Luke 15 opens with a line that should bother every church guy.
"Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Him."
Not avoiding Him. Drawing near.
The idea
Think about who those men were. Tax collectors worked for Rome and squeezed their own people for cash. Traitors. Crooks. Everybody in town knew it.
"Sinners" meant guys stained by their vices or their record. The ones people crossed the street to avoid.
And those were the guys who wanted to be close to Jesus.
The religious crowd hated it. "This man receives sinners and eats with them." They meant it as an insult. It's actually the best news in the whole chapter.
Here's what hit me Sunday. The people religion pushes away are the ones Jesus pulls close. The farther they got shoved from the religious crowd, the closer they came to Him.
Then Jesus tells a story. A man has a hundred sheep and loses one. He leaves the ninety nine and goes after the one until he finds it.
Then he puts it on his shoulders, carries it home, and calls the neighbors over to celebrate.
Not a lecture. A party.
Now the uncomfortable part. Before you picture yourself as the shepherd, remember Isaiah 53:6. All we like sheep have gone astray.
Every one of us.
Sunday broke sin down simple. Shoot and miss the mark. Intentionally break God's law. Neglect the righteous path. Most of us hit all three before lunch.
So you were the one once. Maybe you still are. Lost, lonely, or left out. Jesus came looking anyway.
Which leaves a question for every man who's been found. Who are you going after?
Somebody in your life is the one. The buddy whose marriage blew up. The coworker who quit showing up anywhere. The guy who's convinced church people already decided he's too far gone.
If you've been carried home, you don't get to stand with the grumblers.
A question to sit with
Who's your one?
Put a name on him. Then be honest about what's kept you from going after him.
Inside Brotherhood Forged, nobody has to clean up before they walk in, because every guy in the room was the one before somebody came after him.
Every brotherhood starts with one guy forwarding this to another guy. Be that guy.
If this one hit home and you're able, a gift helps this newsletter keep going after the guys who still feel like the one nobody came looking for. No pressure at all. Just grateful you read it.
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