Sermon Tone Analysis

*Living in 3D*

Luke 15:11-31 ~/ Mark 3:1-6 ~/ 1 Peter 2:4-12

*Introduction*:

            Did you notice people this past week?

I don’t know about you, but I saw all kinds of people this week.

There were people at the store…people in cars stuck in traffic…people sitting in the restaurants I went to for lunch.

All sorts of people.

I’d look at them—/really/ look at them—and say, “Okay, God … am I supposed to be feeling anything right now?  Do you want me to do something here … maybe take walk…take a step of faith…reach out to someone who is far from God?”  If you have felt this, than I hope you found the courage to take the walk.

If you didn’t feel the prompting, maybe you will feel it soon.

Because there are people all around you…and some of them are living far from God.

In the gospel of Luke, we read about an occasion where the Pharisees and the teachers of the law had gathered together and were talking about Jesus and His “people” skills.

They noticed the Jesus saw people in an entirely different way.

One of the Pharisees commented, “This man, he welcomes sinners and even eats with them.”

You see it’s one thing to stick out your arm and shack somebody’s hand, but it’s entirely different when you give them a seat at your table.

It’s one thing to cordially smile and give a word of encouragement, but it’s entirely something else when you take time to listen…especially if that someone is not like you…especially if that person is living far from God.

In Luke chapter 15, Jesus describes this in terms of being lost.

He starts with a big number, a big scale … he talks about a /hundred/ sheep.

But then, he narrows it down to /ten/ coins.

And then, to /one/ son.

Do you see his point taking shape?

His point is that every single life matters.

You probably remember these three stories.

First, there are a hundred sheep with one community challenged sheep who just wanders away.

The sheep just wanders off and gets itself lost.

Then there are ten coins and one of them is misplaced.

And then, there is a boy who asks for his inheritance from his father early, which in that society was like saying to his father, “You’re as good as dead, so I want my inheritance /right/ /now/!”

And what does he do once he has money in hand?

He takes it out to a foreign land and blows it on wine, women, and song.

Aren’t you glad that we don’t struggle with these issues of being lost and wandering away and squandering blessings today?

If that were only the truth.

The story of the lost son and the compassionate Father is one of the greatest stories.

Let’s read it together.

It comes from Luke 15:11-31.

Read.

This story reflects the very heart of God.

The young man who is lost becomes found.

The Scripture suggests it is not the result of some great spiritual revelation.

Being found does not require getting your act cleaned up and changing your life style…and then coming to God.

You come to God first and then the cleaning takes place.

Remember, God cleans the fish /after /He catches them.

The turning point comes when this young man “comes to himself,” which simply suggests that he makes a wise choice.

He says, “This is stupid.

I don’t need to live like this.

I have a home and a father.”

No mystic experience here.

There are two truths in the story that are very important.

The first is that somehow you and I have a home in God.

When we’re lost, it’s because we have strayed from the place we were meant to be.

Each of us has in us a God-shaped space and nothing else will fill that space—not marriage, children, jobs, or success.

The story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 is our story.

When we left the garden, we left the presence of God and we have been homesick ever since.

We were made for life at home with God.

But the second exciting lesson here is that Jesus is aggressively looking for us.

You will find the symbol of the shepherd in many other world religions, but only in the Gospels is the shepherd pictured as one who is actively looking for the lost sheep.

It’s an extraordinary and powerful image.

In His ministry Jesus sought the lost in all sorts of unlikely places.

He shocked the world around Him by eating with the lost and by making an effort at friendship to those living far from God.

            Developing a friendship with others and really loving others is the very heart of God.

If we’re going to reflect the Father’s heart, as individuals and as a church, then we must be in continuous /search/ mode.

We’ve got to make a habit of searching for new friendships on the horizon.

That is the heart of a true Christ-follower.

When you operate this way—when you operate in continuous “search mode” … watching for ways to connect with people, looking for friendships in the making—I believe all of heaven holds its breath.

Heaven wonders, /Will you tap into the faith and courage that God has given you for this precise moment?

Will you extend a hand of friendship?

Will you open *wide* your arms of acceptance?  /All of heaven watches … holds its breath … waits … and then exhales a shared sigh of relief—a joyous, celebrative sigh of relief—when you dig in and do the thing that God is asking you to do.

In that moment, the cheers that break out all across heaven are thunderous … raucous cheers … and intense celebration!

Now, this is the way it /should/ be, mind you.

This is the way things /ought/ to operate day in and day out, in the lives of Christians all across the world … friendships getting formed left and right that eventually might lead to something spiritual unfolding.

Yes, this is the dynamic that we /hope/ would play out with such frequency that the angels in heaven live in perpetual party-mode.

But things don’t always pan out this way, do they?

The frequency probably isn’t what is should be.

I’m not sure that this is the average Christian’s focus in life.

For most of us, we travel too fast through life to notice people all around us who are far from God.

We run errands with one eye on the clock and the other on the to-do list, with little consideration for the needs of the clerk standing at the checkout or the person refilling our prescription.

We are sort of like the couple who realized that they weren’t the best neighbors, so when they saw a moving van in front of the house across the street, they decided to change their ways.

The wife prepared some homemade bread and together, with her husband, they approached the house.

When someone answered the front door, she said, “Hi, we wanted to welcome you to our neighborhood.

Here’s some bread for you.”

The woman who answered the door said, “Thank you very much for you kindness.

Uh... but this is kind of embarrassing.

You see, we’re not moving in.

We’re moving out.

We’ve lived here for 8 years.”

Maybe we need to scrutinize the rush of our activities, what may be keeping us from walk across the room people.

Developing a friendship with others and really loving others is the very heart of God.

If we’re going to reflect the Father’s heart, as individuals and as a church, then we must be in continuous /search/ mode.

We’ve got to make a habit of searching for new friendships on the horizon.

That is the heart of a true Christ-follower.

Unfortunately, this is not world around us often see.

Bill Hybels sees a dangerous trend within many evangelical churches.

The trend is this – the longer person attends church, the fewer spiritual discussions they engage in with family members and friends.

The longer a person is a Christian, there are fewer and fewer presentations of the life-changing plan of salvation and there are fewer invitations to events that present the message of Christ.

Statistics reflect that shortly after a person makes a decision of faith, contact with people outside the Christian faith actually decreases.

This is the course of the average Christian throughout their life here on earth.

It is incredible to think that at the moment just before a Christ-follower meets God face-to-face, they are at their all time evangelistic low.

George Barna reports most sadly, that the typical churched believer will die without leading a single person to a lifesaving relationship to Jesus Christ.

In our Scripture there are actually four lost items—a sheep, a coin, a prodigal son, and his older brother.

The first three are obviously lost.

Most churches spend a lot of time talking about those three.

But the fourth one is equally lost and sadly…he doesn’t know it.