Lost Sheep, Lost Coin, Lost Son! Luke 15:1-32. Most of us have preconceived ideas! Especially about people, especially about God and his view of us. Is our idea of what God is like the God of the scriptures? Very often it is not. These three parables show us what God is really like and how He regards those who do not know him as their own saviour. The Pharisees had an idea of what their Messiah should be like. This Jesus did not conform to that expectation. He received sinners more or less as friends and was entertained by tax collectors. Definitely not what the Messiah should do. Have we preconceived ideas as to what a believer should and should not do [sin apart, obviously]? I like to think of the sheep as the one who strays away from the good home where the family go to church and live a ‘good’ clean, honest life! The sort of set up some of us are familiar with. People in these situations are not necessarily believers. They are, however, in a situation where they can hear God speak and where they will get all the help and support that the need. But then there is always the one who strays away from that. There are many reasons why a sheep gets lost. The flock moves on and they get left behind. They are a bit discontent and the grass on the other side is greener. They get caught in the briars. They are ill. The list goes on. It may not be their ‘fault’ that they get lost. It is simply in the nature of sheep to stray away. So it is with us. It is in our nature to get lost. But God doesn’t want us to be lost and so he sets out to find us. Without the lost one the whole is incomplete. This is a point that is frequently missed. God wants us to belong to him. He is prepared to do a lot of searching until he finds us and brings us home. He is prepared to send his Son to Calvary in order that we will be found. In fact, we are created within an inbuilt desire to have God in our lives, Acts 17:27. Regardless of how we view ourselves God wants us for himself! We are of value to him! We may have a very poor view of our own self worth. God knows our true value. He is searching. When the lost one is found then the flock is complete and the shepherd can relax. What are we worth to God? The lost coin was a valuable coin. Maybe part of a sentimental set! Maybe just another coin to pay the rent! But valuable enough to pull the house asunder to find it. And that is exactly what the owner did. Notice, the coin did not loose itself. Like the coin we have done nothing to loose ourselves. We are born with original sin as part of our being. Unless we take action we are condemned already, . Like the coin we are powerless to respond until the Holy Spirit moves us to say ‘yes’ to God. The lost son, on the other hand, made a conscious decision to walk away from all that was available to him. As far as the Pharisees were concerned he had put himself beyond the reach of God. He looked for his legacy before his father had died and then he squandered it sinfully. He then joined up with a Gentile and fed pigs and even ate their food. Any Jewish father would have disowned a son who did this. If not disown, then certainly apply severe discipline. Certainly the father would not be expected to be daily watching out for this son to return and organise a great celebration when he did. Yet this is exactly what he did. Regardless of the state of the sinner God is watching and waiting for them to come to him. Here it is not just that the family [the flock, the church] is incomplete without the lost one; it is not just that the lost one is of value. It is that God loves the lost! He actually does! So often we see ourselves as useless, valueless and unlovable. That is not Gods view. What was the reaction of the shepherd, the woman and the father when they found what they were looking for? That is Gods reaction when a new believer is ‘found’! The story could end at verse 24 but it doesn’t. The elder son resented the one who had repented being restored into the family. Are we searching for the lost? What is the purpose of our work and witness? Do we resent the lost being brought into the flock, the purse, the family, and the church?