We are looking at the word lost
Lost is to ruin, render useless, to devote or give over to eternal misery in hell, to perish, to be lost, ruined, destroyed
It is more than just going off the path. It is living on a path of destruction.
Found = to be discovered, recognized, detected, to get knowledge of, come to know, God
1. Teeth set on edge
In the story of the prodigal son. Father has a faith, but his sons do not buy into it and both go their own ways. One physically leaves and stays in the house but still doesn’t buy in.
- Faith is not transferable
- Each of us have to come into our own relationship with God
Ezekiel 18: 2 “What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: ” ‘The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’?
The children of Israel are exiled and now they are blaming their parents for where they are.
Proverb is the children suffer for what the actions of their parents. It happens. Generational curses is a word that is used.
2. Example of curse
Abraham was a man called by God problem didn’t love his wife as he should.
- Fear caused Abraham to give his wife away two different times
- Eventually they have a son named Isaac
Isaac married Rebekah
- Isaac gives his wife Rebekah away to a king like his father did
- Fear grabs a hold of Isaac like it did his father Abraham
- The problems grow from generation to generation. Isaac ages and goes blind. Rebekah encourages one of her sons, Jacob, to lie and deceive Isaac.
Jacob grows up in this home and learns deception
- Deceives his father
- Deceives his father-in-law 10 times
Jacob has 12 sons
- Two of them kill all the men in a city
- One of them sleeps with his daughter-in-law
- They end up selling their brother into slavery and deceiving their father about what happened to him
The fathers bite grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge.
Exodus 20: 5 I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me.
3. Breaking the curse
Don’t go around blaming parents for our problems. Each of us have to give an account for our own lives.
Ezekiel 18: 3 As surely as I live says the Sovereign Lord, you will not quote this proverb anymore in Israel
Exodus 20: 6 But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commandments.
EXAMPLE kings of Judah didn’t obey God but God blessed them because of David even up to 13 generations later
4. Digging the Wells
Abraham did something dug wells. Wells are a source of life for those that follow.
Isaac did not dig wells tried to reopen Abraham’s
Jacob no record of any wells.
Joseph thrown down into a dry dead well
Curse keeps coming down Galatians 3: 13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”),
Cross breaks the curse on our lives.
Romans 1: 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes,
We don’t have to dig wells anymore.
John 7: 37 anyone who believes in me…Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.
5. Confrontation.
John 8 woman caught in adultery. Sometimes Jesus did not have to seek the lost, they came to him.
When we are at the end of ourselves, we are finally in a place to be touched by God
Woman brought before Jesus no more control. Empty and guilty.
Key Point: Seeking lost is loving those when they least expect it or deserve it.
I don’t accuse you. She had pieces of her life to pick up and put back together, but she was changed from that moment on.
Deuteronomy 23: 5 Nevertheless the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you