Sheep Without a Shepherd

Transcript

Well, good afternoon everyone, and welcome.  Welcome especially those of you who are visiting with us today.  I know we have a few folks who are in for the upcoming Foundation Institute Continuing Education Seminar that will start on Monday.  I don’t know how many may be here, but I’ve seen a few.  I know for those who perhaps remember a year and a half or so ago, David Maczek was in, was able to be in some of our FI classes from Australia.  He and his wife Jodie are both here now; and certainly please go by, get to know them.  Just please remember that at this point it’s about 10:30 at night for them.  So, it’s kind of fun to make those adjustments.  If you ever make that trip from Australia to here basically you get here before you leave.  It’s a strange experience to go through that, but nonetheless, those adjustments are there.  So, again, welcome to those who are here.

We have about three people who had to cancel out on our seminar coming up because of some health issues that they had.  But we still have a good sized group coming in; we’re very excited about that, beginning on Monday.  I believe we have probably finished accepting all of those that will apply this year for Foundation Institute as well.  That actually begins four weeks from this coming Monday.  It looks like we’ll have a class of about eighteen or so that will be taking part in that as well.  So we’re very pleased with that and excited about it.  

Others around the office are making trips.  If you watched In Accord, you know that Mr. Horchak explained that he and his wife would be leaving, I believe it’s Wednesday or Tuesday, I forget which it is, but one of those they’re leaving for almost three weeks over in Africa, southern Africa, to be with the brethren there in Zambia, Zimbabwe, and also into South Africa as well.  The Franks are supposed to be in Bogota, Colombia today.  The other day Mr. Franks was busily putting together his sermon about the church and prophecy, and was very eager to give that down in Bogota today, and he got an email from Mr. Eduardo Herndandez down there who let him know that “we are so excited about you coming.  In fact, we just distributed your sermon on the church and prophecy.”  So, Mr. Franks said, “Hmm, I guess I’d better work on a different sermon.”  So we’ll see what came about today as he put that together.

As I was working on the sermon here, I know that I have this one today, and then my wife and I are supposed to be going to Austin and San Antonio that week that you all are going to be over at South Fork, so I’m kind of hoping they won’t post this sermon and I can still give it down in Austin and San Antonio.  I figured two ways that I could ensure that:  one was if I say something really stupid, then they can’t post it, so I thought about that.  That’s easy to do.  I may end up doing that anyway, who knows?  We’ll find out as we go further.  The other way is, you probably can’t tell that this shirt has little tiny stripes in it, and stripes just play all kinds of havoc with those little digital cameras.  So I’m hoping, one way or another that I have sabotaged them and I can still give this sermon a couple of weeks from now.  We’ll see how that works out.

When I took the International Relations class in Ambassador College the instructor produced a lot of moans and groans on the first day of class, because as we started the class he announced that we’re going to begin by everyone taking a short answer essay test.  Of course, that always produces a wonderful response in students, but okay, that’s the way the class was going to begin.  So he began giving us the questions, and he said, “Don’t take a lot of time, just write a few notes down, short answer, so that we can progress along.”  Question number one was:  he described the situation between the Israelis and the Arab nations around them (this was shortly after the 1967 Six-Day War), basically described that situation and said, “Okay, Question one is: Describe what the core issues are in the area there, and what you would do to bring peace to this area.”  Okay.  Second question talked about southeast Asia (the Vietnam War was going on at the time), and basically the question was: “Okay, write down again what the basic issues are and how you would bring peace to that area.”  Ah, it’s going to be a little hard with all of the…but, you know, okay, let’s try it.  This is the first day of class.  Seven more questions came along, one after another, pretty much the same vein.  Describing long-term conflicts, wars, overwhelming international situations that we didn’t really know what to do about, and asking us to describe how to resolve those problems.  What would we do?  The questions dealt with situations like well, the increase in desertification and the desperate lack of water in many parts of the world, the problem with the population explosion in the poorest countries, and the impact of that increasing demand on the very limited and finite ability to produce food and use natural resources.  

Some of you may remember about that time there was a book that came out.  It was required reading for us at the time.  I don’t particularly recommend it for you today.  The book was called Famine 1975! and the subtitle was America’s Decision: Who Will Survive?  It was written by two brothers, William and Paul Paddock.  And the Paddock brothers basically looked at the trends of what was taking place in society at the time, and they said if you graph how rapidly population is increasing, and you graph as well man’s ability to produce food and the resources that are available, about 1975 there’s a crossover point, and there’s not enough food for all the people that are going to be there.  So there’s going to be widespread famine, some nations, of course, affected worse than others.  So what do we do about it?  If we do nothing, everybody starves.  So what possible solution could we come up with?  The Paddock brothers proposed what we might call an international triage.  Those of you maybe who have had some medical training, you’re familiar with the term triage.  Basically what it means is that when you encounter a medical emergency and there are a number of casualties involved and people who need help, and you have limited resources to be able to meet those needs, that you divide those victims into three different categories.  The first category are those people who have injuries, but even if you don’t get to them right away, they may be uncomfortable and you do eventually need to get to them, but they’ll be okay for a while.  The second category is for those people who have injuries and they’re serious injuries, but if you can get them the medical help that they need quickly enough, then they have a good chance of survival.  And the third group are those people who have serious injuries and when you evaluate them, you know that, quite honestly, with the limited resources that you have, you’re not going to be able to save them.  They’re going to die anyway.  So you put them in that third category and you focus your resources where you can do some good.  Difficult choice to make.  Triage is not something you want to do.  I’m sure that there are many people who would rather do just about anything else in an emergency instead of making those decisions.  But it’s a recognition that if you’re going to survive – if people are going to get the help they need – you have to ration out your resources where they’re going to do some good.  Difficult process.  Triage can take other forms.  My wife and I took a community emergency response team training a number of years ago that was a lot more advanced first aid kind of training than what you normally get, and we had a different kind of triage there, but nonetheless the idea was there.  The Paddocks looked at the international scene and they said, “Here are these nations out there and frankly, when the time comes that there aren’t enough resources, there are nations, probably ones--they said--like Bangladesh and some of those that no matter how much food you pour in there, you’ll never get enough food to keep them alive.  And if you put it there, then you’re going to have other people starving who might be able to survive.”  So they suggested an international triage that the United States, being the most powerful nation, would be the one to make many of the decisions to say, okay, this nation, we’re going to be able to send food to because if we do, they’re going to be able to survive this.  They may need some extra help but if we get them the food soon enough, they’ll be alright.  There are other nations that we can even maybe not even send that much and they’ll be okay.  But there are some of those nations out there no matter how much you pump in there, it’s not going to do any good.  So what you need to do is basically just fence them off until they die out.  A pretty painful decision to make.  

Now, thankfully, famine didn’t come in 1975.  But that wasn’t because man came up with a solution.  The scripture still tells us that famine is coming.  It hasn’t come because God hasn’t chosen yet to withdraw His blessing.  But that day will come.  That problem really isn’t solved.  It’s just delayed.  And we’re asked what would we do?  How would you solve that problem?

I don’t remember for sure, but we were probably asked a question about, well, what about the global cooling and the predictions of a coming ice age, because that was very popular at the time, though the majority of climate scientists really didn’t accept the idea.  There were significant ones who did, and articles in Time magazine and various other places predicted a coming ice age.  What would you do about that?  How do you solve that problem?

It didn’t take very long for us as students to realize that this wasn’t a real test.  It wasn’t a test we were going to receive a grade on.  It was an exercise...an exercise to focus our minds, our attention on the complexity, the intransigence, the problems that exist in the world around us.  And asking us young people prepared to go out into that world, if we knew the real solutions for the problems that the greatest minds down through the ages have never been able to resolve.

In a few moments, I think all of us put down our pens, and we just simply listened as problem after problem, crisis after crisis were placed in front of us, and we were asked to propose some kind of a viable solution.  And then came question ten.  It was a question really that could only have been asked in an environment like Ambassador College or perhaps Sabbath services in the Church of God.  Question ten was the only one that we all unquestionably got right.  Question ten was: “Are you ready to rule?”  We all got that one.  Pretty clear.  After looking at what the problems really are, it’s pretty clear…no, none of us felt we were ready for that.  We all know the prophecies about the saints living and reigning with Jesus Christ.  We’ve read the words and we talk about the prophecies and what they tell us…the words that tell us the prophecies that say that we’re to be kings and priests ruling with a rod of iron.  We’re right now less than twelve weeks from the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles and all the emphasis that it gives us on the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ and reigning together with the saints.  And as we think about it, it’s exciting.  It’s exciting to look forward to that, to think not just about the Feast itself, but of the ultimate fulfillment of that Feast message –  what it tells us, what it means for us, what it means for all of mankind.  The Gospel message is, without a doubt, the most remarkable, encouraging message of hope the world could ever hear, and it’s certainly right for you and me to think about it, and how it applies to the future that’s ahead.  That’s one of the reasons why God has us observe those festivals year after year after year…so we never lose sight of what that plan is...of what God’s prophecies are…of what God has guaranteed in His Word.  But after a week filled with the gruesome tragedies that we’ve seen in this past week, you cannot help but sometimes wonder how do we get from where we are today to that world of universal peace and prosperity and plenty for everybody?  

You know, sometimes in the ministry as we talk about how we’re supposed to carry out our responsibilities and what it should be like for God’s people to come to services on the Sabbath, yes, we focus upon the fact that God’s people ought to be able to look forward to services on the Sabbath.  They ought to be able to look forward to coming in and being inspired and encouraged.  After a week of battling Satan’s world out there, and all the things that come upon us, Sabbath services ought to be a place of safety, a refuge, a hope.  Sabbath services ought to give us a boost that when you come in, no matter what you’ve been through, you walk out of here ready to face another week with excitement and the recognition of what our calling is about.  That’s all important.  It really is.  I’d planned to give a sermon today that was along those lines.  But the events of this week just made me look at this and say, “You know, I don’t want to depress people.”  And I certainly hope the message I give you today is not depressing.  It’s not intended to be.  But I also don’t think it’s reasonable to see the things that are taking place and to just close our eyes and walk away as if there’s nothing really serious going on and everything’s just onward and upward for us good old’ Christians.  Sometimes we have to look at these things.  Sometimes we have to face them.  And I hope that as we go through this today, the message is not one that’s depressing, but I certainly expect it to be sobering and point us to a perspective that can give us the direction that we need to have as we live in a world that is convulsing around us.

As a Christian, what should my attitude be about the monumental tragedies and problems that seem to fill the headlines every day?  Does God expect me to come up with solutions for those problems right now?  Does God expect me to ignore those problems right now?  Should Christians be involved in campaigning for political parties and political leaders and political solutions?  Can we vote our way to peace and happiness and security and prosperity?  Would it help if more Christians were in the military, because, after all, Christians will be able to more righteously kill the bad guys?  Is that really a solution?  Does God want me to lie awake at night agonizing over the problems, or does He want me instead to live in some kind of blissful ignorance and be unmoved by the human suffering we see?  What is the right mindset for a Christian in an end-time world?  What is the mindset that we could have?

Quite honestly, in one sense, we could turn to one scripture, you probably don’t even have to turn to it because you’ve already memorized it, and it’s not that long.  And just all go home.  Because quite honestly, it does answer the question.  I won’t let you do that.  Well, I can’t stop you if you do want to go home after I read the scripture, but I think there’s a little more to it, and I think it’s worth considering a little bit more.  But as I said, it’s probably a scripture you’ve memorized, and you may not even want to turn to it.  As soon as I tell you what it is, many of you will know what it is.  Philippians chapter 2 and verse 5.  If I asked the question, “What is the mindset a Christian should have in this world?” Philippians 2:5 gives me the answer:

Philippians 2:5  “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”

Yeah, that’s a pretty good answer.  The answer of what my mindset should be … how I should approach things… how I should look at this world when I read the headlines or see the videos or whatever it may be that tell me about what’s going on in this world, the mindset I want to have is the mindset Jesus Christ has.  That’s the right one.  I have no question about that.  That answers my question.  What is that mindset?  How does Jesus Christ look upon this world?  What does it tell me about the way I’m supposed to live my life and the outlook I’m supposed to have?

We understand that having the mind of Jesus Christ is vital if we want to be a part of God’s family, if we want to participate in the Kingdom that’s prophesied by the gospel proclamation.  And we also realize, not necessarily from scripture, but from looking in the spiritual mirror, that having the mind of Jesus Christ can be challenging at times.  It’s not the easiest thing to do.  There’s more to it than simply deciding we’re going to think a certain way.  Since we know we are to have the mind of Jesus Christ, just what is Jesus Christ’s mind as He views this world and the events that we’ve seen, for example, in the last week?  If I can understand that, well then I can understand how I need to think and what He expects of me.  

The situations in this world … situations that lead to the tragedies in the daily headlines … they’re often complex and they often defy any of our attempts to find solutions.  Some people focus their efforts on trying to figure out who’s to blame, because if we can figure out who’s to blame and punish the people who are to blame, then somehow we’ve solved the problem.  That really doesn’t solve the problem, does it?  It doesn’t really bring about a solution in the way that we need.  The more we look at the incidents, the harder it is to assign the blame properly.

Think about, for example, two situations that we’ve seen in the news this week that we’re all very much familiar with.  The downing of the Malaysia Airlines jet over the Ukraine.  Examine the history of that particular area of the world.  The Ukraine was a part of Russia until 1917 when the Russian Republic began to fall apart, or I don’t know if you even called it the Republic…whatever it was under the czars began to fall apart under the revolution that took place.  It soon became a part of what no longer exists today, but many of us remember very well as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics…USSR.  You look back through its history, especially in the 1930’s, about fifteen years after it came into existence, there’s a terrible famine in the Ukraine, much of it caused because Joseph Stalin used the famine to eliminate people he didn’t like.  Seven million Ukrainians starved to death under the rulership of the Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin.  During that period of time the intellectuals were sent away.  They were killed or they were sent to Siberia.  And of course it wasn’t too many years after that until the events of World War II took place and they were dominated by … the area was ruled over by the Nazis and during that period of time four million more were killed …almost the entire Jewish population destroyed.

In the early 1990’s, they finally gained a degree of independence as the Soviet Union fell apart and they became their own nation.  They conducted a ballot.  Ninety percent of the people voted for independence.  They wanted to be independent of Russia.  And of course since that period of time, the remaining ten percent who have close ties to Russia began battling back, wanting to return to be a part of Russia once again.  And as you follow the story, you find that Mr. Putin, the Soviet president, is basically following the reasoning that Adolf Hitler used when he annexed Austria and Czechoslovakia prior to World War II.  Oh, we have ethnic Russians there.  They want to be a part of Russia.  We have to help them and protect them.  And so they arm them with things like Buk anti-aircraft missiles.  And as we look at the situation that took place this week, we find three hundred innocent people, who had nothing to do with any of that history, anything about it, lost their lives in what probably …what seems to be one colossal mistake.  Oops, didn’t mean to shoot that one down.  Three hundred lives snuffed out.  Brings back memories of Lockerbie in 1988 and the other situations that are so very similar to that.  But whether this occurred because of the Russians or the Ukrainians or the separatists…who is it that’s in the right? It becomes very clear … nobody is in the right.  No one. 

Probably the other big news item this week that we have focused upon is what’s going on in Israel and the struggle between Hamas and Israel as the IDF invades Gaza and tries to root out the rocket batteries and so on that are there.  This is a problem that has existed for centuries, but the latest round seems to have been aggravated when three Israeli teenage boys were kidnapped by some terrorists…that’s the best you can say…and executed and their bodies left in a shallow grave.  Israelis looked for them for about three weeks and finally found them.  And of course when the word came out, immediately there were those who were crying out for revenge.  Now when you look at the history of the way modern Israel has functioned, one of their mottos from the early days was “If you throw a rock at me, I’ll throw five at you.”  The idea is that if we’re just bigger and meaner and more destructive than the enemies are, then they’ll quit being our enemies.  And all of us are old enough to see how well that’s worked out.

The cries for vengeance came out and as I thought about it, I thought “what would it be like to be a Palestinian parent at this point?”  You’ve got a seventeen-year-old son; you’re not out to kill anybody.  I mean, quite honestly, we’ve had the privilege of being in Israel three times, and we’ve found that there are some Israelis who are just delightful people, and we’ve found some who are spoiling for a fight.  We’ve found Palestinians who are absolutely some of the most hospitable, delightful, kindest people you would ever meet on earth; and we’ve found others that you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley.  You find all of that.  Suppose you’re a Palestinian parent.  You know, you’re not trying to kill anybody.  You just want to live peacefully where you are.  You want to carry out your business.  You have your family, and you have a seventeen-year-old son who likewise is not doing anything wrong.  But at that point your son is a target.  Your son is a target for people who want vengeance for something that someone did that you don’t know anything about.  And sure enough it didn’t take long till that started up as well.  We find the situation taking place with Hamas in the Gaza Strip beginning to send missiles.  Now they were doing it already.  There were always a few but they began a barrage of missiles into Israel.  And Israel feels a need to respond.  Now I wonder sometimes how difficult it is for us to understand, because the areas, the distances, and so on are really quite small.  It’s hard for us, I think, in a sense, we live in an area like this, to even get a picture.  I mean, if you took Israel and you put the area of Israel into the state of Texas, you could do that thirty-one times, and still have room left over.  Israel is a small place.  

If you would please, go ahead and bring up that map for me.  I’ve asked them to…I found a web site the other day that would let me outline one place and put it on another map.  Now I only can show you one side here so I’m going to use this one over here.  But what I did is I basically put (it’s kind of hard to see the little red dot because the slide is so light) but here’s Dallas and I basically put Dallas where Jerusalem is.  Okay?  So you get a picture of the perspective.  Gaza is out here in Weatherford.  So the folks in Weatherford are lobbing missiles into Fort Worth.  Now I’m not trying to be, you know, humorous about it, but I mean, just try to put it in the perspective of where we are today.  Waco, down here, that’s about Beersheba.  This is the Red Sea down here below that.  So occasionally these folks out in Weatherford, they’re lobbing missiles into Fort Worth, into Irving, occasionally into Dallas, maybe Plano, McKinney, Denton every once in a while.  Missiles lobbed in there, too.  What do you do?  You sit back and say, “You know, we need to send a delegation out to those folks in Weatherford.  It’s probably those folks down in Austin who are sending missiles to them.  And we need to send a group out to Weatherford, and we’ll just talk to them, you know.  I’m sure they’ll stop.”  But it doesn’t work that way, does it?

Again, you get the picture of how small the distances are as you look at Israel and what’s taking place there.  What do you do if you live there?  How do you respond?  Do you let them just keep sending the missiles, or what do you do?  So, you can go ahead and take them – the map – down.  Thank you.  Appreciate your help with that.  

So we find that over the last week or so, as the Israelis have come in and sent the IDF into Gaza, there have been something over three hundred people in Gaza have been killed.  Undoubtedly some of those folks are innocent, some of them aren’t.  But that’s the nature of warfare, isn’t it?  It’s so often the innocent who are killed.  Now we may see that and the world is upset with Israel over it, but do you realize as well that though it isn’t in the headlines every day, there are basically that many people being killed every day in Syria at the same time?  And on and on it goes.  We look at the list and we have the turmoil in Iraq, the nuclear threat from Iran, the increasing tensions in the Far East between China and Japan, the threat of rogue nations like North Korea and that only touches the surface of the problems that exist today.  

We’re all familiar with the passage in 2 Timothy chapter 3.  I want to look at it, but I’m not going to read all the verses that are involved.  I really just want to focus on one word.  It’s in 2 Timothy 3, the first five verses.  Again, we’ve all read this.  The Apostle Paul writing to Timothy in the very last letter that he wrote.  Look forward to what’s going to be going on in the end time.  What’s it going to be like?  If people have the attitudes that they do now, and those attitudes…I mean this… I perhaps should back up and explain what I’m saying here.  This is not a revelation from God that Paul claims.  He doesn’t say “God gave me a vision in the night like Daniel or like John or some of the other prophets.”  He just simply basically looks at human nature the way people are living, what they’re doing, the decisions that they’re making, and he said “If this goes forward, what’s it going to be like when we get to the end?”  And that’s basically what he’s describing here.  So he begins this in verse 1 saying,

2 Timothy 3:1  “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come.”

The word perilous is a fascinating word.  As so often happens when you try to translate from one language to another, there is no adequate English word to explain what that Greek word means.  I’m not even going to try to pronounce the Greek word.  It’s not a difficult one, but it’s just not particularly significant in the sense of pronouncing it.  What does the word mean?  Perilous?  Okay, there is a sense of peril involved in it.  Dangerous?  Yeah.  What does it say?  I think the old King James may say grievous.  Okay.  That’s a part of it.  What does it mean?  Here’s a quote from William Barclay’s Daily Study Bible.  He says “This word is used in Matthew 8:28.”  (I’m not turning back there, but you know the story.)  “This word is used in Matthew 8:28 to describe the two Gergesene demoniacs” (those men from…that were demon-possessed that Jesus Christ came across) “who met Jesus among the tombs.  They were violent and dangerous.  It was used in Plutarch (one of the Roman writers) to describe what we would call an ugly wound.  It is used by ancient writers to describe what we would call a threatening situation.  There is the idea of menace and of danger in this word.”  The phrase that Plutarch uses to describe an ugly, infected, almost gangrenous wound, I think is a good word to describe what this means when he describes these days.  You would see someone who has been injured perhaps in a battle and that wound, well, it isn’t healing properly.  If you’ve ever been involved in first aid and medical things, you know that for a deep wound to heal, it’s got to heal from the inside out; you can’t let it close over at the top.  And if does, you’re going to have terrible infection and sepsis begin to set in.  That’s the kind of wound it describes here.  That’s what this word describes.  You’ll look at it and you can see there’s more to this than just what you see on the surface.  This is life-threatening.  This is something that’s very serious and painful.  All of this is embodied in the word that Paul chose to use for what these last days would be like.  Now those next four verses, verse two through verse five, I’m not going to read, but those verses certainly describe a world in which people are focused on the wrong way…where the mind of Jesus Christ is not what’s guiding anybody.  And instead we see a world with attitudes, approaches, actions, deeds, thoughts that are so totally contrary to everything that is the way a Christian is supposed to think.  So what is the mind of Jesus Christ as He views that world that infected almost gangrenous world?  What is the mind of Jesus Christ?

Well, actually, there’s another section of scripture that we can go to and I know you’ve heard it, you’ve read it as well.  It’s in Matthew chapter 9.  Let’s turn there.  Matthew chapter 9.  Because it tells us here, Matthew is given under inspiration, not only what took place, it’s not just a historian’s account.  It’s an account of what the mind of Christ was in this situation.  We pick it up here toward the end of Matthew chapter 9.  And we begin in verse 35.

Matthew 9: 35  “ Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.”

I mean, how could you be more positive?  Isn’t this a wonderful time of rejoicing?  Isn’t this a time when people are going to say “Look what’s happening.  God’s Spirit is there.  The healings from God are being poured out.”  This is…this man who’s speaking is a prophet of God.  The voice of prophecy that’s been silent for four centuries is alive again.  Some wonderful things are happening.

Verses 36-38  “But when He (Jesus) saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary  and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.  Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.’”

He looked out and saw these people, and we are told that what was His mind was a mind of compassion…a mind that looked upon those of this world with all the foolish and evil and sinful things they were doing, and instead of it being a mind that condemned, it was a mind that looked on them and saw them like sheep who don’t have a shepherd.  The mindset of Jesus Christ is that of a shepherd.  Unfortunately for us, we are so often disconnected from the world of agriculture that many of the metaphors that so poignantly are used in the scriptures are often lost on us, because in this modern world we just simply don’t have that contact.  Some of you who are a little older, probably you have had more experience with perhaps caring for livestock and things along those lines.  Mine’s been interesting but somewhat limited, I have to admit.  And sometime, thankfully, caring for cattle and horses and chickens and some of those things, and one Billy goat that never got along with me, but, that was his fault.  But nonetheless, you know, I think about some of those things, and it’s similar to, again, some of you have had farming background and you know what it’s like to work with the land.  And to not just see the land as property, as a place to build or to plant or something along those lines, but to see the land as a partner, as a part of what you’re doing.  I think for a farmer, one of the sweetest smells is the smell of the earth when you turn it over in the spring.  A farmer, he has his livestock, and he’s very closely connected to it.  He probably, you know how it is, you even name them, you know.  They’re like their personalities.  And you see differences in those personalities.  When I was, years ago, taking care of …we had about a dozen horses that we took care of… and I saw the unique personalities of each of those animals.  And you appreciated, you recognized them.  I remember this one that I went out riding.  One morning we had some flooding and I took and rode one of the horses out to see if we could get out to the main road, and we came down to a spot where there was water about this deep, flowing across the road.  But it was reflecting, and he didn’t want to go across there.  So I had to get down and lead him across.  As I was getting back up on him he walked back across it again.  Yeah, I knew what kind of a horse he was, at that point.  You learn those things about the personalities, and you care about them.  And in the sense that it talks about here, Jesus Christ having the mindset of a shepherd, you know, the shepherd knows his flock, he knows the individuals that are there.  He knows the unique aspects of each of those creatures and the way that they work.  Yes, they’re just animals but at the same time they’re all unique and they’re all special.  And the shepherd is concerned about every one of them.  

There are many lessons that we can draw from the metaphor of shepherds and the sheep…a lot more than what we could possibly talk about today.  But they’re even telling us how we should see the world around us.  People today often fail to understand the genuine sense of care that people have who work with their livestock.  For a shepherd, because of the nature of the sheep, that bond is especially tender.  Sheep are the most fascinating creatures.  I had a roommate years ago when I first went to Ambassador College who had spent a great deal of his life caring for sheep.  And he had some fascinating stories that he told us about them.  I remember he gave us a lot of examples of how a shepherd has to deal with the sheep in the right way and in order to get things taken care of properly.  I remember one of the things he told us is he said, “You know, when you’re out there with the sheep,” and from the time he was twelve years old, he spent his whole summers by himself, taking care of the sheep on the mountains.  He said, “When you’re out there with the sheep,” he said, “it’s very important that you get up first and wake them up.  Because if they get up before…if you sleep in, you’re lazy, and you sleep in and you let them get up first, you will chase them all day long.  But if you’re the first one up, and you kind of wake them up, they’ll follow you the rest of the day.  They’re great.”

I remember seeing a movie one time…well, it wasn’t really a movie, it was kind of a documentary, but it was talking about the shepherds, a couple of different shepherds, who’d put their sheep into a pen at night, and the pen didn’t have a gate, but it was just kind of a couple of rods that crossed and closed it off, and in the morning, when they wanted to take the sheep out, they would go out and they would move the rods and call the sheep and they would begin to come out.  So it showed in this particular case that the shepherd had gone out and he moved the top rod and the sheep were excited…they wanted to get out in the pasture and start grazing, so they start jumping across the lower rod to get out.  Well, he bends down and he moves the lower rod, and all the sheep that come after that keep jumping because they’re following the ones that were before them.  That’s the way sheep are.  That’s the way they do things.  It’s not a bad trait.  It’s a nice trait.  There are some good lessons to learn.  But one of the things that you see as well, and I think it’s very much in the context of what Christ said here in Matthew 9, is that sheep without a shepherd are helpless.  Sheep are some of the most dependent animals on earth for having a shepherd.  If sheep don’t have a shepherd, then they’re frightened, they’re nervous, they’re never at peace.  Part of what, you know, again, a sheep, like a cow or some of the other animals we’re familiar with, is a ruminating animal that eats a certain amount, what it eats goes into the stomach, and then they chew the cud.  That’s a part of what God tells us that shows that it’s a clean animal.  But in order for this to take place, the sheep have to have some place, they have to have a certain amount of water, and it’s got to be still water.  They are frightened if the water’s flowing, so they are a little careful about that.  And they have to be able to kind of lie down for a while.  And during that period of time is when they chew the cud and they’re able to do this.  But if there’s no shepherd, they are constantly frightened and it’s very difficult for them to find any time to rest at all.  Sheep without a shepherd can often survive but they’ll never prosper.  They’ll never do well.  They need a shepherd; they need someone to care for them, someone to protect them, someone to lead them to pasture and to water and all the things that they need.  Someone to watch over as far as the diseases and the pests and all the things that can happen.  

Now we think about that metaphor of shepherds and I’m sure for many of us, we think about the ministry, because after all, the ministry is supposed to be shepherds for God’s people.  The word “pastor” is a word that simply means shepherd.  That’s what it means.  But the problem with thinking of it that way is that we may begin to assume that the pastors, the ministers, are the only one who are supposed to see themselves as shepherds, the only ones who are supposed to see the world through the eyes of a shepherd.  And that’s not what the scripture tells us.  

Jesus Christ saw Himself as a shepherd.  And we’re supposed to have the mind of Jesus Christ, so isn’t it logical that we should think the same way?  What does the scripture reveal about the shepherding of God’s people that is prophesied in the gospel message?  You see, Jesus Christ’s outlook as a shepherd didn’t begin in the New Testament.  He’s the God of the Old Testament.  Notice very briefly Psalm 80:1.  Psalm 80…I’m just going to read one verse there, but keep your place because we’ll go back a couple of pages from that.  Psalm 80 and verse 1.  And you’ll notice this cannot be talking about a minister or a servant in that way.

Psalm 80:1  “Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; (that may sound familiar; we sing that song occasionally in services) You who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth!”

No human being dwells between the cherubim.  It is God Himself who dwells between the cherubs, and He is described here as the Shepherd of Israel.  This is His approach, the shepherd.  Now we’ll see as we go further, He doesn’t confine it there.  When the God of the Old Testament chose a leader for His people, someone to stand not simply as a pastor, I mean, quite honestly when you look at it the office of pastor is a New Testament office; it wasn’t exactly that way in the Old Testament.  In fact, when you read about those who are to shepherd those ….who are to shepherd Israel in the Old Testament, you will find that most of the time it’s talking about leaders, governmental positions, people who are in a responsibility to be a king, a priest…as you may remember, we are told that someday we will be.  When the God of the Old Testament chose a leader for His people, He chose a shepherd.  Probably the first example of that is Moses.  Now again, maybe I shouldn’t say that’s the first example.  How about Abraham?  Abraham was a shepherd.  Now he was probably other things as well, but you remember that there was a division between Abraham and Lot because of their flocks.  Okay, so he was very much involved with that.  Moses, as we’ve talked about before, Moses was in this wonderful position of training, a position where he’s at the very head of leadership in the nation of Egypt, this powerful nation, and at age 40 he goes out, and again when you couple it with what it says in Acts chapter 7, Moses understood that God was going to use him to lead Israel out of slavery, and he goes out to the Israelites and he says, “I’m here to lead you” and they said, “Get out of our lives.”  And he had to flee for his life, and spent forty years taking care of sheep.  Because again, with all the things that Moses learned in his positions of responsibility, before he could lead God’s people, he had to learn about the sheep.  He had to learn how to care for sheep, creatures that without a shepherd are hopeless, lost, frightened, harried, and unable to rest.  Isn’t that a pretty good description of the world around us as we look at the people out there?  Harried, unable to rest, unable to find peace, searching desperately, and unable to find it.  

The next one we find, again, at least as an example that comes to the forefront, is a fellow named David.  David was a shepherd.  Let’s go a couple of pages back here in Psalms.  Psalm 78 is one of my favorite Psalms, but I’ll skip over a major portion of it and come toward the very end.  What do we find here?  As you pick it up along in verse 68 he talks about choosing the tribe of Judah, built his sanctuary, and so on, and then verse 70 we pick it up and notice what we find.

Psalm 78:70-72  “He (referring to God) also chose David His servant, And took him from the sheepfolds;  From following the ewes that had young He brought him, To shepherd Jacob His people, And Israel His inheritance.  So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.”

I think it’s interesting to note that as it’s written here, it describes David and his relationship with the sheep, and the specific example it uses is the ewes that had young.  What more tender way can there be than to deal with the ewes and their young lambs?  It shows a special approach David would have as he came to care for God’s people.  He was put in that position, not as a minister, not as a pastor, in that sense; he was put there as the king, someone who’s going to lead the nation, and it was his duty to lead as a shepherd.

When the shepherds lost sight of their responsibility, God was not pleased.  And in many cases he removed them from being shepherds.  Notice in Jeremiah chapter 50, verse 6.  Here’s how God describes His people.  He says:

Jeremiah 50:6  “My people have been lost sheep.” 

What does that mean?  What does it mean, “They’ve been lost sheep”?  When sheep are lost, when they get away from the flock, their safety is gone.  There are predators out there.  They have no way to protect themselves.  They are constantly on the alert, because they don’t know what’s out there.  Predators can be sneaking up on them.  They are in danger continually.  They don’t know where to go to find food, or water, or shelter, or any of those things.  A lost sheep is a pathetic sheep, and very often when the shepherd goes looking for that lost sheep and comes into view, he doesn’t have to chase that sheep down at all; it comes running.  It’s grateful for the shepherd, its protection.  There’s safety there.  God says:

Jeremiah 50:6  “My people have been lost sheep.  Their shepherds have led them astray;
They have turned them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill;
They have forgotten their resting place.”

Those who are supposed to be the leaders, those who are supposed to lead the people of God…and again, I’m not confining this to the church, I think it’s a mistake to confine it to the church.  All those folks out there are the people of God, and their leaders have led them astray.  Their educational leaders, their governmental leaders, their moral leaders have led them in directions that have left them lost.  Like harried, frightened, lost sheep they are wandering around and don’t know where to go, don’t know where to turn.

Let’s go back to Ezekiel 34.  There’s another passage here which talks about the shepherds failing in their responsibility.  I can tell you from experience that the pathway that the Church of God has taken over the past couple of decades has been a challenge for all of us, and I can tell you that there are people I know that have read through these passages and somehow feel that the reason God preserved these is because it gives an opportunity to be judges of those who are supposed to be ministers.  And as we look back over the past, have there been ministers who have been unfaithful shepherds?  Oh, yeah, there sure have.  But far too often people are eager to paint with a very broad brush.  If some were unfaithful, then we shouldn’t trust any of them.  Okay.  I can tell you that sometimes over the past couple of decades it’s been painful to be a minister of Jesus Christ.  Because those that you try to shepherd are sometimes suspicious and frightened, critical.  So I want to say that in light of what we’re going to read here in Ezekiel 34 because again I want you to understand that when it talks about shepherds it’s not just talking about ordained ministers.  Are they included?  Sure, and I would venture to say that virtually every ordained minister that I know has read these words and held them up to his mirror spiritually and said “Is this me?  Am I guilty?”  But shouldn’t that be something all of us do? 

Ezekiel 34:1-6  “And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, (now remember prophesy is a word that doesn’t necessarily involve a prediction of the future; it involves an inspired speaking.  Okay?  So speak under inspiration to the shepherds of Israel.) ‘prophesy and say to them, “Thus says the Lord God to the shepherds: ‘Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; (Oh, there were those in positions of responsibility and office, but there was nobody shepherding,) and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill; yes, My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them.’”’”

When you look at our world, and the leaders who are supposed to be a part of leading the people of well, the people of Jacob, the people of Israel, the people of this world, you find that far too often those who are in positions of power, abuse their power to serve themselves.

Let’s go back to Jeremiah again.  Jeremiah 13.  I want to pick up just a couple of verses here, and note what Jeremiah says.  And again, as you read through these words, think about the question we asked at the beginning… What is the mindset a servant of Jesus Christ should have in the end time?  Here’s what Jeremiah says:

Jeremiah 13:15-17  “Hear and give ear:  Do not be proud, For the Lord has spoken.  Give glory to the Lord your God Before He causes darkness, And before your feet stumble On the dark mountains, And while you are looking for light, He turns it into the shadow of death And makes it dense darkness.  (He says there’s an opening here, there’s an opportunity for you to respond but if you don’t, here’s what’s coming.  And then Jeremiah says,) But if you will not hear it, My soul will weep in secret for your pride; My eyes will weep bitterly And run down with tears, Because the Lord’s flock has been taken captive.”  (Taken captive by the god of this world in his evil ways.)

You read those words and you think this is the way Jeremiah looked at his world, at the people who were there.  Are there times for you and me when we feel much the same way?  We look at the tragedies and our eyes run with tears.  Is that not the mind that Jesus Christ has as He looks at this world?  But God promises that He will give the people the shepherds that they need.  A few pages further back…Jeremiah chapter 3.

Jeremiah 3:14  “’Return, O backsliding children,’ says the Lord; ‘for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.  And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.’”  

Who are those shepherds going to be?  Who is it that’s going to feed the people of God as a shepherd feeds the sheep and feeds them not just physically but with the knowledge and understanding of God?  I won’t turn to it, but in John chapter 10, verses 11-16, Jesus Christ takes upon Himself the title of “the Good Shepherd.”  And He describes His relationship with the people of God.  He describes His mindset.  He describes the mind that Jesus Christ has as He deals with His people, and if you read through that section, He also makes it clear that He is the Good Shepherd not just for Israel, but for the rest of mankind as well.  

There are many more passages that we could go through and read and consider that very tenderly describe the attitude and the approach of those whom God will use to shepherd all of mankind in the future.  If we’re faithful to our calling, then we must have the same attitude and spirit.  We must have the heart of a shepherd.  Do you ever ask God for that?  Do you ever go before God in your private personal prayers and ask God to give you the heart of a shepherd?  That’s a right thing for us.  As you look at the events in the world around you, do you feel the words of Jeremiah?  In Jeremiah 9 and verse 1 (I won’t even give you time to turn there; I’ll just read it to you).

Jeremiah 9:1  “Oh, that my head were waters, And my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night For the slain of the daughter of my people!”

In the midst of a very dangerous and painful world, we have been selected by God to be the bearers and the guardians of the only true message of hope.  We’ve been selected, and we’re being trained to be the shepherds who are going to assist Jesus Christ in shepherding all of those today and in the future who at this point have no hope at all, who are wandering about like lost sheep, frightened, fearful, confused, and hungry.  In Isaiah 40, my last passage, Isaiah 40 and verse 10.

Isaiah 40:10-11  “Behold, the Lord God shall come with a strong hand, And His arm shall rule for Him; Behold, His reward is with Him, And His work before Him.  (And we look forward to that, yes.  He comes with a strong arm.  He rules with a rod of iron.  Read the next verse.)  He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, And carry them in His bosom, And gently lead those who are with young.”

What will the rule of Jesus Christ be like?  It will be like the role of a shepherd.  What is the mindset that you and I should have?  The mindset of a shepherd.  So, I’ll conclude with one more question that I’ll leave with you.  Are you ready to rule?