The Lost Coin
David S. McKemy

1.	The Woman and her Coins
•	Luke 15:8-9
•	And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost."
•	Of the three parables in the fifteenth chapter of Luke, this story is the shortest. Yet the message Jesus gives us in these two passages is powerful beyond measure. 
•	A couple of things can be said about this parable. First, it identifies two different kinds of backsliders.
2.	The One That Never Left
•	There is an ability to backslide and be lost and never leave the church. 
•	This is the person that died a slow spiritual death but never showed the outward signs of their departure.
•	They sat in the same pew, looked the same way, and came to church with everyone else. But something inside of them had died.
•	In the parable, the coin was very much lost even though I never left the house. 
•	This shows us there's definitely a possibility of backsliding in the pew. Anytime there's a death, the body begins to decay and stink. The decay becomes much worse over time, and it is obvious to everyone a death has occurred.
•	The spirit of a backslidden person that never leaves the church is usually a very rotten one. They will become bitter and indifferent. 
•	They will begin to show a rebellious nature and deliberately defy authority. They have a cause they try and crusade many times. 
•	They eventually become a thorn in the side of the leadership.

3.	The Lost Coin
•	The lost coin is mixed in with all the dirt and grime you are trying to get rid of. 
•	Yet there is worth in that lost person, and they are valuable to God. There is a thin line here. We must reach as hard as we can and at the same time stand firm and strong for what's right. We must not bend or compromise to the demands put on us by a lost coin that has a cause.
•	The choice of being saved remains with them, and we must maintain a burden for the soul of this person. The woman in this parable was very diligent and wouldn't give up looking for the coin until she found it.
•	1 Samuel 3:6-7

4.	Knowledge does not equal Salvation
•	Samuel had grown up around the things of God. He lived in his house with Eli. He knew how to fit in and look the part. 
•	He could probably have impressed you with his knowledge of scripture and history. He just didn't know God!
•	 So going to church isn't an assurance of being saved, it takes a relationship with God! This is a very dangerous place to be. 
•	You can be a fourth generation Christian and it means nothing to God unless you have a relationship with Him. That's all that matters to God.
•	There are people that will never be saved regardless of how much we reach for them. There is a slight minority of these backsliders the Bible calls Apostates and outlines what should be done with them. 
•	For the sake of the rest of the body of Christ, these people will be disfellowshiped. They've become a liability and jeopardize the souls of others. The word is very clear on who these people are and what they're doing. 
•	They are sowing seeds of discord, bringing disunity into the church, and causing strife. There's no tolerance afforded people like this in the scripture, but as true children of God we certainly pray they will repent and find their way back to God. 
•	But until this happens, they must be removed from the flock.

5.	Some Lost Coins Don’t Cause A Problem
•	There are also lost coins in the church that will never ca use a problem. Yet their souls are just as lost. They lose their worship and stop praying. 
•	They may even have a pride about their humility and the holiness they claim to have. The Bible refers to this kind of holiness as "filthy rags." 
•	They may look the part, but because their heart is not right and their spirits are wrong, they are lost and don't even realize it. 
•	The Lord is carefully showing us He cares about them regardless of where they are; He desires them swept out with the word of God so they can be saved.

6.	The Coin Was Lost By Someone Else
•	This coin did not lose itself; the woman lost it.
•	It was misplaced, dropped, forgotten about, carelessly laid down, or any number of things. 
•	The point still remains someone contributed to it being lost.
•	As far as living for God, everyone has to accept the responsibility of their own soul. 
•	However, there are contributors to a person backsliding that may have pushed them in that direction. 
•	We have the ability to influence someone to do certain things - good or bad. 
•	If we use that influence to do something that's a stumbling block to someone and that causes them to backslide, Paul says we have sinned against Christ. 
•	This is a very serious matter to consider.
•	It could be a bad attitude or an offense towards this person. Or it could just be a misunderstanding. 
•	In most of these things we don't have a motive; it's just something that happens. You're not intentionally trying to hurt someone else and you do. 
•	This becomes their stumbling block, and they lose out with God. 
•	We share the blame in them backsliding. Let’s look at what Paul says about this.
•	1 Corinthians 8:9-13

7.	Holiness
•	All holiness teaching in our churches is not the same. Some churches are stricter than others. 
•	Personal convictions are the same way; some people have a personal conviction everyone else doesn't share. 
•	I've heard all the arguments against of all kinds of activities that many of us shun stay away from. 
•	There are things that we've felt weren't right to do, yet others feel a liberty and freedom to do them.
•	Let me give you a bit of a warning. 
•	Paul is saying something to all those that live closer to the edge and decide to do the things that might be in a gray area. 
•	He's speaking to those of you that feel you need the Bible to say "thou shalt not do that" before you will believe it isn't a good thing to do.
•	According to Paul, eating the meat that had been sacrificed to idols wasn't a sin. There was much debate in this period of time as to whether or not it was a sin.
•	However, he's telling the person who's sitting down to eat this, that even if it isn't a sin to eat, if you do this and cause a weaker brother to fall, you have sinned against Christ.
•	Eating the meat still hasn't become a sin, but causing the weaker brother to fall is. So you can do things that aren't sin, but if it causes a person to be lost, you have not only sinned, but you also made something happen you may or may not be able to fix. 
•	That's why pastors don't feel they need scripture and verse for everything they take a stand against. 
•	There are some things that may not be sin, but have the potential to cause the weak to fall.
The above article “The Lost Coin” is written by David S. McKemy. This article was excerpted from chapter eight in McKemy’s book Reharvested Fields.
The material is copyrighted and should not be repainted under any other name or author. However, this material may freely be used for personal study or purposes.