Lost and Found – Part 4 — A ‘Time With God’ Devotion

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Transcript

Here to have a little time with God together with you. We’re talking this week about an encounter Jesus had with the Pharisees of His day who were very unhappy with the fact that He was spending so much time with sinful people, people who needed God. They thought it would rub off on Him, but He wanted to minister to those people. And so He tells three stories to help the Pharisees understand His heart and where He’s coming from.

The third of those stories goes like this starting in Luke 15:11. Jesus said, A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me. This was a massive insult, basically saying, I wish you were dead so I could get my money now. And amazingly, the father divided his wealth between them. And not many days later and boy couldn’t wait to get out of there.

The youngest son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be impoverished. So he went and hired himself out. He became a hired man to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine, to feed the pigs for a Jew that was about as low as you can go.

He was so starving it says he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. He wasn’t even allowed to eat that. But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger. I’ll get up and go to my father and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired men.’

So he got up and came to his father, but while he was still a long way off. So far away that no one but a mum or dad would have recognized him and even then only if they were staring down that road looking for him. While he was still a long way off, his father saw him. And felt compassion for him and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

And the son said to him, Father, ‘I’ve sinned against heaven, and in your sight, I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.’ He launches into his prepared speech, but the father interrupts him and says to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet and bring the fattened calf. Kill it. Let us eat and celebrate, for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again. He was lost and has been found,’ and they began to celebrate.

You know, you find this theme in all three of the stories Jesus tells. When the man who’s a shepherd and has lost a sheep finds his sheep, he comes back rejoicing. He gets all his friends together for a party. Rejoice with me, he says. When that woman who had 10 silver coins and lost one and searches carefully through her house when she finds the coin, she calls together her friends and neighbors saying, Rejoice with me. I’ve found the coin which I had lost. Jesus says there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.

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He says later, I tell you there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

I can tell you that one of the greatest things about being in heaven when we die is being a part of the joy of heaven as people who are still alive are finding God and turning to Him and putting their faith in Jesus Christ. There is so much joy in the heart of God, and you know why? It’s because God’s concern for those people is so great that when they are found, when you become a part of what God is doing in people’s lives around you and you start seeing people find God and have their lives changed by Him – you too will experience God’s joy in your life.

I’m John North.