John: The Good Shepherd
Pastor Fletcher continues our sermon series with John 10:1-21. Discussion points: Jesus often critiqued the religious leaders who were corrupted by their power, Jesus is the good leader that cares about our flourishing instead of his own power, Jesus wants to lead us if we make space in our lives to listen to his voice.
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Scripture reader: [John 10:1-21] Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheep fold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him. The gatekeeper opens the sheep, hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he is brought out all his own. He goes before them and the sheep follow him for, they know his voice, a stranger, they will not follow, but they flee from him for they do not know the voice of strangers. This figure of speech, Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So Jesus again said to them, 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 listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
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 a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees. The wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is 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 in 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 laid out my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me. I laid it down of my own accord and I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father there again was division among the Jews because of these words, many of them said he has a demon. He's insane. 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?
This is the word of the Lord.
Preacher: Have you ever had a bad boss? Yeah, that's just one of those things that almost everybody can resonate with. isn't it? I've been doing ministry in the Boston area for about a dozen years and I'm convinced that there's one type of bad boss that kind of rises above most of the rest. And that is the bad boss of academia. Academics often have very bad supervisors and I've heard some real horror stories out there. Now, if you happen to be a teacher today and your student invited you, I have no knowledge of this and this is not a co ordinated attack upon you. We're glad to have you. And I'm sure that you're the exception to the rule, but I have heard many stories of academic supervisors treating students like dirt.
The expectation for many of us in academia is that we would work long, long hours, 6070 sometimes 80 hours a week that we're part of the academic paper writing mill that we're just pushing out the papers. And why are we pushing out the papers? Why are we working all night every night? Why are we putting so much effort so that my advisor can put their name on it and claim all of their work as my own. This is a regular pattern that I've heard of many, many times, I've heard stories of supervisors refusing to allow their students to graduate because then they'll lose their cheap or free labor. It's like an indentured servant that they have here. They don't care to know you, you're just another minion in their academic paper writing factory.
Now, I don't know if I've ever listed a, a, group PTSD situation. But some of you look like you just got back from Vietnam and you heard a gunfire? Ok. It's like, oh, I remember those days when I was in academia and I felt that way today, Jesus says that he is the good shepherd. And when we think about Jesus being the good shepherd, one of the things that we can think about is that, that means that he's the good boss. That means that he's the good leader that he actually cares for his sheep and that he leads them well, throughout the Old Testament, the kings and leaders of the regions that the Bible was written in were often times referred to as shepherds. They were the shepherds of those nations. And then you have the prototypical shepherd that we have in King David who was literally a shepherd and ascended to the throne of Israel.
And we see the Psalms, we sang one of the Psalms this morning with that shall not want song. The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want. And that's a palm by David that we, he sees that the ultimate shepherd is God. But then we also see in the Old Testament that many of the evil leaders of the surrounding nations were considered bad shepherds. That's how they're described in the Bible. We have this wonderful passage in Ezekiel where was described of all of the evil shepherds of Israel. And then here Jesus, he brings it all to a crescendo and he says, I am the good shepherd.
This is one of the I am statements of Jesus. Jesus has seven, I am statements, they're going to culminate in a few weeks. This is like our third or fourth. In fact, we have two I am statements in this passage so that Jesus is I, he says I am the good shepherd. The reality is though most of us wouldn't like to consider ourselves as sheep. Sheep have become kind of like something that is derogatory to call people. And you know, you combine the words and it's almost like it almost sounds like a profanity word, but you call people sheeple and it's like, oh, I don't know why, but that's really offensive to me. But Jesus does not see that as offensive at all because Jesus is a good leader. Most of us, even though we might not want to be considered sheep, most of us do want a good leader.
Most people want a mentor or a supervisor that cares for them. In fact, if you look at statistics, millennials and Gen Z want mentors far more than proceeding generations. We want people to pour into our lives and to care for us. You can see the industry reflecting this life coaching, which is like an industry that didn't even exist a few years ago is now a $1.5 billion industry. But let me just end on this with the introduction. You didn't think you were getting out of the sermon that quickly that Jesus is the best leader that any of us could ask for. And I know that feels distant many times, but he really is the best leader that you could ever want. And he is available to you. Jesus is the good shepherd and those who trust in Jesus as their leader will have abundant life. When Jesus is your leader, you will have abundant life. That's a promise from him.
That's what he promises in John chapter 10 verse 10, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. And so I just wanna dissect this verse and looking at the surrounding verses for the rest of our time. And there's three main points that we're going to be looking at. And here's some of the questions that we're going to explore. Who is this thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy? What is the abundant life that Jesus offers and how do we get the abundant life?
So who is the thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy? Now, I've read this verse for, for many years. I have very familiar with this verse. It's a very popular verse in Christianity and my entire life until this week I've preached on this verse before and I think I've preached on it wrong. So I'm sorry if you were here in 2019. I I, that's one of the benefits of preaching through books of the Bible is that you have to read the entire book in context. And then when you read it in context, all of a sudden you start seeing things and meanings that you didn't previously see before my entire life.
I've always understood this thief who steals and kills and destroy to be Satan to be the evil one. But that is not what Jesus is saying. I do not think that he's talking about Satan here last week. OK. We gotta read this in, in context. Last week we did John chapter nine today we're in John chapter 10 and in John chapter nine, we see the story of a man being healed from blindness. Jesus heals him from blindness by spitting on the ground, making some mud, rubbing it on his eyes and telling him to go and wash and after he goes and washes, he is brought, the, his neighbors don't believe that it's actually him. So they take him to the Pharisees and the Pharisees are so troubled by what Jesus has done because he's actually done the miracle of healing someone. But it was on the Sabbath. And so they have, they have two minds. They have one mind to say this man really is the Messiah. He really can heal. And then on the other hand, they're saying, but he can't be the Messiah because he's breaking our oral tradition and laws.
And so you have this dichotomy of what they think about Jesus. And Jesus says that you Pharisees are actually the ones who are blind. You cannot see your own laws have blinded you to the truth of who I am. And that is the context that we come here. And actually, when you read chapter nine, you get, I I said this last week, but sometimes the chapters get in the way of us understanding the Bible because the chapters were added many hundreds of years after the Bible was written, they were not John didn't say OK, chapter 10, that's not how it works. Someone came back later and said we need a easier way to find things in the Bible. Let's make chapters and verses. And so they added big numbers and little numbers so that we can find things in the Bible. And so sometimes these chapters they get in the way.
But if you look at the end of chapter nine, verse 41 Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say we see your guilt remains truly, truly, I say to you now, who's he saying it to the same people he was talking to just a moment ago just because we've changed chapters, doesn't mean we've changed audiences. So now he's speaking still to the Pharisees. And he says, truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheep fold by the door, but climbs in through another way that man is a thief and a robber.
And so this lack of transition leads us to believe that Jesus is still talking to the Pharisees about their own blindness. And so when he says that, that this person that comes in through the, the the does not come in through the door, but climbs in another way is a thief and a robber, he's talking to the Pharisees and the religious leaders.
Now, when we think about Jesus being the good shepherd, I don't know what mental image comes to your mind. I googled it. Ok. If you google it and go to images, you see the same image 100 different times, which is like usually white Jesus with a white sheep holding it and cuddling it. You know, it's just a very cuddly and it's like, there's a lot wrong with that picture. Ok. First of all, Jesus, middle eastern man from, from ancient, near east Israel area. And secondly, that's not generally how shepherds treated their sheep. They're not like, oh, come here little sheepy and giving it a pet. Ok. It's not a small breed dog. It is a sheep shepherds in the ancient world were mainly men who had to protect their sheep from predators and thieves. It was not an easy job and it was a really important job.
And here's one reason why it was important is because wealth in the ancient world was not measured by dollar signs, but by sheep. If you go to Forbes list of, the 100 most rich people from the ancient, near east, it's not gonna have dollars. It's gonna have number of sheep. This guy had 4000 sheep and it's like, whoa. All right. I'm doing pretty well for himself. That's why when you read the Old Testament and it's like, and he had 7000 sheep and that seems so boring to us. But to, to them that's like, and this man was very wealthy, obviously, he had a lot of sheep. And so they were very, it was like you had to protect your sheep, like a bank, protects your money.
And that was a shepherd's job. He was like a, a bank teller in some ways. He was a guard in front of the, in front of the, the safe at the bank. And what they would do is they would keep sheep in a pen and the pen would have high, walls so that you couldn't get in. And then there was just one gate and the reason why you would do it like that is so that one person could watch over an entire flock of sheep. So if you have 100 sheep or more and you wanna watch them with one person. Well, that's gonna be hard to do unless you have just one door. And so now this person like the, like the gates of Helms deep, they can watch over the, that's a reference that works uniquely in Somerville.
They can watch over, all of the sheep in, in the, in the fold with just one person. And how would a thief or a robber get in? Well, they can't go through the door because the shepherd would hit him in the head with that stick. Ok. That stick is not just a cute, you know, bo peep staff. It's like for hitting people and, and wolves and whatnot, but they would have to climb in. Those who are authorized to enter the fold would of course do so through the gate. Only those who want to harm or steal the sheep would climb in. So the thieves and the robbers that Jesus is referring to are the religious leaders of the day. And how are they seeking to hurt the sheep? Why are they climbing in? They were more interested.
And Jesus says this many times, he is often a regular critic of religious leaders of the false religious leaders and he, he calls them whitewashed tombs. You look nice on the outside, but inside you're dead. And so the religious leaders of the day, they were more interested in financial gain and societal standing than caring for the sheep. They were abusing their power to serve themselves. And I wish I could say that that was only a problem in Ancient Israel and it was not a problem continuing into today. Those who seek Christian leadership in a church must be careful because power is a heck of a drug and people become abusive of that power. I need a plurality of leaders in our church and of congregants to hold me accountable that I do not abuse the power that the Lord has given to me. I'm not immune from that. I need you all to pray for me and I need.
And that's one reason why we practice a plurality of leadership at our church where we have multiple elders and we're trying to develop and raise up more elders in the church because absolute power corrupts. Absolutely. And so that's what we see in this day. And Jesus is so critical of the religious leaders. These religious leaders were evil. They were selfish, they were abusive shepherds. They did not care for the sheep and they taught a fake abundant life. They said that if you will just obey all of our oral rules, that is how you receive abundant life. Keep the Sabbath go to temple, give generously. Of course, none of these things are evil in and of themselves. They're all things that we would encourage Christians to do our version of them.
But this is nothing like the teachings of Jesus and Jesus taught that God loves us, despite the fact that we've broken all the rules that that's kind of the unnecessary part of it that we see that deliverance comes before obedience. It always has and always will. When you see the Israelites wandering around in the desert and Jesus and, and God gives them the 10 Commandments. That's only after they've been delivered from slavery in Egypt. It's not before that. He doesn't say obey these 10 Commandments and then I'll deliver you. He says, I am the Lord, your God who's delivered you from slavery. Now, here are the 10 Commandments which are a path for flourishing in this life. Obedience is only expected to come after deliverance. You cannot prove yourself to God.
And this is why Jesus came to fulfill the law on our behalf to deliver us from the power of sin and evil so that we might be obedient to God to this day. We don't have Pharisees of the same kind that we are respected in our society quite as often, but we're surrounded by people who promise us abundant life. If we'll just follow their rules and support their costs surrounded by people, they promise life that we've always dreamed of. Ok, a couple of examples. First, let's just take the low hanging for the easiest one. OK. Televangelists and abusive religious leaders. Look at the people that Jesus criticized about the New Testament. Jesus does not spend, ok. There would be a lot of reason to critique Rome and Caesar. OK. He's under Roman rule, Caesar, not always the nicest guy. OK. And the time, there's a lot of reason to critique political leaders, but when you and a lot of churches spend a lot of time critiquing political leaders and I will in just a minute.
But who does Jesus spend most of his time critiquing? But the religious leaders and it's because it's so important you can do. There's little that you can do more damage with than being a religious leader who's corrupt and our world is still full of them. You have to be careful who you're listening to and who you're allowing to influence you and whose books you're reading and what you're paying attention to most people. A lot of people have ulterior motives and just like the Pharisees who wanted to get rich, many televangelists want to get rich. And I think that most of us have enough common sense to know, to see, to see a lot of this. I wish that I wish I could say that in general. But the very fact that these televangelists are so wealthy and that there's so many of them. It leads me to believe that people are deceptive or deceived often. All right.
Another example are political leaders and I do wanna give this example because politics has become a secular religion of our day where we have politicians who get up in front of us and they promise us utopia, abundant life. Life will be better when I'm in office. Or if I continue to be in office. And here's three reasons why and here's why you need to give your money to me and why I am your messiah. Each branch of politics has its own set of rules. And if you say or do the wrong thing, you will be excommunicated from your tribe, you'll be kicked out very quickly. Politicians have their own version of, of utopia. And these are promises that they make of abundant life. But at the end of the day, most politicians and I think we know this to be true but we forget it. Ok? Most politicians, they're not concerned about your actual flourishing. Most politicians. Yeah. And the crowd gasps. Most politicians are not concerned about you.
Who are they concerned about? Themselves. They just want to stay in office so they'll say whatever they need to say so that they can continue to have the power. I'm sure there's some good eggs out there. But I'm saying most of them are bad eggs. All right. That is the way that humans work. When people get in power, they want to stay in power and they're almost always willing to say whatever it takes.
Another example, advertisers all the time. We're inundated with advertisement. After advertisement. It has gotten so much worse since TV, has gotten out of our life. And we've all gotten on social media now. We don't know when we're being advertised to because we see influencers just with, you know, this product that they're just kind of using in the background and you see their life and it looks so awesome. And you say I want to live like them. Oh look, they've got, they've got this big Stanley cup over there. I think I'll take one of those. They're trying to influence you to tell you if you want to be like me. If you want to have my body, my finances, my experience that will make you happy. That is the path to abundant life. And if you just buy the products that I have or buy my workout plan or whatever it is, you can have it.
But these are false promises of abundance. These are not the things that will give you the good life that we all deserve. Only Jesus gives the good life to his sheep. He is the good shepherd and he gives us the good life. Amen. Church. Everyone is following someone, everyone has some idea of the good life and everyone other than Jesus is a thief trying to steal life from you. They all over promise and under deliver only Jesus offers the abundant life you're looking for and that's what it means. When he says, I am the gate. He's saying I am the gate. It's one of the I am statements. We have two in this passage. I am the shepherd, the good shepherd. I am the gate. He is the way to abundant life.
So what is this abundant life that Jesus offers? Verse 10, 1 more time. I'm gonna read it. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. So when you think of abundant life, what do you think of if it's not all the things that I just mentioned, if politicians can't give it to you and Instagram influencers can't give it to you. What is the abundant life? Well, we might get this image of what it is for a sheep.
What is the abundant life for a sheep? When I think about what the good life looks like to a sheep? I think about not having to worry about anything knowing that I'm protected, understanding that my shepherd cares for me and I don't have anything to worry about. I might be a fat sheep that has nothing to worry about the the grass that's in front of me, grazing and spending time with my fellow sheep. And this is kind of the vision that you get. Maybe you dream of being on a beach somewhere or maybe you just dream of life where every day doesn't feel like a battle to get out of bed.
But Jesus has this vision for abundant life when he says abundant life here. Well, we can, he says I've come to give them that they may have life. And a theme throughout all of John's gospel is this idea of eternal life. Now, when I say eternal life, usually, what we, what our minds go to is an extent of time. The quantity of life, eternal means forever. So we're thinking of quantity of life. But the word that's used here isn't the, the bio word in Greek, which would be physical, like your literal life, but is the Zoe word in Greek. And so what we're getting here is that it's more of like the, the quality of life and not the quantity of life. So eternal life doesn't begin when you die, eternal life begins when you trust in Christ, when he becomes your good savior and your good shepherd, the Synoptic gospels, Matthew Mark and Luke call it life in the Kingdom of God.
Verse 14, Jesus says 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. Don't miss this because this is kind of the key to understanding what abundant life is to Jesus. He's saying that he knows his sheep and his sheep know him as closely and intimately as he knows his Father. And his Father knows him who he's dwelled with in perfect harmony within the Godhead, the Triune, godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit throughout all eternity past. And he's saying that's the way, the way that my Father loves me and the way that I love my Father, that's the way that I love you, sheep and sheep. You get to enjoy it with me.
Now, that is the abundance of love and life that He gives to us. This means that we share in fellowship with God as richly and deeply as Jesus shares fellowship with God. The Father Michael Reeves, my favorite author on the Trinity puts it this way. He says the father so delights in his eternal love for the son that he desires to share it with all who believe the Father so delights in his eternal love for the son that he delights to share it with all who believe many of us might relate to God as a distant boss. He's in charge. I know he's in charge, but I think he's really the way that he functions as a boss is. He's really very distant, not really giving me guidance day to day. He's just trying to watch me. He just has a hawk eye, he's just trying to catch me messing up. And that's how we relate to God like he is just trying to catch us. He doesn't really give me feedback unless I mess up big. He demands perfection and only offers disappointment. Is that the way that you feel about God, that He demands perfection and only offers disappointment.
Our perceptions of God need to be realigned continually because that's a natural place that my heart goes. That God demands perfection of me and only offers disappointment. But he says that I love my sheep as my father has loved me, that I lay down my life for my sheep. It's not that I just offer disappointment. I offer the, the riches of love toward them. In his book Made For, it's called Made For Friendship. The relationship that halves our sorrows and doubles our joys. What a great title. Yeah. Made for Friendship. The relationship that halves our sorrows and doubles our joys. Drew Hunter. He describes friendship with Jesus like this. What if you could have a friend who knew you better than anyone better than you even knew yourself? And what if knowing everything he still loved you? And more than that he even liked you?
That's a type of love that many of us scarcely can imagine. And what if you could have a friend who by his very relationship with you would transform you to become a better friend to others. You can. His name is Jesus, the friend of sinners. This is what we call intimacy. OK. Very basic definition of intimacy is to be fully known and fully loved at the same time. And even the greatest marriage in the history of the world would be a measly travel brochure compared to the type of intimacy that we will enjoy with God throughout eternity. That, that, that the greatest marriage in the world points to it. It looks a little bit like it. It gives us a picture of it.
But look, you can take all the pictures you want of the Caribbean Islands and I've still never been to a Caribbean Island. I want to go. that picture looks nice, but it just points me towards the Caribbean Island. The greatest marriage in the world reflects that type of intimacy that God gives us through our trust in Christ. We, we enjoy this intimacy with Jesus because we recognize his voice.
Verse three, the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and he leads them out when he's brought out all the sheep, he goes before them and the sheep follow him for, they know his voice. Now modern western shepherds don't lead their sheep with their voice, but instead they lead their sheep with like a sheep dog. They have a dog going and barking at all the sheep and trying to corral them. They might have a horse or something that it's a forceful leading. But shepherds in the ancient world and the in the Middle East and even up till to today lead their sheep differently. They lead their sheep using their voice. They say, hey, sheep come follow me and the sheep know the voice and they follow their master, they follow their good shepherd.
As Christians, we listen to the voice of Jesus. Primarily this is through reading the word and through being in our scriptures and hearing from Him. But it also we pray and it's not just a one way list of my wants and needs, but it's actually enjoying fellowship with God when you pray and He speaks and leads you and cares for you. And sometimes He lays impressions upon you. Some people have visions and dreams from God that give them direction. You test those according to the scripture, but those are often times very helpful for us and sometimes they have words for each other. God uses community to speak to his people. I have heard the voice of Jesus come through a friend of mine that leads me and guides me and God uses community.
And that's why we have to be diving into our friendships and relationships in the church is why we make community groups such an important thing in our church. And so the question is, are you listening or have you tuned him out? Is the noise in your life? Too loud to hear, to hear your shepherd's voice because He has a word for you. And he wants to lead you.
Verse 16, very briefly. I just want to touch on this quick 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 and one shepherd. Ok. So what he's talking about here is he's speaking to the Pharisees and he's saying I have other sheep that aren't of this fold, meaning I have sheep that aren't Jewish. I have sheep from the gentile world and they're going to hear my voice voice also and they're, we're all gonna become one fold, one flock. This is Jesus's grand vision of multi ethnicity. He says this is not just for one people group in one place at one time. This is for all peoples of all tribes, tongues and ethnicities coming together.
And it's why we have a value at our church that we value multi ethnicity because you can only know a piece of who Jesus is from your own ethnicity. You need to be learning from others and living in community with others because he has a vision of heaven where every tribe and tongue is singing praises to him. And so we're brought together, we're made with one vision that we're one flock with one shepherd. All right.
Third point, final point. How do we get abundant life? How do we get abundant life? First, Jesus says that I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will not, he will be saved and we go in and find out and, and go in and out and find pasture. And so he's saying that I am the way to abundant life. It reminds us that our ideas of abundance are fool's gold. Allow that to just sink into your heart for just a moment that whatever you have in your mind of what this is, what would be really nice. This is abundant life for me, it's fool's gold. And it just is again, a travel brochure pointing toward the greater desires of your heart that are to be with God. So how does Jesus do this by laying down his life for his sheep?
Verse 11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. Verse 17, 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 down, lay it down on my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again, this charge I have received from my father. So why does Jesus lay down his life for his sheep? Often times we imagine Jesus laying down his life for his sheep as just a demonstration of his love as if he were to say, this is how much I love you. I will jump off of this cliff. I love you so much and which is just completely irrational and it's just like a, a crazy display of love and that's not what it is at all. Jesus did not go to the cross, kicking and screaming. He was not surprised by the path that laid before him, but he willingly gave himself for us because he loved us. He saw that sin was out to kill us and that death needed to be dealt with.
And so he took on the final enemy, death himself and bore the death that we deserve that we might be with him through the cross. We see a God who delights to give himself. Isaiah 53 is one of the most famous passages that describe the Bible. It's written hundreds of years before Jesus is born and it describes Jesus and what he did like this Isaiah 53 6. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that has led to slaughter like a sheep that's before his shearers. So he opened not his mouth.
So how do you receive abundant life? It's all right there in Isaiah. It's all right there in Isaiah. We all like sheep have gone astray. We've gone our own way. The essence of sin. When you boil sin down, it's really selfishness living for myself and not for God. We've lived selfishly. But the Lord laid on Jesus, the iniquity of us all he laid down his life for us so that we might, so that he might take it back up again and was risen from the dead triumphant over sin. Jesus friends. Jesus is not like the boss who takes his name and puts it on your work instead, Jesus is the boss who takes his name, who takes your name and puts it on his work. It's opposite.
He lived the life that we deserved yet we get the credit. He was the righteous one yet he gave us the credit. Wouldn't that be an awesome boss who writes the papers and then puts our name on it. He does the work. We get the credit. That's one reason. That's why he's a good shepherd. That's why we can trust in Him. He's that kind of generous God. We listen to him, we follow him. Let's trust Jesus as our good shepherd because when Jesus is your leader, you will have abundant life might not be financially abundant. It might not be health abundant, but it will be true intimacy with God.
Come today. Church. Let's seek intimacy with him above all things and let that guide our life. Would you trust him to be your leader? Would you trust him to guide each step in each decision? Not just in the big decisions where you take a moment to ceremoniously pray and then stamp jesus' name on the decision that you've already made. But would you live each day giving him authority in your life to guide you, to direct you because he wants your best because he cares for you. He really does. He really does. Would you pray with me this morning? Just pray this in your heart with me. Give it over to the Lord.
God, I'm giving you leadership of my life. I resign as the good shepherd of my own life and I'm hiring you. You're in charge of my decisions. You're in charge of my work, you're in charge of my money, you're in charge of my time. It all belongs to you. God. I trust you. You're not like those evil leaders who just want to use me, but you lay down your life for me. And when I see your love, it inspires me and it leads me and help me to love as you have loved me. God would my life be marked by looking more and more like you and less and less like the religious leaders who just want to steal and kill and destroy, who just want to take life and to use it selfishly. May I give up my life as you've given up your life. Amen.