Young Adult’s Ministry

Youth Ministries
MNG Young Adults Retreat: A winter
 Planet Wisdom Conference: December
retreat to Oak Forest Center in the
4th-5th at Grace Church in Eden Prairie.
woods near Frederic, WI. Join us for a
The cost is $60. The cost gets you into
time of fellowship to relax, play games,
the conference and breakfast on
worship God and study His word. Cost is
Saturday. Additional money needed for
$75; scholarships are available. To
lunch on Saturday and other snacks or
sign-up, contact Caleb Poehler at
merchandise you would like. See Kevin
[email protected].
for sign up and details.
Condolences
Randy Ralph’s mother, Valerie Ralph, died last Sunday morning after an extended
illness. It is also difficult for Randy to attend right now due to problems with his legs.
If you wish to send a message of sympathy, it would be a great encouragement to him.
His address is: Randy Ralph, 720 7th Avenue South, Hopkins, MN 55305
November 29, 2015
Ridgewood House of Prayer (RHOP)
Join Ridgewood in praying for our church family and others.
Each month RHOP (leaders from Ridgewood Prayer Ministries) prayerfully sets prayer
goals for our church body to pray.
"Pray without Ceasing"
1 Thess. 5:17
November Prayer Goals
1. Unity in the RWC Body
Ephesians 4
2. We would all seek the Lord's face by praising His character and praying Scripture.
Psalm 27:4 & 8
3. God would give us a passion to invite people to join us in following Jesus.
Matthew 4:19
4. God would be preparing the heart of our Sr. Pastor according to His Word.
Acts 6:4, Matthew 28:19-20
Guest Speaker
Dave Mergens
See inside for Sermon Notes
"History is silent about revivals that did not begin with prayer." J. Edwin Orr
Phone: (952) 474-0858
Email: [email protected]
Website: RidgewoodChurch.info
Office Hours:
Mon-Thurs 8:00am—3:30pm
Friday 8:00am—Noon
How Great Thou Art
How Marvelous
Angels From The
Realms Of Glory
Come Thou LongExpected Jesus
By Stuart Hine
By Gabriel & Tomlin
By Steven Curtis Champan
By Wesley & Prichard
Announcements
T hi s We e k at R i dgewo o d
Sunday, November 29
8:00-9:00am
9:30-10:30am
6:30-8:30pm
7:00pm
Open Prayer Time (Prayer Room or Room 102)
Worship Service (Sanctuary)
Crossing Over (Room 105)
Adult Volleyball (Gym)
Monday, November 30
6:00-7:00am
7:00-9:00pm
7:00-9:30pm
RWC Family
Women’s Ministries

Cleaning Day: Tuesday, December 1st
5:00-7:30pm. Come be a part of the
behind-the-scenes effort that keeps the
church running. RSVP to Caleb at
[email protected]

Christmas in Bethlehem: Sunday,
December 6th, 12:00-2:00pm. Food in
the market place, crafts, "shops" like
bakery, pottery, jewelry, carpentry and
more! Bring the family and invite a
friend!
Volunteers are needed to be
“SHOPKEEPERS” for this family festival.
Please email Martha this week to be a
helper for this community outreach.
Adult and Junior & Senior High volunteers welcome and appreciated.
 Christmas Brunch & Guest Speaker: All
women are invited to join us Wednesday, December 9th at 9:15am in room
207 for a Christmas Brunch and special
guest speaker, Tom Aslesen, the son of
Carol and Sam Child. Tom is the recent
recipient of a heart transplant and will
be sharing his experience.
Men’s Hour of Prayer Power (Room 104)
Young Adults’ MNG (Heupel’s Home)
Men’s BSF
Tuesday, December 1
9:15-10:30am
9:30-10:30am
5:00-7:30pm
MIP (Moms in Prayer) MME (Room 105)
Al-Anon Meeting (Room 107)
Cleaning Day—All welcome to help (Ridgewood)
Wednesday, December 2
7:30am-9:00pm
8:30-9:00am
8:30-9:30am
9:30-10:30am
9:30-11:00am
6:30-7:30pm
6:30-8:00pm
6:30-8:00pm
7:00-9:00pm
Open Prayer (Sanctuary)
Women’s Prayer (Prayer Room)
MIP [Moms in Prayer] College & Career (Fireside Room)
MIP [Moms in Prayer] Grandmas (Fireside Room)
Women’s Bible Study AM (Room 205)
Women’s Bible Study PM (Library)
God Squad (Room 204)
Jr. High Youth Group (Room 201)
Sr. High Youth Group (Room 201)


Parents’ Night Out: December 11th
from 6:00pm-8:30pm. Take a breath,
shop for Christmas, or just enjoy some
time to talk - we will watch the kids.
Reservations required for childcare;
cost is $10 per family - yes that is a
great deal! You may invite other
families you know. Contact Martha
Keenan by email to reserve a spot:
[email protected]

Kitchen Coordinator: Have a heart for
serving others? Consider being
Ridgewood’s Kitchen Coordinator. For
questions or interest contact Caleb at:
[email protected]
Thursday, December 3
1:00-2:30pm
7:00-8:00pm
GriefShare (Library)
Alcoholics Anonymous (Room 104)
Friday, December 4
4:00pm
Planet Wisdom Jr & Sr. High Event (meet at Ridgewood)
Saturday, December 5
4:00pm Pick-up
Planet Wisdom Jr & Sr. High Event (Ridgewood)
Sunday, December 6
8:00-9:00am
9:30-10:30am
10:50-11:50am
12:00-2:00pm
6:30-8:30pm
7:00pm
Open Prayer Time (Prayer Room or Room 102)
Worship Service (Sanctuary)
Education Hour
Christmas in Bethlehem Family Festival
Crossing Over (Room 105)
Adult Volleyball (Gym)
GO TEAM Activities Ahead: Operation
Christmas Child / Samaritan’s Purse.
We have 40 spots reserved to help, December 10, 7-10pm, assisting in the
shoebox warehouse. Ages teen and up.
Reserve your spot at the event booth
ASAP.
 Women's Bible Study: Ridgewood
offers two women's Bible studies on
Wednesdays. Come join us for whichever time is most convenient for you. WBS
am is from 9:30-11:00am. WBS pm is
from 6:30-7:30pm. For questions email
Pastor Susie Thompson at:
[email protected]
Men’s Ministries

Men’s Hour of Prayer Power: Open to
all men, join us Mondays in prayer from
6:00-7:00am at RWC in room 104.

Men’s Fellowship: Our next study will
be a 12 week Matt Chandler video
series on the book of Philippians. It will
begin on December 2nd. If you want to
take a look at a preview, check out the
following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=nTjwb67WYBY
Cost for this series will be $15.00, which
covers the cost of the class DVD set and
your study guide. If you want to sign up
for this great study, email Scott Mullin
at: [email protected]
More Announcements on Back
Have an announcement? Submit all announcements via email by Wednesday (space permitting).
[email protected]
The Lost Sheep
Dave Mergens
(Pastor Paul Bishop Speaking)
I'm really excited about these next five weeks. How many of you are look forward to Christmas?
Here I am. How many of you look forward to Christmas? O.K. I do. It's one of my favorite times
of the year. I'm a dad. I love to see my kids with the presents that I choose—sometimes, for a
year; planning just exactly the right present. How many of you have ever had that experience of
planning exactly the right present and it bombed? Uh yeah, we're parents; we get that, right? So,
that happens from time to time. Well, we as a staff/as a church have been praying and planning
these next five weeks. And we believe the Holy Spirit has given us a plan and presents for you.
And these next five weeks we're going to be talking about the most precious thing that God gave
us. But we're going to talk about it in kind of an interesting way. Kind of a different way. So, I'd
like to invite Dave Mergens up. Dave is a dear friend, he's a young man. How many of you get
worried about where we are as a faith and bringing up awesome leaders? How many of you
worry from time to time? You look around and you wonder, “Where are the leaders that God has
for us in our generation?” Dave is one of these guys—not to embarrass him, but a godly man,
loves the Lord, skilled communicator. And it's my pleasure to introduce to you Dave Mergens,
and Dave I know you have a word for us today.
(Pastor Dave Mergens Speaking)
Alright. I hope I got a mic on—can you guys hear me out there? Alright perfect. Awesome. Let's
begin with prayer. Heavenly Father this is Your word this morning that we are talking about. A
word that You want all of us in this room to not only take to heart but to shape our lives. God,
that every generation, old, young, everywhere in between; God that every generation would say
the name of Jesus with their heart, believe in Him and follow hard after Him as our great
Shepherd. God thank you for an opportunity this morning to share Your word with the group of
people here at Ridgewood. May You be blessing Your word this morning as it comes from my
lips, in Jesus name, amen.
Well, thank you for coming this morning on Thanksgiving weekend. I sure hope that most of you
had a wonderful time with your families. I know that I did. I just got back from Grand Rapids
last night with my family. My wife's family is from up there. I am from the west side of the
metro right now—grew up on the east side; kind of been all over. I've been a Pastor at a church
in the north west metro for the last nine years and I have since been a full time individual at
Resolute with Paul and a few other staff members—Vince Miller, who you've heard speak here a
number of times, as well. And I've had the blessing to learn from those men and rub shoulders
with them as we dive into the word of God through Resolute and what that ministry brings. So,
it's been a true blessing to be a part of that. Thank you Paul for your kind words, too.
You just finished up a sermon series on “values”, and if you remember back to the sermon that
Vince gave on values, what he said is that a value is something that—as you remember—has
great worth; something that is very worthwhile. And as you laid out what are the values of this
church, there was a great list of things that are close to the heart of many of the people here. And
today, I want to take that a step further and explore: how do we discover the value that God
assigns? If we were to ask a question about what values God assigns, what would those values
be? So, recently my wife and I started selling off toys that our kids outgrew. So, I've got a seven
year old, a five year old and a three year old; all three girls—as my daughter pointed out last
night at the supper table, “Daddy, you're the only boy here.” Yup that's me—and our cat that's
been fixed. And so, at my home, as the kids grow and the wagons no longer contain my three
year old who wants to run everywhere and bikes lose their training wheels and toys lose their
novelty, we take to Craigslist and Facebook and start selling some of the stuff off so we can
afford the next thing the kid needs; and, going through that process. And in my heart I see the
wagon and think, “Wow, this is very valuable.” And I think about all the memories attached to
this, and it has a lot of value to me. And then, I go on to Craigslist and I'm going to sell this
thing, and, of course, I'm listing it for way more than it is actually worth because it's worth a lot
to me but the true value of something is realized when the exchange happens. So, I know what
the value of the wagon was because somebody gave me thirty bucks for it. I wanted sixty, of
course, because this wagon was great; we took it to the state fair, we went to the beach with this
thing—I mean it was great. But the value was only realized in the exchange. And value is an
important tool for us because it drives our behavior, it drives our hearts, it drives our attitudes
into action. The things that we value motivate us to act. And so, value is really important to
understand.
If you would play along with me for a minute here and close your eyes and think about
something that is very important to you that you may have lost at one time. Maybe it was
something like a wedding ring. Maybe it was a relationship. Maybe a pet. Maybe car keys. Think
about something you lost. Now in your mind picture what it is that you are willing to do to
recover that lost thing. What length are you willing to go? how much effort are you willing to put
into the search? how much are you willing to pay to recover that lost item? How did that affect
your thinking and feeling? Alright you can open your eyes.
So, this morning we are talking about the joyful burden of finding, because there is something
buried in the word of God that I want to uncover to you today about that joyful burden. But
before I get there, I want to point out this illustration. So, remember what you just did there
because you're going to need it for the very end of my message. But I want you to look at a
couple different pictures here. … Here we go: first picture. So, this is a picture of an ad for a lost
pet. Now you make a couple of observations on this image right here. I've got a laser point, so
I'm going to use this—it's kind of fun. The thing is, I took this off of Google images and my wife
is like, “That looks exactly like our cat.” I'm like, “I have no idea what you're talking about.”
And our cat's name is Mitzie, not Missy. So, she really thought that this was from my house, but
it was not. And I looked at this, and you'll notice: what is the value that the owner assigns to this
animal? No reward. So, if you find this animal the owner is willing to pay nothing to get it back.
Zero. They at least went through the effort of going to create this ad and put a photoshop of a
picture of a black and white cat with a tail on it. My cat's black and white looks just like that, but
has no tail—that's for a different sermon. But there is that cat there. And then, there is this, O.K:
this animal, affectionately named Hemmy, you know what this animal's valued to the individual
who is missing it, because there's a five thousand dollar reward. There is no way that somebody
goes and spends five thousand dollars on a new dog, so this dog obviously had a lot of value, and
they were willing to search for it so much that they created a Facebook page for this dog down
here. And they even put a QR code so you could scan it with your smart phone and maybe see a
picture. And, oh, by the way, they also feed the dog medicine for it's bad hips. So, clearly the
value of this animal is extremely high for the owner who is searching for him.
This is a principle that's always at work in our lives. Searching with great effort and spending a
lot of resource to recover something always uncovers great value. It always uncovers great value;
that if you're going to go to far lengths to look for something and search far and wide, and then
pay five thousand dollars to recover a dog that you probably wouldn't have to spend that much
on to replace it, you know that the value is very high to that owner and not so high to the owner
of the cat; makes a lot of sense in my mind—sorry honey. So, you can see that values is always
uncovered through the search and recovery process. And it's through that principle that we
discover exactly what God values.
So we're going to look today at the 15th chapter of Luke; you can pull your bibles out. We're
going to look at God's heart toward lost things. And I want you to walk out of this place with two
things. Number one I want you to understand what is God's heart toward lost things. And ask this
question: what do I need to do to more fully align my heart with the heart of the Father? That's
why we're here; is we want to be followers of this great God. So, how do we look like Him in our
heart's desire? So, Luke chapter 15:1 -7. I'm reading from the ESV; some of you may have
different versions; so, follow along in your own bibles as you see fit.
"Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to Him. And the Pharisees and the
Scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’ So, He told them this
parable: 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? And 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 that was
lost.’ 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"
The book of Luke is divided up into three sections. The first nine chapters are the prologue.
You'll find things like the birth of Christ which we'll celebrate in a few weeks, you'll find the
beginning of His ministry, His Galilean ministry. And then there's this middle section between
chapters 9 and 19. And this is when He was in Judea doing the bulk of His ministry. In fact you'll
find twenty parables in those ten chapters right there. And right in the middle of those chapters is
this story. At the peak of His teaching, at the moments when He was laying some heavy, heavy
words upon the people and getting them to think deeply about the Father and His heart. And one
of the things you'll want to know about parables is that whatever it meant to the people that Jesus
said it to, was exactly what it was intended to mean. So when Jesus said it to that audience and
they received it; that was its meaning. It had one meaning and it only had one meaning. And so
understanding exactly what it meant to those group of people and what Jesus was saying is very,
very important to make sense of it, so that you and I can take that meaning and then apply it to
our lives. And this is a very straightforward story, but there are some nuances which I'm going to
explain.
The straightforward story goes like this: There's a shepherd. He has one hundred sheep. One of
those sheep is lost. He leaves the ninety nine. He goes and searches until he finds the one that
was lost. He brings it back to the village. And there's a party. Very, very straightforward story. In
fact, as you go through the next three weeks in the series, you'll see it's a very similar pattern that
takes place over the next few parables that are in the book of Luke chapter 15. So, it is a story
from everyday life. Now, one of the things I that I learned when I went to school was—one of
my professors told me this; he said if I were to write a newspaper article in the sports section
about how the cheeseheads beat the purple, but then they lost on Thanksgiving—and he went
through to explain this whole thing. He said if somebody read that article before the NFL was in
existence they would be like, ‘So, people whose heads are made of cheese defeated the color
purple, and then something happened.’ There's nuances there. You and I understand these
nuances because we live in today's culture and you can’t escape them; they're all over the place.
Just like we have those that we understand, there are things that this culture would understand
instinctively, that Jesus spoke to them, that we have to go back and unpack. So, that's what I'm
going to do a little bit this morning to understand what's going on here.
So, what do we know of the Pharisees and Scribes? The Pharisees and Scribes wanted nothing,
nothing to do with sinners. They wanted zero. They didn't even want to think about sinners—
literally wouldn't walk on the same side of the street and oh, by the way, they wouldn't even
receive them to eat with them because Jews not only dozens of rules and regulations around food
time and meal rituals and how they washed and how they ate and prepared meals, but they
wouldn't even associate with somebody who was considered a sinner; the Pharisees and Scribes
had nothing to do with them. They constantly rejected this category of people, and yet they saw
how Jesus welcomed them and even eats with them. You can just hear that in the words there.
Just amazing how Jesus received a group of people and the Pharisees and Scribes rejected them
and threw them out and said, ‘No. We're not going to have anything to do with that group of
people.’ And now you see the tension. So, this is the tension in the mind of the Pharisees and
Scribes, ‘Why would a religious Man, a Jewish Man, who is a Teacher of the law; why would He
spend any time reading any sorts of truth, spending any time with the individuals that He's
spending time with, teaching them and even eating with them; why would He do that?’ And they
grumbled. There is the conflict. So, in the parable, the people would have understood this. They
would have understood that there is a shepherd much like this. So, there's a shepherd who roams
the countryside with the sheep. And oh, by the way, they also would have understand—which I
didn't pick this up until I started spending more time in this passage—there would have been
multiple shepherds in the story. There would have been multiple shepherds because of the
quantity of sheep. And the way that this worked is there was a village—we know this because
they went back to the village when he found the lost sheep; there was a village, and that village
relied upon the agriculture of the sheep. They relied on the sheep to produce wool, to produce
milk and to make cheese from the milk—and it was their lifeblood. These sheep were very
valuable to the people. So, they would choose some shepherds. And oh, by the way, those
shepherds were very low reputation because nobody wanted to do that kind of work. They had to
go out all day long, sometimes nights. They had to go through the open country. The terrain was
not always easy. They had to defend the flock. And they [were] considered to have low
reputation, because shepherds would go around to people's land they weren't invited to and have
their sheep graze wherever there was food. This was the shepherd. He had one main job and
everyone knew this. The shepherd had one responsibility, he's a very low reputation, he went
out and took care of the sheep, but he had one job, and that was: leave no sheep behind. Every
single sheep had to be accounted for even if that sheep was destroyed by an animal he had to go
and recover the bits and pieces of it and bring it back, because that was his job and everyone
knew this. Very disreputable character, but he had one job, and he’d better do it really well
because the entire village is reliant on him.
And then there's the sheep. So, this is an Awassi sheep. And it's a very common sheep for this
day and age, specifically this region. They were a Bedouin of society before they settled in and
had more permanent structures to live in. They would roam around and they had all of these
sheep wandering around with them—who were very hardy, by the way, because of the years that
they were acclimated to the climate that they were in and the way that the sun would rise and just
scorch that land. The sheep were made for this country. And these sheep were not small. The
smallest juvenile adult aged sheep would be about seventy pounds, the largest being about a
hundred and ninety eight pounds. So, these animals were large. They're not like the little lambs
that you and I think about when we think about the stories that we were told in Sunday school.
These are pretty good sized sheep. They're not as dumb as people think. They actually fall right
between the level of bacon and steak—or pork and cow, if you need to… So, their intelligence
level is somewhere between a pig and a cow. And they had one defense mechanism. And that
was to be part of a flock. You separate them from a flock and they will basically lay down and
die, because they have no other way to defend themselves. And they get really anxious. But in a
group like that, they can trample predators, they can run them over and cause confusion with all
their scurrying and scattering about. But if they're singled out by themselves—you watch
National Geographic Channel, and you watch [how] the lion always gets the straggler or the one
that's behind or not part of the flock. And that's because their defense mechanism for most
animals, but especially in this case sheep, is to be part of a group.
So, this is a story that everyone would have completely understood. The shepherd had a duty; get
the sheep out to pasture, feed them, bring them back to the village and bring them all back alive
or bring them all back. Sheep are valuable, they're very important, the village relied on them. In
fact the shepherd could have been watching ten of this person's sheep and thirty of that person's
and it could have just been one sheep belonging to one poor family in this village but he was
accountable for all of them. And they'd go out and they take care of these sheep. And so, you
have the ethical dilemma that Jesus enters into the story. And it is this: 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? I really struggled with this when I first read it,
because I'm like, “Well I'd just cut my losses. I mean I got ninety nine good sheep here, why
would I not just leave the one out there? Just cut it loose and O.K.; I've got ninety nine still.
Well?” Well, a couple things are going on. There's more shepherds who are taking care of the
ninety nine. That's happening in the story. You can also think back when the angels appeared to
the shepherds in the field; there was always multiple when there's mass quantity of sheep. So,
there were more shepherds there, but the duty and the ethical dilemma was that the one job that a
shepherd does is he does not leave any sheep behind. And so he enters them into this story the
way the master Teacher can only do.
Something that's interesting about this I found, too; if you think back to how I described the
Pharisee, is that the Pharisee did not even want to think about a shepherd because of his lowly
association, his disreputable character. Funny thing is Jesus makes them empathetically enter this
scenario. Jesus forces the Pharisees to think like a shepherd; “Well what would I do in that
situation?” The ethical dilemma has to be solved. And so, they took the bait and they entered into
it. Everyone here would have agreed upon the solution. Everyone would have. Everyone would
have said, “Well, of course the shepherd had to go and find the one. This poor family, over here,
that could be their sheep; their one sheep in this village.” But regardless all sheep are important,
they're a lifeblood for these villages; the shepherd would have to go and find it. Even if he
brought him back in pieces. His job was not to leave any behind. And then, this is the great part:
Jesus reveals the kingdom perspective on the same story. So, if you have notes—in your
program, there, there are some notes you can kind of follow along. These are the blanks. I like
blanks. That way people know when I'm kind of, like, in the middle of my message, toward the
end, they can kind of follow along. It just gives you some perspective and gives you something
to do while you're out there to interact.
So, here's where we're at: in Luke it says, “Just so, I tell you there'll be more joy in heaven over
one sinner who repents than over ninety nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” That is
the theological truth. And the truth is: Jesus is saying that the shepherd is actually God through
Christ. That is who the shepherd is in the story. So, again, all the people are here, they solve the
problem, the ethical dilemma is solved, the Shepherd has to go and find the sheep—that's what
any good Shepherd does; problem solved. Then, Jesus reveals to them: “Actually, the shepherd
is God through Christ. The lost sheep are those who need repentance. I worded it that way,
because, you notice, that there were ninety nine who did not need repentance.” And that's the
irony, because Jesus was leveling that right at the Pharisees and Scribes who thought they needed
no repentance. They didn't realize their lostness. And the Shepherd must seek, find and celebrate
His sheep. The Shepherd must seek, find and celebrate His sheep. Everyone needs repentance,
but they couldn't grasp that. They had no concept of that. And it made them really angry, because
they agreed with Jesus. That's what I love about what He does here. The characteristic of the
sheep is extremely noteworthy, because, in this story, it's the lostness that prompts a response.
Four hundred years of not hearing from God. But the lostness of His people was wearing so
heavily on His heart that He had to act. And He did. The Pharisees and Scribes did not even
recognize their lostness. They did however recognize the problem solved was the Shepherd had
to look. And so, Jesus clearly lays out His mission and the very heart of the Father. The mission
of Jesus revealed a few chapters later is this, “For the Son of man came to seek and save the
lost.” This is why Jesus came. This was His mission. And you see His value beginning to be
revealed in the story.
***End of Miles’s checking*** time 22:52
So let's recap what happened. The spiritual shepherds of Israel were standing around having
nothing to do with the lost people, nothing, They were grumbling because Jesus received them
and even ate with them. Jesus proposes a story with an ethical dilemma about a common theme
that they all would have been familiar with in that day. The Pharisees and Scribes would have
agreed because they didn't want to enter that into their minds to even think about what would it
be like to be a shepherd. Should I go and do this and they wouldn't even want to think about it
but they did and they agreed that it would have been wrong for the Shepherd not to go and fulfill
His duty because they were very duty oriented in that culture. They had to do things that were
right, they just had to, it was their ethic. Then Jesus reveals back into the story the very truth of
heaven, the very heart of the Father and the mission the Father has sent Him on. and I want to
pause here a minute and point something out. None of this should be very new or surprising. I
may have revealed a few things about nuances in the story that may have been new to you but
none of this should be new to us. We've heard similar stories about sheep and shepherds and we
kinda understand this piece and what Jesus came and He did and we understand this but this is
where the challenge comes to us. Do we have the same value system as the Father? Everyone
looks for what is lost if it is worth it to them. Everyone is willing to pay five thousand dollars for
a lost dog if it is worth it to them. If it is incredibly worthwhile the search and recovery effort
will reflect that and the very heart with which they pursue will also reflect that and that reveals
value, that reveals the value of the individual seeking
So let's look at the attitude in this passage. And when He has found it, He lays it on His
shoulders rejoicing. So you heard me say about how heavy, we're talking about seventy five
pounds of an animal that He would take and lay on His shoulders rejoicing. Now imagine for a
second this Shepherd had been out of the open country into a closed country, more or less a
country that is scattered with rocks and difficult terrain. He had been looking until He found the
sheep and then He finds it laying there and He hoists it up on His shoulders not begrudgingly,
not like uh now I got to walk all the way back to the village, it's dark out, I'm tired and this sheep
wont walk. He doesn't do that. He hoists it up on his shoulders rejoicing with joy. That was the
attitude of the Shepherd and the revelation of the Father's heart and He calls together His friends
and His neighbors when He gets back and He says to them rejoice with me. There's a party,
there's a party that happens. He is so exuberantly excited about what is going on; just so I tell
you there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety nine righteous
who need no repentance. There is so much joy and in this very moment we realize how Jesus
shoulders the burden of the sheep and not only out of obligation. not out of duty but out of great
joy, out of great, great joy. Hebrews 12:2, Looking to Jesus the Founder and Perfecter of our
faith who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross. I got to imagine that that
moment when the disciples had heard the story and they're like oh yeah that's kinda cool and
Jesus teaching this stuff but when Jesus died on the cross and He rose again how they would
have thought back and reflected on that and would have thought wow He shouldered the burden
of the cross for us out of joy and why? Because of the great value, He was willing to pay it all,
He was willing to search until He found it and so that's exactly what He did. And here is the
question I want you to wrestle with today. Does my heart take joy in what brings joy to the
Father?
At the beginning of my message you went through a little mental exercise and you identified
something in your mind you were willing to pay a great cost for, something in your mind that
you were willing to search for for a long time that was really important to you and something in
your mind that you were willing to pay a lot for to recover. I had one of these moments last week
at the gym. I was working out at the gym and I set my phone down, I have an IPhone and it's less
than a year old, there's no insurance on it, don't know why I did that but I did, I'm generally
pretty careful with my stuff and I set this phone and I turned around to take some weights off the
bench and move it over and I turned back around and my phone was gone and immediately my
heart jumped. I'm like I'm scanning the room like who took it, I'm thinking what happened with
it, did I set it down some place and I cant see it and I started panicking and instantly in my mind
I started going oh it's going to cost me this much to get it back and what is my wife going to say
when she finds out that I lost it and I wonder who took it and if I'll be able to recover it and if
Apple has some way to get this back or figure out who has it and I started going through this
mode of panic. You ever lose something like that before? Some of you in this room know what
I'm talking about? And in that moment I stopped and I thought I'd already worked on this
message for some time and I thought I just tipped my hand as to what I value and God said to me
do you value the lost that way and more? Do you care about your neighbor who doesn't know
Christ? Do you care about your parents, your siblings, your brother or sister in Christ, those
people who are around you who need repentance who are far from Christ and need to turn back
to Him? Do you have the same amount of panic and willing to put forth as much effort and
finance and intention, even if it costs you and not only that but it is the shouldering with great
joy, it's putting that burden up there not because you're uh I got to do this but because I want to.
Does our heart reflect the Father's like that? If we are going to be Christians, Christ-like in
following and close to His nature then it's the challenge that we do this very thing, that we look
and see what exactly did the Father value. He didn't value stuff. What did Jesus say when
somebody came to follow Him? Well the Son of man has nowhere to lay His head. The birds of
the air have nests, foxes have dens but I have nowhere to lay my head and neither will you if
You follow me and He moved on towards Jerusalem to shoulder the burden of the cross and He
did so with joy and that just gets me every time, it just gets me, with joy He did that for us. Is
that our heart? You can be one of three people here. You can be a shepherd, you can be a sheep
or you can be a Pharisee and all of us at different times of our lives fall into some of those
categories some days, like that moment at the gym, I was a sheep and I needed God to reconcile
my heart back to what value was. There are days when I'm a Pharisee where I say oh well this
person's at church, what are they doing here? ------ that's the person got values. And there are
days that I have the heart of a shepherd where I see somebody and my heart just goes out to them
and I want them so deeply to come to a knowledge of Christ that redeems their lives. Which one
are you?
Our task given to us by Christ in 2 Corinthians 5:18, it says all this is from God who through
Christ reconciled us to Himself. He started it, that's the cool part and He gave us, not Pastors, not
staff members at Ridgewood church, He gave us, those of us who call ourselves followers of the
Father, He gave us the ministry of reconciliation. of seeking and finding the lost, that's what He
gave us to do and He didn't give it to us to do out of duty or obligation, He gave it to us to do
with joy, excitement and passion and so my challenge to you today is this, shoulder the
joyful burden of reconciling others to God. Shoulder that burden not because you have to but
because you have such great value in what God had value in and has value in that you are willing
to pay whatever it takes, to look as long as it takes you to shoulder a great weight to redeem
those who need repentance. Would you bow with me as we pray?
Heavenly Father You gave to us Your word through Your Son and oh how good that is. How
impactful it is when we understand what Your heart is to the lost and what that looks like. God
may You correct our hearts with Your truth and lead us to seek and find the lost as You did. Pray
these things in Jesus name, amen.
Sermon Notes for God Loves Lost Things
Week 1 – Parable of the Lost Sheep
Luke 15:1-7
Sermon Notes for God Loves Lost Things
Week 1 – Parable of the Lost Sheep
Luke 15:1-7
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the
Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats
with them.”
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the
Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats
with them.”
So he told them this parable: “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? And 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 that was lost.’ 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.”
Luke 15:1-7 (ESV)
So he told them this parable: “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? And 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 that was lost.’ 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.”
Luke 15:1-7 (ESV)
A Story From Everyday Life
A Story From Everyday Life
The Sheep
The Sheep
The Dilemma
“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?”
The Dilemma
“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?”
The Kingdom Perspective
The Kingdom Perspective
The _________________ is God Through Christ
The _________________ is God Through Christ
The ____________________ are those who need repentance
The ____________________ are those who need repentance
The Shepherd must __________, __________, and ______________ His sheep
The Shepherd must __________, __________, and ______________ His sheep
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was
set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the
right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was
set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the
right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2
Does my ______________ take joy in what brings joy to the Father?
Does my ______________ take joy in what brings joy to the Father?
Application: _______________ the joyful burden of reconciling others to God.
Application: _______________ the joyful burden of reconciling others to God.