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Series Code: BOL
Program Code: BOL000601A
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00:02 Breath Of Life Ministries Presents:
00:07 Sermon #601 'He Found Me' 00:11 [Breath of Life Theme music] 00:20 PB: The Word says, "Then drew near unto him [Jesus] 00:26 all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. 00:33 And the Pharisees and scribes murmured saying, 00:37 'This man receiveth sinners and he eateth with them.' 00:46 And he spake this parable unto them saying, 'What man of you, 00:51 having an hundred sheep, if you lose one of them doth not 00:57 leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after 01:02 that which is lost until he finds it. And when he hath found it, 01:08 he layeth it on his shoulders.'" That's important. 01:12 "And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his"--what, everybody? 01:15 Aud.: Shoulders PB: Shoulders. "'Rejoicing. And when he 01:19 cometh home, he called together his friends and neighbors 01:22 saying unto them "'Rejoice with me for I have found my sheep 01:30 which was lost. I say unto you that likewise, joy shall be 01:41 in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over 01:50 ninety and nine just persons which needs no repentance.'" 01:58 I'm so glad to say today in our sermon title, "He Found Me." 02:04 He Found Me. Father, bless us now. Speak through this, 02:09 Your Word, today, and Lord, when the appeal comes move in 02:12 this church. Move over the airways. And may we all be able 02:16 to testify that Jesus found me. We pray this pray and we 02:24 ask these things in Jesus' name. Let everyone say amen. 02:27 Aud.: Amen. PB: Amen. All right. Luke chapter 15 02:31 is often referred to as God's lost and found department, 02:37 because in this chapter we have searching, saving, 02:42 and shouting. Do I have a witness in this place? 02:45 [Aud. reaction] PB: For after the lost is found, 02:47 there is rejoicing. Now in this chapter, 02:52 Jesus shares with us four illustrations. 02:55 How many illustrations, everybody? Aud.: Four. 02:57 PB: Four in three parables. So we have four illustrations 03:00 in three parables to deal with God's desire to save the lost. 03:04 All right, so this is a good text, theology students, 03:09 to do a week of prayer on because you've got three parables 03:13 with four illustrations, which means then, you can make a 03:17 week of prayer out of this. Are you hearing what I'm saying? 03:20 All right, verses 3 through 7 identify the first parable 03:25 and the illustration of the lost sheep. Verses 8 through 03:30 10 identify the second parable and record the illustration 03:34 of the lost coin. Verses 11 through 32 identify the third 03:40 parable and record both the illustration of the lost son 03:45 and the illustration of the lost brother. Because see, 03:49 a lot of people read the story of the prodigal son and 03:51 they don't realize that the story of the brother is an 03:54 even more powerful story than the story of the lost son. 03:58 Now, verses 1 and 2 are applicable to all four illustrations, 04:05 but today time won't let me, permit me to preach for a sermon. 04:11 So I just preached one. Amen. We deal with the lost sheep. 04:16 Now look at verses 1 and 2 again. Look at it. The Bible 04:21 teaches that publicans and sinners came to hear Jesus preach. 04:28 Everybody say "publicans." Aud.: Publicans. 04:31 PB: Everybody say "sinners." Aud.: Sinners 04:34 PB: Publicans and sinners came to hear Jesus preach. 04:41 Now let's deal with publicans. Who are the publicans? 04:43 Publicans were also known as tax collectors. These were 04:46 people who worked for the Roman government, but they were 04:49 despised by the Jews because they worked directly, 04:52 or indirectly, for the hated Romans and put unfair 04:55 and unnecessary tax burdens on the people to fill their 04:59 own pockets. They were Jews themselves who had sold out 05:05 to the Roman government and worked against their own people, 05:08 so the publicans were traitors. These were the publicans. 05:13 But now, number two, the sinners. Sinners were Jews who 05:19 had fallen away from the life that God had commanded, 05:21 living in unrepentant sin, and because of this, 05:24 they had been expelled from the synagogue and doomed 05:27 to hell. You know, disfellowship from the church. 05:32 Excommunicated from the church. Picture that: 05:37 sinners telling other sinners that they can no longer 05:40 be welcome at God's church. [Aud. reaction] 05:42 PB: That they are no longer able to receive forgiveness 05:45 from sin; that they are no longer able to receive pardon 05:48 for sin. Sinners telling other sinners that. Now, 05:51 a part of the sinners' group, prostitutes would have 05:54 been a part of that group. Drunkards would have been 05:57 a part of that group. Thieves would have been a part 06:00 of that group. Drug addicts would have been a part of 06:03 this group. But sinners also included anybody who violated 06:06 the Pharisees' understanding of the Commandments. For after all, 06:10 they called Jesus a sinner because Jesus healed somebody on 06:14 the Sabbath. It was these two groups, greedy tax collectors 06:20 and poor sinners, that nobody else cared about, that Jesus 06:26 reached out to. Jesus reached to these people, and these 06:34 people came to hear Jesus teach and preach. 06:37 The Bible says that the religious authorities murmured 06:42 and complained and then began to criticize Jesus for 06:47 receiving sinners. Which means then, the very folk that 06:51 church folk should have been reaching out to were the very 06:55 folk that the people were trying to keep out. And that's 06:59 just like some church folks. We keep people out who need 07:03 Jesus the most. But the Pharisees don't get too close to 07:07 these people. People who don't look like them; people who 07:11 don't dress like them; people who don't smell like them. 07:14 But yet, Jesus eats with them, accepts them, 07:17 laughs with them, fellowships with them, and even 07:21 God forbid, Jesus prays with them. 07:24 Now, don't get it twisted. Jesus didn't despite 07:28 the Pharisees. Jesus didn't hate the Pharisees. 07:33 He just believed that His time was better spent 07:36 with those who didn't have a relationship with him. 07:39 After all, He said, "I came to seek and to save that 07:43 which was lost." But Jesus, spending time with sinners, 07:48 makes the Pharisees mad. They don't like it that 07:51 Jesus gives attention to those who give no attention 07:53 to their way of life. They want Jesus to be focused 07:56 on them and not on the sinners. They want Jesus to 07:59 reward them for all of their ways and not sinners. 08:01 They had been faithful all their lives. 08:03 They weren't bad guys; they were good guys. 08:05 They were the ones who had grown up in the church. 08:08 They were the ones who didn't smoke, 08:09 who didn't drink, who didn't live lives of promiscuity 08:12 or immorality. They went to church every Sabbath. 08:14 They tithed every Sabbath. They gave offering every Sabbath. 08:18 They had worked hard at the church every week. 08:20 But now Jesus is ignoring them, and He's hanging out 08:24 with the last, the least, the lost, the unlucky, 08:26 and the left out. [Aud. reaction] 08:28 PB: How dare Jesus show more interest in them than us? 08:31 How dare Jesus spend more time with them than He does 08:34 with us? To eat with tax collectors, eat with public- 08:37 -to eat with publicans and sinners is to put oneself 08:40 down to their level. To eat with tax collectors and 08:43 sinners is to contaminate oneself and make oneself 08:46 unfit for temple worship. But let's not be too hard 08:50 on the Pharisees, because there's a lot of Pharisees 08:53 in us. What would we say if Jesus were at dinner with 08:57 a drug dealer, a thief or a prostitute or somebody 09:00 with AIDS or a homeless man, eating eggplant parmesan 09:03 at Olive Garden. What then Jesus can do? He can do as 09:07 long as He wants to do, as long then as it doesn't 09:10 conflict with our comfortable, clean, conservative, 09:13 cool culture. It's okay for Jesus to spend time 09:17 with people like that, as long as we're not around; 09:21 as long as they stay on their side of town without 09:23 wandering into ours. But Jesus doesn't just care about 09:26 good people. Jesus cares about all people. Red and yellow, 09:29 black and white, all are precious in His sight. 09:31 And Jesus is willing to put energy and effort into 09:33 reaching those who many good people don't want anything 09:36 to do with. The Pharisees and scribes were grumbling to 09:40 themselves. They were saying to one another, 09:42 "This man welcomes sinners, and He eats with them." 09:47 The Pharisees had strict regulations about how they 09:49 were to keep away from sinners. They were not to entrust 09:51 money to them or have any business dealings with them. 09:54 They were not to trust them with a secret. They were not 09:56 to give their daughter away in marriage to any of their sons. 10:00 They were not to invite them to be guests or go out as guests 10:03 with them. But Jesus, on the other hand, openly eats and 10:07 receives them. Now, notice in the text, verse 1 and 2, 10:11 before we get to the story of the lost sheep. 10:13 The Pharisees don't openly confront Jesus. 10:17 They talk behind His back. [Aud. reaction] 10:21 PB: Interesting that they would do this because in 10:24 other scenarios, like Jesus healing on the Sabbath, 10:27 if they felt Jesus was directly disobeying one of their 10:30 traditions, they would try to openly call Him out about it. 10:33 But when Jesus was doing things they didn't like, 10:37 rather than speak directly to Him, they talk about 10:41 Him behind His back. Now I'm gonna tell you this right now: 10:46 People like that are dangerous. Say what you want, 10:48 but one of the toughest things to deal with in life 10:51 are people that smile in your face but are constantly 10:54 stabbing you in the back. Do I have a witness in this place? 10:56 As I get older, I'm even okay with people who may not 10:59 agree with me, but at least they can be man enough or 11:02 woman enough to say I don't agree with that. You can 11:05 disagree but not be disagreeable. Are you hearing what 11:07 I'm saying? It's not always the folk on the outside 11:10 that you have to worry about, but sometimes it's the phony, 11:13 pretentious folk on the inside that you have to be 11:16 careful with. I've learned, you will never hear a drunk 11:20 person talk about another drunk person. A drunk person says, 11:24 "I'm drunk. He's drunk. She's drunk. So we're all drunk." 11:31 Are you hearing what I'm saying? 11:32 The Bible says that then drew near unto him 11:35 all the publicans and sinners to hear Him. 11:38 Now the verb here, "drew," in this context is 11:40 imperfect in nature, which means it is repeated action. 11:44 In other words, the tax collectors and the sinners 11:47 were continuously coming to Jesus. Which means, 11:52 regardless of how much the Pharisees and scribes 11:55 tried to stop it, the people kept coming to Jesus. 12:02 Somebody's gonna get this in a minute. Let that be 12:04 a lesson to you. Folk can stop a lot of things, 12:07 but folk can't stop the move of God. Folk can't 12:10 stop the move of Jesus. They can't stop the move 12:14 of the Holy Ghost. God will do what He wants, 12:16 when He wants, and where He wants, and how He wants. 12:20 The Bible says that all the publicans, all the sinners, 12:24 came near to Jesus. And they come while the Pharisees 12:28 are still murmuring and complaining. Now, while Jesus 12:32 didn't approve of the sinners' actions, He did receive 12:35 them socially and ate with them for the purpose of 12:37 bringing them to repentance and salvation. I'm reminded 12:39 of what Ellen White says in the book "My Life Today." 12:42 She says and teaches that Jesus was social to save. 12:46 Let me say that again. He was social to save. 12:53 A lot of times people say to me, "Pastor Byrd, 12:55 you're always friends with people who are not of 12:56 our church." "Pastor, you bring in singers who are 12:59 not members of our church." But you need to understand, 13:01 Jesus was social to save. Jesus rebuked intemperance, 13:07 He rebuked, she says, self-indulgence and folly, 13:10 yet He was social in His nature. He accepted invitations 13:14 to dine with the learned and noble as well as the poor 13:17 and afflicted. She says, "Social power sanctified by 13:21 the Holy Ghost must be improved in bringing souls to Christ." 13:27 She says in "Ministry of Healing," Jesus won people's confidence, 13:30 then He begged them follow Me. Jesus was social to save. 13:36 But the Pharisees, the scribes, they thought they were 13:43 too religious to associate with sinners; too boojee to 13:50 hang with the broke. I wish I had time, 'cause you know 13:55 I could do a run right there, you know? But let me just 13:58 put it this way: Don't you ever think that you're better 14:01 than somebody else. Don't you ever think that you're 14:07 more righteous than somebody else. Apart from Christ, 14:12 you and I are just like the tax collectors, just like 14:17 the sinners of Israel. Apart from Christ, we are just 14:21 as lost as that man drinking Jack Daniels; just as 14:25 lost as that drug dealer on the corner; just as lost 14:28 as that liar, fornicator, gossiper, adulterer, stealer, 14:32 cheater, deceiver, and meth maker. All have sinned and 14:35 come short of the glory of God. If it weren't for the 14:38 blood of Jesus, where would any of us be. The ground 14:41 is level at the cross. I rebuke every foul, pretentious, 14:47 pompous, conceited, satanic, superior spirit in this place! 14:51 [Aud. reaction] PB: Luke 15 deals with the lost. 15:03 Under the figures of the lost sheep, the lost coin, 15:07 the lost son, the lost brother. Now remember, 15:12 the primary mission of Jesus was to seek and save 15:14 the lost, so in this parable Jesus uses the metaphor 15:17 of one sheep being lost from the fold of one hundred sheep. 15:22 But why did He use this metaphor to illustrate the 15:25 importance of saving the lost? I like to offer four 15:29 reasons today. There might be more, but I'm gonna share four. 15:31 Why does Jesus use this? Number one, I believe He uses 15:35 the lost sheep because sheep are not the smartest animals 15:38 in the world. Sheep are always getting into terrible situations, 15:44 and like sheep we're not the smartest people in the world either. 15:47 And we find ourselves getting into terrible situations. 15:50 We make bad decisions, bad choices, say bad things, 15:53 and while we deserve death, while we deserve doom, 15:55 while we deserve destruction, I'm so glad that God 15:57 blocks it. He won't let us fall. The angel of the 16:01 Lord encampeth round about them that fear him. 16:04 God is using this metaphor to remind us that 16:07 we're not the smartest and He has to protect us. 16:10 Number two, I've learned from the text that sheep 16:14 are defenseless. Lions have teeth; bears have claws; 16:20 snakes have fangs; cheetahs have speed; rams have horns; 16:27 porcupines have quills; dogs have a bark, but not sheep. 16:34 They have absolutely no means of protecting themselves 16:37 from danger. If they are attacked, sheep are helpless. 16:41 We're the same way. There is no way that we can protect 16:45 ourselves, in and of ourselves, against the attacks from Satan. 16:49 We need someone to protect us. We need someone to defend us. 16:54 We need someone to guard us. We need someone to shield us. 16:59 We need someone to shelter us. We need someone to safeguard us. 17:04 And that somebody, that someone is Jesus. Jesus be affixed all 17:11 around me every day. Put on the whole armor of God that ye may 17:15 be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. The Lord is my rock. 17:19 In Him we hide. A shelter in the time of storm. A sheep in the 17:21 wilderness without the Shepherd is defenseless from the dangers 17:29 and snares of Satan. But number three, I've learned sheep need 17:34 direction. If a sheep wanders off from the rest of the flock, 17:38 it will have a hard time if not an impossible time finding its 17:42 way back home. You see, sheep have no sense of direction. 17:46 Sheep are not like horses or dogs that can find themselves 17:50 back home. Sheep could never find their way home on their own. 17:53 So it is with those who wander from the Lord. There is simply 17:57 no sense of spiritual direction in their lives. They cannot 18:00 find their way to the Lord by themselves, but they need a Shepherd. 18:04 My fourth and final point. Sheep are not responsible for 18:12 getting themselves home. Sheep are not responsible 18:21 for getting themselves home. Now listen to me good, 18:25 this is my major point. The sheep is powerless to 18:29 find its way back to the flock or to the shepherd. 18:32 So if the shepherd waited for the sheep to return 18:35 on its own, the sheep would then die in the wilderness. 18:39 So what does the shepherd do? The shepherd goes after 18:42 the sheep, because getting the sheep home is the 18:47 responsibility of the shepherd. Y'all don't hear 18:50 what I'm saying. [Aud. reaction] 18:52 PB: The lost sheep was not able to find its way 18:55 back home. Everything depended on the searching of 19:00 the shepherd. The shepherd feels bad about losing 19:03 the sheep and will search until he finds the sheep. 19:08 It is his job, it is his responsibility, which means 19:11 no trouble, no sacrifice, no suffering is too great 19:17 to go look for the sheep, get the sheep and bring 19:19 the sheep back home. Somebody's gonna get this in a minute. 19:22 The same is true with our salvation. Lost sheep 19:26 don't find Jesus. They're not able. Everything 19:29 depends on Jesus, because Jesus is seeking the sheep. 19:35 Lost people don't make the first move to Jesus. 19:38 It's the Good Shepherd that makes the first move 19:42 towards the sheep. God is looking for us. God finds us. 19:47 That's why God says, "My sheep hear my voice and they 19:52 follow me." I'm feeling it good right now. And what I 19:55 love about God is, He will search for us until He finds us. 20:02 He doesn't give us, thank You, Jesus, after a few minutes, 20:06 after a few hours, after a few months of searching. 20:10 But somebody knows that I serve a God who stays on 20:15 the job until the sheep is found. Somebody knows that 20:20 God stayed on the job till you were found. That's why 20:25 He's not the God of a second chance, but He's a God of 20:29 chance after chance after chance after chance after chance 20:35 after chance. And I'm so glad, I don't know ago but you, 20:41 that Jesus didn't give up on me. That He keeps coming after me. 20:47 I'm so glad He keeps looking, calling, knock--is there anybody 20:52 else in here that's glad Jesus kept looking for you? 20:57 [Aud. reaction] PB: Are you glad that we serve 21:02 a God that didn't give up on you? I mean, your 21:07 family walked out, your friends walked out, 21:10 the church folk walked out. But I'm so glad that 21:13 I serve a God who didn't walk out but He went looking for me! 21:19 [Aud. reaction] PB: And then, after the sheep is saved, 21:26 after the sheep has been found, the sheep finds itself, 21:32 according to the text, resting on the shoulders of 21:37 the shepherd. Hallelujah, somebody. [Aud. reaction] 21:41 PB: I said the sheep finds itself resting on 21:47 the shoulders of the shepherd. Let me break this down. 21:51 Somebody's still not getting this, let me help somebody. 21:53 All right, what do we mean here? In verse 5, look at it: 21:57 "And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, 22:00 rejoicing." Layeth it on his shoulders, doing what, everybody? 22:04 Rejoicing. All right, what is meant by this? Back in 22:09 the day, when the sheep would wander from the fold and 22:14 the shepherd would find the sheep, the shepherd, after 22:18 he found the sheep, would break the legs of the sheep. 22:24 And then he would carry the sheet on his shoulders until 22:29 the sheep's legs would heal. Now, this sounds tough. 22:35 This sounds cruel and mean, but it wasn't actually cruel 22:40 and mean because when a shepherd would do this, what the 22:43 shepherd was doing was, he was taking full responsibility 22:46 for the needs of the sheep. The shepherd would now have to 22:50 take care of the sheep's feeding, watering, and other 22:53 necessities because the sheep couldn't take care of itself. 22:58 Somebody's getting this. You getting this, somebody. 23:00 Somebody's getting this. Breaking the sheep's legs 23:04 seems bad and cruel to us, but it's actually the shepherd 23:09 protecting the sheep from its tendency to stray, 23:13 because the shepherd know--oh, I feel my health coming- 23:16 -he knows the dangers of the wilderness. And once the 23:22 sheep's legs would heal, the sheep has now learned, 23:26 stay close to the shepherd so that you'll never stray again. 23:31 Sometimes, when we're lost; sometimes, when we're out and 23:40 God finds us, God has to break our legs. God has to put us 23:48 on our--oh, yes, yeah--God has to put us on our backs. 23:53 God has to allow us to go through affliction, even after 23:59 He's found us, to get us to learn that we've got to depend on Him. 24:06 He knows the dangers of the wilderness, so He has to break 24:10 us in order that He might carry us. And in this process, 24:19 our legs, they mend and heal, and so we will now stay close 24:25 to the Shepherd, so we will never stray again. [Aud. reaction] 24:32 PB: So God, if You have to break me, break me. 24:38 God, if You have to chastise me, chastise me. 24:43 God, if You have to rebuke me, rebuke me. 24:48 Because any way, any way, any way You bless me, 24:53 I'll be satisfied. Any way You have to save me, 24:58 I'll be satisfied. Any way You have to rescue me, 25:02 I'll be sat--oh, the Lord is my light, my salvation. 25:07 Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, 25:11 of whom shall I be afraid? The Lord's my rock, in Him we hide, 25:17 a shelter in the time of storm. The Lord is my Shepherd, 25:21 I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. 25:25 He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. 25:28 He leadeth me in the path of righteousness for His name's sake. 25:32 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 25:34 I will fear no evil. For Thou art with me. Thy rod, Thy staff, 25:37 they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the 25:40 presence of mine enemies. Thou anointeth my head with oil. My cup-- 25:44 Aud.: Hallelujah! PB: --But surely, I said surely, surely, 25:53 surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days 25:57 of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. 26:02 [Aud. reaction] PB: Before Jesus found the publicans 26:14 and sinners, the harsh legalistic teaching of the 26:19 Pharisees and scribes had driven those lost sheep 26:23 further from God. But the text says that Jesus' 26:29 preaching drew them to Him. So the gospel that Jesus 26:36 preached announced that every sinner could be forgiven, 26:41 that if they repented and if they started anew and turned 26:44 in faith into Jesus, they were not lost causes. 26:48 They were just lost sheep. Lost sheep that had been 26:52 found by the true Shepherd. Lost sheep that had been 26:56 washed of their sin. Lost sheep that were now new 26:59 creatures in Jesus Christ. We too are lost sheep, 27:05 that Jesus came to find. We too are lost sheep that 27:12 Jesus died for on the cross. And the Bible closes by 27:17 saying there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth. 27:25 Luke 15 is God's lost and found department. Lost sheep, 27:31 lost coin, lost son, lost brother. Today, who are the lost? 27:40 Who are the lost in this church? Who are the lost in this city? 27:47 Who are the lost in this country? When we think about the lost, 27:52 we ought to think about those people whose lives have been 27:55 messed up by some addiction, some habit, or some stronghold, 27:58 or we think of tho--those people who are suffering from some 28:01 mental illness or deranged emotional condition. 28:04 >: Thank you very much for tuning in to this week's 28:06 Breath of Life broadcast. We hope and pray that you've 28:09 been blessed by Dr. Byrd's inspirational message. 28:12 If you would like to hear the sermon in its entirety, 28:15 please feel free to visit us at www.breathoflife.tv, 28:20 or call us at (256) 929-6460. 28:28 [END] |
Revised 2018-05-30