Characteristics Of Jesus' Sheep

Characteristics of Sheep

Jesus basically says that there are two prime characteristics that make up His sheep.

1. They hear his voice.

2. They follow Him.

And He says to them….you guys aren’t doing any of this.

You see according to this verse Christianity goes way beyond acknowledging who Jesus is. The scripture tell us that even the demons believe who he is but shudder when they hear his name. Yes this scripture depicts Jesus sheep as people who are listening for Him and following Him.

Trouble in the world: We don’t listen or follow Jesus

My question today is: Are you listening for Jesus? Do you sit and wait to hear from Him? Has Jesus ever spoken to you? Can you possibly say that you can be one of those that say’s God was speaking to me today? It’s sad but I know of many people who can’t honestly say they ever heard Gods voice speaking to them. The main reason for this is because we aren’t listening.

Sadly there are many of us, who call ourselves children of God, who are expecting to enter heaven that never take any time, or even consider listening for God. We just go through life on a whim. We go through life saying Yes I believe in Jesus. I go to church. But we never listen. I wonder if it’s because we aren’t going to live what He is going to say to us. I know the Pharisees and all the religious leaders didn’t like what he said. Jesus would bring forth the sin and corruption of the heart.

How do I hear his voice? (Talking with peter)

I was talking with someone the other day and we were talking about listening to God. He asked me a common question I have been asked many times before. “How do I know when God is talking to me?” This is a good question. Some people say you just know. You can feel it. Well I answered the question a different way. In order to learn God’s voice you need to be obedient to the obvious things He is saying. Like, worship me. Like read my word. It tells you the obvious things. Like work on humility. Love your neighbor. Flee from sinful desires. Oh yeah and tithe. I know many people who ignore all the obvious things and wonder why they never hear God speak to them. I wonder if it’s because they aren’t listening to the obvious things. And if by some reason they do listen, they aren’t will to obey. God has given us His word in the bible. It tells us many things God wants to say.

For example (tithing)

Just a little example. God tell us to bring the entire tithe into the store house. God so desires His kingdom to be expanded. He doesn’t want anyone to perish. He wants all to experience eternal life. But this takes money. It costs money to run a church. There are building expenses, salaries, office supplies, electric, and air conditioning. The money needs to come from somewhere. This money needs to come from the money He gives to His children. That’s 10% of all we get. We get to keep 100% of the 90% left of what he gives us. This money is used to build His kingdom. God even goes on to say “test me in this and see if I will not open up the flood gates of heaven for you. Basically God says I dare you to tithe. In other words He says I triple dog dare you. Yes the dreaded triple dog dare you. But what do we do? We don’t tithe.