CRCF\u201d\u201d9-19-10<\/p>\n
Last Sunday, we had the joy of baptizing 8 folks in Clear Creek. One of those\u201d\u201dMikey Owen\u201d\u201dtrusted Jesus during Sunday School that morning! He told us all\u201d\u201d\u201cI got my name wrote in The Forever Book!\u201d And, along with the angels of heaven, we rejoiced in that reality!<\/p>\n
What an amazing thought! We will live forever with God in heaven because we\u201d\u2122ve trusted His Son as our Savior! We deserve Hell, but we\u201d\u2122ll only ever know Heaven because of Jesus!<\/p>\n
You know, we can\u201d\u2122t rejoice in that enough, can we?<\/p>\n
But sometimes, we so focus on eternity that we miss an aspect of salvation that Jesus really wants us to understand. We miss what He\u201d\u2122s given us in our lives right now\u201d\u201dor at least what He wants to give us!<\/p>\n
Claiborne<\/p>\n
Few people are interested in a religion that has nothing to say to the world and offers them only life after death, when what people are really wondering is whether there is life before death . . . Jesus came not just to prepare us to die but to teach us how to live . . . No wonder the early Christian church was known as the Way. It was a way of life that stood in glaring contrast to the world. (117-118)<\/p>\n
Is There Life BEFORE Death?
\nJohn 10:1-18<\/p>\n
Following Jesus is about living the most real and satisfying life possible in this world!<\/p>\n
Campolo<\/p>\n
Even if there were no heaven and there were no hell, would you still follow Jesus? Would you follow Him for the life, joy, and fulfillment he gives you right now?<\/p>\n
Now, Campolo\u201d\u2122s question\u201d\u201dwhile unnecessarily dividing this life from eternity\u201d\u201dcertainly makes a point. Too often we think of Jesus as our ticket to Heaven\u201d\u201dnot as our Loving Shepherd Who guides and protects us daily in this life, showing us the way as we follow Him and listen to His voice.<\/p>\n
Following Jesus is about living the most real and satisfying life possible in this world!
\nJohn 10:1-18 (NLT)
\n\u201cI tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! 2 But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. 5 They won\u201d\u2122t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don\u201d\u2122t know his voice.\u201d
\n6 Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn\u201d\u2122t understand what he meant, 7 so he explained it to them: \u201cI tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. 9 Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures. 10 The thief\u201d\u2122s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
\n11 \u201cI am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. 12 A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don\u201d\u2122t belong to him and he isn\u201d\u2122t their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. 13 The hired hand runs away because he\u201d\u2122s working only for the money and doesn\u201d\u2122t really care about the sheep.
\n14 \u201cI am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, 15 just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.
\n17 \u201cThe Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. 18 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.\u201d
\nFollowing Jesus is about living the most real and satisfying life possible in this world!
\nJohn 10:10 (NLT)
\n10 The thief\u201d\u2122s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
\nMessage
\n10 A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.
\nFollowing Jesus is about living the most real and satisfying life possible in this world!
\nSheep Pen Slide
\nThe Bible scholar Sir George Adam Smith was one day traveling in Palestine with a guide, and came across a shepherd and his sheep. He fell into conversation with him. The man showed him the fold into which the sheep were led at night. It consisted of four walls, with a way in. Sir George said to him, “That is where they go at night?” “Yes,” said the shepherd, “and when they are in there they are perfectly safe.” “But there is no door,” said Sir George. “I am the door,” said the shepherd. He was not a Christian so he was not speaking the language of the New Testament. Rather, he was speaking from a Mid-Eastern shepherd’s point-of-view. Sir George looked at him and said, “What do you mean you are the door?” Said the shepherd, “When the light has gone, and all the sheep are inside, I lie in that open place, and no sheep ever goes out but across my body, and no wolf comes in unless he crosses my body; I am the door.”<\/p>\n
Following Jesus is about living the most real and satisfying life possible in this world!
\nAs we\u201d\u2122ve seen\u201d\u201dthis means that Jesus protects us and guides us through all of the ups and downs of life.<\/p>\n
Later in this same chapter, Jesus tells us just how secure we are with Him as our Shepherd.
\nJohn 10:28-29 (NLT)
\n28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, 29 for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father\u201d\u2122s hand.
\nBUT, does all of this mean that following Jesus is easy? A walk in the park? NO!<\/p>\n
Remember the works of Jesus from . . .
\nMatthew 16:24 (NLT)
\n24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, \u201cIf any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.
\nThere\u201d\u2122s nothing easy about denying ourselves, carrying a cross and following Him! It\u201d\u2122s life of death to self, crucifixion of our wants, and submission to Jesus\u201d\u2122 ways and desires for our lives.<\/p>\n
BUT, as Jesus tells us in another place, this life of self-denial and surrender to Him is actually the best life possible!
\nMatthew 11:28-30 (NLT)
\n28 Then Jesus said, \u201cCome to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.\u201d
\nFollowing Jesus is about living the most real and satisfying life possible in this world!
\nNIV Study Bible<\/p>\n
The life he gives right now is abundantly richer and fuller. It is eternal, yet it begins immediately. Life in Christ is lived on a higher plane because of his overflowing forgiveness, love and guidance.<\/p>\n
Remember\u201d\u201dwe\u201d\u2122re just dumb sheep!<\/p>\n
Listen to this description of how helpless we are\u201d\u201dand where we\u201d\u2122d end up if left to ourselves!<\/p>\n
Not only do they need protection from predators, they need protection from themselves. You have no doubt heard that sheep are some of the dumbest animals in all the animal kingdom. They are creatures of habit: They will graze the same hills until they become desert wastes. To there own destruction they will not move on. They are creatures of bad hygiene: They will pollute their own ground until it is run over with disease and parasite. To their own ill health they will live in their own filth. They are creatures with heavy coats: Their fleece can grow very long and become weighed down with mud, manure, burrs and debris. And when they lie down they can roll over. Once on their backs they cannot right themselves unless a shepherd comes and puts them back on their feet. To their own destruction they become burdened with things.
\nThat description of the behavior of sheep SO fits the way we as people will live, if left to ourselves, if we have no Shepherd that we follow as He protects and guides us!
\nFollowing Jesus is about living the most real and satisfying life possible in this world!
\nAnd our world cannot afford for us as followers of Jesus to focus only on eternity, living our day-to-day lives the same as everyone else. Our world needs Jesus\u201d\u2122 followers to live radically different lives as we follow HIM!<\/p>\n
Claiborne<\/p>\n
Today the church is tempted by the spectacular, to do big, miraculous things so people might believe; but Jesus has called us to littleness and compares our revolution to the little mustard seed, to yeast making its way through dough, slowing infecting this dark world with love.<\/p>\n
What the world needs is people who believe so much in another world that they cannot help but begin enacting it now.<\/p>\n
Conversion is not an event but a process, a process of slowly tearing ourselves from the clutches of the culture.<\/p>\n
Jesus came not just to prepare us to die but to teach us how to live . . . No wonder the early Christian church was known as the Way. It was a way of life that stood in glaring contrast to the world.
\nFollowing Jesus is about living the most real and satisfying life possible in this world!
\nOld Franciscan slogan<\/p>\n
Preach the gospel always. And when necessary, use words.<\/p>\n
Sister Margaret of The Simple Way<\/p>\n
We are trying to shout the gospel with our lives.<\/p>\n
If we\u201d\u2122re living the real and satisfying life that Jesus wants to give us, we\u201d\u2122ll look like He looked! Our lives will show God\u201d\u2122s grace and love and mercy and sacrifice. We won\u201d\u2122t be religious or self-righteous. In fact, we\u201d\u2122ll call out those who are and let the world know that\u201d\u2122s not Jesus! And, like Jesus, we\u201d\u2122ll get serious about hanging out with sinners and those that society throws away, no matter what even other church people say. We\u201d\u2122ll share our lives with those who are poor. We\u201d\u2122ll get radical about serving those without any other family and do the work that no one else will do, in Jesus\u201d\u2122 name so that they may know Him. Of course, we\u201d\u2122ll know opposition and suffering at the hands of a world that hates Jesus and His ways. But we\u201d\u2122ll know a joy, a rest, a fullness of life that can only be known by following in Jesus\u201d\u2122 steps!<\/p>\n
Mikey, I\u201d\u2122m so glad our name is written in the Forever Book. But now, Jesus wants us to allow Him to continue to write His story in and through our lives as we follow Him, as we show the world Who He is and what He\u201d\u2122s done by HOW WE LIVE.<\/p>\n
THAT is the most real and satisfying life possible in this world! Now, let\u201d\u2122s live it!<\/p>\n
Celebration of the Lord\u201d\u2122s Supper<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CRCF\u201d\u201d9-19-10 Last Sunday, we had the joy of baptizing 8 folks in Clear Creek. One of those\u201d\u201dMikey Owen\u201d\u201dtrusted Jesus during Sunday School that morning! He told us all\u201d\u201d\u201cI got my name wrote in The Forever Book!\u201d And, along with the … Continue reading