I Am - The Good Shepherd

how are you this morning did y'all catch that when Daniel said "Hey kids you're free to go learn about Jesus downstairs and we heard one of the kids just squeal all the way." You know I think we ought to start a new tradition here every time I get up and I get ready to bring the grown-up word I just we ought to hear just squealing all the way in here okay wouldn't that make it kind of for a fun Sunday listen if you're a guest with here us today um there's one of these cards that you find in your handout if you'll take a few minutes and fill those out and here's why it is great to shake your hand it is great to meet you but I love following up with text just to get to know you better in fact I was listening to a pastor at another church this past week and he was talking about the guests and he said "You know we probably shouldn't call people guests here because when a guest comes to your house you're glad they came but you're ready for them to leave in about an hour also and we never want guests to feel that way here here's what we ought to start calling people that are attending for the first time future family members so if you're a guest here today may I just say as a future family member we're glad you're here because we're just a family of God that we come together just to learn about God to worship God and to be challenged by God so with all that being said I want to jump in today's sermon if you've been joining us the last few weeks we've been in this series called the I am series and the reason it's called the I am series if you looked in the New Testament especially in the book of John there are seven times that Jesus makes this declaration about himself he says "I am." And then he fills in the blank and he gives a different picturesque descriptive word of who he is every single time and over the past few weeks we've looked at the different I am statements every single week the first week the one we looked at he said "I am the bread." Now here's what's interesting every time he gives one of these I am statements they're actually on the backdrop of something else that's going on like there's a context that's taking place and Jesus makes this descriptive announcement about himself so people can contrast and compare who he is compared to what's going on in fact when he made the statement I am the bread of life it was just after he had fed the 5,000 people and so can you imagine if you're there on that day and you're eating till your bellies full in fact the Bible says there was 12 baskets left over of the bread and the fish and so they had their bellies full but he made this statement "I am the bread of life." Because he was declaring he was actually God and he's better and more than just the bread that we fill our mouths and our bellies with he goes "I am the bread of life." The second week we studied together that he says "I am the light." And if you remember that one it was on the backdrop of this giant candle lobber that he was standing in front of one that was part of the feast of tabernacles and that was kind of one of those traditions they had back then and this light was so big this candalabra was so big it would light actually the several streets around the temple but he stood up in front of it on this particular day and he says,"I am the light of the world." In other words if you think this candalabra brings you light just my life will bring you more the light of the world and the last week the one we studied was he said "I am the door." And that was the backdrop in the context with the Pharisees listening because the Pharisees had just created this this environment that basically they had said they became the wall keeping people from God and he stepped up for all the folks to hear and he says "I am the door." In other words I am the way to God i am God and I'm not trying to keep people back from a relationship with God i am trying to get people to walk into the relationship of God and so every one of his I am statements is made with a backdrop of other things going on and today's is no different so let me describe the backdrop of what was going on it was a bunch of people it was kids it was teenagers it was moms it was dads it was religious leaders leaders the Pharisees and the Sadducees and they were all there and all of them had something in common they knew about sheep they lived in an environment that was sheep was every part of every every day of their life sheep were involved in it if they were some of the teenagers there they knew about sheep because they were probably the self-appointed familyapp appointed shepherds of the family in fact we learned last week that every family probably had three or four sheep and these teenagers would be the ones to put in charge and take them out to pasture every day and then bring them back into the community sheep pin so the teenagers the kids knew about the sheep mom and dad knew about the sheep because the sheep were the sustenance of their daily life that's where they got some of their meat from they would sell them and they would trade them and so sheep were part of just the very thing that kept their family going day by day by day and the religious leaders that were in this crowd of people that Jesus is talking to they also knew about sheep because sheep were part of the sacrifice that people would bring into the temple and offer that as a sacrifice unto God and so in this particular day that's coming not just on the heels but is really part of the conversation that we studied last week when Jesus says,"I am the door." He has this crowd of people this backdrop of people that knew about sheep and so he's about to make his fourth declaration I am now here's what I noticed when I've described it so far you all look a little lost and here's why I think you look lost because the people Jesus is talking to knew about sheep but I don't see many shepherds in here some of you as you came in smelt a little bit like shepherds but I don't see many shepherds in this room right now that's a joke loosen up just laugh a little bit with me this morning so let me do this if you've got your program there if you've got your hand out I just want to give you a few characteristics about sheep and here's why this is important because when Jesus makes his fourth declaration of I am and he'll fill in the blank understanding a little bit more about actual sheep will help us understand why he said the very thing that he said so if you're filling in the blanks here's the first one sheep just really have no sense of direction you've probably heard this before that sheep will simply follow the sheep in front of them so if you're the lead sheep of all the sheep you better know where you're going because wherever you're going everyone else is going in fact I read an illustration this past week there's a story that took place in in eastern Turkey and it said this that 1,500 sheep as recorded that 1500 sheep went and fell and walked off the side of a cliff the first one didn't know where he was going and he kept walking and he kept walking and he fell to his demise at the bottom of the cliff guess what sheep number two did followed him sheep number three up to 1,500 sheep simply walked off to this off this cliff and you're like "Well did 1500 of them die?" No here's the funny thing about this report only 400 died the first 400 fell so far and they died and their fluffy wool made a nice soft landing for the next 1100 and they didn't die but all 1500 but it's because why because sheep have no sense of direction they will simply just follow wherever someone else is another sheep in front of them is going they will simply follow that sheep let me give you a second characteristic of a sheep sheep are defenseless sheep are defenseless i don't care how long you'll ever be around sheep if you ever decide in your next career you'll be a shepherd you will never see sheep uh claw bite they will never roar they will never They're not like a lion they have no defense they're defenseless they're helpless in fact they are at the mercy of whatever is around them that's the reason the teenagers listening to the story were so important because when they would take the sheep out into the field every day it was up to the shepherds to take care of these defenseless sheep here's your third characteristic you just need to know about sheep sheep can't get up without any help you ever walked into your bathroom or the garage in the middle of the night and there's a cockroach laying on its back and it's just kickling those legs you know what I'm talking about if you ever see a sheep on its back it's going to mimic a cockroach it is known by shepherds that if a sheep ever falls over and lands on its back it has no way to get up now we kind of laugh about that and kind of just kind of look at sheep like that but it just tells us this if they don't have somebody or something to help them their defenseless defensiveness takes another degree of being defenseless in life they got to have somebody or something around them to help them if they ever fall and here's your fourth characteristic the fourth characteristics sheep have the ability to recognize both faces and voices sheep have the ability to recognize both faces and voices scientists have done studies with sheep and they they realized this that sheep have the oper have the ability to recognize up to 50 different faces in fact they just had some of those nice sheep experiments and the sheep would go up to the right face and point it out if the sheep hears a certain person's voice it will come to that person in fact we also know this if a sheep sheep hears a stranger's voice it may even cause them to run because they recognize and they feel comfortable around certain faces and voices that they recognize and so as Jesus is talking to this crowd crowd of teenagers kids a crowd of parents a crowd of religious leaders they all understand those characteristics and many more characteristics about sheep they just got sheep and so he steps in and he makes his fourth declaration about sheep if you have your Bibles you can read it with me we'll have it up here on the screen or it's there in the handout but here's what he says in John 10 11-18 he goes "I am the good shepherd the good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep a hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming he will abandon the sheep because they don't know they don't belong to him and he isn't their shepherd." And so the wolf attacks them and he scatters the flock the hired hand runs away because he's working only for the money and he doesn't really care about the sheep and he says again "I am the good shepherd i know my own sheep and they know me just as my father knows me and I know the father so I sacrifice my life for the sheep i have other sheep too that are not in this sheepfold i must bring them also they will listen to my voice and they will be one flock with one shepherd and the father loves me because I sacrificed my life so I may take it back again no one can take my life for me i sacrifice it voluntarily for I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again for this is what my father has commanded so the fourth I am that Jesus says I am the good shepherd now I want us to kind of dive into it more this morning but rather than me sharing this with you I've invited Daniel Ortiz who leads our worship you're going to find out today he can do more than just sing he can preach as well and so I've invited Daniel to help us kind of walk through and talk through this part of the passage well good morning church how are we doing this morning doing well hey I just want to say one thing if if if I ever lose myself forget nervous i'm just going to start singing is that okay with everyone i'm just kidding hey it's so good to be with you all this morning and before I jump in I kind of just want to introduce myself so as Keith said my name is Daniel Ortiz and my wife Bianca actually she's here so everyone say hello to Bianca we just moved here a couple months ago from Dallas Texas and it's truly just an honor and a privilege to be here in this place listen one thing that you'll know about me and in my life that you'll come to learn about me is that I actually have an evil twin brother and we are exactly one minute apart i'm the older twin and I will tell you I will claim this for the rest of my life i'm the older one that comes with more mature uh but so we're we're very close and and I'm just glad to be here this morning and so if you have your notes out I want you to write this down the first point is the shepherd sacrifices for his sheep so that's the first thing the shepherd sacrifices for his sheep and in John 10:11 it says this it says "I am the good shepherd." Or "The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep." And one of the things that I love to just know about this was when Jesus is saying "I am the good shepherd." He's saying "I will give my life for my sheep i will lay down everything i will lay down my glory i will come down from heaven or I will give everything for my sheep i will lay down my life for them because that is how much God cares about you and I that is how much he loves you and I that he willingly came and went to the cross right to give his life so that you and I could be here today to have life and hope in him and I love what he's saying also because he's directly comparing himself to the hireling right so in verse 12 it says this it says "A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming he will abandon the sheep because they don't belong to him and he isn't their shepherd." And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock then it says "The hired hand runs away because he's working only for the money and doesn't really care about the sheep." You see the difference between the good shepherd and the hireling is that the good shepherd he's there unconditionally right he's there he was there probably when these sheep were raised when they were born right he takes them out to the fields he feeds them right he cares for them he watches over them right he takes them to green pastures but the hierling I kind of was thinking about this he might have just seen an application on Indeed right and threw in his resume or maybe he sent an email or maybe he saw a help wanted sign and he was like you know what I could do that maybe it paid well right he's like it's not too much responsibility they're not my sheep right i'll just clock in do my time clock out leave right but the good shepherd he's the total opposite of that right he invested in them he cared for them right he he literally says "I will sacrifice myself for them." But the highly he's just like you know what when he sees trouble coming when the situation isn't right right when he sees maybe a change and and maybe even the weather whatever it is right when the wolf comes and attacks when there's trouble lurking he's like I'm gone it's not worth it they're not mine they don't belong to me so Jesus saying I'm not like that he says I stay no matter what i give my life no matter what i lay I I willingly lay down my life because I care for them because they are my sheep and I am the good shepherd i love how Isaiah 53 puts it it says this it says "But he was pierced for our rebellion crushed for our sins he was beaten so we could be whole he was whipped so we could be healed." It says "All of us like sheep have strayed away we have left God's path to follow our own yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all right when the going gets rough the good shepherd he says "I am the good shepherd he just stays there to protect you and I to care for you and I." He lays down his life for you and I because let me tell you if you don't know this he paid a high price for you right he cared for you so much that he went to the cross to give his life and now we are here i want to share with you a story about when we used to live in Texas my wife and I we had been planning a trip for for months and uh we knew we were going to be out of town for a couple weeks so we had a a friend of ours that we told him "Hey you know what why don't you house it for us and take care of our house?" We gave him a couple lists of things to do while we're out of town so we gave them three steps to take we said number one is we want you to make sure that you lock all the doors right pretty easy enough easy enough lock the doors make sure the windows are closed step number two is hey why don't you we need you to go out and check the mail right make sure that things come when things come in or packages come in you grab them you take them inside and then here was the third step we wanted him to take and I want to say this was the golden rule in our house and ladies if you have plants you'll know what I mean step number three is this make sure you water the plants all right step three make sure you water the plants so we go on our way we have a great time and uh I don't even think to ask him i'm like he's an adult you know he won't forget um so we do our thing have a great time have fun then we come back home and as we're it's late it's dark right so we walk back into our house and and I'm the type of person once I lay in bed I'm out i can I can go out in seconds and then I hear my wife my wife walk in and she's like "Hey Daniel can can I show you something?" And I was like "Okay maybe he left the door unlocked but it's cool we have cameras nothing's going to happen." So we walk over and all these plants they're dead they're all dead and the first thing that I thought to myself was we gave you three instructions like what's going on but they were dead right he must have forgot and then I asked him he forgot but what it reminded me of was they weren't his right some of these my wife had grown from the seeds and then we saw them sprout other ones we bought other ones we transplanted right if you're into that stuff you know it takes time it takes care like I even got to the point where I knew okay if the sun hits it on this side then at this time I need to flip it so the sun hits this side like I was trained i'm good to go i know what I'm doing but he it just didn't matter enough to him so guess who got to go uh plant shopping that weekend but that was what happened right because we had given him a task he was the hiring in the story we said "Hey do this do this." And he did some of it but it didn't matter enough to him to take care of the rest of the details so here's the second thing I want you to write down this morning so the second point is the shepherd knows his sheep or the shepherd knows his sheep in John 10:14 it says this it says "I am the good shepherd i know my own sheep and they know me." And if we kind of track back a little bit last week we talked about it in John 10:3 it says this it says "The gatekeeper opens the gate for him and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out right?" And what that means is so what would happen is all the sheep would be in in one giant i I think of it as a community pen right they're all together all hanging out having a good time whatever sheeps do right and then the shepherd would come up to the gate and the gatekeeper would open that gate and then he would just call them by name right they would recognize his voice he would say "Hey let's go it's time to go eat it's time to go home." And all of them that were his sheep right they recognize his voice they knew who he was and when I thought about that I thought of they knew who he was because they know that that is the voice of the shepherd that knows me that cares for me that loves me that is with me right that is going to feed me that is going to care for me that that is the voice of someone that I can trust and they go to him one of the jokes that I I have with my wife is that in another life I think she could have been a maybe a part of the CIA or something u because she can just disappear in a second like sometimes we'll go to Target or Costco or whatever and just hang out and look around and and I tend to look at things and I'm like there for maybe two three seconds and as soon as I turn around she's gone and sometimes I even like you know what I'm not I'm not going to call her like I could just call her and find out where she is but I'm like no you know what i'm going to go look for her so maybe I'll just walk around hit a corner and she's not there then I'll go around hit another corner and she's not there so we've kind of come to this agreement that whenever I can't find her I'll make a whistle sound so our sound is so if you're at Target if you ever hear this it's me looking for my wife um but the sound go we just do this we're just like that's it and if she hears that she'll say it right back to me and then I'm like "Okay I think I heard it this way i'm going to go find her." But that is right that that is the voice that I have that is a voice that we share right just as a good shepherd said that my sheep right the shepherd knows his sheep well she knows my voice and I know her voice right and we know that that means hey it's time to find one another hey it's time to reconnect hey it's time to to maybe go where we need to be and I love what it says in in Nah 17 it says "The Lord is good." It says "A stronghold in the day of trouble he knows those that take refuge in him." What I love about that is it says that the shepherd right the Lord that he is good the second thing is that he is a stronghold in the day of trouble that means that he is with me right and the last thing that it says is that he knows those that take refuge in him right and the good shepherd he wants to know you i think of my life and I can even make this for you is that it doesn't matter how far you've gone it doesn't matter what your story was like 10 20 30 years ago the good shepherd he wants to know you by name right he is willing the the picture that I have of Jesus is someone that is is waiting for me with his arms wide open ready for me to come to him right because he's already given his life for you and I right he the good shepherd he sacrifices but he wants to know you in a deep and personal way right whatever struggles there are in your life whatever anxiety whatever needs they are or whatever things may maybe you've walked away from him sometimes he's still right here with his arms wide open right that is the good shepherd and the good shepherd he wants to know

us sharing that story about Target I reminded me one time kind of a similar situation i was at home in the living room and I needed Denise to do something and I tried snapping i didn't have quite the results that you sound like you have at Target when you whistle like that so that's an interesting relationship you guys have there listen as you read that passage there is one verse in there before I let you go I want to throw it out to you because it's a difficult voice verse when I first read it this week it almost sounds like Well let me read it to you and I'll let you decide verse 16 John 10:16 jesus said this "I have other sheep too they are not in this sheepfold i must bring them also they will listen to my voice and there will be one flock with one shepherd it almost sounds like if you believe in extraterrestrials or or or UFOs out there or Martians like is there another planet i don't think that's what he's talking about but what is it when he says "I have these other sheep but I need to bring them into the sheepfold." So what Jesus is doing there he's kind of taking a dig at the Pharisees right because they had built a wall right and last week we talked about Jesus saying "I am the door." So what he's saying is pretty much God didn't care what people look like or sounded like or even the Pharisees they were trying to keep out the first say the undesirabs but Jesus is saying I'm the door you just walk in it doesn't matter where you're from who you are what you've done i'm here for you i want you to be a part of my sheep thank you can you just express your appreciation for Daniel thank you [Applause] isn't it nice that he can sing and preach i think next week um I may come up here while I preach and try to sing and see if you like it as much i don't think you will hey let me just wrap up there's just a couple of things left in this passage as Jesus is declaring himself the good shepherd because I think the meat of what he's saying is found in these last few verses let me read them to you again this is verse 17 and 18 and remember who he's looking at the backdrop he's got the backdrop of teenagers he's got the backdrop of moms and dads he's got the back backdrop of the religious Pharisees as Daniel said they've been trying to keep people back and he's stepping up going "No no no um I'm the good shepherd." You almost wonder if in the back of his in just a small voice he's going "I'm the good shepherd." And the Pharisees they're the bad shepherds because they're not doing it the way God intends for them to but this is what he says in verse 17 and 18 he goes "The Father," meaning his heavenly father "the father loves me because I laid down my life that I may have it back again." And he goes on to say "No one can kill me without my consent." Understand right now in the life of Jesus the conversations are starting to develop that the Pharisees are going "We don't like this guy named Jesus we need to get rid of him some way." Jesus knows that he's walking to his crucifixion on the cross the people listening don't know but the Pharisees are feeling the tension and and they're wanting to try to figure out a way to get rid of Jesus and he goes "No one can kill me without my consent." He goes "I lay down my life voluntarily for I have the right and the power to lay it down when I want to and also the right and the power to take it up again for the Father has given me this right." this beautiful just few sentence he says there here's what he's saying to everyone jesus chose to be our shepherd this was not something up in heaven hundreds and thousands of years earlier god looked at Jesus the son said "Okay here's the deal i've got an assignment for you to do you're not going to like this you're probably going to kind of push back on this but I want you to go to earth one day." When Jesus was presented the assignment of one day at this moment that we're reading about that he has come to this earth here's what we need to do need to understand he chose to do it he chose to be our good shepherd knowing that he would have the opportunity to love and care for all the sheep on this earth but he also knew that he would be required to lay his life down for us in fact as you think about that here's a couple of fillins that you can do jesus did this because he cho personally chose to know you jesus chose to personally know every one of us that he came to this earth because he wanted to be one us one of us fully God but yet fully man and he wouldn't know us personally unless he served his life as a man on this earth and here's what I want me and you both to understand today that Jesus personally wants to know each of us he never laid his life down for the multitudes he laid his life down for each of us individually can you imagine this let's just say we were all the population of the earth both then and now in this room and let's just say we could walk this room going and he's a good person and he's a good person and he's a good person she's a good person and she's a good person and let's just pretend again totally pretend conversation that all of us in here were perfect people that did not sin except for one of us and that's you here's what I know jesus chose to lay his life down that he would still lay his life down for you now again that's a pretend story because let's all be the first to admit I'm bad you're bad we're all bad that's what the Bible says we're all sinners but Jesus chose to lay his life down personally for you and here's the second thing that we can take away from there is that Jesus chose to sacrifice his life for you you see as we're studying these I ams I like them because it gives me personally it gives me a more cognitive approach to Jesus like I can like Jesus is this person jesus is this this this God right but when he gives me a visual picture I am the door i am the light i am the bread i am the good shepherd it allows my mind to grab hold and understand better who he is but what we need to understand when it comes to Jesus it is more than just knowing him here it is knowing him here and today when Jesus said "I am your good shepherd," it is not so you'll have more knowledge of him that's helpful but is so you and I can recognize and as sheep we need him we need him when times are rough we need him when times are sad we We need him when when we don't know what tomorrow holds we need him when we're not sure what the doctor's going to say about a health diagnosis we need him when we're trying to raise our families we need him when we're trying to get along with our spouse we need a good shepherd because a good shepherd takes us as his sheep and he gives us direction he takes us as his sheep and he helps us when we're upside down like a cockroach and can't get back up he helps us when we're following everybody else but he goes "No no no follow me this way we need Jesus and I'm gonna ask the band to come back up now and I can't think of a better way to end this service than just us individually and corporately just declaring we need the shepherd we need Jesus maybe you're here today and and and Jesus has been a whole lot of stories cognitively it's been stories up in your head and you're understanding more who Jesus is and you're getting a clearer better picture of who Jesus is but here's what I want to share with you don't leave it up here bring it to here also and to know Jesus personally you just simply have to say "Jesus I need you i'm one of those bad people i'm a sinner we all are and Jesus I need you to be my personal friend my personal savior my personal lord we all need Jesus father we come to you

now and in this moment

Jesus thank you for being my good

shepherd you saw me

as a sinful bad lost clueless hopeless without direction person and you didn't wait for me to get my stuff together you came to me as I was you come to us as we

are and you invite us to allow you to be our good shepherd

and so today Jesus we say thank

you thank you

Jesus thank you for being our bread of

life thank you for

being our light of the world thank you be for being the door that we have access to the father through you thank you Jesus for being the good shepherd so today together we just speak your name Jesus and we pray this in your name amen