Sheep and Coin Parable

Introduction

This is a Bible class period. And I really want Ernie to get this, so I want to get as close to him as I can here.

Some people require some work, you know.

Oh, it’s good to see all your faces. I was told that perhaps I should just understand and tell stories about everybody. Laughter is a good medicine, right? But maybe not. Let me get you to open your Bibles to Luke chapter 15. We’re going to spend our morning in Luke chapter 15 and 16. We’re going to be looking at some parables that are there. Some of you may have been here several years ago, whenever I was here, and we had a quarter’s worth of classes on the parables. Maybe it was two-quarters, I don’t remember. So some of this might be a little familiar to you. These are not old lessons. I’ve I’ve done some changes in them, but I want us to look at the teaching here in these two chapters.

If you will remember that study, and maybe if you study parables somewhere else, you’ll remember that there are a couple of really important things about parables. I mean, aside from the fact that these are the Lord Jesus’ most rememberable teachings. They’re the things that sort of sort of stick with us. One of the things that we always said about parables is that there’s usually one primary purpose and meaning in a parable. Yes, some of the parables are longer, some of them have some other messages that we can use, but there’s generally one reason, one purpose, one primary message that’s being communicated. And the second thing we said about parables was in order to get that primary message, almost all the time you had to find the context into which the parable was being said.

1. What Man Among You? The Lost Sheep

Why was it being said? To whom was it being said? And that’s what I want us to focus on this morning, both in the Bible class period and in the in the lesson as well. I want us to think about why these are being said, to whom they’re being said, then, and I think only then can we make a real application of what’s being taught there to Arabites. So let’s start in Matthew, I mean in Luke chapter 15, and the first verse, we’ll read the first seven verses. Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near him to listen to him. Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, This man receives sinners and eats with them. So he told them this parable, saying, What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it.

When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 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 which was lost. I tell you that in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.

That’s kind of short, probably not too hard to understand. And we have the context in the first two verses, don’t we? In the first two verses, we’re told why Jesus tells this parable. It’s because the scribes and the Pharisees are grumbling against him. In this particular occasion, they’re grumbling against him because he’s spending time with people they would see as highly unrighteous, terrible sinners, people that God would never receive into his kingdom. And here’s Jesus spending time with them, and he’s even eating with them.

Godly people shouldn’t do that, right? You shouldn’t spend time doing that with sinners. I mean, true righteousness wouldn’t would demand that you keep yourself aloof from people like that. You don’t associate with people like that. Because you might get contaminated.

What bad thing might happen? God would not have us to do that. That’s what they’re thinking. And so Jesus tells them the parable about the shepherd. He starts it off this way. What man among you? Now, what is the import of that phrase? The very beginning there. What man among you? This is a Bible class, so please make comment, that question. What do you think is the import of him saying that at the very beginning? I know you haven’t had a chance to look at this ahead of time, Father.

Okay, but he says, What man among you? Where is another road? There’s a pretty clear effort here on his part to make this of universal application, isn’t it? What he’s saying is what I’m about to tell you’re not going to disagree with. No one would disagree with this. If you understand what it means to be a shepherd, you’re going to realize that exactly what this shepherd does is what you would do too. What man among you will do anything differently? You wouldn’t. And I think that’s probably borne out in what he says here. In the parable, the man has a hundred sheep. One of them is missing. He leaves the 99 in the open pasture, and he goes to find the one that is lost.

I think what he’s saying to them is, you do the same thing. You would do exactly the same thing. Why would a sheep, which is nice and protected and secure in a flock of a hundred sheep, why would he wander off? Why would a sheep do that?

It’s what sheep do. I heard other comments over here. Sheep can get distracted. Sheep are not very bright. That’s that’s right. They’re not very bright.

Yeah. Well, I don’t know if I’d say that.

No. Well, sheep can get afraid of no run, won’t they? But yeah, I read an interpreter’s Bible, a little exchange which I’m sure was made up between a fellow who owns some sheep and a city guy who met on a road. And as they’re walking by each other, the city guy says to the other guy, you know, what’s up? And he says, Well, I got a I got a stray sheep. And the city guy says, Well, how do they how do they how is it they wander off? And what the farmer said was, well, they eat their way lost. They got their head down, they’re eating a chuck of grass, and then, oh, there’s another tuck of grass right there, so they go in, they eat that.

Well, there’s another one. They don’t even look up. They’re just eating, and they may come to a hole in a fence, and there’s a there’s grass over there, so they’ll go right through the hole. And eventually they’ll look up, and they don’t know where they are, and they can’t find a hole back in the fence to come back. They just eat themselves lost, is what the guy said. Sheep will do that. They’ll wander off like that. Well, okay. So he’s got these sheep, and one wanders off. What’s the big deal? Why the urgency? He leaves ninety-nine out in the open pasture, and immediately tries to find the one that’s lost. Why wouldn’t you do that?

The sheep probably is valuable. We get the idea from this parable that this fellow’s not just the shepherd of the sheep, he’s the owner of the sheep, right? And what were sheep used for in those days? Clothing was made out of wool in a lot of cases. sheepskins were used to make lots of things. Sheep were offered in sacrifices. sheep are an economic asset. So, okay, but still, why the urgency? I’ll go find that sheep tomorrow. I’ll I’ll I’ll I’ll catch up with it sooner or later. Why the urgency here?

I’m sorry?

Yeah, that’s that’s certainly true. Is it possible? Well, it is his, and he w but again, yes sir. There is a danger here. What’s the danger?

Yeah, predators. Yeah. Well, but if a predator comes across a sheep, the sheep will truly fight it off, right? No. I never saw any sheep that had real fangs or claws, or they don’t have any means to do that, do they?

That is so then use that word. Happy with so happy and rejoice or something. Love and tender. Th there’s some relationship here, perhaps. Yes, sir.

Right. Because they tend to take it. They tend to sort of mill about together.

Shearers are two different flocks and they cross and the block actually lost through each other. No kidding. And stayed with their respective flocks? Yeah. Yeah. That’s cool. I didn’t know that’s cool.

Yeah.

No. I’ve never known a school that picked them as a mascot. No, that’s right. Well, okay, so the sheep can’t fight very well, but if a predator showed up, he could run away. I never known these sheep are very fast either. They’re pretty helpless. And they’re an economic asset. And so if he wants to get this sheep back, he’s got to go after it. He’s got to go after it. And he’s got to do it pretty quick. And so he leaves the 99 in the open pasture and goes after this sheep. Does that put the 99 at some risk? Well, maybe a little bit. My understanding is that in those days, in a situation like this, what a shepherd would typically do is he’d try to find someone else to watch the flock while he was out looking for the sheep.

But that’s not said here. We’re simply told that he takes off. But I, you know, again, I think what the Lord is trying to communicate here is this sense of urgency. There’s some urgency involved here. Which again, remember the context. This is a message to the scribes and the Pharisees concerning searching for other things. So he goes out and he and he finds the sheep. He finds the sheep, and he immediately begins rejoicing, even as he’s hoisting the sheep up on his shoulders to carry it back. He’s rejoicing. Why? Why are they rejoicing? All kinds of things you’re rejoicing about, aren’t they? Okay, the sheep’s not dead. I haven’t lost the sheep. Okay, I’ve still got it. Which means I haven’t lost the economic asset. Which means I don’t have to keep looking for it anymore.

There’s all kinds of reasons why he would be rejoicing. He’s happy he found his sheep. A flock of a hundred sheep in those days, probably a little bit larger than a typical average flock. But even so, even, you know, if you think about it this way, well, he only, if he did lose it’s just one, he’s still got 99. It’s still valuable. And so he’s rejoicing because he found the sheep that was lost. He’s very happy about that. In fact, he’s so happy about it that what does he do when he gets it home? Calls his friends and neighbors, and they all come, and he says, Come rejoice with me. I found a sheep that was lost. And we also see the thing appreciated about sheep really.

2. More Joy in Heaven Over One Sinner Who Repents

Exact exactly right. Exactly right. Well, what application does Jesus make here? He didn’t just tell them a parable. I love it when parable we give we’re given the application. That’s a lot less we’d have to figure out. Jesus gives the application. What did he say about it?

Yeah, what does he say? What words does Jesus use here when he talks about this application?

Yeah, more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. You think the fellow didn’t like the other 99 sheep? Didn’t have any concern about them, any care about them? I mean, I have heard people say, I’m not sure about this idea. You know, more joy over the nine the one in the 99. I heard this mostly from people who have siblings, brothers and sisters. You know, mom always likes you best, you know, that kind of thing. but is this a natural way to feel? It really is if you think about it. If you do think about it. Who’s I’m looking for I’m looking for somebody here. Looking for Jill that’s what I’m looking for.

How many kids have you got Jill? Four kids. Suppose Taylor gets really sick. Really sick. And you take him to the doctor and the doctor says listen, I’m not going to lie to you, this is bad. This is what we have some medicine that we can give in situations like this, but frankly I don’t know how this is going to turn out. There’s some real concern here that this is going to be life threatening. And so they start to give him the medicine. And every couple of days Jill talk to the doctor actually every couple of hours going Jill but don’t know anything yet. Don’t have the test yet can’t tell can’t tell if it’s working yet. Days go by, maybe two or three weeks go by.

And then finally there’s a communication from the doctor that says listen I got these reports, results it’s going to be okay. He’s going to be okay. It’s going to take a little more time but yes it’s working he’s going to be fine. Do you think Jill’s not going to rejoice? You think there’s not going to be whooping and hollering in the house? Do you think she’s not going to call the congregation and say, listen, I got this news from the doctor, and everybody says, Oh, yes, that’s great news. That’s wonderful. You think Jill didn’t love her other three kids? Of course she does. But there’s j it’s just natural to have more rejoicing and enthusiasm over one who was in danger and now they’re not in danger than the ones who were never in danger.

That’s just a natural thing. And that’s what’s being said here. More joy in heaven over the one sinner who repents than 99 who didn’t need any repentance. Now, considering our context here, who were the 99? Pharisees and the scribes. They saw themselves as righteous. They saw themselves as not needing to repent. And that the Lord says, I’m spending time with these folks, and I’m trying to help them to see what God needs for them to see. I’m talking to them about the kingdom of heaven is at hand. I’m talking to them about their need to repent. And there’ll be joy in that situation if one of them does. All of this is particularly ironic in view of the fact that the Pharisees, especially, saw themselves as the spiritual shepherds of Israel.

3. The Shepherds of Israel Did Not Seek the Lost

And in fact, that’s what they were intended to be. Let me get you to open your Bible to the book of Ezekiel. You can go ahead and get your marker in Luke 15, if you would, but let’s look in Ezekiel, chapter 34.

And we’ll read starting in the first verse, Ezekiel 34.

Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, thus says the Lord God, Woe, shepherds of Israel, who have been feeding themselves. Should not the shepherds feed the flock? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock. Those who are sickly you have not strengthened. The diseased you have not healed. The broken you have not bound up, the scattered you have not brought back, nor have you sought for the lost. But with force and with severity you have dominated them. They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every beast of the field and were scattered.

My flock wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill. My flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth, and there was no one to search or seek for them. Therefore, you shepherds hear the word of the Lord. As I live, declares the Lord God, surely, because my flock has become a prey, my flock has even become food for all the beasts of the field for lack of a shepherd. And my shepherds did not search for my flock, but rather the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed my flock. Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God. Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will demand my sheep from them, and make them cease from feeding sheep.

For the shepherds will not feed themselves anymore, but I will deliver my flock from their mouth, so they will not be food for them. Now I realize that’s from the Old Testament. There’s a different situation in which those words were addressed. But the Pharisees did see themselves as the spiritual shepherds of Israel. And they were familiar with packages like this from the Old Testament. They knew what their duty was. They should have, anyway. And they’re criticizing Jesus for spending time with those who are lost, for seeking out those who are lost, when it’s the very things they themselves should have been doing. They should have been doing it. And there’s even maybe a little foreshadowing here in Ezekiel chapter 34. Look at verse 11. For thus the Lord God says, Behold, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out.

And isn’t that exactly what Jesus is doing? That is exactly what he’s doing. Exactly what he said he came to do. Luke 19, verse 10. Son of man has come to seek and save the lost. Any questions about this parable? Any comments you’d like to make, Ernie? I was thinking even a good analogy of ourselves. When someone goes forward and obeys the gospel and comes up out of the water, a redeemed person. We may be happy with one another, but who do we go to immediately? We’re flocking to the front of the building to walk on that one into the fold of safety. We love each other, yeah. But our attention then is upon the one that was lost, and that was saved. Mm-hmm. And you know, I worry sometimes that our rejoicing is not even as great as it ought to be.

I sometimes I think we sort of take this for granted. Or someone has come forward and we’re going to have a baptism and say, that’s great, that’s wonderful. It’s an amazing thing when that happens. Yeah, oh, I’m gonna be here in 20 minutes. That’s right. Yeah. It’s an amazing thing when that happens. And our rejoicing should last for some time. Because this is someone who was lost and now they’ve been found. Someone who was dead and now they’re alive, but I can ever hand. What okay, so if we if we understand the parable, and I know it’s our difficult parable. Here’s the Lord Jesus kind of responding to the scribes and the Pharisees. You know, you’re criticizing me, you’re grumbling against me.

4. This Is What Is Right

Let me let me tell you a story. What man among you? And he goes into it. So the message is clearly directed at them. Is there an application for us? Is there something here that we need to hear? We’re not scribes of Pharisees. But is there something here that we need to hear?

We can’t degrecate ourselves from everybody who believes God for people. Oh, are we supposed to teach people?

You heard that somewhere? I think I heard that somewhere too.

Mm-hmm. And he was found and we saved again. And he’s more glory to heaven will be saved and looked at the life that shows us.

We should have we should try to have as much joy as the way we can be there in heaven at that moment. Yeah, and if the Lord God is going to rejoice over this situation, and if I’m trying to be like him in all respects that I can be like him, then I’m gonna rejoice too. And to the same extent. Yeah. We really should. We all think that we look at this and we say, What man are you and what she was wrong with God? And we understand that we are elderly here or shut up. So that doesn’t mean like if somebody here doesn’t wait for the Lord that we can go and tell us. Oh yeah.

Different because if there are brothers and sisters in Christ, we’ve got a responsibility each and every one of us to provide encouragement to go over and find them and turn it as we can. Absolutely right.

Oh, absolutely right. Yeah. Yeah. And we know the passages. You know, we know about the Great Commission. We understand that we’re charged to do this. We’re charged to try to reach out to as many with the gospel as we can. And we talk about that charge and we talk about duty, we talk about obligation, and those are not bad things to talk about, and those are not bad things to use as motivation. But the point that the Lord makes here is this is what is right. This is what is right. Here’s here’s someone who needs to be found. So let’s go find them. What man among you wouldn’t do that? If it was a sheep. You do that. And you’re criticizing me because I’m trying to find people that need to be saved.

And we ought to have his attitude. In fact, I would say this is this is God’s attitude, and as an attitude he would have us to have. I know that it’s hard sometimes. These days it can be so difficult to find people who will be willing to listen to the gospel, to get people to come to visit a church. It can be a very difficult thing. We there are negative consequences of that for us personally. Sometimes doors slammed in our face, people don’t talk to us anymore. But this is what’s right. If there’s anything the parable is saying to us, I think that’s that’s gotta be it. This is what’s right. Yeah.

Exactly right. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I’m I’m sure you’re right about that. And we’re we’re calling, you know, the scribes and the Pharisees just as a as a group, we’re kind of judging and convicting them as a group. Of course there were exceptions. We know that there were some exceptions, but in general, you’re exactly right. You’re exactly right.

I think for other women at night, you can be with doctor, but you know, I know about the word, and I’m trying to be a way to follow it, and I understand that, but then what’s instead don’t include you with that, and don’t have all people that interact with it.

Yeah, we really do we really need to be.

I think the application is that we cannot become the authority before it’s just intend to be what we are. We must be good. We must be the word. Yeah. And try to be aware of our circumstances and our brothers and sisters in Christ. And if you see an indicator that you know they’re they’re wandering along looking for that whole sense, or just wandering around under the grass, whatever. We can’t just sit idly by. We must out of love and concern address it. And that sometimes becomes difficult because you don’t know how a person’s going to react to that. Thank you for your concern or get out of my life. But that doesn’t excuse us for not doing what we know we need to do.

5. The Woman Who Lost One Coin

No, I think you’re exactly right about that too. So, nice little nice little parable. Real clear application to the scribes of the Pharisees. Thing is, the Lord is just getting started here. Let’s go on and read a few more verses. Back in Luke chapter fifteen, starting in verse eight.

Luke fifteen verse eight, the Lord says, or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it. When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost. In the same way I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Well that kind of sounds familiar. It’s a slightly different situation, but I suspect that most of us, well, I won’t I won’t go that far. I know that I have, at least in the past, that time. You know, I’m reading through this chapter, I read this first parable, I get to this second parable, and I read through.

Oh, well, he just say the same thing there, and I just keep going. Well, there’s a sense in which some of that is true, but there’s also some other interesting things, I think, in this parable that we might want to look at. now, people have overanalyzed this to death, and I don’t I don’t want us to do that. But one thing I would ask is if we think about the shepherd in the first parable, and the woman in this parable. Which of the two of them do you suppose felt the loss of what was lost more intensely, more deeply? The shepherd or the woman. people will have different ideas about that. I realize, but what I’m going to suggest to you that I think it’s probably the woman.

One sheep out of a hundred, sheep’s a valuable economic asset, but it’s one out of a hundred. This woman has only ten coins, and so she’s losing a tenth of what she has. Now, what these coins are, exactly how much they’re worth, I think the suggestion from what we read is that this is a woman of somewhat modest means. And I don’t think this represents an awful lot of money. This, in fact, may be her life savings, it may be it may be as a gift that she got from her father whenever she got married. In those days it was not uncommon when a man married a woman, well, her father would give a gift to the groom. That was sort of expected, but also the father of the woman would give a gift to his daughter.

And it was not uncommon at all for that gift to be coins. Maybe coins that had a hole drilled in them that could be put together like a headdress that she might wear, or maybe where’s a bracelet. But this woman had ten coins. And the idea of the gift that was given by the father to the woman was if the marriage was to break up, if something happened, this would stay with her. These were hers. And it was expected that it would just remain with her. So this is this is kind of a safeguard against the future, perhaps, if that’s what this is. And she loses one of these coins. If it was a headdress, if it was something on a bracelet, maybe one of the coins just fell off.

She lost this coin. She needs to find this coin. And so she starts looking for it. Does the search tell you anything about how she feels about this coin? I mean, can we even identify with what she’s doing here? Can you?

-huh.

Yeah. That’s what I see. And the scripture doesn’t say, does it, that she called her servants together and had them look for the coin. I don’t think she had any servants. She had to light a lamp to look for it. What that may suggest to us is that this is a very humble home. There might not even be any windows in this house, or if there is, maybe just one. So she’s got to have some light to see what she’s doing. She’s sweeping the floor. It’s probably a dirt floor. If you’re sweeping a dirt floor looking for something fairly small, are you going to sweep real vigorously? If you do that, you’re probably just going to shove it over to one other part of the room and not even see it.

It’s going to have to be a very slow, painstaking search. And one room at a time. And so there’s some effort involved in searching for this coin. What do you had your hand in? Well I was gonna say it didn’t happen. even in the first part that we read earlier, regarding the shepherd with the keys and each of the specifics.

They didn’t call it. They didn’t call all their friends and or wait for their friends to find it or go out looking for the sheep. It’s it’s specific. It is it is an individual responsibility. They it was their they felt the need. They had to go out and use it. And the gentleman or the shepherd had a responsibility. We felt a great desire that we had to go out and do it. We didn’t wait for somebody else to find it or come across it, or it didn’t call it alligation all the friends. We have a responsibility that isn’t ourselves, our executive twenty eight that go there for make all the time involved. We have this need, we should have it. We should have the responsibility and desire and not go around to do that.

That’s what I’m thinking from Yeah.

Oh no, you’re exactly right. And in this parable, who lost the coin? I mean the woman lost it herself. I’m I’m kind of a Joanne here. You know, I hate losing things. I really hate going to a spot to get something, which is supposed to be in a certain spot, and it’s not there. And nobody’s handled it but me. Well I must have put it somewhere that it wasn’t supposed to be, and now I have to spend time looking for it. It really gets under my skin having to do that, but I gotta do it. Because I gotta find this thing. I gotta find it. Yes, sir. Well and this is a surprise for pulling it out there with my children put this much bad into the hand.

I always think it’s it’s over what it is.

With between these two parables and we look at it together, we can kind of eliminate if you guys have the favorite to one sheet number 37. That’s right, that’s right.

My favorite one. That’s right. So the designation of it is that it was lost. and not that the law had more value than any of the others, but right now it’s law and it’s got an right. And I think all of God sure should we’ll find selling that same boat. And I love reach out and should draw out the fine and pull back a little. I agree, Bobby.

Yeah. Yeah, and I hadn’t even thought about that, but you I think you’re right about that. There is something perhaps there. there’s all kinds of things about these comparatives too that we could do, you know, but you probably heard this. Of course, the sheep probably came to some understanding sooner or later that it was lost, and probably wanted to find its way home and didn’t know how to do that. The coin being an inanimate object has no idea that it’s lost. There’s nothing there about that. But sometimes we’ll talk to people who have no idea that they’re lost. And we I’m sorry, go ahead. I wouldn’t say that the color. If anyone is wildly back up and something that’s convocating, then it’s probably a reasonable value.

Possibly could be. If they were equal value, then one of the money came off. It is the most important one for that moment. Mm-hmm. So put forth the effort to find the law. And I think we can relax that with the line. Yeah, I don’t I don’t know. I’m sure I’m sure you’re right, and I think that’s what he was saying as well. I don’t know if I should tell you this or not. I mean, sometimes when I’ve lost something, and maybe it’s a simple little thing. Maybe it’s a stapler, you know. I don’t know. But I need to staple something. I’ve got to find my stapler. I may know where there’s another stapler that I could use. But I gotta find the one that’s not I want to find this thing.

It’s supposed to be in this spot. I gotta go get it and put it in the spot where it’s supposed to be. I just and how do you feel when you find it, Joanne? So relieved. Yeah, that’s exactly the right word. How does a woman feel when she found the coin? It had to be a huge join of relief. I found the coin. Again, I don’t have to keep searching for it. It isn’t lost forever. I have it. Oh, I’m so happy. You know, and what does she do? Contacts her friends, just like the shepherd did. Contact her friends and come rejoice from me. I found the coin that was lost. Now it doesn’t say that she called them to help her search for it.

I guess she had told them that it was lost because she calls them after she finds it. Rejoice with me. And again, the Lord gives an application, doesn’t he? What does he say? In the same way. Verse 10 I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Sometimes, I know I have said this, and perhaps some of you have said this. whatever we’re offering an invitation, maybe after you know, a lesson or something, you know, and we’re trying to appeal to someone to come forward and obey the gospel, and we’ll say, perhaps, the angels in heaven will rejoice if you’re if you’ll, you know, someone will come forward and obey the gospel today.

Did this verse say that?

What about one after the shepherd parable? Does that say that the angels are going to rejoice?

They’ll be rejoicing in the presence of the angels. Now maybe this is a minor point, I don’t know. It’d be a great thing for angels to be rejoicing, and I’m sure that they are rejoicing. But I think the point here is that God is rejoicing. The one who dwells in heaven in the presence of the angels is rejoicing when a sinner comes forward and repents. And I just don’t want to lose track of that. What else should we say about this parable? He wants the Pharisees to rejoice with him. Okay. Over what he’s discovering. The tax gatherers, the sinners who were listening to him. They should have been rejoicing along with him. But they were already members of the kingdom, but they never saw the bigger picture that God wanted everyone who was willing to be in his kingdom.

And the diligence of the woman looked at what Jesus did, and he left heaven and came and lived among the air. Look at the diligence of God to see what faith of law. He is exemplifying what he’s talking about in these parables, isn’t he? Like he what Tony was saying? He exemplifies that when you hear ten leopards, or not in fact the fur, but ten leopards you feel.

And then good for their kind of Hebrew birds.

That would put them off, wouldn’t it? Yeah, but he said they’re they have much right to and you know, he wants several things. He wants them to rejoice with him. He wants them to have the attitude that he has. He wants them to be involved in the work that he’s involved in. He wants to bring them in. And you know, the majority of them will not do it. Yes, sir.

The that keeps coming back.

Because we’re going out of the one she’s going to be looking for is not a root thing. It’s the individual. And Peter, I think says the same thing, I think Peter is read nine, where he says that God is long suffering.

Yeah.

God is looking, you know, does God care for me? Will he care about the one who gave him God? He cares for me first. Mm-hmm. And when nothing somewhat is somebody all over the world. Mm-hmm. And if God cares that much. And if we are his children, we should care that much.

6. This Is an Individual Responsibility

That’s right. So some people have the attitude of that’s what we pay the preacher for. He’s supposed to go do that. No. He’s just the same as the rest of us. We shouldn’t seek to the law and social people. Well, you know, elders have a role that they’re to play, preachers have a role that they’re to play, but this is an individual responsibility for those who are Christians. If you if we’re a Christian, we have this responsibility to seek out and save those that we can. Of course we do. Train, I understand the train. That’s the first cell? No.

I’m sorry. Yeah, sure.

Yeah. A sheep that was in the fold, as was pointed out before, that and now we have to seek for it. Yeah. We came back to Okay. Doesn’t say in here how I mean other fact that sheep.

Look, it doesn’t necessarily say how did they do it? I mean, I’m I need that one time, but do we do it for a gospel meeting? Do we do it for inviting people? Do we do it for can we do it by the way we live? Example we there’s many ways that we can be effective in searching and seeking out the law. And we need to be aware of that and use those as best as we can. Whether it’s been a gospel meeting, whether inviting someone to come, whether it’s getting them to come even to Bible study, or whether by the way they see a difference in our lives. Those are all effective ways that we can see the laws. And why is it that all too often we don’t make this kind of effort?

We don’t avail ourselves of these kinds of opportunities. Knowing the attitude that the Lord has about this, knowing what he said to us about this, we said the Scrivers of Pharisees about this, why is it that all too often we fail to make much of an effort at all to stand? Well I think everything about the sheep eating and stuff lost, but the other sheep are eating right where they are. They’re not noticing that the sheep sound by some of us do that too.

It might even be 30 pictures every day. But we’re not looking around to see well where was my brother that or is there a thought on her moving in some way. And we are good or being good but we’re not never given that a good point. Yes sir. Well I don’t share with all of them what’s supposed to be my sample and the computer because it’s a very high correct I think that too Christians say that we want to like possibly have these there was nothing I thought a lot we have to take. That’s an interesting point that you bring up. I read an article, I think it was Andy Cantrell, but I’m not positive about that very idea of being an example. we’re told in scripture that we should be our light.

So that others, when they see our good works, would do what? Glorify God. Well, what is it that’s going to keep someone from seeing Ernie’s good works and glorifying Ernie? Ernie’s just such a good guy. He just he likes people and he’s he’s generous and he’s you know and not even think about God. Unless Ernie somehow or other, with the relationship with the person says, Well, do you know why I live my life this way? Let me let me talk to you about this. You know, they’ll see our good works, but they’re not gonna glorify God unless they understand who we are. And we may have to tell them who we are. What’s the old bumper sticker? No, reach out to others with the gospel and if necessary use words.

I hate that bumper sticker. I absolutely hate that bumper sticker. It is necessary to use words. An example by itself is not enough. We have to use words. We have to talk to people. Christy. Well, yeah, where I find them, sorry, another thing on day.

I’m I’m able to read these scriptures and I’m trying to be disagreeable in my little area and encourage my brother and sisters in Christ that I know our near somebody or another time and I want to hear them because I don’t recurly line on this like that and don’t hurt me. But then we just we just pacify ourselves that over and he said that’s gonna be off the room. We didn’t we table in the approach and we have to have of our comfort. A little more proactive. And appreciate and everybody followed and in one. Yeah.

Okay. Okay. Let me just say one thing first. if any of you have that buffer stick on your car, it’d be anything by a personal. Yes, then go ahead. The direction I was gonna go is that a lot of times we get so caught up in our faith environment with no members of the church. They’re not members of the church. We were all one floss piece. Every single person says we were all one flossy. Conservative. Every single human being on this earth is important in that, whether they are a member of the church or not. And we need to get out of our comfort zone and see how are you trying to tell me Jesus died for everybody? Okay. Well, okay.

Now I’m crying for my brother. Well, what about those that are not our brother? Those that are sounds. You’re right. You’re exactly right.

Okay, so first bell was a little late. I think it’s time for me to stop. No? You want me to keep talking?

Conclusion

Well, there are other hands. Did I miss anybody? Okay, we’re going to continue with this scene in the lesson this morning. We’re going to go on to the next parable. The Lord is still not through with the scribes and the Pharisees in this chapter. And the next parable is a familiar one to us. I know it’s the parable of the lost son, parable of the prodigal son, but we’ll look at that this morning in the lesson and try to make some application again to the stuff that we’ve been talking about. I mean, it’s it’s an interesting thing to me. Here’s here’s two verses about them grumbling against him and a whole lot of response from him, which you know should have made some things clearer to them.

Whether it did or not, I don’t know, but it’s trying to make some things clear to us. So we’ll go at it from that point of view. Thank you for your comments. I appreciate it very much.