Lost and Found
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When bad things happen, how many times do you wonder why? It seems like when one thing goes wrong, the floodgates open and it is all you can do to stay afloat. During these times it is so easy to get lost in translation.
I got an email a while back about a bagpiper who played many funerals. He was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends so the service was to be at a pauper's cemetery in the Kentucky backcountry. As he was not familiar with the backwoods area, he got lost and, being a typical man, he didn't stop for directions. He finally arrived an hour late and saw that the funeral guy had evidently gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were only the diggers and crew left and they were eating lunch. He felt badly and apologized to the men for being late. He went to the side of the grave and looked down and the vault lid was already in place. He didn't know what else to do so he started to play. The workers put down their lunches and began to gather round. He played out his heart and soul for this man with no family and friends. He played like he has never played before for this homeless fellow. And as he played 'Amazing Grace,' the workers began to weep. They wept, he wept, they all wept together. When he finished, he packed up his bagpipes and started for the car. Though his head hung low, his heart was full. As he opened his car door, he heard one of the workers say, "I never seen nothin' like that before and I been putting in septic tanks for twenty years."Apparently that poor guy is still lost. It is just like a man though isn’t it? He’d rather look like an idiot ending up in the wrong place than to ask for help.
As I was going over what to preach on this week, the idea of being lost was really playing on my mind. So, as I was looking for something to preach on, I found Isaiah 48. Moreover, today we are going to focus in on verses 17-22. God was faithful and very quickly he started giving me a whole bunch of directions to follow. It’s so awesome to experience God’s grace when writing my sermons; but sometimes he dictates a little too fast for my hand to write. Let’s read Isaiah 48:17-22.
17 This is what the LORD says—your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. 18 If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea. 19 Your descendants would have been like the sand, your children like its numberless grains; their name would never be cut off nor destroyed from before me.” 20 Leave Babylon, flee from the Babylonians! Announce this with shouts of joy and proclaim it. Send it out to the ends of the earth; say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob.” 21 They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and water gushed out. 22 “There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.”
After roughly 70 years of Exile, the Lord decreed that it was time for Israel to return to their land. They had been overtaken by the Babylonians in around 589-587 B.C. Then when the Persians took over Babylonia in 539 B.C. a year later, the “Decree of Cyrus” allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem. The Persians did not believe in captivity. Nonetheless, it took another 18 years for the Jews to begin returning to their homeland.
Anyone bored with the history lesson yet? The reason I’ve pointed all of this out is because I want to show how God uses different things to accomplish His Will. God used the Babylonians who were a conquering, captivity making Nation, to take over the Israelites and bring them into captivity. Then, not 50 years later, brings another nation along, the Persians who do not believe in captivity, to set the Israelites free to return home. Did you see how that worked?
In this passage here, as God is telling the Israelites they can go home, he is issuing an “if only” statement. God is telling them that if only you would have done what I said, you would not have had to endure the problems you did under Babylonian rule. Many, many times we have to endure things in our lives because of the actions and decisions we have made. Continuing off of what we were talking about last week, our decisions make a difference in what we have to endure.
On the other hand, I want you to stop and think about this point for a second. In order to be found, first you have to be lost. That sentence plagued me this week. I’m willing to bet it is for you too right now. In order to be found, first you had to be lost.
Some people grew up in the church, other people came to Christ later in life, and still others grew up in the church, left and have come back. So, then the question becomes how was I lost?
Well, let’s take an example. Let’s say there was a person who had grown up in church, knowing Christ their whole life. Then one day, parents divorce and throws this kid into complete chaos. Then what ensues is a life of spent in bars, doing drugs, mishandled relationships, yet a successful life in business and lots of money. Then, when they are 50, divorced and have nothing else to turn to, they start searching for the hole in their life. Then one day a friend says, let’s go to church! And low and behold, they find Christ once again.
That example is a classic one of someone getting lost and then being found again. But what about those who haven’t had an instance of walking away?
Everyone at one point or another has a rough patch in their life where things keep happening one upon the other. Things pile up on us and we just don’t think we can hold our own any longer. There probably isn’t one person in this room who hasn’t doubted the existence of God at one point or another. We wonder why God allows bad things to happen to good people. I hear it all the time in tragedies all over the place. “Why do bad things happen to good people?”
Simply put, in order to be found, we must first be lost. Suffering must happen so that we can find God in those moments when we need him the most. It’s easy to feel good about God when times are good. The real time is to feel good about God is in the really really rough times. That, my friends, is when it is the most difficult.
This is exactly what the Israelites had done. They were in some, what they thought, was pretty good, yet hard times living in the promised land, doing their own thing. Then BAM!! The Babylonians show up and rain on their parade. Then things really get bad. They thought doing things on their own was hard, the Babylonians took them captive and made them really suffer at the behest of God. When they finally came back to God and spent time repenting for their sins, God freed them.
This is exactly how it is with us. These rough times we go through are our “lost” times. The points when it is hard to find God. Then when we have found him, it makes it a bit easier to cope with our suffering. Then we go through a good time with God and then, more suffering ensues.
It is so hard to see the benefit in the tough times. But rest assured, because every trial we go through prepares us for something in the future. Not one time has God let something go and not used it for the benefit of you and someone else.
What God was warning Israel about was the purposeful abandonment of God’s Will. The times when God says, “go this way”, and we say, “nope, I’m going this way!”. We need to be wary of this because these are guaranteed times when we will suffer. However, know that when you are doing what God wants, the devil will send his plans forward to try and tear you away from the good you are doing.
My friends, this is when we need to be extra close to God to be able to discern between what is of the devil, and what is of God. It is supremely important to rely on God, remain in our ‘found’ state with God, and not become ‘lost’ again.
Amazing Grace is one of my favorite songs. When I was a teenager, we played music at my friends church and he had a surprise for his mom. We were going to play Amazing Grace for her because he had said it was her favorite song. Turns out, she hates the song! After it was over, she was sure to thank us for the lovely surprise. But the words of this song ring true even though it was written in 1779. It is still relevant today. “I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind, but now I see.” We were all once lost by one definition or another. Amazing Grace has indeed surrounded us.
There also is a song by Toby Mac called “Get Back Up” and one of the lyrics in the song goes like this, “We lose our way, we get back up again, It’s never too late to get back up again.”
My friends, we were once lost, and now found. And even though we lose our way, it is never too late to get back up again. Rest assured my friends, when you go through the tough times, you are no longer lost, but found. Through the fire, salvation has been found. So the next time you go through a tough trial, remember, you aren’t lost, you’re found and in the secure arms of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When bad things happen, how many times do you wonder why? It seems like when one thing goes wrong, the floodgates open and it is all you can do to stay afloat. During these times it is so easy to get lost in translation.
I got an email a while back about a bagpiper who played many funerals. He was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends so the service was to be at a pauper's cemetery in the Kentucky backcountry. As he was not familiar with the backwoods area, he got lost and, being a typical man, he didn't stop for directions. He finally arrived an hour late and saw that the funeral guy had evidently gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were only the diggers and crew left and they were eating lunch. He felt badly and apologized to the men for being late. He went to the side of the grave and looked down and the vault lid was already in place. He didn't know what else to do so he started to play. The workers put down their lunches and began to gather round. He played out his heart and soul for this man with no family and friends. He played like he has never played before for this homeless fellow. And as he played 'Amazing Grace,' the workers began to weep. They wept, he wept, they all wept together. When he finished, he packed up his bagpipes and started for the car. Though his head hung low, his heart was full. As he opened his car door, he heard one of the workers say, "I never seen nothin' like that before and I been putting in septic tanks for twenty years."Apparently that poor guy is still lost. It is just like a man though isn’t it? He’d rather look like an idiot ending up in the wrong place than to ask for help.
As I was going over what to preach on this week, the idea of being lost was really playing on my mind. So, as I was looking for something to preach on, I found Isaiah 48. Moreover, today we are going to focus in on verses 17-22. God was faithful and very quickly he started giving me a whole bunch of directions to follow. It’s so awesome to experience God’s grace when writing my sermons; but sometimes he dictates a little too fast for my hand to write. Let’s read Isaiah 48:17-22.
17 This is what the LORD says—your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. 18 If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea. 19 Your descendants would have been like the sand, your children like its numberless grains; their name would never be cut off nor destroyed from before me.” 20 Leave Babylon, flee from the Babylonians! Announce this with shouts of joy and proclaim it. Send it out to the ends of the earth; say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob.” 21 They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and water gushed out. 22 “There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.”
After roughly 70 years of Exile, the Lord decreed that it was time for Israel to return to their land. They had been overtaken by the Babylonians in around 589-587 B.C. Then when the Persians took over Babylonia in 539 B.C. a year later, the “Decree of Cyrus” allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem. The Persians did not believe in captivity. Nonetheless, it took another 18 years for the Jews to begin returning to their homeland.
Anyone bored with the history lesson yet? The reason I’ve pointed all of this out is because I want to show how God uses different things to accomplish His Will. God used the Babylonians who were a conquering, captivity making Nation, to take over the Israelites and bring them into captivity. Then, not 50 years later, brings another nation along, the Persians who do not believe in captivity, to set the Israelites free to return home. Did you see how that worked?
In this passage here, as God is telling the Israelites they can go home, he is issuing an “if only” statement. God is telling them that if only you would have done what I said, you would not have had to endure the problems you did under Babylonian rule. Many, many times we have to endure things in our lives because of the actions and decisions we have made. Continuing off of what we were talking about last week, our decisions make a difference in what we have to endure.
On the other hand, I want you to stop and think about this point for a second. In order to be found, first you have to be lost. That sentence plagued me this week. I’m willing to bet it is for you too right now. In order to be found, first you had to be lost.
Some people grew up in the church, other people came to Christ later in life, and still others grew up in the church, left and have come back. So, then the question becomes how was I lost?
Well, let’s take an example. Let’s say there was a person who had grown up in church, knowing Christ their whole life. Then one day, parents divorce and throws this kid into complete chaos. Then what ensues is a life of spent in bars, doing drugs, mishandled relationships, yet a successful life in business and lots of money. Then, when they are 50, divorced and have nothing else to turn to, they start searching for the hole in their life. Then one day a friend says, let’s go to church! And low and behold, they find Christ once again.
That example is a classic one of someone getting lost and then being found again. But what about those who haven’t had an instance of walking away?
Everyone at one point or another has a rough patch in their life where things keep happening one upon the other. Things pile up on us and we just don’t think we can hold our own any longer. There probably isn’t one person in this room who hasn’t doubted the existence of God at one point or another. We wonder why God allows bad things to happen to good people. I hear it all the time in tragedies all over the place. “Why do bad things happen to good people?”
Simply put, in order to be found, we must first be lost. Suffering must happen so that we can find God in those moments when we need him the most. It’s easy to feel good about God when times are good. The real time is to feel good about God is in the really really rough times. That, my friends, is when it is the most difficult.
This is exactly what the Israelites had done. They were in some, what they thought, was pretty good, yet hard times living in the promised land, doing their own thing. Then BAM!! The Babylonians show up and rain on their parade. Then things really get bad. They thought doing things on their own was hard, the Babylonians took them captive and made them really suffer at the behest of God. When they finally came back to God and spent time repenting for their sins, God freed them.
This is exactly how it is with us. These rough times we go through are our “lost” times. The points when it is hard to find God. Then when we have found him, it makes it a bit easier to cope with our suffering. Then we go through a good time with God and then, more suffering ensues.
It is so hard to see the benefit in the tough times. But rest assured, because every trial we go through prepares us for something in the future. Not one time has God let something go and not used it for the benefit of you and someone else.
What God was warning Israel about was the purposeful abandonment of God’s Will. The times when God says, “go this way”, and we say, “nope, I’m going this way!”. We need to be wary of this because these are guaranteed times when we will suffer. However, know that when you are doing what God wants, the devil will send his plans forward to try and tear you away from the good you are doing.
My friends, this is when we need to be extra close to God to be able to discern between what is of the devil, and what is of God. It is supremely important to rely on God, remain in our ‘found’ state with God, and not become ‘lost’ again.
Amazing Grace is one of my favorite songs. When I was a teenager, we played music at my friends church and he had a surprise for his mom. We were going to play Amazing Grace for her because he had said it was her favorite song. Turns out, she hates the song! After it was over, she was sure to thank us for the lovely surprise. But the words of this song ring true even though it was written in 1779. It is still relevant today. “I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind, but now I see.” We were all once lost by one definition or another. Amazing Grace has indeed surrounded us.
There also is a song by Toby Mac called “Get Back Up” and one of the lyrics in the song goes like this, “We lose our way, we get back up again, It’s never too late to get back up again.”
My friends, we were once lost, and now found. And even though we lose our way, it is never too late to get back up again. Rest assured my friends, when you go through the tough times, you are no longer lost, but found. Through the fire, salvation has been found. So the next time you go through a tough trial, remember, you aren’t lost, you’re found and in the secure arms of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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