The Good Shepherds Job Qualifications:
- Committed Love (Jn 10:11-13)
- Uniting Love (Jn 10:14-16)
- Obedient Love (Jn 10:17-18)
Why is obedience important to the follower of Christ?
- Obedience is evidence that we Know God.
- Obedience is evidence that we Love God.
- Obedience is evidence that we Trust God.
1 John 2:3 - And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.
John 14:15 - If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Deuteronomy 6:24 - And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always...
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:20
If you remember last week, the Bible says that we are like an animal. What animal are we like? I'm a tiger, right? That's what I am. I'm a tiger, right?
00:22-00:29
No, what does the Bible say I am? Yeah, I'm a sheep. No, no, no, that's That's lame.
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It looks like a pillow, okay?
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It feels like a pillow.
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Actually, that's what they use to make pillows, okay?
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Lame.
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I'm a falcon.
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No, I'm a...
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I'm a bombardier beetle.
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Have you ever seen these things?
00:49-01:04
They get these two chambers in their abdomen with these biochemicals in them Long story short, they fire out a 200 and some degree blast.
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That's what I am.
01:07-01:11
And you're like, no, Pastor Jeff, you are a-- lame.
01:13-01:20
Defenseless, weak, vulnerable, stupid.
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That's what I am as a sheep.
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And before you say, "Amen," that's what you are too.
01:31-01:33
We are weak and vulnerable.
01:33-01:39
And really, the main reason the Bible says we're sheep is because we covered this last week.
01:39-01:41
This is a little review for those of you who weren't here.
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But what do sheep need?
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A shepherd, right?
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More than anything else, sheep need a shepherd.
01:50-01:55
And in John chapter 9, Jesus healed a man who was born blind.
01:56-01:57
Awesome, right?
01:57-02:03
But the problem for the Pharisees was that Jesus healed this man on the Sabbath.
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And if you've read your Bibles, you know that was a constant issue.
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Everybody was always upset.
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Jesus healed on the Sabbath.
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We can't do that on the Sabbath.
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That's not allowed on the Sabbath.
02:14-02:22
Well they said Jesus broke the Sabbath by healing, and then they turned around and denied that Jesus actually healed him because they didn't believe that Jesus could heal.
02:24-02:26
Figure that one out, I'm still working on that.
02:26-02:34
So these Pharisees were people that had appointed themselves as the shepherds of Israel.
02:34-02:39
They're like, yeah, we're the guides, we're the enlightened ones and we'll guide you.
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And in John chapter nine, Jesus says to them, you're blind.
02:47-02:48
You're not a shepherd.
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And then in chapter 10, we saw Jesus said, you're not even sheep.
02:54-02:55
You're so lost.
02:57-03:07
Jesus makes his point by talking about something everyone knew, and that was shepherding sheep, the sheep fold, we covered these things last week.
03:08-03:13
But verses one through 10, Jesus actually compared himself to the false shepherds.
03:13-03:25
Jesus said, "His sheep know His voice, they follow Him, and He gives salvation, security, and satisfaction." That was the review. Let's pick up in verse 11.
03:27-05:08
As Jesus continues the metaphor, Jesus said, "I am the Good Shepherd." The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees. And the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he's a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me just as the father knows me and I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep and I have other sheep that are not of this fold I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice so there will be one flock one shepherd for this reason the father loves me because I lay down my life that I may 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 I have authority to take it up again. This charge I received from my father." There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. Many of them said, "He has a demon and is insane.
05:08-05:22
Why listen to him?" Others said, "These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?" Let's pray.
05:24-05:35
Father in heaven, we know that a demon in fact cannot open the eyes of the blind.
05:38-08:18
Only you can do that, Father. Only you can open our spiritual eyes. Father, just now I pray against blindness, I pray against self-deceit, and I pray against the lies of the enemy as we take some time this morning to hear the words from the Good Shepherd. And it's in his mighty name, Jesus Christ, that we pray and all God's people said, "Amen." Did you get a sense of the love jumping off of the page and into your heart in that passage? Did you get that or was it like just me? Did you feel that? Carrie, you did, you're smiling. You got that, didn't you? Like the love just the love of Christ just pouring out out of his mouth into our hearts. On your outline, you know, Jesus here makes a claim twice in this section in verse 11 and verse 14. Jesus said, "I am the Good Shepherd." And what we're going to look at today, the Good Shepherd's job qualifications. Like, if you're making a claim like that? I'm the good shepherd? I'm the good shepherd? If you're making a claim like that, you better have some job qualifications on your resume to back that up. And here Jesus is giving us just that. So number one, jot this down, committed love. Committed love. Look at verses 11 through 13. We're gonna go through this again because Jesus says so much. He says, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." He was a hired hand and not a shepherd who does not own the sheep. Well, he sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. And then why does he do that, Jesus? Well, they all knew this and Jesus was explaining it to them and to he flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep." So first of all, Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd." Now, in the Greek, there were basically two words for good, and one of them had to do with, like, morally good.
08:21-08:21
Morally good.
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Now, I'm not a worship leader. I wish that I was.
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But even though I'm not, I could get up here and I could lead you in a good song, a morally good song.
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Well, the other word for good in the Greek meant wholly good, completely good.
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Now you see, I can't sing a morally good song well, you'll need Darren for that.
08:51-08:58
Or you could say, I'm a morally good musician, you could say, he's a thoroughly good musician, morally and skill-wise.
08:59-09:01
Like, where are you going with this?
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Well, that second word is the word that Jesus used to describe himself as the good shepherd, thoroughly, completely.
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Every single thing about him is good.
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He didn't just say, "I'm a shepherd," like me and the Pharisees, or there's a bunch of us.
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He says, "I'm the shepherd," But he didn't even leave it at that.
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He says, "I am the good shepherd." Literally, literally in the Greek, if you would read this, Jesus said, "I am the shepherd, the good one." And you have to understand what a controversial statement that would have been in front of the Pharisees.
09:44-10:16
That would be like me walking into the campus of Pitt, into the, you know, the faculty lounge all of the professors are sitting, it'd be like me walking in saying, "I'm the teacher, the good one!" And you are. That's what Jesus was doing. In the midst of all these false shepherds, Jesus said, "I'm the shepherd, the good one." So you can see where some hairs were already standing up on the backs of some people's necks.
10:19-10:25
committed love. Notice Jesus said it actually five times in this passage.
10:26-11:05
Verse 11, verse 15, verse 17, and twice in verse 18, he says, "I lay down my life." "I lay down my life." Why did he do that? Well, he tells us he lays down his life for the sheep. Now, you see, there's something a little different going on than in the human realm. Imagine a shepherd on a hillside guarding his flock and a pack of wolves come and the shepherd dies defending the sheep. Tell me what happens next. What happens next?
11:12-12:12
What happens next? Go ahead, shout it out. The sheep die, right? Isn't that what happens next? Like, the shepherd fights off the wolves and dies, the wolves aren't like, "Okay, we're done." Now the wolves are like, "It's ponderosa time, and the sheep are toast if the shepherd dies." Well, spoiler alert, Jesus said, "I'm the good shepherd that lays down his life for the sheep, but, but what happened to that dead shepherd?" He tells us in verses 17 and 18, he said, "I laid down my life, but I have the authority to what? Take it up again." Isn't that awesome? We're not following a shepherd that's in danger of getting ravaged by wolves. We're following a shepherd that got ravaged by the wolves and came marching right out of his grave, who lives to eternally take care of his sheep.
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Isn't that fantastic?
12:15-12:16
Committed love.
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Committed love.
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Jesus compared himself to the Pharisees by mentioning the hireling.
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What was the hireling?
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Well, the hireling was paid part-time.
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Okay?
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It was the guy that the shepherd would hire if he needed a day off or if he was sick.
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He was paid part-time.
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And why did the hireling take the job?
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Well, he was just in it for the money. He didn't really care about the sheep, right?
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They're not his sheep. I don't care what happens to the sheep.
12:48-12:51
Just here for a paycheck. Have you ever had a job like that?
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Where you're like, "I'm just here to get a paycheck," but the job stinks so bad that you quit after the first day?
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Has that ever happened to you? Anybody?
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I'm going to tell you a story. You're going to think of some of your own.
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But my wife, Erin, when she was 15, she gave me permission to tell this story, by the way.
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When she was 15, you remember these goofy jobs you got when you were like a teenager, right?
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Before you could drive and all that.
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Well, when she was 15, she heard of this place up by Montauk where you could go and pick blueberries.
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You could go there at eight in the morning and stay till five in the afternoon.
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And Erin was like, this is fantastic.
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Because her friend was going to go with her.
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She's like, so we can pick blueberries all day, and we can talk, and we can listen to music, and we can just have a great old time outside working.
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It's all so much fun.
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Then we're going to go home, and we're just going to sit, and we're going to count our money, maybe fill it in a silo like Scrooge McDuck and swim in it.
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And well, she got up early.
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First of all, she found out the employer was this really nasty, mean lady.
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And you would have to take many trips to dump these blueberries.
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So all day, you'd fill this little thing, and then you'd go have to dump it to fill the big thing.
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And you were actually paid by volume.
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And this lady would throw out all these blueberries that didn't match her criteria.
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And Erin said she endured the heat.
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They got attacked by bees.
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She got a nasty sunburn.
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And she went home with $6.36 payday.
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Oh, it's not over.
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because she was 15 and needed transportation, she had to pay $5 for the trip.
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She did all that work for not even a buck and a half.
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So what do you think the chances were that she went blueberry picking the next day?
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What do you think the chances were?
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No, she did not go back blueberry picking.
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Well, what's the point here?
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Well, Jesus said, well, that's what the hirelings are like.
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They're in the job for the money, but they don't really care about the job and they're going to bail.
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They're going to bail.
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If you're just in it for the money, you're not gonna stick around.
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And again, Jesus was calling out the Pharisees, the religious leaders.
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He says, "You're just a bunch of cowardly hirelings." The Bible warns us that some pastors are in ministry that way.
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Did you know that?
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There are some pastors in ministry that are just about collecting the paycheck.
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They don't care about the people.
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They don't care if you're growing, if you're understanding God's word.
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They don't care.
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What they care is the money, the prestige, the fame.
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Well, and then when things get hard, what do they do?
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When things get hard, they pack up and go because they don't care about the sheep.
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That's why, what is it, like one in 10 people who actually start ministry actually finish ministry?
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That's why church, you face a double whammy, don't you?
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The church faces a double whammy.
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You either have to face the wolves, or you have to face a hireling that will bail when the wolves show up.
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Well, Jesus sets the example for us in ministry.
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For the good of the flock, he laid down his life.
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For the good of the flock, he committed. And he didn't just commit to say I'm going to fulfill a few years of ministry. He didn't just commit to where he said, "Well, if this starts getting hard, I'm still going to endure." How far did Jesus commit all the way to carrying the cross on his back, all the way to public humiliation and shame, agonizing physical pain on the cross, but nothing compared to the pain of bearing the wrath of sin on himself. How can you not love a shepherd like this? We have a shepherd who says, "I will lay down my life for the sheep. I will sacrifice myself so that they may live." And understand, that's what happened at the cross. When Jesus Christ was crucified, some people think that, you know, it was so horrible because of the physical pain, and it was. But the horrible part of the cross, and the horrible pain rather, was the truth that when Jesus was hanging there, he was bearing the wrath of God for my sin and for your sin.
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The Bible tells us that God is a God of justice and he must punish sin.
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Some people think God is like grandpa, like, "Oh, the kids are out of hand again "and I'm just gonna overlook it." And God is a holy and righteous judge.
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And God said He will punish sin.
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He said the wages of sin is death.
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And God always keeps His word, isn't that the God that we worship, the God who always keeps His word?
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Well, when it comes to punishing sin, He's going to keep His word on that, too.
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But see, here's the glorious truth.
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when Jesus was hanging on the cross, He was stepping in.
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He took my place on the cross.
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It should have been me bearing the wrath of God.
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It should have been you beside me on your own cross bearing the wrath of God.
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You should be punished for your sin, and I know I should be punished for mine.
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But Jesus says, I am the good shepherd, I laid down my life for the sheep.
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taking the full brunt of God's punishment.
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So that we can be completely forgiven, completely without guilt.
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No condemnation.
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Do you understand that?
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Do you understand what that means?
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Because I even talked to some Christians that say things like, why know when I stand before God, I'm going to have some things to answer for.
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Have you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?
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If so, what makes you think God punished Jesus, and then he's going to turn around and punish you too?
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That's why the Bible uses this word, I love this word, propitiation. You know what that means?
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Christ is our propitiation. It means that God was satisfied with Christ. God wasn't like, "I took it out on Jesus, but Derek, I'm going to take it out on you too!" Because you've trusted Christ, he says, You're not guilty. You're free. You're delivered. You're innocent. Because Jesus took your place.
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He bore your punishment. And you're alive and you're free.
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So the question is, have you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?
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Have you believed in him and in the work that he accomplished?
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And this is an urgent thing. You know the Bible talks about the day of salvation.
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Do you know when that is? Do you know when the day of salvation is?
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It's today. Do you know why it's today? Why isn't it tomorrow?
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Why isn't tomorrow the day of salvation? Because you might not have tomorrow. Right?
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Either Christ could return, or who's to say that you're still alive this time tomorrow?
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Today is the day of salvation. Have you received the shepherd who laid down his life, committed love?
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Committed love. What's not to love about Jesus Christ?
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Secondly, on his job description, jot this down, "Uniting love." Uniting love.
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Here's a lame shepherd here. Do you want to hear about a lame shepherd?
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Here's a lame shepherd.
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You walk up to him and you say, "Is that your sheep?" And he's like, "I don't know." Or you walk up to him and say, "How many sheep do you have?" I don't know.
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More than six, I think. I don't know.
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Lame shepherd, right?
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Hey, how are your sheep doing?
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What's the general health of the flock?
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(blows raspberry)
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Wish I could tell you.
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Why don't you tell me and we'll both know.
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Um, uniting love.
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Well, this word for "know" that Jesus used, we're going to look at this again, but listen, this word for "know" that he used doesn't just mean like I have head knowledge about something, like I know the square root of 16 or something like that. This word for "know" is experiential, intimate knowledge that we actually gain through the experience.
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To know someone. Do you know how it was used in the Old Testament?
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In the Old Testament it meant relational intimacy that culminated in the physical human experience.
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That's why in Genesis it says, "Adam knew Eve." What does that mean?
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He wasn't like, "Oh Eve, I'm pleased to meet you." Yeah, we met.
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What that meant was they had an experience together.
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And when we get to the New Testament, that's what that word no means.
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It's not always tied into the sexual connotation.
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What it means is we've experienced some things together.
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We have a relational knowledge of each other, okay?
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Closeness and experience, God's desire that we grow in a relationship with Him.
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Because that's what love goes after, isn't it?
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Doesn't love go after unity?
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Isn't that true?
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Does love go after unity?
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I think back to those days about 12 years ago or so, when I said, "Aaron, I love you. Will you be my pen pal?" That went a lot further than I anticipated. "No, will you marry me?" Why did I want to marry her? Why did I want to marry her? Because you can't cook, Pastor Jeff. There's even a bigger reason.
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because I wanted to know her. I wanted to be in a relationship with her. I wanted to be close with her. I wanted to experience life with her. I wanted to grow old with her. All of that. It's knowing her. You see, love goes after unity. Love says, "I want to be close to you." Love says, "I want to have experiences with you. Love says I want to know you more. Okay, so now look at verses 14 and through 16 again where Jesus said, "I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own." Ah, is that making sense now? I know my own. And my own know me. Are you getting that?
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If I was like, "Jesus, who's this guy?" And Jesus is like, "Oh, his name's Justin, "begins with a C, Justin, Justin Katie, yeah, "yeah, yeah, yeah, I think I know him." Jesus said, "I know my sheep." How well does Jesus know Justin Katie?
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Better than Justin Katie knows himself.
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That's the level of knowledge that this shepherd has for his sheep.
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So not only does he know the sheep, but the sheep know him.
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And you're like, well, like how deep does that go?
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As deep as it gets.
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He says, just as the father knows me and I know the father.
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What kind of relationship did God the father and God the son have?
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It was pretty tight, wasn't it?
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Yeah, there's nothing tighter.
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There is no, there's nothing you can compare that relationship to on one hand, but on the other hand, Jesus was saying that his relationship and knowing the sheep and the sheep knowing him is just as, wow.
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Just as he knows the father and the father knows him.
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And then Jesus says, I have other sheep that are not of this fold.
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And again, we talked about this last week.
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He's talking about the Gentiles.
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He came to the lost sheep of Israel and here Gentiles, he's going after them, too.
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Jesus said, I must bring them also so they will listen and they will listen to my voice.
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Excuse me. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
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So the point is this, Jesus Christ is the unifying center.
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He came to bring us into a loving relationship with God and a loving relationship with each other.
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Those two things real quick, first of all, Jesus came to bring us into a loving relationship with God.
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As Christians, our goal is God's goal.
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What's God's goal for you, Christians?
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Romans 8, 29 says that God's goal for you is to be conformed into the image of his son.
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Do you see that unity thing? Do you see it?
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God's goal is you're so unified with his son that you're becoming like him, conformed into his image.
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That's why Paul said we just studied Philippians, right?
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Remember Philippians 3.10? What was Paul's ultimate goal?
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Paul's ultimate goal, he says, "That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death." Paul's goal was, I want to know Jesus more.
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I want to know Jesus more, not just about Jesus, the experiential relationship.
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That's what I'm going after.
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How are you doing there?
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That's why at Harvest we encourage you to pray without ceasing.
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That's why we encourage you to be part of a small group.
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That's why you hear me say week after week, you need to be in God's word for yourself.
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OK, that's part of your growing in unity in the Lord, knowing him deeper.
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That's why we encourage you to come here for worship in the Word, growing in your relationship with the Lord.
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All these things will help you.
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Secondly, he's called us to grow in the relationship with each other.
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Again, verse 16, talking about the Gentiles, that's one of the most beautiful things about the church, is because you have messed up people of all colors and all backgrounds, all unified.
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"a flock under one shepherd." So jot these words down on your outline.
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You ready?
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Jot these words down on your outline.
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First word is this, elitism.
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Elitism.
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Write it down.
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And then put a big fat X through it because that's not allowed here.
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Elitism is I'm better than you.
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I'm a sheep, you're a sheep.
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Elitism, no room for that in the church.
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If you walk through the doors thinking, it's really nice of me to tolerate these people.
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They're really blessed to have me here.
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You're a sheep, saved by grace, just like me.
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Here's another word, write this word down, favoritism.
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Favoritism, write it down.
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And guess what you're gonna do with that?
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put a big fat X through it.
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Favoritism.
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Elitism is I'm better than you.
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Favoritism is you are better than him.
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That's favoritism.
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You're a sheep and he's a sheep.
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He was saved by the blood of Jesus Christ.
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How did you get saved?
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Oh yeah, it was the blood of Christ.
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Right, right, right.
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So that means you guys are pretty much equal, right?
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Sheep, there's no room for favoritism in the church.
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And then the last one, racism.
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Racism, write racism down and put a big fat X through that one.
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Elitism is I'm better than you.
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Favoritism is you're better than him.
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Racism is you aren't as good as anyone in here.
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Okay, if you're a black man saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, you're a white man saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, like really what's the difference in God's eyes?
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What's the difference?
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We're sheep, we're sheep.
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Okay, so there's black sheep and there's white sheep.
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What, you don't like a little color in your flock?
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No room for racism in the church.
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There's one shepherd, we're all sheep, okay?
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Elitism, favoritism, racism, not welcome here.
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And then finally today, let's talk about obedient love.
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Obedient love, look at verses 17 and 18 again.
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Jesus says, "For this reason, the Father loves me." That's a confusing statement, isn't it?
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For this reason, the Father loves me?
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Like God didn't love you before?
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For this reason, the Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again." Did Jesus earn the Father's love?
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No, that's not what he's saying.
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This is what he's saying.
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The highest act of love to the Father was the Son laying down his life for the sheep, which is also the highest justification of the Father's love for the Son.
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Do you catch that?
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Jesus didn't like earn God's love because he did that.
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It was the ultimate expression of his love.
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And for the Father, it was the ultimate justification of his love.
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Like, of course I love my son, look at him.
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Jesus came to sacrifice himself, but I think you saw in these verses, he wasn't forced to.
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Five times I laid on my life, I lay down my life, lay it down, lay it down, that I may take it up again.
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Oh, so they're going to kill you, Jesus.
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No one takes it from me.
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So, like, who killed Jesus?
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It was the Jews, right?
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The Romans, right?
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No one takes it from me.
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But I lay it down of my own accord.
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I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again.
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this charge I received from my father. Jesus wasn't forced to sacrifice himself. So if the choice is A, die a brutal death, or B, surviving and avoiding a brutal death, which option are you going to take? Or the question is, why die?
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Why die? Well, there was one thing that motivated Jesus Christ 24/7. Do you know what it was? There was one thing that Jesus kept his eyes on, motivated him every single step that he took, every second of every day, there was one thing that drove Jesus, and that was this, glorifying the Father through His obedience. That was it. And I wrote down all these verses. We can do a whole another study on that. But Jesus made it so clear. Do you know why I'm here? Do you know why I'm here? I'm here to do my Father's will, period. That's why I'm here.
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perfect obedience and being one with Christ going down the homestretch here please this is so important being one with Christ it is the same for us listen to me obedience flows out of love you aren't saved by obedience but you are saved for obedience, it's like good works, right? How many times have we said that? You're not saved by good works, you're saved for good works. It's the same with obedience. Obedience is the fruit of salvation. Obedience is the evidence of salvation. And the other thing I need to remind you of, as I do often, is that God doesn't call you to something that he doesn't empower you for, right? So it's not like, "Go out there and try to be obedient." That's what walking in the Spirit is all about. It's allowing the Holy Spirit to manifest Himself through you. So why is obedience important to the Follower of Christ? Three things. First of all, obedience is evidence that we know God. It's evidence. It's evidence that we know God. 1 John 2:3, he says, "And by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. Again, it's that intimate, it's that relational knowledge. Are you a friend of God? Do you know God? Well, John says if you do, it shows up in your life. It affects the way that you live. Secondly, obedience is evidence that we love God. Obedience is evidence that we love God. Jesus said in John 14, 15, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." Again, it's fruit.
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It's fruit.
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If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
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The fruit of loving Jesus Christ is I wanna do what he says.
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Just like Jesus said, "I know the Father, I love the Father, "so I'm just here to do what the Father says." And then thirdly, obedience is evidence that we trust God.
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Obedience is evidence that we trust God.
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It's so interesting, many, many references in the Old Testament actually, is God's giving the law.
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When we think of the law, a lot of times we think of just arbitrary rules, but over and over, like look at Deuteronomy 6.24, "The Lord commanded us to do all these statutes to fear the Lord our God for our good always." There's an element in which obedience is really saying, "God, I just believe you know best.
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I believe you know best.
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I trust your word.
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You know what, God, right now I'm having a hard time maybe acting upon it, but I'm going to do it anyways because I believe you and I trust you." It's evidence that we trust God.
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God, when he tells us to do something, what's he really saying?
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He's saying, "Do this for your own good." when God tells us not to do something, God's saying, "What? Don't hurt yourself." As we've heard James MacDonald say so many times, "You choose to sin, you what?
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Choose to suffer." Right? Choose to sin, choose to suffer. Whether you obey the Word or not just reveals whether you trust God or not. So church, that's what we're going after. Christlike, humble obedience. As we cap this off, no surprise here, look at verse 19 again. Jesus makes this statement. "There was again a division among the Jews because of these words." Jesus is polarizing. He's Some people come to church and say, "I'm not going back there." Other people come and say, "I can't wait to go back." Why? It has to do with the words of Jesus.
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Some people are going to hate it and run from it, and some people are going to just drink it down like cold water on a hot day.
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If this wasn't so sad of the condition of these men's hearts, it would almost be funny, but look at verse 20, many of them said, "He has a demon and he's insane." It's like, demon possession alone isn't enough to explain how crazy this man is.
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So we postulate that he does in fact have a demon possessing him.
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And on top of that, he has mental illness.
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That's the only explanation for a man that would get up and say the things that he said.
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Well, Jesus is a madman, or he's God.
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So if you leave thinking that Jesus is just all right with me, then you haven't been paying attention to anything he said.
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Jesus is Lord of all, or he's not Lord at all.
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Several years ago, we were going around the neighborhood doing some evangelizing, and I met the most peculiar lady.
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I was talking to her about our church and talking to her about Jesus, and the lady, her whole face got really sad.
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She said, "You know, it's the worst thing that's ever happened in history, you know." I'm like, "What?" She said, "They got Jesus." Like, "What?" Think about it. He was going out, he was healing people, he was teaching people good things, and they got him.
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Think of how much more effective his ministry would have been if he hadn't been cut down so young.
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But they got him. And the world hasn't been the same ever since.
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Because they killed Jesus.
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And I was trying to explain to her what God's Word says about that, and she totally wasn't buying it.
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She wasn't getting it.
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She's like, "No, you don't understand.
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It's a shame that they killed him.
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Think of how much better off we would be had they let him live." But when you see an image of Jesus on the cross, whether it's an advertisement for a church, whether it's an advertisement for an Easter service, or even if it's in your mind's eye, you picture Jesus on the cross, here's where your mind should go.
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Okay? Do you have that picture in your mind? Do you have it?
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Jesus on the cross, here's where your mind should go.
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The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
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Committed, uniting, and obedient.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Review John 10:11-21
Why does Jesus say (four times!) that he is “laying down His life for the sheep (Jn 10: 11,15,17,18)? How does that make you view the cross?
How would you describe the place obedience has in a Christian’s life?
Breakout Questions:
In what area do you struggle the most with obedience? Why? What steps are you taking to honor God in this area of your life?
Pray for one another.
