The Shepherd & The Sheep
The Promise For His Sheep
John 10:1-11
Recognizing Yvonne’s voice… I can hear her call me “Charless” and I don’t need to see her, I don’t need to be looking at her to know without any doubt that its Yvonne…
Jesus calls us to a similarly close relationship with Him where we instantly recognize His voice (and it doesn’t take 25 years either)
Can you imagine how great that is? The God of the universe invites us to enjoy a FAMILIAR relationship where we pray to Him…
And He listens to us; and where He speaks and we listen to Him… it’s a true dialogue…
Dialogue = a conversation between two or more people, that consists of listening and speaking by all parties involved.
We need to grab hold of this foundational truth – God wants to talk to you and to me…
John 10:1-11 – Stand and Read
I. God wants us to live by HIS VOICE
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4
HE humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Dueteronomy 8:3
Did you catch that? We are to live on the words that come out of Gods mouth…
God wants us to live – not by our conscience, not by our pastors teachings…
But He wants us to live by the words that come out of God’s mouth.
A personal relationship must involve communication – it must. If true dialogue doesn’t take place,
…then its a one sided attempt at conversation, with us looking up into the sky, talking to God but hearing nothing in return.
God speaks, that’s a biblical fact. Its been established all throughout scripture… God spoke to Adam and Eve in the garden.
He spoke to Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel and to all the Prophets.
He spoke to men and women, to Deborah and to Ruth.
In the New Testament He spoke to Mary, Peter, Paul, Jude, James and John on the Island of Patmos.
In the time since God has not gotten laryngitis. He has not decided to change his nature and become mute.
GOD STILL SPEAKS and this can give us great confidence in life.
When someone comes to me now with advice on a major decision that they are making, my response is Get all the info you need in this…
…you can weigh the pros and the cons, talk to your most trusted advisors but in the end, YOU JUST NEED TO HEAR FROM GOD.
I absolutely need to hear from God. There is no way I can fulfill the responsibility of leading this church unless God is leading me.
The only way I can lead is by having a daily, personal, intimate walk with God. I need to listen to hear God. He leads, I follow. I’m a Sheep
a) Who are you at your core? I am a SHEEP
7 Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10:7-11 (NIV)
Hearing from God is about someone we are. Hearing from God is not a Primary behavior in other words, not because we are human...
We hear His Voice because it’s a reflection of our identity.
We hear God because of who we are and because of whose we are. We are the sheep in the John 10 passage.
b) We were designed to hear from God.
10 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” John 10:2-4 (NKJV)
Sheep by their very nature, need a guide. Its not that we hear from God because of some action we take. We hear because we are designed to hear from God.
Where does Jesus lead us? A psalm of David.
The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,3 he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD FOREVER (NIV)
Jesus leads us to green pastures, to areas of rest and provision. He leads us safely through dark valleys filled with troubles and uncertainties.
He is always before us with His rod and staff of comfort and guidance. He prepare a feast for us right in the face of opposition.
And ultimately He leads us to Heaven, where we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
But lets face it, sometimes sheep don’t listen to the Good Shepherd. The bible shows example after example of people doing their own thing.
Sometimes people don’t listen because of willful disobedience. At other times people don’t listen because they haven’t hear Gods voice.
The good news is that we can learn to walk in this part of our identity. We can learn to hear Gods voice. So lets take a closer look at this part of our identity as sheep.
My goal is to make sure you know that hearing Gods voice is something you were designed to do…
The Foundational Truths about Hearing God’s Voice:
1. Our Ability To Hear God is INNATE
Sheep are born as sheep, they are born with the innate ability to hear a shepherd. Its woven into the very sequence of their DNA.
Lions don’t have this ability, rhinoceroses don’t have this ability, Bumblebees don’t have this ability. But Sheep Do.
And the sheep instinct is true of us: when we become Christians, we are Born (again) with the ability to hear Gods voice.
In John 10 He declare that He Himself is the GOOD SHEPHERD. And He promises that His Sheep hear His voice.
14 “…His sheep follow Him because they know His voice— John 10:4 NIV
We were born to talk with God. To hear His voice. To follow His leading. Its woven into our DNA as spiritual Sheep.
2. Our Ability To Hear God is LEARNED
If we are born with the innate ability to hear Gods voice, then why do we need to learn this ability too? Why is it necessary to be taught it?
We were born with the innate ability to pray, to talk with God, yet in Matthew 11 the Disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray…
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1
We learn to pray by studying the prayers in the Bible, by being taught how to pray by godly and more mature Christians
…and by sheer practice in communication and development in our relationship with God. And over time we learn the ebbs and flow of prayer.
Its like we were born with the ability to communicate as babies but as we learned by others and by reading we began to communicate more accurately.
Don’t get stressed over not “being there” right now. God calls you to start right where you are. Don’t compare yourself to other Christians.
3. Our Ability to Hear God can MATURE.
For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Hebrews 5:13-14 (NKJV)
Hearing God is all about having a real relationship with Him. As we maturate in our relationship with God our hearing matures as well.
those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil… Heb. 5:14
The bible makes it clear that there is a non-specific will of God (a general will) the general will of God is found in…
21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” John 14:21
It’s a general command, to love God its not a detailed plan… and there is much room within the plan to act according to our own discernment.
The bible also has many specific calls upon peoples lives… the specific will of God…
Genesis 12 – God specifically tells Abraham to leave his family and go where God will show him
In Acts He has a specific plan for Saul on the road to Damascus… etc. God has guided His servants in specific manners in times past…
Then why would He not guide His servants specifically in the present? Particularly in light of John 10… ive seen this as a reality in my own life
The general call of Foursquare to go East.. then the specific call for my family to go to PA… the specific call to come back.
Every one of us has a major decisions to make in our lives, when we need to hear God. God gives us his general council and He so graciously gives us specific council…
It comes back to the foundational truth found in John 10… we are sheep / Jesus is the Good Shepherd. We were designed to hear from God…
