I AM: The Good Shepherd

Love hearing those videos. And for those of you that don't know, we

are celebrating this year twenty years as a church. That's awesome. I was

kind of like waiting for you to be excited about it, and then I

felt like I had to help you, like, that's awesome, that's a

good thing. Hey, want to welcome you here at a Venture Church.

If I haven't met you yet, my name is Morgan Butcher Blessed me one

of the pastors on staff here on Mill Creek campus, and welcome everyone tuned

in online this morning. Great to have you here. For those of you

who are just hopping in, we are in the middle of a series titled

I Am And if you have your Bibles open, you can or if you

have your Bibles you can open up to John chapter ten this morning. In

this series, we've been looking at the seven statements that Jesus says about himself

in the Book of John, and we're exploring those seven im statements that Jesus

makes and to really discover who Jesus says he really is. Last week,

Brandon shared from John chapter ten, Versus one through ten, where Jesus gives

this illustration of a sheep pen, a sheep pen, a shepherd's sheep pen,

a pen for sheep. Okay, maybe a picture would help. He

showed this picture last week, and this is an example of what a sheep

pen may have looked like in ancient Hebrew. And even today they are finding

ruins, many ruins just like this, and this similar shape of what they

would have constructed to hold sheep together. And this was as much a way

of keeping track of sheep as it was defending sheep against outside predators and thieves

and things like that. So a sheep's pen would be built with four walls,

no roof, and they would have one gait that the shepherd would often

sit at and guard. And last week Pastor Brandon describe the way in which

a thief or a robber wouldn't go through the gate. They would jump over

the walls to get into the sheep pen. But the shepherd would obviously come

through and guard that gate in the front. The shepherd would call his own

sheep, they would recognize his voice, and the shepherd would guide them into

good pasture. Jesus uses this illustration of shepherding and the sheep's pen to communicate

two things about himself. We have two I am statements in John chapter ten

from Jesus. We looked at the first one last week when we saw that

Jesus said that he is the gate for the sheep. Put that picture back

up there. He's literally identifying himself as the place in which sheep come and

go, the passage of good pasture and protection. He would call himself the

gate for the sheep. And today we're going to look at the second I

am statement that Jesus makes in John chapter ten, And all you have to

do is pick up from where we left off last week in verse eleven and

read the first five words to identify that Jesus is also describing himself as the

good shepherd. He says literally right there at the beginning of verse chapter eleven,

I am the good shepherd. I don't know about you, But in

Jesus identifying himself describing himself, I find it interesting that he uses the word

good. I don't know about you, but if I am identifying Jesus,

I'm not going to use the word good. I'm going to use the word

perfect. Ye. I'm going to use the word only like the only shepherd

Jesus. How about we use that one right, or maybe like the Infinity

time defending Champion of the World Shepherd, I don't know like something better than

good. Right. Good is what you say when you pass each other in

the lobby and you say, hey, how you doing good? Some of

you were just convicted. Right. Good is the thing that, like people

say when something is not really that good. You notice that if you were

to ask me how the movie was that I watched this past weekend, I

would say, well, it was good. Me and my brother in law

went to see Argyle, and I would say it was good and even and

actually that's a lie. It was horrible. Okay, don't watch it.

But even in that description, you're not gonna pull out your phone, open

up Fandango and buy two twenty dollars tickets and then spend twenty dollars on popcorn

and then later regret that decision and sit through a two and a half movie

that I identified as good. Right, If you ask me how a restaurant

is and I say it's good, you're not gonna go and drive an hour

to that place, book a reservation, and spend more money than you should

on a meal that was good, Right, You're not gonna do that.

We even use the word good to do in a lot of different ways.

We can use the word good to describe something from a moral standpoint. We

can also use the word good to describe some the quality of something. Right.

For example, when we talk about a good athlete, a good musician,

a good teacher, we don't necessarily mean that they are morally good.

Maybe they are, but who knows. Really. What we are more identifying

is that they are good at something. The quality at which they do something

is good, right, Lebron James, Can I just tell you he's good

at basketball? Right? Like I'm not a huge guitar guy. I've never

played the guitar, right. Obviously you can tell just by this one motion

right here, I've played guitar hero, That's what you can tell from this

motion. But I can tell you Jimmy Hendrix was a good guitar player,

right. I could probably tell you that the teacher that you think fondly of

from your childhood was likely a good teacher if you remember them well. Like

that. And that's the way that Jesus uses the Hebrew word here in John

chapter ten. He is describing something that is good in quality. The Hebrew

word can also be used to describe something that is excellent or beautiful. So

when Jesus calls himself the good shepherd, what he is saying is that he

is the most excellent shepherd. He is the pre eminent shepherd. Right.

If you were to look up in the dictionary who the shepherd is or what

a shepherd is, it should just have a picture of Jesus. Right.

He is what shepherding is all about. He is the good shepherd. Jesus

is the perfect example of what a shepherd should be. And so today I

want us to focus on these next ten verses from verse eleven to twenty one,

and I want us to focus on three different reasons that Jesus describes himself

as the good shepherd. Are you guys with me this morning? Let's dive

in John Chapter ten. Will start in verse eleven because it makes sense.

He says what he is, okay. Verse eleven says this, I am

the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he

sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. The wolf

attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he's a hired

hand and he cares nothing for the sheep. Today, I want to show

you three reasons why Jesus identifies himself as the good Shepherd. And the first

reason is this, Jesus is the good Shepherd because Jesus lays down his life

for the sheep. Versus earlier last week, when Pastor Brandon is describing that

he is the gate for the sheep, Jesus spoke about giving life to the

sheep, giving this spiritual, eternal, abundant life to the sheep. But

when Jesus says I am the good Shepherd, I laid down my life for

the sheep, what he is declaring is that he is giving his life for

the sheep. His own personal life is being laid down. This thought is

the main focus for this entire passage that we're talking about today. Jesus will

talk about other aspects of the good Shepherd, but the main idea that he

keeps on coming back to in these ten verses is that the good shepherd lays

down his life for the sheep. Notice he doesn't simply say gives his life

for the sheep, but he lays it down for the sheep. We find

the same phrasing in Matthew twenty seven, verse fifty nine, when Joseph lays

Jesus's body in the tomb, again in Mark chapter six, twenty nine,

when the Disciples lay John the Baptist's body in the grave. There is something

very personal, there's something very intentional about laying one's life down for another.

It's almost I think the best way to imagine it is to take it out

of you and to hold it in your hands, to like imagine you holding

your own life. You are in control of your own life, and you

willingly intentionally choose to lay it down. To lay down your life for another

means that it is one hundred percent voluntary. I am choosing to make this

decision with the life that I hold, I will lay it down. And

Jesus uses this phrase lay it down, lay down my life five times between

verses eleven and eighteen. I think he might be trying to communicate that this

is an important thing that we recognize about who Jesus is. He uses the

same phrase in John chapter fifteen, verse thirteen. Maybe you've heard this verse

before. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his

life for his friend. Now, I know it's ten forty and we're talking

about dead guys, right, But I need you to catch this. I

need you to hang with me for a second, because this is significant for

your and my understanding of who Jesus is in our life. The good shepherd

lays down his life for the sheep. That means he lays down his life

on behalf of the sheep for the sake of the sheep. He dies so

that the sheep might live. Can I tell you, friends, Jesus's death

was not a senseless or purposeless death. He died for the sheep. In

the Old Testament, we read about thousands of sheep every year being sacrificed as

a sin offering for their shepherd. But now Jesus, the good shepherd,

is saying, I lay my life down for the sheep. Thousands and thousands

of years sheep were given as an offering for the shepherd. But now the

shepherd is saying, no, no, no, my life is laid down

for the sheep. You better catch that this morning. That's good news for

you and I. Jesus goes on and he begins to differentiate himself from the

hired hand. Look at verse twelve. The hired hand is not the shepherd

and does not own the sheep, So when he sees a wolf coming,

he abandons the sheep and he runs away. The hired hand is not the

shepherd, right. The hired hand is somebody that the shepherd has gone out

of his way to pay to guard and protect what is his own. The

sheep don't belong to the hired hand. He has no personal interest in the

flock beyond what he makes as payment for watching them. So you better believe

when he sees a wolf coming, he's not protecting them with the same passion

as the shepherd who owns the sheep would, right, protecting them with the

same vigor, the same fight that the shepherd who owns the sheep would show

in that moment. Parents, I know you can relate to this, right

because before you were a parent, before your kids were your own, you

know what you were at one point in your life a babysitter. How do

I know that, because that is a rite of passage for every human being.

At one point in your life, you were a babysitter. And I

don't know how good of a babysitter. You are, but most babysitters have

the same thought in mind. I am in charge of this child for the

next five hours, but I ain't given my life for this kid, right,

Like, I understand if something happens to this kid, ultimately it comes

back to me. But it ain't my kid, right. So you aren't

jumping across the living room to protect him from running into the cabinet door,

right. You're not leaping across the dining room table to keep him from falling

off the chair. You're trying your best, but the kid is not yours.

But what happened when you had your first kid, I know what you

did. I know what I did. I wrapped my baby girl and bubble

wrap every day. There was nothing, there was nothing that was harming that

child. I would have jumped in front of a falling knife for that child,

right. I know that when you were a parent for your first child,

you woke up and the first thing you did was give him a kiss

on the head and put a helmet on them. Right, because that child

was not going to be harmed. You would do anything to protect that child.

Why, Because it's yours. This whole idea about wolves that Jesus was

laying out was not just some hypothetical situation. Wolves were a real danger to

the shepherds and the flock. And what I learned after researching this a little

bit more was that there was literally laws set up in Jewish tradition to define

the responsibilities of a hired hand when it came to wolves attacking the flock that

they were guarded. In the mission of the written or the oral Jewish tradition,

it's called the Missionah. This is literally laid out as law for hired

hands guarding sheep, and what it lays out is that a hired hand had

a legal responsibility to defend the sheep against one wolf, but it literally says

in the Missionah that two wolves would count as an unavoidable accident. In other

words, the hired hand was not expected to be able to defend a flock

against two wolves attacking at the same time, but only if one wolf attacked,

he would be held liable for the damages of that one wolf. Now

there are probably there were, there were probably some good hired hands in that

day that did the job that they were told to do and protected the sheep

that they were in charge of. But Jesus's point is this, no one

would really be surprised if the hired hand took off when they saw a wolf

coming. The hired hand was not about to risk his life for the sheep

that weren't his, and if the the hired hand ran off, the consequences

for the sheep could be disastrous. You see, the hired hand runs away

for a couple reasons, One because the sheep aren't his. He doesn't own

the sheep. But two, and probably way more important to what Jesus is

describing here, the hired hand runs away because he does not love the sheep.

The hired hand doesn't love the sheep. Look at verse thirteen. The

man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

Friends, hear me say this this morning. If you catch nothing else

this morning, hear me say this. God didn't just create you, he

doesn't just own you, but he loves you. He loves you, Jesus

says of the hired man. They're not his sheep, and therefore he doesn't

care about them or risk his life to defend them. And follow me.

Because Jesus is trying to build some contrast here he is the good shepherd who

lays down his life for the sheep. He not only risks his life for

the sheep, he willingly remember this. He willingly voluntarily chooses to lay his

life down for them. He dies so that they don't have to. Can

I just say thank you God that we serve a God that is so great

and loves us so much that he is willing to lay down his life for

us. I don't know if you are thankful for that this morning, but

I sure thank you that we serve a God who lays down his life for

us. Jesus is the good shepherd. Shepherd first of all because Jesus lays

down his life for the sheep. But let's read what it says in the

next few verses about the good shepherd as well. Verse fourteen says this,

I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and my sheep know

me, just as the Father knows me. And I know the Father,

and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have no I have

other sheep that are not in this sheep pen. I must also bring them.

They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock

and one shepherd Jesus is the good shepherd because he lays his life down for

the sheep. But you know what he's also saying, Jesus is the good

shepherd because he knows his sheep. He knows them. Last week, we

saw that Jesus repeated I am the Gate twice in the first ten verses of

John chapter ten. Here, in the second ten verses of chapter ten,

he repeats the words I am the good Shepherd twice once more. The second

time he speaks of the good shepherd as one who knows the sheep. I

am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and my sheep know me.

Can I tell you something? This morning I seriously wrestled with this idea

of Jesus knowing me and me knowing him. This week wrestled with it because

when you read that, immediately you feel comfort. Man, what a gift

it is to know that the god of the universe knows me and you amen

like he knows everything about you. He knows what you're feeling, he knows

what you're thinking, he knows what you're experiencing. He knows what's going around

you, he knows what's going on in your mind. He knows what's going

on in your heart. He knows everything about you. Isn't it amazing that

he knows you? But here is why the same comfort can also bring conviction

in my life. The same comfort can also bring conviction in my life.

When Jesus says I am the good Shepherd, I know my sheep, and

my sheep know me. You know why that brings me comfort and conviction Because

this means that Jesus knows the sheep from the goats. I feel like I

just need to let that rest on you for a second. Jesus knows the

sheep from the goats. He knows the ones who give their life to follow

him, those who trust in him, and he knows the ones that are

just playing the game. He knows the sheep from the goats. He knows

everything about you. And so, if I'm being honest, I gotta hear

that. Be comforted by the fact that he knows me, but also convicted

because does my life show that I know the shepherd. The same verse that

can bring comfort can bring conviction. He knows who truly believes in their hearts,

and he knows who's just showing on the outside. Jesus knows his sheep,

and his sheep know him. To know someone speaks of a per personal

knowledge, a personal love. Jesus and the sheep enjoy this relationship of deep

trust and intimacy. And for any relationship built on deep trust in intimacy,

it takes it happening from both sides. Right here is what this looks like

for us. Jesus knows us as the one he laid down his life for,

and so you know how we know him. We know him as our

savior. That's what that relationship looks like for us. Remember the illustration of

the sheep. And the sheep know the shepherd's voice. They know the voice

of the one who loves them, who feeds them, who guides them,

who cares for them. And because they know his voice, they follow him

wherever he leads. Jesus lays down his life and he takes care of us

in every way, and in response, we love him, we trust him,

we follow him wherever he might lead us. Church, I don't have

to know everything that is going on in your life for me to be able

to communicate this to you this morning. I want you to know that he

knows you, he knows your needs, he knows exactly how to take care

of you in your situation. Jesus knows everything about you. He knows your

deepest thoughts and your silent longings. He knows your private victories and your secret

shames. He knows it all. And hear me say he loves you.

He loves you so much that he died for you. What better shepherd to

guide our life and lead us than the one who loves you best? Amen.

Then he says something interesting in verse sixteen. I have other sheep that

are not of this sheep pen. I must I love that, I must,

I must bring them also, they too will listen to my voice,

and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. Do you know what Jesus

is saying here. He's saying that he knows both the sheep who are under

his care now and those who will be under his care in the future.

Jesus goes back to the sheep pen. Illustration. The shepherd goes into the

sheep pen, and he separates out his sheep from the rest, and he

brings them out and leads them to good pasture. And now Jesus is saying

he has other sheep who are not of this pen, and he must bring

them out. Who are those other sheep? Well, in the historical context

of what Jesus is saying here in John chapter ten, he is identifying the

very reason that he came. He is identifying the fact that his salvation that

he can offer is not just reserved for Jews, but for gentiles. Meaning

this every race, every language, every tongue, every nation. Salvation was

not just reserved for a certain people, but for everyone that would choose to

put their faith in him. And today Jesus is speaking to us in the

same way. Every person who does not know him is welcome into my sheep

pen. He will gather them, and he will bring them into one flock.

To take that context even one step further into your own personal world,

can I just tell you this morning that there are sheep that are not part

of this church. Yet, there are sheep that are not a part of

Gold Creek Church. Yet there are sheep that are not a part of any

other church in this region, around the country, or around the world.

And can I tell you that Jesus owns those sheep as well. He owns

the sheep of the future as much as the sheep of today. And Jesus

is saying that there are other sheep in your family, in your neighborhood,

in your workplace, in your school, in our county. And Jesus is

saying, I will gather them into my flock as well. He says,

there shall be one flock and one shepherd. Can I just tell you this

is the ultimate goal of Christ's mission, This is his ultimate goal. The

wolf scatters and the vibes, But can I tell you the good shepherd comes

to gather one flock. Jesus is speaking about the unity of the body of

Christ, and Paul echoes the same thing later in Galatians chapter three. He

says it this way. He says, there is neither Jew nor Greek slave,

nor free male or female, for you are all one in Jesus Christ.

Jesus says it this way, I will gather all my sheep, and

there shall be one flock under one shepherd. Friends, Jesus is the good

shepherd because he lays down his life for the sheep. He's the good shepherd

because he knows his sheep. But let's look at the third reason that Jesus

says that he's a good shepherd. And John ten verse seventeen are you guys

with me this morning. John chapter seventeen says this, the reason my father

loves me is that I lay down my life, only to take it up

again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on

my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, an authority to

take it up again. This command I received from my father. Jesus is

the good shepherd because he lays down his life for the sheep. Jesus is

the good shepherd because he knows the sheep. But Jesus is also saying that

he is the good shepherd because he has conquered death for the sheep. At

this point, Jesus drops the illustration. He's like, I'm tired of talking

about shepherds, tired of talking about the sheep. Pen he stops talking about

shepherds, he stops talking about sheep, and he speaks directly to who he

is. And that's probably because at this point the analogy kind of breaks down

a little bit, right. I mean, any common shepherd, yes,

can lay down their life for the sheep. Any common shepherd can know his

sheep, but no common shepherd could ever conquer death for the sheep. The

analogy kind of breaks down. Can I just tell you, as soon as

the common shepherd chooses to lay down his life for the sheep, that's kind

of the end of that shepherd. We need a new shepherd. That shepherd

is not caring for any more sheep. The brother is dead. But can

I tell you where common shepherds don't have this in common with the good shepherd.

There can only be one good shepherd. There's only one good shepherd.

The good shepherd is the one who lays down his life for the sheep.

The good shepherd is the one who knows the sheep. But the good shepherd

is the only shepherd who can conquer death for the sheep. Jesus says,

the reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life only to

take it up again. Keys, you can come on out now. That

is a mind blowing statement. When you hear it. I want you to

just like imagine being there listening to Jesus say this. Jesus is blowing people's

minds in this moment. He is not only laying out for us. Why

God the Father loves the son. We know from other scriptures. In John

chapter seventeen, verse twenty four, it says that we know that God,

the Father loved the Son even before the creation of the world. But Jesus

is saying, right here, the reason my Father loves me, at the

root core of why the Father loves the Son is what is because I lay

down my life only to take it up again. But imagine standing there listening

to Jesus say this, because he is not only communicating the root of the

Father's love for him, but he is declaring to the world that this shepherd

will not be bound by death, that there is more to this shepherd than

the common shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down

my life only to take it up again. Thank you Lord, right that

the Gospel does not end with the good shepherd dying. Jesus died on the

cross. But can I tell you, in a few weeks we will celebrate

the fact that the good shepherd rose again. But there's only one. There's

only one good shepherd that can do that. All the other ones man,

they make the decision. They choose to lay down their life for the sheep.

That's it. It's over. That's the end of the story for that

shepherd. But Jesus says the reason that my father loves me is that I

chose to lay down my life only to take it up again. Jesus died

on the cross, but he also rose again, which means this And here

is the thing that blows my mind the most, Like all of this should

blow your mind. All this is crazy, right, But here's the part

that really gets my attention. This means that Jesus was in complete control of

both his death and his resurrection. He was in control the whole time.

What does he say, I lay down my life so that I who's in

control, so that I can take it up again. In other words,

when Jesus died on the cross, I want you to imagine him hanging on

the cross the whole time he's making that decision to die on the cross,

he has the resurrection in his sights. He is in complete control of what

is to come. Jesus died in order to rise victorious over sin and death.

He did it so that he could be victorious the whole time. He

was in control. Friends, Jesus conquered death for the sheep. He conquered

death for you and for me, he says in verse eighteen. No one

can take that from me. But I lay down my own I lay it

down on my own accord. Can I tell you, friends, Jesus was

not a martyr where the disciples would come after him and many of them would

die for their faith and from what they believed in, and people who didn't

believe in what they believed in would kill them in some horrible, horrible,

horrible ways. Can I tell you that wasn't the case for Jesus. He

didn't die that way. No one had the power to take his own life

for him. He chose to lay it down on his own accord. In

John chapter nineteen, as Jesus is on trial before Pilot, nine chapters after

what we're reading right now, Jesus on trial before Pilot, just moments before

he would be sentenced to death, he would be flogged and beaten and hung

on across. He was standing in trial before Pilot and Pilot tries to intimidate

him in John chapter nineteen, Verse ten. Listen to what Pilot says to

him. He tells, Jesus, don't you realize that I have the power?

Who? He says? I have the power, Jesus, I have

the power to free you or crucify you, and guess what, Jesus,

I have the power. But what does Jesus say to him in response,

You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from

above. No one took Jesus's life from him. He chose to go to

the cross. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Friends,

Jesus is the good shepherd, not a good shepherd. He is the

good shepherd. There is no other. And in the same way, there

is only one gate for the sheep. There is only one good shepherd for

the sheep. Jesus tells people all of this. He declares who he is,

that he is the good shepherd for these people's lives. And what does

it say? Immediately after Jesus is finished declaring this verse nineteen, the greatest

shocker in all of Scripture, Jesus says who he is verse nineteen. At

these words, the Jews were again divided. Shocker shocker that people were divided.

Here's the truth, friends, Truth will always divide. It's not the

truth's fault, but there will always be a divided response to truth. Some

of the people listening heard this, and they simply thought he was possessed.

They were like, this guy is crazy, We're not listening to him.

Why should we even turn and listen to him? But there were also some

others who heard what he was saying and were connecting the dots about everything that

would be said about who the Messiah would be, and they began to believe

that this man who was claiming to be the good Shepherd could actually be the

Messiah. And as we close today, I want to leave you with a

simple and yet likely the most profound question that you will have to answer in

your life. And the question is very simple, and it is this,

who is your shepherd? Who is your shepherd leading your life, guiding your

steps, leading you to where you're going? The reality is is that every

one of us has a shepherd. Each of us has something ruling or guiding

our lives. For some of us, it's another person. For some of

us, it's been a guiding principle or an ideal. For some of us,

it is a destructive addiction that we've been caught in for years, and

for many of us, if we were to just be honest, we're our

own shepherd. We choose to run our own lives, we choose our own

desires. The truth is that there are many shepherds. But hear me say,

Church, there's only one good shepherd. There's just one. He's the

one who lays down his life for the sheep. He's the one who knows

the sheep in a close personal relationship, and he's the one who has conquered

sin and death. He is the good shepherd, and there are no others.

And maybe today you recognize that maybe there has been a shepherd leading your

life in a way that doesn't match up with what Jesus would say is the

life that he has to offer you. And I want to invite you into

this opportunity where you can simply stand before God and say, God, I

choose you to be my shepherd. God. I want you to be the

guiding post of my life. I want you to be the one who knows

me most. I want you to be the one who is in control of

my life. And so, with every head bowed, every eye close in

this room, that is your invitation. And in a moment, I'm just

going to ask you to raise your hand if you want to begin that relationship

with him, simply saying to Jesus, I want you to be my shepherd.

I've tried it on my own. I've relied on my own things.

I've relied on these things that have been moving my life in this direction.

And I am acknowledging this morning that I want the good Shepherd in control of

my life. And if that's you here this morning, whether you've made that,

whether you've never made that decision before, or maybe this is the first

time you're making this decision in a long time, Can I just tell you

this invitation is for you this morning to simply be able to walk out of

these doors and say, Jesus you are my shepherd. I give you control

of my life. I trust you, and I will follow you with my

life. If that's you here this morning, on the count of three,

I want you to just slip up your hand just so I can say a

prayer over you. Ready, one, two, three? If that's you,

yeah, hands up all of this from Thank you, thank you,

thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you,

thank you. Come on, put that hand up. Just let it's just

you and him, nobody else is looking around. Thank you, thank you,

thank you, thank you, thank you. See that here, thank

you. You can put your hands down. Can we just celebrate that this

morning? Can we celebrate those decisions this morning? I want to invite you

to stand to your feet with me, and the reason that I do this,

and we're going to say a prayer together, and the reason that I

do this is, man, you have just made a decision to step into

one flock, and we make that decision together. We celebrate that decision together.

And this morning, whether you raised your hand or not, maybe you

missed that opportunity. I want you to know that as you repeat this prayer

after me, you walk out of these doors making that decision to make Jesus

the good shepherd of your life too. Amen. Did you repeat this prayer

after me? Everybody say, Dear Jesus, I know I've messed up.

I know I've made mistakes, and I ask for your forgiveness. I believe

you died for my sins and you rose from the dead. But today I

turned from my sins and I invite you to come into my life. I

want you to lead me. I trust you and follow you as my savior

in Jesus's name. Amen.