Common Ways To Lead An Uncommon Life Series

When God became man in the person of Jesus He came to earth as regular people. He wasn’t surrounded in thunderbolts, He wasn’t wearing a halo around His head. He came into this world as the helpless child of an everyday couple. He skinned his knuckles in the carpenter’s shop of his stepfather Joseph. Even when He began His public ministry He decided to hang out with the blue-jean type crowd. We know that at least half of the twelve apostles were fishermen - every day, ordinary guys.

For the next few studies, I chose the theme "Jesus in Blue Jeans" because we’re going to cover every-day spirituality - Jesus at my dining room table - Jesus on my job or at school - Jesus in my friendships.

Sometimes we see the big picture of how having faith in Christ leads to heaven but we miss the fact that He has so much to say about our every-day life—About buying groceries and driving down the highway—About talking to our neighbors and getting along with our co-workers—About planning our future and balancing our checkbook—About leading a rich and satisfying life.

We’re beginning this series within our study with what I think is one of the best blue jean pictures that Jesus painted of Himself. We’re starting with the word picture Jesus painted of Himself as the Good Shepherd. If shepherds could have, I think they would have worn blue jeans. Blue jeans are the clothing of every-day life.

By using word pictures like calling Himself a shepherd, Jesus taught us "Common Ways to Live an Uncommon Life." He’s letting us know that you don’t have to have your picture on the front page of the tabloids to be important. You don’t have to be abnormal. You can be average. But at the same time your enjoyment of life can be ABOVE average. You can be normal and yet lead a rich and satisfying life!

I don’t think we are really interested in living dull and boring lives. That happens to a lot of people but I don’t think it always happens because they want it to happen. I think it happens by default. It happens because sometimes we don’t make conscious choices about what we’re doing.

A lot of times we end up going with the flow and the flow is going away from the great things God has for our lives. Let’s look at the commonness of Jesus in the Gospel of John 10:1-16. He depicts Himself as a shepherd. He paints Himself as a man who takes on the often dirty, dangerous and uncomfortable job of tending sheep. A shepherd gets out in the hot and the cold with his sheep, he has to protect them from predators and thieves, and he has to exert himself to travel up and down valleys and mountainsides to lead them to green pastures.

Jesus portrayed Himself as a shepherd because He not only taught us how to live – He SHOWED us how to live. He modeled what the uncommon life is all about. And He modeled it in a way that is attainable for all of us common, ordinary, every-day people! Here is what Jesus said in chapter ten of John’s book that clues us in on common ways to live an uncommon life. READ John 10:1-16.

What does Jesus say here that has to do with my every-day spiritual life? What’s the “Jesus in Blue Jeans” connection? What’s the connection between the common life I live, and the uncommon way Jesus invites me to live? What steps can I take to get to the rich and satisfying life that Jesus is talking about in verse 10?

We’re going to look at two COMMON WAYS TO LIVE AN UNCOMMON LIFE. We’re going to consider a couple of practical steps we can take to live a rich and satisfying life. The first thing we can do is…

1. WE CAN FOLLOW CHRIST’S VOICE. If we want to lead the rich and satisfying life that Jesus came to give us we need to follow His voice to experience it. Speaking of Himself as the Good Shepherd in verse 3 Jesus says, “…the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. After he has gathered his own flock, He walks ahead of them, and they follow Him because they know His voice.

It was customary for shepherds to combine their flocks together in one sheepfold at night and then in the morning each shepherd would stand at the gate and call his own sheep and they came out because they recognized their shepherd’s voice.

Similarly, Jesus says His sheep “recognize” or “know” His voice. In order to follow the voice of the shepherd you have to know the voice of the shepherd.