"looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."

There was a man who once left the comforts of heaven, the security of His throne, and even, though temporarily, the relationship to His Father... just so He could celebrate the return of those who were lost. That man is Jesus.

And Hebrews 12:2 tells us something that should reshape the way we see everything. Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Can I tell you what that means? It means when Jesus looked at Calvary, He did not just see nails and wood and blood. He saw you. And the joy of having you was so great that it was worth every bit of what the cross cost Him.

Here's what I see. This is not a God who reluctantly paid a debt. This is a God who was fueled by joy to pay the highest price that has ever been paid, because the thing waiting on the other side of that suffering was you coming home. The cross was not an interruption to His joy, the cross was the doorway to His joy.

Now if the life of God is in me, and His Spirit lives in you, then we have to ask ourselves some hard questions right now. How important is the recovery of the lost in my life? How critical is that to me? How do I find my highest joy? Is it in some trivial thing in this world, some temporal thing, some insignificant thing? Or do I find the highest levels of my joy in the knowledge that a sinner has been found and restored?

That should be our highest joy. Is it?

Because if God's greatest celebration is over one sinner coming home, then what does His Spirit living in you celebrate? If the Spirit of the One who endured a cross for joy is the same Spirit inside of you, then something in you should be stirred by the same thing that stirred Him. You should feel something pulling you beyond your comfort, beyond your routine, beyond the safety of what you already know, and into the space where the lost are waiting to be found.

Just like a farmer who plants in hard soil because the harvest is worth the labor, the joy set before Jesus made the pain worth enduring. And the joy set before you, the joy of seeing someone come home to the Father, is worth whatever it costs you to leave the 99. It will cost you comfort. It will cost you time. It may cost you the approval of people who think the lost are not worth the trouble. But the joy on the other side of that obedience is a joy you have never tasted sitting safely among the fold.

Tomorrow we are going to look at a group of people who should have known all of this and missed it entirely, and what they teach us about the danger of loving comfort more than the lost.

Write down the names of one or two people in your life who are far from God. Spend five minutes in prayer asking the Lord to give you His joy for their restoration, not just concern for them, but joy that is willing to go after them.