Be as Sheep WED 10-30-96

Matthew chapter 10.

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

And also, would you pick up uh Proverbs 24?

I have 10 scriptures to show you tonight.

Uh they'll go quickly.

Matthew chapter 10 and also Proverbs chapter 24.

Matthew 10 · chapter mention Proverbs 24 · chapter mention

That was our junior high from our Lighthouse Christian Academy.

And I don't know if you remember what it was like being in junior high.

But uh that is a that is a difficult time at 7th, 8th, and 9th grade.

Now, those weren't ninth graders in there, but that's 7th and 8th grade, it's like for the boys, uh, you know, physically, uh, it seems like all the girls are taller.

Well, not for some of y'all, I'm sure, but uh then if you're a boy, you know you're skinny and your voice is cracking, and uh you got zits.

You know what I'm talking about?

And the girls are kind of, you know, uh halfway wanting to grow up and halfway still wanting to play with dolls.

And they're very self-conscious, and I'm appreciate uh the Jordans as they work with our teens in singing.

It's good for them to get in front of you and uh and sing.

You gotta understand they stand up there very self-apprehensive about what do they think.

If you sit there and say, Amen, they they they think it's okay, you know.

But if uh if we say something critical of them, so my point is this they always sing great.

Amen.

They do, but they will always sing great.

Even before they sing, they sang great.

Amen.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

Good.

Look at Matthew chapter 10.

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

Uh, they were singing about shepherd and shepherding.

I'm gonna go on one more time here with the theme that we did on Sunday morning and Sunday night a little bit.

And I just want to talk with you a little bit tonight and present a uh a characteristic, if you would, of we as sheep that probably is one of the most characteristics to obey, uh most difficult characteristics obey.

Look at Matthew chapter 10, and notice verse 16.

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

Verse 16.

Behold, it says, and I just lost my place.

There we go.

Matthew chapter 10, verse 16, it says, Behold, I send you forth as what?

Matthew 10:16

Sheep.

And then it qualifies in the midst of what?

Wolves.

And then it says, Be ye therefore wise as serpents and what?

Harmless as dove.

Now, if we act like sheep, do you understand something?

Sheep are harmless.

Now, I I was thinking about this the other day.

Uh, God calls his people of his pastor sheep.

And uh God could have chosen any animal he made to liken us to, and he says, you know what I want you all to think about yourselves as?

Just think of yourselves like sheep.

And that way you'll really be kind of harmless because when you think about this, uh sheep don't have uh claws, uh, they don't have fangs, uh, they don't have big canine teeth to rip and tear.

They don't have any stingers, they don't have any sharp hooves, and even if they did, they're not that strong.

Uh they don't have any body armor.

Uh they have they don't have any horns to speak of to gore you.

They can't camouflage themselves.

They can't run very fast.

You say, oh, they can run fast enough.

But according to wolves, they're pretty slow.

They can't climb, they can't jump.

Pretty sad animal, amen.

You know what God did?

He made them defenseless.

And then he said, now, you all are supposed to be the same way.

Amen.

Now, the honest truth is a lot of us would have liked to live in the Old Testament.

Eye for an eye, tooth for tooth.

Stone them! I I wouldn't have not liked to live in the Old Testament.

I'm glad to live right where we're at in grace.

Right between, I mean, the Old Testament and the tribulation is a fine time to live.

Amen.

I'm serious.

The dispensation of grace is a wonderful place to be born and live in.

You say, no, I would have liked that rod eye for eye, we might have stoned you already, amen.

You know what I'm talking about?

And we're supposed to be like sheep if you would, literally, harmless, defenseless.

Now, I know the scriptures that come up earnestly contend for the faith, and he drove out the money changers and everything, but follow the line of thinking here.

Look over at Proverbs chapter 24 and stay with me tonight.

Proverbs 24 · chapter mention

And somebody says, Oh no, that's easy.

It is not easy to be defenseless.

Let me say it again.

Somebody says, Oh, you know, it's all easy.

It is not easy to be defenseless when you think about what we defend ourselves for.

Now, every one of us in here have not acted like sheep at times.

Come on, amen.

Well, okay.

I'm going to convince you about that tonight.

Look if you would at Proverbs 24, and uh, look if you would at verse 29.

Proverbs 24, 29.

Now we're all going to work on this a little bit.

Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me.

I will render to the man according to what?

His word.

Hey, brethren, if wolves show up, there's no way a sheep can render back to the wolf what the wolf can do to the sheep.

You say, come on, I I drove all the way out here to hear that.

But it's true.

If we act like sheep, we there's nothing we can render back.

All we can do is that right?

That's all sheep do.

Uh at best, to defend themselves, they flock.

They crunch together.

And you hope you're not on the outside.

Come on, is that right?

Yes or no?

Somebody says, how do the sheep defend themselves?

They clump together and run in a herd and try to stay in the middle and they push each other out of the way to try to get to the middle.

That's it.

And if you happen to be on the outside of the flock, you get eaten first.

Is that right?

We as ourselves certainly are supposed to be defenseless.

Look at 1 Peter 3.

Hold your place in Proverbs.

We're coming back there in just a moment.

Ten scriptures is all, ten references.

1 Peter chapter 3.

1 Peter 3 · chapter mention

And a lot of you already know these, but let me kind of bring it into context for you.

Look at 1 Peter chapter 3.

1 Peter 3 · chapter mention

Look at verse 8.

Verse 8.

And by the way, I didn't choose to call ourselves sheep.

God did.

Verse 8.

Finally, be ye all of one mind.

So he's talking to Christians.

Having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous.

Not rendering what?

Evil for evil.

If we act as sheep, brethren, what evil could we do to each other?

Or railing for railing.

But contrary wise, what?

Blessing.

Now, there's going to be conflict come up, and the reason I'm bringing this to you at this point in time in the way of timing is our big day is just around the corner.

Now, if I were principalities and powers, right now would be a good time to stir things up a bit.

In the home, in the marriage, amongst friends, in the business, in the job, in the ministry, at the nursery, just wherever I could.

I'd love right now, if I was a principalities and powers, to get us to stop acting like sheep.

Thank you, preacher.

Amen?

Right now, if we could, we'd grow teeth.

I mean, if we're principalities and powers, the more he could get us at each other right now, the more he renders our harmony into discord.

Yes?

Now, what I want you to do in your thinking is okay, have I been acting like a sheep?

Have I been acting as this harmless?

And you know, to preach this, it's almost like, what do you want us to be wimps?

No, the Bible says sheep.

In fact, it says Jesus himself acted as a sheep.

Amen?

He came in as a lamb.

And our life on this earth is to be lived as what?

A lamb.

He says in another place, I send you forth as lambs amongst wolves.

We want to be, a lot of us men, we want to be lions.

It's not time to be a lion.

Wait till the millennium.

You get all the lion time you need, amen.

And the reason I say somebody says, uh, you know, what do you mean?

There's supposed to be a docile side of us that just takes it.

Eats it.

You're almost saying we're supposed to be, you know, something like living sacrifices or something.

Yeah.

Yeah, at times we are.

Now the world would say, boy, if you heard that, no, stand up for, you know, and and and and recompense back.

That boy hits you, you hit him back.

I don't know if you ought to be teaching that.

Especially to your girls.

They can get nasty with each other.

Amen, ladies.

You grew up.

You know what I'm talking about.

Look back at Proverbs real quick.

And uh notice what he says in the book of Proverbs again.

Proverbs chapter 20.

Proverbs 20 · chapter mention

Proverbs chapter 20.

Proverbs 20 · chapter mention

And here's what's difficult sometimes.

Look at verse 22.

Say not thou, verse 22 of Proverbs 20, I will what?

Recompense evil.

But what?

Wait on the Lord.

Did I give you the scripture in Peter?

Not rendering evil for evil, not railing for railing.

Then it says, wait.

Well, I waited, but I didn't see anything happen.

Now wait, well, wait a minute.

Who am I waiting on?

Well, in the context of sheep, if I'm waiting on the Lord, who am I waiting for?

The shepherd.

And really, as a sheep, what I do is I stay in the flock and let the shepherd protect.

Is that right?

Now we're talking about a concept here, is that correct?

By the way, this isn't, I wouldn't make this up, I wouldn't dream this up because man would say, no, and I don't like that.

I don't I don't I'll take care of myself.

Now somebody says, now let me ask you something.

You know, if somebody comes into your home, threatens to blow your wife away, or something like that, what are we supposed to go?

You know.

Come on.

And I know all the comebacks on that and all that, but you know, the concept is harmless is not giving offense because of our personalities.

Now, if the word offends, what can you do?

But I'm telling you, sometimes we and our personalities have offended.

Amen?

We've offended each other.

And what he says is we're supposed to wait on the Lord.

So that's meaning patiently, trusting that the shepherd is going to take care of it.

Now, 23rd Psalm says there's two things in there that comfort the sheep.

Run that through real quick.

The what?

The rod and the staff, they what?

And Psalm 23 is like a sheep talking about the shepherd.

Is that right?

You ought to read that from the concept and of that being a sheep.

And he says, the sheep says, the rod and the staff, you know what they do for me?

They comfort me.

That rod, man, it's a comfort.

In the shepherd's hand, that rod is some kind of device.

I guess rods take on a lot of different shapes and form.

In my little bit of reading, the rods they carry now, the shepherds are 30 aught sixes.

Just a new rod, amen.

It protects the sheep from the wolves at a longer distance.

Amen?

Literally, the the shepherds now they carry a 30-06 with a scope on it.

If they see a wolf out there kind of scoping out the sheep, usually it's one or two scoping out for the rest of the pack.

One long shot kind of discourages them.

Amen.

But my understanding is the shepherds still in some countries use the rod and they learn how to throw it and everything.

David evidently become pretty proficient with a sling.

I'll tell you how he got good on the run.

I think he was wolves.

Kind of stalking his flock.

I think he ran after him and got pretty good slinging that thing on the run.

And you know you can sling a you can sling a stone pretty far.

All you gotta do, you say, would he kill the wolves?

All you gotta do is hit them.

They're gone.

You say, no, wolves.

I thought they would make nice pets.

That's the tree huggers who say that.

Amen?

I don't know anybody here that was a wolf as a pet.

Now he's somebody says, oh I know somebody.

You know what?

A wolf is a wolf as a wolf is a wolf.

You already know in the Bible what wolves are.

What?

False teachers and false prophets.

He says, you know what you sheep are?

I'm sending you amongst the wolves.

He even said they're going to come in amidst and amongst you.

Interesting when you really start thinking about what we're supposed to be as sheep.

Defenseless, waiting on the shepherd.

Now, it's one thing, you know, we think, well, let me give you a couple more scriptures to back this up so you're thinking with me tonight.

Uh look a little bit farther with me.

Look at Romans 12 and 2 Thessalonians 1.

You doing okay?

We're not going to be here that long.

Romans 12 and 2 Thessalonians chapter 1.

2 Thessalonians 1 · chapter mention

Brethren, more than anything, we want fellowship with God.

We want to do it his way.

And it takes some work.

There's no doubt about it.

I certainly am not preaching in a message that I feel like I've got everything under control in my life, but that doesn't change what the book says.

Amen?

I'm talking about, hey, down at your work.

Are you a sheep?

Are you a porcupine?

Porcupine?

Hey, I've seen one up in Montana, man.

They can flip those quills.

I lit one up one night, amen?

I won't tell you about that.

Look at Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Porcupines burned.

I won't go into that.

The farmers hate them up there.

Porcupines, what they do up there is they gnaw the bottom of trees and kill trees off.

They'll only go up as high as they can stand, and they they kill the bottom of the tree by getting the bark.

So the farmers relish the idea of them being killed up there.

You say, oh, those cute little porcupines.

Depends on where you live.

Happened to be one night that uh somebody up there put a rifle in my hand that had uh uh tracer rounds in it.

What could I say?

We were in the middle of the night and I had a starlight scope, and it just happened to be one was trying to get away.

I said, What do you think?

He said, The farmers hate those things.

I said, That's all I need to know.

About five rounds, and the thing lit up.

Porcupines burn.

I want you to know that.

Amen.

I thought we're gonna be harmless as doves.

It's it's talking about people.

People.

People.

I'm supposed to have dominion over animals, amen.

Now, the next thing you're gonna say, well, did you eat it?

You're supposed to kill it and then eat it.

Well, okay.

God forgive me.

Look if you would at uh Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

And notice if you would, verse 17.

Recompense to no porcupine, evil for evil.

I didn't know about say that.

Recompense to no man.

Let's get back on track.

Evil for evil.

Provide things honest in the sight of all men.

And then it says this, and I'm glad it says it like this, because you know God understands our nature, if it be possible.

I'm glad he put it that way.

Now, that's not that shouldn't be an excuse, really.

Do you know what I mean?

We use it that way sometimes.

You know, well, preacher, you know, it just wasn't possible.

If it be possible, as much as lieth within you, and as we grow older and older in the Lord, more of that ought to lie in us.

Live peaceably with all men.

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourself, but rather do what?

Give place.

Give it space, give it time unto wrath.

You know, the best thing to calm us down when we get angry is time.

Give it some place.

Don't, don't, we, we, we overreact sometimes to things, but rather give place unto wrath.

For it is written, what?

Vengeance is mine, I will repay, say the shepherd.

Amen?

Say the Lord, yeah, I know the shepherd.

Therefore, if thine enemy hungry, feed, even if thy first, thirst, give him drink, for in so doing thou shalt keep coals of fire on his hand.

Then it says this be not overcome of evil, but do what?

Overcome evil with what?

Good.

Now, brethren, honestly, if God's divine nature is not ruling our lives, that's a difficult scripture to keep.

Let me say it again.

If God's divine nature is not ruling our lives, if we're not walking in the spirit, we don't always want to overcome evil with good.

It's hard sometimes when the spirit is not in control of us to turn the other cheek.

Come on, say amen.

You're looking at me like, oh no, I never have a problem with that.

I'll guarantee you, as this weather is this way, you'll have a problem on the freeway turning the other cheek.

Amen.

I mean, that that person behind you, it's raining out, and they're gonna be like they're you can't even see their headlights.

They're right behind you.

And you feel like tapping the brakes.

How many of you have ever, in an unsafe condition where they were right up on you, felt like tapping your brake lights a couple times just to say, get back.

I commend the rest of you.

Because you know if they hit you, it's their fault.

The point of it is, we all have a tendency to get out of this sheep-like, so-called defenseless type of personality and really trust the savior.

And wait, and wait, and wait.

Well, I was taught this thing a few years ago and uh no names mentioned and people aren't around or anything like that anymore.

I had uh situation for about a two-year period where a person that was uh I'll just say the elevator didn't go all the way to the top on me for unusual things.

Um this person had it in their mind that uh when Brother Jordan was at his gun shop, she really thought that Doug was running guns and that he was part of some German conspiracy.

And that my name is Fisher, and that was just one of the easy ones.

I mean, it got strange.

There were railings and there were accusations and there were phone calls.

It got to the place where when this person railed on my children, that I decided I was done.

The worst thing you could do with this particular individual was rail because it stirred the individual up to rail more back.

Have you ever run to people like that?

I thank God so many times that God let that person in my life for two years.

I learned so much about the book of Proverbs.

Especially under that heading scornful and scorner.

And how to treat a scorner.

Or better yet, how to not treat a scorner.

The problem and the hardest thing was to wait on God to take care of the situation.

So many times I just wanted to crash in and eliminate the situation.

But each time I thought about doing it, it was like the Holy Spirit was saying, no.

No.

This is for your lesson.

This is for your learning.

There's more I want you to learn.

Did you ever have one of those?

It really got in deep when it got into my children.

I didn't mind the rumors about me, and I certainly didn't mind the rumors about Brother Jordan.

Because I know he wouldn't, it's no big deal to him.

But when it got in that close and my children got cussed out over the telephone, that bothered me.

But even then, the Holy Spirit put me in check.

Do you know what I'm saying?

That he wouldn't let me attack.

It wasn't much more than two months later that God took care of it.

But that waiting sometimes, brethren, is hard.

You wonder if God's really doing anything.

He has his own ways.

Especially when it's another or one of his children.

That's when it gets tough.

That waiting patiently for the shepherd to show up and we don't know it sometimes, but probably he's not too far away in our situations.

And really, we do better if we stay in that defenseless mode the best we possibly can.

Hey, I'm not saying we shouldn't contend for the faith.

We certainly should.

But there's a sheep characteristic here that takes away the claws and takes away the fangs, takes away the quills, and makes it so it's hard to run away.

Can't hide.

Not be given to any type of violence.

Not be a brawler.

You know, for a former Marine, that's kind of tough.

Because we were taught to go in and clean them out.

And I got a letter in my jacket that proves that in Washington, D.C., one night I did it.

So that nature needs to be changed in order to have God's power.

Ah, you say I'm never one, I'm not giving to fisticuffs verbally.

Come on.

Say, preacher, man, you're almost making us into wimps.

No, I want us to have God's power as we come to the big day.

Hey, God's got a bigger rod than we got.

He's got a rod that can smite the nations.

Now, if he's got a rod that can smite the nations, he must have one that can take care of our situation.

Well, what do you do to get him to use it?

You can't.

Shall the clay say to the potter?

Who hath known the mind of the Lord and who has been his counselor?

Can the thing formed?

I can't tell him what to do.

All I can do is read in here and ask him to put in me what he expects me to be.

Now I've heard people say, and I understand, well, it's it's easy being a Christian.

There are easier parts as you go on, but there are certainly some things still that we're working on that take some work and it's a little harder.

Amen.

I mean, when you really get somebody that comes into your life that hurts you and constantly and continually hurts you, it's hard to just let me get to the center of the flock.

That's all I can do.

You don't find that.

I think I'll just lie down and rest.

You lie down, but you don't rest.

It's just eating on you.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

Now I have a solution.

I'll get to in a minute.

It's in the Bible.

In fact, it's really point blank.

Do you know what I'm speaking about tonight?

You say, why this?

Because when the big day comes, if we're not careful, we'll go through the big day and we'll do what we're supposed to do, but the aftermath of people angry at each other will be extremely destructive.

But not if we act like true sheep.

May I remind you about something?

We got some little lambs that are watching us.

Some of them were just standing up here.

They do take on the cultural personality of our families.

Come on.

You say, I don't understand.

Well, my children each have their own personalities, but the way it is culturally in my home, they do take some of that on.

Hey, look up here, please listen.

If I'm constantly with my wife railing on the church, they're going to pick up on that.

True?

If I'm not acting like a sheep, they're going to pick up on that.

They're also going to pick up on it if we just let things go.

I'm talking about turning the other cheek stuff.

Hey, if you've had teenagers, you've already had to tell your teenagers sooner or later, uh, okay, alright.

Listen, I understand you're hurt.

Now uh eat it.

Don't do anything back.

Just eat it.

Not me! Well then you missed the concept of sheep.

One of the best things we can teach our teenagers is how to eat it.

Eat it?

Yeah, just take it, lay it at the foot of the cross, and go on.

This is not an amen and message, is it?

Come on.

It's Bible.

I don't like this message.

Come on, let's get them in here and get fired up.

Let's get biblical.

Because it works much better that way than pulling a message off the internet somewhere because some preacher feels it's a good message.

This is grow, hey, this would go against a lot of the fundamental independent Baptist attitude.

But it's biblical.

I'll guarantee you this.

Now I can say this because I am one.

Preachers against preachers oftentimes don't act like sheep.

Man, I've seen them do a lot of things.

It makes me want to just pull away and not be a part of it all.

I read a book and it said the shepherd said in there that sheep are defenseless against predators.

But he says amongst the herd, amongst the flock, they have a tendency to have a kind of a pecking order.

He called it a headbutting order.

Because all sheep can do is, he said he watched this flock for years, and there was dominant sheep in there.

And what they'd do every once in a while, there'd be a little sheep over there grazing, and the dominant sheep would just come over and put its head down and push the other sheep off the grass and start eating where it was eating.

I mean, it's a power thing.

You're not eating that grass.

I am.

They can't attack wolves, they just butt each other.

Now God calls us sheep.

Best thing.

Sometimes I guess the only thing that Christians do is put their head down and butt up against another Christian and try to push them out of the way.

I see pastors do that.

I decided it wasn't worth getting on the team.

It's kind of like, you know, I used to play rugby.

It's kind of like, you know, two teams getting together trying to push each other back towards the other and push each other towards the goal line.

Scrum, if you know what that is.

You come together, it's a big mass of bodies, and you push and you shove, and you kick, and you bite, and you claw, and you do everything, and you just try to get the little ball over the goal line.

See, I got this concept that sometimes uh preachers join up on teams.

Just trying to push each other around, and I just decided I don't have time for that.

But in the church, we don't have time for that either.

We really don't.

It's not going to accomplish anything.

Better if we bump up against each other once in a while that, you know, we get the thing right as soon as we possibly can and talk it out and work it out, or avoid each other.

Oh, I can't believe you said avoid each other.

Hey, if you're contentious with somebody, avoid the person.

Hey, brother, let's just let's just say this very clearly.

We don't all have to agree with each other on everything.

We can agree that we disagree, and let's not make it an issue.

You got your clump of grass, I got my clump of grass.

You eat in your area, I'll eat in my area.

You stay on that side of the flock, I'll stay on that side of the flock.

Everything will be just dandy.

Why would we do that?

So we don't face the staff of the shepherd?

See, the shepherd doesn't use the rod so much on the sheep.

He uses the staff on the sheep.

Kind of moves them around a little bit.

Gets them apart if he needs them to.

Shepherds usually wouldn't take the rod and beat the sheep over the head.

He can do the work with that staff pretty well.

This shepherd said usually he could pretty well guide the good sheep just by tapping their side a little bit with that uh staff.

And that that sheep would just go where he wanted to go.

That's what we want to be.

That's really what we want to be.

Just a little tap on the side from the from the staff.

That's good enough.

I mean, I'm button up against another sheep somewhere and just kind of mauling over my back.

Just a little staff coming in, and maybe not the pointed end, but the hooked end around my neck and pull me over.

That's good enough.

I got the picture.

Amen?

Now, I need to show you two scriptures.

Look at Isaiah 53.

You may say, man, I come to church tonight and I want to get something fired up.

This will be enough to chew on for a while.

Isaiah 53, I'm sorry, and Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Isaiah 53 and Romans 8.

I'll go back and I'll regress back to 2 Thessalonians in just a moment.

Isaiah 53.

You know this one.

But in context, and we're almost done.

Isaiah 53?

Look at verse 7.

He was what?

Oppressed.

Do you know what oppression is?

It's like it's like whatever it is that you're facing, it's got its thumb on you and pushing down and pushing down, and and man, you're you let me just let me just so you understand what this oppression is.

Do you ever you ever feel like it was just pushing down and pushing down?

And maybe it gave you a headache, and it was just, you wake up in the morning and there it is again, and and it's just like a it's just like a cloud over you, and and you can't get away from it.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

Stress, I don't care what you want to call it.

And he was afflicted, watch, yet he opened not his mouth.

That's restraint.

You know what that is?

Is a is uh well, give me a practical example.

David with Saul.

He had the opportunity to kill him and didn't.

Restraint.

David acted like a sheep.

He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a what?

Say it.

Come on, as a what?

He's our example.

Before his shears is what?

Done.

So he openeth not his mouth.

Now, the correlating scriptures in Romans chapter 8, look there real quick.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

And here's the key to the whole thing as far as solution.

Romans 8.

If you don't get this, we don't get anything.

You say, how can I put this into practice?

Well, it starts tonight, uh starts tomorrow, and we just work on it.

Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

And notice, if you would, verse 36.

As it is written, for thy sake we are what?

Killed.

How often?

All the day long.

We are accounted as what?

Sheep.

For the what?

Paul said, what?

I die daily.

It's that old dying to self thing.

Now, I don't know about you.

I think the most difficult thing in Christianity is to die to self.

Not once to die daily.

And to stay dead all day.

I mean, oh, Christianity is easy.

You know, not if you're really wanting to live a life like this Bible says.

It takes some work.

I am crucified with Christ.

How often?

Daily.

How often during the day?

All day long.

I wasn't crucified all day today.

Couple things I thought about before I come over here and say, no, I didn't die all day today.

Okay, God, I'm gonna wake up, it's 5.30 in the morning, and okay, I'm killing myself.

I'm dead today to Doug Fisher.

I'm alive to Christ.

Okay, it's done.

You didn't kill yourself.

Self won't kill self.

No way.

Better this way.

God, Doug Fisher doesn't want to die today.

Doug Fisher loved to raise up and do his own thing today.

So, Lord, would you kill Doug Fisher off today again?

And let thy spirit rule.

Fill me this morning so I can be more like you want me to be today.

Now, you know what the problem is?

By 7.30, I need to say it again.

And by 8.15, I better pray that prayer again.

And at 11, when that thing happened, boy, I just better get alone for a couple minutes and get back under the control of the Spirit again.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

How often?

Hey, I I've I've talked to the Lord that way 20, 30 times in a day before.

When I was having one of those carnal days?

Probably a lot of you guys don't know about that.

You know what I'm saying?

You ever have one of those carnal days?

And if God doesn't do the killing, it doesn't get done.

And we begin to walk in the flesh.

And then God's got to rep deal with us on some things.

Look at the last couple of scriptures.

Look at 2 Thessalonians 1 and Hebrews 10.

2 Thessalonians 1 and Hebrews 10.

And say, come on, preacher, give us something.

Just chew on this for a while.

2 Thessalonians chapter 1.

2 Thessalonians 1 · chapter mention

In Hebrews 10, last two scriptures.

Verse 6.

Seeing it is a what?

It's a righteous thing, with God to do what?

Recompense tribulation to them that do what?

Trouble you.

Now, if you read in context, verse 5, which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be kind of worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer.

Seeing it's a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you.

You know, God can take care of those who are outside of the church that are troubling us.

Your work, your neighborhood.

You got a shimei that you live next to.

Not too far away from where I live, I've got one.

I inherited Shimei when I moved in.

And we've had some bizarre things happen.

Bizarre.

Most recent, the little black Buick.

I used to drive.

We still drive.

All the spark plugs wires and all the distributor wires just yanked out in handfuls.

My son happened to see the person standing right next to the car.

Couldn't prove anything.

Took brother Gus Moran quite a long time to get it all figured out what was being what had been yanked out, some computer stuff.

You know how they.

No reason.

Preacher.

That's tough.

I've had uh we've had little things uh for about three months.

Every other Sunday morning, a pile of tracks from our church ripped up at the bottom of our stairs.

Just laying down there in a pile.

No explanation.

Oh, we've had some more bizarre things than that.

We pretty well know who it is.

But what can you do?

I know what I'd do.

You gotta be careful not to stir people.

Up that are Yeah if I can get through life peaceably.

I know what I've done.

Yeah, you stir them up, you gotta be careful.

Oh, they can make up all kinds of things about you.

It's hard sometimes, though, to uh be kind to those who've made themselves your enemy.

Amen.

For no apparent reason.

Have you ever had one of those?

For no apparent reason, a person that you may or may not even know makes themselves your enemy.

Maybe because you go to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night and have invited them to every Easter service for the last 15 years and big days, and they just hate it.

Who knows why?

But I want to show you one last scripture and we'll finish.

Look, if you would at Hebrews 10 and watch this carefully.

And by the way, uh, maybe I'm not quite as energetic tonight.

It's not because I'm not trying to be.

Do you understand the nature of the message would be one that you would more teach than preach?

Look at Hebrews chapter 10 and notice, brethren, verse 30.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

For we know him that hath said, vengeance belongeth unto me.

Now watch context here.

I will recompense, saith the Lord.

And again, look what he says.

The Lord shall judge who?

You know what that tells me?

The context here is his people.

That even if it's one of his people, my fellow sheep, a fellow laborer, that's after me, I still need to turn that thing over to God the best I possibly can.

Now, that doesn't mean I don't confront someone, that doesn't mean I don't try to correct someone, it just means I'm never out to destroy them.

Never.

If it's not edifying, it's never for destruction.

That would include things like church discipline.

Church discipline.

It's never meant for destruction.

Always for edification.

Because it's a sheep.

Ah, turn them over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.

I never have had anybody tell me how you do that.

I've asked a number of preachers.

How do you accomplish that?

What do you do?

I heard one preacher say one day, alright, turn them over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.

I said, brother, uh, I'm just real curious, how'd you guys do that?

I've read the scriptures too, but I mean, how how do you accomplish it?

Do you all get around and pray and say, Satan, destroy him?

You know.

Did you mark him, or I mean, what'd you do?

The guy conveniently got into another conversation.

He just never answered me.

Verse 31, it's a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a living God.

Who's he talking to?

His people.

His people.

Brethren, uh, I'd just like to exhort you and say this to you tonight.

It's a good attribute to be a sheep.

The attributes of a person who is a true sheep, harmless, and allowing God to take care of the avenging part, gives God the shepherd pleasure.

I think he can do more than we could ever do.

I mean, if you really wanted to get back at someone, it's not going to help your fellowship with God.

Because the minute you do, you're going to have to repent of it sooner or later.

Amen?

So better we learn to turn it to God and wait patiently and then leave it to Him to work the situation out.

Yet, again, I'm not saying if it's a husband and wife or co-laborers or something, that you don't work it out and talk it, and but you do it with the right attitude.

Our children, brother, and I finish with this statement.

Our children will watch us this big day.

There's more sheep in the flock.

There's more activity going on.

And would you agree with this?

Wherever there's movement, there's friction.

That's right.

I mean, can't you just see two sheep in a big flock running along and saying, why do you keep bumping into me?

Can't you keep your head out of my legs?

Get over there.

And the other sheep says, We're in 3,000 sheep, and they're crowding me in.

What can I say?

Kind of like Sunday night around here, amen.

Anytime there's movement, there's friction.

And anytime we're going to do something for God, there's going to be friction.

I don't say there won't be any friction, there will be.

But it doesn't have to come to blows.

Or back biting.

Go into a corner and get the thing right.

I'm a park, what am I want?

Thank you.

Just trying to do what we planned, you know, in staff meetings.

I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do the church.

I'm gonna pay for this thing, that's my pocket space.

Okay, park there.

Even we're gonna get this, come out of here, my comment out of here! Oh, now we're really gonna have our children watch that stuff.

Now I don't know that happened.

I'm just using illustration.

That's my seat! Sit up here with me.

Special seats.

Bring your family.

Just sit up there like the Farco family, and everything will be fine.

No problem.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

The children watch.

Oh, and do they ever hear?

Oh, they hear.

What's wrong, honey?

Honey, what is it?

That's okay, we can talk.

They're all asleep back there.

When you were growing up, were you asleep?

You were tuned in.

I don't care how high they turned the radio up.

Those little ears can cut right through that radio.

And they hear the whole thing.

Well, you know, you know that.

Mr.

So-and-so, you know, just did it to me again.

Oh, they hear that?

They hear it.

They watch, and they're learning.

Best they learn how to be sheep from us.

But if God doesn't put it in us, we'll never be a little bit more like we are supposed to be.

And he did say this.

If possible, as much as lieth in you.

So he gives us little out, but it's not a justifiable reason not to try.

Live peaceably with all men.

I don't want to get in conflict with my neighbor.

I really don't.

I don't need that.

I got too many other things to do than to have that oppression when I come home.

I don't even want to think about it.

I got too much to do to be in conflict with you all.

From time to time, we're gonna bump each other in the stream, get things right, and go on.

But I don't have to live in constant conflict.

Defenseless against the wolves at times.

Yeah.

But the shepherd, uh, the word of God takes care of it.

False prophet comes, what do you do?

Shepherd.

Wolf.

Here, word.

Living.

They back off.

Works very well.

That's all stand.

I want to go home and go to sleep.

Before we get to the big day, with everybody looking right up here if you can see me or not, if you can't, what a blessing.

Before we get to the big day, we would be wise to say, Lord, before we ever get there, work on our spirit.

I'm talking about preventive maintenance.

Hey, this Sunday we go back to single run in the buses, Lord willing.

There is going to be some difficulties.

There's going to be some conflicts, some scheduling things, some classrooms, some bus schedules.

Be sheep.

Wouldn't hurt to say, God, yet tonight and tomorrow.

Help me to get more of the nature in me that you would have to put in me.

If Jesus was like a lamb dumb before his slaughter, and I was supposed to be killed all the day long, then I need your divine nature to do that.

Otherwise, it simply won't be done.

Tonight.

Help me to be a little bit more what you want me to be.

Help me to live the life of a lamb amongst wolves.

Help me to trust more my shepherd.

And leave it out of my own hands.

For that's pleasing to him.

With your heads bowed and your eyes closed.

Brother, before we leave tonight, I want you to a moment.

You say, I don't have any children, but my children are watching you.

They're watching you.

They're watching me and they're learning.

Let's give them a good example.

Let's take a little time tonight.

Let's talk to our Father about who we are, what we are, about our ministries, about our lives, and let's do some business with God.

It may be God filled me with thy spirit and killed me all the day long.

Let's do that before we leave tonight.

Maybe you're just having a time period and it happens amongst we as Christians, myself, maybe you're just going through a carnal time and say, God, I don't like this tonight.

I didn't like to hear this, but honestly, I've been, my lunch has been eaten a couple of times over just fuming.

And God, I need you to get that back in me, the spirit that would allow me to walk over the top of these things.

Work them out and move on.

Or, God, it doesn't seem like I could ever work this out.

Person's not approachable, so just give me the grace to go on around it.

Father, before we get to the big day, would you put in us as sheep the concept of not rendering evil to evil to each other?

Help us not to rail to rail, rail back against each other.

Help us to minimize it and may there be peace as much as lies within us.

God give us the power to do that.

So our children see people working together, not against each other.

Help to keep the disputes to a minimum as we prepare for these different things coming up in your work.