Scriptures

New Living Translation (NLT)

Luke 15
⁵ And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders.
⁶ When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’
⁷ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!
⁸ “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she finds it?
⁹ And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’
¹⁰ In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.”
¹¹ To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons.
¹² The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
¹³ “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living.
¹⁴ About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve.
¹⁵ He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.