Lost and Found (lost son)

Date of Sermon Delivery: 24. December. 2023

Place of sermon Delivery:  Delhi, India

Sunday Worship Service 

Speaker: Brother Jatin 

Title: Lost and Found (lost son)

Bible: Luke 15:11-24

Key: 

11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 

12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 

14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 

15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 

16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 

18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 

19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 

20 So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 

23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 

24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

 

 

 

Merry Christmas

 

I pray that this Christmas season brings blessings to your life, to your family, and to our entire nation.

And many lost people will come to know Jesus Christ and receive new life in Jesus.

I am rejoicing a lot this Christmas season; everywhere is joy, and from this joy, I can feel that 2000 years ago, when people were waiting for Jesus, and when they were able to see Jesus Christ, receive Jesus Christ, and see the fulfilment of God's promise, maybe the joy of that time will also be similar.

 

Are you happy this morning?

The reason for our happiness is Christmas. I pray that Christmas will always remain alive in our lives, and we will remain happy like this forever.

 

Today again, I want to focus your attention on Luke 15.

I want to remind you why Jesus preached these three parables to the people.

As Jesus was teaching, there were sinners and tax collectors who came to hear Jesus, but there were the pharisees, and the scribes came to him to complain that you receive sinners and you eat with them.

In other words, when they come to you, you receive them, and when they invite you, you go to them.

 

Therefore, the Lord Jesus used two parables to make them understand that a shepherd has 100 sheep, one of which is lost.

So, the shepherd went out and searched for his lost sheep until he found it.

When he found the lost one, he gathered his friends and neighbours and said, Rejoice with me. Because my lost sheep have been found.

 

Similarly, he used another parable where a woman had 10 coins, and out of those, she lost one.

She lit a lamp, cleaned the house, and searched until she found it. When she found it, she called her friends and neighbours and said, Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.

 

The reason why the shepherd went looking for the sheep and the reason why this woman took the hard work to search for coins.

Because the shepherd cared for his sheep, and this woman valued the coin.

 

Both ran from door to door and said, Come on, we are having a party, and rejoice with me, for I have found what I had lost.

 

Jesus said likewise: I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

 

Here Jesus is saying to these religious leaders, What is wrong with you? You complain when I seek the lost.

While every angel in heaven is rejoicing, when Christ finds one who is lost and brings it to himself, the angels rejoice, but the devil complains.

 

We all know that sheep are valuable, and we all know that coins are valuable. But it is just stuff.

Because sheep and silver cannot compare with the value of a human being, and these two parables were the preparation of Jesus to show them the big one.

Which he begins in verse 11.

Even we can say this parable. Jesus is talking about the Christians who backslide, people who were with Jesus Christ, and the people who knew Jesus, who knew Jesus Christ as lord and saviour but turned back into the world.

In Luke 19:10, For the son of man came to seek and to save the lost.

Many times, even after hearing about God, people leave him and go back into the world.

That's why the Lord has come to seek those who are still lost after hearing about Him, because they did not apply what they heard from this Bible.

 

 

Today we will see only the part about going away from the father, and next week we will see going back to the father.

 

1. Self-centeredness (thinking only about yourself and not about other people) Verse 12: How do we know it? Because he only saw what he could get from his father. And he asked for what was his.

The wealth belonged to the father; the inheritance was for the father, but he says, Father, give me what is mine. Here he saw only what he could get from his father, and this is where he started going wrong.

Today, many Christians have lost their faith in Christ because their language is similar to this parodical son. I want what is mine; I want it now; I cannot wait longer; I want this only.

We believe that God blesses us, and he is a good God; we believe that he prospers his children, but if all our Christian life is based on what we can get from God, then we are in danger of doing what this parodical son was.

If I say, Lord favour me, Lord increase me, Lord heal me, Lord prosper me, and if this is all my Christian life, then somewhere I am in danger.

This son is only looking for himself, not to serve the father; he wants to take what the father has for himself.

He was self-centred.

As much as God wants us to have things, our Christian life should not be about things.

As much as God wants us to prosper, our Christian life should not be about prosperity.

Lord promotes me, Lord increases me; yes, he wants us to have it, but our Christian life goes beyond that.

This is his first problem, a self-centred son. He wanted to take something for himself; he had nothing to do with his father.

Today, a lot of believers are lost in it, because if you give them miracles without God, they will take miracles without God because they are so fixated (focused) on the gift, not the giver (God) of the gift.

 

2. Separation (Verse 13)– Next step in separation, this young man travelled to far. He separated from the father; he received from him but separated from him.

Received from God but turned away from God.

It is not too late; we need to know why I am coming to the Lord, and do I really want to feel His presence, or am I coming for those materialistic things only?

The moment these young men got what he wanted, not long after that, he separated from him.

He did not want his father's presence; he did not want his father's correction; he did not want his father's direction; he did not want his father to say, Do not do.

But he wanted blessings from his father and did not want to see him again.

He travelled far to other country.

This is the first step many people take. When they turn away from God, they separate themselves, they disconnect, and sometimes they stop coming to church because their hearts are not for their father; in the first place, his heart is for himself. When he received it, he separated from his father.

Even sometimes people separate from God and act like they have a deeper understanding of scripture; they question everything about God, everything about the Bible; they take down all pastors; they take down all Christians; they take down all churches.

Do you know what they are doing? They want to be alone; it has nothing to do with spirituality because true spirituality will connect you to God, true spirituality will connect you to his word, and true spirituality will connect you to his people.

If you are thinking you know so much and are so spiritually deep, but you are disconnected from God, his people, and his house, then check your spirituality because you are separating.

This young man was doing the same things. Maybe he was thinking he knew everything about his father and his father's house. Now he is thinking my father's house is boring; here is nothing that is beyond his knowledge. Therefore, he asked for his portion and separated from his father.

 

3. Squandering (Barbad karna)  (Verse 14)– Separation from the father leads us into squandering.

He used all that his father gave him. When he was in his father’s house, he was very rich; he had everything, but as soon as he separated from the father, he squandered.

 

Do you know?  If I take right now one lakh rupees Or I may take one bigha of land from my dad. I will be very excited about the first part of spending.

In the same way, prodigal living can be very exciting at phase one: getting a girlfriend or boyfriend, getting entertainment, having alchol, living in a luxurious bed with artificial light and music, and it seems that this is the good life because it has fun, and this is what my father has been denying.

But prodigal living has phase two, when fun has gone away and things start to change. Because he had spent everything, he spent his father’s money and his father's inheritance. shortage (scarcity): he has finished his father's money, which he had given him over a lifetime, and it is gone in a short period of time. Now there is a shortage. Everything is gone.

 

4. Slave (verse 15-16) – Scarcity made a slave live. When he had spent everything, there was a famine in that country, and he became poor.

Now he is lacking food, and he has to do something to get food.

Therefore, he joined himself with a citizen of the country, and he sent him to his field to feed his pigs, and he hardly filled his stomach because he ate from the food of the pigs.

His best friend is a pig farmer. He used to have a good friend in his father's house, but now his friend is a drunkard, gambler, and drug addict.

When he was in his father's house, he might have thought his friends were not good, not perfect, but now he feels that they were much better than that pig farmer.

 

Maybe the church building is not perfect; church people make mistakes, and sometimes they do things that will hurt you. But the best outside cannot be anywhere near the worst in the church.

Because in church people hear God's word every time, the Holy Spirit corrects them and leads them in the right way, but still he joins himself as a pig farmer.

 

The Bible says that when he was with the pig farmer, he was eating with pigs, and the saddest part was that no one gave him anything. It's like this outside his father's house; no one gave him anything. He was thinking the pig farmer was my best friend, better than my father’s house friend, but this pig farmer also told him to feed his pigs and eat with them.

 

Dear brother and sister

I want to tell you that a Christian’s life may not be perfect, but it is the best life among all the options available.

Coming to church is the best option you have, but instead of coming on Lord's Day, we went to watch a movie and found that the hero died, and we became very disappointed and depressed because my actor died. But here, someone came for us to transform us and give us new life.

The best life is with God, with God’s people in the house of the Lord.

When this young man found out that he had hit rock bottom,

So, the question is what he is going to do now because he has hit rock bottom, and next week, we will be going to find out what to do.

When you have hit rock bottom and you have messed up your life, what do you do after that? Because there is a way back to the father, and the father still wants you back with himself.

Even though so many Christians are lost in this world, or backslide from Jesus, or lost in their blessing, or lost in their success, you may think that I am lost. but I want to encourage you that God sends Jesus for everyone so that he may seek and save everyone.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10)

 

Let us pray 

Lord, sometimes we can be selfish, and sometimes we can be bored with life with you and want to be in our own lives. But, Lord, thank you for reminding us through Jesus that you love us a lot. Lord, help us that we may never be apart from your house, but Lord, we may be in your house and live with Jesus forever.

Amen