Jesus Is: The Good Shepherd | Part 4

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Welcome to Awakening.

Great to see you all here.

And if you open your Bible to John chapter 10, and you have some notes, if you open there, we're in a series called Jesus Is.

John 10 · chapter mention

And there's a lot of controversy back when he came and up to today.

And so Jesus says, I am, and then defines who he is seven different times in the book of John.

And we've looked at Jesus is the light and Jesus is the gate.

And we're going to look today at Jesus is the Good Shepherd.

And notice in your notes, there are two questions.

I want you to really ponder this.

Look down at them.

Two questions that how you answer them will determine the direction of your life.

And the first question is what comes to your mind when you think about God?

We all have a God consciousness, sort of a view of what God is like.

And how you picture him.

It's a very unconscious thing, but how you picture him will really determine whether you run toward him or run away from him or who you think he is or how do you respond?

And then the other question, equally important, is how do you think God sees you?

As you think about those two questions, let me uh give you a maybe a human illustration.

I'm I'm wrestling with something.

Like, don't you guys have some stuff?

You know, I gotta, and uh a lot of it you can figure out on your own.

You pray, you read God's word, this is what God wants you to do.

And sometimes you get stuck.

And so I've been stuck recently.

And I mean, like for several weeks.

I just can't get my arms around what to do, how to pull it off.

And Monday I was praying and I thought, you know something?

Uh I'm gonna call a shepherd.

They call him pastors these days.

And he's uh a fellow named Steve that we worked together.

I knew him when he was a football coach back when he was like 28 years old, and so was I.

And it was 40 years ago.

And so I get on the phone, he actually was a pastor here in the area, and I said, Hey Steve.

Um actually I texted him.

This is a great picture.

I said, Hey, I'm wrestling with something and I just can't figure it out.

Could I talk to you sometime soon?

30 seconds later, phone rings.

And that's what shepherds do, they care about you.

They want to respond, they they care about what's going on.

And we talked for probably 45 minutes, and when I got done, uh, because I've known him for 40 years, uh, we we met in Texas, then we worked together in Santa Cruz, and then he's been a pastor at Westgate and actually was a part of this church getting launched with Ryan and the team.

And when I got done, he said, Chip, there's one thing missing in your life, and you and Teresa have to figure out how to solve that.

And you're whatever you need to do, you have to do that.

He says, Secondly, it's really clear God made you to do one thing really well.

Whatever you do, bust it.

Don't let anything get in that way.

And it was just clear.

It was just clear.

And he shepherded me.

And what I've loved about Steve, he's an old football coach.

So, one, he is compassionate, but he has told me the truth uh more powerfully, more bluntly, than anybody but my wife.

I mean, he's looked me in the eye and said, dude, what are you thinking?

Are you and believe me, I won't go on.

But you know, life, life gets sticky, doesn't it?

It gets confusing, it gets uncertain, relationships mess up, futures, you don't know what's gonna go on.

Then you turn on the news or you scroll, and there's earthquake, then another earthquake, and there's there's COVID, there's political issues.

I mean, the world is a really, really complicated, divided, challenging place that has created unprecedented anxiety and fear and struggle.

So, where do you go?

And see, your view of God will either say, this is a safe, kind, loving, just heavenly father who wants to guide and direct you and put his arm around you and literally walk with you in a very, very uncertain world, or as the neighbor who lives right across my cul-de-sac, we've been loving and caring for them for over 12 years.

Um that when we moved in, people said he's the bad neighbor, critical, angry, you know, your leaves are on my side, the guy who blew grass is on my side.

I mean, and so we've loved and loved and loved, and after about five years, finally got through, we had a really deep open conversation.

And he looked at me and he said, I want you to know if I walked into a church, people would be in danger.

Fire would come from heaven, and he would consume the place because I know that's how he sees me.

I I used to understand this, and this is where my life is, and there is no hope for me.

And it's been like a brick wall, a brick wall.

But I don't think he'll come to a God who he thinks is harsh, angry, unloving, but not patient, and down on him.

And so, can I pause?

How do you see God?

How do you see God, especially when you're struggling?

Do you medicate?

Do you go to someone else?

Do you try and get distracted?

Or does he shepherd you?

In this series, uh, Ryan last week talked about Jesus as the shepherd, and if you're in John chapter 10, uh please open your Bible.

John 10 · chapter mention

Let me give a little overview and we're gonna jump right in.

And uh you can open your phone and you'll see that uh the question that that was on Jesus' mind and heart was exactly the problem we have today, is that if God really loves people and he really is compassionate and he really wants to help them, but instead of having my view of my friend, lots of people, including some of us in this room on some bad days, we think God would never listen to us that we have done and said and thought, or he's too busy, or he's distant, or maybe even not even real.

And so Jesus, when he came, the scripture says he came to explain the Father.

In other words, he came so that when you would see what Jesus said and how he acted, you would know that's how God is, that's how he really is.

And so the dilemma was how does Jesus help us see what God is really like?

And in the passage I put on the front of your notes, it says Jesus had saw this huge multitude, and he said when he saw them, he had compassion on them because they were distressed, you might underline that word, and downcast, underline that word, like sheep without a shepherd.

And so Jesus saw this multitude of humanity, like he would look at eight billion people today, and he would look right in this room at each one of us, and he would see distress, uptight, insecurity, fear, anxiety.

And then he says, they're downcast, and that's a shepherding term.

And when a when a sheep would eat a lot and sometimes get a little distracted, they might roll on their side, but if they rolled too far, maybe there was a little indentation.

If they get upside down, it's called their cast.

A sheep can't get up by themselves, they just will die.

And if a shepherd doesn't come over and roll the sheep over, it'll literally die right there.

And Jesus saw humanity as distressed and disturbed and struggling and downcast, so dependent that if he doesn't come in and help them, they'll die emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

And so to explain the compassion and the love of God, because that word is an interesting word.

It literally means to come out of the bowels.

The Hebrews believe that your deepest emotions, like some of you, you've ever seen someone really hurt and struggling and in pain or in such a situation, and just almost like your stomach, it's like, oh man, if I could only help them.

This word means to feel so deeply for the needs of another that you're compelled not to feel sorry for them, not even to have sympathy, but to help them.

And so in an agrarian society, he knew that they understood about sheep.

Those people knew that if you don't have a shepherd, you're in trouble.

They knew that every sheep needs a shepherd.

And so he uses this metaphor of the sheep and the shepherd in order to help them understand who he really is.

And so, with that, notice in your notes, oh, uh, it says that um chapter 10, there's a parable or a metaphor that we looked at last week, verses 1 through 6, about Jesus being the gate.

And then the teaching is verse 7 through 10, and then he makes an offer of eternal life for salvation, and then he gives his purpose.

And let me read that context before we dig into the passage for this week.

Verily I say to you, Pharisees, any one who does not enter the sheep by the gate, but climbs up in some other way is a thief and a robber.

The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep, and the gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice.

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

And when he's brought them out, all his own, he goes ahead of them, and his sheep follow him, because they know his voice, but they will not follow a stranger.

In fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice.

And then here's the summary that we looked at last week.

Jesus used this metaphor or figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he said.

And so they don't get it.

They don't get the gate, the opening, the access, that if you want to have a relationship with God, you want your life to work, he says, I'm the door, I'm the way, I'm the gate.

Therefore, Jesus said, Verily, verily I say to you, now that's not like some weird thing, when we want to say good, we say something is good or it's better or it's best, uh, in Hebrew uh and or Aramaic here, you you would say good, good to give it emphasis, or you might say, good, good, good.

So that's why the song that we sang, holy, holy, holy, that's he's saying, this is the absolute, ultimate extreme.

And so when he says that, he's making a point.

Verily, verily I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep, and all who've come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.

And then this is what we heard.

This is this was the great promise.

I am the gate, whoever enters through me is saved.

In other words, who'll be forgiven.

He's talking about spiritual salvation, to be rescued from your sin, to have a personal relationship with Christ.

And then he says, and after that, they will come and go out and they'll find pasture.

In other words, it's a relationship.

I'm gonna lead and I'm gonna guide.

And you know, back in that day, those people say, Oh wow, so you are gonna do for me as a human being, relationally and spiritually and physically, what a shepherd does for a sheep, the lights would have come on for them.

And then he goes, The thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy.

And here's his purpose statement but I have come that they might have life and have it to the full.

And then that begs the question: how do you get life to the full?

How does it really work?

And so now he's gonna go from one picture of him being the gate or the door, the access.

He's gonna talk about I am the good shepherd.

And follow along as I read and look, look for what he's verse 11.

I am the good shepherd, and listen for what determines.

There's a little phrase about laying down his life.

See if you can count how many times he talks about laying down his life and what makes him a good shepherd.

I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep.

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

Then the wolf attacks the flock and it scatters.

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

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, I lay down my life.

And then put a little circle, if you're using your Bible, around the word, I lay my life for the sheep.

I have other sheep that are not of this pen.

I must bring them also, and they too will listen to my voice, and there'll be one flock and one shepherd.

And the reason my father loves me is I lay down my life only to take it up again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.

This command I received from my father.

And so he says, first and foremost, that he offers his life in our place.

Greater love has no man than this, that one lay down his life for his friend.

Those are Jesus' words from John 15.

What he wants you to know is that if you were back in that day and you would knew about sheep and you knew about a shepherd, you knew all the things that they need, your mind would start to click and you would realize just like the sheep that I watch, if they roll over, they're absolutely dependent, that they're actually not very smart, that they can't defend themselves, that if they want, they tend to just wander, they tend to be rather hard-headed, and God calls us sheep.

And those people are thinking, if if God sees us as sheep and we have these tendencies, that even though when we know this is the best way, we just there's something like a magnet that wants us to do it the opposite way.

And they're hearing Jesus saying, I'll be your shepherd, and let me prove it first and foremost, is I'm going to give my life.

And there's two words in Greek for that little word for.

One means on behalf of.

The other means in your place and on your behalf.

In other words, Jesus is saying, and we'll learn later, I'm going to lay down my life and I'm going to pay for your sin when I hang upon the cross.

Because I want you to be holy so you can access to a holy God.

And that's impossible in your current state.

And so when I die, being perfect and human and fully God, the Father's going to take all of your sins and the sins of all people of all time, and he's going to place it on me, and I will be your substitute, and I will be the sacrifice, the word I'll atone or I'll cover your sin.

And I've done it for the whole world.

And it's an offer where your salvation has been purchased.

And so whoever would turn willfully from your sin and receive by the empty hands of faith this gift to receive forgiveness forever and have his spirit come in your life and begin to follow him, he says, That's what I want to do for you.

Then notice secondly, he goes on to say, Not only do I offer my life, but I offer it to everyone, not just to this group.

He talks about another flack, it's us Gentiles.

And then finally, he does it voluntarily.

I wish in world history some people would have read this verse.

The Romans did not put Jesus to death, and the Jews did not put Jesus to death.

Jesus voluntarily gave his life because you matter.

Who for the joy set before him, the scripture says he endured the cross.

Ordinary people like you and me and all of our stuff, for reasons we don't understand, God created us, he loves us, he wants a relationship with us.

And so he lays down his life, but then the Good Shepherd reveals his identity not only as the savior of the world, but also that he's God.

And the text continues, and so the response to this amazing offer, are you ready for this?

They say, um, they think that he's demon-possessed.

The Jews who were again divided, and many of them said, he's demon-possessed, he's a raving madman.

Why should we listen to him?

He's claiming to be the shepherd, the shepherd of Israel.

Give us a break.

But others said, these are not the sayings of a madman possessed by a demon.

Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?

In other words, shortly before this, there was a blind man.

And earlier he spoke, and the little girl came back to life.

And you know what?

There were 5,000 people and there were a few loaves.

He had done miracle after miracle after miracle to prove or demonstrate.

And so they go on.

And so then Jesus came.

There was a festival of the dedication, and it was winter, and Jesus was in the temple courts and walking in Solomon's colonnade, and the Jews who were there gathered around him, and he says, Okay, okay, you're making all these statements.

You're saying the light, you're saying, you know, you're the gate, you're saying the shepherd.

Come on, get straight, get real.

Are you the Messiah or not?

Are you the awaited one or not?

Notice Jesus' response.

I did tell you, but you don't believe me.

The works that I do, the miracles in my Father's name testify about me, but you don't believe, because you're not my sheep.

My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they know me.

I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.

What a promise.

No one can snatch them out of my hand.

My father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of my father's hand.

I and the Father are one.

And so notice his promise is eternal life.

And by the way, just for some of us, I didn't grow up in the church.

And when I heard the word eternal life, that sounds like something that happens that you get after you die.

That's not what the Bible teaches.

The Bible teaches the moment that you turn from, the biblical word is repent, turn from your way and say, God, I need your help, and I receive Christ as my substitute.

It says the life of Jesus is deposited in your human body by the person of the Holy Spirit.

You are born spiritually, and he says you have new life.

And so eternal life begins the moment you trust Christ and then it goes on forever.

And so when your physical body dies, what happens is the quality of your eternal life just gets better and better and better.

And there's a new heaven and there's a new earth, and all the things that God longed to see happen in the first couple chapters in this perfect environment before sin entered the world, we will experience on what I would call spiritual steroids.

On a world where the lion lays down with the lamb, in a world where there's no sickness, no sorrow, no pain, no tears.

We have unity with one another in a world where you continue to think and to grow, and there's culture and roles and even jobs, but they're done in a perfect environment to the glory of God.

And it is an amazing promise he makes.

And these are the things he's promising to these people.

And then he makes the this statement.

He says, The Father and I are one.

In other words, he came to reveal who God is, and now he's gonna say, We are of one essence, not the Father and I are one person.

Uh, some of you are in English, right?

So you know that different cases in different languages, you it's in some can be in the feminine case, some in the masculine case.

In Greek, you have three cases.

One is neuter, in other words, it's a it's it's one it's neither masculine nor feminine.

When Jesus says the Father and I are one, he's saying we're one essence.

He would later say, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

And what he wants you to know is that all the resources of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, he has promised.

And then finally, we see two very different responses.

Again, his opponents picking it up at verse 31, they pick up stones to kill him, and he says to them, Now, which of my miracles or good works did I do that you're going to kill me for?

And they go on and say, It's not your good works we're gonna kill you.

We're gonna kill you because you, being a man, are blaspheming and you're claiming to be God.

As you skip down to verse 39, they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp, and then he went back across the Jordan to the place where John was baptizing in the early days, and there he stayed.

And here's the other response.

And many people came to him, and they said, Though John, speaking of John the Baptist, never performed a sign or miracle, all that he said about this man was true, and in that place many believed in Jesus.

And so he comes and says, You don't What God's like, but you know a lot about shepherding, and this is your world.

So just like the Old Testament talks about, you know, Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, Yahweh is my shepherd.

He comes and saying, I'm your shepherd.

I want to guide you, I want to protect you, I want to love you, I want to forgive you.

I see you as cast.

I see you as trying to work out your own life.

You're distressed, you're anxious, you're insecure, you distract yourself, you're self-medicating, you're addicted to stuff.

There's there's no reference point that doesn't change.

You're up one day and down the other, and this over here, you're looking for it in people here, you're looking for it in success or fame or money.

And he goes, Stop it.

Stop it.

Cease striving.

Know that I'm God.

Let me let me cause my compassion.

I'm not down on you.

I want to help you.

But you gotta stop so I can help you.

You gotta quit looking to everything and everyone else for help.

Please, please.

And and and he had two things that um that he didn't have a baseball bat, by the way.

Uh, but this is this is my old college days, my old baseball bat.

Mickey Manual 34, Louisville slugger, but uh you can just take that one out of the tape.

But uh a rod would be uh about six or eight inches shorter, and it would have a ball on the end, and it has I keep this in my house for an intruder.

I don't want to shoot anybody.

I don't think I could do it anyway, but I think I could whack them if they tried to mess with my wife or someone in my house.

And and I just I brought this because uh the when it talks about his rod, it would be a ball and often would have some nails stuck in it.

This is how you take care of bears and lions.

And that's what shepherds did.

I mean, it's hand to hand.

And so when he says, I'm your his rod, and then the other thing he had was they had a staff.

And sometimes you see them where they have a crook, but often they wouldn't.

And it was one just about like this.

And this is when a shepherd, when a sheep are just so much like us, or we're so much like them, they just tend to wander.

I I mean, if there's some grass, they just keep nibbling and nibbling, and and they get, and by the way, and if they get lost, if they get behind, that's when the wolves get them.

And so he would use this to comfort them, to just a small tap, to know, okay, over this way, over this way.

Or if they got in a ditch or something with a little hook, he could pull them out.

And so David would would say, you know, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Because God wants you to know he wants to protect you.

He wants you to protect you from bad relationships and bad business deals and bad philosophy and bad decisions and bad things.

And he also then wants to provide for you.

He wants you to get the very best of everything because you're the object of his affection.

And so, what I thought I would do with the rest of our time was um to talk about what's it look like for Jesus to be your good shepherd?

I mean, what would that look like?

And since I'm sure this was on the very frontal lobe of Jesus' mind when he was speaking to them, I want to take you to Psalm 23.

I'll put it in your notes, and if you have a pen, I'm gonna ask you to fill in a few things because after you do, in fact, I want you to print them in bold, don't do script.

I want you to, I want you to print them in all capital letters.

Because when we get done, I want you to go through and say, what would happen if I believed this?

Well, what in the world would happen to my life if I actually believed that Jesus wants to be my shepherd?

So let me show you what this looks like.

As your shepherd, he wants to meet your deepest needs, right?

So you have a need for significance, security, purpose, and acceptance.

We all do.

To be a somebody, for your life to work, to get up to say, I matter, I'm loved, I'm accepted just the way I am, I'm safe, I have purpose.

And so it says, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, or literally, I will not be in need.

It says your real needs, I want to meet your physical needs, your spiritual needs, your relational needs, so that you won't have want.

You won't have to look outwardly.

Now, I may use outward things to meet some of those needs, but what I want you to know is I'm gonna deliver that because you're my sheep and I'm your shepherd.

And what I've found in my life and the life of others is often I chase work and success and money and fame and sex and power and looks to meet my needs.

I'm sure none of you have ever done any of those.

You know, at one point I thought if I just had the right girlfriend, or if I scored so many points, or someday if I get a scholarship, and then I got a scholarship, and then after that, could I do this?

And after that, and you know there's no end.

And you know, if I could just get a job with so-and-so, and then if I could start my own little company, and then around here, if I could ever go public, and how many patents do I have, or if I could just find that right person, have I hit enough of them?

If I could just ever own a home, if we could just remodel a kitchen.

And then I have friends that own their homes and they're really nice homes, and then it's like, you know, if we just had a little place on the beach, if we just had a little place in the mountains, if I only had one more week of vacation, I got news for you.

You can add a zero or two to your income, you can have a couple surgeries and improve your looks.

You can get everything as squared away as you want, and unless there's something in the heart of heart that gives you great contentment and peace that money and fame and sex and work will never deliver.

You will just be the little hamster running faster and faster and faster.

And Jesus says, I love you too much for that.

I may give you a number of really good things, but you'll know it's from me.

Second, he wants to restore your soul.

And the premise is there is our our soul gets warped.

That word for soul, we get our word psyche or psychology, the real you.

And how does he say that he does that?

He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.

Underline the verbs, makes me, leads me, restores.

Uh, when a uh a shepherd would have, sometimes there would be a little lamb, especially, that just would not get with the program.

And if a sheep that straggles, I mean, they're they're gonna get eaten, but lambs are super vulnerable.

Behind our house, we have a bunch of greenery, and there's um deer all the time, and we get to see the baby deers, and then there's coyotes.

We'll see three or four coyotes surround them, and and we'll look out and we'll go, oh brother, that baby deer got lost or something.

And we'll see three coyotes.

And at one point, the little graphic here, I remember watching a coyote come across the back of our fence with the leg of a deer in its mouth.

And so, and so something that shepherds would do if it was really radical and it was really hard-headed, is they would take often a little like that, and they would actually break the leg of the lamb, and then they would set it, and then they would take the lamb and put it on its shoulders, and it would be called a bell sheep.

And so, you know, what's it take?

Four to six weeks for a bone to heal, at least from all the broken bones in my family and casts I've worn.

I think it's about that.

And so, four to six weeks, everywhere he went, this little lamb would be on its shoulders.

Well, it out of that pain and out of that proximity created incredible intimacy.

And he heard the shepherd's voice.

And so when he when he was healed, they would put a little bell around that sheep, and that sheep would never leave the shepherd's side.

And so all the other sheep started to know, hey, wherever the bell goes, that's where the shepherd is.

And so, are you ready for this?

Some of you are very confused and probably even angry at God, or at least anxious or fearful or upset, and you have thought or said things to a friend like, if God really loves me, how could he let this happen?

Well, God is not the author of evil, but he will use evil that is allowed in your life in the fallen world.

And sometimes his greatest gift is to allow your relationship world to get broken, or your financial world to get broken, or your ego world to get broken, so that you will go to him like never before, and he'll put you on his shoulders and he'll build some intimacy so that you can know.

He are you ready?

He makes you lie down.

We're a lot like sheep, we're stupid.

When life gets hard, we run faster or we get paralyzed and we scroll, or we binge on Netflix or we eat, or we open up on login to websites that give us a pizzazz for a few moments and guilt for many more.

He goes, I'm gonna restore your soul.

I want you to have peace instead of fear and uncertainty and striving and hurry and insecurity.

And then he says it gets better.

I'm gonna guide your life.

How would you like someone that knows the future, who's all powerful, and you're the object of his affection and says, Here's the invitation.

I know what's gonna happen tomorrow, next year, next month, next century, next millennium, and you're the object of my attention.

I will guide you.

I'll actually, I've sort of documented it.

I'll speak to you through my word, I'll speak to you through my family, and I'll speak through you to the Holy Spirit that dwells within you.

He says, He guides me, but where?

In paths of righteousness and why, for his name's sake.

Paths of righteousness.

I remember um had a really deep relationship in college with a girl that I assumed I'd marry.

You know, we did the whole deal.

I visited her family, she visited my family, we're very much in love.

She was very beautiful and she was a Christian, and things looked great.

Except she was an only child, and her parents were very elderly, even when they had her.

And so the vision for her life was she's going to live in the small town in Ohio across the street from her parents that has a white picket fence.

And as I was growing in Christ, I was absolutely convinced that there was a big world out there that God wanted me to do something in.

Didn't have to be famous, didn't, but but it it couldn't be living in a small town in Ohio for the next 50 years across the street from her parents.

But I loved her.

She loved me.

And God wanted me to walk in a path of righteousness for his name's sake.

So I had to ask, now, is my world and my focus and my agenda going to be what I want that would honor God, or it would be what she wants that would honor her.

And we um, you know, we just we broke up and I prayed that God would change your heart.

I remember I'd sit out on this hill, I knew her dorm room, and I knew, you know, like fourth floor, third window over, and I would cry, no, and just cry and just pray God would change your heart.

And he didn't.

And I'm glad.

Because there wouldn't be Orion for sure.

Because there's a special DNA and a woman that I never dreamed that I would get to marry.

My first choice, my choice was good, God's choice was great.

Are you willing to let him lead you in a path of righteousness?

Isn't it isn't it hard?

This relationship isn't quite right, this person doesn't really walk with God, these friends are kind of dragging me down, this really isn't the right environment and the right company, but all the security and what about, and what if I miss out, and what if there's no one out that's better?

Do you trust the shepherd?

See, he wants to guide you.

But a lot of us, and oh, I've got a list that's way too long.

A lot of us say, no, no, I think I know better.

With my finite mind and all this experience, some of you have, gosh, you've lived what, 28 years?

33?

41?

There's a few gray hairs out there.

Oh, a few without any hair out there.

I don't care how long you've lived.

You know, here's the logic.

You're gonna make all the decisions based on what you know, or based on someone who's laid down his life for you and wants to guide you because you're the object of his attention.

So he will meet your need to restore your soul, he'll guide and direct your life, and then he'll protect you from evil.

It says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, by the way, that's not when a person dies.

If I was a shepherd and I heard this, the valley of the shadow of death is okay, it's it's summertime and there's lots of green grass, et cetera, the the weather and things are changing.

I've got to take them to higher ground.

And when I take them through higher ground, there would be all these narrow places where there's rocks and they'd have to be go one by one.

And as I'm getting them one by one, all the shadows, it would be dark, and that's where the wolves and and the people would come and get.

So it's in that the shadow of death are windows of time that are dark and scary, and you're vulnerable.

And he says, even in those times, notice the choice I choose.

I will fear no evil.

Why?

You're with me.

You're with me.

Now, he is always with you whether you read the scriptures or not, he's with you whether you're in a group or not, he's with you whether you come to church or not, if you're a follower of Jesus.

But your experience of him being with you will be astronomically different when he's speaking to you on a regular basis.

When the Jesus and other people, when you're sitting around a circle or a coffee table or in a coffee shop and you're sharing your heart and praying with one another, you'll really experience his with you and his guidance and his direction.

And he wants to protect you.

How does he do it?

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Your rod knocks out the bad guys.

And your staff, when I start drifting or when I find myself in the ditch, you pull me out.

You love me, you're for me.

I can trust you.

My friends Steve and I, um, you know, we all have a handful of experiences where we've seen God protect us, not just in relational things, like, you know, marrying the right person in my case.

But Steve and I were coming out to the California uh to, there was a church here that was really helpful, and we were coming out to visit and learn some things.

And in Texas, I mean it it gets like 100 degrees.

At one point I was in Texas, it was 100 degrees for 100 days.

It was crazy.

And so, and then the asphalt, what happens when it gets that hot?

The very first rain, it's when it starts to sprinkle, the oil comes up, and they call it black ice.

So, this is my friend Steve of many, many years ago, and and so he came on staff at our little church, and we're driving, and and I I look out ahead at about 300 yards out, and cars are spinning and knocking into one another.

There's like 15, 20 cars all over the road, and they're spinning and there's crashing.

And so I do, you know, what a Ohio person would do, I slam on the brakes.

And as I slam on the brakes, all I can tell you is we started going faster and faster and faster, and I still remember as vividly the windshield.

My windshield, the whole windshield was full of F O R D.

It's the back of a truck.

And I've only had this happen twice, but but it was like, it was a weird thought.

I never thought this is how I would die.

I I mean, I mean, there's cars spinning, I'm done.

And and so Steve, good football coach, get off the brake! I mean, he screams at me like that, and he screams so loud, I got off the brake, but I did this with my hands.

And I looked over at him and him and me.

I thought we were gonna hit literally.

Are you ready for this?

With nobody on the steering wheel, the car goes 90 degrees this way, 90 degrees that way, shoots through all the different cars, and we come out the other end, and I we look in the rear view mirror, we turn around, and I mean they're just all piled up.

Guess what he did?

He pulled out this rod.

He said, You know, Chip, nobody's fault.

But I got I got some plans for you and Steve, and you dying right now is not part of the game plan.

That's why they're called ministering angels.

They can drive a little bit better than you can.

If you would have kept your feet on the brake and your hands on the wheel, you and Steve would both be dead.

Can you trust a shepherd like that?

He says he'll fill your life with joy.

He says, You prepare a table for me, where?

It's a banquet, is the picture.

Someday, some way in heaven.

Well, of course.

But no, this is in the presence of my enemies.

In a fallen world with struggles and pain and anxiety and people that betray you, and losing jobs and hurt and struggle and all the things we go through.

In the midst of all that, he says, I'm gonna prepare a table, then I'm gonna anoint your head with oil.

It's a picture of someone going into a lavish banquet, and so it's basically you get showered up, you put a little perfume, a little clone on, got your best stuff on.

And in the presence of your enemies, he says, I'm going to give you the oil of joy and gladness.

And then he says, and your cup's going to run over.

That would be like, you know, they're serving the very, very best wine that you could ever get anywhere in all the world or all of heaven.

And he says, You know, you can fill up as many times as you want.

This is a heavenly buffet.

You know what?

You want to go back?

It's lavish.

That's what this word means.

So much so, he says, Surely goodness and loving kindness, loyal love will follow me.

Circle to follow me, because you're gonna sing about it in just a minute.

The word literally is pursue me.

God's goodness is pursuing you.

As hard as it is to let go a bad relationship, as hard as to trust him for the right job, as hard as it is to struggle with an addiction, he goes, let go of that.

I'm pursuing you.

I want to do good.

And loving kindness is sort of a sounds like a little bit of a flaky word.

The word in Hebrew means a steadfast, loyal love.

It's I got your back, I won't let you down, I'm gonna be with you forever.

Let's team up together.

You hang on, and you'll never be disappointed.

And so there's no fear of the future because he promises ultimately to give you eternal life.

And he says, I will dwell in the house of the Lord.

You might underline the word forever.

I don't know where you're at in your life.

All I know is I went to church.

I believed semi-intellectually in God, but I had no idea that there's a personal God named Jesus who explains the Father, who has compassion for what I'm going through, and offered me eternal life.

In 1972, I understood that for the first time.

And I remember praying a prayer that was not all that theological.

But I heard a passage from scripture that said, Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If any man, any woman, any student, if you hear my voice, if you'll open the door, I'll come in and live with you.

And the word is, I'll eat with you.

It's a it's a Middle Eastern term of what happens when you become very close friends and you bond.

As many as receive Jesus to them, he says, I give the authority and the power to become children of God.

If you've never done that, today's your day.

And if you are uh like me and so many others, having done this shepherding thing for gosh, almost I'm not old, but I'm older.

I've done this shepherding thing for 40 years, and I've just seen, I don't care how much you love God, we are all gonna find ourselves at times where we start to drift.

We're just not kind of where we really need to be.

And today, this is the Holy Spirit using the staff to say, hey, hey, hey, right?

Let's get realigned, let's get back in the Word, let's get connected to a group, let's start using your gifts again.

Because my plans are too good for you to just go off and wander and do your stuff.

So if you are here today and don't know with absolute certainty that you have a personal relationship with Jesus, that he's guiding and directing your life.

And if by chance uh you would be in a car like I was, and angels didn't redirect it, and you would die today, and you just don't know where you would be or what would happen, could I invite you right now to receive Jesus as your shepherd, your savior, and your Lord?

You say how just quietly in your heart say, Lord, I need you.

I am really I'm sorry.

I know I've done things that have hurt people, but disappointed you're certainly not perfect.

And so I want to ask you right now to forgive all of my sins to come into my life.

I believe you laid down your life for me and that you rose from the dead to prove it truth.

I don't know what it all means, but save me, Lord Jesus.

And now help me to follow you.

And if you're a follower and even as I've been talking, the Holy Spirit has kind of whispered where the wanderings have been.

Why don't you have a private conversation with God?

And then make sure you tell someone, you know, the Lord spoke to me, and I'm going to respond in obedience by and tell that friend.

Because his goodness is pursuing you.

But it's good.

Let's sing together.

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