Lost in the House

If you'll think back with me last week, Sermon 1 was lost in the wilderness. Sermon 2 is lost in the house, which we'll talk about today. And Sermon 3 is lost in the pig pens. Now, Sermon 1 and 3 are on the outside, but Sermon 2 is on the inside. And we'll address that here in a minute. It really, I told you, of all the stories, I confide myself in being a lost sheep, and I confide myself in being a lost son. But I also would say that what fits me more than anything else was being a lost coin, lost in the house.

And I'll talk about that in a minute. In the first sermon, it's about being lost in the wilderness. It's a story about the lost sheep. You remember what we hung our hat on last week with the shepherd's quote? And let me quote it to you again. A shepherd said, "'Sheep can nibble their way into lostness.'

" Do you see that image? Isaiah 53, six says, "'All we like sheep have gone astray, "'each of us to his own way.' " Remember how I said we have the propensity to stray. We did a lot of talk about that last week. And we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That's the inclination of our fallen human nature, isn't it? Just to stray away.

Straying and getting outside the voice of God comes very natural with us. Can you say amen to that?

Been there, hadn't you? The good news, though, in that story that we looked at last week is that the good shepherd, has the purpose and the permit to seek us out, to find us. The Bible said, you remember in that passage, it said until he finds us, which means there is no ending to the journey of pursuing the lost sheep. He's on that journey until he finds us. Jesus is the hound of heaven. There's absolutely no giving up, no throwing in the towel on his part. He will pursue us until our final breath.

And when he finds us, we saw how he packs us on his shoulders and protects us on our journey back to green pasture. Rejoicing every step. And if that's not enough, when he gets back to the pasture, what's he do? He throws a party for all his friends and neighbors because the lost sheep has been found. Lost in the wilderness, secured, safe and sound, back in the pasture. This morning in our early morning prayer together before our service, there was just a, and Gianna identified it as just celebration is on us today. Just celebrating that we know that we are that lost sheep that has been found.

And the party is on guys. The party is on. In today's sermon, I've entitled it Lost in the House. The characters, the situation, and the geography are very different from the first story. From the one we looked at last week. But the message is the very same. It's identical.

Lost, found, and rejoicing. So today I want us to look at Lost in the House. I said probably this is my most favorite one of the three stories. And let me tell you a little bit why. I can identify with being lost in the house. I grew up in the house of God. I didn't grow up outside the church.

How many of you grew up in the house of God? The majority of us in here grew up in the house of God. And in the United Methodist Church, I went through the traditional steps of what it meant coming to Christ.

When I was an infant, I was baptized. My parents took me and my twin brother down to the front of the church. And I was baptized as an infant. How many of you grew up in that kind of tradition?

You got baptized? Yeah, about half of you in here got baptized when you were babies. My parents liked to use the word christening.

I was christened. They didn't like the word baptism, but because we really didn't have an understanding of what that meant. And this is new to even those that grew up in the Methodist Church. You know, when you were baptized as an infant, it was a statement that your family was gonna raise you in the ways of the Lord. But it said absolutely nothing about you being saved. It was simply an outward expression and a statement that they were making. Some carried it farther than in the Methodist Church, but the true identity was not that.

I learned when I became a pastor that when somebody got 18 years old, if they had not made a public profession of faith in the church by the time they were 18, they were moved from preparatory roles to constituency roles. Now, you know what that meant? It meant you were lost if you had not accepted Christ. That's what it meant to Methodist folks. It meant you were lost if you haven't accepted Christ. You had to come to a point of going through, and I went through that 10 years old. How many of you went through confirmation classes?

You went through confirmation classes. I went through all the confirmation classes. I went through all of that. I went through revivals and lay witness missions. And I had what I would call today, theologically, I would identify as prevenient grace. Moments of grace that were active in my life before salvation. I wasn't saved in those moments, but it was grace seeking me, running after me.

God was running after me. You know, I'll have to tell you, typically through confirmation, then that means you make a public profession of faith. For some of you, you have your first communion. For some of you, you become members of the church. But let me say this to you, and this may relate to some of you. I was in the house, and I went through all the steps, but I was lost as a goose. I didn't have a relationship with Christ.

When I would go to the altar, when I was a freshman in high school or sophomore in high school, during revivals or lay witness mission, I had a lot of remorse. I felt sorry for the life I was living, but I had absolutely no repentance. Now, do you understand what I'm saying there? I was sorry, but I made no steps of understanding what that remorsefulness was all about. And I go off to college at 18 years old, and I'm lost as a goose. But I grew up in the house of God. I was in the house.

Now, hear this. I am not talking down on the church, because when I did come to Christ, after a couple of years of college, I can look back to those moments and know that God was using those people and those preachers and the love that was in that church to pursue me to the place where I accepted Christ. God was pursuing me. And I see that all through this story of the lost coin.

Where was it lost? It was in the house. Let's look at this passage. I wanna read it to you, verses eight through 10. Or what woman, if she has 10 silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost. Now, it says here following, in the same way.

Now, there's the connection between the story and us. In the same way, likewise, some of your Bibles may say, I tell you, there is joy, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Now, did it say over one sinner who was remorseful? Thank God for Holy Ghost sorrow. But if that's all it is, and you're not taken on into repentance, you're still in the house, but you're lost.

That was me. You know, the Jews had a tradition. And, well, let me get to that in a minute. Verse eight, I want you to see here the first point, the content of the coin. Verse eight, it says, or what woman, if she has 10 silver coins and loses one coin? Now, there is value in that coin. There's what I call creative value.

It's worth something, isn't it? When that coin was lost, if it had not been worth anything, would she have gone and searched for it? It's worth something. The other day, Kim and I were out walking, and I saw a silver dime. In fact, I have it down here in my pocket. That silver dime was worth something, and I bent over and picked it up. It was just lying on the ground.

It was worth something. It had creative value, didn't it? When the U. S. Treasury minted it, it became worth 10 pennies. It has a creative worth. But let me say this to you.

It's not profitable unless it is invested for gain or used in bargaining and purchasing. If it had just stayed hidden in that house, it was not profitable. It was still worth 10 cents. I want you to make the distinction between worth and profitability. It was still worth something. Labor in this story is designed for a purpose. Think of the story of Father Abraham.

When God called Abram to leave the country he was in and go forward to another country, he said to him, I'm going to bless you so that you are a blessing. Do you see the worth? Abraham walked in faith which made that calling profitable. But the calling was still worth something to Abraham, but he had to walk in faith, didn't he? Now, the depth of my simple definition doesn't even come close to the sacredness of this coin, and here's why. The Jewish tradition, and some of you probably already know this. One of the traditions they had is that the groom gave to the fiancée, the wife-to-be, a headband that had 10 silver coins in it.

And that bride wore that headband as a token of engagement, much like an engagement ring today. It is a symbol of recognizing her sacredness, her worth, and her value. When I was at McMurray and I met Kim, after this elaborate, romantic presentation of me asking her to marry me, which was not romantic whatsoever, it was like a business deal, you know, I felt her out and then I said, well, will you marry me? You know, I came from a business family. It was a business contract. You know, one brought romance to it. But going and picking out the wedding ring was significant for us.

And we went down to the jewelry store, Downtown Abilene, to look for an engagement ring. Guys, I was broke and I was very poor. I was on my own. I didn't have any money stashed away in the bank, very little. So we buy this engagement ring, $125.

That's what it cost, $125. Now, when we got back to the dorm and girls were getting engaged every day, you know, we're all showing off the rings, here's Kim, she's showing off that $125 ring. You know, and I'm thinking, well, that's a pretty small diamond. She's worth lots more than that. But I want you to hear what I'm saying here. That token carried much more meaning than just $125. I was identifying her as very sacred and worth everything that I had.

And $125 is all I had in the bank. I gave it all so that it could identify feelings and emotions and commitment and loyalty and value, see that, and worth. Now, when that Jewish boy gave that headband to that Jewish woman, he was identifying her sacredness, her sacred value. In Jewish traditions, and y'all guys, y'all know this, seven is the perfect number. You've heard that before. But 10 symbolizes completeness, symbolizes completeness. You know, here's the kind of craziness that my mind goes, I thought of the movie Jerry Maguire.

Do you remember the statement? I guarantee you do. You complete me.

You complete me. You know how, isn't that dumb?

That's so ridiculous. But in a sense, it's true, though, isn't it?

You complete me. And when that Jewish boy gave her that band of 10 coins, it was a statement of completion. There were 10 coins specifically put there for completeness. In verse 10 of this story, the Bible says, in the same way or likewise, meaning this coin of created value, of created worth, is an analogy pointing to us. Genesis 127, and God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them.

Now, in the creation story, Bill and I were talking about this, how he shook up the religion department at McMurray and talking about the two stories of creation in the Bible. But in the creation story, when God goes through this process of creating everything, the Word says, and he saw it, and it was good. But when he created Adam and Eve, the Bible says, and when he saw it, it was very good. Do you see that? There is a sacredness and a value to us being created because we have the stamp of the image of God upon our souls. That headband carried that kind of meaning. I want you to see that because I want to throw two words at you, and it's simply this.

You are a person of sacred worth. You hear that? You are a person of sacred worth. Now, it's true, when Adam and Eve sinned, their intimate, close relationship with God was broken.

They were lost like this coin. They hid from God in their shame and guilt. The consequences of their sin marred the image of God. It put a condemning stain on their soul, but it did not destroy it. You hear what I'm saying there? They were not beyond the possibility of being restored because the stamp of God's sacredness was upon their soul. There are a lot of folks who just think they've sinned themselves completely outside the grace of God, but I've never found that line.

I don't find that line. In Isaiah 6, you remember Isaiah's conversion? It was just magnificent. The holiness of God just showed up. Isaiah says, oh, woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips. He goes through his repenting process and the cleansing process. Of all people, finally God says, I've got a mission, and Isaiah says, here I am, Lord, send me.

Here I am, Lord, send me. Now what I want you to hear on that is, is Isaiah could have just said, I'm just undone, God. I'm completely trapped within my sinful nature. There's no restoration for me. I'll never be involved in your mission. Very untrue. That's exactly the word Satan would be telling him.

But Isaiah knew better because he understood when the holiness of God pressed in on his soul, he had the possibility of restoration and healing and change. I'm in the army.

Here I am, Lord, send me. That's exactly the conversion of Isaiah, and it is simply a forerunner of what New Testament conversion is all about. You know, the night I got saved, and I'd been in a whirlwind of two years of living outside the grace of God, I'd grown up in the house of God, and when I got out of college, I walked out of the house. I didn't darken the doors of the church until the end of those two years. I started going back to church, and I started hearing the gospel message. In my bedroom by myself, when I came to grips with all that, that I was lost in the house, but I needed to be found in the house, I remember saying this to God, God, do you really love me? And I heard God say this to me, Carrie, you're better than this.

And I sat back and thought, you're better than this. You're better than the way you're living. And I thought to myself, and I could build scriptures around this. He wasn't saying you're good enough to get saved in your own goodness, but what he was saying was, I have stamped my image upon your soul, and you're better than this. You're better than Satan's lies. You're better than living worldly. You're better than giving in to sin.

You're better, not because you're your own goodness, because I have stamped my image upon your soul. You're sacred. Now, that enabled me to move from remorsefulness to repentance. When I heard God say, you're worth saving, you're worth saving. Some of us feel like we're not worth saving. You hear what I'm saying, guys? You are worth saving because the image of God has been stamped upon your soul.

Secondly, look at the commitment of this woman, verse 8. Does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it. You know, I asked myself, why was she so committed? This one coin was only worth a day's wages. So she had 10 days of wages. If her husband were to die, she would at least have money to live for 10 days. That might launch her into other adventures.

But why was she so committed? Practically, the coin wasn't that expensive, was it? Here's why. If a woman committed adultery in their Jewish tradition, a coin was removed from the headband, thus revealing her private disgrace to the public. Now, if I'd been that woman, I'd be going, I'm trapped in my house. I'm not going out in the public anymore and wearing my headband because there's a coin missing. She had the scarlet A stamped upon her life.

It showed that the completeness... ... of this couple had been torn apart by her unfaithfulness. If she was to go out in the public, she would only have nine coins in the headband and one would be lost. But more than dismissing her disgrace, it showed her devotion to God. The continual wearing of the headband with the ten coins in place honored the marital relationship they shared. Do you hear that? It honored the marital relationship they shared.

That's why she wanted to find that coin. It had fallen out of the circle that it was stuck to. And it had fallen. And it had rolled somewhere. And she wanted to find it and put it back. So that when she went out in public and wore her headband, it honored that marital relationship. That's pretty significant, isn't it?

You know, there's a lot to that headband, I'm telling you. Thirdly, I want you to see this, the convicting tools of the woman. Verse 8 says, Does she not light a lamp? Does she not sweep the floor? Does she not seek diligently until she finds it? You know, many biblical scholars say this woman is a metaphor to the Holy Spirit here. The first story, who did we see there?

Jesus, the Good Shepherd. In the last story, who's the prominent?

The Waiting Father. In this story, we see the woman as the convicting, unyielding power of the Holy Spirit to pursue the lost. In John 16, 7-8, Jesus said, Nevertheless, I'll tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Counselor, the Comforter. The Greek word here is parakletos, which means the one who draws alongside of you. He will not come to you.

But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes to you, he will, listen to this, convince or convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment.

What did this woman do? The woman lit a lamp. She lights a lamp. Now, all of us would have to say, when we came to grips with our sin nature, it's like God turned on a light to us. Our darkness was revealed in our souls. You know, in that bedroom that night, all the darkness that was prevailing over me was blown away by the light because the Holy Spirit was in that room. And things were illuminated to me about the state of my soul.

That I needed to be more than just sorry for my sins. I needed to move into a life of repentance. And that's what took place in that room that night. It says this woman sweeps the floor. I grew up in a big 4,000 square foot house on the main street of Lorenzo. Moved in there when we were 12 years old. Had five bedrooms in this house.

In a big formal living room. In a big kitchen. In a big den. My mother never let a speck of dirt hit those floors. My wife can tell you that she intimidated all of them because she actually moved the beds and cleaned under the beds. And she would take the vacuum cleaner and clean the dirt every week out of the windows. She'd open the windows and clean the dirt out of the windows.

And my dad would help her mop those floors. Once we moved in that new house, I cannot remember a speck of dirt ever being in that house. And this woman back then, the floors in those Jewish homes a lot of times were just dirt floors. They were packed down dirt floors. And she's sweeping that floor. Moving the furniture, looking in every corner until she finds that lost coin.

What's she doing? She is cleansing that house. She's cleaning it up. How many of you have ever decided we're going to have spring clean at our house? And you've gone through that. These guys are going, yeah. We're going to clean this house up.

My kids call me a clean freak. At my office at the John Deere store and in my studies when I had an office preaching, if you ever came in my office, you didn't find clutter. Everything was in order. Everything was in order. There was no dust. I kept my stuff cleaned and orderly. Because if it's not, I can't think straight.

So I have to have things in order. Now this lady is doing the cleansing work, which is totally metaphorical for the Holy Spirit in our lives. When you repent, let me tell you what's going to happen. The Holy Spirit's going to start sweeping you.

You hear what I'm saying? The broom of that Holy Spirit is going to start brooming you out. And cleansing. He's going to go into those dark corners of those closets that have dust stacked that deep. And He's going to cleanse those dark corners. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. But this woman searches carefully and diligently.

You know, I was cleaning the other day. And by a nightstand back in the corner, I saw dust stacked up. Only I would do this. I'd get down on my hands and knees. And I'd rake that dust out of that corner. So I could get it in the dustpan and throw it in the trash. I wanted to cleanse that thing.

And the Holy Spirit wants to do the same kind of work in us. And the Holy Spirit is diligent and careful about how He does that. He knows you better than you know yourself. And so He's diligent. He's not going to give up on that. But He's careful how He does it. He's not going to knock down the door.

He wants to help you open it. So He can come in and cleanse. You know, I've always appreciated the gentleness of the Holy Spirit. You know, if He tried to knock down my door, then I'm probably going to build another one real quick. But if He's gently opening that door... And I'll probably back off and sit on the edge of the bed and say, What do you want to say to me? I'll listen to you today.

There's so much practical stuff right here, isn't there? That we just run by if we run by it quickly. What I'm saying to you is, She had convicting tools. And those convicting tools were the tools of the Holy Spirit.

And they work. In 1 Corinthians 12, 3, This is the ultimate place where the cleansing goes. It says, And no one can say, Jesus is Lord, Listen to this, Except by the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? You don't come to the waiting Father, And you don't come to the Good Shepherd, And let it end there. For Lordship to take place into your life, You have to be involved with the person of the Holy Spirit. That's why we preach so hard about the Holy Spirit, guys.

Because the very presence of Jesus Will invade our lives and change us. Fourthly, the conversion of the corner. And when she found it, She says, I have found the coin which I had lost. Verse 9, The coin, listen to me, Was restored to what I call the headband of completeness.

To the number 10. To its original purpose. You know, when we were in college, Us boys would get together after dates. Hubbard, you might remember somebody.

We'd rate a date. Well, she's an 8.

Oh, she's a 10. Oh, the human side of us. Completeness. The Lord looks at you and He says about you, You're a 10. You are a 10. You are completed in me. Therefore, if any man or woman is in Christ, He is a new creation.

And the old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Do you see what that's saying?

You're a 10. You're a 10.

When I preached my first sermon, On Christmas break, After I'd gotten saved, And the preacher at Lorenzo wanted me to preach. And it was Christmas break. And I preached on that passage. Now, I got up and I looked out there at those Lorenzo folks.

Those 160, 170 people. In that church that had loved me since I was a little bitty boy. And I looked at those folks. My sermon was seven minutes long. I cried three and a half minutes. Apologizing. To that church.

But three and a half minutes, I talked about, Guys, here's what I was missing. Being. Being in Christ. It was not only Him being in me. But it was me stepping into Him. It was stepping from just an emotional moment. To an encounter of faith.

With the living God. And when I got in Christ, All of Him being in me made sense.

Because He was Lord. That make sense to you? Being in Christ. My theology is an in Christ theology. It drives the whole way I look at the Bible. Because outside of Christ, There is no theology. There is no salvation.

I am in Christ. I want you to see that. There was the conversion of this coin. When she picks this coin up. When she picks this coin up. The sacred worth. Now has the possibility of being profitable. Doesn't it?

When she found the coin. It has the possibility. Of bargaining. Purchasing. Or making interest.

I got a few CDs. I want them to make interest.

Makes sense, doesn't it? That coin just by itself. In itself. Just has created worth. But once it's used. It has profitability. How many of you want to be profitable in your lives?

When you get to that grave. Don't you think. I do. Kelsey, I want you to walk by and say.

My daddy was profitable. He invested his life in others. He understood that he was blessed to be a blessing.

So, in conclusion. Well, fifthly. Let me just say this. I'm going to read it and you know what I mean. She called together her friends and neighbors saying rejoice with me. She threw a celebration. In conclusion.

In the same way. Likewise. I tell you. There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Now, I started with lost in the house. How do you get found in that house? Well, the Holy Spirit is on the search.

And the Holy Spirit is going to find you. I can guarantee you. You might have been raised in a church. But you're going to be found out. And the Holy Spirit is going to find you. For you to repent. What creates the celebration? Repentance. When one sinner repents. Now, guys.

That means this. It's more than just feeling sorry for all the screw ups and bad actions and words we shouldn't have said. And the blow ups we've had. It's more than just feeling sorry for those things. It's launching us to repent of those things. The Bible talks about that we ought to bear fruit out of our repentance. When we repent, fruit occurs.

We are blessed to be a blessing. How many of you say, I was lost in the house. But thank God the Holy Spirit didn't give up on me. And how many of you say, thank God for the house. Because there was pervenient grace. That helped me finally be found. Amen. Let's bow together in prayer.

Lord, I thank you so much for the journey of every person in here. Some of us literally grew up in the house. But we'd have to admit, we were lost as a goose. But that doesn't have to be the final say so in our lives. This very day, we can move from being lost in the house to being found in the house. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.