Doing Lost Being Found

September 17, 1995
Luke 15:1-10
I Timothy 1: 12 - 17

It is important to know WHY Jesus told these stories here in Luke 15. The very religious Pharisees and scribes were critical because Jesus was spending time with "sinners." Jesus wanted them to know he came to seek and save the LOST. The ironic thing is, they probably never realized that THEY were lost and in danger of eternal loss.

This chapter is about what it means to be LOST.

Sometimes when I think of "lost" I remember the story of "Lady Be Good."

In the early years of World War II after the United States forces invaded northern Africa, crude airstrips were established on the desert, and bombing runs across the Mediterranean were begun on Axis targets in Italy.

"Lady Be Good" was a Flying Fortress, B-17 bomber, that was making these long and dangerous flights. The night this plane was tragically lost the crew had made it to Italy and was returning on a radio beam from the desert air strip. When the beam would come on the Lady be Good made certain it was on a straight line toward home.

The crew never knew until it was too late that they had a strong tail wind that brought them back much sooner than expected. With no visual point of reference they simply overflew the directional signal and kept straight on until they ran out of gas and came down in the Libyan desert more than a hundred miles south of the coast and water. They were LOST. They simply disappeared off the face of the earth— no one knew they had overflown their base into the heart of the desert.

Their plane has been almost perfectly preserved in the dryness— the men themselves survived the emergency landing only to die of thirst in the desert with no one knowing where they might be.

This story has always been a classic object lesson to me, personally, that doing MY best and following rules, even good rules, is not enough. These men were literally "on the beam." And perhaps the chilling part of this story is that people can be lost and not even know they are lost until it has ruined their lives or worse.

In order to find our way in this world there has to be a dependable point of reference, a point of personal contact with God. The Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes and the guidance of scripture are all good, but they cannot save us, and we can keep them all so far as human effort is concerned and still be lost.

"Lost" is being where you're not supposed to be. "Lost" is not really knowing where you belong, or how to get there. "Lost" is having no valid point of reference outside of "self." A great proportion of society today is unaware that there is any reference point beyond what looks good, or feels good, or seems good at the moment. The worst kind of being lost is not having a clue that you are lost at all.

These Pharisees to whom Jesus addressed these stories about "lost" and "found" did not have a clue that they were themselves LOST. They were sure and certain they knew all about God and what God expects; they "knew" they didn't need Jesus or anything he could tell them. The Pharisees "knew" because they knew how to "do" religion. Whenever religion becomes a matter strictly of "doing" with no reference point for "being" we have people who are lost and don't even know they are lost.

One thing for sure, the Pharisees Jesus confronted are not the only people who ever thought they knew more than anyone else about being God's people. Anytime we think we know how to DO religion apart from that strong reference point of personal contact with God, and communion with His Spirit in Christ-likeness, we are on dangerous ground. The Pharisees are still with us, and sometimes I fear we could say, like Pogo, "We have met the enemy, and he is US!"

In John Wesley's day the human nature was exactly the same as it is today. The saintly man John Wesley hand picked to be his successor, John Fletcher, was deeply concerned about people who DO religion apart from the SPIRIT, apart from the REFERENCE point of accountability to Jesus. If you can try with me to "translate" two-hundred-year-old English, listen to John Fletcher's concern for his day:

TO CHRISTIAN PHARISEES:

I address you first, ye perfect Christian pharisees, because ye are most ready to profess Christian perfection, thought [sic], alas! ye stand at the greatest distance from perfect humility, the grace which is most essential to the perfect Christian's character; and because the enemies of our doctrine make use of you first, when they endeavor to root it up from the earth.

That ye may know whom I mean by "perfect Christian pharisees," give me leave to show you your own picture in the glass of a plain description. Ye have professedly entered into the fold where Christ's sheep, which are perfected in love, rest all at each other's feet, and at the feet of the Lamb of God. But how have ye entered? by Christ the door? or at the door of presumption? Not by Christ the door; for Christ is meekness and lowliness manifested in the flesh, but ye are still ungentle and fond of praise. When He pours out His soul as a divine prophet, He says, "Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: take My yoke upon you, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." But ye overlook this humble door; your proud, gigantic minds are above stooping low enough to follow Him who "made Himself of no reputation," that He might raise us to heavenly honours; and who, to pour just contempt upon human pride, had His first night's lodging in a stable, and spent His last night partly on the cold ground, in a storm of Divine wrath, and partly in an ignominious confinement, exposed to the greatest indignities which Jews and Gentiles could pour upon Him. He rested His infant head upon hay, His dying head upon thorns. A manger was His cradle, and a cross His death bed. Thirty years He traveled from the sordid stable to the accursed tree, unnoticed by His own peculiar people. In the brightest of His days, poor fishermen, some Galilean women, and a company of shouting children, formed all his retinue. Shepherds were His first attendants, and malefactors his last companions.

Fletcher was saying we cannot be Christian apart from Jesus and the Spirit of Jesus.

In a community that was concerned with its own salvation and success the Lord Jesus was out of step. The Pharisees then found fault with His actions and attitudes. The three stories about being "Lost and Found" in Luke 15 are an answer to those who simply DO RELIGION. Jesus is not in a defensive posture, but rather He is giving us a glimpse into the heart of God. He sis trying to give a point of reference— to say that salvation— true religion— is GOD-CENTERED.

Jesus is exposing the self-centeredness that is at the very heart of all sin. (Don't forget, sin is spelled with an "I" in the middle!)

The McLandress Coefficient     

When I was studying pastoral care many years ago I read about the "McLandress Coefficient;" Herschel McLandress was a professor of psychiatric measurement at Harvard Medical School, and he developed a way to measure a person's degree of self-absorption. In spoken and written material he measured the use of "I," "me," and "my" and the "Coefficient" was the longest span of time a person can remain diverted from himself. Eleanor Roosevelt was supposed to have a McLandress coefficient of two hours; John F. Kennedy's was twenty-nine minutes, and Elizabeth Taylor's was three minutes. The reason I don't make Jesus more at home at times is because I need to talk about me, when maybe he wants to talk about something else. How is your McLandress Coefficient?

How can we claim not to be LOST when everything we do and say revolves around US? Even in our worship and praying we cannot escape this selfish way of living.
do we come to this "POINT OF REFERENCE?" How do we escape our "Self?" A clue to the answer probably lies in the question. "How do we DO? The answer is WE don't! [[[ In GOD-CENTERED WORSHIP GOD IS THE SEEKER
GOD IS THE SPEAKER GOD IS THE CELEBRATOR ]]]]

The stories of our Gospel lesson speak of one who seeks the lost— one who turns the house upside down looking for the lost.

If you even WANT to have a God-centered faith, you are a lot closer that you might think. The worst kind of "lost" is the one who has no idea he or she IS lost. If you have an inkling that maybe you need to find and move closer to the Eternal Point of Reference, then you can be sure that grace is already at work in your life.

I remember a story of the sea from days gone by. A sailing vessel had become becalmed off the coast of South America and had drifted for days with not enough wind to go anywhere. Their supplies had been low when the wind had died, and now they were becoming desperate for drinking water. They prayed for rain, prayed for a wind, but just scorching sunshine. Then over the horizon came a coal-burning steamship.

They shouted and hoisted flags, and soon the ship turned and came toward the becalmed vessel.

They shouted as soon as they could make themselves heard "Do you have any water for us? We're dying of thirst?"

They thought they heard the reply "Let down your casks into the sea?" They asked again— and got the same strange answer. Anyone knows that to drink sea water doesn't quench thirst and is inviting death. "Let down your casks where you are right now!"

Someone threw over a bucket on a line and hoisted it on deck, and, amazingly, it was sweet and fresh. The reason— they has drifted into the mouth of the Amazon River, which is 100 miles wide when it flows into the ocean. They had been dying of thirst with water to drink all around them.

There are people not far from where we are right now who are drying up in spirit, and dying of spiritual thirst with the provisions of God all around them. We don't have to DO anything to bring God where we are. He is here, waiting for us to recognize Him and ask His help in putting him at the center of our lives. But we can and we must respond to a God that seeks us in our lost condition.

How, do you suppose, can we return to a God-centered life? How can we put God at the center of our worship and our everyday, walking-around lives? Could I suggest a couple of ways to begin with?

1. If you know you are a child of God, then begin again think about BEING, befgore DOING! Ask God to help you give Him his rightful place at the very center of your life:
   1. Sabbath day observance puts God in His rightful place. Is your Sunday in any way a day set apart for God and rest?
   2. Value Being over Doing: Whatever we do, we must ask for the Spirit of Jesus. If we want to win people to the Christ we love, the first thing we need to do is NOT learn some sales speech, or some slick technique. The first thing we need to do is ask Jesus to help us LOVE people, and let that LOVE shine through all that we are. We are worried about whether or not we should sing this or that kind of music. But is we care about people they will understand that, and they might then just listen about the faith we claim. Value Person values, family values over thing values and career values reflects the Spirit of God who gave His only begotten Son so that we could share His life.

   If we say we follow Jesus, and then make all our life decisions based on money and position and profit, or even on bigger and better ministry, will it be any wonder if we lose our children to the spirit of "Bigger and Better"? Don't sacrifice your children on the altar of ambition.

2. If you have never made a definite decision to make Jesus Lord of your life, and give your self over to Him, you do not have to wait one hour longer! You can let down your faith into His promises right now.

   When our religion is a burden, when our so-called "faith" consists of what we DO, of how good WE are, we are like the Pharisees that day a long time ago that watched Jesus and criticized Him, to whom he told these stories. It doesn't have to be that way! God is seeking every one of us— to bring us to Himself— to give us His Spirit— to make us his own.

Pray with me:
Lord Jesus— I turn my life over to You. I don't want to be the center— i want YOU to be Lord. Forgive my self-centeredness. Forgive my trying to DO salvation. Help me to BE Your own dear child. I ask this according to Your own great promises. Amen.

Sing with me: Just a Closer Walk with Thee (#607 STL)