Lost People, Lost Things

-January 10, 2024-

Good morning beloved, happy Friday,

“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

(Luke 19:10).

Just think how many things are lost in a given day around the world. We loose keys, wallets, credit cards, phones, watches, jewelry, and so much more. I lost my Worship Team binder with all our songs in it. We start back to practice this evening after our Christmas/New Year’s break, and I have scoured the church for it. I know it will turn up, someone likely moved it after our last performance in December.

When something is lost we start with recognition that something is missing, then concern, then panic. The more value something has, the more frustrated we are when we cannot find it. We usually solicit family and friends to help us find the missing item(s). In Luke 15, Jesus tells of three lost things: a sheep, a coin, and a son.

Before we were saved we were all lost sinners in need of a Savior. Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector in Jericho, was lost. He was rich and made his riches by taking advantage of his fellow countrymen by charging more than what was due to the Romans and lining his own pockets with “a surcharge. This is why tax collectors were so hated by the Jews. Other than their own family or their fellow tax collectors. Zacchaeus had heard of Jesus and what He did for people. He just had to see Him for himself. We are all born lost and need to be found.

He climbed up in a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus as he passed by because he was short and would have had a hard time seeing over the crowd. Jesus stopped, spoke to him, and told him He must stay at his house. That day salvation came to his house and his heart. Jesus said, “…Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham” (Luke 19:9).

In Luke 15, Jesus tells of the joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. A shepherd rejoiced when he found his one lost sheep; a woman rejoiced when she found her one lost coin; and a the father rejoiced when his lost son, his prodigal son returned home. The former slave trader and sinner John Newton wrote, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”

There is such joy and relief when we find what we have lost. I am putting out an APB for my lost song book. It has to be somewhere in the church. Please pray I will find it.

Have a blessed day. Stay safe and healthy.

The lost are found by Jesus who never loses one of His own,

Dean