Reflecting the Light

Thank you, ABC Corral. That was very beautiful. Really appreciate all the efforts that went into that. Mr. Shoemaker has spent a lot of time with the students, and they have really, really come a long way. I can attest to that because they usually rehearse on stage here, and my office is right over there.

And so they're really doing an amazing job, so I really appreciate all the effort that went into that. Thanks, Mr. Shoemaker and Corral, for bringing that to us. It certainly brings praise and honor to God and helps build us up as well. So thank you very much.

Also, I had a reminder. Someone had asked about the Winter Family Weekend Bible Study.

If you go on to www.ucg.org, everything that you need to know is on there. They posted the brochure with all the information on what's happening, when, where are the seminars, all the rooms, everything you wanted to know, or even that you didn't want to know. It's all posted right there, and so you can get all that information. And if you're going to participate in the sports and that sort of thing, you should be signed up. So make sure and take care of that. And anyway, the Bible Study is 7.30. 7.30 Bible Study Friday night is when that starts at the Winter Family Weekend. So hopefully you'll have the opportunity to be over there for the Bible Study as well. But check that out. You can see all the activities before you even arrive. So a lot of work has gone into getting that organized and making a special occasion for all those that come. I've been told something like one-sixth of the church comes to the Winter Family Weekend. So it'll be a big occasion, almost like a mini-feast here. So we're looking forward to that happening next weekend.

The other day I was flipping channels late at night, trying to relax just a little bit, and came across the Discovery Channel. I don't know if anybody likes the Discovery Channel. Well, I was flipping over there. And they had kind of an interesting program. It was on astronomy.

And so I watched probably, I don't know, 15 minutes of this program. And so now I'm an expert on astronomy. And I learned a couple of things as it was going along. But one of the things that this program brought out was that the stars and planets and galaxies are kind of shining their light back on us. And the Earth, though, isn't passive in all of this. The program kind of revolved around how Earth is now staring back at all these lights that are shining towards us. In fact, the program kind of focused on, we have better eyes than ever shining from Earth, looking into the universe. And the program was about telescopes. And it talked about these just huge, these mammoth telescopes that have been built and are continuing to be built. There's the optical ones and the infrared. There's radio. There's telescopes on land. And there's some that are built on the sea. I mean, it's just amazing to hear about some of these things I'd never even thought about before. And they were talking about tracking down the different things that are out there in the universe from things like dark matter that fills most of space. And trying to find, of course, their biggest goal is to find some type of extraterrestrial intelligence. But it was very interesting to see how time has progressed. And the discoveries that they've made when it comes to these giant telescopes has just catapulted science into this, really, a new era of discovery.

I know for years and years when we lived in California, the Palomar Telescope was one of the biggest. It was the biggest in Southern California. And it had a mirror, something like 17 feet, that could take in all the light from the nighttime sky. And that was, for decades, one of the biggest telescopes ever. And of course, now they've got telescopes that it's not just one.

They'll have sets of telescopes that work in series, together, so that they can see clearer and better. So they may have two telescopes, or four telescopes, or ten, or up to 64 different instruments that are all gazing at these different spots in the universe. So they can see clearer, they can see farther, they can see more precisely than if they were there all by themselves.

This program talked about one that was in Hawaii. And actually, there's two of them. It's called the Keck telescopes. Anybody ever hear of the Keck telescopes? So there's two of these things. And the surfaces, the light-gathering surfaces aren't like 17 feet in Palomar. They're 33 foot in diameter. I mean, these are monstrous telescopes. And these two work together and kind of overlap so that these distant objects become so much clearer. And then as the program was coming to an end, it came to the big finale. And the big finale was all the information about the V-L-T. Now, this is a very scientific term. I don't expect that you'll be able to understand it. The V-L-T. Do you know what that stands for?

The very large telescope. I thought, hey, I get that! I can understand that. And guess where the V-L-T is? It's in northern Chile. It's in northern Chile. And it's the very large telescope. It's even bigger than the two in Hawaii. And so these telescopes, especially this one in Chile, is able to detect light at the 30th magnitude. Now that I don't understand, but when they explained it on the program, they said it was like seeing the glow of a cigarette in Hawaii from Boston.

Wow. That's pretty amazing. I mean, it is phenomenal what we can begin to see. One of the scientists, his name was Robert Boyd. He's an astrophysicist. He said something interesting. He said, New Mammoth telescopes are focusing on the dawn of the universe. Another fellow, his name was Christopher McKee, another astrophysicist, said that mankind's humanity is posed to take a giant step forward in understanding the universe and our place within it. Now that one kind of struck me. We can understand our place within it. As I began to think about that, this cutting-edge technology draws us into the glimpse of distant galaxies, of all the stars and all the images, all the moons and planets that are out there.

And yet, I wonder if we focus on the dark matter that's within us. Because that's what we need to do as God's people. Because what it began to remind me of is as you put these various telescopes together, the bigger the mirror, the more clearly we see. And so whether it be one giant one or several that are put together, the bigger the mirror, the more clearly we see. I began to think that's a biblical concept, isn't it?

The bigger the mirror, the more we're able to see. James wrote about this, James 1, verse 22. Notice the way James puts it. I'm sure he didn't know anything about the Keck telescope or the VLT or Palomar or anything like that. But he did understand about mirrors. James understood people. He understood us and how sometimes our vision isn't very clear. James 1, verse 22 says, Be doers of the Word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. He says, if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he's like a man observing his natural face in a mirror.

For he observes himself, he goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. Short-term memory loss. We don't remember. But he who looks into the VLT, the spiritual VLT, which here is the perfect law of liberty. We look into that gigantic, godly mirror. And what do we see? When we look into that and we continue in it, and it's not a forgetful here but a doer of the work, it says this one will be blessed in what he does.

So you see, if we're going to be right with God, if we're going to be aligned with Jesus Christ, if that image of Christ is going to come clear in our life, we've got to have a mirror. And we've got to have a light source. We've got to be able to see clearly. So how clearly do you see? I know sometimes seeing clearly is a struggle, isn't it? If you wear glasses at all, have you ever taken off your glasses and set them down? Then you can't find them. And it never happens to anybody. You take off your reading glasses and now they can't see.

They can't find them. And then sometimes the embarrassing thing is, they're sitting right there. Maybe they're raised up on top of your head, but there they are. They're right there. But you can't find them. You can't see them. Maybe that happens to your keys or other things as well. Suddenly you set them down and they're actually in the ignition. That's where they are. But it's a good reminder for us that if we even see clearly, maybe it takes bifocals, maybe it takes trifocals.

It's interesting to imagine what we see and how we see, or what we don't see, can define how we perceive ourselves. How do we see ourselves? James said we need to be looking in that great spiritual mirror, that VLT, that spiritual telescope. He seemed to understand that we are very visual people. We are sight-oriented. He understood that as we see ourselves, we have a tendency to become that. We tend to fulfill that image. Now are we seeing the reality, or are we seeing something that really isn't there? You see, he points to the one that looks in the mirror and then walks away and forgets what it was like.

It doesn't really perceive reality. You see, that's a different kind of mirror, usually in combination with something else. We call that smoke and mirrors. We don't see it because that's an illusion. Sometimes we look in the mirror and it's an illusion. We're not seeing the reality. And we need God. We need His guidance. We need His direction because we can't do it on our own. We can't see clearly on our own. We're striving. We know we need to improve. And James begins to focus us on how we can detect those spiritual black holes, how we can detect that dark matter, maybe those blind spots within us, and how to move from where I am to see things much deeper to where I need to be.

From where I am in a physical perspective to where I need to live in a spiritual perspective. King David understood quite a bit about this. He wrote so many songs that were related to telescopes. Well, maybe not telescopes, but at least about seeing ourselves clearly. Psalm 51 is one of those. Psalm 51 and verse 1, he gives us a perspective so that we can see clearly. Do we really see ourselves as clearly as we need to, especially when it comes to our spiritual eyesight? Psalm 51 verse 1, David writes, Have mercy on me, O God, according to your lovingkindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies. And that's the kind of God we have.

We have a loving God. We have a kind God. We have a God that is tender and merciful and loving toward us. And so David can say, Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. Well, how did he get to that point? How did he get to this point to be able to write that song?

What kind of mirror was he looking into? You see, he must have gotten to a point in his life that wasn't like James. Looking in the mirror and not seeing it, walking away and forgetting all about it. Couldn't have been like that. You see, when he looked in the mirror, or when that mirror was brought right in front of his face and he had to gaze into that mirror, he saw himself for who he was. He realized he was the man.

He was that man, that sinful man that needed God's tender mercies. Do you see why? He says in verse 3, I acknowledge my transgression and my sin is always before me. So when he looked in that mirror, he could see the reality of who he was. And that wasn't who he wanted to be. And if we're going to see ourselves clearly, we've got to have some light.

We've got to have the light of the Word of God and His way shining on ourselves, and plenty of that light. So we see clearly. Because David came to a point in his life, he saw himself clearly and how much he needed the sacrifice of Christ to cover his sin. We've got to have that light. It's true of distant stars. We're going to see those distant stars. We've got to take in as much light as possible to see them clearly.

It's the same with us. If we're going to see ourselves as we are, we need to have as much of the light of God shining on us. We need plenty of that light. The more of that light we let in, the better we're going to be able to see by. And then what did David do? Once that light shone on him and he could begin to see, he had to do something about it.

He couldn't be like that example in James, just walk away. He couldn't just walk away. He had to act upon what he saw. And in a way, he's applying some of those principles of the way telescopes work. Taking the light and reflecting it and focusing it so that it could be focused on what needed to be seen. What image had to come clear. Otherwise, the whole thing is a waste of time. It's interesting that as some gazed into the universe, if you look back in history, not everyone saw things the same, did they?

Remember some of your science lessons? Remember the scientist Ptolemy? When Ptolemy and his followers looked at the moon and the sun, they looked at the earth. You know what they believed? They believed the earth was the center of it all. Now, they never thought of magnetars and black holes. They never thought of dark matter and neutrinos. They had no concept of the hypervelocity stars that are out there.

They had no clue about any of those things. It was all about the earth as the center of everything. Now, later in history, Galileo and his students blasted the Ptolemaic vision to bits, threw them back into the dark ages where they belonged. Because what did Galileo discover? He discovered that the sun is the center. The sun is the center of our solar system. And so that's a heliocenter concept.

And so it took science a giant step forward. It was all about the sun and centered everything around it. Of course, Christ had it right to begin with. They overlooked Christ. What did Christ say about the center of the universe? Christ said the universe is theocentric, God-centered. God should be the center of everything. And the only way we're going to find that out, the only way we're going to begin to reflect the light that God wants us to reflect, is that we've got to hold up that mirror, the mirror of God's Word, the mirror of the image of Jesus Christ, and let that light shine into our lives.

Not too many pages from where we are in the Psalms here in Psalm 51. Psalm 119, the famous Psalm, says you've got to have the light shining on you. It doesn't say exactly that way. But Psalm 119, 105 says, Thy Word, the Word of God, is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. So how much do we read God's Word? How much do we study God's Word? How much do we live by the Word of God? You know, Paul told Timothy, all Scripture is God-breathed. It is the inspiration of God that has recorded His words for us.

And it's good. Scripture is good. It's a light to our feet. So it can reprove us, it can correct us, it can direct us, it can guide us, it can teach us. It's good for instruction in righteousness. Is it a light to our path? Well, only if we let it shine. Right? It's interesting when you have a flashlight, it can be a light to your path. But what do you got to do with it? You got to make sure the batteries are good.

And you got to press that button. You got to turn that button on. You got to let that light shine. And so we've got this flashlight before us. But if we don't turn it on, if we don't open it up, if we don't study it, if we don't apply it to ourselves, how can the Word be a lamp to our feet?

How can it light up our path if we're not studying it and putting it into practice, if we're not allowing the mirror of God's Word to reflect and shine on us? We've got to be doing that. We've got to be doing it. Proverbs 3 speaks to this. If you want to hold your place in the Psalms, we're going to come back here in a minute. Just past the Psalms, we've got the Proverbs. And Proverbs 3 speaks about the mirror that we hold up and the light by which we see our spiritual reflection.

Here the instruction is given. My son, don't forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands. He says, because we obey, because we don't forget when we look in the mirror of God's Word. Verse 2 says, the length of days and long life and peace, they will add to you. We'll begin to understand what God's plan is all about. Verse 3, let not mercy and truth forsake you.

Bind them around your neck. We're putting this word into practice in our lives. He says, write them on the tablet of your heart. Make them something real. And if they're at your heart, they're at your core. That means we cannot live without it, without a heart. You cannot survive. So God's Word, His law, His commandments, they're on our heart. And so he says, verse 4, look at the impact of this. So you'll find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man. So he says, verse 5, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean to your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him.

He shall direct your path. Don't be wise in your own eyes. Don't forget what you look like spiritually. Don't forget how much you need God. Fear the Lord. Depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones. So the more of this mirror of the Word of God we hold up to ourself, and we gaze into it and we study it and we look at it. Do you think we'll have a better perception of who we are?

Will it show us the kind of people we are so that we can begin to write them more fully on our heart and on our mind, so that we can begin to lean on our own understanding less and less and put our trust and our faith and our hope in God, so that we're walking by our own power less and less. And more and more, we're allowing God to lead us, to guide us, to direct our steps. He's lighting the path! Are we going to follow that light? Are we going to go off into the darkness on our own? You see, if He is the lamp unto my feet, then I mean I've got to follow that light. I can't go off on the dark path of my own thinking, my own reasoning. I've got to follow the one that's lit up. That's God's path. That's His direction. That's His guidance.

There's another amazing song that David wrote over in Psalm 36. Psalm 36 is a song that deals with this concept of this great spiritual mirror that God has given to us.

And in Psalm 36, David realizes the focus that we all need to have. At the beginning of this song, he says, this is an oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked. He's talking about sin. He's talking about sin and sinners. He says, there's no fear of God before His eyes. He flatters Himself in His own eyes.

When He finds out His iniquity and when He hates it, the words of His mouth are wickedness and deceit. He sees to be wise and to do good.

Boy, that sounds like James, doesn't it?

Saw it. Yeah, it was there. But I don't have to do anything about that.

That's sins and minors. Boy, if you knew how far I have come and where I used to be, this sin isn't. It's not that big. It's not that serious. It's not that bad, is it really?

No, it can't be that bad. And so as David talks about this sin, you notice the eyesight? The eyesight. This person has lost their spiritual glasses. Can't see it. There's no fear before his eyes. He looks in that mirror and sees that he's pretty good. Things are pretty good, not too bad.

It could be a lot worse. But we see it doesn't measure up to the standard of God. It doesn't measure to the standard of the image of Christ.

It's not allowing the light of God's Word to shine so that you can clearly see. You see, it's okay. It's not that bad.

And yet David condemns that focus. He condemns that kind of eyesight. He says that's not the way it's supposed to be. In fact, if you skip down just a little bit, look down to verse 5. "'Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches the clouds. Your righteousness is like the great mountains. Your judgments are great and deep. You preserve man and beast.' So he begins to focus on the awesomeness of God, on the amazing attributes of God and how badly we need God's light to show us the way, to guide us in the path, to lead us, and how we have to be humbled before Him and allow God to direct us. So he says in verse 7, "'How precious is your loving kindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of your wings.' I'm not trusting my vision. I can't count on what I see. But through Your Word, through Your light, now I can begin to see clearly. I can trust Your light." It says, "'They're abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house. And You give them drink from the river of Your pleasure. For with You is the fountain of life. In Your light we see light.'" An interesting way to put it. "'In Your light we see light.'" So how can we claim to be God's people if we're not basking in that kind of light? If we're not striving more fully to live in the light, then we can't claim to be God's people. We're more in the category of the beginning of this song, aren't we? And so we've got to bask in this light. We've got to seek that light. We've got to allow God's light to shine on us and that giant spiritual mirror to help focus us so that we can be directed to put His way more fully into practice. And that's the goal that God has for us. That's what God wants. He is loving and He's kind. He says that we're precious in His eyes. He can't wait for us to step out of the shadows into His light. But boy, isn't it our nature to kind of keep that one foot out in the dark? And yet God doesn't want us to do that. He wants us to have eyes to see. Now, if you've ever owned a telescope, they are kind of interesting, the way that they work. They're designed to help us to see. Now, if you just take a real simple telescope, like a little refracting telescope, it's just like a long tube, right? If you've ever watched the old pirate movies, they're out there with their telescope-looking things. Some of the more fancy ones even today aren't much different than some of those. Yeah, maybe they put the eyepiece on the top and you've got the big tube extending below. But it's interesting how they work. Because basically, in a simple telescope, there's two lenses. And that first lens is the objective lens. And it is a magnifying type of a lens. It magnifies. And the other one is usually the one that's near that eyepiece that we can see as well.

And so these light rays come in to the big end of the telescope. They come through that objective lens. They come in straight lines. At least that's what science tells me. I can't see that, but they say that's the way it works. Well then, what happens to it? Once it comes into the telescope, the way that that lens is designed, that it takes those straight rays and it focuses them. And very conveniently, it focuses them at the focal point.

The focal point. And so that light comes in and is all directed to one point within that telescope.

And then it passes on the other side to the eyepiece where it puts those light rays back parallel again, but yet magnified much, much, much larger. Now if you think of that simple telescope in a spiritual sense, where do you think you would be in that spiritual telescope?

Right at the focal point. You would be right at that point where all of the light of God and His Word is focused. Isn't that really what this song is telling us? God's focused on us. God loves us. He cares for us. His way, His Word comes through and is focused in our life. His way should pass right through us, giving us spiritual insight, giving us spiritual understanding, giving us the ability to apply that Word and express it. Live it. Do it. Because that image then that comes out of us, that all the world sees. When they look into the eyepiece of our life, of our telescope, what's that image that's passed through us and now is reflected? It better be the image of Jesus Christ. Isn't that the spiritual image that's supposed to be focused? It is. It is. We've taken in. We've taken in God's Word. We have basked in the light of the way of God. We understand now. We've got to focus that within our lives as God's directed it to us out of His love and His mercy. And now out of us, that light needs to be realigned. So that less of me is shining out and more of Jesus Christ. And His image is what people see. Isn't that an interesting way to think about it? That's what God wants for us to be that light in the wasteland of darkness that's out in this world. We're to shine Jesus Christ. In fact, the Apostle Paul wrote about this concept. It's over in 2 Corinthians 4, right at the very beginning of that section. 2 Corinthians 4. It's an interesting letter that Paul writes to Corinth because in his first letter that we have in our Bibles, Paul was very corrective. They were a church that was off track. They were God's people, alright, but they had gotten so far from reflecting that mirror image of Jesus Christ, Paul had to correct them. Paul had to hold up this Word of God in front of them so that they could see it and see themselves for what they were. Then we get the second book of Corinthians, and he continues to guide them and show them how much they have grown and how much they have changed. And here in 2 Corinthians 4, he writes something interesting. He says, since we have this ministry, since we've received mercy, we do not lose heart. Okay, where did that start? It didn't start with our light. It started with God's light. That's where it began. Then he goes on. We have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. We've got some pretty big words there. Paul is saying, listen, we've been honest. We've been straightforward in preaching the truth. We're not trying to hide anything. We're not trying to cover anything up. We've done things openly and in your sight. We're striving to reflect God, in other words, is what he's saying. But verse 3, he says, but even if our gospel is veiled, if people don't see it clearly, he says it's veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the God of this age has blinded. That's Satan. Satan has blinded this age. Who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

Of course, we know there's going to come a time that that light will shine on all. Everyone will have an opportunity, everyone, but not everyone right at this very moment. And so he goes on about that special light that is shining already on us and what we need to do about it. Verse 5, he says, we don't preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. It's all about God. It's about the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what it's about, not about the Apostle Paul or any other minister for that matter. Verse 6, he says, for it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

You see, that's it in a nutshell, isn't it?

You see, isn't that the focus that he wants us to have? God's commanded the light to shine out of darkness. And you can apply that in so many different ways, can't you? We can apply that as a congregation, that we have to have a light that's shining to this world. So collectively, it applies to the entire church that we need to preach the gospel to the world.

That has to happen. That light needs to shine out of the darkness.

But you know, we've got to bring it down to a personal level, too. We, as individuals, have to be a shining light. And unless we're allowing God's light to shine into us to begin with, how can we ever refocus that light so that Christ is living in us and living through us?

You see, we can't do that.

And so that leads us to that question. How much are we allowing Christ to shine through us?

How much more are we like Christ today than last year, the year before?

You see, it's more and more of the light of God in His way, His attitude, His kindness, His love, His peace, His patience. How much more of that is shining in our lives today than ever before?

And see, if we're not on that path to greater light, you know, if we've got stuck and the batteries are starting to dim, we better get those batteries changed. We better allow this light of God's Word and His way to shine in us.

Because otherwise that path is going to be darkened.

We're going to lose focus.

And ultimately, then, we lose our way. So God doesn't want us to allow that. He doesn't want that to happen.

And so He keeps reminding us, encouraging us, and directing us, and guiding us to allow that great spiritual mirror to direct and guide us.

Now, there's a couple of interesting parables that Christ gave that kind of tie into this whole concept.

They're found over in Luke, Chapter 15.

Luke, Chapter 15 is about focus.

Well, it may not seem like that when you first read it.

But certainly for today's purposes, it's about focus.

There's a couple of parables here in Luke.

There's actually three right in a row here in Chapter 15.

And in Chapter 15, of these three, they're really all about being focused on finding something.

Sometimes they're called lost and found parables because they're about finding what you're looking for.

The first one's about a lost sheep. The second one's about a lost coin.

The third one's about a lost person, the lost son. But these parables really are about focus.

And we have to realize, as these are recorded for us, there's multiple levels that these stories were intended to teach us.

And they're directed in different ways as well.

When you look at this particular passage, Luke is recording for us the words of Christ, the stories of Christ. And as he records these for us, there's that first level we can begin to understand it.

God is writing to us. Luke's recorded these things for us specifically.

And this happened at a certain place in time.

Now, it's also intended for us to understand that who's actually speaking these words.

You see, it's not just Luke recording these things for us today, but that Jesus Christ Himself was speaking this.

And He was speaking specifically, as it says here at the beginning of chapter 15, verse 2, it says, The Pharisees and the scribes complained. This man receives sinners and eats with them.

So we understand that Christ Himself was speaking to the Pharisees, to the scribes, to the tax collectors.

That was the audience that He was directing this to. Not only for us to learn a lesson from, but specifically to them as well.

And then there's also a third aspect of these parables we should understand.

There's characters within each story. And they're interacting with each other, or interacting with things.

And there's something to learn on that level as well.

So we've got those three things written directly to us. Christ's words to the Pharisees, then the scribes and the tax collectors, and the story themselves and the characters within those stories.

You see, the reason I say this is because sometimes we'll read these stories. We jump right through them so quickly.

We look over the depth of the meaning of the Word of God and what's in a simple little story, a simple little parable, a little narrative.

And yet there is so much here that we can reflect on in that great spiritual mirror.

Now in this first one, let's notice what it says here. It's kind of interesting. It's the parable of the lost sheep.

Verse 4 says, And when He's found it, He lays it on His shoulders, rejoicing. And when He comes home, He calls together His friends and neighbors, saying to them, And then He says, I say to you, Christ jumps in at the end of the story, and says, I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

Interesting story that Christ told. You see, when we first begin to look at this, it's a little hard to imagine in some ways because to us you think about a shepherd, and it doesn't seem to be the highest form of employment in the world. And yet at that time, this was respectable. This was something that was very familiar to everyone. There were generations of shepherds. Your Bible records them for us, doesn't it? You talk about Abraham, you talk about Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David. These were all shepherds. The ultimate shepherd of the sheep, of course, Jesus Christ Himself. But the fact is, Christ isn't talking to the shepherds here, is He? He's talking to the Pharisees. He was talking to the scribes. What were they concerned about? Status. It's all about who I am. I'm better. I'm superior. It's all about how great I am. So can you imagine a scribe or a Pharisee trying to identify with this lowly, dirty, dusty shepherd? Well, that would be a little bit of a challenge to begin with. And yet, these elitists, Christ focuses them on an ordinary shepherd. And He focuses. What's the focus of the story? The sheep's lost. It's about being lost, isn't it? It's about being lost. It's about this sheep that this one little sheep had disappeared. It had disappeared, and this shepherd leaves the flock. He leaves the ninety-nine, and he has to find it. Who's the shepherd in the story? What drives the shepherd out into the wilderness? He is determined. He's almost obsessed with finding this one little sheep. He's got to reclaim it. He's got to have it as a part of the flock. He's got to have it. He's not going to give up until he finds that one little lamb. Now, it's interesting that number. Ninety-nine he left. One ran away. Ninety-nine plus one, at least when I used to be in school, was a hundred, right? The number of one hundred is a significant number. It's a whole number. It's a complete number. In fact, if you look up the number one hundred, traditionally it's a number that's desired. This is a perfect number. It's a number, in fact, that shepherds love to have one hundred sheep. Now, why would that be? What's so great about it? What's the difference? Ninety-nine, a hundred, close enough, right?

Well, if you were a shepherd with one hundred sheep, that meant things were fine. You were secure. You were well off. You were maybe even well to do. In fact, if you looked up various scholars that write about these things, the number one hundred was a plateau that they loved to reach. It was a significant number. In fact, some of the scholars say it wouldn't be as bad for a shepherd who had seventy-five sheep to lose five of them. That wouldn't be as big a deal as somebody that had a hundred and lost one. Kind of an interesting perspective, isn't it? But here Christ, speaking to the scribes and Pharisees, he points to that shepherd's focus.

That shepherd can't live without that one sheep. He wants them to identify with that determination.

So instead of judging the shepherd to be foolish, which you might be able to say, well, what's wrong with him? He's leaving ninety-nine all by themselves and running off afterwards. He doesn't tell us that he put them in his brother's care and said he did anything. He just said he left the ninety-nine and he went out after this one. That's pretty surprising. And yet Christ is getting them to understand this long, long, lonely search for this one little sheep. He wants to understand that. And so as he tells this story, as he comes to the end, I think we could all begin to identify with this shepherd how badly he wants that sheep back. And when he gets him back, it's almost like, well, we're all friends with this shepherd. We're part of the gang. We're part of your neighbor. And so now we've got to celebrate. We've got to have a party. He's found. We're exuberant. We're excited about the recovery of this lost little sheep. And so the scribes and the Pharisees are supposed to put off their highfalutin attitudes and identify with the shepherd and that lost sheep. Because Jesus' words, His story, gives them a new focus. And as we look at that focus, we see who's behind that focus and what's important about that focus. Who is looking for that lost sheep? Well, God's looking for the lost sheep. We're focused on the one that is recovered. And He's recovered in order to make another point. You think about people instead of sheep. As we strive to follow God, Christ wants us to understand, where does it begin? It begins with God. God's been looking for us. Is God going to give up on us? Is God going to be satisfied with 99? Or does He want us a part of the flock? Does He want us to reflect the mind of Christ? Does He want us to be like that great shepherd? Of course He does! And so repentance, the story tells us, becomes possible because we're found.

Now if you imagine this shepherd is out there, what do you think he's doing? He's probably calling to his sheep. Most good shepherds have a name for all of their sheep. He's probably calling out to that sheep. And you know what's interesting? That sheep had to have wanted to be found.

You thought of it in that way? The sheep had to have wanted to be found. I had a situation in our family one time that was kind of like this particular parable. I had come home from visiting, and our kids were really little at the time. Our daughter was about two years old at the time. I came home and my wife wasn't there, but her grandmother and great-aunt were visiting us at the time. And so when I had left and then when my wife had left, only our little daughter was at home at the time. Our kids were at school during the day. I had come home for lunch, and here's great-grandma and Bernice watching the kids.

I realized, where's Prisca? Where's our daughter? And Grandma said, oh, she's right over there in the other room. I went in over in the other room, and not in the other room. Grandma, are you sure? Well, maybe I forgot, and I put her down for a nap. She's probably about two years old at the time. Go over to the crib? Nope. Not there. Oh, great. So now I'm starting to become frantic. Great-grandma's probably, what, about 80-some at the time? Eighty-four or five, maybe? Somewhere in that range? Oh, great. Did you forget, Grandma? So then I start running all over the house, and I start calling out, Prisca, Prisca, Prisca, where are you? And no answer, no answer. I run out the back door. We had a fenced-in yard at the time, so I knew she couldn't get away too far if she's out there. I'm yelling, Prisca, I'm running around. I run behind the little shack we kept our lawnmower in. No, she's not there. You know, and nothing. And I'm yelling, Prisca, nothing. So I was like, oh, no! Maybe she walked out the front door, and great-grandma didn't see her. So then I run outside, and I'm calling down the block. We lived on a cul-de-sac, so it wasn't a real long way. And so I grabbed the closest thing I could to at least get me down the block and still be able to hear her if she would answer me. So I jumped on one of the boys' bikes. Of course, there were about five at this time, so I'm running down the block.

And so you can imagine, I've got my jacket and a tie on riding this teeny little bike that's like for a five-year-old, calling out, Prisca! Prisca! Where are you? I'm running up and down. No answer, no answer. I'm going as fast as I can. My feet are going like a million miles an hour. I'm calling and calling. Nothing! And I couldn't believe it. And so I thought, maybe I just didn't look good enough in the house because I knew she loved to play hide-and-go-seek. So I run back into the house and I'm calling, I'm ripping up everything. I'm looking under the couch, I'm tipping over the chairs, I'm ripping apart all the closets. Nowhere. So I run outside in the back and I thought, well, maybe I just... maybe she was, you know, behind the tree or something. I'm calling out to her. And as I run out in the back yard, I call her name and I listen really carefully. And I heard this little, hee hee hee hee hee.

And sure enough, right next to the door that led out into the back yard was one of these little hedges, a little bush. And she had been playing behind this bush with a little wooden spoon, I think it was, digging up the dirt, having a blast, hiding from Dad! Now the funny part was, after it found her, it was like, oh, unbelievable, this was wonderful. So when my wife got home later that afternoon, guess where I was? I was laying on the bed going, ahhhh! I was totally out of it. I thought, well, if it was bad enough losing my daughter, wait till my wife found out, then I was really going to be in trouble. And so we tried to keep a better eye on her after that. But it was such an amazing reminder. If you're lost, you have to want to be found. She didn't want to be found. She wanted to have fun. She wanted to have fun and play hide and go seek. She didn't quite understand how frantic I had become trying to find her. I mean, she heard me calling, but she was sneaky. She was hiding. She was hiding. She didn't want to be found. And I think of that every time I read this story, is that as a lost sheep, you know, as individuals, as people of God, who have a tendency to stray.

Is that fair to say? Is that fair to say we have a tendency to stray? We don't keep God's way perfectly. That's our goal. We want to become more God-like. We want to put on the mind of Christ more thoroughly. But you know, sometimes we do stray. But you know, we have to want to be found. We can't say, hey, I'm comfortable hiding behind this bush, this bush where I don't have to really look at myself for really what I am, because I am pretty good. I'm doing okay, aren't I, God? And we don't want to see it. We don't want to be found. And so, no wonder God keeps calling out to us. God keeps striving to find us. And He is so ready and able to grant us repentance. And so when He finds us, and when we respond, His attitude is one to celebrate. He wants to give us repentance. 2 Timothy 2 talks about that. God grants us repentance. And that's the action of those of us who are lost, who step off the path. Our reaction to God finding us, just like this little sheep has found, our reaction has to be, all right, I've got to align myself with Christ and repent and change, and go the right way, change my mind and my attitude.

And so, this is such an amazing story because God wants to find us. And He seeks us out. And He's calling out to us because we're worth it to God. And that should make us feel good. In fact, it kind of brings us back to the mirrors all over again because this lamb was lost. When was the shepherd trying to find it? In the dead of night? Probably not. It's probably in the day. Probably in the daytime. If you're going to find something that's lost, it's going to take light to find it. So this shepherd didn't wait until night to go looking for the sheep. He looked for it while it was day. In fact, that's the way the second parable begins as well. Look at Luke 15, verse 8. It's the parable of the lost coin.

It says, And then Christ says, God does the finding. We do the repenting because God grants it to us. And so what is our reaction when God finds us? When God opens our mind to an area that we need to grow in, that we need to see ourselves for who we are, do we put it off? Do we forget about it?

Or do we respond the way this woman responded? She was probably a little too sweaty, a little too underclass for the Pharisees to worry about. But here Christ is challenging us. He was challenging them, even by a woman! Which the Pharisees would have said, oh, yeah, really low class. Right? Because they were a male-dominated world. And yet, Christ points to her and her dedication to find that one coin. She was going to turn her house totally upside down to find what was missing. And you might say, well, why? Why was that so important to this woman? Well, here we're using the number 10. Number 10 is kind of like the number 100. It's a perfect number. It's a complete number. Sometimes it's called the number of divine order. Think of the things in the Bible that are 10s, the 10 commandments to begin with. You see, that's a wonderful whole number. It represents the totality, God's presence as well, unity. So this woman had to find this coin. Now one might also speculate, why so important? Well, it could have been a part of a tradition. There was a tradition at this time that young women would have a bridal necklace. And guess what that bridal necklace would have been composed of? Ten coins. Ten coins. So if you lost one of those coins, you lost part of your dowry, you lost part of that bridal necklace, you would be incomplete. You wouldn't be whole. You'd feel lost. You wouldn't be fulfilled. Things just wouldn't be right. So it's interesting, the woman and her joy is the amazing part of the story. It's not so much the coin. Is Christ so concerned with, well, she lost this valuable coin. No, it's not how much the coin is worth. That doesn't seem to be the heart of the story at all. It's focused on the woman. And how once she finds that thing, she calls everybody, I've got it, I've got it. Come on, let's have a celebration. And so why is this coin so valuable now? Because she's got it. She found it. She found the coin. And I think Christ is telling us the same is true. Our value is because God has found us, isn't it?

Now, what's our reaction to that? What's our reaction to that? That's the question. 1 Timothy 1, verse 12. I'm going to read this little section in the NIV. 1 Timothy 12 through 17. I wonder if the apostle Paul had any of this in mind as he wrote this section of Scripture. He says, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that He considered me faithful, appointing me to His service. And boy, that can apply to all of us, that God has called us. He's opened our minds to His truth. He's made us a part of the flock. He's appointed us to serve. 1 Timothy 13, even though I was once a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent man, I was shown mercy.

Who was searching? Who was looking? Was Paul found? He said, I used to act in ignorance and unbelief. But verse 14, he says, the grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and the love that are in Christ Jesus. In other words, no man can come to me unless the Father draws him. No man can come to the Father but by me, Christ said. They're the ones that do the finding, don't they? They're the ones that do the calling. They're the ones that open our minds. Verse 15, it says, here's a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst. Paul thought himself as the chief sinner. But, not going to stay that way, verse 16, for that very reason I was shown mercy, so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, the honor and glory forever and ever.

Amen. And so you see, Paul says, I was the worst of sinners. He's saying, I'm still a sinner, but God has shown me so much patience, so much amazing, beautiful patience that He's given me an opportunity to repent and show how great He is, that He receives the glory. He receives the honor because of what He's done in not only Paul's life, but our life as well. And so he says, because God is so great, because He is eternal, because He's immortal, because of His awesome nature, my life, Paul's life, your life must be an honor and a glory to God.

And those parts of our life that don't bring God glory, the parts of our life that don't bring God honor, we've got to more effectively shine this word into that crevice of our life so it becomes clear, so that we can change and we can grow. So just like those astronomers that use telescopes to study the planets and the stars, and they go up on mountaintops and go out into space to do that, you see, we understand God's looking at us.

He's always looking at us because He loves us so much. And so God tells us through these parables, through Paul's writing, through His word, that now's the time. Now's the time to take a clear look at ourselves, because you know our mirrors can be tarnished. They can be smudged.

They can be fogged up. Maybe they can be pocked with the marks of our own sin. And yet it's time to polish those spiritual mirrors. It's time to polish them by reading the Word, by studying the Word, by praying more effectively and thoroughly, by worshiping God in the ways that He wants to be worshipped, because He loves us. So now's the time to refocus and redirect that great spiritual telescope that God's given us.

Maybe Psalm 27 says it best. Psalm 27 at the very beginning of that particular psalm. David records the words to one of my favorite songs that we often hear at the feast. It begins, The Lord is my light. Remember hearing the feast choirs sing that song? It's a great song, a wonderful song. And it focuses us on our spiritual mirror, on the image that we're projecting. David wrote Psalm 27, verse 1, The Lord is my light. He's the one that's found me. He is my salvation. Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the strength of my life. That's where I find my power. That's where I find my direction. That's where I find my focus. That's where I direct my energies to reflect God. He says, When I do that, of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes?

They stumble. They fell. Though an army might encamp against me. Maybe a spiritual host of wickedness, like Ephesians says, that we're up against, comes to meet us. Well, when the Lord is our light, what does he say? My heart shall not fear, though war may rise against me. He says, In this I will be confident. Not of his own abilities, not on his own skill, not on his own accomplishments, not on his own gifts, not on his own talents.

He says, The Lord is my light. Verse 4, One thing I've desired of the Lord, that I will seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord, all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.

You see, our goal is to shine that light of God. Because we are precious coins to God. We are worth searching for when we're lost. And to God we're like a precious little lamb. We are worth seeking out to God. He wants us to be in his fold. And so if we're going to be found by God, we must open up to his light. We must take responsibility for the wrong that's within us and allow his light to reflect. Because we can have growth. We can have Christ-like character. We can have peace, knowing that we belong to the Good Shepherd. And so we must turn our attention to spiritual astronomy. Because the more we see, the more we know. The more light of God that we gather in, the more light of the character of Christ we can reflect. So even though that VLT, that very large telescope, can see the most faint objects in the universe, we can understand by that physical example, we can take heart in the fact that our very large God continues to beam His light on us. So we have been found. Let's make it our goal to reflect that great light of God. Check your spiritual mirrors. And if we do, we can magnify our awesome Creator.