0:01 [Music] I'd like to pray before we begin. Lord Jesus, I I want to be like you. 0:25 And I've said that so many times in my life. And and yet I see so much uncristlikeness in me and I really want to be like you and I want to give myself as a living sacrifice my body aresh to you today so that you can really transform me. You 0:44 can change the way I think so that you I'm really transformed so that my saying that I want to be like you is more than just lip service but a reality that's in my life increasingly day by day that I'm becoming more considerator of 1:02 others less thoughtful of myself and more thoughtful of others less captivated by the things of this earth more captivated with the kingdom of heaven [Music] keen to know what others are going through so that I can be of service to 1:17 them through your help. Give me your heart, Lord Jesus. I I cry out for you. Give me a Holy Spirit that searches my heart and searches the heart of God to reveal those things to me so that I can have the mind of Christ. I long for your 1:34 Holy Spirit. I long for it, Lord. We long for it as a church. We don't want to just be a church that claims to be alive, thinks it's alive, has a name that it's alive, but is really dead. We know there are churches like that even 1:48 in the first century. We never want to be such a church, Lord. A church that's truly alive. And not one member of this church dead or weak or suffering or or or paralyzed in any way, but every member full of the Holy Spirit. And thank you, Lord, that 2:04 we don't have to be full of the Holy Spirit in the same measure of faith because you've given to us different measures of faith. I pray that every single one of us will come to that belief and confidence in you that you're able to fill us up 2:19 according to the measure of our faith and serve in that way and use the gifts you've given us in that way boldly and confidently because the assurance we have before you as your children. Help us to walk in the light as you are in 2:35 the light. It's the only way we can have fellowship. open your word to us this morning again in Jesus name. Amen. I was thinking I'd like to talk a little bit about shepherds again. I didn't get to even 2:54 start last week so I'll start. But it it really I think the thoughts I had shared last week are a preface to what I feel the Lord wants me to share today. Most of you are probably familiar with what the first promise in the New 3:12 Testament is. Any children want to take a take a shot at it? What's the first promise in the New Testament? If you're a Sunday school child or any adults maybe Matthew 121, I heard somebody say that. 3:33 Yeah. You will be saved. Scott said it too. you will name his you shall call his name Jesus for it is he who will save a little uh secret that I've discovered as I've studied the Bible when you see will God will Jesus will I 3:49 will God quote saying himself that's a promise so you can go to that verse and say Lord you said I will you know I'm a human being but I like to think of myself as one who keeps his word somewhat I certainly take it seriously and if I told you in all 4:04 seriousness I will do that. And I looked you in the eye. I said, "You can write it down. I will do this." I think you would have some level of confidence. He even had me write it down. He's going to do it. And yet, we take God's word so 4:19 carelessly. We doubt whether he's really going to fulfill the things where he himself has said, "I will. I will save you from your sin." He tells you if you trust in the name of Jesus, this what it means to trust in the name 4:34 of Jesus, that you are saved from sin, if you've been calling upon the name of Jesus for a few years and you're not being saved from sin, that means set free from it, not just being forgiven from it, but truly being set free from 4:49 sin. I want to tell you there's a chance that you may be calling on the name of another Jesus. That the Jesus you're invoking is some other G Jesus. It's not the real Jesus. You know there are other Jesuses. Paul talks about it in 2 Corinthians 11. How 5:03 can we be absolutely certain that the Jesus to whom we sing and pray is the true Jesus is this? Because if it is the true Jesus the Bible talks about he will save me from my sin. And that must be a reality that we're in experiencing not 5:19 all at once but from glory to glory to glory. Husbands, if you've been calling the name of Jesus for five years, has he changed the way you speak to your wives? Wives, if you've been calling on the name of Jesus for 5 years, has he 5:36 changed the way you honor and submit to your husbands like the word tells us to, brothers and sisters in the church, if we call the name of Jesus, has it changed the way we look at others, the way we judge others or shouldn't judge 5:51 others, think about others who may be not as serious about their Christian life as we think we are. If it's not changing our attitudes towards others, perhaps we're calling on the name of another Jesus. Now, I didn't want to 6:04 talk about that. I wanted to talk about the second promise in the New Testament. It's this. It's further down in the book of Matthew. It's in chapter 2. Matthew chapter 2. And here it talks about Jesus and a quotation from the Old Testament, 6:21 a quotation from Micah 5 where it says in verse 6, Matthew 2:6, "You, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah. For out of you shall come forth a ruler, and he will, there's that word 6:38 will again, he will. Second promise in the New Testament, he will shepherd my people Israel. Now, I I I feel like the Lord brought this arresh to me in a new light just this past week. And perhaps that's why I'm sharing this message now 6:54 that I think that the reason a lot of people are missing out on what God has intended for them in the new in the new covenant is because they've come to that first covenant, that first promise, I mean, in Matthew 1:21 says, "Okay, Lord, you will 7:07 save me from my sin." And then I try to experience that salvation. I try to experience that victory. I try to work harder at overcoming sin and being uh less defeated by lust and less defeated by anger and more thoughtful of others. 7:20 And I try and I try and I try and the Lord says, "No, you missed second grade. Here you are trying to experience 10th grade. You started with first grade, but you skipped second grade. What is second grade? Jesus will shepherd you." This is 7:35 a promise. I want us to look at a few verses in the Old Testament that talk about the shephering aspect of Jesus. If I come to that first promise and I say, "Jesus, in your name, I should have victory over sin. I should be saved from 7:50 my sin." And then I find that the reality is it's not there. I'm not experiencing it. In other words, it's like this. I come to first grade and they say, "By the time you finish, you you make it a few years, you will learn 8:03 algebra." And here I am in first grade still trying to learn my one two threes and my addition and my subtraction and all that. And I I have a promise that I should I should pass high school, get my GED. And here I am after 15 years of 8:18 being a Christian, still not experiencing the reality of that. I'm still struggling with 1 plus 2 equals 3, 18 years old in first grade. We don't have to beat ourselves up, but I can go to God and say, "Lord, somehow I should have gone into second grade and 8:33 started to learn what that what you wanted me to learn in that grade and I missed it." I think second grade is this. First grade is that promise. He will save you from your sin. Second grade, this is this he will shepherd 8:45 you. He will shepherd you so that you come to that life of being saved from your sin. And if you've missed Jesus, your shepherd into that life of victory, into that life of salvation, maybe that's why our lives are so lacking, so 9:01 lacking in that thriving power. Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah 40 is a very important chapter. It's I call it a hinge chapter. You know, it's kind of how your Bible hinges on that little blank page that is about twothirds of the way in your Bible. 9:19 You've got this blank page after the last chapter of Malachi is this blank page that says, "Okay, now the start of the New Testament." You can call it a hinge as it were. The old covenant is uh set aside for the new covenant. Isaiah 9:32 40 is a chapter that's kind of like that. It's a hinge chapter because it it it starts to present to the people of Israel and Judah this new covenant all the way back in the old covenant as a promise. So in Isaiah chapter 40 9:47 you can he starts with this wonderful word comfort. Comfort is a very powerful word. It's a word that's very unique to the new covenant I believe because the Holy Spirit who dwells in us which is something new in the new covenant is 10:00 called a comforter. So the the uniqueness of that is that for the first time I have this spirit of comfort inside of me. Again, going back to Jesus, my shepherd, where I see the the the mountaintop and I see how far I am 10:14 from it. I look at my own wretchedness, my own uncristlikeness, and I see how Jesus says I ought to be. You will be saved from your sin. And then I find the comforter coming in. If I find being beat up over the head and struggling and 10:29 trying to live up to that righteousness, I'm still under the old covenant. But when I come to the new covenant, I see this. The comforter is saying, "I will shepherd you." Are you really serious about it? Are you willing to humble 10:40 yourself and be broken? I will shepherd you. And those words bring comfort. See, under the old covenant, when the standard is pretty high and I can't live up to that standard, I just beat myself up. Then I come to the new covenant and 10:53 I see that the standard is raised even more. Let's say, you know, I I was an athlete, the Olympics were just over and one of the Olympic Olympic events is the hurdles. There's 110 m hurdles and a 400 meter hurdles. Now imagine if you were 11:07 training for the 400 meter hurdles and then you got to the event of the Olympics and realized they raised the the size of the hurdle by a good 2T. I mean here you were you were barely make you knocked over a few of them. Okay, 11:17 finally you think you got it, but then you you got to the event and they raised it another two feet. You're like there's no way I can do that. That's a little bit how it will seem when you come to the new covenant with an old covenant 11:28 mindset. But imagine that you're an eagle facing a hurdle that's about 4 feet high and then you okay no wait a minute actually the hurdle the the hurdle is 6 feet high for the eagle it's no difference whether it's 4 feet or 6 feet or 100 ft this is 11:45 what it means to come into the new covenant where he says later on in chapter 40 you will rise up on wings like eagles you will run and not grow weary the standard of the new covenant being raised will seem light to you 11:58 because something has changed in the inside You've received the comforter who lifts you up. You've re you've learned from the shepherd who lifts you up and shows you the way, the new and living way into the presence of God. And in the 12:09 midst of this chapter in Isaiah 40, he says in verse 10 here, he is presenting the new covenant. He says, "Behold." Another powerful word in the Bible, behold. That means stop whatever you're doing. Better you, you know how they 12:22 say, you better be sitting down before I tell you this. This is important. That's what the word behold speaks to me. Behold. sit down and make sure you really get this, child of God. The Lord God will come with might, with his arm ruling for him. Behold, his 12:38 reward is with him and his recompense before him. When God shows himself mighty in the new covenant, you know what it's like? He goes on to tell us in verse 11, look at the picture. It's like God's rolling up his sleeves that he 12:51 says, "Let me flex my muscles a little bit and show you how powerful I really am." He's telling this to people who saw the power of God on Mount Si and was so afraid of it that they wanted to run and they said like somebody was sharing in 13:03 the Wednesday meeting, God, I don't want you to speak to me anymore. Your voice scares me. Let Moses speak to me. He speaks pretty firmly, but at least I can handle his voice. I'm afraid when you really uh really speak loud, God. And 13:16 God says, you think that was powerful. Let me really show you how powerful I am. And then he says in verse 11, like a shepherd, he will lead his flock. He will tend his flock in his arm, these arms that he showed us, powerful, he 13:32 will gather the lambs and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead the nursing youth. I love this picture of the power of God manifest in the shepherd. Jeremiah chapter 3, let me show you another verse. Jeremiah 3:14. 13:55 This is a be this passage. These verses are a beautiful picture of how God builds the church. How we want God to build this church as well. Under the new covenant, see under the old covenant, it was Israel. And you God didn't God chose 14:07 you because he chose Abraham. If you were a descendant of Abraham, you were automatically chosen. But it's different under the new covenant. Here's how God selects his elect. Verse 14, Jeremiah 3:14. Return, O faithless sons, declares 14:22 the Lord. For I am a master to you, and I will take you one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion, a picture of the church. And in Zion, what will you see? What will you experience? Verse 15. Then I will give 14:37 you shepherds after my own heart. After you've come to know this shepherd who is leading you and bringing you to this life in the new covenant, then in in the church, I will give you shepherds after my own flock, after my own heart, who 14:54 will feed you on knowledge and understanding. This is a promise in the new covenant. What does it mean to be a shepherd? I look at it like this. I've always got this picture as uh as a shepherd in this church, as a shepherd in my home and in 15:09 my marriage and in other areas where God might give me that responsibility. I've looked at it like this. I looked at it like being in a dark room and my holding on to the hand of Jesus firmly because he loved me first. He reached out his 15:22 hand and he nudged me and I and I felt his touch when he saved me and I'm holding on to his hand now. But now I'm still in this room in the midst of others who are feeling for Jesus in a lost world, in a dark world, and they 15:35 don't know how to find him. But I know him and I'm holding on to his hand. And God gives me the responsibility to reach out with my other hand and say, "Are you looking for Jesus? Here, grab a hold of my hand and I will place my hand, your 15:49 hand in his. I will place your hand in his." This is what it means to be a shepherd, an undersheperd as it were. That we lead others to the good shepherd. Dear church, in our interactions with you, Phil and I, as a church, husbands, in your interactions 16:04 with your wives and your children, parents, in your interaction with your children, this is what it must be. This is what it means to bring up our children in the fear and the instruction of the Lord is this child. You're 16:15 growing up in a lost world that will try to tell you that you can be you can live a life that pleases yourself and you can be satisfied and chase after this dream and chase after that pleasure and you will be satisfied. But we're in the 16:26 business of taking them their hands and saying let me put your hand in Jesus's I hope you're doing that parents. I hope you're doing that. Fathers, husbands, we hope to do we we strive to do that here in this church as well. feeling in 16:40 this lost world for any hands that are reaching out unsure of where Jesus is and will place their hands in Jesus's hands. See, that's why we This is something I learned from my father as well. We never bring people to a place 16:54 of dependence on us. This is what a false shepherd is. This is what a hirling is. He's in it for pay. And so, he loves it if you're dependent on him. They don't like it. These false shepherds, they don't like it if you come to a place where you have a 17:09 personal relationship with God and you're hearing from him directly and you're not dependent on the sermon anymore to hear from God. You know, that's our goal that you're not dependent only on the sermon to hear from the Lord. This is what a true 17:23 shepherd is. He's constantly saying, "Hey, you you're still holding on to my hand in some way." The purpose in my grabbing hold of your hand was to put it in the hand of Jesus, the good shepherd. And as long as your relationship with 17:35 the good shepherd is, well, I'm holding on to the elders in my church hand because I know they're holding on to Jesus, you'll never receive the life that God wants to give you. I have no life to give you. The the Bible never 17:47 says that I'm entitled to give you life, but I can do this. I can lead you to the one Jesus who said in John 5, I have the right to give life. Just like the father gave life, now I have the right to give life. And if you're not receiving life, 18:01 perhaps dear member of this church, especially if there's some area in your life that's subdued, that's that's that's still not thriving full of the life of the Holy Spirit and the life of God. Perhaps it's because of this. 18:12 Perhaps you're holding on to things on this earth. Perhaps you're holding on to this church in a physical way. Perhaps you're holding on to river of life and your place here and your membership here in a way that's preventing you from 18:24 coming to the one who will give you life. river of life even though we have that in our name cannot give you life. We can lead you to life. We can lead you to the place where you to the one who can give you life. And that's why it's 18:37 so important that we become rooted and grounded in this reality that it's not my presence here or the kind of sermons I listen to or my membership here or how long I've been here or anything else other than this that I'm receiving life from the one who 18:53 gives life. the ministry of helping others find the hand of Jesus. So, uh, Matthew chapter 9, let's look at this. You've probably heard this verse many times. Matthew 9:37. 19:12 [Music] The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest. I'm sure you've heard this verse many times. Usually in the context of let me tell you about this mission 19:31 program we're about to go on. Or let me tell you about these orphans over there and these people who are without water. And then they quote this verse, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore, beseech the Lord of 19:43 the harvest to send out workers into his harvest." I used to think like that for many years that this was somehow a a a plea from God to say, "Why don't you go over there? Why don't you go over there? Why don't you become a missionary to go 19:55 over to this faroff country?" Perhaps the most important word in those two verses is this. The first word in verse 37 in my Bible, then he said, "When was it that Jesus said these words?" It wasn't Jesus telling the telling the multitude, "Hey, you guys, 20:13 you need to quit your comfortable life and give up your money and become an aesthetic and go over to those far-off people and there's lepers. There's a leper colony over there and those those poor people over there. There's a 20:23 there's a woman with a hemorrhage uh in her body and all these suffering people around you. Go, go, go." Yes, Jesus did command us to go. But there's a specific con context in which he said that in Matthew 28 as well as this. Then he said 20:37 to his disciples, "When was it that Jesus said, "Listen, there's a darth of this. There's a darth. There's a lack of laborers." What kind of laborers? Let's back up. Verse 35. This is what prompted Jesus to say these words. And that's what I'm after. 20:55 Because otherwise, I get this command out of context. I can take that command and assume that it applies to certain things. What was it that Jesus was talking about when he said, "The laborers are few. Therefore, beseech the 21:07 Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest." Because that's a command for you and I. He's telling you and I to go out into that harvest. He says, "There's a harvest out there, and I want you to go, but don't just pick up 21:18 your bags and go right now. First of all, sit down and count the cost." Verse 35, Jesus was going about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. and healing every kind 21:32 of disease and every kind of sickness. And while he was going around doing all these things, he didn't at that point say these words in 37:38, but something else happened as he looked at the multitude. He he he didn't see a bunch 21:47 of sick people, a bunch of poor people, even though that's what he did. See, that's where we get we get led astray. This is where you can easily miss out on God's calling over our lives as individuals and as a church. It wasn't 21:59 that Jesus saw these people full of sickness and and all and every every kind of sickness and every kind of disease that he said, "Oh, pray the Lord to send out more laborers who can heal them of their diseases and heal them of 22:12 their sicknesses." No. Because look at what he says in verse 36. Seeing the multitudes, he felt compassion for them because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd. He doesn't say anywhere that he felt 22:28 compassion for them because they had their hemorrhages and they had their leprosy and they had their demon possession and all this. No, they were distressed and downcast. What is it that you see, dear friend, dear child of God, when you look at the 22:43 world around you and you see poverty and you see sickness and you see murder and you see gangs and you see all this stuff that weighs people down, what is it that you see? Do you see the physical need? Do you see homelessness and you see 22:55 starvation? Is that what you see? Or do you see what Jesus saw that said, "Send laborers into the harvest." My margin says this, "Because they were in verse 36. They were harassed and thrown down. Distressed and downcast literally 23:12 apparently." This is what Jesus was saying. They are harassed and thrown down. Not by their sickness, not by their poverty, not by their homelessness, by this, but the fact that the devil has authority over their lives. 23:26 He saw the needs around them, whether it was people who had money or didn't. And he saw that what was common about all of them was this. Men don't know how to love their wives and be their servants. And so he said, "I'll show you." 23:40 Husbands, love your wives as Christ first loved the church and gave himself up for her. This is what brought Jesus down from heaven. He looked upon a needy earth and didn't just see the sickness and the poverty and all those social 23:53 needs that they had. He saw this. The devil has a foothold in their lives. And this is what it means to become a shepherd like Jesus is where God gives us discernment into the true needs in people's lives. What are the true needs 24:08 in people's lives? Is this is to see that in that marriage for example. Yes, I know they have he needs a job or uh this other situation is there. They're they're not sure how the next bill is going to be paid. Yes, God can take care 24:22 of all of those problems. He can do it just by spoke spoken his word. But here's where he needs your help. If you're in that situation, here's where he needs the help of the human being in that situation. We must allow him to 24:36 change us. And that's why this is the most difficult thing of all. See, I think if God had commanded us to go and feed the homeless and and uh or provide homes for the homeless, feed the starving, and do and heal the sick and 24:49 do all these physical things, that would actually be a lot easier. Our churches would be packed. Don't don't doubt that for a moment. If this is really the church that Jesus was building, everybody would be a Christian, I think. 25:01 But the reason not everybody is. And the reason that's only few that hear the call and answer the call of Jesus is because that's not the church Jesus is building. It may be the churches that people are building in the world today, 25:11 but the church that Jesus is building is in the business of this, of telling husbands and wives, you can get the foothold that the devil has in your home out if you will let me. He's telling parents and children, I can get rid of 25:24 that foothold that the devil has in your life. Do you want to be set free? Are you harassed and thrown down by the devil? He can tell you, young man or older man, if you continue, if you're continuously defeated by lust, you can 25:37 be set free. He can tell you, husband, if you're continually defeated by anger, you can be set free. Are you one of those harassed, throned people? Come to Jesus. He wants you. He looked out at the multitude and felt compassion for them because they were 25:55 harassed and thrown down like sheep without a shepherd. This is what it means to be a shepherd. A shepherd is one who feels compassion over those harassed and thrown down by the devil. I was convicted by this. I want to be 26:11 that kind of a shepherd in my home and in this church. One who sees people bound and even in this community. When I see I I I tell you this more and more. It's becoming a reality. I want to be honest here not to brag, but when I see 26:24 needs around me, I am less moved with compassion by the physical needs of people as much as their spiritual needs. When I see homelessness or if I see pictures of how people in this world and children in this world are suffering, 26:36 like I said last week, I I find out about those things, I want to know the needs of people around me. But in increasingly the Lord is changing my attitude towards that when I find out about some situation or I find out about 26:47 somebody who something secret was discovered like you know uh just the other day there was something in the news about some a sheriff in some some some place here local who was caught doing something illegal and done some 26:59 something really horrible. I'm not as concerned by the reputation that's lost or the physical needs in that situation as this. The devil has a foothold. Do you want to be a true shepherd? I want to say this also before I go on. I know 27:13 we've talked about shepherds and how Phil and I, God has called us to be the shepherds here, but this is the motivation of my message. If the Lord was to look at our church, would he say, "Yeah, there's a hundred or so people in this church, but the 27:24 shepherds are few." Is that what he would say about this church? I don't know what the number of shepherds is. I hope it's not just two. I don't think it is, by the way. But I hope it's that the Lord would say, "You know what? Every 27:36 single single one of you adults, if you've known and you young people, you single brothers, you single sisters, if you've known the Lord and you are growing, you're in first grade now and you're moving on to second grade. Sure, 27:49 you might feel like you have very little to offer, but God wants you to have the heart of a shepherd. Because every single one of these things I'm going to show you today, I believe, is something that no matter what the gift or calling 27:58 that God has for your life is a mentality and it's an attitude we must have towards the work of the kingdom of God. Every single one of us without exception. Dear child of God who's born again, do you long to have a compassion over for 28:15 those who are harassed and thrown down by the devil? If not, ask the Lord to make you a shepherd. Ask him to show you how he is the good shepherd. And as you follow him, he will make you a shepherd like him. Let's back up to chapter to to verse 18 28:32 in the same chapter in Matthew chapter 9. I'd like to pick out a few examples in what we see Jesus did here in this chapter that show us what how he was a shepherd in the physical things that he did. See, there are physical things we 28:45 do. There are practical needs we will meet in people's lives. But through it all, it's important that we see the motivation behind why Jesus did it. Jesus didn't just raise people from the dead because it was a nice thing to do. 28:56 No, Jesus didn't just open the eyes of the blind because it was a nice thing to do. Jesus didn't just heal the lepers because it was a nice thing to do. You know why Jesus did all of those physical miracles is because he saw people who 29:07 were harassed and thrown by the devil. And he saw that that physical limitation whether it was the death of somebody or the leprosy or the blindness or the unable to speak or the demon possession was indicative of the devil having a 29:22 foothold in their life. And it was that foothold that he was after. The tragedy is this is that after Jesus set many of these people free from their physical uh uh disabilities or their physical needs, very few of them actually come came to 29:38 experience that inner secret spiritual victory. I think I know the Bible doesn't state this explicitly, but I think this is true that among the crowds that jered and mocked Jesus were some who had been healed by him. In the crowds that mocked 29:57 Jesus and jered him as he went to the cross was perhaps somebody who had been healed of leprosy and had been stirred into a frenzy by the Jewish uh uh Pharisees who who sent Jesus to the cross. And the message for that in us is this that God 30:13 can take care of. Perhaps you were at a place where you cried out to God, God, I I don't know any how how you're going to answer this problem. And God answered it. I don't know how you're going to give me money to pay that bill or I 30:23 don't know how you're going to heal this child of mine that's sick. And sure enough, he did. The great tragedy would be that after all of that, if God wasn't able to remove the foothold of the devil in my life, that Jesus healed me of that 30:40 situation and answered that prayer that I prayed so desperately. But his goal in answering that prayer was so that he could set me free from being harassed and thrown around by the devil. But that didn't happen. Wouldn't that be the 30:53 greatest tragedy of all? that he healed my physical problems, but I didn't have faith for him to address the spiritual problem in my life. He healed me of that cancer, but he couldn't couldn't heal me of that divorce attitude I had towards 31:07 my wife. I think many of you, most of you here will probably not actually divorce your husbands or wives, but you know, it's possible to be in a marriage and have a divorced attitude towards your spouse. And God wants to change 31:19 you. Jesus wants to change you from being harassed and thrown bound down by the devil where your marriage and what God wants it to be fruitful for his kingdom is limited and your ability to be used by him is limited because of that 31:34 attitude because you're still harassed and thrown down by the devil or in your relationship in the church with others where you have that divorced attitude where you're there yes you're there every Sunday I know but really you're on 31:45 the outskirts and your heart is really somewhere else God wants to change that. In verse 18, we see this that he says, Matthew 9:18, while he was saying these things, which those things were what we talked about a few weeks ago, the new wine and 32:00 the new wine skins. While he was saying these things to them, behold, there came to a synagogue official and bowed down before him, saying, "My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live." And Jesus rose 32:14 and began to follow him, and so did his disciples. Notice this about Jesus. This is what it means to be a shepherd. One who is willing to be inconvenienced by people without distinction for the sake of the kingdom of God. Now, this was a 32:27 pretty important person. Sometimes it's possible for us to think so much of Jesus that we forget about the important people. We think so much of the poor that we forget about the hurting rich. See, that's what I see in Jesus. For 32:38 him, he didn't see rich and poor necessarily. He saw them all as harassed and thrown on by the devil, whether they're their synagogue officials or like we'll see a few verses later, a bent over, hemorrhaged woman. For him, 32:50 the way he treated both of them was the same as the lost. Yes, it's true that many people will treat the rich preferentially. And James warns us about that. But let's not be so so um so human in our compassion that we forget about 33:05 how God cares about everybody the same. What does that mean for us? You know how I've applied it to my life? I've met a lot of people that have come out of legalistic situations. I have a lot of compassion for them. You know who 33:17 the ones I struggle with having compassion for are the ones still in legalistic situations. You know that Jesus loved the Pharisees just as much as he loved the poor people around him. It's easy for us to think that because 33:28 the Pharisees were so legalistic and because he spoke so harshly to them that somehow he didn't love them as much. Do you know legalistic people in your lives who are hard on others? Has the Lord been able to bring a compassion in your 33:40 life for them? Then you've become like the shepherd who makes no distinction. Yes, he speaks harshly to them because that's what it took. But he had a heart of compassion towards those. When you hear somebody who does something evil 33:52 and hurtful to others, what is your response to it? It's like, well, he better get what he deserves. Yes, the law will take care of that. But if we're becoming like Christ, we look out at the world around us, the hurting and the 34:05 hurts, and say, "Lord, give me a heart of compassion." Because the hurts are hurting inside as well. I believe that's what causes them to hurt others is a deepseated need of Jesus that they have of the good shepherd of their soul. 34:21 He's willing to be inconvenience. Notice that Jesus didn't ask him, "Hey, okay, so how did she die, Jerus? Or does is she actually dead?" It says that she was close to death. I think has just died. No, she had died. I guess he in this uh 34:35 in this uh gospel it describes it as Jarus saying she had already died. So notice that Jesus doesn't sit down and say, "Okay, let's analyze this. Why did you allow her to get so sick? And why didn't you take her to the doctors?" And 34:46 there was no question. You need help here. I am willing to be inconvenienced by people without distinction for the sake of the kingdom of God. Continue reading verse 20. And behold, a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage 35:03 for 12 years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak. For she was saying to herself, "If I only touch his garment, I shall get well." But Jesus turning and seeing her said, "How dare you step on my toes? How 35:19 dare you grab my cloak?" Is that what he said? Daughter, take courage. Your faith has made you well. And at once the woman was made well. This is the kind of shepherd God is looking for. He wants us to be. One who pays attention to the 35:34 needs of especially the lowliest. Those who are stooped down so low that they don't even have the courage to ask. You know you and I face people like that in our lives who don't have the courage to do what others seem to be able to do. 35:47 What is your attitude towards that? Let's say you have, you know, of a brother or a sister or a child that struggles to do something that seems to come naturally to others. What will your attitude to be towards them? It's like, 35:57 why can't you be more like so and so? That's not the spirit of Jesus. That's not the spirit of a true shepherd. The true shepherd says, "Are you too afraid to even ask?" See, all the other people who came to Jesus, they seem to have the 36:10 courage to ask. I mean, there's blind Bartmus who was yelling, "Son of David, have mercy on me." And others like this synagogue official at least came to Jesus and asked him. And here was one who didn't even have the courage to ask. 36:22 She was so afraid. And Jesus had compassion for her. He didn't say, "Okay, let me wait till you ask." She didn't say a word. Notice that she was too afraid to say a word. And she she said it to herself. If I only touch his garment, I shall get 36:41 well. And Jesus, because he had the heart of a shepherd, because he was in tune with his father, because he was full of the Holy Spirit, calls us to live the same way where we're in tune with the needs of others, even the 36:51 unspoken needs. Church, let's let's let me ask you this question. Has somebody touched the hem of your garment in some way? You get the spiritual analogy, right? Maybe they haven't expressed that need to you, but they've they've touched the hem of your 37:06 garment. They've come close to you. They've tried to build a relationship with you as if to say, "I'm afraid to even share my need, but maybe I'll I'll hang out with you enough that I'll get an answer to my need." Are there people 37:19 that are coming close to you and reaching out for help without saying a word? And yet, you and I, like Nick was saying, are so busy with our to-do lists, so busy with what that dead that dead person that I need to be raised 37:31 that I forget about the little tug on my on the hem of my garment. Jesus wasn't so focused on the need in front of him which he was going to take care of that he neglected the needs of others around him. As you are setting yourself setting 37:45 goals for yourself to obey God in a particular area, God will allow somebody to brush up against you to see if you're more taken up with the need that he's shown you or are you still in tune with the Holy Spirit where you feel that 37:57 little nudge as it were. And recently, more often, the Holy Spirit's been nudging me to see how sensitive my conscience and my ear is to hear his voice, nudging me very lightly. And all of a sudden, I say, "Wait a minute. I 38:09 know, Lord, you've called me to take care of that problem. I'm going to do this and I'm going to do it well, but I got a little nudge. Let me stop for a moment." I got a little nudge perhaps from my wife in the midst of preparing a 38:21 message, what I'm going to share on Sunday. They asked me to speak and then my child or my wife just nudged me. didn't say a word, but nudged me in some way. And I I stop and say, "Lord, I'm missing it." What would have happened if 38:34 Jesus just went on ahead to Jerus's house and forgot about this woman? I wonder I wonder if we will look back on eternity and God will show us people around us whose elbows brushed us on our way to do that which God wanted us to do 38:51 and we missed it because I was so taken up with the need that yes, it was a need that God wanted me to do. But more important than that, dear friend, dear church, dear child of God, is this. Are you listening to the voice of the Holy 39:02 Spirit? where as you go through your life and those things that God has placed you in your life to do. Yes, I know you need to make it at work to work by a certain time because you need to provide for your family. But as you do 39:13 that, as you do that service for his kingdom, even don't forget about the little brushings that God allows in your life. It's him paying attention to the needs of especially the lowliest. verse 23 when 39:31 Jesus came into the officials house and saw the flute players and the crowd in noisy disorder and look by the way how just the story just goes on I mean Jesus doesn't sit there and pat himself on the back and you know think oh wow I'm glad 39:44 I got that little tug and all this stuff it's not a big deal for Jesus because what's he doing he's just doing whatever the father told him to do the father told him okay go to Jerus's house while he was going there the father told him 39:55 hold on you just got to tug on your garment okay you do that and then the Paul tells him now go to Jerus's house. This is everyday life in Jesus in the life of a of a shepherd once somebody in the new covenant. Right after it says at once the woman 40:10 was made well. Next sentence Jesus came into the officials house and saw the flute players in the crowd in noisy disorder and he began to say depart for the girl has not died but is asleep and they began to laugh at him. A shepherd 40:23 is one who is willing to stand uncompromisingly in faith even alone and in the face of ridicule. Jesus often faced this. In fact, at the end of Jesus life where he gave and gave and gave and gave and 40:39 gave, he was alone. I don't believe anybody else in the history of mankind has or will ever experience the same fate. There's nobody that has been completely completely deserted. Not just by the people around him. Eventually his father himself and 40:57 this was the greatest pain of all that Jesus had to suffer. When the father turned his face away and cried out, God Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have you also forsaken me?" If God hadn't forsaken him, he couldn't have 41:10 put our sins on Jesus. But this was the attitude that Jesus had. He says, "Father, I'm just here into your hands. I commend my spirit. If you allow it so that every single person around me leaves me, that's okay. I'm willing to 41:24 stand uncompromisingly in faith even alone and in the face of ridicule. I believe the Lord is looking for such. You can't be a shepherd. You can't be a shepherd to your wife, dear husband. You can't be a shepherd to your children, 41:38 dear parents, unless you're willing to stand for faith. Sometimes husbands, it means standing for faith in the face of opposition from your wife. Sometimes wives, it means standing for faith in the face of opposition from your 41:51 husbands, in the face of opposition from your grown children who will say, "But why not, dad? Why can't we do this?" And if you're a weak father or a weak mother and you cater to the to the to the cries of people around you and what they try 42:05 to alter the course of your life or the decisions you make, you can't be a faithful shepherd. Jesus heard the voice of his father and stood for that faith uncompromisingly even if it meant that he had to be alone. God needs such men and women in 42:22 these last days who will stand uncompromisingly for him. Verse 25. When the crowd had been put out, he entered and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. And this news went out into all that land. This is the kind of shepherd that God is 42:43 looking for. One who does not seek the approval or honor of people nor brings nor brags about how God uses them. In another passage, Jesus told Jerus and his wife, "Don't tell anybody about it." He went into a private room, 42:57 took Peter and James and John with him and the girl's parents. And it was just them, the six of them plus the girl. And Jesus did the little miracle and says, "Don't tell anybody about it." And went away as quietly. Why? because he he 43:09 wasn't like you'll see in today's christryendom saying, "Hold on. Yeah, I'm about to do this miracle. Bring the video camera and focus in and make this big charade and parade of what it means to do the work of God." The true 43:23 shepherds don't seek honor and reputation or even the approval of others. They're not bothered by whether the the popular the the populace whether they're popular in the crowd, whether the crowd is along with them. They're 43:36 willing to go alone because they don't seek the approval and honor of people around them. Such are the shepherd that God wants us to be. Not just the leaders in the church, not even just parents, but in every aspect of your relationship 43:49 with others. Is God able to make you a shepherd? Jesus looked out at the fields and saw that the fields were ripe for harvest. But there were very few who had this attitude towards him. Shepherds are ones who do not seek the 44:04 approval and honor of people nor brag about how God uses them. Verse 27. As Jesus passed on from there, look at that. He's just moving on. There's no sitting here and dwelling on what God did and let's let's throw a party here. 44:17 Don't tell anybody about it. I got to go. And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying out and saying, "Have mercy on us, son of David." And after he had come into uh after sorry after he had come into the 44:32 house the blind men came up to him and Jesus said to them do you believe that I am able to do this? And they said to him yes Lord. Then he touched their eyes saying be it done to you according to your faith. And their eyes were open. 44:42 And Jesus sternly warned them saying see here let no one know about this. But they went out and spread the news about him in all that land. I I see something very powerful here in verse 28 when Jesus said asked this 45:00 question of them. Do you believe? There's a phrase I want you to turn to in 2 Corinthians chapter 1. This is a good challenge for every single one of us to take to heart. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 24. 45:20 Paul is talking to the church in Corinth. the Corinth that a church that he was a shepherd for. And he says this, "Not that we shepherds lord it over your faith, but are workers for you for your joy." And I like I think it's the King 45:38 James that says says it this way. We are helpers of your joy. I'm not going to lord it over your faith. Look at how Jesus interacted with these blind men. He didn't sit there and analyze and says, "Okay, do you really have faith? Prove to me that you have 45:53 faith." He's not a teaser. And when we interact with people who whose faith is weak perhaps at times, we don't lord it over their faith. Says, "Why don't you have more faith?" Husbands, in your interactions with your wives, wives, in 46:06 your interactions with your husbands, let's say one or the other of your spouses, your spouse is is not able to come up to that level of faith that you seem to have. How will you deal with them? Will it be? Come on wife, why 46:18 can't you be more like this? Why can't you have more faith? Or come on husband, why can't you be more serious? This is lording it over the faith of others. Look at the heart of a shepherd that Jesus had as he dealt with these two blind men. 46:33 I'm going to read this in the in the message paraphrase which I think comes out very beautifully. 2 Corinthians 1:24. We're not in charge of how you live out faith. See, a shepherd is not one who takes charge of how others live 46:46 out their faith. This is how many legalistic churches are. The leader of the church or the elder or the bishop or the minister or the pastor or whoever it is, he's in charge of how you live out your faith. You can't do this in your 46:57 house and you can't do that and you can't do that other thing. This is lording it over. We're not in charge of how you live out the faith. Looking over your shoulders, suspiciously critical. We're partners working alongside you, 47:12 joyfully expectant. I know that you stand by your own faith, not by ours. This is what it means to be a shepherd. Are you one that wants to help others in their faith? Be a helper of their joy, workers together with them. If they're 47:26 struggling in faith, you come alongside to lift them up, not to lord it over. This is what it means to be a shepherd. back in Matthew chapter 9:32. And as they were going out, behold, a dumb man, demonpossessed, was brought to 47:43 him. And after the demon was cast out, look at that. No fanfare, no this and that, no gimmick, no exorcism, no praying overnight, all night for this demon to be cast out. As they were going out, behold, a dumb man, demonpossessed, 47:57 was brought to him. And after the demon was cast out, he doesn't even talk about how Jesus did it. In another place he says about how he cast them out with a word. There's a very important principle here we should look at. After the demon was 48:10 cast out, the dumb man spoke and the multitudes marveled saying nothing like this was ever seen in Israel. But the Pharisees were saying he casts out demons by the ruler of demons. This is what it means to be a shepherd. A 48:23 shepherd is one who has spiritual authority because of this. Why was it that Jesus was able to say one word and the demon was cast out? where today what you'll see in a lot of Christian is this this constant battle back and forth. The 48:35 devil does something to me and I it's like a boxing match 12 rounds. If you see somebody casting out a demon in a boxing match type of environment, you can be sure that's not of the Holy Spirit. Why? Because that's not how 48:47 Jesus did it. Jesus didn't go into the ring with the devil and punch him and get a few blows and a black eye and then finally come out of it. Okay. Uh unanimous decision, you won that. No, this was knockout in one second. Why? 49:01 Because Jesus said in John 14, this is so important for us to understand. Now, in many of our cases, in most of our cases, the God may not call us to actually cast out demons. But the principle of spiritual authority still 49:12 applies because we must be living with spiritual authority in our lives. Which means what? When the devil tries to get a foothold in your marriage, when the devil tries to get a foothold in your home, in one of your children, you must 49:23 have that same oneword authority over the devil and have that confidence that with one word you can rebuke the devil in that situation and he has to flee. Now, you can't fool the devil. He knows whether you have spiritual authority or 49:35 not. Look at what Jesus said in John 14 verse 30. In the middle of verse 30, he says this, "The ruler of the world," which is what? The ruler of are all these demons. If you come across a demon-possessed person, he that demon 49:50 inside of that person is subject to this ruler of all demons, which is the devil. If you come across a situation where the devil's trying to get a foothold in your home or in your marriage, you know what? He is the ruler of this world. Yes, it 50:02 is. But look at what Jesus said. The ruler of the world is coming and he has nothing in me. Can you say that? There is no secret sin. There is no this secret area in my life that I'm defeated by or the devil has a foothold. I know 50:16 it. Nobody else in the church knows it. Thank God. I have a good reputation. But the devil knows whether he has a foothold in your life, especially in your thought life. He knows that whether he whether he can present tempting 50:28 thoughts and you entertain them by your behavior, by your conduct. He knows whether you have entertained those thoughts and he knows whether he has a foothold in your life. And then if he has a foothold in your life and you try 50:39 to say in the name of Jesus, you know what he'll do? He'll just laugh at you like those seven demons did to the sons ofKeva. I guess it was one demon did to the seven sons ofKeva. And one demon overpowered seven men. Why? Because the 50:53 prince of this world had something in them. Where the demon said to them, I know Jesus whom you're whose name you're calling and I know Paul whom you're trying to imitate with this false authority, but you don't have authority. 51:05 I know Paul has authority. I know Jesus has authority, but you don't. And dear friends, dear brothers and sisters, in the last days, it is increasingly important that we, every single one of us, be ones who have spiritual 51:17 authority. Because the devil's not just going to attack you on Sunday morning, what's going to happen when he attacks you and there's nobody around to come pray over you and lay hands over you. What are you going to do? What are we 51:28 going to do when we're all by ourselves and the devil's harassing us and trying to bring us down? I'm going to say, "The prince of this world is coming and he has nothing in me." And by that authority, the authority of the name of 51:39 Jesus, who is the Lord of my life, whom I love with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, I rebuke you, Satan, in the name of Jesus. This is the the word, the claim of the name Jesus, that the devil's afraid of. Ones who have spiritual authority 51:53 because of this prince of this world has nothing in him. I cannot stress enough, dear child of God, dear brothers, dear sisters, how important this is. Wives, this is for you. Mothers, this is for you. When you're at home by yourself or 52:05 you're in a car perhaps and there's you you can't pick up the phone and call your husband or call Phil or I or call somebody else whom you trust and you're by yourself. You know this that God wants you to be one who has spiritual 52:16 authority. It doesn't matter what your calling is. It doesn't matter what God has given you as gifts in the church. None of that means anything when it comes to whether you should have spiritual authority over the devil. Spiritual authority over the 52:30 devil is the right of every single child of God. I know this. I want and I want to share this with you young children, young people who are growing up. From a young age, I had this confidence that if I was in a situation where the devil was 52:45 harassing me, I could take the name of Jesus and believe with all of my heart that the devil would have to flee, resist him firm in the faith. I had that confidence as a young boy. I've never, you know, never cast out a demon or 52:58 anything like that. And that's not what I'm looking for. But more important than casting the demons out of others, which is what a lot of people in this world are looking for, I want to ensure that the devil has no place in my life. 53:09 There's not even one area in my life where the devil has a foothold. For that, I need spiritual authority in your with in your relationships with your wives and husbands, in your relationships with your children. Do you 53:20 believe? Do you know this that the devil is exerting his spiritual authority over your children? Even if you homeschool them, don't think that homeschooling will prevent him from trying to exert authority over them. Oh, he's going to 53:31 try because he's not limited by the public schools and all this. Yes, you might do that if that's the choice you make. But know this that if you lack spiritual authority, homeschooling your children is not going to be enough to 53:42 protect them from the world, from the days that are coming. We must have this confidence. Verse 35, Matthew 9. And Jesus was going about all the cities and the villages teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom 53:59 and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. These are shepherds. Shepherds whose passion is to proclaim the full gospel of the kingdom of God. Whose passion is to proclaim the full gospel of the kingdom 54:15 of God. Make this your passion, dear friend. Whether God calls you to be a preacher or a teacher in your encouragement here when you share with others in your workplaces, this is your calling as members of the kingdom of 54:27 God. The kingdom of heaven suffers violence like we saw last week and the violent take it by force. Have this forceful attitude towards the kingdom of God. God, this is my one passion. Heavenly Father, this is my one passion 54:38 through the power of your Holy Spirit to proclaim the full gospel of the kingdom of God. I want to close with this in Isaiah chapter 6. There was a similar situation in Israel 54:57 where there was a lack of shepherds. There was a lack. And God found one man, Isaiah. This was a difficult time in Israel. The king had just died. It's a time of transition, uncertainty 55:17 in the year of King Uzziah's death. Now, perhaps that's year this it's this year for us. It's an important year for our country in terms of the political scene, the political environment, what's going to happen. I believe every single year 55:29 that's left on this earth is critical because the devil knows his time is short and he's ramped up his activity. And I find on by contrast the church has ramped down its spiritual authority. It's taken up with all kinds of activity 55:44 and miscellaneous things and and evangelism and all these other things, but it's ramped down its spiritual authority while the devil has ramped up. And in the midst of this context, here comes this story in Isaiah 6. In the 56:00 year of King Uzziah's death, Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted. And this what it begins with a revelation of God's power and who he is. And the train of his robe filling the temple. Saraphim stood above him each 56:16 having six wings. With two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet and with two he flew. And one seraraphim called out to another and said, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his 56:28 glory." And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out while the tempest was was filling with smoke. Then I said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips. Because I am one in 56:42 whom the devil has a foothold." It's what Isaiah was saying. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts, and I I've seen God and his greatness and what he really placed me on this earth for. Isaiah saw two things. He saw the King, 56:58 the Lord of Hosts, and he saw his own uncleanness. This is where being a shepherd begins. We see the greatness of God and his holiness and the high and mighty calling he's given every single one of us. And together with that, we see our own 57:11 uncleanness. Sin becomes exceedingly sinful in our eyes. Those little things that we tend to just brush under the carpet, that way of speaking to somebody or the way the attitude I have towards somebody or the way I judge that person, I just sweep it 57:25 under the carpet and all of a sudden I see God in his holiness. The judge is coming. He's at the door. James says, "And because I see that, all of a sudden, it changes the way I treat others here on this earth. It changes 57:36 the way I see sin. I start to call things sin that I wouldn't have called sin earlier." Then one of the seraraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongues. This is verse 6. In verse 7, he 57:50 touched my mouth with it and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven instantaneous." If you come to God in faith and repentance, then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send and 58:05 who will go for us? The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few." And this was the response of every cleansed child of God. I said, "Here am I. Send me." I hope this is the cry of your heart. Here am 58:23 I. Send me, Lord. You may not call me to be a teacher. You may not call me to be evangelist. You may not call me to be a preacher or do any of these things, but here am I to be a shepherd to the people around me. To the sheep who are harassed 58:36 and brought down by the devil. Every single one of us from the youngest to the oldest meets such. May we be true shepherds. Amen.
