Jesus and the Lost and Found Business

January 13, 2002

Emmanuel Church of the Nazarene, Wareham Massachusetts

Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost

(contextual background Luke 15: 1 - 10}

When people began to find fault with Jesus because he was friendly with the wrong kind of people, and even sat down and ate with them, Jesus told them some stories. He talked about what it means to be LOST!

Sometimes when I thing about "LOST" I remember the true 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.

The chilling moral of this story, at least to my thinking, is that people can be lost and not even know they are lost until it has ruined their lives or worse. Following rules, even good rules, and doing MY best won't save me. These men were literally "on the beam." "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." The worst kind of being lost is not having a clue that you are lost at all.

The people who criticized Jesus were lost themselves and didn't want to hear about it. They were sure and certain they knew all about right and wrong. They didn't need Jesus or anybody else to tell them anything. One thing for sure: those old Pharisees aren't the only people who ever thought they knew more than anyone else about right and wrong. Any time we think we know how to DO RELIGION apart from the love of God, apart from His Spirit, we are already on dangerous ground.

Among people who were only thinking of themselves- of how they could be saved and let the rest of the world be damned, the Lord Jesus was out of step. The Pharisees could find fault with what He said and did.

So Jesus told three fascinating stories about being "Lost and Found". These stories are a rebuke to those who simply DO RELIGION. Jesus was saying that true faith is God-centered, not self-centered. When we become simply judges instead of godly friends to the lost we are exposing the fact that WE are LOST! We are SELF-centered instead of GOD-centered! (AND IT IS TOO EASY TO BECOME SELF-CENTERED!)

Did you ever hear of the McLandress Coefficient?

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? Often even in our worship and praying we cannot escape this selfish way of living.

MAYBE THERE IS A LITTLE PHARISEE IN ALL OF US.

We want to get comfortable. We want to think we have discovered the best way to do church, and we don't want to have anyone tell us differently. How do we escape our "Self?" I have GOOD NEWS!

If you even WANT to have a God-centered faith, that desire is from God! Jesus, the Shepherd, the Searcher- the One who goes after the lost is not only looking for YOU - He is looking for YOU TO BE HIS HELPER IN REACHING OUT TO OTHERS!

If you even WANT to not be self-centered, you are a lot closer than 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 all they got was 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.

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?

Right where we are, here today, God's grace is all around you, and waiting for you to say "I'm sorry of I've been selfish or thoughtless, please forgive me and fill me with your love and help me be like YOU!" 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. YOU don't have to be dry and cold in your walk with God!

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.

BUT TODAY I'M ALSO THINKING ABOUT EMMANUEL CHURCH OF THE NAZARENE.

YOU'RE A GOOD CHURCH! A GREAT HISTORY! YOU HAVEN'T BEEN SELF-CENTERED! YOU'VE SENT OUT PREACHERS AND MISSIONARIES!

YOU'VE REACHED OUT. AND YOU ARE REACHING OUT INTO THIS COMMUNITY!

If YOU and YOU and YOU will ask God, and join faith, and determine not to be small and selfish in any way - YOUR VERY BEST DAYS ARE AHEAD OF YOU!

(A new pastor arrives here this week. Is HE (Pastor Shaw) "the answer"? No, JESUS is the Way, but you will work with the one who is called to be your LEADER! Will some great new "program" be what will make Emmanuel great? No- of course you will need\ plans and projects!)

BUT "THE ANSWER" IS: WE HAVE A SEEKING GOD! AND HE WANTS US TO JOIN WITH HIM IN LOVING THE LOST AND INTRODUCING THEM TO HIM!

And do you know, 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 they are. If He is in us, He will use us to help HIM find the lost!

(Exhortation)

If our faith, or church, our religion is a burden, when our so-called "salvation" 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