Thinking Like a 99er

Prayer Requests:

• Just two big ones--that the Lord would heal Nellie and Dusti of their painful shingles!

From Rev. Eric Evans

We spent a lot of time sharing personal memories of our parents--what drove them? What were they all about? Some things were positive, others not so much.

Perhaps you are tempted to think of God in a slightly mushy way. He is all about you, you are all about Him, all is love and happiness, etc. Well, how does this compare with the way you think of your earthly parents? Like it or not, God is more like them than you'd think. If your parents were always there for you, He is too. If your parents weren't exactly obsessed with you, He isn't either. 

We might say gushy things about God, but many of His children have been to Hell and back a few times with this loving Father. Obviously there's more to Him than just an adoring parent. Look at how Jesus describes him in Luke 15 with the parables of the lost sheep, coin, and son. 

In the parable of the sheep there is a tendency to cast oneself as the lost sheep, but try putting yourself in the place of the 99 (those who do not need repentance, Luke 15:7). How do they see the shepherd? We can get an idea by looking at the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son. He was terribly upset at his father's conduct. He wondered why the father threw a party for the prodigal and never gave the "good boy" a party. The father said, "you are always with me, and everything I have is yours." (In other words, "feel free to throw your own party, it's all yours anyway.")

Let's unpack that a bit.

Jesus shows the Father as someone driven by the pursuit of the lost. He considers one sheep as something so precious that He can leave the 99 in the field and go after it. If you sometimes feel like God isn't very close to you because He seems to always be more concerned about "the delinquents", it's probably because He is! He assures us that we are secure, even when we feel alone. It's not all about pats on the back and "mountaintop experiences". Contrary to popular opinion, God is not "the eternal cheerleader of the 99." Heaven celebrates the one, not the 99. It's not all about you. You got your party, now it's someone else's turn. God has moved on! There are whole movements in the church that try to keep up the "goosebumps," but that is purely artificial.

Pursuing the lost. This what drives our heavenly Father. Thinking of our Lord through this lens, we see that we are 99ers, and it's OK because everything God has is ours. In Luke 15:28-31 we see that we are always with our Father, and that should be enough. Remember: A week after the younger brother came home he became a 99er just like his older sibling. 

One last thought: if we want to be near the Father and the Father is in the brush searching for the lost sheep, where should we be?

"Jesus gave them this answer: 'I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does....'"

-John 5:19