One of the most uncomfortable and frightening experience one can have, is to be lost. It does not matter whether you are in the forest, in an unknown city, in the grocery store, warehouse, mountainous area or even in your community. Once we have been lost, but later find our way, it causes us to rejoice and give God thanks for his guidance and safety. A more frightening scenario is being lost and not knowing we are lost.  

I don’t know about you, but I hear older people talk about losing items, but finding them. We lose our keys, our cell phone, our wallet, our money, our friends, our personal belongings, etc. The good news is, we put forth a concerted effort to find those items and usually find them where we last placed them. There is a sense of relief and joy once we have discovered the lost items. Sometimes it requires others helping us locate the lost items.

To often our young people are lost in just trying to figure out what the future holds for them. If God has blessed us to figure it out and to become successful in our careers, then let us devote some time to assisting others figure it all out. For a young person just coming out of high school, life can become difficult in just trying to figure it all out. Can anyone remember when you felt you were lost and did not know what to do? Here are three suggestions:

1. Get a grip on yourself and stay committed to your journey
2. Don’t let making a mistake bring you down, rather change directions and keep it moving
3. Don’t try to figure it all out alone. Rely on those who love you.

In the Bible, Jesus places great emphasis on the spiritually lost. He uses the metaphor of sheep and a shepherd. Jesus is the shepherd and the people are the sheep. When a sheep gets lost, a good shepherd will go and find it and bring it back to the flock. We are admonished to go out and find the lost sinners.

In Luke 15: Jesus tells the parable of a lost lamb to demonstrate how Jesus the Good Shepherd will go out and save the lost sheep. He says, “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he finds it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends, and his neighbors, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:3-7). The ninety- nine are safe because they have been left in the sheepfold, but notice how the Good Shepherd goes after the one sheep that was lost. God admonishes us to go out into the world and find the lost. We are called to go out and make new disciples of Jesus Christ. Sometimes the lost is in our company, maybe in our home, on our jobs, in our social groups, etc.  

To be lost spiritually means that we have separated ourselves from God and we have not yet found eternal life in Christ. Jesus said, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).            

Many of us may remember the old hymn, “Amazing Grace” which says, “I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.” That song still resonates in my heart and mind, for we heard it over and over again in our church as youngsters. We sang it, but in reality, we were not paying attention to the word lost. Later in life it dawned on us that we were sinners, yet saved by His grace. Now we too can rejoice that we have been found, for the good news is that we will live with Christ forever.

There are two categories for every human being, lost or found. The first step in becoming found is to admit or understand that we are lost. We confess our sins and we repent. We then enter into a new relationship with God and become a part of his family. We can then proclaim that we are no longer lost, but found, forgiven and now able to have a fresh new start in life. 

We lose our loved ones to death, but we can rejoice knowing they have gone on to glory to be with the Lord. That is why we can sing, “I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind, but now I see. “   

May we too rejoice knowing we were once lost, but now we are found and we serve a risen Savior! 

Not a sermon, just my thoughts!

Robert Earl Slade, Pastor