Wednesday night in my Equipping U class, we were discussing the parables in Luke 15 and how much rejoicing takes place in heaven when a sinner repents and is saved. Here are the specific verses:
v.7 “I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous person who need no repentance.”
v.10 “In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
v.32 “But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.”
I made the same point that I made in my sermon a couple of weeks ago – that heaven gets more excited when someone gets saved than it does when a large crowd shows up at church. As we continued talking about how much heaven rejoices every time someone is saved, Ferrel Smith made a point I had not thought about before. He said, “The 99 had already received the same treatment.”
Wow! What a great point. When you and I accepted Jesus, heaven rejoiced – a lot.
Now Jesus wants us to join with the angels and rejoice when someone else get saved – rejoice just as much as heaven did when we got saved.
As humans we get excited about a lot of things, like a big win by our football team. Even in church we get excited about a lot of things more than we do evangelism. We boldly talk about a lot of things more than we boldly talk about Jesus to lost people.
I’m praying that God uses the OIKOS Evangelism lessons in Sunday School to help all of us be more excited about seeing people saved. I’m praying that 200 adults will attend the October 2nd OIKOS Evangelism Workshop from 4:00 – 7:00 pm in our worship center.
I’m praying you will become more evangelistic and be more excited about doing whatever it takes to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m praying that you will enthusiastically want other people to receive the same treatment you did when you gave your life to Christ.
Pastor Steve Hogg
Beth McCormick says
Steve these verses about the excitement in heaven over one sinner being saved excites me every time I read them! You know how excited I become when, I am able to share the gospel with one of my clients on Thursdays. It is so awesome to see a persons face light up when they say YES to Jesus for the first time and when they pray the sinners prayer!sometimes I just want to jump and shout. It is thrilling to hear from someone you shared the gospel with months after they receive Christ. One gentleman told me “I just wanted you to know how God has changed my life ” . I explained to him that ,I was glad to hear this and I hoped he was sharing his story with his friends who don’t know Christ. His comment was priceless, he said ” Oh yes ma’ma I am doing that, I just wanted to call and thank you for sharing Christ with me!”.