John 10:1-10 - ”Vibrant Faith” - The Good Shepherd

Good morning.

Our Old Testament reading this morning

is from Ezekiel

34:es

1-6

and then down 11-16.

The word of the Lord came to me, son of

man, prophesy against the shepherds of

Israel, prophesy and say to them, even

to the shepherds, thus says the Lord

God, ah, shepherds of Israel, who have

been feeding yourselves, should not

shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the

fat. You clothe yourselves with the

wool. You slaughter the fat ones, but

you do not feed the sheep. The weak you

have not strengthened. The sick you have

not healed. The injured you have not

bound up. The strayed you have not

brought back. The lost you have not

sought. And with force and harshness you

have ruled them. So they were scattered

because there was no shepherd. And they

became food for all the wild beasts. My

sheep were scattered. They wandered over

all the mountains and on every high

hill. My sheep were scattered over all

the face of the earth with none to

search or seek for them. For thus says

the Lord God, behold, I I myself will

search for my sheep and will seek them

out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock

when he is among his sheep that have

been scattered, so will I seek out my

sheep. And I will rescue them from all

the places where they have been

scattered on a day of clouds and thick

darkness. And I will bring them out from

the peoples and gather them from the

countries. And I will bring them into

their own land. And I will feed them on

the mountains of Israel by the ravines

and in all the inhabited places of the

country. I will feed them with good

pasture and on the mountain heights of

Israel shall be their grazing land.

There they shall lie down in good

grazing land, and on rich pasture they

shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I

myself will be the shepherd of my sheep,

and I myself will make them lie down,

declares the Lord God. I will seek the

lost, and I will bring back the stray,

and I will bind up the injured, and I

will strengthen the weak, then the fat,

and the strong. I will destroy. I will

feed them in justice.

Our New Testament reading this morning

is John 10:es 1-10.

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does

not enter the sheepfold by the door, but

climbs in by another way, that man is a

thief and a robber. But he who enters by

the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep

hear his voice and he calls his own

sheep by name and leads them out. When

he has brought out all his own, he goes

before them, and the sheep follow him,

for they know his voice. A stranger they

will not follow, but they will flee from

him, for they do not know the voice of

strangers.

This figure of speech Jesus used with

them, but they did not understand what

he was saying to them. So Jesus again

said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to

you, I am the door of the sheep. All who

came before me are thieves and robbers,

but the sheep did not listen to them." I

am the door. If anyone enters by me, he

will be saved and will go in and out and

find pasture. The thief comes only to

steal and kill and destroy. I came that

they may have life and have it

abundantly.

This is the word of the Lord.

And now it's not.

Thanks, Peter.

Good morning, everybody.

My name is Sean and I'm just delighted

to bring forth the uh the word today. Uh

just to introduce myself real quick, I

actually was uh my wife and I, we worked

here back when this church was known as

St. David's back about like 23 years

ago, quite a while ago. Um and uh we

just had a great time working back in

the day. And these days, my wife and I

were working on with a group of people

um planting a church here in Colona,

which has been quite the undertaking.

And it's uh it's just been a joy for us.

It's also been pretty tough. It's been a

mix.

It's been a mix,

but um that's uh what we've been up to.

A little bit about me. Um I I grew up in

Colona. My wife was born and raised

here. We got married 25 years ago.

And uh we have a 21-year-old daughter

and she is taking an early childhood

education class um sorry course at the

college. So she looks to go into that in

the in the near future. Um but anyways,

enough about me. I'm going to ask you

guys a question cuz I know there are two

types of people in the world. People who

don't make resolutions.

Who are you out there? Who's just like

nah that's not happening. Don't do it.

Who does are there any anybody left? The

non- cynics will put up their hand at

this point like you know I still make a

resolution. You know what? Wherever you

land on that um is fine actually. Like I

really don't care. You can make a

resolution. Don't make a resolution. I'm

not trying to tell you how to live your

life, says the preacher.

But hold on. I'm just pulling up my

notes here. There we go. There we go.

Wow. All right.

So, for those of you who don't make

resolutions anymore, which was the

majority, it seemed like that. Is that

because you've tried in the past and it

just hasn't worked out and now you're

like, "Ah, forget it." Maybe, right?

There's a bit of like, "Ah, it didn't

work out. Why bother?" Um, what are the

what are the things and and I actually

want some responses. What are some of

the things you've made a New Year's

resolution about? Those of you who have

taken the chance and done that risky

maneuver in the past, what kind of

things have you made a resolution about?

>> Great one.

>> Did you make it?

[Laughter]

>> Hey, no one's judging. It's okay. Okay.

Do you still make that resolution?

>> Yeah, you might. What other kind of

resolutions are out there that you guys

have tried?

>> Exercise.

Has that worked?

>> Yeah. Right. The gyms are so full.

January, bit of February, and then

Yeah. Exercise is a big one. I heard

someone else.

>> Lose weight.

>> Lose weight. Yeah, I hear that.

Actually, we hear that because we've

kind of made one this year

>> to do that. Um Oh, yeah. What's that?

>> Tennis.

>> Tennis. Like play more tennis. Yeah,

>> that's a great sport.

>> Oh, right on. Oh, tennis. I'm I'm a fan.

I'm a bit of a tennis player. Not so

much these days. I play more pickle ball

than tennis. It's what happens when you

get older.

The joints say no to tennis.

>> That's not true.

>> Okay.

>> Taken over pickle ball.

>> I like to think I'm one of the young

people that have taken over pickle ball.

So, we make resolutions, right? We we we

we set a goal in mind. And for those of

you who've done this, you know, like

that is hard to achieve because a goal

in and of itself doesn't do a darn

thing. Nothing. It's just an idea you

have. I want to achieve this.

What actually is the key to achieving a

goal?

>> A plan. A plan. Sticking to the plan.

It's not about dreaming about the goal.

It's about changing your lifestyle, your

habits, so that the goal can be

achieved. The goal in and of itself.

Maybe it's the inspiration to build a

plan, but if it does that, then it's

doing its job. Other than that, it's not

going to do a whole lot of good. You

need a plan. When it comes to something

like weight loss or exercise, something

me and my wife are are looking at this

year, you know, and you you can try a

bunch of different things. Some of the

plans to achieve that are different

diets. And I'm not going to slag you for

picking a kind of diet. Like maybe

you've done Atkins

or maybe you've done Paleo. Do you

remember that fad? The Paleo diet where

you tried to eat only what like early

humans would have eaten

and then you realize like, "Oh, where's

my cheeseburger?" But

or maybe you've tried keto, right, which

is switching your body's fuel source

from sugar to fat. And so you have to

eat a bunch of fat on the ketogenic

diet. You eat a bunch of avocado and

butter and highfat dairy and protein but

no carbs and so your body starts burning

the fat. It's feels really

counterintuitive. I've done it a few

times. It's like, "Oh, I'm I'm downing

all this fat and yet the scale is giving

me great results. That's awesome." Or

maybe you've done something more, if you

want to call it extreme, maybe you've

done carnivore. You guys heard of this

where people only eat meat.

If you guys have heard of this guy

Jordan Peterson, his diet is very

simple. It's beef, salt, water. It's all

he eats. No cheat days.

He looks like he's in good shape. I

don't know.

But all of those things are plans to get

you to your goal. Right now, in the in

the Christian life,

there's there's a goal. I don't know if

you guys know that there's a goal in the

Christian life. If you're familiar with

the Westminster Confession of Faith,

there's there's questions,

right? The question is what what is the

uh end goal of man? And and how is that

answered? Does anybody know?

>> Love God and enjoy him forever, right?

That's the goal.

Beautiful goal. John Piper puts a little

bit of a spin on it. If you guys are

familiar with the uh preacher, Pastor

John Piper, he says, "The chief goal of

man or the chief aim of man is to love

God by enjoying him forever." I think,

"Wow,

you and I were built to enjoy God." Do

you remember that? Does that resonate

with you? Sometimes though, what a plan

can do when we don't have the goal in

mind, it can feel like drudgery. It can

feel like a checklist. Like if I'm just

doing a diet and getting lost in the

diet and I forget my goal is to be in

better shape and live longer, to enjoy

my family longer, be healthy when my

kids and my grandkids come along.

If I'm just doing the checklist, it can

feel mundane because I've forgotten the

why. And I think the Christian life is

very much like that. We can go through a

mundane Christian checklist. Attend

church. Okay, I'm here. Read my Bible.

Checked it a chapter a day.

pray. Uh, three minutes of prayer, good,

five minutes, h I did it. Checklist,

right? And it can feel just like check,

check, check, check, check.

Like we've got to measure up to somehow

earn God's favor, which is not the point

at all. It's to actually enjoy God

himself.

So

remember the goal of the Christian life,

but try to keep away from checklist

faith of going to church just for

checking the box or even serving or

getting involved in music, checking a

box or greeting, check the box. Yeah,

let's remember that enjoying life in

Jesus, knowing God, that is the goal of

all of that. So,

we'll get to the back end of that in

just a second. Um, when I said that Lisa

and I were we're starting this church

with a group of people and it's very

much in its infancy phase. The the

church we started is called Vivid

Community Church and we can get the

graphic up there. That's great. That's

very nice. Um, the reason we've called

it Vivid, Vivid in Latin means

life.

Life.

And I take a bit of that. You might have

seen in John 10:10 today it said the

John 10:10

thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy.

But Jesus says, "I have come to give

life

and not just existence."

That's not the life he's talking about.

He even clarifies that. He says, "I come

to give life abundantly or in fullness

or in richness." This rich

living experience. That's what Jesus

came for. And one of the things I think

about when um when when we were giving

our our church this name was this um I

think of this arc of the of the

scripture. And you might be familiar

with this arc. Um uh if you're familiar

with the words of Tim Keller at all,

you'll see this arc tal talked about

quite a lot as he unpacks the gospel. He

talks about creation and then he talks

about the fall and then he talks about

redemption. And what that is in a

nutshell, creation is this. God created

everything. He creates people. He And

why does he create people? You can see

his goal in the very first few chapters

of Genesis. His goal is to live in

paradise perfectly with his people.

That's his goal.

That's what he wants. We even sang about

that this morning. I hope you guys were

paying attention to the lyrics as we

were singing the songs. It's like we

want to enjoy this life forever with

God. What gets in the way? What

happened? Humanity couldn't keep up

their under the bargain. They fell. God

said, "Hey, just live like this. I

designed life." He said, "I know how

it's best lived. Just do it like this."

Didn't do it. And if you think our first

parents, Adam and Eve, were like, "Oh

man, they're the schmucks of humanity. I

would never have done that."

Get a less foggy mirror. Yeah, you would

have. I would have. Okay. So, and then

the goal after the fall, God has this

amazing plan. Says before the creation

of time, he says, "I know this is going

to happen. No surprise to me. That's

what God being sovereign means. I know

what people are going to do. But I've

got a plan

to get back to my goal of enjoying life

with my creation." And the plan is

redemption.

The plan is redemption. And so even

in uh Jesus life you can see God comes

to earth in the person of Jesus and

lives his life and what he is doing when

he's doing stuff like healings and

preaching and teaching he's undoing

what the fall did. When he runs into

someone born blind what does he do? He

undoes the blindness because blindness

is part is not part of the plan.

That's a person that needs healing. And

so God brings it. He's redeeming. And

one day it will all be redeemed. It will

all be restored.

And can you imagine the rest of

eternity? Revelation says, "New heavens,

new earth, new city.

And God is going to live perfectly with

his people.

Perfectly.

No more tears, no more sadness, no more

death, no more sorrow,

no more like as we prayed with the

prayers of the people this morning,

people in different parts of the world,

no water.

God will give water all these things. He

will make it all restored. So that's

this beautiful thing when we think of

what God is up to because it's not our

efforts that are going to accomplish

that, is it? As much as we try, we're

not the redeemers of humanity. We're not

the restorers. God is our job is to say,

"God, what do you want me to do? How do

you want me to partner with you in this?

How can I enjoy this life with you now

to see redemptive purposes start to come

to life around me until you make

everything complete?"

Problem is,

stuff gets in the way. And it's not just

it's not just the stuff that we see

around that is like blatantly evil,

human trafficking and the like.

Believe it or not, stuff even happens

within the church

and even within Christian leaders

that gets things going sideways. That's

what Ezekiel talked about. God says a a

pretty harsh judgment. What he says, he

says, "You shepherds of Israel, you've

been feeding not the sheep." He says,

"You've been feeding yourselves.

You eat the fat. You clothe yourselves

with the wool. You slaughter the fat

ones. But you do not feed the sheep. You

have one job. You're not doing it.

The weak you have not strengthened. The

sick you have not healed. The injured

you have not bound up. The stray you

have not brought back. The lost you have

not sought." And so on and so on.

And then he does this amazing thing. He

goes instead of just talking about the

sheep

in verse 5, he says, "My sheep,"

in case you forgot who we were talking

about, "my sheep were scattered. They

wandered over the mountains and on high.

My sheep were scattered over all the

earth with no one to search or seek for

them."

He's talking to the spiritual leaders of

his of the day.

These shepherds who were supposed to

care for God's people have dropped the

ball. In fact, they're doing something

worse. They're abusing the sheep.

They're getting wealthy off the sheep.

And then you fast forward into the New

Testament and before we get to John

John 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10 because Jesus is talking

about something very important. You got

to rewind to what happens in John

John 9 · chapter mention

chapter 9. In John chapter 9, Jesus is

John 9 · chapter mention

walking along with his disciples. They

run into a a man born blind.

And his disciples ask him this question.

Hey, hey Rabbi, who who sinned that that

man is born blind? Was it him or was it

his parents?

And Jesus says, what? No, no, no. This

happens so the power of God can be on

display.

And then he does this weird kind of

gross thing, doesn't he? Like I

a little bit of context that this thing

doesn't make sense in our culture

because there's not a lot of touch

associated with like miraculous things

happening. But the people of the day

would have thought of a traveling

itinerant preacher. If he's going to do

something, there's going to be physical

um things that are going to need to

happen. Mark is full of examples like

this. But here in John chapter 9, what

John 9 · chapter mention

Jesus does, he goes and he he gets a bit

of dirt and he spits in it

and then he puts it on the guy's eyes.

Okay. Yeah. Our culture doesn't get it.

Theirs would have. Gets this stuff on

his eyes and then he says to the man

that's born blind, "Go and wash this

off." Guy does that. He can see. They

can see

and he's excited and people are blown

away. They know they've known this guy.

They've seen him begging by the road.

They're like, "Aren't you the guy that

was born blind? Like begging by the road

that we walk past all the time." The guy

goes, "Yeah, but now I can see." He

finally gets brought in front of the

religious leaders of the day, which are

Pharisees.

And they hear what's happened. And you

know their first response is,

"Well, it's the Sabbath today.

Whoever did this cannot be of God

because it's the Sabbath today.

What kind of response is that? That's

the response of an Ezekiel 34 leader.

Then they go get his parents.

Is this your son? Really?

This guy can't be from God who healed

him. This guy must be a sinner. And the

the blind man says like whether he's a

sinner or not, like I I can't tell you.

All I know is I was blind and now I see.

He restored something. He redeemed

something. Something was broken and now

it is fixed.

And then Jesus gets into the picture

and he wants to make something very

clear because what he sees in front of

him in these Pharisees are Ezekiel 34

church leaders, community leaders,

people that are enjoying all the

benefits

that they want and the sheep suffer.

This is a prime example in John chapter

nine. this man benefit from the the work

of Christ, brings it before his

religious leaders and they say, "No."

So Jesus is going to address it.

He says this,

we're just going to go through this

verse by verse. I'll unpack it a bit

because there's just like some

astounding things once you pay attention

to what Jesus is getting at here. He

says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he

who does not enter the sheepfold by the

door, but climbs in another way, that

man is a thief and a robber." He's not

starting off with something pleasant.

He's starting off saying, "You'll

recognize this reference about sheep

from Ezekiel 34."

And he's going to kind of veil it in

sheep sheeperd language, but it's it's

pretty pointed.

Sheepled by the door. So what you must

picture is

often communities would have multiple

shepherds with multiple flocks in uh in

and around their like hometown village.

What they would have is a big pen, one

door,

and all their flocks would go in this

one pen. That's going to be important in

just a second, too.

So

he who does not enter the sheepfold,

that's the pen, by the door, that's the

gate that needs to be like accessed so

that you can get your sheep out of it.

But if you climb in another way, that

man is a thief and a robber. Who's he

calling a thief and a robber?

The Pharisees.

He's saying, "You guys are doing this.

You're the ones damaging." Because

thieves and robbers go in to not help

the sheep. They don't want to give the

sheep a good life. They're there for

nefarious purposes.

But he continues, "But he who enters by

the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

To him, the gatekeeper opens." So the

gatekeeper would be like an undersheperd

hired by some of these other shepherds

to watch the gate. And because they

hired this gatekeeper, this gatekeeper

would know who the real shepherds are.

That's why the thieves had to not use

the door. They had to go somewhere else

to get into the pen.

To him, the gatekeeper opens. And what

happens then? The sheep hear his voice,

and he calls his own sheep by name and

leads them out. When he has brought out

all his own, he goes before them, and

the sheep follow him, for they know his

voice. People who run sheep these days,

or you might see in like the UK or

something like that, very different

methodology than what's being described

here. Normally, they'd have like a a

sheep hurting dog that would drive the

sheep to where they're supposed to go.

first century shephering very different

and I think it still happens in the

Middle East. What the the shepherds do

they they know their flock so well and

the flock is so familiar with them. So

the shepherd would go into the pen by

past the gatekeeper into the sheep pen

and actually call his sheep or he'd make

some noise. In this case Jesus is saying

the shepherd is so in tune he can call

them by name. He's even giving them

little pet names. It's cute. And the

sheep amongst all the other sheep that

are there, the ones that know that

shepherd, they come out and the shepherd

goes before them. And the sheep follow

him because they know his voice. He's

not using a sheep dog to drive them. The

sheep are so in tune with the shepherd,

they're just going.

Jesus continues, "A stranger they will

not follow, but they will flee from him,

for they do not know the voice."

Jesus is emphasizing something here that

he doesn't know the voice of the

strangers. This figure of speech Jesus

sees with them, but they didn't

understand what he was saying to them.

Much like when Jesus veils language in

parables, he does it for a couple

reasons. One, if the people are really

curious about what the parable means,

they'll ask.

If they're really drawn to what God is

doing amongst them, they'll explore it.

But the people who couldn't care less,

it's almost like an indicative piece of

judgment on them. It's saying like you

don't want to know anyways.

So he uses this and they don't

understand. And Jesus realizes that and

he's like okay. And he's going to mix up

the metaphor just a little bit. But very

importantly, check this out. So Jesus

again, he said to them, "Truly, truly I

say to you,

I am the door of the sheep."

See how that's different? Before the

gatekeeper was there letting the

shepherds in through the door. Now Jesus

says, "I'm actually the door.

Nobody's coming in to the sheepfold

unless they go through me." It's a very

exclusive claim.

I am the door. If anyone enters by me,

and this is the beautiful thing about

it. We get back to this creation mo

motif where Jesus says this is about

life. This is about enjoying life with

if anyone enters by me, he says he will

be saved and will go in and out and find

pasture, find beautiful land to graze

on, be looked after wonderfully.

And then he wraps it up. He says all

pointing to this, the thief comes only

to steal, kill, and destroy,

but I came that they may have life and

life abundantly.

And he goes on through the rest of John

10 and he talks about himself being he's

like, I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd. The one who cares for

the sheep. The one who wants to feed

them and clothe them when they're sick

to heal them. When they're broken, to

tend to their wounds. When someone is

wandering off, I will go seek out after

him. I'll leave the 99 for the sake of

the one. I will get that sheep. He says,

"The father gives me the sheep and I

don't lose one of them." That's security

for sheep.

If God has rescued you, if God, if the

good shepherd has called you and you

know his voice, you cannot be lost ever

again. God gets you. He's the one who

saves you. You can't lose that by effort

of your own. And the thing is a person

who is saved by the Holy Spirit

regenerating their heart, the change is

a new creation. The new creation wants

more of the shepherd.

And so God brings that to life.

And it's a beautiful picture. If if

you're wondering like, am I am I secure

in my faith? You know, I I'm trying to

follow God. I feel conviction about sin.

Yes.

Conviction of sin. Even though like you

may be sinning in your life, if you've

got conviction about it and think, you

know what, needs to stop, needs to

change, that's evidence of the Holy

Spirit working in your life, God is not

done with you.

Clement of Alexandria says this.

Says, "In our sickness,

we need a savior. In our wanderings,

like sheep are prone to do, we need a

guide. In our blindness, we need someone

to show us the light, just like that guy

did in John chapter nine, but in a

spiritual sense. In our thirst, the

fountain of living water that quenches

forever the thirst of those who drink

from it. We dead people need life.

We sheep need a shepherd. We children

need a teacher. The whole world needs

Jesus. Amen. Amen.

>> And that's just the picture of what God

says he'll do.

>> Right? If you look at like John 9 and

John 10 together and then go look at

Ezekiel 34, the parallels.

So this is what he says. Thus sayeth the

Lord, behold I, as was read to us, I

myself will search for my sheep and will

seek them out. That is encouragement to

me as a as a pastor, especially of a of

a of a new church that's starting up.

Do I have to go and change someone's

heart to come to know the Lord?

Fact is, I can't.

There's work that only God can do. What

he calls people in the church to do is

not to go and save people.

That's his job. Our job is to set the

table.

say, "Here, we're going to teach you the

word of God. We're going to do our best

to disciple you wherever you're at. If

you're young in faith or just new or

exploring, we want to have those

important conversations. If you're more

mature in faith, we want to teach you

just the depth of that faith and that uh

gospel that Jesus provides the good news

that he has for you.

All along the way, we need to be

discipled. But there's certain things

only God can do." And thank God for

that.

As a shepherd seeks out his flock when

he's among his sheep that have been

scattered. This is beautiful. This is

God saying this. I will seek out my

sheep. I will rescue them from all the

places they've been scattered

on days of clouds and thick darkness. I

will bring them out from the peoples and

gather them from the countries.

I will bring them into their own land. I

will feed them on the mountains of

Israel by the ravines and all the

inhabited places of the country.

Beautiful stuff. I will feed them with

good pasture. God wants to give good

things to his sheep. And on the mountain

heights of Israel, that shall be their

grazing land, the best places.

There they shall lie down in good

grazing land. On rich pasture, they

shall feed on the mountains of Israel.

You kind of get like hints of Psalm 23

as well, right? The shepherd taking his

sheep to the best spots, giving them the

best rest

so that the sheep have the the best life

with their good shepherd.

I will seek the lost.

I will bring back the stray. There's a

city out there, friends.

Our city of Colona, the the the growth

of Christianity is not what it used to

be

in our city. Our city's mostly wandering

far from God. But God says, "Hey, I do

that. I will seek them out." the job of

us. Let's set the table and make sure

we're welcoming so people can come on in

and find this God who is drawing them to

himself.

I will bring back the stray. I will bind

up the injured. I will strengthen the

weak. So many amazing things.

That's the goal. Going back to how we

started, the goal is

love God and enjoy him forever.

That's how God created things. Genesis

1. Perfect. He wanted to go in paradise

with his people in perfection.

Things are messed up for sure.

So then what do we do? What do we do to

enjoy

this life with God? I'm a I'm a

pragmatist at heart. You know, I I love

theology. I love exploring scriptures. I

love unpacking scripture. But I think,

okay, now that we know what we know,

what do we do?

What can we do? And what I think about

as I think about like the start of this

new year, 2026,

and I get it, most of you said, "Yeah,

not a resolution kind of person."

Well, fix that.

I'm hopefully going to inspire you to to

like jump into maybe a different rhythm

than you've had before or maybe to

continue the one that you've been on. Um

when we talk about new rhythms, often

what we're talking about in the

Christian life are what we call

spiritual disciplines. You might have

heard that term. Spiritual disciplines

are things like prayer, like Bible

reading, like worship, like fasting.

It's there's a lot of spiritual

disciplines. Um, but often what people

get caught up in, like we talked about

earlier, is that checklist mentality.

Oh, I'm doing my spiritual disciplines.

They're on this list in front of me.

Check without remembering the goal. Am I

enjoying God? Am I walking closer with

him? Am I knowing him more through this

plan?

Matt Smehurst, um, guy connected with

the Gospel Coalition, he says it like

this. He says, "Spiritual disciplines, I

love this, are not how you earn God's

love, they are how you enjoy it.

So friends, if you felt stale in your

spiritual disciplines, maybe you've

drifted from a a vibrant prayer life,

maybe you've drifted from a vibrant

Bible reading because it's just been

feeling like stale and ah, what is going

on? Next time you go to it, in the back

of your mind, I'm here to enjoy God. I'm

here to enjoy God. He invites me in. I

love how you said that this morning,

Ross. He invites us in. and we go there

and we just we be the sheep that we're

designed to be. Jim Ran said this

and as we get into spiritual

disciplines, I think this is a

interesting thing to to remember. He

said, "Everyone must choose one of two

pains.

The pain of discipline or the pain of

regret."

There's going to come a time in your

life if you drop your spiritual

disciplines because they've gotten

stagnant, maybe it'll be six months,

maybe it'll be a couple years. you'll

look back and you be like, "What did I

do with all that lost time?"

That's regret,

you know? And as a pastor, I don't want

people to live in regret. I want them to

live. And it might take a bit of like

hunkering down be like, "Right, I got to

get back to this." The person who wants

to lose a few pounds doesn't,

statistically speaking, doesn't go to

the treadmill with a ton of joy at 5 in

the morning.

But they go,

the goal is in mind. They go.

Craig Rochelle, uh, pastor, one of the

guys behind the, uh, the Bible app,

which is amazing on your phones if

you've have if you've got that app, he

says this. He says, "Discipline is the

bridge between who you are and who you

want to become."

So when Jesus talks a lot in John 10:10

John 10:10

about going into that sheep pen and

calling out his sheep by name,

he says, "They know my voice. They know

my voice. They won't listen to the voice

of a stranger. They don't know him.

They'll actually run from him. That

scares them. But they'll know mine

because they know it's safe. They know

I've called them by name. I've invited

them into vibrant life with me."

What does it mean then to hear God's

voice?

And this I understand could be a

controversial topic. And as a guest

speaker, I'm not going to stir it up.

Maybe a little bit.

What I see biblically speaking

a lot of the time is the exception

to what you might think. When you think

about people hearing God's voice, you

see this audible interaction face to

face with Moses, like different things

throughout the scripture, those are not

the normative. Scripture often shows the

exception to the norm. So when I talk

about like what what do you do to hear

the voice of Jesus,

I'm not going to suggest you go off into

the woods and somehow say, "God, speak

to me audibly." And if it doesn't

happen, you're going to be so

disappointed.

as a rule

and not the exception.

God's voice is most clearly laid out in

scripture. That's where you're going to

find it.

And if you want to hear his voice out

loud, read scripture out loud.

So, you get in to the Bible. And some of

you, I think what happens is you hear a

guy like me on a stage like this in a

church like this saying, "Get back in

your Bible." You're like, "Heard it,

sick of hearing it.

I feel guilty every time I hear it,

pastor. I get it."

Because often what doesn't follow after

a pastor says, "Hey, you should get in

your Bibles." And you're like, "Yeah, I

know. I get it. There's there's no

unpacking of what that could look like."

And like I said, as a pragmatist, I'm

going to give you a very pragmatic way

to do this. And it's not a you have to

do this to be a good Christian. This is

like if you want to get in God's word

and enjoy your time with him and be led

by the voice of the good shepherd, here

is a way to do that. First of all,

you're going to need to decide time,

place, and a plan. Your time is simply

when are you going to do that? When are

you going to spend that time sitting at

Jesus' feet? Is it going to be first

thing in the morning? Is it going to be

on your lunch break at work? Just pick a

time.

Next is going to be your place. I've got

a place right now. I've got this little

white chair in my living room by my

fireplace. That's kind of the winter

place. The summer places by the window

in a teal nesting chair.

I do do you ever wonder like, you know,

when I was a boy, I never thought later

me would think, oh, teal nesting chair.

So be it. Here we are. So that's place.

And next, you're going to need a plan.

What are you going to do when you

actually sit down and read? You're just

going to flap open the Bible and say

like, "All right, Lord, just use

whatever is there."

One of the things that Lisa and I like

to do when we walk with people is

provide them with a reading guide. And

there's plenty of reading guides out

there. Like I said just a little bit ago

when I talked about Craig Rochelle, he's

got this Bible app and you can get it on

your phone and it's got a bunch of

different reading plans, even

devotionals in there. You can also look

online. Um, I think Crossway has a bunch

of different options if you want to read

the Bible in a year. If you want to read

it in two years, what we do, we like to

provide people a three-year reading

plan. And it has a chapter of the Old

Testament a day, a chapter of the New

Testament a day, and a psalm a day.

And yeah, the New Testament and the

Psalms repeat over three years. You go

through the Old Testament once.

So, you'll need Yeah. time, place, and a

plan. Bible reading guide is a great

thing to have on you. And then what we

suggest is not just to not just to like

check the box and be like I did my

reading for today because we know how

that can become very much like routine

stagnant routine. And while reading is

like you won't be able to substitute

that with something else. Reading you

got you got to get in the word. But

secondly, what we suggest is a follow-up

piece to that which is grabbing a

journal.

And again, younger me would have thought

older me would not keep a diary. It's

not a diary. It's not a diary.

Kind of is.

>> It's a journal. It's a journal. And what

we what we suggest in your journal, what

you wonder like what do I write?

We suggest a method called SOAP. I've

been using it for years. And soap is

simply a methodology that will help you

not only keep scripture in context,

which you should fight for. If it helps

you to get a study Bible, I recommend

the ESV study Bible. It's phenomenal.

Grab that as a resource so that you can

understand. Like if you run into a verse

and you're like, I don't get what that's

about. You look in the study notes that

are right below. And the ESV does a

great job, like I said, of unpacking

that, and you can say, oh, that's what

would have meant to the people back

then. That's what the method of

shephering was back then because I

shouldn't be thinking of sheep dog. I

should be thinking of shepherd leading

in front calling his sheep. Soap,

what is that? Um, soap starts with an S

and yeah, it's an acronym. Acronyms help

me. Um, but this methodology, I believe

it's by a guy named Wayne Cordderero.

He's got a book called The Divine

Mentor. Um,

uh, it starts with this scripture.

Scripture. So, if you're in your chapter

of Old Testament, New Testament, your

chapter of Psalm,

what you're wondering is like, okay,

what what verses are grabbing my

attention? And what I'm highlighting

here is something called the doctrine of

illumination.

And the way that this the Christian goes

to the Bible and is able to have

something like jump off the page. You

ever had that happen? And even though

you might have read that passage a

hundred times, there's something new

that just goes boom.

That's the Holy Spirit. said, "Pay

attention. Pay attention." Because the

Holy Spirit wrote the book, he can shine

a flashlight on whatever he wants at

whatever time is needed in your life,

and he'll do it.

Scripture, what verse or verses are

grabbing your attention, and then write

them down. One of the reasons I think

pen to paper is so important and I would

suggest that people don't do this by

like using their thumbs on their phone

or on a digital blog or something like

that is because pen to paper does this

amazing thing especially for those of

you like me who might be a little um

distractable.

I think the moderns call it ADHD or

something whatever. Anyways, Emory

wouldn't know anything about that.

Okay, so one of the things that that

really helps with pen to paper, guess

what it does? focuses the mind because I

can't think a thousand different

thoughts while my pen is going. I need

to concentrate and so God helps me with

that. Focus on what is being written.

And scripture is such a beautiful

sometimes I'm just like so enamored by a

psalm I just write the whole thing out.

It might take a page or two but man it's

a beautiful thing to to practice. So

write the verse or verses that are

grabbing your attention. That's s

scripture. O is observation. This is how

you keep things in context. You ask the

question what is happening here?

What is happening here? So, it's not

just like you go to scripture, you open

up Philippians 2 and you think, "Oh, God

works all things together for those who

believe in him. That means my golf game

is going up."

No, that's not the context of that

passage. So, you ask, "What's going on

here?" And like I said, a good study

Bible can help you with that. What's

happening in this passage? That's

observation. And then application needs

to happen because if those two, if it's

just scripture and observation and it

stops there, It'll again just be a check

mark. Take it a step further.

Application is so important. Now that

you know what you know, what should you

do?

And I've had really interesting things

come to light through this one thing.

When my kid was younger, so I was doing

my my devotions and I was using digital

tools at the time

and I was convicted by something that I

read. And when it came to application,

it's like, you know, something better.

Cuz your daughter doesn't know when she

gets out of bed and she comes down the

stairs, she doesn't know that you're

reading your Bible on your phone. She

just sees you on your phone.

Use an actual Bible. Let her come down

the stairs and see dad with his Bible

every morning.

That's way better than dad on this every

morning.

So, that was an application point for me

years ago. Now that you know what, you

know, what will you do about it? and

trust God again. Like pray through that.

Say, "God, what what should I do? What

in me should change? What in me needs to

be more joyful about who you are? What

piece of my marriage needs to be

shifted? How do I need to parent

differently?" Go through it. Get this

life shaped by God. This is a vibrant

way to live was when the shepherd by his

voice is leading you through it. And

then last of all is prayer. Prayer.

Lift your heart to God in response to

your learning.

And the prayer can be simple. Often my

journal entries are a page long,

sometimes too.

And the prayer is related to what I've

read, the scripture, and the

application. I got I say like, "God, I

need your help. Thanks for bringing this

to light in my life today. Help me to

live it out.

God, in the application, you said I

needed to apologize to my wife for this

thing."

Give me the humility to do that today.

write the prayer.

I hope this has been helpful. One of the

things that um you know, as Lisa and I

continue to work with a group of people

to to bring a new church to life here,

um

churches have missions, right? We talked

about goals. Churches often have

missions that are tied to the great

commission that Jesus said. Go into the

world, make disciples, baptizing them in

the name of the father, the son, and the

holy spirit, teaching them to obey

everything I've commanded you.

Churches just encapsulate that

differently with slogans. Sometimes

there's churches in town that say, "We

do that by um leading people to become

passionately committed followers of

Jesus." That's just a different way of

saying the great commission. Another

church will say to know Jesus and make

him known. That's just a different way

of saying the great commission. Gather,

proclaim, gather, believe, proclaim.

It's the great commission. Make

disciples, share Jesus. At vivid, we

just say

our mission is helping people find life

in Jesus.

And as um as churches and as Christians,

I think we can help each other do that.

So that journaling method, what I would

suggest if you're going to take that on,

don't don't give up after a couple of

days. If you miss a day, just pick it

back up, go again. And remember, it's to

enjoy what God is doing in your life.

And sometimes

it's going to be convicting. Sometimes

it's going to be challenging,

but watch your life shift and change and

transform as God uses that to do his

good work in you. He is the good

shepherd, and he's come to give life and

life abundantly. Amen.

Let me pray.

Lord, we thank you for what you're up to

in your church

across the world. What you're up to in

our lives, God. What you're up to in the

local church here at Mountain View,

the way that you want people to come and

to know you. And God, you do the drawing

and you do the changing.

And so God, may we be obedient in

setting a beautiful table full of your

word

for people to feed on,

full of Christ's exalting songs for them

to sing, full of

God dependent prayers to be prayed,

full of a community that welcomes people

in, that loves them,

that shares hospitality.

and that is driven towards gospel change

in all areas of life.

God use us as your sheep

and may we continue to hear the voice of

the good shepherd in Jesus name. Amen.