Lost Treasures

Fourteen

ASPEN

"So, this week's theme is Reckless, and we're going to talk about some familiar stories about lost things," Pastor Brett introduced. "Jedediah mentioned it a little bit earlier, how when we sing about the 'reckless love' of God, we are not attributing recklessness to our Father, but to the way in which He loves us. And it is reckless!

"Think about it. Who puts his heart out there to be broken time after time? Who could love someone after they continue to sin and ignore him and turn away from his teaching? Only God could do such things. Quite frankly, His love doesn't always make sense. It's so hard to wrap our minds around his love for us. Why is that? Well, because no one else in the history of the universe—past, present, or future—will ever be able to love us in the same way He does.

"I want to read to you this parable from Luke 15. Most of you have probably heard it, but I want to challenge you to discard whatever you've believed about it before and listen to it with new ears. Here it goes.

"'Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!'

"Let's pause for a minute. Are you hearing this? The Pharisees are literally making excuses not to hang out with sinners! And they do this so many times throughout Scripture. But they're not the only ones. Think about how many times you look at the life of an individual who is just blatantly sinning. And you think, 'Man, I'm glad I'm not them. My life is pretty great compared to theirs. It's a good thing I don't curse and drink and spend my money on prostitutes. Right, God? Aren't I so great compared to them?'

"I never want us to be so hypocritical that we think we're not at all like the Pharisees. I mean, do we make excuses not to be around sinners? Do we think of non-sanctified places as a gathering for the so-called 'sinners,' as if we ourselves aren't sinful by nature? Here, the Pharisees are so worried about Jesus eating with people who are of a lower class than them, that they disregard their own nature. They refuse to associate themselves as sinners, even though Jesus would say that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

"If you were falling asleep, then I hope that woke you up, 'cause this next part is important."

I heard a few giggles throughout the crowded room, but I was so focused that I couldn't imagine anyone would've fallen asleep to those words. Pastor Brett was on fire, and it was exciting to just listen to him preach.

He continued in Scripture, "'So Jesus told them this story: If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won't he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.' In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven't strayed away!'

"Let's go back for a moment. First of all, why is Jesus using sheep in this parable? He could've used a number of things to express his point, but he chose to use sheep. Why? Because back then, there were a lot of shepherds. It was something he knew they would relate to. Today, we might think of that as having a hundred followers on Instagram, and then one leaves. You see that glaring 99 on your phone, and you go out searching for the one who left."

People in the crowd began to laugh. It was a silly analogy, but relatable.

"Y'all are laughing 'cause you know it's true. Now think about the shepherd leaving these ninety-nine sheep. In his desperate search for the one, does he forget about the others? Does God forget about us in his pursuit of the lost? It sure feels that way at times, doesn't it? When things aren't going our way, when a friend leaves us, when our parents announce their divorce, when we fail an important exam. But the Scriptures teach that God will never leave nor forsake us. He is omnipresent, meaning he is everywhere at once."

Hey, I know that! Now, I thought, referring back to my quiet time earlier this morning. Had that really just been a few hours ago?

"The point is, God doesn't forget about us. When he goes out in search for the one who is lost, he keeps us and binds us together. Those ninety-nine sheep were each other's comfort and guidance while their shepherd was away. Those are the other believers that God huddles around us, to show us that we're not alone. When it feels like the Father has left us, we need to remember who he's put around us."

Ooo, that's a good point! I wrote that down.

"God reveals the recklessness of his love in this: that while we are wandering off the path, away from the believers who are trying to encourage us, and more importantly, away from Him; He's chasing us down. Like the song says, 'It chases me down. Fights 'til I'm found. Leaves the ninety-nine.' God doesn't give up on us when we wander off. No, he fights 'til we're found. In his sovereignty, he's willing to leave ninety-nine believers huddled together until he finds you.

"So who are the lost sheep, then? Maybe you always thought of them as the non-believers, or the ones who don't know Christ yet. But the lost sheep are actually just you and me when we've wandered off the path. When we want to do things our own way. When we turn our backs on God. It's not that we don't know him yet; that's not what makes us lost. We are lost sheep when we rebel against his love and say 'no, I don't need that today. I'm too busy. I've got homework. I was in a rush. I can copy someone else's notes from the sermon, I don't need to be in church.' Y'all don't even know how upset that phrase makes me; 'I don't need church to be a Christian.' But I better not get into that."

Again, I heard a few snickers. He was getting fired up again.

"Now I want you to see what the shepherd does when he finds the sheep. When he found it, he says, 'What were you doing?! Where did you go? Where have you been? Why haven't you been in church? Why are you ignoring me? Stop wandering off the path, you foolish sheep!' Oh...oh, he doesn't say that? Wait, let me read that again. 'And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.'

"Rejoice. That's what he does. When the shepherd found his sheep, he rejoiced. So how much more does God rejoice when he finds us? He's not angry with us. He's not upset with us. He doesn't scold us and say, 'where have you been? I've been waiting!' But we think he does, don't we? When we haven't prayed in awhile, we think he's going to be angry with us, that he won't want to hear from us, that we're too far gone to even talk with our Father. Yet he rejoices when he finds us. It's time we started seeing ourselves through the eyes of the Lord, instead of through our own beat-down, ashamed, sinful hearts.

"Because God loves us. Recklessly. Making no sense at all sometimes. We can't comprehend why someone would give up their Son, why someone would voluntarily die on a cross for the sake of loving us. But Someone did."

He paused, collecting his notes and closing his Bible. "I know there were some of you here that needed to hear this message tonight. You've been wandering. Maybe you're that lost sheep. So here's my advice to you: stop running. Your Father longs to be with you. He'll do everything he can to find you, and he won't stop searching until you're safe in his arms again. Do you believe that?"

He went into a prayer reflecting his message and thanking God for the first day of camp, but I wasn't really listening. I was discreetly wiping tears off my cheeks and bookmarking my page of sermon notes. I was the one who needed that message. I'd been a lost sheep, for awhile now. But it was time to stop running.