Well, a very good morning. And we continue, as we've been doing over the months with our family services, most part anyway, looking at these. At least some of these are parables of Jesus. Stories that tell us something about God, tell us something about ourselves, how we can find him, the promises that he makes to us if we believe in him. And well, this morning, well, it's a very straightforward one in many ways. A parable of the lost sheep. So we'll put the words up there. Well known, I am sure, many of the details there, we could rehearse them and speak of them ourselves there. The great story that the Lord Jesus told about that one sheep out of the hundreds, this shepherd, of course, shepherds, there are plenty of them in that day and that age there in Israel, all the sheep that they were looking after and out in their fields. So this one sheep that goes astray, doesn't it? And the shepherd is diligent, It doesn't say, well, got 99, that's good enough, isn't it? No, that one, I want to recover it, I want that sheep back with me, safe here, in my protection. And of course, the story has a happy ending in that way, that the sheep is found wherever it was, however it had got lost, whatever had been the circumstances, and he brings the sheep back on his shoulder rejoicing, and then tells all his neighbours, rejoice with me, that sheep that was lost, I have found it. There is, well, a happy ending. Although we have to wonder, for those to whom particularly it was told, whether they got the message or not. So, our sheep, there is one here, There we are, no expense spared. There is an example of the same there. If you see some stripes on it, it's not because it's a hybrid of some rare origin. I think our printer there is just being a little grumpy. There's one. Now it's in the meadow. That one is very strifey, isn't it there? There we go. But he's out there, the long grass, you can imagine him, her, bleating away there, looking for help to come somewhere, somehow, whatever reason that that sheep had wandered off. What a situation to be in. Sheep. They've not much sense, have they, there? They've little wisdom. They don't work things out. They don't plan ahead and think, well, if I do this, then that will happen, so I won't do that. They just wander off. If they saw some grass over there or something that looked good to have a chew at, off they'd go, irrespective of the dangers that might be around them and about them. And there are a stripy version, again, of the dangers, but anyway, Wolf. All right. Wolf. Wolves could be around. Here's one with an expression to go with it. Snarling away, wolf and sheep. That equals bad news for sheep. Doesn't need much of a biology lesson, I'm sure, there to convince you of that fact. Not good news. Sheep out there, lost, wandering around, clueless, unable to find its way home. Disaster. wolves rather smarter creatures predatory they know where to look for these wandering sheep and their hungry beasts their end of sheep could end really really sadly couldn't all the sheep falls off a cliff or any number of disasters could befall it senseless stupid in that way and foolish can't think straight no reasoning powers open to the wolves or any other danger that might be presenting itself there. That's what that is, isn't it? A kind of background of the story and the lost sheep and the kinds of dangers that you can imagine the sheep was in. But here is the thing, you know, when you read the Bible, read it carefully. Read the details. Because, of course, this parable started off because there were the Pharisees and there were the scribes. They weren't happy. Because the people that were drawing near to hear the Lord Jesus were people that they regarded as really no hopers, people that you really shouldn't have anything to do with. tax collectors, sinners in the kind of big sense, people who really, really have done outrageously bad things, been friendly to the Romans, lived very unclean lives, people that could not have a hope of finding God or finding the favor of God. And yet these people were coming near to here. And we read that the Pharisees and the scribes complained. They complained. And we're going to come back to them in a moment. We're going to start, well the obvious place to start with our sheep here that's wandered off, but we're going to remember that actually the Pharisees and the scribes were meant to notice all that takes place in this. Now I'm sure they would have worked out, yes, sheep, something foolish, gone away, well there we are, that's what sheep do. And of course that is a picture of us, a danger to ourselves. Without God, without knowing Him, without a relationship with Him, that's us, we're gone. We are clueless. We don't know ourselves properly. We don't know what we're capable of, the horrible things we're capable of. We might think we've got it sorted and we're gonna head out on our own, but it's a disaster. Without God, we are a danger to ourselves. The kinds of choices that we make, the kinds of decisions, we don't know what we're doing. And the results can be disaster today and tomorrow and the day after. And we can set a course which actually leaves us there in great difficulty for the future. We can be a danger to ourselves, bringing great damage and wreckage and harm. Well, okay. Don't think there are too many wolves in this country, though. I think I heard we're introducing them in some places, perhaps. But anyway, not a harm to man, not in and of themselves, but we can imagine. Behind that, a picture of the devil, great harm, great damage, looking to devour, looking to chase you off into the wilderness so that you're spiritually dead, ruined, and wrecked. A danger to ourselves when we're just wandering like that, which is what we're all like by nature. That's us all by nature. We're a danger to others because we're making bad choices, we're setting ourselves up wrong there. We're a danger to others. We can interfere with their finding of God, or their discovery of God's goodness and grace. We're barging all over the place there, and interfering with other people in an unhelpful way, and our relationships, we're bad in those, and so we leave a trail of disaster everywhere. That's what, if you like that sheep, well, it looks sort of harmless enough there, but really, that's us. We're wandering, we're a danger to ourselves, we're a danger to others. And here's the final sad, sad fact. We are in danger of hell. We're in danger of hell. We're in danger of living and staying confirmed as that sheep out there, clueless, without God, without any knowledge of self and doing all kinds of things that are damaging to self and to others. There's the end of it. Danger of hell. That we never change. We're never discovered. We're never found. We're lost. And we remain there, not with a happy ending, but with a sad ending. God's condemnation of us for our sin, our rebellion, and for going off wandering as we do, and damaging ourselves and others. Ultimately, it's against God. All of this, and there's the final verdict. Danger of hell. It has a happy ending. Because of course the wondrous thing is, yes, as the parable tells us, the Lord Jesus Christ came looking for sinners. He came looking for people who were a danger to themselves, others who were in danger of hell, who were walking away from God, who weren't doing what he wanted them to do. And so he died on the cross that their rebellion ended, that they could then trust in a saviour who could forgive them and bring them back to himself. And there's all the rejoicing. God delights, show mercy, he's rejoicing in that. But the question, in a sense, that I want us just to look at next, so we just move that over to the side there, there's our lost sheep, that's us by nature, Christ has come looking for those, but here is a question you might ask yourself. What about the 99 sheep? What about them? The 99 sheep, seemingly, who hadn't wandered, and they were just staying put, and the shepherd has to go out to look for these really out of order, wandering around everywhere sheep, these clueless ones. Are these 99 sheep smart sheep? Have they just somehow worked it out? Because we might think, well, it's said at the end of the parable, well, there are 99 just persons who don't need to repent. So these are the sort of minority group here. There are a few like this. Well, they might need some religion, if you like, or they might need God's help. But there are 99 others who really are just doing pretty good and pretty fine. Of course, in the parable, the Lord Jesus was saying, the 99 sheep are not actually in a good place at all. Because really, they're the scribes and the Pharisees. That's what they thought of themselves, that they were with God. They don't go wandering. They're not sinners like the tax collectors. They're not the sort that will get into these scrapes like these sheep wandering around the hills. They've sussed it out. They're just people. and they don't need to repent. And you see, the Lord's inviting them to reconsider. For here's the lost sheep, and what's the reaction of God? Well, God's reaction is to rejoice. And the sinners that turn from their sin and believe in his Son, they're rejoicing in heaven. And the shepherd himself, and the picture is obviously there for the Lord Jesus, isn't it? He's rejoicing. And the Pharisees and the scribes are meant to think, why aren't we rejoicing then? Why don't we feel the same way? To ask themselves some questions. That there they are, we're the 99 sheep, we're okay, we haven't gone wandering, we don't need this sort of help. But then maybe we do. That the parable was being spoken in their hearing so that they could begin to ask themselves, why aren't we rejoicing? If this is God's heart and his heart is towards What to them were people way outside, way off the scale. Obviously, as we're hearing it here, rejoicing is what we should be doing. They're the tax collectors, they're the sinners we call, crowding in to listen. They're getting great benefit and help. That should be great news. Because it isn't for this 99, for the Pharisees and the scribes. It was interesting, as I thought about this, these 99, because you hear today, I don't know whether you've heard, but you do hear quite a bit, I think, about these so-called safe spaces, right? Safe spaces that the people, particularly after university and college and the rest of it, but it's on the internet as well, that we've got to have safe spaces. where we don't hear anything we don't like, where we don't have to meet with ideas that challenge us and that make us unhappy and angry. No, we want a safe space where all we hear are things we agree with and things that we like and things that don't challenge us, and then we can be peaceful and we can enjoy the situation we're in and not have to hear all your horrible other ideas out there. uh-huh safe spaces question that's that's the world actually into this at the minute that christian ideas and christian teaching we'll keep that away we we want a safe space with we've got it together where we are we don't need to listen we don't need this help from god god doesn't have to do anything for us we're sorted we're in our nice safe space 99 sheep we're just persons, we don't need to repent, we don't go wandering off, we're too sensible for that, we are. And there we have perhaps a modern parallel for our 99 sheep who really, although you might think well hey they're smart, weren't smart at all. This is the Pharisees and the scribes not listening and locking themselves into their so-called safe spaces and thinking we don't need to hear any of this. We don't need to change. We don't need to look at what God is doing for these people. I think that's wonderful. No, we are going to stay aloof, detached from it. We're going to defend ourselves against it and find lots of reasons not to like the Lord Jesus and to sneer at people who are finding him. bit like today. See, there's nothing new under the sun. What you find there in the Bible, way back in this agricultural society, I don't know any shepherds, do you? I see a few sheep in the fields but don't know much more than that about them. But what they are showing us here is what people are like today, and what we might be like. that we can think ourselves a bit superior to this. We don't really need to hear these things that, you know, God doesn't need to come looking for me. I've got this wonderful set of ideas and I'm in my safe space and I'm going to keep out any other ideas that come and interfere with me. I'd say that's disastrous. It was disastrous for the Pharisees and the scribes that if they didn't learn from this parable and begin to rejoice and see that actually, we're like this son, actually, we're not in a good place, we're like this lost sheep, we need saving. How grateful we should then be that we've got to save you. We don't know how they reacted in the end to the story. Because it gets developed a bit more, actually. We'll come to this one next time, which is a parable of the prodigal son. Because if you remember in that, there's the elder brother. And that's like the 99 sheep who, he stayed behind, didn't he? Looks like he did the right thing. Or did he? Because the attitude that he has, and we'll look at that in a month or so, tells us, no, it wasn't all good. Any more than with the 99. thinking we're sorted, we don't need to hear this, everything's fine, we hear ideas from here and there and they're great ideas and in fact we think this religion and this cross of Christ and thinking ourselves as sinners needing salvation is really harmful and will keep it away from our door. That's not a safe space. That's a disastrous space. That's a dead space. That's a space that will in the end bring us down to that very place. We're in danger of hell in that place. So in a way, with these parables there, we've got to look at the details, haven't we? And see the different parts that fit together. But there's the lost sheep. Right, we get that. We get that. But what about the 99? What's their attitude? What's their way of thinking? And is that me? So the call to us, if that's us, is repent. Turn away from it. You are actually in your safe space, a danger to yourself, a danger to others, a danger of hell. You stay there and don't begin to make the journey which the Pharisees and the scribes who are complaining away and not happy at all until you move away from that position and begin to see That's me. I am lost. I'm not together. I'm not just. I do need to repent. I've got within my heart things I know that are unclean, pure, wrong, selfish, and these offend God. So you turn away from that and see the happy ending. There's a good shepherd looking for lost sheep, calling them, calling them. call upon him, he's near, and he will take hold of you, take you from danger, bring you to himself, and like there in the story, literally but Really, in a sense there, we can't underdo this. He embraces us, places us as if on His shoulders, and calls upon all heaven to rejoice at that one sinner that's repented. Are you that one sinner today? Are you that lost sheep today that the Lord is calling for whom He died upon the cross? He's calling, and they'll be rejoicing in heaven. I love that He will bestow upon you in kindness today always. So, where are you? Lost sheep? One of the 99 sheep? Do you hear God calling you? Repent and believe this wonderful, wonderful news. May the Lord bless each of you.