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.”
“This world” is entirely made up of people who have the “opinion” that the pompous person can somehow unwittingly KNOW THEIR NEED and come to a loving SAVIOR and convince HIM of our need for HIM and beg HIS FORGIVENESS to save us??? However, John 15:16 PLAINLY says that “YOU DID NOT CHOOSE ME, but I CHOSE YOU and APPOINTED YOU THAT YOU SHOULD GO AND BEAR FRUIT and that your fruit should abide, so that WHATEVER you ask THE FATHER in MY NAME, HE MAY GIVE IT TO YOU.” We DO NOT possess the capability of CHOOSING to perform “good works”, for they ALL come from ABOVE (James 1:17)!!!
The Apostle Paul writes many times, most notably in Acts 9:15, about GOD CHOOSING
him to be a servant for HIS Kingdom! The Apostle Paul also writes in Ephesians 1:4 that GOD CHOSE him BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD!
So the ALL-KNOWING BEING WHO SPOKE this world into existence KNEW BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD that I would serve HIM! HE also KNEW that it would cost an UNIMAGINABLE price for me to be ACCEPTABLE in HIS SIGHT! Yet HE CHOSE to pay the PRICE to REDEEM me…..FOR HIS GLORY!!!
Human language isn’t adequate to encapsulate the love, compassion, and appreciation that I have, BECAUSE “I HAVE FOUND” MY sheep!!! I am certainly NO BETTER than a dumb, lost sheep! But JESUS CREATED me so that ONE DAY HE could tell THE FATHER that “I HAVE FOUND” my precious sheep in the midst of the wickedness of “this world”!!!
