Jesus The Good Shepherd | Preston Morrison | Gateway Church

[Music] hello hello how was everybody doing well it seemed like you're in a really good mood i want to welcome everybody at our tempe campus i want to welcome everybody watching this on sunday morning and the 9 and the 11. i want to welcome all of you watching this online if you're wondering i am recording this on thursday night because tomorrow i am heading out with my family for a very much needed break to do a little bit of skiing and pretending like none of you exist i'm just kidding i'm just kidding i'll i'll be really glad just to be with my family for a little bit um it's been a good run here for a little while and some really great things happening uh but how many of you know we need a we need a break from time to time anybody else am i the only one okay good good good well if you've uh oh for those of you who are detail oriented and you're watching uh especially online and you see that my shirt's a little bit wet my clothes are a little bit wet uh i've baptized i had the pleasure of getting to baptize a friend tonight and so you know you kind of get wrapped up in the moment you hug somebody and then you realize i don't have a change of clothes and i'm all wet but i'm pretty sure it's worth it you know what i mean uh that's i was thinking back in the green room just laughing about being wet and you know when your clothes get wet the water just kind of starts moving fur it starts taking over your whole body you know and you can feel it i was just giggling about it and i said lord you know i imagine when i get to heaven uh and you ask me how did 2021 go how would you describe 2021 what's the best thing to happen i'm sure i'll have a bunch of things but i have this feeling that one of the ways that you'll remember 2021 is i think you might say ah that was the year justice got saved and got baptized i just had this moment in the back you know i just think sometimes maybe we get so wrapped up in big numbers that we forget how big one number really is and uh that's that's a life-changing moment and what a what a special thing well if you've got a bible way to turn to john chapter 10 and put a marker in psalm 23 if you have your phone as your primary bible it's gonna be tough to put a marker in psalm 23 just remember it because it's really important it'll come in handy at the end we're continuing our series entitled the real jesus and uh if you didn't hear last week's message if you weren't in town you weren't in church last weekend in person do yourself a favor go back and watch the message uh it was a holy moment and i was there live thursday night and got to watch brad just steward a literal holy moment and it was it was a really really fun experience to just get to watch god do what he did through brad last week so if you have not watched that message make sure you get a line and you watch it this week we're talking about jesus as the good shepherd and that is actually the title of the message jesus the good shepherd this message lord willing will be shorter and the reason is because i'm not going to tell any stories this message is literally almost all scriptures and one-liners and then you're gonna do the heavy lifting for literally more than a third of this message one of the things that i have to remind everybody as they come to church to hear a preacher preach preachers preach but apprentices practice yeah i get it that a part of my job is to preach but we're all apprentices and we're called to practice if you were here last week brad asked everybody to write a letter to the lord the way he did and he read it stats would say that less than 20 of you did what he asked i'm not going to ask everybody i don't want to embarrass anybody who actually did their homework i'm not going to do that because i'm not trying to make anybody feel guilty i'm just trying to remind us all apprentices practice they do the work and so we're going to spend about at least a third of this message where you are going to practice and for some of you it might be really awkward for some of you it might be the longest you've spent quietly in the presence of the lord just being with him doing something and that's awesome that's awesome hopefully we'll give you the appetite for more but we have a little bit of work to do before we get there jesus is recorded in scripture in the gospels seven eight depending on how you count it seven times saying i am and then finishing the sentence i am the bread of life for instance and we're gonna read in john chapter 10 two of the seven now if you want to count the 8th i am it's john 8 where he says i am period it's my favorite i am so really there are 8 i am statements jesus makes in the gospels we're going to read two of them in john chapter 10. let's read together starting in verse 7. these are all the words of jesus every word i'm going to read to you john 7 through 16 they're all red letter words in your bible jesus says i tell you the truth i am the gate for the sheep all who came before me were thieves and robbers but the true sheep did not listen to them 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 the thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy my purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life i am the good shepherd the good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep a hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming he will abandon this sheep because they don't belong to him and he isn't their shepherd and so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock the hired hand runs away because he's working only for the money and doesn't really even care about the sheep i am the good shepherd i know my own sheep and they know me just as my father knows me and i know the father so i sacrifice my life for the sheep i have other sheep too they 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 now that is our text and we're gonna ask and answer three questions related to this text john chapter 10 verses 7 through 16. question number one if you're taking notes and if you're not taking notes please start taking notes otherwise why would god speak if you're not ready to write down what he's about to say right question number one who are the good shepherd sheep who are the good shepherds she well there are two answers to this first israel the bible clearly says israel they're the sheep of the lord psalm 78 verse 52 but he led his own people like a flock of sheep speaking of god and israel guiding them safely through the wilderness psalm 80 verse 1 please listen o shepherd of israel you who lead joseph's descendants like a flock matthew chapter 10 verse 5. jesus sent out the 12 apostles with these instructions don't go to the gentiles or the samaritans but only to the people of israel gods lost sheep here's what you need to remember if jesus isn't the shepherd of israel he cannot be the good shepherd period point blank if he is not the shepherd of israel he cannot be the good shepherd if you're wondering now how does it even affect me that the good shepherd is the shepherd of israel well if you watch how the shepherd shepherds the sheep of israel you will learn how the good shepherd shepherds all of his sheep i've told you that before watch how the good shepherd shepherds israel well the second there is a second answer to this question because the sheep of the good shepherd are not just israel but also gentile believers non-jewish believers in jesus as the messiah john chapter 10 verse 16 i read it to you jesus says i have other sheep too sheep 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 now if you want a little more text a little more scripture to study out this week for homework go study out ephesians chapter two just study it out i'm not going to take the time because you have a lot of work to do in this message to walk through one new man i'll teach on it again at some point but i i if you want a little something extra to study go study pour through ephesians chapter 2 and a few commentaries on it here's question number two what isn't the good shepherd if we're going to understand jesus as the good shepherd of course you have to understand okay what sheep are his sheep israel and gentile believers in yeshua but if we're going to understand jesus as the good shepherd you have to understand what the good shepherd isn't in john chapter 10 jesus juxtaposes takes three pictures and puts them up against the good shepherd now he doesn't exhaustively explain them because the the terms the terminology he uses it actually is so clear he doesn't even need to explain it and you know what these three pictures are first the thief the good shepherd in essence compares the thief to the good shepherd that's why the thief is mentioned in the passage on the good shepherd john chapter 10 verse 1. jesus said i 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 robber that's just one of the instances i can't read them all to you but that's the first one if you're taking notes i want you to write the juxtaposition between the thief and the good shepherd down like this the thief comes to steal jesus says the good shepherd comes to give this is really important don't don't make it so simple that you don't process this the thief comes to steal the good shepherd comes to give john chapter 10 verse 10 the thief's purpose jesus says is to steal and kill and destroy one of the biggest reasons i believe sheep stay lost in other words one of the biggest reasons that lost sheep don't make the good shepherd their shepherd i personally believe is because they think the good shepherd is going to come take all the good things away from their life have you ever talked to to someone who had not given their life to jesus and heard them say yeah i i that that that getting saved stuff isn't for me because i don't want i don't want jesus to take away all my fun have you ever heard him talk like that right it's this thought process that the good shepherd takes away all the good things question how can a good shepherd be good if he takes away all the good just the thought john chapter 10 verse 10 jesus the good shepherd if there's any doubt compares himself to the thief he says but my purpose is to give how can the good shepherd be bad if he came to give good things he said my purpose is to give the sheep a rich and satisfying life now here's the most simple way to say it the thief comes to take good things from you whereas the good shepherd comes to take bad things not all bad things but as many of the bad things you'll let go of a lot of us like to hold on to bad things like fear like greed but the good shepherd comes to take away as many of the bad things as you will let go of in order to make more room to bring more of the good things he wants to give you into your life jesus says hey that thief he's the one that comes to take good things i the good shepherd i come to give good things here's the second picture jesus kind of briefly paints up against the picture of the good shepherd a wolf a wolf the wolf comes to kill well how does that compare to the good shepherd it's completely antithetical the wolf comes to kill but the good shepherd came to die the wolf wants to kill the sheep the good shepherd came to die for the sheep john 10 11 jesus said i am the good shepherd the good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep that's a good shepherd who stands between the sheep and the wolf remember that picture because it's going to come in handy when we get to psalm 23 at the end of the message here's the third picture a hired hand a hired hand if you're taking notes write this one down the hired hand runs away or goes away whereas the good shepherd goes after john 10 13 the hired hand runs away when the wolf comes because he's working only for the money and doesn't really care about the sheep well what about what jesus said in luke chapter 15. i'll read you verse four jesus said what man of you having a hundred sheep okay so think about this another translation says who of you men having 100 sheep so what type of men was jesus speaking with shepherds right okay so the good shepherd is talking to a bunch of shepherds he's actually trying to teach them about himself the good shepherd he says what man of you having a hundred sheep if he loses one of them does not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after run after the one which is lost until he finds it the hired hand always runs away whereas the good shepherd always runs after okay some of you think you know that but if you actually knew it it would change the way you woke up in the morning if you actually knew it believed it you would wake up in the morning giggling going you're still standing here this good shepherd is obnoxiously obsessive about me he chases me everywhere that i go and then when i lie down and sleep he's still standing there that's what david said in psalm 139 and when i awaken you're still there maybe i'm just in vacation mode but that's just filthy let's get to question number three and then it's gonna be time for you to do some work and this is gonna be fun this is gonna be unlike any point i've ever preached since day one question number three what is the good shepherd what is the good shepherd so we talked about what the good shepherd isn't what is the good shepherd another way to say this i think in the notes i put it like this this is my notes now you can put question number three back up there because i know it's a little bit different because this is the long-winded preacher's version of question number three what are some of the benefits of being shepherded by the good shepherd it's another way of saying what is the good shepherd like what comes with the good shepherd and here's what i want to do flip over to psalm 23 if you have your bible and we're going to read through this together and we're going to have some fun doing it before we do what we're about to do okay i want to tell you something that one of my favorite things in regards to god is using run-on sentences when i attempt to describe him it's one of my favorite things in regards to god and here's why i've been this way since i could remember not because i'm bad at english all right not because english isn't important to me but one of the reasons and the biggest reason why i love using run-on sentences when i attempt to describe god is this no sentence articulated or crafted by any human could ever come appropriately close to describing the godness of the one true god and so i use run-on sentences to try and describe them and you're going to laugh at how some of these are like a paragraph with no punctuation and they're gonna make you laugh but you're gonna understand if i'm gonna use this sentence to describe the god of the universe he's so big i'm gonna try and cram in so many words just to even attempt to describe one one billionth of what is in his pinky so we're going to read psalm 23 and then i'm going to break it down phrase by phrase and i'm going to give you my personalized so psalm 23 a good way to see psalm 23 is david saying this is my perspective of some of the benefits that come with being shepherded by the good shepherd okay so since david did it i'm going to do it and then you're going to do it in just a little bit and we're going to have an absolute blast in the presence of the lord psalm 23 verse 1 starts like this the lord is my shepherd now the verb here is a participle which literally means that this this phrase should be translated the lord is shepherding me so a better way to read psalm 23 is like this because the lord is shepherding me all of these things are true and we know many many other things as well but that's an appropriate way to read the beginning of psalm 23 because the lord is shepherding me and then he goes in let's start with the first one he says because the lord is shepherding me i have all that i need okay i want to give you my personalized version now you don't start writing anything yet because you're gonna have plenty of time here's my personalized version of this benefit the good shepherd is so comprehensively good that he is and has everything i will ever need no matter the category of the need or the size of the need he lets me rest in green meadows the good shepherd is so energetically good that he makes me rest in his favorite fields while filling me up with himself after i've exhaustively poured myself out he leads me beside peaceful streams the good shepherd is so navigationally good that even in powerful storms he finds peaceful streams where we can talk and catch some trophy trout amen come on jesus we should have lunch this week whoever said that i'm on vacation but after that we should go fishing together over lunch if i felt like i needed to say these two things none of the others have one-liners but i just felt impressed uh i needed to say these two one-liners on this point so if this is for you write it down if not don't the sheep of god have it so good that they have peace with god while enjoying the peace of god in the peaceful presence of god the sheep of god have a good here's another way to say that peace is never present when the good shepherd is absent holler at your boy he renews my strength the good shepherd renews my strength here's my personalized version the good shepherd is so powerfully good that even while my outer man is perishing little by little every day that's 2 corinthians 4 16 my inner man is being renewed all the more day by day in such a way that i can be spiritually and emotionally stronger than the strongest human on the earth will ever be physically strong he guides me along right paths bringing honor to his name the good shepherd is so perfectly good that he always picks the perfect path for my life to bring honor to his name in such a way that to him there's no such thing as a fork in the road even when i walk through the darkest valley i will not be afraid for you are close beside me the good shepherd is so constantly locationally good that even in the darkest moments of my life i don't consider being afraid as a good option because the glorious brightness of the light of the good shepherd is so much eternally brighter and better than the scary darkness of the temporary moment and its badness or darkness that's what comes with my good shepherd your rod and your staff protect and comfort me i love this one the good shepherd is so protectively good that i actually breathe easier when i just get a glimpse of the stick he uses to scare the living daylights out of every one of my enemies you prepare feasts for me in the presence of my enemies the good shepherd is so sarcastically good that he makes my enemy sit on carpet squares like kindergarteners while he and i eat the meal of an eternal lifetime that one's made me cry every time i've read it today that's just good i can just get a picture of my enemies sitting on carpet squares like kindergartens kindergarteners can we talk no the good shepherd says you honor me by anointing my head with oil the good shepherd is so supernaturally good that he gives me the honor of a million lifetimes by giving me the exact same anointing for my work as his father gave him for his work my cup overflows with blessings the good shepherd is so unreservedly good that he doesn't set his occasional blessings on my front porch like an amazon delivery guy he rips open the windows of heaven and showers down constantly extravagant heavenly gifts that end up in every room of the house called my life that's what comes with my good shepherd surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me chase after me all the days of my life the good shepherd is so obsessively lovey-dovey good that his single most favorite hobby and all the earth is chasing me at all times to any and every place i will ever go as though he were the supernatural other half of the magnet whose polarity just naturally connects to me in the most supernaturally attractional of ways every day for the rest of days that's how my good shepherd feels about this sheep and i will live in the house of the lord forever the good shepherd is so eternally relationally good that he isn't devising ways to kick me out of his presence but he is creatively and intimately extending me constantly new options to come closer and closer to him this is gonna end up being one of my favorite messages we ever preach and i just told you why because we're gonna preach it together too many people measure messages sermons by what it does to them but i want to remind you the way i believe god measures messages of course did the communicator say what god told them to say the way he told him to say it to the best of their ability of course that's part of it but i believe one of the biggest ways god measures the message is not by what it does to you but by what you do with it and the good shepherd is so good that we cannot go any further without you taking things into your own hands and personalizing just like david did some of the benefits that come with being shepherded by the good shepherd so here's what we're going to do we're going to put back up each of the phrases on the screen there in tempe here in scottsdale and for those watching online we're going to put each of the phrases up when you came in you should have been given a piece of paper for those of you who are in person at either campus but for those of you who are joining us online you can just write it down from the screen the phrase each of the 12 phrases we broke out of psalm 23. and here's what i want you to do you're gonna get about a minute for each phrase and i want you just to to just forget about everything else going on and i want you just to dial in on the good shepherd and i want you to personalize each of these benefits in your own words so you might start the sentence like this the good shepherd gives to me so for the first one you might say the good shepherd gives me all that i need the good shepherd gives me strength you might be nerdy and wordy like me you might want to use run-on sentences let your little heart ride out however you want the most personalized version of how you see each of these benefits that come with being shepherded by the good shepherd and then here's what i'm going to do i'm going to ask you for the next seven days to wake up every morning and do two things start your day reading the 23rd psalm will literally take you less than two minutes probably and then i want you to read your personalized version of psalm 23 which is what you're going to write out verse phrase by phrase for the next seven days i want you to do those two things to start your day not in the middle of your day not at the end of your day the very first thing you do and let's just do a little lab test let's just see how the next seven days go i'm not talking about checks coming in the mail i'm talking about let's just see what happens in your heart let's just see what he does so i'm going to pray and then you're gonna practice you're gonna get to work because this is what disciples do holy spirit i pray right now for every person both campuses for everyone watching online i pray that you'd be so near in this moment pray tear down any wall surrounding their heart that would keep them from verbalizing from their heart some of their favorite things about you [Music] because living as a sheep the sheepfold of the good shepherd means celebrating every day of our lives just how good the good shepherd really is so jesus i hope you enjoy these next few moments because we're about to chase you down in that field and tackle you and tell you some of our favorite things about you in jesus name amen let's get to work [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] um [Music] okay [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] and there is no one else for me [Music] crucified to set me free [Music] there is no one else for [Music] crucified to set me come on would you stand with me as we declare and respond to the amazing love of jesus of all that he is our good shepherd our loving god come on we sing it again cause there is no one else for none but jesus [Music] crucified to set me free oh there is no one else for me jesus crucified crucified to set me free [Music] all of my home [Music] all of my strength [Music] all my delight is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] cause there is no one else for me jesus [Music] crucified to set me free so now i live to bring in praise one more time there is no one else there is no one else for me or none by jesus and crucified to set me free now i live to bring in praise what a special moment what a romantic moment i pray you sensed god's peace in this room the last few minutes because preston said peace is not present where the good shepherd is absent it's obvious that he's here right now what a holy moment you know i was reminded throughout the message this president led off by saying that apprentices practice disciples practice as i grew up in sports heard this phrase over and over again practice makes perfect but the reality is is perfection number one is impossible and two is not really the goal consistency is practice produces consistency and i'm excited about [Music] the stories and the testimonies that will come from this week as we consistently practice as we go back to psalm 23 espresso encouraged us and as we continue to do this this week what that practice will produce in our life the peace that we'll find the joy that we'll sense in our life but i want to encourage you to tell somebody about it whether it's in your life group whether you text a family member whether you tell someone on your serve team or whatever it is so tell somebody get together grab coffee with somebody let somebody know what this practice is producing in your life as you start your morning every single morning reading psalm 23 and going back over your perspective of some of the many amazing benefits that come from being shepherded by the good shepherd can we do that i want to invite our altar ministry team to come up we're going to um i'm gonna dismiss here in just a minute i'm gonna pray and as we dismiss if you need prayer for anything at all our friends up here would love the opportunity to pray with you and and i understand that as we as we share this message this concept of being shepherded by the shepherd might be new for some and maybe to this point you've realized that maybe you've actually been trying to shepherd yourself and that really hasn't worked very well but today you you maybe want to experience some of those amazing benefits of allowing the good shepherd to lead you and to guide you it's as simple as beginning a relationship with jesus and our friends up here would love the opportunity to pray with you and introduce you to them it's pretty simple and it's amazing so as i pray and as we dismiss if you need prayer for anything at all we would love the opportunity to pray with you just come down here as everybody else is going that way come get what you need all right let me pray for you god we thank you so much for your presence good shepherd we thank you for your leading your guiding your directing god it is we stand in awe of how good your leadership is your your guidances and how much better it is in any of our best days god we thank you for your constant presence in our life your continual pursuit of us [Music] god we love you we see you today your goodness your grace your mercy you are even better than we can ever imagine because i pray this week we would see even more ways of how good you are and how great you are in our life and god i pray as we wake up every morning and read psalm 23 psalm 23 and we read over our perspective similar to that of david's god i pray we would find ourselves continually looking and searching for a pen to add to some of the benefits that we've already written down because you are so good god i pray that we wouldn't just keep this for ourselves though that we would share it with somebody this week that it might encourage and uplift someone else as well god we're thankful we love you would you protect us keep us safe as we go in jesus name amen

Channel: Gateway Church

Views: 272

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Preston, Morrison, gateway, church, gateway church, scottsdale, tempe, gateway church sermons, church online, arizona church, arizona churches, scottsdale churches, tempe churches, phoenix churches, gateway people, gateway life, Preston Morrison, Robert Morris, Pastor Robert Morris, Pastor Preston Morrison, Preston Morrison sermons, church sermons, The Good Shepherd, Shepherd, Jesus Shepherd, Real Jesus, Real Jesus series, Psalms 23, Jewishness of Jesus, Jesus Jewish

Id: IlVRDepsLHU

Length: 53min 8sec (3188 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 15 2021