Beforehand: Be sure to check out Pastor Ben’s message online if you were not able to catch it on Sunday morning.

Below is the outline of Pastor Ben's message.

The Deep Six Study follows.

A Sheep … A Coin … A Boy - “The Missing”

1 – “Awkward Church” – Luke 15:1-2

2 – Lost Souls – Luke 15:3-7

3 – Law of Love – Luke 15:4

Deep Six Study

Introduction

Pursuing righteousness for ourselves without demanding it of others is a very difficult thing but is essential to effective kingdom work. Others need to feel there is a climate of welcome, acceptance, and love in our presence. Similarly, others need to feel there is a climate of welcome, acceptance, and love in our corporate presence (church). This is the key to reaching the lost. When others know we really care about them they become receptive to the message of Christ and the life of righteousness He wants to bring to them. When we are offended by unrighteous lifestyles, convey our displeasure, and impose our values, we unnecessarily alienate the very people that need us and the message of Christ the most. The lost desperately need to be rescued but how we go about it makes all the difference. This is the focus of our New Sermon Series and the Deep Six Study

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Part 1 - Corresponds to the first point of the message

 

Luke 15:1-2 – “Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!”

Matthew 9:10-13 – “Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, ‘Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?’ But when Jesus heard this, He said, ‘It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.’ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Luke 7:36-39 – “Now one of the Pharisees was requesting Him to dine with him, and He entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. And there was a woman in the city who was a sinner; and when she learned that He was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume, and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume. Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet He would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching Him, that she is a sinner.’”

Comment – Certainly, there was nothing wrong on Jesus’ part that resulted in such unrighteous people associating with Him nor was there anything wrong with Jesus associating with them. Granted there can be things that are wrong in having certain people associate with us and in turn our associating with them. Being a safe haven for a searching unbeliever is much different than running with them and participating in their sinful behavior. The Lord can so ground us in our relationship with Him that we become ones who do not waver in pursuing righteousness for ourselves and we, while not demanding that righteousness of others or being offended at their lack of it, welcome them, accept them, love them, and reach them with the message of Christ.

Question # 1 – Why do you think the tax collectors and other notorious sinners came to listen to Jesus?

Question # 2 – Can you think of something from recent experience that evidences that you are following the example of Jesus when it comes to who you involve yourself with?

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Part 2 - Corresponds to the second point of the message

Luke 15:3-7 - “So Jesus told them this story: “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!”

Romans 3:23-26 – “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Matthew 23:25-26 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

Comment – In 1 Corinthians 1:30 Paul says, “By His doing you are in Christ Jesus.” Our association with Christ is totally His doing. There is nothing we could be or do that would make it possible for us to warrant our relationship with Him. This is because no one is more sinful than anybody else and all thoroughly need the forgiveness and cleansing He offers on the basis of the sacrifice of Himself on the Cross for all. Often the reason we find it difficult to associate with unbelievers and are offended at their behavior is that we harbor within ourselves some measure of personal merit for our being connected to Christ. This is self righteousness and it is the very stuff that made hypocrites of the scribes and Pharisees and us if we do not let the Holy Spirit deliver us from it. Such a work of the Holy Spirit is crucial if we are going to be ones who effectively reach the lost.

Question # 3 – What struggles have you had with self-righteousness and how has it effected your involvement with others who need Christ?

Question # 4 – What is your assessment of the overall Christian community today in regard to the presence of self-righteousness and the problems that go with it?

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Part 3 – Corresponds to the third point of the message

Luke 15:4 – “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it?”

Luke 19:9-10 – “And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.’”

Romans 1:14-17 – “I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘but the righteous man shall live by faith.’”

Comment – Jesus said, “As the Father has sent Me, so send I you.” So, if when Jesus came to earth, His prevailing purpose was to seek and to save the lost, we must do the same. Paul embraced and pursued this as his prevailing purpose in life and he did it with eagerness. How readily and passionately we can look at others and critically see the presence of things that shouldn’t be and the absence of things that should be. Why do we concern ourselves with things that are missing from the lives of unbelievers when they are without Christ. Oh that we would be burdened with the fact that they are missing from the family of God and that we would become passionate about being the kind of people that unbelievers are drawn to because there is a climate of welcome, acceptance, and love in our presence individually and corporately that is inescapable.

Question # 5 – Where would you say you are in regard to being one who has made seeking and saving the lost the prevailing purpose of your life?

Question # 6 – How are you doing at pursuing this purpose in terms of passion and eagerness?

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Conclusion

We need to hang out with other sheep (small groups) in ways that strengthen us to live effectively in the world. How often believers hang out with each other in ways that do not contribute and even hinder their effectiveness at reaching the lost. Sometimes in hanging out with other believers we do so to the exclusion of associating with those who need to be reached. God is waiting to produce in us the love, acceptance, and passion we need for reaching the lost if we will let Him.

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Under “comments” in the Deep Six section of the church website post your thoughts, applications, and questions on anything from this week’s Deep Six Study.