In the parable of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin (Luke 15:1-10), we see God’s plan of salvation, as well as His involvement in seeking out, finding, restoring, and rejoicing in His lost people. Rather than hiring somebody to go out and search for us, God sought us out Himself, because He is personally interested in each one of us. God took it upon Himself to rescue us despite (in spite of our sin) and carry us on his shoulders as a shepherd would with a lamb--taking our sins to the cross. What we could never do for ourselves, He did, and that is amazing grace.
This sermon series is loosely based on Tim Keller's book, The Prodigal God. Many people have issues that the book, and the sermon series is titled this way because of the term "prodigal." We associate "prodigal" negatively, but the truth is that there are different understandings of the word.
Prodigal can mean "wasteful" or "reckless," like the story of the younger son in Luke 15. Prodigal can also mean "lavishly abundant" as it does in the context of God and His grace.Our God has lavished His grace on us in a sense that is reckless. That doesn't mean He doesn't call more out us and change us, but it does mean that He welcomes home all of us that have been wasteful of the life He has given us as He shapes us into the children we were always meant to be.
