You made it back to Southern Hills.
I know you've been looking forward to this moment
and you're here, so let's celebrate Jesus together.
Amen?
Let's do it!
Luke chapter number 15 in verse number 8 through 10.
It's a very short passage that we're studying today,
but it's a very powerful passage,
and we're going to look at it in a very unique way.
Today's sermon is a little unique,
but before we begin, I want to ask this question.
Are there any ladies in the room today?
Any ladies in the room?
Some of you are like, I'm not sure.
How many ladies in the room today?
Say amen, share.
Yeah, there we go.
I heard one dude shout over here.
Okay.
It's confusing in this society,
but ladies, look, this Sunday,
we have, or this coming up weekend,
we have a ladies' conference right here at the church,
a women's conference.
It's entitled, Remember When,
and if you haven't registered for it, it's not too late.
You can scan the QR code and come on Friday night and Saturday.
It's going to be a lot of fun, and sir, you are not welcome.
Thank you very much.
We are going to have a great time.
They are going to have a great time,
and I hope you can come and be a part of it, ladies.
It's an incredible event focused specifically about remembering
when God has done great miracles for you in the past
so that you can have faith right now and in the future.
So we want to encourage you to be a part of that.
So much happening right here at Southern Hills,
including tonight, the Ascent Youth Ministry.
Our teenagers come together every Sunday night at 6 p.m.
right here in the room.
So if you have teenagers, bring them.
If you are a teenager, come.
If you don't know teenagers, kidnap them.
Bring them. Don't do that. I was kidding.
You can't make children come unless they're yours,
and then they're going to come and they're going to have a great time.
Luke chapter number 15 and verse number 8,
which is, I could just see you're our church lawyer right now.
What did you say?
You are valued is the name of the sermon today.
You are valued.
And we find ourselves in the middle of a three week sermon series.
You're in middle part number two,
and so it's a perfect Sunday to be here
because it is a three week sermon series
that we're walking through Luke chapter number 15.
It's all the teachings of Jesus where he tells three specific stories.
First he tells the story of a lost sheep.
Then he tells the story of a lost coin.
That's today.
And then next week, the story of a lost son,
or what some have called the story of the prodigal son.
You don't want to miss next week for the grand finale,
but today the lost coin.
And today's message is really summarized with this one word
or this one thought, and that is you are valued.
Let's look at the text.
What woman having 10 silver coins
if she loses one coin does not light a lamp,
sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it.
And when she has found it,
she calls to her friends and her neighbors together saying,
rejoice with me for I have found the peace which was lost.
Likewise, I say to you,
there is joy in the presence of the angels of God
over one sinner who repents.
Wow.
Let's pray before we talk about it.
God, I'm grateful to be gathered with my friends today
to study your Bible, to worship your name,
to sing your praises, to pray,
and give you our requests, to give generously
and to spend time together as a family.
But God, in this moment, in this holy moment,
in this holy place with these holy people,
God, you've given us a moment to understand your holy word.
And I need to. We need to.
God, I don't know what burdens are being carried
by my friends here today.
I don't know what problems they're facing.
I don't know what issues they have to overcome.
But I do know that the answers are found in your book.
I know there are some today in this room
who do not understand their true worth.
They do not understand their incredible value.
And as we look at this passage,
I pray that you would awaken them to this truth.
There are lost coins in this room,
and they don't even know they're lost.
There are those who have been lost and are found,
but they forget the great beauty
of what it was like to be found.
And there are those in this room who you want to call
to go and search out and find lost people.
I pray that you would prompt them.
You would help them today.
God, you know that I know
that I am powerless to help my friends
unless you come in and help me teach this word.
So I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ, my Savior,
in the power of his Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Have you ever lost something?
Are you the person in the family who loses things?
If you're the person in the family who loses things,
raise your hand.
If that person is sitting beside you,
point at the person who loses stuff all the time, right?
Point at him, okay.
You know who you are. You know who you are.
Yes, sir, yes, sir. That's okay.
You're welcome in this place.
No judgment.
You and I are very similar.
I'm the person who loses stuff in our family.
What do you lose? What do you lose sometimes, sir?
What do you lose?
Not you, but I'm glad you mentioned it.
He wants to confess his sins here.
We got to build a booth. He's very traditional.
Tell a guy in a collar about losing your keys.
You lose your keys sometimes?
What do you lose, sir, in the back? What do you lose?
Car keys, too.
So you have a friend you can meet and talk about.
Start a little small group about we lose keys all the time.
What happens?
What else do you lose? What else do you lose?
You lose your phone.
Have you ever lost your phone while you're holding your phone?
Has that ever happened to you?
Where's my phone? Where's my phone, kids? Did you take my phone?
Where is my phone?
What else do you lose? Yes, what do you lose?
You lose your mind.
God bless you, my dear sister.
We were wondering if you knew.
Praise God, ladies and gentlemen, the whole purpose of today's sermon is worked.
She knows. Amen.
Hold on. This is becoming fun.
All right. What did you say?
Yeah, she forgets where she's going. That's right.
Have you ever done that? You walk into the kitchen.
I don't even remember the word.
You walk into the kitchen and you forget like what you're hungry.
And you're like, oh, I know those things are in the...
And you open, you're like, what am I here for?
Why did I... Is it my keys? Is it my phone?
I don't... I lost my child one time.
No, it's true. I had one of my Savannah, who's now 17, was in her car seat.
And by the way, for you parents who are still in the car seat phase, it gets better.
Like really, like once you get out of the car seat phase, it's wonderful.
But I had the car seat and I put the car...
And I had my three-year-old and a car seat child.
And my wife was in the dentist's office and I opened the door and I put her in
and I clicked it and I buckled it and she's safe.
And I shut the door and I turned around and my three-year-old was gone.
In the parking lot. And my wife was in the dentist.
And I knew that if she came back and I only had one of them...
You know, it would not go well.
So I was like, well, I got to find the other one.
But I had the other one in the car, you know.
And then I've also heard stories about people in the car and the kid.
And I'm like, I don't... Which one do I like better, you know, at this point?
And it was her. It was the little one.
But I did think to myself, if I like look around a little bit, maybe I'll find her.
Find him. So I left the door open and I started backing out, you know.
And I'm like looking and I start calling his name, Jonathan! Jonathan!
And I started panicking a little bit and I walked down one row after a second row.
And there I saw my son, my three-year-old little boy.
And he was sitting on top of a yellow Corvette.
And I'm like, that kid has good taste, you know.
And I say, get down, get down. And he's like, hey, he's walking on it.
And so I took him off and like a good citizen, I did not leave a note.
I got out of there. I was like, there's no way.
So, you know, like if 15 years ago you had a scratch Corvette, it was not my fault.
It could have been anybody. That's what I'll end with.
Terrifying to lose something.
This story is telling the story of Jesus.
And Jesus is talking about losing three things.
First it was a shepherd who lost a sheep.
Then it was a woman who lost a coin.
And then it was a father who lost two sons.
That's really all about next week and I don't want to spoil it.
Today's all about the coin. The woman who lost a coin.
And we read the text a moment ago, but it's fascinating.
She had 10 silver coins, but she only loses one of the 10.
Now, why is this one so significant? We're going to learn.
And then whenever she does lose it, she loses her mind.
She's scared to death and she's like, what am I going to do?
So she lights a lamp and she's searching the entire house carefully.
She finally finds it. When she does find it, she's so filled with joy.
Say joy.
She's so filled with joy that she celebrates by inviting her friends over.
And they have a party over a coin. That's weird, right?
Have you ever had a party over a coin?
But she did.
And then it says, Jesus says, likewise I say to you,
there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
One lost soul who comes back to God.
So what does all this mean?
Well, the big takeaway is that you are valued by God.
It's the same concept that we saw last week and this week and next week,
that you are not only seen by God, but you are valued.
You are valued by God.
But today I want to study this passage because it's very short, only three verses.
I want to study this passage from three different perspectives.
If you're ready for something a little weird, say amen.
All right, then we're going to look at this weird, okay?
Same story from three different points of view.
First we're going to look at the historical context of this story.
Then we're going to look at the theological perspective of this story.
And then we're going to take a personal takeaway from this story.
If you're ready for all three, give me a hearty amen.
That way I know you're still awake. If you're new here, you're like, this guy.
All right, let's move on.
Today let's begin with the historical context.
Because without this historical context, the story doesn't make much sense.
Who cares if somebody has 10 coins, they lose one?
Well, it has to do with what kind of coin it was.
Because Jesus talks about 10 silver coins, in the cultural context of the day,
they would have immediately understood that Jesus was talking about,
well, he's talking about this.
You see, a Jewish girl during this day and age, when she was married,
she was given a collection of 10 coins.
And the 10 coins would have been placed in a necklace of sorts
that would not go around the neck, but would go upon the brow of the individual.
Right at the hairline, where these 10 coins, all interesting,
all significant and all important, symbolized one main truth,
and that was, this woman is no longer single, she is married.
She belongs to another, and she has another.
Well, it's not just in that ancient society that did this.
We see this happens in cultures today.
The coin symbolizing not just as decorative,
but something significant or culturally important in that day.
Can you think of a culture that would wear jewelry just for the sake of identifying somebody as married?
I mean, what kind of culture does that?
And the answer is we do.
How many of you married here today? Would you raise your hand?
All right, some of you are too tired to raise your hand.
Okay.
Married today? Let me see. You got your wedding ring on?
Now, all right, very good.
By the way, how many of you are like me?
I've got, over the years, I've gotten a little laxadaisical about wearing my wedding ring.
Like, sometimes I'll just not wear it.
And, and pastoring in this city, pastoring in Las Vegas, people get very concerned.
Like, I'll get up and I'll preach without my wedding ring and people will be like,
pastor, is everything okay?
Like with you and Heather.
And I'm like, yeah, I forgot my ring.
Anyway, I wore it today.
And here it is.
And what does this ring tell you about me?
What does it tell you?
I'm married.
I'm off the market.
It's a shame.
It's a shock to a lot of people, right?
This tells others that I'm a married man.
I'm taken.
And she has one as well.
It's jewelry, but it's not just some, it's not just for decorative purposes.
This piece of jewelry, it signifies my commitment to her and her commitment to me.
It means that I belong to her and that she belongs to me.
In the same way, these coins in this era represented that this woman was now a married individual.
So there was a, there was a sense of, of value about these coins that went beyond the fact that the coin itself was valuable.
There was more of a sense of sentimental value to this coin.
Historically, for Jesus to say one of the 10 silver coins was lost by a woman would be like saying,
do you remember that moment you lost your engagement ring and the emotion that would be there?
Well, historically, we not only see that this was a culturally significant symbol,
we also see that silver itself had and still has an intrinsic value to it.
You say, what do you mean an intrinsic value?
I collect coins.
I started this probably when I was eight or nine years old, maybe younger.
I started, how many collect coins here?
Anybody collect coins?
Good, there's three nerds in the room.
Good.
We should start a club, right?
You know, they'll talk about lost keys.
We'll talk about coins.
All right.
I have, I have a, like a, like a case of coins from all over the world.
Most of them are just not even worth the metal that they're printed on.
I just like them and I look at them.
But years ago, I started collecting silver dollar coins.
And over the years, I had heard a story about somebody who had had a certain amount of silver dollar coins
and they were able to pay for something for their house early on in their life.
And I thought, oh man, that's great because silver never, you know, you know, is worth nothing.
So maybe I'll just, so over the last 20 years, every time I've had an extra 20 bucks or 25 bucks or 15 bucks,
depending on where the market was, I would go and I'd just buy another silver coin.
And so I've collected them over the years.
And this is one of those. This is a 2023.
Now, what's interesting about this coin is to me, it has absolute zero value related to my care.
Meaning there is no sentimental value to this coin, but it does have intrinsic value.
This silver is worth something.
And not simply because we as a society decided it was worth something.
That's what we do with paper money.
We agree this piece of paper is worth something.
And so then we barter with it.
But silver has value beyond that.
What silver does is it has intrinsic value because of what it can be worth in that which we create
in technology and all sorts of other uses.
But it also has value historically throughout the centuries.
We're literally talking about a story for 2000 years ago,
they were talking about a coin that was worth money.
It was called a silver coin.
Now, what can we learn about God and ourselves from this historical context?
Well, a few things.
The first thing you can learn about God's value of you is that he values you sentimentally and intrinsically.
When Jesus uses this metaphor, he does so very intentionally by saying,
I want you to understand how God sees you.
God sees you as incredibly valuable.
You have sentimental value to him and intrinsic value to him.
You say, what does that mean?
It means friend, when God thinks of you, he thinks of you the same way a woman who thinks of her wedding ring thinks of her ring.
He likes you, he loves you, and he thinks about you.
And when you're lost, he's worried for you.
Some of you are carrying some worries and burdens right now.
You're concerned and worried about what's going to happen.
Or you're concerned and worried about how they view you.
Or you're concerned and worried about what took place a month ago or six months ago.
And these concerns and worries are stressing you out.
And sometimes you think nobody knows and nobody cares.
And what I'm trying to tell you, according to what the scripture says,
the scripture shows us this truth that God values you sentimentally.
He cares about what you care about.
He thinks about what you think about.
There is a sentimental value that he has toward you, but not just sentimental, intrinsic.
See, you can have a sentimental value about something that is worth nothing.
How many of you have received art from your children?
You say, but it's beautiful.
It's worth something sentimentally. Yes.
You say, but maybe one day, no.
No, like no, nobody cares.
It's junk.
It's worth nothing on the open market.
You say, I think it might put it on eBay. Let's see.
Let's see. Let the market decide.
Because that which is normally sentimental is not intrinsic.
That which is intrinsic may not be sentimental.
And Jesus is saying, you are both sentimentally valuable to me and also intrinsically value to me.
That means you are valuable to God at your very created being.
We're going to get to more on that in the second point in a moment.
I can remember my mother one time she lost her diamond in her wedding ring.
We were probably about eight years old at the time I was, and I was in the foyer of the church.
My dad's a pastor, and as a pastor, he was closing down the church.
It was a small church on a late Sunday night.
And as they were closing down, my mother was in the auditorium.
My father was in the foyer with the children.
And all of a sudden we heard my mother scream.
And we ran inside and she was down by the front, like right in this area.
It was a very small building though.
And she was on the ground and she was searching and looking and we're like, what's going on?
And she looked up at my father with tears coming down her eyes.
And she rarely ever cried.
And she said, it's gone. It's gone. It happened again.
My father had bought her a, just years before, an engagement ring, but a very poor quality engagement.
A picture, an engagement ring that a poor college student seminary could afford.
That's what the diamond was very small.
And the prongs that held the diamond were very weak.
This was the third time that she had lost her diamond.
And she's weeping.
Now think about this. She's weeping because of a stone that was lost.
You say, why was she weeping? It was a stone. It's a rock.
And the answer, because it was of its intrinsic value.
See, it was valuable and we did not have tons of money to go out and buy a new diamond.
But it was also sentimental.
She didn't want another rock. She wanted that rock because that was the rock that he gave her when they fell in love.
You see?
Don't you understand that's exactly how God sees you?
He sees you in your intrinsic value because you are a human soul.
You say, well, he's got lots of other human souls, but he knows you specifically.
He doesn't want them above you. He wants you.
He has walked with you and talked with you since you were a child.
He's known every hurt and every harm. He knows every joy and every celebration.
He loves you and he knows you.
And the reality is if you are lost, he grieves for you and he's looking for you.
He's not just wanting you because he wants one more soul in heaven.
He wants you because he wants you. He likes you. He's searching for you.
The same way a woman would search for her diamond or her coin.
And so the first perspective that I want us to see to truly understand the story is that of the historical context.
But second, what I want us to see is the theological perspective.
See, same story, different perspective, and the theological perspective tells us even more about God and tells us more about you.
Say, what is the theological perspective, Pastor Josh?
That your value is based upon your creation and your purpose.
I'll say it again. The theological perspective is that your value is based upon your creation and upon your purpose.
You're valuable because you were created in the image of God and because you have purpose in that creation.
Say, what do you mean I was created in the image of God?
Okay, think about the analogy Jesus gives. There's so much here.
It was a coin and on a coin is typically the image of who?
Typically the image of whoever's in charge of that nation, state or government.
At this time, it would have been the king or the Caesar or whatever ruler was in that region.
It had the image upon the person showing who the coin ultimately belonged to.
Okay, so you say, how does that have anything to do with me?
Well, theologically speaking, in a similar way, you as a human being.
How many human beings here, if you are, say a man?
I'm not just checking, all right? We're very close to Area 51.
I don't want to, I don't know.
As a human being, you are created in the image of God. Theologically speaking, we call it Amal Goday.
Amal Goday means that mankind is different than the rest of creation.
You are not simply just another animal. You are unique among all of God's creation.
There are many creatures. There's only one mankind.
And the theology that we understand is that you and I are created in the image of God.
Now, this Amal Goday is not just a theological concept that's been demonstrated in art throughout human history.
Does anybody know who painted these hands?
Anybody know? It's Michelangelo, and he did so in the ceiling of the 16th, Sistine Chapel.
I would say 16. It's not 16. The Sistine Chapel there in the Vatican.
In fact, if you want to see the broader image of what is literally referred to by artists as the Amal Goday, here it is.
Now, notice, I put a fig leaf.
You say, pastor, that's not necessary. And I say to you, you don't know all the people I pastor. Amen?
I'll get emails. Emails.
What? That kind of painting doesn't belong in a church.
And they're like, it's actually from a church. So, you know, you know, a big church. It's a big church.
Oh, that's a stupid joke. All right. Anyway, you can take off the leaf.
I'm just kidding. No, no, don't do it. All right.
This painting is very famous. It's called the Amal Goday. It's part of a grand scope of murals painted by Michelangelo in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican in Rome.
But this centerpiece is referred to as Amal Goday.
Now, what's fascinating about this piece is you're going to notice the reflective imagery. That's what you're supposed to see.
The divine, the singular one God of the universe creates one creation uniquely, differently than the rest of creation around him.
And when he does, Adam representing all mankind, when he does, he is reflecting the image of the Creator.
This is essential to understand.
This is what the Bible's talking about in Genesis chapter one of verse 27 when it says,
God, at the very beginning of the Bible says God created man in his own image.
The word man there means humankind. It's not male or female. In this word, it just means mankind.
God created mankind. When I say, who created mankind, you say God. Who created mankind?
Okay. Now, how did God create man?
Well, out of the dust of the ground, he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life. Man became a living soul.
And according to this verse, he created man in his image. Amal Goday. In the image of the deity.
In the image of God created him. Now, to be very clear, the author wanted to be very clear.
It's not just men who are created in the image of God.
Both male and female are created in the image of God. He created both of them in the image of God.
Why is that important to understand? Because from the Christian's worldview, humans have value
because they bear the image of God. All of them do.
You say, I agree. All humans just like me have value. That is not a Christian thought.
A Christian thought is all humans throughout history, throughout time and into the future.
All of us are image bearers of God. Therefore, we have value because we are created by the God who wants us to reflect his image.
It's not just an Old Testament principle. It's also a New Testament principle.
And it's spoken of by the apostle Paul in the book of the Colossians, chapter number three.
When Christians were stopped, didn't want to walk with God. When people start running from God,
they were not reflecting the image of God. And so the apostle Paul says,
put on the new man, that is the new you created in Christ, the one who was baptized and buried in Rhodes again.
Put on the new life that is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him.
That is, some humans don't live as if they're living in the image of God.
But Jesus reminds us we need to live as if we reflect his image.
You are valuable because human beings are valuable.
Now this goes absolutely counter to the modern philosophy of materialism.
That you, there is no soul, there's nothing unique about you.
You're just a bag of meat and bones. And so you have no value.
Christian theology is taught forever. There is intrinsic value in created value in you.
But notice this, notice this, theologically, there's not just value in you because you're created in the image of God.
There is value in you because of your purpose.
When the coin was lost, it had no purpose.
Only does the coin have purpose when it is found and placed back in the correct spot.
Now notice I did not say the coin has no value lost.
Yes, a lost coin still has value, but it's not going to be valuable until it can really fit within the purpose of what God created it to be.
So the moment a lost coin in this woman's story is found, it now, its purpose is restored, it's placed right in the right spot,
and now it has incredible extreme value because it's doing exactly what it was created to do.
Let me ask you a question. Are you doing exactly what you were created to do?
One of my jobs as one of your pastors, our job here is to equip you to figure out what you were created to do.
Now generally, all of you are created in the image of God, which means all of us should represent God,
but you individually have a unique purpose. You fit in the coin somewhere.
My question is, have you figured that out?
Are you pursuing that purpose? Are you accomplishing your calling?
Because when you are found and placed in that place, boy, I'll tell you everything changes.
The reason I say this is because I see it all the time.
One of the best parts of my job is that I have an opportunity of finding lost coins.
You know those guys that are out on the beach and they're beep?
Beep, you know what I mean?
So as a Christian, I don't just mean as a pastor, one of my jobs is being a Christian.
As a Christian, I'm looking for lost coins all the time.
I'm trying to find them for Jesus.
And whenever they are found and they restored to their understanding of their image of God,
that they are an image bearer of God, and they're bringing back into their purpose, their whole life changes.
Like, okay, Ches here at this service. All right. So Ches over here.
Ches, how old are you?
Twenty.
Twenty years old.
How many of you remember being twenty years old?
You remember being twenty? You hurt less.
I'm forty-two. I hurt a lot more now, like always.
I hurt myself falling asleep and waking up, you know?
Like, what did you do? Play football?
No, I slept yesterday and when I...
And don't you hate it, by the way, those of you in your forties, whenever somebody in their twenties complains about pain?
Don't you hate that? You're like, don't...
You don't even... shut it, shut, shut your mouth.
And you give them a look.
By the way, I'm in my forties and I complain about pain.
I have friends here that are in their seventies and they look at me the same way I look at the twenty-year-old.
They're like, you're forty, shut your mouth, shut it.
It doesn't get better. You understand?
It's twenty years old.
And Ches is in my young men's mentorship group, which is a Sunday afternoon group that I teach eighteen to twenty-eight year olds on principles of the Bible on how to live a godly life and be a leader in community.
And Ches has been part of that group and he said something in last week's session that just blew my mind and I asked him, can I share that with the church?
And he said, yes, you can.
He opened up by saying, guys, you have no idea about my full story.
But he said, when I was lost, I was absolutely miserable and life was meaningless.
Now you think it yourself, twenty years old, how much trouble could you get into?
And I'll let Ches tell his own story someday, but a lot of trouble.
He said out loud in that group, he said, let me tell you what I tried and he listed all sorts of things.
He said, that didn't satisfy me and this didn't satisfy and this problem and it just made me sicker and worse.
And I was just depressed and I had an emptiness and meaninglessness.
Listen to me, listen.
Meaninglessness.
See, some of you think you're very unique because sometimes you sit around and you're like, does it mean anything?
I feel like it just doesn't mean anything and I'm telling you, when you're lost, that's what you feel.
You say, but I'm not lost.
The coin didn't know it wasn't lost either.
The coin just was lost, had no awareness of it.
And there are people in this room today who feel the meaninglessness of life, the anxiety of not moving forward,
and you're lost, you just don't know that you're lost, and what Christ is doing is he's searching for you.
In fact, this very moment is part of his finding you.
So Ches went on to talk about when everything changed for him, when everything changed for him,
was when his family started bringing him to Jesus Christ.
Let me just stop and ask this. Do you have family right now that you think are hopelessly lost and they'll never come to Jesus Christ?
See, that's the way Ches was.
Hopelessly lost. His words, meaningless.
And his sister, his older sister, Nydia.
Nydia is the young woman who was up here giving announcements earlier.
She works on our staff.
And Nydia started inviting Ches to church.
You got to come, you got to come, you got to come.
Now, she's seven years older than him, and they were both raised in a family that I would just say is not a good family.
According to their own story.
I mean, if I told you the story, by the time you were done, you would be crying.
I know I was when I first heard.
And so she married a wonderful man named Jeffrey, their leader in our church, and Jeffrey and Nydia decided two years ago when Ches was just 17, almost 18.
Ches, we want to adopt you into our family.
But you got to go to church. You got to start understanding more about Jesus.
And over the last two years, Ches has been born again, baptized, changed his life, given his life over to Christ, has meaning and hope and purpose and a future and a future.
Don't you understand what the metaphor of the coin is saying?
Ches has the image of God on him, and he has great purpose, but he has to be in the right place and understand his purpose and his identity before he can be valuable to the rest of the world.
Before he can find meaning in his own life.
And any of you who know Ches, you'll sit with him for 30 minutes, look him in the eye and talk to him, and you're going to walk away saying, this kid could take over the world.
He's incredible, but only if he's fulfilling his purpose with Christ.
Does this make sense? If it does, say amen.
So what is this story telling us?
Number one, we see a historical context.
Number two, we see a theological takeaway.
And then lastly, and we'll leave.
Number three, there's a theological perspective.
Lastly, there's a personal takeaway.
What is the personal takeaway?
Here it is.
It's summarized.
When you see your value, you'll finally be able to help others find their value.
Here's the personal takeaway that I want you to see.
When you finally discover your value to God and your value to the world and your value to yourself and your value to others.
When you finally understand it, that's when you can finally help others see their value and then comes the joy.
There are two questions I want you to wrestle with and then we're going to leave.
Here's question number one.
Question number one is, where would I be if I was still lost?
Think about it.
Some of you, you were a lost coin, but you were lost so long ago, you forget the damnable situation you found yourself in.
Here's my question.
Go back 10 years when you got saved.
Five years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, when you got saved, here's the question.
Where would you be if you were still lost and Jesus never found you?
And maybe for you today's sermon just ends right there and you're able to go home and just reflect on the fact, God, thank you for saving me.
I've been so freaking out about this problem or that problem or this situation or that problem.
Thank you for saving me because if I was still lost, who knows where I would be?
Now again, some of you might say, if I was still lost, I don't ever remember being lost.
Okay, let me be very clear with you.
If you don't remember being lost, it's because you've never been found.
Say that's insulting.
I don't mean to be insulting.
The coin itself had no clue it was lost.
If there's not a time in your life you can look at and say, oh, I remember when Jesus found me and he saved me and I've been born again.
I had a repented and receiving Christ, then the likelihood is you're a lost coin who's hearing about being found and lost, but you've never been found.
You've never been saved.
You've never been born again.
You don't get saved because you go to church.
You don't get saved because grandma likes you.
You're saved when Jesus Christ finds you.
You repent and receive Jesus Christ as your savior and you're born again.
So if you're here today and you're like, oh, I didn't even know I was lost.
Don't be surprised.
Well, some people just don't know.
And you've never been born again.
You need to be saved.
Say, well, how does that happen?
Well, you can come and talk with me after the service, practically.
After the service, when everybody else leaves, come forward and say, look, I need to make sure of my own salvation.
Josh, can we schedule a time to go to coffee and talk about the moment I need, when was I saved?
I need to be saved.
And if you schedule that, we'll talk about it.
So the first question that I want you to wrestle with is reflective.
What if, where would I be if I was lost?
The second question, then we got to go.
Here it is.
Who does he want you to find?
This one's for the Christian.
How many Christians are in the room if you are, say amen.
All right.
So who does he want you to find?
So what do you mean?
Who in your life right now is lost and God is using you to find them?
You say, well, well, Josh, you're misunderstanding the story.
In the story itself, doesn't the story say that God is this woman who is looking for the lost coin?
The lost coin is lost, but the God is the, yeah, but she uses all things at her disposal to find the lost coin.
She uses a lamp and she uses, she gets on her knees and she uses a broom.
My question is, is it possible that God is trying to use you to find a lost coin that is right there?
The lost coin that is right near you.
You say, why would, why would I do that for two reasons?
Number one, the lost coin needs to be found.
But number two, because of the joy that comes when you find a lost coin.
The greatest gift I could bring to you today is this.
Some of you lack joy.
You do.
There's no daily joy, weekly joy in your life, and it's just like a drudgery to get through.
And you're a follower of Jesus Christ.
You're like, where's the joy?
And in this passage, it tells you three stories of people who are filled with joy.
The first one is a man who lost a sheep and he found the sheep and he had joy.
A woman who lost a coin found the coin and she had joy.
And then next week, a man who lost a son and when he found his son had joy.
And I'm telling you as somebody who you know me, you know me, I have joy.
And you say, boy, that must be a personality trait.
No, I have joy because I'm constantly finding lost coins.
And it is so awesome.
It makes all of the problems that I face insignificant because it's so exciting when somebody comes to church and gets saved.
So could it be that you downgrade all the people who are filled with joy?
You downgrade all of these other issues and say, okay, Jesus, who is lost around me that I need to bring to Jesus?
For their soul and for your own joy.
Who is it?
I'm asking the Holy Spirit of God before we leave right now to speak to your heart and tell you who is the person you're supposed to bring to church.
So that they can be found like Chávez.
Let's pray.
Father, I thank you for your word.
This story seen from three different perspectives is so massively big and beautiful.
I pray that we would learn from it deep in our hearts.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.