In Need of a Shepherd

Joh 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
Joh 10:12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.
Joh 10:13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
Joh 10:14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
Joh 10:15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Joh 10:16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
Joh 10:17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.


Jesus is the good shepherd. We don't have many shepherds around us do we? Not as a rule any way. It's a good guess some people probably don't even know what a shepherd is.


shepherd (shèp´erd) noun
1. One who herds, guards, and tends sheep.
2. One who cares for and guides a group of people, as a minister or teacher.


Guards and tends to. I don't have a shepherd, a physical one. Could we consider parents shepherds? The tend and guard their children. What about teachers, are they symbolic of shepherds? The tend and guard our children. Caregivers watch over adult people in need of supervision. Prison guards are responsible for their prisoners and in a way they do tend and guard them to a certain extent. Do you have a shepherd? Do you have anyone who tends to you and guards you? There are those that do have body guards but the average person walks about daily unguarded, untended by anyone, they are on their own even if they have family members and such it doesn't necessarily mean the other members of the family are guarding or tending to them. We are raised to be independent. In fact I've often said that if I could raise my kids to be independent, able to take care of themselves then I would consider my parenting a success. We strive for independence, to not need anyone for anything, able to do for ourselves. Get a job, provide a service for someone and get paid for it and use that income to buy any and all necessities we might have to live. When someone can't provide for themselves we believe they've become a burden to someone- family, friends, society. In years past women were provided for and men happily provided for them- considering it a source of pride to be able to support his family. Nowadays women or men it doesn't matter each should be able to provide for themselves - no exceptions. Our world today wants us to rely on ourselves- stressing that the weak and the losers are those who don't. Being guarded, being tended to, having a caregiver, a shepherd isn't something that is promoted at all- we should be able to do everything on our own, needing no one.


It's easy to understand that the sheep a shepherd guards do what they're supposed to do. The sheep who are injured or sick are given extra care, but overall the sheep do what they were created to do. Left on their own they would still do what they were created to do, but a shepherd protects them and makes it easier for them to do what they were created to do. A shepherd keeps the sheep safe something the sheep aren't if they are left all alone.


In a world of stressing self-reliance it's not easy for people to get to a place where they understand their need of a shepherd, they're too busy believing they have to do everything on their own.


Just today I was watching tv and a person on a comedy show said to a group of children he was reading a story to- 'Hope is something people believe in when they can't deal with reality.' Or something to that effect. It's a fact that many people claim that people who believe in God are deluded and can't deal with the reality that this is all life is take it or leave it. For people to believe they have a need of a shepherd somehow detracts from them, it makes them vulnerable and weak, unable to live on their own.


Satan wants us to believe that hope is a delusion, that God is a fantasy, that needing a Savior is silly. He wants us to believe that we are weak and losers if we admit we can't live on our own.


How many people truly rely on Christ for life? How many people truly acknowledge the very breath they take is a gift from God?


Christ said He is the Good Shepherd and a Good Shepherd will lay His life down for His sheep. Christ laid His life down for all of us who will acknowledge that we are His to tend to, to guide, to protect. We have to believe in Him and in believing admit that we can't live our lives on our own. We need a Spiritual caregiver, a Spiritual tender, a Spiritual guard and we need to follow our Spiritual Shepherd every single day. Our Spiritual Shepherd protected our Spiritual lives with by giving up His own life. He protected our right to eternal life by defeating all the spiritual forces that would take that right from us. He laid down His life and took it up again- for us.


May we follow our Good Shepherd knowing that our lives no matter how successful or unsuccessful by worldly standards, belong to Him. By the grace of God we live, by the mercy and sacrifice of our Lord and Savior we can claim a future life, an eternal life in Him. Our Good Shepherd will forever protect our eternal lives, our Spiritual lives if we let Him by following Him, listening to Him, admitting we have need of Him now and forever.


Amen.