You Are Loved
Baarack
Did you know that you are loved?
This is a picture of a sheep named Baarack who was LOST in the forest for at least 5 years.
As you can tell from this picture, he’s covered in wool. 80 pounds of wool! He couldn’t even see because wool had grown over his eyes.
For this sheep to have to stand up under the burden of 80 pounds of wool was too great a burden to bear. It was incredibly painful.
Lost People
If this is what happens when a sheep gets lost, can you imagine what happens when people are LOST? When we’re left all on our own for a year? For five years?
So many people have experienced this over the past year because of the pandemic and our experience has taught us that we’ve been lied to most of our lives!
We’ve been taught that independence is the goal of the American life. That we’re supposed to get to a point in our life where we can take care of ourselves. That at some point we’ll grow up and we won’t need anyone anymore. That it’s weakness to ask for help. That it’s a sign of incompetence if you can’t do something on your own.
But the truth is that couldn’t be further from the truth!
If the past year has taught us anything it’s that WE NEED EACH OTHER!
We were never made to do this life alone! Independence shouldn’t be the goal, we are better together. It’s not about being able to take care of ourselves, it’s about looking out for and caring for each other. It’s not a sign of weakness to ask for help, it’s a sign of maturity. And it’s not incompetence if you can’t do it on your own, it’s a reminder that we all have different gifts, talents, and abilities, and we were made for each other.
The truth is we need EACH OTHER, and we need GOD. And if you’ve felt a little LOST this past year, you’re not alone.
Our God Loves the Lost
The GOOD NEWS is that our GOD is a GOD who loves lost things.
That’s why, when Jesus was together with those who were known as notorious sinners as well as the Religious elite, he started telling stories about lost things.
A Lost Sheep
The first story was about a man who had a hundred sheep and one of them got LOST. And Jesus asked his audience… What should the man do? Everyone in the audience, sinner and saint, knew what the man would do. The man would go find that sheep that was lost and bring it home!
A Lost Coin
Then Jesus told another story about a woman who had 10 coins, but she LOST one. Again, Jesus asked the crowd… What should the woman do? And everyone in the audience knew what the woman should do. She would search her house high and low until she found what she had lost.
A Lost Son
And then… just to illustrate the point further… Jesus told another story! This time the story was about a Father who had two sons.
One son, the younger son, asked his Father for his inheritance. He wanted it early. And the father did something fathers don’t typically do, he granted his son’s request and gave him his share of the family estate! The son went away to the far country, spent all the money, and was left with nothing.
About that same time a famine hit. Now, he’s really in trouble. What’s he going to do? He’s a long way from home. He’s completely broke. There’s a famine. He’s got no friends. He’s hungry. In desperation, he finds work on a pig farm feeding pigs. He gets so hungry that even the pig slop looks good to eat.
It’s at that point he realizes even the servants in his father’s house have it better off than he does. Maybe he can return to his father and be a servant in his father’s house. At least then he would have clean clothes to wear, a warm place to sleep, and decent food to eat.
The Journey Home
So he makes his journey home. He’s got his speech all planned out. He travels for… we don’t even know how long. But finally, he comes to the point down the road where he can see his father’s house.
What he doesn’t know is that his father can see him, too. He’s out front, looking, hoping, watching, waiting. And when his father sees his son, he begins to run.
His son can’t believe his eyes. He’s not sure he’s ever seen his daddy run before, but he’s running now, as fast as he can, toward him. And as soon as his father gets within earshot, he begins his speech. “Father… I’m so sorry… I’ve sinned…”
But the boy can’t get the words out of his mouth because his father nearly tackles him in a loving embrace, squeezing him so tight he can’t even breath, much less talk. Then his father tells the servants, who were running behind his father the whole way, to fire up the BBQ. Set the tables. Get clean clothes for his son. There’s going to be a party tonight! Why?
Because…
…this son of mine was DEAD and now has returned to LIFE. He was LOST, but now he is FOUND. – Luke 15.24
The Other Son
The older son hears the music, smells the BBQ, and finds someone to ask what in the world is going on. He has no idea. He wasn’t home earlier when his brother came home. He didn’t get the text message about the party plans for that night. And you would think… as soon as he found out that his brother was alive, his brother was home, that his family was reunited, that he would have been partying and dancing, too!
But no. No. Not at all.
Instead, he was angry. Angry that his brother was being celebrated while he was still being unappreciated.
At least, that’s the way he felt. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. And as soon as the father realized how his older son was feeling he tried to tell him, “Everything I have is yours!”
The End
And then, the story ends. We’re not really sure how the older son responded. I guess in the end you might say there were two lost sons. One was found, the other… the other was standing right in front of his father but couldn’t have been more lost. And we don’t know if that son ever made the move from lost to found. We don’t know if that son ever stepped into the loving embrace of his father who was standing right in front of him.
This is What God is Like
Through every story, Jesus wanted the people gathered around him that day to know… THIS IS WHAT GOD IS LIKE!
GOD is like a man who has a hundred sheep and loses one.
GOD is like a woman who has ten coins and loses one.
And GOD is like a father with two sons, both of which LOST their way at different points in the story.
You want to know what God is like… The GOOD NEWS is that our GOD is a GOD who LOVES LOST THINGS.
And by the way, not just lost things, lost PEOPLE.
Because when Jesus told that story about the lost sheep, he wasn’t talking about a lost sheep, he was talking about lost people.
And when Jesus told that story about a lost coin, he wasn’t talking about a lost coin, he was talking about lost people.
And when Jesus told the story about the lost sons, he wasn’t just talking about two lost boys, he was talking about people who lose their way.
And Jesus is saying, this is what God is like. Your God is a God who seeks and saves that which was LOST!
Lost then Found
You see, the problem isn’t that you were bad and Jesus wanted to make you better! The problem is that you were lost and Jesus wants you to be found. The problem is that you were dead and Jesus wants you to come alive!
And every time someone moves from lost to found, from death to life, there is a party in heaven.
WHY? Because this is what matters most to God.
What matters most to God are people, especially people who are far from God!
The Rest of Baarack’s Story
Thankfully someone found this lost sheep in the woods, loaded it on a trailer, and brought it to Edgar’s Mission in Australia.
It took the people there an hour to cut away the fleece. It was matted. He had bits of sticks and twigs stuck in his wool.
For 5 years he had been on his own, no shepherd to look after him, no one to care for him.
After they cut away the 80 lbs of wool, he was finally relieved of his burden. His legs felt stronger. He was able to stand up and move around in ways he hadn’t been able to in a very long time! He was able to eat, mingle with other sheep, and get healthier every day.
All because this LOST SHEEP was FOUND, was LOVED, and was RESTORED to a caring community.
For God So Loved…
And today, you need to know that there is someONE out looking for you! Searching for you! Wanting to find you, relieve you of your burden, look after you, care for you, provide for you, restore your strength, and restore you to a loving community.
His name is Jesus. And this is WHY He Came.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Whoever puts his trust in God’s Son will not be LOST but will have life that lasts forever. – John 3.16, New Life Version
Jesus was willing to die to himself, literally, on the cross, so that the lost could be found.
So what’s stopping you from coming home? What’s keeping you from God? What barriers have you erected? What obstacles are in your way? What problem is holding you back? What past sin is keeping you down? What regret is hanging on and won’t let go?
Here’s what you need to know about our God.
There’s no barrier he can’t take down. There’s no obstacle that he can’t overcome. There’s no problem he can’t solve. No sin he can’t forgive. No regret he will hold against you. In fact, nothing can separate you from His great love for you!
Because…
You ARE Loved.
You Are Loved!
You have never not been loved. You will always be loved. And today, on Easter Sunday, I just want to remind you that there is no greater love than God’s love for you revealed in Jesus on the cross.
And the good news about Easter is that the cross wasn’t the end of the story. Everyone thought the story was over that day. But they didn’t know on that dark Friday that a new light would dawn on Sunday.
And when he rose from the grave on that Sunday some 2000 years ago, when he defeated death and removed every barrier that might separate us from God, when He walked out of that grave… everything changed.
For every person who is far from God for whatever reason, there is now a way to come home to God.
This is why Jesus suffered the cross. This is why He willingly died.
Because what matters most to God is you.
What matters most to God is us.
What matters most to God are people, especially people who, for whatever reason, are far from God.
Because God so LOVED the WORLD that He came, He gave, and He rose again so that Lost Sheep like us could come Home to God.
LOVE
Love. This is the headline story of Easter. A love so great that nothing could keep the One who loves separated from the ones he loves.
A love strong enough to take down any barrier, powerful enough to overcome any obstacle, deep enough to conquer any divide, this is the love of our Good Shepherd, Jesus.
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