WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.580 So last week, I told you that I do believe we 00:00:02.580 --> 00:00:05.179 can fit most of our friends in one of a few categories. 00:00:05.400 --> 00:00:07.620 And I'll put those on the screen again. So we've 00:00:07.620 --> 00:00:09.759 got the friends that grew up in church, but maybe 00:00:09.759 --> 00:00:11.660 they've wandered away. They've drifted. They 00:00:11.660 --> 00:00:14.300 didn't leave because they wanted to. Life just 00:00:14.300 --> 00:00:17.100 kind of got busy or they just kind of stopped 00:00:17.100 --> 00:00:19.399 feeling like it was important. And then you've 00:00:19.399 --> 00:00:21.339 got the friends that maybe they grew up in church, 00:00:21.480 --> 00:00:24.620 but they were hurt, whether that be by life or 00:00:24.620 --> 00:00:28.519 by the church. And they chose to walk away. You've 00:00:28.519 --> 00:00:30.739 also got the friends that believe that they found 00:00:30.739 --> 00:00:32.659 a better way to live. So maybe that's another 00:00:32.659 --> 00:00:35.380 religious leaning or maybe they've just decided 00:00:35.380 --> 00:00:38.439 to give up on religion because it's not the ideal 00:00:38.439 --> 00:00:40.960 way to live. And so they've walked away for that 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:44.119 reason. Then you've got the ones that they claim 00:00:44.119 --> 00:00:46.359 Christ. They call themselves Christians, but 00:00:46.359 --> 00:00:48.700 they're really trusting more in their own goodness 00:00:48.700 --> 00:00:50.939 than they are in Jesus. They're trusting more 00:00:50.939 --> 00:00:53.119 in their own self -righteousness than they are 00:00:53.119 --> 00:00:55.539 the righteousness of God. I think that's where 00:00:55.539 --> 00:00:58.859 probably a majority fit. And then there are the 00:00:58.859 --> 00:01:01.820 friends that are genuine followers of Jesus. 00:01:02.420 --> 00:01:05.439 They genuinely want to be like Christ. They are 00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:08.859 trying to be disciples. And so they're following 00:01:08.859 --> 00:01:11.620 him. They're still flawed. They're still human, 00:01:11.739 --> 00:01:15.430 but they are faithfully following. So we began 00:01:15.430 --> 00:01:17.849 last week with the one who has wandered. We talked 00:01:17.849 --> 00:01:20.109 about the sheep that, you know, a sheep doesn't 00:01:20.109 --> 00:01:22.629 really choose to stray from the flock. It just 00:01:22.629 --> 00:01:26.290 kind of finds itself gone. As one friend put 00:01:26.290 --> 00:01:29.310 it, a preacher, he said, the sheep nibbled its 00:01:29.310 --> 00:01:32.329 way into being lost. It kind of nibbled at some 00:01:32.329 --> 00:01:34.290 grass here and nibbled at some grass there. And 00:01:34.290 --> 00:01:37.640 before it knew it, it was gone. It sounds familiar, 00:01:37.799 --> 00:01:40.140 right? We nibble in some things here and we kind 00:01:40.140 --> 00:01:42.019 of dabble in that. And next thing you know, we 00:01:42.019 --> 00:01:44.319 haven't been to church in a year. And now we're 00:01:44.319 --> 00:01:46.079 not talking to God as much because we're kind 00:01:46.079 --> 00:01:48.859 of distracted and we find ourselves drifted away. 00:01:50.120 --> 00:01:52.819 I actually think that's where a lot of our friends 00:01:52.819 --> 00:01:56.420 who grow up with a faith background fit. But 00:01:56.420 --> 00:02:00.420 today I want us to go into the next chapter in 00:02:00.420 --> 00:02:03.299 Luke 15, verses 8 through 10. And I think this 00:02:03.299 --> 00:02:06.140 is where another big chunk of our friends fit. 00:02:06.599 --> 00:02:09.620 And this is a passage that I feel is often overlooked. 00:02:09.659 --> 00:02:12.460 It's just three verses. And in these three verses, 00:02:12.500 --> 00:02:14.879 it's kind of a story that Jesus tells that we 00:02:14.879 --> 00:02:19.360 don't necessarily focus on as much. I heard a 00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:21.599 friend put it. This is the lost parable among 00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:25.610 the parables. So it is the lost coin. This is 00:02:25.610 --> 00:02:28.650 three verses that my friend Buddy, he delivered 00:02:28.650 --> 00:02:31.050 a keynote on this at a lectureship last year. 00:02:31.250 --> 00:02:34.150 And he made me realize just how much depth is 00:02:34.150 --> 00:02:36.569 in these three verses that we just kind of gloss 00:02:36.569 --> 00:02:37.889 over. So this morning, we're going to have an 00:02:37.889 --> 00:02:40.729 entire sermon on just three verses. And so that 00:02:40.729 --> 00:02:44.050 must mean it's going to be short, right? No, 00:02:44.250 --> 00:02:47.550 wrong. Luke 15, verses 8 through 10. Let's read 00:02:47.550 --> 00:02:50.780 it together. Or what woman having 10 silver coins, 00:02:50.860 --> 00:02:53.719 if she loses one coin, doesn't light a lamp and 00:02:53.719 --> 00:02:55.860 sweep the house and seek diligently until she 00:02:55.860 --> 00:02:58.280 finds it. And when she's found it, she calls 00:02:58.280 --> 00:03:00.860 together her friends and neighbors saying, rejoice 00:03:00.860 --> 00:03:04.400 with me. For I found the coin that I had lost. 00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:08.219 Just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels 00:03:08.219 --> 00:03:11.900 of God over one sinner who repents. Now, to give 00:03:11.900 --> 00:03:13.419 some backstory here in case you weren't here 00:03:13.419 --> 00:03:15.740 last week or you've never read the Gospels before, 00:03:15.860 --> 00:03:18.960 Jesus here in Luke 15 is telling these stories 00:03:18.960 --> 00:03:21.599 in response to some religious leaders that have 00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:24.300 been complaining about his teachings and who 00:03:24.300 --> 00:03:26.780 he hangs out with. Because they're saying this 00:03:26.780 --> 00:03:29.680 guy cannot be the Messiah. He hangs out with 00:03:29.680 --> 00:03:32.719 sinners. He eats with tax collectors. No holy 00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:35.520 man would hang out with these bad people. That's 00:03:35.520 --> 00:03:37.580 what they're saying about Jesus. The lost sheep 00:03:37.580 --> 00:03:40.180 story makes sense because people wander. They 00:03:40.180 --> 00:03:43.569 get lost. But what about a coin? What about a 00:03:43.569 --> 00:03:45.849 coin? What does a coin do to get lost? Does a 00:03:45.849 --> 00:03:48.530 coin grow feet and walk away? Is it like in Toy 00:03:48.530 --> 00:03:51.189 Story where when the people are looking, the 00:03:51.189 --> 00:03:52.909 toys are laying down on the ground and they're 00:03:52.909 --> 00:03:55.050 just kind of inanimate? But when people walk 00:03:55.050 --> 00:03:57.349 away, now the toys can run around and they can 00:03:57.349 --> 00:04:02.310 play. Is that what the coin does? Or could it 00:04:02.310 --> 00:04:06.590 be that a coin doesn't get lost by someone or 00:04:06.590 --> 00:04:08.789 it doesn't get lost on its own, but instead it's 00:04:08.789 --> 00:04:11.789 lost by someone else? The coin doesn't walk away. 00:04:11.930 --> 00:04:14.770 The coin doesn't run away. It doesn't even wander 00:04:14.770 --> 00:04:19.910 away. The coin is usually dropped or maybe it's 00:04:19.910 --> 00:04:22.829 thrown away. When I was a kid, please don't judge 00:04:22.829 --> 00:04:25.509 me or call the police. When I was a kid, I used 00:04:25.509 --> 00:04:28.329 to throw change away. Like my grandma would send 00:04:28.329 --> 00:04:30.250 me to Winn -Dixie. I'd get the stuff that I was 00:04:30.250 --> 00:04:32.930 supposed to buy. She'd give me $5. It was $3. 00:04:32.990 --> 00:04:35.589 So I had, you know, let's say it's $3 .20. So 00:04:35.589 --> 00:04:40.060 I had $1 .80 left. I'd throw the 80 cents away 00:04:40.060 --> 00:04:42.660 because I don't need those coins. Right. And 00:04:42.660 --> 00:04:46.180 I'd keep the dollar. Well, I learned later that 00:04:46.180 --> 00:04:48.740 throwing money away is actually illegal. So don't 00:04:48.740 --> 00:04:50.779 throw coins away. But it's also irresponsible 00:04:50.779 --> 00:04:53.839 because 80 cents can go a long way. Right. So 00:04:53.839 --> 00:04:56.300 I would throw these coins away. A coin doesn't 00:04:56.300 --> 00:04:59.180 just walk away. It gets lost by someone else. 00:04:59.660 --> 00:05:03.600 And so what Jesus what I want us to consider 00:05:03.600 --> 00:05:08.029 this morning is that. Jesus is not talking about 00:05:08.029 --> 00:05:11.689 someone getting lost on their own. But when he's 00:05:11.689 --> 00:05:15.050 talking about this coin, he's saying she lost 00:05:15.050 --> 00:05:19.110 her coin. She set the coin down somewhere and 00:05:19.110 --> 00:05:23.899 it got lost. She dropped it. And something I 00:05:23.899 --> 00:05:25.920 didn't realize until I listened to a sermon on 00:05:25.920 --> 00:05:29.360 this was that in that culture, in their homes, 00:05:29.379 --> 00:05:31.500 the floors were made of dirt and they would maybe 00:05:31.500 --> 00:05:33.980 have some hay on the ground as like a carpet, 00:05:34.180 --> 00:05:37.000 if you will. And so can you imagine you drop 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:40.199 this little silver coin on the ground in this 00:05:40.199 --> 00:05:43.420 hay and now you can't find it because it's in 00:05:43.420 --> 00:05:47.600 the hay. So the woman, she was irresponsible 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:50.639 with her coin. Kind of like me throwing my change 00:05:50.639 --> 00:05:53.240 away. The woman is the one who mishandled something 00:05:53.240 --> 00:05:56.519 valuable. The truth is there are many people 00:05:56.519 --> 00:05:58.420 out there and there may be some in this room. 00:05:58.459 --> 00:06:00.319 And I want to be very aware of that, that there 00:06:00.319 --> 00:06:02.100 may be people in this room, but there are definitely 00:06:02.100 --> 00:06:04.639 people outside of it who have been lost because 00:06:04.639 --> 00:06:09.060 of someone else's actions. There are people that 00:06:09.060 --> 00:06:12.600 have been lost because someone else mishandled 00:06:12.600 --> 00:06:15.480 them. And they are valuable, as we talked about 00:06:15.480 --> 00:06:19.339 last week. To say someone is lost is not an insult. 00:06:19.379 --> 00:06:22.120 It is not judgmental. To say someone is lost 00:06:22.120 --> 00:06:24.980 is to say they have value and we need to find 00:06:24.980 --> 00:06:29.680 them. And God wants them to be found. So this 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:31.279 morning, I want to put the church in the shoes 00:06:31.279 --> 00:06:35.160 of the woman. I want you to consider that there 00:06:35.160 --> 00:06:37.079 are many people who have been lost because of 00:06:37.079 --> 00:06:39.819 something the church did or maybe the church 00:06:39.819 --> 00:06:42.639 failed to do. There are many people who have 00:06:42.639 --> 00:06:46.709 been lost Things people said in the church, things 00:06:46.709 --> 00:06:49.050 people did in the church. We live in a time where 00:06:49.050 --> 00:06:51.730 church hurt is a major topic of discussion. I 00:06:51.730 --> 00:06:54.029 mean, I think I scroll past a video of someone 00:06:54.029 --> 00:06:56.149 on a podcast talking about why they don't go 00:06:56.149 --> 00:06:58.430 to church anymore because the church hurt them. 00:06:59.089 --> 00:07:01.689 That's a real thing. We hear so much about people 00:07:01.689 --> 00:07:04.110 deconstructing their faith and often they are 00:07:04.110 --> 00:07:07.329 deconstructing not because they disbelieve God. 00:07:07.470 --> 00:07:09.649 It's not because they don't believe in the Bible, 00:07:09.709 --> 00:07:12.689 but it's because they stop believing in the church. 00:07:14.439 --> 00:07:17.600 So when we talk about this, we've got to be very 00:07:17.600 --> 00:07:19.699 aware that this is a real thing that happens 00:07:19.699 --> 00:07:22.079 and we can't look at it as, oh, well, that's 00:07:22.079 --> 00:07:24.519 just too bad. We've got to look at it as these 00:07:24.519 --> 00:07:28.259 people have value and we need to find them and 00:07:28.259 --> 00:07:31.500 we need to bring them home. And as we talk about 00:07:31.500 --> 00:07:34.720 this, I do think statistics are helpful. I'm 00:07:34.720 --> 00:07:36.660 not a math person, but I do like statistics. 00:07:36.839 --> 00:07:39.060 They're fun to look at. Sometimes they can be 00:07:39.060 --> 00:07:40.980 kind of painful to look at. And that's what these 00:07:40.980 --> 00:07:42.779 statistics are. So bear with me this morning. 00:07:43.560 --> 00:07:46.139 According to the Center for Church Renewal in 00:07:46.139 --> 00:07:50.160 a 2023 reporting, 40 million adults have stopped 00:07:50.160 --> 00:07:53.560 attending church over the last 25 years. So that 00:07:53.560 --> 00:07:58.259 would be, let's say, since the year 2000. Well, 00:07:58.339 --> 00:08:00.240 at this point, it was 2023. So since the year 00:08:00.240 --> 00:08:03.120 1998, which is the year I was born, 40 million 00:08:03.120 --> 00:08:06.500 people stopped attending church. That's a lot 00:08:06.500 --> 00:08:08.759 of people. I don't know if that sounds like a 00:08:08.759 --> 00:08:10.879 lot to you, but that sounds like a lot of people. 00:08:12.120 --> 00:08:14.980 Essentially, one in seven who used to attend 00:08:14.980 --> 00:08:19.699 church no longer do. So in this room, that would 00:08:19.699 --> 00:08:22.839 mean if you've got seven people on a row, one 00:08:22.839 --> 00:08:25.779 of those people in the last 25 years is likely 00:08:25.779 --> 00:08:28.939 to have walked away. That's a lot of people. 00:08:29.300 --> 00:08:31.620 In that same report, they state that for the 00:08:31.620 --> 00:08:36.360 first time in 80 years, more adults do not attend 00:08:36.360 --> 00:08:40.389 church than those that do. Now, it's important 00:08:40.389 --> 00:08:44.330 to note that 97 % of ex -evangelicals, so that's 00:08:44.330 --> 00:08:47.649 people that left the church, ex -evangelicals, 00:08:47.649 --> 00:08:50.529 right? So 97 % of them still believe in God. 00:08:50.970 --> 00:08:55.070 So of those 40 million people, 90 % or 97 % still 00:08:55.070 --> 00:08:57.450 believe in God. So we like to say, well, they 00:08:57.450 --> 00:08:59.370 left the church. They left God. No, no, no. They 00:08:59.370 --> 00:09:02.220 did not leave God. They left. The church. They 00:09:02.220 --> 00:09:04.080 may be left Christianity. They may be left the 00:09:04.080 --> 00:09:06.279 faith, but they still believe in a higher power 00:09:06.279 --> 00:09:09.259 that calls them to moral good. So 97 percent 00:09:09.259 --> 00:09:11.580 of people still believe in God. That's according 00:09:11.580 --> 00:09:14.679 to the book, The Great Dechurching. And in this 00:09:14.679 --> 00:09:17.559 book, they list a few reasons for why these people 00:09:17.559 --> 00:09:19.919 left. So why the 40 million left? And we'll look 00:09:19.919 --> 00:09:22.700 at two of those reasons today. The first one 00:09:22.700 --> 00:09:24.940 is what we talked about last week. A majority 00:09:24.940 --> 00:09:27.440 of these people, they just wandered. They just 00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:29.759 kind of drifted away. Three quarters of them 00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:32.840 would say or three quarters of the 40 million 00:09:32.840 --> 00:09:35.639 people left because they moved. They got married. 00:09:35.779 --> 00:09:38.879 They had kids. They got new jobs, etc. Essentially, 00:09:38.919 --> 00:09:42.100 they claim that it became inconvenient for them 00:09:42.100 --> 00:09:44.779 to be a part of a church. And you know that feeling, 00:09:44.840 --> 00:09:46.559 right? You wake up on a Sunday morning at eight 00:09:46.559 --> 00:09:48.200 o 'clock and you're like, man, do I really want 00:09:48.200 --> 00:09:49.919 to rush to get out of the house so I can be at 00:09:49.919 --> 00:09:52.159 church at 930? Or do I want to roll back over 00:09:52.159 --> 00:09:55.629 and get another hour of sleep? Or I've worked 00:09:55.629 --> 00:09:58.090 really long and it's been a stressful week, so 00:09:58.090 --> 00:10:00.029 do I really want to take the time to go to Wednesday 00:10:00.029 --> 00:10:02.730 night Bible study? You get the picture there. 00:10:03.350 --> 00:10:05.330 The second reason is the one we're talking about 00:10:05.330 --> 00:10:09.450 this morning. Ten million stopped going to church 00:10:09.450 --> 00:10:10.970 or stopped being a part of a faith community 00:10:10.970 --> 00:10:15.429 because of church hurt. They gave it up because 00:10:15.429 --> 00:10:18.730 someone hurt them. A majority of those who have 00:10:18.730 --> 00:10:20.929 left the church claim they left because, and 00:10:20.929 --> 00:10:23.289 this is a quote, the church wasn't practicing. 00:10:24.789 --> 00:10:27.809 You hear the church talk about love and we talk 00:10:27.809 --> 00:10:29.970 about compassion. We talk about grace. We talk 00:10:29.970 --> 00:10:32.169 about kindness. We talk about peace. But then 00:10:32.169 --> 00:10:34.269 here we are. We're causing problems. We're stirring 00:10:34.269 --> 00:10:36.629 the pot. We're causing arguments and fighting 00:10:36.629 --> 00:10:38.309 and splitting and hurting. I mean, there are 00:10:38.309 --> 00:10:40.730 some serious things. And what I want to make 00:10:40.730 --> 00:10:43.669 sure I mentioned this morning is there are some 00:10:43.669 --> 00:10:47.190 serious cases of abuse that need to be addressed. 00:10:48.169 --> 00:10:51.070 So you have these issues ranging from overt legalism 00:10:51.070 --> 00:10:53.789 to hypocrisy and in some cases abuse that have 00:10:53.789 --> 00:10:57.750 caused so many people to leave. And according 00:10:57.750 --> 00:11:00.350 to the Barna Research Group, they did a report 00:11:00.350 --> 00:11:03.870 in 2010 that said 37 % of those who left church, 00:11:04.049 --> 00:11:06.909 they avoid it as in they will not try. They will 00:11:06.909 --> 00:11:09.090 not walk back in the doors of a church. Maybe 00:11:09.090 --> 00:11:11.570 they think about it, but they say, no, not today 00:11:11.570 --> 00:11:14.789 because of negative past experiences in churches 00:11:14.789 --> 00:11:19.029 or with church people. Now, that's relevant because 00:11:19.029 --> 00:11:21.850 while people being lost is often a consequence 00:11:21.850 --> 00:11:24.450 of their own choices, I don't want it to sound 00:11:24.450 --> 00:11:27.370 like people don't have autonomy in this. If I 00:11:27.370 --> 00:11:29.850 walk away from the church, I chose to do that. 00:11:30.230 --> 00:11:33.690 But my choices are often affected by outside 00:11:33.690 --> 00:11:36.409 circumstances. And so when someone chooses to 00:11:36.409 --> 00:11:38.309 walk away, we've got to ask the question, what 00:11:38.309 --> 00:11:41.330 led them to do that? And this morning we're talking 00:11:41.330 --> 00:11:45.279 about. What may be the cause of some of our brothers 00:11:45.279 --> 00:11:49.399 and sisters walking away? I'm not saying that 00:11:49.399 --> 00:11:52.620 it's right. I'm not saying it's acceptable. In 00:11:52.620 --> 00:11:54.679 fact, if I was talking to a person that left 00:11:54.679 --> 00:11:57.139 the church because of some traumatic experiences 00:11:57.139 --> 00:12:00.080 or because of some discrepancies, I would tell 00:12:00.080 --> 00:12:03.519 that person that they need to remember that people 00:12:03.519 --> 00:12:06.860 hurt people. God never does. People mess up a 00:12:06.860 --> 00:12:09.379 really good thing sometimes, but God does not. 00:12:09.710 --> 00:12:12.850 So we can give up on a certain group of people, 00:12:12.929 --> 00:12:15.629 but we do not give up on God and his family. 00:12:16.190 --> 00:12:18.690 But I'm also aware that that's a lot easier said 00:12:18.690 --> 00:12:21.210 than done. I'm aware that that's not an easy 00:12:21.210 --> 00:12:24.049 thing when you've been through that. And I can 00:12:24.049 --> 00:12:26.289 honestly say I've not been hurt by the church. 00:12:26.330 --> 00:12:28.409 My experience with the church is nothing but 00:12:28.409 --> 00:12:31.169 good. In fact, I would say I would not be the 00:12:31.169 --> 00:12:33.450 man I am. I would go as far as say I would probably 00:12:33.450 --> 00:12:36.070 be in jail right now had it not been for the 00:12:36.070 --> 00:12:38.940 church. And so my experience with the church 00:12:38.940 --> 00:12:41.279 is good. But I'm also aware that someone in this 00:12:41.279 --> 00:12:43.700 room and a lot of people out there cannot say 00:12:43.700 --> 00:12:47.039 the same. And I want to be very cautious of that. 00:12:47.840 --> 00:12:50.139 In ministry, I've dealt with a lot of instances 00:12:50.139 --> 00:12:53.139 of church hurt. In fact, one of my best friends, 00:12:53.259 --> 00:12:56.419 he was on pace to be an amazing minister. He's 00:12:56.419 --> 00:12:59.240 a great speaker. He's great at dealing with kids. 00:12:59.320 --> 00:13:01.000 He was going to be a youth minister. He's great 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:03.700 at dealing with people. He's very, very intelligent. 00:13:03.759 --> 00:13:06.019 I mean, one of the top in his class. This guy 00:13:06.019 --> 00:13:08.139 was going to be an awesome minister one day. 00:13:08.679 --> 00:13:11.620 But because of the experiences he had with a 00:13:11.620 --> 00:13:13.399 church that he interned with while he was in 00:13:13.399 --> 00:13:17.740 college, he barely goes to church anymore. He 00:13:17.740 --> 00:13:21.000 barely sets foot in a church to this day because 00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:23.659 of the negative experiences he had with a church. 00:13:24.200 --> 00:13:26.899 Like I said, this is a guy who knew his Bible. 00:13:27.139 --> 00:13:29.519 This is a guy that was on fire for God, was on 00:13:29.519 --> 00:13:32.159 fire for reaching people with the gospel. But 00:13:32.159 --> 00:13:34.120 because of some negative experiences, he can't 00:13:34.120 --> 00:13:39.850 go. I mean, he can, but he chooses not to. People 00:13:39.850 --> 00:13:43.370 hurt people. When that happens in the church, 00:13:43.470 --> 00:13:45.769 it can deeply wound something that God designed 00:13:45.769 --> 00:13:48.769 to give life because when someone we love or 00:13:48.769 --> 00:13:50.970 when an institution that we love, something we 00:13:50.970 --> 00:13:54.129 value very highly hurts us, it becomes really 00:13:54.129 --> 00:13:57.629 hard to trust them again. Look, I've been a Saints 00:13:57.629 --> 00:14:00.549 fan my whole life. I love the New Orleans Saints, 00:14:00.690 --> 00:14:02.710 but I got to tell you, the last couple of years, 00:14:02.750 --> 00:14:05.480 they have stunk at football. They have stunk 00:14:05.480 --> 00:14:08.460 at football. And I mean, honestly, I'm at the 00:14:08.460 --> 00:14:10.220 point where I would just stop expecting good 00:14:10.220 --> 00:14:12.759 from them. I just don't expect them to be good 00:14:12.759 --> 00:14:15.940 anymore because they've hurt me. An institution 00:14:15.940 --> 00:14:18.799 that I've loved my whole life has hurt me so 00:14:18.799 --> 00:14:20.700 much in the last couple of years that I just 00:14:20.700 --> 00:14:24.460 don't trust them anymore. Now think about how 00:14:24.460 --> 00:14:27.620 much you love the church. Because I know some 00:14:27.620 --> 00:14:30.659 of us really love the church. Like we want to 00:14:30.659 --> 00:14:32.399 be with the church as often as the doors are 00:14:32.399 --> 00:14:35.220 open. We want to be here in every activity, every 00:14:35.220 --> 00:14:37.340 event, every fellowship gathering we can be. 00:14:37.399 --> 00:14:38.840 We want to be a part of all the Bible studies 00:14:38.840 --> 00:14:41.639 because we love the church. Now what happens 00:14:41.639 --> 00:14:44.759 when the church you love so much hurts you? That's 00:14:44.759 --> 00:14:48.860 a deep cut. And so that's hard to heal. It's 00:14:48.860 --> 00:14:52.529 hard to come back from. And so I want to ask 00:14:52.529 --> 00:14:55.169 this question now that we've identified that 00:14:55.169 --> 00:14:58.009 there are some people that are deeply hurt by 00:14:58.009 --> 00:15:02.149 the church. What should our response be when 00:15:02.149 --> 00:15:06.850 we know of people who they didn't get lost on 00:15:06.850 --> 00:15:10.549 their own? They didn't just wander off, but they 00:15:10.549 --> 00:15:15.330 got lost by the church. They got dropped like 00:15:15.330 --> 00:15:18.740 a coin. What should our response be? Well, we 00:15:18.740 --> 00:15:20.799 see what the woman's response was in verse eight. 00:15:21.120 --> 00:15:25.059 She lights a lamp. She sweeps the house. She 00:15:25.059 --> 00:15:31.179 seeks diligently until she finds it. There's 00:15:31.179 --> 00:15:34.620 some powerful words. She lights a lamp. She she 00:15:34.620 --> 00:15:37.360 brings light into the darkness. She exposes all 00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:40.240 of the things in the house. So you would imagine 00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:42.000 this dark house because they didn't have light. 00:15:42.399 --> 00:15:45.259 It would be a lamp or a candle. So she lights 00:15:45.259 --> 00:15:49.179 this lamp and now she can see. In her home. And 00:15:49.179 --> 00:15:51.580 she's going every nook and cranny. She's looking 00:15:51.580 --> 00:15:53.639 under the furniture. She's looking in all the 00:15:53.639 --> 00:15:55.539 corners. She's looking behind the cabinets. She's 00:15:55.539 --> 00:15:57.919 looking everywhere. Where she might not have 00:15:57.919 --> 00:15:59.659 been able to see before. Because it was dark. 00:15:59.759 --> 00:16:02.340 And now she can see it. And can you imagine along 00:16:02.340 --> 00:16:05.059 the way. She probably saw some imperfections 00:16:05.059 --> 00:16:07.399 in her home. That she didn't see before. She 00:16:07.399 --> 00:16:09.519 probably saw some cracks in the foundation. That 00:16:09.519 --> 00:16:11.679 she didn't see before. She's now seeing the holes 00:16:11.679 --> 00:16:13.759 in the floor. That she didn't see before. But 00:16:13.759 --> 00:16:16.639 because she lit the lamp. She can expose. the 00:16:16.639 --> 00:16:20.960 mistakes. She can expose the flaws. Church, what 00:16:20.960 --> 00:16:23.360 do we have to do? We've got to light a lamp. 00:16:23.580 --> 00:16:26.279 We've got to expose some flaws and see where 00:16:26.279 --> 00:16:29.480 are some areas we need to look to improve. She 00:16:29.480 --> 00:16:32.879 sweeps the house. She seeks diligently. I mentioned 00:16:32.879 --> 00:16:35.679 last week how we lost a car key. Well, we lost 00:16:35.679 --> 00:16:38.779 two. I'm saying we. Y 'all notice who's here 00:16:38.779 --> 00:16:44.299 this week. We lost a car key. Two in a matter 00:16:44.299 --> 00:16:48.740 of months, by the way. But we searched. We searched 00:16:48.740 --> 00:16:51.759 all over. We dug through trash. We dug through 00:16:51.759 --> 00:16:53.779 the dirty laundry. We looked all over the house, 00:16:53.820 --> 00:16:55.840 under the couch, in the cushions, which if you've 00:16:55.840 --> 00:16:58.139 got kids and you've ever looked under couch cushions, 00:16:58.139 --> 00:17:00.720 do yourself a favor. Don't. It's gross. So we 00:17:00.720 --> 00:17:03.340 looked everywhere. We could not find this key, 00:17:03.399 --> 00:17:07.380 but we kept searching because of the value that 00:17:07.380 --> 00:17:10.440 that key had. And that's what we're looking at 00:17:10.440 --> 00:17:13.259 here in Luke 15. We're looking at a woman that 00:17:13.259 --> 00:17:16.019 sees this valuable item. This silver coin would 00:17:16.019 --> 00:17:18.640 have been worth about a day's wages. And if you've 00:17:18.640 --> 00:17:20.940 ever worked for eight hours or for some of you, 00:17:20.960 --> 00:17:23.220 you've worked longer. You know how valuable that 00:17:23.220 --> 00:17:26.440 day was worth to you. And so she is searching 00:17:26.440 --> 00:17:30.420 for this day's wage because she knows the value 00:17:30.420 --> 00:17:35.259 that it has. Rather than just saying, well, it's 00:17:35.259 --> 00:17:38.779 lost. Guess we won't find it today. She doesn't 00:17:38.779 --> 00:17:41.140 just say, well, I'll never find it. She doesn't 00:17:41.140 --> 00:17:43.140 say, well, I guess I'll just never be able to 00:17:43.140 --> 00:17:45.619 get to it. There's no way I could search this 00:17:45.619 --> 00:17:47.539 whole house. There's no way I could look through 00:17:47.539 --> 00:17:49.700 all this hay on the floor. There's no point. 00:17:50.059 --> 00:17:53.599 She doesn't say that. She searches. And I love 00:17:53.599 --> 00:17:57.660 what Jesus says where he says, she seeks diligently 00:17:57.660 --> 00:18:02.700 until she finds it. She doesn't give up. We gave 00:18:02.700 --> 00:18:06.119 up on that car key because I lost my patience. 00:18:06.200 --> 00:18:08.349 I was like, all right, it's gone. The truth is 00:18:08.349 --> 00:18:10.690 it probably got lost in a McDonald's bag and 00:18:10.690 --> 00:18:15.130 tossed in the trash. But we gave up. But this 00:18:15.130 --> 00:18:19.390 woman doesn't give up. She keeps searching. The 00:18:19.390 --> 00:18:21.230 religious leaders of the time, they had an issue 00:18:21.230 --> 00:18:24.009 with Jesus associating with sinners. These people 00:18:24.009 --> 00:18:27.009 that they felt were gone. The people that they 00:18:27.009 --> 00:18:29.450 felt were too far off to fix. The people that 00:18:29.450 --> 00:18:31.730 they felt were not worth saving. They had an 00:18:31.730 --> 00:18:33.849 issue with Jesus associating with these people 00:18:33.849 --> 00:18:36.390 because they couldn't imagine a God like Jesus 00:18:36.390 --> 00:18:39.329 who would dare offer relationship to sinners. 00:18:39.589 --> 00:18:42.630 They couldn't imagine that God would actually 00:18:42.630 --> 00:18:45.289 come to earth and instead of being this royal 00:18:45.289 --> 00:18:47.230 king that they were expecting that would sit 00:18:47.230 --> 00:18:49.450 on a throne that would reign over Israel, they 00:18:49.450 --> 00:18:51.349 couldn't imagine that God being the God that 00:18:51.349 --> 00:18:53.250 would get down in the weeds with the tax collectors 00:18:53.250 --> 00:18:55.829 and sit at a table with the sinful people. would 00:18:55.829 --> 00:18:58.089 sit at a well with an adulterous woman who had 00:18:58.089 --> 00:19:00.250 had five marriages and was living with somebody 00:19:00.250 --> 00:19:02.049 that wasn't her husband. They couldn't imagine 00:19:02.049 --> 00:19:04.609 this God being someone who would hug lepers. 00:19:04.670 --> 00:19:07.549 They could not imagine a God like Jesus. But 00:19:07.549 --> 00:19:09.630 Jesus says, I came for the sinners and I'm going 00:19:09.630 --> 00:19:11.990 to seek every single one of them out until they 00:19:11.990 --> 00:19:17.849 come home. And they had an issue with that. And 00:19:17.849 --> 00:19:19.970 can you imagine the issue they had when Jesus 00:19:19.970 --> 00:19:22.170 said, I don't just associate with the sinners. 00:19:22.230 --> 00:19:25.059 I go out of my way to find them. I want you to 00:19:25.059 --> 00:19:27.200 think about the parable or not the parable. This 00:19:27.200 --> 00:19:29.839 is a real encounter that Jesus had with the Samaritan 00:19:29.839 --> 00:19:33.220 woman at the well. You know, it said Jesus was 00:19:33.220 --> 00:19:36.700 traveling to Galilee and he had to go through 00:19:36.700 --> 00:19:39.819 Samaria. Well, the truth is that most Israelites 00:19:39.819 --> 00:19:42.980 would go around Samaria because the Jews and 00:19:42.980 --> 00:19:44.619 the Samaritans, they didn't get along. They had 00:19:44.619 --> 00:19:47.319 some issues. And so they didn't travel through 00:19:47.319 --> 00:19:49.980 Samaria because they were too good for Samaria. 00:19:50.039 --> 00:19:54.099 So they'd go around. Well, it's pretty. I'd say 00:19:54.099 --> 00:19:57.700 that Jesus goes through Samaria and he just so 00:19:57.700 --> 00:20:00.359 happens to sit down at a well at a weird time 00:20:00.359 --> 00:20:03.180 of day where a woman who would not normally in 00:20:03.180 --> 00:20:05.720 that context be coming to a well, but she comes 00:20:05.720 --> 00:20:08.200 to the well at that time of day. Jesus is sitting 00:20:08.200 --> 00:20:11.500 there. He talks to this woman. He finds out she's 00:20:11.500 --> 00:20:15.019 got a pretty checkered past. And what he tells 00:20:15.019 --> 00:20:17.259 her is the same thing he tells all of us. And 00:20:17.259 --> 00:20:20.099 that is that nobody is too far gone for my God 00:20:20.099 --> 00:20:23.900 to save. Nobody is too far gone for my God to 00:20:23.900 --> 00:20:28.900 give life to. He doesn't just associate with 00:20:28.900 --> 00:20:31.680 sinners. He goes out of his way to be with them. 00:20:33.319 --> 00:20:35.380 And as you'll hear me say many times in this 00:20:35.380 --> 00:20:37.980 series, and hopefully as many times as I can 00:20:37.980 --> 00:20:40.859 in this pulpit, if we are disciples of Jesus, 00:20:40.940 --> 00:20:43.799 if we're going to be like. Christ, we must think 00:20:43.799 --> 00:20:46.680 and act like Jesus. So if Jesus goes out of his 00:20:46.680 --> 00:20:49.359 way to bring the gospel, to bring hope, to bring 00:20:49.359 --> 00:20:52.539 life to the sinner, what do I need to do? Go 00:20:52.539 --> 00:20:54.920 out of my way to bring the gospel, to bring life, 00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:58.140 to bring hope to the sinner. And I can't do that 00:20:58.140 --> 00:21:00.539 if I'm too consumed with me. I can't do that 00:21:00.539 --> 00:21:02.779 if I'm too consumed with these seats. I can't 00:21:02.779 --> 00:21:05.660 do that if I'm too consumed with my wife. I've 00:21:05.660 --> 00:21:09.779 got to be concerned with their life too. So how 00:21:09.779 --> 00:21:12.480 does Jesus act? How does he think? Well, he says 00:21:12.480 --> 00:21:16.140 it right here in these three verses. When someone 00:21:16.140 --> 00:21:21.380 I value is lost, I seek diligently until I find 00:21:21.380 --> 00:21:24.359 them. And that's what we've been called to do. 00:21:24.440 --> 00:21:26.579 And for the ones that have been lost because 00:21:26.579 --> 00:21:28.920 of the church, we've got to take ownership of 00:21:28.920 --> 00:21:31.960 our failure. Now, this is not us saying we hurt 00:21:31.960 --> 00:21:34.440 them. It's not us saying we've done wrong by 00:21:34.440 --> 00:21:36.440 them. In fact, as long as I've been here, it 00:21:36.440 --> 00:21:38.740 feels like there is no way possible that this 00:21:38.740 --> 00:21:40.759 church could ever hurt anybody because y 'all 00:21:40.759 --> 00:21:43.549 are about the nicest people I've ever met. But 00:21:43.549 --> 00:21:45.210 I know for a fact there are some churches in 00:21:45.210 --> 00:21:46.930 this community that have hurt people. And there 00:21:46.930 --> 00:21:48.549 are people sitting in restaurants this morning 00:21:48.549 --> 00:21:50.289 eating breakfast. There are people sitting at 00:21:50.289 --> 00:21:52.450 their home right now because somebody in this 00:21:52.450 --> 00:21:55.769 town that claimed to be a follower of Jesus hurt 00:21:55.769 --> 00:21:57.849 them and now they're done with the church. I'm 00:21:57.849 --> 00:22:00.210 going to say this. We better go find them and 00:22:00.210 --> 00:22:01.930 tell them, hey, we got a group of nice people 00:22:01.930 --> 00:22:05.509 here that love and live like Jesus. Because that's 00:22:05.509 --> 00:22:10.029 what Jesus did. So we take ownership of the failure 00:22:10.029 --> 00:22:13.519 that some. maybe had, and then we go find the 00:22:13.519 --> 00:22:16.359 loss. We've got to move past this, and I hear 00:22:16.359 --> 00:22:18.680 it so often, this, well, they just need to get 00:22:18.680 --> 00:22:21.720 over it mindset. I'm as big of a you need to 00:22:21.720 --> 00:22:24.299 get over it person as there is. When my boys 00:22:24.299 --> 00:22:26.859 get hurt, it is not, oh, buddy, are you okay? 00:22:26.960 --> 00:22:29.259 It's, come on, you're all right. You'll be okay. 00:22:30.019 --> 00:22:32.039 And I feel the same way with adults, because 00:22:32.039 --> 00:22:34.660 adults should be able to handle some tough times. 00:22:36.119 --> 00:22:40.380 That's the human Donovan speaking. The Donovan 00:22:40.380 --> 00:22:43.740 that understands that Jesus didn't look at people 00:22:43.740 --> 00:22:46.799 and say they need to just get over it has to 00:22:46.799 --> 00:22:49.619 think a little bit differently. The Donovan that 00:22:49.619 --> 00:22:52.460 understands that Jesus didn't just say, oh, come 00:22:52.460 --> 00:22:54.480 on, you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps 00:22:54.480 --> 00:22:57.039 and just get over that. That's people hurt people. 00:22:57.599 --> 00:23:00.359 That Donovan's got to be quiet for a minute. 00:23:01.460 --> 00:23:05.599 Because Jesus looks at the lost and he doesn't 00:23:05.599 --> 00:23:11.900 say, get over it. He says, my God is offering 00:23:11.900 --> 00:23:15.319 you redemption. My God is offering you healing. 00:23:16.140 --> 00:23:19.480 I want you to know that there is life in the 00:23:19.480 --> 00:23:22.660 father. And I want to show you how to find it. 00:23:23.839 --> 00:23:27.079 That's what Jesus did. And so if that's what 00:23:27.079 --> 00:23:28.900 Jesus did and I'm going to be a follower of Jesus, 00:23:28.980 --> 00:23:32.960 what do I need to do? Exactly that. And then 00:23:32.960 --> 00:23:36.980 once we have. done that. Once we have gotten 00:23:36.980 --> 00:23:39.539 past that, they need to get over a mindset we 00:23:39.539 --> 00:23:44.359 seek diligently. We look everywhere. We look 00:23:44.359 --> 00:23:48.420 in the far corners of this town. We look crazy 00:23:48.420 --> 00:23:51.420 concept in the bars. We look at the restaurants. 00:23:51.539 --> 00:23:54.259 We look at the auto shop. We look at the Walmart. 00:23:54.500 --> 00:23:57.220 Crazy place to be, although we have a nice Walmart 00:23:57.220 --> 00:24:00.000 here. So we don't have the craziness that we 00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:02.660 had at the Montgomery Walmarts. But you got to 00:24:02.660 --> 00:24:06.410 look. Diligently for those that are lost because 00:24:06.410 --> 00:24:08.349 they're out there. Who do we know that's been 00:24:08.349 --> 00:24:10.589 pushed away because of the church hurt? Who do 00:24:10.589 --> 00:24:12.410 we know that's tired of seeing people who don't 00:24:12.410 --> 00:24:14.430 practice what they preach? Who do we know that's 00:24:14.430 --> 00:24:17.049 gone because of the words or the actions of someone 00:24:17.049 --> 00:24:19.950 in the church? And what will we do to find them? 00:24:21.430 --> 00:24:25.369 What will we do to reach them? OK, that's been 00:24:25.369 --> 00:24:29.470 pretty depressing, right? Yeah. Now I want to 00:24:29.470 --> 00:24:33.789 get into the good stuff. The hope side of this. 00:24:34.009 --> 00:24:37.269 This is the hope. Did you know that 51 % of people 00:24:37.269 --> 00:24:39.170 who have left the church are willing to give 00:24:39.170 --> 00:24:42.769 church another try? 51 % of people that feel 00:24:42.769 --> 00:24:44.869 like they've been pushed away or maybe they've 00:24:44.869 --> 00:24:47.190 just walked away. 51%, that's more than half. 00:24:47.309 --> 00:24:50.789 I know that much in math. 51 % would be willing 00:24:50.789 --> 00:24:55.210 to give it another try. That's pretty good numbers. 00:24:55.710 --> 00:24:58.029 So that would mean if the hundred people in this 00:24:58.029 --> 00:25:00.670 room said, I'm going to seek one person for the 00:25:00.670 --> 00:25:04.900 next month. At least 51 % of people, if we all 00:25:04.900 --> 00:25:07.980 honestly and earnestly did that, 51 % of people 00:25:07.980 --> 00:25:10.920 would at least give it a try. So that would mean 00:25:10.920 --> 00:25:17.559 if 100 people, 51 % of 100 equals 51. Yeah, Tim 00:25:17.559 --> 00:25:22.400 knows math. 51. So could you imagine if we showed 00:25:22.400 --> 00:25:25.880 up one Sunday and 51 extra people were in here 00:25:25.880 --> 00:25:28.700 and we discipled those people for a year and 00:25:28.700 --> 00:25:31.519 then next year. Those 51 are now a part of our 00:25:31.519 --> 00:25:36.140 150 or 100. So now it's 151. And now we go reach 00:25:36.140 --> 00:25:40.619 one more. So 151 go reach one. And then we have 00:25:40.619 --> 00:25:43.539 51 percent. OK, now here's where the math gets 00:25:43.539 --> 00:25:49.900 sticky. Fifty one percent of 151. Somebody. Seventy 00:25:49.900 --> 00:25:53.119 five and a half infant baptism. All right. So. 00:25:54.640 --> 00:25:56.960 Somebody got that joke right. So. All right. 00:25:56.980 --> 00:26:00.660 So now we're over 200. Now, 200 people go. And 00:26:00.660 --> 00:26:03.799 do you see how this math keeps going? There are 00:26:03.799 --> 00:26:07.599 lost people out there that are searching. They're 00:26:07.599 --> 00:26:10.380 seeking. You see it on the news right now. People 00:26:10.380 --> 00:26:13.480 are claiming that we are in a revival. We're 00:26:13.480 --> 00:26:16.039 in this kind of another great awakening. People 00:26:16.039 --> 00:26:18.599 are looking. They're interested in God. It's 00:26:18.599 --> 00:26:20.960 trendy to be a Christian right now. I'm a country 00:26:20.960 --> 00:26:23.119 music fan. And it seems like every other week 00:26:23.119 --> 00:26:25.440 a new country song comes on. And guess what it 00:26:25.440 --> 00:26:28.039 has to do with? God. It has something to do with 00:26:28.039 --> 00:26:30.119 faith. Now, I may not agree with all the theology 00:26:30.119 --> 00:26:32.299 in it, but I got to tell you, I'm just glad people 00:26:32.299 --> 00:26:35.400 are talking about Jesus. And people are talking 00:26:35.400 --> 00:26:37.819 about Jesus. And so people are thinking about 00:26:37.819 --> 00:26:39.380 him. If they're interested, if they're talking 00:26:39.380 --> 00:26:42.079 about him, what do we need to do? Capitalize 00:26:42.079 --> 00:26:46.319 on the moment. They are interested. According 00:26:46.319 --> 00:26:48.460 to that same report for the Center for Church 00:26:48.460 --> 00:26:52.240 Renewal, those people are willing to give church 00:26:52.240 --> 00:26:53.819 another try. But this is what they're looking 00:26:53.819 --> 00:26:57.420 for. When they step back in these doors, they 00:26:57.420 --> 00:27:01.210 are looking for healthy relationships. Specifically, 00:27:01.329 --> 00:27:03.470 this is what they said. They're looking for a 00:27:03.470 --> 00:27:09.289 church that both preaches and lives out the gospel. 00:27:10.470 --> 00:27:12.650 They don't want people that just talk about how 00:27:12.650 --> 00:27:15.769 good God is. They don't want people that just 00:27:15.769 --> 00:27:18.230 talk about how Jesus saves. They don't want people 00:27:18.230 --> 00:27:20.150 that just talk about how Jesus loves the sinners 00:27:20.150 --> 00:27:23.170 and how he seeks the lost. They want people that 00:27:23.170 --> 00:27:25.410 live it out. So let me ask you this question 00:27:25.410 --> 00:27:28.990 this morning. Are we going to be people that 00:27:28.990 --> 00:27:33.619 speak Jesus? and live like Jesus? Or are we going 00:27:33.619 --> 00:27:37.680 to be people that just occupy seats? That's a 00:27:37.680 --> 00:27:40.640 question we've got to ask ourselves. They want 00:27:40.640 --> 00:27:44.720 a church that both preaches the gospel and lives 00:27:44.720 --> 00:27:49.660 it out. And this is the gospel right here. It's 00:27:49.660 --> 00:27:53.359 a God who searches for the lost. It's a God who 00:27:53.359 --> 00:27:56.380 says, I see your brokenness. I see your shame. 00:27:56.400 --> 00:27:59.180 I see your pain. I see where you are. And I want 00:27:59.180 --> 00:28:03.799 to bring you I see where you're hurting. I see 00:28:03.799 --> 00:28:06.000 where people have hurt. I see where you've maybe 00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:08.380 wandered off. I see where you have walked away. 00:28:08.579 --> 00:28:13.240 I understand. But it's time to come home. It's 00:28:13.240 --> 00:28:16.819 time to come back. And then what does Luke 15 00:28:16.819 --> 00:28:21.019 verses 9 and 10 say happens when the lost are 00:28:21.019 --> 00:28:23.700 found? When the lost finally come home? Well, 00:28:23.779 --> 00:28:27.460 it says when the woman finds it, she calls together 00:28:27.460 --> 00:28:31.690 her friends and neighbors. saying, rejoice with 00:28:31.690 --> 00:28:36.130 me, for I found the coin that I had lost. And 00:28:36.130 --> 00:28:39.490 Jesus says, just so I tell you, there is joy 00:28:39.490 --> 00:28:44.009 before the angels of God over one sinner who 00:28:44.009 --> 00:28:47.910 repents. I think Jesus has made it clear that 00:28:47.910 --> 00:28:50.329 he thinks it's something worth celebrating when 00:28:50.329 --> 00:28:52.470 the lost are found. I mean, that's two times 00:28:52.470 --> 00:28:56.269 already in these 10 verses where Jesus says something 00:28:56.269 --> 00:29:00.779 about celebrating the lost being found. He essentially 00:29:00.779 --> 00:29:03.160 says heaven throws a party when just one sinner 00:29:03.160 --> 00:29:05.240 is saved. So let me tell you what I want. This 00:29:05.240 --> 00:29:07.759 is my dream for the Blairsville Church of Christ. 00:29:07.980 --> 00:29:10.299 This is my dream for the church in general, globally. 00:29:11.319 --> 00:29:14.819 I want to be the party planning committee of 00:29:14.819 --> 00:29:19.480 heaven's worst nightmare. I want the angel that 00:29:19.480 --> 00:29:22.099 is responsible for throwing the baptism celebrations. 00:29:22.400 --> 00:29:26.420 I want that angel to hate us because all we do 00:29:26.420 --> 00:29:29.299 is give it more and more and more and more work. 00:29:29.609 --> 00:29:33.809 I want us to save people so consistently that 00:29:33.809 --> 00:29:37.430 heaven does not have a chance to stop partying. 00:29:38.390 --> 00:29:41.789 How does that sound? That sounds fun. Because 00:29:41.789 --> 00:29:44.230 I think something cool could happen if heaven's 00:29:44.230 --> 00:29:46.329 throwing a party and we're throwing a party and 00:29:46.329 --> 00:29:48.750 people outside see that this church here, they 00:29:48.750 --> 00:29:50.930 just like to have parties. And they say, why 00:29:50.930 --> 00:29:52.549 do y 'all celebrate so much? What are y 'all 00:29:52.549 --> 00:29:54.809 so happy about? Oh, well, you know, brother so 00:29:54.809 --> 00:29:57.880 -and -so gave his life to Christ yesterday. OK, 00:29:57.960 --> 00:29:59.420 well, that was yesterday. What about that? Well, 00:29:59.559 --> 00:30:01.220 you know, sister. So and so she gave her life 00:30:01.220 --> 00:30:04.220 to Christ today. Well, what's going to happen 00:30:04.220 --> 00:30:06.000 tomorrow? Oh, yeah, we've got a baptism plan 00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:09.059 for tomorrow morning, too. And what if we just 00:30:09.059 --> 00:30:12.180 book our calendar up with people coming to know 00:30:12.180 --> 00:30:17.039 the goodness of God? Because if there's more 00:30:17.039 --> 00:30:19.460 joy in heaven than there is down here for one 00:30:19.460 --> 00:30:22.759 lost sinner saved, just imagine the parties that 00:30:22.759 --> 00:30:29.700 heaven is having. If we do our job. So what do 00:30:29.700 --> 00:30:31.619 we do with all this? Because there's a lot there. 00:30:32.299 --> 00:30:34.339 I've got a few simple but challenging ideas. 00:30:34.400 --> 00:30:36.339 The first one, and that's what we've been doing 00:30:36.339 --> 00:30:40.420 this month, is we are identifying. We're identifying 00:30:40.420 --> 00:30:42.819 the lost. So last week we identified the lost 00:30:42.819 --> 00:30:45.559 who may be wandered. Today I'm challenging us 00:30:45.559 --> 00:30:48.779 to identify the lost who are lost because they've 00:30:48.779 --> 00:30:52.380 been hurt. Who do we know that's been hurt? And 00:30:52.380 --> 00:30:54.400 I want to also clarify that sometimes people 00:30:54.400 --> 00:30:56.119 leave the church not because the church hurt 00:30:56.119 --> 00:30:59.079 them, but because life hurt them, because somebody 00:30:59.079 --> 00:31:01.819 walked out on them, because a loved one passed 00:31:01.819 --> 00:31:04.720 away, because things didn't go how they wanted 00:31:04.720 --> 00:31:07.220 to with their job. And now they don't really 00:31:07.220 --> 00:31:09.299 know what their career is supposed to look like 00:31:09.299 --> 00:31:11.440 because their friends weren't the friends they 00:31:11.440 --> 00:31:13.019 were supposed to be because traumatic things 00:31:13.019 --> 00:31:16.819 happen in life. Like I'm aware of that. And sometimes 00:31:16.819 --> 00:31:20.039 when people are hurt. In that way, whether in 00:31:20.039 --> 00:31:22.220 the church or outside of the church, they feel 00:31:22.220 --> 00:31:27.039 like God dropped them like a coin. We identify 00:31:27.039 --> 00:31:29.440 those who've been hurt. I don't care what hurt 00:31:29.440 --> 00:31:31.859 them. They're hurting and we need to bring them 00:31:31.859 --> 00:31:34.240 to the healer. To identify those who've been 00:31:34.240 --> 00:31:36.960 hurt for the church specifically, we weed out 00:31:36.960 --> 00:31:39.480 the harmful things that drive people away. And 00:31:39.480 --> 00:31:41.359 I want to say this very clearly before somebody 00:31:41.359 --> 00:31:43.259 comes to me after and says, well, we can't stop 00:31:43.259 --> 00:31:46.380 teaching the truth. I'm not saying we fudge on 00:31:46.380 --> 00:31:49.059 biblical doctrine. I'm not saying we make it 00:31:49.059 --> 00:31:52.859 soft. I'm not saying we make it some cushy thing 00:31:52.859 --> 00:31:56.299 where we budge on the truth. I'm not saying that 00:31:56.299 --> 00:31:58.680 at all. What I'm saying is there's a lot of hurtful 00:31:58.680 --> 00:32:01.640 things that happen in churches that we can do 00:32:01.640 --> 00:32:05.170 without. Because I think it needs to be noted 00:32:05.170 --> 00:32:08.009 that Jesus didn't go to that leper and say, hey, 00:32:08.029 --> 00:32:10.309 dude, you did something wrong. What's your issue? 00:32:10.470 --> 00:32:12.230 And just start beating them over the head with 00:32:12.230 --> 00:32:14.450 Scripture. Jesus went to the leper and he hugged 00:32:14.450 --> 00:32:19.130 him. And he called him to a new life. That's 00:32:19.130 --> 00:32:21.109 what we need to do. So we weed out the harmful 00:32:21.109 --> 00:32:24.289 things and we seek the lost diligently. We celebrate 00:32:24.289 --> 00:32:27.650 when they're found. And please, please remember 00:32:27.650 --> 00:32:31.839 that the lost are not just out there. They're 00:32:31.839 --> 00:32:34.539 not those that are far away. In fact, I want 00:32:34.539 --> 00:32:36.819 you to notice in Luke 15 and this story about 00:32:36.819 --> 00:32:41.599 the coin, the coin is the only thing in any of 00:32:41.599 --> 00:32:43.420 these parables here that never left the house. 00:32:44.339 --> 00:32:47.759 The sheep wandered out of the flock. We'll talk 00:32:47.759 --> 00:32:50.039 in a couple of next week and beyond. We'll talk 00:32:50.039 --> 00:32:52.000 about the prodigal son. The prodigal son left. 00:32:52.140 --> 00:32:57.299 He went way away. But the coin was in the house 00:32:57.299 --> 00:33:00.750 the whole time. And what I mean by that is there 00:33:00.750 --> 00:33:03.710 are some in this room right now that maybe you're 00:33:03.710 --> 00:33:06.650 just barely here. You're here because you feel 00:33:06.650 --> 00:33:08.990 like you got to be. You're here because you don't 00:33:08.990 --> 00:33:10.769 want to get the text from an elder later saying, 00:33:10.789 --> 00:33:12.289 hey, we miss you at church. And then you feel 00:33:12.289 --> 00:33:15.230 guilty. Maybe you're just here because you're 00:33:15.230 --> 00:33:19.390 giving it another try. There are some in this 00:33:19.390 --> 00:33:22.769 room right now that are hurting. And so when 00:33:22.769 --> 00:33:25.890 we say we're going to seek the lost diligently. 00:33:26.799 --> 00:33:29.779 What we need to also be mindful of is maybe our 00:33:29.779 --> 00:33:32.880 seeking doesn't take us very far, that it's the 00:33:32.880 --> 00:33:37.660 pew next to us. If you've been hurt by the church, 00:33:37.859 --> 00:33:41.400 if you've been hurt by life, if you just feel 00:33:41.400 --> 00:33:44.440 like it's not going how you planned, this can't 00:33:44.440 --> 00:33:46.480 be the abundant life that God promised, that 00:33:46.480 --> 00:33:49.099 this isn't the good life that Jesus came to bring. 00:33:49.160 --> 00:33:52.779 If you are feeling hurt, if you feel like a coin 00:33:52.779 --> 00:33:56.130 that's been dropped and lost, and in a dark place, 00:33:56.329 --> 00:33:58.250 and you just don't know how you got there, you 00:33:58.250 --> 00:34:01.809 don't know how you'll ever be found. If you are 00:34:01.809 --> 00:34:05.190 hurting, if you're tired, burdened, or unsure 00:34:05.190 --> 00:34:08.309 whether there's a place for you anymore, I want 00:34:08.309 --> 00:34:11.610 to offer an invitation for you. Because we serve 00:34:11.610 --> 00:34:15.789 a God who offers healing to the hurt. We serve 00:34:15.789 --> 00:34:19.530 a God that offers restoration for the wounded. 00:34:20.719 --> 00:34:22.579 And so my invitation to you is that you bring 00:34:22.579 --> 00:34:24.619 it all to Jesus and you let us walk alongside 00:34:24.619 --> 00:34:28.380 you as Jesus does the healing. Wherever you're 00:34:28.380 --> 00:34:31.360 at this morning, if you're hurt, if you're wounded, 00:34:31.519 --> 00:34:35.900 if you feel lost, whatever it is, we want to 00:34:35.900 --> 00:34:38.139 pray with you. We want to be here for you as 00:34:38.139 --> 00:34:41.179 you go through this time. We offer you this time 00:34:41.179 --> 00:34:43.099 of invitation now as we stand and as we sing.