BIG IDEA
Value is found in searching for and sharing in God's heart.
MESSAGE NOTES:
WHAT:
Let’s face it, isolation became our new normal. And that’s never good.
I think 2020 killed ghosting and even killed “left on read.” Because that was just the new standard. We all got really good at hiding from each other. I think the majority of us, me included, struggled to keep in touch and respond to each other.
Loneliness led to further isolation which just made other people feel lonelier and more isolated.
It’s tough to stay in relationship with others when you’re searching for your own sense of value and worth.
I don’t think the problem was simply because we didn’t want to do Zoom or online. Because of whatever we were going through, many of us simply didn’t want to be found.
And what I realized is that many of us were hiding not because we didn’t like the new ways we could connect. We were doing it because we didn’t want people to know how much we were struggling. We could hide and not be found.
If you’ve asked yourself, “Who am I even?” in this season, you’ve experienced on some level a sense of lost identity and value.
SO WHAT:
Your question may have become: "Does God still love me? Does Jesus still value me? Maybe now, I’m just too far gone from him." These are scary questions and thoughts to grapple with about who God is and what does he think about me.
Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Luke 15:8-10 ESV
He concludes each story with showing us that the celebration is exactly what God does when he finds those who think they are too gone from him.
This is the first time for many of the people listening to Jesus to see God as someone who loves them enough to search them out. It’s brand new information to see themselves as so loved by God that he celebrates when he finds people that were "too far gone” in their hiding from him.
What I want you to see is if you have been hiding from God because of how you feel about you, God hasn’t changed how he feels about you.
Our sense of value doesn’t have to come from us.
Real value: God searches for us so that he can share with us.
NOW WHAT:
The high value God places on us show us how to repent towards him. If you want to be found in Jesus, if you want to experience God’s value he’s placed on you, you simply practice back his heart. You search for and share with God.
Value is found in searching for and sharing in God’s heart.
Allow him to find you.
Search for his heart.
Share everything with him as he shares everything with you.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
Q1: Have you ever accidentally thrown something away that you regretted? What was it?
Q2: What are some mistakes or poor decisions that people your age sometimes make?
Q3: How might someone’s mistakes or poor decisions disconnect them from people they love? What about from God?
Q4: Have you ever felt far away from God? Why do you think you felt that way? How did you get close to God again?
Q5: What do you think our church can do to be more welcoming to others — especially people who have wandered away from God?