Study Habits

Things Needed to Find the Lost

Luke 15:8-10

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Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost I have found lost coin.” In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing n the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Chapter 15 of Luke is one of the most important chapters of the book. It contains Jesus teachings about the lost that we must learn and incorporate into Christian life. Notice that here, Jesus teaches about three losts, the first is the lost sheep, the second is the coin and third the lost son. Through these parables we can learn practical things that will help us fulfill the Great Commission.

This morning, we are going to look at the Parable of the Lost Coin. The coin mentioned in our text is worth the Roman denarius equivalent to a day’s wage for a laborer. That would be about 250 to 300 hundred pesos in our money today. That represents a school day’s allowance for somebody who is rich however; it also means a day of supply for a family’s need for a tricycle or jeepney driver. In way of speaking it was ordinary.

Too often as a custom in the Middle East, young married woman wear ten silver coins whether as adornment over their head or as necklace. This often comes from a part of the gift by the groom’s family to the couple. If so, these coins symbolize not just its actual monetary value but its sentimental value.

I do not need to tell the story again. It is very familiar to all of us.

1. The first thing needed for reaching the lost a sense of incompleteness or a sense of lost over the lost. 

The first thing that is needed to find the lost is a sense of lostness in our heart over the lost. I mentioned earlier that coin is just ordinary. It...