Following the Shepherd (John 11:1-6)

John chapter 11, starting in verse 1.

John 11 · chapter mention

Now a man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair, and it was her brother Lazarus who was sick.

So the sisters sent a message to him Lord, the one you love is sick.

When Jesus heard it, he said, This sickness will not end in death, but is for the glory of God, so that the love of God may be glorified through it.

Now Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus, so when he heard he was sick, he stayed two more days in the place where he was.

Then after that he said to the disciples, Let's go to Judea again.

Rabbi, the disciples told him, Just now the Jews tried to stone you, and you're going there again?

Aren't there twelve hours in the day?

Jesus answered, If anyone walks during the day, he doesn't stumble, because he sees the light of this world.

If a one walks during the night, he does stumble because the light is not in him.

He said this, and then he told them, Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I'm on my way to wake him up.

Then the disciples said to him, Lord, if he's fallen asleep, he'll get well.

Jesus, however, was speaking about his death, but they thought he was speaking about natural sleep.

So Jesus then told them plainly, Lazarus has died.

I am glad for you that I wasn't there so that you may believe.

But let's go to him.

Then Thomas called twins said to his fellow disciples, Let's go too that we may die with him.

Lord, I thank you so much for today.

I thank you for your word.

I ask that you would be glorified, that you would fill me with your spirit to rightly teach your word.

And that you would fill the hearers with your spirit to rightly divide and discern what is of you.

And I just ask that we would fall more in love with you, that we would be quickened to grow closer to you and be glorified in your name.

Amen.

Go ahead and have a seat.

Can you imagine if Thomas somehow like wandered into like a prosperity gospel church?

So like you have to basically like, you need to claim and demand your blessing from the Lord and grab hold of it.

And Thomas is like, I'm gonna go die with Jesus.

And that's gonna be a really awkward potluck afterwards.

So, what on earth is happening at this point in time?

We spent the last couple of weeks in chapter 10 talking about the good shepherd, what it looks like for Jesus to be the good shepherd, how he lays down his life for the sheep, how he takes care of his sheep, how they know him, how they follow him.

And that plays heavily into this passage.

It's interesting because this chunk that we just went over is oftentimes the forgotten chunk, because if we're being real, resurrecting a dead person is more exciting than what just happened in this passage.

And so it was really nice actually to break this down and to see what on earth is going through here, because it plays heavily from the previous chapter in ways that I didn't necessarily see before.

So, some important things that we see here.

In John 10, starting in verse 27, Jesus is saying, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

I give them eternal life and they will never perish.

No one will snatch them out of my hand.

So Jesus was teaching in the previous chapter here, my sheep hear my voice, I know my sheep, and they follow me, and I give them life everlasting.

That's going to play heavily into the passage that we are going over today, because there are multiple points where Jesus is shepherding his people, his disciples, in ways that just baffle the living heck out of them.

And we get to see how that works as he leads them.

So, another important thing that we see here is in chapter 10, verse 31, the Jews picked up stones to throw, uh rocks to stone him.

They were about to kill him.

That's what happened last in Judea.

And that's what plays into what we see here and why the disciples are a little bit reluctant to go to Judea.

Make sense so far?

Yeah.

Okay, cool.

So we need to do a little bit of work because in chapter 11, starting in verse 1, we have a man with sick, Lazarus.

Lazarus from Bethany.

Where on earth is Bethany?

We have a map for this.

This is the map we've been using for the whole book so far, which is nice.

And so Bethany is right here.

Jerusalem, Bethany.

Now, that looks like a whole lot.

It is not.

It is not at all.

We see in chapter 11, verse 18, Bethany was near Jerusalem less than two miles away.

So Bethany is a bedroom community of Jerusalem.

Where they just tried to kill Jesus.

So that's a big deal here.

It's not like it is, we're here in a Tascadero, and then he's saying, let's go to Slow, and you go, we can't go down the grade, we don't need to go to Costco today.

Otherwise, we wouldn't go.

It's not quite like that.

It is literally a half an hour walk between the two.

And so that's the problem that we find is that the need is right in the midst of the danger.

That sets up the scene here.

Now we learn Lazarus, and this is not fair because everybody knows Lazarus.

Everybody who has stepped foot in church, for the most part, they know who Lazarus is, they know he died, they know he was raised to life, and so you kind of spoil the plot the whole time because you know it's gonna end well for Lazarus.

But ultimately, we first learn about this family, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary, and her sister Martha.

Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair, and it was her brother Lazarus who was sick.

Okay, here's the weird thing.

Do you know when that story happens in the Gospel of John?

We have a slide for that.

Chapter 12.

So John is referring back to something that he hasn't told us about yet.

No, that doesn't bug me at all.

I'm totally fine with that.

Here's what we see happen in that passage.

In John 12, 1 through 3, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was, the one Jesus had raised from the dead.

Spoiler alert.

So they gave a dinner for him there.

Martha was serving them.

Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with him.

Mary took a pound of perfume, pure and expensive nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped his feet with her hair.

The whole house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

So we're not going to expound upon that right now, because we will in a few weeks.

But this is what he was referring to.

Why on earth is John referring to this is the family that I haven't told you about?

Well, let me just kind of submit this to you that it shows he has a real local audience.

When John is writing this letter, he's writing to people who would be like, oh yeah, duh, I know that.

I remember that.

I was there.

I heard about that.

So it's nice that even though it's not chronological in this book, we know that there's a very real local audience who knew what was happening to where they actually knew these characters, and it's not just them going like I am 2,000 years later, I have no idea who these people are until you tell me.

It's cool to see that there is a real uh situation there that they would know about because it was notable.

That is not something that normally happens at a dinner, hopefully.

And then we see Martha as well.

We have a slide for this as well.

This is we're giving you a little background to this family, because we don't have a whole lot, but the little bit that we have is a whole lot.

So, Luke chapter 10, 38 through 42.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

While they were traveling, he entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.

She had a sister named Mary, who also sat at the Lord's feet and was listening to what he said.

But Martha was distracted by her many tasks, and she came up and said, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to serve alone?

Tell her to give me a hand.

And the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but one thing is necessary.

Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.

Okay, again, we're not going to dive into that too much.

All I'm doing is giving you a little background into the depth of relationship Jesus has with these people.

So, very real relationship in that Mary sitting at his feet in the Luke passage, anointing his feet with expensive oil, and wiping his feet with her hair in John 12.

And then Martha, he's a guest in their home on a frequent basis.

So that's what we're dealing with here in Bethany, in the backyard of Jerusalem.

Lazarus, uh, he gets sick, he dies, and Jesus raises him.

That's kind of what we get to hear about him.

So I'm not going to dive too deeply into Martha and Mary here because there's a lot more about that next passage that I really, really, really want to steal, but know that I shouldn't.

So that is the context for where we have.

You have a family that is well known by Jesus, that knows Jesus well.

He's in their house often in Bethany, right two miles away from where people just tried to kill him, and they send him a message Lord, the one you love is sick.

Further indicating the depth of relationship that he has with these people.

Which is cool.

Jesus is not a robot, he is not an ethereal spirit disconnected from the reality of life.

He has real relationships.

He has connections with people, he loves them.

Isn't that cool?

John is known as the disciple Jesus loves.

That is a super cool thing to see in that he's a real person who really interacted with people.

He did not keep them at arm's reach and preach a really, really good sermon on the mount and then go to his green room immediately afterward.

He was very involved in their life.

And that's super cool to see.

So, here is the first time we hear the shepherd's voice in this passage.

When Jesus heard it, he said, This sickness will not end in death.

It's for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.

Okay, a little bit to process here.

He's saying this sickness will not end in death.

And we know how the story ends, so we go, well, yeah, he's going to raise Lazarus from the dead.

Duh.

They are not living in that same context.

The only way to understand what Jesus said here is, okay, Lazarus isn't going to die.

He's going to get better.

Resurrection, kind of off the table at this point in time in their understanding of Jesus' ministry.

So when he says, this sickness will not end in death, that may be encouraging for them to know Lazarus probably isn't going to die, and then really confusing just a few verses later.

But it is interesting that he is saying this sickness, number one, in verse 4, is for the glory of God, and number two, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.

We talked about this a little bit when we went through John chapter 9.

John 9 · chapter mention

That's a pretty heavy thing.

Lazarus is sick, very sick.

His sisters are concerned.

They are going through a whole lot of sorrow.

They are going to mourn in a little bit.

And that all was allowed for the glory of God and the glorifying of the Son.

It's a heavy thing to process.

Same like when we talked about in John 9, where you have the man born blind, where it wasn't someone who sinned was the reason he was blind, but rather that the glory of God would be revealed.

We'll talk about that more in just a moment.

Verse 5.

Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus.

Good thing too, because when they send him a message that says, Lord, the one you love is sick, it would be really awkward if he's like, who?

Oh, I think I know.

He we indicate the depth of relationship here.

He loved them.

Okay.

But this is when it gets intense.

Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus.

So when he heard he was sick, he stayed two more days in the place where he was.

Little bit of super uh basic Greek fun here.

Okay.

Can you guys say oon?

You gotta be guttural when you say oon.

There we go, thank you.

That word is the word we have here for so.

That is a very important word.

It is a very little word in the passage, a very easy to skip forward.

But think about this for a second.

The word oon means therefore, accordingly, as a result.

Jesus loved this family, and as a result, he delayed and waited for him to die.

Jesus loved Martha, his sister, and Lazarus because he loved them.

He allowed them to go through this horrifying experience.

That's heavy.

That's intense.

Because Lazarus dies.

They start mourning.

They are in shambles, as we'll see next week.

And Jesus could have stopped it.

But because he loved them, he did not stop it.

That's a lot to process.

That's a whole lot to process.

Jesus' love is manifested in allowing temporary visceral sorrow and pain to result in a greater benefit and good that they did not understand could exist.

Super easy to say up here on a Sunday, really hard to experience when you're walking through it.

But it may it doesn't make it any less true.

And this is such a crazy thing to be able to process when those moments when we feel forsaken, when we feel that he's not listening, it may be for a greater glory of God and for our greater good to grow in him that we could not possibly understand.

Because nobody in this passage at this moment, nobody understands that Jesus can bring him back from the dead.

That's not something that we can possibly grasp.

The good shepherd does not just give the sheep what they desire, he gives them what they need.

The Good Shepherd does not pull the sheep and go, what kind of food do you like?

How do you like your trough to be set up?

Do you like your water here or would you prefer to take it on the veranda?

It's he knows.

He knows his sheep better than his sheep know his sheep.

And so what greater experience and trust do we have to walk through than to than to believe, than to choose to believe that the horrors of the now are for greater good and for his glory later when we cannot possibly see and understand.

That got heavy, so let's keep moving here.

He's gonna keep going in verse 7.

He stayed two more days, and after that he said to the disciples, let's go to Judea again.

Okay, it's not in the text, but I can promise you that the one place the disciples do not want to go is Judea.

He could have said anything else, any other place, and they would have been like, sure.

But he's like, let's go to Judea.

Let's go back to where they almost tried to kill me.

So, once again, the shepherd's saying something that baffles them.

And they respond, uh, Rabbi, just now the Jews tried to stone you, and you're going there again, you don't go right back to where the heat is, to where everything is elevated, you don't go right back into that backyard.

And once again, this is an interesting situation where the shepherd is leading the sheep, not where they want to go, not where they know is the right place to go in their sheep mind, but where he knows is the right place to go.

Something that I have found.

When we have to go pick up some things from Target, now we wait in the car for them to take it out to us.

But when we used to go into the store, none of my children had any trouble finding the toy section.

They did not go, I don't want to go look at that.

I don't, I'm gonna out him.

I don't want to look at the Lego aisle.

I would rather just not.

Now, when we say we have to pick up some toiletries, you know, we have to pick up toothpaste and things like that, it's like, can we just go over here?

Can't we just, can't we, but it'll just hold on, one second.

The shepherd does not take follow the sheep.

He leads the sheep.

Where we would go is what we know, is what we understand, is where we want to go.

And in our humanness, we really want Jesus to take us where we want to go.

And Jesus takes a sheep where they don't understand, where they don't want to go, and where in their understanding it does not feel safe.

And that's cool, as long as it doesn't happen to me.

But there's a quote that keeps popping up that I love that I mean it's pretty pretty blunt, but it's if your God agrees with you all the time, you're probably just worshiping yourself.

That's intense, of course, it's pretty blunt, but ultimately it's one of those weird things of like that can be what we think about our God is it's like, God, we're you we just, you know, we have it all figured out, we understand this, we just need your seal of approval so we can go there.

And he likes to take us in places that we don't want to go, that we would never have planned to go, and that it seemed really unsafe to go.

So, second point of the shepherd here.

Let's go to Judea, and they're like, don't want to.

Don't want to go.

They just tried to kill you, and you want to go back?

And remember, the disciples left everything to follow him.

We like to pick on the disciples, but they forsook their livelihood, they forsook their uh family inheritance, everything to follow Jesus.

So they put a lot on the line here, and they're like, I would really prefer you didn't get murdered.

Great greeting card.

So what does Jesus say in verse 9?

Aren't there 12 hours in the day?

Jesus answered.

If anyone walks during the day, he doesn't stumble because he sees the light of this world.

If one walks during the night, he does stumble because the light is not in him.

Strange thing to say.

That's his next response.

Like, hey, look, there's 12 hours in the day.

You walk during the daytime, you're fine because you see the light.

You walk during the night, you're probably gonna trip and fall.

So we don't have street lamps at this point in time.

We don't have flashlights, we don't have flashlights on our phones.

There is not this idea of being able to walk at night and be just fine.

Like, when I take the garbage out after dinner, I use my phone so I don't trip and die.

And that doesn't exist here.

So when he's saying there's 12 hours in the day, and you walk during the day, you don't stumble because you see the light, but if you walk during the night, you do stumble because the light's not in him.

What is the determining factor in that passage?

The light.

He doesn't say you can walk at night because you're really good at walking.

If you walk during the you need to walk during the day because you haven't quite figured out how to walk without tripping.

The issue and the variable in this is the light.

From those of you who have walked through John with us so far, who is the light of the world?

Jesus! This is the church answer, and we nailed it.

Good job.

Jesus.

So, everything is centered around the light, not the path.

Think about that for a second.

He doesn't say.

Hey, if the path is easy, you can walk it because you're good at walking.

Or the path is hard, you shouldn't go there because you might stumble.

What he does say is the light is what you need.

So, following the light is no cause for stumbling, even when it seems dangerous, even when it seems hard, even when it seems scary.

And in contrast, if you don't have the light, there is danger at all times because you don't have the light with you.

Now, why on earth does he say this in this context?

My belief on this is because he is indicating, as we have seen throughout the Gospel of John, that he is called by the Lord to walk as the Savior of the world and to die on the cross for our sins, to rise again, indicating the new life we walk in and showing that that payment was fulfilled.

Nothing is going to subvert that.

So there is nothing that is going to hijack his path.

So when they're like, hey, how about we don't go to Judea?

And he's like, it's fine.

Because I'm walking where the Lord has called me.

And that is the important thing.

He doesn't say, guys, it's fine because we're not going to die, and Lazarus is going to be raised, and you're going to get a truck at the end, and it's all going to be happy.

Seeing too many Christian movies.

Even when it does not feel like it.

And that's what it means to follow the shepherd is to walk with the shepherd, not where you want to go, but where he knows is good.

What is that require?

Trust, faith, submission.

No one likes that word.

It requires these things that actually keep us knowing that it's not that everything's going to turn out because we know how it's going to end, but because we know who we're following.

So he's telling them, let's all go to Judea.

And they're like, really don't wanna.

And he's like, no, it's fine.

It's fine.

We're walking in the light.

This is the path that God has called me, and here we are.

And then he continues in verse 11.

He said this and he told them, Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep.

I'm gonna go wake him up.

A few baffling things here.

Let me just keep going, I'll circle back.

The disciples in verse 12 said, Well, if he's fallen asleep, he's gonna get well.

And Jesus says, He was, however, actually, Jesus, however, was speaking about his death.

They thought he was speaking about natural sleep.

Okay.

That's the next thing he tells them.

First of all, hey, let's go to Judea.

And now Lazarus is asleep, and I'm gonna go wake him up.

Would you consider it wise to go into real imminent danger in order to wake up a sleeping person?

I will submit to you that for some of us, waking us up is the most dangerous thing you could do.

But that is a crazy thing to say.

Lazarus is, we know Lazarus is sick.

What is Lazarus doing?

He is sleeping.

And in that time, as far as I understand, sleep is one of the best ways to recover and to heal and to grow.

And Jesus is saying, let's go wake him up.

And they're like, you ought to go where they tried to kill you so you can wake up a sleeping sick guy.

I'm not tracking.

Jesus was speaking about his death, but they thought he was speaking about natural sleep.

So then Jesus told them plainly in verse 14, Lazarus has died.

Let's circle back to verse 4, when Jesus said, This sickness will not end in death.

And now we're down in verse 14, Lazarus has died.

Kind of think we're getting some mixed messages.

Especially, we fully understand.

We've seen this movie before.

We know that what that means is that it won't end in death because Jesus is going to raise Lazarus from the dead, which is going to further show his victory over sin and death, his power as the Messiah, his power as God in the flesh, the Son of God, and it's actually going to be for the greater glory and good of Lazarus and for his sisters who got to experience one of the most amazing miracles in the world firsthand.

But here, in this moment, they're like, is he or is he not dead?

That's what I need to know here, because you said it's not going to end in death.

And here you're saying he's dead.

Also, peripherally, why go if he's dead?

If you don't have resurrection in your paradigm, why would you go visit him then in the face of imminent danger when he's already dead?

What are they going to do?

Like, that's the crazy thing here if we don't know what Jesus is doing here.

That without the understanding of resurrection, the shepherding direction of he's dead, let's go visit him, makes no sense at all.

It also makes no sense that he's saying this won't end in death, and then because I love these people, I'm going to wait until he dies to visit him, and then I'm going to say, he's dead, and then I'm going to say, let's go.

So this is why I love having just this chunk of the passage, because we can just see what the disciples experience in this whole thing.

And it's really not something I've truly processed before having to prep for this, is how they because we go straight to Lazarus, we go straight to Mary and Martha, and how what they're experiencing here.

But think about that.

The disciples are sitting there going, like, I literally do not understand a word that is coming out of your mouth right now.

I don't know what to do, and I don't want to die, and I don't want to follow you so that you can die, but I left everything to follow you, and so what's going on?

He continues in verse 15.

I am glad for you that I wasn't there so that you may believe.

Actually, disciples, this is gonna work out great for you guys that he died so that you guys can believe.

On this, on the other side of the miracle, that's crazy talk.

Because you go, why I don't what?

But we know, having understood what is happening here, reading the whole passage, I'm glad for you I wasn't there so that you may believe.

You they get to experience Jesus, spoiler alert, calling out of a tomb, someone who has been dead for four days.

More on that next week.

But this is the part that they have to trust and they have to follow in order to experience.

So, why is this a blessing for them?

He is about to add a whole new category of understanding for them in his Godhead, both temporarily and eternally.

They get to experience resurrection.

That is something that they don't really get to experience on an average Tuesday.

So, what on earth has our shepherd said so far?

We have a slide for that.

All of these pieces that he has said so far.

Number one, the sickness will not end in death, but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.

So, the death isn't going to end, the sickness is not going to end in death.

Point one.

Point two, this is happening for God's glory and for the glory of the Son of God.

Point two, let's go to Judea right where it's not safe.

Point three, hey, aren't there twelve hours in a day?

Look, if you walk during the day, you don't stumble because of the light.

But if you walk in darkness, you do stumble because the light is not in him.

It's like, it's going to be fine, guys.

I know they just tried to stone me.

It's gonna be fine.

And then, hey, why are we going to Judea?

Because Lazarus has fallen asleep.

But let's go wake him up.

And then, actually, what I mean by that is he's already dead.

So let's go visit the dead guy.

I'm glad for you I wasn't there so that you may be b so that you may believe, but let's go to him.

That is a whole lot for the disciples to process.

Do the disciples need to understand what he's talking about?

No.

What do they need to do?

Follow.

Yes.

They need to be able to follow him.

We've already seen a lot in this book, by the way.

And so it's easy to go, like, guys, you've seen a whole lot of crazy stuff here.

Miracles.

You've seen eyes restored that never saw.

You've seen food multiplied.

You've seen storms calmed.

You've seen uh demons cast out, you've seen all this stuff, and it's like, guys, is this really but it's still, this should be comforting because, okay, show of hands, how many of you are human beings?

Okay.

I got some questions.

Because not every hand went up, so but with that, and it is comforting because it does not matter whether you've been following Jesus for a day or whether you've been following Jesus for 50 years, it's still scary when you have to walk in faith.

We do not graduate beyond our will and God's will being at odds.

And it's comforting that the disciples are walking through that because they've seen a whole lot and they've experienced a whole lot, and they're still right there in it, going, what?

I don't want to go, and that's crazy talk.

So, if I can just plant this seed, that voice in your head that says, maybe God's mad at you because you're struggling with following him, not God.

That's Satan, because God is an infinitely more patient shepherd than we could possibly hope or uh fathom to understand.

And so that is such a beautiful thing that it is not surprising to him.

We got such cool information about sheep last week.

If you didn't get to hear the message, I really, really recommend you listening to it because I have no context for that.

I grew up in something called a city, and uh I've seen sheep on TV, and there's also a whole lot of that stuff that's like, wow, cool, what on earth?

Uh and we got to hear a lot of really good information about that.

But I one thing that he that stood out was when it said, when Pastor Chris said, when Jesus calls us sheep, that's not a compliment.

Because they're not the brightest animals around.

But it's also comforting because he knows what we are.

So, what happens next?

Do they say, Jesus, I'm gonna sit this one out?

Sorry, I'm really not feeling this one.

No.

Thomas speaks up.

Okay, verse 16, Thomas called twin.

Why is it called twin?

We don't know.

We just don't know.

I mean, some ancient texts of interesting repute think that it that he looked like Jesus, and that's why he was called the twin, and therefore he had uh more danger potentially.

I don't know if that's true or not.

Some people say, well, because he had a twin.

Okay, I we really don't know why he's called that, but we do know that he's called that.

And so he says, Let's go to, so that we may die with him.

And again, that may be a little bit on the glass, glass half-empty side of things.

But it because he's still not pictured, he's still not grasped the it'll be okay.

But what he has grasped, and this is cool to me, is let's go.

Those are the important words here in following Jesus.

I have had the awesome opportunity in work to have to go into places and have to turn around the culture entirely and have to tell people who are convinced that what they're doing wrong is right in order for the benefit of the whole thing, and that it's somehow not true that their store is like dead last in the district, and we actually need to improve.

And it's amazing how many times they're like, no, that's not true.

Everything else is wrong, we're doing good, guys.

What we need to do is keep doing what we're doing.

And in that situation, the hardest part of the change curve is agreeing to try.

It's amazing.

Something in human nature that's like, I need to clean, I'll tell you what it is, it's called control.

But we want to cling to what we know, and we are not, it's so hard for us to agree to try.

Just to step out and give it a shot.

I literally have to tell some employees every once in a while, we're going to do this.

If it goes poorly, you get to say, I told you so.

I actually have to do that sometimes.

So, this is the cool thing about Thomas.

He's willing to walk forward with Jesus into danger.

Not into like, oh wow, that turned out great for us.

Into danger.

Spoiler alert, you know they raised Lazarus from the dead?

Then the religious leaders are going to try to kill Lazarus.

They're going to redead him if they can.

So it's complicated with that.

We don't get to hear the rest of the story this week, but what we get to see is Jesus, the good shepherd, leading his flock, contrary to everything they know and understand, for greater glory, for his greater glory, for his greater good, and for their well-being ultimately, even when it doesn't feel that way in the moment.

Big picture.

Following the Good Shepherd, the light of the world, results in him leading into new life.

That's the big picture narrative of Lazarus.

Trusting and following him, putting our trust in the Good Shepherd, who is the light of the world, results in new life.

Results in life everlasting, which we saw in John 10 28.

I give them, my sheep, eternal life and they will never perish.

Walking through that results in resurrection that they do not know or understand.

So, what's our job?

To follow, to trust, to follow, and to walk with him.

The results are up to him.

The success of it is his already.

The failures, he's already seen and is not threatened by.

And it is amazing how glorious it is to walk through that.

So whether you are walking through the best season of your life, or whether you are walking through the valley of the shadow of death, the shepherd is still good because he's with us.

Safety is with the shepherd, not in the uh smoothness of the journey.

Does that make sense?

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for today.

I thank you for your goodness.

I thank you for your faithfulness in all things.

I thank you, Lord, that you see all things beginning to end.

Nothing takes you by surprise.

And I thank you, Lord, that we can trust you.

We can trust you when it's good.

We can trust you when it's hard.

We can trust you when it is so crushingly hard, that we can cling to the truth that you are good and you know what is good for your glory, for our good, and for our walking with you.

I thank you, Lord, that the darkest night of today is but a blink of an eye in the scope of eternity, and that because of your son Jesus, we get to spend eternity with you.

Our good shepherd, Jesus.

I thank you so much for that.

I ask, Lord, that we would have hearts that are willing to walk, that are willing to try, even when it doesn't make sense.

I ask, Lord, that we would be renewed to anchor our hope to you and to absolutely nothing else in this world.

That our hopes and our dreams, our affections, our anxieties, our fears, everything would not be riding on anything else in this life, but rather would be anchored to you, the author and the finisher of our faith.

And for those who are hearing this message who have not put their faith in Jesus, Lord, I ask that your spirit would move on their hearts, that you would convict, that you would draw nearer, that you would glorify yourself in their hearts.

Lord, I ask that you would be speaking and that they would want to put their trust in you, and today would be the day of their salvation.

And for those who desire that, it is as simple as confessing and believing, confessing that Jesus is Lord, believing God raised him from the dead, and putting choosing to surrender ownership of your life to him and walking in that.

And Lord, I ask that you would be working on hearts to do that, that you would be working on hearts to encourage, to convict, to strengthen, to uh comfort and be glorified in your name.

Amen.