Lost Sheep talk (All Age)

Luke 15.4-7
"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, `Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent." (Luke 15:4-7, NIV)
When I was young, I used to collect stamps. A lot of people still do that. I know that because last week Bevan gave Billie a whole load of stamps for ICS. ICS sell all the stamps to stamp collectors. Now I’m older, I don’t collect stamps, but, since marrying Billie I’ve noticed that we seem to be collecting teddies and other furry animals! (Hold up a few)
... but now we’ve managed, sorry, I’ve managed to lose one and I’m really hoping that some of you guys can help me find it... it’s a sheep and I’m really worried, because if Billie realises, she’ll as angry as a very cross thing ... and believe me, you DO NOT want to get Billie angry!!! Please find our sheep! .... thank you!!!
Right, now, what were we going to talk about today – anyone got any ideas? Yes, the parable of the lost sheep! Well, I guess you all know the parable anyway, it’s something you will have looked at in Sunday School and I think George has even painted pictures of it... who can tell me what happens in the story?
Who gets lost?
What happens?
That’s right, and what does the story mean? Who is the shepherd? Who is the sheep? That’s right, the story shows how God loves us. If one of us turns our back on God and stops believing in Him and loving Him, he doesn’t stand there telling us off, or punishing us, he goes out there to try and find us and bring us back to him. JC tells this story because the Pharisees, (you remember the Pharisees? They’re the ones who hang around the temple and they’re miserable and they go round saying ‘we’re the good guys, we follow all the rules, you’re no good, you’re SINNERS!!’) Well, anyway, the Pharisees were being completely self-satisfied and saying ‘look at him! He’s hanging out with homeless people, criminals, the losers! Who does he think he is?!’
You see, the Pharisees thought God was like them, busy watching everyone else to see if they did anything wrong so they could go ‘Ha! Gotcher! You’re a SINNER! Not like us good guys!’ they thought God was just watching and waiting so He could point a finger and say SINNER too. So JC is telling them the story to try and show them that they’ve got God wrong. God doesn’t judge, he is so concerned, he will leave the 99 sheep and go after the one who is wandering off away from God, the sinner, and bring him back.
OK, we could leave it there. As I said, we all know this story, we could just move on to coffee hour now. The thing is, I think we miss something if we do. You see, the thing that bothers me, is what about the 99 sheep? If I was the shepherd, I wouldn’t have left the 99 sheep unprotected where wolves or other wild animals could catch them, where they too could have wandered off.
I wonder how you would have felt if I had started today’s service by walking out of the door shouting ‘you lot stay here – I´m going out to look for someone who is lost!’
(It made me remember a time when I was on holiday with my eldest 2 children.... The point is, I wouldn’t have dumped one child alone and vulnerable, in a place he didn’t know, while I went off to look for the other...)
So, what about these 99 sheep then? In the story, the sheep represent people, so all 100 sheep were representing humanity. They are ALL in the wilderness, living in a world where Christian values don’t seem important anymore but the 99 sheep don’t realise they are lost, they think they’re doing OK. The one sheep does know he’s lost and he needs help, he needs a Saviour. The 99 sheep are trying to exist on their own, they don’t want to be saved. God can't do anything for the 99 who walk past the Church, who think they are perfectly fine, and simply have no use for God. But God can and will search for the person who knows he needs God, and wants to be rescued. That's the kind of God we have, but it’s also showing the kind of people we are, people who are proud and think we can manage on our own.

But God can, and will, do something about the one person who knows he needs God in his life. He will pick him up, take him home and have a party! Two points to notice here: first, God isn’t judging, like the Pharisees, he’s just loving and accepting someone who has turned to him. Second, the shepherd takes the sheep home, not back to the other sheep. God takes Christians into his own family and then celebrates. As Christians, we are part of God’s family. ‘In the world, but not of the world’ Find quote.
So, now, how does this work for us today? Well first of all, let’s look at the numbers. In the story it was one person who knew he was lost and 99 who thought they were OK as they were. I would say that it’s pretty much the same now. All of us here today, are realising that we can’t live life to the full without God - we need God in our lives to make sense of our lives and give our lives meaning. For every one of us here today, there are probably 99 – or 999 - out there who think they can manage without God, they don’t realise how alone they really are. So perhaps the church should be doing more to reach out to them? I’ll come back to that.
Well ...Secondly, do you remember why JC was telling the story in the first place? It was because the Pharisees were grumbling about JC eating with the ‘bad guys’, he was breaking the rules, he wasn’t ‘behaving’.
Instead of using their ears to hear the gracious words of the Son of God, they used their lips to condemn him... ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them!’ they grumbled. And they were right!! That’s EXACTLY what Jesus does – so who do we want to be? Followers of Jesus or followers of the Pharisees?
Jesus answered his critics with these three parables about the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son, and I often wonder how Jesus told these parables? Was he shouting and confronting the people who didn’t like him? Actually I think he told them with warmth and gentleness, aiming to melt the hearts of some of his opponents and turn them back to God.
You see, the point of the parables is that God cares passionately about lost people – whether they’ve ignored or rejected him, whether or not they even know they are lost – and God seeks them with the urgency, the skill and the bravery of a shepherd looking for a sheep, with the patience and persistence of a woman searching for a missing coin.
There is nothing grudging or half-hearted about this search. God is wholehearted, committed, reckless, driven by a love stronger than we can imagine.
Application
We are not told how the grumblers responded to Jesus that day, but how should we respond? What is the challenge for us?
1. The priorities of the Church (all of us!) should be the same as the priorities of God (we are after all the Body of Christ). If God’s priority is to bring home the we lost, that’s what our priority should be.
2. We might expect the shepherd to stay with the 99 sheep who didn’t stray, counting them, stroking them, feeding them, making little jackets for them – but no! He’s out looking for the silly strays who keep wandering off. And he keeps on looking until he finds them.
3. Perhaps we aren’t mixing with the right people. Perhaps we should be devoting more of our energy to reaching out, without judging, and showing God’s love to people who we find difficult, who might not even realise they are lost? Who do you know who this could apply to and what could you do to reach out to them with God’s love?
I like to remind people (including myself) that the Church is not a hotel for saints, it is a hospital for sinners. My hope is that people will have the same complaint about St George’s that they had about Jesus:-
That Church welcomes sinners and eats with them!’