, barely thinking off what was in that bag. A
couple of years later, you run into your friend. Your friend asks you, "so what did you do with the
diamond ring I gave you." You say, "you’re kidding. What diamond ring are you talking about?"
The ring in the bag I gave you 2 years ago was a $10,000 ring. What did you do with it?
All of sudden you realize that you have lost something very valuable, and there is no way to
recover it now. If you had of known then, what you know now, you would have tried much
harder to find it. Instead of waving at the bus, you would have ran after the bus. If you didn’t
catch it, you’d try to flag down a ride to catch up with the bus.
You’d be calling bus company to see if they could get in contact with the driver enroute and have
him check for the bag. You might have even offered a reward to anyone finding the bag and
turning it in. But no, when you had the opportunity to recover it, you let it slide because you
didn’t know that something valuable had been lost.
If something is lost who will go looking for it? If I said, "I lost a quarter in the grass out on the
lawn today", I guarantee you that some of the kids will be out there trying to find that quarter." If
I said, "I lost a rolled up hundred dollar bill out in the grass and whoever finds it can have it, some
of you may not be here for the end of this sermon, because you will feel a ‘leading of the Holy
Spirit’ to go and find that $100 bill." The value we place on the thing which was lost, will
determine who is willing to go looking for it and how much time and effort will be put into that
search.
Now I’m not going to trick you by asking you again if you own your home because you know
that the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, and all who live in it. God has a claim on
everybody’s life, because they belong to Him.
It does not matter how old we are, smart we are, color we are, bad we are, tough we are, cool we
are, sick we are, messed up we are or anything else. We are property belonging to God. Every
cow, cat, aardvark, whale, hawk, and all other animals belong to God. Every piece of gold, silver,
diamond, and any other kind of wealth belongs to God. Every building belongs to God.
Everybody that you see belongs to God. But of all the things God owns in the earth, only one
group of items is described by God as being lost.
In our passage today, Jesus is addressing the Pharisees and scribes. He tells his critics two stories.
One about a shepherd who lost one of a 100 sheep and one about a woman who lost one of ten
coins. The shepherd didn’t say, "Oh well, 99 out of a 100 is a pretty good average to me. No, the
shepherd left the 99 and diligently searched for the one.
The lady who lost the coin, didn’t say, "I can make it by on the other nine." No she tore the house
up cleaning in every nook and cranny until she found it. These stories teach us 3 things.
The first thing that these parables teach us is: God is interested in the least. Of course, in
God’s eyes there are no “least.” Every person is valuable. Who in our eyes do we see as
the least, the people, not necessarily lost, but looked down upon? Families with kids in
trouble with the law, divorced people, alcoholics, the homeless, tax collectors, garbage
collectors, abusive people, the person whose home needs painting? The list could go on &
on but you get the idea. Even if they have tattoos and body piercing, even if they talk
different, even if they wear dirty clothes, even if they have no money, even if they have
poor grammar and no education, they are valuable to God. It is important to understand
that the lost sheep was not more valuable nor was it less valuable than the ones which
were not lost.
Imagine the shepherd at the end of the day. As his sheep file by into the fold or pen, he
counts them. "95, 96, 97, 98, 99… Hey, one’s missing! Where is Snowball? I haven’t
seen her all afternoon!" He will "leave the 99" and search diligently for "the one which
is lost." I imagine him backtracking over every place the flock had been that day, down
every step of the trail, in every pasture, by every stream on every hillside. Finally, by the
light of the moon, he sees something white in the distance. He calls out and the frightened
little lamb runs to him. He doesn’t start yelling at Snowball, pointing his finger at it, asking
how can a sheep be so dumb as to wander off like that. No, he "lays it on his shoulders"
and "rejoicing" returns home. He is so happy that he "calls together his friends and
neighbors" for a celebration party. "Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which
was lost!"
Now to the other sheep it may have seemed unfair that the shepherd left them in order to search
for the one which was lost. After all, they had not wandered away. They had followed the
shepherd and listened to him.
Sometimes I have heard things said in churches like, “All they care about is the young people. We
are the ones who have been members here all our lives and no one cares about what we think or
what we like.” Or “They only care about the new people and trying to get outsiders to come.
What about us?” The point is: the ones in church are not the ones who are lost. They are already
found, and should be seeking those who are lost. And it does not matter if the lost look different
from us, or are a different color and from a different cultural background. It does not matter if
they don’t dress like us. As you came in this morning, did you all see the sign out front that says,
“No shirt. No shoes. No worship service.” You didn’t? Of course you didn’t. And you never will.
All are welcome into the service whatever their condition — the worse the better. Who cares
whether they have a tie on or not? Certainly not God.
Secondly, these parables teach us that: God is interested in the lost. In the culture of Jesus’ day,
a woman was given a dowry. Since women did not carry purses, they would wear their money —
usually in a necklace or a head band. The coin which this woman lost was probably one of these
dowry coins that came loose from the chain. It was not of greater value than the other coins, or of
any less value. The thing that made it the center of her attention was that it was lost. In telling this
story, Jesus was trying to help those Pharisees & scribes understand that all people are important
to God. They thought that God hated sinners and was not interested in them. They thought they
were more important to God than sinners because they had never wandered away. They thought if
someone wandered away, it was their responsibility to find their own way back. Tell me this: how
can a coin find it’s way back? But God cares about lost people, and he searches for them like the
woman searched for her coin.
The third thing these parables teach us is: God rejoices when the least and lost are found. When
the shepherd finds his sheep, the scripture says, “When he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his
shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with
me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in
heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to
repent” (Luke 15:5-7). When the woman finds her lost coin, the scripture says, “And when she
finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my
lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over
one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:9-10).
Who is going to go looking for God’s property? Only those who put the same premium on a
person’s soul as God does. You see, most people have no idea of how valuable their soul is or
that their soul is even lost. They treat their souls the same way as the person who left the bag with
the diamond ring in it on the bus. They do not have a clue that their soul is going to live forever,
and unfortunately that forever is going to be spent in pain and suffering because they are lost.
We know that if some of our family & friends were to die today, they would wake up in hell
because we never told them how they could escape. My best friend is fun to be with and he makes
me laugh. The truth is, he is lost. That lady at the store is really mean. The truth is, she is lost.
Grandpa has some good stories. The truth is, he is lost. The neighbor keeps her flower garden
spotless. The truth is, she is lost. Our co-workers have been on the job for 5 years. The truth is,
they are lost.
We have all been to a family member’s, or friend’s funeral and say nice things about them. But the
truth is, "they were lost." In some instances we never attempted to tell them about Jesus. When
we say "we love and we care" it has to include loving and caring about souls. One thing that stuck
with me from my many college courses was the statement that when you hire someone for a job,
you hire not just the worker but the whole person. We can’t just “love and care” for their physical
well-being, but we must “love and care” for their spiritual well-being, too. If we do not value
people’s souls, we will not go looking for them. And if we will not go looking, then we cannot
fulfill our purpose: which is to bring people into a right relationship with God. And if we will not
fulfill our purpose, then what good are we to God.
Each one of us is more important in the eyes of God than we think we are. God placed you in
your family, because He intended to use you to impact people in your family. He placed you on
your job, because that’s part of his strategy to find lost souls at that company. He placed you in
your school, because there are souls there you can reach for Him, if you want to do it.
But know this, Jesus chose us to be His representatives. We need to recognize that we have been
given a position as “ticket-master” for Jesus Christ. A ticket-master is someone who sells tickets
to sporting events, concerts, museums, train rides, etc. You have to buy a ticket to get in and you
do because you are seeking to be entertained in some way or go somewhere.
All believers (the 99 sheep) are ticket-masters, whether we accept the commission or not. “As
the Father has sent me, also I send you,” said Jesus. We are the only ones with the tickets. If we
don’t pass out the tickets, the people who are lost cannot take the journey. And the best thing
about our tickets is that they’re not for sale. That’s right, they’re FREE! Plus, we have been given
an unlimited supply and we will never be “sold out”. And how wonderful it will be when you get
to heaven and hear those formerly lost say to you, "if you had not given me this ticket, I might not
be here today."
