I Am the Good Shepherd: John 10

Well, I missed church Sunday due to ill­ness and finally heard the pod­cast of Sunday’s ser­mon. As such, my It’s Monday arti­cle is get­ting posted on Saturday. Sigh! Anyway, as typ­i­cal, the ser­mon wasn’t typ­i­cal. Both pas­tor Bart and pas­tor Jeff preached por­tions of the ser­mon. It was a very chal­leng­ing ser­mon. To sum it up: We need to have an inti­mate rela­tion­ship with God and fol­low Him, no mat­ter what or where He would lead. We can do this because we know that the Good Shepherd has laid down His life that we may live.

We were chal­lenged with a lot of questions:

1. Do you have a per­sonal rela­tion­ship with Christ?
2. Does Jesus know your name?
3. Where is God lead­ing you?
   1. What does God want you to give up?
   2. Who would God have you forgive?
   3. What new thing would God have you do?

Quite frankly, you need to lis­ten to the ser­mon and let God chal­lenge you for my words are a poor substitute.

So how am I going to respond? I believe this ser­mon is a con­tin­u­a­tion of God’s chal­lenges to me. I have had a lot of changes in my life over the past year and I believe God is not fin­ished with those changes. I don’t know nec­es­sar­ily where He is going to lead me next but I am going to do my best to fol­low His voice and go where I may not want to go but if He is there, I shall follow.

Pastor Bart started his ser­mon with Psalm 23 [show]Psalm 23 The LORD is my shep­herd; I shall not want. [2]He makes me lie down in green pas­tures. He leads me beside still waters. [3]He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of right­eous­ness for his name’s sake. [4]Even though I walk through the val­ley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they com­fort me. [5]You pre­pare a table before me in the pres­ence of my ene­mies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup over­flows. [6]Surely good­ness and mercy shall fol­low me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD for­ever.
. It is a good Psalm to com­mit to mem­ory and apply to one’s heart. For no mat­ter where the Good Shepherd would lead me, I will fol­low, be it the green pas­tures, the refresh­ing waters, or that dark val­ley where fear and doubt resides. He will be there for me, to pro­tect me, and to pro­vide for all my needs.