Because of Jesus... I am Found

When I was growing up, one of the highlights of my summer was church camp. I loved being in that Christian environment for a week, memorizing scripture, doing silly skits, making new friends, swimming in the pool, and all the games and challenges they had for us. One year we had a giant game of hide and seek where all the campers went and hid and the staff got the job of “seeking.”

Our camp had a nice wooded area in the back, not a deep forest by any stretch of the imagination, but generally wooded, and I found this awesome hiding place in the bushes beneath a large tree. Any serious hide and seek player knows that absolute stillness is a must if you don’t want to get caught, so after I slithered down under the bushes, I made myself comfortable and didn’t move. Now remember that it was dark out, and deep into a week of church camp – lots of activities and less than optimal amounts of sleep… so down in the bushes, I fell asleep. When I woke up, at first I didn’t know where I was, and when I realized that I was in the bushes under a tree, I didn’t know how long I had been there. I certainly didn’t want to stick my head up and look around, because I didn’t want to get caught. When I finally did look out, there was nobody around, but I could hear some noise, so I followed the noise to the chapel, where everyone had gathered after the game. Maybe I’d won the game with that great hiding place, but it didn’t feel like winning. It felt like being lost and not being found.

Being lost is awful. And worse than that, it is our human condition. And much worse than my situation in the woods, our human condition is such that we are unable to just stand up and walk to where everyone is.

We are lost, hopelessly lost. God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place. Whoever found them devoured them; their enemies said, ‘We are not guilty, for they sinned against the Lord, their true pasture, the Lord, the hope of their fathers.’ (Jeremiah 50:6-7)

I find God’s word choice fascinating here. God is describing his own people as lost sheep. It can be easy to get into an “us and them” mindset, that we are the found and “they” are lost, but remember that God is describing his own people as lost, led astray by their own shepherds. This is just an aside here, not really part of this sermon, but please take care and make sure that the people you are listening to and people who you are leading you are speaking words of biblical truth, because any of us can be led astray. This goes for my words, as well; check the scriptures to make sure anything you are hearing matches with the Bible. If it doesn’t, the Bible isn’t the one going astray.

If anyone has ever gotten lost in the woods, you’ll know that every tree starts to look the same. And when you’re lost, we tend to roam. We think we know the way out, but we just manage to get ourselves more lost. I remember when my high school friend went to Chicago – the one thing he wanted to see was Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs. When he returned, I asked him if he’d made it to Wrigley. He hadn’t. He thought that he would be able to see it from the highway, that the stadium would be big enough to dwarf everything around it.

For a small-town teenager, it was almost inconceivable that he wouldn’t be able to see the stadium while driving through the city. As Christians, we sometimes take for granted that the lost should be able to see God at work and should know to call out to him. After all, Romans 1 tells us that For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:20)

But those who have been led astray have forgotten their resting place.

And, again, that is the human condition. Every one of us, no matter who we are, started out lost. In Psalm 51:5, King David acknowledges: Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Every one of us shares this state. From the time when Adam and Eve introduced sin into the world, we were each born sinful. This is why nobody has to teach a child to be selfish. It comes naturally.

And not only are we sinful from birth, but we continue to sin. Romans 3:23 reminds us that All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I don’t think I have to explain this much. Anyone want to dispute this? Even those we would see as the most righteous would define themselves as being sinners. Even the Apostle Paul refers to himself as the “worst of sinners” in 1 Timothy 15-16.

When Jeremiah was describing what happened to God’s lost sheep, he said whoever found them devoured them. This is what happens to the lost. Because sin came into the world, so did death. Romans 6:23 reminds us that The wages of sin is death. Death is what happens to lost people, but not only physical death, but spiritual death as well. We were dead in our sins as Ephesians 2:1 reminds us. (As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins). Furthermore, to continue in lostness is to risk eternal death as well. Revelation 20:14-15 describes the lake of fire, the second death. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. This is bad news.

But there is good news. In Ezekiel 34:1, God declares: “I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.”

In one way, this thought makes me laugh. Can you imagine playing hide-and-seek with God? He stops counting and immediately says, “I see you; you’re hiding behind the sound booth.” In Genesis 3, after Adam and Eve sinned and now they’re ashamed and hiding from God, and God called to the man, “Where are you?” It’s not as if God couldn’t find them; they hadn’t fooled him. God wasn’t startled when Adam came out from the bushes. But God claims he will search for the lost. Meaning he will find us.

This is God’s character. In Matthew 18:12-14, Jesus tells a parable. “If a man owns a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.”

So God goes out searching for us. But remember, our sin that separates us from God. It creates a barrier through that God cannot ignore. So no matter how much seeking happens, we are lost.

Except for one thing. Jesus. When God finds us, he leads us to Jesus. Jesus, who is called Emmanuel, meaning “God with us.” If God is with us, we are found. In the story of Zacchaeus the tax collector, the final word is from Jesus: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke 19:10)

This is who Jesus is and what Jesus does. Because of Jesus, I am Found. Without him, there is no hope whatsoever. And without him, we are hopelessly lost.

Christmas is not just about a baby in a manger. Yes, we celebrate Jesus’ birthday, but we celebrate his birthday in a way that we don’t celebrate any other birthdays, because his birth means that we are found. If you read the Christmas story closely, you will find that it’s a story of being found. At first glance, it seems like people are finding Jesus, but that’s not exactly what happens. The shepherds certainly seem to find Jesus, don’t they? But in reality, it’s Jesus who finds them. They didn’t go searching for Him; an angel went searching for them! And the Magi came from the east, searching for Jesus, didn’t they? But indeed, it was Jesus, whose star sought out the Magi. So in these scriptures, it is the shepherds and the Magi who are found.

Last week I read to you Jeremiah 29:11:“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

But listen to the rest of this passage: Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” Jeremiah 29:12-14

God calls us to seek Him, but the truth is, it is He who is seeking us.

But did you ever think of it this way: just being found is not the end goal of the world. Can you imagine a hide-and-seek game where you go around finding people who then stay in their hiding places? No, the goal is to allow God to bring us to Himself. This is how the camper hunt game I described at the beginning of this message was supposed to work (you know, the one where I stayed hidden): when a staff member found a camper, that camper would go with the staffer and together they would look for the next camper. Before long, there would be a large group of kids all gathered around each staff member, and they walked around, you’d have kids finding other kids.

This is how the Christian life works as well. Found people find people. This is not just a slogan; it’s actually the way God ordained it to happen. God told Abram, “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:3b) and this is exactly what happened. Through the line of Abraham, Jesus was born, a blessing to the whole world. The Bible tells us that “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Romans 10:13-15.

Friends, we are those with beautiful feet. Turn to the person next to you and tell them, “You have beautiful feet!” – they are beautiful because you bring good news. The Good News is that Jesus is beckoning to those who are lost to step out of those hiding places. He is sufficient for each of us.