Q: Where do you find your worth?

TEXT: Luke 15:8-10

“The Parable of the Lost Coin is often forgotten, it seems to me, because it occurs between two more popular parables – the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Lost Son(s). But this parable plays an important role in the trilogy, because it reinforces the essential point made in the first parable, and it prepares us for the third one.” — Keith Throop

    1. The Value (v. 8a)

“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one.”

“God is triune; there are within the Godhead three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; and the work of salvation is one in which all three act together, the Father purposing redemption, the Son securing it and the Spirit applying it.” — J. I. Packer

“They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors and the statutes he had warned them to keep. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless.” — 2 Kings 17:5

     2. The Search (v. 8b)

“Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?”

“Among the rabbinic writings there is a lost coin motif, but it is used very differently. If a man keeps seeking for a coin much more should he seek for the Law, said the rabbi. There is no rabbinic equivalent to God’s seeking of sinners.” — Leon Morris

     3. The Appraisal (v. 9-10)

“And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

TAKEAWAYS: How can we apply this to our hearts?

• Examine the source of your worth

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” ― A.W. Tozer

• Evaluate the cost of your worth

“It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” — Luke 15:1-2

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” — Romans 5:8