Recently my son was telling me about missing some cows. He counted them on a Friday and the next Monday they were not all there. He started talking to the neighbors and looking around but no luck. He found a gate open at one end of the pasture and after several days he finally located the cows. He found the owner of the land and got permission to get his cows out of there. My son spent long hours and several days in the hot weather walking and searching for his lost cows. That incident reminds me of something in the Bible. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden it separated them from God and all of us who have followed, (Genesis 3:6-24, Romans 5: 12). The Bible says we are lost and without hope on our own so we need help and that is why God had a plan to redeem us. Jesus came to earth to seek and save that which was lost and make a way we could have a new relationship to God, (Matthew 18:11, Luke 15:4-7). It was by His sinless life, sacrificial death on the cross and His resurrection from the grave that we have the hope of a new relationship to and with God, (Romans 5:8-11, Luke 19:10). But our faith and hope must be in Christ Jesus and nothing less or more, (Romans 3: 21-23, 5:1&2). See you in Church next Sunday.