The God Who Counts the Lost Worth Finding

Grace doesn’t whisper from a distance; it sprints down the road, arms wide, ready to shoulder shame so the lost don’t carry it alone. We unpack Luke 15 as one unbroken parable with three vivid scenes—a sheep outside the fold, a coin misplaced in the house, and two sons far from the father’s heart—to show how God counts the lost worth finding and how easily we forget that we were once found, too.

We start with Luke’s outsider lens and why his Gospel centers Gentiles, Samaritans, and the overlooked. That context sets up the shock: “sinners” seek Jesus while the religious grumble. From there, we trace the throughline of the parable. The shepherd goes after the one outside. The woman turns the house upside down for what’s lost within. The father runs—breaking cultural norms—to embrace a son returned from the pig pen before a bath, restore him with ring and robe, and throw a celebration louder than shame. Each picture reveals a God who moves first, restores identity, and turns repentance into a homecoming.

But the story refuses an easy bow. The older brother stands outside a party he could enter. Duty without delight, proximity without intimacy—his resentment exposes a second kind of lostness. We ask hard questions: Do we rank sins and create special categories of “worse” people? Are we guarding the door while the Father props it open? What does it look like to bear each other’s shame with compassion rather than require proof before welcome? Along the way, we share a personal journey of not fitting and finding home in a community shaped by amazing grace rather than elite membership.

If your heart needs a reminder that you belong—or a nudge to widen your welcome—press play. Then share this with someone who needs to hear it, subscribe for more conversations on scripture and life, and leave a review to tell us how grace has found you.

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Scene In Luke 15
• 2:10 Luke’s Gentile Lens And Inclusion
• 5:10 Righteous Upside Down: Who Seeks Jesus
• 8:20 Three Problems The Religious Had
• 12:30 One Parable, Three Pictures
• 16:05 Lost Outside And Lost Inside
• 20:10 The Younger Son’s Fall And Awakening
• 24:30 The Father Runs And Bears Shame
• 28:10 Celebration Versus Resentment
• 31:10 Who Gets To Belong In The House
• 34:40 A Personal Story Of Not Fitting
• 40:00 Grace, Welcome, And Amazing Grace

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 1:27

Now all the tax collectors and the spinos will come to the sons of him. Both the fire skills and the scrouts began to grumble again. So he told them the parables. Okay. From here, I want to, if you would allow me, speak to you from the symbolic title God who counts the lost with finding. God who counts the lost with finding. The book of Luke is actually an interesting gospel account. But at the same time, it is not like Matthew, Mark, and John. Matthew, as he writes his gospel, is trying to show the Jews that the Jesus whom they crucified is the son of David and the son of Abraham. He is the king that they were expecting. Mark writes to show Jesus in action. He shows Jesus as Lord against the Roman government. John writes because John is interested in allowing everyone to know that this Jesus before he was born existed. Luke is writing because he wants all the Gentiles to know that Jesus is not just savior of the Jews, he's also savior of the Gentiles. He wants Gentiles to know. And the reason why he wants Gentiles to know, and it's important for us understanding Luke 15, he wants the Gentiles to know because in a Jewish society, Gentiles were the outsiders, Gentiles were the outcasts, gentiles were the unwanted, gentiles will be untouchables, gentiles will were the lower sort. But here's Luke writing a gospel to persons who may feel like outsiders, persons who may feel that they're less than persons who may feel that they're a lower type of person than everybody else to say that Jesus is yours just as much. This is actually the reason, if you were to read Luke's gospel, he includes several stories that no one else includes, and all of these stories has to do with someone who's not a Jew. Luke tells us about the good Samaritan, no one else does. Samaritans were not liked by Jews, but he's good in Luke's story. Luke tells us about the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son. For the same reason, he tells us about the widow of Nain and her son who dies. He includes all these Gentile stories so that if ever you felt like you were not in the in crowd, that Jesus includes you too. And that's a good message right there. But in Luke chapter number 15, it's interesting because it opens up by saying the text collectors and the sinners were seeking Jesus. In this particular narrative, the text collectors and the sinners, we could call them the unrighteous. And I want you to see that Luke is writing tongue in cheek. Luke is writing almost to make you ask, why is this picture wrong? Because the first thing he does is he tells you that the unrighteous are looking to be righteous. And then he gives you a picture of the righteous, the scribes and the Pharisees, and he says, The scribes and the Pharisees, on the other hand, they were annoyed with Jesus. So you have one picture of the unrighteous, and the unrighteous they're seeking Jesus to become righteous, but on the other hand, you have the so-called righteous, and the so-called righteous are not acting like righteous people. It's a story to make you wonder if Luke has all the details correct because it does not read correctly. You expect the righteous people to act like righteous people, and you expect the unrighteous people to be just that unrighteous. But it's the unrighteous people who are seeking Jesus, looking to find salvation, looking for hope, looking for good news, and it's the church people, the righteous people, the people who think of themselves as holy, who says that's wrong. And I wish I had time because I could park here for an hour. Y'all wouldn't be here. To tell you that one of the things that Luke is doing, one of the things that we should be mindful of, is never become so caught up in what God has done for us that we become exclusive to everybody else. That's one of the biggest stories here that God has saved you and He has made us special and He has made us somebody, but the good news is He could do that for everybody. So I'm somebody, but the good news is you could be somebody too. The good news is I'm not the only somebody, we're not an elite group, we're just a holy group, and we're open to all. This story is one where the culture of the day was that holy people don't mix with non-holy people. That's the story. So you have to understand what's happening. For the scribes and the Pharisees who thought of themselves as holy, as righteous, they did not mix with anyone who was unholy. We did not talk, we did not touch, we were not in the same space. Holy people are here, unholy people are there. And Jesus is breaking that paradigm, Jesus is breaking that norm. And so the holy people see Jesus, but they don't just see him. If you look at the text, it says what they took note of was that the tax collectors and sinners. Oh, you're all supposed to laugh right there. I'll help you. I'll help you. No, you're laughing late. Okay. Here's what's happening. The righteous people thought tax collectors were like sinners, but they were more sinful than regular sinners, so they had their own category. So they saw sinners, but among the sinners had worst sinners called tax collectors. Now you all get it. Okay, but don't laugh too quick because even the church today we could do this. Here's how we do this, and I'm only saying this because I want to be practical and real. When it comes to sin, we would lump a few things together: murder, adultery, fornication, stealing. We'd lump drunkenness, we'd lump all of those things together under the umbrella of sin. And then even us have a special category for people who are sinners of the worst kind. LGBTQIA plus in your mind, sometimes what you do is what they just did. We have sinners, and we have them, and they are part of the group of sinners, but they're worse. Let me put this really quickly because this isn't my sermon. All sin leads to the same place. It doesn't matter if it was adultery, fornication, or LGBTQIA ism, they all go to the same place. In fact, Paul says that don't you know no thief or sexually immoral person or unrighteous person has any inheritance, right? He says that there's no distinguishment or differentiation of these things with God. So then we shouldn't either. A sinner is a sinner, regardless of what your sin is. Y'all okay with that, church? All right, good. So that's the first problem in this text that they didn't just see sinners, they saw sinners and a special class of sinners. Problem number one. Problem number two is that they did not think that these sinners should be near holiness. So seeing them next to Jesus was a problem. Problem number three was that Jesus being holy did not rebuke, scorn, or run any one of them. Three problems in this text. Problem number one, sinners and sinners among sinners. Problem number two, the sinners are too close to the sacred and the holy. Problem number three, the sacred is not speaking out, cursing, condemning the sinners. So they saw Jesus, and one of the worst crimes that you could have done in that day was to eat and just associate with persons who were less than you. So I want you to notice the text says in verse number one the tax collectors and sinners came near to Jesus to listen to him. But then you read the report of the righteous, and what they say is, This man receives sinners, and he even eats with them. They wanted to find themselves in the righteous circle, but because the righteous were so annoyed with Jesus, they didn't just speak out against the unrighteous, saying they're in the wrong place, they spoke out against Jesus, saying, This man. They didn't even call his name, they didn't have the the respect enough to say this prophet or Jesus of Nazareth. It was like him, that one he receives sinners and eats with them. Jesus then says, I am going to tell you a parable. I don't want you to miss this. This is a sermon where I'm actually repenting. Um, not to you necessarily, I've preached a sermon several times before, and for some reason I missed verse number three saying he told them a singular parable. I have always preached this as three separate parables, but they have a unifying message. But your own Bible does not say he told them parables, it says he told them this parable. It's one story. Let me tell you what the story is. God counts the lost worth finding. That's the story. God counts the loss worth finding, and he tells this one long story, one long parable, so they could get it. A parable, I want to do this properly. A parable actually comes from the Greek word parabole. Parabole is two Greek words that come together, para and ballo. Balo means to throw down. Para means alongside something else. So a parabole is Jesus throwing down something alongside something else. What he's throwing down is a spiritual truth. I want you to understand a spiritual truth. God finds or counts the loss worth finding, and he throws it down next to an earthly reality that they already know and understand. So a parable is taking a spiritual truth and putting it alongside a physical truth so you could understand something better about God. So he has one parable that he's throwing down, but he's throwing it down next to three examples. The examples are a lost sheep, a lost coin, and two lost sons. A lost sheep, a lost coin, and two lost sons. Part of the reason why I need to repent is because one, as I said, this is one story, not three, and they're all connected, and it's not just in lostness. The first one is about a lost sheep, and it's really just saying that those outside the house are lost. The sheep example that Jesus uses is of one sheep being outside the house. The house here is the house of the father, and the sheep are outside the house of the father, and one of the number goes missing, and he goes to find them. What Jesus is getting ready to do is say, even those who are lost outside of the house are worth finding. The lost coin refers to the lost inside the house. Don't forget what's happening. We have, let me see if I can put together for you this way. Tax collectors and sinners are coming to Jesus because they want to get inside the house. So they are the lost that are outside. We would think that they're only lost people outside. Jesus tells a story because the scribes and the Pharisees are inside, but they're lost inside. Their problem, even though they're lost inside, is with those who are lost outside. So Jesus tells one parable. The first one, the first element of the parable is those who are lost outside the house, lost sheep. Second parable, those who are lost inside the house. And I wish this could honestly be a sermon in and of itself because there is more frustration with those lost inside the house than lost outside, and it's even just natural to you and me. You would have a harder time losing money inside the house than you did outside. If you were to lose money inside and you know it's in the house somewhere, it's going to frustrate you and turn you crazy because it's one thing to lose it out there, but I'm losing it inside my own house, drives you crazy. Jesus is trying to show the frustration of being in the house but still lost. Moves to the lost inside the house, he then talks about the lost sons. Because one is lost inside, and the other is lost outside. That feels good. Repenting is good, people. If you haven't done it, you should do it. Repenting is good. Lost sons, one is lost inside, the other is outside, and we know the story. I'm not trying to give you a story you you don't know, but I am trying to give you a message that you could be inside and lost simply because you don't have the mind or the heart of the father. So let me show you the mind and the heart of the father. His youngest son comes to him and says, I wish you were dead so that I could have the inheritance that belongs to me. And his father simply says, Okay, son, and gives him the inheritance. The son then goes a far distance to a far land and he spends the money as he sees fit, he lives it up as he sees fit. He has no father, he has no brother, he has no home to give allegiance to his only authorities himself. So he lives the way he wants to, and things were good. He had friends as long as he had money, he had a good time as long as he had money, he had no worries as long as he had money. He even had honey as long as he had money, not the kind that came from bees, but then the money disappeared, and as soon as the money disappeared, so did the friends, so did the good times, so did the peaceful moments, and so did the honeys. And to replace them was no money, money worries, and non-money worries. So all he has really is worry. He's worried about where he's going to eat, where he's going to stay, he's worried about where he's going to get money. He he has all these worries, and his life immediately, the quality of his life immediately gets lower. Low enough that he is willing to work for someone who owns pigs low enough that he is willing to even eat the same thing a pig eats, and this is where you need to have disgust on your face. Okay, let me help you. Jews don't eat pork. I'm so sorry for Jews. They didn't, and because they didn't eat pork, they didn't raise pork, they didn't raise pig. So the picture Jesus is painting here is someone who's so far gone that he has done the worst thing a Jew could possibly do. Be in the same space as swine, and if that wasn't enough, he's no longer just in the same space, he's now the same level because he's willing to eat. Oh, you're all missing this. Pigs don't have hands. So if you're trying to feed some pigs, there's normally some troughs that you put the food in so that they could. Jesus is trying to tell this. This is why we need to, when we read scripture, try to picture scripture as the audience would have heard it. A Jew is hearing Jesus say, This man is in the same space as pigs, but they're also hearing him say he's on the same level. Because now he's looking down at pig slaw and is thinking, this might be good. I can have a bite, and he wants to reach down and put this in his mouth, but it's while he's down that if you read the text, scripture says he comes to his right mind. So that if you were reading this properly, the way you understand this as a Jew is he is out of his mind, but while he reached his lowest point, he came to his senses, he finally came to his right mind, he came to himself, and here's what coming to himself meant. He says, I still have a home. But my father is good enough to still give me room. So I'll go home and tell daddy I'm sorry. And he begins rehearsing what he's going to tell his dad. Father, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants. Father, I'm no longer worthy. Oh, that's not good. I need to say sorry first. So, father, I've sinned against you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of the higher servants. Oh, that doesn't sound right. I know I sinned against you and against heaven. Father, I've sinned against you and against heaven. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of the hired servants. Father, I'm no longer I've sinned against you, I've sinned against heaven, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of the hired servants. He's rehearsing this to himself. And I've done enough trouble in my lifetime as a son that I understand this. See, I think that he's trying to get the kindness of his father, because that's what I would do when I did something wrong, and I know I need to go home and face the music that was my dad. Before I reach home, I'm thinking about what I'm going to say. Because depending on what I say and how I say what I say will determine how he treats me. Whether he spares the rod on your tracking with this. So he's rehearsing, Father, I've sinned against you and against heaven. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as a hired servant. Father, I'm not, and he's walking home. Now, home is in the city, in the village, he has to pass by the neighbors before he gets home. The problem is everyone knows that he's ashamed, or he has brought shame to the household. So part of walking home is walking past everyone looking at him. Like he's the worst of sinners. And this is why Jesus introduces something weird into the story that we should pay attention to. Jesus says when he is still a long distance away, his father sees him. And his father runs towards him. You all were supposed to gasp. Let me help you. Don, do you mind? Joining me up here, please. See what happens, let me give you ospice. Let's pretend that before we started worshiping, Don said unkind things to me and really hurt me. Here's what's going to happen. I am going to distance myself from Don because he's not kind. But not only am I distancing myself from Don, I'm no longer willing to come close to him. I don't even want to have a 10-foot pole between us. I am not going near to him. I expect him to come and tell me sorry. And you see, he doesn't even move. So I'm not willing to forgive him because he didn't even move. He did wrong and he didn't try to make it right. Now he's going to try to make it right. But here's what we do as he's coming closer, I don't want to be hurt again. See now you're looking at me funny. Isn't that what you tell yourself? I don't want to be hurt again. I don't want to be used again. I don't want to be abused again. So as he comes closer, what do we do? We also go further away because he needs. To prove that he wants this. Tough crowd. He needs to prove it. So he should be coming close to me. Our mindset is not where I'm also coming close to him. You all good with that? Now picture what Jesus says, stand right there. The son is walking, and the father sees him. I wouldn't have jumped on him, he wasn't going to be able to. But the father sees him, runs towards him, and jumps on him. Your Bible should say he falls on his neck. That's what it says, is he? My son is home. Now, let me tell you two quick things. Thing number one, old men didn't run because they were afraid they would break something. Old men didn't run because they were afraid to break something. Secondly, because that was their culture, to see an old man running was for him to act disgraceful. Oh, we just flipped the script. He was a disgrace because he was the one who did the harmful, hurtful things. But now Jesus is giving you a picture of the Father taking on shame and disgrace so you don't have to face it by yourself. And he walks him home. Now watch this. If Drew was observing this from the outside, Drew could no longer look at me as a bastard. He could no longer look at me as the worst of sinners. Because here's the truth: I didn't do Drew anything. My sin was against the father. And the father just received me back. So who are you to look at me in a way different than how the father looks at me? Y'all seeing this? So now Drew comes here. Drew is the scribes and the Pharisees. Don't is a tax collector. Some of you got this because you're supposed to laugh, right? Because Drew is thinking that this one doesn't deserve Jesus. When Jesus is saying you didn't deserve me either, but you're in the house. Doesn't he have a space in the house too? And so he gives him the ring, the move. The ring, he puts a robe on him, he puts slippers on his feet. And here's the part that that that really gets to me. He kisses him on his neck. He just came from the place of pegs. And he's so dirty, he doesn't have shoes or sandals, he didn't have shoes. But his father embraced him and kissed him while he was still. His father didn't say go bad and then come. He says, Even though you're dirty, you're still my son. And that messes me up. Because it means that God sees me broken, he sees my unrighteousness, he sees all the things I do against him, but he still loves me enough to say you have space and room in this house. And even though there are some people who think you're the worst, then even if you're the worst, I have room for you too. It doesn't matter who you are. Now I know that's the message because then this comes home. See, everything is located home. He just came back home. He's returning home. And as he comes home, he hears music. He hears music. And again, Luke wants you to laugh because it's has he not heard music at home before? Why does this music bother him? He hears the music and he listens and he hears laughing and merriment. So he summons a servant. Tell me what's going on inside the house. Again, you're supposed to laugh because he belongs inside the house. He could have simply walked in. He could have walked in and part of the celebration, but Jesus is showing that these people who think the righteous are not acting like righteous people. So instead of walking in the house and being part of the celebration, the celebration Jesus has now said three times, that which is lost is now found. Come celebrate with me. Instead of being part of the celebration, he's like, We should not be celebrating this. And he says, Get my father for me. And Daddy comes out and says, What's the matter, son? He says, I heard that sinner come back home. Sorry, that was Trini. I heard that that sinner has returned to the house. That cannot be true. He's your brother. My brother, did you not get the mail? He was in the club. He was smoking all the herbs. He did crack three times. Anderson standard Bible. And like 50 Cent, he was in the club with some prostitutes. That's no brother of mine. Yes, your brother was lost. But he's no longer. Use your eyes, he's no longer in the club. He's no longer, there's no prostitutes. He didn't bring any prostitutes with him, son. He left all of that and came back home. You should be celebrating. And that's how the story ends. Why did Jesus end it there? Because now you need to decide who belongs in the house. Now you need to decide if other persons could find the same grace and mercy that you found. Here's the story. God finds the lost, or he counts the loss worth finding. And that's all of us. At some point, every one of us was lost. The only difference is the degree of our lostness. But we were all lost. I thank God that the church is not measured and should not be measured by the degree of how long someone was lost. What they were doing when they were lost. Who they were doing it with when they were lost. And how long they were doing it with who they were doing it with when they were lost. You're looking at me, Fanny. That's not this place. If you want to come to Jesus, you have a home and a place here, just like all of us. Thank you guys. That it doesn't matter who you are, you could find home and a place here. I'll tell you one story before I'm done. I have always had a hard time fitting in somewhere. So this is a first. When everybody was still waiting for their voice to come in. Right? I was ostracized because I grade at the age of 11. My hair looked like this when I was 11. My nickname in high school was Gramps. Yeah, you all could laugh. It's fine. You can laugh. It was Gramps. Papa. Simply because of the color of my hair. I was also academically inclined, and back then being a nerd was not cool. It's cool now, but let's tell the truth. Being a nerd back then wasn't cool. I liked all the nerdy things. I played chess, and only nerds played chess. And so I was disliked and ostracized because I'm a nerd. Several of the things that nerds did, I'm not going to give you the entire list, but I was ostracized. And so one of the dilemmas that I had in my teenage years and my early 20s was I could not find a place where I fit because everywhere that I liked, I was refused for one reason or the other. He's too short. He songs like an old man. He looks like an old man. He dresses like an old man. I heard that one too. And then I heard the gospel message. That God has room even for needs. And I found it to be true. It doesn't matter how weird you are, how queer you are, pun intended. If you're looking for a home, I have a father who's willing to embrace you. If you're already in the house, one, be welcoming to anybody else who wants to get in. But two, never forget the grace that allowed you in as well. We should always, even though it's an older song now, and we should sing more contemporary songs, we should never lose the meaning and the fervor of amazing grace. How sweet the sound. It saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see. I'll pray for you as we sing.