SPEAKER_00: Well, amen, church.
SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
SPEAKER_00: Happy Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: I hope that your week has been good.
SPEAKER_00: This week started off very uh quick and busy for us.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that's how summer is, but um, I want to say a word of thanks for any parent who allowed their children to come to kids' camp this week.
SPEAKER_00: It started off last Sunday, and Anna and Trey and a team of leaders, as well as our worship team, uh, my wife and daughter did some cooking, a lot went on, but um it was a great kids' camp.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to say a word of praise.
SPEAKER_00: If you see Anna and Trey, and uh it looks like they're barely able to keep their eyes open.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to know why, but they worked hard.
SPEAKER_00: It was great.
SPEAKER_00: And being around the kids for the meals, the kids were so excited about the experience there.
SPEAKER_00: So uh I want to just share that.
SPEAKER_00: It was great.
SPEAKER_00: And uh be thinking about it next year uh for your children.
SPEAKER_00: I do want to offer condolences and ask you to be in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Pastor Eli this week lost his grandmother, Judy Alexander.
SPEAKER_00: So be in prayer for he, uh his family, his dad Jamie, his mom Leanne, as they're uh walking through that.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that's just been a tough thing.
SPEAKER_00: Our prayers and thoughts have been with you guys.
SPEAKER_00: And uh Mrs.
SPEAKER_00: Riggins lost her father, Calvin Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Um, got that call just the other day.
SPEAKER_00: And so be in prayer for Angela and Adrian, Miss Gwen Solomon, her sister, and their family, um, as they'll be having a funeral this week in Georgia.
SPEAKER_00: And I know they would covet your prayers.
SPEAKER_00: We also have a team on a mission trip.
SPEAKER_00: I think they must all sit right here normally, because there's one gap in the church.
SPEAKER_00: And uh anyway, if y'all need a closer seat, they're on sale today.
SPEAKER_00: Um but anyway, there's 20 plus people that are in Mobile that are working on um, we always do some rebuilding of houses, some painting, some roof work, a lot of different things going on there, led by Lee and Kelly Hibbs.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so there's a bunch of our church out there serving this week, be in prayer for them as well.
SPEAKER_00: All right, take your Bible and turn to John chapter 9 and 10.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna look at both of those as we're on to the next I am statement.
SPEAKER_00: We started out last week with Jesus is the bread of life, and now you're getting two for the price of one this week.
SPEAKER_00: It's a BOGO, and so he says, I am the door, and he says, I am the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna key in more on that, I am the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: And as you're turning there, I know this every one of us in life is looking for something.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone almost every day on their phone is searching up something.
SPEAKER_00: Are you not?
SPEAKER_00: We're always in a search, and we're always looking, and we're always finding, and we're always on this path of seeking.
SPEAKER_00: We're searching for success.
SPEAKER_00: Or we might be searching for a relationship, searching for a job.
SPEAKER_00: People are searching for significance.
SPEAKER_00: We spend our life trying to find ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Yet Jesus here in this passage says, You'll never truly find yourself until you find or you're found by the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: I want to read that passage, John 10, 11, and then we'll pray and come back and uh look through it.
SPEAKER_00: It says, John 10, 11, I am the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: God, thank you for today.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God, for a church body showing up.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God, that we've been encouraged, Lord, before we've ever opened the word this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We've been encouraged through worship, we've been encouraged by hospitality and service.
SPEAKER_00: We've been encouraged, God, continue we ask to fill up our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you know that what's been behind us, you know what's ahead of us.
SPEAKER_00: And God, we ask, Lord, that we would be filled up today, right here in your presence.
SPEAKER_00: Let us see the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we do lift these families who have had great loss.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that you would walk with them through that.
SPEAKER_00: We lift our team in Mobile, God, and ask that you would give them strength, give them energy, and God, may they share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, I pray your blessing over our service today.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So look now back to John chapter 9 as you do.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the Good Shepherd, first thing I want you to know this morning, the Good Shepherd pursues.
SPEAKER_00: John 9, you have to see the end of this story.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, your chapter headings almost in every place of the Bible is a continuous letter.
SPEAKER_00: At times, it's not a breaking point.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we read it with these chapters that break up, and sometimes they do, but this is a continual letter, and it says here in John 9, 34, They answered and said to him, You were completely born in sins.
SPEAKER_00: They're talking to a blind man.
SPEAKER_00: And are you now teaching us?
SPEAKER_00: And they cast him out.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and when he had found him, he said to him, Do you believe in the Son of God?
SPEAKER_00: He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to him, You have both seen him, and it is he who is talking with you.
SPEAKER_00: Then he said, Lord, I believe.
SPEAKER_00: And he worshipped him.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be blind.
SPEAKER_00: The word there for good shepherd is kalos, and it means excellent or noble.
SPEAKER_00: He isn't a shepherd, he is the one excellent shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: God compares us now in this passage to sheep, not lions, not bears, not eagles, to sheep.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you, your high school team mascot was sheep?
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody?
SPEAKER_00: I've seen some pictures of some mascots before.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I did find one, you can look it up in Colorado, they have a mascot called the Lambkins.
SPEAKER_00: But you've never heard anyone in a football game or anything say, now let's go get them sheep.
SPEAKER_00: You've never heard a military person ever say, now release the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: Never have you seen a superhero that had the power of sheep.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus compares us to sheep.
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's look at what he has to say about that pursuit.
SPEAKER_00: Letter A, he finds the forsaken sheep.
SPEAKER_00: In John 9, there, this blind man who has been transformed by the healing powers of Jesus for the first time sees, and when he sees people, they act ugly.
SPEAKER_00: And by acting ugly, they don't like his answers of what has happened in his healings, and so they cast him out.
SPEAKER_00: A man that was blind from birth, in other words, never knew visions, or never knew vision, and I've heard commentators say this that in his healing, because he was born in blindness, that God did even more than heal.
SPEAKER_00: He created, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because he hadn't degenerated to blindness.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus created vision for the first time in his life.
SPEAKER_00: And he did it on the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: And so when he was telling his testimony to the Pharisees, they kick him out.
SPEAKER_00: They cast him out of the synagogue.
SPEAKER_00: And so when you see this passage, Jesus hasn't been in the picture with the blind man since verse 6 of John chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: Now, all the way down in verses 31 through 39, he shows back up again, and this is what happens.
SPEAKER_00: This blind man has been cast out, and verse 35, it says something important.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus found him.
SPEAKER_00: This man had never seen Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus puts healing on him, he spits on the ground, he says, Now go to the pool and wash, and you will see.
SPEAKER_00: He goes and does that, and Jesus is gone.
SPEAKER_00: And now all of a sudden, Jesus gets word that this man has been cast out of the church of the synagogue.
SPEAKER_00: And it says, verse 35, and Jesus found him.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you don't remember the exact sermon, some may not remember the exact prayer or song, but I bet you remember this.
SPEAKER_00: He found you.
SPEAKER_00: Did he find you?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the great finder of men.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you ever watched the television show, The American Pickers?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, sometimes I like to just fall asleep to something, but I like this show.
SPEAKER_00: I like this show.
SPEAKER_00: I turn the show on.
SPEAKER_00: I like Mike and Frank, and they'll pull off on some dusty road somewhere, and they'll go looking for what they call as rusty gold, and they'll go in search of things that you and I would say are broken, they're old, they're bent, they're rusted, they are just junk.
SPEAKER_00: But pickers dig through piles, pickers climb through spider webs and in unsafe conditions, and pickers look for something, and all of a sudden you'll hear in this show out of nowhere, I'll give you$4,000.
SPEAKER_00: Because these people are trained to see value when everyone else sees waste.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone saw Zacchaeus, the cheater.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus saw somebody that could be a son.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone saw a Samaritan woman at a well who had five failed marriages, and Jesus saw the first missionary to her town.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus saw Paul when everyone else saw Saul, someone that was persecuting Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Are you getting the picture?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus traveled across the water and saw a demoniac that was filled and saw the first person that would be a missionary to his town.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone saw blind beggars.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, I see a worshiper.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Jesus is the great seer of things.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone else saw what people were.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad that Jesus sees what we could be?
SPEAKER_00: And he has for you and me.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you thankful?
SPEAKER_00: He finds forsaken sheep.
SPEAKER_00: Let her be, look at verse 39 through 41.
SPEAKER_00: He faces false shepherds.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, For judgment I've come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.
SPEAKER_00: Then some of the Pharisees who are with him heard these words, and they said to him, Are we blind also?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no sin.
SPEAKER_00: But now you say, We see, therefore your sin remains.
SPEAKER_00: This man has been cast out his whole life, and suddenly everything changed.
SPEAKER_00: He's cast out to his face once it all changed.
SPEAKER_00: Sight or no sight, these people are being ugly to a man that's been healed.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to see something a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to take your Bibles and I want you to turn to Ezekiel.
SPEAKER_00: Say, Pastor, how in the world is John, the gospel, tied in with Ezekiel?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I hope we'll see.
SPEAKER_00: This is a New Testament picture of an Old Testament issue and yet a coming issue.
SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel chapter 34.
SPEAKER_00: We'll just read verses 1 through 5.
SPEAKER_00: It says, And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Prophesy and say to them, Thus says the Lord God to the shepherds.
SPEAKER_00: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?
SPEAKER_00: You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock.
SPEAKER_00: The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost, but with force and cruelty you have ruled them.
SPEAKER_00: So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered.
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to understand there was a prophecy in the Old Testament against shepherds.
SPEAKER_00: Shepherds during this time in Israel, in John 10, uh, were standard political figures, kings and rulers, royal courts, judges, Pharisees, and priests.
SPEAKER_00: And these men were using their influence to gain, while other people, like a blind beggar, were not gaining anything.
SPEAKER_00: They were actually getting excommunicated from the church from these shepherds.
SPEAKER_00: And so we see this influence that infiltrates.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want you to see in John chapter 10, just look at verse 3 through 6.
SPEAKER_00: He says to him, the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads him out.
SPEAKER_00: And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
SPEAKER_00: Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which he spoke to him.
SPEAKER_00: So this is what you need to see.
SPEAKER_00: The shepherd or shepherds of sheep, the Pharisees, the church folks, those in power, became predatory to those who were weak.
SPEAKER_00: They were only building for their wants.
SPEAKER_00: However, they could manipulate to get gain, that's what they desired to do.
SPEAKER_00: And in John 9, these Pharisees, because of their rigid adherence to their own man-made rules, this doesn't fit our program, this doesn't fit what we believe.
SPEAKER_00: This Jesus who's healed this man, it's actually becoming an offense to us because maybe people are going to follow him and not us.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's this whole problem that they were going against.
SPEAKER_00: And instead of seeing Jesus, they missed the presence of God on earth because of their man-made rules.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder sometimes if some churches might miss the presence of God because we've got this box and he's got to fit in it.
SPEAKER_00: And the Pharisees tried to put Jesus into this political box that he could come along and help their pursuit.
SPEAKER_00: But his own pursuit?
SPEAKER_00: I like this in that passage in Ezekiel.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus pursues anyway.
SPEAKER_00: In Ezekiel 34, 16, he says this, You won't shepherd my people, leaders?
SPEAKER_00: And in verse 16, he says, I will seek what was lost and bring it back.
SPEAKER_00: What was driven away, I will bind up, I will help the broken, strengthen that which was sick, and I will destroy that which was judging.
SPEAKER_00: This is what's happening in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: The blind man is not received when he's been healed.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine what it would look like if somebody in here today came in blind and they left and everything they're seeing and how their walk changed and how their life changed?
SPEAKER_00: And you would want to come alongside and say, What happened?
SPEAKER_00: Well, these people asked that question, but then they, you know what they did instead?
SPEAKER_00: They interrogated him, they bullied him, they insulted him, and ultimately they kicked him out of church.
SPEAKER_00: Church today.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians 6 2 says that we should bear ye one another's burdens and love.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, God has called me to be the shepherd of this local body under his shepherdship, but all of us have a part in shepherding the people that are a part of our church.
SPEAKER_00: When people go through a financial hardship, the church should be the first people to shepherd them out.
SPEAKER_00: When people go through brokenness, the church should be the people not kicking them out that should come alongside of them.
SPEAKER_00: When you go through a health need, the church, the body of Christ should come alongside of you and not be the first to excommute, not to kick you aside.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Jesus as the shepherd says, We step in.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus had no problem facing false shepherds.
SPEAKER_00: If you look through the Bible there in Matthew, you see the seven woes of Jesus to the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: He calls them out for their stuff.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't just take it.
SPEAKER_00: The good shepherd has no problem facing and fighting false shepherds.
SPEAKER_00: But he didn't find us just to take us in and then leave us.
SPEAKER_00: He paid for us.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see the second thing.
SPEAKER_00: The Good Shepherd pays.
SPEAKER_00: Look down at John chapter 10, verse 7 through 9.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus said to them again, Most assuredly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: All whoever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
SPEAKER_00: I am the door.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone enters by me, he will be saved, and he will go in and out and find pasture.
SPEAKER_00: Letterase this, that he provides for his sheep.
SPEAKER_00: I am the door is another one of the I am statements.
SPEAKER_00: I said we're getting two for one, and we could spend some time here, but it means this.
SPEAKER_00: The door to what?
SPEAKER_00: You would ask.
SPEAKER_00: Well, ancient sheep folds had one opening.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, I am the one way.
SPEAKER_00: It's a picture of the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I am that door.
SPEAKER_00: I am the access.
SPEAKER_00: And you know some people today, you've got family members, you know people who are kind of iffy on what it takes to get to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus makes this very clear, not just this passage, but others.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a good works thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a maybe there's some other family members' things.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a Muslim thing, a Buddhist thing.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I am.
SPEAKER_00: This is the one door of access.
SPEAKER_00: None of your good works are going to, you're not going to stand before God one day and say, I did all this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Jesus, did you accept and receive the one doorway, the access?
SPEAKER_00: And so the sheepfold.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the question I thought of.
SPEAKER_00: If there is one door, why doesn't everyone just go to that door?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we're compared to sheep.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go back there.
SPEAKER_00: Sheep have, unlike some other animals, no homing instinct.
SPEAKER_00: Hold on to that.
SPEAKER_00: Sheep don't have a homing instinct.
SPEAKER_00: I have a little Yorkie.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I'll be walking little Charlotte.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I'll call Charlotte's name, and sometimes she comes.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes she'll like, Charlotte, come here.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes she looks at me and she says, I heard you, but I'm not going to honor your request today.
SPEAKER_00: If we go for a walk and there's another dog, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: Charlotte listens to me zero.
SPEAKER_00: She goes off sprinting, getting ready to be eight, all seven pounds of her.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: And if she gets tired of her walk with me, she walks me back home.
SPEAKER_00: If she hears a loud noise, she knows where home is.
SPEAKER_00: She doesn't have a problem understanding how to get home.
SPEAKER_00: Wherever we are, no matter what side of the neighborhood I go walking, she knows home.
SPEAKER_00: Sheep are not born with that same instinct.
SPEAKER_00: Humans can be a lot like sheep in this way.
SPEAKER_00: We are born with a moral compass, but hear me, church, it takes the great work of the Holy Spirit of God to give us a true north, true guidance from the great shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: Sheep will spend an entire day grazing and never lift their head.
SPEAKER_00: Wandering about aimlessly and never looking for home.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine this?
SPEAKER_00: The sheepfold could be in plain sight, but they don't have a home instinct.
SPEAKER_00: You know people who intellectually believe in the way of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Intellectually, they could regurgitate scripture, they can tell you a lot of what I'm saying, but you also know this their heart is a million miles from God.
SPEAKER_00: You may be here today and you're like that.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: You would say, I believe what you're saying.
SPEAKER_00: But to take hold of it and do something about it, you're like a sheep.
SPEAKER_00: I know what you're saying, but all of the other sheep are going over here, Pastor.
SPEAKER_00: And my whole American culture is going over here, Pastor.
SPEAKER_00: I know, I yes, I believe what you're saying.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe one day I might even do it.
SPEAKER_00: I've and Intellectually, I get it, but I like what the sheep are doing.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand?
SPEAKER_00: We're a lot like sheep.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible calls that conformity.
SPEAKER_00: Conformity.
SPEAKER_00: In 2005, in the country of Turkey, 1,500 sheep walked off a 50-foot cliff.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine being there and seeing this?
SPEAKER_00: This is an interesting part.
SPEAKER_00: Only 400 of 1,500 died because 400 created a fluffy pad.
SPEAKER_00: And 1100 survived.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we're not solely you and I, herd creatures, but subconsciously we crowd in and we conform.
SPEAKER_00: I told the serve team this morning, this door got open about a year ago.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to dare you for one minute for everybody in here not to stare.
SPEAKER_00: I'm up here preaching.
SPEAKER_00: Get them on there like, what's going on?
SPEAKER_00: There's a door.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you tried.
SPEAKER_00: I think you tried kind of hard and you knew it was distracting me, but you're like, there's a light coming in the church.
SPEAKER_00: What has happened?
SPEAKER_00: And if you send a baby through here right now that cries, I dare you, your neck will, you'll be you can't, right?
SPEAKER_00: We all kind of, if somebody took off sprinting out the door, most of you, you wouldn't have to ask the question.
SPEAKER_00: You just said, I'm not saying in there.
SPEAKER_00: They ran.
SPEAKER_00: We have this conformity thing, and I know that's silly, but for you and I, Romans 12, 2 says, be not conformed to the whole other pile of sheep.
SPEAKER_00: Be not conformed to this world.
SPEAKER_00: How?
SPEAKER_00: Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that you will know what is the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: So we need leadership because we are poised to be attacked, wandering aimlessly.
SPEAKER_00: When we wander with other sheep, we're poised to be attacked.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus says, you know what I'll do for my sheep?
SPEAKER_00: I'll be the door.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that you said that's access.
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's not just access.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'll be the door.
SPEAKER_00: Anything, anything, not just sheep, anything tries to get into my sheep that are already here.
SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
SPEAKER_00: They gotta face the door.
SPEAKER_00: There's one way in, and I am going to stand and be the door of my sheepfold.
SPEAKER_00: It's also a promise.
SPEAKER_00: It's access, but it's a promise.
SPEAKER_00: He is at the gate.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what do we have access to?
SPEAKER_00: That's an important question.
SPEAKER_00: He says, within the sheepfold there is pasture.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms 95, verse 7 says this.
SPEAKER_00: I want you, church, to be a good verse to highlight right now.
SPEAKER_00: It says, He is our God.
SPEAKER_00: We are the people of his pasture.
SPEAKER_00: We are the sheep of his work.
SPEAKER_00: We are the people of his pasture.
SPEAKER_00: So let me compare this in Psalms 23.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all can turn there.
SPEAKER_00: Let's turn for just a second.
SPEAKER_00: Middle of the book.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms 23.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you memorize this as a child.
SPEAKER_00: In Psalms 23, it says, The Lord is my shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: I shall not want.
SPEAKER_00: He makes me to lie down in what?
SPEAKER_00: Green what?
SPEAKER_00: Pastures.
SPEAKER_00: What's in the sheepfold?
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, Within that, he leads me.
SPEAKER_00: Look at all the verbs here.
SPEAKER_00: He leads me beside still waters.
SPEAKER_00: Another verb.
SPEAKER_00: He restores my soul.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't that sound like abundant living?
SPEAKER_00: He leads me in paths of righteousness inside his sheepfold for his name's sake.
SPEAKER_00: Yea, that I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
SPEAKER_00: You're with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
SPEAKER_00: You prepare a table before me.
SPEAKER_00: I may have enemies right at my table, but you anoint my head with oil, and my cup runs over.
SPEAKER_00: Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
SPEAKER_00: That is, in other words, taking John 10, which we're at, John 10, 10.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, The thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy.
SPEAKER_00: He says, But I came to give you life, the good shepherd, and life abundantly.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Within the sheepfold there is abundant life.
SPEAKER_00: And we point back to Psalms 23 to define what is the abundant life.
SPEAKER_00: He says, It is comfort, it is peace.
SPEAKER_00: It is, even though I got an enemy, I'm okay because I am next to the great shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: I'm next to the door.
SPEAKER_00: I'm in the sheepfold, but I got pasture.
SPEAKER_00: That's abundant living.
SPEAKER_00: He's not just saying you have access to eternal life, that is one part of it.
SPEAKER_00: But right here in John 10, abundant living.
SPEAKER_00: An abundant life can be described as this: your proximity to the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: How close are you to the good shepherd?
SPEAKER_00: He says, I came to give you life and life more abundant.
SPEAKER_00: Are you close to the good shepherd?
SPEAKER_00: Or are you wondering, with a pack of sheep?
SPEAKER_00: You want pasture?
SPEAKER_00: You want peace?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying life without problems.
SPEAKER_00: But get next to the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: Same language.
SPEAKER_00: And Eric, I love what it says at the end of Psalms 23, because the word abundant, same language, Psalms 23, he says, My cup runneth over.
SPEAKER_00: Abundant means overflowing.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I came to give you this abundant life.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms 23.
SPEAKER_00: In that pasture, I'm overflowing.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you just want to say, Man, I hope for a mediocre week?
SPEAKER_00: I hope it's so-so.
SPEAKER_00: No, you say, I want a great week.
SPEAKER_00: As a business person, I want abundance.
SPEAKER_00: As a husband, average.
SPEAKER_00: No, I want great, overflowing abundance.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, the way on this earth to live that life is to get next to the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: All right, let her be.
SPEAKER_00: He purchases his sheep.
SPEAKER_00: Look at 10 through 15.
SPEAKER_00: John 10, 10 through 15.
SPEAKER_00: Again, our red 10.
SPEAKER_00: Thief does not come except to steal, kill, destroy.
SPEAKER_00: I've come, they have life, life more abundant.
SPEAKER_00: I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: But a hireling, highlight that, we'll come back to it.
SPEAKER_00: He is not the shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: One who does not own the sheep sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees.
SPEAKER_00: And the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.
SPEAKER_00: The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and I'm known by my own.
SPEAKER_00: As the father knows me, even so I know the father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: He says he lays down his life.
SPEAKER_00: Now, it would not be typical for a shepherd, a farming shepherd, to give his life for the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: He would want to protect the sheep, he wanted to protect his investment, but die for a sheep?
SPEAKER_00: That would not be typical.
SPEAKER_00: David fought lions and he fought bears, but he didn't give his life up for his sheep.
SPEAKER_00: This is different.
SPEAKER_00: And he repeats it through this passage five different ways.
SPEAKER_00: I lay down my life for my sheep.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to get this today.
SPEAKER_00: I give, hear me.
SPEAKER_00: I know that there's a conformity.
SPEAKER_00: Hear me.
SPEAKER_00: I've given everything for you so that you would be close to me.
SPEAKER_00: Who else has given everything for you that you would be close to them?
SPEAKER_00: Is all the things that were chased and giving everything to you?
SPEAKER_00: He says, I lay down my life.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was not murdered, church.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to understand this.
SPEAKER_00: He said, The Son of Man gave up his life.
SPEAKER_00: He did this willingly for you.
SPEAKER_00: It talks about this hireling, the difference in a hireling and the great shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: The hireling says, in this circumstance, what happens to me if I stay and there's a predator?
SPEAKER_00: What happens to me if I stay?
SPEAKER_00: And the great shepherd says this what happens to the sheep if I leave?
SPEAKER_00: Dads, I want you to hear me today.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the question.
SPEAKER_00: What happens if you leave?
SPEAKER_00: Coaches today?
SPEAKER_00: What happens if I leave?
SPEAKER_00: Teachers today, what happens to the sheep if I leave?
SPEAKER_00: It's an important question.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the Good Shepherd says.
SPEAKER_00: What happens if I leave?
SPEAKER_00: Not what happens to me.
SPEAKER_00: You see, Romans 6.23 tells us what he did.
SPEAKER_00: Says, the wages of sin is death.
SPEAKER_00: And that could have wrapped it up, and we'd say, that's a wrap, we're done.
SPEAKER_00: It says, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The payment for our sin is death.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus was God's answers to what happens if I don't stay.
SPEAKER_00: God's answer to what happens if I don't stay.
SPEAKER_00: He said, You know what?
SPEAKER_00: We're going to send Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_00: What happens if I don't stay?
SPEAKER_00: I'm sending God with us.
SPEAKER_00: Because He loves His sheep.
SPEAKER_00: The Good Shepherd gave all.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus died taking the fee on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He was buried and rose again, paying the price.
SPEAKER_00: The propitiation has been settled for you and me.
SPEAKER_00: Not only for heaven, though.
SPEAKER_00: Get this.
SPEAKER_00: Some people think, well, I got saved and I got that cleared up.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just for heaven, it's for this abundant life, too.
SPEAKER_00: Some people think, well, I made that decision.
SPEAKER_00: I've been saved.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: I'm good enough.
SPEAKER_00: It's not.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I want more for you.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to live this abundant life.
SPEAKER_00: Live close to me now.
SPEAKER_00: He purchases his sheep.
SPEAKER_00: The word abundantly, again, is a word parisos, and it's present tense active, meaning right here, right now, Jesus paid so that you can live full lives.
SPEAKER_00: Full and overflowing, meaning more than just enough.
SPEAKER_00: The thief had a balance sheet too.
SPEAKER_00: Remember his balance sheet?
SPEAKER_00: It said, kill, steal, destroy.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' balance sheet is life and life more abundant.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter 1.18 tells us that we were not redeemed with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He sacrificed, he saves, he sustains you.
SPEAKER_00: And as Christians, we need to press into what has been paid for.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you a couple of practical things, what that means.
SPEAKER_00: So how do we live in abundance?
SPEAKER_00: How do we live close to the Good Shepherd now?
SPEAKER_00: And maybe, and I know we're in church, and I know this is going to seem simplistic, but maybe it's not happening.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to ask this question: is it happening in my life?
SPEAKER_00: Not do I agree intellectually, but am I putting feet to being close to the Good Shepherd?
SPEAKER_00: So how do we practically live in that abundance?
SPEAKER_00: We need to sit with Jesus daily.
SPEAKER_00: Number one.
SPEAKER_00: Sit with him daily.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are gonna have to slow down in some way that for you seems like it's impossible when you look at your schedule.
SPEAKER_00: But you need to, you're gonna have to cut back on something and sit with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: How do I get close to the good shepherd?
SPEAKER_00: Sit with him.
SPEAKER_00: Second, stand on his word.
SPEAKER_00: When it comes to your life and your decisions, your business decision, your family decisions, your child rearing decisions, stand on his word.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, step.
SPEAKER_00: So we said, sit with Jesus, stand on his word, step in obedience.
SPEAKER_00: There's many people here, God has called you to do something.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit put something on your heart.
SPEAKER_00: You have to step in obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Four, serve his people.
SPEAKER_00: God has called us all to serve.
SPEAKER_00: We're not just sitters.
SPEAKER_00: God's called you to serve.
SPEAKER_00: Find your avenue of serving and then share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You see, bringing the sheep into the fold wasn't enough.
SPEAKER_00: After he pays, we see the third thing.
SPEAKER_00: The good shepherd protects.
SPEAKER_00: The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me.
SPEAKER_00: But you do not believe because you are not of my sheep.
SPEAKER_00: As I said to you, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
SPEAKER_00: Letter A, we see sheep are spoken for spoken for.
SPEAKER_00: He said, My sheep.
SPEAKER_00: That's important.
SPEAKER_00: From a young age, you hear little children learn the word my, right?
SPEAKER_00: Ownership, that's mine, my toy, that's mine.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, You don't believe, and it's easy because you're not my sheep.
SPEAKER_00: The most dangerous place, church, in this life and the next is being outside of God's will.
SPEAKER_00: And that is being not his sheep.
SPEAKER_00: I have an important question for you in regards to that.
SPEAKER_00: When it comes to the voices that are vying for your heart, what voices are you listening to day in and day out?
SPEAKER_00: This is interesting.
SPEAKER_00: I found this week most of the sheepfolds in these ancient times, villages had to combine flocks.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just that you had your flocks in your sheepfold.
SPEAKER_00: We had to share resources, and many, many sheep would be combined and be in a sheepfold.
SPEAKER_00: No branding, no fences, no other delineation of these sheep.
SPEAKER_00: Sheep.
SPEAKER_00: Just a relationship of a shepherd and sheep.
SPEAKER_00: And a shepherd would come and he would call for a sheep.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
SPEAKER_00: His sheep knew his voice.
SPEAKER_00: And they would come to him.
SPEAKER_00: And a sheep knew his voice.
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus is calling for you today, do you know his voice?
SPEAKER_00: Would you say, Yes, Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: I hear what you're saying to me.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, I'll do.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I'll act.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Are you obeying him?
SPEAKER_00: The word for here is akusin.
SPEAKER_00: In its present tense, it means listening.
SPEAKER_00: He says, My sheep.
SPEAKER_00: See, that's important, president.
SPEAKER_00: Listening.
SPEAKER_00: My sheep here, yes.
SPEAKER_00: They come in through the sheepfold, but they are listening.
SPEAKER_00: They are continuing to listen to my voice.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't listen once and say, I'm a Christian, I'm a part of the sheepfold.
SPEAKER_00: They are listening.
SPEAKER_00: They are continuing to hear and listen for their shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't say they're sinless.
SPEAKER_00: Sheep get dirty, sheep mess up.
SPEAKER_00: Not perfection, but hear me.
SPEAKER_00: The pursuit of the shepherd's direction.
SPEAKER_00: Is that, God, is that over here?
SPEAKER_00: Is that where, is that my next?
SPEAKER_00: Is that what you need from me?
SPEAKER_00: Is this where I need to go?
SPEAKER_00: Is this where I take my business?
SPEAKER_00: Is this where I need to change in my family?
SPEAKER_00: It's a pursuit.
SPEAKER_00: Listening, not a once and for all.
SPEAKER_00: I'm listening.
SPEAKER_00: My sheep know my voice, and they are listening.
SPEAKER_00: Are you listening, church?
SPEAKER_00: We become, hear this, we become whatever voice we repeatedly obey.
SPEAKER_00: Who you are today is the grand summation of what voice you have repeatedly obeyed.
SPEAKER_00: Sheep are noticed and understood by their shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: We went on a cruise recently, and I found a door.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't supposed to find this door, but I'm just kind of nosy and I kind of do what I want.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a little rebellious, I'll be honest.
SPEAKER_00: Heather doesn't break rules.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I do.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: I saw a door, I opened it, I said, oh, it was like one o'clock.
SPEAKER_00: Three o'clock luggage is supposed to come to all the people.
SPEAKER_00: One o'clock.
SPEAKER_00: I look in, and there's 200 suitcases.
SPEAKER_00: It took me 30 seconds, and I located all of our suitcases in a sea of suitcases.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them are pretty new, but I noticed my suitcase.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I took them.
SPEAKER_00: Because they were mine, and they listened to my voice.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Come here, little suitcase.
SPEAKER_00: I took them.
SPEAKER_00: Later on, Robbie, the door guy, saw his list, and I'm sorry, I took the suitcases, Robbie.
SPEAKER_00: You had to mark us off.
SPEAKER_00: I saw them in there, right?
SPEAKER_00: But I recognized what was mine when my kids were little, and I just did this the other day, and it still worked on Weston.
SPEAKER_00: But when they were little, church crowd this size, people talking after church, and I'm always trying to gather the little kids, you're trying to make sure everybody's right, and people are talking to you, and there's, and I go, ps.
SPEAKER_00: If I went ps, Callie would go, Dad wants me.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I saw that work and I tried it on white.
SPEAKER_00: So I can still go into a store today, and most of the time, if I go, ps, my family knows that's me.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all don't be tricking.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be going near my family and try to go, ps, okay.
SPEAKER_00: But I did it the other day in Target and Weston turned around.
SPEAKER_00: My sheep know my voice.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand that, church?
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to listen to the voices that have influence in my life.
SPEAKER_00: What has most influence in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you a list of some things that have influence.
SPEAKER_00: Social media has influence today.
SPEAKER_00: And people are listening to it.
SPEAKER_00: They're listening to lies on it, they're trying to compare themselves to it.
SPEAKER_00: The news today.
SPEAKER_00: Are you listening to what's going on in the news, in politics?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: Your past.
SPEAKER_00: Satan will get in your head and say, this and that about your past.
SPEAKER_00: Is that voice haunting you?
SPEAKER_00: Man, God came and it says that He forgave and He'll justify you and cleanse you of your past.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's your parents.
SPEAKER_00: You can hear the old voice of something, some guilt, some shame, some thing.
SPEAKER_00: Your critics is the voice of your greatest critic in your ear, and it's got a hold of you, your fears.
SPEAKER_00: Church, there is one voice that you can trust in every area of your life.
SPEAKER_00: It is the voice of the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: If you follow predators, they'll usually attack.
SPEAKER_00: These things that I mentioned.
SPEAKER_00: The look for somebody distracted, look for somebody wandering, somebody isolated.
SPEAKER_00: But let me tell you about the safest sheep.
SPEAKER_00: The safest sheep is right close to the great shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tell you this ain't nobody here anywhere gonna mess with my family, with me standing next to them.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you had to kill me.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm the shepherd of that group.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna let somebody hurt the people that God's given to me.
SPEAKER_00: Are you?
SPEAKER_00: The good shepherd will not let you be hurt.
SPEAKER_00: Past his strength, he's gonna be right there with you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying your life will be perfect, I'm not saying that things won't be difficult, but he'll be right there.
SPEAKER_00: Close to you.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 23 said, even in the valley of the shadow of death, I'm right there with you.
SPEAKER_00: Some people going through some things this week.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm with you.
SPEAKER_00: Last thing.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 27 through 30.
SPEAKER_00: Sheep are not.
SPEAKER_00: Our sheep are snatch proof.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say it right.
SPEAKER_00: Sheep are snatch proof.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 27 through 30.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what it says.
SPEAKER_00: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life, and they shall never, never, ever, never, ever perish.
SPEAKER_00: Neither shall anyone, not somebody, not everyone, not anybody, not anyone, snatch them out of my hand.
SPEAKER_00: My father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand.
SPEAKER_00: I am my father are one.
unknown: John
SPEAKER_00: 10 10 again it says the thief comes to steal, comes to snatch.
SPEAKER_00: The word is harpazo, it's the same word as rapture.
SPEAKER_00: As we get taken up snatched, he says, the thief wants to snatch people.
SPEAKER_00: The devil and his demons want to snatch you from a life that's in abundance with God.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say, because the sheep are strong, that you won't get snatched.
SPEAKER_00: No, he says, What I have taken, no one can take from me.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms 23 that we read is a psalm of security.
SPEAKER_00: It says, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not a psalm that promises wolf-free living.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't promise no laws.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say there won't be health scares.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say there won't be heartbreaks.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say no persecution, no grave.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say you won't lose your strength, your job, your health, but he says you will never lose your shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: The great shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what it says at the end of that psalm?
SPEAKER_00: And I will be in the house of the Lord forever.
SPEAKER_00: All true believers endure to that end.
SPEAKER_00: Those whom Christ has accepted will persevere.
SPEAKER_00: It's important in that context that we cover.
SPEAKER_00: He says, My sheep.
SPEAKER_00: Not everyone is his sheep.
SPEAKER_00: When someone becomes his sheep, we hear his voice and we answer to that voice and we repent of our sins and we come to him and we turn.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Those sheep known by Jesus will have everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: And hear me on this.
SPEAKER_00: If eternal life could end tomorrow and you could be snatched from it, then it was never eternal.
SPEAKER_00: The Greek phrase is zoo, life, and then is Aonian, like an eon, an age everlasting.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms said, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
SPEAKER_00: Hell cannot steal what heaven has already claimed.
SPEAKER_00: Now hear me.
SPEAKER_00: Your grip on Jesus Christ may weaken, but his grip never does.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting, I bring up grip because it shares here in this scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you missed this.
SPEAKER_00: He says, They were in my hand, but then he takes a point to say, look at it again, I give them eternal life, they shall never perish, nor shall anyone snatch them out of my hand.
SPEAKER_00: My father has given them to me as greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand.
SPEAKER_00: So he says, We got a double fisted grip.
SPEAKER_00: I played a game with Weston and have him try to snatch something out of my hand, and it is fun to be 200 pounds and look at a 120-pound kid and know you ain't getting anything out of this fist ever.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the great holder of whatever it is, and you are not.
SPEAKER_00: But man, if you just added one more fist over it, if David Burrisong came and put his grizzled hand, he's a yard-working man.
SPEAKER_00: He's got he gotta have hard, strong hands over that hand.
SPEAKER_00: You think Weston's getting out of the double grip?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Me and my father are holding them.
SPEAKER_00: And it's fighting language, church.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Bring on every demon, bring on every temptation, bring on every accusation, bring death itself.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing can overpower my grip.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Romans 8 is all about.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing shall separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Not death, not light, not angel, principality, power, ruler of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing can take us from his grip.
SPEAKER_00: When a shepherd lost one sheep, he went looking.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I love about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus never lost a sheep, yet he still went looking.
SPEAKER_00: He went through villages, he crossed storms, he climbed mountains, he endured rejection, he carried a cross.
SPEAKER_00: Not because any sheep deserved it, but because the good shepherd loves sheep.
SPEAKER_00: Lost people, confused people, wandering people, people without purpose.
SPEAKER_00: I want to tell you this, and I'm about done, church.
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever wandered your value today, if you ever thought, does anyone really care?
SPEAKER_00: I want you to look at Calvary.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the cross of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He died for his sheep.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to bow your head and close your eyes this morning.