Sermon Tone Analysis
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*Lost and Found*
Luke 15:1-32
*Intro:*
On February 10, 1996, a 38-year-old security guard at a Pennsylvania middle school convinced then 14-year-old Tanya Kach to leave her father and live with him.
For the next ten years, the security guard kept Tanya in the home he shared with his elderly parents.
Throughout the years after Tanya's disappearance, her father desperately tried to find her.
He posted her picture several thousand times on flyers and milk cartons.
To keep her from running away, Tanya's captor convinced her that no one cared that she was gone—that her parents weren't even looking for her.
He told her: "You're stupid.
You're immature.
Nobody cares about you but me."
Eventually, the security guard became so confident in her loyalty to him that he allowed her to leave the house for short periods of time while he was at work.
Through these daily excursions, Tanya became friends with Joseph Sparico, the owner of a local Deli Mart.
In March of 2006, Tanya finally confessed her true identity to Sparico, who shared the information with his son—a retired police officer.
Before long, Tanya was rescued and reunited with her father.
Commenting on the girl's situation, Sparico said, "She wanted to be wanted, that's all."
Tanya's father, Jerry, was overjoyed to see her. "It was exactly 10 years, one month, and 11 days," he said, "and there wasn't a day that went by that I didn't think of her.
I just say thank you, there is a God, and he brought my little girl back home."
Tanya, too, was delighted to learn that her father had never given up looking for her.
"He's crying; I'm crying.
All he kept saying was, 'I got my baby,'" she said, describing their reunion.
"I'm touching blood, and I get to say, 'I love you, Dad.'"
/Daniel Lovering, "Woman Missing since She Was 14 Is Found," news.yahoo.com
(3-23-06); submitted by David Slagle, Atlanta, Georgia/
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What have you lost recently?
In the past weeks I have lost my cell phone and then the earpiece… When I lose something I immediately begin the “what do I do next?”
process.
I also have experienced the relief of finding what I have lost.
Lost things distress us but what about when that which is lost is a person?
The whole dynamic changes.
*What I want to say:* Lost people mean much to God and they should matter to us.
When Christians don’t want to associate with “sinners” something is seriously wrong with our understanding of what we are to be about.
Finding the lost is cause for celebration!
In these parables Jesus clearly defines the purpose and result of having a heart like God’s.
! I. Search and rescue is God’s plan (:1-2)
ILLUS> In 2002, the U.S. Coast Guard made 54,609 rescue trips by boat or aircraft, saving 3,661 lives.
The Search and Rescue Team motto: "This we do so others may live."
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Luke 19:10 ESV
!! A. Sinners are attracted to Jesus (:1)
!!! 1. Why?
They were attracted to Jesus in three ways:
!!!! a) He spoke plainly without pretense
!!!! b) He said what they longed to hear: God loves you – even though you can never be good enough to please Him
!!!! c) He accepted them as they were – there is no expectation of cleaning up a sinner’s sin before acceptance.
!!! 2. When God’s word is plainly taught, people want to hear it.
!!!! a) E.g.
People hunger for any word that might be from God.
Last Sunday the Dalai Lama spoke to over 10,000 people in Millenium Park.
What were they looking for?
Many of the people interviewed said they were looking for peace.
!! B. Those who are self-righteous resent Christ’s availability to sinners (:2)
!!! 1.
The Pharisees were the most popular of three religious parties (along with the Essenes and Sadducees) that existed in Israel at the time of Jesus.
They descended from a group called “the pious” which came into existence to oppose the paganizing policies of Antiochus Epiphanes.
!!! 2. How ironic that those who sought to please God by their good behavior were the chief opponents of Jesus
!!! 3. (:2) They continually complained about Jesus because He received Sinners (emphasis in Gr.)
And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.
And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
Matthew 9:10-11 ESV
In response to their hostile ignorance to God’s heart, Jesus tells three parables about lost things.
!
II.
The lost matter to God! (:3-32)
!! A. The lost sheep (:3-7)
!!! 1.
One lost sheep arrests the shepherd’s attention
!!!! a) The shepherd goes after the one that is lost at great risk to himself
!!!! b) Of course Jesus, the Great Shepherd, put Himself at the ultimate risk – he died to rescue the lost
!!!! c) The Greek indicates that the shepherd still continues to do so – this was not a one time thing.
!!!! d) The lost one is so significant to the Shepherd that the 99 are left alone while the shepherd goes to find the one lost sheep
!!!! e) The shepherd persists his pursuit until he finds the lost sheep
!!! 2. (:5-7) Successful rescue brings joy in heaven
!!!! a) The joy is personal to the shepherd and shared with others in a celebration
!!!! b) The 99 are “righteous” who believe that they are in with God (i.e.
self-righteous)
!! B. The lost coin (:8-10)
!!! 1.
The woman lost what amounted to a days’ wage
!!! 2. The search is desperate and careful
!!!! a) She lights a lamp, moves the furniture and sweeps out the house
!!! 3. The successful search results in joy
!!!! a) The woman calls her friends to tell them of her relief
!!!! b) (:10) In the same way, the angels participate in the celebration of the found sinner (High 5’s all around?)
!!!! c) We ought to be less restrained in our response to the salvation of a sinner
!! C. The lost son (:11-32)
!!! 1.
This is one of the best known of all Bible stories
!!!! a) It is striking because the human drama grabs us all.
!!! 2. The son’s character flaws are revealed
!!!! a) Foolishness – demanding his inheritance before his father is dead
!!!! b) The “distant” country is anywhere away from the presence of the father- Jesus emphasized the word “distant”
!!!! c) The son squandered what he had on his sensual pleasures - Kind of like going to Las Vegas today
!!! 3. To survive he hired himself out just to get food and was sent to feed pigs
!!!! a) He was so destitute that even pig’s food seemed attractive
!!! 4. (:17-19) the deepening crisis forced an awakening
!!!! a) He came to himself (KJV)
!!!! b) All along he was blaming circumstances, his faithless friends and probably his father for his condition
!!!! c) But now he ran out of blame and had to admit the true source of his problem: himself
!!!! d) (:18-19) the plan: repent – a total change of heart
!!!! e) Without a change of heart there can be no change of condition
!!! 5. (:20-24) only where there is repentance can there be a celebration
!!!! a) In our day we so desperately want to be fair that we even applaud sin just so a person does not have to feel shame.
When we do not allow a person to confront their sin, they cannot be healed.
E.g. when an unmarried woman gets pregnant, we throw her a shower as we would for a woman who has been virtuous.
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