Be Still: My Sheep Hear My Voice (John 10:1-15)

Hello, friends.

This is Pastor Creighton.

Thank you for tuning in to Newsong Church's Sermon Podcast.

At Newsong Church, we want to see Jesus lifted high in Port Perry, Ontario, as we worship, grow, and serve.

You can learn more about us and find contact info at newsongportperry.ca.

Our Old Testament scripture is going to be taken from the book of Ezekiel, chapter 34, verses 1 to 10.

Ezekiel 34:1–10

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 the wild beasts.

My shepherd, my sheep were scattered over the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.

Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord.

As I live, declares the Lord God, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for the wild beasts, since there were no shepherds, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves and have not fed my sheep.

Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord.

Thus says the Lord God, behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep.

No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves.

I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.

This is the word of the Lord.

Although my kids do remind me that that does happen more than I want to admit.

So there are moments where I do repeat myself, and it's like Dab, you've already heard that one.

But I was first introduced really to this passage many times, but I saw it demonstrated in a way through a friend of mine who is a high-tech guy in Ottawa, and he left the city life to go and live in very rural Lanark County near where I live, but way more rural than where I am.

And he bought sheep.

He bought Icelandic sheep and Welsh sheep and a very dark breed and a very long-haired breed.

And he didn't know anything about being a shepherd, but he was quite intrigued by these sheep.

So he bought them.

And they graze on his rocky field.

It is not like the farmland around here.

It is really rocky, rough land.

And I went out to visit him and to find out how the shepherd was doing.

And he had quite a lot of learning curve in this whole thing.

But I was quite intrigued because, for example, in the middle of the night, he leaves his window open so he could hear if there's any prowlers around or any wolves or any coyotes.

He listens all through the night.

When he went away last weekend, he made sure that there was somebody looking after the sheep that would love and care for them the way he does.

But I was most intrigued by with the workplace network that I work with.

We went out and did a video of him because I wanted to show people how he goes out there and they immediately turn to him and he calls them.

And he's a Brit.

And he calls them all by either their Gaelic name or their Welsh name.

And they have the strangest names.

It's like I'm not used to a sheep being called that.

And this one here, he he rubs its neck.

And this one here, oh, don't be afraid.

Come up, Wallace, come over here, come over here.

And Wallace will skitter away.

And he knows Wallace, and he knows this one over here, and and this ram over here, he says to me, watch out for that one.

Do not ever turn your backside on that one and don't pet it.

Do you know if you pet a ram on the head, it means go ahead and hit me?

I did not know.

I thought I'm being nice.

I mean, wow, that's a surprise.

So he knew, he knew every sheep by name.

And all of a sudden, this gospel text became so alive to me because I saw what Jesus was talking about.

Jesus says that my sheep hear my voice, and he calls his sheep by name, and he leads them out.

And they follow because they know his voice and they trust him to lead them.

There was no doubt that these sheep trusted my friend the shepherd.

When I went there, they had nothing to do with me.

He even gave me a handful of grain, and out of kind of desperation, they kind of ate out of my hand, but as soon as I moved, they ran away.

But all he had to do was talk to them, and they'd follow him anywhere.

So the background to our gospel reading in John 10 comes out of the book of Ezekiel that we read as well, where shepherds were tasked to care for God's people.

The leaders were tasked to care for God's people, but they cared only for themselves.

They used God's people to care for themselves.

Verse 2 says in Ezekiel 34, should not shepherds feed the sheep?

Doesn't that seem obvious?

And yet in this case, the shepherds were feeding themselves and killing the best of the sheep for themselves and letting them wander all around.

They were left weak and injured and lost and straying.

Food for the wild beasts scattered with no one seeking or searching for them.

So God declares, in the book of Ezekiel, I am against the shepherds, and I will put a stop to them, feeding the sheep.

I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.

And six hundred years later, we see the contrast of Jesus coming, the good shepherd, the true shepherd.

Jesus coming to earth caused problems with the shepherds of his day as well, particularly the religious leaders.

They too, like the previous shepherds, fed primarily themselves.

They used the sheep for their own gain.

They used it as a place of privilege and of honor and prestige, and often achieving it through manipulative means or by power and political gain.

They weren't there to care for the sheep.

But in John 10, Jesus uses this common understanding of sheep, the sheep pens, a shepherd, to get his point across as to why he came, the true shepherd.

At night in Palestine, it was common for a shepherd to bring his sheep into a common area, a common courtyard at night to bring him in.

And there could be sheep from other folds that would do that as well.

But he'd bring them in close to his home, and he would go off to bed, and a gatekeeper would look after the sheep.

And so Jesus uses this analogy to introduce himself.

In the morning, the shepherd would arise, he'd go to the courtyard, he'd go to the gate, the gatekeeper would recognize Jesus, not a thief or a robber, and he would call them out by name, like my friend calls his sheep.

And he'd call them.

And in verse 4, it says he goes before them, he knows the way, they trust him, they follow him, for they know his voice.

So Jesus then goes on to use another example because, I mean, you know, sometimes I've read this a lot and I didn't get it.

So Jesus goes and says, Well, let me try another twist with the same story, the same scenario with sheep and shepherds.

And he says to them, I am the door of the sheep.

Well, that doesn't help me any, does it?

It's like, what on earth are we talking about?

You're the door of the sheep.

But in this explanation, Jesus is referring to the fact that when the sheep were out in the pasture, when they weren't brought back into the courtyard, when they needed a safe place, the shepherd would provide a safe place for them with briars or rocks or a cave or something that kept them safe.

And there would only be one opening for the sheep.

And the shepherd would literally lie down at that opening.

So nobody or no animal could get in without him knowing it.

He would lay down his life for the sheep.

The sheep could cross over the shepherd, they could come back.

He knew them all by name, he knew exactly what they were doing.

There was nothing that missed his attention.

So Jesus uses that example to say, This is who I am.

I am the one that lays my life down at the gate for the sheep.

Well, that picture is beautiful.

And then when we read it out of 1 John 3.16, which we read this morning in our second lesson, by this we know love.

Jesus is demonstrating more than just the technique of being a good shepherd, he is showing them this is love.

That a man would lay his life down for the sheep, that a man would lay his life down for us.

And he's talking in mysteries we can see in hindsight, but they couldn't see ahead that Jesus was actually going to go to the cross for them and die and to bring this new life.

So the true shepherd would give his life for the flock.

A false shepherd would care only for himself.

And when it got rough and the animals came around, he would flee, he would take off and just leave the sheep to scatter.

Jesus is teaching us through this gospel lesson that he is going to lay down his life for us, for the sheep.

And it's such a contrast from what we read in Ezekiel and what we see here in the Gospel of John of Jesus.

Jesus, our true shepherd.

What God promised to do, he fulfilled through his son Jesus, our shepherd.

Jesus, the shepherd who came to die for us to redeem us and to make us his very own.

I can read something like that, but I'm still beyond just, I'll say mystified, I don't know the word to describe, but to think that I can read that he calls a sheep by name.

But when I actually think about it, he calls Doug, Doug.

I'm not just one of many sheep, I am.

But he calls me by name and invites me into this relationship, into being a sheep with him as my shepherd, letting him lead me.

So 2,000 years later, from the time Jesus was on the earth modeling and showing what a true shepherd was and laying his life down for the sheep, here we are in Port Perry, and Jesus offers that same invitation.

Whoops.

If I don't send it flying, it'll be a miracle.

But he invites us into that same relationship to know him and to be known by him.

A relationship where we know that we have a shepherd of our souls.

We know his voice.

We know his leading.

And though we may not know the way, which is often the case, we trust him because he laid down his life for us.

And when we see that, who else would lay down their life for you?

I promise you I'm not making a political statement.

But I I remember when I was young, which was a while ago, when politicians had integrity that if there was the slightest thing, their credibility was just questioned.

And they they often lost office.

And I recognize as a society, there's very few people we trust.

And with the way media goes today, I don't know what's true and what isn't.

I can't tell you.

And it's like, who do we trust?

Well, I will trust someone that will die for me.

Yeah.

That one I can trust.

So we trust him because he laid down his life for us.

So the question I look at this is we follow him, we hear his voice and we follow him.

And what is it like to follow him?

And we talked a bit more about that yesterday, about hearing his voice and following as he leads.

And in the in for the sake of time today, I just want to say that we we follow him step by step.

I was talking to Polly this morning, and she was wondering if she should do something that perhaps God is asking her to do.

And it's a step that leads to a step, that leads to a step, that leads to a step.

We learn to follow, and as we learn to follow, we learn to trust.

We learn to trust his voice that, hey, that was him.

And as we talked about yesterday, sometimes we don't know if it's us, we don't know if it's something we've learned from the past, we don't know if we're making it up, we don't know if it's Jesus leading us.

But a while ago I decided that, if you ever use the expression, I wasn't sure it was God, so I didn't say anything, I didn't do anything about it.

And I was challenged by that thought.

I don't know if you've ever thought it.

I did it all the time.

You know, I went to go and pray for this person, but I didn't know it was God, so I didn't do it.

Well, quite frankly, how am I gonna know if it's God or not if I don't do it?

What a dumb thing to say.

So I've decided I'm gonna err on the side of thinking, you know what?

It may be God and it may not.

I'm not gonna say it's God, but I'm gonna go ahead and do it.

And if it is God, after I do it, I'm gonna know.

The strange thing about it is almost every time it's been God, and I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't done it.

My sheep hear my voice.

Sometimes it's a nudge, sometimes it's a thought, sometimes it's so far out of my comfort zone.

It's like, I can't do this.

But every time I do it, it's another step in trust, another step in obedience, another step in realizing how much he loves me and that he gave himself for me.

I grew up in a very gospel tradition where for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life was drilled into me from the time I was about two years old.

I must confess I memorized Bible verses because I got rewards afterwards.

I got to go to a treasure chest and pull up candies.

So I'm motivated by food and candy, so it worked.

But the problem with that was I I still couldn't ever grasp that Jesus came for me.

Not the rejected one, not the one that people didn't like.

That was me.

Jesus came for you, but it was a wrestling point for me to come to that place that he came for me because he loves me.

Great, and I so enjoyed your animal kingdom.

It is I don't know if you've ever been to his house, but he's got the most interesting animals, and Bucky just won my heart because he is just downright, I don't know the word.

Yeah, he's just he's crazy.

Yeah.

I I've never seen animals quite like that.

I've never seen a dog afraid of a cat.

That's first.

But I I kind of related to him a bit because he reminds me of how I came into the kingdom.

I came kicking and screaming, and I didn't know if I could trust the shepherd.

And I couldn't, I couldn't for ages believe that God could love me.

Because I couldn't love me.

How could he love me?

I was too messed up for him, and then being challenged by the Word of God and through the Holy Spirit, like, am I gonna believe me?

Am I gonna believe him?

And doubt all cast aside, he died for me, regardless of whether or not I believe it to be possible that you would do it for me.

And eventually I did believe what he said and began to change the course of my life through believing and trusting that although I am not worthy of this, you have given me a gift that I do not deserve and I have not earned.

Everything else in life I earn, or so I think.

But I didn't earn this.

It was a gift.

So I began to follow Jesus probably about the age of 20.

I'd say it's been over 45 years that I've been following Jesus.

I could honestly tell you that it has not been a straight line.

It has been up and down.

There have been times where I've just thought, I'm out of here.

I'm out of here.

And if I can get out of here, I'd get out of here, and I can't get out of here, and that makes me even madder that I can't get out of this mess that you've called me into.

And there were times where I just really let my heart out, and God was so gracious and loving me and just putting up with, like you put up with Bucky.

He understood.

He knew what was in here, he knew the brokenness, he knew the sheep needed to be healed.

He knew what he died for.

Sometimes I just struggled with control.

We all have an illusion that we're in control.

It's funny because yesterday I mentioned about the times that I've spent with addicts, and addicts think they're in control.

Isn't that funny for those of us that aren't addicts like that?

You know they're not in control, and they think that they are.

We all think that we are.

But do you know when your next breath is going to be, for sure?

I don't.

I'm not in control.

So through this, through reflection, through the light of God's word, through meditation, through listening, through knowing the Spirit of God within me, which he has placed to reveal the heart and thought of God to me through teachings and fellowships, through fellowship.

In all these ways, he's led me step by step, exactly as the shepherd said he would.

My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me.

I know them by name.

I think the best way, well for me, the best way of learning a teaching is through a personal story.

So I love how Jesus told parables, he told stories, he told examples.

And so this morning I would like to just share with you my own journey in hearing the voice of the shepherd.

And if you got the point so far, I think I've made it pretty clear that I did not enter this relationship thinking I deserved it.

I entered it thinking I'm not worthy of this.

And struggled the fact that he could love me.

But eventually, as I did come into this place of recognizing that he did love me, and in fact, he had a purpose and a call for me that was unique to me.

And somehow he made me the way he made me for me to be the way that I am.

And so my wife and I ran a Christian bookstore in Ottawa for at this point it was um 32 years, eventually it was 33 years, but at about the 32 year range, we watched the industry imploding all around us.

And the bookstore was my future, it was my retirement, it was my identity.

The name of the store was Salem Storehouse.

My name was Doug from Salem.

I

I laughed yesterday when I said my wife's name was Doug's wife from Salem.

And she hated that, so she had a name tag and said, My name is Linda.

Like, just call me Linda.

But that was my identity.

And as I watched this implode all around me at 58 years old, I'm a bookstore manager owner.

I'm unhirable in an industry that's imploding.

I have no future.

I have no plans.

What are you going to do?

I have no idea what I'm going to do.

My identity is disappearing.

My finances are tried and up, and we can't live off what we've saved.

Bookstore owners are not wealthy people.

Some of them are, but most of them aren't.

So my wife and I, we reached some really dark nights of the soul, so to speak, and yet we had a confidence in God.

And we prayed and we trusted the shepherd that we don't know the steps ahead.

So we knew we had a close.

We knew that we had about$300,000 in assets and about$305,000 in debt.

When you liquidate assets, you don't get what you what the value is.

And so I knew that we were going to have to declare bankruptcy.

And the problem with that is many of these suppliers were dear friends that I had known for 40 years or 35 years.

And I was going to have to leave them owing money, me owing them money.

And I worried about my name, my reputation, my testimony.

So I prayed and I said, Lord, I can't do anything about this.

Strange thing happened.

And it reminded me so much of the gift of salvation.

I had to receive what I didn't deserve.

One of my suppliers, whom I knew well, said, We know about your desperate situation.

We know how bad it is, and there's a whole story behind that.

But we want to offer you what amounted to a million dollars worth of inventory to sell in consignment so you can pay off all your debts.

Now I've never heard of that in my life.

And I literally just choked up thinking, I don't deserve this.

Why would you do this for me?

And it was as if Jesus said, It's just me all over again.

You didn't deserve me either, but you had to accept me.

So I accepted this gift.

And so for six months, even though I was now working at One Way Ministries, I kind of took a half-leave and I helped my wife and us go through selling all this product, paying off all our debts, but there was just one little catch.

I'm losing everything, we pay off all our debts, and I still have hydro, I still have a bit of GST, I have a little bit of this, a little bit of this, and I am gonna have to pay it off.

And that just didn't make sense to me.

Like, hey, we pay off$305,000 and I'm stuck owing money.

Like this doesn't quite balance up.

One of the things, though, is that I love is that my son said to me, Dad, you're the only people I know of that would work to pay off debt.

We were an incorporated company and we could have just walked away.

But God honored his name, honored the testimony that he's done through my wife and I.

And we were able to pay off everything but this bit of money that I was now gonna have to pay.

A week before we closed, it was February seven and a half years ago, when we had the long weekend.

A week before we closed, I was invited to go to a retreat where there were periods of silence.

This is kind of a new one for me.

And it was down in Atlanta.

I promise you I didn't have to pray about whether or not I should go to Atlanta in February.

I was going to Atlanta in February.

When you live in Ottawa, you'll go anywhere south.

Toronto is south by my calculations, and I'll go there as well.

So I went down there and had no idea what was in store.

But one of the times we were invited out in a quiet time to go and stand by a pond and just basically listen and ask God questions.

And I really hadn't done that before.

Not this.

And I just said, God, I'm not questioning you.

I know you love me.

I know your ways are good.

I'm blown away by what you've done.

But I don't get why I owe money.

I don't get that part.

And I heard what I would say as a voice of the Lord speaking to me through his word.

And I heard what I would say would be like, Doug, what part of being crucified with me did you think wouldn't hurt?

I thought, whoa, Western Christianity, it should all go well and I should be happy ever after.

And the next part I heard was, Doug, with what I'm doing with your life and all of this and showing you in all of this, is it okay if it actually costs you money?

And for the first time in my life, in my 58 years, I realized all that I have is yours.

I wouldn't have anything.

But what I have, you've given me, and it's all yours.

So it's not costing me money, it's costing you.

And what freedom.

It was just incredible.

It was like literally the resurrection morning shone all around me.

The sun shone.

I went back and sat at my table and I thought, wow, you're either on meds or something's happened because you are a transformed person.

The weight I was carrying was gone because of hearing the voice of God to me.

A week later, we're closing our store.

It's one of Ottawa's famous blizzards.

It was crazy snowstorm.

And we have about 300 people gathered there, and we're just about ready to wind up.

We served water with limes in it and cookies that churches had made because we had zero money to do anything else.

And one of my sweet little former staff was at the cache, and there was no cash, it was a counter.

But I'd left the little payment tech machine because there was a fire hydrant, a fire extinguisher there, a floor mat over there, and there was something over there, and I was gonna sell anything.

Anything.

I'd sell toilet paper if I could.

I am trying to pay off all this debt.

And with 15 minutes left, this woman walks in from the snowstorm on Marival Road in Ottawa.

Like it's a crazy blizzard.

She's got this big hood up, and she walks up and goes to this little lady at the cash and said, I'd like to donate$1,700 to the store.

Well, in all of my 30 some odd years in business, nobody has ever donated money to a retail establishment.

And then she said, and I don't want anybody to know that I'm doing this, and she walked out.

Now that's a crazy story.

My bookkeeper, who's also my neighbor, I love telling this story because she doesn't miss a thing.

She will know when I'm home this afternoon, exact time she will know.

She doesn't miss a thing.

And so she thought, oh, why would anybody give$1,700?

That is not a number we do in our culture.

We do$1,750, we do$2,000,$2,500,$1,500, but we don't do$1,700.

So as sure as I'm standing here, she spent however long it took to find out every cent I was going to have to pay.

And it was covered with 15 minutes left of the store closing.

Do I boast in myself for that one?

I will boast in the fact that there's a shepherd that loves me, that gave himself for me, and will lead me step by step by step if I will but trust him, that he knows the way and I don't.

What a story.

To God be the glory.

My shepherd knows the way.

I can trust him.

And as I do so, my heart and my life are at peace.

Though the world may rage all around me, though things will collapse, though I may not know what's going on, in the midst of all that, I can experience Psalm 46.10.

Be still.

Be still.

Trust me.

I know your name, and I will lead you all the days of your life.

Oh, what a shepherd.

One who laid down his life for you and for me.

No greater love.

Amen.

Thank you for listening today.

We worship a generous God who calls us to follow him in giving willfully, cheerfully, and sacrificially.

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May God bless you and keep you today and every day.