Here this morning I was talking with Dave Sulak who is the director of our adult division
of ministries and he said, well, what are you preaching on this morning?
You're closing out this series on the church, aren't you?
And I said, yes.
I said, I'm going to be preaching this morning on the flock of God.
He said, well, is that turkeys or chickens or what kind of a flock is it?
Well, we're going to find out.
As most of you know, I'm sure he will know now, it's a flock of sheep.
A flock of sheep.
I don't guess they had turkeys back in those days or if they did, the Bible doesn't talk
about them anyway.
First Peter chapter 2 verse 25, for you were continually straying like sheep, but now you
have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
Chapter 5 verse 1, therefore I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder and
witness of the sufferings of Christ and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed,
shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion but voluntarily
according to the will of God, and not for sordid gain but with eagerness nor yet as
lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.
And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
Both the Old Testament and the New Testament uses sheep as a picture of God's people.
Have you ever wondered what God is trying to say when he says that we are like sheep?
Perhaps of all the metaphors of God's people, this is the most humbling, for sheep are rather
helpless and dependent creatures after all.
They are easily lost.
They are said to be unintelligent.
They are nervous and jumpy.
Now do you know any Christians like that?
Well, I guess we could all identify ourselves with certain aspects of those negative traits
of being a sheep.
But I believe that God chose a more positive reason for comparing us to sheep.
I believe this picture is used commonly throughout the Word of God, both of Israel as well as
the church, because the nature of sheep is to follow their leader.
And therefore we are called sheep because we follow him.
Furthermore, sheep need to be cared for by their shepherd, and God desires to care for
his people.
Therefore he calls us his sheep.
And so because we follow him and because he cares for us, God delights to identify us
as a flock of sheep.
The Church of Jesus Christ is God's flock in this age.
There are two aspects of this metaphor that are dealt with in the New Testament, which
we want to talk about this morning.
First, the securing of the flock.
To do that, go back to the Gospel of John in the tenth chapter in your New Testament.
The securing of the flock of sheep.
We have a lengthy discourse here dealing with Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd.
In verses 1 through 6, the Lord Jesus Christ gives us the figure that he has in mind.
He talks about shepherds and their sheep in that day.
Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep,
but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.
But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep.
To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep
by name and leads them out.
When he puts forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, because they
know his voice.
And a stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not
know the voice of strangers.
This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things
were which he had been saying to them.
Let's talk about this figure for a moment.
Sheep in that day were commonly kept in what was termed a fold.
The fold or pin was usually made of mud bricks or sometimes rough stones that were piled
in a fence design.
The fold was only partially covered, if at all.
Sometimes caves served as folds for the sheep.
But you see the purpose of the fold was to provide protection for the flock during the
night.
The door was the only opening to this enclosure called the fold.
Often it was without an actual gate, there was just the opening into it.
As the sheep would come behind the shepherd at the night, he would allow them to enter
the fold, examining each one for injury as it entered.
And if he found the sheep had been injured during the day as they were out grazing, he
would anoint that sheep with oil.
He would then, if he were alone, lie down in front of that opening to provide the door
himself, so that no predator could enter, nor could any sheep leave without his, of
course, being aware of it.
So he became the door.
Now if there were a number of shepherds, they would sometimes have a doorkeeper who would
be responsible to do that, so the shepherd might get some better rest.
Lots of several shepherds would share the same fold on occasion.
In the morning, the shepherd would go to the door and would begin to call his sheep by
name.
Such a relationship had developed between the sheep and shepherd that he named each
one, though he didn't have to.
Inevitably they recognized his voice, and though the other shepherds might call for
their sheep or even have the same names for their sheep, the sheep each knew its shepherd,
and they would follow their shepherd as they left the fold that day to pasture.
Jesus took this picture and applied it to himself and to his sheep.
He begins to give the significance of it in verse 7.
He says,
Truly, truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
I am the door.
If anyone enters through me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture.
And so the first application that Jesus draws from this picture is to himself.
He says, I am the door.
He says, If a sheep wishes to become one of my flock, he must enter in by me, and he shall
be saved.
And that, my friend, is an invitation to salvation.
So today, if you are not one of his sheep, he invites you to enter in by the door, which
is he himself.
He has made it possible for each of us to come into salvation through him by his sacrifice
at the cross, where he gave his life.
And by his resurrection from the dead, he lives forevermore.
And so if by faith we, as it were, enter into relationship with God through him, we shall
be saved.
He goes on to say that we go in and out and find pasture, and the idea behind that is
that he cares for us.
He takes upon himself the responsibility to be our shepherd, and he leads us in and out
of the fold we find pasture, we're cared for.
He says, The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
I came that they might have life and might have it abundantly.
I am the good shepherd.
The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
He contrasts the hireling.
He who is a hireling and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, beholds the
wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
He flees because he is a hireling and is not concerned about the sheep.
I am the good shepherd, and I know my own, and my own know me, even as the Father knows
me and I know the Father.
And I lay down my life for the sheep, and I have other sheep which are not of this fold.
I must bring them also, and they shall hear my voice, and they shall become one flock
with one shepherd.
For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again.
No one has taken it away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative.
I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.
This is the commandment I receive from my Father.
So Jesus first applies the figure of verses 1 through 6 to himself saying, I am the door.
By me one can be saved.
The second application is, I am also the good shepherd, he says.
This is an Old Testament allusion to Jehovah who called himself the shepherd of his people
in numerous places.
Jesus Christ comes as Jehovah God of the Old Testament.
He is God incarnate, and he applies that Old Testament figure to himself.
He says, I am the good shepherd.
Now he is the good shepherd in contrast to the false shepherds, the hirelings which Israel
had known, referring to her false religious leaders.
Jesus says as the good shepherd that he does not come to use the sheep for his own advantage,
nor does he come to victimize them as had their false religious leaders who fleeced
them.
But rather he came to seek their welfare, to give them abundant, that is, fullness of
life, and to do that even by giving his own life for them.
You will notice five times Jesus refers in the verses we've read to his laying down
his life for the sheep.
Verse 11, I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
In verse 15 he says, I lay down my life for the sheep.
In verse 17, I lay down my life that I might take it again.
Verse 18, I lay it down on my own initiative.
I have authority to lay it down and have authority to take it up again.
And so five times he makes that statement.
This statement is unique to John's writings.
Only he records this statement of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He uses a similar phrase when he records Peter's statement in John 13, verses 37 and 38, when
Peter said, Lord, I will lay down my life for you.
He uses it again in chapter 15, verse 13, when he records Jesus as saying that a friend
lays down his life for his friend.
And then in 1 John, chapter 3, verse 16, he again uses this same phrase referring to the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ laying down his life for us.
What does it mean to lay down one's life?
What it means is sacrifice, yes, voluntary sacrifice for another.
That is Jesus' point.
And that was Peter's point.
He sincerely meant it, though he couldn't carry it out.
That's what a true friend does for his friend.
Voluntarily he gives himself as a sacrifice for his friend.
Jesus is saying for his sheep he gives himself as a voluntary sacrifice.
That is for their sakes, for your sakes.
He gives his life.
What that means is not just his physical existence but his total self.
He gave himself totally and completely and fully for your sake and mine.
Verse 18, he clarifies the fact that he has authority to do this.
He was not guilty of committing suicide, nor did he assent to being killed only.
Rather, he clearly states that it was his purpose to experience death, that he had authority
within himself to choose the time to be killed for his own purpose, and then he had authority
to bring himself back from the dead in resurrection power.
That is his authority as the Good Shepherd.
Andy says, this is all motivated out of loving obedience to the commandment that I have received
from my Father.
And so in a wonderful way we see the work of the Lord Jesus Christ as the door and as
the Good Shepherd.
His work is the securing of his flock to be his own.
And that is the result of the work.
He says in verse 14, I am the Good Shepherd and I know my own, and my own know me.
What a wonderful way for Jesus to state this.
His sheep are not just sheep but they are his own sheep in a very possessive way, in
a personal statement of ownership.
He says they are my own sheep.
And he goes on to say in verse 16, I have other sheep which are not of this fold, I
must bring them also.
And they shall hear my voice and they shall become one flock with one shepherd.
Jesus here is indicating that there are sheep that belong to him among the Gentiles as well
as among the Jews.
And that the Gentiles too would hear his voice in time to come from the day that he stated
this.
And that they would become, Jew and Gentile, one flock with one shepherd.
And that is what we are today as his sheep.
We are not divided along racial or ethnic lines.
We are not Jew and Gentile.
We are not divided according to social mores.
We are divided.
We are not divided by anything.
We are one flock.
And we follow one shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now he tells us because we are his own that he gives us some things.
Skip down a few verses to verse 25.
Jesus is here speaking to the Jewish leaders who did not believe on him.
The occasion is sometime later at a feast in Jerusalem.
Jesus responds to their question in verse 24 by saying, I told you and you do not believe.
That is I told you who I am.
I am the Christ.
The works that I do in my Father's name, these bear witness of me.
But you do not believe because you are not of my sheep.
My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.
And I give eternal life to them and they shall never perish.
And no one shall snatch them out of my hand.
My Father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them
out of my Father's hand.
I and the Father are one.
The result of Jesus Christ's work as the Good Shepherd is that he has secured us as his
own sheep.
And as Jesus elaborates on what it means to be his sheep, he says number one, it means
that he gives to his own sheep eternal life.
Now we use that phrase a lot.
Have you ever thought about what it means?
What it means is that we share his very life force as the eternal God.
We have become partakers of his eternal and dynamic existence.
We have become participators in eternal life.
We are so much sharers in it that we can never lose it.
Jesus said, I give to my sheep eternal life.
Most of it he says, I give it to them.
It's not something they've earned.
How sadly wrong.
So many people are who think that we must do something to gain eternal life.
Jesus said, I give them eternal life.
And we who come to him simply receive that by faith, don't we?
But it goes on to say that as his sheep furthermore, we can never perish.
They shall not never perish, says Jesus.
You say, wait a minute, that's two negatives.
Well, it is in fact, in the Greek language, it doesn't come across that way in the English
because it would be very poor English.
But it was not a problem for the Greek to put two negatives together because when he
did that, it simply underscored and strengthened what he was trying to say.
The point of the double negative is it is absolutely impossible for them to perish.
There is no way for them ever to be eternally ruined.
The very thought is unthinkable that they should perish.
That is Jesus' point here.
They shall never perish.
There are some people who are genuinely saved who say that it is possible for a believer
to lose his salvation and to perish.
That is in contradiction to what the Word of God teaches.
The Word of God teaches us that when we become the sheep of the Lord Jesus Christ, He gives
us eternal life.
And part of that means that we can never perish.
But he goes on to say, to even strengthen this thought, no one shall snatch them out
of my hand.
In other words, we can never be removed from His possession.
We are in His keeping.
We are guarded by Him.
No one is able to snatch them away from me.
And all of the resources of God Himself are committed to the safekeeping, to the preservation
of His sheep.
As Peter put it in his first epistle, we are kept by the power of God through faith, ready
to be revealed at the last time.
We are not kept saved because we keep obedient or because we are good little Christians.
Now we obey because we are His sheep, but we are not kept saved because we obey.
There is an important distinction there.
We do not gain our salvation by our good works.
We cannot lose our salvation by our bad works.
Works have nothing to do with it whatsoever.
It is all by the grace of God.
Just as you and I are cleansed from our sins and made a part of the family of God, or in
terms of the analogy here, we are made part of His fold, we are His sheep, so we are kept
a part of that fold.
And we cannot perish.
We have been given eternal life, and no one can snatch us out of His hand or out of the
Father's hand.
We are as much one with Him as Jesus Christ Himself is with the Father.
And that is why verse 30 is put where it is.
We can no more be separated from Jesus Christ than the Son can be separated from the Father.
As much as He is one with the Father, so are we in union with Him, secure.
So we talk about the securing of God's flock.
I hope you are one of His.
Jesus told a wonderful parable about the shepherd who had a hundred sheep.
When he returned one evening, one of them was missing, and he, as the one responsible
for the one hundred, went out looking for that one lost sheep until he found him and
brought him home safely.
I may be talking to someone here today who is still out there lost in the wilderness.
You are out there as that one sheep out of the fold here.
And today Jesus Christ is looking for you.
He desires to bring you into His fold.
You must respond to Him in faith.
Or as He put it earlier in this chapter, you must enter in by Him the door.
Be a part of His fold.
If you have never done that, it is my sincere prayer and desire for you that today you would
make that decision.
You may have been thinking about it for some time and putting it off, but put it off no
longer.
The Good Shepherd seeks for you today.
He gave Himself for you.
We want to move ahead to the shepherding of the flock because that is an important part
of this whole analogy of the flock of God.
Jesus is the Good Shepherd who gave Himself to secure the flock as His own.
He is also the shepherd who guards and oversees His own.
In 1 Peter 2, 25 you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
Today He is the Great Shepherd of the sheep who is looking after their care and their
concerns.
I would like for you to turn to 1 Peter chapter 5 and we will look again at the text we read
earlier.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Great Shepherd of the sheep, but He has designed it so that
in His flock in this age there are those that we term under-shepherds who are responsible
to Him for the shepherding of His flock.
What is the responsibility of those who are the under-shepherds or the elders in the Lord's
flock?
Well, in 1 Peter 5, 2 He uses a verb that kind of wraps it all up.
He says, shepherd or tend the flock of God among you.
He goes on to exhort us who are elders to exercise oversight.
So what does it mean to tend the flock of God?
It means to exercise an oversight of the allotment that God has given to you.
Look after them, in other words.
Care for them.
It seems to me that there are at least four areas to this matter of shepherding the people
of God.
One is guarding the flock.
Shepherds are responsible to guard the flock against wolves and predators who would kill
them.
Jesus in John 10 mentioned those who are hirelings and who would run away when the predators
would come and leave the flock defenseless, but not so with a true shepherd.
As Jesus, or rather as the Apostle Paul, spoke to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, among other
things he said to them this, Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which
the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.
To shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood.
I know, says Paul, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not
sparing the flock.
The Apostle was concerned that there would be predators who would begin to prey upon
those believers at Ephesus.
And so he says to those who are responsible to Jesus Christ as undershepherds, Guard the
flock of the Lord which he has purchased with his own blood.
Charles Jefferson, a man who ministered to a different generation, wrote a book which
is now back in print which every pastor, in fact every pastor teacher in our church ought
to read.
It would be profitable for any of us.
It is entitled The Minister as Shepherd.
Let me read to you a couple of statements from him.
He is referring here to Psalm 23 when he says, quote, everything that the psalmist calls
God, a sheep might call its shepherd, the walls of the sheepfold are built by the shepherd,
when there are no stones he builds thorn bushes into barriers, the door of the sheepfold is
made by him, open and closed by him, by his foresight the sheep are protected, by his
courage they are saved, he defends them in the hour of attack, he safeguards them when
they are not aware of danger, they owe their safety to him when they are least conscious
of their obligation.
The shepherd in the east was a guard, a protector, a defender.
Though I walk through the valley of deep darkness, I will fear no evil for thou art with me.
The ravine or deep gorge in the east was the hiding place of wild animals and the resort
of dangerous men.
Even here, however, the sheep were secure when the shepherd was with them.
His rod and his staff protected them.
The safeguarding of the sheep is a prime function in pastoral work.
So that is the job of the shepherds of this congregation to guard the flock, to look out
for the welfare of the Lord's sheep here.
That includes rescuing those who go astray.
The story is told of D.L.
Moody, who was out talking to people on the street in Chicago.
And one person was particularly unhappy with the questions that Moody was asking him about
his soul and remarked to him, well, what business is that of yours?
And Moody said, sir, that is exactly what my business is.
You see, it is the business of the shepherds of our flock to look after the welfare of
our souls.
Now we are to be on guard for ourselves and alert to dangers, but there are times when
we don't recognize danger.
It is the particular responsibility of the elders, the undershepherds of our flock, to
look out for the well-being, the safety, the protection of us, the sheep in this flock.
A second responsibility of those who are under shepherds is that of guiding the sheep.
I did not say drive them.
I said guide them.
There's a difference.
Shepherds are to lead the flock, not be behind them with the rod and the staff screaming
at them.
He is to be out in front, the shepherd, guiding his sheep by his example.
And that is why the apostle Peter in verse 3 says, nor yet as lording it over those allotted
to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.
There is, I think, unfortunately, a philosophy of ministry abroad these days which says that
somehow those who are in the leadership of the Lord's people are to be their drivers.
But God's people, rather, are not cattle.
They are sheep who must be led and led by humble example of the under shepherds.
I again wish to quote briefly from Charles Jefferson's work, some ministers try to
drive, he says.
Their fatal weakness is an inability to see that shepherds cannot drive.
Such men are always cutting, lashing, forcing, and therefore always getting into trouble.
They are continually quarreling with their people and for no other reason than that they
do not know how to lead.
They push and do not draw.
They shove and do not woo.
They believe in propulsion and not in attraction.
They lack the magic of the shepherd's touch.
They do not know human nature.
They do not realize that men like sheep must be led.
Some ministers can see a huge work which ought to be attempted, but they cannot lead their
people into it.
They can describe critically the strategic nature of the battle that ought to be fought,
but they never get their people onto the battlefield.
They are visionaries, dreamers, but not shepherds.
They do not lead.
No one is really a leader whom men do not follow.
It is the responsibility of those who are the shepherds of our flock to guide and to
lead this flock.
A third responsibility of shepherding is feeding the flock.
Perhaps the most serious charge that can be leveled against anyone who is a shepherd is
that his sheep are not being fed.
Feeding sheep is hard work.
Determining the diet for the flock is not easy.
I think that there are some who are in it for the fun of it, but how quickly they disappear
from the ranks of the shepherds, because shepherding is tough, and no work is tougher than that
of feeding the flock of God.
It is not enough just to teach the flock doctrine, but it must be lovingly and prayerfully applied
to the life.
As one person said, we must do more than give the believers a menu.
We must give them the meal.
It is not enough that you get outlines or that you learn doctrine.
It starts there, but it must go beyond that to a practical application of your life and
of mine.
That's hard work.
And then a fourth work of the shepherd is that of restoring.
Restoring the flock from disease, from injury.
Because that would apply to the people of God, it would mean restoring God's people,
his sheep from the disease of spirit, from the wound of conscience, from the sores of
relationships, from the illness of bad attitudes, from the weakness of improper diet for the
mind.
Restoring God's sheep from moral paralysis, from depression of spirit.
For a few years when I was young on the farm, we raised sheep, and I was able to learn firsthand
the importance of being around when sheep needed to be restored.
I can well remember sheep who got out into the alfalfa field when it was wet and ate,
bloated and died.
I remember sheep who would get somehow wedged upside down between a fence perhaps and a
feeding trough and died.
They could not get up on their feet.
I remember sheep who would stick their heads where they didn't belong through the fence
trying to get something on the other side of the fence where I guess the grass was greener.
The result was they choked to death and couldn't get loose.
You see, sheep need to be restored.
And constantly within God's flock there are sheep who need to be restored and helped from
one problem or another.
That is the responsibility of those who are under shepherds.
You say, what is a shepherd's heart?
I hear that term some.
Well, he has a shepherd's heart, or he doesn't have a shepherd's heart.
What does that mean?
A shepherd's heart is one which understands what it means to guard, to guide, to feed,
and to restore the flock of God.
And what is the motive of the shepherd of the Lord's people?
There is to be one primary motive, and that is love.
Do you remember the time that Jesus met with Peter after his resurrection?
There beside the sea.
Jesus said to Peter, do you love me?
Peter responded, yes, Lord.
You know I love you.
Feed my sheep.
Take care of them.
Do you love me, Peter?
Yes, Lord.
Tend my sheep.
Do you love me, Peter?
Yes, Lord.
Feed my sheep.
What was to be the motive for Peter's work in feeding and tending for the sheep of Jesus
Christ?
Love.
Love first for him.
Devotion to him.
And flowing out from that, a love for the Lord's sheep.
And it was from that same heart that these words in 1 Peter 5 were penned.
I again quote from Mr. Jefferson.
When the shepherd was not watching or guarding or guiding or healing or saving or feeding,
he was doing something finer than any of these.
He was communing with his sheep, playing with them, talking to them, and entering so far
as a man could into their poor, brute life.
The result was that the sheep were devoted to the shepherd.
They knew his voice.
Every cadence of it was music.
Every inflection was an inspiration.
The shepherd was a lover of the sheep, and it was because of his attachment to them that
in time of danger he thought not of himself but of them.
In defending them, he was willing to lay down his life.
This was the crowning virtue of the shepherd, his self-sacrificing love.
And that has to be the motive for all of us who minister to God's people.
We must love them.
I had one professor in Bible college who taught what was called pastoral theology.
The idea behind that was, here is how to be a pastor, the practical aspects of it.
And if there was one phrase that we heard again and again and which was on our final
exam, it was this phrase, love your people.
There is no one who can be a successful pastor or under-shepherd who does not love his people
and express it to them.
Now what is the flock's responsibility to the shepherd in all of this?
After all, that is part of the shepherding of the flock.
There is the responsibility of the shepherd, but what about the flock?
Well, let me just respond very quickly by turning you to two passages of Scripture.
Let's turn back just a few pages to Hebrews chapter 13 first.
The shepherd is to guard and protect the flock.
Now notice what the Lord tells us the flock is to do in Hebrews 13 verse 17.
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who
will give an account.
Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.
And so in this cycle of shepherding, part of it involves the sheep being obedient and
submissive to the shepherds that the Lord has placed over them.
I thank God for that sweet spirit that exists within our church toward the leadership of
our church.
That is an obedience to the word of God and it makes the work that leaders are given joyful
when the people have this kind of a submissive spirit in obedience to the Lord.
The second work of the shepherd is to guide his sheep.
Look at verse 7 of Hebrews 13, remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to
you.
You see that's how the shepherd leads.
And considering the result of their faith or their conduct rather, imitate their faith.
And so the idea is here, follow them, imitate them.
They are responsible to God for guiding you, therefore follow and imitate their faith.
Considering the end of it, who is Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.
And then the responsibility of the shepherd is to feed the flock and to restore the flock.
To find out the sheep's responsibility, go back to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.
As the shepherds feed, as they restore the flock.
First Thessalonians 5.12 says that the flock should appreciate those who diligently labor
among them and have charge over them in the Lord and give them instruction.
He goes on to say, and esteem your shepherds very highly in love because of their work.
Live in peace with one another.
And so as the shepherds feed and as they restore, the sheep are to appreciate and esteem those
who are their shepherds.
To listen to them, to respect them.
Sheep are to eat what they are given by the shepherds.
God has a plan for the care of his flock.
Shepherds are to carry out their duties.
The sheep are to respond in a manner pleasing to the great shepherd.
And as the shepherds do their thing and the sheep then obey the word of God doing as they're
to do, what happens?
The flock is cared for and the flock is built up.
That is the shepherding of the flock as Jesus the great shepherd has intended for it to
take place.
If you are a sheep in the Lord's flock, how closely are you following him as your shepherd?
To put it another way, as a Bible study leader one time said it, let me challenge you to
consider yourself as a sheep and just where you would be walking in relation to the shepherd
if you were following him across this platform this morning.
Would you be somewhere out in front of him there doing your own thing?
Would you be following behind, reluctant, perhaps only partially obedient to the direction
he's leading you in?
Or would you be walking close to him, indeed right beside his legs as he leads you along
your way?
Is your heart attitude one of submission and cooperation, obedience?
Are you doing your part in supporting the flock that is here?
Who is your shepherd?
You say, I'm not sure I have one.
Let me tell you something.
There is a good shepherd who wants to be your shepherd.
Are you able to say, as David did in Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd?
You may be able to say the Lord is the shepherd, but can you really say the Lord is my shepherd?
I have given my life to him.
I have received him to be the Lord and shepherd of my soul, and therefore I shall not want.
As our flock here grows, I believe that God is calling additional undershepherds to help
oversee this flock.
I believe that there are some of you who are being led by the Holy Spirit to make that
commitment, and I trust that you will.
I want to urge all of the sheep in this flock to pray that the Lord will make that call
clear in the lives of some of the qualified, matured men in our flock that he is calling
to be the undershepherd elders here.
For frankly, our leadership is very thin.
There are not many who are in leadership for the size of our congregation, the size of
this flock, and we need more shepherds.
Our staff has been praying now for several months regarding this need, as have our present
elders.
Some of you have learned that we've been praying that way.
I want to urge all of you to pray with us that God will raise up for the shepherding
of this flock those of his sheep.
Christ is the good shepherd who gave his life for his sheep.
That's in the past.
He is the great shepherd who now lives for his sheep, caring for us.
That's the present.
He is the chief shepherd who someday is coming for his sheep.
Now we look for him to return at any moment.
He may come today.
But let us so live as his sheep that when he appears and we hear his voice, that we
will know him and we will rise to follow him and that forever.
Let us bow together.
Are you one of the Lord's sheep?
Do you belong to Jesus Christ?
Is he your shepherd?
Or are you trying to be your own shepherd, doing your own thing, failing miserably, of
course, empty inside, guilty, undone?
If that's your case, will you today ask Jesus Christ to be your Savior, your Lord,
your shepherd, if you please?
Will you do that before you leave here?
Why put it off any longer?
Will you do it today?
Let me speak to those of you who are the sheep of the Lord, and that would be most of us,
I suppose, in this gathering today.
Where are you walking in relation to your shepherd?
Are you following close?
Or are you out in front or behind or to the side somewhere, doing your own thing?
Will you today follow Jesus Christ where he leads you?
Will you come back to that place of following him closely and obediently?
Father, I pray that as we close this service, we will each one be able to hear the voice
of our shepherd and get to that place of walking with him that we ought to be.
And we pray this in his name.
Amen.
Would you stand with me, please?
Let's sing in closing number 452.
Our staff is going to come here.
Let me just