God’s Lost and Found

Good morning, Watermark. Please remain standing. We want to now confess our faith.

We actually want to read together the Nicene Creed.

We talk a lot about the faith of our church and our journey that we are on here at Watermark.

And when we read the Nicene Creed, we are connected with the journey of all the churches around, not just Hong Kong, but even around the world.

And it also connects us with the journey of the church over the past 2,000 years.

And so just as you read along, maybe you just take the words in and think about where are you on your journey and just seeing these words being true in your life.

So the words will be on the screen and please read with me.

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.

We believe Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made.

Of one being with the Father, through him all things were made for us and for our salvation.

He came down from heaven.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary and was made man.

For our sake, he was crucified on the Pontius Pilate.

He suffered death and was buried.

On the third day, he rose again in accordance with the scriptures.

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.

And his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.

With the Father and the Son, he is worshipped and glorified.

He has spoken through the prophets.

We believe in one holy, universal, and apostolic church.

We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

Amen.

The scripture today comes from the books of Isaiah and Ezekiel and the Gospel of Luke.

Please follow along in your bulletin.

All of us, like sheep, have gone astray.

Each of us has turned to his own way.

But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.

For thus says the Lord God,

Behold, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out.

As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep.

So I will care for my sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day.

Like a shepherd, he will tend his flock.

In his arm, he will gather the lambs and carry them in his bosom.

He will gently lead the nursing ills.

Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near him to listen to him.

Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying,

This man receives sinners and eats with them.

So he told them this parable, saying,

What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and he has lost one of them,

does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?

When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

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.

I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who will repent

than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin,

does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?

When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying,

Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost.

In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

This is the reading of God's word.

Please be seated.

How you guys doing?

Oh, that's terrible.

That wasn't good. That was terrible.

How you guys doing?

Okay.

Hey, if you are here for the first time or the third or fourth time, my name is Tobin.

I'm one of the pastors here at Watermark Community Church.

We have been on a journey following the clouds for places to meet as a congregation,

as we got kicked out of Cyberport for the last couple weeks.

And so the cloud has landed on ISF here, and it is an amazing facility.

So you want to, if you get a chance, thank the teachers and principals for allowing us to use this time here.

It's a great time here.

We are continuing in our journey of Luke.

We've been going through Luke for like two years.

We'll probably go for Luke for another two years, which you laugh, but it's true.

And we are talking about lost and found things today.

So actually, for the next four weeks, we're going to talk about lost and found things.

And I'm going to do something that a man should never do.

There's a cardinal rule among husbands to never disclose secrets of husbands.

But I know the husbands are getting nervous right now.

But ladies, I need to tell you, as we talk about lost and found, whether you know it or not,

your husbands are terrible primary caregivers.

And your husband has probably lost your children and never told you this because he does not want you to freak out

and never allow you to be or never allow you to have him have your kids with him again.

But that is true.

It's a statement of fact.

Husbands all know it.

We hide it because we don't want our wives to think any less of us.

The first time I lost my kid, we were in Bangkok.

And Christina, we had Rachel only one child now.

We have four, which makes it easier to lose when you have four.

And Rachel was under one years old.

She was in a stroller, right?

And we went into this.

So this is like I'm getting rid of my therapy because I'm sharing it right now for my wife who's never heard this story.

So you're experiencing marital reconciliation too right here, which is really good, right?

And conflict resolution and communication.

And I love you, honey.

Anyway, so we had Rachel in her stroller.

It was a blue McLaren stroller.

And she was under one year old.

And Christina wanted to go look at shoes, as all good wives do.

They look at shoes whenever they go into department stores.

And she kept Rachel with me.

And she said, can you watch Rachel?

And I said, well, how hard can that be?

Yes, she's a baby.

She's strapped into a chair.

No problem.

I got this down.

It's going to work perfectly.

And so I did the thing that I normally do when I go to stores is I go to a book section or the newspaper section or the magazine section.

And so I pulled up to the magazine section.

And I had the magazines in front of me.

And I basically grabbed a couple magazines.

And I put Rachel right here.

And she's still in her chair, right?

So that was my first mistake because I put her on my left side.

Now, if you don't know it, I'm deaf on my left side.

I lost my hearing in college.

We'll talk about that in another time.

And so sometimes I read lips.

And so if you talk to me on the left and I ignore you and you walk away and go, wow, what a snob.

It's not that.

It's just I didn't hear you.

But I read lips and I look at people.

So even when you're in the audience and you say, well, I can't believe you said that.

I understand what you're saying.

Just to be aware of that.

I'm learning Cantonese lip reading to be better.

But I do English pretty well.

And so I'm there reading magazines.

And I look over the side.

And Rachel's there.

And I'm reading magazines.

I look over the side.

Rachel's there.

And I don't know how long it is.

Surely less than two seconds, right?

And I look over to the side.

And Rachel is not there.

I mean, the stroller's there.

But the baby isn't there.

And so I look down and I look back.

And I'm thinking, did Christina come by and get the kid?

What happened to Rachel?

Why is she gone?

And so you have one of these moments.

His dad's like, oh, my wife is going to kill me.

And how can I be so irresponsible?

I had one goal just to watch this kid for however long to try on 200 pairs of shoes.

Anyway, so, which was very quick, I know.

And so I panic.

And I know I turn white.

And I almost want to throw up, right?

Because I'm like, okay, we're in Bangkok.

I don't know anything.

We're in this huge department store.

And I can't speak Thai.

And so I stand up.

And I start looking around.

I kind of say, okay, hard search.

And don't act like you've lost anything.

Because if Christina sees you looking around like that, she's going to know you've lost something, right?

And it's going to be the kid.

So as a husband, you learn this way of kind of looking around and just kind of.

And all of a sudden, I don't see anything.

And I'm really starting to panic.

And so I start kind of going around.

And in my field of view, I can't see her.

I see a lot of short little Thai people walking around.

And no big white Caucasian baby anywhere.

And all of a sudden, I hear this laughing.

I hear this giggling and laughing.

And it's coming behind the bookshelves.

And so I run back there.

And the Thai worker has this huge white kid in her arms.

And she's walking around.

And all the other Thai workers are, you know, hanging out with her and laughing and giggling.

And, oh, look how big this foreign kid is.

How did they get that big?

I don't know.

Look at the size of that head.

And so I'm like, what are you doing?

And she goes, she looked lonely.

And I wanted to pick her up and just have fun with her.

And so I was like, oh, my gosh.

I was like, okay, I can never tell Christina this because she will not trust me whatsoever, right?

But then after you've had like your second, your third, or your fourth kid, losing kids is just different, right?

Because you have more of them, right?

So we had this one kid.

I don't want to.

I have a sheep in my pocket, so I'm going to take them off here.

We have this one kid.

I don't want to name names, but it's the one kid in our family that has the XY chromosome.

And the XY chromosome kid, that's a boy, okay?

So he's always getting lost, right?

And always just getting lost.

And so last week he got lost after church, and we were walking down to the car, and Christina goes, well, where's the XY kid?

And I'm like, Kip is lost.

And she goes, well, what are we going to do?

I'm like, just leave him here.

He'll find his way home.

I mean, if he got lost, he has to find his way back.

He can do that.

She goes, you can't be serious.

And in my mind, I'm like, okay, three out of four is 75%.

75% is pretty good, right?

I mean, if you score football three times out of four, you get, you know, touchdown.

That's pretty good.

But I'm not.

I wasn't serious, okay?

And so we end up looking for the kids.

But sometimes losing things, why did I share that?

I don't know.

But we're talking about lost and found things, and we're talking about how sometimes things stress us out and bother us.

And we're coming to a passage today, I think, that is the heart of the gospel.

It's, I think, that it's the center of the Bible.

We went through last week chapters 14, which is a really hard chapter.

But chapter 15, it's who God is.

It's the center of God's love for us.

I remember sharing with a Muslim guy in China, one of my students, and we were talking about God.

And he said, what's God like to you?

And I read the passage today to him.

And as I was sharing, he just kind of kept shaking his head.

And he says, too good, too good, too good.

I go, what do you mean?

He goes, that's just too good.

I can't believe that God is like that.

And so when we come to these passages that tell us what God is like, often, if you're like me, the first question I ask is, am I like that?

Because I'm a Christ follower.

Am I like what God is like?

Because God wants us to reflect him and to be like him, right?

And so it's always a good thing to think about.

But in Luke 15, verses 1 through 2, we're told that all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near to Christ to listen to him.

Luke 15:1–2

Remember what happened in the last verse of 14.

It says, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Which basically means, hey, listen up, because something really important was just said and is about to be said.

And all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to him to listen to him.

And both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them.

And we see here in this big setting, in this beginning of this story, which we're going to cover for the next four weeks,

that it all begins with a party.

It begins with a meal.

And it's interesting because Jesus said, he who has ears, let him hear.

And immediately, the worst people in their culture come and sit down and listen to him.

It's not the leaders.

It's not the powerful.

It's not the rich.

It's not the influential.

But it's the worst people.

And they come and they have a meal.

And you have to realize in Hebrew culture that meals are very, very serious things.

They're incredibly important.

They're symbols of friendship.

They're symbols of community.

They're symbols of forgiveness.

They're symbols of identity.

And so Jesus isn't just eating with these sinful people, but he's developing relationships and community with them.

And as the Pharisees look at it, they are appalled.

And the passage doesn't just say he joined them as he ate,

because even a righteous Jewish person would often throw a party and invite a lot of poor people to it,

but he would never attend it.

He would just let them eat because he didn't want to soil himself with the poor people.

But it says that Jesus actually hosted this party.

He personally invited all of these people.

He didn't just find them, but he brings them in there.

And it's a big problem.

The leaders look at this and they say, how can this be?

When you look at somebody like a tax gatherer, and I know we have a couple tax people in here,

but tax gatherers were the worst people in Jewish culture.

I mean, they were the scum of society.

Cicero, an orator, a Roman guy, basically said that a tax collector was just like a prostitute.

That a tax collector was somebody who basically bought a franchise to tax his own people from the Roman government.

So today we'd buy like a McDonald's franchise and make a lot of money.

In Jesus' day, a guy, a Jewish guy, would buy a tax franchise from the Roman government,

and he would make all of his money off of his own people.

And often he would make money because he would charge too much,

or charge it more often than he should.

And we're told in Hebrew culture that tax collectors and tax gatherers,

that their reputation, their word in court was not allowable.

We're actually even told that if a tax collector came and offered money in the church,

the rabbis would come and take it and throw it outside of the church.

That he was so dirty and so disdained that they didn't even want his offering.

And then the word sinner there is also very interesting.

It means in Hebrew and Greek, people of the land.

People of the land.

It meant people who had given up on God.

It meant people that were Jewish and they were walking with him,

and all of a sudden they became disinterested in him.

And they didn't want to be with him anymore.

And when the leaders looked at this, they couldn't understand what was going on.

They couldn't understand why Jesus would be interested in those type of people

because no self-respecting person would ever hang around lost, broken, and sinful people.

And Jesus is doing it.

And when we read verse 2, we realize that all of this begins,

all of this dialogue begins because the Jewish guys, the leaders, they begin to grumble.

And as they grumble, Jesus tells this story to them.

And it's important to remember that whenever Jesus tells a story,

whenever you read a story in Hebrew culture,

there's always an assumption that you're going to identify with one of the characters.

That as you hear this story being played out,

you're sitting in the audience and you're going,

okay, which person is most like me?

Okay, I'm probably more like that person.

What do I learn from that person?

What was that person like?

What is God trying to teach me about that person?

And so as Jesus tells these two parables

and then the third one that we're going to cover in the next three weeks later,

our hope is that you would listen to these parables

and you would ask yourself the question,

who am I?

Which person most relates to me?

And as we look at this passage, I want to cover three things.

We're going to go through it quickly because we have an exercise at the end.

I want to look at sheep, lost things.

I want to look at shepherds, people who find lost things.

And I want to look at celebrations, what happens after we find lost things.

So sheep, shepherds, celebrations, lost things, people who find lost things.

And what do we do after we find lost things?

And in verse three and four, we read,

and so then he tells them this parable saying,

what man among you, if he had a hundred sheep

and had lost one of them,

does not leave the 99 in the open pasture

and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?

Lost things.

I wanted to bring a sheep in here today.

But my wife said, that's not a good idea.

Stink, make too much noise.

I said, yeah, but we have four kids.

We can just dress one of them up like a sheep

and have them come in here.

But instead, I brought this little sheep from our nativity scene.

I have to make sure that I don't break it,

but it's just this little sheep that I think will do well today.

But you know, the interesting thing about sheep

is that sheep are some of the dumbest animals in the world.

I mean, they are stupid.

Growing up on a farm, I often would talk to ranchers,

and on the ranches around us, they had cattle and sheep,

and the ranchers would tell me that sheeps

are one of the only symbiotic creatures that they know.

And what he meant by that is that they're one of the only animals

on the ranch that cannot survive by itself.

That the sheep needs the shepherd,

the sheep needs the rancher,

that if you put the sheep by itself, it will die.

It is totally symbiotic.

It's totally dependent upon the shepherd to come through for it.

Because if the shepherd doesn't come through for it,

it's going to die.

I mean, think about it.

Sheep are white,

and they graze on a green background.

I mean, they are helpless.

They can't run.

They can't fight.

They can't bite.

They can't climb.

They can't dig.

You're never going to see a football team

ever in the whole world called the fighting sheep.

You're never going to see a soccer team called the fluffy fighting sheep.

Go sheep!

Bah!

But that just doesn't induce terror at all.

I mean, sheep are helpless.

They only survive by the goodwill of the shepherd.

Another thing that I learned about sheep is that sheep like to eat.

Sheep like to eat and poop.

Eat, eat, eat, eat.

That's all that sheep do.

Sheep continually eat.

In fact, sheep, if you watch them anywhere in the pastures,

if you go with us to Israel this summer on May 16th when we do the trip,

you're going to see sheep everywhere,

and you're going to realize that sheep,

all they do is they eat.

They follow the food.

They go around, and they eat, and they eat, and they eat,

and they eat until their stomachs are full, and they're satisfied.

And sometimes I'm told that even sometimes if the sheep eats the wrong thing,

they eat so much that their stomachs just blow up.

Like clover or things like that.

And so they just continually eat.

And as the sheep is eating, it's walking around,

and all of a sudden it looks up, and it's lost.

I mean, it followed its stomach to a place where it got separated from the crowd,

and basically in fear we're told then that the sheep kind of walks around in a circle,

bat, bat, bat, looks for somebody to come help it, somebody to save it.

It looks for the pack, and then the sheep just kind of lays down.

Bat.

Bat.

Bat.

And it just continues to cry out.

And what you realize as you study animals and sheep in Scripture

is that sheep need to get rescued.

Now, the Bible talks a lot about sheep.

I mean, it talks over and over about sheep and shepherds.

I know this is going to offend some of us in here,

but the Bible says that you and I spiritually are a lot like sheep.

How do you feel about that?

The Scripture says that you and I feed on things

that we think is going to satisfy our soul.

That we walk through life, we walk through work,

we walk through the journey that God has us on,

and we eat, we eat, we eat,

and we eat all these things that we think are going to satisfy us,

that they're going to fill us up,

that are going to make us whole,

that are going to make us important,

that we fill up on things like reputation,

our family, our job,

sometimes our spiritual accomplishments.

And we keep chewing, and we keep chewing,

and we keep eating,

thinking that all of these things are going to satisfy us.

What are you chewing on today?

What are you following?

What are you munching on

that you hope is going to satisfy you,

that you hope is going to fill you up,

that you hope is going to make you complete and whole,

and that you're never going to have to eat again?

What is it?

What is it?

The rancher told me that eventually the sheep's appetite

is a thing that gets them lost.

They realize that they're lost,

and they start to cry out,

and in Montana when they cry out,

this big wolf comes along,

and the wolf says,

hey, can I help you get back to the shepherds?

No, that's the revised version of it.

That's the politically correct version of it.

The wolf sees the sheep,

and he thinks,

pork chops,

food.

But the passage here,

the bulletin here,

what we've written down for you,

it says that we all go off like sheep.

We all follow our appetites.

We all follow something that we hope

is going to give us fulfillment

and happiness and satisfaction,

and all that it does is it gets us lost.

In fact, the scripture says that in this passage,

the sheep and the coin,

they don't even know that they're lost.

They have no idea that they're lost.

They have no idea where they are.

And this passage also tells us

that the sheep and the coin

can do nothing

to fix a situation.

The sheep can do nothing

to fix its life.

How do you feel when you hear that?

You know, when the Pharisees heard Jesus say that,

they would have been incredibly,

incredibly offended.

Because in Jesus' day,

the religious people taught the people

in the congregation

to repent meant to work hard,

to be good,

to do all the right things.

And if you did all the right things,

if you worked hard,

if you were good enough,

eventually you'd become

one of the righteous ones.

And so for 200 years,

the rabbis taught that

if you did these things,

you would become one of the righteous ones.

You wouldn't need forgiveness.

You wouldn't need atonement.

You'd be good enough.

And so when Jesus told this story,

he highly offended everybody

who was listening.

Because they had their act together.

They knew what to do.

As I think about this story,

you know,

it probably offends a lot of people

in Hong Kong too,

doesn't it?

When you come to your friends

and you share with them

the truth of the gospel,

and how the gospel says

that Christ saves lost people,

that there's nothing that you can do

to un-lose yourself,

that you, like a sheep,

are totally helpless,

that you, like a coin,

are laying on the ground.

And when I've shared that

with some people,

sometimes in Hong Kong,

I've actually had people

spit on me before.

Because they don't like hearing that.

They don't like hearing that.

But Christianity says

that you and I,

we need a savior,

we need a shepherd,

sheep,

lost,

shepherds.

Verses four and five,

what man among you,

if he has a hundred sheep

and he has lost one of them,

does he not leave the 99

in the open pasture

and he goes after the one

which is lost

until he finds it?

And when he has found it,

he lays it on his shoulders.

Now,

we cannot understand this

because in the context

of what Jesus is saying,

people,

there would be so much emotion,

just like the emotion

I felt when I lost my kid

in that department store.

As he's sharing it,

everybody in the audience

would have felt

an incredible amount

of emotion

as you think of this pastor,

this shepherd,

going out and looking

for sheep everywhere.

The passage tells us

that the minute

the sheep was lost,

the shepherd left.

I mean,

he ran out immediately

to find that sheep.

The story tells us

that the minute

the woman realized

that she lost the coin,

she started tearing up things.

Now,

the coin is a very

interesting story.

The coin that the woman wore

was probably

ten little silver coins

and they represented

her dowry.

They represented

her identity.

They were something

that even the tax collectors

could not take away

because it was so important

in their culture.

And when that woman

lost that one coin,

what most people

would have assumed

was that she was unfaithful.

That she was unfaithful.

And so she was frantically

looking for that one coin

to put it back

on her headdress

before her husband

returned.

Because she didn't

want to be shamed.

She didn't want to be seen

as somebody

who was unfaithful.

And in this story,

what you see is that

both of these people,

the shepherd,

and this would have been

very offensive also

to the Pharisees,

don't ever tell a story

of a woman

being the hero

to a Jewish scribe

because they think

women are worthless.

Don't ever tell a story

of a shepherd

being a hero

to a Jewish holy man

because shepherds

are dirty.

But in this story,

both of these people

immediately get up

and they expend

huge amounts of energy.

I mean,

the search isn't easy.

They are tearing up things.

They are relentless.

They're frantic.

They are both spending time

and energy

and things they probably

don't have to spend.

The shepherd goes out

into the wilderness

and he risks everything.

He exposes himself

to danger,

to wild animals,

to bandits,

to sleepless nights.

He's risking everything

for that sheep.

And the passage says

that he pursues it

until he finds it.

The word is when.

It's not if he finds it.

It's when he finds it.

The shepherd pays

an incredibly high cost

and he goes out

and he searches for the sheep

until he finds it.

In our case,

Jesus the shepherd

gave everything.

When Christ came down

from heaven,

he gave up,

set aside his glory,

his position,

his place.

He was born in a manger

which was filthy and dirty.

He laid aside

all of these things

that he was known for

in heaven for eternity

to come look for sheep.

We're told that Jesus

gave up everything for us.

Have you ever thought about that?

Jesus gave up everything

for you.

Maybe,

sometimes I wake up

in the morning

and one of the exercises

I get is I look myself

in the mirror

and I say,

Jesus gave up everything

for Tobin.

Maybe repeat that

out loud.

Don't say Tobin,

though that's true,

but yourself.

Jesus gave up everything

for,

this is a classroom setting

so when I say it,

we'll repeat it,

okay?

Jesus gave up everything.

Jesus gave up everything

for your name.

Jesus gave up everything

for Tobin.

How do you feel

when you hear that?

I mean,

the scripture is really crazy here

because he says,

on one hand,

you are a dumb,

stupid sheep

that follows your gut

and your appetite

and you get lost.

Now,

on the other hand,

it says,

you are so valuable.

You are so special

that God withheld nothing

to find you.

On one hand,

we follow our appetites

and we eat

and we get lost.

On the other hand,

we're told that

God gave up everything

for us

to bring us here.

You read the passage

and it goes on

and it says,

not only did the shepherd

find us,

but it says

that the shepherd

put us on his shoulders

and he carried us.

Think about that.

When you look for sheep,

sometimes the easy thing

is finding them

because they're green

or they're white

in a green field.

But the hard thing is

is that the sheep,

unlike a dog

or whatever,

you come up to and say,

okay, come on.

Let's go.

Time to go.

The sheep is so fearful

that it just lays there.

It does nothing.

And so the shepherd

actually has to go down

and he has to tie

the legs of the sheep

and he has to put

the sheep over his neck

so he has 50 or 70 pounds

of sheep over his neck

and he walks back to home,

we're told in the scripture,

and we realize

that often finding the sheep

is the easy thing,

but bringing them back home

is often very difficult.

Some of you know

what I'm talking about.

because you have kids

that are lost.

Some of you know

what I'm talking about

because you have a spouse

who is lost.

Some of you might know

what I'm talking about

because you're sitting in here

going,

I'm lost.

But the passage says

that Christ

does everything,

he gives everything,

he pursues,

he seeks us out

until he finds us

and not only does he

do that,

but he comes down,

he picks us up

as we were talking about earlier,

he puts us over his shoulders

and he walks with us

all the way.

And the question

we have to ask ourselves

today guys is,

do we trust him?

Do we trust Jesus

to carry us?

Do we trust him

to carry us

through our marriage?

Do we trust him

to get us married?

Do we trust him

to carry us

through our work?

Do we trust him

to carry us

through parenting

and parenthood?

Do we trust him

to carry us

through life?

And the passage

says over and over again

that Christ is good,

he is the good shepherd

that he comes alongside of us

and that he finds us

and he picks us up

and that he carries us

and he's good

and that his arms

are always on us.

It's not that our hands

are always on Christ

because they're not,

but that our hands,

his hands,

are always holding us

and guarding us.

So we have sheep,

lost things,

we have shepherds,

people who find lost things

and finally we have celebrations

and that's the easy part.

Verses 5 and 7,

then when he found it

he laid it on his shoulders

rejoicing

and when he comes home

he calls together his friends

and his neighbors

saying to him,

rejoice with me

for I found my sheep

which is lost.

I tell you in the same way

that there'll be more joy

in heaven over one sinner

who repents

and over 99 righteous people

who need no repentance.

And when the woman

cleans out her house

and she finds her coins

and when she finds it,

verse 9,

she calls together her friends

and her neighbors

and she says,

rejoice with me

for I found the coin

which I had lost.

In the same way

I tell you in the presence

of angels and of God

there is so much joy

over one sinner

who repents.

And the scripture here says

that as God

finds us,

as God brings us back

in heaven,

there's this massive celebration.

that angels are screaming,

that people are giving high fives,

that everybody is out of control,

and that heaven is a celebration.

Now when you read the passage,

you realize really quickly

the Pharisees hated that.

The Pharisees don't like people

coming to Christ.

The Pharisees don't like joy.

The Pharisees wanted honor.

The Pharisees wanted

special treatment.

The Pharisees wanted

to save their place.

They wanted heaven

only to be filled

with special,

important,

significant people.

In fact,

the Pharisees

majored their whole life

on technicalities

of the law.

And when they talked

about the law

and they talked

about redemption,

it was all about

what you had to do,

what you had to keep,

and what you had to be.

And they developed

this whole system

of spirituality

so that when people

walked into the church

or they walked

into the community group

or they walked

into wherever

the leaders were meeting,

immediately they weren't welcomed

because they knew

they were lost.

They knew that they were dirty.

They knew that there was

no way

that they could come

to Christ

on their own

because their heart

was so lost.

You know,

we're told

that when Jesus says

this in this story here,

it's the first time

in 200 years

the people of God

actually heard

that God searches

for lost people.

Up until that point,

all the teachers taught

that when the sheep

got lost,

the sheep was on his own

because he put himself there

and the sheep

needs to get back,

he needs to get his act together,

he needs to be good,

he needs to find his way

back home.

Because if he could

find his way lost,

he can find his way

back home.

But for the first time

in history,

Jesus says no.

Jesus says there's

this huge,

massive celebration

because God

has gone out

and he's found

the sheep

and he's brought them back

and the idea of joy

is uncontrollable.

And so when we read it,

we go,

well, they're joyful,

that's nice,

they're happy,

it's exciting,

but the words

are out of control joy.

The words

are excitement,

the words are like

when you find

your lost child

that you've been looking for

for an hour

or two hours.

The words are like

when you found

anything lost

is significant

and important

and you found it,

you're out of control

and you're excited

and you're rejoicing

and you're celebrating.

And so the passage here

says that

when Christ

finds

lost people,

heaven erupts.

In fact,

he says there's more joy

out of one lost sinner

coming to Christ

than 99 righteous people

who need no repentance.

Let me ask you a question.

Are there any righteous people

who need no repentance?

repentance?

God's word says no.

But everybody

that Jesus was talking to

thought that they didn't need it.

And the passage says here

that everyone

needs repentance,

everyone needs

to be reminded

of what God

has done in their life

and that this idea

of people

coming to know Christ

is out of control,

it's a celebration,

and sometimes I think

in a church

we miss it.

I miss it.

Because I think about

the things that bring me

joy in my day.

I'm joyful

because I make my numbers.

I'm joyful

because I got a raise.

I'm joyful

because my kids

were finally obedient

and they did well

in their school.

I'm joyful

that this happened

and this relationship

was built

but when I hear about

someone coming to Christ,

often I just kind of go,

wow, that's really cool.

God's amazing.

But the passage here

says that when someone

comes back to God,

heaven erupts

in joy

and in happiness

and celebration.

And if that's what

heaven is like,

then we as a church

need to think about

how we can make

earth

like that also.

Sheep,

lost things,

sinners,

I mean,

shepherds

who go after us

and find us

and bring us back

in celebrations

what it looks like.

I want to end

with a couple points

and then we're going

to do a little exercise

for us

because I think

it's really important

for us as a church,

especially as we enter

into our second year.

This is some thoughts

I've been thinking.

I'm just going to put

them out there.

This is not how

you do a sermon,

so I'll get critiqued

later,

but there are things

that have been

on my heart

as I've been pondering

and thinking

through these things.

I want to share

this with you

really quickly.

As we look at

the story,

the sheep

and the coin

in the story,

it does nothing.

It just gets lost.

The action

that the sheep

and the coin

does is it

just gets lost

and that getting lost

is what causes

the shepherd

to leave everything

to go after it.

The sheep

doesn't earn

the right

to be saved.

The sheep

doesn't change

its life.

The sheep

doesn't get

its act together.

People can't earn

God's love

and respect

and sometimes

we walk in world

and we think,

well,

I've got to earn

God's love

and respect

before he saves me

and the passage

says that's impossible.

The story tells us

that repentance

is this.

Repentance

is being found

by God

in allowing him

to find us.

There were 99 people

that Jesus was talking to.

Everybody there

was lost.

Only one person

knew he was lost

and he was willing

to allow God

to find him.

The 99 Pharisees

didn't think

that they were lost

and so they said,

well,

I don't need

to be found.

And the passage

says here

that repentance

is being found

by Christ

in allowing him

to find us.

The second thing

that's been sticking

in my head

is that searching

for lost people

is really difficult.

Searching

for people

who don't want

to know God,

who are running away,

can often be

frustrating,

hard,

cause a lot

of time,

a lot of energy

and sometimes

we do it

and we see

very,

very little result.

It's much easier

to start a new program

or it's much easier

to build a building

or it's much easier

to do something

that we see

physically happening

but if we say

we're here

to reach out

to lost people,

that is very difficult

and takes a lot

of time.

The passage

tells us

that Jesus

who is our shepherd

became a sheep

so that we

as his sheep

can become shepherds

to the people

around us.

That's what this passage

is all about.

It's about God's joy

in finding lost people

and about us

as sheep

participating

and joining

with him.

When we started

the church

two years ago,

we preached

on Luke passage.

We talked about

Christ

in a home

and as he was there

some men

brought a stretcher

and on this stretcher

they brought

their friend

who needed

desperately

to meet Christ.

This friend

desperately needed

to meet Christ

to be healed

and so we went

through the story

and then we brought

out this stretcher

right there

and over

two years

we've been

signing names

of people

in our lives

who are lost,

who need

to be found,

people that we're

committed to praying

for.

The most amazing

thing to me

is sometimes

when we see people

come up here now

and they come up

with their friend

and they see

their name

on there

and they go

is that my name?

And the guy

goes,

yeah,

I've been praying

for you

for two years.

I'm going to pray

for us

and Katie's

going to come up

and in this process

I want you

to think about

why God

has you

here

at this church.

We talk about

it all the time.

We talk about

if you're here

just to

get your needs

met

and not

to be a part

of the journey.

There's probably

other churches

that you're

going to be

more comfortable

at

because we

want the

people,

the family

members of

Watermark

to know

that the

journey

is all about

being used

by our

shepherd

to pray

and to reach

out for people

around us.

And so as

Katie comes

we would ask

for you

in an attitude

of prayer

and silence

if God

puts people

on your

heart

to come

up

the elders

are going

to bring

it down

here

right in

front

we'll have

some markers

and we

would ask

for you

just to sign

their name

and that's

a step

of faith

for us

and what

it means

is you're

committed

to pray

for those

people

that you're

committed

to be a

shepherd

to those

people

you're

committed

to go

out to

those

people

and to

show them

Jesus

and allow

the good

shepherd

to bring

them back

to the

family

sheep

lost

things

shepherds

people who

search for

lost

things

celebrations

what we

do

when we

find

lost

things

father

we just

come to

you

today

and we

thank you

for your

goodness

and mercy

in our

life

as we

look at

these

stories

and we

consider

what you

did for

us

I can't

even begin

to imagine

or comprehend

all that

you've done

to bring me

back to

you

when I say

the words

that you

gave up

everything

to bring

Tobin

into the

family

that is

yeah

I cry

and that's

why I

cry

so Lord

we come

before you

as a church

right now

and we

just confess

our hearts

to you

we know

that there's

some of us

in here

who probably

have the

attitude

that I

have

or I

have

occasionally

and I

often

do

I have

four kids

you know

three is

pretty good

and if that

kid got

lost

well they

can find

their way

back

and I

don't need

to do

anything

about it

so father

I just

confess

that to

you

father

I just

apologize

for not

seeing

your heart

seeing how

you see

lost

people

and what

I pray

for this

church

our

church

I

confess

for our

church

as

leaders

Lord help us

never to

just come

and to

participate

and to

leave

and not

allow it

to change

us

and to

realize

that your

heart is

for people

who are

wandering

in darkness

and they

need to

know your

son Jesus

so Lord

we repent

and we

need you

Lord I

pray for

some of

us in

here right

now who

hear this

message

and they

realize that

they're the

lost sheep

and if they're

like me

they're busy

trying to

get in shape

and get their

life together

before they

are presentable

to you

and Lord I

pray that

through these

words and

through the

message

they'd

realize that

there's

nothing they

can do

to make

them more

beautiful

and expensive

and costly

to you

because you've

already done

that when you

gave your

son Jesus

for them

so Lord I

pray for any

of us here

who are

struggling

to get our

life right

and perfect

so that we

can please

you

that we

come before

you this

morning to

surrender

that

and realize

as a good

shepherd that

you've sought

us and

you've got

us and

you've put

us on

your shoulders

and you've

promised to

never let

go of us

and to

bring us

home

so Father

we come

before you

and we pray

also for this

city of

Hong Kong

what an

amazing city

where 95%

of the people

walk in

darkness

who are

busy chewing

whatever they

feel like is

going to give

them satisfaction

and hope

and meaning

as they

go on

this

journey

where we

pray that

you would

use us

as a

church

to be

beside

them

when they

wake up

and they

realize

that they're

lost

that you

would use

us as

hands and

feet

and money

and whatever

else that we

have as your

stewards

to bring them

back to your

family

so Lord we

dedicate these

names on this

stretch right

now

and we pray

that you

would change

their lives

we know

that repentance

is being

found by

you

and them

accepting it

and so we

pray for these

hundreds of

people Lord

that you

would do a

mighty work

in their

life

we love

you

we pray

these things

in your

son Jesus

name

amen

amen

sheep

more valuable

and precious

to God

the creator

of all

universe

than ever

you can

imagine

my prayer

is that you

would leave

here

realizing

that's how

God sees

you

that's how

he sees

the people

you walk

with every

day

and he's

put you

in a place

to be a

shepherd

to point

them to

your son

Jesus

if you

need anybody

to pray

with you

please don't

leave here

before you

let that

happen

we have

people who

are trained

on our

prayer team

they'll be

up here

if you're

new

please come

introduce

yourself

to the

leaders

I would

love to

meet you

and just

hear a

little bit

of your

story

of what

you're

doing

here

and how

God

has

brought

you

to the

church

here

next

week

we are

at

cyberport

so some

people

have said

they go

on the

website

they don't

know

where we

meet

it's

in the

big

banner

always

in the

center

it

flashes

sometimes

there's

two

banners

sometimes

there's

three

but it's

always

there

we'll

tell

where we

meet

and on

the top

right hand

corner

there's

always

where we

meet

also

and so

God

has us

wandering

around

for a

while

which

seems

like

that's

what

life

is

like

in

Hong

Kong

isn't

it

so

hopefully

we

will

see

you

back

there

at

cyberport

next

week

also

we're

going

into

to

become

enter

into

that

class

and be

a part

of that

hey

Catherine

how are

you

doing

and so

there's

a sign

up on

the table

back

there

on the

back

so

please

sign

up

for

the

baptism

class

and also

we don't

pass around

offerings

here

you probably

think

it's

kind

of

weird

and

we

don't

even

have

the

kiosk

that

we

normally

have

at

cyberport

but

we

do

feel

like

that

what

you

give

to

the

Lord

as an

offering

is

an

indication

of

your

understanding

of

what

he's

done

in

your

life

and so

we

would

ask

for

you

as

you

contemplate

how

Christ

has

brought

you

back

and

what

that

means

to

you

that

you

would

give

of

those

finances

that

he's

given

you

appropriately

and

that

allows

us

to

do

what

we

do

as

we

reach

out

as

a

church

and