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Living like Christ in politics and public life · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

• 0:35
  Welcome to Faith Is.
• 0:37
  I'm Pastor Rick Stevens, and you're listening to the place, the program, the event, whatever you want to call it, where we say that faith is absolute confidence in the trustworthiness of God.
• 0:51
  Yes, indeed, that's what we say here.
• 0:54
  That's what we mean.
• 0:55
  Now we know that faith is more than that, and it's used in a lot of ways, but when it comes down to where the rubber meets the road, if we can challenge ourselves to have absolute confidence, to have faith, absolute confidence in the trustworthiness of God, we will go a long way toward spiritual health and spiritual well-being and probably physical health and well-being, although we are mortal and we will have our challenges.
• 1:30
  But anyway, here we talk about faith as absolute confidence in the trustworthiness of God.
• 1:37
  It's not absolute confidence that God will do what you ask him to do.
• 1:43
  It's not absolute confidence that God will do what I want him to do.
• 1:48
  We have all lived long enough to know that God is God and we're not.
• 1:55
  We got to get used to that.
• 1:56
  That's just the way it is.
• 1:58
  But we can have confidence in God, and we can trust him.
• 2:05
  That's the point of what we try to challenge each other here.
• 2:09
  Now, I'm Pastor Rick Stevens.
• 2:11
  I am the pastor of a real church, so I know something about what it means to have this kind of challenges to stretch our faith, our absolute confidence in the trustworthiness of God.
• 2:24
  It's not an automatic process, it's not necessarily easy.
• 2:30
  But it is what we want to be faithful people, full of faith, full of confidence in God.
• 2:38
  I hope that's you.
• 2:40
  I want to really encourage you to stretch your confidence in God so you actually will trust him.
• 2:49
  Why not?
• 2:50
  Makes perfect sense to me.
• 3:06
  I hope you attend that church every week, not just kind of sorta, not when you feel like it, but every week.
• 3:18
  It matters.
• 3:19
  If you wait until you feel like going to church, you might wait a long time.
• 3:23
  That is not the measure of our commitment.
• 3:26
  Our commitment is we are going to trust God and we're going to show up every week.
• 3:31
  Now, I know I have been disappointed in churches too.
• 3:37
  It's what it is.
• 3:38
  Alright, I can't justify it, I can't defend it.
• 3:42
  Churches are full of people, just like us.
• 3:46
  Sometimes churches do really well, sometimes broken people struggle.
• 3:52
  But the thing you have to think about more than anything else is does your church does the church you're thinking about attending, does it follow the Bible?
• 4:04
  We were talking about that again this week here at our church, and I said to some guys, I said, Well, what I've been saying to people is that we need to look for a church, not the one that's closest to us geographically.
• 4:17
  Convenience is nice.
• 4:18
  There's something to be said for convenience, but we need to look for a church that's closest to the Bible.
• 4:25
  And that really does matter.
• 4:27
  Make sure your church is faithful to what the Bible teaches and does not compromise on that, or as another word we sometimes need to think about, it does not accommodate culture, but it really follows the Bible.
• 4:45
  That's really important.
• 4:48
  So we don't want to talk about a number of things.
• 4:50
  We're going to talk about um we want to talk about what people are talking about.
• 4:53
  Well, you probably heard that there's a lot of conversation going on these days about the temperature in the culture at large, particularly as it relates to politics, that a lot of people have raised the rhetorical temperature to all-time highs.
• 5:11
  We want to talk about that a little bit, and I want to caution us and encourage us to set a good example for others.
• 5:19
  We want to pray again and remind ourselves to keep praying for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 5:24
  And I wish we didn't have to talk about this as much as we'd have to talk about it, but we need to remind ourselves that there are elections coming, and we and I, the followers of Jesus, absolutely must be involved and participate in this.
• 5:43
  And we need to talk about what that means to be involved and participate and how we will approach the election season.
• 5:51
  So let's let's start with, because it's a little bit related to elections.
• 5:55
  Let's start with the political rhetoric stuff that's going on.
• 5:59
  Now, politicians have been sniping at each other for as long as there have been elections.
• 6:06
  I don't think that's an overstatement.
• 6:08
  And harsh or heated or strong rhetoric has often been a part of political discourse.
• 6:17
  I haven't done a study on that.
• 6:18
  I can't go back in years and years, but when you pay attention to what was said, people were pretty plain spoken about some things, and they developed some pretty serious enmities between candidates, between political rivals, all that kind of stuff.
• 6:36
  Now, that's all well and good.
• 6:40
  We are going to have our differences, and that's fine.
• 6:45
  I'm not objecting to you having your differences with your neighbor.
• 6:50
  That's fine.
• 6:51
  You're going to disagree with some things, and maybe you'll agree with some things.
• 6:55
  I suspect cannot prove.
• 6:58
  People try to prove this all the time, but I suspect that most Americans agree on most things.
• 7:00
  All the time, but I suspect that most Americans agree on most things.
• 7:06
  There are some things, however, that we disagree on.
• 7:06
  There are some things, however, that we disagree on.
• 7:11
  And I understand the importance of speaking plainly, forthrightly, in defense of or in advocacy of our particular points of view.
• 7:11
  And I understand the importance of speaking plainly, forthrightly, in defense of or in advocacy of our particular points of view.
• 7:24
  It's okay to be forceful, to be plain spoken, to be straightforward.
• 7:24
  It's okay to be forceful, to be plain spoken, to be straightforward.
• 7:30
  It's not okay to cross the line into either abusive or rhetoric conversation language that will inflame some kind of violence.
• 7:42
  Now I'm thinking about this especially because you are well aware we don't live in a vacuum, that there isn't another attempt on the life of President Trump.
• 7:54
  Now you might love President Trump.
• 7:56
  You might think his policies and what he's doing are great.
• 7:59
  You might disagree with him.
• 8:01
  In my lifetime, there are presidents that I have liked and there are presidents that I didn't care much for.
• 8:07
  But no matter how I feel about them personally or their policies, their behavior, whatever, there's never a reason to call for violence.
• 8:18
  And we need to be careful in how we talk about things so that we are not guilty of raising the temperature in our world to a point that people then act on those concerns.
• 8:33
  So you'll hear all kinds of things said.
• 8:35
  Let me give you one that seems kind of benign until you think about it a little farther.
• 8:40
  And just by way of example to say, hey, we need to be very careful about this.
• 8:46
  You have often heard someone say, and it's been said about the president frequently, rather a surprise to me for a couple of reasons.
• 8:55
  One is because he can't change what they're accusing him of wanting to change or of actually changing.
• 9:02
  He just can't do it single-handedly.
• 9:04
  And what I mean by that is people have regularly accused him of attempting to destroy our democracy.
• 9:12
  And there are different expressions of that, but the main thrust of what I'm thinking of is the attempt or the accusation that Donald Trump will somehow destroy our democracy.
• 9:28
  Now I don't know why anyone would believe that.
• 9:33
  Now you might not like what he's doing, you might not like the way he's acting, but putting it plainly, no president has the power to destroy the democracy.
• 9:45
  Now we see all kinds of how should I say wrestling with, pushing back against, arguing for one thing or another.
• 9:55
  In other words, we see all kinds and have for years.
• 9:59
  I can trace this back to the times that I was first eligible to vote in a presidential election.
• 10:05
  There have been power plays pushing back and forth every which way between presidents and Congress and Supreme Courts.
• 10:12
  It's just kind of the way it is.
• 10:15
  So you're gonna hear that, but to actually say someone is going to destroy our democracy when they don't have the power to do it, that's worrisome.
• 10:25
  Now, and that's one of the milder things that's been said.
• 10:28
  All right, so you understand kind of where I'm coming from.
• 10:31
  You probably heard that there was a comedian, and I saw the word comedian in parenthesis in one of the articles that I was looking at, and that comedian, Jimmy Kimmel said, our first lady, Melania is here.
• 10:47
  Look at Melania, so beautiful.
• 10:50
  Mrs.
• 10:50
  Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.
• 10:55
  And that's supposed to be a laugh line.
• 10:57
  Now that was said during a parody time of the war White House correspondence dinner.
• 11:03
  I don't believe it was said at the dinner itself.
• 11:05
  But notice that what he said, you have a glow like an expectant widow.
• 11:11
  That's really troublesome, really troublesome.
• 11:15
  Now, you might say, Well, we have free speech in this country.
• 11:18
  Yes, we do.
• 11:18
  I will defend free speech.
• 11:20
  I hope you defend free speech.
• 11:22
  But listen, listen carefully.
• 11:25
  Just because we have free speech doesn't mean we should speak freely.
• 11:31
  We need to use good judgment.
• 11:33
  Now, my defense of free speech is to let you use poor judgment if you want to.
• 11:38
  All right.
• 11:39
  But my admonition and my use of free speech is to say to you, use better judgment.
• 11:45
  Some things just shouldn't be said, and that's one of them.
• 11:49
  Now, people have called for him to be taken off the air and all kinds of things.
• 11:54
  Well, you can think that through however you want to, but let me tell you what you can do.
• 12:01
  You can turn him off.
• 12:03
  And now I don't know whether you particularly like Jimmy Kimmel or not.
• 12:07
  Actually, I don't know whether I like him or not, because I don't remember ever really watching his show.
• 12:13
  Okay, that's just not something I've done.
• 12:16
  But I'll tell you what, I won't be watching anything he does in the future, because I don't need to subject myself to that kind of rhetoric.
• 12:25
  That's what I'm saying to us.
• 12:27
  We need to take two actions.
• 12:30
  One, we need to be careful what we say, and two, we need to turn off some people who get carried away or speak inappropriately.
• 12:40
  You may remember that in Colossians chapter four, verse six, we read these words.
• 12:48
  Let your speech always be gracious.
• 12:53
  Well, the verse goes on, but that's the heart of what we need to think about today.
• 12:57
  Let your speech always always be gracious.
• 13:03
  That's what we want to be as followers of Jesus.
• 13:06
  And you know I've been saying to us here, we need to think about the world we live in through Christian eyes, through a Christian lens.
• 13:14
  And that's one of the things we need to be careful how we talk, and we need to be careful who we listen to.
• 13:22
  You can't control what other people are going to say.
• 13:24
  I'm not saying you should try to, and maybe your favorite politician speaks in a way you don't like.
• 14:00
  So I hope you do.
• 14:01
  Now, another thing we need to keep reminding ourselves about, and I keep reminding us about, and I make no hesitation or apology for it.
• 14:01
  Now, another thing we need to keep reminding ourselves about, and I keep reminding us about, and I make no hesitation or apology for it.
• 14:09
  We need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 14:09
  We need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 14:13
  Now you know and I know there are tensions still in that part of the world.
• 14:13
  Now, you know and I know there are tensions still in that part of the world.
• 14:18
  I don't know whether we're getting the whole story on the state of the war.
• 14:18
  I don't know whether we're getting the whole story on the state of the war.
• 14:23
  I know we hear about ceasefires, and then we hear about mischief that happens, mischief, that's putting it too mildly.
• 14:23
  I know we hear about ceasefires and then we hear about mischief that happens, mischief, that's putting it too mildly.
• 14:30
  So I don't know where we're going to come with all of that.
• 14:33
  My prayer is for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 14:37
  And the reason that I think God put it that way and admonishes us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem is that when Jerusalem is at peace, by and large, the Middle East is at peace.
• 14:50
  And that really cuts across all kinds of boundaries and barriers and affects all kinds of people.
• 14:58
  So join me.
• 15:00
  Let's pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 15:03
  Now I'm particularly concerned about that because I have some friends that are on their way to Israel.
• 15:09
  They're planning to visit the Holy Land.
• 15:11
  Now, this is a long planned trip, and they're the way they're getting there is taking a little longer.
• 15:19
  They chose a different route than a direct flight.
• 15:22
  And that's fine, they can see more parts of the world.
• 15:25
  But that brings it home to me because that makes me remember and reminds me to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 15:34
  And I hope they're able to take their tour.
• 15:42
  But we can pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 15:44
  And in all of that, let me remind you again, in case I haven't often enough, and sometimes I think I say things too often too many times, but here we go.
• 15:53
  I want to encourage you, absolutely with everything that I can to visit the Holy Land to visit Israel.
• 16:02
  Sign up for a tour.
• 16:04
  I know it's expensive.
• 16:05
  Save your money.
• 16:06
  And if you can't go for health reasons or whatever reason, maybe you're frightened.
• 16:12
  I don't think you need to be frightened.
• 16:14
  I had the two times I've been to Israel, I never had reason to be concerned.
• 16:20
  But I want to encourage you to go.
• 16:22
  You will never understand the Bible or the world as well as you will once you have visited Israel.
• 16:30
  You just see things differently.
• 16:33
  And you know things differently.
• 16:35
  And we it I was fortunate last December when I was there to learn a little bit about the geography, and it answered a question during a Bible study we had this week.
• 16:46
  I didn't know it was going to, but it did.
• 16:48
  Those are the kinds of things that you just can't get any other way.
• 16:53
  So I want to encourage you to make every effort to visit Israel.
• 17:00
  Every effort, put it on your list, save your money, and if you can't go yourself, maybe you can help someone else go.
• 17:08
  Maybe you can give them a few dollars to help make it possible for them to go.
• 17:14
  So pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 17:16
  Plan to visit Jerusalem.
• 17:18
  You will be amazed when you go there.
• 17:21
  Now let's talk a little bit about elections.
• 17:24
  We Christians have had a tendency to, what should I say, live in denial?
• 17:30
  That's probably one way, or deliberately ignore, that's probably also true, the whole idea of elections.
• 17:38
  We just seem to think that it's messy and icky, and we shouldn't get involved in that.
• 17:45
  It'll somehow make us unclean.
• 17:48
  Well, can I remind you, please, to reconsider that?
• 17:55
  You know, I know election, I know elections, I know politics is a dreadfully messy business.
• 18:03
  I know there are all kinds of things that go on, some of the things we see, some of the things we don't see.
• 18:10
  I know that sometimes there are just absolutely awful people involved, but I also know that sometimes there are really faithful Christians involved, and they want to do the right thing.
• 18:23
  Last week I had the opportunity to hear a man named Victor Marks speak, and I didn't know much about him, and I'm learning about him, but I discovered that he's a faithful follower of Jesus and a candidate for governor in the state of Colorado.
• 18:39
  And according to him, and I have no reason to think he would be lying about it, he's winning.
• 18:45
  Well, that would be great, don't you think, to have a faithful Christian as the governor of Colorado?
• 18:50
  That would be phenomenal.
• 18:52
  Well, see, we need to recognize there are good people that are trying to get involved in the really difficult business of politics.
• 19:01
  And so we need to pay attention and we need to participate in that.
• 19:06
  And maybe the first thing that you need to do, I don't know your situation, you know better than I do, but maybe the first thing you need to do is simply to talk to your Christian friends and encourage and remind them that before God, they have a responsibility to be involved in electing good people.
• 19:25
  Now, why do I say that before God we have that responsibility?
• 19:29
  Well, simply because the people that are elected to office have to make decisions.
• 19:34
  That's why we elect them, to give them that responsibility.
• 19:38
  Those decisions will affect real people.
• 19:43
  And we, the people of God are supposed to love our neighbors.
• 19:47
  And if you love your neighbor, then you want the best for your neighbor, and because political people, elected officials, have to make decisions.
• 19:57
  We should elect the ones who will make the best decisions because it affects real people.
• 20:05
  It affects children.
• 20:07
  Right now in the state of Florida, we're seeing a political decision maker resisting common sense regulations regarding artificial intelligence.
• 20:21
  Now, I don't want to get into all of that.
• 20:23
  I've been involved in that a little bit, but right now there is a key figure in Florida politics that's saying no.
• 20:30
  Well, there are some reasons for that, and that's not altogether good.
• 20:35
  Uh I don't want to say too much about that because, well, it just doesn't matter at this point because he said no.
• 20:46
  But what that means is children will not be protected from some of the real present dangers of artificial intelligence and how people are using it.
• 20:56
  So we need to need to take that seriously, that we have a responsibility to our neighbors to participate in the process and to elect people that will do the right thing.
• 21:00
  To our neighbors to participate in the process and to elect people that will do the right thing.
• 21:08
  In fact, the way I like to say it is we need to elect people.
• 21:08
  In fact, the way I like to say it is we need to elect people.
• 21:12
  We need to vote for the candidates that will lessen evil.
• 21:12
  We need to vote for the candidates that will lessen evil.
• 21:17
  There will never be a perfect candidate.
• 21:17
  There will never be a perfect candidate.
• 21:20
  There might be some you really like, but there's never going to be a perfect candidate.
• 21:20
  There might be some you really like, but there's never going to be a perfect candidate.
• 21:24
  But we can always, if we pay a little bit of attention, we can always vote for the candidate.
• 21:24
  But we can always, if we pay a little bit of attention, we can always vote for the candidate that will lessen evil.
• 21:34
  Now let's get in a little deeper to that.
• 21:37
  And some of you are going to have a little struggle with this, so go ahead and struggle.
• 21:42
  I don't really mind if we struggle.
• 21:43
  After all, we get to better decisions sometimes when we struggle.
• 21:48
  But for many years, I heard people say, I vote for the person, not the political party.
• 21:55
  And that was fairly common rhetoric many years ago.
• 22:00
  Haven't heard that in a long time, but I used to hear it quite frequently.
• 22:04
  Maybe you still think that way.
• 22:06
  That I'm going to vote for the person, not the party.
• 22:10
  Well, there's no question that we need to vote for the people that will lessen evil.
• 22:17
  No question about that.
• 22:18
  The real challenge today, and some of you are going to be real challenged by this.
• 22:26
  The challenge today is that maybe more than ever before in my lifetime.
• 22:32
  The people you elect to office are absolutely positively linked to the party that they identify with, the party they're a member of.
• 22:47
  When that is true, then they are going to be enormously pressured.
• 22:53
  Now, sometimes they identify with a party because that's what they believe, and that's an important clue.
• 23:00
  But even if they don't believe certain things and would not want to go along with them, they are going to be enormously pressured to go along with the things that that political party pushes, advocates for, supports.
• 23:15
  So when you vote for a candidate, you need to not be naive, but you need to be clear-eyed to realize that you are voting to support the political positions of the party that candidate belongs to.
• 23:30
  So if your candidate's political party supports the LGBTQ, gender identity stuff, then that candidate is going to face enormous pressure to support all those things.
• 23:46
  If the political party that your candidate belongs to supports killing babies before they're born, or in some cases, even after they're born, then you need to understand even if your candidate says they're pro-life, they are going to face enormous pressure to vote in a way that supports abortion.
• 24:07
  It's just the way the system is.
• 25:33
  We'll be right back after this.
• 25:35
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  Let's get loud on America Loud Talk Radio.
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  Um, I think one of the best applications is crumble it up and you can put it on uh a salad, for instance, probably the best salad topper I think I've uh ever had.
• 30:14
  And uh, but you certainly can eat it as a snack.
• 30:16
  Uh Malcolm likes to eat them right before I come on our show.
• 30:19
  No wonder he's in uh such a good mood when he comes on with me on America Out Loud Pulse.
• 30:25
  So when you eat a bear bar, this is not like any other energy or power bar.
• 30:30
  This is uh healthy.
• 30:32
  Check them out, go to America Out Loud Shop, uh, and then search for the bear bar.
• 30:37
  Order a box.
• 30:38
  I I'd suggest order a box for each one of the flavors now so you get a sense of uh what they are.
• 30:46
  Non-GMO, gluten free, that's important for me.
• 30:49
  I'm gluten-free.
• 30:50
  I know I can have any one of the bear bars.
• 30:52
  So let's get real.
• 30:53
  Let's get loud on America Loud Talk Radio.
• 30:58
  The United States semi quincentennial is upon us.
• 31:02
  The American experiment was a stroke of genius and a world of oppressors.
• 31:06
  July 4th, 2026 marks 250 years since the sign of the Declaration of Independence.
• 31:17
  America Out Loud Doc News is that place to awaken your heart, soul, and mind to the Alpha.
• 31:32
  Welcome back to Faith Is.
• 31:34
  I'm Pastor Rick Stevens, and this is the place where faith is absolute confidence in the trustworthiness of God.
• 31:41
  Have you ever read the Bible, heard a story that Jesus told, or another story from the Bible, and didn't understand what was going on?
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  Well, there was a simple story when you look at it, and when we talk about it, you might be surprised.
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  But but the reality is that the Bible tells us, recounts this story in John chapter 10, verse 6.
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  And it says, of the people that heard Jesus talk, that they did not understand what he was telling them.
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  Or as I like to say, they didn't have a clue.
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  Now that's encouraging for some of us who sometimes look at the Bible or hear somebody talk about it and say, I don't really get that.
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  In this case, they didn't have a clue, and so Jesus continued to explain to them so they could understand.
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  And that's what we need to do.
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  We need to press forward until we do understand.
• 32:38
  Well, let's take a look at what Jesus was talking about, and let's understand it.
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  I want to read a portion of it.
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  Now we're not going to get into the entire section here because it goes on quite a number of verses.
• 32:50
  We're gonna we're gonna read the first 10 from John chapter 10, and you'll get the idea, and we're gonna talk about some of what the implications are, what Jesus really meant by this.
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  So I thought I'd read from the Christian Standard Bible.
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  Many good English translations, find one that you like and will read and benefit from.
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  But this is the Christian Standard Bible, John chapter 10, verse 1.
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  Truly I tell you, anyone who doesn't enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber.
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  The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
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  The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice.
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  He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
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  When he has brought all of his own outside, he goes ahead of them.
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  The sheep follow him because they know his voice.
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  They will never follow a stranger.
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  Instead, they will run away from him because they don't know the voice of strangers.
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  All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn't listen to them.
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  I am the gate.
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  If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture.
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  A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
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  I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
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  John chapter 10, verses 1 through 10 from the Christian Standard Bible.
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  So what is Jesus talking about here?
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  Now it says they didn't have a clue, so he went on to explain, and we have a little more information.
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  So let's unpack this and see if we can make better sense of it.
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  I'm pretty sure we can.
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  What is Jesus trying to say to them?
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  What point is he trying to make?
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  Well, the one that really jumps out at me, and I know any time you look at the Bible, you can find more than one thing.
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  And I know anytime you look at the Bible, you can find more than one thing.
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  All right, but here's what really jumps out at me.
• 35:04
  All right, but here's what really jumps out at me.
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  Jesus said in verse 10, the last sentence that I read.
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  Jesus said in verse 10, the last sentence that I read, I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
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  I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
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  Now the day he's talking about is us.
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  Now, the day he's talking about is us.
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  The sheep he's talking about in using the illustration of sheep, that's people, that's us.
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  The sheep he's talking about in using the illustration of sheep, that's people, that's us.
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  And Jesus says clearly.
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  And Jesus says clearly, I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
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  Now I think I'm pretty sure you'll agree that when Jesus says, Here's why I came, we should pay attention.
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  And that's what he says here.
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  I have come so that they may have what?
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  Why did he come?
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  So that people, you could have life and have it in abundance.
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  Now that's really a key thing to remember, because everything related to what Jesus did supports that idea, the giving of life and have it, having it in abundance.
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  Now, I think that should catch our attention when Jesus says, Here's why I'm here.
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  I think in a similar way, and you may remember this from John chapter 18, Jesus said makes a similar statement.
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  And they're not contradictory, but but it's very very important that when Jesus says, Here's why I came, or in this case, here's why I was born, in the case of John 18, we should really pay attention because Jesus is telling us something significant.
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  I came for this, I was born for this.
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  That really matters.
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  So in John chapter 18, verse 37, Jesus said, I was born for this, and I came into the world for this.
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  All right, so I was born for this, I came into the world for this.
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  What's the this?
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  Here it is, you ready?
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  I came into the world for this, to testify to the truth.
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  There's the what do we say?
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  The money statement.
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  Jesus came to testify to the truth.
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  He goes on and finishes that thought by saying, Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.
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  So Jesus came to tell us the truth.
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  Jesus came to give us life, and that life to the full.
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  Well, it's kind of wrapped up in the story.
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  Now, he opens this section talking about sheep and robbers and shepherds.
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  So this illustration of caring for sheep is a little bit outside our experience.
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  I've far as I remember never been to a place where they were herding sheep.
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  As far as I can know, I've never talked to a shepherd.
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  I've heard some on recordings, I've read material that shepherds have written, I've read about sheep and shepherds a little bit.
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  You kind of need to do that if you're going to understand what the Bible's talking about because it's such a common reference.
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  I mean, after all, Psalm 23 says, The Lord is my shepherd.
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  So we kind of need to understand this idea.
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  So here Jesus is talking about caring for sheep.
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  And he talks about a sheep pen.
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  And the visual imagery that we get from that is exactly what they frequently did when shepherds lived nearby and they had different flocks of sheep, they would bring their sheep in from the fields when they were close enough, and they would put them in an enclosure.
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  We call it a sheepfold.
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  You might call it a pen, a sheep pen.
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  And they'd put it inside this pen for safekeeping overnight.
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  The wall around that or the fence around that area gave the sheep some sense of security, a protection from predators, and it gave them a defined space for over to sleep in overnight to be secure overnight.
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  And so Jesus uses that idea to say, in the same way that sheep come to their sheep pen, my sheep know me, because after the night is over, then a shepherd will come to the sheep pen for his sheep.
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  Now, frequently someone would care for the sheep overnight and sleep there at the gate where the sheep would go in and out of the pen, and that person was available if the sheep needed something in the night, or if a predator came by, that person could fight off the predator, scare it off, whatever.
• 40:09
  And then in the morning, when the shepherd came, the she they would open the gate, and the shepherd would, using his voice, call out to his sheep, and his sheep would recognize the shepherd's voice and follow the shepherd out of the pen and out into the field for grazing during the day.
• 40:32
  Well, every shepherd would do that, and it didn't matter how many different herds of sheep were in there, the shepherds all would call their sheep, and the sheep knew the voice of their shepherd, and they would follow.
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  And so he's comparing a shepherd calling sheep to us hearing his voice and knowing his voice.
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  He's talking about how as a shepherd coming to call for the sheep to come out, then he's caring for them.
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  Now, somebody who would try to get over the fence or over the wall of the sheep pen, they would be a thief and a robber.
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  And he says very clearly in verse 10, a thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
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  But he comes to give life and that to the full.
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  One of the things is they give life.
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  They protect the sheep.
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  Notice that last sentence that I highlighted earlier, I have come, Jesus said, so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
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  One of the things that we need to remind ourselves and continually keep in mind is that the life of following Jesus, the life of listening to what God says in the Bible, is the pathway to life.
• 42:31
  Now, you and I know, we've been told, we've been guilty of thinking it ourselves, probably, that, well, when the Bible tells us things, then it's just God telling us we can't have something we want.
• 42:47
  Well, we'll talk about that a little bit more, but the key perspective is not that.
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  The key perspective is to hear what Jesus said.
• 42:57
  I have come that they might have abundant life, or another English translation translation says that they may have life and have it to the full.
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  So the bias of the life of Jesus is a full or abundant life, not a restricted, not a life of, oh my, I can't can't do or I can't have.
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  It's full, abundant life.
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  That's the point.
• 43:25
  Jesus gives life.
• 43:27
  And we need to think about the life of faith, the life of following Jesus in those terms, because Jesus said, I'm come to give life.
• 43:38
  So that's got to be the obvious outcome of following Jesus.
• 43:43
  Second thing we should recognize from this, and particularly this illustration of the sheep is that the sheep know the voice of the shepherd.
• 43:51
  Now, you and I, it's our responsibility to learn the voice of the shepherd.
• 43:58
  Now, sheep would get that because they grow up in the flock, and so it wouldn't be a complicated thing likely for them.
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  Now, for us, it's a little bit more involved because we have to intentionally learn to hear what God is saying.
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  Now, how do we do that?
• 44:16
  Well, it's the same thing that I've said many times, and that you've probably heard many times.
• 44:21
  We do that by reading the Bible.
• 44:25
  Now, again, I hasten to say, when I say reading, if you prefer listening to the Bible, get a good uh English translation, a good what would I say, audible version of the Bible, a good Bible that you can listen to, read competently, and interestingly, and listen to the Bible.
• 44:50
  It's okay to have an audio experience with the Bible.
• 44:54
  That's what happened in the New Testament.
• 44:56
  You could argue that you are more like the New Testament church when you listen to the Bible than when you read it, because a lot more people listened to it than read it in those days.
• 45:08
  But we need to know God's voice, and the Bible is what teaches us what God is saying to us.
• 45:15
  And we need to know that because we need to know good rather than evil.
• 45:20
  And so the Bible teaches us that which is good, that which is right, and it contrasts it with that which is wrong.
• 45:28
  So we need to understand, we need to hear the voice of Jesus.
• 45:34
  Now, how does Jesus give us life?
• 45:39
  You know, I said we need to have a bias toward thinking about the life of faith in terms of the outcome should be abundant life.
• 45:48
  Now, my personal experience as a kid, and even as a young teenager, growing up in church many, many years ago, and it was very different than it is today, was I seem to catch that there was more emphasis on what we couldn't do, and that would squelch my enjoyment of or participation in life rather than open the door to life and life to the full.
• 46:23
  I think it was just because the emphasis in churches those days tended to be more on don't do, don't do, don't do, rather than what we should do, could do, and enjoy.
• 46:35
  Churches weren't very good at explaining the difference between things that were potentially evil, but also potentially good.
• 46:46
  For example, I don't know why I caught this, I just did, but I caught early on in my life that good Christians didn't go to movies.
• 46:57
  Well, I've since heard that there were lots of people that are good people that went to movies long before I ever even knew about them.
• 47:05
  Well, the prevailing thought was that too often movies were harmful.
• 47:13
  Well, okay, so you just don't go to them.
• 47:16
  So you can imagine my confusion when the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association came out with movies.
• 47:24
  This was a novel thing years ago, but they were showing them in movie theaters.
• 47:30
  Well, they were smart to do that because then all kinds of people could see them, but I can remember being uncomfortable when I went with my church, with my parents, with my church group, to a theater to see a Billy Graham movie.
• 47:47
  I thought, wow, do we really belong here?
• 47:49
  Is this right for us to be here?
• 47:51
  Now, admittedly, I know you're smiling, you're thinking, well, you sure were nuts.
• 47:57
  Well, probably so.
• 47:58
  But understand they were trying to teach us an important lesson that we should avoid things that would lead to death rather than life, and they didn't do a good job of saying there's nothing wrong with movies, it's what the content is that matters.
• 48:15
  Well, I get that now, you get that now.
• 48:19
  But the point of the illustration is to say that I remember thinking even as a young adult, how much the church had influenced my thinking to expect that I was missing out on being deprived of certain good things.
• 48:38
  But then I came across this verse, John chapter 10, verse 10, that talked about having abundant life or having life to the full.
• 48:50
  So God wants us to have a full exciting abundant life.
• 48:57
  He didn't come to keep us from things, he came to give us life.
• 49:00
  Things he came to give us life.
• 49:04
  And that's the point, part of the point of the story Jesus told in John chapter 10.
• 49:04
  And that's the point, part of the point of the story, Jesus told in John chapter 10.
• 49:10
  Now, how does this play out?
• 49:10
  Now, how does this play out?
• 49:13
  Well, if Jesus came to give us life, how does how does the teaching that often says we shouldn't do certain things?
• 49:13
  Well, if Jesus came to give us life, how does how does the teaching that often says we shouldn't do certain thing things?
• 49:26
  How does that give us life?
• 49:26
  How does that give us life?
• 49:29
  Well,
• 49:29
  Well, let's think about Psalm 23 to begin that idea.
• 49:33
  You're familiar with Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd.
• 49:36
  Well, it uses that same imagery, but it goes on to list the concrete things that the Lord provides for his people.
• 49:45
  As a shepherd, he provides all these good things for his people.
• 49:51
  He also protects his people.
• 49:54
  You remember the phrase about walking through the valley of the shadow of death?
• 49:58
  I will fear no evil, for the good shepherd is with me.
• 50:03
  He protects me.
• 50:05
  Well, what that psalm, that really beloved psalm says is that God is here to provide for his people and to protect them from harm.
• 50:16
  And we need to develop that mindset.
• 50:20
  Instead, we tend to think that when a temptation comes along, the evil one says to us, well, see, you could be enjoying this, but God won't let you do that.
• 50:31
  He's trying to keep something good from you.
• 50:34
  When we need to think about, wait a minute, wait a minute.
• 50:38
  God is here to protect me from bad things from harm and to provide life for me.
• 50:46
  So every time that we read in the Bible that God says don't do something, we need to stop and ask ourselves, hmm, what is he protecting me from?
• 51:02
  What is he keeping me from so that I don't mess up my life?
• 51:08
  Well, let's use a pretty simple example.
• 51:12
  The Ten Commandments tell us that we shouldn't steal.
• 51:16
  Well, God is telling me, don't steal.
• 51:19
  And the point is what?
• 51:21
  If we all follow his command, don't steal, then no one steals, and our property is secure, and I don't have to worry about someone taking something that belongs to me.
• 51:34
  I have some level of security, and so do you.
• 51:38
  Plus, I don't run afoul of the law, that would get me in trouble because I stole something from someone.
• 51:45
  So God is providing and protecting, providing security of our property, and protecting us from thieves.
• 51:56
  See, every commandment that God gives us is to provide something for us or to protect us from something.
• 52:04
  So when God says that we should be faithful in our families, we're faithful in our commitments to our spouses, he is saying to us, that's me providing the best for you and protecting you from harm.
• 52:19
  How many people?
• 52:20
  Countless, really, have ruined their lives because they well, they just had to follow their soulmate, and they abandoned their family and their life was ruined.
• 52:32
  Their kids were damaged, harmed.
• 52:36
  Their whole life was never the same.
• 52:39
  And what God is saying is, I don't want you to fall into that temptation because I want to provide for you an enduring family experience that will serve you over time, and you will be glad you were faithful to your family, and you intentionally did the right thing.
• 52:58
  See, that's what we that's the mindset we need to develop.
• 53:02
  And I'm afraid that we have developed the mindset that, well, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna resist what I think God is keeping from me.
• 53:12
  And instead of saying, oh, wait a minute, the reason that God is saying no, is because he's trying to protect me from ruining my life, and he's trying to provide for me a better life than I knew I could have.
• 53:27
  So we need to we need to reconsider that mindset and go back to what where we started, what Jesus said in John chapter 10, verse 10, I have come so that they, meaning people, you, me, may have life and have it in abundance.
• 53:49
  That's why he came.
• 53:57
  And that's what he's providing.
• 53:59
  That's what he's protecting us from.
• 54:01
  So when temptation comes along and says, huh, God knows that you would enjoy this, and he's just trying to keep this from you, then we can say, no, that's not true.
• 54:13
  God knows all the outcomes and the ins and outs of all these things, and he's trying to protect me.
• 54:20
  If Adam and Eve had realized that in the garden, they never would have eaten of the forbidden fruit.
• 54:27
  It's the same idea today.
• 54:30
  It's the same lie that they encountered in the garden.
• 54:34
  When Satan came to them and said, uh, God said, Don't eat that.
• 54:38
  Well, God knows that if you eat that, it'll be good for you because you'll know the difference, you'll know good and evil.
• 54:47
  Well, we now know that it wasn't good for us.
• 54:51
  God was protecting his creation from harm by saying, Don't eat of the forbidden fruit.
• 55:01
  And they ate and life broke, the whole world broke.
• 55:07
  Then see, that's the same temptation we face these days.
• 55:10
  And that's why I say we need to realize that Jesus said before Pilate, I'm come to testify to the truth, and then he tells us the truth that he came to give us life and that to the full.
• 55:32
  So develop some convictions.
• 55:36
  Develop some things that you say, I do this because I'm a follower of Jesus, and he's going to give me real life.
• 55:44
  So develop some things that you do on purpose, like, for example, what I said earlier, that you go to church every Sunday because God invites you into his presence because he wants you to have the best life.
• 55:58
  And also develop some things that you'd say, nope, I'm not going to do that.
• 56:00
  Develop some things that you'd say, nope, I'm not going to do that.
• 56:04
  I refuse to do that because God has made that off limits, and I'm not going to do that.
• 56:04
  I refuse to do that because God has made that off limits, and I'm not going to do that.
• 56:10
  He came to give me the best life, and I'm going to resist that out of conviction that I want to have life and have it to the full.
• 56:18
  You see, we get our minds all messed up.
• 56:18
  You see, we get our minds all messed up.
• 56:21
  And I want to encourage you to wrap your mind around that Jesus came to give you life and give it to you to the full abundantly.
• 56:21
  And I want to encourage you to wrap your mind around that Jesus came to give you life and give it to you to the full abundantly.