Chris's Sermon Prep | John 10:11–18

Flock and Roll

ONCE THERE WAS A MAN...Once there was a man who dared God to speak. Burn the bush like you did for Moses, God. And I will follow.

Collapse the walls like you did for Joshua, God. And I will fight. Still the waves like you did on Galilee, God. And I will listen. And so the man sat by a bush, near a wall, close to the sea and waited for God to speak. And God heard the man, so God answered. He sent fire, not for a bush, but for a church. He brought down a wall, not of brick, but of sin. He stilled the storm, not of the sea, but of a soul. And God waited for man to respond. And he waited. . .And he waited. . .And waited. But because the man was looking at bushes, not hearts; bricks and not lives, seas and not souls, he decided that God had done nothing. Finally he looked to God and asked, ‘Have you lost your power?’ And God looked at him and said, ‘Have you lost your hearing?’

We are faced with a powerful example of the sacrifice of Christ and his mission in this world. He came to save, heal, call all people to himself and he even says that He knows his own as a shepherd knows his sheep. He is calling them because they have strayed away to other things that look nothing like Him, they have scattered and run away from him and this is not what he wants, Jesus wants all of his people hear his voice, to come back under his protection and not scatter ever again.

Jesus fulfills the Old Testament prophecy of the Good Shepherd, to be the one to lay down HIs life for His sheep. Since the prophets, this shepherd has been promised and prophesied. He has come to wage a war against sin, not only to war against it but to defeat it and it was going to take something mighty to defeat this enemy because this was no ordinary enemy.

It was Satan and the life of sin that he wields over our life trying to take us away from Christ and his kingdom. In some ways his war is simple, all he has to do is divide us and half the war is won because its hard to fight on multiple fronts and so the people were fighting each other.

They became so consumed with custom, they forgot about God, they forgot about the ways to live that God and the prophets have explained to us and so in come division and it was a heated time, it still is.

Satan and sin are determined to get to us in anyway possible and life is full of so many things that can call us away, get us looking at one thing and not looking at God. Some of these things may be things we have prayed for, things we wanted in our life and it fills a void in us that at least for awhile we are content but then we are wanting more and more.

We also have a life of suffering that wants to break us in many ways whether its a lifestyle we get involved with, hanging around the wrong friends that start getting us into trouble that help lead us down the wrong path or simply ourselves and the sheer weight of life bearing down on us because this is what life does.

Our life is full of obstacles that we must navigate and a lot of what we face are common to all people and we all face sin and temptation. The sin in our life comes to us telling us that it cares about us and wants to take care of us and that no matter what we are going to be ok.

Maybe we have that weakness that grabs at us every chance it gets, trying to drag us down in the ditch on the side of the path of righteousness we are trying to walk telling us that it’ll be ok this one time, you’ll see, it’s not that bad but then we have the other thing, ourselves.

We can find ourselves all messed up right by ourselves from our own decisions and actions because we didn’t pay attention, we weren’t as careful as we should have been and now we find ourselves in a position we never intended to be in and we’re trapped.

These things are the worldly things that are common to humanity and maybe you know them well, they may feel like an old friend, one that knows you, knows how you feel, relates to you and make you feel good about yourself and the life you’re living. That friend is like the hired hand in the passage this morning, one that you’re known, maybe the one you still know today but when you really thought about who that really was you probably knew something just wasn’t right and at the first sight of trouble coming that friend runs leaving you behind and you find yourself scattered, bruised and beaten by a world that didn’t create you, has nothing invested in you and never cared about you.

The hired hand has no real interest in us because he has nothing invested in us, he is simply the hired help. He will entertain us, occupy our mind and time and slowly start to pull us away from what we should know is true and safe and that is Christ.

Jesus is the one that cares for us as no one else can. He is invested in us. He invested His body for us, deposited it in a tomb so we can have the blessed experience of withdrawing love, hope, peace, mercy, grace and the greatest of all is an everlasting life with Jesus in Heaven.

Jesus knows his sheep and he calls us, He even called those that didn’t belong because He loves them too and for all those that love Christ they too can hear His voice speak to them over all of the noise of a world that wants to drown him out.

Jesus loves us so much that He gave His life for us so that we can be redeemed, forgiven and saved.

Jesus not only chases the wolves off but defeats them. There is nothing that can stand against Christ and his power over life and death and we can hear his voice call us back to him, each and everyone of us because with Christ we are one flock with one God.

In this life there are going to be many competing voices trying for our attention and now more than ever we need to know the voice of the Shepherd.

D.L. Moody told the following: A friend, who was traveling in the East, heard that there was a shepherd who still kept up the custom of calling his sheep by name. He went to the man, and said: "Let me put on your clothes, and take your crook, and I will call them, and see if they will come to me." And so he did, and he called one sheep, "Mina, Mina," but the whole flock ran away from him. Then he said to the shepherd: "Will none of them follow me when I call them?" The shepherd replied: "Yes, sir, some of them will; the sick sheep will follow anybody."

If we’re not careful we will hear that voice calling us to a place we don’t belong and if we don’t know Christ we won’t be able to tell the voices apart and there are those today that are being led by the wrong voice and they don’t even know it and probable won’t know it until it’s too late. If we never study about who Christ is how are you going to recognize him? There is strength here, support here and people that love you and thats the way it should be but do we are you here?

It’s no secret that life is full of competition for our time and out of all the things vying for our time one of them is going to win, does Christ stand a chance? Sin can and does lead people away from God and they never see it.

Two people were watching a man drive a herd of sheep through the main street of a small town. “I thought shepherds led sheep. I didn’t know they drove them with a whip.” “They do,” the other fellow remarked. “That’s not a shepherd. That’s the town’s butcher.” There are people going to hell and laughing all the way because they think its some kind of game I guess, others will go because they wanted to be right, live the life they want no matter who they have to hurt to do it.

The church should be a place where people of all nations and cultures are brought together and all racial and national barriers are to be broken down. The church is a place where the curious, the unconvinced, the skeptical, the used-to-believe, and the broken as well as the committed, informed, and sold-out come together around Peter’s declaration that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Jesus is calling His sheep, do you hear His voice? Jesus has been trying to get your attention so it’s time to follow Him and let the sinful voices that are trying to lead you away, let them go. Do you think any of those voices, sinful natures, will die for you?

Jesus did and because of that we have a new life, all that accept him and live according to His way and not ours. I want you to think about that because the grace here is that Christ is still calling you, He Doesn’t want one to go missing and He wants all of you to come home to live with Him.