Hearing the Voice of The Shepherd

This morning, we are going to be going back to John 10. Again, there is a lot in here than we have “time” to talk about it.

But if you bear with me, I would like to spend one more Sunday in this chapter.

A few weeks ago, I was out at Sam’s place helping him with some work.

If you’ve been out there, you know that there are some big German Shepherds around their place.

One of them is named Dexter. He actually belongs to C

Dexter looks kind of scary, as big German Shepherds do, but I found out that he’s actually pretty nice. And he likes to be petted.

And so I would crouch down and hold out my hand and kind of click my tongue, “Here boy”. And Dexter would come trotting over

And I would sit there and pet him. And I would think, “Aha, I’ve made a friend”.

And I would think I’m pretty good with animals to make a fried of such a big German Shepherd.

That is, until something happened. That is, until Dexter saw something else. Until he heard something else.

What do you suppose that was? It was when He saw his master. It was when he heard the voice of the master.

It was at that point when any enjoyment he got from being around me, any pleasure he felt from having his ears scratched, would evaporate and he would get up and trot after his master.

And I could call him, and offer to rub his belly, but he would ignore me.

Why? Because he didn’t really know me. He didn’t know my voice.

But he DOES know his master. And he knows the voice of his master

John 10:1–5 ESV

1 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

John 10:22–30 ESV

22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

This morning, I have a question for you. For us

How well do you know the voice of your master?

How well do I, do we, know the voice of our Shepherd. That Good Shepherd.

Jesus is saying to His listeners here, and to us, that one of the primary ways to identify whose sheep you are, or who whose follower you are, is who you listen to.

When I was at Sam’s place, anybody could have driven in there and without knowing me or Colton, could have told whose dog Dexter is.

They could have seen that while I was the one scratching Dexter’s ears, I wasn’t really the one he was watching. I wasn’t really the one he was following.

They would have seen that when Colton walked by, Dexter’s ears would perk up, and he would trot off after his master. They could have easily seen that Dexter knew who he was listening to.

What about you? What about me?

There are a lot of voices out there. There are a lot of people, things, ideas, sights, vying for my attention.

There are a lot of messages that are scratching my ears. Things that we want to believe that make us feel good

Political ideas that scratch my stance

sensual messages that scratch my fleshly desires

Religious ideas that scratch my self-righteousness

But Is it possible for someone who doesn’t know me, or know my Shepherd, to see without a trace of a doubt, that there is Someone else that I am listening to?

Is it possible for them to see that when my Shepherd walks by, or calls my name, that my true attention is not on these other things, but it is fully on Him?

Do you hear Him when He speaks to you? Do you hear Him when He calls your name?

I hope you do. Can we say that we are truly His sheep if we don’t hear His voice. IF we don’t know what He sounds like when He speaks

Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice and they follow me”.

Contrast this to what He said to the Pharisees in chapter 8. He told them, “YOU are of your father, the devil and it is your will to do your father’s desires”.

Pretty strong words!

My sheep are identified by those who can hear my voice and do what I say

The children of the devil are identified by those who hear his voice and do what he says!

So we WANT to hear His voice

It’s hard, though, isn’t it? I will be the first to admit that I’m not always sure when He is speaking

Especially in the area of decision-making. How do I know what He wants me to do?

Worse yet, I feel like He doesn’t speak to me. I feel like He is silent most of the time, or ALL of the time.

But I hear other people saying, “Oh God told me this and Jesus told me that” and they seem to have this ongoing conversation with Him.

But for me, He just seems silent

I’ve heard say that my Shepherd speaks to me in different ways

Reading His word

Communicating with Him in prayer

Talking with other Believers

Hearing Scripture taught

Yet, His voice still seems silent. I listen but I don’t hear anything.

Why is this?

First of all, I have to say that I believe that our Shepherd being completely fair and completely just does speak to all His sheep.

Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice”. Meaning our Shepherd does speak!

It may be that He seems silent, but I have to believe that He is speaking to you and to me.

So if that is the case that He is speaking, yet I can’t hear Him, there must be something that is blocking my spiritual ears.

What could some of those things be? Here’s some

Loving the World— Proverbs 4:20–27 (ESV)

20 My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. 22 For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. 23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. 24 Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you. 25 Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. 26 Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. 27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.

Incline your ear. Don’t let them escape from your sight. Keep them within your heart.

Your ears, sight, and heart are all very closely connected spiritually

And the Bible has a lot to say about your heart, your deepest place

The seat of motivations. It’s out of your heart that you act, think, listen, see. The Bible pictures this as “the springs of life”

A heart that is unguarded and has been drawn away by the things of the world is a heart that will be unable to hear the voice of the shepherd

Deceiving Spirits—1Tim. 4 1 Timothy 4:1–3 (ESV)

Some Will Depart from the Faith

4 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

The Spirit—that is the Holy Spirit—expressly says

Clearly, explicitly, without question, the Spirit states

That in the later times, or in future times, some will depart from the faith.

How will they depart from the faith? By devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons

Devoting—the Greek word means to turn your mind to, to pay careful attention to

Often used to command someone to “beware”, or be careful of. When you are told to beware, your mind is fixed on that thing. “Beware of falling rock”. you don’t want rocks smashing through your windshield

In the later times (which we are in), people will not be able to hear the voice of their Shepherd because their mind is fixed on the teachings of deceitful spirits

How do these spirits manifest themselves?

Through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared.

That is, those whose hearts and consciences are not being purified and transformed by the Holy Spirit.

The hearts of people who have

These are the people who will give you messages which appeal to YOU. They will give you messages that will support what YOU want to hear.

And because these messages appeal to ME, I start to pay more attention to these deceitful spirits than I do to the Holy Spirit

But they are insincere messages (vs. 2)

My question for us is, who are we devoted to listening to? The teaching of deceitful spirits, or the voice of our Shepherd

We are coming up to an election in this country

I realize that I might step on some toes here, but I do so out of love and concern for the Body of Jesus Christ.

I would urge us to take a hard look at whose voice we are being devoted to

Is it talk radio?

Is it social media?

Is it news media?

Or is is the voice of our Shepherd?

Unless the voices that we are listening to are coming from a person whose heart is being purified and transformed by the Holy Spirit, even though they may be conservative voices, and they may be telling us what sounds right, I would urge extreme caution! They may be deceitful voices!

They may be coming from someone whose conscience is seared.

And worse yet, they may easily be drowning out the voice of our Shepherd.

Can I ask us, to please be careful. Consider carefully whose voice we are being devoted to!

When you are drawn to listening to a voice, ask your Shepherd to help you know if this is really is a voice that you should be listening to.

Ask Him if this voice agrees with His voice.

Not Loving the Truth—2 Thess. 2:9

Again Paul is warning the Believers about the end times and those who will be bringing messages of deception.

speaking specifically of someone whom he calls “the lawless one”.

2 Thessalonians 2:9–12 (ESV) 9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, (why are they perishing?) because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, 12 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

This is even more serious than being sincere yet being deceived.

This passage talks about those who refuse to love the truth!

You remember when you were kids and you would get into an argument with your brother or sister or a friend and they would start to get the upper hand in the argument

What would you do? Put your hands over your ears. “la, la, la, I can’t HEAR you!”

You wouldn’t do that when you thought you were right. But when there would come a point when you knew that they were right and you were wrong.

They had the truth, but you didn’t want to hear it or believe it!

Would that be an accurate description of how many people are today? They simply don’t love the truth and for that reason, they don’t want to hear the truth.

Jesus says in John 14, “I Am the Way, THE TRUTH, and The Life”.

Jesus is Truth in the flesh

But so many people are like Pilate who, with Jesus standing right in front of him, asked “What is truth?” He should have asked, “Who is Truth?”

You will hear people say “My truth isn’t your truth. And your truth isn’t my truth.”

Everybody gets to make up their own truth

The question for you and me is:

Do I LOVE the truth

Do I love JESUS, the embodiment of Truth

Philippians 4:8 (ESV) 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Do you love the truth and fix your mind on what is true?

bringing it down to a practical level, it’s easy to say, “yes, I love what is true.”

And I hope that’s what we all would say. But when it often gets hard is when we have to hear the truth about ourselves.

“If what I believe was wrong, would I want to know?”

How do we respond to the Truth when things are revealed in our life which bring conviction?

If we find ourselves shying away from Christian fellowship or revival meetings or from being accountable to people, because we don’t want our REAL selves to be revealed, maybe it should give us pause. And maybe it should make us ask, “do I LOVE the truth?”

Because if we don’t LOVE the truth, I think it’s impossible to love Jesus, the embodiment of truth, who says, “If you LOVE me, you will keep my commandments”.

Your love for me will be shown in how you respond to what I say.

Do you love the truth enough and do you love Jesus enough that you can hear His voice, the voice of The Shepherd, speaking to you?

What about us? Do you hear the voice of the Shepherd? If we don’t, could it be that there are things drowning out His voice.

Starting tomorrow night at 6:30, we will have some guests here talking to us about some things that may be hard to deal with.

The title of their series of talks is “Rediscovering One’s Identity and Purpose in Life”.

They will talk about

—our purpose—why were we created? To live in relationship with our Creator and with each other

—the masks that we live behind: the things that we do and the ways that we live to keep people from REALLY knowing who we are

—They will talk about what that does to our relationships

—Strongholds; habits of thinking and acting that keep us apart from our Creator and from each other

—But in the end, they are going to lead us to Jesus, the Giver of Life, our Shepherd, who loves us and gives us abundant life.

I plan to be here

And you say, “Well, you’re the preacher, you have to be here”.

True

But even more than that, and I say this honestly, I recognize my brokenness and weakness.

I recognize that I am “prone to wander. prone to leave the God I love.”

I want to continue to get rid of things that are drawning out the voice of The Shepherd in my life.

I hope that you will carve out some time in your busy schedule and join us at 6:30 Monday through Wednesday night.