WEBVTT 00:00:01.360 --> 00:00:04.639 So we're going through different parables uh throughout this summer. 00:00:04.879 --> 00:00:09.279 Haven't taken a break from the book of Acts, which we have been going through for a few months. 00:00:09.439 --> 00:00:14.080 So this is the parable of the lost sheep that we're gonna be talking about this morning. 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:25.120 Christy and I are we're in a dinner group with a a group of our our best friends, and last week we sat down at a really nice restaurant in Atlanta because it was one of the guys' birthdays, and he got to pick the restaurant. 00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:35.200 So we're at this nice restaurant, and you know the appetizers come out and we're around this round table, and it's just we're there for a couple of hours, and it happened again for me. 00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:39.119 It always happens when I'm with this this group of people and we're eating. 00:00:39.280 --> 00:00:41.439 It happens every single time. 00:00:41.679 --> 00:00:50.240 And it doesn't matter if we're at a really nice restaurant, it doesn't matter if we're at the Waffle House, it doesn't matter if we're like at a taco stand, it doesn't matter where we're at. 00:00:50.399 --> 00:00:55.520 Just the fact that we're together, I'm always reminded these are my people. 00:00:55.920 --> 00:00:57.359 Like these are my people. 00:00:57.439 --> 00:00:59.679 I I want to talk to these people. 00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:06.480 These are the people that I call when I'm stressed out, these are the people when I'm freaking out, these are the people that I call to confess things. 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:08.480 I need to just talk things out. 00:01:08.719 --> 00:01:10.000 These are my people. 00:01:10.159 --> 00:01:15.359 I want to be having dinner with these people when I'm 50 and when I'm 60 and when I'm 70 and beyond. 00:01:15.599 --> 00:01:16.799 They're my people. 00:01:17.439 --> 00:01:17.760 Right? 00:01:17.920 --> 00:01:19.599 It's always been this way. 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:22.480 You dine with your people. 00:01:22.719 --> 00:01:26.239 Like if you want to know who your people are, you can just look at who you eat with. 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:31.120 It's why in high school the lunch room means everything, right? 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:32.879 Like, who do you eat with? 00:01:33.040 --> 00:01:34.560 What table are you with? 00:01:34.640 --> 00:01:35.760 And who are you gonna eat with? 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:37.680 It's why you stress out about it in high school. 00:01:37.760 --> 00:01:38.879 Like, who am I gonna eat lunch with? 00:01:39.040 --> 00:01:40.239 Because people are gonna be watching. 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:47.359 It's why when my granny moved into assisted living, the dining room was everything. 00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:50.159 What table do you eat with? 00:01:51.040 --> 00:01:58.000 They're 85 years old and they're stressing out about social status playing out in the dining room. 00:01:59.359 --> 00:02:01.439 It's because who you dine with means everything. 00:02:01.599 --> 00:02:04.400 Who you dine with reveals who your people are. 00:02:04.560 --> 00:02:05.760 These are your people. 00:02:06.239 --> 00:02:08.800 In ancient times, the table meant even more. 00:02:08.960 --> 00:02:13.199 So take what we feel, multiply it out, make it religious. 00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:14.159 Right? 00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:18.479 Because in ancient times, if you were religious and you were Jewish, you only ate. 00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:22.800 You only ate with people who ate kosher and were deemed pure. 00:02:22.960 --> 00:02:29.039 You would never risk not eating with somebody who ate kosher or was not deemed pure. 00:02:29.199 --> 00:02:35.599 And so Jesus shows up and he starts eating with whoever he wants to eat with. 00:02:36.159 --> 00:02:40.400 I mean, the people who break the rules, the people on the outside of the customs. 00:02:40.639 --> 00:02:42.800 So he's not obeying custom. 00:02:43.360 --> 00:02:45.520 And this is why all the religious people get upset. 00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:50.960 That's why they're always saying, oh, Jesus, you know, he's a he's eating with drunkards and gluttons. 00:02:51.120 --> 00:02:51.840 He's a drunkard. 00:02:52.240 --> 00:02:53.520 He's a glutton. 00:02:54.080 --> 00:02:56.800 This is why the religious people are upset. 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:00.960 Because they're going, are these his people? 00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:03.280 Like these are his friends? 00:03:03.439 --> 00:03:06.400 These these these are these are his friends. 00:03:07.120 --> 00:03:11.439 And so we see this at the beginning of this lost sheep parable. 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:28.319 This is the thing that instigates, ignites Jesus into the parable is these religious people's concern about this, their misconception about who they themselves are, and who God is, how God thinks about people. 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:33.280 So let me reread the parable, having thought a little bit about that. 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:34.960 Luke 15, 1 through 7. 00:03:35.039 --> 00:03:39.120 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 00:03:39.599 --> 00:03:46.080 And the Pharisees, the religious people, and the scribes that grumbled, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them. 00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:46.719 Right? 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:51.520 So they're oblivious, they're oblivious to the fact that they might be sinners. 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:57.439 And so Jesus figures out this attitude that's going on with these religious people. 00:03:57.759 --> 00:03:59.759 So he told them this parable. 00:04:00.319 --> 00:04:08.639 What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 00:04:09.039 --> 00:04:12.400 When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 00:04:12.639 --> 00:04:19.120 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost. 00:04:19.279 --> 00:04:28.000 Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. 00:04:28.720 --> 00:04:29.600 So a few points. 00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:35.120 Number one, we are messy, stubborn people. 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:40.480 We're the sheep in the story, preferably the one. 00:04:40.560 --> 00:04:42.399 Hopefully, you don't think you're in the 99. 00:04:42.560 --> 00:04:45.279 The goal of the story here is to understand you're the one. 00:04:45.519 --> 00:04:47.920 We are messy, stubborn people. 00:04:48.079 --> 00:04:52.000 And sheep are known to be messy, and they are known to be stubborn, right? 00:04:52.079 --> 00:04:56.879 They go their own way, they lose their own direction, they can't find their way back, right? 00:04:57.040 --> 00:05:01.120 You think, I think, that path will fulfill me. 00:05:01.360 --> 00:05:02.720 That'll be the path. 00:05:02.879 --> 00:05:06.800 This path, certainly, this will finally work for me, this path. 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:08.959 This will solve my problems. 00:05:09.439 --> 00:05:22.800 And you go down that path, and it leads you to more wandering for more fulfillment or more acceptance or some sense of absolution that you're never finding for yourself. 00:05:23.279 --> 00:05:32.560 Because to be human is to be lost, not worthless, not without beauty, but lost, certainly lost. 00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:36.160 Now on Instagram, you you don't look lost at all. 00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:38.480 Christy shows me the pictures, you look wonderful. 00:05:38.639 --> 00:05:45.839 You're at the beach, you make sure the picture is taken at just the right angle, so that part of your body you obsess about is not in the picture. 00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:51.120 And if it got in the picture, you delete it, you take another one and make sure the angle is adjusted just right. 00:05:51.199 --> 00:06:10.160 And the Insta story did not show you blow up on your children as you're setting up the beach umbrella, sweating, and it didn't show your wife blow up on you because you forgot the cooler, and all that's kind of a passive hatred, passive hatred that's been going on all morning because both of you think that you put in more effort to the family. 00:06:10.240 --> 00:06:16.560 And then underneath that, really, is just like this ultimate, ultimate reservoir of issues, right? 00:06:16.639 --> 00:06:22.319 Like anxieties and fears and discontentment, that we're not talking about those things. 00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:28.879 And coping mechanisms that come out of all of that, and the entire time, all of it's just lostness. 00:06:30.079 --> 00:06:40.959 The Bible would call it sin, losing our way from peace with God and thus peace with other people, because we're just not allowing God to be our guide. 00:06:41.600 --> 00:06:49.199 Two weeks ago in the New York Times, Crispin Sartwell, he's a professor of philosophy, he wrote an article, What's So Good About Original Sin. 00:06:49.759 --> 00:06:51.279 So this is in the New York Times. 00:06:51.360 --> 00:06:54.959 He argued that even if we forget the Bible's argument for original sin. 00:06:55.040 --> 00:06:57.120 So let's just put that aside, he says. 00:06:57.360 --> 00:07:00.639 He says, there's a secular argument for original sin. 00:07:01.439 --> 00:07:03.839 Here's what he says, what he wrote in the New York Times. 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:07.920 When I look within, I see certain extreme failings. 00:07:08.079 --> 00:07:13.360 I have not been able to get rid of most of them, and I have accumulated others as I've gone along. 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:18.079 Perhaps you've done better, but most of us certainly come up short of our own ideals. 00:07:18.319 --> 00:07:35.600 Ones I hope most people, religious or not, generally share to be generous, peaceful, energetic in helping others, and hesitant to help ourselves at their expense, to take care of the world we inhabit, to not only not kill one another or even think about it, but to love one another. 00:07:35.839 --> 00:07:41.439 Even by our own mortal standards, we are profoundly flawed. 00:07:42.639 --> 00:07:51.759 You see, none of us, none of us, and I can say this after being a pastor for 15 years, none of us have our acts together. 00:07:52.079 --> 00:08:00.160 Doesn't matter what you dress like, doesn't matter what social economic level you're in, none of us have our acts together. 00:08:00.800 --> 00:08:05.759 And the reason why you feel lost is because you're lost. 00:08:06.399 --> 00:08:07.839 That's the reason why. 00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:13.839 To be human is to be lost, and you are human. 00:08:14.319 --> 00:08:15.680 And I'm human. 00:08:17.120 --> 00:08:18.639 Everyone's lost. 00:08:18.959 --> 00:08:21.759 Point number two, we are messy, stubborn people. 00:08:22.319 --> 00:08:23.680 That was point number one. 00:08:24.240 --> 00:08:29.279 Point number two adds on, with a loving, joy-filled pursuing God. 00:08:29.519 --> 00:08:33.120 We are messy, stubborn people with a loving, joy-filled pursuing God. 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:39.919 So that's the good news that the shepherd in this story, the shepherd sacrifices to come after his sheep. 00:08:40.080 --> 00:08:45.440 In the parable's language, he seeks us in our wandering, he seeks us in our lostness. 00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:49.039 We're not even aware we're lost, we're just going our own way. 00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:50.879 And he comes after us. 00:08:50.960 --> 00:08:58.879 And when he gets there, he doesn't berate the sheep in this story, he doesn't lecture the sheep in this story, there's no shame, there's no condemnation, there's only one thing. 00:08:59.039 --> 00:09:01.279 There's only rescue, there's open arms. 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:03.120 And this is profound. 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:04.799 This is life-changing. 00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:21.919 That the God of this world is so in love with you in your lostness, in your stubbornness and messiness, so in love with you, he pursues you, raises you up whole and redeemed out of his ability, not yours. 00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:26.720 And not only that, it is his joy to do this. 00:09:27.759 --> 00:09:28.080 Right? 00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:40.480 Verse 5, and when he has found it, it being the sheep, you being the sheep, so I can say, and when he has found you, he lays you on his shoulders, rejoicing. 00:09:42.639 --> 00:09:54.720 See, this leaves us with only trust and thanks, quite relieved, and really back at a party that Jesus talks about. 00:09:55.519 --> 00:09:57.039 Point number three. 00:09:58.799 --> 00:10:01.440 You are free to enjoy the grace of God. 00:10:02.240 --> 00:10:06.639 But either way, the grace of God's enough for you. 00:10:06.960 --> 00:10:07.919 Let me explain this. 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:09.519 I'll say it again and then I'll explain it. 00:10:09.679 --> 00:10:12.240 You are free to enjoy the grace of God. 00:10:12.559 --> 00:10:16.720 But even if you don't, the grace of God's enough for you. 00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:25.679 See, the gospel is the grace of God known in Jesus as our sin is put upon him on the cross, as righteousness is given to you. 00:10:25.919 --> 00:10:27.840 You are secure by that. 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:34.799 So this speaks absolution and acceptance over you as you place faith in Jesus by grace. 00:10:34.960 --> 00:10:36.320 This is true for you. 00:10:36.559 --> 00:10:38.480 It will always be true for you. 00:10:38.639 --> 00:10:39.759 It's enough. 00:10:40.639 --> 00:10:50.159 But your enjoyment of that gift, of that victory, that thing that's been deemed to you in this hour, that is another matter. 00:10:51.679 --> 00:10:53.519 Imagine you walk into a casino. 00:10:53.600 --> 00:10:54.639 I know, far-fetched. 00:10:54.879 --> 00:10:55.919 Work with me here. 00:10:56.320 --> 00:10:59.919 Imagine you walk into a casino, you're walking around. 00:11:00.320 --> 00:11:09.919 You know you're gonna eventually spend something, some amount of money, but you're watching some people blow through some money, and you're just uh you can't believe it, but you're walking around. 00:11:10.080 --> 00:11:15.120 You keep walking by this one slot machine, and it's the big one, the mega slot machine. 00:11:15.279 --> 00:11:18.080 It says above it,$10 million. 00:11:19.840 --> 00:11:26.320 And so finally you're walking around, you're having a good time, your friends are playing, you're and you think finally to yourself, you know what? 00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:27.919 I'll waste a dollar. 00:11:28.159 --> 00:11:29.120 No big deal. 00:11:29.279 --> 00:11:33.360 But if I'm gonna waste a dollar, I might as well waste it on that machine. 00:11:33.519 --> 00:11:35.200 I might as well go for it. 00:11:35.360 --> 00:11:46.240 So you get one token and you go over to that machine and you you put it in that slot machine, that$10 million you pulled up, you pull that thing down, and the bells and the whistles go off. 00:11:46.399 --> 00:11:47.440 It is going nuts. 00:11:47.600 --> 00:11:49.919 Everybody starts cheering because that's what happens in a casino. 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:53.759 Everybody starts cheering because like one person, everybody else losing money, one person wins. 00:11:53.919 --> 00:11:56.159 Everybody's cheering, can't believe it. 00:11:56.320 --> 00:12:01.279 It prints out your winnings on that ticket and it says ten million dollars. 00:12:01.600 --> 00:12:04.960 You will never have to work again in your life. 00:12:05.200 --> 00:12:08.480 Merit is over, it is yours. 00:12:09.440 --> 00:12:11.440 Now you've already won. 00:12:12.720 --> 00:12:14.720 Nobody can take that from you. 00:12:15.759 --> 00:12:18.320 You were granted victory. 00:12:18.879 --> 00:12:28.720 But whether you want to walk that ticket over to the counter and enjoy the victory that was already given to you is another matter. 00:12:29.519 --> 00:12:32.000 You see, you're already his sheep. 00:12:33.279 --> 00:12:36.559 The victory's already been deemed to you in Jesus. 00:12:36.799 --> 00:12:45.840 Now, whether you want to appropriate that gift into your life this hour, this day, and enjoy it, that's up to you. 00:12:46.159 --> 00:12:58.240 You actually have the choice to continue in gloom and despair, not appropriating the fact that you're already righteous, or appropriating that love conquers fear. 00:13:00.639 --> 00:13:10.399 To enjoy that is a matter of appropriating the victory already given to you in Jesus into your life right now, today. 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:15.679 This past week, a volcano erupted in Guatemala, wiped out villages. 00:13:15.759 --> 00:13:17.279 I don't know if you saw it on the news, right? 00:13:17.360 --> 00:13:23.519 Like at first, there's the one in Hawaii, and then this one in Guatemala is even worse as the villages were built on the hillside. 00:13:23.759 --> 00:13:25.279 Just wiped it away. 00:13:26.799 --> 00:13:29.600 And people lost their families, villages is gone. 00:13:29.759 --> 00:13:31.679 I don't know if you saw the footage. 00:13:31.919 --> 00:13:33.200 And the footage is horrible. 00:13:33.360 --> 00:13:35.919 I think it's even worse if you've ever been if you've ever been down there. 00:13:36.080 --> 00:13:38.399 Some of us have been down there, we support a ministry down there. 00:13:38.559 --> 00:13:41.519 I've been down there maybe eight, nine times over the years. 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:43.679 I know exactly where this volcano is. 00:13:44.320 --> 00:13:53.919 I can remember being with Bo and Brad, and a group of us went down and we ate dinner in Tigua, which is 20 minutes from this volcano right there. 00:13:56.399 --> 00:14:01.759 I've taken high school students down there, college students down there, adults, we go down, we build houses for these people. 00:14:02.799 --> 00:14:05.200 I know these people, I've seen these people. 00:14:07.279 --> 00:14:13.200 And what I've learned is this these trips are great for these people. 00:14:14.240 --> 00:14:15.840 Like the ones we're going to serve. 00:14:15.919 --> 00:14:17.440 Like they're they're cared for, they love. 00:14:17.759 --> 00:14:18.799 I mean, it's unbelievable. 00:14:18.879 --> 00:14:21.919 But it's amazing for the people who go. 00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:22.960 And here's why. 00:14:23.039 --> 00:14:31.360 And I think this is probably the difference between somebody who sees footage like that and they've never been to a place like that versus seeing footage by like that. 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:37.120 And I immediately email my friend Tony, who lives about 45 minutes away from there, right? 00:14:37.279 --> 00:14:40.240 And the difference is this it's just the difference of proximity. 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:44.000 It's just the difference between I've actually been there. 00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:47.039 I I saw the footage in Hawaii and people lost their homes. 00:14:47.120 --> 00:14:48.720 I'm like, okay. 00:14:51.840 --> 00:14:53.759 But I I I know who these people are. 00:14:54.399 --> 00:14:55.279 It's different. 00:14:55.519 --> 00:14:58.480 There's something different about the about proximity. 00:14:58.639 --> 00:15:06.960 And this is why these nonprofits, I don't know if you hear these trips called vision trips, like nonprofits, they they get a whole bunch of supporters, people who like to give money away. 00:15:07.039 --> 00:15:12.240 They gather these people up, and maybe you've been on one, it's a vision trip, not even a mission trip, it's a vision trip. 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:21.360 And they gather people up and they do this to take people to a place, to a site, Guatemala or Africa or somewhere, I don't know, anywhere, India, and take people just to see the work. 00:15:21.519 --> 00:15:22.879 And you go, oh, what a waste of money. 00:15:22.960 --> 00:15:23.759 That's a lot of resources. 00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:24.639 They should just send the money. 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:25.759 Why do they send it to people? 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:28.240 Because proximity means everything. 00:15:28.480 --> 00:15:34.960 If I can get just get you there, if I can get you there to see this, this will change everything from now on. 00:15:38.480 --> 00:15:40.720 I think this is what Jesus is doing here. 00:15:41.519 --> 00:15:43.360 This grace of proximity. 00:15:43.600 --> 00:15:43.919 Right? 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:52.000 Like, if I can just get you to see this, this will change everything in how you react and live. 00:15:54.879 --> 00:16:21.919 If I can just get you to see the sheep and the shepherd and understand who you are and who God is, you'll understand your salvation, you understand repentance, the need of a savior to come and get you to live in honesty and confession and repentance to get into the, to, to enjoy that party, to enjoy that rejoicing that God has, a loving, joy-filled God pursuing you? 00:16:22.720 --> 00:16:25.120 That's what abiding and growing grace is. 00:16:25.200 --> 00:16:41.039 It is taking this great grace, gospel truth of salvation, having been found in your lostness by Jesus' work for you, and letting it speak to the fearful sheep that's still inside of you. 00:16:42.559 --> 00:16:47.360 And what we need is we need to declare again Psalm 23. 00:16:48.399 --> 00:16:50.879 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. 00:16:51.279 --> 00:16:57.759 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul. 00:16:58.080 --> 00:17:04.240 He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:08.559 My brothers and sisters, you and I may be sheep. 00:17:08.799 --> 00:17:10.319 We are sheep. 00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:20.319 But we have a shepherd who loves to pursue us, lift us up, put us on his shoulders, and he does it rejoicing. 00:17:20.559 --> 00:17:22.000 Let's pray together. 00:17:22.720 --> 00:17:28.880 God, thank you that while we are lost, you are the one who finds. 00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:33.519 Many of us in this room do know you. 00:17:34.400 --> 00:17:39.119 We have placed faith by grace, but there's a few who don't. 00:17:39.680 --> 00:17:43.680 Would you give them eyes to see this sheep and this shepherd? 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:49.839 Would you give them the grace of proximity that would change all things from now on? 00:17:51.359 --> 00:17:59.839 Would you give them the gift of repentance, our desire to go our own way, to wander about, self-save? 00:18:01.519 --> 00:18:10.640 And would they this morning understand that you are a loving, joy-filled, pursuing God, rejoicing over us? 00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:18.720 And for most of us who know you, we need to be reminded again that you are our shepherd. 00:18:18.960 --> 00:18:32.559 And you are not a shepherd of shame or condemnation, but you are one who pursues us, lifts us up onto your shoulders, carries us in our stubbornness, and you do it rejoicing. 00:18:34.079 --> 00:18:44.880 May this bring great relief to our hearts, and may it turn to great trust and thanks and awe and worship for you. 00:18:45.119 --> 00:18:46.160 In Jesus' name. 00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:46.960 Amen.