Lost and Found!

Wanted: A way to make sure of my salvation. Wanted: A ticket to heaven. This is what Paul said he had. He had confidence in his flesh. He had to loose his confidence in himself before he could find the true way to heaven.

What are you putting your confidence in? This is concerning your eternal future. What will happen to you when your flesh dies? Are you sure that you are going?

A young Filipino, travelling in Chicago , registered at the Hotel Sherman. Taking a walk, he became lost. He was ignorant of the name, location, and appearance of the hotel, and so was unable to find it again. Consequently, he selected another room in the Hotel Astor. Unwilling to acknowledge to the authorities that he was lost, he tried for five days to find the place where he had deposited his baggage.

Unsuccessful, he finally appealed to the authorities. The police soon found his original registration place, and informed him that for five days he had been living next door to the place where he had left his baggage. Although so near, he lost five days’ peace of mind, five days’ time, and five days’ use of his baggage all because he would not tell an officer that he was LOST. No one should entertain any fears about telling the Lord that they are lost, confessing, “I have gone astray like a lost sheep.”—Tom Olson ^{^[1]}

Scripture Text: Phil 3:4 (NIV) though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel , of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. 7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

What did Paul find in his quest for eternal Life? He found a blinding light on the road?

1. Lost: Our confidence in our flesh. Here are some of our attempts to become like God and gain entry to heaven.

· True Value of knowing Christ the Lord. I know Jesus now as my Lord and Savior.

1Joh 5:11 (NIV) And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

· If you are a Lost sinner then you can become found in Christ. How? Faith! You must believe that Jesus can and will save you.

· I want to know the power of his resurrection… I want to live forever with Him. Without Him I can do nothing. But with Him all things are possible.

· I want to know the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death.

A museum in Deadwood, S.D., displays this inscription left by a beleaguered prospector: “I lost my gun. I lost my horse. I am out of food. The Indians are after me. But I’ve got all the gold I can carry.”— Washington Post^{^[2]}

• He who provides for this life, but takes no care for eternity, is wise for a moment, but a fool forever. —Tillotson^{^[3]}

D. L. Moody told: “An old man got up in one of our meetings and said, “I have been forty-two years learning three things.” I pricked up my ears at that. I thought if I could find out in three minutes what a man had taken forty-two years to learn, I should like to do it. The first thing he said he had learned was that he could do nothing toward his own salvation. “Well,” I said to myself, “that is worth learning.” The second thing he found out was that God did not require him to do anything. Well, that was worth finding out, too. And the third thing was that the Lord Jesus Christ had done it all, that salvation was finished, and that all he had to do was to take it. Dear friends, let us learn this lesson. Let us give up struggling and striving, and accept salvation at once.”—Moody Monthly^{^[4]}

At the close of a religious service a gentleman approached Dr. D. M. Stearns with a criticism. “I don’t like your way of preaching,” he said. “I do not care for all this talk about Christ dying for the lost. Instead of preaching the death of Christ on the cross, it’s better to be up-to-date. Preach Jesus, the teacher and example.” “Would you then be willing to follow Him if I preach Christ as the great example?” asked Dr. Stearns, “I would,” said the gentleman, “I will follow in His steps.”“Then,” said Dr. Stearns, “let us take the first step. “Who did no sin,” as we read in I Peter 2:22 . Can you take this step?” The critic seemed confused. “No,” he said, “I do sin, I must admit.” “Well, then,” said Dr. Stearns, “your first need of Christ is not as an example but as a Savior.”—Clarence Jones^{^[5]}

^{^[1]}Tan, P. L. (1996, c1979). Encyclopedia of 7700 illustrations : [a treasury of illustrations, anecdotes, facts and quotations for pastors, teachers and Christian workers]. Garland TX : Bible Communications.

^{^[2]}Tan, P. L. (1996, c1979). Encyclopedia of 7700 illustrations : [a treasury of illustrations, anecdotes, facts and quotations for pastors, teachers and Christian workers]. Garland TX : Bible Communications.

^{^[3]}Tan, P. L. (1996, c1979). Encyclopedia of 7700 illustrations : [a treasury of illustrations, anecdotes, facts and quotations for pastors, teachers and Christian workers]. Garland TX : Bible Communications.

^{^[4]}Tan, P. L. (1996, c1979). Encyclopedia of 7700 illustrations : [a treasury of illustrations, anecdotes, facts and quotations for pastors, teachers and Christian workers]. Garland TX : Bible Communications.

^{^[5]}Tan, P. L. (1996, c1979). Encyclopedia of 7700 illustrations : [a treasury of illustrations, anecdotes, facts and quotations for pastors, teachers and Christian workers]. Garland TX : Bible Communications.