He's Celebrating You: Jesus Wants You Home

Luke 15:3-7
Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’  I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

That imagery of a shepherd is one who gives his life to his work, and is usually thankless, and they smell, and they don't get to hang out with people very often. They get judged when they show up to church because they don't fit the mold.

He uses the shepherd as the hero of the story. He says, "Wouldn't he go out and find that one sheep?"

All of us go, "Oh so sweet. Yes, he would."

You don't know sheep.

If that were to happen, you know what would happen? They would go and find the sheep because the sheep that night would become dinner. I don't know if you knew that. You don't bring a sheep back who's wandered off.

Because if one sheep wanders off, guess what? It's probably going to do it again and it'll take more with them.

 The way that shepherds work is when a sheep wanders off, they don't just leave it, they'll get it, but then they'll bring it home and eat it.

That's gross Pastor Jeff. That's the real because we can't handle and we can't deal with the one who strays away because that's going to mess up everything else.

Jesus says this, "Instead of eating the sheep, the shepherd brings it home and throws a celebration, and says, I got this one back, and we're not going to take its life. We're going to give it new life."

We learned from the  story that people matter. Every person matters, wherever they come from. Whatever they're feeling, whatever they're walking through, no matter how many times they've strayed away, they still matter.

Even if I don't like them, they still matter.

On the other side, there is a huge and a high value associated with every person and every soul. Jesus constantly is pointing how valuable people are in his economy.

Then on top of it, along with the value of human life, He declares how important community is in the celebration of lost things being found.

Christ declared your value, and He proved what it meant on the cross. 

We're so proud of all the rules we follow. I gave, I did, I served. Here's the thing, rule-based living will always lead to arrogance and focus your attention on yourself.

We don't live so that we can be glorified. We live for the glory of the one, and the purpose of the one who gives us life.

We celebrate those who were dead and have come back to life, who have returned to Jesus, who were lost but now are found. In that celebration, we remind ourselves that His journey leads us home. 

The message that we're leading to, this whole thing, is leading to the cross of Easter, the empty cross, and the empty tomb. Every step of Jesus' journey pointed us back to Him and pointed us back to the purpose and the point of all of this.

With that in mind, I want us to keep that fresh in our hearts, come and see when you meet Him, everything will change because Jesus' journey leads us home, and we all get to celebrate just like heaven when one comes home.