God's Joy over You

  • It can be very hard for us to accept that we bring joy to God,
  • but this is clearly taught by Jesus in the two parables — the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin.
  • Can you truly believe what Jesus said to be true about yourself?

 

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Video cover image by Donald Macleod CC BY 2.0

  • When you come to God in prayer, does the feeling come up “God will be so pleased to hear me”?
    • Probably not!
    • But I am going to argue today: that’s wrong! It’s a problem I want to address today.
    • If we are his children, then we should have a sense of his delight in us!

Goal

For each of us to be able to truly accept the joy and delight that God has in us.
  • We are going to look at 2 parables:

God’s Joy over You

  1. Parable of the Lost Sheep
  2. Parable of the Lost Coin
  3. Feeling God’s Joy over you

1. Parable of the Lost Sheep

Luke 15:1–10

  1. Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming to hear him.
  2. But the Pharisees and the experts in the law were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
  • tax collectors - who they really were
  • Sinners – the meaning of this term in Christ’s time
  • What do you think of this reasoning?:

God is pure

  • Habakkuk 1:13 “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong”
  • Is this still true?
  1. God is pure:
  2. A Godly person will therefore want to keep themselves pure
  3. Someone who loves God will want to reflect his character and purity
    • God is too pure to even go near those disgusting people,
    • So we should not go near them, let alone eat with them
    • But Jesus came to reveal to us the character of God.
      • He was being accused of behaving inappropriately
    • If Jesus is supposed to be reflecting the character of God, how could he spend time with these people as if they had not done anything wrong?

Continuing in Luke 15...

Luke 15: Lost sheep

  1. So Jesus told them this parable:
  2. Which one of you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, would not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go look for the one that is lost until he finds it?
  3. Then when he has found it, he places it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
  4. Returning home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, telling them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost.’
  • Issues:
  • Going back to the tax-collectors and sinners:

But notice “repent”

  1. I tell you, in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to repent.
  • So Jesus is not condoning them continuing their behaviour—the assumption is that they will come into relationship with him.
  • What is the joy about?

2. Parable of the Lost Coin

Luke 15 cont’d
The Lost coin

  1. Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search thoroughly until she finds it?
  2. Then when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’
  3. In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.
  • What do these teach us about God?
    • He is a seeking God—he wants us very much
    • We are individually of great value to him and he is prepared to go to great lengths on our behalf
    • He celebrates us coming back to him
  • This is the core of the message today:

Jesus reveals the Father

  • Three things that it’s hard for us to grasp:
  1. You are very valuable to God!
  2. He has put, and will put, a lot of effort into you!
  3. You bring him great joy!
  • What if I am not a Christian? – this parable applies equally to you!
  • Story of John Newton
  • Mother died of TB at age 7. Father was a sea captain and forced him a job on a ship at age 11 …

John Newton

John Newton

Image source: “Public Domain”

Let’s go back to the question of God’s purity

  • How can a pure God be in a close relationship with us who keep failing?

3. Feeling God’s Joy over you

  • Now we know that ultimately it is through his death that Jesus reconciled us to God
    • He has paid the price so that we can go free!
  • But here is the main problem
  • So you have a dirty, sinful tax-collector, and a pure spotless God
  • All his sin is forgiven and washed away
  • But he still does bad things—so how can he be close to a pure God?
    …

New Creation

  • Right at your core you are a new creation, made like Jesus Christ
    “So then, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; what is old has passed away—look, what is new has come!” [2 Cor 5:17]
  • so right at your core, the real you, is a new creation
  • You have a new nature inside, formed by the Spirit, that only wants to do good

The New and the Old

  • But you still have some old lies embedded in you that are not rooted out yet. “Strongholds”.
  • These can cause you to revert to old behavior at times, but their power is defeated – victory is possible
    “Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” [Gal 5:24]
  • All the sins of this old flesh were dealt with on the cross, so God doesn’t even look at it
  • He looks at the core you, his new child, his beloved, his perfect one!
  • Our main problem in this life is that although we are a complete new person,
    the old version of us is like a zombie, dead but still active.
  • You are not a dirty dog with a white covering
    You are a perfect and lovely new person, with bits of the old still clinging to you, but they are not you.
  • There is joy in heaven over you!

You are altogether beautiful, my love;

there is no flaw in you. Song 4:7

  • You have to get this. It is the core of the message of grace
    • If you don’t understand it, your relationship with God will be troubled
    • Guilt will keep you away getting close to him

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