The final sermon on the Prodigal,extravagant father and his two lost sons, and how we recognize our lostness or the lostness of others, and recognize our Holy Father wanting us back in his house. From Chatham Community Church, by lead pastor Alex Kirk.
And this morning, two places for us to land as we close out this series:
1. Are you experiencing lost-ness in some way? Spend this week praying for eyes to see the Lord pursuing you.
If you’re in a lost place in some area of your life: spiritually, for sure, but also in terms of purpose or career, or a relationship where you’re just not sure what to do
or some other experience of lostness
If Jesus is telling us the truth then the good news is that the Father is pursuing you in some way, shape or form
And even if you’re not a Christian or not sure you believe any of this, how about for the next 7 days you just assumed it was true, that God is pursuing you
And for the next 7 days you just prayed for eyes to see God’s pursuit of you
Because lostness hurts, doesn't it? It’s painful!
And sometimes we can get so fixated on how discouraged or in pain we are, how frustrated we are about this experience of lost-ness
And we get so dialed into THOSE feelings that we miss the fact that God is pursuing us in some other area of our lives we can miss that God is at work around us in some other space Or sometimes when I’m frustrated or discouraged about some area where I’m lost or at a loss and I THINK I know exactly what needs to happen to fix the problem and help me to get un-lost
And so I’m waiting for God to do that exact thing, MY thing, to fix this problem or get me un-stuck which sometimes blinds me to the fact that he’s moving in some other way to bring resolution and found-ness to the situation So for this week, if you can identify an area of your life where you feel some measure of lost-ness, even if you’re not a God person or a praying person, test-drive this:
assume that God is who Jesus says he is, and pray for eyes to see God working in your situation, and be open to wherever that might be and whatever that might look like
2. If there’s not a clear place of “lost-ness” congrats! Pray to share in God’s heart and mission to recover lost things.
If you’re in good place where lost-ness doesn’t define or describe any part of your life then spend some time this week praying that God might give you his heart
for the people around you who are experiencing lost-ness in some way.
The way that Jesus describes the kingdom of God, no one is a by-stander and no one is in the margins or watching.
We are all either being chased down by our good Father or we are participating in his rescue mission Sometimes BOTH at the same time!
This week, I want to invite you to pray for God’s heart for lost things and then be open to how he might invite you to step INTO his work in someone’s life around you to help bring someone home!
My friends, hear this good news: the Father that Jesus knew is a loving, pursuing God who excels at finding lost sheep, lost coins, and lost kids—all types, all backgrounds, any kind of lost-ness
My prayer this week is that we’d fall in love with this God, delight in this God, worship this God, be found by this God and go to work with this God to partner in his rescue mission to pursue and help bring healing to his lost kids.
