Speaker 1: Good, my name is Ryan.
Speaker 1: I'm the pastor here.
Speaker 1: It's great to be with you guys this morning and we are in the middle of our I Am series.
Speaker 1: So seven times in the Gospel of John, jesus says I Am, and then he fills in the blank.
Speaker 1: There are many other times too, where he says I Am.
Speaker 1: Just that's all he says is I Am.
Speaker 1: One time the guards say we're here for Jesus of Nazareth, and then are you him?
Speaker 1: And he says I Am, and they all fall down.
Speaker 1: It's an incredible scene, but we'll get to that later.
Speaker 1: So we did.
Speaker 1: I am the bread of life, I am the gate or the door, I am the light of the world, I am the way, the truth and the life.
Speaker 1: And Jesus is showing us what God is like.
Speaker 1: He's referring back to the story when Moses, way a long time before Jesus, moses meets with God in a burning bush and he says hey, who should, I say, is sending me?
Speaker 1: And the bush just tells him tell them that I am sent you, which doesn't clear up much if you ask me.
Speaker 1: But he's like I am that, I am, I am the, I am, I am being itself.
Speaker 1: Perhaps God is somehow the ground of all being or existence itself, which is fascinating to think about.
Speaker 1: Paul writes in him we live and move and have our being, which is beautiful.
Speaker 1: And so sometimes your friends who think they're not close to God or they're far from God, they're closer to God than they actually think, because it's in him they live and move and have their being.
Speaker 1: Without God, they would be dead.
Speaker 1: So anyway, there we are, I am, and today we are going to be talking about I am the good shepherd.
Speaker 1: Are you ready?
Speaker 1: Here's my opening image.
Speaker 1: And, by the way, two things.
Speaker 1: One, I titled my sermon the Good Shepherd, but also there's a subtitle.
Speaker 1: The subtitle is the Offensive Gospel According to Sheep.
Speaker 1: And just so you know, I did design all my slides this morning by myself, using AI, I use ChatGPT.
Speaker 1: And so buckle up, if you don't know what that is, if you're like, what is AI?
Speaker 1: It's artificial intelligence and you can type into a computer hey, generate for me, and then you can fill in the blank and it'll make anything you want it to make.
Speaker 1: For example, if you wanted to say something like I don't know, hey, chat, design for me an image of an anthropomorphic burrito from Chipotle, holding a lacrosse stick in one hand and a Starbucks in the other one wearing black, red and white Air Jordans, standing on a beach in Bali and have a dragon flying in the background, you might just get this image.
Speaker 1: This is how you know we're going to have some fun today.
Speaker 1: That is chat GPT.
Speaker 1: Isn't that awesome?
Speaker 1: Look at that.
Speaker 1: I was having so much fun on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: Like.
Speaker 1: This is the best ever.
Speaker 1: We've got to upgrade to the next level on chat GPT Pay.
Speaker 1: Whatever We've got to do it, it's great.
Speaker 1: The Good Shepherd and here's the deal the Bible calls us sheep many times, and so this morning I want to just unpack some ideas about sheep and remember that it's talking about sheep, but it's also talking about you.
Speaker 1: So just bear that in mind and let come to the service.
Speaker 1: Whenever it comes to the service, are you with me so far?
Speaker 1: Okay, sheep, in case you didn't know, were first domesticated about 9,000 to 11,000 years ago, a long time ago, in the Neolithic era, and some people say they were the first ever one of the first ever domesticated animals with humans A long, long time ago, and it mostly happened in this area called the Fertile Crescent.
Speaker 1: The Fertile Crescent is this area in like the Middle East East, where modern-day Iraq and Iran and Syria and Turkey and Israel and Palestine are.
Speaker 1: So out of this area comes the first ever domesticated sheep, and they were domesticated about 10,000 years ago, in the Neolithic era, and most modern domestic sheep descended from this bad boy, the wild mouflon.
Speaker 1: Isn't that a cool animal?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you might say that this, indeed, is the goat of the.
Speaker 1: Oh, I told you I had fun making these slides.
Speaker 1: Yeah, most of them come from this bad boy.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing when they domesticated the sheep, the wild mouflon, it didn't stay wild, and they did it because they wanted to be able to utilize the wool, and they wanted to use it for meat and for milk, and also they would use its manure, for they were an agricultural society, so they would use its manure to fertilize their land and their soil and enrich their soil in incredible ways.
Speaker 1: But what happened was these animals became extremely docile over the years, and we're talking about thousands of years.
Speaker 1: They became really docile.
Speaker 1: They became defenseless.
Speaker 1: They couldn't help themselves.
Speaker 1: You know, they were no longer wild.
Speaker 1: They couldn't do much on their own.
Speaker 1: They were dependent entirely on a human to take care of them.
Speaker 1: This is, of course, the birth of the shepherd, so in about 2000 BC, so maybe 8,000 or so years after they've been domesticated.
Speaker 1: They've been around for 8,000 or so years after they've been domesticated.
Speaker 1: They've been around for 8,000 years.
Speaker 1: Abraham in the Bible shows up and in Abraham's day, around 2,000 BC, the image and the metaphor of the sheep is ubiquitous.
Speaker 1: It's everywhere.
Speaker 1: Well, why wouldn't it be?
Speaker 1: Because they've been around for thousands of years.
Speaker 1: They were like a staple of ancient agricultural and nomadic society and so they were all over.
Speaker 1: And the sheep uses the image of the sheep, or metaphors of the sheep or the shepherd, a lot, and when they do it it isn't just poetic, it's anchored in this thousands of years old cultural and historical presence and image of the shepherd and the sheep.
Speaker 1: So of course, abraham would show up and there'd be images in the Bible from Abraham's time on, with sheep and shepherd.
Speaker 1: Now again, we are called sheep on many occasions.
Speaker 1: So don't get mad at me, it's the Bible that calls you sheep.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to tell you a few things about sheep and then we'll kind of go from there.
Speaker 1: First thing I know about sheep is that sheep are not very smart.
Speaker 1: Don't kill the messenger.
Speaker 1: I said hey, chat, make me an image of a dumb sheep.
Speaker 1: Yes, perfect, I don't need to do it.
Speaker 1: You can always go back and edit these.
Speaker 1: Nope, no editing needed.
Speaker 1: This is perfect.
Speaker 1: Sheep are dumb.
Speaker 1: They get lost all the time.
Speaker 1: They have no sense of direction.
Speaker 1: They don't know how to eat.
Speaker 1: They can't find their own food or water Left with their own devices.
Speaker 1: They would starve and dehydrate.
Speaker 1: In fact, a couple of years ago we had a sheep here live and in person I gave a sermon on sheep years ago and the woman poured her name is Jo.
Speaker 1: She poured food right in front of the sheep and the sheep didn't even know where it was like.
Speaker 1: Looking all around, he said right, he could point his nose in his own food.
Speaker 1: Yeah, left of their own, they will not eat anything, although they will sometimes, because they have no discernment, they will sometimes.
Speaker 1: Oh, by the way, can I digress for a second, ryan Monaghan, one coach of the year.
Speaker 1: For, yeah, buddy, congrats, pal.
Speaker 1: Sorry.
Speaker 1: He's the high school varsity girls coach for our section.
Speaker 1: One coach of the year.
Speaker 1: I knew Ryan when he was a little tyke and now he's a bit grown man.
Speaker 1: I don't know how it came to mind.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I don't know.
Speaker 1: It was a Freudian slip, perhaps I don't know.
Speaker 1: Good job, though, buddy, congrats, that's great.
Speaker 1: Sorry, I saw his face and I got distracted.
Speaker 1: Okay, sheep, they're dumb.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, oftentimes they have no discernment.
Speaker 1: They will eat the wrong plants.
Speaker 1: They will eat poisonous foods.
Speaker 1: If you let them, they will eat anything that's green, and so they'll eat plants and they'll die because they ate the wrong plant.
Speaker 1: Also, sheep have been known to just fall over on their back and they can't get up, so they will lie on their back no joke until they die.
Speaker 1: They're like turtles with a wool sweater.
Speaker 1: You know, that's what they, that's what sheep are like.
Speaker 1: I know it took a dark turn there for a second, didn't it?
Speaker 1: But they will die.
Speaker 1: These are sheep.
Speaker 1: Sheep also are afraid of everything.
Speaker 1: They're so scared, even if things that aren't really worthy of being.
Speaker 1: You know, of inducing fear.
Speaker 1: They'll be afraid and they panic, because sheep are scared.
Speaker 1: This is what sheep are, because they're not the smartest animals in the animal kingdom.
Speaker 1: Also, sheep have decent hearing, but they have terrible eyesight.
Speaker 1: Actually, decent hearing, but they have terrible eyesight.
Speaker 1: Actually, their peripheral eyesight is okay, but when they look straight ahead they can't see past their nose.
Speaker 1: So when they look straight ahead, they have great hearing, but bad vision when they look ahead, you might see this if you're looking for the shepherd.
Speaker 1: Now, if that looks blurry to you, it's either because you're a sheep or because I made it blurry on purpose.
Speaker 1: But yeah, they can't really see that well.
Speaker 1: So when they're following a shepherd, they can't rely on sight, they have to rely on their hearing, which their hearing is okay, it's decent.
Speaker 1: So they listen for the sounds of the shepherd, so they know where to go.
Speaker 1: They will listen for the commands or the talking or the.
Speaker 1: You know just the noises the shepherd makes.
Speaker 1: That means they have to know the noises of their shepherd.
Speaker 1: Otherwise, because they're not very smart, they might follow the wrong shepherd or a bird.
Speaker 1: So they have to know, like, what's the difference between the noise a bird makes and my shepherd?
Speaker 1: Well, they know it, they figured that out.
Speaker 1: That's why they follow the shepherd, which means and of course, the shepherd has to make noises constantly.
Speaker 1: So shepherds in the Middle East, in the Near East and in the ancient Near East, for sure they would make noise, they would talk endlessly, they would talk constantly.
Speaker 1: Now my kids heard this and said Dad, you'd make a great shepherd.
Speaker 1: Thanks, but it's true, they make noise, they just talk and talk and talk.
Speaker 1: They will also sing.
Speaker 1: So many singers in that Maybe Ray could be a good shepherd.
Speaker 1: Ray could just sing and they could just follow her voice.
Speaker 1: And they will also play the flute, you know.
Speaker 1: They'll play other instruments and they'll just make noises.
Speaker 1: They'll yell out commands so the sheep can hear those noises.
Speaker 1: They know it's their shepherd and they'll follow the shepherd wherever the shepherd goes.
Speaker 1: This, by the way, is how it would look in the ancient world and actually in modern day, the Middle East.
Speaker 1: Today, the shepherd leads from the front, so he'll be out in front, or she'd be out in front, calling to the sheep, inviting them, wooing them, leading them from the front.
Speaker 1: It's invitational, it's gentle.
Speaker 1: Actually, in places in the world today, like Australia, other shepherds will lead from the back.
Speaker 1: Here's a picture of an Australian shepherd.
Speaker 1: By the way, sometimes AI will goof things up.
Speaker 1: I don't know how that sheep ended up in his arm like that, but this guy is able to carry a sheep with one arm and he barely looks like he's just a sheep jetting out of his arm there.
Speaker 1: I'm like what happened?
Speaker 1: I'm like leave it.
Speaker 1: I want to leave it in there.
Speaker 1: It's hilarious.
Speaker 1: But yeah, these shepherds in parts of Australia, they'll lead from the back.
Speaker 1: They'll do do with dogs or with sticks.
Speaker 1: This is much more stress-inducing on the sheep I've read and it causes some consternation in the sheep and stress and it's actually good for big, large groups but it's less personal, less connection and it's not as good for the sheep in terms of their own sort of mental health.
Speaker 1: I guess you could say it's more stressful for the sheep.
Speaker 1: So they lead them, they poke, they prod, they have sheep dogs and they will lead them from the back and they'll just kind of push them from the rear.
Speaker 1: But it's less personal, less connection and it relies on control too.
Speaker 1: By the way, whereas this other image of the sheep, this one, is more invitational, more inviting, come and follow me, that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Which, by the way, this is the ancient shepherd in the Bible, this idea of leading.
Speaker 1: This is why in the Hebrew the word for shepherd is the word roach.
Speaker 1: Everyone say roach.
Speaker 1: Now it means shepherd in the English, but in many places it can also mean leader.
Speaker 1: They will use these words interchangeably shepherd, leader, king, ruler.
Speaker 1: There are all kinds of times in the ancient world and in the Bible where they'll mix these metaphors of a shepherd, a leader, a king.
Speaker 1: David calls God a shepherd.
Speaker 1: The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want they called kings shepherds.
Speaker 1: In fact, these three gentlemen were all shepherds before they were leaders.
Speaker 1: Anybody know who that is?
Speaker 1: Moses, you got it.
Speaker 1: David, you got it Abraham.
Speaker 1: I said to my daughter Addison, I go, addison, if you can tell me who these three guys are, I'll buy you Culver's.
Speaker 1: So then she told me she used chat, gpt and said hey, chat, which guy in the Bible carries a harp?
Speaker 1: She's like David Cheater.
Speaker 1: And I said hey, chat, make it more realistic and have them look more friendly.
Speaker 1: There we go, that's way better.
Speaker 1: Abraham, moses and David hanging out.
Speaker 1: Who knew?
Speaker 1: These guys lived hundreds of years apart, so they never really met each other.
Speaker 1: But there you go, these guys were all hey, anything's possible.
Speaker 1: Ai, these guys were all shepherds.
Speaker 1: And then they become leaders, and predominant leaders in Israel.
Speaker 1: Now, sheep, because they're not the smartest and because they can get into trouble.
Speaker 1: Quite often they.
Speaker 1: By the way, let me ask you this question before I go on what if we just listened for the sound of our shepherd and followed him Right?
Speaker 1: What if, instead of following my own desires each morning or day, or what I wanted to do, or my own inclinations or my own wisdom.
Speaker 1: What if I said I'm going to follow my shepherd and whatever sounds he's making, wherever he's going, I'll follow him and just see where it takes me.
Speaker 1: What if we did that, instead of just doing whatever I wanted to do?
Speaker 1: Okay, that being said, sheep are incredibly.
Speaker 1: They thrive in community.
Speaker 1: They love community.
Speaker 1: They're very social and gregarious animals.
Speaker 1: Get ready for this image.
Speaker 1: Yes, I said chat, make me a disco party of sheep, 80s themed with a disco ball and a DJ in the background.
Speaker 1: And that is what it made.
Speaker 1: Yes, sir, the 80s were the best.
Speaker 1: Let's just be honest.
Speaker 1: Sheep thrive in community.
Speaker 1: They love being together.
Speaker 1: They're social, they're gregarious, they actually they're more secure, they're safer when they're together because it wards off any dangers or harm, and so sheep actually know how to follow the shepherd because they do it together, so they will follow.
Speaker 1: If they're kind of confused, they'll follow the other sheep, knowing they're following the shepherd, and when they stick together, it's better for them.
Speaker 1: Now, this, of course, is where you get this pejorative term just a bunch of sheep following, you know.
Speaker 1: But if you're following a good shepherd going the right direction, then that's fine.
Speaker 1: It's actually better for the sheep to follow along with the crowd, to all go the same direction, to listen for the voice of their shepherd and do what he says, because sheep thrive in community.
Speaker 1: When sheep are alone, the odds of them getting lost go way up.
Speaker 1: And when sheep are alone, the odds of them doing something dumb goes way up.
Speaker 1: I'll be a bit more clear.
Speaker 1: When you are alone, the odds of you doing something dumb goes way up, am I right?
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you wander off a sheep.
Speaker 1: By the way, another funny fact about sheep sheep wander off.
Speaker 1: They just wander off because they're dumb.
Speaker 1: They'll wander away from the safety of the shepherd and the other sheep where there's food and water and they justep wander off.
Speaker 1: They just wander off because they're dumb.
Speaker 1: They'll wander away from the safety of the shepherd and the other sheep where there's food and water, and they just will wander off.
Speaker 1: And when they do, the odds of bad things happening go way up.
Speaker 1: Sheep, as you probably know, will fall into holes.
Speaker 1: I can hear the sound that sheep is currently making.
Speaker 1: Yeah, sheep will fall into holes.
Speaker 1: It went cartoon on me.
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened?
Speaker 1: And you might wonder why do sheep fall into holes?
Speaker 1: Well, who knew?
Speaker 1: But sometimes there's a Chipotle taco down there.
Speaker 1: Sheep will also fall off cliffs.
Speaker 1: They will just walk off of cliffs.
Speaker 1: They'll find themselves in all kinds of dangerous places and when they're alone there are predators out there, especially in the Middle East.
Speaker 1: There's all kinds of wild animals out there and you know, in ancient Israel these three bad boys existed all together lions and wolves and bears.
Speaker 1: You don't find many lions, if any, or bears in Israel today, but back in the first century and before that, there were lots of lions and bears.
Speaker 1: I was told, by the way, that when the Romans built the Colosseum they were the ones that kind of took a lot of the lions and brought them to the Colosseum.
Speaker 1: That's why the population was sort of ravaged in that time.
Speaker 1: But wolves are still around.
Speaker 1: But if you get alone you're going to get eaten by a wolf or a lion or a bear.
Speaker 1: It's not good to be alone if you're a sheep because you're defenseless, but sheep wander off.
Speaker 1: Now Isaiah the prophet said this about us.
Speaker 1: He said all of us are like sheep and we've all wandered off.
Speaker 1: We've gone astray.
Speaker 1: The text tells us All of us.
Speaker 1: We do dumb things and when we're alone we do even dumber things.
Speaker 1: And we get alone and we're defenseless and we're weak and we're vulnerable.
Speaker 1: We can't find food or rest.
Speaker 1: Now here's the deal there is a good shepherd and he will come and find you.
Speaker 1: That's what the text tells us.
Speaker 1: In fact, jesus said if a shepherd had 100 sheep and one of them wanders off, he'll go and find it and you'll see why in a minute.
Speaker 1: But yeah, the shepherd will come find you.
Speaker 1: But here's the deal Sometimes, by the time he finds you, you've fallen in a hole and you've broken a leg, or you've been beaten up, or you've fallen off a cliff and you've got a concussion, or you've had a wolf take a bite out of you and it hurts and you're broken and wounded.
Speaker 1: And the shepherd will come find you, but you're in pain and he'll heal you.
Speaker 1: But what if you just stopped falling into holes?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 1: What if you stopped wandering off?
Speaker 1: What if you didn't wander off?
Speaker 1: What if you just hung around?
Speaker 1: What if you stuck around other sheep listening for the sound of the shepherd, following his voice, and just said I'm just going to hang out here?
Speaker 1: I mean, what if, maybe, gathering like this on a weekly basis and singing some songs I know it's kind of weird and praying prayers out loud and eating the meal and hanging out together and listening for God's voice among other people who are listening for God's voice.
Speaker 1: What if it's actually good for us and it keeps us from doing dumb things?
Speaker 1: That's the church, isn't it?
Speaker 1: That's what we do.
Speaker 1: There's this app that was created by these three Catholics called Hollow.
Speaker 1: Have you guys heard of this app called Hollow?
Speaker 1: Very popular, it's just a prayer and meditation app where you go on there and you log in and you have prayers, meditations, there's homilies, you can pray all kinds of prayers in there, and it was started in 2018.
Speaker 1: And since then, 23 million times it's been downloaded 23 million.
Speaker 1: This is in a day and age when, apparently, people are becoming less and less religious Although, according to Pew Research, that number is sort of bottomed out Because people need connection.
Speaker 1: We long to be together, we long for meaning, to give our lives to something bigger than ourselves, to go a certain direction, to be led by a good shepherd.
Speaker 1: We long for these kinds of things.
Speaker 1: So this app, holo, has been downloaded 23 million times since 2018.
Speaker 1: And this went for 40 days they're having an initiative called Pray 40.
Speaker 1: 1.75 million people are in this initiative called Pray 40.
Speaker 1: Because people long for connection.
Speaker 1: We long for that.
Speaker 1: So like what if you didn't wander off?
Speaker 1: What if you just hung out with other people doing the same thing?
Speaker 1: Sometimes, if you're not hearing the voice of God, it's maybe because you need to get around more people who are also listening for the voice of God.
Speaker 1: And I get it.
Speaker 1: I know you're like I don't really need church, I don't really need it, and fine.
Speaker 1: But then sometimes you wander off and do something dumb and you feel bad and guilty and ashamed and you wander right back into this place.
Speaker 1: And here we are.
Speaker 1: It's like what if you didn't wander off?
Speaker 1: I get it.
Speaker 1: Like church isn't always the most sexy thing.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the music isn't quite on point.
Speaker 1: I mean it was today, but sometimes it's not.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it wasn't my favorite song or they didn't play it how I like it.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the sermon goes a bit long.
Speaker 1: Watch it.
Speaker 1: Sometimes, you know, I don't know about Ryan using AI in church.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure about all that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know, the guy next to me is kind of weird.
Speaker 1: I get it, I get it, but maybe there's something meaningful about just sitting in the sheep pen with other sheep and the shepherd and being together.
Speaker 1: I mean, most of our Christian life is this.
Speaker 1: It's just being faithful to gathering together with God's people, listening for the voice of the shepherd and not doing dumb things.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe this is what it is Just gathering together with God's people and many times, let's be honest, it's mostly boring.
Speaker 1: You know the Christian life On occasion, these amazing, incredible miracles and things happen where someone.
Speaker 1: But most of our lives are lived in the valleys, where we just are faithful day in and day out, get up on Tuesday morning and do your thing and you pray and you love your neighbor and you feed the poor, and amazing things do happen occasionally, but most of it's just this faithfulness to God.
Speaker 1: Sheep, in case you didn't know, are also one more thing about them.
Speaker 1: They're emotional beings.
Speaker 1: Any emotional people in the house today, they're emotional, so I can imagine this.
Speaker 1: You know Sheep, they get stressed out, they experience joy and sadness, and I can hear this sheep right now.
Speaker 1: He's like hey, doc, I don't know man.
Speaker 1: I mean I had this green grass.
Speaker 1: It was beautiful, a good shepherd, he loved me, I had plenty of water but I just couldn't help wandering off.
Speaker 1: I had to go see about those holes out in the wilderness.
Speaker 1: Doc is like hmm, this classic self-sabotage sheep, tell me about these holes.
Speaker 1: Sheep's like I don't know.
Speaker 1: Man, I know I shouldn't go down in there, but I just wonder like what's down in there?
Speaker 1: Sometimes Maybe there's a taco down there and I'm hungry.
Speaker 1: Sheep are emotional.
Speaker 1: They get scared, they get nervous, they get jittery.
Speaker 1: But you know what brings them peace and calm the presence of the shepherd.
Speaker 1: When they're around the shepherd, it brings them peace and comfort.
Speaker 1: So the shepherd never leaves them.
Speaker 1: In the ancient world especially, the shepherd would live out in the wild with the sheep.
Speaker 1: So they were nomads.
Speaker 1: They would sleep with them, in the same pen with them.
Speaker 1: They'd protect them.
Speaker 1: Remember, jesus said I am the gate.
Speaker 1: He lays in front of the gate the door so that no one can come in there, no harm can be done, because the presence of the shepherd brings them peace.
Speaker 1: Now I bought a dog about five years ago.
Speaker 1: He's a poodle, a standard poodle.
Speaker 1: He's awesome and I learned.
Speaker 1: I did a bunch of studying on dogs and how they work and I'd never had a dog before and, by the way, I didn't really get about all the dog stuff.
Speaker 1: Like all you guys that like love your dogs and take pictures of their dogs and cry when they get sick, I'm like, whatever, you guys are weird.
Speaker 1: And then I got a dog.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, now I get it.
Speaker 1: You know, now I get it.
Speaker 1: And I read if your dog sleeps in the same room with you, they shouldn't be in the bed with you.
Speaker 1: I'm not judging, but they shouldn't be in the bed with you, should be on the ground, like at the foot of your bed.
Speaker 1: If they do that for a long enough time, they will learn the sounds of your breathing at night while you sleep and they will like listen and it brings them comfort and there's a bonding that happens with the animal.
Speaker 1: When you sleep in the same room with that dog and you learn their breathing as well, and so it brings both of you this incredible calm and peace.
Speaker 1: Being in the same room, they're more obedient, they're more likely to trust you and what you're doing and saying and to obey your commands.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because they're animals, they learn your presence and what it means, and so shepherds would bring presence and peace to the sheep.
Speaker 1: And here's why Because the shepherd loved the sheep.
Speaker 1: The sheep was everything to the shepherd.
Speaker 1: It was his pride and joy, his glory, it was all he owned, it was his entire like.
Speaker 1: It was all of his wealth as well.
Speaker 1: It was all he had.
Speaker 1: So he loved all the sheep, spent all of his time with the sheep, loved them.
Speaker 1: He was deeply invested in the sheep and their well-being.
Speaker 1: So whatever happened to the sheep, it would affect him deeply and personally, because he had a personal relationship with these sheep.
Speaker 1: He loved them, and it wasn't just about money, it was about relationship.
Speaker 1: That shepherd would name every single sheep by name, either based on his appearance, typically, or a unique trait they had, or their personality, and he knew them all by name.
Speaker 1: This is why John says that the sheep will call them by name.
Speaker 1: So, of course, if there's a hundred sheep and one of them wanders, yeah.
Speaker 1: And now that I've had a dog, I'm like, oh, I get it.
Speaker 1: Like if my dog wandered off, I'd go find him.
Speaker 1: I love my dog.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is what the shepherd would do.
Speaker 1: He would go and find him, because the sheep meant everything to the shepherd.
Speaker 1: Sometimes, though, when that sheep wanders off and the shepherd will come find it, the sheep is stubborn and even in the rescue the sheep won't want to be rescued.
Speaker 1: So I can imagine that shepherd walking long distances finding that sheep that's prone to wander off picks that baby up and that sheep's like no, let me go, I'm having fun out here falling into holes.
Speaker 1: And all the others are like you're crazy, what's wrong with you, you idiot.
Speaker 1: And meanwhile we are like, no, it's way more fun out here getting beat up, falling in the halls.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 1: No, you don't love it.
Speaker 1: It's painful.
Speaker 1: Acknowledge it.
Speaker 1: It's painful and he'll come find you.
Speaker 1: He will because he's a good shepherd, but sometimes it hurts and it's painful and you've caused a lot of injury to your own self that you didn't need to do and maybe you just stick around.
Speaker 1: A good friend of mine from Colorado he heard this story when he was a young man about the 99 and the 1 and the shepherd would go find the 1.
Speaker 1: He goes.
Speaker 1: I know that story.
Speaker 1: See, when he was younger he had a heavy drinking problem.
Speaker 1: He was in high school and him and his buddies would get together and they would drink heavily.
Speaker 1: They'd go to parties and they would drink, and his dad was a pastor Another word for a shepherd, by the way.
Speaker 1: And one night his dad gets a phone call from this neighbor.
Speaker 1: He's like hey, your son is out in the woods with his buddies and they're drunk and they're a mess, come and get him.
Speaker 1: And so the dad goes out there, he drives out there in the middle of the night because of his son he, his son.
Speaker 1: He goes to find him.
Speaker 1: And he goes in the woods and he finds his son.
Speaker 1: He's puke all over himself, he's passed out, drunk, and he picks him up by the scruff of his neck and he drags him to the car and throws him in the car and closes the door.
Speaker 1: And he goes back out in the woods and finds his buddy.
Speaker 1: And he picks up his buddy by the back of his shirt, drags him to the car, throws him in the car, shuts the door.
Speaker 1: I've seen that image.
Speaker 1: It's my dad coming to get me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he'd fallen in a hole.
Speaker 1: This guy too, his name is tim level, he's a.
Speaker 1: He's a pastor in colorado, and this is what he does.
Speaker 1: He, he's like, he's like, he's so good with broken people and he goes and he drags, drags him back by the scarf of the neck and brings him home.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good shepherd.
Speaker 1: That's what the good shepherd does, because the shepherd is good.
Speaker 1: He's good at this, he knows what he's doing and you, my friends, are not so good at this.
Speaker 1: It's a good thing that our Christian faith walk is not dependent on my ability and my keen ear to always hear the voice and do the right thing.
Speaker 1: It isn't dependent on that.
Speaker 1: It doesn't rise and fall on my decisions.
Speaker 1: It rises and falls on his ability to be a good shepherd.
Speaker 1: I'll say that again this whole thing doesn't depend on my ability to hear God's voice.
Speaker 1: It depends on God's ability to lead and to come and rescue me.
Speaker 1: It's his goodness, not my goodness, because we're sheep.
Speaker 1: Sheep we can barely see and we're kind of dumb and we're prone to wander off.
Speaker 1: If this thing were dependent on me, we'd all be in big trouble.
Speaker 1: Just a couple of days ago, I heard someone that said this offensive thing to me and I heard it to the grapevine and I was so mad.
Speaker 1: And here I am, this 45-old mature pastor who makes only good decisions and is so proud of, and I was like for days, like why has this got me so upset?
Speaker 1: Yeah, because we're not good at this.
Speaker 1: In fact, if God were to show me the depth of my own heart, it would floor me undoubtedly.
Speaker 1: If God were to show me a mirror and show all of it at once, it would wreck me.
Speaker 1: So God, who's infinitely kind in his kindness, will show me, one bit at a time.
Speaker 1: Hey, ryan, just let me work on this thing here.
Speaker 1: Hey, let's fix it.
Speaker 1: Hey, ryan, let me heal this thing in you.
Speaker 1: Hey, just this one thing, ryan.
Speaker 1: Let me get this, because he's kind and he's good and he's patient and he's long-suffering and he'll come back up there to find you again, even though it's the tenth time or the hundredth time, because he's the good shepherd.
Speaker 1: So the pressure is off.
Speaker 1: It's about his goodness, not your goodness.
Speaker 1: The pressure is off.
Speaker 1: You're sheep, you can't see and you're kind of dumb.
Speaker 1: I know it's offensive, but this is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: I'm just telling you.
Speaker 1: So, central Lutheran Church, may you know that you have a shepherd.
Speaker 1: His name is Jesus, and this morning may you hear the call of him, may he call you by name.
Speaker 1: We're going to pray and sing a song, and I'd love to just have you close your eyes and your ears at some point during the song and just imagine the voice of the shepherd.
Speaker 1: What would he say to you?
Speaker 1: Imagine him calling you by name.
Speaker 1: He knows your name, he named you, he knows your personality, your unique traits, what's inside of you, and he's come to find you many times before.
Speaker 1: What did he say to you?
Speaker 1: And what if you, just today, are like I'm going to listen for his voice and just go where he leads me?
Speaker 1: So central this morning?
Speaker 1: May you hear the voice of the good shepherd and may you hang around some more and be around other folks who are trying to follow Jesus together.
Speaker 1: It's not easy and it's not always sexy, but it's what we're doing.
Speaker 1: It keeps us safe from doing dumb things and as we do it together, may we hear the voice of the good shepherd, amen.