The Parable of the Lost Sheep Made Simple - Luke 15:4-7
One of the most well known parables of Jesus.
Let's dig deep and mine out all the meaning for you and I today.
This is the Parable of the Lost Sheep.
I hope that you enjoy what I've got to say to you today.
If you've been in church for a while, you've heard this parable preached quite a few times.
I hope that as you watch this video or you read this in the book, that this brings insight to you.
It brings new revelation to you.
And I hope to leave you with a feeling of joy and peace and encouragement in the Lord.
First of all, we're all sheep.
Jesus identifies himself as the good shepherd and he says that he's the door and we're his sheep and he's the shepherd and we're to know his voice we won't follow another person's voice, because we know the voice of the good shepherd.
Now, he says in that parable that he leads the people into good pasture and leads them out.
In Psalm 23, he makes us lay down in green pastures and lead us to source of water.
He corrects us and guides us with his staff.
He's a good shepherd and we're his sheep.
Now, let's read it.
First of all, let me share with you from verse 1.
"Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him and the Pharisees and the scribes complain saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them.
" So He spoke this parable to them.
" So one of the reasons Jesus was sharing his parable is because the Pharisees and the scribes complained and said, "This man receives sinners and eats with them.
" And why did the Pharisees and the scribes say this? Because then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to him to hear him.
Let's just put this another way.
Let's just come say I came to your city to speak at a convention and I was going speak on the prophetic, on using the gift of prophecy and powerful evangelism and interpreting people's dreams.
The gift of prophecy and I was going teach on and a couple of other supernatural things.
Imagine that you'd gather to the conference and the conference was full of New Age people, people that were openly gay, people that were prostitutes, people you know, we had a time of confession in there and pedophiles were coming up and confessing that they're abusing children.
And there were people in there learning how to prophecy and learning the gifts of prophecy and dream interpretation that had been abusing children.
There's this 15 year old girl saying that she is in the sex trade.
And I'm not rebuking this people.
I'm not, you know, blowing them up for their lifestyle.
I'm not telling them to stop being a tax collector.
I'm teaching them the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
I'm baptizing in the Holy Spirit and I'm teaching them the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
I'm releasing the gifts of the Holy Spirit on their life and they haven't even cleaned up their life.
Who am I? I haven't told them to repent.
I got to stop being a tax collector.
How would you feel? You pay your conference money and all those free loaders are in there and they're taking up my time.
You've got questions for me.
You want time one on one with me.
You're important.
You do everything right.
You've been a Christian all your life.
You've come.
You want to move in signs and wonders and here I am sitting down with the worst sinners in the world.
How do you feel? If you honestly consider what I have shared, you might be feeling very put out by me at the conference and you might very well be feeling exactly how the Pharisees were feeling with Jesus when he told this parable.
Well Jesus tells this parable, 4 "What man of you has a hundred sheep if he loses one of them.
Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing.
6 And goes home.
Then he calls his friends and neighbors together saying to them, 'Rejoice with me; for I found my lost sheep, one which was lost.
' 7 I say to you that likewise there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.
" Okay, first of all, without the power of the Holy Spirit in your life and I believe you could be just and righteous and holy.
But anyway, that aside, let's talk about that lost sheep.
Now, I want to share with you in the illustration that's going to bring out that, but you'll have to listen to the story first before I get to my point.
There was a time when I had an addiction to prostitutes.
I had an addiction to prostitutes and using them weekly or fortnightly, depending on when I got paid.
Every week or every fortnight I'm blowing a large portion of my money on a very attractive prostitute.
That was a sin that kept me on a lot of condemnation.
That was a sin the kept me away from church.
I mean, you don't go to church every week when you're doing that sort of sin.
That sin kept me out of church for 15 years.
It took 5 years of going to church while still practicing that sin for God to heal up my life sufficiently, to take out the hurt out of my life so that I could walk out of that sin.
So, here I am in the middle of this addiction and I'm going through King's Cross which the famous red light district of Sydney.
And I see some girls singing choruses on a corner where all the major heroin deals are done.
And I go up to these 7 girls singing all around, witnessing and singing to the people where all the heroin drug dealers hang and I said "You now, this is really amazing.
You're in the heaviest place at the city and this is a really heavy place, but I want to encourage you that I can see in the spirit like a canopy over you is just like, you know, you know Maxwell Smart's Cone of Silence over you.
And that this supernatural protection all over and you're entirely safe and you don't have to worry.
And they said "Yeah, we know we don't have to worry.
" I said.
"Can I pray for you?" The all said, "Yes" and I prayed for them.
And then one of the girls said "Can we pray for you?" "Okay," And we got to the 3rd girl praying.
Then the 3rd girl praying said "Thus saith the Lord" and then she said this prophecy "I'm going to send you into a dark place, a place where angels fear to tread and I want you to take my joy and my love into that place and share my love with the people.
Tell them that I love them.
Give them treats and spend time with them and shine my light.
" What Jesus was telling me to go into one of the strip joints/brothels that they have girls strip and then when all the men are excited the girls come down and invite them upstairs, pay prostitution rates.
And yet I knew Jesus was telling me already before she prophesied that, to go into this brothel to spend time in there and just get to know and be friendly with the prostitutes and the strippers.
Anyway, that wasn't hard for me, but always scared of doing it because I was going to be taking Christ into witnessing there and I wasn't going to be a client.
I was scared because I had heard of people being killed in there.
So anyway, I was at a church two weeks later that I had never been to and the pastor said to me stand on your feet and he said exactly the same prophecy.
I'm going send you into a little place where angels fear to tread.
Well, I went into that brothel and stayed in that place for a year.
Now, while I was in that place, I met a girl who was a practicing prostitute and she was practicing Buddhism too.
And she confessed to me that her parents went to local church in Coffs Harbour, the country town where I came from.
When I went back up to Coffs Harbour, I told the church that one of the daughters of one the men in this church abused their daughter and she's now working as a prostitute as involved in Buddhism in Kings Cross.
I had a lot of hurt and pain in my life and I shouted that out in the meeting in anger.
It wasn't the nicest scene.
In the brothel this girl that reached out to me and said "I used to be a Christian and I come from your home town.
" and she was one of my friends.
Then here I was lost.
I was a lost sheep myself stuck in my won addictions as I ministered God's love.
But when it comes to this parable, I can relate.
See, people need people like me to go into their dark places and to minister to someone who's far away from Jesus.
We all need a shepherd.
We all need a Christian.
Some of the shepherds, some of the pastors are too busy.
The broken world needs people like you to come out and rescue those broken sheep and bring them back to the flock.
That's what the parable of the 99 sheep is.
You know, so many people in church are involved are sexual sin.
In the midst of my sin, in the darkest part of my sin, in the time where I wasn't even attending church, Jesus sent me in through 2 prophecies to minister, to the hardest most wicked, most violent club in Kings Cross Australia.
And he protected me.
And the girls used to weep.
And the girls was so touched, just buying them $2 chocolate bar, used to bring them to tears.
Girls with $400, $500 a day, heroin and cocaine habits.
And me, a lost sheep, me, was ministering too, but I was never lost, you know.
At the worst of my depravity, I still had Jesus.
Jesus was still talking to me.
The good shepherd was still with me.
I had to get pretty bad for Jesus not to talk to me.
The only way Jesus didn't talk to me is when I told him I didn't want him to talk to me.
And then, you know, months later, he'd interrupt me and play me a song in my mind and once again we're talking and I'm crying again.
I suffered so much pain, you know.
Why have I got so much revelation in the parables of Jesus? I hope that ins sharing my story I have touched you.
Not everyone can go into a strip club or a brothel and minister to broken girls.
Not everyone would have the ability to do that.
But do you know there are lost sheep everywhere.
There are people that used to go to church at your work, at your gym, and at the cafe that you go to.
People have left Jesus and left religion to do their own thing and God needs people like us to wrap our arms around them and bring them back to Jesus.
Don't be too quick to judge people.
Some atheists have spent more time reading the Bible than you and I and have got their own personal reasons why they don't walk with Christ.
We all need to be little-Christ's to people and to go out and love people where they are at.
I often look at the time I ministered to those girls in the brothel and wonder why God chose me, a self confessed addict to prostitutes.
And all I can come up with is that He knew that I would love them for who they were and if I wasn't sleeping with them I would be a very good friend to them.
I think back to those times and consider it a miracle that even in a time when I wasn't going to church each week, that I was still being used by God to show his love.
I have said it once before, but it bears repeating here again.
People have got till their very last breath on earth to accept Jesus, and we don't need to rush the gospel at every person we know, but simple to reach out to them and love them like Jesus loved the sinners and the tax collectors.
God can and will use you in His great plans to save people and you do not need to be an evangelist to save them.
He can use just a little book like this.
Let's dig deep and mine out all the meaning for you and I today.
This is the Parable of the Lost Sheep.
I hope that you enjoy what I've got to say to you today.
If you've been in church for a while, you've heard this parable preached quite a few times.
I hope that as you watch this video or you read this in the book, that this brings insight to you.
It brings new revelation to you.
And I hope to leave you with a feeling of joy and peace and encouragement in the Lord.
First of all, we're all sheep.
Jesus identifies himself as the good shepherd and he says that he's the door and we're his sheep and he's the shepherd and we're to know his voice we won't follow another person's voice, because we know the voice of the good shepherd.
Now, he says in that parable that he leads the people into good pasture and leads them out.
In Psalm 23, he makes us lay down in green pastures and lead us to source of water.
He corrects us and guides us with his staff.
He's a good shepherd and we're his sheep.
Now, let's read it.
First of all, let me share with you from verse 1.
"Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him and the Pharisees and the scribes complain saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them.
" So He spoke this parable to them.
" So one of the reasons Jesus was sharing his parable is because the Pharisees and the scribes complained and said, "This man receives sinners and eats with them.
" And why did the Pharisees and the scribes say this? Because then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to him to hear him.
Let's just put this another way.
Let's just come say I came to your city to speak at a convention and I was going speak on the prophetic, on using the gift of prophecy and powerful evangelism and interpreting people's dreams.
The gift of prophecy and I was going teach on and a couple of other supernatural things.
Imagine that you'd gather to the conference and the conference was full of New Age people, people that were openly gay, people that were prostitutes, people you know, we had a time of confession in there and pedophiles were coming up and confessing that they're abusing children.
And there were people in there learning how to prophecy and learning the gifts of prophecy and dream interpretation that had been abusing children.
There's this 15 year old girl saying that she is in the sex trade.
And I'm not rebuking this people.
I'm not, you know, blowing them up for their lifestyle.
I'm not telling them to stop being a tax collector.
I'm teaching them the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
I'm baptizing in the Holy Spirit and I'm teaching them the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
I'm releasing the gifts of the Holy Spirit on their life and they haven't even cleaned up their life.
Who am I? I haven't told them to repent.
I got to stop being a tax collector.
How would you feel? You pay your conference money and all those free loaders are in there and they're taking up my time.
You've got questions for me.
You want time one on one with me.
You're important.
You do everything right.
You've been a Christian all your life.
You've come.
You want to move in signs and wonders and here I am sitting down with the worst sinners in the world.
How do you feel? If you honestly consider what I have shared, you might be feeling very put out by me at the conference and you might very well be feeling exactly how the Pharisees were feeling with Jesus when he told this parable.
Well Jesus tells this parable, 4 "What man of you has a hundred sheep if he loses one of them.
Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing.
6 And goes home.
Then he calls his friends and neighbors together saying to them, 'Rejoice with me; for I found my lost sheep, one which was lost.
' 7 I say to you that likewise there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.
" Okay, first of all, without the power of the Holy Spirit in your life and I believe you could be just and righteous and holy.
But anyway, that aside, let's talk about that lost sheep.
Now, I want to share with you in the illustration that's going to bring out that, but you'll have to listen to the story first before I get to my point.
There was a time when I had an addiction to prostitutes.
I had an addiction to prostitutes and using them weekly or fortnightly, depending on when I got paid.
Every week or every fortnight I'm blowing a large portion of my money on a very attractive prostitute.
That was a sin that kept me on a lot of condemnation.
That was a sin the kept me away from church.
I mean, you don't go to church every week when you're doing that sort of sin.
That sin kept me out of church for 15 years.
It took 5 years of going to church while still practicing that sin for God to heal up my life sufficiently, to take out the hurt out of my life so that I could walk out of that sin.
So, here I am in the middle of this addiction and I'm going through King's Cross which the famous red light district of Sydney.
And I see some girls singing choruses on a corner where all the major heroin deals are done.
And I go up to these 7 girls singing all around, witnessing and singing to the people where all the heroin drug dealers hang and I said "You now, this is really amazing.
You're in the heaviest place at the city and this is a really heavy place, but I want to encourage you that I can see in the spirit like a canopy over you is just like, you know, you know Maxwell Smart's Cone of Silence over you.
And that this supernatural protection all over and you're entirely safe and you don't have to worry.
And they said "Yeah, we know we don't have to worry.
" I said.
"Can I pray for you?" The all said, "Yes" and I prayed for them.
And then one of the girls said "Can we pray for you?" "Okay," And we got to the 3rd girl praying.
Then the 3rd girl praying said "Thus saith the Lord" and then she said this prophecy "I'm going to send you into a dark place, a place where angels fear to tread and I want you to take my joy and my love into that place and share my love with the people.
Tell them that I love them.
Give them treats and spend time with them and shine my light.
" What Jesus was telling me to go into one of the strip joints/brothels that they have girls strip and then when all the men are excited the girls come down and invite them upstairs, pay prostitution rates.
And yet I knew Jesus was telling me already before she prophesied that, to go into this brothel to spend time in there and just get to know and be friendly with the prostitutes and the strippers.
Anyway, that wasn't hard for me, but always scared of doing it because I was going to be taking Christ into witnessing there and I wasn't going to be a client.
I was scared because I had heard of people being killed in there.
So anyway, I was at a church two weeks later that I had never been to and the pastor said to me stand on your feet and he said exactly the same prophecy.
I'm going send you into a little place where angels fear to tread.
Well, I went into that brothel and stayed in that place for a year.
Now, while I was in that place, I met a girl who was a practicing prostitute and she was practicing Buddhism too.
And she confessed to me that her parents went to local church in Coffs Harbour, the country town where I came from.
When I went back up to Coffs Harbour, I told the church that one of the daughters of one the men in this church abused their daughter and she's now working as a prostitute as involved in Buddhism in Kings Cross.
I had a lot of hurt and pain in my life and I shouted that out in the meeting in anger.
It wasn't the nicest scene.
In the brothel this girl that reached out to me and said "I used to be a Christian and I come from your home town.
" and she was one of my friends.
Then here I was lost.
I was a lost sheep myself stuck in my won addictions as I ministered God's love.
But when it comes to this parable, I can relate.
See, people need people like me to go into their dark places and to minister to someone who's far away from Jesus.
We all need a shepherd.
We all need a Christian.
Some of the shepherds, some of the pastors are too busy.
The broken world needs people like you to come out and rescue those broken sheep and bring them back to the flock.
That's what the parable of the 99 sheep is.
You know, so many people in church are involved are sexual sin.
In the midst of my sin, in the darkest part of my sin, in the time where I wasn't even attending church, Jesus sent me in through 2 prophecies to minister, to the hardest most wicked, most violent club in Kings Cross Australia.
And he protected me.
And the girls used to weep.
And the girls was so touched, just buying them $2 chocolate bar, used to bring them to tears.
Girls with $400, $500 a day, heroin and cocaine habits.
And me, a lost sheep, me, was ministering too, but I was never lost, you know.
At the worst of my depravity, I still had Jesus.
Jesus was still talking to me.
The good shepherd was still with me.
I had to get pretty bad for Jesus not to talk to me.
The only way Jesus didn't talk to me is when I told him I didn't want him to talk to me.
And then, you know, months later, he'd interrupt me and play me a song in my mind and once again we're talking and I'm crying again.
I suffered so much pain, you know.
Why have I got so much revelation in the parables of Jesus? I hope that ins sharing my story I have touched you.
Not everyone can go into a strip club or a brothel and minister to broken girls.
Not everyone would have the ability to do that.
But do you know there are lost sheep everywhere.
There are people that used to go to church at your work, at your gym, and at the cafe that you go to.
People have left Jesus and left religion to do their own thing and God needs people like us to wrap our arms around them and bring them back to Jesus.
Don't be too quick to judge people.
Some atheists have spent more time reading the Bible than you and I and have got their own personal reasons why they don't walk with Christ.
We all need to be little-Christ's to people and to go out and love people where they are at.
I often look at the time I ministered to those girls in the brothel and wonder why God chose me, a self confessed addict to prostitutes.
And all I can come up with is that He knew that I would love them for who they were and if I wasn't sleeping with them I would be a very good friend to them.
I think back to those times and consider it a miracle that even in a time when I wasn't going to church each week, that I was still being used by God to show his love.
I have said it once before, but it bears repeating here again.
People have got till their very last breath on earth to accept Jesus, and we don't need to rush the gospel at every person we know, but simple to reach out to them and love them like Jesus loved the sinners and the tax collectors.
God can and will use you in His great plans to save people and you do not need to be an evangelist to save them.
He can use just a little book like this.
Source...