Have We Lost the Plot?

All right, welcome glad you're here Sunday's amazing It's so good cuz you're here So good because your neighbors here so good because Jesus is here Look at your neighbor real quick say I am so glad to be sitting next to you Now just give them a compliment, I don't know just think of something like I like your shirt I like your hat you smell nice Beautiful smile. I don't know Something Thank you We're gonna go to Luke Luke chapter 15 again Luke 15 The second week in our sermon collection Called people are our heart. I said, you know I'm probably not gonna preach from Luke chapter 15 every single Sunday during the sermon collection But then last week pastor Brian opened up the word to Luke chapter 15 again And it was so good, right? Amen, so good. And then today he was leading worship an Embarrassment of riches. Am I right? I'm like this man can do everything The Lord would not let me sing like that because it's like he wanted to keep me humble Because God knows if I could sing like that I would be the most annoying preacher because I would never let the team come up and finish out the service I would just start singing Preachers who can sing y'all get on my nerves I'm like Lord, that's really not fair Why couldn't you have given me a voice like that, but he did such a phenomenal job Last week in preaching and teaching I texted him this morning because I was praying the Lord's Prayer and I said man thank you so much for what you preached last week because Since I received the word as I have prayed the Lord's Prayer all week. I have looked differently at daily bread Because I don't just see it as revelation or inspiration. I see it as healing as well and he did a phenomenal job Last week and so I thought well since he preached from Luke chapter 15. We might as well go four for four and Talk about another parable from Luke chapter 15, which is the parable of the lost coin

So if you have your Bible open it up to Luke chapter 15, we're gonna be Reading the parable of the lost coin, which is found in verses 8 through 10 But I do want to remind us of who Jesus's audience is here and I want to begin in verse 1 read to verse 3 then we'll Jump over to verse 8 and read through verse 10 So once you've found it in your Bible, if you don't mind joining me Please stand to your feet for the reading of the Word of God we're gonna read Luke chapter 15 verse 1 through actually just 1 and 2 and then verse 8 through 10 All right Let's read now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to him and the Pharisees and the scribes Grumbled saying this man received sinners and eats with him Eats with them and verse 8 or what woman? having ten silver coins if she loses one coin does not light a lamp and sweep the house and Seek diligently until she finds it and when she has found it She calls together her friends and neighbors saying rejoice with me for I have found the coin that I had lost Just so I tell you there is joy before the angels of God Over one sinner who repents notice each and every parable in Luke chapter 15 has a similar storyline It's about God's heart for the lost and when the lost is found There is a party that takes place both in the earth and in the heavenlies So today what I want to do is look at the parable of the lost coin I want to talk a little bit more about God's heart for the lost I want to push us a little bit to develop a greater heart for people and in so doing the title of my message Today is this have we lost? the plot Have we really Lost the reason why Jesus showed up Have we lost the plot? Let's pray together Lord. We say thank you for your word It's everlasting and unchanging and yet always faithful to change us all of life We look through the lens of Scripture because it is our desire to build our lives on the bedrock

That is the Bible God So I pray today that you would reveal to us any place that we've not built our lives on The Word of God and I pray that you would help our hearts to receive the fullness of the Word of God so that we might leave this room changed and transformed More into your image in Jesus name. We pray and everybody said a man you can be seated So, I hope that we're gonna be able to finish strong today in this sermon collection I got to be honest with you as I have been preparing to Give this message from Luke chapter 15 and as I have been preaching through Luke chapter 15 for the entire month I feel as though the Holy Spirit has really been working on my heart It it seems as though every single week. I'm a bit more emotional about what the Holy Spirit is doing and And so today what I would like to do is oscillate a little bit between being pastoral and Being somewhat prophetic and when I say prophetic, I don't mean I'm gonna Pass out words of knowledge I just mean that there's gonna be certain portions of this sermon that may sound a little bit like a rebuke Maybe to us or maybe to our church stream. And if that's the case, that's okay I just want to be faithful to say what I sense God is encouraging me to speak but I also want to speak to you as your pastor and I want to do my best to Cultivate a core value that I know God wants present in this house, which is this people are Our heart and this is not just a legacy value. This is a kingdom value. This is not just a legacy value This is a Jesus value and we want to cultivate this people are our heart. So Let's look at Luke chapter 15 There's a real good chance that most of us in the room today share more in common with the Pharisees and the Scribes than we do the tax collectors and the sinners the reason I say that is because the Pharisees and the scribes in Luke chapter 15 are people today that we would refer to as Churched these are very churched

people they're very familiar with the church and its practices and they're very committed to being a part of the church and participating in the life of the church Sadly, it was the churched people the people that were supposed to be the most prepared people to welcome a move of God That missed God in Christ Jesus altogether the people who were the most Scripturally Prepared people to welcome the Messiah Missed the Messiah altogether when Jesus showed up Why is that? Well, I have a theory and that is because whenever Jesus showed up he did not share in the church people's priorities His priorities were completely different than their priorities Churched people. I think we can all agree They have their priorities and oftentimes their priorities are their practices and when I say practices, I mean the things that they do for God and That's their priorities. They prioritize their worship. Well, let me tell you about the worship that God really wants Let me tell you about what they're really saying is let me tell you about the worship that I really prefer. I I Want to talk about worship. I want to talk about Teachings I want to talk about Traditions I want to talk about My preferences and the things that I want church to be like and that's kind of how the Pharisees Functioned at the time and honestly most of which Those things were great. The the the worship the teachings the traditions, but unfortunately for the Pharisees and the scribes They lost the plot Jesus cared about the worship and the teachings and the traditions to a certain extent After all Jesus himself was also very churched Believe it or not. I

Know it's popular today to look at the lifestyle of Jesus and consider him to be like, you know peace and love man, and he was not religious The truth is he was more religious than all of us Whenever Jesus was arrested in Mark chapter 14, the Bible tells us this Jesus says to his kidnappers Why didn't you guys arrest me at church? Because every single day I was there among you teaching Kind of sounds like what he said to his parents when he was a preteen Did you not know that I must be in my father's house? Jesus went to church more than all of us Of course the Pharisees and the scribes didn't hate Jesus because he was churched the Pharisees and the scribes Hated Jesus because he rebuked them for their sin That's why they couldn't stand Jesus But the reason why they missed his ministry the reason why it was an oversight and they did not recognize God in Christ Jesus was because he did not share in their priorities Rather than be preoccupied with the next theological debate Jesus was purposed entirely to reach people He's like y'all having conversations and that's great. You're talking about how I want to be worshipped and that's wonderful You're discussing Theology and teaching awesome. You're talking about your traditions cool But you've lost the plot Because in the midst of being churched and in the midst of all of your practices for God You have overlooked the entire purpose for me showing up Which is to reach people in? Luke chapter 19 whenever Jesus was teaching he shares with the world his personal ministry mission statement Jesus says this for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost Would y'all read that with me for the Son of Man? Came to seek and to save the lost if you've ever wondered why the Messiah showed up Luke chapter 19 verse 10

This is the words of Jesus read letters for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost now we know that Jesus did not have an HQ a Headquarters Jesus did not have corporate offices. He did not have a 501c3 ministry but I have to believe that if he did if Jesus had a headquarters if Jesus had corporate offices for his ministry I bet that when you walked into the lobby You would see the wall plastered with this message for the Son of Man Came to seek and to save the lost when the employees disciples the Apostles lost the plot and they were suffering and Experiencing persecution and pushback and they lifted their hand and they said Jesus Why in the world would we have to go through all of this is what we're doing really important after all? He would point to the banner on the board and he would say here's why we're doing what we're doing for the Son of Man Came to seek and to save the lost This is his mission statement If you've ever wondered what would the mission statement of Jesus's ministry be it would be this Luke chapter 19 verse 10 for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost Would this be the same mission statement that would have been in the temple offices of the Pharisees probably not but let's just for an instant continue to imagine that it was and Even if it was they weren't very passionate about it. They are what business leaders and leadership gurus referred to as mission drift They had forgotten that God was focused and purposed on delivering people and they had completely Focused on their worship and their teachings and their traditions They were much more Passionate about Themselves than they were other people and and this is that prophetic moment that I was referring to because I think that today The church resembles a lot of that same attitudes Is that rather than be passionate about other people we are passionate about ourself? Rather than you know join a serve team and be a servant leader and be purposed to pour out and help other people We're more passionate about our own

preferences and ensuring that we can show up to the church that we enjoy that does the worship music like we like it and We get a word that has good principles that help us to become more successful in the marketplace I want you to give me, you know passages of Scripture pastor that will help me earn more money But I don't want you to talk to me about giving any more money You know, it's my preferences and my desires and what I want and this is this was the problem of the Pharisees They overlook people for the sake of their own place They said when I come to church, I want to make sure that I sit in my seat And if somebody's sitting in my seat, I'm gonna be infuriated When I pull up to the house, nobody better be parking in my parking spot because if they are I'm gonna feel disrespected Don't they know that I'm the man of God. That's where I'm supposed to park They were more concerned with their place. They were also more concerned with their positions They wanted to be recognized. They wanted to be seen and celebrated. They wanted to be referred to as the people of God They wanted to be recognized as the people of God Anointed man or woman of God and not only that they were also more concerned with their pocketbooks Their place their position their pocketbooks. This is what I want out of church This is what I want to make sure that I'm being met with this is what is important to me But it was not what was important to God they were overlooking people and unfortunately they had lost the plot My concern today as I look out at the landscape of my tradition of church, which would be Pentecostalism and I was interviewing a PhD professor actually a dean this past week on a podcast and He was talking about how right now Barna says there's over 700 million Pentecostals in the world soon to reach a billion by 2050 Think about that. There's there gonna be a billion Pentecostals in the world by 2050 And that's awesome. It's it's it's awesome that that that our tradition is growing I mean, I think it's wonderful and there's some reasons for that but I think one of the concerns that I have in the midst of us being so focused on encountering God and in church and ministry and all the things that we love to do as part of church is that we could actually Overlook people and say I don't really care that much. They don't really matter that much. I don't really care that much so if you look at these parables in Luke chapter 15 every single one of them is a revelation of God's heart as I was doing some research this week. I learned that

Most scholars would see Luke chapter 15 as Jesus teaching about the heart posture of the Trinity so if you think about the parable of the it starts off with the parable of the Good Shepherd or the lost sheep I Think we all agree that the Shepherd is the Son of God It's Jesus Right, so we learn a lot about the heart of Jesus that leaves the 99 and he goes to the one Right, so it starts with 99 and it goes to one and then you see here there is this Parable of well, let's talk about the final one the parable at the end of Luke chapter 15 Which is the parable of the prodigal son? I think we could all agree that the father in the story embodies our heavenly father in the Godhead Right, so it gives us a good revelation and understanding of the heart posture of our heavenly father Now when you look at the parable that we read today, which is the parable of the lost coin this now refers to a woman and We see it goes from like okay 99 to 1 then it goes 1 out of 10. Then it goes 1 out of 2 So every single time Jesus is like zooming in just to let his listeners know. This is the value of just one But it's debated as to who the woman embodies and so some some scholars would say well, obviously, you know The parable of the prodigal son, that's the heavenly father the parable of the lost sheep, you know That's Jesus the Son and then obviously it's got to be the Holy Spirit But that's very debated and I would agree with the scholars that would look at this and say that's not the Holy Spirit That's the church. I Fully believe that I fully believe that the parable speaks in such a way that Jesus is referring to How the Holy Spirit wants to move in the church, but how often the church loses The very thing that is supposed to be valuable to the church which is Lost people the sheep wandered despite the shepherds care and the son ran away in spite of the father's love But the coin was lost by the woman in the house My submission to you is this in the same way that the woman lost the coin I believe it's possible for the church to lose her heart for people So I'm wondering today have we lost the plot Have we lost the plot in my last two messages? I've asked a question Essentially is how does God feel about the lost? How does God feel about the lost?

Today's message. I pretty much want to ask this question. What are we doing about it? Right because the easy thing is to say oh well that's for somebody else to do That that's for somebody else who has a more extroverted personality That's for somebody else to care about the lost Well, that's for people who are called to be evangelist. That's for people who are passionate about outreach That's not for me. That's not my personality It's amazing to me how many people believe that Jesus consults with our personality Before he calls us to care about the lost It's incredible to me because today we're so obsessed with personality tests Right and we're like, well, I took a disc at work Turns out I'm a high-ass So I don't have the personality to evangelize Well, you know, recently I got super into the Enneagram. And I learned that I was a nine, and so I kind of have a passive personality, so it would be impossible for me to share the gospel with anybody else. It's, like, people literally think that Jesus was walking around with a Scantron test in his robe. You remember this? It's like, did anybody take these tests? You know, as a kid? It's like a number two pencil. You know, follow me and I'm going to make you a fisher of men, right? This is why I love Jesus. Because he told us what he would transform us into before he calls us. He's like, okay, hey, if you want to follow me, we're going to have intimacy, which is going to be wonderful. You're going to worship me and be close to me, but then I'm going to make you, meaning I'm going to disciple you. And then my goal for your discipleship is that you would care about the lost and become a co-laborer in my ministry. And so we make up all kinds of excuses for why we don't care about people, why we don't care about the lost, why we don't evangelize, why we don't do outreach, why we don't share the gospel. Yes, it's true, your Christian faith is very personal, but it is not supposed to be private. So Jesus says, here's my goal for your transformation. I want to mature you until you care about people, and then you're on mission with me. And we have all kinds of people who would say, I'm very spiritually mature, but they never win anybody to God. So my assertion would simply be, if you're not fishing, you're probably not following. Because if you're following, if you're really following, it guarantees that he's going to work on your heart and transform your character until you actually care about other people. I think this was the religious people's problem. They were like, yeah, yeah, I'm following, I'm following, I'm following, I'm following. But then the Messiah shows up, and they miss him entirely. Why is that? Because they had not let God work on their heart enough to where they actually cared about anything other than their own preferences, anything other than their own positions, and their postures, and their pocketbook.

Hey, Peter, follow me. It's a test. Hope you got a pencil. Fill it in. Just want to see if you have the right personality or not to follow me. God doesn't consult with your personality before he calls you to care about lost people. He just gives you a new personality. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. And the new creation that you are cares about lost people. And this is who we're called to be. And my concern is that we're losing the plot, and we don't actually care about people as much as we claim to. We actually care about people very little. So much so that we would say people don't even matter when it comes to church. It doesn't even matter at all. And this is concerning to me because I think that this parable speaks, and I think that Jesus actually gives the parable on purpose. Because the church is supposed to join Jesus in seeking the lost. And I believe that the church is also supposed to join heaven in celebrating the found. We're supposed to do both. And I know that people are not coins. I know that people are not inanimate objects. So I'm not suggesting that lost people are the church's fault. But I am declaring that they are the church's responsibility. It's possible for the church to lose people and not even care. Oh, I lost somebody. Doesn't matter. I got nine more. Oh, we lost that person. Who really cares? Doesn't matter. Oh, there's a lost person in your family. Who really cares? Just come to church. Forget about it. Just worship. Get filled up. I think Jesus told this parable on purpose because it's possible for us to lose people. And when we do, especially when we do consistently, I believe that it's necessary that we stop, pause, and we sweep the house. This has been my prayer every single week. And as I dove into this study this week, it actually, to be honest with you, there were so many moments where I found myself in tears, and my conviction turned into petition. And I was like, Lord, sweep the house. Lord, sweep the house. Lord, I pray for conviction. I pray that you break our hearts. It's crazy to me that the people who claim the closest proximity to God could not care about people. Because the closer you get to Jesus, the more you burn for what Jesus burns for. And the first thing that Jesus wants is people. So I think it's possible we're deceiving. We're deceived. I think we're deceiving ourselves. I think it's possible we've become religious elites in our own time. We've made church all about our preferences, our placement, our positions, our pocketbooks.

And the general oversight is, who cares about people? I know it's a scary prayer, but I'm praying that God sweep the house. In February, I talked about first love. And in 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 7, we know the scripture for the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. And I prayed that this week in fear and trembling, like Lord, if judgment begins at the house of God, sweep our house. You know, I don't wanna pretend to prophesy over the national church or the global church or the whatever, but I'm gonna prophesy over me. Judgment starts here, sweep the house, Lord. Convict me where I have not cared about people. And I pray and I ask God to show us how we have overlooked people. To reveal our carelessness, to reveal our neglect, and to reveal our selfishness that we have spiritualized. To the point of becoming almost pathological about our disregard of other image bearers. You know, Jesus loved people so much that he once wept over a friend that he was about to resurrect. You think about that? It's like, why in the world would he get so emotional about a guy he was about to bring back to life? Because he is showing us how God feels about people. Jesus came in such the opposite spirit of the world, catch this, that the New Testament, the New Testament writers used a very unique

and uncommon word to describe his heart for people. Is it okay if I teach you some Greek? Okay, well, I'm gonna be learning with you because this is a really hard one to pronounce. So it is this, spagnizoma. Y'all wanna try that out? We probably all got it wrong, but it's okay, it's all right. Spagnizoma, all right? It means to be moved with compassion. How many of you guys had read the Gospels and you've seen those lines where it says, and he was moved to compassion. They were like sheep without a shepherd. He was moved to compassion. There wasn't enough food for them. He was moved to, you know what I'm talking about? So there's eight times in the Gospels where Jesus is moved to compassion and the Greek word that is used in those passages is this, spagnizoma. There's only four other times in the entire Bible where this word is used, spagnizoma, and it's used by Jesus himself to articulate the heart posture of a person that he is using to illustrate a point in a parable. So spagnizoma means to be moved by compassion, but it's a little bit different than the way we would talk about compassion today because the first word here, spag, spag. That's kind of a weird word, right?

Spagnizoma, spag. You know what spag means? Spleen, spleen, like guts, in your guts, man. That's why whenever the Bible talks about Jesus being moved to compassion, he was not moved to compassion because he thought to himself, well, you know, this is what a good savior does. He wasn't intellectually assenting to some form of moralism. He wasn't saying, well, you know, because I wanna be a good Christian, I should probably care about these people who are following me without food. No, whenever the Bible says that Jesus is moved to compassion for people, what it is referred, the word that is being used, and I'll dive deeper into it so we can all understand it, but the word that is being used is that Jesus felt it in his guts. Deep down in his spleen. You remember that next time you feel something crazy, be like, I feel that in my spleen. So in first century Greek, all right, this word would have been used to describe a visceral, guttural feeling that one would have. Now, today, when we talk about these things, we talk about it like this. I feel it deep in my heart, don't we? But I think, honestly, the first century Greeks probably articulated better what it's like

to have a visceral feeling. They would say, I feel it deep down in my guts. And if you think about it, we use this same framework when we described intense emotional experiences in our life. You ever, you know, we're in March Madness right now. I bet there's a few players stepping onto the court that would say, I got butterflies. What are they articulating? Spagnosoma. Dude, I'm having an intense emotional experience. Woo, I got butterflies. That right there, that would be an example of spagnosoma. Or maybe you're dealing with a ton of stress. Maybe you're driving to the job for a presentation and you call a friend and you say, my stomach is in knots. Spagnosoma, right? Or maybe you've had a trial in your life and you feel depressed in this season and you told your counselor, I just can't eat. Spagnosoma, it's the same thing. Or my stomach dropped whenever I got that bad news. Or man, I was so anxious, I almost threw up. Or maybe it's like, I had a gut feeling this would happen. All of these things are examples of spagnosoma. Even courage in the midst of fear, well, you gotta have guts to do that. You see how we use this phrase? This is what it is, this spagnosoma. Why does this matter?

Because this word, spagnosoma, is such a rich word to describe Jesus's heart for people. It's the heart that he wants all of us to have, but also the reason I'm bringing it up is because it's such a distinct word that is used for no one else in the Bible, even the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, never uses this phrase. It is only used to describe how Jesus feels for people or it is used by Jesus to articulate a heart in someone for other people. To dive a little bit deeper into the word, you didn't know you were coming to a Greek class today, but to dive a little bit deeper into the word, I had to share this because I thought it was so fascinating. This word was not even found in traditional Jewish culture. Whenever it pops up in the history books, it's actually from pagan culture. And here's the only way in which it was used. It was used to describe the feeling that one got when they watched a pagan priest, not even a Jewish priest, when they watched a pagan priest empty out the guts of a sacrificial animal on the altar and then eat the guts. That is crazy. Have you ever seen an animal slaughtered? Okay, everybody's like, we're from Nashville. We don't say, I'm from Kentucky, I'm from the farm. And so it gives you a weird, it's like it gives you the ick. You're like, dang, bro, you about to take a life.

That's crazy right there. When I was a missionary in Mozambique, we would go out with Mozambican pastors and they thought it was so funny to get one of the missionaries to slaughter the dinner. You see, see, everybody's like, whoa. But in their culture, it's nothing, right? But they thought it was hilarious to give a missionary a knife and like, yo, get the goat. Right, and being from Kentucky, I was still like, mm-mm. Because I hear how them goats scream when you go, ah. You see, that right there, what you just experienced, spagnizoma. It's like, oh, man, you know, like, woo, that's rough. This is the word that the Bible uses to articulate the guttural, visceral feeling that Jesus Christ walked around with whenever he looked upon people and had such great compassion. It's not that he intellectually understood that he should do something. It's that he was so moved, even deep down in his guts for people that he said, I gotta do something. And I'm wondering, like, do we even have that? Do we even have anything close to that? Does anything like that happen to us when we pull up on the homeless who are asking for a dollar selling the contributor? Does anything like that happen in us when we see somebody who is down and out,

busted and disgusted, dirty and in need? Does anything happen to us at all? Or is it just like, eh, it's whatever? Yeah, how do we feel about people? We hear somebody's story. Are we broken? We hear something about a tragedy in somebody's life. Ah, yeah, whatever. So back to my phone. I'm just asking the question because all of Luke chapter 15 is Jesus explaining to us the heart of his father is his own heart. He's talking about how God feels about people. And to reiterate his point three times over, he examines it from different angles and different perspectives. And every single time he says, this is how God cares about people. And if you're gonna be a follower of me, you're gonna have to care about people. This is how God feels about the lost. And if you're gonna follow me, you're gonna have to care about the lost. And I'm just wondering if Jesus were to sweep the house today, if he would find any of us actually caring at all about people, or if we're so self-obsessed that even our interactions with church is just for our own benefit. Who cares about everybody else?

If he sweeps the house, is he gonna find us numb to the prodigals? Is he gonna find us too busy to be bothered by the sheep? Is he gonna find us entirely uninterested in the lost? This has been my prayer all week. Lord, if we've lost the plot, help us. Help us. When I first got saved and I first got into ministry, I was so concerned with my calling that I didn't even think anything about people, which is crazy because the whole point of the calling is to bless other people, to bless God and to bless him and bless them, right? But it's possible. I can testify to it. It's absolutely possible to be so concerned with your own destiny that you forget the purpose of the destiny fulfilled is to bless other people. I didn't even see people. I just saw testimonies on two legs. Oh, that person is sick. If I go pray for them and they get healed, I can post about it on my Facebook. And then everybody will know I'm anointed and invite me to preach. Was that too real that we crossed the line with that? Because that's where I was. And I remember I got to a point where I realized. Like, man, I don't really see people at all.

But the more I listened to the stories of people who were lost, they would tell me about how they didn't feel seen, even by people who were supposed to show up to help them. I was like, I'm gonna go do missions. For what? So I can get a selfie with the orphan. Are you there to help? Well, I'm called to the nations. Do you think that God is really romantic about that territory and the way that we've outlined it as a government? Or do you think he cares about the people who live in that territory, which is why he's sending you to the nations to begin with? Amen. My bad. I'm afraid that we're just, I didn't do that for effect. I just, I wonder if it's possible that we've lost the plot. Now, I pray, honestly, that we could experience some spagnosomai today. That we'd be moved in our guts for people. That we'd hear people's stories, that we'd see people's lives, that we'd be made aware of where people are. Oh, man, I can't. Not on my watch. When I was in my early 20s, I was a missionary and got to hang out with this woman named Heidi Baker.

And I'm gonna tell you, there's nobody who loved people like Heidi. And hanging out with her and being around her and just watching her. I remember one time, I'll tell you a quick story. I remember one time we went to this village with Heidi. And I was, at this point, I was one of Heidi's sons. And so, I gotta be a protector. That's my spiritual mom. And I'll never forget, I was walking around with her and we were walking around this village. I mean, we were deep out. She called it the bush bush. The bush bush bush. It was so deep. And so, of course, Heidi's like the Mother Teresa of Mozambique. And so, whenever she gets out of the Land Rover, everybody's just flocking her, right? And this dude comes up. And dude, I'm telling you, he is so close to Heidi. He's like on her back the whole time. And I was like, yo, I'm saved. Bro, you better back up. Awful mama, man. I'm gonna punch you in the mouth. And she kept, she never looked at him. She just kept walking around and she was greeting everybody and she was speaking to him in Makua

and salama, salama. And this guy's just on her. No expression, by the way, just. And I thought, you know what? I'm gonna have to go ahead and remove him from the area. So, I walked up to Heidi and I said, hey, there's a guy. He's all up in your space. I'm gonna go ahead and get him out of here. She looked at me and she looked at him. She said, oh, him? She saw him the whole time. I said, yes, ma'am. She said, yeah, he was blind last year when I came to this village and God healed him and he can see me now. So, that's just why he's doing that. I was like, yeah, I'm an idiot. I'll just see myself out now. Thank you very much. No discernment at all. You know? I remember when I went to India. Some of you guys know my story, but I remember when I went to India and I was in a bar. I was in a bar in a small town in the middle of nowhere. And I was in a bar in a small town in the middle of nowhere. And I was sitting there and I was like, I don't know what I'm doing.

I don't know what I'm doing. Some of you guys know my story, but when I was in India, I spent about five years in and out as a missionary. And our sole purpose was to rescue children from human trafficking. We supplemented church ministry. We helped pastors. We did leadership conferences. I spoke at churches every Sunday. Sometimes they were real churches. Sometimes they were like mud hut churches. Sometimes they were on top of roofs with like a bunch of kids. They probably hated my preaching. Kids were crying. People would get up and leave. It was wild. But nonetheless, we were there. And I'll never forget, there was this one little girl named Lakshmi. And we rescued her from trafficking. And she told us her story. And one day we sat down and we interviewed her. And we heard about just the brutal experiences that she had in these rock quarries where her parents sold her as a forced laborer. So she was a slave, literally. She was a slave. And that's the way that she lived during the day.

But then at night, she was forced into prostitution. And she was telling me these stories about men putting out lit cigarettes on her and scraping her while they would rape her. And she had all these scars on her face and her legs. And she was talking to us about this. All right, she said, spagnizoma. Oh, I can't. You know, it's like, you don't even know what to experience. It's like, do I break down and cry? Do I go like machine gun preacher and find the man? You know, it's like, I don't know what I do. And I asked her, I said, you know, did you, did you, Did you ever pray, did you cry out to God, did you? And you know what she said to me? She said, I always prayed one thing. And I remember this, this week, when I was like, dang, how did I forget that? She said, I always prayed, God, why have you given me this life in the dark where no one can see me? And I was like, she's the lost coin. She was in the dirt, she was dusty, she was beaten, she was broken, and she said, I'm unseen. Church, we have people who are in the corners, broken, dirty, unseen, but they're still valuable.

Because here's the thing about the lost, just because they're lost doesn't mean they've lost their value. Just because somebody is lost doesn't mean that they're worthless. They're still valuable. God still cares about them. Therefore, we must still care about them. Here, listen, let me illustrate this point a little bit. Anybody in here need 20 bucks? Ronnie, you want 20 bucks? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, just come up here, I got 20 bucks for you. Because we're talking about value, so. Hey, 20 bucks, 20 bucks, right? Got value. You said you want it. But if I just wad it up, I ain't quite as cute anymore. Still want it? See, I throw it on the ground. Still want it? Still want it? See, I take it outside, throw it in the children's playground where it's all dusty and muddy. Still want it? Still want it because it still has value. And I'm using this to illustrate

this is God's heart for people. They could be broken, busted, thrown in the mud, tossed out in the back, but they ain't never lost their value. You know, it's just like this dollar right here, man, this $20 bill. I wish it was $100, by the way. Because I wanted to say, it's got Benjamin Franklin. But we got four services, so. You know, so for the sake of a sermon illustration, I was like, it wouldn't be expensive, bro. But it's got Andrew Jackson on it. You know, one of the presidents, right? That's how we know it's got value, right? It's got value. But it's the same way with people, man. Because every single human being is an image bearer. Everybody looks a little bit like him. And when we look at people, we see a perspective of his face because every single human being is an image bearer. So just because somebody is lost, doesn't mean they lost their value. Just because somebody's in the corner, just because nobody else sees them, just because they're dirty, just because they've gone through some stuff, it doesn't mean that they're worthless. They still have value. There you go, that's $20 for you, bro.

Yes, sir. So here's my prayer for us today, church, that we would sweep the house, that we would sweep the house. Somebody's lost, we'd sweep the house. Somebody's gone, we'd sweep the house. Somebody disappears, we'd sweep the house. Now, a lot of scholars would say the broom represents the law and the lamp represents the gospels. We know the Psalms teaches us that the Word is a lamp under our feet. And let me tell you, the gospel still works. Amen. You can't find the lost in the dark, you gotta bring the lamp. You gotta bring the lamp. This is not just about us. Going to people who need a little bit of love and showing them some unsanctified mercy Yes, we're gonna bring the law, but we also gonna bring the love. We're gonna bring the lamp. We're gonna let them know look Jesus sent me here and I'm here to show up with light. I'm here to show up with love I'm here to show up with the keys to those shackles that Benny was preaching about a moment ago as we were worshiping So that you can be set free So I pray I pray this week that you would do three things number one that you just light the lamp That you'd light the lamp. I pray that you would let the Word of God go to work on your heart I pray that you'd pick up the Word of God and you'd say I'm gonna take the Word of God. Seriously I'm gonna take the Great Commission. Seriously. I'm gonna take the Father's heart for lost people. Seriously I'm gonna take Jesus's heart for all people seriously And I pray you'd let the Holy Spirit sweep the house if there's some things in you that God wants to uproot let him let

Him go to work if there's some things that you're holding on to that is causing you to overlook other people. Let him go to work And the last thing I pray you would do is name the coin man put a name on the coin I bet you there's somebody in your life right now. I bet you there's somebody in your life right now That is that is like that little girl in India God why have you given me this but she didn't even know she was she didn't know what God she was praying to God why have you given me this life in the dark where no one can see me and just like the children of Israel that were Crying out to God whenever they were in Egypt whenever God came and found Moses He said the cries of the people have come up before you. Therefore, I'm dispatching you I've heard the cries of people and I'm gonna send a deliverer. Therefore. I'm dispatching you. I'm wondering if anybody Work on their spiritual ears so much so that you would hear the hearts cry of the people who are looking for freedom But can't find it and they're waiting on somebody to show up with the lamp and say hey Let me tell you he who the Son is set free is free indeed, and you can be free So so put a name on it, you know, there's two things that the Bible says about how the woman searched Carefully and she searched get this until I think until is one of the most powerful words in ministry because it speaks to not giving up until Listen people you pray for they may not get saved next week The prodigals that you are petitioning for they may be out for years But here's what the woman did until Until I'm gonna keep that broom until I'm gonna keep that broom But here's what the woman did until Until I'm gonna keep that broom until I'm gonna keep the lamp until I'm gonna put a name on the coin until Until I'm gonna go as hard as I need until until because at some point we on our way to a party man I know and I'm not gonna be a religious person murmuring while all of heaven is celebrating You see the juxtaposition we can't be the Pharisees and the scribes like why didn't you fulfill all of my preferences that I got about? Church, no, I am too obsessed with finding people and getting them in here as well. I am too Passionate about looking for the coins that have been lost stuck somewhere in a corner in the darkness and saying until you come home I'm not gonna stop looking Until Somebody say until and I'm prophesying over you now that this is the kind of Christian that you are Until I'm prophesying over this church now that this is the kind of church that we are

Until it ain't gonna be the darkness that freaks us out or scares us and says I can't go in there It is too dark. It is too demonic. No until I'm signed up I've received salvation and I'm gonna carry this lamp into the darkness as long as I need to Until we gonna see a city set on fire for God until we gonna see universities transformed Until we gonna see the prison system open up Until we gonna see young people radically saved. We gonna see drug addicts get free until Come on would you sign up today just lift your hand to heaven and say God give me the lamp Come on until God put the lamp in my hand. I'm picking up the room today. I'm volunteering today Until wherever you need me to be I'm ready to go until whatever you want me to say I'm ready to speak until Just put your hand on your heart Holy Spirit, I pray you do a work right now in the name of Jesus Holy Spirit, I pray you go to work on us right now in the name of Jesus. You're the great physician I pray you do surgery this morning in the name of Jesus Anything in us that is holding us back from seeing other image-bearers in the way that you do God. I pray you You're going to work on us today in the name of Jesus. And Lord, I pray you put a perseverance in this church unlike anything we've ever experienced to search until. Here I am, Lord. Send me. I dare you. I dare you to pray like Isaiah. Here I am, Lord. Send me. Holy Spirit, here I am. Fill me up and send me out. Send me. I dare you to volunteer. I dare you to throw your hands up in surrender. I dare you to let the Holy Spirit move through you in the way that he wants to until.

Just take a moment. Just close your eyes. Lift your head toward heaven. I'm very well aware that there might be some people in the room right now that you are the lost coin. I'm going to give you some space. If you're in the room right now and you know you need to give your life to Jesus today, will you just put a hand up in there? I want to pray for her. I see you. Is anybody else? You just want to come home today. Like, you're the lost coin. You're like, I need to come home today. Is there anybody else? Anybody need to rededicate their life to Jesus today? Like, you've been a Christian for a long time, but you're like, yeah, today's my day. I need to rededicate my. Is it? Will you also put up your hand? I just want to pray with you. Awesome. I've seen a couple of hands go up, so we're going to pray together. Can we pray Jesus? Come on, church. Say Jesus. I repent of my sins.

And I turn from my ways. And I turn towards you. Holy Spirit, fill me up. Send me out. All the days of my life, I belong to Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray. And everybody said, amen.