Hidden Treasure | Part 10 · Rewind

Hidden Treasure | Part 10 · Rewind

Pastor Daniel Goulding · Aug 5, 2019

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

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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”

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.

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

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Topics

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

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