Join Pastor Jack Hibbs on a journey through the Parable of the Lost Sheep, a touching reminder of God’s unyielding love and desire for unity with His people. This episode offers a reflection on the importance of joy over fleeting happiness by embracing God’s steadfast nature. Through relatable stories and biblical teachings, listeners are encouraged to cultivate a deeper connection with God, exploring what it truly means to be one of His cherished lambs.
God is speaking to you tonight, and you’re realizing, oh my goodness, I thought I loved God, but I’ve been upset with Him the whole time. Then you need to stop, back up, evaluate your faith, and find out if you truly are one of God’s lambs. Are you in the sheepfold? Are you His?
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This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God’s Word, the Bible. You ever feel like your Christian values are under constant assault? In a world where biblical truth is often labeled hateful or backward, how do we stand firm without becoming combative or isolated? Pastor Jack Hibbs wants to help you find answers with this month’s featured resource, When Culture Hates You. It’s written by Natasha Crane. And in this straight-talking book, you’ll discover how to tackle tough conversations, maintain biblical convictions, and respond to cultural hostility with both grace and truth. Now, think of it as your essential guide for navigating a world that often views faith as the enemy. You’ll learn how to speak confidently on issues of morality, identity, and belief without losing sight of God’s love, because sometimes the strongest stance is one that balances conviction with compassion. Now, if you’re ready to stand strong in an ever-shifting culture, look no further. When culture hates you, it’s available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash realradio. One more time, jackhibbs.com slash realradio. On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series now called The Parables of Jesus and a message titled Parable of the Lost Sheep Part 3. Whenever Jesus spoke to the crowds, he often spoke using relatable stories with common everyday themes, and the Bible calls them parables. Now, in this parable, Jesus is teaching us how much God loves us and how his concern for us is immeasurable. You see, in part one and part two, we looked at those who are Christians who have wandered away from the faith and how God in his love is concerned for us. It’s a comforting thought when we’re feeling lost and dissatisfied in our pursuits that led us nowhere. So today, Pastor Jack teaches us in this parable, it’s God’s desire that we find unity with him and have joy through him. Whether Christian or not, we are God’s focus, and he’s counting on our desire to be found by him. Now, with his message called Parable of the Lost Sheep, Part 3, here’s pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
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Luke 15, verse 1. Then all the tax collectors and sinners drew near to him, Jesus, to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them. Somebody say amen. Amen. Thank God he does. Amen? You bet. So he, that’s Jesus, spoke this parable to them. The them in this are the Pharisees and scribes. He says, what man of you, verse 4, having a hundred sheep… If he loses one of them, does not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors saying to them, rejoice with me for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say to you that likewise, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 just persons who need no repentance. So mark this down. Last time we finished up our first argument or our first point regarding the parable of the lost sheep and it was found in verse four and that is that we are God’s concern. Throughout the Bible, God communicates to you, to me, that we are his concern. He didn’t bring us into this world to leave us alone. We are not deists. We do not believe that God created and then walked away and left us to our own devices. Nowhere does the Bible teach that. We believe, according to the Bible, God’s revelation to us. We make up or add no word to it. God says, I have created you, I’ve made you in my own image, meaning that God has instilled within every human being his moral likeness. And what we do with that from that point on is quite significant, to say the least. And so as Jesus speaks to us, isn’t it interesting that he speaks to us in the nature of sheep? Of course he’s the shepherd. But he tells us that we are like sheep. We talked about that last time together and if you’ve missed those studies, go ahead and check them out online and you can catch up if you would. But we looked at the fact that we are God’s concern. That gives me great comfort to know that. Maybe in life you feel like nobody’s concerned for you or you have nobody that’s loving you in a way that desires to take care of you and God says, I’ll take care of you. Over and over again, God says, I will be the defender. of the defenseless. God says, I will be a father to those who are orphaned. And then he turns around. Doesn’t he not say in the book of James regarding our own faith that we as believers are commanded to take care of the poor? We are commanded to comfort the orphans and we are commanded to make sure that the welfare of the widows is taken care of. You know, a lot of people today will talk that that’s a social justice movement. That’s ridiculous. God says this in his word. You want social justice. There’s no social justice unless you obey the Bible and go to the orphans and not only give them your love, but give them the word of God. You see, the social justice movement wants to do all these good things that honestly do not fix the great core of the problem. God doesn’t work like that. I was watching Heretic TV not too long ago, and this guy said, if you were healed watching our program, then send us a letter of support, and that’s how you keep your healing. I thought I was gonna watch the guy turn into a pretzel or something right on TV. Did you hear what I said? That guy said, if God healed you by our program, send us money and that’s how you keep your healing. Can you imagine what kind of mess is that sense of the world about what kind of a buffoon God that that guy serves? If that’s how God is, I want nothing to do with him. Thank God he’s not like that. When God does his work, he does it, he begins it, he finishes it. He’s awesome. He doesn’t do anything half-hearted because we are his concern. And now we get into point number two. Jot it down with me. Here we go. Verses five through six, and it is this. The pair of lost sheep, we learn that we are God’s desire. First thing we see is that we are his desire, and his desire is for us to be in union with him. God wants you and I to have fellowship with him. Fellowship, union, koinonia. Look at verse five. And when he has found it, that is the lost or the wayward lamb, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. God is telling us a message. He’s sending us a message saying, this is how God thinks and looks at you. He’s coming after you. Listen, you know how it’s, we’ve all used this term, but we hear it a lot. Somebody will say, I found God. I found God. Or, I got religion. Or, look at him. He’s a Christian now. He found God. He didn’t find God. God had been pursuing him all that guy’s life. What he’s really saying is, my life circumstances and issues of my life have gotten to a point where my eyes have finally been opened. And when they were opened in my life’s challenge and dilemma… I saw that the Lord was always there. You know, I don’t want to make too much of this. I’ve heard a lot of stories about this and some of them from very, very close sources. But you guys all know many years ago, Eric Clapton, the famous guitarist, rock and roller, his son tragically died. Remember that? Very, very young. If my memory serves me right, his son was like two years old or four years old, something like that. And it actually changed Eric Clapton’s life. And one of the things that I know from a very, very close source is that Eric Clapton would come in to John Wayne Airport on his private jet. He would come in and part of his time that he would come regularly to this area, he was receiving spiritual counseling from a Calvary Chapel pastor, that’s all I’ll say. And that he prayed to accept the Lord. And you could kind of True or false, I don’t know. I always hesitate when you announce famous people. Remember Bob Dylan accepted Jesus and then rejected Jesus. But at that time, Eric Clapton began writing songs that, of course, like everything he does, gets famous. But have you ever stopped to listen to the song No More Tears? I don’t know the title, but there’ll be no more tears in heaven. Listen to that next time. Go online and look at the lyrics. It’s better than most Christian songs from Christian bands. And then he wrote the other song, My Father’s Eyes, like Amy Grant had the same title, but Eric Clapton wrote My Father’s Eyes as well. When I look in my father’s eyes, and he says that I never knew in all of my life’s situations and difficulties and tragedies, all I had to do was look into my father’s eyes. That he says his father was always there in front of him. And all of those have spiritual connotations to it. Crises can do that in your life. Listen, this is a loving exhortation to all of us, including myself tonight. Are you going through a difficult time? I don’t care what nature, what type. Are you going through a difficult time? If you are, how are you handling it? Are you going to God’s word and getting strength from his word? Are you crying out to God? Or has it shocked you and you’re attacking God or you’re an affront to God’s word and you’re rejecting God by your actions or by your words? That’s announcing to you who you really are and what side you’re really on. Crises will do that, and if God is speaking to you tonight, and you’re realizing, oh my goodness, I thought I loved God, but I’ve been upset with him the whole time, then you need to stop, back up, evaluate your faith, and find out if you truly are one of God’s lambs. Are you in the sheepfold? Are you his? Jesus says in John 17, beginning in verse 20, I do not pray for these alone, speaking of his disciples, but I also for those who will believe in me through their word, evangelism, that they all may be one as you, Father, are in me, listen to this, and I in you. that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me, and the glory which you gave me I have given them, that they may be one just as we are one, I in them, you in me, that they may be made complete or perfect in one, and that the world may know, notice this, that the world may know that you’ve sent me, and I have loved them, as you have loved me. Church, listen, verse 23, John 17, Jesus says that the love of the Father for you is the exact same love of the Father that the Father has for Jesus. Now, there’s no way you can fathom that. It’s impossible. Think of that. Let it soak in for a moment. Jesus says, the Father loves me the same as he loves you. I don’t get that. I have to take that by faith. You say, Pastor, can you explain that? Nope. Can’t. Well, I don’t understand it. Join the club. I don’t understand it either. I wouldn’t love me like that. I wouldn’t love you like that. You wouldn’t love me like that. Jesus is just the same. I don’t get it, but it’s awesome. That’s the union that he’s established for us. Salvation in him like that.
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You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, go to jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. And now let’s get back to our teaching. Once again, here’s Pastor Jack.
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I wrote three things down about this union that he desires with us. Why would he risk the recovery effort to reclaim me or recover me from this lost world? Honestly, Jesus, why would you come from heaven to earth to suffer what you did at the hands of humans for me? Why would he do that? Well, it makes no sense except love. A friend of mine told me many years ago he had pursued love, he said, in all the wrong places. And I said, well, why did you stay so long in that situation? And he said, you know, Jack, I gotta tell you, We as humans desire love that we will settle for bad love over no love. And I want to say to you tonight, you don’t have to settle for bad love. You can settle for his love. He’s absolutely in love with you and he desires union with us, union with you. The second thing I ask myself is, why would he lay the little rascal down Sheep on his shoulders. Notice right here, verse five. He puts the wayward lamb on his shoulders. And he’s rejoicing. Imagine the picture. He’s got a lamb. Have you ever seen those cute pictures at the Bible bookstore? This guy, Jesus, he looks so, he’s just so cool looking. The painting. And he’s got this lamb draped over his shoulders. And the little lamb, if you look close, the little lamb almost looks like it has a smile on its face. Have you seen it? It’s all about this parable right here. It doesn’t really go that way. What’s not here is what you probably remember when we went through John’s Gospel, going through that study. The shepherds of Israel, when a lamb went astray one time, then it is the portrait of the little lamb smiling and all is well because the poor little lamb, he made a mistake and he wandered off and he just got confused. And there’s grace for that. But this picture implies that it’s a lamb that keeps wandering away. What’s the old hymn? Prone to wander, prone to roam, right? Listen, I’ll confess this for you. We are all in our hearts prone to wander, prone to roam away from him. That’s why we’re commanded in the Bible to discipline ourselves, to keep us, ourselves, in the love of God. God’s always loving us, but we need to be under that… umbrella, that spout where the glory comes out, you know, where God’s love is upon us. He says, walk with me. So we’re supposed to walk with him. What happens as a believer if I don’t walk with him? Well, you’re going to have what happens here. The lamb walks, wanders away, keeps wandering away, wanders away. So the shepherd finds the lamb and just says, oh, I just love you, you little woolly little thing, you. You’re just the best, okay? But here’s the deal. And he takes two stones, separates them a little bit, and he stretches out the back leg of the lamb over the stones. Then he takes his staff, the rod, I should say, and right between the two stones, he takes his rod and just goes, boom, and breaks that leg. Lamb crying, freaking out. And then he picks up the lamb with the broken leg and puts it on his shoulder. And takes it back home. And the amazing thing about that is when the lamb gets back home and the lamb now cannot function without being on the shepherd’s shoulders for a good period of time. And the shepherd intentionally does not set the leg. He lets it heal on its own, crippled. The lamb will never be able to run right and certainly won’t be able to run fast or far. Are you with me? It will have a limp all the days of its life. But during the healing process, the lamb can only be transported on the shoulders of the shepherd. Now you think of that picture now. The shepherd and that lamb. The lamb is right near the shepherd’s jaw or ear. Can hear every word the shepherd is saying. He can smell the shepherd. He can even lick the shepherd’s sweat. He gets that into him. He’s so close to the shepherd. Closer than the 99. And though he may limp for the rest of his life, he learned a big lesson, not to wander, not to roam. Does that remind you of Jacob? When he wrestled with the Lord and the Lord touched his hip and knocked it out of socket and Jacob for the rest of his life limped. And the Bible says to this day that’s why Israel does not eat, the Jews do not eat the hip or the bone of an animal because of that, because of Jacob. But he stayed closer to God after that, did he not? Have you had that happen in life? God loves you so much, he’ll break your leg. That’s why I find that cruel. That’s because you don’t, you know what, you find it cruel because you don’t know real love. If you love someone, or as God loves you, he’ll put up with stuff. It’s amazing. There comes a point where you become an endangerment to yourself, and he will lovingly break your leg. Why did this happen to me? We hear that a lot as pastors. I don’t know, why did this happen to me? You know, you’re really tempted to say, Because. Because he loves you, he did this, or he allowed this to happen to you. It’s what happens. The amazing part is, I asked myself this question, why would he rejoice? He leaves 99 sheep to go after the one. Come on, you can get one anywhere. I’m not gonna risk the 99 to go after the one. God doesn’t think like that. This tells us the incredible value of your soul. That’s crazy, man. Your soul. We lose sight of this stuff. That’s why, listen, people who lose sight of the soul and the value of it, these are the guys, by the way, who say, oh, there’s no such thing as hell. That is all metaphorically speaking. It’s a metaphor. It’s typology. Jesus didn’t say that. He said it was hot. He said it was hotter than Helsinki. Hot. Jesus came that we wouldn’t go there. If hell’s not real, then what was Jesus doing on the cross? He says it’s real. And when you start talking like, well, you know, I don’t know, and it’s a whatever, you’ve lost the value of a human soul. Look, I know it’s hard to look at somebody who’s perpetrated something against you or has hurt you, and your emotions say, oh, let them go to H-E double hockey sticks. That’s what your emotions feel like. And then when you calm down, you realize, I’m a Christian, and God loves them. Right? And we need to remember that. Jesus says, the shepherd takes up this wayward lamb, puts him on his shoulder, and he goes back. The shepherd goes home rejoicing. And I bet you when the shepherd’s rejoicing and the lamb is crying because he’s got a really hurting leg, the lamb is probably thinking, don’t you care? Right? Right? Where are you in my troubles? If you really love me, you would what? Because he really loves. And you’ve been rescued. And maybe tonight you’ll be rescued. Jesus rejoices. Isn’t it amazing that as he says here, angels rejoice. Here he says his friends rejoice. But the Bible tells us in another place that when one person repents and comes to Christ, angels rejoice. Why? Because the shepherd’s rejoicing. They have to. They see their creator rejoicing and they’re like, hey, look at him. God’s rejoicing over one of these weird, freaky little human things. They didn’t have wings. It’s amazing, it’s awesome. The second thing under this point is that we are God’s desire. His desire for us is joy through him. God wants us to be joyful. This is good news. Nowhere in the Bible does God say, you know, I’ve done this that you might have happiness. Happiness is cool, but it doesn’t last very long. Happy or happiness comes from the word happenstance. We don’t use that word anymore. It means this. Based upon your situation, you’ll be happy or not. That’s why people say, are you happy? You look happy. Are you happy? Oh, I’m happy. Well, we’re happy for you. But you may not be happy tomorrow. Well, it depends on your situation. People never want to hear this. You know, in weddings, we have this thing about, God brought her into my life to make me happy. Oh, God brought him into my life to make me so happy. No, he didn’t. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that. And they lived happily ever after. No, no, no, uh, no. No. No, if your relationship is built on happiness, which is happenstance, this is what you would be saying. As long, and look, people actually make decisions in marriage like this to get married. As long as you can make me happy, then we’re together. But, you know, if there’s a time when you don’t make me happy, then all bets are off. That’s not what God’s talking about. God wants you to have joy. He wants you to have joy because it never changes. Joy is that thing that no matter what happens in life, listen, based on the word of God, Christianity, a nuclear bomb could go off here in the next 10 minutes and it can’t take your joy away. You would be kind of a weirdo if you were happy about it. But your joy cannot be robbed. Joy is that thing that causes you to keep grabbing onto the promises of God. The joy of the Lord is your strength. The joy of God is based upon the nature of God. My happiness is based upon how’s it going? Joy is based upon the consistency of God. Listen, don’t sell yourself short. Don’t settle for happiness. Get joy. Well, where do I get it? Jesus says, I’m the source of joy. He’s the source.
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Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called Parable of the Lost Sheep Part 3. Thanks for being with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Parables of Jesus. It’s a series highlighting the teachings of Jesus while he was ministering here on this earth. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
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