Choosing Jesus Over Noise: The Good Shepherd's Voice

It's not gonna be in the other influences. Are we going to choose Jesus to be the main influence in our lives? Friends, this week, if you find yourself distressed by all that's going on, you're not alone. But stop. You gotta put some app limits on your phone? You do that. You toss the phone altogether? Yeah. Wouldn't that be great? But stop and listen for the voice of the good shepherd who says, come to me, and I will give you rest. [01:17:07] (52 seconds)  #ChooseJesus

I think about Jesus spending that time alone in the dark. If you've ever felt alone and in the dark, Jesus has felt it too. See, Jesus knows you by name. He calls to us. And where he leads, if we will follow, it may not look popular. It may not look like it makes much fiscal sense or anything else. But if we will follow where he will lead, we will find the peace that we desire there. [01:16:23] (44 seconds)  #JesusKnowsYou

Jesus is the shepherd, our shepherd, and it's he alone that guides us to the still waters. And restores our soul. Are we following where Jesus would have us go? Finally, Jesus calls us each by name. Each and every single one of us. God knows us. Every single one of us. There is both a a global dimension to the work of Christ. Remember, God so loved the world, and yet at the same time, a deeply, deeply personal one. [01:13:55] (70 seconds)  #ShepherdForAll

The other thing that Jesus says is that he is the good shepherd. The good shepherd. The beautiful shepherd. He's not the adequate shepherd, not the satisfactory shepherd, but the good shepherd, the loving shepherd. And his leadership speaks to us with the assurance that can come from nowhere else. One of the other scripture readings for today is Psalm 23. I think it's too bad we only read it when somebody dies because we need to read that now and be aware of that while we're still alive. [01:13:07] (48 seconds)  #Psalm23Today

Jesus is the gate. The example of Jesus Christ seen in the gospels, that's the gate. That's the set of norms. Those are the things that we need to follow. Go back and read the red words if your Bible's got them. Spend some time there. I'll tell you what. I know this thing keeps track of how many times I picked it up. I'm sure glad my bible doesn't have one of those, because it'd be awful low. [01:12:33] (34 seconds)  #JesusIsTheGate

And to go from one to the other, you gotta have somebody that's gonna open it, but you got that gate. It defines what is in and what is out. Jesus is saying, I am the gate. He is the norm, if you will, that defines what is in and what is outside of our faith. Paul calls him the author and the perfecter of our faith. He is the gate, both in terms of what to believe, but also equally important how to behave. [01:11:04] (30 seconds)  #GateOfFaith

I think one of the reasons why we see so much division in our world today, in our families, in our, dare I say, churches sometimes, is because we're seeing tailor made versions of all this stuff based on what we have looked at previously, what we have seen. Today, I wanna get us back into what we can possibly do and what we might need to think about in order to regain a sense of peace that none of this stuff out there is going to get us, and that is get us back to Jesus. [01:08:15] (49 seconds)  #BackToJesus

And isn't it interesting? The people are gonna get a choice between Jesus and an insurrectionist. This is versus a story in the Holy Week that that has been on my mind a lot lately. All four gospels talk about the trial of Jesus as he's standing before Pontius Pilate. I don't know if it's so much a trial of Jesus as it is a trial of the mob that's there. But Pilate gives them a choice. Do they want Jesus or do they want Barabbas? [01:02:41] (45 seconds)  #JesusOrBarabbas