We huddle in our masses to sing, study and serve. We get cozy on comfy chairs with coffee mugs surrounded by the already convinced. We labor long to offer the best in programs and cutting edge technology. We sing our anthems, hear our truth and hug one another afterward.
Yet God finds more joy, more delight, more pleasure, more satisfaction in one sinner coming to repentance than all our religious gatherings of the already convinced.
Luke 15:3-7 (ESV)
3 So he told them this parable:
4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?
5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’
7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
In the parable the man left the 99 sheep to go find the one lost one. The church has it backward today. We coddle the 99 and neglect the lost sheep. They drive by our cathedrals unimpressed and uninterested. They live in the shadow of our steeples sleeping through our Sunday gatherings.
O but if they could meet Jesus. If they could hear of His love, His power to transform, His ability to heal internal wounds and His strength to break chains of bondage they could be free. But they don't hear. They struggle through life. They have no sure foundation. They have built their lives on the shifting sands of current philosophy and cultural trends. It is all empty.
Yet the already convinced love our holy huddles. We create more of them. We insulate ourselves from the outside world. We sing and read about taking Jesus to the lost. It used to sting a little when we did not do so. Now we have become callused and it doesn't phase us or those we huddle with.
Jesus looks for the lost. That is His mission. One He entrusted to us. Let us not be so quick to pat ourselves on the back for how great our gatherings are. Jesus finds more joy in the gutters, in the crack houses, in the bars and other rough places where people turn from sin and embrace Jesus for salvation. All of Heaven gets fired up about this. God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, angels, and the saved over on that other side rejoice. They cannot contain their enthusiasm when another one is rescued and redeemed. It's time for the church to see more of these celebrations happen. That is one of the joys of Heaven.
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