"The Lord Who Never Gave up on Us"(Luke 15:1-10)

Luke 15:1-10
 Every one of us has had the experience of losing something and the frustration of trying to find them. This is especially true when something is of great value to you.

 Jesus gives us the parable of the lost sheep and the woman who lost one silver coin. As we read the parable, we may find it incredulous that someone would leave 99 sheep to look for one sheep or why this woman spent so much time and effort for one coin.

 At the time when Jesus told this parable a man who owned 100 sheep would be considered rich. It is likely he had other wealth as well. It is also strange that when this man would have noticed his one sheep was missing.  Obviously, it would have been at night when the sheep are returning to their pens. To go out at night to look for one sheep in the evening and in the dangerous wilderness with wild animals is foolish. But because the man understands ownership and responsibility. He is the good shepherd and not a hired hand.

 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.  He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
John 10:11-13 ESV
 
The man sees the sheep not as being lost but destroyed. Like the tax collectors and sinners who are destroyed by Sin, the good shepherd could not sit back and watch those who belong to him be destroyed.
 
“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?  And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
Luke 15:4-5 ESV
 
We are created in the image of God and belong to him. We are his because we bear His image.
 
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Genesis 1:26 ESV
 
Jesus fought for us. Just like he fought for Matthew and Zacchaeus. It is the same with us. We belong to Jesus and He will persistently pursue you.
 
The same is true with the women who lost the one coin. To her, the coin was of great value.
 
The economical imbalance still makes no sense. The owner calls for a celebration over one sheep. The cost of the celebration would have been far more than the actual cost of one sheep. For God, the joy of one turning back to Him is worth it. God desires for us to be back in His safety.
 
 What is expected of us is that we need to listen to His voice.
 
1.       We belong to God, so He will not give up on us.
2.       We are of value to Him.
3.       God will not give up on us until we are returned to him safely.
 
And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
Luke 15:5 ESV
 
God does not punish or lash the sheep but puts it on his shoulders to carry it. This is contradictory to what farmers or shepherds would do.
 
 God carries the sheep because the sheep does not how to get home. As sinners we may have fallen away so far away from God that we have lost the strength and will to return home. Sometimes, we are so damaged by our sins that we cannot return to God on our home. Like a sheep that was lost and injured, the only way it will get back home is if the shepherd seeks out the sheep to find it and bring it back to safety.

Farewell, Pastor Donald

 

"The Ministry of The New Creation"( 2 Corinthians 5:17-21)

 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

 

In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, Paul reminds us that we are saved in verse 14 through the death of Christ.

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;

2 Corinthians 5:14 ESV

However, it is not enough just to receive a new life. Paul also emphasizes that we must not be content with our salvation, but we also need to reconcile. This brings up the question, "How do we reconcile and with whom?" For us to be ministers of reconciliation, we should reconcile three broken relationships.

1. We need to reconcile with this world.

 

And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

Genesis 3:17 ESV

God created the world, and it was good, but through our sins it has become broken and twisted. All the good, marvels and wonders of this world can be twisted by our rapacious appetites and turned into vices and sorrow because sin has entered this world through us. We can reconcile with the world by doing our best in our work. Although we might not succeed in worldly measures, so long as we do our best we reconcile.

2. We need to reconcile with other people.

that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 5:19 ESV

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Matthew 22:37-39 ESV

The second broken relationship involves our neighbors. Jesus explained that our neighbors were anyone whom we have met in our lives. This kind of reconciliation requires us to forgive others no matter how they have offended us. In addition, we need to help those who are in need and to love to all those in our lives. We need to be like Jesus in this respect.

so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Romans 12:5 ESV

We are all different, and, as Christians, we must be cognizant of this. The Gospels were written by four different people and all had their different perspectives, but they still gave the same message. The Church is a congregation of people from all over the world with Christ as the head, and without constant forgiveness, the Church will suffer.

3. Reconcile with God.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Genesis 3:8 ESV

After Adam and Eve sinned, they hid from God. This is normally what we do also. We hide from God when we have sinned because of shame and fear. Yet God wants us to remember him and love God. To return to God and be loved by God.

Let us be Ministers of Reconciliation by loving our God as a new creation and loving our neighbors as ourselves.

"Spiritual Lockdown" (Jonah 1:1-17)

worship songs

How Great Is Our God

Still

I Give Myself Away

Mighty To Save

One Way

I Give Myself Away

I Give Myself Away 

CCLI Song # 5873382 Sam Hinn | William McDowell

Chorus

I give myself away

I give myself away

So You can use me

(REPEAT)

Verse 1

Here I am

Here I stand

Lord my life is in Your hands

Lord I'm longing to see

Your desires revealed in me

Chorus

I give myself away

I give myself away

So You can use me

(REPEAT)

Verse 2

Take my heart

Take my life

As a living sacrifice

All my dreams

All my plans

Lord I place them in Your hands

Chorus

I give myself away

I give myself away

So You can use me

(REPEAT)

Bridge

My life is not my own

To You I belong

I give myself

I give myself to You

(REPEAT)

내 삶을 드리네 
CCLI Song # 7190056 Sam Hinn | William McDowell

Chorus

내 삶을 드리네

주가 쓰시도록

나를 드리네

Verse 1

나 여기 섰으니

내 삶은 주께 있네

내 안에 주 소망 흘러 넘치기를 원해

Verse 2

내 마음 내 생명

산 제물로 드리네

모든 꿈 모든 계획 주님 손에 드리네

Bridge

내 삶은 주의 것 나 주께 속했네

내 전부를 주님께 드리네

"Friends, Listen to God Today"(Hebrews 3:12-19)

 Hebrews 3:12-19

In Hebrews 3:12-19, the author reminds us to urge one another continually and ourselves to stay to close to God and check our hearts to make sure they are not evil. We need to be careful that sin is not entering our lives and controlling us so that we are separated from God. Not only that we need to do this now. The author makes an effort to put emphasis on “today”. This is for the audience to see that today means right now and the present.

¹²Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. ¹³But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Later in Hebrews the author again will tell the audience that we need to continue to meet even though our circumstances may be dissuading us from gathering.

²⁴And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, ²⁵not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:24-25)

There are three situations which we will look at in which believers are tempted to stop meeting one another.

1.      Persecuted Church – a letter exchange between Governor Pliny the Younger and Emperor Trajan give modern readers a glimpse of the persecution around 111 AD. Christians could be interrogated, tortured, and even executed for their beliefs; however, Christians could be pardoned if they worshiped the Roman state sponsored gods. Like our time today, you can be a Christian and avoid persecution, so long as you worship the gods of today.

2.      Troubled times – Personal hardships may put believers in a state of mind when they start to doubt that God is with them. Church splits, congregational in fighting, pastoral scandals, and leadership failures may also push members away or discourage them from meeting. Finally, the acts of God like the current pandemic or natural disasters can prevent congregations from meeting.

3.      Apathy – Perhaps the most disturbing and devastating attack on Christians is apathy towards their own spiritual state or the needs of others, especially brothers and sisters in Christ.

The author goes into the importance of listening for God’s and responding in obedience to God and summarizes Psalm 95:7-11. 

Hebrews 3:15

As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

The rebellion that Psalm 95 is referring to is the same place of rebellion in Exodus 17:7

 

7For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,

The author points out that willful disobedience to God and unbelief will prevent you from entering heaven similar to what happened to the Israelites lead out of Egypt, but who never entered and lived in the promised land because of their hardened hearts.

18And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19So we see that were unable to enter because of unbelief.

The author makes his point that we as believers need to keep meeting, keep getting right with God as well as encouraging other believers to keep doing these actions as well. The consequences of not doing this will result in us not being with Jesus now and in the future. We have gone this far with our walk with Christ. Let us keep walking with Christ today.

2021 Zoom Small Group Study