Transcription

Connor
You’re listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways.

Chris
Welcome, everybody. My name is Chris.

Jeff
And I’m Jeff.

Chris
And we are the Bible guys. Yay!

Jeff
The crowds go wild.

Chris
Pretend the crowd.

Chris
So, hey, today we are diving into yet another passage that is only found in the Book of Luke. The book of Luke? Yeah. So Luke has this stint where he’s recording things that no other gospel recorder is, is, uh, is capturing. And so that’s really cool because we’re in a series doing the harmony of the Gospels, where we’re going chronologically and then also parallel.

Jeff
He really captures a ton of the things that Jesus taught. Yeah. Right. Right. So he’s he’s just the best I love Luke, I like them all. Matthew, Mark and John. I love.

Chris
Luke too.

Jeff
Luke’s great.

Chris
Luke’s great. Yeah.

Jeff
Okay. Well, hey, we’re supposed to do, uh, two truths and a lie. Yeah.

Chris
And so today you are going to you’re going to give me three statements.

Jeff
Three truths or two truths and a lie revolving around Christmas or the holidays in general.

Chris
And I have to I have to guess which one is the.

Jeff
Lie in general. That’s correct.

Chris
Okay. That’s correct. So give me three statements.

Jeff
Uh, Christmas season is special to me because that’s when I got married. Um, the Christmas season is, uh, the time of the year when the most presents are given. And Saint Nicholas was originally from Greece.

Chris
Wait a minute. The the third statement didn’t have anything to do with Jeff Forrester.

Jeff
It just said Christmas or the holidays in general.

Chris
But the first statement was all about you.

Jeff
Sure, but it was about Christmas season. It’s just statements. Christmas or the.

Chris
Holidays. And this made.

Jeff
Christmas. I know, that’s why I did it.

Chris
That is not. There’s not a pattern.

Jeff
I know, that’s why I did it.

Chris
All right. So the first statement is Christmas is special because you got married around that time. Uh huh. Third statement is Saint Nicholas is originally from Greece, and the second one is what?

Jeff
Christmas is the season when the most gifts are given.

Chris
Well, that one’s obviously true. So, I mean, if we’re talking about the world, we’re not talking about the Forrester household, right? That’s a statement about the world. It’s just.

Jeff
General.

Chris
Yeah. Okay, well, then I buy I buy that I think that that’s true. Um hum. Um, is he from Greece? And did you get married around that time? I’m going to say the lie is you did not get married. No, wait a minute. No, you did get married. I know this to be true because in the past you have wanted to make time during the Christmas services for your anniversary. Because Jenna’s birthday and your anniversary around the same time.

Jeff
Jenna’s birthday is on December 22nd. That’s the problem every year.

Chris
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I’m going to say. He’s originally not from Greece. That’s the lie.

Jeff
Oh, wow. Um, so you’re correct.

Chris
Yes.

Jeff
Saint Nicholas was was from Turkey. Yeah.

Chris
Boop boop boop boop boop.

Jeff
Oh. That’s right, that’s great.

Chris
Good job. So when did.

Jeff
You get married? Uh, December 19th. December 9th. That’s when we got married. We got married? Um, the first day of Christmas break of my junior year. College. That’s awesome. Yeah, yeah, I raced home, we got married, had a three day honeymoon. I was back in school. It’s crazy. Wow. We. As a matter of fact, on Christmas Day, we rented a truck. Yes, uh, from a friend of ours who had a U-Haul place. But his car, his trucks were not approved. This is back in the old days of U-Haul. They were not approved for long distance hauling, only local hauling, because they were kind of. You know, not super dependable, janky. And, uh, so he he ran it. He said, but you have to bring it back. I can’t let you drop it off down there in Indiana. So we packed up all of my wife’s things and, uh, furniture and everything, and we moved down on Christmas, uh, two days before Christmas, and we get everything moved in, and then we’re driving back on Christmas Day. We’re trying to make it home for Christmas dinner, and, um, there’s holes in the floorboard. And so we. I stopped and we bought newspaper to block the holes. And then the truck broke down about halfway between, uh, where we lived in Indiana and my mom and dad’s house on Christmas Day. Well, it’s the one day a year that nobody answers the phone when you call U-Haul. Right? So we’re broke down at a gas station, and our very first Christmas dinner was, uh, um, um, uh, gas station, hot dogs and Doritos and Mountain Dew.

Chris
Which sounds great, by the way.

Jeff
That was our. Yeah, that was our speedway. It was a speedway that we were broke down at. Wow. So I called my dad. You know, back then, we didn’t have cell phones, so I called my dad on the payphone, said, hey, we’re broke down. And he was like, okay, well, hey, we just set down for Christmas dinner, so I’ll be there in a couple hours.

Chris
Right?

Jeff
He sat down and they had Christmas dinner.

Chris
The day your day is already ruined.

Jeff
Your day is ruined. I’m sitting down having dinner.

Chris
With my family. No sense of ruining his day.

Jeff
Well, he asked, he said, you guys safe? I say, yeah, yeah. We’re safe. Don’t worry about it. You don’t have to leave right away. Sit down and have dinner with everybody else, because everybody else, the whole rest of the family was there. It’s just us.

Chris
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jeff
So our very first Christmas was broke down on the side of the road.

Chris
Well, you know what? It was an adventure.

Jeff
Yeah. And it just got better from there.

Chris
Yeah. Right. Right, right. Yeah. Right.

Jeff
I set the bar so low for our first Christmas. Everything else has been better.

Chris
Yeah. And not to mention the first few days of your marriage.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. It was. It was crazy.

Chris
Yeah. Everything went good after that.

Jeff
Yeah. That’s right. That’s so.

Chris
Funny.

Jeff
Hey guys, just a quick reminder that we’re going to take a break between Christmas and New Year’s December 25th through the 29th. Uh, but we’ll be right back at it in, uh, 2024. So we look forward to seeing you then.

Chris
All right, buddy, well, today we’re doing one of the most famous and one of my favorite passages in all of the New Testament.

Jeff
Lost sheep.

Chris
Lost sheep.

Jeff
Right. So, and there’s a lot of misunderstandings about this, by the way. So I think hopefully we’ll unpack them today. And we’re reading Luke chapter 15 one through ten. Yep. And so we’re also going to cover the lost coin here. It says tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. Funniest description in the whole Bible those notorious sinners. Uh, this made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people, even eating with them. So Jesus told them this story. If a man has 100 sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the 99 others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that’s lost until he finds it, and when he has found it, he’ll joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. And when he arrives, he’ll call together his friends and neighbors, saying, rejoice with me, because I found my lost sheep. In the same way. There is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over 99 others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away. Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she’ll call in her friends and neighbors and say, rejoice with me, because I found my lost coin. In the same way, there’s joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents. Mhm.

Jeff
Isn’t that awesome.

Chris
Yeah. It’s great. And then of course, obviously tomorrow we’re going to be covering, uh, the the Bigger story, which is the third story in a row, which is the prodigal son, lost son. Yeah. Uh, the lost son. Uh, but but for now, we’re covering the first two, which is the lost sheep and the lost coin. And so, yeah. What is the first thing, uh, misconception you think about this?

Jeff
Well, first of all, I think it’s just worth pointing out. We already did kind of make a joke, but notorious sinners and Jesus, is there. Uh, one misconception, I think, is people think, you know, the Pharisees thought that Jesus was hanging out with sinners because he also was a sinner, that he was indulging in their lifestyle. Right. But what we always see with Jesus is not that Jesus was being affected by those sinners, but Jesus was affecting them. He wasn’t being swayed to their way. He was bringing them over to his way. Right. And so as we measure our lives and make the decisions of who we’re going to be with and what kind of environments we’re going to allow ourselves to be around, we have to really be conscious of whether or not this environment or these people are going to have a negative impact on us, or are we going to assertively, intentionally have a positive impact on them? Right. Jesus wasn’t just there hanging out, drinking what they were drinking, listening to what they were listening to, talking about what they were talking about without having any intention of interrupting what was supposed to be, uh, a certain kind of party and interrupting it and pointing them to God. Right. He was always pointing them to the truth. So that would be one. I think that the Pharisees misunderstood Jesus intent, uh, by being with them.

Chris
Yeah, yeah. And by the way, that’s, uh, that’s, uh, applicable to us in so many ways because, um, sometimes, uh, you know, it’s it’s that, uh, so I know that I know that some people think that they’re strong enough to hang around with friends to, with the purpose of trying to lift them up. Yeah. And a lot of times what you do is you get drugged down, right? Right. And so, you know, we’re all not Jesus, right? Right. So Jesus was not going to compromise anything he did not want to do. Right. But, uh, but for us, you know, there are seasons of our lives, I believe that we could be around people that are, you know, uh, that need lifted up. And I remember, you know, one of my really good friends strayed from the faith for a very long time, and and I felt like I was on mission with him for years. And now, um, you know, he’s he’s back on fire for God. And, and I kind of felt like that was my mission to be around him all the time. And and you know what, God, God allowed me to do that. And, uh, you know, but not not to be pulled down, but, uh, but I’ve heard stories of people and actually in other times in my life where I’ve, where I’ve tried to, you know, be a missionary or whatever to a person and then come to find out, they just influenced me in the negative a lot.

Jeff
A lot of young women will especially do that. Oh, I’m trying to lead this, this guy to Jesus. Yeah, right. And so I’m going to date him. I’m going to move in with him. I’m going to all these things and.

Chris
Missionary dating.

Jeff
Missionary dating. Right. And then it almost always leads to heartbreak. Right? Yeah. And uh, and disappointment. The other thing is, I think you’ll notice with Jesus, he often when he did send his disciples into the world, um, he didn’t send them alone. He sent them two by two. Right. So, going on mission together, uh, you can protect each other a lot more than just by yourself in that. So that would be one. Um, but then he says, you know, 100 sheep, and, uh, this guy has 100 sheep, and one gets lost and he leaves the 99 to go find the one, right?

Chris
Yeah. And by the way, the operative word there is he doesn’t come back until he finds it. Right? Right. Uh, and he says he says, won’t he? Jesus says in other versions it says, doesn’t he? Right. And so it’s not a question that need needs answered. It’s an of course it’s an of course it’s an assumption.

Jeff
Of course he would.

Chris
And he says, in other words, what he’s saying is everybody knows that if a if a person has 100 sheep, if a shepherd has 100 sheep and they lose one of them, they will leave the 99. And of course the 99 are important, right? Because the 99 are his right. They’re safe and secure in the pen. Right. But he’s going to go and he will not come back until that one is brought back.

Jeff
He’ll risk everything to find him.

Chris
Yeah. And by the way, that’s true today if you go to Africa, uh, matter of fact, we asked them about this passage and the villages in Africa. Did you ever hear this story where they talk about how they.

Jeff
Have so many goats?

Chris
Yeah, they have goats and sheep and everything else, and they and they’ll they’ll send oftentimes the boys. And if the boys don’t get the job done, and if the men have to get up and actually take over for the boys, then the boys get in trouble. Yeah, right. And so anyway. But but yeah, it’s, it’s that way. And sometimes the whole village will go look and they’ll say, hey, I’ve lost sheep for one sheep. Right. And it’s because that sheep is, is valuable. And so and so the assumption Jesus is saying is of course he will. And he says that there’s more rejoicing, not not as much and not less than, but there’s actually more rejoicing over one person who is far from God, who doesn’t know Christ, who comes to be a Christian. Then there are over 99, uh, Christians who are already safe in the pen. And so I think that that points toward the Great Commission, right? That points toward us, you know, in our job to tell others about Jesus. And he’s saying there’s more rejoicing that happens in heaven when one sinner repents than over 99 righteous people who doesn’t need to repent. And so this verse honestly has driven everything that I do. It defines my job description. So and I believe that I believe that, um, everything that we do should be geared toward, or at least include. As a minister, it should include the consideration of those who are far from God, so you don’t have to run every event toward those who are far from God. You don’t have to run. You could have Christian events, you could have worship nights, you could have in-depth Bible studies. But I also but I believe that there should be always something built in where it’s not exclusive to the guest who walks in through the door, who just doesn’t understand the culture or the language, or certainly doesn’t know God. Chris
Right. Uh, and I believe this is a call to those we.

Jeff
Have such limited impact anyways, right. There’s a limited amount of time if you’re only looking at church service time slots. Um, you know, we have just a limited amount of access to lost people who would be open to a spiritual conversation. And so we should take advantage of every one of those moments and not not just waste them on the the 99 that have already been found. It’s very difficult for some Christians to realize you’re part of the 99 and not the one.

Chris
Right?

Jeff
Right. We all want to be the one. Well, at one point you were you were lost and now you’re found, right? Right. But now that you’re found, it’s not about you anymore. It’s not about me anymore. It’s about the one that hasn’t been found yet. And so that can be very, very difficult because we naturally, even on a spiritual level, can be very self-centered. Yeah. Where we want we want everything. We want the total attention to be on us all the time. And we want everything that’s happening in the spirit in my church, and all the stuff should be for me.

Chris
And let’s not forget too, that what you just said is exactly the point of why Jesus told the story. Because it said the Pharisees were murmuring yes and grumbling, right? And the reason why they were murmuring and grumbling is because they wanted Jesus for themselves.

Jeff
This should be a Bible study for the Pharisees.

Chris
Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Jesus is spending time with those who are need to be found notorious sinners. Notorious.

Jeff
Whenever I read that, I always think, uh, tax collectors and other notorious sinners like the Zorbaugh brothers.

Chris
Right?

Jeff
Often came to listen to Jesus teach the.

Chris
Farrow family from Youngstown.

Chris
Yeah, I believe that, too. Yeah and it’s

Jeff
and the religious elite’s like oh my.

Chris
Right. Jeff
You can just imagine ladies with their fans about to pass out. They’re so suprised.

Jeff
Jesus is hanging out with the Zorbaugh brothers.

Chris
Yeah. And, uh, and so it’s it’s one of those things where, you know, if and I’ve always said this for 30 years, but if you want to know what makes Chris mad this week, uh, uh, just, just, you know, just focus on, uh, the Christians who, who murmur and grumble and complain about things that they shouldn’t, you know, and it’s and it’s always from a not always, but a lot of the time it’s from a posture of, uh, of self-importance or self, you know, um, superiority or something like that. And oftentimes I believe.

Jeff
It’s just really strong preference for.

Chris
Or preferences. Jeff
For their own ikes.

Chris
Yep, yep.

Chris
And I believe that, um, I believe that sometimes when Christians don’t get it, it could be one of the most frustrating things for me. Not that they don’t get it. I don’t mind that it’s the it’s the reaction and the complaining and the and the leveraging and all that stuff. And I think that I think that when that happens, uh, you know, we just need to look to the scriptures and understand, like, you know, there’s a passage, in fact, I’m reading this Sunday, uh, that talks about how Jesus says, I’ve come to seek and save those who are lost. And it’s not those who are healthy that need a doctor, right? But the sick. Right? Right. And so Jesus is there on a rescue mission. Yeah, he’s there because he’s there to seek and save those who are lost. And he wants us to join the search party, right? He wants us to search for the coin. He wants us to search for the sheep. And he wants us to. Because what does he say? He says when she finds it, the coin she calls all her neighbors over and they celebrate. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Because apparently these are valuable coins.

Jeff
Absolutely. Well, so Jesus just just got done telling us a few, uh, a couple days ago about the the king that wanted to have a banquet and he said, go everywhere, tell everyone, invite everybody.

Chris
Right? That’s right.

Jeff
Highways and hedges and the byways and the people. That would be least expected. And this is what Jesus is trying to establish, is that his kingdom isn’t made up of just a religious elite. It’s made up of the least expected people. And by the way, every time one of those lost ones is found, there’s a party in heaven. So your job and my job, we’re supposed to just be throwing party after party after party. That that’s what. That’s what we both feel called to. Right? Yeah. That’s reach as many people who are far from God as possible. Start as many parties in heaven as possible. And that’s really cool. It’s cool that there’s things that you and I can do on Earth here that has an impact in heaven immediately. Yeah.

Chris
That’s right. Right.

Chris
And by the way, I’m sure a lot of our listeners, maybe even the majority, don’t know that our church that we’re a part of, we’re actually launching a brand new location this upcoming September. Yeah, yeah. And it’s going to cost money. Yeah. And it has cost money for people and it’s going to cost a lot. And to be honest with you, none of our team. Exactly. We don’t exactly want to work harder. Right. But we’re going to because we’re going to work a lot harder. Yeah. So it’s like, why would we do that to ourselves? Well, it’s only one reason. It’s the same reason why people have pledged money, right? It’s the reason why people give money because we believe in the mission, right? And so we’re doing it for one reason. And I like the way you said it, because we want to create more parties in heaven. Jeff
Yeah I want to start a party in heaven.

Chris
That’s why every day. So so that’s so good.

Jeff
That’s been one of my goals since I came to heritage. Yeah. Was I wanted to start a party in heaven every single day. And so this year is the first year. So 2023 is the first year. Um, but the book of acts, chapter two describes the very first church and it says, and the Lord added the church daily, those that were being saved. Right. And so that’s been one of my goals, is I wanted to be able to to have a baptized, a new baptized believer for every day of the year. And this year is the first year we did that, we had 407 people that we led to Jesus and baptized, uh, this year by the grace of God. And that was God’s blessing on us. And it was a lot of hard work for our team and for our church people.

Chris
And I believe those are the ones that just got baptized. Yeah. Yeah, right. There’s plenty more people.

Jeff
Oh, way more. Yeah.

Chris
That we, you know.

Jeff
Yeah. But but in acts chapter two, it’s it’s, uh, they baptized 3000 people, and then they were baptizing people. And the Lord had the church that was say. So I just kind of associated those two. But the idea of being not so that we can have 407 on a plaque somewhere or. Right, right, right. It’s the every one of those 407 people, those 407 individuals, they have unique stories, and their unique stories matter to God. And each of them individually. Started a party in heaven, right? Yeah. And, uh, um, I think that I mentioned to our elders the other night we were celebrating and just thanking God for his blessings. Um, and that would be one of the one of them. And I mentioned to a guy several years ago we were talking and I mentioned a specific number. I forgot what it was, you know, that we had baptized 322 people or something, and he kind of made fun 322 not not 325, not 323 22. Right. He’s kind of making fun of me. And I said, well, yeah. And he goes, you know, every time you talk about a number, you’re always so precise with that. It seems like numbers are a big deal to you. And I said, well, numbers by themselves aren’t a big deal, but I said, um, uh, I said, when you count your offering, do you count it? To the tens or to the hundreds. Money comes in and oh, about $3,100. Or do you count $3,107.17? And he goes, well, yeah, of course we count to the penny. I said, so the the hundredth of a dollar, you count it down to me. Yeah. I, I think that we just count what matters most to us. Right. So, uh, what matters most to me is that there were people who didn’t know Jesus, that through the work and the effort, the prayer, the sacrifice, the fasting, the clear presentation of the gospel, um, uh, through the the work of the people at Heritage Church and the blessing of the Holy Spirit. Jeff
400 or 200 or whatever number of people have come to faith. And we’re celebrating every one of those and every one of those matters. I’m not saying that counting money in a in a reasonable way with integrity isn’t important. I’m just saying this is more important. There’s nowhere in the Bible that says when you balance the books on at the end of the year, there’s a party in heaven, right?

Chris
Right.

Jeff
There’s nowhere in the entire Bible that says, when everybody’s finished with all their Bible studies this year, that there’s a party in heaven. That’s right. There’s nowhere in the Bible that says, when we have finally obeyed all the rules, there’s finally a party in heaven. But it does say when one lost sinner comes home, right? There’s a party in heaven, right? And that’s both of these passages, the lost coin and the lost sheep. And so that’s what we should be about. All of these things that we’ve talked about, you should count the cost. Yeah, that’s a big part of it. But prior to that one, everything else was inviting to the feast, going and finding the lost sheep, going and finding the lost coin. This is a major focus, not a secondary focus or one of the focuses. This is the major focus of Jesus ministry was to seek and to save that which was lost. Yeah. That’s right. So if we’re going to really be followers of Jesus, we need to decide that’s going to be the major focus of our ministry too.

Chris
Yeah. And by the way, when somebody does come to me and they say, it seems like your church is all about numbers, I actually say the words unapologetically. Yeah. Because because it’s because I know what they’re saying and what they’re saying can be right. Uh, a thing with other people. Sure, sure. Right. Sure. I mean, there are definitely people who, uh, you know, so don’t get angry when somebody says that because. Because that could be a thing. It could be a thing where people only care. They they think they’re so important because they have a church of 10,000 or whatever it is. So, uh, but I always say unapologetically, and then I always make a comment. I said, you know, numbers were important to God. You know, there’s a book in the Bible called numbers, right?

Jeff
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chris
I said so. You know, numbers are pretty important because every person matters to God. Right. And so the idea that numbers don’t matter to God is crazy, right? So God cares about numbers almost more than anything, right? Because they represent people. They represent names and souls. And so good gravy. Right?

Chris
Right.

Jeff
Every every number has a name. Every name has a story. Yeah. Every story matters to God. That’s right. It’s just I can’t tell you all the names and all the stories. It would take us all afternoon, right. To talk about 407 of them. But to say God has done amazing things in 407 lost sheep, right? Yep. Uh, have have been found is just that’s how we celebrate it. And God gets the glory. It’s not us. It’s not about us being able to take credit for numbers. It’s celebrating the fact that God did amazing things. And that’s where there’s a party. There’s they are rejoicing locally. And then he said, there’s also a party in heaven. So we just rejoice locally knowing that God is also throwing a party in heaven.

Chris
That’s awesome.

Chris
Well, hey, that is a great place to end and we will pick it up tomorrow with the prodigal son, the lost son, and we’ll see you next time on The Bible Guys.

Jeff
Go start a party.