Background Story: Jesus used parables or stories to teach those around the truths of who He is.

Read Luke 15: 1-7

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. ² But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

³ Then Jesus told them this parable: ⁴ “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? ⁵ And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶ and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ ⁷ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

Big Idea: God’s love is relentless.

If you’ve ever done a puzzle, sometimes you find an “almost-piece” and try to make it fit by squishing it and twisting it to force it in the missing place. Our heart is a puzzle created with a space that only God can complete. We can try to fill it with a person, success, money, popularity, drugs, and sex. But in the end, they are fake imitations that never bring lasting satisfaction. If they did, we would see celebrities satisfied and content. But they are searching just like everyone else.

From the moment of your birth, God has been after you with His incredible love. When we ignored Him and lived our lives as if He didn’t exist, He was pursuing us. Even at our worst, God’s love has been relentless. Romans 5:8 says that, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus doesn’t ask us to get it all together, be better, do better, or look better before we can respond to Him. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep to come after the one who is lost reaching out to them with His nail marked hands.

How do we respond to this kind of love? We take this life given to us by God and we give it back to Him. This is the act of surrender. We surrender our lives to Him by: 1) recognizing that we are sinners in need of a Savior 2) acknowledging that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross and rose from the grave 3) placing our faith and trust in Him as Lord of our life. Lordship means that we surrender control and place our lives in His hands. Your Creator fashioned and designed you to find true satisfaction and joy only in Him. Look up today… the Good Shepherd is reaching out to you.

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