Connect360: What Makes Heaven Happy?

• Lesson 9 in the Connect360 unit “Jesus Storyteller: Timeless Truths From His Parables” focuses on Luke 15:1-10.

In this parable, the woman was intent on finding the lost coin. She took two important actions. She lit a lamp, and she swept up the dirt on her floor. There is an important application we can make from these two details.

First, Jesus lives to give you light. The woman lit a lamp to help her see clearly. It does help to have light when you are looking for something. Before Jesus finds us, we are lost in the darkness of sin. Jesus came into this world to provide the light of truth. In John 8:12, Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

Light and truth

In the Bible, there is a connection between light and truth. God gives every person a measure of light, or truth, about himself, even if they don’t have a Bible. They can look at creation and understand Someone superior and intelligent designed it all. They can look within and understand that every person is born with a sense of right and wrong—and understand there must be a moral absolute in the universe. Everybody has some light. If you walk toward the light, God gives you more and more light about who Jesus is.

The second action the woman takes is to sweep the room. In the process of cleaning every square inch of the floor, the woman found the coin. There’s a significant lesson here as well. In addition to giving you light, Jesus desires to cleanse your life of all the “dirt” accumulated by sin. He died on the cross so your sins could be forgiven. We read in 1 John 1:7,“…and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” The Bible says there is cleansing power in the blood of Jesus. Before you can be found, you need the light of the Lord and the cleansing power of the Lord.

Based on a lesson by David O. Dykes, pastor emeritus of Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler. To learn more about GC2 Press and the Connect360 Bible study series, or to order materials, click here.