John O takes us through Psalm 32:1-11 to help us understand that God's Perfect Joy is Reserved for Forgiven People, Not Perfect Ones.
2021 Session 3: I Am The Good Shepherd
This evening Pastor D opens by reading from the next eight verses from John 10:
11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
As we discovered in the previous session, He’s “the door” but now we learn Jesus is also the “good shepherd”. In order for us to get into the sheepfold, we must go through the door and through the shepherd.
The good shepherd not only protects his sheep but is willing to die for them. Why? Because there is an intimacy and closeness between him and the sheep. As the sheep, we know this and can recognize his voice. We know he gives us protection, care and recognize the benefits we get from following the shepherd. The issue is we as the sheep are prone to wander when we don’t get what we want. Pastor D explains two reasons why some of us struggle with our belief in Jesus.
1. We haven’t gotten to know the shepherd well enough so therefore we never have experienced his goodness.
2. Because of not experiencing his goodness we just keep on roaming around looking for better places, more satisfaction, more fulfillment, or places outside of God just like the sheep.
The word of God is a gift given to us from God that from the more we know it more connected we are to Christ.
Pastor D explains three things to look at if you are struggling with closeness and intimacy with God.
1. What do we do about being intentionally about spending time with God?
2. What does your prayer life look like?
3. You’ve simply left the sheepfold/community.
Jesus is the good shepherd that will die for his sheep and he’s not done saving his people and he wants us all to come to him.
2019 Session 3: The Lordship of Christ
We ended our first full day of New Years Conference talking about Christ’s lordship in our lives. Mack opened the session with a quote about our days. “There are two days we are really worried about, “today and “The Day”, meaning the day we stand before God.”, Mack Stiles.
Mack explained the lordship of Christ through a passage many have heard before:
I Never Knew You
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Matthew 7:21-23.
The fall of most people is not making Jesus the Lord of their lives, they do this because they desire to be their own god. If that is not the tendency of those people, it is they do not want God to mess up or change their lifestyles. They point to themselves and claim they are the reason they are able to get to Heaven. The tendency to make this claim is a tendency of a self-righteous person. God is the only one who makes a person righteous. Mack explains in detail that our desire should not be that we know Christ, but that Christ knows us and for Jesus to claim knowing us. Mack closes by asking eight important questions for the audience to ask themselves to investigate if they know God and He knows them.