Lost and Found – Part 3

June 24, 2026

Broadcast

                        Lost and Found - Part 3
                             Luke 15:8-10
                              06/24/2026


        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?
        9    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.'
        10   Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the
             angels of God over one sinner who repents.''
             (ESV)

        In our Prayer of the Church this week, we ask God to protect
   us from everything that entices us from His loving care.  This
   includes the lure of false doctrine, the lure of the things of
   this world, the problems what make us doubt His love.
        O God, the protector of all who trust in You, without
        whom nothing is strong and nothing is holy, multiply
        Your mercy on us that, with You as our ruler and guide,
        we may so pass through things temporal that we lose not
        the things eternal.


        Yet, even with such prayers, we daily sin, we daily stray
   from God.  Unfortunately, some people don't realize they have
   strayed, so God seeks to restore them to Himself.

        ``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


        Isn't it comforting to know that our Lord seeks those who
   are lost?  They are precious in His sight, the delight of His
   heart.  When they have strayed, when they are not in His
   possession, He looks until they are found.

        In order to find and save the lost, God the Father sent
   Jesus Christ to take on our human flesh, to live among us, to
   suffer for us, to take upon Himself our sin.  In turn, we are
   given the righteousness of God, not as something we earned, but
   as a gift.

        May our Lord grant that we recognize that we are lost, and
   that we are found only in Christ.  Amen.