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Hidden Treasure | Part 10 · Rewind

Rock Point Church

70 min

Pastor Daniel Goulding · Aug 5, 2019 · 4 min read · 70 min listen

The big idea

It's only when we realize we're lost that we can be truly found.

In this message

The big idea
Point 1 of 7Jesus tells this story to a crowd of notorious sinners and religious leaders who are equally lost, just in different directions.
Point 2 of 7The lost sheep and lost coin show that there is immeasurable value on lost things in God's kingdom.

Point 3 of 7The younger son's demand for his inheritance shows how sin looks appealing but leads to ruin.
Point 4 of 7The son's planned comeback speech reveals the false belief that worth must be earned rather than given through birth.
Point 5 of 7The father runs to meet his son while he's still far off, showing reckless, unashamed grace.
Point 6 of 7The older brother's anger exposes a second, quieter way of being lost: hiding in religion while far from God's heart.
Point 7 of 7Both rebellion and religion miss the heart of God; the only way home is to stop and admit we're lost.
Take it into your week
Transcript

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Scripture in this message

Luke 15
Luke 15:1
Luke 15:11
John 10:10
Luke 15:16
Luke 15:20

Rewind AI drafted the Big Idea and some point headings shown here from the sermon transcript. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Pastor Daniel Goulding · Aug 5, 2019 · 70 min watch · 2 min read

Hidden Treasure | Part 10

In this message

Big Idea
Key points
Application

Scripture in this message

Luke 15
Luke 15:1
Luke 15:11
John 10:10
Luke 15:16
Luke 15:20

Big Idea Key points Application

Big Idea

It's only when we realize we're lost that we can be truly found.

In the parable of the two lost sons, Jesus shows that every person is lost — whether by running from God like the younger son, or by hiding in religious self-righteousness like the older son. The good news is that God runs toward the lost, and worth in His family comes not through work, but through being born into it.

Key points

1
1Jesus tells this story to a crowd of notorious sinners and religious leaders who are equally lost, just in different directions.
Pastor Daniel sets the scene in Luke 15: tax collectors and notorious sinners are gathering to hear Jesus, which angers the Pharisees and religious teachers who are upset that Jesus eats with sinful people. Jesus responds not to a spoken question but to their unspoken resentment by telling a story.
2
2The lost sheep and lost coin show that there is immeasurable value on lost things in God's kingdom.
Jesus tells of a shepherd who leaves ninety-nine sheep to find one, and a woman who tears her house apart for one lost coin, both throwing parties that cost more than what was found was worth. Pastor Daniel explains this establishes that heaven celebrates when a lost person returns to God.
3
3The younger son's demand for his inheritance shows how sin looks appealing but leads to ruin.
Pastor Daniel paraphrases the son's request to leave home with his inheritance, tying it to how people treat God like a slot machine for what they want. He notes sin is fun for about five minutes, and sometimes God withholds or grants what we ask for so we learn what it really costs, ending with the son broke and eating from a pig's trough.
4
4The son's planned comeback speech reveals the false belief that worth must be earned rather than given through birth.
Pastor Daniel points out the son plans to ask to be a servant, not a son, because he believes he must work his way back into standing. Using an illustration of his own six-year-old son, he argues that sonship comes through birth, not performance, and that this truth wars against our deeply ingrained instinct to earn value.
5
5The father runs to meet his son while he's still far off, showing reckless, unashamed grace.
Pastor Daniel highlights how scandalous it would have been for a dignified old man to hike up his robe and run, and yet the father does exactly that, embracing and kissing his unwashed, undeserving son before he can even finish his rehearsed speech. The father restores him fully as a son, with a robe, ring, sandals, and a feast.
6
6The older brother's anger exposes a second, quieter way of being lost: hiding in religion while far from God's heart.
Pastor Daniel walks through the older son's refusal to celebrate, and his complaint that he has slaved for his father and gotten nothing, showing that he sees his relationship with the father in terms of earned wages, not love. Pastor Daniel applies this to cultural Christians and long-time churchgoers who go through religious motions, get angry at sacrificial giving, or judge broken people while missing their own self-righteousness.
7
7Both rebellion and religion miss the heart of God; the only way home is to stop and admit we're lost.
Pastor Daniel ties the message together with his brother's childhood experience of getting lost at Belmont Park and simply sitting down and waiting rather than wandering, arguing that in the same way, we should stop at the cross, remembering Jesus paid the price, rather than trying to fix ourselves or prove we've earned enough.

Application

Pastor Daniel's invitation is to stop where you are, admit you're lost, and let that be the moment you're found.

Stop trying to earn your way back
If you feel far from God because of choices you've made, stop rehearsing a comeback plan to work your way back into His favor and simply admit you're lost.
Recognize self-righteousness if you're the older brother
If you've been in church a long time, examine whether anger at grace shown to others, or going through religious motions, reveals a heart that's just as lost as anyone's.
Stop at the cross, not at your own effort
Rest in the truth that Jesus already paid the price rather than trying to fix yourself; let that be where you stop instead of wandering further.
Respond in prayer and communion
Take a moment during the song and communion to confess to God that you've sinned, then rest in what He did rather than promising to make it up to Him.

Take it into your week

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“If you guys have a bible, open up to Luke chapter 15. We are gonna be wrapping up our parable series this morning with arguably the most famous parable of all time”
From the transcript
“If you were to get stuck on an island and you can only take with you one chapter from the bible, I would say to take chap to take Luke 15 because in this parable, in these stories”
From the transcript
“So Luke chapter 15. Are you there? Yes. There we go. Verse one, it says that the tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach”
From the transcript
“So if you have your Bible, go to verse 11. Jump down to verse 11 with me. It says to illustrate this point further, Jesus told them this story. A man had two sons”
From the transcript
“Because in John ten ten, Jesus says that he's come so that you and I can have life and life abundantly. But there is a real enemy that wants to kill, steal, and destroy every single part of who we are”
From the transcript
“look at what the son does. It says in verse 16 that the young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him, but no one gave him anything”
From the transcript
“look at this how the father responds to the son's comeback speech. Verse 20. So he returns home to his father. Notice this. And while he was still a long ways off, his father saw him coming”
From the transcript
“Verse 25. It says, meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house”

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

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Day 1

Jesus is at a dinner table, and the room is full of tension. The religious leaders are grumbling because the wrong people have shown up — tax collectors, sinners, the kind of crowd that respectable folks avoided. And Jesus, rather than distancing Himself, is eating with them. Pastor Daniel pointed out that this scene is the whole reason Luke 15 exists. Jesus isn't telling these three parables in a vacuum; He's telling them directly to two kinds of people sitting in the same room: those who know they are far from God, and those who think they are close because they've been near the building for years. That's a quietly uncomfortable thought. It's easy to assume that showing up, knowing the songs, and understanding the language of church means we are close to the heart of God. But proximity is not the same as relationship. The Pharisees were as lost as the prodigal — they just couldn't see it yet. Before you can receive what the rest of this week has to offer, it helps to simply sit with the question Jesus was already raising: Which person in that room am I most like right now? Not as a judgment — just as an honest starting place. Jesus didn't pull back from either group. He sat down with both of them and started talking.

For reflection

When you picture yourself in that room, are you more drawn to the side of the table where the sinners are sitting, or the side where the religious leaders are standing — and what does that tell you?

Pray

Pray for honest self-awareness — that God would help you see clearly which kind of lostness might be closest to home right now.

Day 2

A shepherd with a hundred sheep leaves the ninety-nine to search for one. A woman with ten coins tears her house apart over one that is missing. In both cases, when the lost thing is found, a party breaks out. Pastor Daniel drew attention to something easy to glide past: heaven itself celebrates when even one lost person is found. Not a polite nod. A party. That tells us something important about how God values people. The one sheep wasn't worth more than the ninety-nine in any obvious, practical way. And yet the shepherd didn't do a quick cost-benefit calculation and move on. He went. The woman didn't shrug and say she still had nine coins. She lit a lamp and searched every corner. This is the heart Jesus is putting on display before He ever gets to the famous story of the two sons. Lostness is not a condition God observes from a distance with mild disappointment. It is something He responds to with urgent, costly pursuit. You are not a liability He is weighing. You are the coin He is looking for, the sheep He is already out on the hillside searching for. Let that land somewhere real today. The celebration in heaven isn't theoretical — it's personal. It's about you.

For reflection

What would it mean for your daily life to actually believe that you are someone God pursues with that kind of urgency and joy?

Pray

Pray that the image of a celebrating God — not a disappointed one — would become the truest picture in your mind when you think about coming back to Him.

Day 3

The younger son doesn't ease into his mistakes. He takes everything, leaves immediately, and burns through it all in what the text calls 'wild living.' And then the money runs out. Pastor Daniel was honest about something the story shows us plainly: sin is appealing in the moment, but it takes us to places we never planned to go. The younger son didn't set out to end up starving in a field, feeding pigs and wishing he could eat what they were eating. That wasn't the plan. It never is. There's no moralizing needed here — the story does that work on its own. What's worth sitting with is the trajectory. Small decisions compound. Distance from the Father doesn't usually happen in one dramatic leap; it accumulates in a series of steps that each felt reasonable at the time. But notice what the text doesn't say. It doesn't say God caused the suffering to punish him. It doesn't say the Father was watching with crossed arms. The consequences were simply the natural end of the road the son had chosen. And even in the worst of it — even in the pig trough — the story isn't over. The Father hasn't moved. He's still at home. And that is where we're headed tomorrow.

For reflection

Is there an area of your life where you can see a slow drift happening — a direction you're heading that, if you're honest, isn't leading somewhere good?

Pray

Pray for the courage to name honestly where you are right now, without dressing it up — and for the grace to believe the Father is not surprised or finished with you.

Day 4

This is the hinge of the whole chapter. The son has rehearsed his speech. He's planned it out: 'I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Just make me a hired servant.' It's practical. It's humble, even. He's ready to work his way back into some kind of standing. And then he looks up and sees his father — already running. Pastor Daniel made this point clearly: our best attempts to negotiate our way back to God will always leave us falling short. The son never even finished his apology. The father interrupted it with a robe, a ring, sandals, and a feast. He wasn't waiting for the plan to be executed. He was already running down the road. The word 'while he was still a long way off' is doing a lot of work here. The Father didn't wait for the son to clean up, get close, or prove the repentance was real. He ran at the sight of him. That's not a Father tallying up what you owe. That's a Father who has been scanning the horizon. Wherever you are today — a long way off, mid-journey, or just beginning to turn around — this is the picture Jesus is holding up. God is not waiting to see how well you do. He's already moving toward you.

For reflection

What 'plan to fix yourself' have you been working on before feeling ready to come back to God — and what might it look like to stop and let Him run to you instead?

Pray

Pray for the humility to let go of the rehearsed speech — to simply turn toward the Father and trust that He is already running.

Day 5

Pastor Daniel referenced this verse in the context of why lostness matters so much — because what Jesus came to offer is not just rescue from something but life in its fullest form. 'I came that they may have life and have it abundantly' (ESV). That word 'abundantly' isn't about comfort or ease. It's about a quality of life that is only possible in relationship with the Father. The younger son in the far country wasn't just poor and hungry. He was cut off from something that had always been his. The inheritance he wasted wasn't only financial — it was relational. And what he came home to wasn't just food and shelter. It was sonship restored. This matters because the gospel isn't primarily a set of rules avoided or boxes checked. It's an invitation into a life that only starts when the relationship is real. That's why Pastor Daniel pressed so hard on the difference between religious routine and actual relationship. You can be in the Father's house and still be living well below what was always meant for you. The abundant life Jesus describes isn't waiting until you have everything figured out. It starts the moment you stop trying to earn your place and simply receive what He has already made available — belonging, identity, and a seat at the table.

For reflection

In what ways might you be settling for a lesser version of the life Jesus describes — going through motions rather than living in real relationship with the Father?

Pray

Pray for a fresh hunger for the life Jesus actually promises — not just religious activity, but genuine, daily closeness with God.

Day 6

The older brother is out in the field when the party starts. He hears the music, asks a servant what's going on, and when he finds out, he refuses to go in. His complaint is striking in its precision: 'I have never disobeyed your commands. I've been here the whole time. And you never threw me a party.' Pastor Daniel held this up as a mirror. The older brother has been in the house, doing the work, following the rules — and he is furious when grace shows up for someone he thinks doesn't deserve it. That anger is a symptom of something underneath: he was never doing any of it out of love for his father. He was doing it to earn something. And when the accounting didn't add up the way he expected, everything came out. Self-righteousness is its own kind of being lost. It just comes with better camouflage. You can be physically present and spiritually absent. You can know all the right answers and still have a heart that is far from the Father's. The older brother's story doesn't get a tidy ending in the parable. The father goes out to him — the same pursuing love, the same invitation. But we don't know if he went in. That open ending may be the point. The question Jesus is leaving with the religious leaders — and with us — is simply: will you come in?

For reflection

Have you ever found yourself frustrated when grace seemed to show up for someone you felt hadn't earned it? What does that reaction reveal about what you believe about grace?

Pray

Pray for a softening of any self-righteousness that might be keeping you at a distance from the Father's heart — and for the grace to want the party as much as the Father does.

Day 7

Coming back to the whole chapter today is worth doing slowly. Three stories, one heart. A sheep, a coin, two sons — and in every case, the same pattern: something lost, someone searching with reckless love, and a celebration when what was lost is found. Pastor Daniel's challenge at the end of the sermon was plain: the move is the same for everyone in the room, regardless of which character you most resemble. Stop. Don't try to work your way back or talk God through your plan. Just stop at the cross, where Jesus already paid the full price, and let the Father bring you home. That's the whole sermon in two sentences, and it's worth sitting with all week. As you close out this week, consider what has shifted. Has any part of how you see God changed? Has the mirror of the older brother shown you something you needed to see? Has the image of the Father running down the road become more real? Worth before God is not earned. It is given — received through relationship, not performance. That's not a truth you graduate from. It's one you return to, probably every week, maybe every day. And the good news is that every time you turn back toward home, the Father is already running.

For reflection

Looking back over this week, which of the three parables spoke most directly to where you are right now — and what is one concrete thing you want to carry forward from it?

Pray

Pray for the courage to stop — whatever that looks like for you today — and to receive what the Father has already made available at the cross.

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

These three parables in Luke 15 picture two very different kinds of people standing at a distance from God — and a Father who runs toward both of them. Take a moment to recall what stood out to you from this message before we dig in together.

Discussion questions

1
Luke 15:1-2 opens with two groups listening to Jesus: tax collectors and sinners on one side, and the Pharisees and scribes on the other. Why do you think Jesus tells the same set of parables to both groups at the same time?
2
In the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin, the shepherd and the woman both drop everything and search until they find what was lost — and then throw a party. What does that pattern of response suggest about how God sees a single lost person?
3
When the younger son finally 'came to his senses' in Luke 15:17, he still had a whole speech prepared — a plan to talk his way back into the household as a hired servant. How does the father's response in verse 20 compare to what the son was expecting, and what does that gap tell us about how God responds to someone who turns back toward Him?
4
Pastor Daniel pointed out that worth before God comes through birth, not through work — a child is a son by birth, not by performance. How does that idea push back against the way people commonly think about earning a place with God?
5
The older brother in Luke 15:25-30 has stayed close to home, worked hard, and followed the rules — yet he stands outside the party, angry. What does his reaction reveal about what he believed he was working toward all along?
6
Pastor Daniel challenged us that whether we identify more with the younger son or the older brother, the move is the same: stop, admit we are lost, and let the Father bring us home rather than trying to fix ourselves first. What might it look like practically for a community like ours to live in a way that reflects that kind of grace — especially toward people we might think don't deserve it?

Pray together

A Father who runs toward us while we are still a long way off — and the freedom of receiving worth as a gift rather than earning it

Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI

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Hidden Treasure

Week 10 · 8 messages

Where these passages are preached

Luke 15 John 10

Explore related topics

Being Lost and Found God's Pursuing Love Grace Over Works Self-Righteousness Spiritual Rebirth The Prodigal Son

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