...Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Believers, consider Nehemiah 8-

"10 Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

This last portion of the verse is quite famous. It tells us that we are strong only when we know that the Lord God is joyful over us. But do you know what gives the Lord joy? We see this in the words of Christ Himself in Luke 15- The Parable of the Lost Sheep:

"Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. 2 And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” So He spoke this parable to them, saying:

4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 5 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ 7 I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance."

The repentance of the sinner gives the Lord joy, more joy than those who need no Repentance. Bear in mind that "just persons who need no repentance" is Christ's tongue-in-cheek reply to the self-righteous Pharisees who did not see themselves as sinners and who were aghast that Jesus Christ "the same yesterday, today and forever" received and ate with dirty sinners whom God could not possibly be happy with/rejoice over. Beloved of God, we all need Repentance. It fills God with joy and when you know that you have peace with Him, you are strong. But what is Repentance?

We often think of Repentance as something that we have to determine to do by our own will-power. Many preachers define it as feeling sorry for sins and determining to live a godly life "from now on." But did you notice that there is no Saviour Jesus in this equation? Jesus does not do anything in this definition of repentance. Did you notice that Judas who betrayed Christ went through those Christless “repentance" phases with his attempt at fulfilling the law on restitution? This is a Judas kind of repentance - towards self and not towards God. This is repentance to death and not repentance to life. This is a Christless repentance so there is no Salvation here. Galatians 5:4 buttresses this point:

“For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the Law you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's Grace.”

Repentance is God's gift to man and it gives Him joy when we receive this freely-given gift. The Parable of the Lost Sheep gives us the true picture of what Repentance is truly about. Let's note five things that happened in the passage:

1. The sheep got lost.

The sheep wandered off/went astray either by some unintentional miscalculation, on purpose or because it had a mental breakdown. The Law of Moses is not interested in backstories as to why a person sinned. The devourer that goes about like a roaring lion is not going to consider the sheep's state of mental health or the reason behind its lack of protection before tucking into its prey. Whether by the way of Peter who began with good intentions and sinned or Judas whom “Satan entered,” and also sinned, the bottomline is the sheep went astray.

2. The Shepherd went to look for and found the sheep

3. The Shepherd was not mad at the sheep when he found the sheep.

He didn't care if His sheep was dirty, smoking, fornicating, gay, stealing, bleeding, sick, whatever sins. He didn't tell His sheep: "Stop all the bad things you are doing or else I will not save you. In fact, I will punish you." Rather, He was ecstatic! He was just very happy to have found and to save His sheep from its predicaments.

4. After the sheep was found, it CONSENTED to be carried.

The sheep did not try to treat its wounds, walk home by itself or rectify its sinful acts to prove to the Shepherd that it was sorry like Judas. Like Peter who also committed a similar sin of betraying Jesus, this sheep saw the futility of trusting in human effort (arm of flesh) in making things right; if it tried to make things right by its own power, things will just get worse as they did for Judas! So it just allowed itself to be borne on the strength of the Shepherd. And the Shepherd carried it on His shoulders just the way it was- whether smelly, dirty, full of worms and fleas, with a broken leg, not in bad shape, etc. He carried it warts and all, rejoicing. He never asked it to walk by itself or do anything to make up for its bad behaviour or earn the right to be carried. His job is to make the often foolish, self-soiling and helpless sheep whole.

5. We know the sheep repented because Jesus said "likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance."

If you look closely, you'll find out that the sheep did only two things in the passage:

It got lost and it allowed itself to be carried by the Shepherd all the way after it was found. Neither action involved the sheep determining to put an end to being bad by its own will-power, doing good works in order to get the Shepherd to see how serious it was about changing its ways, trying to justify or normalise its erring ways that are against God's Law by saying “I was born this way" or walking home on its own feet.

This sheep knew that it had gone astray (flouted God's Law), knew that it was utterly helpless to save itself and knew that it was utterly in need of the Shepherd's salvation, or else it would perish. It knew that it had no strength to stand by itself and that it needed to be borne on the Shepherd's strong shoulders, all the way home. Beloved of God, this is true Repentance:

Acknowledging that one is a sinner through and through, knowing that of ourselves, there is absolutely nothing that we can do to get into God's good books by our own will-power and consenting to be carried- saved from sin and death- ALL THE WAY HOME by Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd.

Believer, the church is like a hospital (Christ's shoulders) filled with believers, all of whom were raised to life from death (in sin), are in different stages of recovery and are being transformed to wholeness by our Shepherd and Physician, Jesus Christ. And on His shoulders- utterly dependent on Him for righteousness and strength - with no self-medication whatsoever, we never remain the same. Our path gets brighter and brighter… Matthew 1:21 says of Him-

"She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Also Titus 2:14- "He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."

Repentance is "None of self. All of Christ." And the Lord loves it. We cannot but be strong when we know that He is rejoicing over us always as we rest in Christ and allow ourselves to be borne on Christ's shoulders - the place of Strength- all the way home.

The race is not to the swift...Time and Chance as well as Satan can happen to those who are winging it outside Christ's shoulders. Can you imagine the benefits of being perpetually borne on the shoulders of the One who is Creator and Master of Time and Chance as we journey on this earth? Living life off His shoulders is akin to an ant trying to cross a very busy highway. Just the wind from a car tire is enough to blow it off the right path.

Believer, God is on your side. Right now, He is rooting for you and ensuring that you get to our eternal home safely as you rest in Christ's strength. Let's grow up to know our inheritance (our blood-bought righteousness in Christ) and not be like that child who thinks that his perfect father no longer loves him because he had bad grades in school. His father will discipline/correct him and help him to succeed in every way he can, not punish him and leave him to rot! How much more our Father in heaven of whom our Saviour says in John 3:16-

"For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish, but have eternal life."

Believer, even when you were lost in sins, God dearly prized you. Christ has cleared our sin debt forever, giving us Grace to be taught by the Lord Himself and not "wing it" by our own will-power aka arm of flesh. Beloved of God, our Abba Father's heart of love and compassion beats for you and I always.

Beloved of God, by His Grace, beware of Pharisee-type church leaders who try to make you believe that God is displeased with you who are in a Christ or that He is not rejoicing over you always, even in spite of your sins keep you up at night. Remember He sent His own Son to save you from those same sins (Matt. 1:21.) No salvation for those who think they have the power to walk home and so refuse to be carried on His shoulders; and there is only one way that this can happen:

“For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the Law you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's Grace.” Galatians 5:4.

God's beloved, beware of the Pharisees counterparts in the church today who also regard sinners the same way the Pharisees regarded the notorious sinners who followed Jesus in their day:

"Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. 2 And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.”

These antichrist "men of God" specialize in making you believe that God is angry or displeased with you and try to get you walking home (be godly aka be like God) in your own strength (arm of flesh) instead of leading you to depend wholly on Christ! God says "Yes." They say "No." E.g. God's word says-

"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law..." Galatians 3:13.

But these devourers who go about like a roaring lion defy God by claiming that generational and other curses still hold sway in the lives of believers in Christ! Believer in Christ, how can you be strong when you think that God has something against you to the extent that He would curse you?!!! In reality, He has nothing against us! He is for us. In Christ, we are 100% righteous in His sight and not because we did anything to deserve it-

"And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

Believer, believe right. The gospel has not changed. It is the message of Christ who never changes. It is Grace- undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour. Grace is not attractive to the self-righteous churchgoer who rejects being carried on the Shepherd's shoulders by depending on/taking pride in his non-existent ability to walk by himself aka self-effort at obedience in order to produce the fruit of godliness/righteousness.

Grace attracted and transformed helpless sinners who knew they had no good in them and looked to Christ for salvation- borne on His shoulders all the way home. When Christ the Light of the world walked the earth as Man and taught Good News, it was disreputable sinners who acknowledged their sinful state loved and followed the Light. But many do not know that outside of God's saving Grace, all men are the same - horrible sinners. This is why the Pharisees could not stone the woman that was caught in adultery. No one on earth can boast of keeping the law like the Pharisees. Yet the law condemned them. How much more us? We all need God's saving Grace. And with Christ, it's all or nothing. No mixture of human effort at obedience (law-keeping) and Grace (undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour.)

Grace is still attracting and transforming helpless sinners who know that they are sinners wherever He is being preached today. Trust in Him and be strong in the Father's love for you.