INTRODUCTION - Welcome UR, BN, SULLY
and VLive.
2 ½ years ago, my wife
Corrie and I launched the Bloomington-Normal campus of the Vineyard Church.
Together with our 5 children (Zeke, Ethne, Eydie and the twins Merry/Pippa), we
have been working to create another place for the Vineyard to “Change the World
with Jesus.” We’ve been partnering with Holy Spirit to raise up teams, leaders
of teams, small groups, youth & kids & worship ministries… and so much
more! Jesus has really gifted us with the ability to administrate well… actually find that we’re pretty good at
it… the Father has smiled on us as we’ve pursued a new part of His family in a
new community.
BUT, as organized as I
seem to be in the church-planting world…
It hasn’t translated
to my personal life… like AT ALL!
TENSION
I find that I lose stuff constantly… no it’s true… I’ve lost my keys… my wallet… my hat… a shoe… a
shirt… all the time. I’m terrible at losing stuff. In fact, right now, I am
currently looking for my favorite pair of sunglasses…
And I’ve taken steps to
try and minimize this problem…
·
Church keys
·
New Wallet/Phone Combo
·
I count all 5 kids at
Sam’s club
·
My tech team & my
coffee cup
·
One intern would pick up
after me
Why?… Because
losing stuff makes me anxious… nervous… if it’s really important maybe
even frantic. I believe it’s an awful feeling to lose something.
Don’t you hate that
feeling?! That feeling of something is missing. Something isn’t quite right.
Something is gone that I have to have… especially if it’s important like your
keys… your credit card… your passport… or heaven forbid a child.
Today, I want to dive into the idea that The CHURCH has lost something.
Now,
some of us may recognize it right away, but my guess is that many of us across
our various campuses… don’t even realize what’s been lost.
PRAYER
GOSPEL
Today,
we are going to put some “fresh eyes” on a very familiar passage of Scripture.
If you have your Bible – Smart Phone –
Screen à
Luke 15
Let’s
remember that the Gospel is the story of Jesus bringing back into alignment
everything that was lost in the Garden. His focus was to bring His children back into relationship… to
restore their rightful identity… to give them purpose & destiny.
Because
that was His focus, He tended
to spend His time with the people who needed the Gospel the most:
JESUS
Luke
15:1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear
him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives
sinners and eats with them.”
Jesus was spending His
time with an interesting group, wasn’t He?! In fact, let’s give you an idea of
what “tax collectors and sinners” means. Tax Collectors were not IRS agents.
They were people who’d betrayed the Jewish people… and the term sinner would have
referred to someone who was morally bankrupt.
So, try and think of the most POLITICALLY and MORALLY offensive people to you… AND those are the people Jesus is spending time with.
The synagogue leaders of the day see this… see Jesus BBQing
with them… and they are offended… and Jesus’ response was staggering to me…
He tells them two
stories to try and show them “Hey,
you’ve lost something!” He doesn’t talk about the groups He’s hanging
out with. Instead, He attempts to
focus the hearts and minds of the church back on what’s most important.
PARABLES
LUKE 15:
3 So he told them this parable: 4 “What
man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does
not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is
lost, until he finds it?
Jesus
begins by saying… Hey, if you guys lose something of value, you go look for it
don’t you?! If there is something of great worth in your possession… that feeds
and clothes your family… you’ll move heaven and earth to get it back… you’ll go
OUT for it.
Jesus
tells another story: 15:8 “Or what woman, having ten silver
coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and
seek diligently until she finds it?”
Hey,
if one woman losses something of great value, she goes after it… it doesn’t
matter that it’s nearby… maybe even in “her home” she’ll diligently search for
it because it means that much to her.
- They FOCUSED on what was lost.
- They
immediately forgot about what
they already had.
- They searched
until they found it.
In
the church world, for centuries we’ve referred to people who don’t follow
Jesus as THE LOST… depending on your upbringing or church background,
this may have even been seen as a derogatory term in your house or church… my
brother is LOST, my neighbor is LOST… it’s not good for you to spend too much
time with LOST people… I think we’ve missed the point a little. What I think we
need today is a perspective shift.
Here’s another crazy
thing: you know I’ve
never blamed my wallet for being lost. I’ve
never put my wallet in time-out OR given it a lecture for not being where I
wanted it to be. NO, I’ve pursued my wallet until I had it back in my hands
once again.
So, what have we LOST?
We’ve
LOST the Father’s Focus.
The FATHER’S FOCUS
These parables are
piercing because they reflect the heart of our Father God who’s #1 pursuit
is HIS KIDS… and HE lives in each of us who believe… HE empowers each of us
through the Cross of Jesus and by the Holy Spirit to love like HE loves…. And
God wants what HE’s lost back…
God has moved Heaven
and Earth to get what He’s lost back. Are
we on board with HIS VISION for our cities? Have we Lost His Focus?
Have we forgotten that our cities are filled with 1,000s of people that the
Father wants back in the family? They are not to blame for being LOST… we’ve LOST our focus on them.
Jesus does love the 3,000 people who
call the Vineyard home… but He’s calling the 99 sheep in Sullivan, the 9 coins
in BloNo, the 100’s of believers in Urbana to pursue the ONE in the field… He’s empowering us to go after
those not yet in the family of grace.
Some of us need to get
our anxiety for what we’ve lost back… some of us need to let our hearts break
for what breaks the Father’s heart… and get busy roaming the hills for sheep…
get busy lighting our lamp and searching diligently for coins…
Some of us need to
start making ourselves Available
to the Politically and Morally Offensive People in our Cities. Why?
·
So, we can experience
the joy of Changing the World with Jesus
·
So, we can experience
the joy of Heaven
·
So, we can experience
the joy of the Lost being Found.
JOY
I can tell you this,
every time I find my wallet or keys (and hopefully my favorite sunglasses), I’m
at least smiling ear to ear. Imagine
what it’s like to find a CHILD that’s been lost… Let’s finish the parable of the sheep that the man LOST:
5 And when he has found (the sheep)
it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls
together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I
have found my sheep that was lost.’ And again in the story with the coin that she LOST:
9
And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors,
saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’
Now, I have never
thrown a party for my lost wallet… but I can tell you that if one of my
children was missing for a day or gosh a year… IMAGINE the massive celebration
that Corrie and I would throw! We’d rent out the church building, we’d put it
on Facebook live, we’d buy the biggest pig to roast… it’d be a PARTY like no
other!
When we lose the Father’s Focus… we lose one of the
greatest joy’s we can have.
To find someone who
has no relationship with Jesus and be a part of their journey… to find someone
who has no hope and speak hope to them… to find someone addicted to the things
of this life and turn their affections toward a Father who loves them and will
never let them go. Look at how heaven reacts when we fulfill our mission &
vision:
15: 7 Just so, I
tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than
over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. And, again, with the coin:
10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one
sinner who repents.”
Friends, Isaiah and John
both tell us that Heaven is in a constant state of praise, shouting, song,
worship, & adoration. There is more joy there than in any other place! And
Jesus tells us there is an explosion of joy when the LOST come back into the
family.
LEADERS GO FIRST
When Corrie and I moved to BloNo, we made a fresh commitment to 2 things. (#1)We’d begin
praying every day for every person we met who wasn’t a follower of Jesus… and
(#2)We’d do whatever it takes to spend time with those people.
Now for us, that’s hard. As I said, we are a family with 5 kids… there
are 7 of us… seven schedules to manage… extra curriculars… jobs… school… dogs…
and finding stuff that Adam has lost J… it all takes time & tremendous
energy.
But, we know the Father’s
Focus is on The ONE, so our Focus needed to be on the ONE.
Don’t overcomplicate
things. Just go looking and see what happens. I want to share the PERSPECTIVE
of a man in our neighborhood. Mark’s
story/video
Listen friends, our #1 goal was to be in Mark’s life. To be
available. God did the work.
JOIN US à Some of us have lost
the Father’s Focus.
We need to get off our
porches, our back patios, and our couches and start looking for the ONE...
·
When you’re invited to a
ball game… go!
·
When you’re invited to a
cookout… go!
·
When you’re invited to a
party where people are doing things that for your spirit might be offensive
drinking/swearing … go!
·
We need to get out of our comfort
zones to regain the Father’s Focus.
·
We are a people of
grace… and it’s not our job to hang out with people we’ve already found… it’s
our job to realize we’ve lost something and go extend the grace that we already
have received.
·
We need to lose our
fears and Find our FOCUS.
Today, I want to invite
you to join Corrie and I in the Father’s Focus.
(A) Start praying EVERY SINGLE DAY. 8to15 APP – download now – reminder
(B) Start spending time with those 8to15. they can’t be in Chicago or St. Louis
IMAGINE We are a church of 3,000
people. If we just reach the ONE this year imagine the impact on our
cities/churches If we catch this thing, THAT WE’VE LOST SOMETHING, it will be culture
shifting in our church.
If your heart is stirred
by this, I want you to stand across all of our campuses. I want to pray over
you…
