First Love Church
These podcasts are messages that were preached at First Love Church in Ocala, Florida. We hope that you are encouraged and inspired by what you hear. We are a non denominational, egalitarian church that practices a generous orthodoxy. Find out more about our local congregation online at firstlovechurch.org.
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First Love Church
Finding Peace in the Arms of a Loving Shepherd
"I am the good shepherd. I know my own sheep and they know me." These words from Jesus in John's Gospel offer profound comfort in a world where we often feel like strangers, orphans, or forgotten souls.
What story are you telling yourself? It might be limiting what you can see. Like the pastor who couldn't find his guitar because he was convinced someone had left it in the car—when it was safely stored in his office in an unexpected case—we often miss God's provision because it doesn't match our expectations. Our personal narratives create blindness that prevents us from recognizing the good shepherd's care that surrounds us.
The message explores how Jesus, immediately after healing physical blindness, addresses our spiritual blindness by declaring himself the good shepherd. This isn't just a comforting metaphor—it's a revolutionary identity that reshapes how we understand our place in God's story. We aren't abandoned lambs trying to survive on our own; we're known, protected, and guided by the one who says, "No one can snatch them from my hand."
Through a powerful story of a novice shepherd who saved freezing lambs and transformed his relationship with his previously hostile flock, we see how Christ's sacrifice changes everything. The sheep who once knocked the shepherd down began to follow him faithfully after experiencing his life-saving intervention—just as we follow Christ when we truly comprehend what He's done for us.
The invitation is clear: bend your heart toward the good, toward love, toward unity. Whatever burdens you carry, whatever blindness prevents you from seeing God's provision, open your hands and exhale. The good shepherd is with you, and nothing—not trouble, calamity, persecution, or even death itself—can separate you from His perfect love.
This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would like to support the ongoing work of First Love Church you can donate at https://www.firstlovechurch.org/giving
In the service of LOVE,
Pastors Dennis and Heather Drake
Welcome to the First Love Church Podcast. This is a collection of Sunday teachings inspired by the Revised Common Lectionary and recorded weekly in Ocala, florida. This is John's Gospel and this is the fourth Sunday of Easter time and this is such a beautiful portion of the scripture and we got together this morning and we sang songs to remind us of our place in the beauty and in the family of Christ. On the 23rd of this month is a Friday night and we're just going to come here and you're invited. We would love for you to come and bring someone with you, but we're just going to sing the hymns. If you thought, wow, that was great, but that was only one of the songs, like I'm sure that you grew up, like I did, with a hymnal. There's a lot of songs and so, while we won't sing the entire hymnal, we will sing a lot of the songs, and so we invite you to be a part of that.
Speaker 1:But we go here to John's gospel and John has a really unique way of telling things and he's reminding us even from the beginning of John. He says in the very beginning, god was with God, that love was with God, that the Logos was there, and we begin to see a retelling of the story, and something that we've been practicing in Eastertide are two particular things. One of them is we are practicing making the beautiful the story. Whatever the stories that you tell yourself in your mind, the stories that you tell other people, find the beautiful and make that the story. Let us practice resurrection, let us practice new life. The other practice that we do is following Mary Magdalene, who is the first person commissioned by Jesus to preach the resurrection, and she says I have seen the Lord, I have seen the Lord, and so this is a practice for us. Where have you seen the Lord this week? Where have you seen goodness? Where have you seen beauty? Where have you seen hope?
Speaker 2:You know, and you and I've been talking about that a lot in our own personal life is the uh, the need to retell the story sometimes, and I think that some of us were handed religion and so the story in the Bible became cumbersome for some of us and a true burden and for this huge cross to bear. And when we find out that Christ's work is completed and we walk into that kind of love and grace and forgiveness, it's a different story and maybe that story needs to be retold. And uh, and your own story. I was talking to somebody yesterday and he said I wonder how my story is going to end up and and it made me think of of uh, the greatest story ever told. Uh, and and all of the stories that would inspire us are inspired. We're inspired because of the story's arc and then it's draw from obscurity to greatness, you know, and really for us to be outside of God's grace and to be now in the family of God we are among and in and hopefully would really experience that greatness, amen.
Speaker 1:I remind us that this particular portion of the text that we're reading comes right after Jesus has healed the blind man, and so it's important to know what Jesus has already done. People are asking questions. In fact, this is the question where somebody says you know who are? You Tell us who you are in this particular chapter. And so when Jesus says these words, it's a response to what has happened. It is a response to healing of blindness, and I wonder this morning if we could, by the process of the Holy Spirit expanding our imaginations, but if we could imagine that there may be areas in our life where we experience blindness. There may be things in our life that we see and we might need the healing power of God to change the way that we see things. And in fact, I believe that's why Jesus begins sharing this, begins telling this, because there are many of us that suffer with all kinds of blindness.
Speaker 1:Jesus says this to the people who are listening, to the people who have just witnessed a blind man being healed, and he says I am the good shepherd, I know my own sheep and they know me. This verse is such a comfort to us it really is, if you would think about the fact that how it starts is I know my own sheep, beloved. You are known by God, you are known and you are loved. And the God who reminds us that Jesus said this I wished that I could gather you like a hen gathers chicks. I wish that I could protect you from all of the danger around you and just bring you close to me.
Speaker 1:This is an invitation for us to have a healing in our mind that says I am known by God, I am not a stranger, I am not an orphan, I am known by God, I am not a stranger, I am not an orphan, I am known by God. I know my sheep and they know me. And just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, so I sacrifice my life for the sheep. I have other sheep too that are not in in this sheepfold and I must bring them there also, and they will listen to my voice and there will be one flock with one shepherd. I love this verse because sometimes, when I don't understand what something is happening, I love it because it reminds me oh, they might be in a flock that I'm not aware of. That's that the good shepherd is in charge of that.
Speaker 2:And and and the good shepherd is bringing all of the sheep to himself and I just really hope that today, as we're sharing this entire message that it's, it would stir something in us to be, uh, just kind of remembering or maybe realizing that God is a good shepherd, that Jesus is this good shepherd to us, because maybe Jesus has been the taskmaster. You know, you make sure you're keeping those commandments right. You know, have you been doing enough? Have you been telling enough people about me? You know, I've noticed that your numbers are down this quarter.
Speaker 2:That is not the voice of the Spirit, my love. So you know that feels like the aggressive boss being not the good shepherd, and so I want you and I to experience the good shepherd, because you know the, the, the pushy boss, is making us meet quota, but as we learn and know the good shepherd, we can't help but share. You know you can't help but want other people to know that peace. And so, uh, the good shepherd is, um, is concerned for the well-being of the flock.
Speaker 1:You know, is it knows that you're there, knows you and loves you the father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. No one can take my Again. We're asked here to see a different way, that we're asked to see that the power in sacrifice not that it is owed, not that it is expected, but that's how love behaves in this cruciform shape giving, and this is an invitation for us to allow goodness to really be something that leads us. In fact, when Mary Magdalene begins to speak of Jesus and begins to tell, she reminds us return to the good, it is the good. It is that word that really identifies, reminds us return to the good, it is the good. It is that word that really identifies who Jesus is.
Speaker 1:Jesus is good. Jesus went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil. And this hope and this invitation to us is that we also would follow the good, that we would be people who would do good everywhere we go. And this is an invitation not to see it as something that is demanded, but it's an invitation into loving the world the way that Christ does, loving ourselves the way that the good shepherd does, and hearing the good and listening for the good and practicing resurrection.
Speaker 2:You know, the Bible's filled with names that God has called. But I mean, that's my favorite.
Speaker 2:The Good Shepherd yeah good, you know, because it helps us line with what's going on. Because sometimes, you know, in this part of the story, it's the part before the glory, the first act, that sets up what's going on and the evil in the universe and all that, and we haven't maybe seen the part where God comes and makes the big rescue, you know. And so in that part we have to remind ourselves sometimes that I'm not abandoned, that I'm not forgotten, that there's a good shepherd who's looking out for me. And that's why I say sometimes we need to read, tell the story.
Speaker 2:You know I love Star Wars. You know, is Luke just an orphan on an obscure planet, you know, where he's just flying around shooting swamp rats, or is he destined to? And that's why that story stirs, you know, because he's destined to be a part of bringing the force to the universe and bringing change and destruction of the oppression, and be a part of that rebellion that stands up against that system and that stirs within us. But what part of the story do you see? And sometimes we need to retell our story, because in our story we're just the orphan who's stuck. So I'm excited, I'm really excited about what is the what's, what's the rest of your story?
Speaker 1:and I asked this morning by the holy spirit if you would open yourself to be able to maybe become aware of the fact that maybe the story that you have told yourself, to be able to maybe become aware of the fact that maybe the story that you have told yourself or others have told you is incomplete or it is short-sighted, and if you would allow the Spirit to minister to you this morning or expand in you that you have a good shepherd and what a hope it is for those of us who have children for us to remember that our children also have a very good shepherd and there is a peace for the whole world, for places that we cannot comfort, for people that we cannot be with in their grief. They have a very good shepherd and there is a hope for us in practicing this peace. So Jesus says I am the good shepherd, the father is in me, I know this, I submit to this. And then it says and when he said these things, the people were again divided in their opinions with him, and so I remind you of this, because you will hear people talk about Jesus and they will have divided opinions. This is what has been happening since the beginning. Beloved, don't panic. We have a very, very good shepherd.
Speaker 1:Some said of Jesus, of the Christ, of the Messiah. He's demon possessed, he's out of his mind. Why listen to a man like that? This seems ridiculous to us, because that is not how we see Jesus. We see Jesus as someone we love, as someone we can trust. But Jesus was saying things to the people there that were so different than what they knew that they thought oh no, this is something else. This, perhaps, is a demon-possessed person. We have to be careful. We cannot listen to this kind of goodness. But, beloved, I want to remind you you know who Jesus is, I know who Jesus is. The Spirit testifies to us of who Jesus is. You have a good shepherd, and others said that doesn't sound like a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? And I remind you, this is a conversation that we are still having thousands of years later, when someone says it's too good To have a God. Who is that good? Who is the good shepherd who's going to make everything right? I don't think that could work. And then I remind you he is the same Jesus who opens the eyes of the blind, and may their blindness be open. May that healing be opened.
Speaker 1:Now it was winter and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah, at the festival of dedication. This particular little portion of the text is essential to us if we understand the time that it's in. It's the time of reded. Portion of the text is essential to us if we understand the time that it's in. It's the time of rededication of the temple, which meant at one point the temple was beautiful and offered to the Lord, and then it was defiled, and then people that did not belong in the temple did things to it that made it no longer able to worship there, but supernaturally, by the Spirit, the oil was replaced, and so everybody had in their mind this is the time when what was desecrated is now being re-offered, and there is a hope and a beauty in that.
Speaker 2:Amen, I think, for you and I, we can count on these temples that God has given us, for it to be transformed, for you and I to be consecrated, for you and I to be cleansed, amen, amen. And I think that, again, I'm just so stirred on the idea that when we're talking about Heather saying in the beginning of the service, consider your blindness. And then I heard so many people say, well, I can't see it. Okay, and here's the problem, here's the problem, the story that we're telling ourselves, that's the thing that we authentically believe. So why would I, why would you? I just I can't see it, I can't see another story. Well, that's why we asked the Holy Spirit to open up, because I mean, if you just see things I'm going to wrap myself out here real quick but I asked one thing. I asked one thing of my family. I asked one thing. I asked one thing of my family. I said, when I leave for vacation, would you please make sure that my guitar gets put back in my office, all right? And so I get back home from my 10 days gone with my brother and the guitar's not hung up on the thing, and for a second, like a week later, I misplaced the guitar and I'm like, and then I misplaced the guitar and I'm like, and then I realized that's the guitar that I played. And I asked my family one thing. This is the story I'm telling myself. I asked one thing and I have experienced my family, my sons and all their great power and glory. They have left things in the car before Once or twice, max, and they've sometimes put the guitar and I ask them to bring it in, put it in the living room. It's not so. I have experienced some things. I have some reasons to have my story. But, boy, when I realized my guitar wasn't where, I asked, I went six guns, a blazing. I'd like to tell you I'm the redeemed of the Lord and I never misbehave. But I had a moment, just a moment. Church, in a series of glory, that I walk in the cloud of power and might, that your pastor just walks in. And in a day I had a moment and I said where's my guitar? Did you sell it? Did you do it? I knew they didn't sell it, but I just. My story was they left it in the car and it's been baking out there for two weeks in the heat. That's the story. And it's been baking out there for two weeks in the heat. That's the story.
Speaker 2:And heather didn't get offended at what she's rightfully should have got offended on the accusation, because that's all it was. My story just was filled, and I wonder how much story your story has filled with accusation against you, god, against your spouse. And so Heather said well, you know, I don't remember where it is, that was two weeks ago, but I'm sure we would have you know, did you look in your office? Because that's where we would have put it. I said, yes, I looked in my office and I bring that guitar home every week. I put them in the gig bags, because that's how I carry my guitars and whatnot.
Speaker 2:And then she's like did you look around? Yeah, I looked around, but I have learned something that there's a way that a man looks and there's a way that you're actually supposed to look. So I went back in and I saw a hard guitar case that was out of place. They're stored in the closet. And so I opened up that guitar case and, lo and behold, my guitar was in my office in a different case. And then I remembered, oh yeah, I put it in a case that I never put it in because I knew that I was going on vacation and I figured it better be safe. And so the story I had was I've looked in every gig bag in this house and you guys have done and my story and my wife was not smug at all, she forgave me for this and then we began to talk about in our own lives how much does our story?
Speaker 2:matter dictate the fact that we don't even see what's right in front of us because of our story, the wrong story and the guitar was always in my office, but because of the story that I told myself, I was convinced that my family wasn't good and that I was somehow forgotten and neglected. And I wonder how much your story shakes a finger at God and his inability to care for you, to take care of you, and I wonder how much. And I just been thinking about that and I have sorrow and I repent to Heather in front of all you and and if I did that, all services would be filled up with just me standing here repenting from. So we'll save that for another time, but but I want you to learn from this, because I'm convinced I'm not the only one that walks around with the story right.
Speaker 1:Right after this happened, I began to ask myself by the Holy Spirit. There are questions that I have asked God, there are things that I feel like I would need to know, and it feels like God is sometimes silent. I don't know if you've ever experienced that, but I have experienced what sometimes feels like an unanswer and I begin to ask God is it possible that in my own life you have given me an answer, but it is in a case that I do not recognize, so I have not even opened it. I wonder if there is peace available to me and it's right there, but it's in a case that I didn't say that that's where it would come from.
Speaker 1:And I think this is what Jesus is inviting us all into reminding us we are not alone. We are never alone. There is a good shepherd who is with us and Jesus is saying these things and he's at the temple and these people have believed him. And the people surrounded him said how long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly. And Jesus said I already told you and you don't believe me. The guitar is in the case.
Speaker 2:It's exactly where I said it was going to be.
Speaker 1:Jesus said I told you, and you don't believe me. The proof is in the work that I do in my father's name. The proof, beloved is in the good. The proof is in the good. We as people doing the good, we as people following this ministry of reconciliation. I have already told you and you don't believe me. This is one of my favorite prayers to respond to, because I love to tell Jesus. If you already said it and I don't believe you, can you give me the faith to believe? There's a scripture that tells us that there will never be a temptation that we're in, that there will not be a way of escape. I have failed to find ways of escape before beloved. I don't know if you have. So one of my other prayers that I love to pray is could you put an escalator in a neon sign over the way of escape, because I really want to get there but I don't seem to be able to. How am I not going to repeat these patterns, these ways of thinking or these ways of being? And the invitation by Jesus is into this gentleness and this tenderness. We pause here for a moment to thank you for joining us today, if you're finding this episode meaningful, would you take a moment to share it with a friend? This podcast is made possible thanks to the generosity of people just like you. If you would like to support the ongoing work of First Love Church and the continued work of our podcast, visit us online at firstlovechurchorg, reminding you to like, follow and subscribe.
Speaker 1:Do you know how often it feels like in this world there is so much riding on us? Do we make the right decision? Do we listen to the right people? Do we make the right decision? Do we listen to the right people? Do we do the right things? It feels like a stress and the invitation from Jesus is to rest. Beloved, you have a good shepherd. It is an invitation to rest all of the stress that is in our mind and to remember that when we need food, he will guide us to that. When we need protection, he remember that. When we need food, he will guide us to that. When we need protection, he will protect. When we need the beauty of a living water that takes away our thirst. That he will do that.
Speaker 1:And I love the scriptures. Go back and rehearse them to yourselves, remember them, but over and over again, jesus talks about the scriptures talk about the psalmists, talk about how gentle he is with mothers, and he gently leaves those who have young, because mothers have a lot of stress. We have a lot of worry, I don't know. I think it happens to us when somebody puts a very helpless person in front of us and says this is supposed to grow up, and now you remember that this is all on you, and so the invitation then is to remember that the mother sheep is not the only one who is responsible for the lamb, it is the shepherd. The mother sheep gets to participate in the flock, but it is the shepherd that protects the lambs. It is the shepherd that leads them all.
Speaker 1:And Jesus is saying this. I know I already told you that this is coming, and the reason they couldn't see it and the reason they kept asking was because it was so different than what they expected. They really thought that the kingdom was going to come with might. They thought the kingdom was going to look like every other Kingdom. They thought the kingdom was going to come with Empire and with rules that changed, and Jesus came with a basin and a towel.
Speaker 1:If Jesus ever looked like a mother with a basin and a towel. Somebody asked me years ago and I was new in the ministry and kind of young I think it was in my thirties and they said what is your ministry? And I said I feel like my ministry is wiping. And they were like what? And I was like I find, for years all I've been doing is wiping wiping countertops, wiping faces, wiping behinds, wiping doorknobs. I was like wiping. This is sometimes how we actually love people is in the service and the care of people, and so we remember this is the hope for us that Jesus also took a towel in a basin and he said whatever keeps you from the table of the Lord. I'm removing that and we have a beauty and a good shepherd, but Jesus is saying the proof is in the good. Look for the good beloved, look for the good.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you've ever done that where I mean, literally I opened up that hard case and there I saw the guitar. And then I remembered, you know, and it was like it all flooded back to me. I remember exactly what I was thinking put it in that case because you're going to be gone. But I mean, I was convinced of that because I always put them in the soft cases and it wasn't there and obviously every soft case was empty and so clearly there was a soft case somewhere with a guitar in it and I was forgotten. You know, and and I just I think about that, the the times where mary and then the two disciples on the road, uh, were um em yeah.
Speaker 2:Emmaus were, like you know, didn't realize it was Jesus until that moment that he broke bread or Jesus revealed. It's me, mary, you know. And there has to be that place, and so ask for that awakening, where I can see the story, I can see the good, you know, because right now all I'm seeing is, you know, uh, heather and I were talking about that. You know, this joy that god says have joy, may your joy be full. Well, I want that, but but I I mean I'd be lying to say that I'm not feeling joy at all, that we're feeling a lot of struggle and pain.
Speaker 2:There's some growing pains in what is going on in your pastor's marriage and in our walk with Jesus and our relationship with others. And it's not a pain in the neck because you're not doing what we want. It's a birthing pain of god wanting to do something new and good. And it's so hard to see and feel joy in the middle of that pain. You know, uh, and then I'm reminded that you know, we can be people that carry both hope and sorrow. You know that's what the, the season that we went through before christmas, reminded us of, you know, and then, and that there's that for you and I, uh, there, there's, there's a truth of what we're experiencing, but there is a greater truth, and that is that we have a good shepherd and that god has good for us.
Speaker 1:And you know, uh, and, and that hope sustains me but you don't believe me because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice, I know them and they follow me. I want to tell you a very quick story about someone that we met who is a shepherd and he was new to shepherding. He bought a farm and there were already sheep on it, so he had a flock that he actually bought from a shepherd that they had already known and he was very excited and he was taking his sabbatical from ministry and was doing a particular vocation and he was on the countryside and now he was going to be a shepherd and he said he went out the very first day and he called the sheep so they would come from their pen and take them to the field. And he said the biggest sheep came and knocked him right over. He said flat on his face and he said, oh, that must be because they don't know that I'm good. And so he opened the gate for them and did this. And he said it was a terror for him to wake up every day and know that he had to go out there with those sheep and they would terrorize him, they would run after him, get him to the wall. He'd have to leap over a wall. They did not want anything to do with him. And he said and then this was in the fall as his sabbatical came and he said he hated the sheep. He would go out every day and be like I hate you. Why do you do this? All I'm trying to do is good and you are knocking me down. Why will you do this? And he said if he would call them, they would literally. He said the entire turd would turn the other way in opposition. I will not. And he said.
Speaker 1:Then a very early freeze came that nobody had expected and a bunch of the sheep gave birth to lambs. And he said he went out in the morning and he said it was a horror scene Little tiny lambs, frozen, little tiny lambs, overwhelmed. And he said he didn't realize his very young daughter came out and looked at him and looked at these tiny lambs and she said to him Daddy saved them. And he said he looked what am I supposed to do? And he said she looked at me with that beautiful smile and said Daddy saved them. And he said so we picked up this lamb half frozen. He said with all the stuff in his mouth. And he said he thought to himself I cannot get this out. And he said, and there was his daughter, save them. And he said so he put his mouth on the sheep's, this little lamb's mouth, and he said and he sucked out the gunk and he spit it on the floor. And he said he was disgusted, he almost vomited on top of it.
Speaker 1:And he said, said he went around freeing these lambs from this thing and these tiny lambs, giving them back to the sheep, and then he goes in filthy, he said the kind of filth that no one should ever have. He was filthy and he went and washed himself. He said he came back out and he said ready to be knocked down. And he said I went to open the door, he goes. And I heard a sound I had never heard before and he said it. I went to open the door, he goes, and I heard a sound I had never heard before and he said it was all the sheep getting in line behind me. And he said I opened the door and he said the very first sheep was that mother whose baby I had saved. And he said never again did they push me down. But every time I went out he said the sheep greeted down. But every time I went out, he said the sheep greeted me and followed me wherever I went.
Speaker 1:Beloved, we are those angry sheep who are knocking down the shepherd. We forget that he is saving our lambs, that we ourselves have been saved and the shepherd will save us. And Jesus is telling us I am the good shepherd, my sheep listen to my voice, I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me. This is very reminiscent of John chapter 3. This is very reminiscent of John chapter 3, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believed in him would not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send Jesus into this world to condemn the world, but that the world, through Jesus, might be saved. No one can snatch them away from me, for my father has given them to me and he is more powerful than anyone else beloved. I remind you of that. God is love and love is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the father's hand. The father and I are.
Speaker 2:You know I'm not going to argue with anybody about doctrine. I just won't do it because doctrine is concocted by man. But I want you to kind of, maybe in your own time, go back to 29 and 28 here in John 10, and I want you to kind of think about so many of us. We really have our faith in why certain family members aren't in. You know, because they live this lifestyle or they behave this way, or they even said out of their own mouth, you know, and so we really, you know we have our faith somewhere.
Speaker 2:You know, and I'm not going to argue with you about your doctrine. If you want to have it and be unhappy sitting there with it. God bless you. There's nothing I can do about it, but I love reading that verse. I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one can snatch them from me. He said that, yeah, but you know, but you got to understand. You know they didn't do. You know what it says over here and there, and we start our deal of dissent into fear and reason. And but what does it do to your spirit when I tell you that that person that you're convinced you'd be separated from is not out of the reach of God's hand and that no one's snatching them. What's?
Speaker 2:it do to your spirit.
Speaker 1:I read to you from Romans, chapter 8. What can we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can be against us? I love to pray this over my children. What can we say about such wonderful things of this? If God is for my children, who could ever be against them? And then I remind you, you are God's child. Who could ever be against you, since he did not spare even his own son, but gave him up for us? Won't he give up everything else? Won't he give us everything else? Who dares to accuse us, whom God has chosen for his own? No one, for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who, then, will condemn us? No one, for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to new life for us and is sitting at the place of honor at God's right hand, ever interceding for us.
Speaker 1:Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean that we no longer are loved if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted or hungry or destitute or in danger or threatened with death? No, despite all of these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us, and I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, nor angels nor demons, not fears of today or worries about tomorrow. Not even the power of hell can separate us from Christ's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below. Indeed, nothing in all of creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed to us in Christ, our Lord. You have a good shepherd, I have a good shepherd, and there is nothing that will separate us from the love the shepherd has for us. The Father and I are one. What a powerful reminder of the oneness.
Speaker 1:A little bit further, in John 17, jesus prays for us, for those who will hear the message and believe. He's praying for us. We are ones who have heard the message and believe, and he said, father, make them one, as you and I are one. We bless your families this morning with oneness, with unity, and the oneness that we bless them with this morning is the oneness with the love of God. May God's love bring such unity, may the love that you know flow into the family of the world around us. But may you know that Jesus is praying that we would see each other, that we would be in with each other in oneness.
Speaker 2:You know, when I hear that, and maybe just for years years, it went in one ear and out the other, but it seems to me that you don't pinpoint like a million prayers that Jesus is praying over you. It's like, you know, there's a very few things here and those are going to be the important things. You know, it's clearly important, this unity, this oneness, it's super important and I don't know if it's just the time of my life or where god's. You know my, my intersection with god concerning this issue, but I've just, I've just been bulldogging it. You know what it means to bulldog something you know, like a, like a bulldog will grab a hold of a bone, try to get it out of their mouth, and I've been like that. I want this onenesseness, I want it with God, and so that means I need to strive, pursue, make efforts towards that with the people around me, because it seems like experiences events, that works really hard and strives to create separation. And people in traffic. They are gifted at creating separation for me and them, and so I have to practice in my car. That's my brother, that's my sister, I prefer them over myself, and what I think should happen in this traffic line I I need to. You know, consistently in my life, you know, prefer.
Speaker 2:Um Heather said something to me. She asked me would I do something for her and and the request made no sense to me. I don't know how I can do what you're asking anymore, or I don't understand how you don't see that I'm already doing this and there's a thing that rises up in me and it's probably just me, but it's to become real defensive about me and my efforts. And don't you see me? And I do, instead of going, wait there, I want oneness and my wife just gave me the path and I'm gonna fight her about it. That doesn't seem like I'm headed towards the path. Oh no, no one else probably does this.
Speaker 2:But I looked at that and I realized I don't see it. I don't see what she's. I'm frustrated, frustrated right now, in this very moment. I don't see it because I want to do it. So, lord, instead of taking that rage and that frustration and just dumping it on the person that I say I love, I could take that and go.
Speaker 2:Lord, help me see, open my eyes, because I want oneness with her. I want to provide that, I want to be that, I want to be that for my wife, whatever it is? Don't you want to be that for your children and for your spouse? And so you're going to run into it, if you haven't already run into this wall of I don't see it. Help me see the story differently. I don't know how to do what you're asking me to do and so quickly I can defend myself and pull myself or wait. No, I can double down on this oneness. And, lord, help me become one with this woman and help me be a better father and a better husband.
Speaker 2:Help me see that she wasn't just sitting around the house. Let me see if I can pick at him In a moment of vulnerability. She asked me this is what I need from you, and I'm telling you this oneness. It is the most important thing for us as followers, because that's what he asks of us that we would be one, like he and the father are one. They don't have the struggles.
Speaker 2:You and I have the father and jesus. They're not walking around with the discontent, the anger, problems and the lack and the frustration and the doubt, and that's us and he's offering us this way, and I'm already seeing it as I'm, as I'm surrendering to that oneness, I'm walking in a greater anointing from God, a greater experience of joy and his presence. But I got to tell you, once you remove the blinders and you begin to see the story, you're going to see how you're woefully short in some areas. Are you ready to look at that and surrender it to God? I know I am. I'm tired of playing the the game and the effort of trying to hide it. Let's just get it out and get it gone. That's just me. Nobody else in this place has that problem but stretch your hands out towards the pastor.
Speaker 1:Let's read this morning again from Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff. They comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen. Would you take a moment with us this morning and would you bend your heart toward the good? Would you bend your heart toward the love?
Speaker 2:Towards oneness, unity.
Speaker 1:And whatever is on your heart, like big, like feels like burdensome, feels like pain, feels like heaviness. Would you hold that with open hands and exhale? I have a good shepherd. We hope you've enjoyed this week's sermon. If you would like more information about us, visit us online at.
