The Lamb and the Shepherd: Hearing Jesus' Voice

Being a sheep of Jesus is not easy. It's not cheap. In yet another great paradox, it costs us nothing and everything at the same time. There is nothing that we can do to earn Jesus' shepherdship on our lives. He has done that already. And yet, he asks us to give up everything in response. But in giving up everything, we gain even more in another paradox. And, of course, it's not just all about us all the time, is it? [00:58:03] (52 seconds)  #CostOfDiscipleship

But maybe the challenge for you today won't be hearing his voice. It'll be just simply doing what he says. Sometimes that's really hard. Right? Sometimes that's just really hard. Or maybe the challenge for you today is to lay down absolutely everything in response to his love for you. Maybe for the very first time or maybe all over again. But the good shepherd is exactly that, good. And in just the sentence immediately before saying that he was the good shepherd, Jesus says that he has come so that his sheep may have life and life in its fullness. [01:00:33] (47 seconds)  #ObeyAndThrive

And while very few, if any, of us today will have to give over and give up our literal lives for Jesus, I wonder how many of us are willing even to give up our lifestyles for Jesus. Jesus' sheep are willing to sacrifice the comfortable, easy life that our culture promises we can have but never really delivers on so that we can be more like him. Paul says this in his letter to the Philippians. I wanna know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death. [00:55:21] (48 seconds)  #KnowChristDeeply

And most of all, do we deny our inbuilt desire to control and shape our own lives and to make our own decisions and instead give our lives over to the Holy Spirit so that we can be transformed, we can have our shape changed into the shape of our shepherd. And I wonder, are we willing to pay that cost? Jesus said to his followers, whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple, cannot be my sheep. [00:54:32] (41 seconds)  #SurrenderToSpirit

So do we show undeserved compassion? Do we speak the truth with a culturally inappropriate amount of love, a shocking amount of love? Do we spend time with the marginalized? Do we give dignity and value back to the outcast? Do we forgive endlessly over and over again? Do we give away more than we keep for ourselves? Do we turn the other cheek rather than hitting back with the force that is available to us? [00:53:45] (48 seconds)  #RadicalCompassion

Authentic sheep of Jesus know that the good shepherd asks us to go out in search of the one with him, to tell the world of the benefits that we've found, not just in the words we speak, but in the way we live our lives. I recently read these words from the late Robert Mulholland of Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky. He said, the world will know that God has sent Christ not simply because we pronounce it to be so, but when they see Christ likeness lived out in their midst in our lives, in the world. [00:58:55] (46 seconds)  #ChristlikenessInAction

Are you living in the words of the good shepherd, and are you living out the words of the good shepherd? A few weeks ago, we talked about how Jesus at the end of the sermon on the mount, he talks about how there are two kinds of people that hear his words, those who do them and those who don't. Alright? The people who hear his words and do what he says are like people who build their house on a rock, withstanding any storm. [00:51:35] (37 seconds)  #BuiltOnTheRock

And although Jesus never denies being king because he is, he clearly prefers to see himself as a shepherd. Matthew recalls an instance where Jesus is surrounded by a crowd of hurting and vulnerable people. And when he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. Then in Luke 15, Jesus tells a story, of how to describe how much God really loves these people who are like sheep without a shepherd. [00:43:10] (44 seconds)  #ShepherdsCompassion