[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 830 or 10:30 a.m. if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison church, find
[email protected] dot. Be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: This is one of my favorite times of the year, and I think part of the reason why I like it so much, one of those is because our college students are back. We've missed you guys for the past few months and so it's so good to have you back here with us. And the other reason why I love this time of year and I know my kids do they get so excited when they find out when the interns are going to be here? And they are here. I know the two youth interns were at the early service. I don't know if Seth or Mackenzie are here, but seth is from Friedman and Mackenzie is from Faultner University. They were at the early service this morning. Clay, I'm going to ask you to stand, if you don't mind. Clay is the preaching intern. He is from Harding University. And blake, stand up up there. I can see blake. I don't know if y'all, everyone knows Blake, but I'm still going to make you stand, but you can sit. Clay, we are so excited to have them here with us. And if you have not had the opportunity to meet them or to welcome them, they're great. And I can't wait to get to know them this summer. And so grateful to have you guys a part of our Madison family human shield.
Human shield. That is a term that you will hear a lot of times in an action movie or a drama to describe somewhere in the plot where the murderer, the terrorist, the thief, is running through a crowd of innocent people.
And as he or she is running through that crowd of innocent people, in order to protect their guilty selves, they grab an innocent person and put them in front of them.
If you've seen any of the 94 taken movies, you've seen this take place. And by the way, I always think, why and when is Liam Neeson gonna stop letting his daughter go to Europe? Unattended. But anyway, but if you've ever seen that movie, what usually happens or that scene, they're running through this massive crowd. They grab somebody in order to protect them. And what's interesting about this term human shield is it's in the very laws of what we know as the Geneva Convention. The Geneva Convention sees it as a war crime to use humans as shields, because there's been times where there have been schools that at the basement of those schools, there have been people that have planted weapons of mass destruction in order to protect them. They put them above or below schools or above or below hospitals.
That term, human shield, is an image that kept popping in my mind as I'm reading John chapter ten. Yes, it's in a much different way. But the picture kept popping into my mind because I kept picturing Jesus, the innocent one, protecting me, the guilty one.
And if you think about it, is that not the message in the picture of the gospel, that God left heaven in human form and came to this earth so that you and I, the guilty ones, would have a shield?
Today, we're going to be in John chapter ten. And as we get into John ten today, I want to tell you, yes, this is one of those texts that every time I read it, I feel such comfort and peace as I read it. But I also want us to see this text today as a challenge that you and I know that sometimes the greatest form of imitation is flattery.
And so I want us to look at today how, in all of our spheres of influence, how we can emulate this shepherd leadership that we see in our lives. It may be a work circle, it may be a family circle. It might be a church circle, whatever it is that we can learn how to live out these characteristics and these qualities. But you and I also know this is an exciting time at Madison II because we're about to welcome several new shepherds to help lead us here at Madison. And so, as we go through this today, what I want us to see is it doesn't matter where you are in life, we are all casting shadows of influence. And I hope you can find comfort and challenge this morning in John chapter ten. So, as you turn there, I want to give some context to this text. So it will mean more, I think, and hopefully so in verse seven of John chapter ten, it says this, that I am the door of the sheep. You know, there's several I am statements throughout scripture. I'm the resurrection, the life. I'm the door, as we see here. I'm the bread of life. I am the way, the truth, and life. I am the shepherd. And I used to think of all of those as, like, separate, different ones, and some of them are, but I am a door and I am the shepherd are very closely connected. Now, when you and I read I am the door, it may not mean as much to us as it did to this middle eastern audience. To those that are reading I am the door, and they read after that and hear, I am the sheep, they knew the two of those were connected.
See, the reason Jesus gives this imagery is for the middle eastern shepherd. One of the things he would have known that would have happened in a field. There was actually two shepherds. There was a shepherd at the door, and there was a shepherd in the field. The shepherd at the door was the one that decided, all right, here's who comes in here, who comes out. He was to make sure and to kind of watch over who was coming in and out of that flock. And then once they went through that door, then they would be taken care of by the shepherd that was there in that field.
And so when we read door, we know in life that we give this kind of description, that, you know, we walk through this door, there's doors of opportunity. Well, when they read that Jesus is the door, that's what they thought, too.
See, just like for us, every door in life is a decision, and every single decision in life is a door that we know that doors represent opportunities. Doors represent decisions. And so when they read this, that he is the door, that's what they thought. This is a decision. This is an opportunity. But what they also knew about doors is what you and I know about doors is doors can sometimes be scary. They can be uncertain, because usually if you go through one door leaving one thing, you're going to another thing, that means you're leaving something, walking away from something. I was thinking about this morning how, you know, growing up, I used to watch with my grandmother, let's make a deal, or the price is right. And if, you know, in both of those shows, there's, like, certain points in that show that I always loved where they would, you know, ask this question, all right, do you want door one? Do you want door two or three? And you have all the people from the audience, you know, saying, go, one, two, three. And they're yelling, trying to give their opinion. And you can tell, like, the person's thoughts about this decision based on their face. Like, they're like, uh, like, you know, hearing all the. And they're questioning themselves because here's why. They know a lot is on the line, because I could pick door number one, and there could be luggage, but I could pick door number three, and there could be a Ford Escape. Like, you know, I've got, like, a lot of options here, and if I pick wrong, that's gonna stink. But if I pick the right thing, that's gonna be such a blessing. And so, doors, at times, can be scary. And I was thinking about it as kind of. I know this might be weird illustration, but growing up, we had a little dog named Baxter. And Baxter, every time we sat down to watch a movie or sat down to eat, that was the time when he scratched at the door. I don't know if y'all's dogs were ever like that. He picked the most unopportune times. And so my parents decided to cut a door in our door called a doggy door, so that way, Baxter could go in and out whenever he wanted. So what we did, we got Baxter. We. We sat him in front of the doggy door. We got the door, and we flapped it, and you go like, look. Baxter go out there. The moment he heard the flap and it hit, he started shaking.
The door scared Baxter. And so the more we were, like, you know, shoving him, the more he was doing the back pedal thing, like, no, I don't want to go out that door.
And my mom thought it would be a good idea for my sister and I. And by the way, she was at the 830 service this morning, so she got a kick out of this and great memories. My mom was like, hey, Andrew, why don't you and your sister crawl in and out of the door to show Baxter, you know, how it's done? And he's probably like, what is wrong with these people? You know? And so we put him in front of that door, and we were trying to tell him, you want to go out there, you don't want to stay in here. You want to go out. There's way more out there. But we had to finally do this thing where you put a treat on one side, and then he was like, oh. And he hopped over and got it, and we put the treat back on the inside. He came back in, and we put it back on the outside, and he was like, oh, I get it now. Like, once Baxter figured out that out there, there's way more freedom than in here, guess what happened to Baxter? He never wanted to come back inside. He can run wherever he wanted. There's so much more to enjoy. He can go to the bathroom wherever he wanted. That on the other side of that door is more freedom, not less. That's what Jesus is describing when he describes himself as the door. That when you see me as the door, yes, it's a decision.
And yes, you're gonna say no to something. But I also want you to understand you're gonna say yes to something that's so much better. There's not less freedom. There's actually more freedom. And here's why. Once you walk through that door, you have a shepherd.
And this is what he describes the good shepherd as. He is a good shepherd that lays down his life for his sheep.
Now, you might be visiting this morning and maybe are even a little bit unfamiliar with some of this terminology, hearing about a shepherd and a sheep.
The good news is, all throughout the Bible, God is described of as a shepherd.
The unfortunate news is we all throughout the Bible are described of as sheep.
And see, that's why we need a shield. That's why we need a shepherd. In fact, you can go to a circus. You can see elephants being trained. You can see tigers jumping through hoops. You can even see a flea circus.
But when it comes to sheep, they're not that bright. And at times they wonder. See, part of the reason why you and I need a shepherd is we have a tendency to get lost. Isaiah 53 talks about this, right? We like sheep. We've all gone astray.
So if you did visit with us this morning and you're trying to get the whole feel of everything and you think you walked into a room of perfect people, we're perfected by Jesus Christ, but we're not perfect at all. Every single one of us have our flaws. We have our deficiencies. We've all gone astray.
And so we have this tendency, as we even sing in the songs, right, where we're prone to wonder, we're prone to leave the God we love. That's part of the reason why we need a shepherd. We also need a shepherd because we're defenseless.
You know, other animals have, like, maybe horns, even cats, you know, they've got claws. You know, sheep, they don't have that. They can't protect themselves. And we're gonna look at the imagery of him giving this rod to us to protect us. That's a picture of him protecting somebody that can't protect themselves. But here's what we also know about sheep. They can be very, very stubborn. In fact, getting ready for this lesson, I found this really interesting article that was written by a man that was a shepherd in the Middle east, and he said, you know, whenever we think of this text, we have a picture of, like, all these green hills of Scotland. He said, no, this is written to a group of people that were shepherds and understood shepherding in the middle east, where there's a lot of rocks, where there's not a lot of greenery. And so what he talked about in this article was, what would happen, because of all these rocks, is that a sheep would wander off, and when it did, it would get stuck between two rocks. And they don't have, like, the wherewithal to say, hey, I'm gonna back up. They don't have, like, the beep beep. Like, they don't know to do that. And so whenever they get in a mess, you know what they do? They go further in. They don't think, let's back out. They go further in and further in, and guess what ends up happening? They get more and more stuck. It's a picture of us, isn't it?
At times of saying, you know what I've done wrong? I've messed up. It's kind of like that quote, oh, what a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive. It's the idea of when we do make a mess, instead of saying, you know what? I need to get out of this.
If we're not careful, sometimes we can get in a little bit further. But the other thing that sheep are known as, they're known to be very, very filthy. They can't clean themselves. Now, when you read that, you're like, no, that's not true, because I remember my grandma or my mom had a precious moment's figurine on the counter, and that sheep was always smiling, and the sheep was always white. Well, most of the pictures of the sheep from this region especially, they were incredibly dirty. And one of the reasons they would shear the sheep was not just for the production of the wool. That we are going to talk about later, is because that was sometimes the only way they could clean them was to start anew in order for something else to grow in its place. That's why you read in the scriptures when it talks about, we're gonna read in a second. You know, he anoints my head with oil. The anointing was so the flies and the pest couldn't get inside of their nose. It was to protect them and to cover them. They were filthy. Now, you and I, we look at all this, and maybe you're thinking, that's neat imagery and all, but I'm just not at a place right now where I want a shepherd. And if that's your sentiment, here's what I want to encourage you to know.
Every person in this room, outside of this room, every human being has a shepherd.
Every one of us.
We all have something or someone that leads us, guides us, directs our decisions, leads our decisions.
There is no such thing as a shepherd less sheep.
That you're all led by something, we're all guided by something.
And maybe for some of us, as we think about what that is, what is it that makes my decisions? What is it that leads me? Maybe for some of us, what it is is money.
That we let money lead us.
Maybe for some of us it's a job, but we let our jobs shepherd lead us. The one that I kept thinking about this week that I'm struggling with, and if you're the same stage of life as me, maybe you can get this one too.
My kids and their activities.
And as I was thinking about that one, obviously I love my kids and I love their activities.
But if I'm not careful, what can happen is those things can become a shepherd.
While my kids are awesome and their activities are awesome, my kids and their activities, they make very lousy shepherds.
And so every one of us has a shepherd in our life. Something that guides us, directs us, leads us. I want you to think about for just a second, what is that right now for you?
And as you think about that, here's what I also want you to consider. I want you to put it in that blank.
Because if you and I, if we don't put Jesus where he deserves to be and needs us to needs to be, that's where we can know that we are shepherded by that. And you might be wondering, well, how do I know if this is a good shepherd or a bad shepherd? Because notice in the text he says that he is the good shepherd, which also implies there's what out there, there's bad shepherds.
And so, as you think about this, how do you know whether a shepherd is good or bad? Well, you can test a shepherd's goodness, or this is bad english badness based on when moments get difficult. Where is the shepherd?
Look at verse twelve.
In John, chapter ten, verse twelve, it says, he who is a hired hand and not a shepherd who does not own the sheep. Here's what he does, because there's no ownership like he is. When he sees the wolf coming, he leaves.
So the sheep is all by himself.
So do you see what he's saying? That when times get difficult, where is that thing that you allow yourself to be shepherded by.
I was thinking about the prodigal son. Do you all remember in Luke 15 when he allowed himself to be shepherded by status, what other people thought?
But what happened when the money ran out?
That shepherd, the status was nowhere to be found.
That's how you test a shepherd's goodness.
But notice in this text what he says, that I own the sheep.
You may not think of this as a good thing, but I hope you see it as one of the greatest blessings is that God owns his sheep.
When I went to Scotland on some mission trips, there's two things I learned about Scotland. Number one, do not eat the haggis if you do. Not, that I would know. But if you do, the rest of your group will be sightseeing while you're in a hospital overnight in Aberdeen. So don't eat the haggis. That has nothing to do with the lesson. All right. Number two, do not touch the sheep. Do not touch the sheep. In fact, we were looking at a castle one day. We're doing some sightseeing, and we were getting ready to take a picture in front of this field that had a bunch of sheep all over it. And we saw on one of the fences there that there was this sign that basically said, trespassers or if you touch the sheep, you will be shot.
All right? And the guy that was with us from Scotland, he said, there is a law in Scotland that if you go into a field, you don't have to touch the sheep. But if you go into the field where the sheep are, by law, they can shoot you with a shotgun.
Why? Because those sheep are owned by the shepherd.
You don't touch those sheep.
God doesn't want to share a relationship with someone or something else.
He wants to own you. And that's good news. And here's why. And I know this might be a weird way to put it, but do you wash a rental car?
Do you change the oil in a rental car?
No. In fact, for a lot of people, they will say, sometimes the one car you don't want to buy is a rental car. Because a lot of times. How do they treat rental cars? Well, it's not mine.
I'll accelerate more than usual. I'll hit potholes more than usual. I'll see how fast this thing can go on the interstate. You know, that's how people treat rental cars. But notice what he says in this text. I'm not a hired hand. He's saying, I have invested interest. He is not a rent a shepherd. He's saying, I own you. And because I own you, I have invested interest.
Isn't it awesome to know that he owns us?
That's what psalm 23 is all about. Psalm 23 is a picture of his ownership. Look what it says. He said, the Lord is our shepherd, so we don't want. He makes us lie down in green pastures. The idea of a green pasture here was a picture of provision.
And most people believe that when this psalm was written David was either being chased by Saul, who's trying to kill him or he's being chased by Absalom, his own son, who's trying to kill him. So he's hungry. He's hungry for a place of peace. And in pastures, what they represented was fullness. Being full, that you would go to the pasture, you would eat. But notice in this text, the way David is describing it he is saying the presence of God is something that is far better than any pasture could provide. This is an image all throughout the Bible. Think about when God gave his people as they were wandering in the wilderness, Manna.
Did you notice how over time, they stopped enjoying the manna?
You know why? Because God didn't want them to fall in love with the manna. Because the manna is only going to temporarily feed you. You fast forward to John, chapter six. He feeds the 5000. Right? After he feeds the 5000 the people show up for another meal. They're excited that maybe he's going to do another trick. Let's see what he does. And Jesus is like, I can tell you're here for the physical food.
So this is what he says. Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you can have no part in me. Now we know what he means. They didn't keep in mind at that time. And then he says this, I am the bread of life. The point of the manna. The point of him being the bread of life. He's saying that all these other things in life they are temporary. They are rent a shepherd's. That I give you long lasting fulfillment. I give you peace. I am what you want. But notice what he goes on to say. He restores my soul.
That same article that talked about how sheep would get caught in between those rocks. That man said that what happens with sheep when they get caught between the rocks sometimes they'll get turned on their sides or they'll get caught upside down. And when they do, one of the greatest dangers for them is their bodies go cast. And so cast means that their legs have no blood flow. So if you pull that sheep out from between the rocks. And you stand him or her up, they'll tip over because there's no blood flow in their legs. So what the shepherd will do, he will massage and rub their legs until there's blood flow, until they can stand.
The idea of restoration in the Hebrew here is the idea that he creates something where there is nothing.
So you might be here right now, and you're like, well, if he just knew about my. He's saying, I restored. That's who I am. I'm all in the business of making things happen. It's like when Brandon, a few weeks ago, talked about how on the way to heal Jairus daughter, whose blood was stopped, he meets this woman who has a blood issue, right? And so with one of the women, he stops her blood. And the other one, he starts her blood.
It's a picture of who he is. He stops things. He starts things. If we're needing something stopped, he can stop it. If you need something started, he can start. This is a picture of who he is. He restores our soul. And then it says this. Even though I walked through the valley of the shadow of death, I don't fear evil. You're with me. Here's how he's with you. He said, you have a rod and a staff.
The rod was meant for correcting.
And you might think, well, why would a loving God correct. Why would a loving God do that? Well, if you remember, this is very similar to the word in the book of Hebrews. That is Padeia, which means a loving discipline.
It was seen in this day that if you did not discipline your children, it was a direct sign that you did not love them. So it's a picture of the reason God disciplines us. The more he corrects us, the more he cares. Like, I remember when Cruz was little, he used to like to crawl over to a light socket, and of all things, he had this little tool he would try. I'm like, no, you don't put that in there. Now, I could let him keep doing it, or I could do something about it. The reason I corrected him is there's a direct connection between my care for him and my correction of him. The more he corrects, it's a sign. Everybody, he cares. That's who he is. But then it says this, and this could be one of my favorite word pictures in the Bible.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
I used to read that and think, wait, if he is such a good shepherd, why are the enemies at the table? Can't they be at the kids table. Can they be at another section of the restaurant? Like, why are they at this table? He is saying, God is so good and his shepherding is so real that, like, when I see my enemies, I'm like, pass the gravy. Like, I'm at peace at the table because of who he is and because how he shepherds.
That's an amazing picture. When I was getting ready for this lesson, I came across this online, thought it was such a neat design and picture. This is a picture of psalm 23, what we just read. That's us in the middle.
And inside that circle is all the different parts of that text. And on the outside, it shows how he owns us.
It says, he's beside us, he's beneath us, he's near us, he's ahead of us. He's within us, he's around us. He's against those who are against us. He's for us. He's upon us. He's above us, he's behind us, and he's before us.
Is that not amazing? Ownership?
But the text goes on to describe in verse three and four, his friendship. We sing a lot, you know, there's not a. What? Friend. Like the lowly Jesus.
Jesus is a friend. He's a friend next to you. We talk about how there's no greater love than this, than a man to lay down his life for his what? His friend. It's a picture of Jesus. We use that term friendship to describe Jesus. But what does that really look like? Well, in verses three and four, it says this to him. The gatekeeper opens, the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he has brought them out of his out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they what they know his voice.
This is an amazing picture that we have. How do I know if I am friends with Jesus? Well, based on this text, whatever we allow to shepherd us, who is it that gets your ear the most?
Well, how do I know if it's his voice or not? Well, I think of it kind of like this. When we can be in a crowd of people, it could be hundreds of people, but I hear my wife cough. I'm like, I didn't know Lorianne was in here.
It's a cough. How do I know? Because it's her voice, right? It's her. Another example I think about was when Cruz was playing baseball. And before that, I got to tell you, I promised I would not be the loud parent in the stands.
I said, you know, I've coached before, and I know those parents. I am not going to be that parent. And then it's his very first game of coach pitch, and he's up to back, and he hits the ball, and I get so loud, and it's. We have this video of him, and I'm yelling, go, go, keep going, keep going. And his coach is on third going, stop, stop.
Well, he keeps going and gets out because he listens to my voice. And so I was like, buddy, listen to the coach. He's like, really? But listening to other voices than the one that really knows is a very, very dangerous way to live.
Who is it that gets your ear the most?
That often is a direct connection to know. Who is it we're allowing ourselves to be shepherded by?
You know, as I was thinking about this, and the fact that it says here in the text that he calls us by our name, that is the direct opposite of how the bad shepherd operates.
If there's a good shepherd, we know there's a bad shepherd, and we know how Satan operates. He calls us by our what? Our sin, not our name.
Oh, you've done this before. You are that.
This is a completely direct opposite picture of who God is as our shepherd. And the good news is, not only does he name us, but he blesses us. That's what Matthew five is. He says, you are blessed to be pure in heart.
You are blessed to be mournful with those who are going through a difficult time. You are blessed to be pure. But here's the next thing we have with him is partnership. If you notice in this text, we're going to get into this in just a second. There's other sheep, and some of those are in this fold.
And in their day, they knew that there was a direct connection between partnership and production.
There was never usually one sheep in a field. I read somewhere that said that if you were to shear one sheep, it would be enough for, like, a beanie for a baby. Like, that's it.
In order for there to be production, there had to be a lot of different sheep in this fold. In fact, in my other bible I have from my preacher growing up, he said, synergy unlocks our capability, and it's the idea that we can do way more together. That's why in Luke 15, there's not one son, but two.
The woman, yes, she had other coins, but she still cared about the one that was lost. Yes, he's going after the one, but they're still back at the field. What? 99 sheep? He knew that we were better together. But notice this. And this is one of the most important parts of this text to me. Cause he's building up to this. He says in verse 16, and I have other sheep that are not in this fold. Here's how I also read that.
And I also have other sheep that are not in this room.
I must bring them in, and they will listen to my voice whenever I read that.
It's so interesting to me that he doesn't say, I would like for, like, the ones that are not in here to be in here. I think that'd be awesome. What does he say?
I must.
And then he follows it with this, and they will hear my voice.
Have y'all ever been like me? Where very unintentionally, by your wording, you kind of limited what you thought God could do. And what I mean by that is, I've said things like this. Oh, the people in that community, or these people, oh, they would never be interested, y'all. Every time I've said that, he has proved me wrong.
He says in this text, there are people outside of these doors.
I must.
And here's the faith he has as the shepherd. Do we emulate this faith?
They will.
So what does this have to do with us? Well, we know imitation is one of the most sincere and best forms of flattery. Right? To really imitate yourself after this. And, yes, we are talking about adding shepherds here at Madison.
But like I mentioned earlier, every single one of us have a sphere of influence. Someone standing in your shadow, it might be accidentally, it might be purposely, it might be by just mere proximity, you are casting a shadow of influence on somebody. What are they standing in?
And the reason I mention that is all throughout the Bible. The picture of leadership within the body of Christ, you see, is that of shepherd leadership.
That's why, too, at Madison, we call our elders shepherds because you go through texts like acts 2028, be careful and pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock. One, Peter five, one and two. So I exhort the elders among you to shepherd the flock. And there's that same language. He says, obey your leaders and submit to them. They're keeping watch over your souls. All throughout the Bible, we have this picture of leadership as shepherd leadership.
If you're a mama, we shepherd lead. If you're a daddy, you shepherd lead. If you're working in a business office, you lead like a shepherd.
This is one of those things. No matter what stage of life you're in. I mentioned this on our lesson, that series we did on shepherding a few years ago, how when my dad was asked to be a shepherd and he turned it down, my sister and I were like, what? We wanted you to do that. And one of the things he said to us, he said, I want to challenge you and your sister and all of us, that even though I'm not taking on this role, I want us to all try to live out the characteristics of a shepherd.
And I've never forgotten that. And I think about, how can we? We just read John Ten, how can we all live out these characteristics and qualities?
So here's the John Ten characteristics and qualities, verse three and four. One of those is by example. What does it say?
He goes ahead of them.
A shepherd leader is leading the way, not pointing the way. I want to say that again. A shepherd leader doesn't point the way.
He leads the way. You might have seen this graphic before. It is kind of popular in leadership circles.
A shepherd leader doesn't sit on the mission and point it out.
A shepherd leader is leading the mission. Because you and I know in all the different. We're a professional group of people in all these different occupations and jobs. I know you have had people in your office spaces that had a title boss. But did that necessarily mean they were a good leader?
Because leadership isn't about a title.
It's about someone's ability to influence someone. It's not sitting on the mission. It's pointing it, leading it out. And in fact, did you know that the shepherd, the reason why he's given this illustration of leading the way is that whenever shepherds were leading from behind, they were leading the sheep to the slaughter.
But when they were leading them ahead, they were leading them to a green pasture.
So then it goes into this next one that they're trustworthy. You continue to hear these terms, their own. They know that shepherd leadership is not about control.
It's always about compassion. But you notice in this text, it says that he provides and he protects. That was the rod and the staff. One of those was meant to correct. The other one was meant to show compassion. The crook of the neck of that staff would be used if the sheep was wandering from one field to the next as they were leading. And they would get tired, lift the head. If an enemy came into that field, the sheep, kind of like Baxter, would shake. So he would use the crook of that neck of that staff to rub their back, to let him know what they're there.
But they're also sacrificial. Did you know in this text, five times it says, I lay down my life for the sheep, but also notice the relational nature about knowing the voice and hearing the voice. But here's the 6th one, is that shepherd leaders are visionaries.
Let's go back to verse 16.
He said this. I have other sheep that are not in this fold.
I must bring them in also, and they will listen to my voice. Why?
Because I want one flock.
It is the job of a shepherd leader to not just cast the vision, but to must and believe and live out that vision.
You know, I think about how our shepherd leaders, they have a responsibility to know that there are sheep outside of these walls.
And as they look towards the sheep outside of this walls, they must bring them in. But here's the promise that comes with it.
They will. We talked about believing last week, this is one of the greatest things that you and I can live out is to join in that, to know that there are sheep outside of these walls. They must be in here and they will believe.
I came across this image in getting this lesson ready, and I loved it. It was painted in 1898 by a guy named Alfred. And he has a last name, but I can't say it. So we're gonna call him Alfred.
And I love this picture for several reasons. And Alfred, he painted it to give us a picture of the type of shepherd leader that Jesus is. And there's a few details in this that you will notice. One of those, that is, one of the most important details is what's in the background of that picture, an eagle.
And the point of the eagle in the painting is to show the height to which God will go to to bring back someone who is wandering. But then you'll also notice one of the other details. The shepherd is what? Reaching.
But he's reaching to a sheep that is out on a ledge.
That's us.
We've all been out on a ledge.
Maybe that ledge was a broken relationship.
Maybe it was an addiction, a continual sin that we're living in, whatever it is.
And you might think, well, I'm just too far gone. No, he's left the 99. He sent out an RSVP and party invitations for a coin.
If he's going to do that for a coin, he's going to do that for you.
He is saying the way that we feel about ourselves as unrecoverable, unredeemable. The things that we oftentimes think of, of ourselves or other people as unsavable, unlovable, unredeemable, I see as valuable.
I know they're out there. I must get them and they will believe.
And so maybe you're here this morning and you're out on that edge, and you wonder, well, what length would he go to for me? Well, if you're really struggling with that, I'll encourage you to read Hosea. That will probably be one of the most encouraging pictures to you of the length and the depth and the height that God goes after every single one of us.
Maybe you're here today and you want to better emulate shepherd leader, to be the things that we were talking about, to be a visionary, for your home, to be a trustworthy person, a better example, whatever it might be. Maybe you're here today and you've never even made the decision to put on Christ, to have that relationship with the shepherd, to have your sins washed away in the watery grave of baptism, to be given the gift of the Holy spirit, to have him living inside of you. We can't guide ourselves, we can't validate ourselves. We can't direct ourselves the way we need to go. But he can. And he wants to name you and he wants to bless you. That's the good shepherd. So if you have a need today, please come while we stand and we sing this song.
