The God Who Seeks Us Out

Beautiful melody and beautiful words. I do want to let you know where we're going to be going in the next couple of weeks. Next week I'm coming back down.

We are going to deal with Romans 2 and the message from God that we can derive from that in service.

Remember, a couple of weeks, we just landed on the island. Remember that message? The beachhead message.

Well, we're going to start moving further, not into the interior of an island, but the interior of ourselves.

That's going to be a couple of messages down the line. I have to do some homework on that before I give you the rest of that story.

I'm going to share with you the message that I gave last week to Cincinnati.

I may have, and I will not apologize, I may have given that over the years here. I'm not sure.

If you were asleep when I gave it, it'll be all fresh and new to you anyway, so that's good.

But I'll share a thought with you.

If I had one message to give, and that's why I gave it last week in Cincinnati, this is the message I would give.

If I had one last sermon to give in my life, this is where I would go.

Let's go to Luke 19 and verse 10.

In Luke 19 and verse 10, we go to Scripture, and then we'll go to point, and then we'll go to story.

But when I say that, from verse to point to story, I remind you of something I said a couple of weeks ago, or several messages ago when we covered another subject in like vain, that so often we will just simply look at a Scripture.

And a Scripture should not stand alone. Can it stand alone? Of course, but should it?

Because once we find a verse, once we find a Scripture, I challenged all of us that if we really want to have a rewarding Bible study and a deeper relationship with God, just don't stay with the verse. Ask God to find you the story that goes with the verse.

Just Luke 19 and verse 10 tells me this.

For the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost in the verse.

That may not be your favorite verse. You may want to roll out to Romans 8.31.

You may want to go to Romans 8.37 about the love of Christ.

We might go back to Hebrews as we did before, that if you are for me in that sense, that I will not worry about man.

There's a lot of favorite verses. So you say, well, Robin, what is it about this verse that I should learn for?

That's a good question, and I'm going to answer it.

Luke 19 and verse 10 is basically the specific purpose verse for all of the book of Luke.

You and I remember in Days of Yore, where we'd be in either Ambassador Club or Spokesman's Club, Graduate Club, and the power of a specific purpose statement, SPS, so that people really understood why you were up there taking in oxygen, sharing time with them, and what they should take away.

This is the power of the Spirit that came to Luke.

When it was all said and done, this man that had been a Greek doctor and he came into the church community and tried to, in his physician's mind, diagnose why the Christ had come.

It was for this specific reason.

For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

Everything else in the book of Luke is wrapped around this one verse.

It leads to it, sticks with it, and moves from it.

But that's only a verse.

Why is this important for you and me on this Sabbath morning to understand this point?

For as we understand this point, we understand the God that we serve, why he is, and what he is doing.

And not only what God is doing, but what God is allowing us to do as a congregation, as we welcome those which have been lost and now found in our midst as they come down that corridor.

And we welcome them, and we bid them enter.

And we embrace them spiritually, emotionally, and maybe even, yes, physically, as Jesus Christ himself would.

Join me in Luke 15, if you would. Come with me if you would. Let's open up our Bibles. Go to Luke 15.

For it is in this one chapter that I would like to share and magnify what is in Luke 19 and verse 10.

It has been said that Luke 15 is the essence of the Gospel. It is indeed the good news within the good news.

It is why Jesus Christ came. And then as we move through this, we will come to a final point that I hope that you will take and think about as you go home today.

As we move into Luke 15, allow me to share something. It is three stories.

You have heard all of these stories at given times and given ways in different messages.

But therein lies the challenge of preaching and communicating to people.

For so often, we move right into a chapter and we take out a story or take out a verse apart from the context and the overall meaning. And what we're going to find as we go through Luke 15, you say, can you do that in the time allotted? I think we can.

Because we'll just let the words of Jesus Christ speak rather than Robin Weber.

And understand as he comes to point what it has in store for you and for me.

We come to Luke 15, verse 1, then all the tax collectors and the sinners near to him, drew near to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes complained, saying, this man receives sinners and he eats with them.

As we notice the introduction here, we notice that Jesus is speaking. He was indeed a magnet.

He was an incredible teacher. He was most likely an incredible personality.

And you never knew quite the crowd that he would draw, other than when you see instances like this, that he took them from left to right, clear across the radio dial, as far as where they were in the spiritual community.

Tax collectors, those parasites that helped Rome collect from a conquered people.

And the sinners, whatever their sin might be, drew near to him.

They felt that they could have contact.

They didn't feel a gulf between this rabbi and themselves. The drawing near.

You've got to remember that Luke writes as a Greek, as a doctor.

He's very sensual. He speaks of a tangibility that comes by having handled people, body language.

And they draw near to them. They feel comfortable listening to this man from Galilee.

But on the other hand, verse 2, in the Pharisees and the scribes, we might say the church folk, we might say the religious folk of that day complained, saying, this man receives, and that's in a sense, opens up his arms to those that are sinners and eats with them.

It's interesting that the Greek really bears out in a sense when you see that word complained that it was actually almost like subdued threatenings. You might even sense that there was a growl in the tone and the tenor of what came out. And there's a reason.

Barkley, the Scottish commentator, alludes to that. And I'd like to share just for a moment out of his commentary on Luke, where it says, it was an offense to the scribes and the Pharisees that Jesus associated with men and women, who by the Orthodox were labeled as sinners.

The Pharisees gave to people who did not keep the law this general classification.

They called them the people of the land. They were a complete barrier between the Pharisees and the people of the land. To marry a daughter to one of them was like exposing her bound and helpless to a lion. The Pharisaical regulations laid it down. When a man is one of the people of the land and trusts no money to him, take no testimony from him, trust him with no secret, do not appoint him guardian of an orphan, and do not make him the custodian of charitable funds.

Do not accompany him on a journey. A Pharisee was forbidden to be the guest of any such manner, to have him as his guest. He was even forbidden, so far as it was possible, to have any business dealings with him. It was the deliberate Pharisaic aim to avoid every contact with the people who did not observe the petty details of the law. Obviously, they would have been shocked to the core at the way in which Jesus accompanied with people who were not only rank outsiders, but sinners. Compact with them would necessarily defile. We will understand the parables that we're going to talk about in a moment, friends. If we understand this, if we remember that the strict Jews said not that there will be joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, but there will be joy in heaven over one sinner who is obliterated before God. That's why it is so powerful when you open up in Luke 15 and verse 1, when it mentions the aspect here that they drew near to him.

Contact. Openness. Jesus did not avoid their murmuring. He spoke it. What's interesting about Luke 15 is that there are these little words that come up, and you might want to jot them down as we go along so you won't fall asleep on me. They're just little words, so they won't take too much mental energy. So often we hear things about people. We talk about people, but there is no so in our language, no comeback to speak of what we believe. Jesus did. So he spoke this parable to them. What man of you, having a hundred sheep if he loses one of them, does not leave the 90 and nine in the wilderness? And he goes after the one which is lost. Notice, until he finds it.

Until the job is completed. It's very interesting that Jesus drew upon an analogy that everybody in Judea was familiar with. It was an agrarian community. There were many sheep in that area, and the shepherd would work during the day and might come home during the evening tied with his companions. But if Eli or Jacob or Joshua did not come home with his uncles or his brothers or his cousins, and one man was missing, they knew what was going on. They knew it instinctively as generations before them. There was a sheep that was missing, and they knew that Eli or Joseph or Jacob or Moses was out there. And he would not come back until he found the sheep. Whether the sheep was dead or alive, he would bring the sheep back. Just like the old cowboy days before, because the sheep even dead would be worth something, would it not be worth more alive. But he would not come back until the job was done. They knew that their kinsmen was out there, and it was dangerous. The Judean wilderness could be cragget, it could be rocky. There were valleys, there were rifts, it would be cold at night. They knew what the man was going through as he looked for the sheep until it was found. And notice what it says then, and when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders. Now, it's very interesting. The language is so colorful that the shepherd bends over, and he either picks up the lamb or he picks up the sheep that take low energy, and he lays it on his shoulders. There is the embrace, there is the contact, there is no gulf between the shepherd and the sheep. No matter if the sheep has wandered off and strayed away, and the sheep started it, the shepherd goes out in the field, he knows the sheep has lost, he embraces it. And notice what it says. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. It's just as much a thought of you ladies that have had children understand the, shall we say, the two-bolt of delivering.

And going through, I'll use that word, transition period.

And wishing that you could be anywhere else. Why doesn't somebody else, you look at your husband usually at that point and say, well, why don't you have this baby? You started it.

Now you know what Susan told me three times, just teaching.

But when the baby is born, everything goes out the window for the moment has arrived and you put that little baby on your tummy for those of you that have been there. And the mother does not think of the pain, torture, that she has gone through. This is the conveyance of scripture, the joy that is within the shepherd's heart, that he has found that sheep. And when he comes home, here comes Eli, here comes Jacob, here comes Moses, they're coming down the hill. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.

The rejoicing takes over the search. The search is erased. The joy is unbounded. It is not just simply an individual joy. It is to be spread with everybody. You share the good news.

Everybody rejoices. Everybody moves into the street in that little village, maybe perhaps Bethlehem or another little village in the Judean hillside. Everybody comes alive. That which was lost, that which strayed off on its own has been found and brought back into family. I say to you, verse 7, Likewise, there will be more joy in heaven, more over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance. Now, let's understand as we go from sheep to human hearts that God does not like it when we stray from him. He takes no pleasure in our strain.

But the joy of when he goes out and seeks after us, and we are reunited with him. No matter what we have done, no matter whatever has occurred, no matter what's occurring in your life today, no matter what you've done this week or this year, maybe you've been straying as an individual, as a child of God. I want you to remember something, that if you are lost right now, and if you are straying, and if your little legs, your heart is weak because you have gone too far away from your God, here's what I want to remind you, the power of the story. God is seeking and searching you out right now. He's on the job. He has not forgotten that you are out there.

He knows exactly where you are, and he wants to rejoice in that recovery as much as he, as when Jesus said to Peter, on that night before he died, I know what you're going to do, Peter, you're going down. You're going to stumble. You're going to stray. But when you return, feed my sheep.

But Jesus, being the good rabbi, takes it a step deeper. Now he's going to go from preaching to meddling, and that's good preaching. He takes it down. We start it with, so now we go to verse 8, and he says, or what woman having ten silver coins if she loses one coin does not light a lamp sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it and when she has found it calls her friends and neighbors together saying rejoice with me for I have found the peace which I lost I know all of us have been there at one time or another where we have lost something we've left a charge card how do I know this we've left a charge card at a restaurant or at an airport you go to reach for it shmoy yikes and you begin to go through those mental exercises I share with the congregation last week you ladies I'll bring you in for a moment have you ever seen a man loses keys or loses wallet they go to pieces some of you I see some have never lost it that's good I'm just I'm just a person of the plane I'm sorry I have and you start you know you do this go oh you go to reach I've lost weight you go like or you know you go and there's not that jingle of the keys and most men will say honey what did you do with my keys I mean this Adam and Eve thing never ends does it ladies now I know I have the women on my side I've lost my wedding ring I don't have time for that story today I think we spoke about more important things during the announcement period I'll give that to you next time I'm down but you notice for some reason or another that this woman lost something precious we can like it today keys wallet wedding ring this was perhaps a piece of a dowry it was perhaps an heirloom an inheritance that in one sense it was in the family's possession it could have been the margin for success or failure a savings and she goes through the entire house back in those days the the homes were dirt and on top of them would be reeds and and different things and she basically as you ladies can do and you've done it in your own homes you turn that house inside out you know you're and there was just a little light coming in the windows back then were maybe just one window maybe 18 inches wide one slit and that woman was you know making dust looking for that if any of you have ever lost something that's really precious including children of you know at times when you've you've lost your little one at walmart or you've lost your one at disneyland you know there's just a panic that comes over a parent where are they especially thinking about this world today and what it's like and oh when you you find them you don't know whether or not to ball them out or to hug them and just kiss them this was the feeling of the woman she could not keep a secret i have found it she came out she had to share it now it's very interesting because we're going to go into the third story simply this let's understand the with the christ genius of the savior he starts with a story that deals with one to a hundred are you with me the one she lost out of the hundred the one versus the 99 good story but now he narrows it down to one to ten he's distilling us towards where he's really wanting to get this audience then and now to listen to what is very interesting before we move to the third story now is simply this the lamb or the sheep and the lost coin could not return on its own it had to what had to be sought out but now we're going to move to another story that's going to affect each and every one of us here because we go from one to a hundred one to ten and now we deal with the hardest things in life the one-on-ones the interpersonal family relationships whether it be in a physical family or maybe in a spiritual family and it's going to require different methodology because at this point what's going to be required is not so much going out after but waiting and having patience and welcome walking on something let's talk about it let's get into the story as it builds then he said a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father give me a portion of goods that falls to me and so he divided to them his livelihood now there's nothing really wrong with this if you ever heard the story before the the uh the younger son basically cashed in at the atm and got his inheritance up front of which was normally a third the two-thirds of the inheritance basically went to the firstborn and you can find that in the book of deuteronomy and the law but he said give me the portion of goods that falls to me now oven by itself that's not a bad thing we have young people you can imagine what happens it's like the first time maybe you gave your child twenty dollars and you say try to make it stretch you know over the month and about an hour later they come home with a gizmo we've all been there all done that as parents i'll be glad it was twenty dollars and not uh two hundred dollars live and learn so the young man went out and it says so he divided and not many days after the younger son verse 13 gathered all together and journeyed to a far country and there wasted his possessions with wasteful and or prodigal living but when he had spent it all there arose a severe famine in the land that he began to be in one and then he went and he joined himself to a citizen of that country and he sent him into his fields to feed swine now you can't understand this is being spoken to the jewish religious community and of course swine you know the you know the pigs uh the unclean stuff just shows to the level of depravity by his own actions that the young man had come to and then he went he did that verse 16 and he would have gladly filled a stomach with the pods at the swine aid and no one gave him anything now verse 17 let's center on this for a moment if you've not been able to follow scripture today let's look at this but when he came to himself one of the great starting points of a real life when he came to himself and that's a point that each and every one of us ladies and gentlemen have got to come to when we have basically laid down all of our good thoughts all of our good reasoning all of our self-justification all of our ideas according to oil all of our own personal righteousness that sometimes we mistake for good righteousness and we come to ourselves we're flatter than the flattest pancake we come to the recognition that we cannot simply do it on our own but when he came to himself how many of my father's servants have bred enough despair and i perish with hunger i will arise and i will go to my father and i will say to him father i have sinned against heaven and before you and i'm no longer worthy to be called your son make me like one of your hired hands now it's very interesting as we look at the scripture let's understand something some of you have been there i see mr tabor out here today i'm sure mr tabor and many of the guys here during world war two or those of you that were in korea or vietnam at times got under attack and the enemy was coming at you and you say oh lordy if you will get me out of this one i'll tell you i'll go to church with my ma and my grandma the rest of my life i'm a new man dodging the bullets i'm a new man i will be this way and of course by the time they hit the next port town you know something happened in between but notice what this man said he says i not the other guy not like the scribes and the Pharisees looking at the people of the plain i i circle that i i have sinned against heaven and against my family do you notice the priorities there are you with me the priorities he didn't start with that which is down below with a father with a mother with a brother with people that he knows he directed his repentance at the very highest highest levels so often the reason why we are not making the spiritual progress that god is truly desirous of us making is we're just simply working with that which is down below or even as we go up to the middle of the mountain of our problems we're kind of dealing with it at the middle rather than starting at the highest levels just as david did in psalm 51 against you lord only have i send so often we'll look at situations like marriage we have an issue between a man and a woman a husband and a wife and all we see is one another all we see is what we're getting or not getting out of receiving out of a marriage and we've forgotten that it takes three to tango in a marriage with jesus christ being the head of the relationship and so if we just simply look at one another and we apologize we kiss we make up when you go another day and we have not dealt with things up at this level recognizing that marriage is a holy covenant we're only satisfied with dealing down at this level what do you think the chances are that we're going to come back in a couple weeks couple months or a couple years and still be dealing with the same thing i challenge you today to think about what is confronting you in your life whatever that might be and at what level are you dealing with are you dealing it with it the highest levels bringing god in as a partner recognizing that you live before him to glorify him or are we only looking at our wives or our family members so we get some chocolate chip cookies next morning and thinking that's progress notice what happens here he says i'll go back and he arose and he came to his father now here's one of these nifty words that pops out of luke 15 we dealt with the so we dealt with the or what would a woman do we dealt with the then notice verse 20 but when he was still a great way off his father salman had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him the total contact the full embrace leading back to verse two of these that wanted to ostracize and move away from people that they did not think god was worthy of spending time with and the sun said to them notice verse 21 very very important and here lies the the power of the story and the sun said to him father i've since i've sinned against heaven and in your sight did you notice how the story didn't change he was saying the same thing that he was saying down in the pig pen that he had sinned against heaven and father because now he was embraced by his daddy he was not changing his heart's story he recognized the flow of constructivity that to build a life for himself he had to start at the highest levels rather than the mid-level or the lowest level and the sun said father i've sinned against heaven and in your sight and i am no longer worthy to be called to your son i no longer have anything to put on the table he'd come to himself i love the interchange of words that Luke puts down here but the father said to his servants bring out the best robe put it on him put on a ring get some sandals on his feet all of these the robe the ring the sandals were all signatory of honor and restitution and restoration full embrace of the sun back into the family that the sun was not just simply going to be a a hired servant or a slave he was going to come right back and be exactly what he was you know we say in shoes why shoes in antiquity slaves oftentimes did not wear shoes to bring this up to point in america in that unfortunate chapter of slavery in our country that there's an old negro spiritual that says when all god's children have shoes sometimes until you have been there you do not understand the significance of articles like shoes even until that day and the christ tells you and me today as members of the san diego congregation that who has ever offended us and comes back in like manner like this son did that we give him a robe that we give him a ring that we give him shoes reminds me of the story of when after the civil war when not after but just as it was winding down and you know it's only a matter of time for the south to be fully defeated and come to unconditional surrender that somebody went to abraham lincoln and said mr president what will we do now that the south is defeated neighbor hamlin can thought about it for a moment and then he said we will act as if they never left we will act as if they never left verse 23 and bring the patot cap here and kill it and let us eat and let us be merry for this my son was dead and is alive again he was lost and he is found and they began to be merry verse 25 now remember all these words that creep out of pop out of verse 15 the dens the butts the oars the sows the now an older son was in the field and he came and he drew near to the house it was easier for this son to draw nearer to a building than to his own family member and he came and he drew near to the house and he heard music and dancing so he called one of the servants and asked what what's going on here just as much as these good church folk had done in verse two what's going on here don't you realize who these people are yuck how could you and he said this is the servant your brother has come and because he received him safe and sound your father has killed the fatted calf notice the possession your brother it's going to be powerful in a moment or two but the brother was angry and he would not go in therefore his father came and he pleaded with them and so he answered and said his father lo these many years i've been serving you i have never transgressed your commandment at any time and yet you never gave me a young goat that i might make married with my friends and the man's heart is revealed it was not out of desire it was only out of duty so that he might have a party so that he might get the goat so that he might receive rather than totally give his heart is revealed he was just simply abiding by the letter of the law dotting the i's crossing the t's looking at what he was doing rather than somebody coming out of the winter's night and into the light of the gospel and into the embrace of god and you never gave me a young goat that i might make merrieth my friends but as soon as this son of yours he could not even speak that it was his brother this son he was not able to reach out not touch the name not touch the relationship this this guy the slave was able to make the connection that the brother had not because the cancer of hatred and misunderstanding that was in his heart and he's devoured your livelihood with harlots you killed the fad at calf for him verse 31 and he said to them son you are always with me and all that i have is yours it was right that we should make mary and be glad for your brother was dead and he is alive again and he was lost and he is found why is this my favorite message to give to any fellow christian because it offers me the greatest encouragement to tell each and every one of you my dear friends that whether you have strayed and or whether you have been careless or whether you have rejected our father above he's there he's searching and he is waiting one jewish rabbi made this comment about the christ and about this teaching that comes out of luke 15 that it reveals something that is revealed nowhere else in the religions of antiquity you know so often we talk about how jesus came to reveal the father we've all seen that verse we all know that verse and we have our theological underpinnings about that and so often we just simply stick with this strict construction rather than recognizing what that's talking about one of the major reasons why jesus christ came to this earth is to declare to you and reveal to me that we have a god that is seeking us out that is searching for us when we're lonely when we're in despair when we're tired when we've strayed when we've been misled when we've led ourselves by our own thoughts in our own ways away from the ways of god isn't that a beautiful thing what better news could i give you than we worship we live towards a god that seeks us out i've told this story before and i'll make no apology of repeating it as i conclude is about the story of john smith and his son the quaker father during the civil war many of you have seen the movie friendly persuasion gary cooper back before the civil war the son that runs off this is not the same story but very similar but this john smith had a son and the quakers are pacifist folk they do not go to war but you know whenever any war rises what is it about boys they want to go off and they want to get into the fight and he was in conflict with his father about this for some time and finally the son left and he went out father said he's growing up he's got to do what he's got to do and he went out but as the days and the weeks the months went along the father was plowing in the field one day and he knew that there was something wrong we've all been there as parents or grandparents as women women have this intuition about things they just knew in their guts something was wrong he knew that something was wrong with young john he put down his plow and he began to walk towards the nearest battlefield and he came up into the battlefield and into the tents and the general was coming back and he said general i'm here to find my son and general being tired and exhausted from the battle said there are still men that are out there we were not able to bring them all back but i'll tell you what i'm going to give you permission to go out in the battlefield and try to find your son so mr smith went out into the battlefield and he began to comb that battlefield which was laid with hundreds and hundreds and thousands of men going up and down looking for his own flesh and blood seeking and searching him out as much as the stories here are of the lamb and of the coin and as he went down he go john smith thy father seeketh after thee in the quaintness of the quaker speech and he kept on going up and down and up and down and looking he began to become frustrated darkness was coming upon it but he kept on he was looking for his son he would not give up until he found him he said john smith thy father seeketh out after they it got dark kept on coming john smith thy father seeketh out after the a voice could be heard coming up from the dead and the wounded i wish that was my father it went on john smith thy father seeketh after thee a voice came out father i'm over here i knew that you would come he picked up his boy who was bigger than he was straddled him over his shoulder took him home whoever you are on this sabbath day whether you have strayed from god been careless or simply rejected god i want to share something with you he knows where you are he's seeking you out he loves you you say how do i know that because he gave his son for us end of story the most beautiful story the most wonderful message that i as a christian communicator could give to you on the sabbath day is you have a god on the job no matter where you are no matter where you are he's coming your way it's really been a privilege being here with all of you today look forward to fellowshipping briefly before i head up north