Sheep Power

SUNDAY MORNING

8/19/2007

SHEEP POWER!

MATT.10:16

What do you think about this as a job description?

“WANTED: VERY KIND, LOVING, AND FAITHFUL PEOPLE TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THOSE WHO MAY BE MEAN AND AGGRESSIVELY DANGEROUS BECAUSE THEY WON’T WANT TO HEAR THE MESSAGE.” This doesn’t sound like the best working conditions does it?

Jesus was telling us here that we as His disciples are being sent out as He was to preach the gospel to a lost and dying world. We are to be His mouth piece here on the earth. That means He has appointed us to do His work. The world is a mess because of man’s sinful nature and satan’s influence. We are to be as sheep sent out among wolves. Sometimes for us as Christians these conditions make us want to hang back, but our scripture says “I”, Jesus, send you out. He has appointed us as ambassadors to a world that has taken on satan’s characteristics. As we look at this it may seem like it would be impossible, sheep among wolves. Sheep don’t have strong teeth and claws to fight with. So they are not very good fighters. They are not even very fast so they are not able to get away easily. They are usually thought of as kind of dumb. Wolves on the other hand are powerfully built with strong teeth, they are very cunning, and they can run fast. They have been known to kill animals many times bigger than themselves. They have even killed humans. I mean, which would you rather have for a high school team name: The St. Johns mighty wolves or the St. Johns peaceful sheep? The first thing that it makes you think is that Jesus must have made a mistake, sending us out as sheep. But lets look closer at what Jesus was saying.

We are to be far removed from the ways of the world. He didn’t want us acting like the world. If we did we would end up just like the world. Remember when Jesus said if you live by the sword you will die by the sword? If we are like the world we will get caught up in the things of the world and we will end up with the same results as the world. The person who uses manipulation and destroys others to get to the top of the company will some day be manipulated and stepped on as the next one pushes his way to the top. What I’m saying is in reality it doesn’t work for the world, it might have the look of success but it just leaves people hurting even the one who does most of the hurting will end up in a mess. God doesn’t want that for us. We are not to be like the world. A lot of the world really knows that what they are doing isn’t working so if we look and act just like them they won’t be impressed.

Well lets look at some of the advantages the sheep have over the wolves. You might think that they have no advantages over the wolf but recognize this: we have put lots of tax payers dollars into getting wolves back into Az. in the wolf relocation project in the white mountains because they disappeared from our state. We have plenty of sheep in Az.

1. Sheep are special and valuable to the shepherd. LUKE 15:4-7, 1JOHN 3:1, JOHN 10:11, 1JOHN 4:10, JOHN 15:13. Just like in the natural we are so special and valuable to our Shepherd. The apostle John understood this, he kept on calling himself the disciple who Jesus loved. We need to do that too. It would keep us out of a lot of trouble if we really understood how much we are loved by our God. The Bible says that perfect love casts out fear. Much of the time we react like the world instead of running to our God and it causes us to get hurt. In John 10:11 it says that the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. If we realize not only did Jesus lay His life down for us but He is for us now. What He did in laying His life down for us has bought us incredible promises that can help us every day of our lives. ROM.8:31&32. If He is for us who can be against us? We have to realize that same love that God had to send Jesus to die for us didn’t stop then. God’s great love works on our behalf no matter what circumstances we face. The wolf doesn’t have the advantage of the shepherds love. We do!!! Hallelujah!!! We can choose to act like the wolf or we can choose to cuddle up to our shepherd. When we act like the world or the wolf we distance ourselves from the shepherd.