LOST AND FOUND – PART 2(THE LOST COIN): PASTOR (DR) MENSA OTABIL – SPECIAL SUNDAY SERVICE, 29TH JANUARY, 2023.
SPECIAL SUNDAY SERVICE WITH PASTOR (DR) MENSA OTABIL (GENERAL OVERSEER, INTERNATIONAL CENTRAL GOSPEL CHURCH (ICGC) CHRIST TEMPLE, ACCRA GHANA)
TOPIC: LOST AND FOUND – PART 2 (THE LOST COIN)
DATE: 29TH JANUARY 2023
BIBLE TEXT: LUKE 15: 8-10 (NKJV)
Let us rise up together as we make our “DECLARATION OF GATHERING” in this “YEAR OF GATHERING”.
Are you ready? Say with me:
I Proclaim Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour. The Lord is the Shepherd of my Soul, my Shelter by Day, my Light by Night.
In His Name, we Plough our fields, by His Spirit we gather the Harvest, in His Light we seek and find.
In this Year of Gathering, the Lord of the Harvest has commanded: Launch Out into the Deep. At His Words, we cast our Nets, we gather in Souls and Substance for God’s Kingdom.
The Lord is our Reward; in this Season I received God’s Portion set aside for me: Full Measure, Pressed down, Shaking together and running over.
Nothing is Lost and Nothing is wasted in Jesus Name – Amen!
This Parable carries a Similar Message as “The Parable of The Lost Sheep” that we did in the Part 1 of this Series!
DMC NOTES: We can get to read the Part 1 on the Series “Lost And Found” centered on “The Lost Sheep” on this Link:
Luke 15: 8-10 (NKJV)
- Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?
- And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the Piece which I lost!’
- Likewise, I say to you, there is Joy in the Presence of the Angels of God over one Sinner who repents.”
In this Parable however, we see the escalation in two (2) Points:
- We see that as important as one (1) Sheep is, when it is compared with ninety nine (99); the Lost of one (1) coin compared to ten (10) seems to have a Greater importance than one over ninety nine (99).
- So, this Parable takes it a little higher – Although, it is a Shorter Parable but there is a Greater details in this one than the Parable of the Lost Sheep.
So the Parable talks about a woman who has lost a Silver Coin – A Silver coin literally means a Piece of Silver.
And the woman that is envisaged in this Parable is a very Poor woman – She doesn’t have much.
And the reason is because the Silver coin which Jesus Christ is referring here didn’t have much Value – It was small in size and small in Value. It didn’t have so much Value and so it was to a very large extent an insignificant amount of money.
In the Greeks Language, it is called Drachma.
DMC NOTES: Drachma, is a Silver Coin of Ancient Greece, dating from about the Mid-6th Century BC, and the former Monetary Unit of Modern Greece. The Drachma was one of the world’s earliest coins. Its name derives from the Greek verb meaning “To grasp,” and its Original Value was equivalent to that of a handful of arrows.
The Drachma will weigh about 4 Grams of Silver.
And I took the Liberty to check in Current Terms how much a Gram of Silver will weigh. And in Today’s Term: A Gram of Silver will be about three dollars ($3).
That in Ghana depending on the State or City, it will be about thirty six Cedis (Cedis 36) Coin.
DMC NOTES: In Current Terms, in Nigeria, I Gram of Silver is #321.39. Therefore, for a Drachma of Silver weighing about 4 Grams; the Current Price in Nigeria is #1,285.56
Now that seems to be a lot of money to some People but it is a lot of money because that coin or those ten (10) coins represented a Life’s Savings. This is all that she has, this is what she has worked so hard for and had gathered over the years that she is being alive and she is just able to gather ten (10) Pieces of Silver coins.
Now for some of you, that will not be a lot of money but you know that if that is all that you have; that’s your whole Life load.
And losing one coin, is losing a lot – Not simply in the Value of the coin but in terms of its Relationship or its Value to you.
For this woman, losing that one (1) coin waa a lot of money lost.
And the Passage says that she lost one coin – And in the contex that it is used here; it means fall out of Place.
People had speculated where the coin could be:
I. Some People had said that the coin was around her Neck Place.
II. Some People believed that it was Part of her hair Coverings.
III. Some People also believed that it was Stored somewhere.
I tend to believed that it was not a Necklace around the Neck or Head but it was Stored somewhere. Because if it is around the Neck, you can’t just lose one. If you will lose, so many of them will fall down and you will lose almost all of them at the same time.
So, she has Preserved these ten (10) coins in a Place of Safety but she lost them – One of them fell out of Place and she didn’t have that any longer.
Now, the difference between the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin is that the Sheep wandered away, went astray but the coin doesn’t have a Mind and the coin was just Lost. And you can’t tell whether it is the woman who Lost it or the coin was hit by something but whatever it is, it got Lost.
And the thing about Life is that sometimes, People just get Lost – And you can’t explain it.
- The Lost Sheep got Lost in the field and it went outside the field. But this coin was Lost at home and it wasn’t afar off.
It is strange that sometimes, People can be at home – When we think that they are at home and secured and still get Lost.
You can also have a child at home and think – Oh, she goes to Sunday School, she loves Jesus Christ, have her Devotion every morning and we sing Christian Songs everytime, Praise and Worship, Pastor actually come to our home and Pray. And you will think that your daughter/son is safe at home but somewhere you found out the she/he is Lost.
In that Place of Safety and Security, something took the child away!
Sometimes, People that you think are safe can be Lost – And this is what this Parable is talking about.
In the Parable of the Lost Sheep, the Sheep went out rebellious and astray – You can say that this is a Bad Sheep.
But this coin is not a Bad Coin – It is at home, it is supposed to be safe but it is Lost.
And if you have been a Parent before, it is one of the scary things for every Parents – When you think that you are Training your child the best way you can and then you find out that they are doing Stuffs that you never trained them to do and you wondered: Where do they learn it from?
These days, there is an enemy that comes into our homes silently – It is called “The Internet” and it is taking away many children even from Christian Homes like this coin that was Lost at home!
- The Second Thing you should Note about where it was Lost or being Lost at home is that it was in the Dark when Nobody was watching.
Sometimes, when you think that you know; you realised that you don’t know – If you are a Parent, you understand what I’m talking about.
There is a darkness in your home that you don’t see clearly; there is a darkness around your Family that you can’t see clearly.
I. Sometimes, you think that you know your husband so well and then realised that there is a darkness you couldn’t see and there is an aspect of his Life that you don’t know.
And then your husband did something very terrible and you wondered: Where do I go wrong as a wife?
Well, that is a Lost Coin!
II. Sometimes, you think that your wife is the Best – Oh, I give her everything she wants, I take Good care of her and then you realised that something has gone terribly wrong and you wondered what went wrong?
Well, it was at home but it was in the dark. Something that you couldn’t see enveloped your Love ones.
What we need to learn from this Parable is that: Sometimes right under our Supervision; we can loss People. Right under our Christian Training in our homes, you can still loss your children.
And this coin got Lost in the dark!
The Question has been asked – What kind of Darkness? Was it Night Time?
I don’t think that it was Night Time; I think that it was Day Time. And the reason for this is that in the days of Jesus Christ, as in those days in Ancient times; most People don’t have Windows – Most especially the Poor. If you go to a lot of our Villages even in Africa, you will find such there.
So, you can be at home and still be in the dark as there was no Electricity.
So, it is likely that she is in her room but her room is dark – There is no Light in the room.
… So, the coin got Lost in the dark!
- The Third Thing is that it got Lost among other items.
It wasn’t in an open room where the coin got Lost but there are other things in the room.
Most of you have had the experience when maybe you are holding something in your hands, trying to work with it and then it get off your hands and you felt the sound that it fell here and you looked around and it is not there because after it fell, it rolled and went to hide somewhere.
And you can pull all kinds of tables, of beds and chairs; trying to find something that just fell out of your hand.
And that is what the Lost Coin did – You think that you know where you can find it but you can’t find it. Especially if you are a Parent and you think that I know my son, I know my daughter. But you can’t just seems to help them.
You think that you know where they fell, you think that you know how to Pick them up but you still can’t find them.
And this is what this Parable is telling us – People who are Lost at home: Friends and Loved Ones. Surrounded by People but Lost. They didn’t go astray, they stayed but they got Lost.
When you are Young and you are inexperienced; you heard that Somebody child is bad and you become very Judgemental – You don’t come from Good home and this and that.
But Life will open your eyes and you will realised that you can be the Most Disciplined Person and yet a coin will be Lost in your home, in your room, right there under your Supervision!
And if you are one of those who blames other People; may the Lord help you to have Empathy and Compassion because Nobody seeks to have somebody they loved Lost – Lost to sin, Lost to Bad Habits.
These days, our Young Ones are getting Lost – They are in the room Lost to Pornography, Lost to Drugs – You will be shocked with the amount of Drugs that your kids are taking or contemplating whether they should take it or not.
These days, it comes in Cookies, in Candies. Your child is chewing biscuit and you say: Hey, my child loves biscuit.
The coin was Lost but thank God that we can Redeemed the Lost!
So, how did this woman go about seeking for the Lost Coin? How do we seek for the Lost at home? – She did three (3) things!
And these are the details that you don’t have in the Parable of The Lost Sheep – The Parable of the Lost Sheep just says that the man went out to search until he found the Sheep.
But the Parable of the Lost Coin gives us three (3) Specific Action Points:
- She lid a Lamp.
That means that she turned on the Light.
That tells us that she was searching in the dark – It was a dark Place and she turned on the Light.
You cannot find what is Lost until you find Light and until you get Clarity!
And for us Christians, what does that means for us?
It simply means that we must be Guided by God’s Word and God’s Spirit – Not by Frustration and Anger but by God’s Word and God’s Spirit.
Sometimes, your Frustration and your Anger can drive the coin further away.
It is time to get into the Word of God and it is time to Pray and be Sensitive to the Spirit of God.
It is time to have Light – The Light of God!
We must walk in the Light of God’s Word – That means that we ourselves, trying to seek for the Lost must be in Alignment with the Word of God.
Because if you are further away from the Word of God, and your children knows that you are Immoral, but you are trying to correct their Immorality; then you yourself trying to Redeem the Lost are in the dark as you have not turned on the Light.
Fathers, your children knows that you chase girls but you are trying to discipline them – You are in the dark and you need to turn on the Light so that you can see yourself clearly and so that you can see them better.
The woman herself needed Clarity and the coin also needed to be found but it is tied by she Aligning herself with the Light.
If we want to touch those who are Lost, then we have to be in the Light – We have to open our eyes clearly!
- She swept the House
She has to use the broom – The broom allowed her to reach out to the Places she couldn’t reach out to Naturally herself.
What does that mean for us? – Don’t hide or turn away from the Truth!
The Purpose of the broom is to get things out of their hidden Places!
I. Parents, it doesn’t serve any Purpose for you to Praise and Protect your children when they are Horrible – Get the broom, bring everything out, face the Truth and face the Reality.
You may think that it may means People will think that you are a Bad Parent – It doesn’t mean that. It simply means that Life happens to People. But don’t be in denial – Bring out the broom and sweep it.
II. Ladies, don’t say: Oh, my husband has gone on a Trip but you know that he didn’t go on any Trip.
Get the broom out, bring things to the open, and don’t hide anything (The facts and the Truths).
If you are going to help People; you have to face the Truth and we have to get the Light on and the broom out.
Sometimes, it means having very difficult Conversation because there is a lot of anger in the Conversation but it has to be heard!
And Please, if you are Lost and they bring you out with a broom to the Light; don’t get angry!
Don’t say: You are following me everywhere; why? Are you my mother or father?
Coins that are Lost don’t talk that way – Just keep quiet, come out from where you are so that the Light will Shine.
Because the whole Process is not to Dishonour or Disgrace you; the whole Process is to put you in Alignment with God or in the Plan of God.
It is not about Humiliation but it is about Redemption!
- She searched everywhere
She has to search and wondered what was she doing – You have brought out, you have swept your room, you have searched carefully through the things that you have brought out of the room.
Look for and encourage True Repentance because People that need Jesus Christ can show up with Deception – False Repentance!
I. Oh, I am sorry but he is not sorry.
II. Oh, I won’t do it again but he will do it again.
You know sometimes, I wondered how Parents forget how they were, when they were children. And your children are Playing the same Games you Played on your Parents on you too!
You ought to be Smarter!
Because your child is on Drugs and sitting at the Morning Devotion and blasting in Tongues but he is still eating the Cookies.
And if you are not careful, they will even Prophesy to you at the Morning Devotion.
But Nothing has Changed – You have to search carefully!
Don’t take and be deceived by Appearances – Go Deeper!
That was what the woman was doing!
Because sometimes, you might see a Shinning Thing, thinking that it is your coin but it is Cigarettes wrapper.
You have to search until you find the “Genuine Coin”.
And this is what Jesus Christ is teaching us in this Year of Gathering – For some of us, we have to gather ‘Lost People’ in our homes: Our children must come back to God; our wives must come back to God; our Husbands must come back to God; our Friends must come back to God; our Cousins must come back to God.
They are all at home with us but they had gone somewhere – Not too far away, they are still around but they are Lost!
May the Lord help us as we seek to find out Lost Coins in Jesus Mighty Name – Amen!!!
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