{"id":33634,"date":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/lost-in-space\/"},"modified":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","slug":"lost-in-space","status":"publish","type":"sermons","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/lost-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Lost in Space"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2005\/08\/18914.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n<p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">If\nsomeone asked meno one ever does, so I volunteer this sort of thingabout\nmodern man&#8217;s greatest dilemma, I would say that modern man is caught in an\nidentity crisis brought on by the tremendous amount of information available\nabout who man is, his relationships to other people, and his place in the vast\nuniverse.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">For\n22 years I drove the Chicago area expressways. On the Eisenhower Expressway you\nhave six lanes going in and six lanes coming out. I often had a desire to get\non top of my car, blow a whistle, and say, &#8220;Everybody stop. Let&#8217;s all trade\ncars and stay here. Let&#8217;s not just drive back and forth. Why all this?&#8221; I felt\nlike an ant on a great anthill. I was simply one egocentric, \nperson doing my thing. I am very insignificant in relationship to the total.\nI&#8217;m probably less than one little sturgeon egg on the party cracker of a\ngentleman eating with his pinky extended. I am just one little nothing in the\nmidst of it all. A man caught that way tends to live that way.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">David,\ncaught in that same identity crisis, said, &#8220;When I consider the heavens, the\nsun and the moon and the stars, which you&#8217;ve set in place . . . &#8221; His natural\nquestion then was, &#8220;What is man that you&#8217;re mindful of him?&#8221; Then, he answers\nhis own question rhetorically in his poem. He says something that may be the\ncentral phrase touching mankind in the entire Bible. It doesn&#8217;t seem that way\nwhen we read it, but if we think of its implications, its depth is truly\nprofound. He answers his own question by saying of man, &#8220;You made him a little\nlower than the heavenly beings.&#8221; Some of your translations say, &#8220;than the\nangels,&#8221; or the &#8220;<em>elohiym<\/em>,&#8221; depending\non which translation you have. &#8220;You made him a little lower than the heavenly\nbeings.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Virtually\nevery one of us in this room is the result of an educational system that has\ndrip by drip, like dropping water on stone, made an impression on our lives.\nVery few of us, naturally speaking, think of ourselves as a little lower than\nthe angels. We almost all think of ourselves as a little higher than the\nanimals. That is, we have in our mind a mental picture of something we&#8217;ve seen\nin any natural history museum: an ascendancy of primates, little jumping\ncreatures, eventually humped over with knuckles dragging, and finally standing\nerect. When we see the final &#8220;naked ape,&#8221; embarrassingly like us, we say, &#8220;This\nis my heritage. This is where I came from.&#8221; We think of ourselves as a little\nhigher than the animals.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I\nwouldn&#8217;t debate the fact that as human beings we are mammals. We carry on the\nmammalian kind of processes: ingestion, digestion, absorption, assimilation,\nrespiration, excretion, secretion, motion, sensitivity, and reproduction. We do\nthese things without consciously thinking about them, just like all the other\nanimals.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The\ncentral statement of Scripture about mankind is that we have been imputed or\ninfused by God with a nature that is not a little higher than the animals, but\none that is, in this poetic terminology, a little lower than the angels.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">There are three stories\nJesus told about lost things<\/span>\n      <\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">We\nread about the creation of man in Genesis 1: &#8220;In the beginning, God created the\nheavens and the earth.&#8221; T of the way down through the chapter it\nsays this: &#8220;Then God said, &#8216;Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and\nlet them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the\nlivestock, over the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.&#8217;\nSo God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male\nand female he created them.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">It&#8217;s\nthis image of God spoken about in the Bible that makes the distinction between\nman and the animals. It causes David to describe man not as being a little\nhigher than the animals but a little lower than the angels. Mankindmen and\nwomencreated a little lower than the angels.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">For\npurposes of communicating the central truth about which our service is built\nthis morning, I chose a familiar story from Luke 15. Reading world literature,\neven in Christian countries, you often see the phrase, &#8220;the prodigal.&#8221; That\nsimple phrase communicates a story to all educated, aware human beings. The\nBible story called &#8220;The Prodigal Son&#8221; is a story of estrangement between father\nand child.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">In\nmy opinion, this particular theme of estrangement between father and child is a\nprofound communication of central truth for modern man. That truth is tied to\nman being created in the image of God. In Luke 15 it&#8217;s put into context. Verse\nthree says, &#8220;Then Jesus told them this parable,&#8221; and he tells three stories. I\nwould contend that these three stories are really one parable.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Jesus\ntells a story about lost sheep. He told of a man who had a hundred sheep, and\nhe discovered one was missing, so he left the 99 and went seeking the lost\nsheep. When he found the lost sheep, he threw it over his shoulders and brought\nit home. He called his neighbors together, and they rejoiced because he had\nfound the lost sheep. There was more rejoicing over one lost sheep than over 99\nsheep that didn&#8217;t need finding.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Then\nJesus told another story. There was a lady with a necklace, or maybe it was a\ndecoration for her head. It had 10 coins on it. The 10 coins made it a unit.\nShe lost one of the coins. The woman searched the furniture, swept the house\ndiligently, and lit a candle to look under things. She eventually found the\nlost coin. When she found it, she called the neighbor ladies together and had a\nlittle coffee klatch. They were very grateful she had found her coin, and they\nput it back where it belonged.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Then\nJesus tells the story of a man who had two sons. The younger son said to his\nfather, &#8220;Give me that portion of my inheritance that&#8217;s coming to me.&#8221; The son\nprobably felt he&#8217;d be too old to enjoy the money if he waited to receive it\nafter his father&#8217;s death. The father gave the son his inheritance. The story is\nalmost clich\u00e9. The son goes to a far country and wastes his substance. He finds\nhimself hiring out to feed pigs. The son becomes envious of the pigs because\nthey have something to eat, and he doesn&#8217;t. It&#8217;s an awful thing to be envious\nof pigs. The son remembers how the servants at home are abundantly fed, so he\nreturns to the father.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Note\nthis interesting thing about these stories: When a sheep is lost, the shepherd\ngoes and finds it. When a coin is lost, the lady sweeps the house and puts the\ncoin back where it belongs. When a human being is lost, the father just stays\nhome. Isn&#8217;t a boy as helpless as a lost sheep? Isn&#8217;t a boy as valuable as a\nlost coin? Then why when a sheep is lost do you bring it back where it belongs,\nwhen a coin is lost, you put it back in a box where it&#8217;s kept, but when a boy\nis lost, you just let him be lost?<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The Prodigal Son\nis written from the viewpoint of God as a heavenly parent<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">There&#8217;s\nnot a parent in this room who doesn&#8217;t understand this story. It&#8217;s written from\nthe viewpoint of God as a heavenly parent. There are probably 50 parents in\nthis room this morning who have sons and daughters estranged from them, and\nthey know the story.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The\nfather in this story was a wealthy man. He had servants, influence, and clout.\nHe had power; papers to sign; people to meet; buttons on his desk. He could\nmake things happen and send pink slips. He was an important person. He could\nhave called his servants together and said to his most trusted servant, &#8220;Big\nServant, Junior has gone off with everything he had coming to him. He went to a\nfar county where he&#8217;s wasted the whole business, made a fool of himself, and\nruined our family name. Go get him.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">So\nBig Servant goes to the far country and finds Junior there, a good Jewish boy\nfeeding pigs. Big Servant says to the son, &#8220;You smell like swine. Your dad is\nvery concerned about you. Come home.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;I&#8217;m\nnot coming,&#8221; says the son.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;Yes,\nyou are,&#8221; says Big Servant. Putting a hammer lock on the son, Big Servant\nmarches him home and tosses him on the living room floor. &#8220;Here&#8217;s your son.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;Look\nat you!&#8221; the father says to his son. &#8220;I spent my whole lifetime earning the\nmoney I gave to you. In a few weeks you wasted the whole thing. Get in the\nbedroom! You sit on the edge of your bed and think about what you&#8217;ve done. When\nyou&#8217;re ready to fly right, you can come out. Get hold of yourself, young man.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">So\nthe boy goes to the back bedroom. What does he do? He sits there on the bed\nlike boys from time immemorial, and he says, &#8220;Dad&#8217;s right. Wow! Isn&#8217;t it\nwonderful to get insight, to have your elders tell you the truth! Things that\nescape you are pointed out by those who are older and more experienced.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">No,\nhe does what all boys do. He sits on the edge of the bed and says, &#8220;That&#8217;s my\ndad. Wouldn&#8217;t give me enough rope; couldn&#8217;t give me enough slack. I was just\nabout ready to make it big in pigs. I was &#8216;gonna be the Bob Evans of the far\ncountry. I was &#8216;gonna make it big in Jimmy Dean sausages. About the time I&#8217;m\nready to make it, he drags me off. Just wait till I get out of this back\nbedroom. I&#8217;ll go back to that far country, and I&#8217;ll show him. I&#8217;ll do what I\nwant to do because I want to do it. I don&#8217;t need his help; I&#8217;ll make it on my\nown.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">All\nfathers understand this story. They know there&#8217;s a difference between a coin\nand a sheep and a man. Man is created not a little higher than the animals, but\na little lower than the angels, and he has the image of God in him.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">You\nsee, the universe glorifies God. The whole thing is doing it now without our\npermission. All the cosmos are moving in perfect concert and harmony. You don&#8217;t\ngo out at night and say, &#8220;I wonder where the North Star is tonight? Maybe it&#8217;s\nin the south. Maybe it&#8217;s meandering.&#8221; No. We set the course of compasses and\nships by the stars. They move in perfect concert. They glorify God by their\nperfect harmony.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The\nphysical world glorifies God. The rain comes down, percolates into the soil,\nand contacts the  membranes of the little roots of the plants.\nThe rain works its way through capillary action up into the plant. When the\nrain gets into the plant, it begins a process called photosynthesis. The sun is\ngoing across the sky. The little leaves go  and follow the\nsun across the sky. Meanwhile, we humans go around making carbon dioxide. The\nplants take in that carbon dioxide, turn it into oxygen, and give it back to\nus. We breathe in their good oxygen, turn it into carbon dioxide, and give it\nback to the plants. We cooperate beautifully with the plants in the carbon\ndioxide cycle. This glorifies God, and the ecology moves on beautifully as long\nas we humans don&#8217;t cut down all the rain forests.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The\nphysical laws glorify God. We also have something called the law of gravity.\nFor centuries men were going along, and if they dropped a pocketknife, they&#8217;d\nlook at the wall or the ceiling. &#8220;Where is it?&#8221; Eventually they&#8217;d find it on\nthe floor. Then one day an apple hit a guy on the head, and he said, &#8220;Ah!\nThere&#8217;s a rule. If you drop an apple or a pocketknife, it&#8217;s better to look\nfirst at the floor. They&#8217;ll almost always end up on the floor.&#8221; Every time we\ndrop a pocketknife, we pick it up and say, &#8220;Ah, the law of gravity.&#8221; The law\nworks perfectly, and it glorifies God.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">It&#8217;s\nlike airplanes taking off from Chicago&#8217;s O&#8217;Hare Field. I used to pray every\ntime I flew, &#8220;Oh God, help this thing to fly.&#8221; Each flight was an individual\nact of grace. Actually a 747 has no choice. It doesn&#8217;t sit there saying,\n&#8220;I think I&#8217;ll go to Dallas today.&#8221; If you move that thing down the runway\nto a certain speed, the air pressure builds because the distance across the\nwing is greater than the distance under the wing. It creates lift. The plane\nphysically has to fly. It may not want to fly, but it&#8217;ll fly anyway.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\">God created male and female beings whose response to him is voluntary<\/h2>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">God\ncreated the heavens and the earth. But on the earth there are little \n&#8220;jobbies&#8221; who are able to stand back and say, &#8220;I know the cosmos works in\nharmony. I know about the universe. I know about the physical laws, but I&#8217;ll do\nwhat I want to do, because I want to do it.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Can\nyou imagine what the God who made the heavens and the earth will do to a little\n jobbie who says, &#8220;Leave me alone?&#8221; He will leave him alone. God will\nleave him alone, because he doesn&#8217;t want to blur the distinction between sheep\nand coins and human beings. As soon as God begins to treat men like sheep and\ncoins and runs roughshod over man&#8217;s ability to choose his destiny, he makes man\ninto an automaton or a puppet on a string. Man would become not a little lower\nthan the angels, but simply a little higher than the animals.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">In\nthe scriptural scheme of things, the whole world glorifies God with its\ncomplexity and its obedience. But God created, in his own image, male and\nfemale beings whose response to him is voluntary. The word we use to describe\nthis voluntary response is a common word often confused in our culture. It&#8217;s\nthe word &#8220;<span style=\"\" class=\"\">love<\/span>.&#8221; Love\nis voluntary. Love is reciprocal. It can&#8217;t be forced.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I\nspent much of my life working with high school and junior high kids. At junior\nhigh camp, a boy falls in love with a girl. This little girl walks into the\nroom, and he just starts melting down like an M &amp; M held in one&#8217;s hand too\nlong. He sees this girl, and his little juices start flowing. He doesn&#8217;t\nunderstand puberty, but he knows his big hands are not proportionate to the\nrest of his body, and he feels funny. He wants to say to me, &#8220;Jay, how can I\nmake her love me?&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Well,\nyou can hold her underwater in the pool or knock her down on the ball field or\npull her hair or say something insulting to her. Junior high boys will try all\nthat stuff instead of saying, &#8220;I love you,&#8221; because when you offer love,\nthere&#8217;s a long, horrible moment when you wait for the response. Even though you\nhave said it with your whole heart, the other person may be unable to say, &#8220;I\nlove you, too.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Remember\nwhen you were younger? Some of you guys fell in love in church, or maybe you\nwere in a movie. This girl was sitting nearby, and you stretched out so you\ncould touch her hand. It was innocent. You could have been reaching for your\npopcorn. When your hand touched hers, you were conscious of it. If she let it linger\nthere, you knew she was conscious of it. If an airplane took an infrared\npicture of the building at that moment, there would have been a little red\nthrob going  right there in the picture.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Then\nyou took your pinkythis was the big riskand you tried to hook her pinky, and\nshe said, &#8220;Pervert!&#8221; Slap! &#8220;What are you doing?&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;Oh,\nnothing. I was just. &#8230;&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Why?\nBecause human beings created in the image of God have autonomy, and we cannot\nviolate the autonomy of another human being. The ugliest words in any language\nare the words associated with the violation of autonomy, words like &#8220;<span style=\"\" class=\"\">assault&#8221; <\/span>and &#8220;<span style=\"\" class=\"\">rape<\/span>.&#8221; It means one autonomous\nhuman being, created in the image of God, has forced his or her dominance over\nanother person, and that person feels used. God will never do that.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Could\nnot the God who made the heavens and the earth take a battering ram and knock\ndown the resistance in my life and yours? Of course. Some of us wait and say,\n&#8220;I will if God just lights up my bedpost and I hear the words, &#8216;Jay, repent.&#8217; &#8221;\nGod would probably sound something like Bill Cosby, don&#8217;t you think? But if he\ndoes that, what would happen? God does not violate human beings. We are not\nsheep and coins.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">What\ndo we have in this story? The boy has gone to the far country. He&#8217;s wasted his\nsubstance. What does the father do? He watches. The father is hard to\nunderstand. Birthday after birthday he lights the candles and waits. What else\ncan he do?<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The\nsovereign God who made the heavens and the earth has limited himself in direct\nproportion to how much freedom he&#8217;s given to human beings. He will not violate\nus or go around lighting up our bedposts. He could. We could go out tonight and\nsee letters written in the sky three thousand miles high, each digit five\nhundred feet wide, saying, &#8220;Folks, quit messing around. Repent!&#8221; If he did, we\nwould lose our autonomy. So what happens? The father waits. He waits for the\nson to come to himself.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">When\nthe son comes to himself, what does he do? He makes up a speech. Most people\nhave a little religion in their mind, and they can think up religious speeches.\n&#8220;I&#8217;ll go to my father, and I&#8217;ll say, &#8216;I&#8217;ve sinned against heaven and before\nyou.&#8217; &#8221; True. &#8220;I&#8217;m not worthy to be called your son.&#8221; Perhaps. Next, it&#8217;s a\nreal  phrase: &#8220;Make me as one of your hired servants.&#8221; That&#8217;ll\nget him! So the boy comes to himself.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">When\nhe comes home, his father sees him a great way off. Father doesn&#8217;t wait for the\nboy to cross the threshold. The father has been watching and waiting. He runs\nto the boy, throws his arms around him, and kisses him. The boy has his\nreligious speech thought up: &#8220;I&#8217;ve sinned against heaven and before you.&#8221;\nRight. True. &#8220;I&#8217;m not worthy to be called your son.&#8221; Perhaps. Then comes his\nbest one, the one he&#8217;s saved up, the groveling one: &#8220;Make me as one of the\nhired servants,&#8221; and the father, in typical fatherly fashion, doesn&#8217;t even\nhear.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Before\nthe son finishes his sentence, the father says, as if distracted, &#8220;Bring a robe\nand put it on his back. Put shoes on his feet, and put a ring on his finger.&#8221;\nThe son pawned the family ring, for goodness sake. Put a ring on his finger?\nThen the father exclaims, &#8220;Kill Spotty Calf. Let&#8217;s have a barbecue. My boy&#8217;s\nhome!&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">This\ndad is absolutely thrilled because the boy has come home. The older son, who\nhas no concept of fatherhood or of grace, doesn&#8217;t understand fathers and sons.\n&#8220;What&#8217;s going on? Music and dancing?&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;Well,\nJunior&#8217;s home. He&#8217;s safe.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;But\nhe wasted everything. I&#8217;ve been a good boy. I mean, I fed ol&#8217; Spotty Calf, and\nnow you&#8217;ve killed him. You never even gave me a thin little goat to I\nnever even had a goat sandwich. I worked my fingers to the bone around here.\nI&#8217;m always good, and now you&#8217;re showing forgiveness and . . .&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Dad\nsays, &#8220;Hey, you don&#8217;t understand, Son. This is your brother. It&#8217;s not about how\nmuch or how little he wasted. The point is he is important, not our money. Your\nbrother is home. It was important that we do this.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">That\nis the method God chose to communicate his infinite nature and his relationship\nto mankind. There&#8217;s a difference between sheep and coins and human beings.\nThere&#8217;s a principle at work in all of our lives. We can exercise that principle\nin obedience, in harmony with his universe, so that when God raises and lowers\nthe baton, his creation sounds like Sir Georg Solti on the podium with the\nChicago Symphony. Or there can be a little toot here and a little squeak there,\nor an  or two with a counter melody that says, &#8220;I will do it my way.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">God\nmade the heavens and the earth, and he made man in his own image. I know God\ndesires that every human being be in concert with his will. I also know that he\nwill not violate that autonomy and break down the walls of our lives or assault\nus. He is the waiting Father. They call this story &#8220;The Prodigal\nSon,&#8221; but I call it &#8220;The Story of the Waiting Father.&#8221; I&#8217;m\nsimply here to tell you about him. I have a deep desire and prayer that you&#8217;ll\nbegin to hear God&#8217;s voice. I simply want you to exercise your uniqueness as a\nhuman being and come home. Come home to God. Live under his roof and\nacknowledge him as your God, your Creator, your Lord, and your Savior, through\nJesus Christ. He will never force it upon you.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <em>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Jay\nKesler is president of Taylor University in Upland, Indiana.<\/span>\n      <\/em>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">(c) Jay Kesler<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Preaching Today Tape #85<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">\n        <a href=\"http:\/\/www.preachingtodaysermons.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">www.PreachingTodaySermons.com<\/a>\n      <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">A resource of Christianity Today\nInternational<\/span>\n    <\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[306],"tax_ctp_authors":[1858],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[170],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[412],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_sermon_series":[],"tax_ctp_tags":[5091],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-33634","sermons","type-sermons","status-publish","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-jay-kesler","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-struggles"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lost in Space - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/lost-in-space\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lost in Space - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If someone asked meno one ever does, so I volunteer this sort of thingabout modern man&#8217;s greatest dilemma, I would say that modern man is caught in an identity crisis brought on by the tremendous amount of information available about who man is, his relationships to other people, and his place in the vast universe. 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