Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / March 4, 2018 | Dear Israel: You're Killin' Me! - Shepherd Me

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March 4, 2018 | Dear Israel: You're Killin' Me! - Shepherd Me · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Hi, how are you doing?
0:03
SPEAKER_00: Good.
0:05
SPEAKER_00: We're in a crazy sort of alien, weird book called Ezekiel, yeah.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: So if you have a Bible, feel free to open it up to Ezekiel.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: Good luck finding it.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: So but this is a great book, and we are two-thirds of the way through as of this morning.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: People always ask me.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: They say, uh, okay, I'm doing the Ezekiel challenge.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: They say I'm reading four chapters a week, but not sure what chapter should I be on right now?
0:35
SPEAKER_00: Well, the answer is this last week.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: We finished up to 32, so we have 16 chapters to go.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: This is the beginning of the sort of positive promises section.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: The judgment sections are over.
0:47
SPEAKER_00: And um so uh hope you're doing these, hope you're enjoying these, hope you're doing the devotionals.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: And this morning, shape of this morning is sort of the shape of a sheep and a shepherd.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: And I want us to be a sheepfold, and you and me, we're sheep, and I hope to introduce you to the most wonderful shepherd in the world this morning.
1:09
SPEAKER_00: My title is Shepherd Me.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: And um this whole chapter, chapter 34, pretty long chapter.
1:20
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna hit it all, we're gonna go through the whole thing.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: It's sort of uh Psalm 23, bigger.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 23 is only six verses, only a hundred words long, and so this is gonna be cool.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: All right, I want you to get a perspective of yourself and a perspective of the Lord that you may not think of very often as sheep and shepherds.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: So the word of the Lord came to me, the prophet Ezekiel said.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: The word of the Lord sounded like this Son of Man, remember, the word is just human.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: God reminding him of the gap between God and man, human, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: This word is the most common single word in the chapter.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: It is repeated constantly.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: Prophesy and say to them, this is what the Lord God says to the shepherds.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: Now, don't misunderstand God here.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't really care much about sheep shepherds.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: What he's talking about is people shepherds.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: Because in the ancient Near East, they always called their leaders shepherds.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible does the same thing.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: We're his people, Psalm 100, the sheep of his pastor.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: Moses said, God, you need to find a leader for these people, or else Israel will be like sheep without a shepherd.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: God said in Psalm 78, I took David from being a shepherd of sheep and made him a shepherd of my people Israel.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
2:46
SPEAKER_00: And then even in the New Testament, after the resurrection, Jesus comes up on Paul on Peter by the Sea of Galilee.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: He says, Do you love me?
2:55
SPEAKER_00: Peter says, Yeah, even though I didn't show it when I betrayed you.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I love you.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: You know I love you.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: And God's Christ said, Not once, not twice, but three times, then tend, then feed, then shepherd my sheep.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: And he meant people.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: He didn't mean four-legged animals.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that's what we're talking about today with this brilliant metaphor of shepherd sheep.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: So the chapter falls into three parts.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: About three pretty much equal parts.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: Three promises.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: Promise number one, I will rescue you, sheep.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: Promise number two, I will rescue you from both your enemies and your friends.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: Anyone ever need to be rescued from your friends?
3:34
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: Promise number three, I will bring you into a place of peace forever.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: All right?
3:42
SPEAKER_00: So let's kick it off.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: The reason in verses one through ten, he says, I'll rescue you, is because we have really, really, really, really rotten shepherds right now.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
3:52
SPEAKER_00: Shepherd malpractices going on, crimes of commission.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: Woe to the shepherds of Israel, the Lord says, who have been feeding not the sheep, but themselves.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: Shouldn't the shepherds feed their flock?
4:06
SPEAKER_00: But you, he now turns to these bad shepherds, meaning kings, prophets, priests, leaders.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: And he says, You eat the fat.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: In other words, you're exploiting the sheep, you're fleecing the sheep, you're slaughtering the sheep.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: You're eating the fat, so you're exploiting them, you're wearing the wool, so you're fleecing them, and you're slaughtering them, you're butchering the fat and animals.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: You guys don't care about the sheep that I've given you to tend.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: Malpractice.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: He says, not only crimes of co-omission, but crimes of omission, but you don't tend the flock.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: You haven't strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bandaged the injured, brought back the strays, or sought the lost.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord, by the way, to those of us, to those of you who have been parents or are parents, our bosses at work, you have some sort of shepherding relationship with some sheep, and and here's job description for you.
5:06
SPEAKER_00: Part of your job description is to tend the flock, to shepherd, to strengthen the weak, to heal the sick, to manage the energy, to bring back the stray, seek the lost, to show some compassion.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have grown up in situations where you were um you were not tended, you were abused like these sheep.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: Instead, the Lord says, you have ruled them with violence and cruelty.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: You've abused them.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: Then as a result, they were scattered for lack of a shepherd.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: They became food for all the wild animals when they were scattered.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: Because shepherds didn't care about them.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: The shepherds ran away when predators came.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: They were savage.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: They were beaten up by Assyria, by Babylon, by Philistia, and so forth, right?
5:49
SPEAKER_00: So he finishes, or you know, he sort of doubles down on this indictment by saying, My flock actually went astray on all the mountains and every high hill.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's been conquered and exiled.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: And there's no one searching or seeking for them because of bad shepherds.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: Israel is scattered everywhere.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: And so he concludes with a promise.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: He says, Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: As I live, this is the declaration of the Lord God, because my flock, this is a this is a surprise.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: He starts throwing this in a verse or two ago.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: He says, You know what?
6:30
SPEAKER_00: You guys think this is your flock.
6:31
SPEAKER_00: Israel's my flock.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: My flock.
6:35
SPEAKER_00: And you know, this would be a reminder for those of us to take care of children in uh Sunday school and so forth.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: That's actually not our flock, that's the Lord's flock.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: If you're parenting, in a sense, you better not be guilty of mismanagement or malpractice as a parent, because those are actually the Lord's children.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: That's his flock.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: So, so listen, because my flock, lacking a shepherd, has become prey and food for every wild animal.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: And because my shepherds don't search for my flock, and because the shepherds feed themselves rather than my flock.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, you shepherds, this is what the Lord God says, I'm gonna rescue my flock myself.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the flock is worse off, Israel's flock's worse off than if they had no shepherds at all.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: Because their shepherds have turned into ravenous wolves.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: And so God says in verses 1 through 10, I promise you, I'm gonna rescue you, poor sheep.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: And then in the next third of the chapter, he says, Let me clarify.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna rescue you from both your enemies and your friends.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: You know, so-called friends.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: This is great stuff.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: See, he says, I myself will search for the flock.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
7:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna kick those shepherds out, verses 7 through 10.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: They're out of a job.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna step in and be the shepherd for a while.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna search for my flock.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: As a shepherd looks for his sheep, so I will look for my flock.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: I'll hunt for them because they're scattered all over the world.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: And I'll rescue them from all of the places where they've been scattered on a day of clouds and total darkness.
8:02
SPEAKER_00: By this, he's referring to the fall of Jerusalem, which was in Kings called a day of cloud and total and total doom or total darkness.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: So this is the day in which they were scattered, and this day came upon my sheep, and they just scattered.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna bring them out from the countries, he says, and bring them back to their own soil.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: A lot of things here, really cool.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm gonna, the Lord says, I'm gonna search for them.
8:25
SPEAKER_00: They're lost.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna find them, I'm gonna rescue them, I'm gonna pull them out from the countries where they are, and even in the last century, the Lord's still doing that, pulling them back to their own soil, pulling them back to Israel, and I'm gonna bring them to their own soil.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: That's his promise.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: Going to rescue you from your enemies.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: Because he says, I want to rest, I want to shepherd them on the mountains of Israel.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: This is where Israel.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: Uh, when Israel went down the valleys, they were always really in danger because the Philistines, the Syrians, they had thousands of chariots.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: Israel was not a chariot-building country, so they would go up in the mountains.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: That's where they were safe.
8:59
SPEAKER_00: So the Lord says, Relax.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna shepherd you on the mountains of Israel.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: In the ravines, and in all the inhabitant places of the land.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: I'll tend them in good pasture, and their grazing place will be on Israel's lofty mountains.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: There they will lie down in good grazing place.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: They will feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: He says it three times.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I will tend my flock, and I'll let them lie down.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that cool?
9:23
SPEAKER_00: So this is such a beautiful passage where the Lord says, I'll be a shepherd, I'll feed them, and I'll tend them, and I'll take them to where they need to go, and I'll let them have them lie down.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: It should remind you, by the way, of one of the more interesting verses in Psalm 23.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 23.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: You know this.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: You know what?
9:43
SPEAKER_00: No Sunday morning is ever lost if we recite Psalm 23 from the old King James.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: Let's do it together.
9:49
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: He leadeth me beside the still waters, he restoreth my soul.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over.
10:29
SPEAKER_00: Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that beautiful?
10:40
SPEAKER_00: Now, by the way, one of the one of the things that confuses people about Psalm 23 is why is the first half all about shepherd and sheep, and then all of a sudden we have a table and we have wine, cups running over, and stuff that sheep don't do.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: Well, Ezekiel 34 should help you there.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: Remember, when we talk about shepherds, we're talking about leaders and kings.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: So so we need to hear these two metaphors are brought together.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: So in the first half, this shepherd king takes his people.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: He says, You'll never lack for anything, says our Lord the shepherd king.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'll give you, I'll give you pasture, I'll give you food, I'll give you rest, I'll give you protection when you go through dark places, I'll give you food, I'll give you a home.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: But it moves in from shepherd into a king, as it should.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: And so I'll protect you from your enemies, I'll give you, I'll give you wine, I'll take care of you, and you'll dwell in my house forever.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
11:31
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know sometimes you'll see a book that'll go like a shepherd looks at Psalm 23, and it'll squeeze even the last half into shepherding, but that doesn't work too well if you read that book.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: So you just realize you have two you have another two figures of speech here.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: But it's beautiful.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: And and then Jesus comes along in the New Testament, right, and says, That's me, that's me, I'm the good shepherd.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: Good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: A hired man who's not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, he sees a wolf coming, he leaves the sheep, he runs away.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: It's because he works for pay, he has no concern for the sheep.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is thinking about Ezekiel 34, a passage we know that because he's quoting some of the words, uh key words uh out of the Greek translation of the Hebrew.
12:15
SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel didn't you didn't need to hear that, Ezekiel 34.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: So um, but Jesus is saying, that's me.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: There's good shepherds, there's bad shepherds.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: I'm not one of the your bad shepherds, I'm a good shepherd.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: When I permit me to impose on you a song, one of my favorite songs of all time, we used to sing when I was growing up, in my family and a youth for Christ.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: And so I made my kids, we would, we had family devotions when my kids were little, uh, nearly every night.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: And so we'd sing songs, and I would always choose this song.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: It's a chorus that I don't think any of you know, but I love this song.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: And it's just so melodic.
12:52
SPEAKER_00: It goes in God's green, pastors feeding by his school, waters lie.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: Is there, does any has anybody ever heard this?
12:59
SPEAKER_00: Oh, oh, I see your hand.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: I see your hand.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: Buses will wait, baby.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: This is good.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: So soft, this is so good.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: Soft in the evening walk my Lord and I.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: All the sheep of his pasture fare so wondrously fine.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: Good luck singing along with that voice.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: His sheep am I.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: And then the best part, like when you're in high school and you were singing this, is that the girls with their pretty voices go, water's cool.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: And then we go, in the valley, pasture's green on the mountain, in the eve, in the evening, walk, my Lord and I.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: Dark the night in the valley, rough the way on the mountain, step by step, step by step, my Lord and I.
13:43
unknown: Oh.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: Bless you.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: Bless you.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: You made my day.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: This is a great song.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: I love this song.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: I love the song.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: And this song is so beautiful and expresses this relationship that I want you to feel, that I want you to sense to situate this that you know that I'm just a I'm just a sheep, but I have a shepherd, and his sheep am I.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: And this passage, right here in Ezekiel 34, sort of ends this little section about what a great shepherd our Lord is with these words.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: I will seek the lost, I'll bring back the strays, I'll bandage the injured, I'll strengthen the weak.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: Those bad shepherds, they don't seek the lost, they don't bring back the strays, they don't care.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: They don't bandage the injured, they don't strengthen the weak.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: And friends, I know there are people here today.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: I was standing in the back and I'm looking down and I'm thinking, oh my goodness, that person's going through so much right now.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: That person's going through such so much right now.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: You are a wounded sheep, maybe lost, maybe straying, definitely injured, perhaps weak.
14:44
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord says, I'm your shepherd.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: I'll seek the lost, bring back the stray's bandage, strengthen the weak.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: Now, the problem is, okay, so God's taking care of the Lord's taking care of the enemies, okay?
14:57
SPEAKER_00: Now he's got us all back, and he's the shepherd, and everything hunky-dory?
15:01
SPEAKER_00: Not so.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: Nada, because we're with each other.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
15:06
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you need to be rescued from your friends, the other sheep.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: Am I right?
15:11
SPEAKER_00: You ever been in a church where you needed to be rescued from other sheep?
15:14
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I hate to say it, it's kind of embarrassing, but we sometimes do headbutts on each other, right?
15:21
SPEAKER_00: As for you, my flock, the Lord God says this look, I'm gonna judge between one sheep and another.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: Not sheep and wolves.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: These are between two sheep, because some sheep bully other sheep.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: Isn't it enough for you?
15:32
SPEAKER_00: Now he addresses the bullies among us.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Isn't it enough for you to feed on the good pasture?
15:37
SPEAKER_00: Must you also trample the rest of the pasture with your feet?
15:39
SPEAKER_00: Isn't it enough that you drink the clear water?
15:41
SPEAKER_00: Must you also muddy the rest with your feet?
15:43
SPEAKER_00: In other words, you don't care about the other sheep.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: You just tromple around and you get what you want, you take care of yourself and your own needs, and yet you've got you've got weaker sheep here, you have ewes, you have little lambs, and they're not getting any food because you don't care about them feeding or drinking.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Yet my flock has to feed on what your feet have trampled, drink what your feet have muddied.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, the Lord God says, See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep, those billy goat gruffs, you know, the rams, you know, and the lean sheep.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: That's that's the poor victims, right?
16:16
SPEAKER_00: That's the weak sheep who are not getting any food.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: Since you've pushed with flank and shoulder and butted all the weak ones with your horns until you scattered them all over, I'm gonna save my flock.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's so cool, you know, in the last year, a few years, this big thing at schools about bowling, right?
16:31
SPEAKER_00: Right?
16:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I if you're not aware of this, you gotta be asleep.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: Okay, a lot of stuff on bowling now.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: Isn't it cool to know God thought of this 2,500 years ago?
16:41
SPEAKER_00: Don't be bullies in schools, in homes, and especially in churches.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: This is why Peter, you know, Peter's the one where Jesus said, Feed my sheep, tend my lambs.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: You know, in his book, in 1 Peter, he says, Elders, leaders in a church, do not lord it over the other people just because you have a place of authority.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
17:02
SPEAKER_00: So that's the point here.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: God says, I'm gonna have to rescue you from your friends as well.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: And all God's people said, Amen.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: I've been in those churches.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: Now we get to the third section of the psalm, and the coolest promise of all, I'm gonna bring you into a place of peace forever, forever.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord ends in the last nine verses by saying, This place of peace is gonna have an ideal shepherd king in charge.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna bring in someone who's gonna be the most awesome shepherd.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: I will establish over them, he says, one shepherd, my servant David, and he will shepherd them.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: He'll tend them himself and will be their shepherd.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: I, the Lord, will be their God.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: Notice everything that's here.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: So not self-appointed, there's gonna be no self-appointed, not even any elected leaders on that day.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: You know, over God's people, he's gonna put, Lord himself is going to choose somebody.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: And it's gonna be one person.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna be this king and then his son and then his grandson, and somebody else comes along.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: Nope, nope.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: It'll just be one guy and he rules permanently.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: And his name's gonna be David.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: Now, you know, it may be there's a few people, not many, but a few scholars who say, yeah, I think David, King David, is gonna be re resurrected and he's actually gonna be our king, which should be cool.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I like him.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to see him, you know, do the sling thing and other stuff and sing.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: But but I think that this idea that David is gonna be our future king is referred to a number of times in the Old Testament, and sometimes it seems to say, more likely, that it's a descendant of David, it's a son of David.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Jesus is called the son of David, who will sit on David's throne.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: So my view is that in the millennium, in this kingdom, in this paradise, in this wonderful place, that we're going to have the Lord Jesus Christ, our shepherd, who will be our shepherd forever and tend us.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you tell.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Jesus' going to be around.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: I mean, even if David's there, and I like David, I'm looking forward to meeting him.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: Now, the other cool thing on that day is a covenant of peace.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: This is a phrase only used four times in the Old Testament.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: This is pretty special.
19:07
SPEAKER_00: He says, I will make a covenant of peace with them and eliminate dangerous creatures from the land so they may live securely.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: What he's talking about is, you know, lion will lie down with a lamb, and on this day, you know, you're not going to get bit by any adders, and this is this is the kingdom.
19:23
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're going to be past all of this awful stuff we've got now.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: This covenant of peace, no more school shootings, no more.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you talk about the catastrophes in the last couple of weeks around the world.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: 66 people dying, a bus crash, and Indian 47 and a plane crash over in Indonesia, and another 50-some, and another plane crash, and another part.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's just astounding.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: You know, all of the agony and pain, this stuff will all be over.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
19:51
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about a realm of peace, and he says, security.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: And I'll send down showers in their season.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: There'll be showers of blessing.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, anybody heard the there's an old hymn.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: My dad used to end every service at his little church with showers of blessing.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's what you've heard it?
20:10
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: Congratulations.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: This is great.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: So, the trees of the field during this day will yield fruit.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: The land will yield produce.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about this wonderful rain on the earth, and my flock will be secure in their land.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: This is his third promise.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to bring you into a place of peace.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: By the way, that phrase covenant of peace started with Noah getting off the ark and God saying, you know, no more wrath, no more floods.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: Here's the rainbow.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: The covenant of peace is a rainbow covenant.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: God says, all of the judgments are over.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: Never again am I going to wipe out the earth by flood, fire, or anything.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: The covenant of peace will last forever.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: You'll be in a place of peace.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: Verse 29, I will establish for them, meaning the sheep, a place.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: Wow, will that be cool or what?
20:57
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't mind the place that's on the picture right there.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: I'll take that one.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: And then he ends by saying, They will know that I am the Lord when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the power of those who enslaved them.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: They will no longer be prey for the nations.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: They will live securely and no one will frighten them.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: Then they'll know that I, the Lord their God, am with them.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 23, he is with us, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: I mean, can you imagine?
21:26
SPEAKER_00: Picture this for a moment.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: Our shepherd brings us with a covenant of peace into a place of peace called paradise, heaven on earth.
21:35
unknown: Wow.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: And so he ends the chapter with this line.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: He says, This is the declaration of the Lord God.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: You are my flock, the human flock of my pastor, and I am your God.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: You are my flock, and I am your God.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: And just he ends again with this is the declaration of the Lord God.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: So, so what?
21:57
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so you've heard about the sheep and the shepherd thing and the future.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: And so forth.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: How does this apply to us?
22:02
SPEAKER_00: Well, it strikes me, I was thinking about this, strikes me that how how this affects us this week is if I realize I'm a sheep.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: Sheep are dumb, directionless, and defenseless.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: But only sheep get into heaven, okay?
22:15
SPEAKER_00: Let me explain.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm a sheep, you're a sheep.
22:19
SPEAKER_00: And to be honest, we're by dumb.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: I mean we wander off, all right?
22:22
SPEAKER_00: We wander away from the Lord.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: We're just, we just we don't know where we're going.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: I have this old book of Mother Goose rhymes that has them from the 1500s, like when they started and so forth, and has the original versions and so forth.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: It's so cool to read that book this week and see how many of them had to do with sheep wandering off.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: Sheep, not you know, little bo peep has lost her sheep.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: Well, no wonder.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're always wandering off.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: Or little boy blue, come blow your horn.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: Sheep's in the meadow, cow's in the corn.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: Where's the boy looks after the sheep?
22:54
SPEAKER_00: Well, he's one of those bad shepherds.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: He's under a haystack, fast asleep.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: So, and you can't count on sheep to hang around there like, you know, like a dog or something else who may, you know, just nose around there.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna wander off.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: And the problem is, if they wander off, they're directionless.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: They have no direction.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: They get lost.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: They, oh, isn't that an awful picture?
23:17
SPEAKER_00: Uh sheep, their wool just keeps growing.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: It never stops growing.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: So they're in real danger if they get lost for like six years, like this sheep did.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: This sheep was found just a couple years ago outside Canberry, Australia.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: His name is actually Chris, though he was hard to recognize at this point, because his wool had grown so much, so much that he couldn't do the normal functions.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: He could barely breathe.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: He certainly couldn't do the normal eating from the front and the other stuff from the back, and so he's about to die.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: And so, I made the mistake last week of saying so they had to euthanize him.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: But what I'm in is that they had to um euthanize them what is it where you put him out.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: Huh?
24:02
SPEAKER_00: Anesthetize them.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: So they had to anesthetize them.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I I'm fixated on the euthanize.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: So my doctor wondered when I said no, I really want you to euthanize me, and I said, No.
24:13
SPEAKER_00: Um so so here's the deal.
24:15
SPEAKER_00: So they had to anesthetise him, and they put him out.
24:18
SPEAKER_00: Normally it takes three minutes, you shear sheep, you get 10 pounds.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: Took them over an hour, sheared him, saved his life, got 90 pounds of wool.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: But my only point here is that is that they wander off and they get lost.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: We didn't have sheep growing up, but we had goats, which are cousins, and we had cows.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: You know, big difference between cows and sheep is that if you try to lead cows from the front, you know, you'll walk across the pasture, you'll look back, and they're still back there ignoring you, munching, you know, chewing their cud.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: So you have to get behind them, you have to drive cows.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: But if you try to drive goats like sheep, it's not gonna work.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna they're gonna cut right, you know, and try and get around behind you because they want to be led.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: That's just their nature, and they need to be led because they have no idea where they're going, and they're directionless.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: So you need to help them, or else they'll just get lost.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: And that's like you and me.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: We wander away from the Lord, and then we get lost, and we get far away.
25:17
SPEAKER_00: And the problem then is the third one is that we're defenseless.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: We can't defend ourselves.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: We can't defend ourselves from our own stupidity, like those sheep, like those 1,500 sheep in in uh eastern Turkey a few years back, where the shepherds were bad.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: They went off and ate breakfast.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: And then they started coming back and they saw that one sheep had jumped off the edge of the cliff, and all other 1,499 sheep followed them.
25:42
SPEAKER_00: 1,500 sheep.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: Only about 490 of them died.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: The others bounced because they're they're they're they're honest.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: I'm not kidding you.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: The wool was so thick over a thousand lived.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: You know, they just, you know, it was uh so plush.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: But these are actually pictures of some of the ones that didn't make it.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: So um, so uh we are defenseless when we wander away from the Lord.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're defenseless against our enemies, we're defenseless against our bad friends, we're doing, and we need help.
26:09
SPEAKER_00: We need help.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we need to take away from this morning.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: That that we wander away and we get lost and we're defenseless.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: But here's the deal: don't try to don't try to be somebody other than a sheep.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: Because there's no lions getting into heaven, no tigers getting into heaven, no elephants getting into heaven, none of those brilliant dolphins like you.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: You know, you want to be a dolphin?
26:34
SPEAKER_00: No dolphins getting into heaven, just sheep, just sheep.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: The Lord says, I want just sheep.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: The dumb, defenseless, you know, creatures who need a shepherd, who look to me, because I'm the shepherd who puts down, gives his life for the sheep.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: Only sheep getting into heaven.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: So, ladies and gentlemen, the bottom line is that you and I need a shepherd.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: If you're not sure that the Lord's your shepherd, this is a golden opportunity this morning, because he says, I'm the good shepherd.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.
27:05
SPEAKER_00: The Lord, right now, whispering to you, whispering your name, because he knows you.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: Respond to him, say, Lord, shepherd me.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: Shepherd, you gave your life for the sheep, gave your life for me.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: And boy, when you respond to him and you sense his care, if you're sitting here and this morning you sense his care, how do you feel?
27:26
SPEAKER_00: You feel so love, so much love for him, right?
27:29
SPEAKER_00: You're so grateful that he shepherded you.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: But always remember it's because he loved you first.
27:36
SPEAKER_00: That's that and and uh the old poem, the old mother goose rhyme about Mary Had a Little Lamb, says it so well.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: Mary had a little lamb.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: Its fleece was white as snow.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: It followed her to school one day.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: That was against the rule.
27:50
SPEAKER_00: Made the children laugh and play to see the lamb at school.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: And so the teacher turned it out, but still it lingered near and waited patiently about till Mary did appear.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: Why does the lamb love Mary so?
28:04
SPEAKER_00: The eager children cry.
28:05
SPEAKER_00: Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know, the teacher did reply.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: Why do you love the Lord Jesus Christ, your shepherd?
28:13
SPEAKER_00: It's because he first loved you, and he laid down his life for you.
28:19
SPEAKER_00: At our wedding, Melody and I asked, we had a song, we had a small choir that sang, sang a song about shepherding.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: We love the song, and so we had them saying, Savior, like a shepherd, lead us.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: Much we need thy tender care and thy pleasant pastures feed us for our use.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: Thy folds prepare.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou hast bought us, thine we are.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou hast bought us.
28:47
SPEAKER_00: Thine we are.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful song.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna have you sing it.
28:51
SPEAKER_00: Can I have it played, and you sing first two stanzas?
28:54
SPEAKER_00: This song saved someone's life.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: This song, like a shepherd, saved the life of a helpless, defenseless sheep.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: The story goes like this.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: A man's name is Ira Sankey, he was a famous singer.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he was D.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: L.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: Moody's singer.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: Moody and Sankey were the pair that traveled around in the late 19th century, led revivals, and Sankey became as famous as Lincoln for his beautiful voice and for his leading.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: And uh and they did these rallies for tens and twenties of thousands and thousands of people.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: In the year 1872, Ira Sankey was on a steamboat going north on the Delaware River.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: It was Christmas Eve.
29:35
SPEAKER_00: Christmas Eve.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: Hundreds of people were out on deck.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: It was a calm night with all the stars and the moon was out.
29:41
SPEAKER_00: People saw Sankey, they recognized him.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: He was a famous man.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: He was leaning against the smokestacks and they asked him to sing.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: They said, Would you please sing for us?
29:50
SPEAKER_00: He said he would.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: He opened his mouth, he started to sing, Christmas Eve, started to sing a Christmas carol, and then he said later, I don't know why, but I switched to Savior like a shepherd lead us.
30:01
SPEAKER_00: And he sang in his clear voice, Savior like a shepherd lead us.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: Much we need thy tender care and thy pleasant pastures feed us.
30:10
SPEAKER_00: For our use, thy folds prepare.
30:13
SPEAKER_00: And when he finished the song, it was still, it was quiet, it was very moving.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: Then the mood broke, and uh a man with a weather beaten face come up came up to him and and said, Uh, Miss Sankey, were you uh perhaps in the Civil War?
30:28
SPEAKER_00: Did you fight in the Civil War?
30:29
SPEAKER_00: Sankey said, Yes, I did, on the Union side, joined in 1860.
30:34
SPEAKER_00: And the man said, Well, I fought for the Confederates.
30:37
SPEAKER_00: Is there a chance you were out on a picket line as a sentry in 1862 under a night much like this with a full moon?
30:44
SPEAKER_00: And that you sang that song.
30:46
SPEAKER_00: And Sankey said, Yes, I did do that one night.
30:54
SPEAKER_00: And the man said, I was in the front of the Confederate line.
30:58
SPEAKER_00: I was a sharpshooter, I had my musket out, I saw you.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: I saw you, and I said, I said, This man's about to die.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: There's no way he'll get out of this alive.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: And then just as you did tonight, he said, he looked up toward the sky and you began to sing that song.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: Savior, like a shepherd, lead us.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: Much we need thy tender care.
31:19
SPEAKER_00: And I said to myself, I'll let him sing, that's beautiful.
31:22
SPEAKER_00: I'll let him sing, and when he's done, then I'll kill him.
31:25
SPEAKER_00: And he said, You sang it, and when you were done, I found that I could no longer aim my musket.
31:31
SPEAKER_00: I found that I couldn't shoot you.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: I found that my arm just fell limp by my side.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: And I've thought since then, how in the world you were rescued from death that night.
31:45
SPEAKER_00: Ten years later, here I am.
31:47
SPEAKER_00: I see you sing the same song, and I've wondered about the God who can protect someone like that.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: Would you tell me about that shepherd?
31:57
SPEAKER_00: And I resank you did, and that night ushered that man into the sheepfold.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: Savior, like a shepherd, lead us.