Sunday Message - Pastor Tyrone Jones Jr. (November 13, 2022) | Life Bible Church

Thank you so much. I'm incredibly honored to

be here. It's been such an honor and privilege

and pleasure to serve your house over this weekend.

I have to say, since he already brought it up,

I want to honor Pastor Trent and Jackie for being

incredible youth pastors, for throwing an incredible

conference. The spirit moved. I truly believe

lives were transformed and really it's a reflection

of your leadership. Your team is a reflection

of your leadership. And this is a compliment

that I hope you guys understand, but I really

mean it. Your youth ministry is a reflection

of your church. And because you understand the

power and because you understand the impact that

your church makes in this community, I hope you

understand how valuable it is that the next generation

of your church is carrying that mantle and carrying

it very well. So God bless you for that, man.

And of course, even though they're not here,

they are the leaders of this house. I want to

honor and thank your lead pastors, Pastor Brad

and Jenny, for allowing me to be here and just

say that you guys are so spoiled. They are incredible.

You guys are a sending church and you send your

pastors to go out and preach and minister. And

they actually came down to our church in Yuma

this year and blew us away. So it's cool to be

able to be here. But can we honor your lead pastors

one more time just for being incredible church

builders? And unique to this service, I want

to honor one last couple. I'm going to say this.

When I was a kid, when I was a small kid, Dad,

he founded our church when I was about seven

years old. And prior to that, I grew up in an

all -black Pentecostal church. I promise I won't

preach that long, but that was my roots at the

time. And that's all I knew. That's pretty much

all I knew. And then my parents began to branch

out a bit and build different relationships and

expand. And I remember the first time I ever

got on a plane, we hopped on a plane and landed

in... Eugene, Oregon, and drove to this little

small town called Junction City. And we drove

to Junction City, Oregon. And I walked in and

this church was being held in a gymnasium. And

all these people were so nice and so happy and

so white. And I just couldn't, I was like, oh

my gosh, I haven't seen anything like this before.

And I remember when the worship started, when

the worship started, I experienced something

I'd never experienced before. And yes, I loved

my roots. I loved the church I came out of. But

I'd never seen the joy of the Lord that way.

And I've never seen a church service where all

of the kids and the teens are up front jumping

and worshiping. And the lady that was leading

worship, she was jumping and singing. And there

were so many instruments on stage. I was like,

my goodness, this is amazing. And you fast forward.

probably about four or five years after that,

I remember just thinking to myself, like, it's

incredible that I'd never seen worship like that.

And why is it that these people are singing songs

from Australia? Who are these people? And just

experiences I'd never had. And that same lady

and her husband, they actually... set up a situation

at my family at the time, in this era now that

I'm talking about years later, was going through

one of the toughest seasons we ever faced. Matter

of fact, it was the toughest season we ever faced.

And that family flew me up and basically just

took me in for a bit. And I hung out with them.

And then I went to basketball camp with their

kids and then hung out a bit longer after the

camp. And I'm gonna say it restored, despite

the tough time my family was in at the time,

it restored such a faith in me in terms of seeing

family. Seeing family together that loves Jesus.

Seeing family together that loves each other

and that loves the church. And I needed that

so bad in that season of my life. And it blessed

me. And the truth is, it marked me more than

I could ever explain. And I didn't know if I'd

ever have this opportunity to thank them publicly,

but I can. Mark and Lori Smucker, thank you so

much. I love you. You guys are incredible. You

have marked my life. True story, during the hardest

parts of COVID when we were quarantined and we

didn't know what was gonna happen, I would go

to Lori's Facebook Live and I just put it in

my pocket and she would just pray on her live

and I'd walk around like, okay, it's gonna be

okay. I got Mama Lori in my ears. I'm gonna be

all right. But all right, I better preach here.

It's not the Grammys right now. It's not a bunch

of thank yous. Can we stand for the word? Can

we stand for the word? John chapter 10, John

John 10 · chapter mention John 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10. John chapter 10, verse one through

John 10 · chapter mention

10. It's interesting what I'm gonna be preaching

today is something that's very familiar to this

house. Something very familiar to this house.

I'm gonna be talking about hearing the voice

of God. And I think this is a church that firmly

believes in that, firmly operates in that, firmly

has a good understanding in that. But in Hebrews

12, 12, it talks about taking a fresh grip. And

this morning, we're gonna take a fresh grip on

hearing the voice of God. Truly, truly, I say

to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by

the door but climbs in by another way, that man

is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by

the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him

the gatekeeper opens, the sheep hear his voice,

and he calls his own sheep by name and leads

them out. Hello? When he has brought out all

his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow

him, for they know. his voice. A stranger they

will not follow, but they will flee from him,

for they do not know the voice of strangers.

This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but

they did not understand what he was saying to

them. So Jesus again said to them, truly, truly,

I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All

who came before me are thieves and robbers, but

the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door.

If anyone enters, By me, he will be saved and

will go in and out and find pasture. Verse 10,

the thief comes to only steal and kill and destroy.

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

Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you

that it's alive. We thank you that it is for

today. We thank you that you speak through your

word. We ask, Holy Spirit, that you give us ears

to hear, eyes to see, hearts to receive. In Jesus'

name, amen. Also praying for you Duck fans. I'm

with you. I'm hurting. What does it say? To hurt

with those who hurt. Hard turn. You guys ever

heard of TikTok? TikTok, Facebook, Instagram.

It's a social media service. My wife, who's here

with me, I'm so thankful for her. My wife, Karina,

as was said, she's a bit of a TikToker, I'd say.

Oftentimes when we're on vacation, the dinners

that we pick, the sightseeing that we do, I come

to the understanding later on is as a result

of stuff that she's found on TikTok. And I think

to myself, like, you saw this already. And we

paid all this money and flew all this way just

so you can experience something that we could

have lived together in 15 seconds at home. But

at the same time, those little clips on TikTok

that she watches gives her a preview to an experience

that she can have. Oftentimes, some of you may

be in here that have siblings or family members

or even some of your best friends that live outside

of your city, outside of your state, maybe even

outside of the country, and you use maybe your

social media, your Facebook or your Instagram

in order to still stay involved in their lives.

Some of you watch your grandkids grow up one

picture, one clip, one video at a time. Oftentimes,

especially going back to talking about COVID

and we're quarantined, I don't remember how many

churches I attended at that time because I could

just open up YouTube and be like, I'm worshiping

with Pastor Brad and all these, but I just get

to see these clips and these videos and not be

on the inside and not be there attending, but

get to have just a bit of the experience from

where I'm at. I like to call these snippets and

sound bites. Snippets and sound bites. I get

to partake in the snippets and sound bites of

an experience that I'm not actually having. A

place that I'm not actually at. An environment

that I'm not actually in, but I'm on the outside

looking in and doing my best to partake in it.

Oftentimes we use these snippets and sound bites

to... to form opinions, to form thoughts. Most

dangerously, sometimes we use snippets and soundbites

to determine how we vote and how we lead and

how we carry ourselves and how we gather information.

Some of those snippets and soundbites are put

together on channels like Fox News and CNN. Oftentimes,

I finish my evening watching snippets and soundbites

with my good friend Scott Van Pelt on SportsCenter.

But how many of you understand that no matter

how much we can watch and how much we can listen

and how much of the small clip from the rally,

the small clip from the event, the small clip

from the game, how many of you understand no

matter how many snippets and sound bites we take

in, it's not the same as having the actual experience

and being there in the environment for ourselves.

There's a story. of this young lady. And it's

a true story from our youth ministry. We call

her Mysterious Ruby. Not to her face, but we

call her Mysterious Ruby. You see, there's a

young man in our church. He, to this day, is

a middle school PE teacher. He's a middle school

PE teacher. He started talking about this young

lady named Ruby who would always come to his

PE class celebrating and excited about the things

that she has heard and experienced from our youth

ministry. She would talk about the sermon series

that we're in. She would talk about the different

small group leaders that she has. And maybe if

it was a special game night, if we had a guest

speaker and she would always go back to this

young man in his PE class and say, oh man, what

a night we had. And that speaker, he was great.

And the game was fun. And he would come back

to me and say, man, I love what you're doing

in your youth ministry. Ruby's really enjoying

it. Now, to be completely honest, our youth ministry

is just at the point of a size where I can't

say I know every single student. Every single

student in our youth ministry is known because

of our small group system. But me as the youth

pastor, I don't have the opportunity to meet

every single student all the time. So it's not

always uncommon when someone tells me about a

student that I haven't met before. If you guys

are with me. So he said, man, Ruby, her name's

Ruby and she really loves your youth ministry.

And so finally there was an opportunity for us

to do what we called an invite night, an open

night where even some of the young adults from

the church can come and hang out and hear the

speaker. So that young man came and he said,

man, Ruby told me about the invite night. So

I'm here and I've got some of the other students

with me. So I just wanted to say hi to her. I

said, that's great, man, do your thing. And he

doesn't see her. So finally he goes to the check

-in station and he says, hey, is Ruby here? They

looked her up in the system, and they didn't

see her name in the check -ins that day. So he

had one of the students send her a text and say,

hey, Ruby, Mr. K is looking for you. Where are

you at the invite night? She goes, oh, I'm already

in the sanctuary. They're like, okay, we're going

to come find you. We want to sit with you. And

they get into the sanctuary, and the students

text again, and then they say, hey, you know,

it's... a pretty good sized building, but it

should be easy to find you. Where are you? And

she says, oh, oh, oh, I'm helping at the check

-in station. So they go back to the check -in

station and they say, no, we don't see you here

either. And they finally just let it go. The

next day, he had a discussion with her and he

started piecing things together. And it turns

out that not only has Ruby never been to our

youth service on a Wednesday night, she's never

been to a small group. She's never been to one

of our in -home block parties. She's never been

to a Sunday morning service at Church for the

City at all. All of the information, all of the

names, all of the understanding, all of the experience

that she's had has been through Instagram. Which,

shout out to our Instagram team. Way to go in

creating an experience for people to see. But

the dangerous part about that is she began to

have such an experience through snippets and

sound bites of the ministry that she convinced

herself that she was a part of that community

enough that she can convince others. And you

see, the problem is... She began to convince

herself that she was in relationships that she

wasn't really in. She can gather and she can

hear and she can even repeat some of the things,

whether it's deep or fun or light or whatever

else. And she began to convince herself that

she was in community and in relationship with

the City Youth Ministry when the truth is it

was all just her being convinced by the snippets

and the sound bites. And how dangerous it is.

with the fact that oftentimes people do that

same thing with their relationship with God.

Through snippets and sound bites, we convince

ourselves that we're in a true, deep, intimate

relationship with him. All because we can share

and post a little piece of a verse that we don't

really even know the context of. Because we come

here and sit Sunday after Sunday and hear a 40

-minute message from Pastor Brad and we just

eat off of that one snippet and soundbite of

scripture for the rest of the week. Maybe we

put on that worship song on the way to work because

we know we have to deal with Jeff or whoever

it is, you know. Donna, I don't know. And that

snippet and soundbite of maybe a little scripture

in the song and a little bit of presence of God.

And that's all you get. And you're living through

that. And I think to myself how scary it is if

we attempt to live through the snippets and soundbites

instead of the true intimate relationship and

voice of the person. The person of Christ. The

person. Not the clips that are made available,

not the voices of someone that is hearing from

him and talking to you, but hearing his voice

himself day after day. And why is this so important?

Because we're in an era where there's more voices

available than ever. We're talking to the students

at Converge Conference this weekend and talking

about the fact that they have access to voices

all over the globe. Think about some of your,

and this just used to be a people in the network.

really tech type people. Now it's all of us.

I think about how my morning started. Unfortunately,

first thing this morning, I think I better check

my texts and make sure everything's going well

at home. I check my social media and invite people

to the service back at home. And then I check

my email to make sure I'm not missing anything.

And then I roll over and I say good morning to

my wife. And how many different voices, how many

different voices potentially did I hear and experience

already before my day has even started? And I

think even more crucial is the fact that there

are voices out there that can make themselves

sound so right, so godly. They can make themselves

sound so convincing about topics, so convincing

about subjects that mean a lot to us. And some

of those voices are actually leading us into

this position called deception. In John chapter

John 10 · chapter mention

10, what we read as Jesus is talking is that

he's trying to keep us from deception. And as

he's trying to keep us from deception, he's helping

us understand the voice that we're supposed to

be listening to and following. See, in John chapter

John 9 · chapter mention

9, Jesus healed this man who was blind, and they

even took this man in front of the... in front

of the council and they called his parents in

and they're saying, how did this happen? And

they're frustrated. They don't believe that Jesus

is capable of doing what he did. And now Jesus

is having this conversation with these Pharisees.

See, the Pharisees, they knew what they had available

of scripture. They knew what they had available

of the word at the time, but they didn't believe

that Jesus was the Messiah. They didn't believe

that Jesus was the savior of the world. So oftentimes

in scripture, we see them having this back and

forth debate with Jesus, challenging him as he

gives answers. And in this passage, we see in

the first few verses, Jesus is just basically

giving an understanding. There's no other way.

but me there's no other way to the father but

through me there's no other way to salvation

but through me in the first few verses he's establishing

once again who he is he's letting the pharisees

know whether you believe or not i am who i say

i am and i love in verse 3 how he talks about

that he calls his sheep by name He calls his

sheep by name. Whether you're a pastor in this

room or whether it's your very first time and

you don't know another soul in this house, you

were called by name. You were chosen by name.

The same person that created, the same God that

created the heavens and earth knows your name

and selected you to be a part of his kingdom.

There's no surprises in the kingdom of God. There

are no accidents in the kingdom of God, even

though every once in a while we have to check

our face when a certain person walks in and we're

like, oh my gosh, they're here. There are no

accidents. They're called by name. But I want

to lean into verse 4. I want to lean into verse

4 because it says that sheep follow him because

they know his voice. They know his voice. Two

really key points I just want to give in this

passage, in this talk, and I'm going to get out

of the way. But two key points. And the first

one is the most simple statement you can ever

make but sometimes harder to believe than others.

The first statement is this. Number one is God

speaks. God speaks. For some of us, we hear that

all the time. For some of you, that is a very

hard understanding to gather. It's a hard reality

to believe the fact that the God of the universe,

the God of all creation speaks today. The God

of all creation speaks and makes his voice available

to us. Makes his voice available to us even when

it comes to the topics that we're convinced that

we already know. He speaks even into the areas

that we're so offended about we don't want to

hear anymore. Speaks into the minor details.

I'm raising an eight -year -old and six -year

-old girl right now. I need to hear him. Surrounded

by women. Help me, Lord. Actually, matter of

fact, speaking of that, I want to make a statement.

There's something very cool. I said this before,

and you guys are spoiled, and this church is

incredible, but there's one thing that's incredibly

unique to your guys' church that I hope you really...

Grasp, understand, and gather. I think this is

a statement I can dig into later someday if you

want to have a conversation. But I think in the

past decade, a lot about our worship experience

in the contemporary church, I guess you can say

in the non -denominational church, became a bit

feminine. I had super tight pants just like a

month ago. And I'm not saying that's a reflection

of that. But it seemed like, and I think one

of the greatest indicators is me and my friends

who would go and speak and preach or whatever

else, we'd always say, man, I love going to a

women's conference. Why? Because women, you pop

those doors open, they're here ready to worship.

They're about it. They're up front. They're praying.

And we started to realize, at least for the last

decade, that it wasn't as easy to get the masculine

men to really offer themselves up in worship.

It's not the case anymore. And it's not the case

here at Life Bible. I love seeing men. that love

Jesus, that unashamedly lift their hands and

sing, and they're leading their family in a way

that I think that God has designed us to do.

See people up here in worship who look like they

killed a deer on the way to church. It's still

in the back of the truck on ice. I love it. I

love it. Where am I at, man? Sorry about that.

All right. The things I'm thinking about during

worship. I'm sorry. God speaks. Okay, Jeremiah

33, it says this, call to me and I will answer

you. I will tell you great and hidden things

that you have not known. The number one way God

speaks is through his word. The number one way

God speaks is through his word. Why? That makes

perfect sense, right? Because it's his word.

It's his word. Oftentimes, And I love the prophetic.

I love the prophetic. But sometimes we're desperate

for a word but haven't turned to his word. We're

desperate for a word. We're desperate to hear

directly from him regarding things that he's

already left us instruction on. And clearly,

I don't know if you grew up like I did and at

times you'd wake up and your parents are already

gone for work or maybe they're gone for travel

and they leave you that long note. And on that

note on the counter, on that note on the counter,

they'll tell you how they feel. Hey, I just know

that I love you. We'll be back in a few days.

Hot pockets are in the freezer. Just live off

of them. Make sure you get your chores done.

Make sure you take care of your siblings. Check

in on them. Make sure if anything goes crazy,

just run to grandma's house. All these different

instructions. And I can't imagine if my parents

left no stone unturned and they left me all the

instructions on that paper. And when I woke up

that morning, instead of paying attention to

that paper, I get on my landline phone and call

the landline phone wherever they are. And I say,

hey, mom and dad, you're gone. What do I do?

I believe they'd be bothered and offended because

they can say, hey, I left you all the instructions

you need. And I say, well, but I need to hear

your voice. That is my voice. I need to hear

your thoughts for me. Those are my thoughts for

you. I need instruction. That is my instruction.

Listen, we've got to get a hold of this thing.

The answers are here. Struggling in your marriage,

it's here. Struggling in your parenting, it's

here. Struggling in your finances, it's here.

Struggling on the inside, mental health, it's

here. And believe me when I say I'm all about

small groups. I'm all about counseling. I'm all

about all the different things that we can do

in order to help be healthy individuals, mind,

body, and soul, mind, body, and spirit. But I

will say this. There's nothing more important

to invest your time in when it comes to your

health than this right here. God speaks through

his word. Romans 10 says, so faith comes by hearing

and hearing through the word of God. 2 Timothy

3 says, all scripture is God -breathed and useful

for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training

in righteousness. And every bit of this word

is still true. Every bit of this word remains

true. I remember one time my dad took me to his

bookshelf when I was in school. I was a lazy

student, to be completely honest, and he took

me to his bookshelf. And he showed me this section

of his bookshelf. And he has, of course, he has

all his different books of, I don't know, Charles

Spurgeon and Charles Stanley and every other

Charles and all these other different people

and all these different Bibles. And then he has

this little section of these little yellow books.

You see, my dad used to help out and work at

a school. And they used to make him at least

come to a good understanding of what the students

are learning as they're reading To Kill a Mockingbird

and all these different books, and they have

to write all these assignments. So once he started

working that area, he had this little yellow

section of books. And then when I said, hey,

Dad, I got a book report to write, and I didn't

read that book. I'm going to be completely honest.

He took me to that little yellow section of books,

and he pulled it out, and he said, here you go,

son. This is the Cliff Notes. You can read these

little. 40 pages in this book and it tells you

everything you need to know about that entire

book. You don't need to read that entire book

because everything you need to know about that

book is in this little snippet and section of

this Cliff Notes. My dad's been my pastor for

30 years now. He never handed me Cliff Notes

for this thing here. He never gave me a way out.

He never gave me a hack. He never gave me a cheat

code. He said, son, there's nothing to take out

of this right here. We read this entire word.

We learn this entire word. We hear this entire

word, but we gotta have the patience to learn

it. We've gotta take the time to dig in. It's

incredible how much effort we'll put in to learn

how to make our own lattes at home. Some of you

guys took the time, effort, and years to learn

how to rebuild a classic car, how to learn these

recipes, and you made mistakes, and you stumbled,

and you had to call people for help. You had

to call buddies over. You had to call mentors

and all these different things. Can we do that

when it comes to Scripture? Number two is this.

Hearing and knowing the voice of God grows with

relationship. It grows with relationship. I love

the story in 1 Samuel chapter 3. This man named

1 Samuel 3 · chapter mention

Samuel, his mom, Hannah, was a person of prayer.

And Hannah prayed fervently and prayed for long

periods of time in order to have a son. And finally

she made a deal with God. She said, if you give

me a son, I'll have him raised in the house of

the Lord. And she stayed true to that. She took

her son Samuel to live with Eli the priest. And

there came a point in Samuel's life where he's

with Eli. And he hears this voice call his name.

And he runs to Eli and he says, what do you need?

And Eli, I'm paraphrasing, Eli says, no, I didn't

call you, go back to bed. He hears his name again.

Eli says, I didn't call you, go back to bed.

Samuel hears his name a third time. Clearly,

audibly, he hears his name a third time. He goes

to Eli and Eli says, he says, I didn't call you,

but this is what I want you to do. The next time

you hear your name called, I want you to say,

speak, Lord, your servant is listening. Samuel

goes back to bed. He hears his name called. He

says, speak, Lord, your servant is listening.

And he begins to hear the voice of God download

into him the things that are to be prepared for

when it comes to the kingdom, when it comes to

the nation at that time. I'm gonna give you one

more example, and then I'm gonna give you just

this phrase that goes along with this. I remember

being a kid growing up in our neighborhood. And

I would hang out and we would just kind of hang

out in the streets right there on our block.

And I would sometimes be two, three, four doors

down and we'd be playing football or basketball

in the front yard. And oftentimes we'd be playing

and all of a sudden I'd hear my mom step out

the front door. And you know, moms don't come

too far out the front door, but they just step

out the front door and she'd yell my name, Tyrone.

And I'd tell my friends, hey, I gotta go. And

they'd say, what happened? And I said, you didn't

hear that? My mom just called me. And they're

like, no, no, she didn't. Yes, she did. And I

got to go. You see, no matter what I was doing,

matter of fact, no matter how far I was, I was

able to hear my mom call my name because my ear

was tuned to her voice. Why? Because that's the

same voice that would sing me to sleep as a baby.

That's the same voice that would pray for me.

It's the same voice that said, have a good day.

It's the same voice that says, I love you. It's

the same voice that would discipline me. And

because of my relationship with her, my ear was

tuned to her voice. So even if I'm with people

who can't hear her, I can hear her because my

ear is tuned to her voice. Samuel, in that moment,

his ear wasn't tuned to the voice of God, but

in that very brief moment, Eli taught him how

to. Tune his ear to the voice of God. And sometimes

we can tune our ear to the voice of God just

by opening up our heart and opening up ourselves

and saying, okay, God, I'm listening. Tuned to

the voice of God, and that happens by way of

a relationship. What does a relationship mean?

It means time. And it means being alert when

you spend that time. Anybody ever do a sleepy

devotional? Check that box. I'm only 20 days

behind now, all right? We're getting there. Those

Bible reading plans. That's not conviction, it's

condemnation. Don't put that there. It takes

investment. Just like any other relationship.

Sometimes hearing the voice of God can come in

different ways. Is there anybody here who can

honestly say, and you can actually do a show

of hands here, is there anybody here who's heard

the audible voice of God? Okay. That's your prayer

partners. Look around. That's who you want praying

for you. Heard the audible voice of God. I've

never heard the audible voice of God. But as

we just saw, he still speaks audibly. Sometimes

we experience just this holy conviction. We don't

hear a voice, but you go to send that email and

it's like, nope. You go to text back, nope. Young

people, you go to get in that car, nope. That's

God speaking through that conviction. Sometimes

you experience confirmation. something happens

or something's said to you by a person or even

you see an event play out and you're just like,

yes, Lord. You just told me that the direction

we're heading is good. You just revealed to me

that we're in the right vein. We're in the right

lane. I was having the right thought. God didn't

speak it audibly to your ear, but by way of a

holy confirmation in that moment, you're like,

yes, thank you, Lord. Thank you for revealing

that to me. Thank you for making that clear.

Sometimes it's an unexplainable peace. That you're

experiencing. God's speaking to you through that

peace that you have. And the peace that, like

the Bible says, surpasses all understanding.

Your unsaved friends don't get it. Sometimes

even the people in your family don't get it.

But that's the voice of God bringing peace to

you. The voice of God bringing joy to you. Some

of you guys need to experience and hear that

voice at work or in certain relationships where

every other thought that comes to your mind is

struggling and tough. But you got this voice

of God saying, we're gonna make it. We're gonna

make it. Don't quit. Keep going. Keep pushing.

And he speaks that through sometimes just this

unexplainable joy. Other times it's a call to

action. I know this is a very, a church that

believes in missions, foreign missions and local

missions and different things. There's people

who've gone on missions and they said, the Lord

led me. The Lord told me to go on this trip.

But here's the thing. God didn't audibly tell

them. Go to Thailand. God didn't audibly tell

them go to India, but the promotion came up on

the screen or the advertisement came up through

the church media and everything inside of them

said, I have to go. That's the voice of the Lord,

but the voice of the Lord is speaking to you

through that call to action. There may be people

here who are headed to Texas who don't want to

go there. There's bugs. Trying to scare people

away. Stay here. But it's a call to action. It's

God speaking through a call to action. And as

we know with the voice of the Lord, and I love

how this house honors it, but with the voice

of the Lord, no matter how God speaks to you,

no matter how your ears tune to him, and no matter

what he says, it always, always, always. Someone

say always. Always. Someone say always. Always.

always aligns with the word of God. The voice

of God will never misalign with the word of God.

So I don't care how many times they say, thus

says the Lord. If it doesn't align with this,

you can miss me with that. Jesus goes on to say

that they will not flee or follow a stranger

because they don't know the stranger's voice.

There's a voice that speaks louder in their life,

louder in their decisions, louder in their processing

than the shepherd. And those people, they allow

themselves to be deceived. But it's interesting

that the Bible compares us to sheep, that Jesus

compares us to sheep in this passage. And really

the sheepfold they're comparing, it's really

a metaphor, a comparison to the kingdom of God.

As Jesus is talking, he's giving us this illustration.

And it's not the only time that we're compared

to sheep. Some people make the false claim like,

oh, the Bible calls us sheep because we're so

dumb. No. I mean, maybe you, I don't know, but

I don't feel that way, you know? And then I did

some research on sheep, and sheep aren't that

way either. In fact, this is some things I learned

about sheep. I did some extensive research on

Google, and it says this. Got a little snippet

and soundbite of sheep stuff. It says sheep are

clever and relational. One thing I saw said that

sheep can actually recognize up to 50 faces.

This is interesting. It says sheep have a 360

degree radius of vision. Does this sound familiar?

They can see everything going on next to them.

They can see what everyone else has going on

from side to side. And if they want to or need

to or just have the desire to, they can look

back behind from where they came from. They can

look back behind and they can pay attention to

everything going on side to side, but they don't

have foresight for what's ahead. Matter of fact,

they have poor depth perception, which means

in order to know what's going on from side to

side and behind, they can look. But if they want

to know what's coming ahead, they have to look

to the shepherd. Sound familiar to anyone? And

there's something else that this is, I did have

to spend a little more time to make sure I could

confirm, but it's incredible. And it just, once

again, reminds us the beauty of what we can learn

through the word of God and through scripture.

With sheep, when they're in their pasture, we

can be, this can be at an American pasture. This

can be in my hometown. Matter of fact, there

is one not too far. You guys have way more than

we do. But there's one not too far away. I can

go to that pasture and I can use the same accent,

the same words, the same tempo, the same tone,

and I can say all the same things that the shepherd

would normally say when it's time to gather and

round them up. And the sheep won't budge. But

the shepherd can step up and say exactly what

I said. exactly how I said it, at the exact time

I said it, in the exact moment that I said it,

and all the sheep by the sound of his or her

voice will respond and come running to be gathered.

Why? And this is a true statement for them and

it's a true statement for us. Sheep only respond

to the voice of their shepherd. Sheep only follow

the voice of their shepherd. Which makes it understand

why Jesus in John chapter 10 is saying they can

John 10 · chapter mention

be deceived by other voices. Why? Because they

aren't tuned to their shepherd. The sheep that

can respond to other voices, they don't belong

to the shepherd to begin with. Verse 7, Jesus

says, I'm the gate. I'm the door. I love the

fact that Jesus calls himself multiple things

in the same passage. Jesus, when you want to

talk about Jesus saying, I am, this is a great

moment. We see in the Old Testament, God says,

I am. But Jesus is saying, I am. In black culture

right now, people are going around saying, I

am him. Well, Jesus in this moment is saying,

I am him. Because he calls himself the gatekeeper.

And then he calls himself the gate. And then

he calls himself the door. And then he calls

himself the shepherd. All in the same passage,

all of it is an example and a vision of me. You

come through by way of me, and then what you're

walking through is me, and who is responsible

for it is me. And then verse 10, he says that

the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

What is he trying to steal, kill, and destroy?

Your confidence, your hope, your marriage, your

faith, your relationships. It's not just, let's

remember that this enemy that's after your soul

is not just after your church body as a whole.

It's not just after our nation as a whole. He's

a thief that's trying to deceive us as individuals.

And at times will make this attempt to deceive

us in these subtle ways so that he can steal

our thoughts, he can steal our understanding,

he can even steal our loyalty. But Jesus comes

and says, I have life and life in me is life

more abundantly. Abundant life doesn't mean a

long life. Abundant life doesn't even mean a

rich life. Abundant life is actually what we're

truly aiming for in this life on earth. It's

fulfilled and content. Fulfilled and content.

And the only way to have a fulfilled and content

life is a life in Jesus. A life in response to

his voice, a life in response to his sacrifice

for us. And the greatest thing that he says is

in verse 11. In verse 11, he says this, I am

the good shepherd and the good shepherd lays

down his life for the sheep. In an actual real

natural sense, what the shepherd does. At the

end of the evening is all the sheep come into

the sheepfold and the shepherd lays down. And

the only way that the deceiver can get to the

sheep is by trampling over the shepherd first.

He's a defender. He says, take my life before

you take my sheep. But we now, the New Testament

church, the church and body of believers, we

don't have to worry about anyone having to give

their life for us because Jesus already gave

his life. Jesus already gave his best. Jesus

already gave his all so that we can have life

in him and life forevermore. I'm gonna ask you

guys to stand and I'm just gonna pray to close

out. For those of you here who maybe never understood

the goodness of this gospel, never understood

the fact that Jesus died on the cross for you

and for me. Knowing that you would stumble and

make mistakes and knowing there would be seasons

in your life when you're not serving him, where

you're allowing yourself to be deceived or you're

allowing yourself to give your heart and your

mind and yourself away to other forces, other

relationships, other thoughts than the one who

actually gave everything for you. If that's you,

I want you to understand you're never too far.

You're never too lost. Because he calls you by

name, he creates a pathway. He creates a way

for you. And it is him. He loves you. He sees

you. And he cares. So with every head bowed and

every eye closed, I just wanna pray. If you're

here today and you need to receive Jesus, I wanna

pray for you. For those of you here who may want

to hear more of the voice of God, I wanna pray

for you. But as we close here, I think they're

gonna give you different opportunities for prayer

and different things. So I just wanna close this

message. Lord, I thank you. I thank you for your

word. I thank you that you are a God that speaks,

a God that cares, a God that knows us. Holy Spirit,

we thank you for your presence here. We thank

you that we get to experience you in fullness.

We don't have to go through anyone to experience

you. We thank you that you inhabit our praise.

We thank you that you hear our thoughts, even

the ones that are unspoken. I ask today, first

of all, for anyone who needs to know you, first

and foremost, that needs to know you as Savior,

I pray. a way that they can't resist. Lord, I

pray that they say yes to you, say yes to your

sacrifice, yes to your death, burial, and resurrection.

I pray today that they confess you as their Lord

and Savior. And for those, Lord, that we just

wanna hear you more clearly. We wanna hear you

and we wanna respond in the way that you've designed

for us to respond. I thank you for a church and

a house that hears you, that loves you, Lord,

I pray that as we go forward this week, that

we get into our word, that we get into moments

of alert intimacy with you, times where we're

spending with you with full intentionality. The

Lord says over Life Bible, you're a church that

models 2 Chronicles 7, 14 in such a way that

you have humbled yourself, you have prayed. I

see right now that there's just an ear in this

house that the Lord says, you give me your ear

and you have my ear. Pray bigger, pray by name.

There's a harvest for this house. Lord, I thank

you that this house has a specific anointing

for this season, a specific anointing for this

region. I thank you for the prayers that came

generations ago that prayed for this time, for

this season in the life of Pastor Brad and Jenny,

for this season in the life of the NextGen ministry,

for this season, for the businesses that are

represented here. We love you. We thank you.

We give you all the glory, honor, and praise

in Jesus' name. Amen. If you are interested in

hearing other podcasts or contacting Life Bible

Church, go to www .lifebiblechurch .org or call

us at 541 -995 -8282.