Come and See The Good Shepherd

Kyle Lounsbury: Well, we're gonna continue on in our series, Come and See.

Uh, thank you, Eric, for the water.

Always helpful.

And, uh, I wanna start off this morning with a question

I love sports.

Who here likes sports?

Okay.

Here's my question.

Who is the GOAT?

Who is the GOAT?

Jesus.

All right, all right, all right.

Jesus.

We know Jesus is the GOAT

All right.

Is it LeBron or is it Jordan?

Is it Messi or Ronaldo?

Is it Beyonce or Taylor Swift?

All right, all right.

Wow, you guys are getting fired up

I want us to get that fired up over the Word.

Yeah.

Come on.

Come on.

You know, we love the idea of who is the greatest, right?

Yeah.

We love to think that way, and we … You know, personally, I, I'll just throw it

out there, I'm taking LeBron over Jordan

And, uh, if this was a sports radio show, I'd take the next 30 minutes

to tell you why, but it's not so we're gonna get into God's Word.

But the question I want us to consider here is what makes someone great?

You know, what makes someone great?

When you think about someone's life or someone's accomplishments or someone's,

uh, the things that they've done.

You know, in this case of these athletes, it would be what they've accomplished

on the basketball court or on the soccer field, or in the case of the,

the singers, uh, you know, on the stage.

Maybe it's how many records they've sold, or maybe, maybe it's,

uh, you know, how many stadiums they've filled up for the singers.

Maybe for the athletes it's, it's how long did they stay on top, or

how many championships did they win?

The reality, though, is when it comes to the GOAT debate, what

I've learned is you first have to determine what makes someone great.

Because if you just start debating and you don't have guidelines or standards

on what really makes someone great, you're just gonna talk past each other.

Are you guys with me?

Yep.

And, you know, I think before we can agree on who the greatest is, we have

to agree on what greatness looks like.

And so today, as we get into God's Word, we're gonna look at this a little bit.

And I believe this idea of what makes someone great goes

beyond sports and entertainment.

What makes someone great, I think, goes … Maybe is it who deserves our attention,

or maybe it's who we admire, or whose life we'd like to imitate Well today, we're

gonna be looking at a passage that reveals who I believe the true goat is, and you

guys earlier said, "And that's Jesus."

Amen.

Jesus is the goat, and in John Chapter 10, we're gonna talk about the Good Shepherd.

John 10 · chapter mention

You know, the truth is, none of us in here are goats.

We're actually sheep.

And so we're gonna be getting into God's Word.

Let's say a prayer, and let's look at the Good Shepherd.

Father, thank you so much for this morning to pr- to, to be here together,

to pray to you, to worship you.

I pray that you would speak, uh, through me this morning, that it would not

be me speaking but your Holy Spirit carrying me along, that your, your Word

would be illuminated this morning, that those who are here would be inspired

by your Word, inspired by who you are as we come and see the Good Shepherd.

Lord, I pray for any of those visiting this morning, that they would feel at

home, that they would feel safe, that they would feel inspired and encouraged,

and I pray that maybe those who have been around a long time, that they, their

faith would be renewed and that we can all come and see the Good Shepherd together.

We love you.

We thank you.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Come and see the Good Shepherd.

Let's start in John Chapter 10.

John 10 · chapter mention

John Chapter 10.

John 10 · chapter mention

You guys with me?

Yeah.

All right, John Chapter 10, verse one.

John 10 · chapter mention

It says, "Very truly I tell you, Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the

sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.

The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.

The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice.

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

When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep

follow him because they know his voice.

But they will never follow a stranger.

In fact, they will run away from him because they do not

recognize a stranger's voice."

Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not

understand what he was telling them.

Therefore, Jesus said again, "Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.

All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the

sheep have not listened to them."

Verse nine, "I am the gate.

Whoever enters through me will be saved.

Then they will come in and go out and find pasture.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

I have come that they may have life and have it to the full."

We're gonna stop there for now.

You know, today I wanna go through three different points that I love

about John Chapter 10, and we see here that Jesus says He is the gate

John 10 · chapter mention

for the sheep, and we are His sheep.

He says He-

Sorry, my notes have a huge typo.

That threw me off.

Okay.

Yeah, I don't know what I was saying there.

But, um, he says that when we enter through him and his gate, we will be what?

Saved.

There is no other gate to salvation.

Jesus is the gate, and his desire is what?

For us to have life to the full.

Amen.

So the first point I wanna share this morning is Jesus gives us life.

Amen.

Jesus gives us life.

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

I have come that they may have life and have it to the full."

The thief.

What does the thief do?

He comes to steal and kill and destroy.

He wants to ruin the sheep.

He wants to destroy the sheep.

He wants to distract the sheep and get them away from the shepherd.

Guys, we live in a world that is dark, that is run by a thief that

wants to steal and kill and destroy.

Satan is trying to destroy your joy.

Satan is trying to take from you every good thing that God wants to give you.

You know, it's sad seeing the, the darkness of our world and

seeing how online and on social media and seeing o- all the news

and all the, the negative news.

Negative news gets more clicks than positive news it seems like these days.

We're attracted more to the negativity as humans, and it's

like that's what Satan wants.

Yeah.

He wants to steal and kill and destroy.

And it's heartbreaking.

You know, I think as disciples, as, as the sheep of the good shepherd we've

gotta be aware of the spiritual battle.

Yes.

We've gotta be aware of how dark this world is.

Yes.

We can't be ignorant to it.

And if you're, if you're a new Christian or if you're becoming a Christian, I just

wanna share with you, don't be naive.

Don't fall for the traps of the thief.

The thief wants to steal, kill, and destroy your faith, your life.

He wants to take your joy.

He wants to take your peace.

But what does the good shepherd want?

He wants to give you life to the full, amen?

Amen.

He wants to give you life to the full.

You know, when I think of life to the full I think of these guys.

These are my boys, Luca and Levi.

This was on our way back from the park.

Luca was tired, so he was like, "Dad, can I hop up in the stroller with Levi?"

I was like, "All right, we'll try it out."

So I threw him in there, and I was like, "This is a great picture.

Let me take this."

You know, being able to see these two boys come into life and existence was just

some of the most surreal days of my life.

Like, to see my son born, to see that first cry, to hold him for the first time,

as a father, it just made me go, "Wow, I want to give these boys life to the full."

I wanna give them so much.

I wanna bless them.

I wanna serve them.

I wanna, I wanna give them everything I can as a father.

Well, how much more does the good shepherd wanna give us?

I'm just a mere man, a sinful man, a broken man.

The good shepherd, Jesus, He wants to give us all life to the full.

Yes.

He wants to give us even more than I could ever give to my sons.

Yeah.

But life to the full doesn't mean a life without problems, as

Corey mentioned earlier, right?

We all go through problems.

We go through struggles.

Can't believe you found the passport, bro.

That's crazy.

Man, I would've been so upset.

Amen.

It's a good learning lesson.

But notice here how Jesus talks about wolves in the same chapter, and Jesus

talks about a thief in the same chapter.

Yes, he wants to give us good things.

He wants to give us life to the full.

Yes, he wants to provide amazing things, full life.

But we have to understand there's also an enemy trying to take it at the same time.

Right.

Trying to take it at the same time.

But through Jesus, we can have forgiveness.

Through Jesus, we have purpose.

We have people to walk with.

We have a hope for eternity with him.

Amen?

Amen.

And we can live our lives in light of that eternity.

We can live our, our lives here and now in light of the

life to come with, with Christ.

You know, some of you have followed Jesus for many years.

You know, have you stopped expecting life with Jesus to be good?

Have you stopped expecting life with Jesus to provide life to

the full, to be a full life?

Maybe you haven't, but maybe you've been struggling with this.

You know, the good shepherd still has somewhere to lead you.

No matter how long you've been a Christian, no matter how long you've been

around, no matter how much longer you have on this earth, the good shepherd still

has life to the full in store for you.

Amen.

But the question is, are you listening to the good shepherd?

Are you listening to his voice?

Are you following and entering in through his gate?

Or are you allowing the gates of the world, are you allowing

the thieves of the world to take your joy, to take your faith?

Jesus came to give us life.

Now, as we continue, let's look at what he was willing to give so we could have it.

Let's look at verse 11.

"I am the good shepherd.

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 runs away.

Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.

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.

And I lay down my life for the sheep.

I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen.

I must bring them also.

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

The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life only to take it up again.

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

You know, the next point I wanna make, and I love the language that Jesus uses

here, is that Jesus lays down his life.

Jesus lays down his life for his sheep, which means he lays down his life for who?

For us And I love the phrasing of laying down your life.

You know, earlier this week at our campus midweek, we had our, our, uh, new interns

Sonny and Mia share the lesson for us, and it was such an inspiring lesson all about

loving like Christ and loving like God.

And Sonny shared this analogy of a, of a soldier who was at battle

and a grenade was thrown, and he was standing in one spot and two

other soldiers were in front of him.

And the grenade was thrown.

The two soldiers in front of him that were his, His comrades in battle, they did

not see the grenade, and he had a split second to decide what he was gonna do,

and he decided to jump on the grenade.

He ended up losing his life.

He died, but he saved his other two soldiers.

He laid down his life for his friends.

And when I think of how Jesus lays down his life, I think of the ultimate

sacrifice of love, the ultimate sacrifice.

Nobody lays down their life, though, without what?

A cause.

If he didn't know those two guys in front of him, he probably wouldn't have jumped

on the grenade, but he had a reason.

He knew them.

He loved them.

He was their brother in battle.

So that soldier died for a reason.

Nobody lays down their life with no cause.

You guys with me?

Yeah.

But what is Jesus's cause?

Why does he lay down his life?

It's for the sheep.

It's for us.

He lays down his life for us.

Why?

Because He loves us.

It's a depth of love we can't even comprehend.

He knows us.

He knows your weaknesses.

He knows your sin.

He knows the little lies you tell, yet He still lays down his life for you.

Yeah.

That's the good shepherd.

Yeah.

But look at verse 18.

I love this here.

Actually, I don't have it on the screen, but verse 18, look at your Bibles, he

says, "I lay it down of my own accord."

My own accord.

Jesus chose to lay down his life.

Nobody told him.

Nobody forced him.

There's no reason that's leading him to…

No, no, no, the only reason he did it is 'cause he decided, "I love you.

I'm gonna lay it down for you."

Nobody had to convince Jesus to love you.

He just does.

Jesus just loves us.

He loves us like a father.

He loves us like a good shepherd who cares for his sheep, and he says he has

authority to take his life up again.

You know, we follow a living shepherd who gave his life for us and rose again.

And in the commentary we've been studying…

Oh, there you go.

I did have it on the screen.

Cool.

The commentary we've been studying, it says, "Again, Jesus is the model good

shepherd in two ways: A, he is willing to lay down his life for his sheep.

The Pharisees are hirelings who shear the sheep but have no loyalty to them.

The faithful shepherd, like David of old, protects his flock.

And B, he knows his sheep.

You know, this intimate knowledge of his flock, which involves love, is his

reason for laying down his life for them."

Jesus' intimate knowledge of you, of his flock, i- his love, his relationship

with you is the reason he lays it down.

Yeah.

You know, and as I started thinking about this, there's a parallel passage where it

talks about, "No greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends."

And I started thinking, you know, as Christians, as disciples

of Jesus, followers of Christ, who are we called to imitate?

Christ.

We're called to imitate the example of the good shepherd who lays down his life.

You guys with me?

Yeah.

Can I challenge and call us higher to be disciples of Jesus who lay down their

life for others the way that the Good Shepherd has laid down his life for us?

Yeah.

Let's lay down our life for others.

What, who can you lay your life down for this week?

Who can you sacrifice for this week?

Think of that one person that you maybe need to go talk to, that you might need

to reconcile with, and laying down your life means I gotta lay down my pride.

Think about that person who maybe you've noticed has been a

little distant from the flock.

Who can, how can you go sh- spend time with that person and, "Let

me pull you closer to the flock.

Let me get you e- encouraged and inspired, and let me spend some time

with you and lay down my life, and I'll, I'll make room in my schedule for you."

Let's imitate the example of the Good Shepherd.

Amen?

Amen.

Let's lay down our life for our brothers and sisters.

Think of a name.

Think of someone right now.

Who is it gonna be for you?

Amen.

What would loving that person like Jesus actually look like this week?

Amen?

Amen.

Let's get practical.

Let's, let's be action-based.

Yes.

Faith without deeds is dead.

Let's have some action.

Amen?

Amen.

That was my campus minister in me.

There you go.

Next scripture here.

Let's keep moving.

Verse 24.

"The Jews who were there gathered around him saying, 'How long

will you keep us in suspense?'

'If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly,' Jesus answered.

Or, "'Tell us plainly.'

Jesus answered, 'I did tell you but you did not believe.

You do not believe.

The works I do in my Father's name testify about me.

But you do not believe because you are not my sheep.'"

Yes.

Verse 27, "'My sheep listen to my voice.

I know them, and they follow me.

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.

No one will snatch them out of my hand.

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all.

No one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.

I and the Father are one.'"

You know what I love about this you know, verse twenty seven says,

"His sheep listen to his voice."

Are you listening to the voice of the good shepherd?

Do you listen to the shepherd's voice?

Or are you listening to other voices?

Are you listening to the lies that the thief's trying to tell you?

Are you listening to the, the voice of insecurity?

Are you listening to the voice of self-doubt?

Maybe it's the voice of, "I didn't do good enough as a parent," or the voice

of, "I've failed in my marriage," or it's the voice of, "I can't stay pure.

I am hopeless."

Those are the voices of lies.

Those are the lying thief's voices.

Yeah.

We've gotta listen to the voice of the good shepherd- Yeah … the

voice of the good shepherd.

You guys with me?

Yeah.

And here's why.

Because Jesus keeps us secure.

Amen.

Jesus is the one that keeps us secure.

All the lies make us more insecure.

All the voices of the world that are lies, that are telling us things that

we think are gonna make us secure, end up making us more insecure.

Yeah.

Amen.

We all crave security.

Why do you think every one of us at times feels insecure

about whatever it is, right?

No offense to the young college students and teens, you guys are still developing.

You're insecure, right?

It's real.

There's insecurity in life.

We all struggle with insecurity.

Right.

Yeah.

How you sound, how you look- Right … how you talk, how you smell,

for the college students, right?

For th- Your status, your finances, right?

We get so insecure as people because we're grasping for security from

things that will not fulfill us- Right

things that will not provide the security that Christ can provide.

That's right.

Yeah.

And what I love about Christ is that we can be secure in Him- Yeah … because

a good shepherd protects his sheep.

A good shepherd keeps them secure.

A good shepherd watches over them.

A good shepherd, like Jesus, keeps his sheep secure with Him.

Amen.

We need a good shepherd for our protection, don't we?

Yeah.

We do.

Man, I need a good shepherd.

I need protection.

I need security beyond my own human nature.

I need a security that I can go to.

Like Corey mentioned, when, man, uh, life's just breaking

down, who do I turn to?

We gotta turn to the one that makes us secure.

Amen.

And I love verse 28.

Says, "I give them eternal life and they shall never perish."

That's right.

They shall never perish.

Right.

Earlier on campus this week at UCI, I met a man, he's actually from Italy.

And he, uh, we were talking about faith.

We were talking about God and, and religion, and he's an atheist,

and he just simply believes when you die, nothing happens.

You just perish.

And it, it, and in the moment, you know, I'm, I'm trying to talk to

him, but after reflecting more on it, it just kind of broke my heart.

Like, what an amazing young man, getting his education at UCI.

He's an exchange student, and he just sees nothing after this life.

He doesn't see a need to pursue Christ.

He doesn't see that there's more than just this here and now.

Brothers and sisters, Jesus says he's gonna give us eternal life.

Yes.

Thank you, Lord.

Eternity with him.

We become made alive now here on this earth, and we get to spend eternity

with Christ, the good shepherd.

Whoa.

Doesn't that inspire you?

Doesn't that excite you, that you get to spend all of eternity with

the one who loves you the most?

That's right.

With the one who wants to give you the most, with the one who wants

to give you life to the full.

That's right.

That's Jesus

Who knows what this is?

This is my vacuum.

Uh, actually I got this vacuum for free, which is cool.

It's a, it's a Shark.

It's pretty good, if you know vacuums.

Um, but yeah, I at 11:00 PM took a picture of my vacuum to show you guys.

Why?

Let me tell you.

Every time this vacuum gets turned on in my household, I'll admit most times it's

by my wife, not by me, I gotta repent.

But when the vacuum's turned on by Jasmine, wherever Luca is in the house,

he immediately shoots up and he runs.

He runs far away from the vacuum, and he runs wherever I am.

He runs straight to…

Nice one, Rusty.

He said it sounds like his dad

Luca will get up and run and jump in my arms.

And you know what he says to me?

"The monster."

"The monster's coming.

The vacuum monster."

And every time my wife's doing it, and we'll play a little game where

he'll jump down from the couch, and then the vacuum will get close,

and he'll jump up into my arms.

And, you know, he's three years old.

The vacuum's not a monster, right?

The vacuum can't harm Luca.

I mean, maybe theoretically, but it's not gonna harm him.

But he runs to a very specific place.

He jumps in the arms of his father because I make him feel safe and secure.

I make him feel like he's protected, feel like life's gonna be okay.

The monster won't get you

But the reality is, in this little analogy, there's

monsters sometimes in our lives.

There's things in our lives that are out of our control, that put

fear in our lives, and that are real dangers and real threats to us.

Obviously, a vacuum's not.

But there's real things that we go through.

A bad diagnosis, a rough marriage, a child who's struggling.

Those are monsters

And here's the thing Jesus knows that we're facing those things

Jesus knows what we're going through

He wants us to jump in His arms.

He wants us, in those moments when the monsters are coming, when

life's going hard, when things are like, "What are you doing?

I'm scared.

I'm running away," He says, "Just jump in my arms.

Jump in my arms.

I'm the, I'm the Good Shepherd.

I wanna take care of you.

I wanna protect you.

I wanna guide you through this."

The verse says, "No one will snatch them out of my hand."

You know, being secure in Jesus doesn't mean we know how

everything's gonna turn out, guys.

It doesn't mean that.

But it means who…

It means we know who to turn to in those moments.

Right.

You know, my son Luca knows where to run when he's afraid.

The question I wanna ask you is, do you know who to run to when you're afraid?

Yeah.

Who do you turn to for your security?

The good shepherd, Jesus, wants us to run to Him.

Amen?

Yeah.

Let's run to His arms.

He provides security for us.

He provides eternal life for us, and as we close out, look at verse 14.

He says, "I am the good shepherd.

I know my sheep and my sheep know me."

Yeah.

Jesus is the good shepherd.

Yeah.

He knows His sheep.

He knows you.

He knows what you're going through.

He gets it.

Will you know Him?

Yeah.

Will you pursue Him?

Yes.

Know Christ.

Know Him completely.

So I wanna remind us that Jesus gives us life, Jesus lays down his

life, and Jesus keeps us secure.

And as we close out, I want us to think of this question: Where in your life do you

need to trust the Good Shepherd right now?

What is it you're going through that you need to go, "Lord, I

need to put my trust in you.

I need to put my security in the Good Shepherd"?

And what is that gonna look like?

What does that mean?

Maybe that's asking a friend for help.

Maybe that's getting open about something going on you haven't talked about.

Whatever it is, where in your life do you need to trust the Good Shepherd right now?

Amen.

Amen.

Think of that one area, and let's get practical this week.

Let's apply it, because Jesus is the Good Shepherd.

He knows you, He gave His life for you, and you can trust Him with yours.

Let's come and see the Good Shepherd.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you.