LOST AND FOUND WEEK 1:
THE ONE
I am sure that every one of us—at some point in our lives—has lost something that we considered very valuable. If you are anything like me, when that happens you probably spend more time than you should trying to think of where you could have lost it. We retrace our steps, look in the same places multiple times, racking our brains to see if we can recall where it might have ended up. Just recently, I lost something I considered to be of significant value, and I spent a lot of time (probably more than it was worth) looking for it. Unfortunately, most of the time those things we have lost just don’t show back up. Oh sometimes we come back across them at a later point because we stuck it away somewhere but just forgot where that was…but by and large, when it is lost, it remains lost if we don’t diligently look for it.
In the Gospel of Luke chapter 15, Jesus is sharing some parables (or stories) about some things that were lost. He begins by talking about a shepherd who has one hundred sheep. One wanders off, and instead of focusing on the ninety-nine sheep he still has, he is consumed with finding the one who strayed away. What Jesus was trying to show us is that God—the master shepherd—is consumed with going after the one that is far away. Because everyone matters to God, he doesn’t wait for people to somehow miraculously find their way to him. He goes looking for the one. He pursues the one who seems close but still needs to come to him, the one who is hiding and needs to be found, and even the ones that seems far away and disinterested in him. God is relentless in pursuing those who are not in relationship with him. Jesus doesn’t wait for lost people to find their way back; he goes looking for the one.
So, here’s the good news: no one is too far gone that God isn’t looking for them. If you are the one who has wandered away, you have not gone too far. If you are the one that is hiding, you are not unseen. And if you are the one that is close but haven’t made that decision to accept God’s forgiveness and to come home to him, you are exactly who he is looking for. It is not too late. God is searching for you because you matter to him. And for those of us who have come home already, the question is, “who is your one?” Who is the person that God is putting on your heart to go after?
Just like the joy we experience when we find what we lost, the Bible tells us that all of Heaven rejoices when one lost person turns to God…because everyone matters to God. You matter to God. Your “one” matters to God. So come home, and then go after the one.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Have you ever lost something that was of great value to you? How did losing it make you feel?
Read Luke 15:1-7. What is the main principle Jesus is trying to teach his followers in this passage?
In the Luke passage, the lost sheep was not just someone else’s sheep. It belonged to the shepherd before it wandered off. What is the connotation to us as Christians when it comes to lost sheep? How can this apply to people who were not part of “flock”?
Read John 3:1-17. In this passage, the person Jesus interacts with is a religious leader. How can being caught up in religiosity be considered one of the ways that people have gone astray?
Everyone knows someone who is a “lost sheep.” Make a list of those names and (individually or as a group) commit to pray for them to come back, then commit to doing your part to help bring them back.