The Cure for Loneliness | John 10:1-42

Go ahead and turn your Bibles to John chapter 10.

John 10 · chapter mention

And then I also have if you remind me, it's it's Chris here.

Lopes, is he? All right, all right, man,

you're getting a free book today.

Just so you know, just remind me, remind me about that.

OK, so all right, because last time I had these up here and

then I totally forgot. So.

All right, so hey, guys. All right, John chapter 10, the

John 10 · chapter mention

title of the message. I was it's kind of playing

around with this. I was like, man, Lord, there's

so many different directions you could go with this, but I just

felt like the Lord put on my heart this, this phrase, the

cure for loneliness, the cure for loneliness as Jesus gives us

the abundant life. OK, so this is a very familiar

passages of many passages in the Gospel of John.

But this week as I was studying it, I just really felt like the

Lord put on my heart the cure for loneliness.

So if anybody is dealing with loneliness or anything like

that, this hopefully will be a cure for it because the Lord is

a Good Shepherd and he gives us the abundant life, which we're

going to unpack what that means. And so why don't we go ahead and

turn to John Chapter 1 says this truly, truly or another

John 1 · chapter mention

translation says Amen, Amen. This is this is like a double

portion. This is everything that Jesus

said is true. Everything, all the red letters,

it's all true. Everything in the Bible, your

black letters is true. But he wants us to pay attention

to this even more. And then so he's saying this,

he's like, truly, truly I say to you, he who does not enter by

the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs in up some

other way, he is a thief and a robber.

But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep.

To him the door keeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice,

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

When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them and the

sheep follow him because they know His voice.

A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him

because they do not know the voice of strangers.

This is a figure of speech. Jesus spoke to them, but they

did not understand what those things were which he was been

saying to them. So he would speak to them in

parables. And I'll explain a little bit

why that is in a, in a little bit here.

But so Jesus said to them again, 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 hear them.

I am the door. If anyone enters through me, he

will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

The thief comes only to kill, steal and destroy, and that they

may have life and had it abundantly.

I'm the Good Shepherd, the good the the Good Shepherd lays down

his life for the sheep. And he who is a hired hand and

not a shepherd who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the

wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees.

And the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about

the sheep. And I am the Good Shepherd, and

I know my own, and my own know me, even as the Father knows me.

I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.

I have other sheep which are not of this fold, and I must bring

them also, and they will hear my voice, and they will become one

flock with one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves

me, because I lay down my life so that I might take it up

again. No one has ever, no one has

taken it away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative,

and I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to

take it up again. This is my commandment.

I I received from my father. And then a division occurred

again among the Jews because of these words.

Many of them were saying he has a demon and is insane.

Why do you listen to him? Others are saying these are not

the sayings of demon possessed. The demon cannot open the eyes

of the blind, can he? And at this time of the Feast of

Dedication took place at Jerusalem, It was winter, and

Jesus was walking in the temple in the Portugal of Solomon.

The Jews then gathered around him.

And we're saying to him, How long will you keep us in

suspense? If you are the Christ, just tell

us plainly. Jesus answered them.

I told you. And you do not believe the works

that I do in my Father's name. These testify of of me, but you

do not believe because you are not of my sheep.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me,

and I give them eternal life, and will never, and they will

never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no

one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

And and I and the Father are one.

So then the Jews picked up stones again to stone him, and

Jesus answered them. I showed you many works from the

Father. For which of these are you

stoning me? And the Jews answered him for a

good work. We do not stone you, but for

blasphemy, and because you are being, you being a man, make

yourself out to be God. And then Jesus answered them,

Has it not written in your law? I said, You are gods if you call

them gods. To who?

To whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be

broken. And you say of him whom the

Father sanctified and sent into the world, You are blasphemy,

because I said I am the Son of God.

If I do not do the works of my Father and do not believe me,

but if I do them, though you do not believe me, believe the

works. So that you may know and

understand that the Father is in me and I and the Father,

therefore, they were seeking to seize Him and they alluded the

grasp. We'll just stop there, all

right? Hey, so I got 3 simple points

this morning. I know that's a lot of passage

there. But He leads us, He speaks to

us, and He protects us. This is so when Jesus is giving

us the abundant life. The abundant life can be

unpacked in these ways. The reason why we find ourselves

very lonely is because we don't know the Savior, we don't know

God. This has nothing to do with like

interpersonal relationships has to do with the fact that if we

are known by God and we know God that we won't be lonely.

We we have someone, we have someone who leads us, we have

someone who speaks to us often, and we have someone who protects

us. If we have those three things,

we'll never be lonely. Amen.

We'll never be lonely even though other people may mistreat

us and all these other things, but we'll never be lonely

because we have a shepherd who cares for the sheep in these

three ways that we all long for. Like every human being on the

planet has a desire to be LED. Amen, We have a desire to be

LED. We have a desire for someone to

speak to us, right? There's a desire for

relationship and then there's also a desire for protection.

And so as we break down, he leads us.

Just notice that when Jesus is, is speaking here, he's not

pushing anybody. He's not beating the sheep.

He's not pushing them or driving them.

He goes before them like that Antioch song that we sing often.

He goes before us. That's who he is.

That's who Jesus is. He can't be anything else.

He leads us. It's it's very much goes back to

if you know, the Psalm 23, right?

Everyone, maybe some of you have memorized that the Lord is my

shepherd. I shall not want, right?

If he is my shepherd, I don't want anything else because he

leads me. He leads me aware to to open

pastures. What does that mean?

He feeds us, right? All right, It's, it's not that,

hey, as believers, we're eating grass that doesn't satisfy,

right? We're talking about when you

come to the House of God, when you come in and out of the fold.

He feeds us. He feeds us what?

The word of God, he feeds us, He gives us truth, He speaks life

over us, all those things. So, and then not only that, but

he protects us, right? Even though I walk through the

valley of shadow death, how many know?

It's a good thing when you're going through a trial to know

that Jesus, it goes before you in the trial, but then he also

brings you in, right? We don't like going in, but we

do like to know and that he goes before us.

He actually sees the trial before we actually enter into

it. It's good.

Maybe just pause for a second and think about that.

All right, so hey, there's three things under the heading of He

leads us. He leads us to himself, He leads

us to be a part of his family, and he leads us to our purpose

and missions. That's the way God leads us.

It's very important when you think about it, he gives us, he

leads us to himself first. He shows us how to enter the

abundant life. He is actually the door.

So in the, in the 1st century, if you go there, there, like

whether it's a stone fold or a, a, a, a, a brush fold, right?

I mean, up in the high country. So whether it, whatever it is,

there's no door. There's, it's not like you open

up a door to a house. That's not what Jesus is talking

about. There is actually no door there.

So it would just be like stone and stone and in the middle of

being an opening in and what Jesus is saying twice he's

saying that I'm the door. I literally am the door.

I like I as a shepherd. He would he would lay down at

the doorway and making sure no bad guys come in, right?

No, which would be wolves or or maybe a, you know, somebody else

that was just a thief that would jump over.

He'd have to jump over the fence because if he went through the

door, Jesus would snatch him, right?

Or the the shepherd would snatch him with his staff, right?

And So what Jesus is saying is if you want the abundant life,

you have to go through me. There's no other way.

You can't you can't work your way up, you know, over the over

the Stonewall, right? Jesus didn't say he's a wall

that we have to work to over to overcome like to he lets us

through the door by going through him.

So let me let me help you out with what this means.

John 14-6 says he's the way, the truth and the life.

Do you want the abundant life? Everybody in this world wants

the abundant life. It's just the, the everybody,

I'm talking every soul on the planet wants the abundant life.

Americans, do they just call it the American dream?

People in the Middle East, do they call that what Islam?

People in the Buddhist world want that.

They call it Buddhism, right? People all over the world,

people in, in, in India and South Asia, they call it

Hinduism. That to them is the abundant

life. Or maybe just let's go around

the world, Let's go look at South America, right?

South America, what do they want?

They want the abundant life. But to them it is a wall.

Why? Because it's works righteousness

to get over the wall and into the fold.

And so Mother Teresa says this Mother Teresa did great things.

I'm not, I'm not trying to pick up Mother Teresa here, but I

just want you to know what she said.

I'm not here to change anyone to Christianity.

My goal is that a Buddhist becomes a better Buddhist, that

a Muslim becomes a better Muslim, and all paths lead to

their own way. There's not 14 or 15 doors right

to the abundant life. There's only one and the Jesus

in his love and his mercy says I'm the door, come through me.

If you want to get into this fold and experience the

pastures, the green pastures and experience the word of God,

truth and it experience the love of God, then you've got to go

through me and so Jesus is not a way.

Do you know what, like I remember when I was in Philippi

and I was kind of picture what it was like to be there in

Greece and in in Philippi. And so you know that Paul wrote

to the Philippians while he's under house arrest, but he had

been there in Acts 16. He actually planted that church,

right? And we saw the jail and we saw

some other things and there was a point where we went to the

agora, which was like the marketplace.

And so we're kind of like just pretending like to reenact that

thing just to see like what it was like.

And I remember when when Paul told the, you know, the slave

girl just shut up, you know, like, like, stop it in Jesus

name, get up. And I always thought, man, it's

because she's annoying and Paul's annoyed.

And that could have been. But what what was really going

on there has to do with this passage she was proclaiming in

your Bibles, in your English translation, it says that most

high God you're the way like he's saying you're the way.

But actually in, in your, in your Bible, in the, in, in the

original translation, it's a way that the most high God, like

Jesus is a way to God. He's just a way and a way.

Like I remember when I was at Moody and I was like, it was in

little India and, and off of I forgot what street that was

Devon Street, I think. But I remember being, being

there with Nicole and we're, you know, sharing the gospel with so

many different Indians, you know, and Hindus and and they

would agree with me. Jesus is a way, yes, I mean, and

most of us are like, Oh, that, that's a very pleasant

conversation. It's not because they're like,

well, also 360 million gods also, no, no, no, no, not 365

million ways into the fold. One way, one way.

And notice it's not a door. Jesus is not a door look to be

exclusive like this. This is not popular.

Try going into your workplace tomorrow.

Just experiment. Go into your workplace tomorrow.

Go to your family member that is, you know, very pluralistic

and like everybody is happy and everybody goes their own way and

everybody's going to go to heaven.

OK, Go to them tomorrow and tell them that there's only one way

to heaven and every other religion is bogus.

See how that goes. Let me know if you don't have a

job. We'll pray for you because you

might lose it. You might lose a friend, family

might cut you off. I don't know.

It's what the Bible says. Every now and then we we

probably need to read the Bible and find out that Jesus is the

only way. It's probably good for our soul

because this is actually what we believe.

If you're hearing new this morning, all the excitement and

the fun and the life comes because Jesus gave that to us,

because we acknowledge that he's the only way.

He's the only way into that fold.

Do you understand that? It didn't come any other way.

If you got it some other way, it won't last.

It will not last because excitement can come and go, but

true abundant life, which is by the way, above and beyond, and

the abundant life is not eternity, although I mean that

of course, that's the abundant life.

I mean, like, but Jesus is talking about the abundant life

here and now. That's what he's talking about.

We'll get to a little bit more of that in a little bit.

OK #2. He leads us to be a part of his

family. That's amazing.

I mean, he leads us not only to salvation.

He's the door. He literally is salvation, but

he leads us into a family. And I, I love this.

There is a in, in not New Orleans, I keep saying New

Orleans, but Baton Rouge. But OK, so in Louisiana, but

there was a, there was a guy, there's an Army chaplain.

He was a chaplain for 25 years. He's right.

If you guys remember, he was, he was wearing the, the pink shirt.

He was jacked up. He looked like a Sergeant, like,

you know, like, I mean, the dude gave me a word and grabbed me on

my arm and I was like, that hurt afterwards.

And he's like, I just want to let you know, son, you know that

everybody in your church brings a Bible.

That's amazing. Like how in the world does that

happen, especially in our day, the technology and everything

else. But like, I've watched your

people, like everyone's bringing a Bible to church.

That's amazing. That's incredible.

I'm like, yes, it is. He's like, don't ever let that

go. Like just, I'm going to check

out next year. Like he's probably like a spy.

He's probably in here right now. Actually, he's probably making

sure, like everybody has their Bible.

No, but it's just it's it, it it was a by way of encouragement.

He's like, man, your people have found Jesus to be the shepherd.

And when, when you when you gather together, right, one of

the benefits of being belonging to right the family of God, one

of the benefits is that we get the goods.

And like, when you want to grow, you actually have a desire to

grow and open up your Bible and read it and learn.

And so when you're bringing your Bible, it's not just some

religious thing, but you're like, Hey, I, you know, I, I, I,

I want to, I want to know what you're saying.

I, I want to follow along. I want to make sure like you're

good Bereans, you know, like Acts, what is it 17?

You know, the, you know, there's, you're good Bereans,

meaning that like you actually want to make sure I'm saying the

right stuff. Like we all have the same Bible,

right? Might be a little bit different,

like translation or something, but I want you to be able to

follow along and say, OK, that's where he got that from.

Because look, if you're not going to be a good student of

the word, then something else is going to pull your attention.

You have to know the word. I, I've told you this over and

over and over again. I share the same stories all the

time. I but I love, I love when Jesus

said he says that like he just told them, I'm the door, I'm the

door, I'm the door, I'm the shepherd.

And then in verse 7, he says, so Jesus said to them again, if

you, if you're a good student of the word, he's he's saying this

again. How many guys need to hear it

again? Only like 2 people need to hear

it again. Amen.

Yeah, there you go. Honest man, right?

Massa Miliano, very nice. He's honest.

Otherwise you get Rossello won't let you.

We'll let that go at lunchtime. Alright?

OK, so here's the deal guys. You need to hear it again and

again and again. When I was a freshman in

college, I first got saved like 2 months into college.

I read my Bible, no joke, over and over and over again.

Like three times. The New Testament probably in

about 3-4 months, man. Why?

Because I wished that someone had told me this back when I was

16, back when I was lost. I was reading this stuff and I'm

like, you've got to be kidding me.

This is gold. Like, I actually experienced

what the psalmist said. I'm like, it's one thing to be

like, your word is sweeter than honey, blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah. But you actually really taste

something sweeter in the world. What does it say?

It tastes sweet, goes in, it's bitter.

Do you love the word? Because loving the word shows,

proves, validates whatever else you that you are actually his

like. If you don't love the word, then

I would be very concerned. If you're just kind of like

flipping through pages and the more, hey, someone's going to

ask me a discipleship, you're a college student, you know,

someone's going to ask me. No one needed to ask me if I'm

reading the word. It was so natural.

It was so it was so like, OK, like this is innate.

Like I wake up, I spend time with God because it is natural.

Is it hard at times? You sleep, you snooze, whatever.

Yes, of course. You're you're you're tired.

I get it. You stayed up late.

I mean, that's a natural. But do you love the word when

you're reading it to you? You're like, man, this is so

good. This is so good.

Like that is a benefit of being inside the fold.

And then there's no way, no way you can get in.

There's no way you can get in without going through Jesus.

Amen. OK, so I, I want to, I want to

just share a few stories of what it means to be a part of the

family. OK, This is, you know, there's

so many benefits. And what he's saying is like

once you go in, like through the door, there's a sense of

freedom. And I want to, I, I want to

share this with somebody that, you know, like the only you find

life by going through the narrow door.

That's the narrow Rd. leads to life.

The wide Rd. leads to death, right?

It's so opposite. Everybody's going, right?

Everybody's like, everybody's going like the majority of the

people around you are going the wide path.

But here's here, here's what the Lord gave me one time

revelation. If you go in narrow, you come

out free. The idea is this like you, you

got to go in like there's a narrow way, meaning he's the

only way. It cuts out all other religions

and it seems so exclusive, so narrow.

It's like, oh, it's like almost frustrating because you grew up

in a pluralistic society. So like you're going through

that door, right? And but you come out and it's

free. It's like it's, it's, it's, it's

amazing. There's just so much room to

grow and, and roam and, and create and create businesses and

create, write songs and all this other stuff.

It's amazing. Like have you found that to be

true? Have you found the life in God

to be so incredible? Once you're like, it's hard,

it's like, OK, I have to repent of my sins and I have to say no

to the world. But once I'm in Whoo, it's

amazing. There's so much, so much

excitement, right? But then the other way, right?

It's like, man, dude, you look like that.

You're a loser. You're going into the narrow

door. What?

I mean, that's so ridiculous. It's so archaic.

I'm going this way and you, you're, you're going in with a

wide, the wide path. It looks so free and so awesome,

but you come out narrow. You come out and it's

restricting because sin leads to bondage all the time.

You understand, opposite. It's so good, man.

He's like, oh, this little narrow door.

That's how I have to come in. Yes, because you have no idea

what's on the other side. Amazing, amazing.

OK, so 2 girls came a couple weeks ago from Seattle and they

were sitting over there and I and, and they were, they were

just like, man, you know, this, they, they, they, they wanted to

meet me afterwards. They came in from a like a

women's conference and they were just like, this is so awesome.

Like what's so awesome, the amount of people that pray for

one another, you'd think we're at an encounter night.

Well, pretty much that's what Sunday mornings are like.

You encounter God and you you encounter God in different ways.

And, and whether it's through worship or people praying for

you or you praying for other people, it's amazing.

She's like, man, we lost all of that during COVID.

How in the world you guys keep that culture?

I was like, I don't know, it's just the Lord.

It's amazing. He leads us.

Well, pretty awesome, isn't it? Yeah.

He leads us into green pastures. Does that mean your life's going

to go amazing, Like, all the time?

Ask them for bones. Yeah, it doesn't.

It's very costly. It's costly to live this life

behind the scenes is very costly.

It's hard. But if you ask them, I think

they would probably say I have the abundant life.

Why? Because it's nothing to do with

circumstances. It's everything to do with what

God gave you, which is salvation and a family that is never going

to be taken away from you. Amen.

All right, so I, I want to also share there's, I don't know if

Michaela's here or not, but there is her husband's here.

Where's Michaela at? I don't know somewhere.

OK, so she, she texted me on the way home.

I got this text on the way home from Baton Rouge.

She just say, hey, I want to send you this.

There's a girl named Holly. She was, she worked with the

kids ministry. If you remember her, she has a

17 year old son. This is what she wrote.

She wrote to Michaela. She said this, my 17 year old

son last night was the best church experience he's ever had.

Thank you all for being obedient to the call that the Lord gave

you to come here. Isn't that worth it?

It's probably worth it just for that 117 year old.

I mean, we did a lot of stuff. It's amazing.

But for that dude, I don't even know him.

I never met him, but I'm thankful.

I'm thankful, yes, for the call to go to Baton Rouge.

That's amazing. I mean, he he calls us to go to

Baton Rouge. That's he calls us to go

everywhere he calls. I mean, just think of the

stories are going to come out of this summer, but going to seven

locations, it's amazing. And then just all the, all the

evangelism that we do throughout the week and on campus, we just,

that we just, he gives us this abundant life, which is himself

and his family. And I know that it's not just

because of teachings and this and that, although, yes, but it

was just the people just just being family.

I mean, I could, Ella was saying that, that, that, that people

were coming up there and saying, man, what a prayer culture, like

y'all carry this prayer culture. I we, we don't do any of that.

I mean, we do a little bit of that, but it's just amazing the

prayer culture, the family, the, the, the excitement.

I mean, people were coming. I mean, there, our nights were

ending super late. Wednesday night was this

encounter night where we were brought all the the people from

from evangelism and Antioch, Baton Rouge and Antioch Orlando

all come together. It was just this powerful,

amazing time together that just seeing the the the family

interact and love one another is amazing.

And then I have I have well, I'll say that till till later,

but OK, so then he leads us to our purpose.

He leads us to our mission. And so Jesus is saying here,

like if you, as you go through this again, the abundant life,

he's talking about obeying the Father.

He's talking about like that having this relationship with

God. That's his purpose.

Like every remember John five, he says everything that the

father does, I do. There's this a dynamic

relationship. So here's the deal.

If you have a relationship with God, you'll do what he says.

That's it. I mean, clearly, right.

You did an interesting, I'll show you something in

Revelation, Revelation 2 and three.

I really, really, really, really want to go to Turkey one day and

see all the, all the churches, the Revelation churches.

But here's here's the deal. Do you know what each one has in

common? Do you know?

Some of you do, some of you don't.

He says this in all 7 churches. I know your works.

I know your works. I know your works.

I know your works. I know your works.

I know your works. I know your works.

Did I get 7? It doesn't say.

I know your faith. I know your heart.

I know your heart. I know your heart.

What does it say? I know your works.

Huh. Sounds like works.

Righteousness. No.

These people are already saved and Jesus is saying, look, I

know your works good and bad, but out of the overflow of

relationship with God equals living out the purposes and the

plans that he has for you. It means actually sharing the

gospel, making disciples, being obedient to everything God's

called us to do. We do it perfectly.

No, no, that's not what this is about.

It's just proving and showing you.

He doesn't say, oh, I know your heart is fine.

You don't have to do it. You're like, at least you wanted

to. You wanted to like he's not

going to say like, OK, guys, I know like you.

I've called you to make disciples of all nations.

Hey, hey, buddy. I know you wanted to, so it's

cool. It's fine.

No problem. Now, did you do it or not?

Did you do it or not do it? Big difference.

What's the difference? Something that you just feel,

something you actually do, it's a big deal.

OK, So I know it's not a lot, but we were only there for three

or four days at least the actual part of outreach.

But 271 gospel seats now they might not see them like a lot.

And I don't even know if that's a final count.

That is just what you guys put on the the drive.

But 25 nations reached and six people baptized.

That's amazing. Like that's, that's, I mean,

that's, that is a result of 150 people stepping out and saying,

hey, I'm going on mission with, with God.

I'm, I'm want to do the things of God.

I want to live those things out. Eli and Ronnie met a girl who is

going to UCF. Isn't that crazy?

She's just visiting friends and this girl's like, I'm a freshman

at UCF. This is kind of weird.

I'm here in at LSU. I'm a freshman at UCF, but I

meet UCF people. She's like how I want to check

you guys out at some point. That's amazing.

Nathan for the Met met a guy, but he was really sweet about

this is this person wanted to know if God was real and as I

read this testimony and heard it.

It was cool to just hear that it was the first time he was saying

this kid was saying it's the first time that any evangelist

who was sharing the gospel with him had listened to him because

the rest of them would just talk at him the whole time.

Do you think that person knew got to experience that God's

real of course, because Jesus not only speaks to me.

He listens. He listens and then Mr. Kim let

someone at Jesus and I guess the kid, they found out as they were

talking and getting to know one another, which is a really

important thing in evangelism to get to know the people because

you could use a lot of that material to segues to the

gospel. Don't be so quick to get into

the cross. Get there quickly after you find

out who they are and what their needs are.

But as you're as you're talking, as they were talking to each

other, they found out they were from the same hometown again.

What are the chances of that? It's just God putting these

pieces providentially together to open up people's hearts to

hear the gospel. And then Natalia and Andrew, two

guys, came to our encounter night.

Then they brought a friend. And then it was funny because

afterwards, as usually it gets a little wild in a good way, but

they're, they started doing the Congo line.

And then, yeah, I just start, it just happens.

It's like, how does this happen? We're all worshipping the Lord.

And then some goofball hears let's do the Congo line.

And then they just, you know, like, and then it's usually like

I'm always stuck like somewhere in the, in the, in the beginning

of it. And then Jonathan, like Jabo, he

just like puts me in the baby and I'm like awkwardly going

like this, you know, but but it was just it was just so much

that dude, the new guy like got in the line.

He's probably like, this is church.

Yes, this is church. This is how we do it around

here. But yeah, OK.

And then he also got like, there's if you saw at the end of

the video, there's this big picture of like Baton Rouge and

Orlando and everybody and then new people.

And then he just got in the line.

And then later on, he texted Andrew and just said, hey, man,

I'm just so thankful for that nightmare.

I want to get connected to ENIAC Baton Rouge, Amen.

So we just pray that in. Let's just pray that the Lord

would use that. All right, So the first one is

he leads us. Second one, he speaks to us.

So it says here that the sheep know his voice and not only know

his voice, but he calls them out by name.

Have you ever heard like the Lord just call you by name?

You're about to say something, do something dumb maybe.

And it's just like real simple. It's like Jessica, right?

Maybe not right? You hear his do you hear his

voice? Can you tell the the sheep are

even able to, to, to tell like if the sheep are all together

and they mix with other with another fold.

And then the shepherd stands up and says, Hey, it's time to go.

And he calls each one by name because each, each, each one

would have like a nickname and he they would know that like a

dog, like you know, you, you, you, you know, a Buster or

whatever. I can't think of any other ones

for some reason. Bella.

I grew up with like 18 Bellas. It's because my family were, you

know, they're Italian. Bella 1, Bella 2 Bella 3 Bella 4

So weird. But but anyways, Chihuahuas and

good, good shepherds. Yeah, good shepherds golden, but

German shepherds, not good shepherds.

Golden shepherds. No.

What am I saying? I'm like a dog lover.

But but anyways, so but each one would have a name and not only

that, but they would be, it would be they have, they would

have an accent like the, the the shepherd would even have a

certain accent and would be able to call them, you know, do you,

you have to discern there's a lot of voices in your head from

the world. Ton of voices.

I mean a lot of voices that you get.

I mean, you're hearing your mom talk, you're hearing your wife.

You're hearing that's usually the loudest.

No, I'm just kidding. But then you hear, you hear a

lot of different voices, right? Someone told me that the the

closest voice to the Holy Spirit is your wife.

And then it goes on from there, right.

It's true. Your mom might be up there, you

know, towards the top, right. Right.

Or so. Yeah.

So just curious, where's Alessandro?

Do you hear your mom's voice in your head ever.

All the time? Yeah.

Well, I want for homework, I want you to discern the Lord's

voice. Yeah.

OK. So but that it, it he even an

accent, they would understand and the the sheep would, even

though they'd be all mixed, right?

And they're, these are sheep, they're not human beings.

They would follow their shepherd.

Every single one of them would follow them back to the fold, to

the pasture. Amen.

And so it's so important that you know, and what this is

pointing to is that he knows us and we should know him.

What it points to is that the most important thing on the

planet is making sure that you have a tight relationship with

God. Everything else secondary,

right? So just I'll share this.

I thought this was good that I love these.

I love the what happens on these trips because I know people are

praying at home. I know people are praying there

in Baton Rouge. And so when we several months

ago, Renato, he he he's from, where are you from?

Honduras, Honduras, All right, Amen.

But he, he asked, he asked me to pray for him.

And I said, sure, I'll pray for you.

He's like, hey, I, I came to UCF to play soccer and, and I, I

have really bad shin splints. And so I, he's like, I can't

play. And so I, I, I start praying for

him. I, I, we came up empty.

We just said, OK, well, we're just going to keep praying.

We're going to trust that the Lord is, is going to kill you.

And so a couple months later, we're in Baton Rouge and Mrs.

Kim got to pray for him And and then they play this game

afterwards and he's like, it's kind of have to like hop around

or whatever, you know, just a college game and to start off

our morning times and he's like, wow, I just, I don't feel any

pain. That's crazy.

But he's like, you know, I'm just going to test it.

And that's a good thing too. You know, as we, as we pray for

one another, we know that God heals.

We're going to pray for one another and we just know that we

need to test those things. We need to verify.

We're not just going to be like, because it's so, so easy to be

like, all right, easy. You know, then the next day he's

like, actually, they still hurt. So we don't want that.

So we just said, OK, well, what do you need to do to verify

that? And so he said, hey, I would,

I'd love to go outside. And so I, I went out and I took

one other guy with me and I just watched him run back and forth.

He's like, what do you want me to run?

I don't know, I, I don't know. You're a soccer player.

You run faster than it was just just run back and forth.

So, so he did, he's like he and he and he, he, he's like, it's

amazing that he broke down. He just, he got down on the

grass and I took a picture of it just so you know, but he's

weeping. He's like, this is crazy, you

know, like I love his art, you know?

And then he's like, but we have to do one more test because

tomorrow I it's it's, it was night time.

We're just about to have team time.

We're like, oh, it'd be cool. Just like share, you know.

And then it's like, OK, well, let's just go one more test.

I'm like, yes, all right, let's do one more test because I could

wake up tomorrow with a lot of pain just because I just ran.

And so all right, so let's just do that.

So I, I went and found him in the morning and I was like, OK,

what's the deal? Like are you healed or not?

He's like, and he just starts breaking down crying and he's

worshipping the Lord. He's like, you're not going to

believe this. I am totally healed, totally

healed. But cool thing, but the whole

point of this is that just how God leads us and how he speaks

to us at the same time. I got a text message from Robin

and Robin was saying, hey, I really feel strongly about this.

I just want to submit it, but I feel strongly that God wants to

release healing in Baton Rouge, and it's just cool to see how

God sets that up. It doesn't always work that way,

right? And we want to be humble.

We want to verify miracles and all those things.

I mean, it's great. And that's not what we live for.

We don't want to be one of those churches that gets kind of kooky

about that. And it all becomes about the

miracle and all this stuff. That's awesome.

I mean, praise God. Like we're just actually

believing that he will play for the first team, right?

The team A at UCF and be able to give God glory, That'd be

amazing. That'd be awesome.

If it doesn't happen, that's OK. He you just got to experience

God and we all did as well. We all did.

And his voice is so the the sub point of this is his voice is

heard by his sheep. Second is his.

His voice points to a better way.

It points to a better way. He's always pointing us to a

better way, isn't he? And what I mean by that is that

believers have to recognize that his ways are better.

Do you remember? So what I taught Ed in, in Baton

Rouge, I taught him. So there was 4 points.

I was just about walking with God.

I just felt like this theme on my heart is like, hey, we need

to learn how to walk with God. That is the most important thing

that we can do. And I went through the

scriptures and showed how many people walk with God, Enoch walk

with God, Noah walk without Abraham, walk with God.

And, and then we went, there's four, there's 4 main points or 4

main sessions. The first one is that we we are

meant to walk with God in humility.

That was from Luke 5, right? That Peter experienced this

miraculous provision of fish, but then he got down.

He says that the kindness of God led him to repentance and we're

going to walk with God. He really said, look, because

you, you obeyed because you obeyed simply because you're a

man of humility. I'm going to use you now

powerfully says that was the first one.

Second one was that we're going to walk with God by faith.

And that's what we're talking about here that that in Hebrews

11, you know, the hall of faith Moses was was a man that was a

broken man, right? He he talked to God face to

face. He got to experience the

miracles of God and all these things.

But it's said that the reason why God could use him is because

he rejected the world and the passing pleasures of sin.

And so God always leads us away from sin.

And so his voice always leads us away from pride, away from sin,

Amen. That's what he does in our life.

And the third one is, and we'll get to here in a second, but the

we're we're called to walk with God in in integrity, walking

with God in integrity. So we did a guy's night.

We just kind of and that was one of the more powerful nights.

And and then fourthly, that God's called us to walk with him

in love. But John 1010 the enemy wants.

To RIP us off with the lie that sin satisfies even more than

God. He rips us off.

He's a thief. He comes and steals his abundant

life. He's trying to steal this

abundant life, which he can't take.

But we can give it to him temporarily, right?

How many know that sin it? It wouldn't be temptation if

there was no temporary pleasure in it, right?

It wouldn't be. How many of you guys are

attempted to just eat poison Anybody.

No, like on your breakfast, on your eggs.

I just people are like, what did you just put on my eggs?

Well, I put poison on it. What?

And and I eat my eggs that doesn't have poison on it.

And then I'm like, we eat. I made them for you, you crazy.

Nobody's tempted to eat that. It's silly, but no one's tempted

to do that. It's only temptation.

God, that the say this, the enemy knows exactly your weak

points. And he he says, hey, look, just

take it, it just just take it just just a little bit, just a

little bit. Not, not a lot.

Don't, don't do a lot, just a little bit because he knows if

you do a little bit, you'll take a lot later.

You want to end up destroying your life and his voice says his

ways are better. His ways are better.

First Chronicles 410 says this Jabez prayed God bless me indeed

and enlarge my border that you your hand might be with me and

listen to this that you would keep me from harm that it may

not pain me. I don't think I ever saw that

because we just did the prayer Jabez that that long ago right.

We just, if you remember that we just, we, we talked about that,

we prayed through it. But that last part is so good,

isn't it? Look at, listen, look at look, I

like you would keep me, just Lord, just keep me from what?

From harm that it may not pain me.

How many know that sin actually pains God?

But look at what it says here. What does sin also do?

Pains you, pains you, doesn't it?

And rightfully so thank God that you feel that, but how many know

you don't have to feel that if you hear the Lord's voice and

walk with him and I love this this little line here.

And so the Lord so the Lord answered his prayer at the guys

night. It was the girls did Nicole did

a great job too. I I wasn't there, but I heard it

was amazing. But for the guys night, it was

probably in my opinion, 14 years is probably the more powerful

guys night I've ever been a part of and I don't I still I still

look. I was like, I don't know what

the, I, I don't, I don't know what the, what the ingredients

were. I don't, I don't, I don't, I

don't know like why that happened.

Why, why was that? I was going back was like, it's

the teaching. It was at the prayer time.

Was it, it was just the Lord leading the whole thing the

entire night. But I think The X Factor was

vulnerability and humility and where guys, there was about 6

pods because I said, hey, who's really like really going through

it? I mean, we just need to pray for

you. So there were like 6 different

pods I guess of people all praying for somebody.

And then someone had a word again, just how God speaks to

us. Someone had a word just said,

Hey, I really feel like we're supposed to hold up the arms of

these men who are really struggling because they can't

hold their arms up themselves. And it's Acts 7 or Exodus 17, if

you remember Moses, right, was his arms are being held up for

the victory. And then Aaron and her were

holding him up. So I said, let's be Aaron and

her for from the Moses. OK, So we got around and it was

powerful. There was a Bartimaeus cry.

Did you ever hear a Bartimaeus cry?

Lord help, help. And it's like, mostly you're

like, oh, that's so awkward. You like shrivel up inside.

Do you know there was one person on that scene, blind barn

Emmaus, that didn't shrivel up? Jesus.

He was the only one in that whole circle scene that was

actually attracted to that cry. It's because of that cry the man

was healed. Sometimes desperation,

awkwardness, leads to the world's eyes, leads to healing,

leads to freedom. And that's what we got to

experience that night. It was powerful.

His voice always speaks His love.

It's the third part. His voice always speaks of His

love. Jesus willingly died for us

because of love. Therefore we can trust Him.

You know, some people sadly go into ministry because it

benefits them, not because of love for souls.

Be careful of those people, they leave.

What does it say? Listen to this, I'm the Good

Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays his life

down for the sheep. This is not a lift up man

moment. This is a lift up Jesus.

This is why we can trust and This is why we can trust his

voice. Because of this he's saying I am

the Good Shepherd. I am not like the hireling.

The hiring hireling leaves when things get tough, which is a

true test for a leader. When things get really hard, bye

bye plan BS come in the desire to protect yourself, self

preservation, whatever it is, it's you have to protect

yourself because you were ultimately in it for yourself.

But Jesus is like when it gets hard and it got hard on every

page, it got hard on every page, didn't it?

But he said, I'm not leaving because it's the real deal.

He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who is not the owner

of the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and

flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

He flees because he's the hired hand and is not concerned about

the sheep. He says again and again and

again, I am the Good Shepherd and I know my own and my own

know me that good. He'll never leave you nor

forsake you, no matter how hard it gets now, how much you bear

his shame. He's like, I'm not leaving.

Everybody else might, but not him.

Nicole got a word for one of the new girls.

It was really sweet just on this understanding that he always

speaks his love. They were in a worship service,

they were praying and they just, she just felt like, I don't

know, I got an image of her riding a horse and she was just

galloping over hurdles or whatever people do when they

ride horses. I don't know.

I don't, I don't ride horses. But she's like, pause, how did

you know? How did you know?

Like, how did you know I ride horses like I, I didn't know

that you're brand new. I don't know that I don't know

your life. It's just the Lord the Lord puts

on your heart is your prey, but it's not us.

It has nothing to do with us. Have you ever found yourself

just speaking and the Lord's using you and he's like blessing

the other person has nothing to do with you.

It's because Jesus wants to speak to you.

He wants to get to their heart out of love.

Why? Because he wants them to be

known. He wants them to be known.

Don't you ever just feel known by God?

When you get prayed for? It's like, wow, how did you know

that? And then lastly, his voice

speaks security, His sheep. We are his sheep forever.

The shepherd never leaves his sheep ever.

And as I love this, this, you know, I think somebody in the

room, maybe a few, you know, who always keep Downing their

salvation. One thing I do know is that you

will stray. Sheep stray.

They stray because Jesus isn't forcing the sheep to do anything

If they stray. Listen, if they stray, it's for

a season. And then he brings them back.

But you do not believe because you do not.

You are not my sheep, he says, but my sheep hear my voice and I

know them this verse 27 And they follow me, and I give them

eternal life and they will never perish.

Underline, they will never perish, and no one will snatch

them out of his hand. No one, not one person, not

anybody that, and not your enemy, not your parents, not

anybody else on this planet, not even the devil himself will be

able to snatch you from his hand.

And no one will snatch them out of your hand ever.

They were unable to. So what is he saying?

He's saying this. I I remember hearing this one

time that eternal security is different than assurance.

Everybody has eternal security, whether you believe it or not.

Everybody has that. If you've placed your faith in

Jesus, no one could be. No one can snatch you from that.

You're eternally secure. But here's the difference.

Assurance. Do you want that?

Assurance comes when we abide with Him.

You see, when we live in sin, we might have eternal security, but

we won't feel it because we're not close to Him.

Assurance is what God wants everyone to have.

It's the joyful like I'm his, I'm his, I'm really his.

But if you're living in sin and you're still a Christian, you

don't get to shout that because you don't feel that because

you're walking as and you're straying away from the Savior.

But not only that, I would just want to say this, that you guys

may not lose your salvation, but you may lose your passion for

Jesus. You're like one of those people.

You're like, oh, yeah. I just know what the word says.

I know what the word says. I know, you know, you know, you

know. But do you feel his presence?

Do you do you walk with him in a way that is vibrant and

passionate in the life? Guys, the abundant life is not

heaven. The abundant life is here.

Do you see that? It's here.

And this is how you get that. You go through the door, he

brings you to himself, he brings you into his family and you get

to experience the unity. He says there's sheep that you

that that you don't know about. He's like, I have other sheep,

which is not of this fault. What is he talking about?

I mean, in context, he's talking about the Jews eventually

gathering with the Gentiles, right?

Which a lot of those people didn't like.

But he's talking about Ephesians 2, broke the barrier between Jew

and Gentile and now they're slave and free, right?

He's bringing everybody in under one roof.

But what is he talking about too?

He's talking about the nations, He's talking about the nation's

coming. One day he's going to gather all

the nations that know him under one roof, under one place called

heaven. That's amazing.

And then lastly, he not only leads us and speaks to us and we

can, we can close here, but he protects us.

The thief tries to climb the fence, but Jesus is at the door.

He protects this place. I remember, let me just share

this that I, I mean, I've given so many messages on wolves.

I don't think I need to do that again, but I just, I want you to

see something in the context of this amazing parable that Jesus

shares about the Good Shepherd. He's, he's building something

among us, like globally and locally, he's building his

global church. And there are people who try to,

of course, hurt that, right. And I, I remember when the, the

six people were lining up to be baptized, I was like, well, you

guys here, we're doing this in Pensacola Beach, FL.

But there are other people who are being baptized on the beach

and they have black hoods on their heads and they have a gun

to the back of their skull. And because they committed to

Jesus, they would breathe their last.

And every time we baptize, I want you to remember the

persecuted church because while we have freedom, at least at

least right now, they don't. But they also are promised the

abundant life because the abundant life is not promised to

the to just Americans. It's like somehow they're fused

together that what Jesus offers and the the the American dream.

That's not what he's talking about somewhat the abundant life

that person with a hood on their head has the abundant life they

get to it says blessed are those who are persecuted and even

mistreat you and even kill you for my name for your names are

written in the book of life. You have a blessing.

They're blessed, they're more blessed than the American

Christian who is living for themselves and has Jesus on the

side. The abundant life is today.

Now the joy that you get to feel and experience of being in his

family and knowing him. So when we were when we're all

worshiping and praying, we had this moment.

I don't know if we can do this here.

It's my administrator said that it might be impossible.

I think it's still possible, but we'll see what happens.

But while we're there, we have about 150 of us or so.

And I just thought I had this word.

I felt like the Lord wanted to show us the generations.

So he sang that song Generations, You know, I forgot

the what's the lures, the blessing.

Sorry. Yeah, I renamed it The

Generations anyways, but so just I, I, so Nicole and I, we stood

up. We just brought everybody but

Judah, because Judah wasn't born yet.

So 2011, Ella was in diapers and the rest of them were pretty

small. And we just stood up in 2011.

That's when we started the church and then it was George

and who it was there in 2012. It was just George, just George,

just George represented 2012 and there's way more that represent

2012, but they didn't come and then 2014 and then 15161718.

And it was kind of cool. At one point you got to see this

like multiplication growth and the church.

It was just that little section of our church and you got to see

that. And we just said that, you know,

just that we sang the song, the just the, the, the blessings

from generation to generation. You know, just seeing people

come to Christ and like watching like man, we baptize you, you

share the gospel, you're bold. This is how you serve the

church. It was just beautiful to see all

that God was do is just a precious moment.

And then Edson, you know, just this, you know, people are

crying and said, and then Edson comes up to me and he says this,

he's like, This is why we protect.

This is why we protect, we protect this and Jesus is

ultimately the one who protects, yes, he gives us shepherds and

to shepherd the flock and that's part of their, their duty,

right? To feed the flock, lead the

flock, protect the flock. I mean, that's their duty to do

that is under shepherds, under shepherds.

But we have one Good Shepherd that says, I've started this

church and I will see it to completion.

Amen. That's who God says he is, Amen.

Some of you are like, are we going to do it?

Well, I don't know, probably not, but you can imagine it in

your mind. I'd love to.

It's just so hard with these chairs and stuff.

But it's just cool to see if you're part of this, if you're,

it was just cool to see also the 2026 people that just got here,

just got here and just seeing they were the front of it.

And I said, you guys don't let it end with you.

But then there's going to be there's going to be more.

The 27282930 whenever Jesus comes back, we want him to come

back soon. But we're just saying, Lord, we,

we want you to continue to do it again and again and again.

Would you do it again in the next generation?

He's a Good Shepherd, but he's not done with our fold.

He wants more to come in and that's what we're praying for.

So with this song just in your mind's eye, just thank the Lord

for this church. Thank the Lord for the Good

Shepherd. Thank the Lord that he brought

you, saved you. He saved, he brought you in, you

went through the door, He saved you.

He gave you a family and he gave you a purpose and a mission to

live for a He gave you a power to live out those commands that

Jesus gave us until the end. Amen.

Let's stand to our feet and let's worship.