SPEAKER_00: Big big welcome to everybody.
SPEAKER_00: You look absolutely fabulous.
SPEAKER_00: Very nice.
SPEAKER_00: Some of the glow-ups are amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Whoa.
SPEAKER_00: I would also like to say welcome to the fourth winter this spring.
SPEAKER_00: I've lived in we've lived in Ohio here for about 12 years now.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think I'm ever gonna get used to this kind of a spring.
SPEAKER_00: Like, how do you plan for literally anything?
SPEAKER_00: Alright.
SPEAKER_00: Well, here we are.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I read this article this week.
SPEAKER_00: The the US Surgeon General issued a formal advisory three years ago, back in 2023, uh, not about cancer or obesity, not about fentanyl, but about loneliness.
SPEAKER_00: Loneliness.
SPEAKER_00: He called it an epidemic.
SPEAKER_00: Loneliness as an epidemic.
SPEAKER_00: He said roughly half of American adults report measurable levels of loneliness and the health risk associated with the loneliness, the physical, actual measurable mortality risk associated with loneliness is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
SPEAKER_00: Fifteen cigarettes a day, every day, just from loneliness.
SPEAKER_00: Another article I read from Gallup, they track human well-being across five categories: purpose, relationship, finances, physical health, and community, and apparently only a third of Americans say they're thriving in all five.
SPEAKER_00: One in three.
SPEAKER_00: Which makes you wonder.
SPEAKER_00: Despite every app, every subscription, every self-help framework, every wellness trend, even the carnivore, two out of three are merely surviving.
SPEAKER_00: And that is not the life Jesus got for us.
SPEAKER_00: We are the most entertained, the most connected, the most medicated, the most optimized generation in human history, and apparently we're not doing well.
SPEAKER_00: Main idea I want to share with you today is this idea we find in John chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus had a name for what is draining the life out of us.
SPEAKER_00: And he had an answer for it in just one sentence.
SPEAKER_00: In a sense, something is taking from you and I what we were made to have, and Jesus came to give it back.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're going to discover that sentence today, and hopefully, God is going to speak to each one of us through this.
SPEAKER_00: If you will turn in your Bibles, please to John chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're going to read a few verses out of John chapter 10, but before I get into that, I think it's important to set the stage or the context of these verses.
SPEAKER_00: The beginning of John chapter 10 is what they call the Good Shepherd discourse, where Jesus is giving some metaphor here for who he is and what he's come to do.
SPEAKER_00: But it is not a standalone message where he is just trying to paint a beautiful picture, a good pastoral letter, so we can all feel better about ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: He's actually addressing a situation of what just happened in the previous chapter in John chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna briefly talk you through John chapter 9 so we can set the context and then get into our main sentence for today.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had just healed, John chapter 9, he's just healed a man who'd been blind since birth.
SPEAKER_00: An absolute miracle, incredible.
SPEAKER_00: But what happens next is the thing that's difficult for us to read.
SPEAKER_00: The religious leaders, at the time the most spiritual, the most powerful spiritual authorities in Israel, interrogated this man for being healed.
SPEAKER_00: What happened?
SPEAKER_00: How did he do it?
SPEAKER_00: Who did it?
SPEAKER_00: Did you see him?
SPEAKER_00: What do you know about him?
SPEAKER_00: And they're interrogating him and raising a bit of a ruckus.
SPEAKER_00: Then they brought his parents in and interrogated his parents.
SPEAKER_00: But his parents were so afraid from being expelled from the community that they, in a sense, threw their son under the bus.
SPEAKER_00: Look here.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 9, verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: They say this his parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.
SPEAKER_00: So what do they say?
SPEAKER_00: They're like, hey, listen, yeah, he was blind when he was born.
SPEAKER_00: Now he can see how did it happen?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: He's of age, you go ask him.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because they feared.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture tells us why they answered this way.
SPEAKER_00: They feared the fact that they would be put out of the synagogue.
SPEAKER_00: The leaders get back to the man who was healed, continuing the interrogation.
SPEAKER_00: Eventually he gets a little sarcastic with them because he says, You want me to keep repeating myself?
SPEAKER_00: And he says, What?
SPEAKER_00: Do you also want to be a disciple?
SPEAKER_00: So they put him out of the church.
SPEAKER_00: They they expel him.
SPEAKER_00: He is uh excommunicated for the crime of being healed on the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful part of the story.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 9, verse 35.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus goes out to find the man.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this verse.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him, he said, Do you believe in the Son of Man?
SPEAKER_00: And essentially, what we would say today, he leads him to salvation, to the road and the path of salvation by putting his faith in the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's the context for where John chapter 10 starts.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus gives this parable, a story about the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: They don't understand it at first, and then he carries on in verse 7, which is where we're going to read.
SPEAKER_00: But years four, for the main characters, the man who got expelled is the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: The leaders who expelled him are the thieves, as we look through the story.
SPEAKER_00: So let's read from verse 7 in John chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.
SPEAKER_00: I am the door.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and find pasture.
SPEAKER_00: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
SPEAKER_00: I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
SPEAKER_00: I am the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: We'll stop there.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to focus us in on verse 10 of chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read it one more time.
SPEAKER_00: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
SPEAKER_00: I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
SPEAKER_00: One sentence, one major impact.
SPEAKER_00: So let's unpack this a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: I want to pull out three main ideas from this verse for us.
SPEAKER_00: The first one is this that the thief is still real.
SPEAKER_00: The thief is still real.
SPEAKER_00: And I and I want to start with kind of the uncomfortable part of this verse.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's Easter, and we should be having a nice, you know, jolly old time.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus starts here with a thief, and I just want to go through the idea here with this verse.
SPEAKER_00: The Greek word for thief is this word kleptis.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how to pronounce it properly, but can you say that with me?
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: You guys are perfectly wrong with me.
SPEAKER_00: The word uh we can find in kleptomaniac, uh, clept kleptis is where that comes from.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean robber necessarily like the Greek word, there's a different Greek word for robber, like someone who would break down the door.
SPEAKER_00: That is a lot more aggressive, a lot more violent.
SPEAKER_00: This word kleptus means someone who takes by stealth or by deception, gradually, in a sense, without you uh noticing until it's already gone.
SPEAKER_00: See, in a sense that he's saying here that it's not like the thief overpowers you, but he he deceives you, and his program is found in these three verbs to kill, to steal, and to destroy.
SPEAKER_00: To kill, steal, and destroy, and that's not random.
SPEAKER_00: He steals our identity in a sense, who you are, whose you are, and what you're worth.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're experiencing some of this.
SPEAKER_00: He kills our sense of meaning, why any of this matters, why you matter, and when we stop asking that question, we find ourselves in lonely land.
SPEAKER_00: And it destroys our belonging, the connections, the community, the sense that actually anyone knows you.
SPEAKER_00: Does anyone know you?
SPEAKER_00: Now we can look at the loneliness data again and the well-being numbers, and we realize it's not some random cultural drift that we've just kind of ambled into.
SPEAKER_00: This there's logic to this.
SPEAKER_00: Something has been systematically and quietly over time draining our purpose and our connection and our identity.
SPEAKER_00: It's been drained out of this generation, and it's working.
SPEAKER_00: The numbers are showing us.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's a connection here in this verse to a prophet 600 years before named Ezekiel.
SPEAKER_00: And in Ezekiel chapter 34, we find a situation where God is giving a scathing verdict on the priests of the day who have been stealing from the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: And I paraphrase a little bit from chapter 34, but it's he says something like, You were supposed to be shepherds, but instead you fed yourselves.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't strengthen the weak, he says, you didn't heal the sick, you didn't go after the ones who wandered off, you scattered my flock and exploited them.
SPEAKER_00: Escathing rebuke on the religious leaders that were supposed to be taking care of God's people 600 years before Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Corrupt leadership.
SPEAKER_00: We see it today all over the world, the knock-on impact of corrupt leadership that it has the biggest impact on the people they're supposed to be leading and taking care of and protecting.
SPEAKER_00: I grew up in South Africa, I was back there again a month or two ago, and just to see that country I love so much, and to see a country so rich with natural resources and beauty and the most incredible people.
SPEAKER_00: But it is being decimated by the corruption of the leadership in that country.
SPEAKER_00: Decimated.
SPEAKER_00: The power grid is failing, the water grid is failing, the future of millions of people who've come in is in a really difficult situation.
SPEAKER_00: Not because there's not enough, but because of corrupt leadership has a major impact on the people they're supposed to lead.
SPEAKER_00: Back to our story: the Pharisees who interrogated that blind man who weaponized community, weaponized it.
SPEAKER_00: If you say this thing about Jesus, that's it, we'll take you out of the community.
SPEAKER_00: Corrupt leadership, that is not what God had in mind.
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, these guys were not the outliers.
SPEAKER_00: They seem to be the pattern, and Jesus points this out directly.
SPEAKER_00: So let me ask you a question just to sit on this for a little bit as we are pondering where we are.
SPEAKER_00: What is currently draining out the life from you so slowly that perhaps you've stopped calling it theft, but you're just calling it life.
SPEAKER_00: You're calling it normal.
SPEAKER_00: Just existing.
SPEAKER_00: Just going through the motions.
SPEAKER_00: What is it?
SPEAKER_00: Can you take a minute and think through what are the what's draining the life in you?
SPEAKER_00: Could it be your screen time?
SPEAKER_00: This is so practical, but let me tell you, just go check your screen time.
SPEAKER_00: See whether the five to ten hours we're spending on a screen is bringing us joy or bringing us life?
SPEAKER_00: Is it a resentment that you're holding on to?
SPEAKER_00: How's that feeding you?
SPEAKER_00: Is it the performance you put in at work and then you bring that performance mentality at home?
SPEAKER_00: Is it a slow drift from people who actually know you towards this highly curated real life that we are putting forward as my life?
SPEAKER_00: Where no one actually knows you?
SPEAKER_00: Is it a religious guilt that tells you God is always disappointed in you?
SPEAKER_00: Or is it a voice in your head that sounds like the Pharisees demanding an explanation for why you never measure up?
SPEAKER_00: Why can't you follow all the rules?
SPEAKER_00: I suggest we begin to name it, or we try.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's hard to address something that you won't name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I love you.
SPEAKER_00: This is important.
SPEAKER_00: We don't take out the thorn.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna just keep getting hurt.
SPEAKER_00: Second point I wanted to look at in this verse is the kind of life that Jesus offers.
SPEAKER_00: What is the kind of life that Jesus offers in this verse?
SPEAKER_00: And this is where we're gonna slow down just a little bit because we can read it with just our English understanding of this word.
SPEAKER_00: The word life here is much deeper than what we think at first glance.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus says, I came that they may have life, he doesn't use the word for life, the Greek word for life called bios.
SPEAKER_00: That's a more uh biological, metabolical type of function, your heart beating, your lungs working.
SPEAKER_00: It didn't come to your existence, your physical necessarily on its own.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus promises, does not promise us to upgrade your BIOS.
SPEAKER_00: What he offers us is this word called Zoe.
SPEAKER_00: Could you say that with me?
SPEAKER_00: Zoe.
SPEAKER_00: In John's gospel, Zoe is a very specific and much used verse word all over the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It means, in a sense, if I try to bring it down, it means like the life of the age to come breaking here into the present.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God that is painted in the picture we see here now in the life that you and I are able to live.
SPEAKER_00: It's relational, it's participatory, it's eternal.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just about a duration, though, but equality of life that the Lord offers to us.
SPEAKER_00: It's a life that feels like you're actually living.
SPEAKER_00: That is Zoe.
SPEAKER_00: John wrote in his gospel a little bit later on, he defines Zoe himself in John chapter 17, verse 3, and he says, This is eternal life, that they know you.
SPEAKER_00: This is eternal Zoe, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
SPEAKER_00: This is eternal life that they know you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you may be hearing this, and if your relationship with Jesus or your knowledge of Jesus is just surface level, you may be like, ah, I mean, okay, that's nice, you know.
SPEAKER_00: But it's kind of like saying you stand at the edge of the ocean and you kind of just tiptoe into the water, and you're about ankle deep, and you say, Oh, I know the beach, I know the water.
SPEAKER_00: And that's about as far as you go.
SPEAKER_00: The way to truly know the ocean.
SPEAKER_00: It's my favorite place.
SPEAKER_00: This is my illustration.
SPEAKER_00: My favorite place.
SPEAKER_00: The way to fully know the power of the water, the way to fully know the majesty of the ocean is getting in it, getting it, getting immersed, completely immersed into it.
SPEAKER_00: Now you have an appreciation for the power of the ocean.
SPEAKER_00: Now you have an appreciation for the life in the ocean.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, there's a lot of water right there.
SPEAKER_00: Now you have an appreciation for the life that can be found in the ocean because you're not just dabbling right here at the edge of the beach.
SPEAKER_00: So now when we begin to understand that, put that verse up one more time, please.
SPEAKER_00: This is eternal life, that they know you.
SPEAKER_00: The deeper he is inviting us to come into a knowledge of him, the more you know him that way, the more we begin to experience the abundant life that he has on offer for us.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: That's the definition.
SPEAKER_00: Abundant life is not circumstance, it's a relationship and a very deep relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if this is the meaning of this word, it should blow up our meet our thinking of this being a kind of like a prosperity gospel reading of this verse.
SPEAKER_00: See, because Jesus isn't promising you a promotion or a house that finally feels big enough, or kids who finally get the right kind of playing time you're hoping they get.
SPEAKER_00: He's offering you, he's not offering a better bios, he's offering Zoe, and the abundance of Zoe, it's the abundance of knowing God.
SPEAKER_00: C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis uh had a way of putting this that it's hard to forget.
SPEAKER_00: He says, our problem isn't that our desires are too strong, it's that they're too weak.
SPEAKER_00: He says we're like a child who lives in a slum and is perfectly content making mud pies because he cannot even begin to imagine what it means to spend a vacation at the sea.
SPEAKER_00: We settle for so little, not because we want too much, but because we can't yet conceive of what's actually on offer.
SPEAKER_00: Man, do we know the Zoe life that Jesus has for us?
SPEAKER_00: Do we know the fullness and the abundance of life that he has for us?
SPEAKER_00: That word abundance, well, last Greek word for the day is this word called perizon.
SPEAKER_00: Perison is abundance, it means to overflow, a surplus, almost like what's left over after every need is met.
SPEAKER_00: Paul uses this ver word in Ephesians chapter 3, verse 20, when he says that God is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think.
SPEAKER_00: God is able to do far more parason abundantly than all we ask or think.
SPEAKER_00: This is the life that he has on offer for us.
SPEAKER_00: There's one more thing in this word abundance that I think is important in this life that he has for us, that I think is important for us to look at.
SPEAKER_00: Too often I've heard this verse preached or read about this verse, and I think what is missing in that is that in John chapter 10, the word sheep is always plural.
SPEAKER_00: It's always plural.
SPEAKER_00: See, in the ancient Near East, a single sheep separated from the flock was not a free sheep, it was a dead sheep.
SPEAKER_00: I grew up watching wildlife documentaries.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone else?
SPEAKER_00: Instagram is so fun because it knows me.
SPEAKER_00: So I get all these hunts on my fur all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Uh maybe I should have played a video here.
SPEAKER_00: Danny wasn't sure it was the best idea, but but picture this.
SPEAKER_00: Picture this lions on a hunt, usually the lionesses going on a hunt, and there's a herd of buffalo or impala or whatever that they're they're going after.
SPEAKER_00: They start like stalking this herd, and there's enough fear inherent in those animals when they smell a lion, they know there's trouble and they start moving away in a direction.
SPEAKER_00: But staying in a herd, they're strong enough to with withhold, withstand the lions.
SPEAKER_00: So what the lions do is they start chasing them and start threatening them enough for the herd to start moving fast enough.
SPEAKER_00: And what the lionesses are looking for is for the isolated animal.
SPEAKER_00: And it's usually the older one or the younger one or the injured one.
SPEAKER_00: And when they can isolate that animal from the herd, it's incredible.
SPEAKER_00: Like you watch these videos.
SPEAKER_00: You watch it, it's almost like you can see in their eye, like they're chasing the whole pack until they see the one, and like all five of them suddenly just whoa, there it is, and they just go after the one and they attack the one.
SPEAKER_00: It's the most vulnerable animal in the herd, is the isolated one.
SPEAKER_00: That's a really important thing for us to think about.
SPEAKER_00: The abundant life is not a private subscription, friends, it's life in a flock.
SPEAKER_00: The Surgeon General isn't just describing a mental health crisis, he's describing what happens to.
SPEAKER_00: Sheep who live without a fold.
SPEAKER_00: The abundant life has a table.
SPEAKER_00: And there are people at it.
SPEAKER_00: People who know your name, not your highlight reel.
SPEAKER_00: People who can tell you the truth.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot have the life that Jesus is describing in isolation.
SPEAKER_00: It was never meant to be found alone.
SPEAKER_00: Now we know we all know, this isn't take a genius to know.
SPEAKER_00: The longer you and I are gonna stare at a screen, the harder it's gonna be to build actual human interactions.
SPEAKER_00: The longer we look at a I'm not joking, you're probably there's not I'm not judging either.
SPEAKER_00: You're probably spending four to six to eight hours on a screen minimum per day.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a very new phenomenon, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: We're unable to build connections, and we're wondering why we're feeling so lonely.
SPEAKER_00: And I know a lot of the studies are talking about Gen Z, and it seems particularly bad in Gen Z, but I know men my age, and I know too many men my age who don't have a group, a pack.
SPEAKER_00: They don't have three or four people who they can be 100% totally honest with and can call the BS in what you're saying.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I didn't swear.
SPEAKER_00: Focus.
SPEAKER_00: This is a problem for all of us, friends, and we live in isolation, and we've built beautiful walls in our homes and beautiful fences and beautiful cars, and we've got everything, and we're very comfortable, but we're lonely.
SPEAKER_00: We're lonely.
SPEAKER_00: If these stats are true, half of us are experiencing this, at least.
SPEAKER_00: Unless you found your people, unless you found your crew, unless you found your group, and you're doing this life together, and we begin to fight what the thief is trying to steal from us.
SPEAKER_00: So here's another question as you're mulling over where you are, if if you were to describe your current spiritual life as a room in a house, which room is it?
SPEAKER_00: Is it a private office where you go to feel better about yourself?
SPEAKER_00: Or is it around a dinner table where people actually know you?
SPEAKER_00: I think that's the test.
SPEAKER_00: Last point I want to make from this verse is this point that the shepherd's door is always open.
SPEAKER_00: The shepherd's door is actually open.
SPEAKER_00: It's a very significant idea in this in this verse.
SPEAKER_00: If we put on John 10 10 one more time, the thief comes to steal, the thief comes to steal and destroy, I came.
SPEAKER_00: The thief comes is a present, continuous tense.
SPEAKER_00: I came is a definite once-in-a-time event where he had accomplished what he purposed to do.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus describes the thief this way, it's in a sense a recurring, faceless, ongoing threat.
SPEAKER_00: But when he said, I came, a singular, decisive event, God showed up on one specific place.
SPEAKER_00: We go back to Ezekiel 34 that I talked about earlier, when he gave the scathing remark on what the priests were doing.
SPEAKER_00: He then says this in verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: We have to read it together.
SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel 34, verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep.
SPEAKER_00: And I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God.
SPEAKER_00: I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak.
SPEAKER_00: That is God Himself speaking.
SPEAKER_00: The I came in John 10, 10 is the fulfillment of the announcement he made 600 years before.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, when we look at Jesus coming, it's not just not a religion.
SPEAKER_00: He's keeping a promise he made 600 years before, at least.
SPEAKER_00: He will be their shepherd, he will be our shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: In John chapter 10, verse 9, he says he's the door.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 11, he says he's the shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: That means he's the entry point and he's the leader inside.
SPEAKER_00: So the question isn't whether the door is open, because it is, he is the door, it's whether we're willing to walk through it.
SPEAKER_00: The invitation, the invitation to come into the fold.
SPEAKER_00: Now, perhaps you're thinking, hold up, David.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 9, that was about a church, quote unquote.
SPEAKER_00: That was the synagogue.
SPEAKER_00: It was the leaders who did all this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And now you're telling us to go back into that.
SPEAKER_00: Telling us to come back into the fold in a sense, and if that is your question, it's good.
SPEAKER_00: It's a good, fair, and honest question.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus takes it really seriously.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't wash over the corruption of these leaders in any way.
SPEAKER_00: He names it.
SPEAKER_00: But the answer to the corrupt fold isn't no fold, it's the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: That's the answer.
SPEAKER_00: That's the difference.
SPEAKER_00: He is our shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: He came that we could have life.
SPEAKER_00: He came to be the head of the church.
SPEAKER_00: He came so we could have life and have abundant Zoe life.
SPEAKER_00: This is him.
SPEAKER_00: Let me try to bring this all together.
SPEAKER_00: Like the thief's program is to steal, kill, and destroy.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus doesn't counter this with another program, he counters it with a person, with himself.
SPEAKER_00: As I said, he's the door, he's the shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: And on the very first Easter, which we're celebrating here today, death tried to destroy the shepherd and failed.
SPEAKER_00: The tomb is empty, which means the thief's lost and most powerful weapon has been disarmed.
SPEAKER_00: You and I have nothing to fear.
SPEAKER_00: Paul writes, Death, where is your thing?
SPEAKER_00: It's gone.
SPEAKER_00: The power of it has been taken.
SPEAKER_00: John at the very end of the Bible describes what this means to the full.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to read for you Revelation chapter 7, verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: He says, For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Did you see that?
SPEAKER_00: I will be their shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
SPEAKER_00: You see what he promised in those words in John 10, 10, he now guarantees forever in Revelation 7, 17, that abundant life is not a feeling you have to sustain.
SPEAKER_00: It's a destination he's leading you towards.
SPEAKER_00: Right now, today.
SPEAKER_00: So before I close this out, I want to have one concrete application for you and I.
SPEAKER_00: Last thing I want is to just have a nice Easter message and we like feel good about this.
SPEAKER_00: What is next year?
SPEAKER_00: What is is next?
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, and I'm going to talk in a minute about receiving Jesus Himself, receiving the Good Shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: But practically speaking, it's going to sound like I'm entering into infomercial, but just bear with me for a second.
SPEAKER_00: Join a life group.
SPEAKER_00: We have over 50, I think 58 life groups in our combined three sites right now.
SPEAKER_00: Groups for men, for women, students, for for everything.
SPEAKER_00: There's all sorts of groups, all sorts of times.
SPEAKER_00: This is not an infomercial.
SPEAKER_00: This is, we put life groups in place because of this.
SPEAKER_00: We put life groups in place because we are not just a church about a Sunday morning attendance and thinking, great, this is what being a disciple means.
SPEAKER_00: Disciple is following Jesus, walking with him, knowing what he says, learning to live it out, and doing it as a band, as a community, as a family together.
SPEAKER_00: You're very lucky.
SPEAKER_00: Today is the kickoff of our new life group block.
SPEAKER_00: We do blocks of like eight, uh, nine or ten groups consecutively at a time.
SPEAKER_00: This week starts our second block of the year, and I'm inviting you to find a group.
SPEAKER_00: Go to our app, go to speak to someone in the lobby, find a place.
SPEAKER_00: If you've been in a group and you didn't like it, try something else.
SPEAKER_00: Your life group leaders are not going to be mad or offended.
SPEAKER_00: Life group leaders, don't be mad or offended if someone tries it up.
SPEAKER_00: It is more important that someone finds their people than whether they make you feel better about how you are.
SPEAKER_00: Is that okay?
SPEAKER_00: I we want to see 100% of our church in life groups where someone knows your name.
SPEAKER_00: Do it.
SPEAKER_00: Do it today.
SPEAKER_00: Can I have a witness?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: A little bit more.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: All right, good.
SPEAKER_00: I need to finish with the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And it's been weaved through all of what I've been saying here today.
SPEAKER_00: But John chapter 3, 16, perhaps you've heard this verse before.
SPEAKER_00: It says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal Zoe.
SPEAKER_00: Have eternal Zoe life.
SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that you would just survive, just get by, be content with just making it through, or that you and I may have Zoe life.
SPEAKER_00: This is what's on offer.
SPEAKER_00: I want to speak to a few different types of people here today.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have been following Jesus for years, but somewhere along the way, the river of life just seems to have slowed down to a trickle.
SPEAKER_00: And you're going through the motions, you know the language, you know the songs, but the Zoe has gone quiet.
SPEAKER_00: I believe today is for you as well.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are here because someone invited you to church today.
SPEAKER_00: And as I said, I'm so glad you're here.
SPEAKER_00: You're a family member or a friend, and maybe you're still figuring out what all this is about, and you're not sure.
SPEAKER_00: And that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you're here, but something in this room today is pulling on you, it's tugging at you, and I want to ask you, don't dismiss it, engage with that.
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like some of you came in today carrying something very heavy.
SPEAKER_00: You've been pushed outside the fold.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you were pushed up, maybe you walked up, maybe you've just been along for such a long time, alone for such a long time.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to know that the shepherd walked out the gate to go and find the man who was excommunicated.
SPEAKER_00: He leaves the 99 to go find you.
SPEAKER_00: And this feeling you're feeling on the inside is him knocking on your door.
SPEAKER_00: Will you open?
SPEAKER_00: If you want to let the thief stop running your life, I want you to walk through that door today.
SPEAKER_00: This is the moment.
SPEAKER_00: So would you close your eyes with me for a second?
SPEAKER_00: If you want to say yes to the shepherd for the first time or come back to after, come back to him after such a long time away.
SPEAKER_00: I want to invite you to pray this prayer with me, to to engage in an honest conversation with God in the next few moments.
SPEAKER_00: Every eyes feel closed.
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking you, do you know Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to know him?
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to grow in a knowledge?
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to walk with him?
SPEAKER_00: And this has got nothing to do with do you go to church?
SPEAKER_00: Did you grow up in a Christian family?
SPEAKER_00: Did you go through uh confirmation?
SPEAKER_00: Did you go?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not asking you what you've done.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Have you surrendered your life to him?
SPEAKER_00: And with every eye still closed, I want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to give your life to Jesus today, would you lift up your hand so I know who I'm praying for?
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, sir.
SPEAKER_00: Up front.
SPEAKER_00: Lift your hand so I know who I'm praying for.
SPEAKER_00: We have been praying for you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, sir.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you in the balcony.
SPEAKER_00: Number of people up in the balcony.
SPEAKER_00: Is there anybody else?
SPEAKER_00: We have been praying for you.
SPEAKER_00: We've been praying for you as a church.
SPEAKER_00: This is not about you joining 614.
SPEAKER_00: This is about you joining the family of God and coming into the Zoe abundant eternal life that Jesus offers.
SPEAKER_00: Can have someone go to the balcony as well.
SPEAKER_00: We'd love to connect with those people.
SPEAKER_00: But is there anybody else if you lift up your hands?
SPEAKER_00: So I know who I'm praying for.
SPEAKER_00: Church, can we all pray this together?
SPEAKER_00: With those who lifted up their hands, let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Say, dear Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: I believe you are the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: I believe you are the door.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to give you my life today.
SPEAKER_00: I believe you came.
SPEAKER_00: I believe you died.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe you rose from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: I know I need you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Will you forgive me for my sins?
SPEAKER_00: I give you my life today.
SPEAKER_00: Will you help me?
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name I pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We stand together, please.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna close in a song, but again, if you're new with us, we believe God doesn't just invite us into this knowledge and then say, Great, have a good day.
SPEAKER_00: There's a response here for us.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have a team, if the ministry team wouldn't mind coming forward, a prayer team who would love to pray with you, would love to stand with you, would love to just do this together with you.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to come and pray with any of them, there'll be some people on both sides here.
SPEAKER_00: But here it is, friends.
SPEAKER_00: If you came in today carrying the weight, it's been hard to name.
SPEAKER_00: Come and pray with somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Give it to him, give it to Jesus today.
SPEAKER_00: If you're still outside the fold and you're wounded by an institution that was supposed to protect you, I particularly, particularly invite you.
SPEAKER_00: Too many people walk around wounded by what leaders have done, what communities have done, what churches have done.
SPEAKER_00: And God wants you free from that burden today.
SPEAKER_00: And if you prayed that prayer to receive Jesus today, we want to talk to you, we want to help you and talk about what next steps could be for you.
SPEAKER_00: But the shepherd is waiting, the shepherd is calling, the shepherd is inviting you in.
SPEAKER_00: We take a minute and worship him one more time before we go.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.