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CONNIE: What words would you use to describe God? Most people would say God is love, but would you say God is extravagant, or that God is a risk taker? Join us for a look at the “lost stories” of Jesus and what they can teach us about God.

Giving God’s trumpet a Certain Sound for 75 years, this is the Voice of Prophecy.

CONNIE: Hello, I’m Connie Jeffery,

LONNIE: and I’m Lonnie Melashenko. And Connie, I think we ought to clarify something right at the outset here. You invited our listeners to join us for a look at the “lost stories” of Jesus. Now, of course we always like to say something catchy at the beginning of the program to get people’s interest— but we probably ought to let people know that we haven’t been to Israel lately, and haven’t dug up any long-lost stories of Jesus from some wilderness cave or anything like that. What we’re looking at today is a series of stories found in the gospel of Luke where Jesus talks about lost items and people.

CONNIE: And that’s what we’re referring to as the “lost stories” of Jesus.

LONNIE: In our message today we’ll be looking at the characteristics of God that are revealed in these three parables. And they are truly amazing. There are things in these familiar stories that don’t readily meet the eye, but when you read the story carefully, you pick up on some surprising things that Jesus was teaching us about God.

CONNIE: That’s one of the neat things about parables, isn’t it? Because they are truth in story form, you can often discover some new facet of truth just by taking a closer look at the story.

LONNIE: When Jesus taught in parables, He was usually challenging people to see God in a new way. He often shook up people understands in an attempt to open them up to a deeper, closer relationship with His Father.

CONNIE: And to draw them back to God if they had wandered away.

LONNIE: Jesus was always trying to attract people back to God while He was here on earth, and He still is. Because He knows how easy it is for us to get distracted and just let our heavenly relationships slide for a time. And Connie, this idea of attracting people back to God—helping them to reconnect with His church—is an important part of our ministry here at Voice of Prophecy as well. In fact it is so important that we’ve recently begun a new form of outreach we call Operation Reconnect. We’ve brought in a new staff member to head up this program, and I spoke with him about this part of our ministry on the telephone recently.

CONNIE: Let’s listen to that interview now.

LONNIE: Mike Jones, Welcome to our broadcast!

MIKE: Thanks Lonnie, it’s great to be here

LONNIE: Now, Mike, you are a former editor for the magazine Insight, and you are also a former pastor/. But what caused you to get involved with Reconnect Now?

MIKE: Yeah! I went through a divorce in 1983, and that led to me leaving the church that I was fellowshipping with, and I ended up being gone for 16 years, and I came back about 7 years ago, and found it very enjoyable. So, I decided to try and convince a few of my friends who had also left the church to come back, and one thing led to another, and now here I am working with the Voice of Prophecy, helping to get the word out everywhere, inviting people to come back to the church.

LONNIE: And we want to welcome you back, Mike. It does my pastoral heart good when I hear a story about someone who was a good soldier but who has been a long way’s from camp. And now you have come back to the fold to know Jesus in a more personal way. Tell us a little about how church does can get involved in this day in age, with all of the zillions of people that have left the church?

MIKE: Well, it is estimated that in the United States, 2.2 million people leave their church. People leave for a variety of reasons, sometimes they get busy or they get hurt or wounded by someone or something in the church. Most people, though, have in their hearts that someday they would like to come back. They just need a little help and coaxing from others to get them interested and feeling welcome again.

LONNIE: Well, let’s explore that a little further. You’re assaying that one of the keys, is to…

MIKE: Well, we actually have created about a 25 minute video, that people can get from the Voice of Prophecy if they want to see it, and it’s called Connecting, and it had 8 points in it that are calculated to help people get themselves trained or get a local church trained. We teach people how to be friendlier and how to make eye contact, and how to incite a brief conversation…and how to make somebody feel welcome.

LONNIE: You, know, my dad is a big bear-hugger, and I think that he has won more people back to the church by loving them in rather than using some large theological ideas or whatever. For example, what are some of the techniques that you teach in the seminar, so people know that they themselves can go out and make a difference in this world?

MIKE: We teach people the value of a smile, handshake, or eye-contact. We teach you how to ask appropriate questions to the people, and praying, as well as learning how to listen. Very basic and very simple things.

LONNIE: Give me a great example of someone who has gone through this.

MIKE: Well, there was this man that had not been to church for 35 years, and one day while in the shower he heard a voice that told him to go the church, and he knew that he lived alone so he was not surprised to see nobody there when he looked. So he came to the conclusion that the only possible person that could have done that would have been God, so he went to church, and said that it was the best thing that he could have ever done. Now he is helping people get back into the church.

LONNIE: Thanks Mike!

MIKE: Thank you.


“Seeking the Lost”, King’s Heralds, from The Kings Heralds Collection, vol. 6 CD.

CONNIE: As we said, Operation Reconnect is an important part of Voice of Prophecy’s ministry, and we really appreciate what Mike Jones is doing to help people find their way back to church.

LONNIE: And speaking of finding your way to church, we have a very special invitation for you today—especially those of you in Southern California. We hope you’ll find your way to church with us. You’ve probably heard us mention that this year is our diamond jubilee year. 75 years ago this October, H. M. S. Richards first began to broadcast on the radio. We’ve held celebrations in different parts of the country, but the biggest celebration of all will be this October 9 at 5:00 PM at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California.

CONNIE: You can learn more about our Diamond Jubilee celebrations by visiting our web page at VOP.com. There’ll be lots of music, and of course a powerful biblical message presented by Pastor Lonnie. We hope you’ll plan to be with us for this once-in-a-lifetime event.

LONNIE: Consider this your personal invitation, and plan now to be with us next weekend at 5:00 PM on Saturday afternoon at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California.

CONNIE: We’re looking forward to meeting many of our listeners there—it’ll be a great time with great music, great fellowship, and great preaching. Right now though, let’s listen as Lonnie brings his message for today, “You Can’t Get Away That Easy!”

You Can’t Get Away That Easy!

“Dad, I wish you were dead!”

What kind of a son would say that to his father?

And yet that is exactly what the young man we call the Prodigal Son was saying in the story we find in Luke 15. Because to ask for his inheritance was simply to say, “Dad, I hate to tell you this, but I just can’t wait for you to kick the bucket!”

In his book Poet and Peasant, Kenneth Bailey tells of a Middle Eastern physician who went to his pastor one day in great anguish. “My son wants me to die!” he said. When the pastor inquired what the man meant, he learned that the son had broached the matter of inheritance with his father.

Three months later, the father, who had been in excellent health up to that time, died. His wife explained what she thought was the cause of his death: “He died that night!” she said, referring to the night the son had mentioned his inheritance.

In Middle Eastern culture—or any culture for that matter—it is no small thing for a son to go to his father and ask for his inheritance. So when Jesus told the story of the father and his two sons, he no doubt had the crowd’s attention instantly. It’s a story about a very dysfunctional family. It’s not just the one son who’s running amok. All the relationships out of whack. Nothing in the story goes the way people expect it to. We’ll return to this story in a moment and explain it further, but first let’s backtrack a little bit.

This story of the father and his two sons is found in Luke right after two other stories about things that have gotten lost. The series of three stories begins with the story a lost sheep. But the real background of the stories goes back a couple more verses. Jesus told all three of these stories after He was criticized for spending too much of His time fellowshipping and sharing meals with sinners. And so you’ll notice that one thing all three stories have in common is that they all end with a celebration involving food!

All of these stories, then, are intended to reveal something about God—something that explains Jesus’ actions. The stories develop aspects of God’s character that come as a surprise to many of Jesus’ listeners.

Consider, for instance, the story of the shepherd and his lost sheep: “ ‘Which one of you,’ ” Jesus asks, “ ‘having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?’ ” (Luke 15:4 NRSV).

The story concludes with a happy ending, and that’s what we usually focus on. The shepherd finds his sheep and returns home, carrying it on his shoulders. Then he calls all his friends and invites them over for a party. Finding that one lost sheep is something to celebrate, and the implication is that Jesus is doing the right thing when He eats with sinners, because He is celebrating the fact that they are coming home to the Kingdom of God.

But there’s an aspect of the story that we often pass over. Why does the shepherd leave 99 percent of his assets exposed to peril on the hills while he goes looking for the one percent?

It seems like a risky way to do business. Is Jesus saying God is a risk taker?

Well, come to think of it, God does take risks! He doesn’t just sit up there in heaven, relaxing on His throne, eating fruit from the tree of life. He cares enough about the lost souls on this one tiny little planet to risk everything to save them. He risks the life of His own Son—that’s actually 100 percent of His assets—to rescue the souls down here.

In the popular book Wild at Heart, John Eldredge suggests this is just the type of God a man needs. Most of the time we tend to focus on the love and tenderness of God, and that turns many men off. They’ve been raised to be tough, to be risk takers, and they find it hard to relate to God. Eldridge writes, “Adventure, with all its requisite danger and wildness, is a deeply spiritual longing written into the soul of man.”

If you know a man who has turned away from God because the God he was introduced to seemed too soft… or if you are a man like that, consider the story of the shepherd out on the hills risking everything in the search for his one lost sheep. Here is a picture of a God who isn’t afraid of adventure—especially if the adventure involves saving someone.

The next story in this series involves a woman—interesting isn’t it, that Jesus uses so many different types of people to represent His Father in heaven.

Here’s the story in Luke 15:8, 9:

“ ‘What woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 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” ’ ” (NRSV).

Notice the personal interest of God in each individual. It would be easy for the woman to say, “Oh well, I still have my other nine coins.”

But that’s not the way God is. He’s willing to expend whatever effort it takes to find and save a lost soul. And there’s something else interesting about this story. It seems the woman may have spent the better part of a day looking for the one coin—a coin that was only worth about a day’s wages—and then after she found it, she called all her neighbors together for a celebration. Now, I’m not sure what she served at the party—or whether they had a potluck—but it seems likely that she may have spent as much as the coin was worth throwing a party.

So apparently it was never really about the money. It was about her concern for that one special coin. And her concern for it represents God’s attitude toward each individual soul. He’s not in it for the money—He doesn’t want you in church just so you’ll give tithes and offerings. He’s concerned about you for your sake.

After telling those two stories, Jesus shares what many believe is the greatest of his parables.

In this story about the dysfunctional family, no one seems to be performing their expected role. The younger son is disrespectful to his father, and according to the customs of the time, the older son should have put him in its place. The older son should have served as the mediator between his father and his brother, persuading the younger man not to request his inheritance. But he doesn’t object—and this adds to the shock value of the story. He lets the father sell the farm and divide the assets!

Now, what’s not revealed in the story, but what the listeners all knew, was that the older son stood to inherit twice as much as his brother.

Both sons were treating their father like a bank account rather than a beloved parent. Even though the younger was the only one who went away from home, both sons were lost, both sons were losing out on the kind of relationship they should have had with their father.

The real hero of the story is of course father, who represents God. But there’s something to be learned from the younger son as well. In the extreme circumstances he found himself in after his money ran out, he had the wisdom to know where to turn. “‘When he came to himself he said, “How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father” ’ ” (Luke 15:17, 18. NRSV).

Somehow this young man knew that he could still turn to his father in a time of need. And that’s one of the important lessons this parable teaches us: You can go home again. No matter how far you have wondered, no matter how dire the straits you find yourself in, you can turn back to your heavenly Father.

But notice what the young man planned to do: “‘“I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands” ’ ” (verses 18, 19).

How tempting it is to want to earn our way in the world. There’s nothing wrong with the young man’s desire, but the father’s response demonstrates what God thinks of our attempts to buy His favor. When the son arrives at home, the father doesn’t even let him make his speech, but throws a robe on him and puts a ring on his finger. He’s still part of the family even though he didn’t want to be.

And what about the older brother? He’s still part of the family too, but when it comes time to celebrate his brother’s return, he won’t come in and join the party. Now he’s the one who is excluding himself, and his speech to his father reveals that he too has wanted to earn the fathers blessing by his works.

The story never fully resolves itself. There is no solution to this problem of people trying to work their way into God’s favor. Except that by grace God accepts them as they are. “‘“Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours,” ’ ” the father assures his older son, demonstrating his graciousness in spite of his son’s lack of grace.

The father comes shining through here, revealing God as only Jesus could.

Jesus introduces us to His Father as the shepherd who is willing to risk it all for us; a mother figure who is interested in each one of us personally; and a father figure who accepts us as we are and does all in his power to woo us into his love.

Friend, I don’t know about you, what your walk with God is right now. But won’t you reconsider as we listen to this song how much He wants you as part of His flock… part of His family! Perhaps you’ve wandered away—perhaps you wished He was dead. But you know what? You’ve never been out of His sight, never been out of His love.

He wants you back. He’s never given up on you. He won’t let you get away from Him that easy—won’t you come back to Him, today?

“Ninety-and-Nine”, Cynthia Clawson, from Blessed Assurance CD.