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September 16 Daily Reading- Read the Bible in 1 Year
9 Plays21 hours ago
If you would like to download my FREE calendar for keeping track of your commitment to read the Bible every day, you can find that on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/pages/read-the-bible-in-1-year
Monthly memberships to support this event can be purchased on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/offering_packages
Today's reading will cover the Book of Luke Chapter 15:1-32.
Today we will be reading about those who are lost and found. We all know what it feels like to lose something we have lost and how happy we are when we find it. How much more so is our Father in Heaven glad when we, His children who have wandered from Him, come to Him and receive His forgiveness and grace? God loves every single one of us and does not want anyone to be "lost" to Him. He desires EVERYONE to have a relationship with Him and receive eternal life with Him. Let's tell people about God and help reunite people with Him so that as many people as possible may receive God's blessings of forgiveness of sins and eternal life!
If you enjoyed today's reading and feel like God has lit YOUR light please click the LIGHT button (it looks like a thumbs up or a heart) and consider subscribing to or following my channel, if you have not done so already.
If you know someone who might be interested in reading the Bible with me this year please SHARE today's reading with them! It's never too late to join in! Let's help this event grow and together we can spread the word about reading God's Word!
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Transcript
Introduction and Engagement
00:00:03
Speaker
Hi everybody, today is September 16th. Thank you for joining me for today's Bible reading through the Day by Day Kids Bible written by Karen Henley. I'm so glad that you're joining me whether you are following along on your podcast or whether you're watching the video.
00:00:19
Speaker
I know I say that every day, but I do mean it every single day. I'm so glad that you are here. Even if you are new, I'm super glad that you're here. If you have been around a little while, go ahead and take out your bookmarking commitment calendar and get your sticker ready or whatever you're using to mark off your days because you're about to hear the Bible today.
Theme: Losing and Finding
00:00:43
Speaker
If you are just finding this event and you are finding that you are interested in wanting to know about the calendar, I have that available on my site and I have the link for that down below in the description.
00:00:56
Speaker
Well, today we are going to be reading about lost and found. We all know how it feels if we lose something. And when we find whatever it is that we lost, we are so thankful and so happy that we found it.
Parables of Repentance
00:01:12
Speaker
And today we're going to be seeing how those who have never known God and yet are coming into a relationship with him, these are just the type of people that Jesus is going to be talking about today.
00:01:26
Speaker
You may have grown up in a family where you have always been taught about God. You may have gone to church. But, you know, even if you have, you may not have considered having your own relationship with Jesus.
00:01:38
Speaker
And so this would actually be for you, too. Anybody who has not chosen to have their own relationship or finds that they have wandered away from the faith, you are considered a lost sheep.
00:01:52
Speaker
If you have been following God for a while, and then you we may have a tendency to ah look at other people and go, what is wrong with those people? But when they do come to a saving grace in our Lord, that is when the heaven is so happy for them.
00:02:10
Speaker
And sometimes we can be kind of like, but I've always been following Jesus. I've been following God my whole life. And this is what Jesus is talking about today.
00:02:21
Speaker
As we see that those who have known God for a long time, the leaders and the Pharisees and like that, they're not very pleased with the fact that Jesus is attracting what they might consider an undesirable crowd.
00:02:36
Speaker
And Jesus is going to explain why they are exactly the kind of people that he is trying to attract and why. So join me today as we begin our reading for Lost and Found.
00:02:52
Speaker
Now all the tax men and sinners came to hear Jesus. So the Jewish leaders and teachers said, This man welcomes sinners. He even eats with them.
00:03:05
Speaker
Then Jesus told them some stories. Suppose you are a shepherd, he began. but one of them gets lost out of your 100 sheep.
00:03:16
Speaker
Wouldn't you leave the other 99 sheep in the wilderness, out in the open? Wouldn't you go look for the lost sheep until it was found?
00:03:29
Speaker
And then you would be so happy. you would carry that sheep home on your shoulders and you would call your friends and your neighbors. You'd call all the people you know and say, Hey, be glad with me because I found my lost sheep.
00:03:48
Speaker
And it's the same way in heaven, said Jesus. The angels are very happy. about one sinner who is sorry and they are happy when just one sinner turns to God.
00:04:05
Speaker
It's better than knowing 99 people who do what's right and those people who don't even need to say that they're sorry for anything.
00:04:15
Speaker
Now, also suppose that there is a woman who has 10 silver pieces of money. Now, in our big Bible, when we look at the value of this money, it's actually a day's wages.
00:04:27
Speaker
So she had enough money for 10 days of work, and she loses an entire day's worth of pay. For us, that might equate to a couple hundred dollars.
00:04:40
Speaker
So suppose she has these 10 pieces of money and she loses one. Won't she light a lamp and clean the house? And she will look carefully until she finds her money.
00:04:53
Speaker
And when she finds it, she will call her friends and she will call her neighbors and she will say, oh, be glad with me. i found the money I lost.
00:05:06
Speaker
And it is the same way in heaven. The angels are very glad when one sinner is sorry. And they are glad when one sinner turns to God.
00:05:22
Speaker
man had two sons, said Jesus. And someday the father's money would belong to these two sons. But his younger son came into him one day and said, Father, give me my share of my money now.
00:05:40
Speaker
So the man gave the younger son his part of the money, and then he also gave his older son the other part. And soon after that, the younger man left home, and he took his part of the money, and he moved to a land far away.
00:05:56
Speaker
And he lived a wild life there. He used up all his money, and he had another problem too, because it turned out that there wasn't even enough food in that land.
00:06:08
Speaker
So he couldn't get enough to eat. He was hungry, he needed clothes, he needed a place to stay. So the young man looked for a job.
00:06:20
Speaker
But the only job he could get was feeding pigs. And by that time, he was very hungry. He was so hungry, he even wanted to eat the pigs' food.
00:06:34
Speaker
But no one would let him. And at last, he started getting smart. He said, you know, people who work for my father have plenty to eat.
00:06:45
Speaker
And here I sit dying of hunger. I am going to go home and I will tell my father that I have sinned against heaven and i have sinned against him.
00:06:57
Speaker
And I will tell him that I'm not even good enough to be called his son. So the young man got up and he went back home. And he wasn't even close to the house yet when his father saw him coming.
00:07:11
Speaker
And his father was full of love for his son. So he ran to his son and he hugged and he kissed him. And the son said, Father, i have sinned against heaven.
00:07:23
Speaker
i have sinned against you. I am not good enough to be called your son. But the father called his servants and said, hurry, bring me the best robe that we have and let's put it on my son.
00:07:39
Speaker
Put a ring on his finger and get some shoes for his feet. The father went on. Remember for the meat we were saving for a special time, that fattened calf?
00:07:52
Speaker
Cook it, and let's have a party. I thought I would never see my son again. and it's like he was lost, but now he is found.
00:08:07
Speaker
So they had a big party, and all this time the older son was out in the field. He heard music and dancing coming from the house, and he called one of the servants and asked him, What's going on?
00:08:19
Speaker
What's happening? the servant told him, your brother came home and your father is having a welcome home party for him. Then the older brother got angry and he would not go to that party.
00:08:36
Speaker
So his father went out and he begged his older son to come in. Look, said the older son, I have worked for you all of these years and I always did what you told me to do, but you never gave me a party.
00:08:51
Speaker
now my brother comes home and he's used up all the money you gave him and you have a party for him. The father told him, you don't understand, son.
00:09:03
Speaker
are always with me. Everything I have is yours. but I thought I would never see your brother again. So we need to have a party.
Encouragement to Return and Acceptance
00:09:15
Speaker
We need to show our joy. He was lost, but now he is found.
00:09:24
Speaker
And that is the end of our reading today.
00:09:30
Speaker
Are you just finding this reading? Are you coming across it on your YouTube videos? This is for you. Maybe you haven't been around with God for a while. Maybe you have been busy and and you haven't made any commitment. And maybe you grew up going to church and now it's just not something that you've done for a long time. and And you're feeling like, wow, I kind of feel like that could be me.
00:09:56
Speaker
God is calling you. You are his lost sheep. He loves you so much. He is thrilled to have you come back. It is not too late.
00:10:09
Speaker
You can always come back and God will always welcome you with open arms and the angels in heaven will rejoice because you have been found. Our God in heaven does not want anybody to go to hell.
00:10:23
Speaker
He doesn't want anybody to have eternal death. He wants everybody to come to a saving grace and have a relationship with him. And if you weren't here yesterday, we read about how having that relationship with him means having a relationship with Jesus and making him the most important part of our life every day. And he misses you.
00:10:46
Speaker
He wants to see you. So come back. We also are missing you as part of our spiritual family. And the heavens will rejoice. And we will too.
00:11:00
Speaker
These spiritual leaders who had always been dedicated to learning about God and trying to please God, they were not really doing what God was looking for them to do.
00:11:13
Speaker
They were worshiping God with their lips, but their heart was far from him And if any of them would come, God would worship for would um worship sorry would celebrate for them too.
00:11:25
Speaker
And this is what they're talking about, is that they had always been there, like that son who had never wandered. And so God was telling them, Jesus was telling them through the story, that God welcomes everybody and that he is wanting all of those children who were lost, those supposed sinners,
00:11:46
Speaker
You know, it's interesting as I've always thought it was interesting, I've mentioned a little bit before, is that as we read the stories where Jesus is at a leader's home for dinner, there's always somebody there that the host disapproves of.
00:11:59
Speaker
And I always wonder, how do these people even get into the house if they are so undesirable? Why are they allowed to join the dinner? And I'm thinking, well, they're eating with them too.
00:12:11
Speaker
They might be at a different part of the table or in a different part of the room, but these people are there. i I think they were being hypocritical. So I just wanted to point that out too.
00:12:22
Speaker
Does that mean you have to have a dinner party and call everybody over who you think is ah perhaps potentially the most sinful people you know?
Spreading Kindness and Faith
00:12:30
Speaker
Could be if that's what God is calling you to do. But what it means is don't look down on other people and think that they're not good enough or that's not who this message is for or they're they're too far gone. There's no such thing.
00:12:44
Speaker
People are called into ministry to go into all kinds of places to meet with those and bring the news of God's kingdom to everybody. Because God does not desire anybody to have eternal death, but to have eternal life with him.
00:13:01
Speaker
And we know the joy that comes with having the Holy Spirit with us. And we want to spread the word about reading God's word to them too. And even if you just spread that seed to just even one person who accepts that seed and receives it joyfully and accepts Jesus into their heart, the angels would be so thrilled.
00:13:24
Speaker
And so will our Father in heaven. So I hope that you feel that today's reading has lit your light and I hope that you are encouraged to not look down on upon people, those people who are standing at the side of the freeway with a sign that says that they need money or food.
00:13:40
Speaker
And you might feel like they're just standing there all the time, just looking for handouts, maybe hand them something to eat along with something that tells them about Jesus.
00:13:53
Speaker
Maybe you could spread the word about this event. It seems like everybody has a cell phone, even people who ah have not very money not very much money or not much means, and let them hear this event.
00:14:05
Speaker
We wanna spread the word about God. We wanna tell people that God's kingdom is near. This news is for everybody, not just for those that sit on your street, you know, and that live in your neighborhood.
00:14:19
Speaker
It's not just for people that you may work with. It is for those people, but it might be for those people that you considerable that you consider less than desirable. Those people that you are avoiding talking to or avoiding looking at.
00:14:32
Speaker
Jesus said that if we give even a cup of cold water or something to eat to these people in his name, that our Father will in heaven will be happy about that. So I would encourage you to maybe keep something healthy.
00:14:45
Speaker
Like, I like to keep sardine cans in my car. Not everybody likes fish, but when I see somebody who is looking for food, I ask them, do you like fish? Because Jesus fed the 5,000 with some fish and and and And the other 4,000 plus people too.
00:15:02
Speaker
ah He fed them with fish and bread. And so I like to keep these cans of sardines that I get from Costco. And not not like a can of tuna or something because that requires a can opener.
00:15:13
Speaker
But the sardines, they just peel back like a pudding cup. And i like to hand that out along with a bottle of water. And sometimes I have a box of crackers too, ah because you don't want to just eat fish. Usually you need something else to go along with it.
00:15:27
Speaker
And I feel feel like that's the bread and the fish and then the water that God is talking about. And then um I'm thinking about also including now that after I read today's reading is I have these event cards.
00:15:43
Speaker
I don't know where I stuck it.
00:15:46
Speaker
They were in my Bible.
00:15:48
Speaker
And I have these event cards that tell about this event that I had printed out at the beginning ah sort of ah the event. And i want to include them with ah the food.
00:16:02
Speaker
Well, I can't find one now to show you, but it's it's not a track, but it just tells about this event because sometimes people may be more ah ah looking for, you know, like ah a doorway in rather than just a track. But I feel like tracks can kind of beat people over the head.
00:16:17
Speaker
read this and accept it or you're going to hell. I just feel like that's not the message that God, and and Jesus brought. I feel like he was, he taught with a lot of stories and he taught with examples and what we call parables. And, and, um, we don't have any recorded stories where Jesus approached somebody and said, look, if you don't listen to me right now, you're going to go to hell.
Conclusion and Invitation
00:16:42
Speaker
Um, So I feel like that that can be very rather off-putting and not inviting. So I try to encourage people with how but testimony as too what God has done in my life and things like that. And that's what this event is a lot. Besides just the um reading of the Bible every day, I feel like this is my testimony because I am an obedient witness.
00:17:08
Speaker
And I like to tell people about what God has given me the privilege to see. So I hope that you feel that this has given you some food for thought as well, and that you will be encouraged to reach out to that person that God puts in your path, and to be able to tell them about him and spread the word about reading his word.
00:17:27
Speaker
I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day to- today, whatever day you get around to listening or watching this September 16th daily reading. And will see everybody here, same place, tomorrow.
00:17:39
Speaker
Until then.