Shepherd and Sheep

If you would take a Bible and open with me to John chapter 10,

John 10 · chapter mention

John chapter 10, we're gonna be in verses one through 18, but

John 10 · chapter mention

I'm gonna start and read verses one through 6.

Uh, actually we're gonna read 935 through 1/6 to get our

context here. The Bible says Jesus heard that

they had cast out, cast him out and having found him, he said,

do you believe in the Son of Man?

And he answered, who is he, Sir, that I may believe in him.

Jesus said to him, you have seen him, and it is he who is

speaking to you. He said Lord, I believe and he

worshipped him. Jesus said for judgment, I came

into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those

who see may become blind. Some of the Pharisees near him

heard these things and said to him, Are we also blind?

Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no guilt,

but now that you say we see, your guilt remains.

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, 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 of 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.

This is the word of the Lord. Would you pray with me?

Lord Jesus, you are the Good Shepherd.

And. We, your sheep are glad forever.

That when you saw the wolf approaching, you did not run

like a hired hand, but you laid down your life for the sheep.

Lord, we pray that as we as we think about what it means.

For you to be the door and for you to be the Good Shepherd and

for us to be the sheep, we pray that through your word that we

would all once again hear. Your voice, not the voice of

strangers or robbers or thieves, but the voice of our Savior.

And that we would hearing you, that we would follow you.

So we pray that you would call us by name, speak to us in this

place at this time in a way that we can understand.

We ask it in Christ's name, Amen.

So one of the most encouraging but unflattering.

Metaphors that the Bible uses to speak about the people of God is

sheep. The sheep of this faster it

sounds. Sweet, it goes good on a card

until you spend time with sheep and realize how dumb and

obdurate and needy they are. Sheep are not what you want to

be. There's there's never been a kid

who who lays in bed at night staying awake that that God

would only give. Him the, the, the speed of a

sheep, right? We think about cheetahs, we

think about bears, we think about lions, any other cool

animals, but God calls us sheep. And in this text, Christ the

great Shepherd is going to remind us that he is our

shepherd and that we are his sheep.

And I want to, I want to meditate on this text with you

and then speak to you about these things.

Trying to apply them when we when we get to the to the end.

So in verses one through 6. I want to show you that that

Christ is both shed and shepherd.

He's he's he's the paddock where the sheep are stored and he's

the shepherd to whom belong the sheep.

So in in verse one, Jesus says in in response to what had.

Happened with the healing of the blind man and John Chapter 9

John 9 · chapter mention

Jesus says 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. And to him the gatekeeper opens.

The sheep hears voice, and he calls.

His own sheep by name and leaves them out.

OK, so. A couple of words here.

First off, just a word of context.

Do you remember the this same context goes all the way back to

John chapter 8? Maybe you do not remember that,

John 8 · chapter mention

but Jesus preached a message in John chapter.

Eight that got him that the the Jews picked up stones to stone.

Him and that he leaves the temple at the end of John

John 8 · chapter mention

chapter 8 and at the beginning of John Chapter 9, he sees a man

John 9 · chapter mention

born blind from birth, and he restores his sight.

And it's this. Weird irony that John paints for

us that the only guy in the whole.

Text that can actually see. Is a man who's been born blind

and he doesn't even see until the very end.

But all throughout there's this mega theme in that text of the

religious leaders hating and persecuting Christ for healing

his people. And this text ends in verse in

chapter 10, verse 31. This, it doesn't end here, but

it continues the same theme. The Jews picked up stones again

to stone him. And so it's this idea of Jesus

the Good Shepherd coming to his people and the religious leaders

hate him because as he's going to teach us in this text, the

religious leader of that day were thieves and robbers.

They were not good shepherds. So something that we need to

understand about when Jesus says when he's talking about the

sheepfold in in this time we're told that that public places,

all the shepherds would bring their own.

Flocks into the same paddock. It was a.

Walled place with one door and a watchman.

And so. All of us, all the men of the

church who have sheep, we all take them to the same place, put

them in. And then in the.

Morning. When we want to lead them out to

pasture, the question is how do we sort them out?

And the answer is, I have spent enough time with my sheep that I

know them by name, and when I call them, they recognize my

voice and they won't follow anybody else.

So some other. Guy can say here's a little

fluffy or whatever. All he wants.

They're not going to follow that guy.

And so you have, you have in this picture, you have the

public sort of pin for the sheep.

You have the one door and that door has a watchman that won't

let strangers in. And then there are two types of

people that try and get into the sheep paddock.

The 1st is thieves and robbers. Those who are climbing over the

wall, they don't go to the door because they won't be let in,

right? So you think about like driving

through a neighborhood. If you see a man in the middle

of the night standing at the front door of the house and he's

got a key and he's working with a light to try and get the key

in, you're not going to call the cops like it's it's, he's coming

home late. But if you if you're driving

through and the city at night and you look over and there's a

guy breaking a window, you might call the cops and it might be a

situation where maybe he forgot his key and he has to break his.

Own window, but we'll let the cops sort that out.

We just know by the by the optics of it, he does not.

Belong there, it's not his house.

Jesus is saying the same thing about the thieves and the

robbers. Those who try and break in.

To to get the sheep are thieves. And robbers.

But you also have another person coming into the paddock and

that's the Good Shepherd. And he is recognized by the

gatekeeper and his own sheep. Both the gatekeeper and his own

sheep recognize him. It's it's a John tells us this

is a, a figure of speech. And so we want to be careful not

to push it too far and get too much into the details.

But if you think. About who might be the

gatekeeper in this context of of Christ coming to his own, the

sheep hearing his voice. Who's the guy?

Who's the gatekeeper guarding? Well, I think you can make an

argument. I'm not going to fight you.

For it, but I think. It's the Holy Spirit who is

performing the words. He is performing the miracles

and the and the and blessing the words of Christ as, as Christ

comes to his people and says, I am the Messiah, I am your

savior, that the Holy Spirit is testifying to him to Israel that

they might follow. And so you have, you have in, in

Chapter 9, verse 30, Luke in Chapter 9, verse 30, you have

the, the, the religious leaders are grilling this man who has

been born blind and, and they say in verse 29, actually, we

know that God has spoken to Moses, But As for this man, we

don't know where he comes from. We don't know who this guy is.

We do know Moses was sent by God.

We don't know about this Jesus guy.

And then the blind guy very sarcastically says why this is

an amazing thing. You do not know where he comes

from and yet he has opened my eyes.

How many of you have ever seen this before?

That a man born blind can have his sight restored?

It's never happened. So the so the.

Work of Christ through the Holy Spirit is testifying to the

identity of Christ. He he goes on.

We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a

worshipper of God and does His will, God listens to him.

Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone open

the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God,

he could do nothing. And they answered him, You were

born in utter sin. And would you teach us and they

cast it out. So do you see the the metaphor

there you've got the Holy Spirit through the works and the words

of Christ is testifying to Israel and that that Christ is

the Messiah. He's.

The gatekeeper he is, He is showing to Israel that Christ is

Lord and they're just rejecting. Let me say this.

In passing, because a lot of tender hearted Christians fear

lest they commit the blasphemy of the Holy.

Spirit, the one unforgivable sin.

Let me put that in the context of the Gospels where the

blasphemy of the Holy Spirit in context Christ by the agency of

the Holy Spirit is, is miraculously casting out demons

and healing the sick and restoring sight to the blind.

And the Pharisees look at the witness of the Holy Spirit

showing them that Christ is who he says he is.

And they say it's not the Holy Spirit, it's it's the devil.

And they attribute the work of God to Satan.

And so that is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, which protects

us or blinds us from seeing the glory of God in the face of

Christ and believing in him. So if you're a tender hearted

Christian and you're here saying, man, I'm just terrified

that I might have committed the. Blasphemy of the holy.

Spirit, relax. Relax.

If you care about that, you haven't done it.

If you if the if the greatest nightmare in your life is that

you would somehow fall short of benefiting from the Lord Jesus

Christ, who you know is Messiah you.

Cannot have committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit

because you are confessing Christ is Lord, so in this

context, Christ. Is the Good Shepherd.

He is anointed by the Spirit, calling his own sheep by name

and leading them. His sheep are responding and

following, but the religious leaders do not the thieving and

the robbing Jewish leaders at that time don't like when the

Good Shepherd leads his sheep out of their dominion because

that means less wool and less meat for them to devour.

They hate Jesus because he's setting his people free from

their tyranny. They they crucify him for this

very thing. OK, in verses 7, seven through

10 you have Jesus changes the metaphor slightly and.

And we're told it that Christ is the door of the sheep, and that

he's also the shepherd of the sheep.

So if you look in verse 6, it's very ironic statement that John

makes this figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they

did not understand what he was saying to them.

He has just told us that that his sheep hear his voice, that

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

And then as he's speaking, John tells us the religious leaders

didn't understand what he was saying.

What's the implication they're not of his sheep if you scooch

over across the column? To verse 26 or actually verse

verse 22 at the towards the end of this text, they the Jews say

in in verse 24. Rather, they say to Christ, How

long will you keep us in suspense?

If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.

And Jesus answered, I told you, and you don't believe.

I've already told you. I've answered this question.

You don't believe and he goes on to say.

The. Works I do in my father's name

bear witness about me, but you do not believe.

What's the next phrase? Because you need more proof.

You don't believe. Because you need me to tell you

straight up and I'm speaking in mystery.

What does he say? You do not believe because you

are not among my sheep, my sheep, they're they're

overarching mark of my sheep as that my sheep hear my voice and

I know them and they follow me. So he's speaking to them and

they do not understand or recognize his voice.

Now in verse 7, chapter 10, Jesus again said to them, Truly,

truly, I say to you, I'm 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 he will go in and out and find pasture.

The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy.

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

I am the Good Shepherd, so he's the door.

He's also the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his

life for the sheep, he who has a hired hand, and not a shepherd

who does not own the sheep. He sees the wolf coming, and he

leaves the sheep and flees. The wolf snatches them and

scatters them. He flees because he has not.

He has a hired hand and he cares nothing for the sheep.

I am the Good Shepherd, I know my own and my own know me, just

as the Father knows me and I know the Father.

I lay down my life for the sheep.

So a couple of a couple of things here.

First off, that Christ is the door.

He has not let anyone in that does not.

Work for him. They are thieves and robbers who

interact with the sheep in some other name than Christ in some

other gospel. They have not been sent by the.

Lord, they come to the sheep. So.

She might ask, why would somebody come to rob, steal,

kill and destroy the people of God, the sheep of God's pasture?

Why would they do that? The answer is because there's

always money in the in the people of God.

There's always power in the people of God.

You can go. To I would counsel you against

it, but you can go to. A lot of Christian.

Bookstores and look long and hard and not find.

Christian reading in there. A lot of it is just abject

rubbish written by men and women who know that if you call

something Christian it it'll sell.

If you call a book a Christian book or if you go if you make a

Christian movie. A lot of which are blasphemous

and and totally missed the thrust of the gospel.

But we call them Christian and Christians bye.

Because unfortunately, Christians are often like sheep

without shepherds and so the thieves are always trying to

break in and steal. Christ tells us he's the Good

Shepherd in verse 11. And I want you to think about

this with me. In verse 11, he says, I'm the

Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his

life for the sheep. OK, He says in verse 14, I am

the Good Shepherd. I know my own, and my own know

me. Just as the.

Father knows me and I know the Father.

I lay down my life for the sheep.

I have others that are not of this fold.

I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice.

So there will be 1 flock and 1 shepherd.

So you have Christ who is the Good Shepherd, lays down his

life for the sheep and he does that in combat with wolves.

We need to understand when when Christ is dying on the cross, he

is not proving for us an example of how just to suffer for what

you believe. He is destroyed.

He is defanging Satan, disarming the principalities and the

powers that dominated the people of God.

He's laying down his life for the sheep in combat with.

Wolves and he shows in verse 14 and 15 something that is not

often taught in in churches, but it's.

Very true and very. Precious, and it's the idea of a

particular protection for his own.

Sheep. He tells you that a hired hand

is going to bail when he. Sees a wolf coming because.

These are not my sheep, and I can't get my arm back if I if it

if it gets bitten off by a wolf. And so if for somebody else's

sheep, I'll gladly take his money.

I'll gladly lead them to water when I can.

But if a wolf. Comes.

I'm not about to. Bleed for somebody else's

livestock that can be replaced. I, I, I like my body much too

much for that. But Jesus says in verses 14 and

15 that he provides a particular protection for his people.

And I want you to think about this with me.

I'm a Good Shepherd. I know my own, and my own know

me. Just as the.

Father knows me, and I know the Father.

Notice what he's not. Saying.

He's not saying I have a pretty good relationship with with God,

and then I have a pretty good relationship with my people.

He is saying just as the Father knows me before the world began,

there's perfect unity with the Father, relationship between the

Father and the Son. And he says, I know my own, and

my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the

Father. And he says.

I lay down my life not for the world, but for the sheep.

So we need to let, we need to let the Scriptures say what the

scriptures are saying. Yes, John 316 means what it

says. God so loved the world that He

gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believeth in

Him. Would have eternal life would

never perish and have eternal life.

God loves the world. You can tell anybody at any

point God loves you. There is a universality in the

in one aspect of the love of God.

At the same time there is also the Scriptures also teach a

particularity to the love of God, that we rejoice in that

here he, he says. He says that I know my own

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

He says in in John chapter 6, listen to the words of Christ.

John 6 · chapter mention

I said to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe.

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever

comes to me I will never cast out, for I've come down from

heaven to do not my own will, but the will of him who sent me,

and this is the will of him who sent me.

Then I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but

raise it up on the last day. So the Father has given people

to his son, and when his son dies, he lays down his life for

his people. This is the same as in Ephesians

where husbands notice we're not commanded as husbands to love.

He doesn't say men love women like all men generally love all

women generally. He says husbands love not all

the women in the world, but love your wife as Christ loved not

the world but the church and gave himself.

Up for her. So there is a there is one

aspect the Scriptures teach of the universality of the love of

God and then Christian, you should take this to the grave

with a with a wonderful encouragement.

There is also a specificity taught in the Scriptures in

numerous places that God has uniquely loved his people by

name and called them by name. So there is a particular

protection. There is also the unity of flock

and shepherd. I want you to see this you bunch

of mainly Gentile Christians. Jesus tells the Jewish leaders

who are rejecting him. He says I have other sheep that

are not of this fold. I watch the the definite term I

must bring them. Also they will listen to my

voice. So there will be 1 flock and 1

shepherd. When Jesus and John 15 says I am

the true vine, he is saying there is a false vine.

There's another thing out there claiming to be the vine of God's

blessing. On the Earth.

And it's the at that point, the unbelieving nation of Israel,

and he is saying I am the heir of Abraham.

All of the promises of God are yes and Amen in Christ alone.

And when Gentiles believe in him, they are grafted into him.

We become the branches. And those who he tells the

Jewish people in John 15, those who do not abide in me are cut

off and thrown into the fire. Those who do abide in me and

bear fruit, the Father prunes so that they'll bear more fruit.

But there's one flock, there's one vine, and Christ is the

shepherd. Christ is the vine.

So there is unity. There's the unity of flock and

shepherd that Christ. The book of Ephesians says that

he broke down the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile.

Jewish. The special people by race, a

special people, and then the Gentiles, special strangers

marked out for the wrath of God. Paul says Christ broke down that

wall when he was on the cross, and he made the two one new

people, the people of God, the Church of Jesus Christ.

And so if you are in Christ, you have been grafted into the

promises of Abraham. Paul says it this way in

Galatians that it is those who are of faith who are sons of

Abraham, not those who are just physical descendants.

That doesn't matter. Circumcision doesn't matter

anymore. It is faith in Christ that makes

us recipients of all of the promises in the Old Testament.

OK, last thing I want to point out from the text.

And then I want to seek to try and apply it to us.

Is I want to show you. The unity of the Father and the

Son and the Person, and in the purpose and in the work that

Christ comes for. He says I must bring them also

in verse 16. I must bring them also.

They will listen to my voice. There will be 1 flock and 1

shepherd. Verse 17.

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life,

that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me.

I lay it down on my own accord. I have authority to lay it down.

I have authority to take it up again.

This charge I have received from my Father.

Whose plan is it that Christ executes in His life, death and

resurrection? Jesus just told you it's the

plan of the Father. We do not have a confused

Trinitarian deity where the Father is is giving a particular

people to Jesus and then Jesus dies for the whole entire world

trying to save everybody. But come short.

No, we have we we also do not have a a Christ who loves us and

who is a a high priest and then a wrathful Father who hates us

and who's angry all the time that that Christ is always

placating. We have a Father from whom comes

all goodness, all blessing, all gospel, all love, all mercy, and

he pours out to us the person of his Son.

And so Christ comes saying, I'm here to obey my father, and this

is the will of my father, that I wouldn't lose anything of the

people that he's given to me. So there's a unity of the

Father, Son and Holy Spirit in your salvation and in mine.

And if you want homework, go read Ephesians chapter one that

just describes in breathtaking detail the salvation that God

has worked on our behalf. And it breaks down very

marvelously what the Father has done, what the Son has done, and

what the Spirit has done all in unity to save his people.

OK, So what? How would we how do we think

about applying these verses The 1st?

Thing that I would show you to apply is that we need to

understand and refresh this idea that has fallen on hard times in

our culture, and that is that Christ came into the world for

judgment. We're told in other places that

he didn't come to to to condemn the world, but that the world

would be saved through Him. And that's true.

That's true. It is also true that Jesus says

in John 939, Jesus said for judgment, I came into this world

that those who do not see may see, and those who see may

become blind for judgment. I came into this world.

Christ, his person, his work, His word, they, they have always

and they continue to create division, and that division is

judgment. When you, when you.

See Christ as he's offered to you in the gospel, and you say

that's the greatest news I've ever heard, and you run to it.

That is the judgement. It's because he's calling you by

name. Otherwise you would not care.

When you see Christ and you respond like the religious

leaders and you, you constantly naysay him and dismiss him and

ignore him and accuse him of being an evil person.

That is the judgement, that the the way you respond to Christ is

the judgement of what you are. And here's the judgement.

My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me.

Have you heard the voice of Christ?

Are you following Christ? If so, the judgment has been

passed. You are his sheep.

Secondly, we need to remember that there are thieves and

robbers. Who wish to steal and kill and

destroy God's people? If you think about this, if

you're a shepherd. You have to protect your sheep

from. Kind of a lot of things.

First off, you have to. Protect your sheep from hurting

themselves. There's this.

We don't do a lot of audio visual.

Here at our church. But there's this.

It's one of my favorite videos of all time.

The caption reads what Jesus must be like when he's when he's

helping me. And there's this really deep

ditch and all you can see is the leg and the hind.

Quarters of this fluffy sheep sticking out of the ditch and

the shepherd is is like standing over him.

He's gotten by the back leg and he's yanking, yanking, yanking,

pulling, and then all the sudden the sheep comes loose.

Comes flying out of there, the shepherd falls on the ground,

the sheep like lands. He does this like sort of shake

and then he takes 3 or 4 bounces.

Chop, chop, chop. And dives right back into the

ditch. 5 foot down and the shepherd is in the same spot if

you're a shepherd. You have to know that your sheep

will eat things that will kill them.

Your sheep will do dumb things that will kill them.

So you got to protect them from themselves.

You also have to protect them from one another.

You have an aggressive ram That's that's ramming, baby.

Sheep, you have to stop that they can be hurt by outsiders,

so they can hurt themselves. They can be hurt, they can hurt

one another. They can be hurt by the.

Wolves on the outside. And a shepherd wants to protect

his flock because he loves them. So a shepherd is is always I, he

always has eyes on the flock so that he can protect them from

themselves, from one another, from outside influence.

It's very interesting that that thieves want to protect the

flock as well. Thieves want the church to be

gathered. Thieves want to build big

churches that make lots of money because the flock can then be

more easily fleeced and slaughtered.

So as your pastor. Let me, let me exhort you that

there, there are there. Are a lot of voices out there.

A lot of them have open Bibles. A lot of them purport to say

thus saith the Lord. I'm not saying that you should

only exclusively listen to me. Please do not do that thing.

There are much better teachers. There are great men out there

who are faithful stewards of God's Word.

Listen to those guys. But there's a lot of rubbish

that some of you need to turn off forever, right?

Don't listen to to Christian to garbage masquerading as the

Christian faith. It's my job to protect you from

wolves. And as one of my, one of the

guys in our presbytery, the older guys in our presbytery

said it's your job as a shepherd to protect your, your flock from

wolves and podcasts for clothing.

And I thought that was a great way to say that.

So, so turn off the garbage. Thirdly, the Good Shepherd

appoints, and this is going to be painful, He appoints

imperfect under shepherds, OK. We are told that there is one

senior pastor of the church, the chief shepherd, and he appoints

under shepherds to tend his people.

But everybody that he can appoint is an imperfect person,

an imperfect pastor. And I need you to hear this, and

I need you to lean into this, that that pastoring, pastoring a

flock is very similar to. To a husband loving a wife.

You'll notice, gentlemen, that when Paul says.

That a husband you're to love your wives as Christ loved the

church. Sanctify her with the Word.

Lay down your life for her, nourish her, cherish her.

There is no caveat for doing that.

When she's lovely, love her, so long as she's easy to love.

No, it's not there. You have to do that, and I have

to do that. Scratch that.

We get to do that because Christ has commanded US one way or

another. And so in the same way there is

New Testament command at the end of Hebrews.

Where where your? Your commanded congregants are

commanded to obey your leaders as those who are keeping watch

over your souls, as many will give an account.

Let them do this with joy and not with groaning.

You guys do a marvelous job of that.

But I want you to know that sometimes the commands of God to

shepherds are. Are hard to carry out when

there's not cooperation from the flock.

Don't hear a browbeat here. This is more like a.

You guys listen to me, y'all do a a much better job of

responding to shepherding than I do of.

Initiating shepherding. I just want to have.

A conversation with you about how.

We can do this better because this week at presbytery we had

the oldest, most seasoned pastor in our presbytery gave us a list

of about 7 exhortations for what it means to shepherd the flock

of God over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.

And it was really painful. Really painful of of all of the

things. Hey gentlemen, like this is the

standard and every point there were seven of them was an Ouch.

I was going to read them to you and then I walked off and forgot

them at my table. But a couple of the ones that

made me uniquely uncomfortable is he said and he quotes from

the text that was my sermon text for this Sunday.

Christ knows his sheep by name. He has a personal relationship

with all of his sheep And and here's the thing, like.

I have a lot of. Weirdness in my makeup that this

is not an excuse, it's just an explanation.

My family probably have have observed that.

Some of the deepest wounds in the history of my life have been

given to me two minutes after picking up a a phone.

And so anytime my phone rings, I jump out of a chair like I've

been cattle prodded. I hate the phone.

And so the the idea. The idea that if I had a perfect

nightmare of the day. It would be.

I'm just going to call everybody in the church and say, hey

buddy, what do you want to talk about?

Like I, I, I don't, I, I don't want to do that 'cause I don't

think you want to talk to me that bad if I have something to

talk to you about. I love to to sit down and do

coffee and have relationship for sure.

But I'm just really, really uniquely bad at at.

Picking up the. The phone and calling people for

no reason. Now here's what's Here's what.

Happens is if I don't do that on the regular then when I need to

talk to you about something. I get in my own head about it,

like I've got to call them and talk to them about it, but I

haven't talked to them in a while.

And it feels weird. And so I just, it gets

stalemates and all of that. None of that is your fault.

All of that is I'm, I'm telling you that so you can know some

unique ways that you can pray for me because I want to do, I

want to do better. I want to be close enough to you

that I can know what you need as your as your shepherd.

OK, So he, he, he made a statement, he said about, about

prayer. So knowing the flock and then

praying for the flock, pray with and for them, he said.

And, and this old faithful servant of Christ told a bunch

of pastors that needed to hear it.

Gentlemen, prayer is not an accessory to pastoral ministry.

Prayer is pastoral ministry. That's what it's for.

And the reality is, if I don't know you.

If I don't know what you're struggling with, if I don't know

what what you're what's hurting, what, what needs help, I can't

pray as faithfully as I should. I, I, I lift you up.

We pray for you. You are a prayed for

congregation for sure. But I think really early when we

started, when we appointed elders, and at first it was, it

was Aaron and it was Russ and I. And we, we said, OK, we're going

to get into diligence of like, do you remember this?

Like sharing a page where each of us are going to call

everybody on one page. And then, and then Roy got here

and Trey got here. And we, we tried to do this and,

and we would come back weekly to pray for you.

And a lot of what? We would hear is.

Everybody kind of said we were fine.

OK. How can I pray for you, brother?

Oh, we're fine. That's OK, you're not supposed

to like. Make up things that we can be

praying for you, but the here's here's the big ticket.

I want to be. Faithful to pray for you.

In order to. Do that.

I need to know what's going on, OK.

And so I don't know how that happens.

I don't know how we do a better job of that.

It's probably all on me. But I just want you to know if I

call you and it's awkward and it's painful, this is what I'm

aiming at. I'm trying to be faithful.

So the most important question that anybody ever asked me in my

life was when I was 19 or 20 years old was Camilo Ardeela, my

pastor at the time. And he said he goes, if I was

trying to figure out how to provide for family, I was trying

to figure out what to devote myself to with life.

And Camilo said, hey, if God promised to make you excellent

at anything, what would you want to do?

I'd never considered this question.

I would exhort all of you to consider it.

It's a great. Question.

I'd never thought about it before, but I had an immediate

answer and I said I would want to teach.

God's word to God's people. That's what I would want to.

Do if God promised to make me great.

I don't want to be mediocre in that endeavor because I think

something really powerful happens when when men preach to

God's people. But I would want to preach God's

word to God's people. And I'll tell you my answer has

stayed the same with this one edition.

I would that God would give me excellence in the shepherding of

His people, not just the preaching to and at His people.

So if I were going to state it negatively, I want you to hear

me on this, that it's the greatest negatively.

The desire I have for pastoral ministry is that none of you,

none of your marriages, none of your children would fall because

in some way I've been negligent. In the duties that Christ has

called me to. Does that make sense to you?

I don't want you to fail because I didn't help you.

I didn't shepherd you. You needed somebody when you

were wayward to come and grab you and say no.

We're going this. Way and I didn't that's I'm I'm

terrified of that eventuality because Christ cares that much

for for the sheep that he promises.

Me a day of reckoning where he says what did you do?

What did you do? OK.

And so again, I'm, I'm telling you that so that, so that when

we reach out and, and it's, it's inevitable that the, that the

times where you're reached out and you and you have what feels

like a negative or a rebuke or, or a, or a what's a discouraging

word? That's always it's the hardest

season in which to hear them. And it's usually the most

important seasons to hear those things positively.

I would stated this way that when the Good Shepherd calls you

home at the end of your life, that by God's grace I would have

been some ingredient in your life having been well.

Lived to the glory of. God that that.

Think, think about, think about standing.

Before the chief shepherd who loves his sheep and being told

being shown the fruit of your hand in the lives of eternal

souls, that is, that is what I'm after.

That's what I I long to be. Great at that, and I'm not, and

so I'm asking you to. To pray for me, or at least I'm

not what I want to be. So there are many aspects of

pastoral ministry that I'm that I'm far too timid about.

And I'm just asking you to pray for me and be patient with me,

even though I have extended your patience far beyond the means

of, of normal wear and tear. Because I've been your pastor

for 17 years now, for better or for worse.

And so, for better or for worse, your Chief Shepherd has made me

your under Shepherd. And it is one of the great joys

of my life to be able, Sunday after Sunday, to open the Word

of God with you and to marvel at the mercy.

Of Christ with you I love I love being your pastor to to not just

teach the word with you not just marvel at Christ and ideas with

you, but also to to to break bread with you to know the state

of your lives to be. Praying for you.

By God's grace, I have baptized a whole lot of you people and I

have offered the Lord's Table to all of you on many occasions,

and it is a great gift to be a part of the body of Christ with

you. So brothers and sisters, I

believe that Christ himself, the Good Shepherd, the Chief

Shepherd, that he sent me to remind you again and again

through word and through sacrament all the days of your

life, that he loves you and that his body was broken for you, and

that his blood was shed for the forgiveness of your sins, and

that he intends to feed you on himself.

And so, brothers and sisters, the Shepherd is calling you each

by name at this moment. Don't be thrown by the fact that

he's using my mouth to do it. Follow Christ as I bid you come

and welcome to King Jesus. Let me pray for us, Lord.

We. We remember that you are the

Good Shepherd, that you lay down your life for the sheep.

And Sunday after Sunday we come to the Lord's Table, where we

remember and where we participate in the broken body

and the shed blood of Christ in this divine mystery that is the

Lord's Table. And so Lord I.

Pray for these your sheep. I pray for the elders of our

church. I pray that we would, that we

would accurately reflect to them the care and the bravery, the

courage, the the love that the Chief Shepherd has for them.

God, would you take us up and would you love them well through

us? And we pray, Lord, for, for, for

thus for all of us, that we would all receive your

shepherding well, that we would treasure it as a gift that you

give. And so, Lord, would you take

this moment as we, as we break the bread and as we enjoy the

cup together. Would you draw near to us?

Would you shepherd us in these things?

Would you give to each sheep what he or she needs most this

morning at your table? Would you feed us?

Would you draw near? We ask it in Christ's.

Name Amen.