Anticipating Advent: Week 2

Morning. It is good to be back.

I missed you all, prayed for you all a lot,

thought about you a lot, and just want to let

you know I love you and thank you for allowing

me to just put all of my vacation weeks together

and just get away like a little boy and play

in the woods.

And I really appreciate that. I had a great trip.

Spent some time in Indiana hunting, then I went up

to Wisconsin, and then I went down to Texas hunting,

and let's just say it was a blast, and you'll

get that in a minute, and it was an awesome time.

But thank you for letting me get away.

I will say this that before I left, I said,

you know what, a lot of years I'm just you know,

on fumes until I get to vacation. But I just

really feel like this year I'm going to miss out

on all that God is doing. And I got back Monday,

and I said, tell me what all God has been doing,

and we filled the whole board up what God has

done over the last five weeks.

Let me just tell you some of this stuff. Uh.

One, the Arabic Church had a revival where they had

about two hundred and fifty people come to that. A

couple weekends ago and about ten people came to Christ.

It was an awesome Amen, give the Lord a praise.

Then Jose was telling me about their Thanksgiving gathering for

the Spanish community, and so it was a Thanksgiving service. Now,

last year they had thirty people at that. This year

they had one hundred and thirty, but thirty of those

were guests. So last year they had thirty, and then

this year they just had thirty guests.

Isn't that awesome? That is awesome. Praise the Lord. So

a few months ago I gave the church a challenge.

That's where we want to see one hundred people come

to Christ during the school year.

So that's August through May, and.

That is the time where all of our ministries are running.

And so we've been praying and seeking and offering people

an opportunity to come to Christ across all of our

services every weekend. And and here's what I found out

when I got back. Fifty six people made a commitment

to Christ in the last five weeks.

Amen. Can you believe that? Fifty six?

So we had thirty seven before I left, and then

fifty six while I was gone, and then Thursday night,

we had a baptismal service and this person who was

being baptized wrote a letter, shared testimony, invited all their

friends and family. They had a crew there as six

of those people after she got baptized, came to Christ.

So we're holding.

At ninety nine.

And I don't need any of you all to get resaved.

I just want to see somebody.

But it's fascinating that we are outreach ministries called one

more in Literally this weekend we're praying for one more

person and so it's good to be back and family

is going to be a good season.

Let us pray and praise God.

God, Thank you for your goodness, Thank you for your mercy,

thank you.

For your grace.

And God, we pray for every one of those people

who have made a commitment to follow You. Love on

them today, incourage them today, draw them near to You today,

and we praise you now. God, help us today draw

closer to You through the texts that we study today

in Jesus name.

Amen. Now.

The summer before I came on staff here at the

Church of the Crossing, I went to Paris to help

a new church plant launch and that was an awesome trip.

At the end of that launch, everybody who came over

with me they went back to the United States, but

I stayed for about another week and I hung out

with my friend Manu.

Now Manu was from France.

And so it's wonderful actually traveling the French countryside, going

to the chateaus, the shopping malls, all those experiences, and

actually having someone who could speak French.

That was wonderful. It's a built in tour guide.

And we had a great time, and I was especially

thankful for him when I got sick.

I got a little ear.

Infection and so I had to go to their doctor, which,

by the way, they have universal health care, so it

was an interesting experience. So I just went to an

apartment building and there was a room an apartment that

had a doctor. You walk in there and I think

he's sleeping on the couch, and then he comes up.

And it's sad because I don't know what to say.

So I'm just going, you know, point and stuff. And

then all of a sudden, Meneu comes by. He goes

just swe blah blah blah blah blah blah, blahlah blah

blah blah.

Ah.

It is so good sometimes to have a guide or

a leader to follow when you were in unfamiliar territory.

When you are.

Venturing in life and you're in some unfamiliar places in life,

it's good to have a guide, to have a leader.

And so by the last day, like I had learned

the French languish enough that I was going to go

and off on my own. And so I went to

the Palace of Versailles, and you know, I thought, I

could do this by myself.

What's the big deal.

Only seven hundred and twenty thousand square foot, seven hundred rooms,

twelve hundred and fifty fireplaces, not a big deal, you know.

And so I got there and then I realized that

everybody was lining up with these guys, and these were, you.

Know, one hundred to two hundred people back.

And I'm like, I am not going to get in

this line and it take hours to get through this palace.

I'm gonna outsmart everybody.

And so what I decided to do was I decided

that I was going to start at the end of

the tour and work my way backwards.

Okay, And really, I thought, you know, what's the big deal?

This is only five hundred and fifty times the size

of the house that I was currently living in at

that time.

I can do this.

And so I got through the first couple hundred thousand

square foot of this home and I thought, I'm doing

pretty good.

I've out smarted everyone. But then my ignorance.

Of the architecture of that time really caught up with me,

because I got to this one tiny corridor and there

between me and the rest of the tour stuck. There

was about one hundred people from China with an interpreter, okay, and.

I got stuck.

I couldn't go nowhere, I'd already been there, and I

couldn't go past them.

I was stuck. And so for the next I don't know,

half hour, forty five minutes.

I was shouldered to shouldered foot to foot touring the

Palace of Versailles with one hundred of my new friends

from China.

And that was quite an adventure. And by the way,

you don't have to know a.

Foreign language to know people are laughing at you. See,

in life, it's good to have a leader, a guide,

a person who's going to help you get to the

destination you desire. Now, in our America culture, we typically

call those who guide us our leaders. We call them,

you know, a leader, that's what we call them. That

this is our leader, this is our coach, this is

the person who is leading our organization. But in the

Jewish culture, an agrarian culture, those who guided, those who

led people, they were called shepherds, and.

That was the name of honor that.

They would give anyone that was leading them or guiding

them in any.

Area of their life.

You are my shepherd. And that makes sense because the

founder of their nation, Abraham, was a shepherd. You know, Jacob,

the father of the twelve tribes of Israel, he was

a shepherd. You know, when we get to Moses, who's

the one who led them out of the exodus.

And and overcame Pharaoh, he was a shepherd. Their favorite king,

King David, he was a shepherd.

So you have to understand that this language of shepherd

really miss something in the society. Okay, And so the

people really followed their leaders, they followed their guys, and

they wanted to be led by shepherd because the shepherd

was supposed to lead them in the way of.

God's will and God's revival. So by the time we

get to the birth of Christ by the time we

get to the coming of the Messiah, you would think

that they would be looking for.

This great Shepherd who was going to lead them to revival,

lead them into following God's will.

Lead them into spiritual ecstasy. You to think, after thousands.

Of years waiting, they're waiting for the great Shepherd, the

shepherd King. Well, some things that happen in between the

promises for this Messiah and by the time we get

to time of Jesus, Well, here's some things that happened. One,

the Babylonian exile happened, and so they were taken out

of their land and they were oppressed by a foreign king.

Many years later they were occupied.

By and so Caesar ruled over them and oppressed them.

And so let me tell you something.

They started shifting in their heart where they were looking

for the Shepherd, this Messiah, they started looking for something different,

and especially by the time we come to Jesus, because

they're being led by this guy named King Herod.

And King Herod, by the way, he was a Jew.

But King Herod only had the agenda of Rome. He

just wanted to please Rome. He just wanted to make

sure Caesar was okay with him.

And let me tell you about how messed up this

guy who should have been their shepherd at the time,

should have been leading them into God's will, should have

been leading the nation to follow God's ways. But they

get this king named Herod, and he was a mess.

He was a mental whack job. He would commit heinous

acts of crime if he thought that anyone was going

to try to usurp him from his throne or his power.

Matter of fact, he would put family members to death

if he thought they wanted his throne at all. I mean,

he had a serious mental condition of paranoia. And so

we see that he actually killed one of his wives

that he loved, Marianne, and then he sent two of

his sons, Alexander and Arissa Boulis, off to an elite

education in Rome. And these boys came back and they

wanted to serve their dad, but dassole they had talent,

they had skills, and they had people who liked them.

And so he became convinced, they're gonna try to take

my power, They're gonna try to take my throne. And

all of as advisers kept saying, Herod, you're being paranoid.

Your boys are just being good boys, and the next

thing we know, Herod had his two sons strangled to death.

This shock, by the way, the Jewish community big time.

This was a huge shock. And if people are like,

what type of shepherd is this? What type of king

is this?

Even Augustus Caesar is recorded in history as saying this

that it's safer to be Herod's pig than to be

his own son. So they're being led by a whack job.

They're oppressed by Rome. They have a short history of

well oppression. So we have to be a little bit

graceful when we think about what they wanted, because they

should have been asking for.

The shepherd king.

They should have been waiting for the shepherd king. Instead, Instead,

they swished their motivations of the heart, and they thought

that surely God was gonna send them a warrior king,

someone who was gonna bring revenge and vindication, someone who

was gonna march in with the army and like Alexander

the greater Julius Caesar, and he was gonna make Rome

Boalther knee to them.

And they wanted this warrior king. They long for this

warrior king.

And so we get to the season of Jesus, and

as everybody has shifted their hearts towards wanting this warrior king,

this warrior messiah.

In our text today we see that God.

Pushes on the brakes a little bit and says, no, no, no, no, no.

I know you want a warrior king, but I'm going

to send you a different type of king. I'm going

to send you a shepherd king. And we see Herod

inquiring about this. Let's look at our text today when

we get to the second chapter of Matthew.

What do we see here?

It says that after Jesus was born in Bethlehem and Judea,

during the time of King Herod, magi from the east

came to Jerusalem and they asked, where.

Is the one who has been born king of the Jews.

We saw his star when it rose, and we have

come to worship him. Now when King Herod, you know,

it says he was disturbed. Yeah, because he was a

disturbed person, and all of Jerusalem with him, by the way,

and when he had called together all the people's chief

priests and the teachers of the laws, basically brought all the

thinking people, all the religious people together, and then he

asked them.

Where is this Messiah going to be born.

And then they promptly answered, in Bethlehem and Judea, They replied,

for this is what the prophet has written. But you,

Bethlehem and the land of Judah, are by no means

least among the rulers of Judah. For out of you

will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.

All right, this text right here changes the course of

everyone's understanding. They were expecting a warrior king. But this

text here gives us some answers to a few questions.

First of all, where's the Messiah coming from?

So the leading religious people immediately answer, well, if he's

going to be a legitimate a legitimate Messiah, he has

to come from Bethlehem. There could be no other place.

He has to come from Bethlehem. So we asked the

question why Bethlehem. I think there's three answers. Why Bethlehem.

Number one, it was prophesied hundreds of years before Jesus

Christ came. It was prophesied that the Messiah would be

born in Bethlehem.

Let's look at this.

In Micah chapter five, it says, but you, Bethlehem, though

you are small among the clans of Judah, out of

you will come for me one who we rule her

over Israel. So first of all, he had to come

from Bethlehem because it was prophesied.

Secondly, there's just a very practical reason, very practical reason.

During the time that Mary was pregnant with Jesus Joseph,

her husband, who happened to be a descendant of King David,

had to return, had to leave Nazareth and go to

Bethlehem because Caesar had asked for a census so that

they could look over and make sure they were getting

all the money that they needed for taxes.

Well, they traveled.

There to Bethlehem, even though she was very pregnant.

It was a dangerous trip for her.

They happened to be there she had a baby. So

there's a very practical reason. So there's prophecy and there's practicality.

But I think there's a third reason, and that's a

spiritual reason. And I think that third reason is poverty.

Because here's what we see that Bethlehem is a humble place.

It's a place of humble beginnings.

Here's what you need to undersand about Bethlehem. Bethlehem is

shepherd country. It's the working man country. It's a place

where people didn't have money.

It's kind of like in today, it's like Cowboy country,

hard hard workers, but they don't have a lot of money.

And what this shows us is Jesus coming from this

humble place was was that we did not have a

ruler coming from some distant land who had been living

in luxury, and what's going to make us all subjects

of his kingdom? No, we have someone who came in

humble circumstances who says I have come not.

To be served, but to serve you.

And so we see there are reasons why he needed

to come from Bethlehem, prophecy, practicality, and then also it

just kind of gives us a glimpse into what type

of kingdom he was going to run. So the question

now is all right, where did he come from? He

came from Bethlehem, But what type of king is coming?

Well, the text answers us, it's a shepherd king.

And what does it mean for Jesus to be our shepherd? Okay,

have you ever asked that question? What does it mean

for Jesus to be our shepherd?

Now? I can answer that.

I can give you my own theological thoughts on that,

but I think would be better actually if Jesus answered

the question himself. And actually, after he had been hanging

out with his disciples for a while, Jesus decided to

reveal more about himself from time to time. And so

when we get to John chapter ten and we get

to verse eleven, we see that Jesus reveals more about.

His character and who he is. Let's look at this together.

John ten to eleven says, Jesus says, I am the

good Shepherd.

He's the good Shepherd, the shepherd King.

Now to understand why Jesus would make this revelation at

this moment, we have to understand some of the context

of what was going on.

When you look at the previous chapter.

What do we see in the previous chapter we run

across a guy who was living on the street.

He had been born blind. And actually the religious leaders

of that day they said, uh, do.

You want to know why you're blind? Do you want

to know why your life is like this? Well, before

you were born, your parents must have done something really evil.

And really bad.

So that's what the religious shepherds of that day did.

They actually interpreted it said, Hey, the reason you're dealing with.

This is because your parents.

Had done something bad, and so what would that cause?

The parents will live their life guilt ridden and at

the same time.

The guy who's blind and living on the street would

grow up and there would eventually be a wedge between

him and his parents because he's like, look, my life

is like this because of what you did. You did

something evil, you did something messed up. God thought it

was so horrible that he's punished me. Imagine that family

dynamic at Christmas. This year, Jesus comes along and he

knows that this is just absolute insanity. And instead of

Jesus trying to explain things to him why this went

bad or why this went bad in his life, Jesus

just decides to do something about it.

And let me tell you something.

That's one thing I love about when we see Jesus,

Jesus oftent time, when he encounters something, he doesn't try

to explain everything. He just decided to do something about it.

And that's the type of church who.

We want to be.

We want to be a church that we don't walk

up to people and try to explain or try to

figure out why they're in this situation or why they're

in that situation. Or you know, if they'd have done

this or this or this or this, you wouldn't be

in this situation.

No, that's not the type of church we're going to be.

We're the type of church that when we see someone hurting,

someone struggling, we just decide.

To do something about it. And so Jesus decides to

do something about it. What does he do.

He spits into the dirt, rubs it together, makes a mub,

puts it on the guy's eyes.

Immediately the guy can see.

And let me tell you something, the guy could see

that the whole neighborhood flips out.

And not only do they flip out here, they.

Start praising God. And here's what's going on. They're thinking, Okay,

if this dude right here just open this guy's eyes,

that that means God has returned to Israel. God is

with us, God's about ready to bring revival.

God's about ready to bring his Messiah. So they get

all excited.

But when they get excited, guess who doesn't get excited.

The shepherds, the false shepherds, the religious leaders.

So they do a few things.

One is they start to discredit this whole act, and

so they say, you know, Jesus, we don't really like to,

you know, heal on the Sabbath. It's not a good thing.

And then they start saying, well, maybe he wasn't really blind,

maybe there's it's just a show. And people are like,

we've known him since he was born. And then they

try to put pressure on the parents, but the parents

didn't want to answer because I didn't want get kicked

out of the synagogue. And then after all these attempts failed,

they just tried to discredit Jesus.

Why why were these religious.

Shepherds attacking this and what calls all this a miraculous, merciful, wonderful,

loving miracle that changed a man's life, and it changed

his family and it changed their future.

And their response was to trash it. So then we

see Jesus.

It's one of those few times in scripture where you

can really see Jesus at his wits end. And so

he does this little parallel teaching. He says, let me

tell you why I'm the shepherd king and why I'm

the good shepherd. And I'm going to tell you the

difference between me and these people you've been following.

Check out this passage here. Let's look at it together.

Jesus says, I'm the good shepherd, the shepherd King. The

good shepherd does a couple of things. One, he lays

down his life for the sheep. The hired hand.

From about the Pharisees and fall shepherds.

Is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep.

So when he sees a wolf coming, he had been

is a sheep, and he runs away.

Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.

The man runs away because he is a hired hand

and cares nothing for the sheep. So Jesus gives a

couple of reasons why he is our shepherd king. Number one,

a true shepherd. A true shepherd king is going to

sacrifice his life on our behalf. Now, when Jesus started

talking about this wolf coming in, it would have conjured

up an image of the ancient ways in which they

used to corral the sheep out in the countryside. What

they would do is they would build a circle, and

they would stacked stones up, but they were to keep

an opening, and that would be called the gate, and

so in the evening and they would bring all the

sheep in there. And at this opening, the gate. This

is where the shepherd would lay down, and the shepherd

would lay down there to protect the sheep. So if

the sheep decided to wander often Bill nine, the sheep

would have to actually crawl over the shepherd and he'd

be able to catch him and put him back.

On the other hand.

If a wolf for wolves came into attack, there's one

place to go through.

They had to go through the shepherd who.

Was laying on his back. And then this moment he

had a split decision, a split decision that he had

to make. Am I going to protect the sheep? Am

I going to give my life for the sheep? What

does Jesus say here? Jesus says, he says the man

talking about the average shepherd, the shepherd who's not the

good shepherd, the shepherd king, he says, runs away because

he's a hired hand and cares nothing.

For the sheep. But a true shepherd, from.

A lying down position, we'll fight for his life from

a point of disadvantage.

And here's what we understand from Jesus's story.

Here, to understand from this imagery that only a true

shepherd who loved his sheep would be willing to give.

His life for the sheep. What's Jesus also doing in

this text.

He's pointing to the day that our true shepherd was

going to go to the cross.

And give his life and lay down his life for us.

Also, it conjures up this image of Jesus being the

Gate because it helps us to understand because Jesus says

something kind of interesting in the next verse, and it's

kind of weird. I never understood it for years until

I understood the sheep pen.

What does Jesus say here?

Jesus says, he says, you know, I and the Gate,

whoever enters through me will be saved. And Jesus is saying,

I'm gonna give my life for you. And because I'm

gonna give my life for you, that means that also

if you want salvation, if you want to read relationship

with God, that also.

Comes through me. I am literally the Gate.

And then Jesus switches in his teaching and then he

kind of gets personal of for us and points to

the type of life that he wants to see the

sheep have. It says here that they will come in

and go out and find pastor.

But the thief comes only to still kill and destroy.

But then he says, here's what I've come to give you.

I have come that you may have life, in other words,

eternal life, not just life on this earth, but also

that you're gonna have life while you're here on this

earth to the full or some text say to the fullest.

So Jesus not only provides for us the things that

we need, but he also shepherds us through life. And

he provides for us the things we need, but also

he wants to give us a full life.

He provides for our needs. He brings fullness to.

Our lives, and not only physically, but also spiritually and emotionally.

This reminds me of David's work and Psalm twenty three.

What is he says?

Says, the Lord is my shepherd.

I lack nothing. In other words, my shepherd takes care

of me.

He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads

me beside quiet waters.

He refreshes my soul. In other words, so he not

only takes.

Care of my needs, my physical needs, but he does

something internally to me.

He refreshes my soul.

Now I don't know about you, but I've had a

hard time for many years trying to understand this verse.

You can't find a good definition for the full life.

You can look at a bunch of different commentaries. The

commentaries are going to be all over the place and

they're not going to be able to help you understand

what is truly a full life?

And I thought, well, maybe it is a full well.

I feel like I have a full life when I have.

The right career, or maybe when I'm on mission, or

maybe you know, when I got some financial security, or

is a full life, you know, having a bunch of

friends in great experiences. What is this full life that

Jesus promises?

And it seems very especially since you.

Know, a lot of us can look at our bank account,

or we can look at our career, we can look

at our family and go check check check, But then

inside of us there's no peace, there's no comfort, there's

no sustaining joy. Does that feel like the full life

to you? It doesn't feel like the full life to me.

And so, you know, as I've moved on to life,

I started to think, all right, I really do believe

that the life that Jesus calls us, who this full

life is one, is where we're living in the will

of God, that we're trying to pursue the will of

God and try to do the things of Christ, trying

to please him more than we please ourselves. Now, as

I started to grow and start to grow more into

doing that, and so as I was following God's will,

why did I still have this emptiness in my soul?

Why did I still have a lack of joy, a

lack of comfort? And this really boggled me for a

few years. So, my God, this doesn't feel full.

See what I had was a crippling anxiety.

I used to brag about how I was the world's

best warrior, like no one can worry more than me.

I'm awesome at worrying.

But when I would get alone with Jesus, I would

be like, you've promised me the full life. I don't

fill the full life because I don't have peace.

You know what.

I started to get some help mentors and some counseling,

and here's what I discovered. For me, and I don't

know about you, but for me, I was still holding

on to try to control some of my life and

the outcomes. Number Two, I had this gloom and doom theology.

Does they might here have gloom and doom theology. It's

where things are going really good right now, and you're like, oh,

what's gonna happen around the corner, you know, because maybe

life had been tough growing up, so you're like, surely,

surely the wheels have to fall off at some moment.

And so I always lived.

Even when times were good, thinking about how times were

going to be bad in the future, because they can't

always say good. And here's the problem. This crippled the

joy in my soul, and so I wasn't receiving this

full life. And so finally I started working through this

and it really hit me with this text when I

went back to it as shepherd, it's someone that you

have to fully trust, so you give them your career,

you give him your family.

For me, I had to give him this church. And

let me tell you something.

I start saying things to God, like, well, God, here's

what needs to happen well at your church.

So if you want to happen, make it happen.

God, we have this need here at the church, your church.

So if you want to see this happen, you got

to make it happen. It's not mine. I can't do

nothing about it.

I would look at my family and be like, I

could be an example. I could put some guardrails down,

but I can't determine our future. So Lord, if you

want to do this in my family, you got to

do this because this is your family. And when I

let go and I truly let him become the shepherd

in my life life, something happened in my life, peace, joy, comfort.

See.

I was trying to do all the things and say

I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna

do this.

I'm gonna please the Lord, Please the Lord, Please the Lord,

Please the Lord.

But at the end of the day, until I fully

trusted the Shepherd with my whole life.

And let me tell you, let me give you evidence

of how I trust him. I just left for five weeks.

I left for five weeks, and let me tell you,

I didn't lose one house of sleep because I knew

God had this church. It's his church, not my church.

And no matter of fact, more people came to Christ in

that seasons. And I don't know if season, I didn't

even know if I'm like, should I come back? I

have a feeling today and the reason I pushed in

on this a little bit. I have a feeling today

that a lot of you are doing a lot of

good things, but this full life seems elusive to you.

You don't have true peace, you don't have true comfort,

you don't have lasting joy.

And here's what you gotta do.

There's something in your theology, there's something going on that

you got to dig deep and dig deep, find that

lie and then start living in the other direction. It

took me a while. I don't know what yours is.

Yours is probably not gonna be the same as mine,

but you've got to figure.

See it's all right. Things happen.

You can't control life, but the Lord is in control.

But you got to find that out for your life.

The second thing that the good shepherd does is a

good shepherd.

You know. The second reason why he's a good shepherd is.

That he knows us.

It says, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep,

and my sheep know me.

And Jesus tells every single one of us here today

that I could know him personally. A friend of mine's

a professional counselor, and he said this. He says, the

greatest human.

Need is to be known and to be affirmed. All

of us need to be known by people and affirmed

by people. And here's what Jesus says.

Okay, we know we were created for a relationship, and

that Jesus says this, I am the good Shepherd.

I know my sheep, and my sheep know me. Okay.

In other words, God wants to know you, and he

wants you.

To know him.

See, the Shepherd King came to bring us into a

personal relationship, not a religion. So what are some of

the evidences that we were living fully into this shepherd relationship?

What is it like following the shepherd King? One, we

get to know his voice when we follow him, we

get to know his voice. Earlier in his passage, Jesus

says that the sheep recognized the voice of the good Shepherd.

It says, the sheep listen to his voice. He calls

his own sheep by name, and he leads them out.

And when he has brought them all out on his own,

he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow

him because they know his his voice. In other words,

as we follow our shepherd, we get to know him

personally so much that we will recognize his voice. Now,

this would have conjured up the image of the inner

city gate.

So what happened was for those who just shepherd on

the outskirts of the town.

In the evening, all these different shepherds would bring their

sheep into the city pin, and so there would be

a bunch of different flocks all together together.

And here's what they would do.

They would pay a porter and they would give him

money and say, all right, watch our sheep during the night.

So the shepherds would go have dinner, go to bed,

wake up and have breakfast.

And then all the shepherds.

Would show back up at the pen, and all of.

Their sheep would be intermixed.

And then one by one a shepherd would call for

his sheep, and only his sheep would file out, one by.

One and follow him into the pasture.

And one by one, by one, by one shepherd after another,

their sheep would know their shepherd's voice. And we get

that same opportunity with God. We get to draw close

to him and know his voice. And let me tell you,

you want to know, how can I grow and distinguishing

the shepherd's voice from all these other different voices that

are competing.

In my life? Of one? Let me tell you, It

just doesn't change.

The primary way to know your shepherd's voice is by

seeking him in prayer and in Bible.

And let me tell you how this works out practically.

When you get to a crisis or you get to

a decision and you really need to hear your shepherd's voice, he.

Will conjure up or he will remind you of a

scripture that has been planted deeply in your heart from

your previous prayer times.

It works something like this, Have you ever wanted to

punch somebody in a face today this morning? And so

you're mad at somebody, then a scripture will come on

your heart.

Why don't you forgive like I forgave you?

Okay?

Or maybe it's the end of the year and we're

looking at being generous. But all so, you see all

these things that you would like to have personally as well.

And then all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit breaks.

The scripture down in your heart. You know it's better

to give than to receive.

Or you know that person at work that you can't

stand and that bitterness gross to hatred. Then all of

a sudden God convicts you and says, hey, I told

you love your enemies or maybe you're overwhelmed by life,

and it will bring to your mind that passage of

Scripture that says, you know, cast all your anxiety upon

the Lord.

You know, cast all your anxiety upon the Lord.

And so he speaks to us in these moments of

pain and overwhelming situations.

And that's when we know that we know.

Our shepherd's voice because he is leading us and guiding

us through difficult seasons. Another thing, another evidence of that

we experience why we are following our shepherd, is that

we get to experience the work of.

God in our lives.

Shortly after I came to crit my father had a

severe heart attack, a massive heart attack, and so he

was off work for a while, and it got to

the point where we didn't have the money for the bills.

So my dad said to me, He says, hey, James,

can you go into the other room and pray.

We don't have money and our bills are due. So

I was due to Christ.

So I didn't, you know, have been following Christ's long

enough to do that prayer? Like, Lord, if at your will,

only if you want to, if you're not busy, can

you No? I was a new Christian, so I just

went and I said, Lord, we don't have money.

We need money. It's for bills. We're in trouble. Help us.

Literally, while I was praying that prayer, I heard her

knock on the door.

I was like, that's interesting. My dad went to the

door and there.

Was a guy from work who said, today we collected

an offering for you. And these are still workers, okay,

and the collecting an offering in they we just want

to give this to you. And there was enough money

there to cover our bills. Now that sounds pretty cool, right, Well,

guess what happens when you don't have money and you don't.

Go back to work.

You're back in the same spot the next month. And

my dad said, James were in this situation again.

He goes, can you go pray again?

And I'm like, I don't know if it works that way,

you know. My dad was kind of like slot machine, you.

Know, come on, man. And so I went back and

I was on my knees and I said, here I

am again. Dad's not working. We don't have money. We

need money. Help us.

And then while I was praying, I kid, you knocked,

there was a knock at the door. I bout fell over.

I thought, Jesus cut out the middle thing. I thought

Jesus was at the door, He's like, you know. And

then I didn't wait for my dad to come back

and tell me who it was. I went back and

I looked over my dad's shoulder, and there was a

guy who knew where we lived, but had never been

to our house before.

That worked with my dad, He says.

Man, just now, I was driving down the street, and

all of a sudden, All of a sudden, man, something

in my heart overwhelmed me, and I I felt like,

I need to give you all the money I have

to take care of your bills.

And he pulled out a wat.

Of cat and there was enough money to take care

of all of our bills.

Let me tell you something that.

Changed the way I understood my God and my shepherd.

And let me tell you something.

King David came along a season where he said, you know,

even one I go through the you know, the valley

of death, your rod and your staff they comfort me.

In other words, David understood, even in good times we

praise God, but even in bad tizing, even in the

bad times, where we need to trust in our shepherd

more than ever. So David would say, I'm in this

valley again, and I can't see around this corner, but

I know that you know what's around that corner.

So you lead me.

You got me, He says, even in the midst of

my troubles, I trust in the Lord. Today, your shepherd

King is calling for you to trust him, to know him,

to be in a relationship with him. And let me

tell you something that's absolutely beautiful. And this is the

last part. We close up today.

At the very last, Jesus says something at the end

of his.

Teaching on him being the Shepherd King. He says this, Oh,

by the way, as he's talking to a Jewish audience,

he says.

I have other sheep that are not of the sheep pen.

I must bring them in also, they too, listen to

my voice, and they shall become one flock and one shepherd.

You know what he was doing. He was looking at

the ethnic Jews and says, I've.

Come to be your good shepherd, But there's some other

people that I'm gonna go after too.

And who was he talking about? You're talking about the Gentiles.

Did you know that two thousand years ago you were

on Jesus's mind? He was thinking about you and your

family two thousand years ago.

That's why we follow him, That's why we let the Shepherd,

King Leader alive.

We're gonna close today, and here's what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna give you three options of prayer, okay, and

so you might want to pick one of these three.

So here's what we're gonna do. For those of you

who you've been following the.

Lord, but there's some things that you're holding on to,

some things that you haven't trusted Jesus with. Are there

some things that are really overwhelming in life that you

need to trust Him with. You're gonna do a time

of prayer or you're gonna be handing over those things

that you need to trust God with. For some of you,

this is a season where you're like, you know what,

I don't have big problems on things.

That are going well, well good.

You're gonna do a season of thanks giving prayer this morning.

You're gonna praise God from where you're at. And for

those of you today who maybe you used to follow

Christ but then your relationship faded away, or for those

of you who have never been in a relationship with Christ,

I'm gonna give you an opportunity to pray with me

so you can come into a relationship with a shepherd

king and have your life changed forever.

Let's go ahead and begin this prayer.

For those of you today who need to trust Him

more or got to hand some things over to him,

Let's go ahead and do that right now where you're at.

For those of you who need to thank.

Him, start praising him now.

For those of you who.

Would like to come into a relationship or recommit your

life to Christ.

I want you to pray this prayer along with me. Jesus.

I need you, Jesus, so I want you to be

my savior.

I want you to be my lord. I want you

to be.

My shepherd king. Forgive me of my sins. And I

believe that you died on the cross for me, and

that you gave your life for me. But I also

believe that you resurrected three days later. Jesus, be the

Lord of my life.

Save me, lead me, and guide me.