🌟 Scriptures 🌟
Luke 15
1 Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. 2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!
3 So Jesus told them this story: 4 "If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won't he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.' 7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven't strayed away!
Parable of the Lost Coin
8 "Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won't she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, 'Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.' 10 In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God's angels when even one sinner repents."
Parable of the Lost Son
11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: "A man had two sons. 12 The younger son told his father, 'I want my share of your estate now before you die.' So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons. 13 "A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything. 17 "When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, 'At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I will go home to my father and say, "Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, 19 and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant. "'20 "So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. 21 His son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. '22 "But his father said to the servants, 'Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. 23 And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, 24 for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found. ' So the party began.25 "Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, 26 and he asked one of the servants what was going on. 27 'Your brother is back,' he was told, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return. '28 "The older brother was angry and wouldn't go in. His father came out and begged him, 29 but he replied, 'All these years I've slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf! '31 "His father said to him, 'Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!'"
🗣️The Message📜
*Disclaimer this Word was inspired by a note in my Study Bible*
At some point in time we were all lost, not knowing Jesus we wandered and went where we pleased, no matter if it was dangerous. In this text we see three stories with a similar theme, someone has lost something. There was a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son but thankfully in all of these stories, these lost things are found. The thing I want all of you to pay attention to is that in each story nothing got lost in the same way. The sheep wandered away, the coin was lost by no fault of its own, and the son left out of selfishness, but eventually, they were all found. No matter how a person gets lost may it be from stubbornness, growing up with parents that don't believe, or just wandering away from God, He has the ability to find what is lost and to restore it. He will celebrate when a child comes back from death to life, for they were dead and now they are alive. So many people are led by what they see people do and dictate those people's worthiness of God and ability to be saved on it. But this chapter showed that no matter how lost someone is God can find them and call them back home. No matter if this person is a killer, a politician, a thief God can and will meet them where they are and continue to call them to Himself. Our job is not to stand in His way. Our job is to continue to fight for people to be saved, our job is to believe that Jesus came to call His people out of the darkness into the glorious light. If you think someone is unworthy of this great blessing of salvation, remember that we are saved by grace through faith not by works, not by being good, but by God's Great Love. Now if someone is in your heart that you have doubts about I challenge you to believe that our Great and marvelous God can do anything and His one desire is for their salvation. Stand on the wall, pray for them, do His will, and never give up. Don't be like the lost son's brother who rejected his brother's return but rejoice as the angels rejoice when someone is saved from death and is now alive. In JESUS Name Amen.