Sessions Include:

Holy Vocabulary, Lesson #1
 Holy / Isaiah 40.25 - 31 

Holy Vocabulary, Lesson #2
Lost / Luke 15 

Holy Vocabulary, Lesson #3
Salvation / Romans 3.20 - 28

Holy Vocabulary, Lesson #4
Faith / Hebrews 11.1 - 6

Holy Vocabulary, Lesson #5
Sanctified / 1 Corinthians 6.9 - 20

Holy Vocabulary, Lesson #6
Heaven / Revelation 21.1 – 8; 22.1 - 7

Resurrection / Lesson #1
1 Corinthians 15.1 - 11

Resurrection / Lesson #2
1 Corinthians 15.20 - 58

When we hear that word, “lost,” in church, or in a Christian book, we think immediately about a theological category. But, when Jesus used the word, it was just an ordinary word. It wasn’t a religious word at all. It was just a normal word.

So, I want to invite you to think about how we use that word, lost, in ordinary contexts.

I think of a time when I was traveling on the West Coast. We had spent the day at Universal Studios. As I left the park, I stopped to buy some gifts for the kids. I pulled out my credit card to make the purchase. I drove across town and stopped at a restaurant near our hotel. When I pulled out the credit card to pay for the meal, I noticed the credit card I had used to pay for the gifts at Universal Studios was lost. I keep my credit cards in a particular place in my wallet, so I could tell immediately we had a problem. I looked through the pile of loyalty cards I have in another place in my wallet, and by this time I was panicking. After rummaging through all my cards several times, I had to come to the conclusion that my credit card was lost.

Lost, think about that word lost.

If you had been enjoying dinner with us that night, you would have found me to be more than a little focused. You would have found me to be almost obsessed. If you had said to me, “Don’t worry about it. You are on vacation. You need to relax. I am sure there will be no abuse. Enjoy your vacation. Deal with it when you get home.”

I would have responded with a panic. You would have heard a tone. “Don’t tell me not to worry about it. We are going to worry about this and worry about this right now. I am going to look up the number for the credit card. I am going to call them right now. I am going to have them look up the number for the credit card. I am going to have them check and see if there has been any abuse. If there has, I am going to contest that. In any case, I am going to have them shut down this card and issue me a new one with a new number. And, we are going to deal with this right now before dessert comes.” I was rather focused. Something dear to us that is lost does that to us.

And Jesus is telling us something about the heart of God in these three parables. God is a little bit the way we are when we lose something. He is kind of focused in on that which is lost. He can think about everything all the time, but he doesn’t. He is focused in on that which is lost.

Josh Hunt, Christian Hospitality (Las Cruces, NM: Josh Hunt, 2012).

We have just released a new Bible study on: Holy Vocabulary

These lessons are available on Amazon, as well as a part of my Good Questions Have Groups Talking Subscription Service. Like Netflix for Bible Lessons, one low subscription gives you access to all our lessons--thousands of them. For a medium-sized church, lessons are as little as $10 per teacher per year.