040612 Voice of Good Shepherd
The Voice of the Good Shepherd M2
This past week, my wife and were talking to someone about a vacation trip that she is going to be taking later this year. We talked about how when we are in a new city one of the things we enjoy doing is renting a car and exploring. When I’m driving in a city that’s new to me--I am dependent on a map, and if I follow the map, I can usually get to where I need to go.
But I find that when I think I know an area because I go there occasionally and figure I don’t need a map—it’s then I get lost. North Vancouver is a place that I think well enough to not need a map, but I find I get thrown off the by hills and thrown off by some streets that run on a 45% degree angle like Keith Road does in parts… I find because I think I know it well enough, I can get by without a map, and I find that I get lost there.
I get lost less in a brand new city using a map, than in North Van without a map. I think that a lot us live life kind like the way I drive in North Van. We think we know life well enough not to use a map, but we end up losing our way… If we look over the last 5 or 10 years of our life, I wonder how many of us would say we took a turn we wish we hadn’t.
The Scriptures tells us, we have been given the ultimate life map, in the person of Jesus. If we turn to him as our guide he can show us the way forward. In the Gospel of John 10 we are portrayed as our shepherd and guide and we as his sheep.
In a way it’s a very humbling image for us because sheep are not the most intelligent of animals. A professor said that the existence of sheep is clear evidence against evolution. He reasoned that sheep are so stupid their species should not have survived; they should have been replaced by a superior species.
If you set animals like horses, dogs or cats free they’ll either return home or they’ll say I’m free at last! But you if you set sheep free, they’ll ask where am I? Who’s going to feed me now?
If a sheep rolls over on it’s back to scratch its back and shifts it’s centre of gravity so that its feet are not longer are touching the ground, it will frantically paw, but like a turtle on it’s back it can’t get back onto it’s feet. Its body begins to fill with gases and it can be dead in a matter of hours…
Sheep may be stupid, but they are able to learn their master’s voice. The shepherds in Jesus’ day would call out a sheep’s name by using a term that associated with way they looked like “Fluffy” “Spotty” “Black Ear.” And the sheep would respond to their shepherd’s voice. Some times someone would try to fool sheep, by dressing up like a shepherd and by calling out the names of the sheep, but sheep wouldn’t respond, because they had learned to only respond to the voice of their shepherd.
And if sheep, with their very limited intelligence, can learn to discern the voice of their shepherd we can too. And God long us to know his voice. In the book of Isaiah God asks why is it that an ox knows his master, a donkey its owner, but my people don’t know me?
Today as we look at part of John 10 we’re going to look at how we can discern the voice of the Good shepherd: Please turn to John 10:1-15, Jesus says:
1"I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. 3The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice." 6Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them. 7Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. 11"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me-- 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father--and I lay down my life for the sheep.)
The question I want to ask of this passage this morning is HOW do we recognize the voice of the shepherd?
In this passage Jesus says 3 times I am the good shepherd. Jesus says 3 times in the text that my sheep know him or his voice.
How do become people who recognize the voice of Jesus? Part of what the way become people who recognize the voice of Jesus is by coming to really believe that Jesus is the good shepherd. In John 10:10 is a very important verse that says 10The thief (Satan) comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. Jesus came in order that we might have life and have to the full to the very maximum. When we understand that Jesus is good and that his purposes for us are good that will enable us to hear his voice.
Perhaps the primary way Satan tries to obscure God’s voice is by causing us to doubt God’s goodness. In Genesis chapter 3 we see that Satan lures Adam and Eve into temptation by suggesting to them that God is not really interested in their well-being. Satan whispers in their ear, “If you eat of the tree of the forbidden fruit (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) you won’t die as God says, your eyes will be opened and you’ll be enlightened, you’ll become like God. Satan is trying to portray God as a person who wants Adam and Even “miss out.” The primary ways that Satan cause us to become deaf to God’s voice is by causing us doubt God’s goodness. If we doubt God’s goodness, if doubt that God’s purposes for us are good—we are less likely to pay attention to his voice.
Part of what it means to become people who hear the voice of Jesus is to become those who know that Jesus is the Good shepherd, to believe that his purposes for us are good.
(Transition) When we come to grow in our understanding of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, and grow in our understanding of the nature of our good shepherd’s we will come to understand how he speaks. The nature or the character of a person determines how they will speak. When we know someone’s nature we can predict how they will speak.
If know you a person very well, even if that person is not speaking, you can anticipate what he or she would say or want in a particular situation. If for example, you say drop by the video shop and want to pick up a video of DVD to watch with a friend or partner. And say you’re phone isn’t working, if you know the nature of your friend or partner, you can discern what he or she would like.
If we know the nature of the Good shepherd, we will be able to come to recognize his voice when he speaks—even when it seems the like the phone line is silent with Him, we will be able to discern what he would likely say in a particular context
As we come to know the character of Jesus through the reading of the Scriptures and the Gospels in particular, through other people, and through direct experience we’ll be able to discern how he speaks and even when he seems silent what can discern he would say in that particular situation.
What is the nature of the good shepherd? If we know his nature we can learn to recognize his voice. His nature is laid out here in John 10 and it is also laid out in the famous 23rd Psalm. Part of what we see in John 10 and Psalm 23 is that it is the nature of the good shepherd to lead us into peace.
In our text (John 10 vs. 4) we read that the Good Shepherd goes ahead of his sheep and leads his sheep. In vs. 9 we read that the Good shepherd leads his sheep to pasture.
Psalm 23 begins with the words, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want (here again the writer recognizes the fundamental goodness of the shepherd as the supplier of all he or she needs). 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters.
The shepherd here leads the Psalmist to a place of green pastures and quiet waters. Of course, this is poetry and metaphor and what the Psalmist is saying is that the good shepherd is the one who leads us to a place in our spirit that could be described as having green pastures and quiet waters, i.e., a place of peace.
One of the ways we can recognize the voice of our good shepherd is by asking ourselves whether the voice that is speaking to us is a voice that is causing us to experience peace, “quiet waters.” (By the way, this presupposes that our general disposition is to follow the will of God. If our fundamental orientation is not to follow God’s way, His voice may lead to turmoil. But if our disposition is such that we want to follow God’s path, God’s voice will leads us to peace)
Ignatius Loyola, the author of the Spiritual Exercises, a classic on spiritual guidance and discernment, cites Colossians 3: 15 where the apostle Paul says, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.” Loyola says the voice of Jesus will be accompanied by feelings of peace and joy… what he calls feeling of inner consolation…. If the voice we hear results in feelings of desolation: anger, discouragement, despair chances are that it is not God’s voice we are hearing.
Part of way we know, as followers of Jesus, that He is speaking to us is that deep in our spirit his voice brings feelings of peace…
Now there are times when Jesus’ voice may lead to turmoil at some level on the surface of our lives, but on the deepest level…. there will be peace…
Before, I had expressed interest in marrying Sakiko, she had a clear sense through the Scriptures that a major change would be occurring in her life… a major cutting off of something. When I asked her to marry me and come to Canada there was certain sense of turmoil, an anxiety because she would be losing her job, her family, her country, the opportunity to use her language… but in at the core of her being there was an unexplainable peace….
When God speaks he may lead us into a path that seems difficult, a path that may create all kind of waves, but there is peace in the “eye” of the storm… a peace in the center of our beings.
The Good Shepherd’s voice will lead us to still waters… to peace…
(Conversely, if you are being led in a direction where everything looks “good on the outside,” but the direction causes inner restless, turmoil, and frustration—you may want to spend time discerning if this direction is really from God. Because Jesus’ voice leads us to peace.)
Second, God’s voice is will be a voice of that restores our souls.
In John 10:15 Jesus says I lay down my life for the sake of my sheep. The Good Shepherd does everything possible to work for the well being of his sheep—even if it will cost him his life… In Psalm 23 vs. 3 we read psalmist say of the Good shepherd, he restores my soul…
The voice of the good shepherd restores our soul. He brings us draws us back to God when we have sinned. His voice may convict us of sin, but his voice always invites us back to him… his voice seeks to restore us…
As you know (if you’re a regular here you) as a teenager, I had this habit of shoplifting. I really never felt any guilt—the only time I felt guilt and remorse during that season of my life was when I walked into a store and forgot to shoplift—I felt remorse for having missed a good economic opportunity. But after I gave my life to God… I did feel guilt and remorse for what I had done.
I went to see my minister about he and he pulled an old book from his shelf by a minister named S.D. Gordon. The author explained the difference between voice of Satan and the voice of the Holy Spirit. The author pointed out that the voice of Satan condemns us for our sins and the voice of the spirit who convicts us over our sins… Satan voices will condemn you and drives you away from God… the Holy Spirit convicts you and always draws you to God.
As you face a temptation, Satan will say something like this (as did to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3). Don’t listen to God, God just wants you to miss out. And why are you being such a stick in the mud! Why such a goody-goody? And besides, if you sin, God will forgive you… And you cross the line and you feel all this guilt and shame… And Satan says and you call yourself a Christian? There’s no use going to God now…he’s not going to listen to you… you ought to be ashamed of yourself.
Satan word brings a sense of condemnation that drives us from God. God’s Word brings us conviction, that draws us to God… His voice restores my soul.
Jesus voice brings a sense of peace, a restores us to God, and third when Jesus speaks to us we will be assured that we are loved.
Here in John 10 we read Jesus saying, I lay down my life for the sheep. As a result of his laying down his life for us on the cross, we have forgiveness and eternal life.
Romans 5:8 we are told that God demonstrates his own love for us in this that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
It is the nature of the Good Shepherd to love his sheep and when we hear the voice of our good shepherd we will hear his voice as the voice of the one who loves us.
For some people that voice will be harder to discern and harder to believe because the very people who they thought would take care of them (their parents, authorities figures, partners) abused them or neglected them, rather than loved them.
The voice of God is the voice that tells us that we are far more love than we ever dared hope and this understanding will lead to joy.
You may have heard the happiness is based on circumstances and fleeting, whereas joy is independent of circumstances. Gordon Smith points out that joy is also based on circumstance and joy can arise from the circumstance of being loved.
When I was a seminary, student I had an opportunity to meet a minister that I had long admired and looked up. The Rev. Billy Graham had been invited to a special dinner at our school and the seminary had seated me at a table next to his. For a moment, I ask myself, do I go say hello or do I stay in my seat? I take a deep breath stand up and walk and over introduce myself. I thought I was going to feel intimidated, but I felt loved. Mr. Graham expressed a concern for the spiritual the well-being of my grandfather who had heard him preach in Tokyo. He expressed an interested in me, wanted to know my name, asked me for my business card (which I didn’t have as student) and said he wanted to stay in touch.
In that brief conversation, my heart was awakened because someone I looked up to took an interest in me, made me feel loved, and all this brought a new sense of joy to my heart.
If ever dawns on me how deeply I am loved by the maker of all things—I should have enough of a joy supply that will carry me till the day I die.
Have you ever felt really loved by someone? Maybe by a parent, maybe by a family member, maybe by a friend, maybe someone you looked up to, maybe a child.
You remember how you felt?
If you’ve never had that experience, can you imagine how it might feel if you had had experience?
Well the love you felt from and the joy that followed--was just an echo of what you can experience in the presence of shepherd.
Jesus’ voice is the voice that leads us to peace, that restores us to God, and gives us the assurance that we are loved.
If we commit ourselves to discerning and following the voice of the Good Shepherd, we can say with the Psalmist, “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in house, his eternal house, forever..”
That does not mean that our lives will always be easy. Sometimes we’ll feel like we’re traveling through the valley of the shadow of death! But even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil, for thy rod and thy staff comfort me.
Following Jesus as our good shepherd… we can know the he will lead us to life in all its fullness…
Prayer:
Question: Navigating life is harder than driving through North Van… or even Boston or London with circular roads.
The question, I want to raise is do you want Jesus the Good Shepherd to guide you?
If so in your hearts, ask Jesus to lead you and guide. Pray that Jesus would lead onto that path that leads to his peace. If you need to, pray that Jesus would restore you to God, and pray that Jesus would give you an assurance of his love…a new sense of love on heart….
Savior like a Shepherd guide:
Benediction: Hebrews 13:20-21 Now, May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the Great shepherd of our souls, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever amen
This past week, my wife and were talking to someone about a vacation trip that she is going to be taking later this year. We talked about how when we are in a new city one of the things we enjoy doing is renting a car and exploring. When I’m driving in a city that’s new to me--I am dependent on a map, and if I follow the map, I can usually get to where I need to go.
But I find that when I think I know an area because I go there occasionally and figure I don’t need a map—it’s then I get lost. North Vancouver is a place that I think well enough to not need a map, but I find I get thrown off the by hills and thrown off by some streets that run on a 45% degree angle like Keith Road does in parts… I find because I think I know it well enough, I can get by without a map, and I find that I get lost there.
I get lost less in a brand new city using a map, than in North Van without a map. I think that a lot us live life kind like the way I drive in North Van. We think we know life well enough not to use a map, but we end up losing our way… If we look over the last 5 or 10 years of our life, I wonder how many of us would say we took a turn we wish we hadn’t.
The Scriptures tells us, we have been given the ultimate life map, in the person of Jesus. If we turn to him as our guide he can show us the way forward. In the Gospel of John 10 we are portrayed as our shepherd and guide and we as his sheep.
In a way it’s a very humbling image for us because sheep are not the most intelligent of animals. A professor said that the existence of sheep is clear evidence against evolution. He reasoned that sheep are so stupid their species should not have survived; they should have been replaced by a superior species.
If you set animals like horses, dogs or cats free they’ll either return home or they’ll say I’m free at last! But you if you set sheep free, they’ll ask where am I? Who’s going to feed me now?
If a sheep rolls over on it’s back to scratch its back and shifts it’s centre of gravity so that its feet are not longer are touching the ground, it will frantically paw, but like a turtle on it’s back it can’t get back onto it’s feet. Its body begins to fill with gases and it can be dead in a matter of hours…
Sheep may be stupid, but they are able to learn their master’s voice. The shepherds in Jesus’ day would call out a sheep’s name by using a term that associated with way they looked like “Fluffy” “Spotty” “Black Ear.” And the sheep would respond to their shepherd’s voice. Some times someone would try to fool sheep, by dressing up like a shepherd and by calling out the names of the sheep, but sheep wouldn’t respond, because they had learned to only respond to the voice of their shepherd.
And if sheep, with their very limited intelligence, can learn to discern the voice of their shepherd we can too. And God long us to know his voice. In the book of Isaiah God asks why is it that an ox knows his master, a donkey its owner, but my people don’t know me?
Today as we look at part of John 10 we’re going to look at how we can discern the voice of the Good shepherd: Please turn to John 10:1-15, Jesus says:
1"I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. 3The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice." 6Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them. 7Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. 11"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me-- 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father--and I lay down my life for the sheep.)
The question I want to ask of this passage this morning is HOW do we recognize the voice of the shepherd?
In this passage Jesus says 3 times I am the good shepherd. Jesus says 3 times in the text that my sheep know him or his voice.
How do become people who recognize the voice of Jesus? Part of what the way become people who recognize the voice of Jesus is by coming to really believe that Jesus is the good shepherd. In John 10:10 is a very important verse that says 10The thief (Satan) comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. Jesus came in order that we might have life and have to the full to the very maximum. When we understand that Jesus is good and that his purposes for us are good that will enable us to hear his voice.
Perhaps the primary way Satan tries to obscure God’s voice is by causing us to doubt God’s goodness. In Genesis chapter 3 we see that Satan lures Adam and Eve into temptation by suggesting to them that God is not really interested in their well-being. Satan whispers in their ear, “If you eat of the tree of the forbidden fruit (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) you won’t die as God says, your eyes will be opened and you’ll be enlightened, you’ll become like God. Satan is trying to portray God as a person who wants Adam and Even “miss out.” The primary ways that Satan cause us to become deaf to God’s voice is by causing us doubt God’s goodness. If we doubt God’s goodness, if doubt that God’s purposes for us are good—we are less likely to pay attention to his voice.
Part of what it means to become people who hear the voice of Jesus is to become those who know that Jesus is the Good shepherd, to believe that his purposes for us are good.
(Transition) When we come to grow in our understanding of Jesus as the Good Shepherd, and grow in our understanding of the nature of our good shepherd’s we will come to understand how he speaks. The nature or the character of a person determines how they will speak. When we know someone’s nature we can predict how they will speak.
If know you a person very well, even if that person is not speaking, you can anticipate what he or she would say or want in a particular situation. If for example, you say drop by the video shop and want to pick up a video of DVD to watch with a friend or partner. And say you’re phone isn’t working, if you know the nature of your friend or partner, you can discern what he or she would like.
If we know the nature of the Good shepherd, we will be able to come to recognize his voice when he speaks—even when it seems the like the phone line is silent with Him, we will be able to discern what he would likely say in a particular context
As we come to know the character of Jesus through the reading of the Scriptures and the Gospels in particular, through other people, and through direct experience we’ll be able to discern how he speaks and even when he seems silent what can discern he would say in that particular situation.
What is the nature of the good shepherd? If we know his nature we can learn to recognize his voice. His nature is laid out here in John 10 and it is also laid out in the famous 23rd Psalm. Part of what we see in John 10 and Psalm 23 is that it is the nature of the good shepherd to lead us into peace.
In our text (John 10 vs. 4) we read that the Good Shepherd goes ahead of his sheep and leads his sheep. In vs. 9 we read that the Good shepherd leads his sheep to pasture.
Psalm 23 begins with the words, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want (here again the writer recognizes the fundamental goodness of the shepherd as the supplier of all he or she needs). 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters.
The shepherd here leads the Psalmist to a place of green pastures and quiet waters. Of course, this is poetry and metaphor and what the Psalmist is saying is that the good shepherd is the one who leads us to a place in our spirit that could be described as having green pastures and quiet waters, i.e., a place of peace.
One of the ways we can recognize the voice of our good shepherd is by asking ourselves whether the voice that is speaking to us is a voice that is causing us to experience peace, “quiet waters.” (By the way, this presupposes that our general disposition is to follow the will of God. If our fundamental orientation is not to follow God’s way, His voice may lead to turmoil. But if our disposition is such that we want to follow God’s path, God’s voice will leads us to peace)
Ignatius Loyola, the author of the Spiritual Exercises, a classic on spiritual guidance and discernment, cites Colossians 3: 15 where the apostle Paul says, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.” Loyola says the voice of Jesus will be accompanied by feelings of peace and joy… what he calls feeling of inner consolation…. If the voice we hear results in feelings of desolation: anger, discouragement, despair chances are that it is not God’s voice we are hearing.
Part of way we know, as followers of Jesus, that He is speaking to us is that deep in our spirit his voice brings feelings of peace…
Now there are times when Jesus’ voice may lead to turmoil at some level on the surface of our lives, but on the deepest level…. there will be peace…
Before, I had expressed interest in marrying Sakiko, she had a clear sense through the Scriptures that a major change would be occurring in her life… a major cutting off of something. When I asked her to marry me and come to Canada there was certain sense of turmoil, an anxiety because she would be losing her job, her family, her country, the opportunity to use her language… but in at the core of her being there was an unexplainable peace….
When God speaks he may lead us into a path that seems difficult, a path that may create all kind of waves, but there is peace in the “eye” of the storm… a peace in the center of our beings.
The Good Shepherd’s voice will lead us to still waters… to peace…
(Conversely, if you are being led in a direction where everything looks “good on the outside,” but the direction causes inner restless, turmoil, and frustration—you may want to spend time discerning if this direction is really from God. Because Jesus’ voice leads us to peace.)
Second, God’s voice is will be a voice of that restores our souls.
In John 10:15 Jesus says I lay down my life for the sake of my sheep. The Good Shepherd does everything possible to work for the well being of his sheep—even if it will cost him his life… In Psalm 23 vs. 3 we read psalmist say of the Good shepherd, he restores my soul…
The voice of the good shepherd restores our soul. He brings us draws us back to God when we have sinned. His voice may convict us of sin, but his voice always invites us back to him… his voice seeks to restore us…
As you know (if you’re a regular here you) as a teenager, I had this habit of shoplifting. I really never felt any guilt—the only time I felt guilt and remorse during that season of my life was when I walked into a store and forgot to shoplift—I felt remorse for having missed a good economic opportunity. But after I gave my life to God… I did feel guilt and remorse for what I had done.
I went to see my minister about he and he pulled an old book from his shelf by a minister named S.D. Gordon. The author explained the difference between voice of Satan and the voice of the Holy Spirit. The author pointed out that the voice of Satan condemns us for our sins and the voice of the spirit who convicts us over our sins… Satan voices will condemn you and drives you away from God… the Holy Spirit convicts you and always draws you to God.
As you face a temptation, Satan will say something like this (as did to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3). Don’t listen to God, God just wants you to miss out. And why are you being such a stick in the mud! Why such a goody-goody? And besides, if you sin, God will forgive you… And you cross the line and you feel all this guilt and shame… And Satan says and you call yourself a Christian? There’s no use going to God now…he’s not going to listen to you… you ought to be ashamed of yourself.
Satan word brings a sense of condemnation that drives us from God. God’s Word brings us conviction, that draws us to God… His voice restores my soul.
Jesus voice brings a sense of peace, a restores us to God, and third when Jesus speaks to us we will be assured that we are loved.
Here in John 10 we read Jesus saying, I lay down my life for the sheep. As a result of his laying down his life for us on the cross, we have forgiveness and eternal life.
Romans 5:8 we are told that God demonstrates his own love for us in this that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
It is the nature of the Good Shepherd to love his sheep and when we hear the voice of our good shepherd we will hear his voice as the voice of the one who loves us.
For some people that voice will be harder to discern and harder to believe because the very people who they thought would take care of them (their parents, authorities figures, partners) abused them or neglected them, rather than loved them.
The voice of God is the voice that tells us that we are far more love than we ever dared hope and this understanding will lead to joy.
You may have heard the happiness is based on circumstances and fleeting, whereas joy is independent of circumstances. Gordon Smith points out that joy is also based on circumstance and joy can arise from the circumstance of being loved.
When I was a seminary, student I had an opportunity to meet a minister that I had long admired and looked up. The Rev. Billy Graham had been invited to a special dinner at our school and the seminary had seated me at a table next to his. For a moment, I ask myself, do I go say hello or do I stay in my seat? I take a deep breath stand up and walk and over introduce myself. I thought I was going to feel intimidated, but I felt loved. Mr. Graham expressed a concern for the spiritual the well-being of my grandfather who had heard him preach in Tokyo. He expressed an interested in me, wanted to know my name, asked me for my business card (which I didn’t have as student) and said he wanted to stay in touch.
In that brief conversation, my heart was awakened because someone I looked up to took an interest in me, made me feel loved, and all this brought a new sense of joy to my heart.
If ever dawns on me how deeply I am loved by the maker of all things—I should have enough of a joy supply that will carry me till the day I die.
Have you ever felt really loved by someone? Maybe by a parent, maybe by a family member, maybe by a friend, maybe someone you looked up to, maybe a child.
You remember how you felt?
If you’ve never had that experience, can you imagine how it might feel if you had had experience?
Well the love you felt from and the joy that followed--was just an echo of what you can experience in the presence of shepherd.
Jesus’ voice is the voice that leads us to peace, that restores us to God, and gives us the assurance that we are loved.
If we commit ourselves to discerning and following the voice of the Good Shepherd, we can say with the Psalmist, “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in house, his eternal house, forever..”
That does not mean that our lives will always be easy. Sometimes we’ll feel like we’re traveling through the valley of the shadow of death! But even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil, for thy rod and thy staff comfort me.
Following Jesus as our good shepherd… we can know the he will lead us to life in all its fullness…
Prayer:
Question: Navigating life is harder than driving through North Van… or even Boston or London with circular roads.
The question, I want to raise is do you want Jesus the Good Shepherd to guide you?
If so in your hearts, ask Jesus to lead you and guide. Pray that Jesus would lead onto that path that leads to his peace. If you need to, pray that Jesus would restore you to God, and pray that Jesus would give you an assurance of his love…a new sense of love on heart….
Savior like a Shepherd guide:
Benediction: Hebrews 13:20-21 Now, May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the Great shepherd of our souls, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever amen
posted by Shigematsu at 7:36 PM
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