I have been recently watching this show for the
last couple of seasons called Tracker. And maybe
you've seen the show. If you haven't, I'm going
to kind of tell you a little bit about it, but
it's not super relevant. Tracker is this show
that centers around this guy named Coulter Shaw.
And Coulter is, he's basically like a private
investigator on steroids. Every episode starts
with somebody going missing. Somebody gets kidnapped,
they get lost in the woods or something, they
go missing. And so what happens after that person
goes missing is a loved one will reach out to
Coulter and they will offer him a large amount
of money to find their missing loved one. I mean,
we're talking like tens of thousands of dollars
to find their missing loved one. And so as the
episode progresses, Coulter does his thing. He
tracks down the person. Sometimes he has to kill
a few bad guys and, you know, he has to break
out of, you know, TV stuff, right? But he finds
the missing person and he brings them back to
the people who love them. There's always two
things at play in these episodes. The first thing
I think about is the amount of money that the
person, the loved one offers is showing the value
of the person who is missing. Think about for
you, if somebody that you loved, one of your
children or a relative or a friend or a coworker,
if someone that you loved and you cared about
went missing, how much would you be willing to
pay to find them? And the second thing is when
he finds them, he's not just finding somebody
and bringing them home. He is redeeming and restoring
their life and their relationship. He's bringing
these people back together, and now they can
be a family again, or now they can be friends,
now they can be a couple. Whatever it is, he's
bringing these people home and restoring relationship
and redeeming life. And at the end of a lot of
the episodes, after the reunion takes place,
Colter's getting ready to leave, and he'll say
something to the effect of, stay out of trouble.
Now I want you to hold on to that line. Stay
out of trouble and take care of each other. You
see, I found that relevant to our lesson this
morning because in Luke 15, Jesus tells three
stories about four highly valued missing things.
The first one is the sheep that wandered off.
The second one is a coin that gets lost. The
third is a son who ran away. And then the fourth
was the son who stayed. He never ran away, but
he was just as lost. because of his heart, as
any of the other characters in these stories.
And in all of these stories, we see two consistent
themes. Just like in the episodes of Tracker,
we see the value of the lost and what I'm going
to call the aftermath of redemption. And so we
start with the value of the lost. I want you
to notice in all of these stories, like in Tracker,
there is a sense of urgency. There's priority
placed on finding the thing or the person or
the animal that is lost. We're not talking about,
you know, the random Lego that gets lost under
the couch and it stays there for three years.
And then one day you're doing a deep cleaning
of the house and you finally find that Lego or
like. yesterday, I was cleaning up in our garage
because we had a bunch of stuff from when we
moved. And then we sold my truck. And when we
sold my truck, we just took everything out of
it and threw it in the garage. So I'm cleaning
up the garage because it looked like a mess.
And I find a bunch because Peyton has a million
Hot Wheels and Monster Trucks. So I find a bunch
of Hot Wheels and Monster Trucks in the garage.
And this kid, even though he still has a bunch
of Hot Wheels and Monster Trucks inside the house,
he sees the ones that I found out of the garage.
And he's like, oh, I've been looking for that.
I'm like, No, you haven't. Because there's no
urgency for something that you have an excess
in. But when it's something that you really need
to find, like a child or like a paycheck, anybody,
we don't do paper paychecks anymore, but has
anybody ever lost a paycheck? Anybody? Nobody's
ever done that? Okay, so we've had some people
lose a paycheck. I can remember one time in high
school, I didn't have direct deposit set up or
something, I guess. Oh no, I did like some yard
work or somebody. So they gave me a check and
I put it in my car. And as a high schooler working
two jobs, like my car was messy and I lost the
check. Eventually I found it. It was not in my
car after all. It was in my room under some stuff
on my desk. That's not the point. I lost the
check and there was a lot of urgency in needing
to find that check. And so that's what we're
talking about here. We're talking about things
that have high value, things that have to be
found. And Jesus makes that clear in Luke 15,
starting in verses four through six. He says,
what man of you having a hundred sheep, if he
has lost one of them, does not leave the 99 in
the open country and go after the one that is
lost until he finds it. And when he has found
it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And
when he comes home, he calls together his friends
and his neighbors saying to them, rejoice with
me for I found my sheep that was lost. Do you
see it? He goes after it. until he finds it.
He doesn't look and then give up. He doesn't
just look for it for a little bit and then decide,
ah, it's not really worth it. He looks for it
until he finds it. And then Jesus gives us another
picture in Luke 15, verses eight through nine.
Or what woman having 10 silver coins, if she
loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep
the house and seek diligently until she finds
it. And when she has found it, she calls together
her friends and neighbors saying, rejoice with
me for I have found the coin that I had lost.
She searches diligently. Diligently is a really,
it's a really good word. There's effort. There's
intention. There's effort and intention. She
searches diligently all because this thing that
she lost has value. She needs this coin. And
then we get to the story of the son. Just to
give you a little bit of backstory in case you're
not familiar with this story. This is a son of
a father who has two sons. They work with their
father. Their father clearly has a lot to offer
them. And they each have an inheritance waiting
for them when their father dies. Well, this son
decides to go to his father. He says, hey, I
want my inheritance early. And the father gives
it to him. For some reason, he gives him the
inheritance. The son takes the inheritance. He
goes off into what the Bible calls a far country.
He goes out there and he does who knows what.
things and he blows all of the money. He makes
a mess of his life and he finds himself sleeping
with pigs and he decides, he's like, I need to
just go home and maybe if I go home, I can ask
my dad if I can just be a servant in his household.
He's not even asking that he can go back and
be a son. He's not asking that he goes back and
takes his rightful place as heir. He's just asking,
can I have a spot in the bunkhouse with the rest
of the slaves? So he gets up, he goes home, and
this is what Luke 15 verses 20 through 24 tell
us. But while he was still a long way off, his
father saw him and felt compassion and ran and
embraced him and kissed him. And the son said
to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven
and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called
your son. But the father said to his servants,
bring quickly the best robe and put it on him
and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet
and bring the fattened calf and kill it and let
us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead
and is alive again. Again, he was lost and is
found and they began to celebrate. We covered
these parables a few months ago in our series
where we really focus in on looking for the one,
the one in our life that we know that is lost.
And we emphasize the need to celebrate when those
people come home. I told you, I want to bring
so many lost people to the kingdom of God that
we are the party planning commission of heaven's
worst nightmare because we want to make heaven
have to constantly be throwing parties because
we are leading people to Christ. And so we look
at these stories. And we see this good stuff
of the father running, which in that culture
is shameful for a man to run. But he doesn't
care about shame. His son is home, so he runs.
He embraces. He restores. He gives the best of
everything. And for who? For who? The son that
dishonored him? The son that took his inheritance
early and went off and wasted it? The son who
made a mess of his life? The son who probably
wasted it on awful things? I mean, I can just
think of the debauchery, the sinful nature of
all of the stuff the son got into. This is the
guy that the father brings shame upon himself
on to run to him, embrace him, restore him, and
then throw a party? Yeah, that son. That's the
one that the father would do that for. And why?
Because as the father says, read this out loud
with me, my son was dead and is alive again.
He was lost and is found. How many of you, if
your child went missing, if your child took off
and you couldn't find them, how many of you would
celebrate when they came home? All of us. We
all would. Yeah, hands in the air. Yes, we would
celebrate. We would go to the ends of the earth
to bring our children home. You maybe have said
something like, there is nothing I wouldn't do
for you. You know, I was sitting there as I was
thinking about this lesson, I thought. I could
count, I mean, we've only been here in Blairsville
for a couple of months now. In fact, I was telling
Chad yesterday that this weekend is like the
one year anniversary of me coming to visit you
guys. And then a few weeks later, we decided
to move here. So in this short time that we've
known you, I could probably count a lot of people
that would do anything for my children. I was
sitting there thinking, I'm like, I could probably
count on one hand or two, maybe the amount of
people in this room that would kill for my kids.
And so think about what you would do for your
own kids. That's what we're looking at here.
We're looking at a picture of a God who says,
I don't care what they've done. I don't care
where they've gone. I don't care who they have
been in their past. I don't care what they're
involved in now. There is no price I would not
pay to bring them home. And when they come home,
there is no shortage of celebration that we would
have. That's what we see here. My son was dead.
He's alive again. He was lost. He's now found.
These aren't just nice stories. This isn't Hallmark.
This isn't an episode of Tracker. This is why
Jesus came. This is revealing to us the very
heart of God. If I were to put it in one sentence,
this is the value that the creator of the universe
places on people. And if I need to make this
personal for you, this is the value that the
God of all creation places on you, regardless
of where you've been, regardless of what you
have done, regardless of what you said to the
person in the drive -thru line in front of you
this morning. The God of all creation looks at
you and says, there is nothing I would not do
to bring you home. That's why Jesus came. That's
why he lived the life he lived. That's why he
eventually died the way he did. This is why Jesus
came. Because God could not and he does not sit
back and wait. God seeks, he pursues, he restores.
You know, the thing I love about the story of
the prodigal son is the father saw him from a
long way off. And what I think about that is
the father was sitting on his front porch waiting
for the son to drive up the driveway. And he
was watching. Because he just knew someday my
son is going to come home. And I mean, I would
imagine the people at the local diner, the people
at the farmer's market, the people in town, the
people at work, they would tell him, hey, dude,
you got to quit waiting on him. You got to quit
looking. He's not coming back. It's time to give
up. Go ahead and take the missing person posters
down. He's not coming home. And I bet he would
sit there and say, you have no clue. My son's
coming home. I know he's coming home. And he
waited and he looked and he waited. And finally
the son came home. And then that leads us to
the aftermath of redemption. Because what happens
after redemption happens? What happens after
the son is restored? What happens after the sheep
is brought home? What happens after the coin
is found? Well, when redemption happens, we see
it, celebration happens. Look again with me at
Luke 15, verses six through seven. Rejoice with
me, for I found my sheep that was lost. 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. Heaven celebrates.
And I really want to emphasize something this
morning that I don't know that I emphasized before
when we covered these parables. This celebration
is never private. Think about in these stories,
the man finds a sheep. He goes and tells everybody,
hey, come on. We're having a party because my
sheep has been found. The woman finds her coin.
She goes around telling everybody, come on, we're
having a party because my coin has been found.
The father, his son comes home and he says, hey,
we're having a party. My son has been found.
Redemption. When redemption happens, it creates
community -wide joy. When God restores someone,
and you've seen it before. When somebody gives
their life to Christ, when somebody leaves the
life of addiction and they come home, when somebody
gives up the life of crime and they start to
straighten up their life, when somebody gives
up the things that they were doing that was damaging
their family, that was damaging the community,
that was hurting the church, when they give those
things up and they start to live a normal, or
not a normal, a good life, when you see that
happen, something happens to the people around
them. It changes their families. It changes their
relationships. It changes their friend groups.
It changes their communities. Because when God
works in someone's life, it does not stay private.
And if my life isn't affecting yours, then I
need to ask myself, has God really redeemed me?
If the world would see what God has done, it
would create joy. It would overflow into everything
that we are a part of. This is something that
is not meant to stay contained to a building.
It's not meant to be personal and quiet. Yeah,
we have a personal relationship with Jesus, but
that personal relationship should show up. Because
guess what? I love my wife. And anybody that
knows me knows that I love my wife, unless they
see me picking on her. Then they may have some
questions. But I mean, if I'm picking on you,
that means I love you. I love my kids, and that's
why I talk about them so much. And if you know
me, you know I love my kids. When we have these
things that are attached to us, our hearts. These
things that are happening inside of us, it overflows
and the world has no choice but to see it. It's
supposed to reshape our lives. It's supposed
to reshape our relationships and reshape our
communities. And that leads us to Luke chapter
16. Because if Luke 15 shows us how God redeems
people, how he restores people, then Luke 16
shows us how redeemed people live. And if you've
read Luke 16, you're probably like, I don't really
know how that fits. Bear with me. I want to ask
you, and as we go through Luke 16, I want you
to see the answer. What does life look like after
the celebration? Because think about, you know,
when somebody gets baptized, they give their
life to Christ, we applaud, we may sing a song,
it's this awesome moment. They come out, everybody
gives them hugs, and we may write them cards,
we give them a Bible, and we celebrate. But then
what happens the next week in their life? What
happens with our relationship with them? What
does life look like after that? Well, I want
you to look at what Jesus says in Luke 16, verse
10. One who is faithful in a very little is also
faithful in much. And one who is dishonest in
a very little is also dishonest in much. Well,
if my life has been redeemed by Christ, My redeemed
life is a faithful life. It's a life that is
committed to the cause of Christ. It's a life
that is very shrewd, as the scripture would say.
It's a wise life, a life that looks at everything
that I have, everything that I've got going on,
and wisely thinks, how can I use this to glorify
God? When Jesus redeems us, we don't just go
back to living the same way that we used to live,
the same ways that we always have, the same way
that our family always has. When Jesus redeems
us, our priorities have to shift. It is no longer
about me. It's no longer about what I want. It's
no longer about what I think I need. It is not
about anything that I would imagine is my priority.
We begin to see things differently. Our time
is no longer ours. Our money is no longer ours.
Our relationships are no longer ours. Our influence
is no longer ours. It is God's. Because when
he has saved my life, we'll say this, I owe you
my life. There's no way I could ever repay you.
When somebody does something so great for you
that you just have no other choice but to commit
the rest of your life to doing good in honor
of them. You know, I've talked before about my
youth minister, Mr. Glenn. I mentioned how when
I was little, life was not as good as it should
have been. It wasn't the life that you would
want for your kid. And I stumbled into this church
building at nine years old. kind of middle -aged
guy comes up to me, introduces himself to me,
and he ends up becoming the only father that
I've ever known. He taught me everything that
I know about fishing, driving, hunting, and he
was just the best man that I could have ever
asked for. And so when I got to high school,
I felt like I needed to do for others what he
did for me because he saved my life. And so what
I felt like I needed to do was be a minister
so that I could help save other people's lives.
And that's the kind of reciprocal relationship
we're talking about. God has saved us. He has
redeemed us. So what do we do in exchange? We
should go and save others. Now, we don't do the
saving. We just bring people to the God who does.
So we start to see that none of this belongs
to us. Nothing belongs to me. It all belongs
to God. And then Jesus tells the story of the
rich man and Lazarus. I want you to look at Luke
16, verses 19 through 25, and we're going to
kind of paraphrase and jump through this one.
But there was a rich man who was clothed in purple
and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every
day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named
Lazarus, covered with sores. The poor man died
and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side.
The rich man also died and was buried. But Abraham
said, Child, remember that you in your lifetime
received your good things, but now he is comforted
here and you. are in anguish. I think Jesus shows
us something sobering here. That this life, the
things that happened from 1998 for me to 2035,
whenever I die, this life, it's not the end of
the story. Whatever happens to you, whatever
happens to me in this life, what I did in this
life, it's not the end of the story. There is
something greater at stake. And what I really
want us to know is a redeemed life doesn't just
live for comfort now. It lives with eternity
in view. Another way I would put it is, do you
live every day with an eternal perspective? Because
what you do today will ripple into eternity.
The way you talk to people, the way you greet
people, the way you love on people, the way you
serve, the life that you live today will affect
the life that you have tomorrow. Abraham looks
at the rich man. He says, well, you enjoyed life
on earth, so now not so great for you in heaven.
And what he's not saying is that you can't have
a good life here and a good life in eternity.
What he's saying is you did not focus on the
eternal matters. A life that's redeemed notices
people. The rich man wouldn't give Lazarus the
time of day. And so when he got to eternity,
Lazarus had the nice life, and the rich man just
kind of suffered because he didn't notice Lazarus.
He didn't give him what he needed. He didn't
respond to the need. A redeemed life responds
to the needs of people around them. A redeemed
life reflects the heart of God. And so here's
what we see. What we see is that God values what
is lost so much so that he would do anything
to go and save the lost. Think about the expensive
or the high amounts of money that the people
in these episodes of Tracker pay to find their
loved ones. That's what we're talking about here.
We're talking about a God that would send His
Son from heaven to earth to live among men who
would hate Him, to die on a cross, a brutal death,
so that we could have a chance at a good eternity.
That's what God shows us and how much He values.
And because He values us, He pursues us. He redeems
us. He restores us. He celebrates our restoration.
And then he invites us into that same way of
living. He invites us to not just be people who
have been redeemed, but to be people who live
redeemed and go out and bring other people to
redemption. It's like when you know there's a
good sale going on at the store and you tell
people, hey, there's a good sale going on at,
let's just use Alexander's. Alexander's having
a big blowout sale. Go get a firearm for 50 %
off. And so you tell everybody about it. You'll
post on Facebook, go get your, and then everybody's
going because they know there's a good sale.
Or Orange Days is coming up at Nelson Tractor.
I got you. That fee's going to be in the mail,
right? Yeah. So there's a big deal going on at
Nelson Tractor. Everybody, go get you a new lawnmower.
You tell everybody about it because you know
you've experienced something really good and
you want the people around you to experience
something really good. That's what we're looking
at here. It's not a lie. that sits in a pew and
says, God's been so good to me. We sing the goodness
of God. It's a life that goes out and tells and
shows people how good God is so that they will
come and find out how good he is. I told you
before, we get so focused on the come and see
and we forget about the go and do or go and be.
We need to go out and be the billboard for how
good Jesus is and how much he loves people. This
is why I think it is so cool when I see a bumper
sticker that just says Jesus loves you. I think
it's so cool when somebody's wearing a shirt
that says, ask me how much God loves you. Like
we need to tell people, we need to show people
how valued they are, regardless of where they've
been. Because again, there is no telling what
awful things the son did in the prodigal son
story, but the father does not care. He restores
him anyways. because our God is a gracious and
merciful God. And so what does that look like
for us today? What does it look like for us this
week and the rest of our lives? Well, maybe for
you, it means just simply returning to God or
giving your life to God for the first time. It
means giving up the things that you've been chasing.
the things that you have been striving for, the
disappointments that you found yourself in because
you've been looking for approval, you've been
looking for value, you've been looking for satisfaction
in this world, and you're realizing that you
just keep coming up empty every time. It means
giving your life to God. And if you've been a
follower of Jesus before, but maybe you've wandered,
you've drifted, I want you to know you can come
home. Wherever you have been, there is a place
for you at God's table. And he is waiting to
redeem and restore your life. I want you to hear
this clearly because this is something we need
to make clear. God is not sitting there waiting
to shame you. God's not sitting on the porch
waiting for you to walk up the driveway and then
he's just going to look. Well, look what the
cat done drug in. I figured you'd come back begging
for money one of these days. I figured you'd
come back, want a place to sleep. That's not
what God is doing. That's not what we see in
Scripture, is it? We see a God that sits there.
He sees, and I can just imagine, I love just
trying to think of this story, the imagery of
the father sitting on his porch. He sees his
son from a long way off, and I can just imagine
the smile that comes on his face. And I can imagine
how quickly he gets up, he runs. I mean, think
about it. He's probably not a fast guy because,
you know, he's probably old. He runs as fast
as he can. He's probably hobbling a little bit.
And he gets his son, he grabs him in this big
bear hug, and he just squeezes him tight. And
I can imagine that because I've come home after
a week of camp where I've been gone, and I remember
every time it's the same thing. The excitement
on my boys' faces when I walk through the door
and the excitement that I have that I get to
see them again. And that's what I think God feels
when one of his children decides, I'm done running.
I'm done living the life that I thought I wanted.
I'm ready to come home. God's not waiting to
shame you. He is ready to receive and redeem
you. He is waiting to celebrate. And maybe for
you, it means committing to living differently,
to seeing your life as not your own, as not your
own personal project, but as something that God
can use for eternal impact, as something that
God can use to really reshape the entire world.
And that just starts with one step this week.
Maybe it is deleting social media off of your
phone. Maybe it is just deciding, I'm going to
stop doing the things that I know hurt the people
around me. I'm going to stop doing the things
that I know hurt me. Maybe it just means giving
up an hour of your week to make some phone calls
and check in on people. I don't know what it
is for you personally, but we can all do one
small thing this week that will make it clear
to our brains that this life is not our own.
It is God's. I think back to that line in Tracker.
Stay out of trouble and take care of each other.
And in a much deeper way, I think that's what
Jesus calls us to. I'm so excited. After we finish
Luke, we're going to go into a series on the
book of Acts, and we're going to see what the
early church looked like and how they lived and
how they cared for not only the people around
them, but the people in their church family.
It's a life that says, stay out of trouble. Do
good things, right? Don't go doing the things
that got you caught up and got you kidnapped
before. Don't do that. Do good things and take
care of each other. Take care of the people around
you. Make sure the people around you have their
needs met. God has found us. He's rescued us.
He has redeemed us. If we are in Christ, if we
have been clothed with Christ, if we've given
our lives to him, if we've buried the old life
in baptism and rose up to new life, then we have
been redeemed. We have been restored. And so
now what we have to do, we have no other choice.
We have to live differently. We stay out of trouble.
We take care of one another and we live for eternity.
Because when Jesus redeems us, When he restores
our lives, he invites us into a joy and hope
filled life that looks different. And if my life
doesn't look different than the world, then I
need to reevaluate what I'm doing. He invites
us into a life that doesn't follow the world's
priorities. It doesn't tell us or do what the
world tells us to do and who to be. It is a life
that wisely lives today in light of. So today,
wherever you are, whatever your struggle may
be, I want to ask you very simply, are you living
with eternity in mind? Are you living with the
next thousand, hundred thousand, million? I mean,
we can keep going if you know eternity never
ending, right? Are you living with that in mind?
Are the actions we're making today, the things
we're doing today, the life that we're living
today, are they rippling into eternity for good?
Or are they leading us to a place of suffering
and torment? Not to be hellfire and brimstone,
but I want the good place where I get to live
with God in fellowship with the saints for eternity.
And if you're not living with eternity in mind,
if you want to start, whether you were baptized
50 years ago or you are just now considering
a life with Jesus, wherever you stand on the
spectrum of life, I want you to know the invitation
is clear. It is real. We want you to come if
you need to as we stand and as we sing.