Iconic Jesus | Week 5

I I had this this midweek program going on and as we're setting up and getting ready, you know, the sun's setting. It's in the evening.

This this guy comes riding up on a bike and he'd been riding and he he he rolls up and and the one thing I did notice is that is a really expensive bike because I I I cycle. I I know about it and I'm like, matter of fact, I am not exaggerating. This is not pastor math.

His bike was worth more than my car at this time. I knew that the bike was more expensive than the car I was driving which isn't saying a lot because my car was kind of piece of trash anyways but it it it was nice but he he comes up and he says, hey, what's going on here? And I kind of tell him what's happening and and and he goes, hey, this is kind of weird but could I maybe say something to your high school students?

I'm like, what? I'm just gonna rant. Sure. Why not? Go on. Get up there. Say what you want. No. I go, what do want to talk about? He goes, well, I've I was just been out riding, clearing my head and I know where I've been in life and and I just wanted to encourage him to not just think that success is what matters in life because I have been at the pinnacle of fame and success,

the top in my in my in my field. I've had fame and fortune and all that. I've also struggled too and I've been through it all and I realized that that I just want to say trust god because

because there is more to this than just being successful. I got everything I ever dreamed of as far as success and realized that really wasn't enough. That really wasn't what life was about and I wanna tell him. Now, it sounded cool but I still like, I'm not just gonna let some random guy talk. I go, what? What's your what was your field? He goes, cycling.

And I go, really? I go, what's your name? And he goes, my name is Greg Lamont. And, of course, some of you know who Greg Lamont is. Good. Because but I got a picture in case you didn't know. Greg Lamont actually won the Tour de France three times. He was the the first American and and actually

after Lance Armstrong realized they realized he was a cheater. It's gone back to he is considered the greatest American cyclist of of of all time and so he he I go, well, what are you doing here? He goes, I'm here for the Redlands Classic. This is in Redlands, California. I'm like,

Greg Lamond, I know he's older now. It's been a few years. I go, there's no way. Why would he be here for the Redlands Classic? Yeah, that bike is worth a lot of money. So, he somehow has money and and he made sense what he said but Greg Lamont really

and so I I said no. I wouldn't let him say what he wanted to say and you know why? Because I I didn't trust. I didn't really, I doubted what he could do because I really didn't believe who he was.

So, so he's like, it's now dark. He's, man, I was riding around so long. It's dark out. I don't even know how to get back to my hotel. Is there anyone that can help me? And one of my leaves, I'll take him and and he goes and drops him off and then comes back. You think that was Greg Lamon? I go, no. No. I don't think. He goes, wasn't a really nice hotel and I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. I get up the next morning. I look into my newspaper because like I've told you before, was born old and and so I I I looked and right there, it says, Greg Lemont is here for the Redlands Classic and it's this whole article about how he's trying to rebuild. He's coming back and it's like this big thing and my dad, my father-in-law wrote in the Redlands Classic because I met Greg Lamont. He's a great guy. You know, he really does. He he talked about how you need to trust god more and blah blah blah. Everything he told me, he wanna say, I could've let Greg Lamont talk to my my little youth group but I didn't let him.

I didn't trust. I didn't I didn't I didn't really believe in what he could do because I ultimately didn't trust who he was.

That's really what we're going to talk about today in the passage in the book of John that we're in in this iconic Jesus where we're talking about Jesus just making these statements about who he is and what we're gonna see today is simply the similar thing. This whole passage actually, all of John 10 can be summarized with this simple statement.

If I trust who Jesus is, I won't doubt what he can do. The more I know and trust who Jesus is, the less I have to doubt

what he can do. When he promises, hey, follow me. Last week, we talked about how he's the gate, the way in to salvation, but also the way out to real life. And sometimes when he we all we're okay with the gate in, but the gate out to trust me. He's like, hey, follow me here. Here's where I want you to trust me. I want you to go this way with your life. Well, I doubt. Is that really gonna work? If I trust you with my time, is that gonna work? If I trust you with my money, if I trust you with my relations, if I trust you with this, is that really gonna I we always wrestle with Jesus and we doubt if he can actually succeed at what he says he's gonna do. But the real problem is not, well, you know, he needs to prove himself to me and prove himself. It's not about that. It's the real issue we have in our hearts is we doubt what he can do

when we don't trust who he is. And that's what's happening in this passage we're gonna look at today. He reveals the character of who he is. And then we're going to see that people have to make a decision. Do I really trust who he is? And those that wrestle with trusting who he is always doubt what he can do.

So, here we are. We're going to be in John chapter 10 and we're going to be starting in verse 11. And I just want to read through to verse 18.

Hopefully, you brought a Bible or you have a Bible app. We don't put up on the screen. I just want you to bring a Bible and and and go for it but here we go. Starting verse 11, he says, I am the good shepherd.

So, he makes this new I am statement. That's what this whole series have been about. These I ams. Every time he says I am, that's a declaration that I'm god but he's putting these descriptors on it so we can understand what kind of god, what it, he's describing, what that means.

He says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don't belong to him and he isn't their shepherd and so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. The hired hand runs away because he's working only for the money and doesn't really care about the sheep. So he's continuing the shepherd illustration, and he says, I'm this good shepherd.

Unlike someone who's hired to take care of sheep, if it gets really tough and scary, they're gonna run away. I don't. I don't. Because the sheep are mine. I'm not just hired.

He goes, I am the good shepherd. I know my own sheep and they know me. Just as the father knows me and I know the father, so I sacrifice my life for the sheep. I have other sheep too that are not in the sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice and there will be one flock with one shepherd.

The father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my father has commanded.

So, he has this conversation. He's describing himself as the good shepherd and then he kinda throws in some some comments about there. So, here's what I want to do. It's going be a little different. I don't have like three points. I don't have three points in a poem like a classic sermon here.

For us to truly be able to embrace this idea of if I trust who Jesus is, I can not have to doubt what he can do. Well, to unpackage that, what I want to do is I want to walk through some what I just read and I want to pull out some a couple words and a couple phrase and

I just wanna explain them at a little bit deeper level. So, we can't just go away. Oh, good shepherd. That's nice. He loves us. He leads us the sheep and all that kind of stuff but really, there is so much theological depth in what he just said that we can understand who Jesus is at such a deeper level

and I just want to walk through and kind of do. So, it's a little bit, there's going be a little bit of teachiness here and and and I'm even going to talk a little bit about Greek. I'm not going to throw out too many of the Greek words because couple of my can't pronounce anyways but I I just want you to understand that this is written in Greek if you don't know the Bible and so some of the phrases and words he says here says so much more than what we even catch by just reading it in English.

So, I just want to walk through these phrases and I hope we'll go away more encouraged and go away understanding who Jesus is at such a deeper level that maybe we won't we can we can deal with the doubt we've had

in what he can do in our lives and maybe let go of some of that doubt because we can learn to trust who he is better.

So, the first thing is is the obvious one that the whole such thing's about is he says, shepherd. That's a symbol. We talked about that a little bit last week, but what he when he says he's a shepherd, it's not just an illustration. It it goes deeper than that. In the Old Testament, God is described as a shepherd. So it's another declaration of him being God, but it's also what's cool about god describing himself as a shepherd all through the Old Testament and then Jesus claiming this is unlike all the other religions of the day where god is their their god, their deity is very impersonal, very out there, very like you gotta just prove yourself to him and appease him. He's the god that cares.

He's personal. He wants to guide us and lead us and be in our lives. That's the critical thing about Shepherd. He also uses the word good. This next word, good. Now, good, you know, sounds good. Good is good, you know, but there's actually two Greek words that are primarily used for good

and and and the other one that's used all through scripture, the first one, it just means moral and useful.

It means moral and useful or something that lines up with the will of god. Now, that's used all over the scripture. Meaning, hey, god says, hey, he said that's good. That means it's good. It's useful. It lines up with my will. Awesome. That's not the word for good. He uses here when he describes himself as a shepherd.

He uses the word good that means this, genuine, excellent, and preeminent. So, when Jesus is describing his character of who he is, he says, I am the shepherd god who is the preeminent, excellent, genuine. I am the only real shepherd. There is no other shepherd.

So, just like last week, if you struggle with, you know, Jesus declaring he's the only way and people, god, those Christians and you and maybe you are, Chris. It says, I don't want to tell someone else he's he is not against once again declaring, I am the only way. I'm the only shepherd that can lead the life. That's it.

And then you wanna say, oh, man. Jesus is so exclusive. We're gonna see by the end of this that no. Jesus is only one that is inclusive. When he's trying to exclude us all from his death and there's only one way to life. So, is trying to include as many of our sheep that are willing to go into life

And he says, I am the good, the genuine, and that's why he talks about the hired hands that run away and he's really talking to these leaders that don't wanna trust him and what he's saying is all other philosophies, all other teachers, there's been people that have come before him and said, we, I'm the savior of the world. He goes, they're fakes and he goes, there's gonna be people after me that say that. There's gonna be systems and religions and non religious systems that say, we've got life figured out. Here's how it works. Here's how you have to get and he goes, all knockoffs,

all fakes. I'm the genuine deal. I am the good shepherd. It gets even more powerful here. It's like, he then several times throughout this passage, he says, I sacrifice my life.

He keeps saying he he he sacrifices his life and and what's interesting about that is is is two things about that. First is, first, he describes how and no one takes it from me.

You realize the whole story of Jesus now, he came down and tried to get crowd control and say, hey, Jesus loves you. This I know and then we just all grabbed him and killed him. Jesus

gave his life up. No one took, even at the end of this chapter, if you go read it, they were going to try to kill him there. He just miraculously walked away because he had the power to say, nope, it's not time. I'm not dying right now. Done. Walks away. He chose to freely give his life.

This is this is really important. When he says I freely give it, that that word freely in there in that passage completely explains to you why biblical Christianity. I say biblical orthodox Christianity because there's lots of religions out there that use the name of Jesus that that do not rightly use the Bible.

But when he says freely, this is what separates biblical Christianity from every other religion, every other philosophy, every other thing that has ever existed in this planet.

When you say, well, aren't all origins basically saying, yeah, all of the others are. But what Jesus just said here separates it from him. When he said freely, what he's saying is, god chose. Jesus chose to become a man. Come down and die for you and I. Give up his life to save us. Because of who he is,

not because of what we do. Did you catch that? I I I really struggle with this message. I don't feel like I have a big enough brain and vocabulary and communication skills to try to really communicate the depth of what that means.

That means that that that that Jesus, we don't, we, every other religion and even some of us sitting here, we always struggle with. It's called legalism in the Bible. Human beings always run to this end of it. I have to do something so god will react to me. God choosing to save me, choosing to love me, choosing to bless me. We always think of it as I act and god reacts.

That's not what he's saying is god acts and we get to react to him. We don't earn his love. We, it's not what we do. It's not even who we are. Jesus didn't die because of who we are. He 100% chose to give up his life because that's who he is. He's declaring his character.

I am the shepherd, good shepherd god who is love. Later on the Bible says, god is love. It doesn't mean love is god. God's more than just love but he is not defined by love. He defines love

And what he is saying is you don't have to worry. Like, it doesn't matter how far away you've got from me. It doesn't matter how much problems you have. No matter how much is there. I died for you, and it's 100% because of who I am.

Now that can sound in one end and go, so it doesn't really matter. What it gives it matters. We wanna love him back when we realize how he loved us, but here's the point. Think of the burden that takes off your shoulders. So many of us have approached religion. You approach church like I better get to church today.

You know, because I I I feel like I've been bad a little bit and I'm going to let too much bad and then god's going to be mad at me. Realize he loves us 100% because of his character, his nature. We don't change that. We don't control that. We just get to be blessed and embrace that.

Some of us, if you could just understand that

you would get a better view of who Jesus is in your life and you wouldn't think about this is the thing I gotta keep earning something but you can freely live in that love because he freely chose to love us. Does that make sense? That is deep.

That is deep. That is different than any other religion and even a bunch of them that claim Jesus. They say, yeah, Jesus died for you but you have to do this and this and this and this and this. No. We don't trust him and do what he says because we think we're trying to earn something.

We do it because we are so grateful and blown away by the fact that he loved us no matter what. Then he goes, man, if a god would be that good and not much of a shepherd and freely love me because who he is, maybe he knows what he's talking about.

When he asks me to trust him with my time, with my money, with my relationships. Maybe he gives a rip enough and knows enough that he has the right way. Does that make sense?

I just I just feel like I'm just trying to grab that. It's so powerful. And it can here's what makes it even more powerful than that. You hear that and you go, okay, that's cool that he freely give his life. But we need to understand what it means for him to sacrifice life. The word life there, this gets really powerful as you look at it and and and because when you hear life, how many of you seen the passion of the Christ?

How many felt really sad for Jesus when you saw him get so tortured and beat up and abused? Me too. Get you emotional. Here's the the good thing about that movie that shows you that and it's great. The bad thing about the movie is it distracts us from the real depth.

We get so caught up and wow, Jesus just really took a beating for me, didn't he? You realize that that's the smallest thing of his sacrifice for us. That's the least of what he sacrificed. When he says he gave up his life, there are three words in the Greek. I told you I was getting a little teachy but this is

and and I'll give you all three of these because they're they're easy to pronounce and and so so there are three words for life that are used in scripture. When it describes

life, the first one is the most basic. It's called bios. It's where you get biology from and that just means you're not a rock. There's signs of life. You are alive. He's talking about the length. It's really about the quantitative. Nothing about qualitative. It's just life in a biological sense you're living.

That is not the word Jesus used here when it says he gave up his life. That's why when you focus only on the beating and him physically dying, that's not the big deal of what Jesus died for you and I for. He he now, he did give up his bios.

He did actually give his life up, but that is not the big deal. And that's not him about to get the beating of all beatings and be tortured to death for something he didn't do is not what made him sweat blood when he was praying to the father in the garden the night before.

He knew that'd be tough but he knew he could get through that. That's the first word. The second one is Zoe.

That's the word for life that's used when we looked at last week and when he says, why did Jesus come? He wants to give us a rich and satisfying life. In all of the English translations, the word for Zoe is always life but it always puts an adjective in front of it. It puts a qualifier in front of it. It'll say rich life, full life, abundant life. Some version of something life because what it's trying to say is trying to give us in our English the definition of what Zoe means. It's not just biological life. Zoey means quantitative

and qualitative. The best way to describe that is it's life as god originally created it to be. So, that's life he wants to give us. He wants to give us back the Zoey. We don't want to have this bios that goes on for so many years and then it ends. He wants us to have the Zoe, the life in god, the life in the fullest,

real life, what it's meant to be. That's what he wants us to trust him with so he can give us that. Now, Jesus did give up and sacrifice his Zoe by being god in heaven and he chose to take on the nature and the body of a man. He gave up a little bit of the qualitative aspect of who he was to be born a child and

and grow up. I mean, he did give up his his his Zoe because, you know, he went through puberty and being a teenager. I mean, think about it. He did sacrifice that

but that's not what he was sweating blood over because he'd already done that. He'd already lived his life having done that. And that's not the word used when it says he sacrifices his life. It uses a word called psuche. Best way to describe what psuche means to us in English is soul. Jesus sacrificed his soul. That

is what he was praying to the father in the garden about. If there was another way, but not my will, thy will. Jesus knew there's only one way for us to have Zoe.

There's only one way for us to really have this eternal life. There's only one way and that's for him to sacrifice his soul and what that means is souls, it means it's all of who he is.

Every bit and so here's the descriptor. The Bible goes on to say, when Jesus hung on the cross, he didn't just take a beating and then, okay, you took my spanking. He took on our sins. He took on our shame. He took on god's judgment for that. He took on the wrath that god said, I'm a holy righteous god and I will judge

sin and it says, he became sin.

So, what that means, that's really theological but what that means really practical is I don't know how it worked or how god did it but but it's why you need to believe in a trinity which one says, why do need trinity? Because god had to be three and one because Jesus had to be able to do this and god the father had to still be god and do what he did and that's when he cried out, my god, my god, why have you forsaken me? It wasn't like a plan went to rise. Jesus in that moment had that one moment of all of history where god the father and god the son had to basically kind of disconnect. It's almost if god the father had to put this on to him and then turn his back and allow him to go through this. Is he not only this is not just some theological,

you know, metaphorical thing in a very real way. Physically, emotionally, spiritually, psychologically,

every way you can think of it. He took on your and my guilt and hurt and pain on everything for every human being that ever was and ever will be. Could you imagine that? Think of the worst thing that ever makes you feel guilty and shame about what you did.

If it is the most shameful thing that you don't want anyone up, maybe you dealt with it years ago but if I get you to think about it long enough, you might start going, oh man. You you can go back there and feel stressed out and kind of about now. Imagine that to the infinite degree of every human being ever.

That is what Jesus was sweating blood over because as a human, he had the nature of a man. He had to take that on which was too much for him. But as god, he could but he did. He took on every single bit of shame and hurt and hung there with that on him.

He didn't just go get killed for you and I. He didn't just dive on a grenade for you and I. God poured out his wrath and his judgment on sin and put the sin on him literally into his soul, and that is what he sacrificed for you and I. It feels like that needs an amen. Amen. There you go. Think about that.

Think about the depth depth of his sacrifice when he did that.

But then he had the power as it said to go. Three days later, Alright. I'm done with that. Roasting the dead.

That means he literally did take it away from you and I. He really can give us life. And because of the resurrection, we can trust him. You don't need to doubt what he can do. He already did the most impossible thing ever. So why should I doubt him when he says, trust me with this. Follow me this way.

Why do we fight with him so much?

Because it comes back to do you really trust who he is? Because if you really know who he is, what he's revealing is going to be and trust that, the doubt over my everyday things I'm worried about, We'll always wrestle with those. We're we're feeble bro. We're sheep. Like we looked at last week.

But look what a good shepherd he is. Look what a good shepherd he is.

He then goes on and and answered. He goes, why did he do this? What do you want? Did he want to just do that and say, alright, come into heaven but I want to talk to you for about a thousand years because do you know what I gave up for you? He didn't want to give us the the example of your mom. I I was in labor for you with 18 for eighteen hours. I can't believe you're gonna do this. No. He didn't do that.

He says, I know my sheep and they know me and he goes, just as the father knows me and I know him. You know what he's saying there? I did this because I wanna have a relationship with you that is just as intimate That god the son has with god the father. That's the type of shepherd he is.

I didn't just want to die for you because you're screw ups. Now, you can come in. He wants to be that close to you personally. And he sacrificed his very soul so we can have that relationship and once again, it's because that's who he is. That's who he is. So, you never have to doubt him.

You never have to think, well, he's going to just get fed up with me. He's going to I I I slipped. I I did this dumb thing again. He's going to be, no. He did this because it's who he is, not what we do.

Then verse 16, here's the weird thing. Verse 16, it's going to feel like, wow, he just went off like Bill does when he went off on a rabbit trail. Be interesting but I don't know what he's trying to say here.

Once you understand it, this verse 16 actually fits very strongly in this narrative and I think you're going to understand, here's the power. Verse 16, you and I should be the most moved and the most touched by this verse than any other verse in this passage is when he says this, I have other sheep.

I have other sheep too that are not in the sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice and there will be one flock with the one shepherd.

What is he talking about? He's also in the middle of this. He wants to remind them, not only am I good, not only to sacrifice my soul, not only this, but you gotta understand, there's actually other sheep out there. What he's trying to say is, my vision is bigger than you. We always wanna hear Jesus the only way in our culture wants to say, Jesus, you Christians are so exclusive. That's the opposite. What he's trying to tell him is the people I'm talking to here, you guys keep getting exclusive.

I'm trying to be more inclusive. My plan from the beginning was to love I love the whole world. My plan was to die to open it up, to open up the sheepfold. There's only just one way to life, and that's through me, but I want people to find that. And you keep forgetting that I have another plan,

That that there's more sheep out there. It's not just about you.

Now, this verse has been misused by several organization, the Catholic church uses that to say, when he says, we'll be one sheepfold. He's trying to say, there's only one church. If you're not a Catholic, you're not in the official sponsored religion of god.

It's not what it means. That's not the context. He wasn't, when he talks about other sheep, he's not talking about an organizational thing. The Mormon Church, they'll use that to say, Jesus rose from the dead then he went and he appeared to all the natives and the Nephites and them over in The Americas.

That's not found in this context. You realize the context itself and the rest of the New Testament and the whole testament make it very clear what he's talking about. He is talking to 100% Jews at this moment.

And what he is saying is, you guys keep just worrying about you and you're missing the point that I am the shepherd that has sheep that you don't even know about and I will stop at nothing to go get those sheep too and I need you. You're supposed to be a part of this. What he's talking about is Gentiles.

What he's talking about is you and I. He's mentioning you and I in this.

What he's saying is if you go back to the beginning, what god said to Abraham when he first called him, he says, I'm going to raise you up and make you into a great nation, Israel and then he says, what? I'm going to bless just my promised children through this? No. He said, even way back in the first covenant, I will bless the whole world through you. We get into John. John three sixteen, what he says, for god so loved just the Jews? No. For god so loved the world that he gave his only son. You then go and and in the earlier in John where he looked at this, why did Jesus clear the temple when we looked at that? When he came in, he got mad at the money changers and and he wasn't mad that they changed money. What he's mad is they had turned the court of the Gentiles in the temple into a mall and what he's saying is it should be my house of prayer and they they what he's saying is you guys aren't getting it. I even told you how to set up the temple. Don't you think when they got the plans from god how to do the temple, the holy holies, yeah, the court of the man, the court of the women, and then this court of the Gentiles is huge.

It's bigger than the rest and they had no Gentiles and everything. That's why they made into a mall. They they they lost track. Don't you think they would have thought, hey, why did god tell us to make the biggest area for the people that aren't even here right now? And that's why Jesus got mad. You're forgetting that I am the god that cares about the world. I wanna go out there and reach more people. I wanna reach all my sheep. I wanna reach the Gentiles, the ends of the earth. That's what happens in the book of Acts. When when when he gives a vision to Peter, when he says, this guy is gonna come. And and then but the first vision he gives before this guy Cornelius shows up is a vision of unclean animals. They weren't allowed to eat before, and he says, now you can eat. What was unclean, I made clean. And Peter keeps rejecting it. No. I won't do it. I won't do it. God's home, it is clean. You know what Peter's saying is, I'm holier than you. God, I can't believe you're going to tell me to do something unholy

and he's like, you're an idiot, Peter. So, he gives it to him three times just like he denied him three times and then finally, the vision goes away and the sky shows up. He goes, hey, I was sent. My master Cornelius needs to know about Jesus and he's a Gentile and he oh. Oh.

And then Paul realized my whole calling was to take the gospel to the whole world, to the other sheep. What they understand is they got so insulated. They forgot that this shepherd loves us all and he will do what it takes. In Matthew, he uses the good shepherd illustration and takes another analogy with it. He says, I am the good shepherd that I will leave the 99

to go get the one. You realize when he's saying that at the time who he's talking to in this passage, we are the one. We are the other sheep. No. No. No. Yeah. It is an amen, isn't it? But here's the cool thing. You wanna have your mind? Jesus is also God. He can exist outside of space and time in itself.

When God called me, tapped me on the shoulder and said, I want you to leave the 99 and go after some of the ones. In 2001, I started praying, and I prayed for the sheep that would end up here. So, guys, I prayed for you eighteen years ago. I didn't know what you look like. I didn't know your names.

Most of you guys still don't know your names because I'm not God, and I'm bad with names. But God let me have the privilege of being a part of what he's doing. That's what he was saying. He's trying to challenge me. Do you realize my sheep need to go be shepherds also? I'm sending you from the 99 to get the one.

And I have the privilege of starting that, and we do that. But as cool as that is that, you know, I prayed for you before I knew you, Jesus, two thousand years ago, when he was telling himself telling this crowd that you need to trust me, I'm the good shepherd, brought you and I up. But he's god. This wasn't just a metaphor.

He knew your name when he said this. He knew your face when he said this. Let that sink in. Listen to Jesus saying this 2,000 ago. I have other sheep too that are not of the sheepfold. I must bring them also. Now imagine, read that to yourself from two thousand years ago, and Jesus literally already knew who you are.

In this conversation, he literally was thinking about us.

By name

That is what a good shepherd he is. And he's basically saying, I will not stop until I get all my sheep. You know what that encourages us to think about? We need to think like Jesus So, if you're at this church, you're wondering why we do some of the things we do?

Jesus called us to leave the 99. Doesn't mean the 99 are not important.

A lot of people come to our church, are you trying to build, trying to this? You're always telling us, don't go to this service, go to that service. I need to serve. I need to give. We're building another building. How many times are we going to build? When's enough enough? And then you seem to say it's all about we need to reach new people. What about us? What about us?

What about the 99? Jesus said, the 99 are going be okay. I want you to take care of that but we should never forget the idea that we gotta look for the one. We should be unified. We do need to be the church. We do need to lock arms and have community together but here's the thing, the problem with what Israel was doing, the problem with what every church likes to do is we start to form community. We find a community. We lock arms. We form a circle like we should but we do it facing in.

And what Jesus saying is the church needs to be a community that's locked arms together, side by side, being the church but locked arms looking out.

It's why you saw that video. It's why you can look out the door and why we're building this building because I am so present. We have a church full of people that have the courage to leave the 99 to go for the one. We don't need that building for us. We all have a seat. We need that for the kids, for the children,

and for all the ones that don't have a seat. We built this building. What we were doing before, there was no room for half of you. You're here because people had the courage to sacrifice financially because that's the heart of the good shepherd.

It's why we, it's it's it's why you got handed but there are other reason we do have to love and take care of one another. Why you got handed a card about being me. Hey, maybe god's calling you to be a shepherd that you're willing to help with the 99, to be a small group leader

because we need people to step up to do that. It's why we ask. That's why we did the the the the food bag campaign.

It's why it's why we got this. Why we we love the high school next to us. It's why we do these things and we serve. We want to point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. We want to be out there doing it. I mean, it's why I'm always challenging. Will you give? Will you financially support? Will you start serving? I mean, you really want to be like Jesus and sacrifice your soul like he did? Then, we we need you to work in the children's ministry. I mean, that that'll just

go do that. That's why I ask you to do that. Be like Jesus.

But that's why I wanted to share it because it's our heart is supposed to be the heart of Jesus. It's not about building an organization. It's not what I'm trying to do. It's not what all the people in this church that are courageous are trying to do. We're just trying to follow our good shepherd. That's it.

But why wouldn't we? Two thousand years ago, he was so passionate about us that he mentions us. Wow. That's really cool. So you hear all that and you think they get it. It'd be great. But here's where you see why they struggle.

If you jump down, it's they they start debating who he is. Like, can he really do this or do that? And then if you go down into verse 24, it's a little while later. It says, the people surrounded him and asked, how long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you're the Messiah, tell us plainly.

Just tell us if you're the Messiah. Tell us plainly. Now, that seems weird. Like, has he been telling him? Which he says he has but you know what they're trying to say is, you read all through the gospels. Jesus never says, I am the Messiah. He never uses that word. And you're going to see why.

The reason he ever uses the words Messiah is because they've already defined what Messiah is in their head. So, if he says, I am the Messiah, they're going to think he just said, I am what you want me to be. I'm what you imagine me to be. I'm your picture and definition of what and who I am.

Instead, I'm giving you, I am the bread of life. I am the good shepherd. I am the light of the world. I am all these things he's saying. I am telling you the definition of who god is and and and they're like, but you haven't told us you're the Messiah.

And and so he says this, he goes, Jesus replied, I've already told you and you don't believe me.

The proof is the work I do in my father's name, but you don't believe me because you're not my sheep. See what he's saying is, I've already told you. I've already shown you, but you doubt what I've done. You doubt what I can do because you really don't believe and trust in who I actually am.

And it shows up because he goes on and he makes some more promises and he says, you know, though my sheep are gonna follow me, they're gonna have eternal life, they're gonna have the Zoe, they're never gonna die, and you know what? And no one, not even themselves can snatch them from my father's hand. Nothing can take them out of the hand of god.

They are absolutely safe and secure with me, which sounds great. And then all of sudden, he says verse 30. The father and I are one. Now I know. I think Jesus is like, I'm gonna stir the pot. I'm gonna get to the real problem

by saying that. Because look what it says. Once he says the father nine one verse 31, once again, the people picked up stones to kill him. You know what's crazy? It's the crazy part of that verse is not even they picked up stones to kill him. The craziest part is once again. Again,

meaning, this is not the first time. Jesus says and they go, oh yeah, we're going to throw rocks at your head and and and think about it. Look what he says. He goes, he's saying all these things and showing who he is and they want to kill him and look what he says. At

my father's directions, I've done many good works. For which one are you going to stone me? All these miracles, all these great things, all these things I've done that have aligned with the Old Testament and who I am. Which one are these things are you going to kill? Which one of the things I did and that I can do are you going to kill me for? And look, they replied, we're stoning you not for any good work. You know what's crazy about that? Is they didn't deny that he didn't do good works.

They said, oh, we're not killing you for those good things you did.

We're not killing you for any the good work but for blasphemy. Here you go. If you have your Bibles, underline. You, a mere man. You, a not a merman. He's not Aquaman. It's a mere man. You, a mere man, claim to be god. You see what that revealed to them the whole time? The reason they're wrestling back and forth,

is they don't believe who he said he is. So they're constantly doubting what he does. That's the heart of it for you and I too. They finally revealed their heart. We don't believe your god. They didn't trust who he was. That could be where you and I are.

And I think to land this plane to give something to contemplate before we leave here, think about this. Could it be that some of us struggle with trusting what Jesus can do in our lives? We doubt it because we wrestle with trusting who he is and what I mean by that is some of us have done the the same mistake they did.

We're looking for our definition of Messiah

and and and some of it you've been taught the wrong definition of who Jesus is. Not your own fault. Some has been spiritual abuse. You've grown up in weird situations. You've had bad teaching. You've you your life has shown you things and somewhere along the line, you've defined Jesus different

than how he's defining and so the problem is when Jesus shows up and does what he does, you're like, I don't know if I'm going to believe that because my Jesus would be this way or I can't believe you would do that or you just don't want to trust Jesus at all because you're like, if Jesus is this way, I can't believe blah blah blah blah but we've redefined Jesus in our head and it's it's holding us back from the blessing of trusting what he can do.

Let me give you a quick example. We'll get out of here.

When I was my my son was born. My second child was born. We realized we needed a better vehicle because like I said, Greg Lamont had a bike that was better than my vehicle and and and so but we didn't have much money.

I had a friend of mine. He's a good friend. He'd been in a small group with me. He was a leader. He was awesome. I'd known him. He had great character. He loved Jesus. I never doubt anything about him and I and I realized he was a manager of a in a car dealership.

He was the he was the sales manager of the used car division. So, basically, he was the boss of used car salesman. That's what he he'd been a salesman and so that's what he did. So, I went to him and said, hey, I I need something a little better but I'm broke. I go, is there even a possibility there would be anything I could get this reliable that I I I can only afford like this expensive?

And he goes, well, you know, it's going be hard but I'll tell you what, I'll keep my eyes open. Well, then he calls me about a month later. He goes, can you get over here within in within the hour?

And I'm like, why? He goes, someone just came and traded in a minivan. I'm like, I knew you're going say minivan but he goes, it's a town and country.

It's the top of the line at the time. It's and he goes, all leather. It's it only has eighteen, zero miles on it. It's beautiful. The guy that owned it had plenty of money. He did kept it immaculate,

walked in, said, here, take that. I don't care what you want. I want that truck because he had pulled his jet skis with it. Now, he got a bigger boat in this minivan can't quite handle the boat. So, he wanted the truck but it's in perfect condition. It's awesome. It's going to go on. So, we're going to all my salesman are chomping at me because they think it's going to draw customers in to check this thing out. It's going to sell fast but he goes, I have the authority to hold him off for like the next hour and a half and I think I can work you a deal that's way under what they're going to want to sell it for. I can give you. So, I promise you a lower price than anyone else. I have the power and the authority to stop the wolves from selling it and it's this great car that had low miles and wasn't abused and the guy didn't care and and you know what? He's my friend. I hung up and Carrie's like, are we going to do that? Sounds good. I go, I don't know And I go, I go,

isn't that exactly what a used car salesman would say? Now if you're a used car salesman, I'm sorry.

But you understand, I had a definition of used car salesman in my head that I was taught from youth. I just I just I just I didn't basically trust. Even though I knew everything about this guy, I just still had a hard time trusting what he could do because I was I didn't really believe in what he was. I had this and I learned it from a youth. My mom always would negotiate for cars. She taught me, my dad stormed the beaches of Iwo Jima, fought three wars, played professional baseball, struck out Ted Williams, wasn't afraid of anything. He would never walk into a car deal.

He wouldn't do it. He'd terrified him. He would let my we go look for a car. Let's get this car. My mom would roll up her sleeves. He would go out and stay in the car. She'd walk in. He'd go, give them hell, Diana. And and he's like, I'm not doing it. My mom was one. She'd be like, alright. Here we go.

And she dragged me in there. Why am I your dad doing it? He's like, well, someday you probably have to do this. Well, dad doesn't have to do it. He's he's a coward. Okay? He's a war hero who's a coward. But here's how it works. And she would talk about this whole system. They come in. Well, we wanted this. Well, how much do you wanna pay for it? I don't wanna talk about payments. That's finance. I wanna talk about price before we talk finance. And then go, well, let me go check on that. I I'll go fight for you, but I gotta get this past my sales manager. Why not? Because you think the manager will agree? He goes, he's not even gonna talk to the manager.

They already have a price point. They won't go any lower. I'm just trying to get them to that bottom price as fast as I can and not waste my time. He's gonna go get a cup of coffee, laugh with his friends, and come back and act like he's my best friend. Watch. Boom. So that's what I grew up learning. I grew up learning, like, you can't trust that guy. It's a rigged system. You gotta go in there, and you gotta do this and all that. So even though this guy was my good friend that had shown me nothing but character and quality, I had a problem with the term, with the title of used car salesman.

I almost didn't go. I went and I was still like, I'm waiting for this. And even though it seemed too good to be true, I decided to trust. I got the greatest deal you could ever imagine. He really did use all of his pull and all of his power to take care of me. I even found out after the fact he took the commission part

and he threw that back in to help me get the deal I got. I almost missed out on that because I had a different definition. I was so moved by that that years later when we came back out here and moved and we got a chance to get another car. I could have traded in. That car was great. It still ran great.

A lot of fishy crackers smashed into every little seam in it. Other than that, but we chose to leave the 99 for the ones that we were blessed because of the example of the blessing we got. There was a family in a church that was struggling and didn't have a car, couldn't get a had three kids.

We gave it to them. Even though I was still poor. Could have used the trade in for it. But I wanted to follow the lead. I would have missed that blessing. I would have missed the blessing, and I would have missed the opportunity to be the blessing if I didn't get past my wrong definition of my friend. That's all I'm saying.

Maybe that's what's holding you back with Jesus. You're missing out on the blessing of who he is in your life. You're doubting and wrestling with what he can do because you might have the wrong definition of who he is. Father God, I thank you, Lord.

I just pray something simple, Lord, that in this room, all of us, including myself, would learn to know really who you are and trust in you. Therefore, you can help us drop the doubts and the defenses and the walls and the excuses to allowing you to do what you can do in and through our lives if we just trust you. I

pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.