Live Free with Josh Howerton - Our Good Shepherd I See | Ep. 278 | Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Episode Date: February 28, 2024

In John 10, God was standing right in front of the Pharisees, but they did not recognize Him or His voice. Jesus told them a parable about how a good shepherd will care for his sheep, and the sheep will listen to and obey their shepherd’s voice. Jesus has come to give us life to the fullest if we will listen to His voice, the voice of our Good Shepherd. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, hey, hey, welcome to the Daily Drive. It is February 28th, and you know what that means. Yep. My wife Debbie was born on this day about 33 years ago. I'll give her take a few. I was so grateful for her. She is the best, so happy birthday, Debbie Watts, Bro. And it might not be your birthday, but I'm grateful for you as well. And whatever you're doing or wherever you are, thanks for joining us as we unpack a little chunk of God's Word for a few minutes each weekday. My name is Bro, and I'm grateful for your desire. to get to know Jesus better. And that's what we've been doing as we walk through the gospel of John.

Again, gospel just means good news. And John, one of Jesus' closest friends, writes down some of the highlights he experienced with Jesus so that we might grow to believe and respect and worship and emulate and love Jesus as well. We're starting chapter 10 today. And it is a carryover from chapter 9 when Jesus heals the blind man and then calls out the religious leaders for being blind to the needs of others

and claiming to see God when they obviously couldn't. In fact, God was standing right in front of them. So Jesus continues his dialogue with them, and he uses an illustration of sheep and sheep pens and shepherds and gates. He says, very truly, I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way is a thief and a robber. Now, political and religious leaders in the ancient world

were often referred to as shepherds, and Jesus asserts that not everyone who claims to be a shepherd actually is one. In fact, he calls them thieves and robbers by how they gain entry into people's lives. Most of the religious leaders of Jesus Day gain entry not because they cared for the sheep, the people, but through political connections and formal education, financial status, heritage, ambition, and corruption. Yeah, I told you in the beginning that this daily study is personal for me, that I just wanted to go through John on my own this year, and so I thought I'll just invite the listeners to go through it with me,

so please know that this is not so much a deep, scholarly, expository dissection of these verses as it is a guy who's simply trying to apply God's truth to his life. So I've got to tell you, as a pastor, this rocked me. I circled and highlighted these verses to remind me that it's all about people, people that God loves deeply, because it's so easy to fall in this stuff. selfish ambition and self-righteousness and entitlement and celebrity status and approval-seeking and political aspirations, even kind of a martyr mentality if you don't check yourself.

So I wrote in the margin of my Bible, shepherds genuinely love sheep. They live with them, they look like them, they smell like them, and they know they need a shepherd too. Jesus is drawing contrast between these phony shepherds and himself. Back in those days, several flocks may be kept in a pen to, together at night and a gatekeeper would grant access to the shepherd and his particular sheep would hear his familiar voice and go with him so jesus says verse two the one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep the gatekeeper the one who knows the real shepherd opens the gate for him and the sheep listened to his voice he calls his own sheep by name he's personal with them and leads

them out when he has brought out all of his own he goes on ahead of them and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. I love this. They follow him because they know his voice. You know, sheep don't see very well, but they hear extraordinarily. And they are around their particular shepherd so often that they can hear his voice exclusively above anyone else's. They don't just follow anybody.

And I want to be so dialed in to a relationship with Jesus that when he speaks, I listen and I follow where he leads me. Jesus continues, but they never will follow a stranger. In fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice. The Pharisees are shaking her heads going, like what? What's your point? And Jesus says, let me explain. I am the gate for the sheep. All those who have come before me are thieves and robbers,

but the sheep, the real sheep, the ones tuned to God's voice, have not listened to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved. they will come in and go out. You see, shepherds don't drive sheep. You've heard about maybe seen a cattle drive, but you've ever seen a sheep drive? Nope, because sheep follow the shepherd,

and they find pasture that way. He says, verse 10, the thief, I think a reference to Satan here and all the false shepherds comes only to kill, steal, and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. Now, the word used here for full or abundant

means a surplus, more than enough of what really matters. Deep, deep contentment. Makes me think of David's famous Psalm 23 where he says, The Lord is my shepherd. I lack for nothing. I got a surplus of green pastures and quiet waters and perfect guidance and protection and comfort courage in the face of death, a right perspective on life

and a security of being with the shepherd every day on into eternity. And that's the kind of life that Jesus offers when he says, I have come to give you life to the full. And it's a far cry from what mere religion offers us. He is the gate to eternal life, which starts right now. So let's put a bookmark right there, and let's pick this up tomorrow. Hope you have a great day. Thanks for tuning in today.

For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. For more information, visit lakepoint.com. Church slash daily drive.