So right now you are being inundated with Election talk. There are a ton of commercials, some heated debates, and everything on Facebook from anyone 40 or over has something to do with the election. Of course everything on Twitter from people 20 and younger is making fun of the 40 and over crowd on Facebook.
So without mentioning either candidates name or endorsing one side or bashing the other, tell me what you have noticed so far about this election?
*Allow some talking time until they get around to the point where they say that the candidates just attack each other and don’t stick to the issues*
Don’t you just wish they would stick to the issues? In my opinion I would rather they spend their time talking about why you should vote for them and not why you shouldn’t vote for the other guy.
The other thing about the election cycle is that candidates can take any point and twist it until it fits what they want it to say. After the debates the news channels always go through Fact Checkers to determine whether something that was said is true or not. That leads me to this little game. I am going to tell you something and you will have to tell me whether or not it is fact or fiction.
*Take 5 or 10 of these facts and change half of them slightly and see if your group can guess fact or fiction*
1.A paper cannot be folded more than 9 times.
2. More calories are wasted by sleeping than sitting and watching tv.
3. The first object with a number scanning label is the chewing gum.
4.The Wright Brothers’ first flying journey is shorter than a Boeing 747 airplane’s wings.
5. In 1987,after an airline company reduced a small piece of olive on every first class passenger’s meals,$350,000 USD was saved annually.
6.Everyone drinks coffee to perk themselves up,but in fact an apple can perk one up more than a cup of coffee can.
7.The majority of dust in your home consists of your own dead skin.
8.The full name of the Barbie Doll is Barabra Millicent Roberts.
9.When Hitler’s mum had Hitler,she once seriously considered abortion but the doctor persuaded her to keep the baby.
10.Marilyn Monroe has 6 toes on her foot.
11.In the movie E.T,the sound of E.T’s footsteps are made by someone squashing oranges rotten.
12.Pearls melt in vinegar.
13.In the number of people posting marriage ads,35% are already married.
14.You can pull a cow upstairs,but the cow will not know how to come down by itself.
15.A pig cannot stare up at the sky.
16.”quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” has the 26 alphabets in it.
17.A duck’s quack will not have echos,the reason til now is unknown.
18.A snail can live for 3 years without food and sleeping.
19.Tommy Lee Jones and America’s vice-president were roommates in Harvard.
20.In a month,if the first day is Sunday then that particular month will have a Black Friday.
21.Heating up a rock in the microwave oven will cause the rock to explode.
22. 1,111,111 x 1,111,111 = 1234567654321
23.The only word that has 15 alphabets not reused in it is “uncopyrightable”.
24.A cat can produce over 100 types of sounds,but a dog can only do 10.
25.The darker the environment,the more frequent a cat’s passing urine times.
26.If you toss a coin upwards 1000 times,the number of times of heads facing upwards is 495.
27.According to the Newton dictionary the longest word in the world is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanocon…
28.A human’s stomach will renew its food contents inside every 2 weeks,or else it will self-digest.
29.Coke was originally green in colour.
30.The Hawaiian language only has 12 alphabets.
31.The country with the highest proportion of people walking to work is Alaska.
32.If Barbie was a human,her measurements would be 39-23-33
33.On average,the number of people in the air every hour in America is 61,000 people.
34.Only honey will not turn bad forever.
35.Near the Carribean sea there’s a species of oysters that knows how to climb trees.
36.The world’s youngest parents appeared in 1910,an 8-year old and a 9 year-old Chinese people.
37.A human’s ears and nose never stop growing bigger and bigger
38.There’s a square-shaped melon in Japan,it was cultivated because of its convenience to place in refrigerators.
39.A starfish has 8 eyes,one on each leg.
40.Some insects’ eyes have hair.
41.A giraffe’s tongue measures 2 feet long in length.
42.An elephant can stand on its head.
43.An ant will scratch itself when it wakes up.
44.Thomas Edison is afraid of the dark.(so that’s why he invented the lightbulb lol)
45.The world’s oldest goldfish is 41 years old,named Fred.
46.Because of Einstein’s inability to speak at the age of 9,his mum once thought he
was retarded.
47.Arab women can initiate a divorce if their husbands don’t pour coffee for them.
48.Only 55% of Americans know that the Sun is a star.
49.Most lipglosses have fish scales content in them.
50.Giraffes cannot cough.
So you can see how easy it is to take facts and slightly skew them into fiction. And unfortunately that is what a lot of candidates do. But this whole thing got me thinking… what if Jesus ran for office? What would He say about Himself, what platform would He run on?
I think that Jesus would use the 7 “I AM” statements that are found in the Bible to build His platform.
They are:
1. Bread
“I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger.” John 6:35
2. Light
“I am the light of the world; he who fallows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have thelight of life.” John 8:12
3. Gate
“I am the gate; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and findpasture.” John 10:9
4. Good Shepherd
“I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for His sheep.” John 10:11
5. Resurrection and Life
“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies.” John 11:25
6. Way, Truth, Life
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.” John 14:6
7. True vine
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” John 15:1
And tonight the platform we are going to look at is when Jesus says that He is the Good Shepherd. This kind of fits together with when He says that He is the gate too, so we are really going to look at two of them tonight.
And since we are talking about shepherds, I thought a good way to keep you paying attention and to help you remember what we are talking about tonight is to play this annoying sheep sound every few minutes or so.
http://www.sheep.com/sheep_sounds.cfm
Read John 10:1-21
So let’s start out by talking about shepherds. What do we know about shepherds?
*Here’s a good article on shepherds if you need some reading up on it:
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Shepherd *
So now we know a good deal about shepherds. And throughout the Bible God refers to Himself as a shepherd and now Jesus refers to Himself as such too. (Which makes sense, because they are one in the same.)
But isn’t it interesting that God and now Jesus refers to themselves as shepherds and not as farm owners? Why do you think that is?
The farm owner has sheep to care for his family and make an honest wage. The shepherd actually cares for his sheep. In the metaphor of the shepherd, we are always the sheep. God didn’t just create us and leave us in a field to roam around on our own. He got down here and showed us how much He actually cares for us.
So the first thing Jesus showed us was that He was the TRUE SHEPHERD. (vs 1-6)
In a debate, He would be advised to say something like this:
“There are many people who claim to be a true shepherd, but only I have the track record to be it. The Bible shows where the shepherd is to be born, the circumstances of the birth, the ministry of the shepherd, the miracles, and the lineage that He is to have. I am the only candidate that fulfills all of these things. I am the true shepherd.”
This is where he references the other I AM statement, which is that He is the gate also. Back then, thieves and robbers would hop the fence that was set up for the sheep and pretend to be their shepherd in an effort to steal them. But it says that only the one who enters through the gate is the actual shepherd and the sheep know the voice of the shepherd and they entered through the same gate.
Jesus is warning people that false prophets will come and try to lead you astray, but you must make sure that you know the shepherd’s voice so that you will not be tricked. The same is absolutely true today, which is why you must make sure that you know the true shepherd.
Jesus then shows us that He is the GOOD SHEPHERD. (7-11)
In a debate He would say something like this:
“Not only am I the true shepherd, I am also the good shepherd. When you enter through the gate, I will care for you, I will love you, I will always be there for you, and I will give you an abundant life. Nobody will or can love the sheep as much as I do.”
One of the roles of the shepherd was to protect the sheep from predators and thieves. The sheep have freedom. This is the freedom of life that can only be found in Christ. That is the beautiful thing about the Christian life. While some have skewed it to be about a bunch of rules and regulations, Jesus says it is about entering through His gate and letting Him take care of us. And Jesus was saying this to the Pharisees who thought life was about a bunch of rules and regulations.
Jesus then shows us that He is the ONLY SHEPHERD. (12-16)
A debate about this topic might go something like this:
“I care deeply for all of my sheep. In fact, my motives in caring for these sheep are purely out of love. Whereas, some of my opponents are only in it for themselves and for the money. I have done everything for these sheep, I have risked my life for them, I have given my life for them, I have sacrificed a lot. This election is not about what I can get out of it for me, it is about what I can give to my sheep, whom I love dearly.”
You see, there were a lot of hired hands who came to help with the sheep. But they were wage earners and when their shift was up they would go home. Shepherds lived with the sheep, slept with the sheep, by all estimations, they basically were sheep.
The point is this: Everyone on this Earth that you put your trust will eventually let you down because we have selfish motives underneath. You see, I love every one of you and I don’t ever want to let you down, but if you put your faith and your trust in me, I will disappoint you. In this metaphor I am the hired hand. But Jesus is the only shepherd who will never disappoint and never let you down. You need to put your faith and your trust in Him and Him alone.
And finally Jesus says that He is the OBEDIENT SHEPHERD. (17-18)
In a debate Jesus might end with this closing statement:
“I do the will of my Father. He told me to watch over these sheep and I have. He told me to care for these sheep and I have. He told me to lay down my life for these sheep… and I have. No one else, ever, can say that they would lay down their life for these sheep. But I can. My Father asked me to do it, and so I willingly and voluntarily sacrificed my life for the life of these sheep. Some think that I was murdered, that couldn’t be any further from the truth. I willingly died to be the obedient shepherd that laid down His life for those who needed it.”
*Close by the Spirit’s leading*
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Speaking engagement requests can made to jamesblewett@hotmail.com or at www.jamesblewett.com
