Why “Lost” Doesn’t Mean Worthless: The Real Heart of God | W. Austin Gardner

If you’ve spent any time in church, you’ve probably heard the word "lost" used as a label for people who are "wicked" or "wrong." But in this powerful mission's message, Austin Gardner reframes the word "lost" through the eyes of Jesus.

[The Core Message]
"You don't lose a pen that has no value to you. You lose things that belong to you." Drawing from the parables in Luke 15—the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost sons—Austin explores why God is more of a "Search Party" than a "Social Club."

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• The Rebrand of "Lost": Why being lost means you are missing from where you belong, not that you are worthless.
• The Shepherd’s Shoulders: Why the Shepherd doesn't discipline the runaway sheep, but carries it home rejoicing.
• The Prodigal Father: A look at the extravagant, "crazy" love of a Father who runs toward the mess instead of waiting for an apology.
• The Older Brother Trap: How long-time believers can accidentally become "gatekeepers" instead of "door-openers."

[The Missions Call]
This isn't just a Bible study; it's a call to the "uttermost." Austin challenges us to see missions as a global search for the treasures God misses most. Whether it’s in Russia, China, or your own neighborhood, the message is the same: You are the reason He came.

[Call to Action]
Stop trying to perform and start resting in the mercy that is already pursuing you.

📖 Get more resources on grace and leadership: https://waustingardner.com
🌱 Partner with us in missions: https://alignmentministries.com
📲 Follow Austin on Substack: https://waustingardner.substack.com

#FollowedByMercy #Missions #Luke15 #RadicalGrace #WAustinGardner #BibleStudy #ProdigalSon #ChurchLeadership

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Transcript

Missions And The Good News

Austin Gardner 0:27

I am so very happy to have the opportunity to be with you in your missions conference, even though it's via long distance from a far-off place. But I am so excited that you're considering helping reach people, telling them the good news. The good news is that Jesus died and paid their sin debt. Already, he's a savior of the world, especially them that believe. And so you are now in the process of helping reach others. You are looking tonight at the uttermost, at all those places far away and beyond where you are now. And I just want you to know that he is looking there. He is concerned about souls. He loves the whole world, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. He loved the world. He saw the value of every soul so much that he gave his son. Technically, he gave himself because Jesus is in God and God is in Jesus. And God gave himself to rescue them. But God commended his love. God showed his love to us. And though while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He didn't die for anybody when they were good. He didn't die for anybody when they were right. He died when they were at verse 6 ungodly. He died when they were weak. Verse 6, verse 8, he died when they were still sinning. He died. Fact is, he died for the whole world. And I want you to know that God was in Christ, giving his life for the entire world. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Now in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8, he told him, He said, And you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost. And that is both in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost. That means together and at the same time they were to take the gospel and take it around the world. What's the gospel? The gospel is simply that God loved you so much that he paid your sin debt, that he took all your sins on him and paid for them on the cross. And he lived, he died, he was buried, and he rose again, he lives again. He's seated at the right hand of the Father, and the Holy Spirit is busy carrying the gospel message around the world. So I want to share some things with you from my heart tonight. I want you to understand the value of what you're doing. And I want you to go with me in your Bibles, if you would. The Bible says in Luke chapter 19 and verse 10, for the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Now, what a powerful story. The Son of Man, Jesus, God in human flesh, is come to seek, to look for. Do you realize that no one looks for him first? He looks for us. And you love him, not because you loved him first, but because he loved you first. So it's always him he comes to seek, he comes to save that which is lost. In a minute, I'm going to take you to Luke chapter 15. But before I do that, I just want to really bring your mind to this word lost. He said, The Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost. Now we say that in church, we're often like, you know, they're lost. They don't live right, they do wrong. Those are wicked people. But that's not really the way the Bible and Jesus use the word lost. Lost for him means it's something of value. We're going to discuss that as we go through Luke 15. We're going to see a lost sheep and a lost coin and two lost sons. But you understand that lost means it belongs to you. I didn't lose your car, I lost my car. I didn't lose your ink pen, I lost my ink pen. And so lost, it's a value to you, and you want it because it's yours. Now you're probably thinking, well, they're not saved, brother. I don't see how you can say that. Well, can I just say it to you this way? He created everybody on this planet. He created every man and woman, boy and girl. He created the whole creation. It's all his. And it was man who broke that relationship. It was man who said to God, I don't need you in my life. It was man who said, We'll eat the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We will make our own decisions about what's right and wrong. We will be our own gods. And though our great-great-great-great-granddaddy Adam and Eve, our great-great-grandmother, did that, we still do that today. And people all around the world do that today. So I want to take you through some things. In Luke chapter 15, every story is going to start with some murmuring and it's going to end with music. It's going to start with people complaining and aggravated, it's going to end with music. You see, the religious leaders are complaining that Jesus is just too kind to sinners. He welcomes sinners, he eats with sinners, and he talks to sinners. They are religious. They are righteous. They are right and perfect, and they don't understand that. So in the middle of this discussion, Jesus tells three stories, three parables. He tells us of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost sons. And every one of these stories hits the truth from a different angle. The heart of God breaks for the lost. In God's vocabulary, lost doesn't mean worthless, it means missing from where it belongs. That's a great big difference. And I will kind of help you, I hope, see that in just a little bit. So go with me, if you would, to Luke chapter 15 now. Take your Bibles and go with me to Luke 15, verse 1. Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them. Can you believe this guy? He lets sinners come into his presence. Not only that, he sits down and eats a meal with them. And he spake a parable to him. He told him a story. You see, what is lost here? Lost is wandered off. It can't get back. It's separated. It's not rebellion. Years and years and years ago, our daughter Joy was lost in the airport. Fact is, we're talking, oh, 40 plus years ago, and she wandered off and she couldn't find her way back. And she was separated from us. She wasn't in rebellion from us, just like the stories that we're about to read. You know what I didn't say? I didn't go, well, I got two other children. No problem. She doesn't, I don't need to find her. I didn't say that that'll teach her. We searched and we searched. We went over that entire airport. This was long before 9-11 and all the foolishness that came about because of that. And so we finally found her, and a policeman had her. She started hollering, there's my mama and my daddy, and our little daughter came running to us. She was lost, but now she was found. And that's the story we're going to run into here in Luke chapter 15. Luke 15, chapter 15, verse 4. A man had, uh which what man of you, asked Jesus, if you got a hundred sheep and you lose one of them, does he not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after that until he find it? Now you got a hundred sheep and one gets lost. Okay, Jesus is just telling a story here because one never gets lost by itself. Sheep. One runs and the others follow. But Jesus is trying to make a point. And he says, Well, if you had a hundred and one did get away, what would you do? Well, you wouldn't go, I got plenty of other sheep. I got 99 more. You would go and you would find your sheep. And this is what's beautiful about it that I need you to really look at in verse four. He goes after it until he finds it. So if we look for our daughter till we found her, we didn't give up on her. We didn't say, let's run around the airport one time. We were terrified. We were running around trying to find her. And we did till we found her. We found our daughter. Now, Jesus is telling stories to these sinners. Well, he's telling them to the sinners or listen in, but he's telling them to these Pharisees, these religious people that don't have much time for sinners. And it says in verse 5, and when he have found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. I need to stop right here and just tell you, so many religious people. If they found a runaway sheep, they would discipline it. They might have sheep barbecue. They might make the sheep pay for what the sheep did wrong. But not the shepherd in Jesus' story. When Jesus tells a story that's illustrating what his father, he's trying to show us his father. You remember when Philip said, We've never seen the father, we don't know the father? And Jesus said, if you've seen me, you've seen the father. And here we're hearing a story that Jesus tells about him and about his father. He's helping us understand. He says, when he finds that sheep, he lays it on his shoulders. He got his little sheep feet over here and his little sheep feet over here. Got his little head right there. He lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. He is so excited. When we found joy that night when she had gotten lost in the airport, we didn't spank her. We didn't fuss at her. We just hugged her and jumped up and down. And we were so excited to have our daughter back. That's the picture you're getting here of this lost sheep. Now I want you to imagine as he's going back home, that sheep wasn't afraid anymore because he's around the shoulders of his shepherd now. And he's excited and he's blessed, and everything is going his way, and he's going home. When the shepherd gets home, he calls together all of his friends and neighbors and he says to them, Rejoice with me. Hey, get happy with me. We're having a party. We're having a party, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. Now, if it was a good old religious church group party, they'd have been like, Yeah, well, there's conditions, and uh, we're gonna whip him, and we might be having sheep barbecue. But that's not what happens here. He is excited to have his sheep home. And then he says, and likewise, there's joy in heaven over one sinner that repents, more than over 90 and nine just people. A sheep. It's not really trying to be rebellious, it's just the dumbest animal. When God uses the sheep, he's using an animal that, not like a dog that can think. He just gets out there and he's curious, he's looking over here and over there, and he runs away. And you understand what happens? He's lost over there. I lived in proof, South America, and shepherds watch their sheep. And they sometimes a sheep jumps a wall and he's lost and he can't find his way back. But the shepherd's got an eye on him. And so Jesus is saying, can I tell you how God, Pharisees, listen to me. This is how God feels about the drunkard. This is how God feels about the tax collector, the most despicable kind of human being on the planet. This is how God feels about the prostitute. God loves them. They're his and they're lost, and he is seeking after them. He wants to do that in Russia, and he wants to do that in China, and he wants to do that all over South Africa, and he wants to do that as far away as you can go. So tonight, as you think about the uttermost, think about the heart of your Savior. That ought to be in our heart because we have been loved by the Father, and now we're going to love like our Father. Next, we're going to go. Oh, did I tell you? I need you to understand. Can you imagine the trip home with the sheep? Now, you know, I grew up in church, and they said the shepherd broke his leg. That's nowhere in the Bible, and no farmer would ever do that. But this shepherd's got that little sheep around his, and can you all the way home he's feeding him little sheep bits and he's telling him how much he loves him, and he's whipping little, whispering little sheep nothings in his ear. Can you imagine that? So Jesus is showing us what happens if you you get it, something that gets lost just out of dumbness, just wandering off, just not being able to get back. He's lost, he's separated, but he's not doing it out of rebellion. And there are people like that. So he's found his sheep. Then Jesus moves to another story. It's about a coin, a coin that has no idea what its value is. It's lost, but it doesn't even know it's lost. It can't respond. It can't cry out. You know, these coins are probably the headband that the girls wore that showed they were married. It was like an engagement ring. But whatever it was, it had great value to them, probably sentimental value. Years and years ago, my wife lost her engagement ring. It was in the driveway of our house, and the driveway was gravel, and it'd fallen down in the rocks, and no one could find it. And she was heartbroken, and it was lost for weeks. And one day our daughter came home and found it. And my wife was so excited. And so that's similar to the story that we find here in chapter 15 and verse 8. This woman has 10 pieces of silver and she loses one. She's got nine of them, but she doesn't say, Well, I've got nine, I don't care. She's got one that's lost. And she lights a candle and she sweeps the house. And listen to it, she seeks diligently till she finds it. She's hard at, and I love this. I want you to say it again, till she found it. That's how you ought to treat. When you lose a church member, you ought to go after them till you get them back. We ought to be so concerned about the people in Russia and China and the people in Korea and Vietnam and Cambodia. We ought to be so concerned about the people in far parts of South Africa that we would help seek till they are found. And she seeks it till she's found it. Now, I don't know if you've noticed this, but here comes the same story again. She finds it, and every time Jesus, these Pharisees are like, why are you hanging around nasty people? And Jesus is telling a story of a sheep and now a coin. And he says, When she finds it, she calls her friends and her neighbors, and she says, Rejoice with me, for I have found the peace which I had lost. And again, we're going to hear the same story. That's how it is in heaven. In verse 7, it said it, and now again in verse 10. Likewise, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents. God loves finding lost people, his people that walked away. He tells us these stories so we'll see the father's heart. The lost are missed by God our Father. The shepherd feels the absence of one sheep. The woman notices that one coin as mentioned. We're going to go to another story, and the father is going to know that his son is gone. He watches the road every day, praying his son will come home. You don't miss something that means nothing to you. If you lose a cheap pen, you shrug and move on. But if you lose your wedding band or you'll drop everything and you'll go search. Why? Because value determines pursuit. If it's valuable, you diligently seek it till you find it, which is what God's doing, what Jesus is talking about. So when you see a lost person, don't see a stranger to God. When you see a lost person, don't see a stranger to God, see someone he misses. When you walk past a hurting neighbor, remember heaven notices their absence. The lost aren't running away from an angry God. They're being sought out by a loving God. Did you hear that? There's not an angry God. There's a loving God that so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. And he didn't do it just for Americans, and he didn't do it just for South Americans, and he didn't do it just for South Africans. Jesus didn't come to change God's mind about sinners. He came to show us God's mind has always been love. See, the lost are marked by value. The coin bore the image of its owner, just as you bear the image of God. Even in the dust, even in the dark, even down in the filthy dirt, the image remains. When you talk to someone who's made a mess of their life, you're not talking to garbage. You're talking to a treasure covered by dirt. You're talking to a treasure covered by dirt. A child once found an old crumpled painting in a thrift store. It was torn and smudged and worth a few dollars until an expert saw the signature. It was a lost Rembrandt worth millions. That's what God sees in every sinner. And the lost are meant to be found. That's why he said he witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, and Samaria to the uttermost. The shepherd won't stop till he finds the sheep. He said that. The woman won't stop sweeping until she finds the coin and has it back in her hand. And the father doesn't stop watching until the son appears. Lost people aren't God's problem to punish. They're his purpose to pursue. You are not too far gone. You are the reason he came. They are the reason he came. To be lost in the Father's eyes is to be longed for. Heaven's definition of lost begins with love, not condemnation. It's the compassion of the Lord. He searches, he shoulders that lamb. He celebrates. Then we come up on one more story here for today. It's the story of the lost. It says in verse 4, the lost until he find it. Verse 5, it says he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. In verse 6, he says, Rejoice with me, for I found my sheep which was lost. And then he said, That's the way it is in heaven. Likewise, joy shall be in heaven. Then a woman loses a coin, and doesn't she light a candle and sweep the house and seek diligently till she finds it? And when she finds it, she says, Rejoice of me, and isn't that the way it is in heaven? See, some are lost by choice, some have rebelled, some have left of their own accord. But the father never changed. So we have next the story of the prodigal son. We call it really about the prodigal father because he is crazy in the way he acts. The boy comes to his dad and says, Father, give me what I'm supposed to get when you die. Now that is a totally rebellious, uncalled for, ridiculous way for a son to act. He says, I want what I get when you die. I wish, in other words, I wish you were dead. Now you hear that. But the father, God is love, and he gave him his money, and he gave the big brother his money, and the boy went and wasted it in verse 13 with wild, sinful, riotous living. And then when he got in trouble and it was time to come home, he's on his way home. He has prepared a speech. He is ready to say, Boy, I'm a terrible person. I'm horrible. I feel bad about what I've done. He's ready to do all that. But when the father saw him a great way off, the father, the old man, jumped up and he had compassion. He was in love. He was looking for his son and he ran and he fell on his nasty neck and he kissed him. And he's, can you not see him? He's swinging his boy around like when we found joy in the airport. And he's kissing him and he smells like pigs. And he's happy. He's excited that he has him back. And the boy starts saying what he's got to say. The Bible just goes, but the father said. But the father said. And you know what? The father didn't talk to the boy at all. He talked to the servants. And he said, Get out the best robe, put a ring on his hand, shoes on his feet, and kill that fatted calf that we have for parties. Kill it. Let's eat and be merry. He was lost and he is found. Later on, he's going to say, He was dead and he is alive. And they began to be merry. They had a party. There's dancing and music and drinking. Jesus came looking for the lost, not out of duty, but out of delight. He sought us because of who he is. Because searching love is his very nature. And he searches with a passion. The shepherd leaves a 99 in the open field to look for the one. That's not poor math. That's divine mercy. The church must be more of a search party than a social club. The church must care for those who live in the uttermost. He shoulders that sheep with mercy. When he finds him, he doesn't scold him. He doesn't discipline him. He doesn't break his leg. He lifts him and carries him out. He puts it on his shoulders and he goes home rejoicing when people stumble into church after years of wandering. They don't need a lecture. They need you to lift them up. Our job is to carry the sheep, not condemn the sheep. Can you imagine when the rescue worker pulls somebody out of the rubble? He doesn't say, How'd you get buried under all this rubble? He says, I've got you. That's the voice of Jesus to every sinner. Grace doesn't wait for us to clean up, it meets us in the mud and shoulders us and carries us home. So every story that Jesus told that day to those publicans, sinners, and the Pharisees, the religious people, started with them complaining and ended with Jesus having a party because he found that which was lost. Jesus loves and cares. He's not scolding and screaming at them. He is lifting, he is reaching and rejoicing. He is loving the older brother in verse 25. The elder son, he comes home and he hears music and dancing. And he said, and they've killed a fatted calf, and they brought out all the drinks. And they're, I mean, they're having my drink, Dyd Mountain Dew or Dyed Coke, and they're they're they're at it. He says to one of the servants, what's going on? What's going on? And the servant says, Well, your brother's come, and your father's killed the fatted calf because he's home safe and sound. Verse 27. And verse 28, he was angry. He represents those Pharisees, the religious, and he would not go in. He said, I'm not going to the party. My daddy can throw a party, but I will not go in. And his father came out. He came out. He got up, left the party, and to come out to entreat or beg his son to please come in. And the older son has lived in the presence of his father, but doesn't know the love that would carry the gospel around the world. That would carry the gospel to the uttermost. He comes out and he says, Daddy, in verse 29, he said, I have slaved for you. That word serve there is the word for slave work. I've done that, and I've never broken your rules at any time, and yet you never have even given me a little kid, a goat. But you gave my brother the fatted calf. You never let me have a party with my friends. But here comes, here comes the lost son, and you've killed the fatted calf. He said, Well, son, you're always with me. And all everything I have is yours. Verse 32. It was meat, it was right that we should make merry and be glad. For this, thy brother was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found. That's how the Father feels about lost people. Now the search belongs to us. The shepherd has made us his hands and feet. If Jesus came to seek and save, we can't be content to sit and stay. Reflect on his heart. See the lost as family, not failures. See the lost. They belong to God. He's lost them. The older brother refuses to join the celebration. He stands outside angry and he says, Grace is unfair. And the father says, Son, all I have is yours. The danger for longtime believers is forgetting that we were once lost too. If we're not careful, we'll guard the gate instead of opening the door. Imagine a fireman rescuing people from a burning house while someone inside argues about who deserves to be saved first. That's what self-righteousness does. We are to reach. We are his hands. We're to love people, not projects. People are not projects. Jesus didn't see sinners as statistics. He saw sons and daughters. He didn't fix people. He found them and loved them. I just want you to know we are conquering new territory for Jesus. We're carrying that message of love to the world. The Father said, it is meet, it is fit, it is right that we have a party and be glad. Every time someone turns toward grace, heaven dances. We should be the most joyful, happy people in the world. Not because everything is easy, but because lost people keep coming home. Churches that know how to celebrate grace are the ones that draw the hurting. When the prodigal came home, the father didn't say, let's talk about your mistakes. He said, put on the robe, start the music. That's our cue, to rejoice with the Father when mercy wins. The mission of believers is simple. Reflect his heart, reach with his hands, rejoice in his hope. We're not keepers of rules, we're carriers of rescue. Lost doesn't mean hopeless. It means heaven is already looking. The shepherd searched, the woman swept. The father ran, and Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost. Maybe today you're the one who's wandered. Maybe Shane has kept you hiding, but your father isn't waiting to scold you. He's running towards you. And to those who are already found, go carry his heart to a hurting world. Because every person you meet needs someone, is someone God misses, someone God values, someone God logs to carry home. Now this is a missions conference. It's like the closest thing to our Father's heart. Because he wants the world to know how much he loves them. God is love. He has already reconciled the world to himself, 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Christ was on the cross, but God was in Christ on the cross, reconciling the world unto himself, 2 Corinthians chapter 5. So we come to it. What are we going to do in a missions conference? Are we going to pray more? Are some of us going to surrender and go? Are we going to take the gospel message and go to the uttermost? Long ways off? It's up to you. This missions conference is about us getting involved in his plan, his work. Loving, unlovable people. Don't stand there like the older brother. Don't be the Pharisees mad because Jesus is saving sinners. Let's carry the gospel message. And maybe that means giving. But you only give not because of a rule, not because a necessity is put on you. You give because in your heart you're so grateful and you want to. And the Father stirs up your heart. I want to thank you for listening. I want to thank you for giving me the chance to talk to you. And I just want to challenge you to take this message and let's carry it to the world for the honor and the glory of Jesus.