God Wants to Shepherd Us
Sermon for June 12, 2005
1. Good Morning. Let’s Pray: O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen
2.
Opening
Comments: Well there a number of key
themes in today’s readings not the least of which is the place Israel had and
continues to have in the heart of God.
Listen once again to the last few verses of our Old Testament reading:
Ex. 19:3 Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from
the mountain and said, “This is what you
are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of
Israel: 4 ‘You yourselves have
seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought
you to myself. 5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my
covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured
possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom
of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the
Israelites.”
And now listen to the last few verses of our Gospel reading for today:
Matt. 10:5-8 These twelve Jesus
sent out with the following instructions: “Don’t go among the Gentiles or enter
any town of the Samaritans. 6 Go rather to the lost sheep of
Wow! Did you hear that – “Don’t go among the
Gentles … go rather to the lost sheep of
Now this shows us how precious the Jewish
people were to God in the Old Testament and are today in the New Testament, but
we also realize that this injunction “NOT” to go to the Gentiles was a
“temporary injunction” for at the end of the same book we hear Jesus saying:
Matt. 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all
nations,
So I say all of this by way of saying that we must never forget that God had and continues to have a very special place in His heart for the Jewish people. This is not to say though that any Jewish person can be reconciled to God Almighty other than in and through the Person of Jesus Christ. One must be a Christian to be in right relationship with God the Father Almighty!
3. The real focus: BUT THIS MORNING I’m sensing that God wants to speak to us from the first section of our Gospel reading when He said:
Matt. 9:36-10:1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion
on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a
shepherd. 37 Then he said to his
disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest,
therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” 1 He called his
twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and
to heal every disease and sickness.
Yes, God wants to give us His Shepherd’s heart for the lost. He wants us to see the crowd of people all about us and see them as harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd – AND TO HAVE COMPASSION ON THEM! To respond to them with His heart of compassion – to thus have the heart of God!
And He’s saying to us this morning “Look –
open your eyes – open your hearts – have compassion on them -the harvest is
plentiful but the workers are so so so few!”
I’m convinced that at this critical juncture our Lord wants us to receive His heart of compassion for the lost – to see them as harassed and confused and helpless and to respond to them with His Shepherd’s heart.
Now, let me get personal. You see God wanted me to be able to give this message of His from my heart so let me tell you what happened to me this last week.
I was “grazing” on television and came across the QVC channel. A man was selling a piece of costume jeweler and he was enthusiastically encouraging all of his listeners to call immediately to get this great deal.
I found myself feeling disdain for this apparent huckster. I’m embarrassed to confess that I was thinking some very unkind thoughts about him when I was suddenly taken up short with this thought, “but I died for him.” Whom do you think just said that to me?
Listen once again to our Father’s heart in our Second Reading for this morning:
Rom. 5:6-8 You see, at just
the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a
good man someone might possibly dare to die.
8 But God demonstrates his own love for
us in this: While we were still
sinners, Christ died for us.
Christ died for the
ungodly – while we were still sinners, Christ died for me when I was most
unattractive and He died for my huckster friend!
The value of this man’s life was in the fact that Christ died for him – for him! Christ died for him! . . . and I was disdaining him!
So what was our Lord reminding me of with this
thought? Wasn’t
it that He loves this ungodly lost sheep – this harassed and helpless man – and
“my” response to Him should be His response – love – a love that manifests
itself in self-sacrificing action not mean-spirited disdain!
But take note Christ
didn’t just pray for him – he came to earth and died for him! HE DEMONSTRATED HIS LOVE IN SACRIFICIAL
ACTION!
This love – this self-sacrificing love - is at the very heart of our God and it’s this same love that wants to reach out through us to touch the lost, the helpless, and the harassed!
5. Now let’s
explore this a little further shall we.
Let’s turn once again to our Gospel
Matt. 9:36-10:1
When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were
harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The
harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers
into his harvest field.” 1 He called his twelve disciples to him and
gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and
sickness.
Listen now to the Message’s translation for these verses:
Matt. 9:36 When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So
confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. 37 “What a huge harvest!” he said to
his disciples. “How few workers! 38 On your knees and
pray for harvest hands!”
Matt. 10:1 The prayer was no sooner prayed than it was answered. Jesus called twelve of his followers and sent them into the ripe fields. He gave them power to kick out the evil spirits and to tenderly care for the bruised and hurt lives.
Is this what you see when you look at the world? Or do you see a strident, powerful and self-confident world being portrayed on television and those who are about you? This is what is being portrayed but it isn’t what God Almighty is seeing!
Do you and I see what He sees? O Lord, give us your eyes to see the world – the people about us for who they really are and give us Your tears to cry and Your love to reach out and embrace them!
God sees them as sheep without a shepherd. Now I have been a shepherd in
6. Now what is God saying to you and me right now? We’re surrounded by these people! The lost, the helpless and the harassed and God wants to reach out through us to shepherd them. This is what discipling should be all about – the shepherding of the lost into God’s Kingdom!
But the key to all of this is - to put it crudely – is to get the heart of God! To reach out to these people with His compassion! With His love!
Outside of this – it’s just more “nice-guy” stuff!
I’m going to close this reflection with a story that will help us “get in touch with the heart of God.” It’s a true story.
This story takes place on a
Mission station somewhere in the mountains bordering North and
A missionary couple were ministering to a series of mountain villages and were based in a mission compound mid way between these villages.
It was at the height of a bitter winter and snow was thick on the ground and bitter blizzards were daily ravaging the landscape.
A pregnant woman was close to
giving birth to her child and the missionary wife was fretting over her. It was almost midnight and the baby began to
come. The woman quickly wrapped herself in
some scanty clothes and ran out of the house running towards the
She ran quickly but painfully through the think layer of snow and just as she came to a bridge that baby began to come. The woman slid down the slight embankment and rested under the bridge and soon gave birth to her new son and rested back against the embankment exhausted.
The next morning at the crack of dawn the missionary woman left her compound in the jeep heading towards the pregnant woman’s village. Just as she was crossing the small bridge just 500 yards from their compound the car suddenly and unexpectedly stopped. She got out disgustedly and then she heard a strange sound – the whimper of a baby. It came from under the bridge. She ran towards the crying and as she ducked below the bridge she saw a baby warmly swaddled in her mothers clothes held safely in the frozen arms of her dead mother.
Well the missionary couple adopted the boy and brought him up as their own but worked very hard to remind him of his mother and the love she had for him.
Years passed and the missionary couple had moved to a new location a hundred or more miles from their first posting where this tragedy had occurred. The boy, now a strapping teenager, came to them just before his 15th birthday and gently asked them if they could take him to his mother’s grave site – he wanted to honor her on the anniversary of his birth and her death.
They agreed wholeheartedly and set out the next day. It was again at the height of the winter season and the roads were covered in snow and the travel was exceptionally slow.. But when they arrived in the late afternoon a gentle calm seemed to settle over them. The boy turned to them and asked if he could go to the grave site alone. They willingly agreed and watched as he trudged over the intervening 200 yards to his mother’s grave site.
They watched as he came level with her grave. He stood still for a few minutes and appeared to be praying then he began to take off his clothes. He lingered after taking each piece off and seemed to be saying something. Then he proceeded to take off another piece of clothing.
The missionary couple became
concerned and began to walk towards him quickly. By this time he was almost totally
naked. They arrived to within a few
paces of him and heard these words coming from his mouth – “Mother – were you as cold as I am now?”
The missionary couple embraced him gently and held him tightly to themselves and stood there for a long time as his sobs and theirs gently subsided. They knew you see what was happening here. This young man was seeking to honor his mother and get in touch with her love – her self-sacrificing love – for Him!
When was the last time you and I stopped and tried to understand the infinite love of our Lord who willingly stripped Himself of all heavenly glory and came and lived amongst us – He became one of us!
Our challenge today is to live out our lives in that attitude for it
will call out of us that quality of life which will serve others to the end
that they will become loving and obedient disciples of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Amen and Amen!
Let’s pray . . .