3.14- What Heaven Enjoys most.

3.14-
What Heaven Enjoys most.

I had a strange discussion last week.

Since I am a retired preacher I had been assigned to help watch out for the dangers and extremes in the ministry staff at our church. It has been an interesting week. One of the youth ministers had not shown up at the church office all week so on Friday I asked him to meet me at the building for an accountability meeting.
Josh arrived a bit late for our meeting with his usual upbeat attitude. “Where have you been all week?” I said,
"Its been quite a week" he replied, "One of our students is in detention it takes a while to get in and out of there. My intern’s car brakes went out the first week he bought the junker so I helped him put on brakes. My wife was tied up at the women’s shelter all one day, so had to keep the kids and study at home. On Wednesday we moved our youth meeting down to under the bridge homeless place to give them some sandwiches. So it’s been busy.”
I reminded him as the volunteer in charge of his work he was supposed to be at the office at least 20 hours a week.
He went on to tell me his other distractions. He and his boys run a dog shelter and one had gotten loose on the streets and they went all over town looking for this mutt. His wife’s cell phone had been left somewhere and they had turned over everything in the house and car to find it which wasted hours.
His brother, who lives with them, had gone to Los Vegas, skipping his work and losing the money he had been saving to get his deposit for his own apartment. He had shown up at the Love Field without any money to get a ride home. He had to go pick him up.
He explained these distractions had kept him from being at the office on time for his duties there. I was about to say to him I was about ready to call for him to have to meet with an elder when he told me this story.
There is friend of mine, Jesus, who claims to have had an understanding of what heaven is like. It’s a place of joy when lost animals are found, and extreme joy when lost items are found and it’s a place where extreme, exhilarating joy happens when a son who has wasted a bunch of money with sinful activities comes to his senses. The son comes home to say he was sorry and make things right and get a job and go to work. He comes home after all this wasted time and money and the father throws a big party, with music and dancing. The father was giving the squandering wealth son a new set of threads and a new ring. He told me this story represented heavens main joy:
Messed up people coming home to a place of family, love and work.
He explained that was what had happened in his own life this week in spite of the fact that he didn’t get to put on all his office hours. He had brought a young man who had been bullied to rethink his plan to take his life. He had joined a bunch of boys and girls gathering up some food for a girl whose mother had lost her job at the dollar store. On Friday they had gone to a veterans retirement home to sing hymns. On Saturday they had cleaned up the leaves and limbs and mowed the lawn of an 80 year old widow from our church. He thought it has been a good week in terms of helping his students see the best way to experience the joy of heaven even though he didn’t make all of his office hours.
This discussion with this youth minister was in my mind.
Larry Wishard
2.2.20

 Luke 15.

15 Now all the tax collectors and the ^[a]sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. ² Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

³ So He told them this parable, saying, ⁴ “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the ^[b]open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? ⁵ When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ⁶ And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ 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 persons who need no repentance.

The Lost Coin

⁸ “Or what woman, if she has ten ^[c]silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹ When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost!’ ¹⁰ In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

The Prodigal Son

¹¹ And He said, “A man had two sons. ¹² The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.’ So he divided his ^[d]wealth between them. ¹³ And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living. ¹⁴ Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be impoverished. ¹⁵ So he went and ^[e]hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. ¹⁶ And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the ^[f]pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. ¹⁷ But when he came to ^[g]his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! ¹⁸ I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and ^[h]in your sight; ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.”’ ²⁰ So he got up and came to ^[i]his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and ^[j]embraced him and kissed him. ²¹ And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ ²² But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; ²³ and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; ²⁴ for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.
²⁵ “Now his older son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ And he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things could be. ²⁷ And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.’ ²⁸ But he became angry and was not willing to go in; and his father came out and began pleading with him. ²⁹ But he answered and said to his father, ‘Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never ^[k]neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends; ³⁰ but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your ^[l]wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’ ³¹ And he said to him, ‘Son, you ^[m]have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. 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.’”

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