What Do You Think About God?

Introduction

Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Open your Bibles, please, to the fourth chapter of Joshua. Want to begin in the Old Testament, the end of Joshua the fourth chapter. Hope that you’ve had a good day today. We had marvelous weather. I’ve had a great day. I hope that this is a good way for you to be closing the day as we worship together and as we study from his word. If you’re visiting this church this evening like I am, I hope that you are feeling very most welcome, and that you’re finding the things that we’re doing here to be honoring God. That is what we’re all about, and that is what we want to be doing in this particular place. Just good to see you. I appreciate so much your attendance this evening, not unaware at all.

But there’s an awful lot of other things that you could be doing. You’ve chosen to come here tonight to be involved in spiritual things in an attempt to better know our Lord. I commend you for that. And trust that as we work forward in this worship service this evening, when we get done this evening, you will be glad you have spent your time here this evening. Let’s begin in Joshua. I’m going to read, please, at the very end of the chapter in verse 20. The children of Israel have crossed the Jordan River, and they took some stones from the middle of that river. Verse 20 says, These twelve stones which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. Joshua 4 and 21. Now he said to the people of Israel, when your children ask their fathers in times to come, what do these stones mean?

Then you shall let your children know Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground. For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over. As the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, so also, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever. This important set of verses centers around that question in verse twenty one what do these stones mean? And I should tell you that I love good questions. Just takes one good question sometimes in Bible class to set off a flurry of other good questions and applications of the Word of God.

It’s not just in Bible class that we get good questions. I think we’d all probably agree that the three very most important questions are, do you love me? Will you marry me? What time is the game on? Those are the big ones, aren’t they? I love to ask my question, my wife, those important kinds of questions, like, did you buy chocolate today? Because I know the answer will always be yes. Questions are important to us. And this evening what I want to talk to you about is one of the very most important kinds of questions, and that’s that question about the Lord that Brother Harkrider alluded to earlier. What do you think of God? Maybe I should start by asking, are you ever thinking about God?

But when you are thinking about God, what do you think? How do you conceive of the Creator? What image is in your mind? I think this is an enormously important question because it determines so much of how we live. If, for example, you conceive of God as being mean and arbitrary and extraordinarily difficult to please, then someone says, hey, let’s go and worship God. What’s going to be your response to that? Don’t think you really want to do that. Or what if you conceive of God as kind of an overstuffed teddy bear? He has no real moral standard, doesn’t really care whether you believe in him or how you live your life. I think you’ll live very differently than someone who, for example, conceives of God as having holiness in his own person in nature, who has given a revealed word and has expectations that we might live according to the standard that he has given.

What do you think about God? The passage we just read shows that God is interested in not only you thinking about him, but you thinking accurately about him. He commanded Joshua and the children of Israel to take out of the river Jordan some stones and set them up as a testimony. Maybe it would not be too much, Brother Bob, if I said that was an early billboard. Advertising who is the Lord and what the Lord can do. Did you see that in our text? Look at verse 24. So that all peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever. I want folks to know what happened here at Jordan, God says. I want them to know exactly what happened so they’ll know something about me.

God wants to be known. God wants to be known accurately. And yet in our world today, there’s so much fuzzy thinking about the Lord. And so many times it’s difficult for folks to really know the Lord right. This evening. This evening I want to do some things to help our thinking in that direction. Want to help us to think about the Lord in a better way, more biblically, more scripturally, more accurately. God’s just like you and me. I wouldn’t want people to think things about me and have a reputation about me that wasn’t right. Wouldn’t want people to say things about me that aren’t so. I want people to know the real Mark Roberts. In the same way, God’s not playing hide and seek with you.

He wants you to know him, but he wants you to know who he really is. In order to explain some of that, to help some of that, I’m going to do do something a little different this evening. I want to do something that Jesus did. You know, when people ask Jesus about God, Jesus never engaged in some deep theological conversation. Have you ever noticed that? Didn’t need to have a THD to talk with Jesus. Most of the time, when Jesus was trying to help people better understand God, he told stories in which God is the central figure. Maybe a story where God owns a vineyard, or where God is a king who gives a big banquet feast. Through those stories, we call them parables. Through those stories, Jesus helped people to think more accurately about God.

Those stories, those parables, earthly stories with heavenly meanings, some of Jesus’ most powerful teaching contained in his ability to tell that story to help people know the Lord better. I’m going to try that. This evening, what I want to do is I want to tell you a parable. I’m going to tell you a parable. Now, I don’t have any delusions at all. I can’t tell parables as good as Jesus did. Just can’t do that at all. But maybe I have a little bit of an advantage. The parables that Jesus tells are shrouded now in the customs and ways some 2,000 years ago. So sometimes we spend a lot of time having to kind of work with the parables to understand giving a wedding banquet or to understand farming practices when Jesus talks about a sower going forth to sow.

So maybe I have a little edge in that I can tell a little more modern story. That you and I might be a little bit more familiar with. So if you listen carefully, I think Jesus would say if you have ears to hear, you might learn a little bit this evening about dogs. But you’ll learn an awful lot about the Lord. I don’t mean to put you on the spot this evening, but I do want to challenge your thinking about God. I want to help you to think more biblically about the Lord. And to do that, I need to tell you the parable of the lost dogs. I guess I ought to start that in a real parable kind of way, the kind of thing that Jesus would say.

There was a man with two dogs. That sounds kind of like a parable that Jesus would tell. But maybe I would update that a little bit and just be a little bit more modern than that. How about this? That’s a picture of my two dogs. Those two dogs that you’re looking at are Ranger in Dallas. And the dog on my right, on your right here, is Ranger. He’s the older of the two, and that’s Dallas in the blue collar. For those of you who are into these kinds of things, those are Britney’s Spaniels. And yes, they are hunting dogs. I love them a lot. Ranger there in the orange collar is ten. He has tremendous bird wisdom. Doesn’t matter where they hide. That nose God gave him on the end of that muzzle will find them.

And it doesn’t matter where they try to go, he’ll retrieve them back to hand. He is an amazing dog. Trained him myself. He’s incredible. The dog in the blue collar is his son, Dallas. Dallas is four, which for Brittany means he’s just now coming into being mature and being pretty good to hunt with. He doesn’t have the wisdom and the understanding his daddy’s got. Makes up for it with enthusiasm and energy. Sometimes hunting with Dallas is kind of like hunting with an orange and white tornado. They’re both pretty good dogs, and I like them a lot, enjoy them a lot. They mean an awful lot to me. They live in my backyard. That’s where Brittany’s need to live. If Brittany’s live in your house, the EPA comes every six weeks, condemns your place, and you move.

So we keep our dogs in the backyard. It’s large and very spacious. Or maybe I should say. We used to keep them in the backyard. Hear the parable of the lost dogs. There was a man with two dogs, and he went on a far journey in the month known as July to see the capital of this great country. And while he was gone, the dogs got out. He came home and found that a month of rain, like Texas had not ever known in a July, had softened the dirt around the gate and it caved in. And the dogs dug out and wiggled under the fence and were gone. For several days, the man and his family spent a lot of time looking and calling, hollering and shouting, blowing a whistle, hoping to find the lost dogs.

1. It’s Just Stupid to Get Lost

And during all that time of driving around and walking around on foot, looking and hoping, the man had a lot of time to think about what it means to get lost and the hope of being found. In all of that, the man came to realize several things about being lost and found. For example, one of the things the man came to understand is it’s just stupid to get lost. Why’d the dogs get out? Everything they had was absolutely provided for them in the backyard. It’s not like they weren’t being fed or taken care of. We’d provide him for that while we were away. Being taken care of every day, without fail, no difficulty at all. And the backyard is huge. And there’s plenty of room for them to do all the things that dogs like to do, which is mainly chew up and destroy anything that accidentally gets left in the backyard.

And they have lots of fun together in the backyard. So there was no need whatsoever for them to get out. Everything they needed right there in the back yard. And in fact, by getting out, they actually risked everything. They might get hit by a car. Ranger in Dallas don’t know anything about traffic, can’t explain to them the physics of a car at this velocity and what that’ll do to a dog that runs out in front. Might get picked up by the dog catcher. That would mean they’d go to the pound, and if somebody didn’t claim them soon enough, it’d be the end. Or they might even get picked up by some family that just decided to keep them. And if that fella in that family, that family didn’t hunt, then the thing that my dogs love to do more than anything else, they’d never get to do again.

Or maybe they’d never get picked up. They’d become one of those wild stray dogs that you see sometimes stalking in fields, sickly and thin. And even though Dean and I live in the city, not trying to act like we live in the country by any means at all, the other day, we saw a coyote. And we’ve seen skunks and raccoons and possums in our neighborhood every now and then. And sometimes those animals are sick or diseased or rabid. What if my dogs got tangled up with something like that? In other words, they risked everything, the safety, the comfort of the backyard, all that was so good, all of that thrown to the wind. As just done.

How about Genesis with me? Look at Genesis chapter 2, way back at the beginning of your Bible. Here’s a good example of dumb. In Genesis chapter 2, look at verse 8 with me, please. There we read about Adam and Eve. In Genesis 2 and verse 8. There we read. The Lord God planted a garden in Eden and in the east. And there he put the man whom he had formed. I’m looking down now at verse 15. The Lord God, Genesis 2.15, took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.

For on the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. I want you to think about this. What have we got Adam and Eve doing here? They’re living in the garden of paradise. I want you to think about that. We call that paradise on earth. Everything that they needed was perfectly provided right there. They had meaningful labor. They had their relationship with each other, and most importantly, they walked and talked with the God who made them. The very thing that we were made to do, that our hearts yearned to do, they did all the time. Everything they needed right there. What’s the next thing we see Adam and Eve doing? Look at chapter 3. In chapter 3 and in verse 1, we read there.

Chapter 3 and verse 1. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any of the tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may. We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden. But God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden. Neither shall you touch it lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die. God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open. You’ll be like God, knowing good and evil. Verse 6. Now, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight unto the eyes, and that the tree was desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

She also gave under her husband who was with her. And he ate. What made the garden so special was that relationship that they had with God. Their ability to be with him. Everything built on trusting him and on obeying him. What did they do? Threw it away. Pitched it. They broke out, did their own thing. They rebelled. They sinned. That’s exactly what Adam and Eve are involved in. How dumb was that? Here was God saying, This is it. This is all that you need. This is the perfect place on earth. We’ll be in relationship and fellowship one with another. All that you need taken care of right here, life’s going to be good and right and purposeful. And Adam and Eve said, Thanks, but no thanks.

We believe we’ll try things on our own for a while, God. We know better than you. We’re going to dig out to the other side. We’ll see how life is on the other side of the fence. That was dumb. And if it offends you for me to say that Adam and Eve were dumb, get ready to be really offended. Look in Isaiah the 53rd chapter. I will tell you this evening that we are just as dumb as they were. In Isaiah 53, would you look with me there in verse 6? The prophet says there in Isaiah 53 and in verse 6, please. There the prophet says, Isaiah 53 and 6, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

The metaphor here isn’t lost dogs. It’s lost sheep. But the meaning is absolutely the same. Folks going their own way, people doing what they want to do. And I must tell you this evening that that is you and that is me. We’re sinners. We’ve gone away from what the Lord has told us to do. We have been given God’s expectations, the way to serve him. We have been told the very purpose for our existence is to honor and glorify him. And instead of being true to that, we selfishly do as we please. We break out. We go our own way. We do our own thing. We live as we please. We defy God. And the misery that that results in is written large in newspapers and every news.com every day.

Divorce and depression and age and war and crime and violence all over everywhere. We see exactly what happens when people don’t do what God says. Lost sheep. Lost dogs. Why don’t we do as God instructs? Why don’t we listen to the Lord and live his way? I expect maybe in some way Carrie Underwood song Jesus Take the Wheel is kind of corny, but I think it well captures the idea. What makes us think that we’re suited to drive? That we know so much better than God, and that if we do things our way, all then life will really be good. No thanks, God. I got this covered. What are we thinking? Why would we do such? That’s just done. The truth of the matter is all of us could be spared.

Tremendous misery, trouble and pain if we would listen to and obey the Lord. But we didn’t. And we don’t. How dumb is that? And I should say here that there’s a pretty big difference between my dogs and between you and me. The reason my dogs dug out is because they’re dogs. And they do dog things. Dogs get to digging a little bit, and they see some daylight on the other side, and they just stick their noses over there to see what’s happening over there. And the next thing you know, the whole rest of the dog is over there too, and the dog’s kind of out and doesn’t even know what exactly happened. Dogs just act like dogs. They are creatures of instinct. You and I are not.

We can hear the voice of the Lord. We can know what He wants us to do. And we can choose. We are in charge of ourselves. We can make decisions between right and wrong. We can read our Bibles and know what the Lord would have us to do. And we can say, I’ll do that. That’s the way to go. That’s God’s will for my life. I gotta do that. Or we can say, no, thanks, God. I’m just doing right fine on my own. I believe I’ll be in charge of me for a while now and do what pleases me, even if it does trample all over your will for my life. And I should tell you that when we act like that, it’s just not very smart, is it.

2. God Makes Massive Effort to Find the Lost

Say something else about this business with these dogs. Somebody says, What happened to those dogs in the parable, Mark? Well, I’ll tell you about that. The man said, yes, those dogs are gone, so what? Who cares? Never really like those dogs very much anyway. If they come back, they come back. If they don’t, they don’t. It’s no big deal. No. That’s not what the man said at all. The man said, what we need to do is get out there and find those dogs, despite the effort it’ll make. In the words of the parable, the man said, Let us arise and search for these dogs that we might seek and find them no matter where they are. Of course, that’s not really what the man said. What the man did was turn around and go back in the house.

He said, The dogs are gone. And without even saying another word, everybody stopped what they were doing and started looking for the dogs. And I mean, we looked everywhere. The town I live in is a little suburb of the Dallas Fort Worth area of Bedford. It’s not the biggest town. But I’ll tell you, it’s way bigger than two dogs. We drove all over that town about two million times. Calling and hollering and blowing the whistle, hoping to see those dogs. Don’t forget about those flyers. Printed up a bunch of flyers. And it was still raining a lot. Didn’t want those flyers to just run and nobody know what they’re looking at, so we bought big ziploc bags and put the flyers in the bags, sealed them up, put flyers on every telephone pole in town.

Called the vets, called the animal hospitals, called the shelters, called everybody we could call, and then we called them again. It was a lot of work. And I’ll tell you this, it was really discouraging work. It didn’t take very long at all to realize that unless we just happened to be going around the corner at the exact moment that ranger in Dallas happened to be bopping through a yard right here. They weren’t gonna hear us. I mean, I’m pretty loud. Preaching in a meeting one time, and a lady came out, she was an elderly lady. She said, Boy, Brother Robert, you’re just the best preacher I’ve ever heard. My head is kind of swelling a little bit. She said, I’ve heard them all, Cogbill, bowman, park rider.

You’re just the best that there is. Boy, my head was really starting to swell now. She said, Yes, Brother Roberts. I’ve heard them all, and you’re the best because you’re loud. Thank you, sister. So I’d holler pretty good, I think. But you know what? If my dogs were about a block or two over, they wouldn’t hear me over the noise of traffic and all the houses and fences in the wood. My dogs come to the whistle when we’re in the field hunting. They can’t hear that whistle half mile away. Wouldn’t even know it was me blowing it, wouldn’t it? We just kept looking. Didn’t know what else to do. Couldn’t do nothing. So we just kept driving and hollering. Posting more flyers. Realizing that we were looking for dogs who had been gone in an unknown length of time, going in an unknown direction, in a search radius that we didn’t know how big it should be.

We even quit driving after a while. I had terrible nightmares that their collars would be hung like on a fence or in some heavy shrubs, and that they were hearing me call. But they couldn’t come. So I slogged along in creeks and backfields that were muddy and dirty, looking to see if they were there. It was a lot of expense. Gasoline’s not free in Texas. I noticed it’s not free here either. All those fires cost money. It was so much time. It’s hot in July. And it was so discouraging. Kind of like. Kind of like looking for sinners. A lot like looking for sinners. Maybe you’re a little uncomfortable with being compared to lost dogs. But I should tell you that Jesus is very comfortable with that.

Look in Luke 15, please. Because there Jesus tells his parable. I should confess here the basis indeed for my parable. And there the comparison is made, as we saw in Isaiah 53, that lost folks are in fact lost sheep. In Luke 15, if you would read with me there, beginning in verse 1. There we read in Luke 15 and 1, the text collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled and said, This man receives sinners and eats with them. So he told them this parable. What man of you having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it.

There it is. The comparison to finding a lost animal. And what Jesus says about that is that that shepherd will make the effort. And that would be dangerous to go out there where wild animals are. That would be risky business. And yet Jesus says, God goes looking for sinners. God will not stand in heaven and cross his arms and say, Well, they got themselves lost. It’s their own fault. Too bad for them. No, no. God doesn’t say that at all. What God does is he says, look, they’re lost. I’m going to go find them. In fact, that begins all the way back in Genesis 3. Please turn back there. Just as fast as Adam and Eve had fouled things up, God was already ready with a rescue plan.

Even before they fouled things up. In the third chapter of Genesis, it’s verse 15 that I’m looking at. The very first messianic prophecy in all of Scripture. There we read in Genesis 3 and 15, as he speaks, as God speaks to Satan, he says, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. There’s going to be a great battle, the Lord says. And it’s going to be between the devil and between Jesus. And yes, the devil’s going to get his licks in. But he’s not going to win. Jesus is going to triumph in that effort to find lost sinners. In fact, the plan that begins there in Genesis 3 is funneled into Genesis 12, where great promises are made to Abraham.

Promises that will require the redrawing of national boundaries, that will require empires to be risen up and other empires to be put down. It will require an exodus of an excess of two million people from Egypt into the promised land. It will make kings and prophets. It will shape all of the Old Testament. Why? Because God has a plan. He’s looking for the lost. That plan comes then. Look with me in John 1. That plan then takes flesh. In John 1 and in verse 1, where we read there, in John 1, please, and in verse 1. In the beginning was the word, John 1 and 1, and the Word was with God. And the Word was God. What do you mean, John? What are you talking about?

Look at verse 14 now. There, John says, And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory. Glory is of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. I want you to notice that God didn’t send angels looking for the lost. God didn’t commission human agents to go looking for sinners. God comes himself. I want to say that again. God put on flesh, came here. God came looking for the lost. I’m saying, the Bible’s saying, God came looking for you. God came looking for me. What is it? Jesus says, I have come to seek and save the lost. Luke 19 10. Me, God in the flesh.

Looking for the lost. And in fact, we were so lost that it took that kind of massive effort to come and find us. You want to talk about massive effort? Try Matthew 27 with me. In Matthew chapter 27, please. In Matthew chapter 27, there is the record there of incredible effort. In Matthew 27, if you’ll join the reading there with me, please, in verse 27. There we read in Matthew 27 and verse 27. That the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters. And they gathered the whole battalion before him, and they stripped him and they put a scarlet robe upon him. And twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head, and they put a reed in his right hand.

And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, Hail King of the Jews. They spat on him. They took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and they put on his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him. As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Samon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means the place of a skull, they offered him wine to drink mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots, and they sat down and they kept watch over him there, and over his head they put the charge against him, which read, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.

You want to talk about effort? Jesus found the lost. But what Jesus found is that they were locked up. They were imprisoned, that we were in slavery, that a harsh and cruel taskmaster held us and would not give us up. That meant that when Jesus found us, he had to buy us back. He had to ransom us, if you will. But who would pay the ransom price? Who would free us? Look in Mark 10, please. In Mark 10 and in verse 45, Jesus knew all along what he had come to do. In Mark chapter 10 and in verse 45, Jesus says there in Mark 10 and 45, even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve. I’m here on a mission. I’m here to help sinners.

I’m looking for them. Now get it, Mark 10, 45. The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Who would buy us out of sin? Who would buy us out of the slavery of sin? God did. That’s the maximum effort that God was willing to go to in order to find that which was lost. To find you. And to find me. The mind boggles at such a thought. Look in Romans 5, please, in Romans the fifth chapter. In Romans 5, the apostle tries to explain as best he can what this means when he says in Romans 5 and verse 6. In Romans 5 and in verse 6, while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

One would scarcely die for a righteous person, Romans 5 and 7, though perhaps for a good person one would even dare to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life? I need to tell you now that if I had found my dogs locked in someone’s backyard, and I’d gone to that house and said, Hey, I want my dogs. And that man had said, I’ll tell you what, I’ve got two dogs, and you have two daughters, and I’ll just exchange those dogs for the lives of your daughters.

I’d have never ever given Becca and Sarah for those dogs. Not even thought about it for a fleeting moment. Who would give the life of their child for something as worthless as dogs? Who would give the life of his only son for something as worthless as sinners? God did. It took massive effort to find rescue, save the lost. God made the effort. Found the lost despite every problem, overcame every obstacle, every difficulty, every hindrance. When something valuable gets lost, we’re going to make a great effort to find it. The Bible testifies over and over again to the greatness of God’s love. That God did what it takes so that that which was lost would be found. Even if that meant, and so it did.

3. When You Find What’s Been Lost, It Is a Thrill

Actually, more accurately, other folks found them. Within a few hours of getting out, some folks saw Ranger in Dallas, and they knew right away those aren’t just stray dogs. That’s somebody’s dog. And so they whistled and hollered as folks do for the dogs. And Ranger, the older dog, who’s pretty skeptical of people, wouldn’t come. But Dallas did. And they grabbed him. And even though the kiddos really wanted to keep Dallas, and he’s a sweet dog. The mama said, I thank the Lord for it. Somebody wants this dog. And they took him to the pack. They told the pound folks, if the owner doesn’t come, we want to be first in line. But within a few hours of realizing when we got home that my dogs were gone, we called the pound, and they said, yep.

We got one of them. We got the one in the blue collar. And we went and got Dallas. Got him from the pack. It wasn’t so easy with Ranger. Ranger pretty skeptical of folks. I got Ranger when he was a year old. I’m not sure what the fellow who owned Ranger before me did to Ranger. Because Ranger’s just never been real comfortable with anybody. Except me. I’m not sure why he took to me. But he and I get along just great. But if you’re not me, he’s not going to be real interested in coming over to see you. Those okay with kiddos. Those okay with women. Not coming to you, fellas, just not going to do that at all. So he was gone three days. Three really long days.

During that time I stacked up some of my hunting stuff. Had to clear out some stuff and make some room and found myself going through my gear. And I realized that that fall I was going to go to Kansas, hunt pheasants like we do every year. Some of us from church go up there every year. It’d be the first year in ten years that Ranger didn’t make the trip. Well, it hurt. And then the phone rang. And the animal control people said, We’ve had a fighting of your dog. In fact, the lady who’s kind of a good Samaritan for dogs. She had seen Ranger. And she phoned him in. And we went to that neighborhood. I mean, I got there for animal control then. And what she had done is she kind of chased Ranger back into some folks’ backyard.

And then as he went in the backyard, she ran around front and knocked on the door and she said, Close your gate, close your gate. And they closed the gate, and that’s it. Ranger’s stuck. And I got there just minutes after that happened, and there was Ranger, hot and tired and scratched up and beat up from three days in nowhere. And he looked at me. And I tell you, it kind of hurt me. Because he looked at me exactly the same way Dallas looked at me when I got him from the pound. He looked at me with a little fear in his eyes.

And they were afraid.

Or yell at them. Or hit them or something. And that hurt me. Because I wasn’t angry. I was overjoyed to see my dogs again. In fact, maybe that’s the most important thing that I learned is that when you find what’s been lost, it is a thrill to your heart. Overjoyed that what I counted as gone, never to be seen again. Empty place in my life that not even time I didn’t think could heal up. Oh no, my dogs had been found. I just couldn’t believe it. It was such a thrill. I was so excited and pleased and thankful to the Lord to see those dogs. And sometimes someone will say to me, Now, Mark, you don’t know the things that I’ve done. God had never ever taken me back.

And there it is. There’s that fear in the eye. Oh my, that uncertainty. I’ve finally been run to ground. I’ve been cornered. The master’s got me now. What will his reaction be? I stupidly got out, and what I’ve done has cost him so very much. Surely he’s angry with me. Surely he hates me. Surely he’ll have nothing to do with a wretch like me. Maybe we ought to let Jesus finished the parable in Luke 15. In Luke 15, he says in verse 4, he goes after that one that is lost until he finds it. Luke 15, now verse five. And when he has found it, and when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 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 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. Jesus talks about joy, about rejoicing, about angels in heaven, thrilling that the lost is found. Is God angry at sin? Yes. I need to tell you, yes, he is. God is absolutely pure and absolutely perfect and absolutely holy. Sin represents a transgression of his divine word and law. It represents a wrinkle in his perfect world. Have you thought about that? Everything else that God has ever made does exactly what God wants it to do all the time, every time, without fail. Not ever a time that Saturn just happens to bang into Venus on this trip around. Sorry about that, Lord, I missed my step.

No. No. The natural world, all that God has made, always does exactly what God made it to do. We are the only exception. And God has every right to be angry at sin. In fact, I want to stress that dogs dig an ass, just dogs doing what dogs do. They don’t sin, but a little angry with them. But they’d wiggle out of my fence like that. How much more then? Does God have every right to be furious at our willful disobedience, at our self-determination that we’re going to do what we want to do, that we are going to spurn his loss, that we’re going to resist him, that we’re going to choose our way over his way, as if we are greater than God. He would provide all that we really need.

And yet we have stubbornly refused that. We dig out, we seek our own way. We have cost him so much to get us back. He ought to be angry. He is angry at sin. He has every right to be big time angry. But Jesus is very clear in this parable that the story doesn’t end with anger. In fact, Jesus talks about something here that is truly amazing. He talks about grace. He talks about mercy. He talks about forgiveness that causes God to rejoice that that which is lost is found. He doesn’t talk about beating the sheep. He talks about putting it on his shoulders. In fact, further down in these series of parables and the most poignant of those stories. Where something is lost that is worth far more than sheep or money.

It is a lost boy. Jesus there talks about the Father running to meet this son, verse 20. He arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. Bring the fat and calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. Do you see the idea of rejoicing there? Let us celebrate. Why? Verse 24.

This my son was dead and is alive again. He was. Yes, there it is. He was lost. And he is found, and they began to celebrate.

4. To Think That God Feels About Me Like That

How did I feel to find those dogs? I rejoice. And I scratched their ears. And I doctored up the scratches on them and gave them extra food. And just spent a little extra time with them. And I kind of think that after a little while, the dogs kind of realized that I was still very much the best friend they have in the world. That I loved them. And was glad to see them. And they were glad to see me too. And maybe this is the most important thing that I learned through all of those difficulties. Because I really, I really don’t know very much about sheep.

And it probably would be good for the sheep, because I don’t know anything about how to take care of sheep. But I understand something about dogs. I know how I feel about dogs, about all dogs. And especially about how I feel about my own dogs. To think that God feels about me like that. That he loves me. Indeed, that he loves me much more than I could ever love Ranger and Dallas. That he loves me more than I could ever love even Becca and Sarah. That he loves me even more than I could ever love myself. Oh, it’s just to me. It is astonishing. It is stunning to know that I have fouled up miserably. That I have cost the Lord terribly. And yet he still rejoices.

Conclusion

He is still happy that I can be in Jesus Christ. Found again. That is. That’s amazing. I’ll tell you this. It changes how I think about God. I’ll never be the same again. Hear the parable of the lost dogs. There was a man with two dogs, and they foolishly dug out of their yard to go and see the wide world on their own. After much searching and great effort, the man’s dogs were found. And he brought them back home where he could care for them and enjoy them and hunt with them. And there was much rejoicing. Hear the parable of a lost soul. God graciously gave us his word so that we would know how to live and how to do. And we have foolishly dug out to do our own thing and to see the world on our own and to live as we please.

After much searching and much great effort, God has found us, and he wants to bring us back home to be with him forever with eternal joy. And so. And so. Well, it’s not finished, is it? It’s an unfinished parable. Because you write the end of it. You get to decide how the parable ends. And so I spurn the Lord. And say, I don’t care about you, I’m going to do my own thing. I’m going to stay lost. Or you get to decide. I will turn to the Lord. He wants me more than I ever realized. All my thinking about God needs to change. In light of the powerful parables Jesus told in Luke 15. He’s looking for me. I want to be found. We’re going to sing a song.

The purpose of the song is because sometimes it takes folks a couple of minutes to let all of that sink in. And to kind of process all of that. And to get figured out exactly where they fit. Some folks are going to say, I think I’m there. I need to know more about Jesus looking for me. I want to know more about this great rescue effort. Sure would like to talk to you a little bit more about Jesus right after services. Some of you are going to say, I get it. I get it. I get it. I need to be found. How do I get found? And I think the thing to say about that is that there were 3,000 people on the day of Pentecost who said to Peter, we are lost.

We are really lost. We murdered Jesus. We are lost, lost, lost. And Jesus, through Peter said the words of Jesus to them. Repent. Be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins. You shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2 and 38. Are you lost? Hit Pharaoh. Acts 2 and 38. Repent. Be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins. Some of you. Some of you did that one time, maybe a long time ago. And maybe for a while you lived as a Christian. But you know now you jumped the fence. You’re not doing what you ought to be doing. You’re away from the Lord. And this is your time too. This is where you need to say. I gotta go home. What am I doing out here?

Nothing out here from me but death. I’m going back. I’m going to repent and return to the Lord. If you’re lost, we want to help you get found. If we can help you this evening to become a Christian, baptized in water for the remission of your sins. This is your moment. This is your time. If you’re a Christian, you’re away from the Lord. This is your moment. This is your time. You think about what Jesus said. Because what it means is that right now, angels are leaning over the railing of heaven, looking right here, right now. Because they want to know. Are we going to get to rejoice this evening? Do we strike up the celebration now? Because you who were lost has been found. Be found.

Come down from.