Joy at Each Sheep's Salvation
Well, we're still in Matthew 18, and yesterday we spoke about verse 12, where Jesus spoke about the shepherd that leaves the 99 safe sheep to go find the one that's lost. And in verse 13 He says this: "If he finds it, truly, I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the 99 that did not wander off." How joyful God is when a lost, wandering sheep is found and comes back home.
Joy in Salvation
A few months ago I worked on the Chrysalis weekend, which is an interdenominational Christian camp, and a bunch of young men came on this weekend not knowing exactly what it was about, just knowing it was like a church camp. A lot of them were hard towards God, had gone through a lot of hard stuff in their lives, and so were not really interested at the start of the weekend.
But at the end of the weekend each of them were given a chance to share, and there was a great moment when one of the young men said, "I gave my life to Jesus last night" - and the whole place erupted in joyful applause and whistling and screaming and shouting, because it was a beautiful moment to see how this young man had been transformed in the matter of three days.
God Seeks the Lost
You know what had happened, friends? His Father, the Shepherd, had been seeking him and seeking him, and on that weekend he had turned around to his Father, the Shepherd, and said, "Save me." And there was great joy not only in God, the Father, the Shepherd, but in all the sheep whom he was reconciled to.
Share the Joy
Friends, are you joyful and so excited about people in your life coming to know Jesus? Does it absolutely fill you with joy? I pray that it does, because really, it's the most important thing that can happen to anybody. And if we truly believe that, then oh, wouldn't we really try to share the love of Jesus with people that they may come home and be saved by the Shepherd today?
Remember that when you said yes to Jesus, all of heaven erupted in joyful shouts and screams. And oh, may we have that same joy when people in our lives come to Jesus.
Maybe today you want to reach out again to those who need His love. What a joyful day it'll be when God brings them home.
