Go ahead and turn your Bibles to John chapter 10.
And then I also have if you remind me, it's it's Chris here.
Lopes, is he? All right, all right, man,
you're getting a free book today.
Just so you know, just remind me, remind me about that.
OK, so all right, because last time I had these up here and
then I totally forgot. So.
All right, so hey, guys. All right, John chapter 10, the
title of the message. I was it's kind of playing
around with this. I was like, man, Lord, there's
so many different directions you could go with this, but I just
felt like the Lord put on my heart this, this phrase, the
cure for loneliness, the cure for loneliness as Jesus gives us
the abundant life. OK, so this is a very familiar
passages of many passages in the Gospel of John.
But this week as I was studying it, I just really felt like the
Lord put on my heart the cure for loneliness.
So if anybody is dealing with loneliness or anything like
that, this hopefully will be a cure for it because the Lord is
a Good Shepherd and he gives us the abundant life, which we're
going to unpack what that means. And so why don't we go ahead and
turn to John Chapter 1 says this truly, truly or another
translation says Amen, Amen. This is this is like a double
portion. This is everything that Jesus
said is true. Everything, all the red letters,
it's all true. Everything in the Bible, your
black letters is true. But he wants us to pay attention
to this even more. And then so he's saying this,
he's like, truly, truly I say to you, he who does not enter by
the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs in up some
other way, he is a thief and a robber.
But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep.
To him the door keeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice,
and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them and the
sheep follow him because they know His voice.
A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him
because they do not know the voice of strangers.
This is a figure of speech. Jesus spoke to them, but they
did not understand what those things were which he was been
saying to them. So he would speak to them in
parables. And I'll explain a little bit
why that is in a, in a little bit here.
But so Jesus said to them again, truly, I say to you, I am the
door of the sheep. All who came before me are
thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
I am the door. If anyone enters through me, he
will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
The thief comes only to kill, steal and destroy, and that they
may have life and had it abundantly.
I'm the Good Shepherd, the good the the Good Shepherd lays down
his life for the sheep. And he who is a hired hand and
not a shepherd who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the
wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees.
And the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about
the sheep. And I am the Good Shepherd, and
I know my own, and my own know me, even as the Father knows me.
I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.
I have other sheep which are not of this fold, and I must bring
them also, and they will hear my voice, and they will become one
flock with one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves
me, because I lay down my life so that I might take it up
again. No one has ever, no one has
taken it away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative,
and I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to
take it up again. This is my commandment.
I I received from my father. And then a division occurred
again among the Jews because of these words.
Many of them were saying he has a demon and is insane.
Why do you listen to him? Others are saying these are not
the sayings of demon possessed. The demon cannot open the eyes
of the blind, can he? And at this time of the Feast of
Dedication took place at Jerusalem, It was winter, and
Jesus was walking in the temple in the Portugal of Solomon.
The Jews then gathered around him.
And we're saying to him, How long will you keep us in
suspense? If you are the Christ, just tell
us plainly. Jesus answered them.
I told you. And you do not believe the works
that I do in my Father's name. These testify of of me, but you
do not believe because you are not of my sheep.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me,
and I give them eternal life, and will never, and they will
never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no
one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.
And and I and the Father are one.
So then the Jews picked up stones again to stone him, and
Jesus answered them. I showed you many works from the
Father. For which of these are you
stoning me? And the Jews answered him for a
good work. We do not stone you, but for
blasphemy, and because you are being, you being a man, make
yourself out to be God. And then Jesus answered them,
Has it not written in your law? I said, You are gods if you call
them gods. To who?
To whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be
broken. And you say of him whom the
Father sanctified and sent into the world, You are blasphemy,
because I said I am the Son of God.
If I do not do the works of my Father and do not believe me,
but if I do them, though you do not believe me, believe the
works. So that you may know and
understand that the Father is in me and I and the Father,
therefore, they were seeking to seize Him and they alluded the
grasp. We'll just stop there, all
right? Hey, so I got 3 simple points
this morning. I know that's a lot of passage
there. But He leads us, He speaks to
us, and He protects us. This is so when Jesus is giving
us the abundant life. The abundant life can be
unpacked in these ways. The reason why we find ourselves
very lonely is because we don't know the Savior, we don't know
God. This has nothing to do with like
interpersonal relationships has to do with the fact that if we
are known by God and we know God that we won't be lonely.
We we have someone, we have someone who leads us, we have
someone who speaks to us often, and we have someone who protects
us. If we have those three things,
we'll never be lonely. Amen.
We'll never be lonely even though other people may mistreat
us and all these other things, but we'll never be lonely
because we have a shepherd who cares for the sheep in these
three ways that we all long for. Like every human being on the
planet has a desire to be LED. Amen, We have a desire to be
LED. We have a desire for someone to
speak to us, right? There's a desire for
relationship and then there's also a desire for protection.
And so as we break down, he leads us.
Just notice that when Jesus is, is speaking here, he's not
pushing anybody. He's not beating the sheep.
He's not pushing them or driving them.
He goes before them like that Antioch song that we sing often.
He goes before us. That's who he is.
That's who Jesus is. He can't be anything else.
He leads us. It's it's very much goes back to
if you know, the Psalm 23, right?
Everyone, maybe some of you have memorized that the Lord is my
shepherd. I shall not want, right?
If he is my shepherd, I don't want anything else because he
leads me. He leads me aware to to open
pastures. What does that mean?
He feeds us, right? All right, It's, it's not that,
hey, as believers, we're eating grass that doesn't satisfy,
right? We're talking about when you
come to the House of God, when you come in and out of the fold.
He feeds us. He feeds us what?
The word of God, he feeds us, He gives us truth, He speaks life
over us, all those things. So, and then not only that, but
he protects us, right? Even though I walk through the
valley of shadow death, how many know?
It's a good thing when you're going through a trial to know
that Jesus, it goes before you in the trial, but then he also
brings you in, right? We don't like going in, but we
do like to know and that he goes before us.
He actually sees the trial before we actually enter into
it. It's good.
Maybe just pause for a second and think about that.
All right, so hey, there's three things under the heading of He
leads us. He leads us to himself, He leads
us to be a part of his family, and he leads us to our purpose
and missions. That's the way God leads us.
It's very important when you think about it, he gives us, he
leads us to himself first. He shows us how to enter the
abundant life. He is actually the door.
So in the, in the 1st century, if you go there, there, like
whether it's a stone fold or a, a, a, a, a brush fold, right?
I mean, up in the high country. So whether it, whatever it is,
there's no door. There's, it's not like you open
up a door to a house. That's not what Jesus is talking
about. There is actually no door there.
So it would just be like stone and stone and in the middle of
being an opening in and what Jesus is saying twice he's
saying that I'm the door. I literally am the door.
I like I as a shepherd. He would he would lay down at
the doorway and making sure no bad guys come in, right?
No, which would be wolves or or maybe a, you know, somebody else
that was just a thief that would jump over.
He'd have to jump over the fence because if he went through the
door, Jesus would snatch him, right?
Or the the shepherd would snatch him with his staff, right?
And So what Jesus is saying is if you want the abundant life,
you have to go through me. There's no other way.
You can't you can't work your way up, you know, over the over
the Stonewall, right? Jesus didn't say he's a wall
that we have to work to over to overcome like to he lets us
through the door by going through him.
So let me let me help you out with what this means.
John 14-6 says he's the way, the truth and the life.
Do you want the abundant life? Everybody in this world wants
the abundant life. It's just the, the everybody,
I'm talking every soul on the planet wants the abundant life.
Americans, do they just call it the American dream?
People in the Middle East, do they call that what Islam?
People in the Buddhist world want that.
They call it Buddhism, right? People all over the world,
people in, in, in India and South Asia, they call it
Hinduism. That to them is the abundant
life. Or maybe just let's go around
the world, Let's go look at South America, right?
South America, what do they want?
They want the abundant life. But to them it is a wall.
Why? Because it's works righteousness
to get over the wall and into the fold.
And so Mother Teresa says this Mother Teresa did great things.
I'm not, I'm not trying to pick up Mother Teresa here, but I
just want you to know what she said.
I'm not here to change anyone to Christianity.
My goal is that a Buddhist becomes a better Buddhist, that
a Muslim becomes a better Muslim, and all paths lead to
their own way. There's not 14 or 15 doors right
to the abundant life. There's only one and the Jesus
in his love and his mercy says I'm the door, come through me.
If you want to get into this fold and experience the
pastures, the green pastures and experience the word of God,
truth and it experience the love of God, then you've got to go
through me and so Jesus is not a way.
Do you know what, like I remember when I was in Philippi
and I was kind of picture what it was like to be there in
Greece and in in Philippi. And so you know that Paul wrote
to the Philippians while he's under house arrest, but he had
been there in Acts 16. He actually planted that church,
right? And we saw the jail and we saw
some other things and there was a point where we went to the
agora, which was like the marketplace.
And so we're kind of like just pretending like to reenact that
thing just to see like what it was like.
And I remember when when Paul told the, you know, the slave
girl just shut up, you know, like, like, stop it in Jesus
name, get up. And I always thought, man, it's
because she's annoying and Paul's annoyed.
And that could have been. But what what was really going
on there has to do with this passage she was proclaiming in
your Bibles, in your English translation, it says that most
high God you're the way like he's saying you're the way.
But actually in, in your, in your Bible, in the, in, in the
original translation, it's a way that the most high God, like
Jesus is a way to God. He's just a way and a way.
Like I remember when I was at Moody and I was like, it was in
little India and, and off of I forgot what street that was
Devon Street, I think. But I remember being, being
there with Nicole and we're, you know, sharing the gospel with so
many different Indians, you know, and Hindus and and they
would agree with me. Jesus is a way, yes, I mean, and
most of us are like, Oh, that, that's a very pleasant
conversation. It's not because they're like,
well, also 360 million gods also, no, no, no, no, not 365
million ways into the fold. One way, one way.
And notice it's not a door. Jesus is not a door look to be
exclusive like this. This is not popular.
Try going into your workplace tomorrow.
Just experiment. Go into your workplace tomorrow.
Go to your family member that is, you know, very pluralistic
and like everybody is happy and everybody goes their own way and
everybody's going to go to heaven.
OK, Go to them tomorrow and tell them that there's only one way
to heaven and every other religion is bogus.
See how that goes. Let me know if you don't have a
job. We'll pray for you because you
might lose it. You might lose a friend, family
might cut you off. I don't know.
It's what the Bible says. Every now and then we we
probably need to read the Bible and find out that Jesus is the
only way. It's probably good for our soul
because this is actually what we believe.
If you're hearing new this morning, all the excitement and
the fun and the life comes because Jesus gave that to us,
because we acknowledge that he's the only way.
He's the only way into that fold.
Do you understand that? It didn't come any other way.
If you got it some other way, it won't last.
It will not last because excitement can come and go, but
true abundant life, which is by the way, above and beyond, and
the abundant life is not eternity, although I mean that
of course, that's the abundant life.
I mean, like, but Jesus is talking about the abundant life
here and now. That's what he's talking about.
We'll get to a little bit more of that in a little bit.
OK #2. He leads us to be a part of his
family. That's amazing.
I mean, he leads us not only to salvation.
He's the door. He literally is salvation, but
he leads us into a family. And I, I love this.
There is a in, in not New Orleans, I keep saying New
Orleans, but Baton Rouge. But OK, so in Louisiana, but
there was a, there was a guy, there's an Army chaplain.
He was a chaplain for 25 years. He's right.
If you guys remember, he was, he was wearing the, the pink shirt.
He was jacked up. He looked like a Sergeant, like,
you know, like, I mean, the dude gave me a word and grabbed me on
my arm and I was like, that hurt afterwards.
And he's like, I just want to let you know, son, you know that
everybody in your church brings a Bible.
That's amazing. Like how in the world does that
happen, especially in our day, the technology and everything
else. But like, I've watched your
people, like everyone's bringing a Bible to church.
That's amazing. That's incredible.
I'm like, yes, it is. He's like, don't ever let that
go. Like just, I'm going to check
out next year. Like he's probably like a spy.
He's probably in here right now. Actually, he's probably making
sure, like everybody has their Bible.
No, but it's just it's it, it it was a by way of encouragement.
He's like, man, your people have found Jesus to be the shepherd.
And when, when you when you gather together, right, one of
the benefits of being belonging to right the family of God, one
of the benefits is that we get the goods.
And like, when you want to grow, you actually have a desire to
grow and open up your Bible and read it and learn.
And so when you're bringing your Bible, it's not just some
religious thing, but you're like, Hey, I, you know, I, I, I,
I want to, I want to know what you're saying.
I, I want to follow along. I want to make sure like you're
good Bereans, you know, like Acts, what is it 17?
You know, the, you know, there's, you're good Bereans,
meaning that like you actually want to make sure I'm saying the
right stuff. Like we all have the same Bible,
right? Might be a little bit different,
like translation or something, but I want you to be able to
follow along and say, OK, that's where he got that from.
Because look, if you're not going to be a good student of
the word, then something else is going to pull your attention.
You have to know the word. I, I've told you this over and
over and over again. I share the same stories all the
time. I but I love, I love when Jesus
said he says that like he just told them, I'm the door, I'm the
door, I'm the door, I'm the shepherd.
And then in verse 7, he says, so Jesus said to them again, if
you, if you're a good student of the word, he's he's saying this
again. How many guys need to hear it
again? Only like 2 people need to hear
it again. Amen.
Yeah, there you go. Honest man, right?
Massa Miliano, very nice. He's honest.
Otherwise you get Rossello won't let you.
We'll let that go at lunchtime. Alright?
OK, so here's the deal guys. You need to hear it again and
again and again. When I was a freshman in
college, I first got saved like 2 months into college.
I read my Bible, no joke, over and over and over again.
Like three times. The New Testament probably in
about 3-4 months, man. Why?
Because I wished that someone had told me this back when I was
16, back when I was lost. I was reading this stuff and I'm
like, you've got to be kidding me.
This is gold. Like, I actually experienced
what the psalmist said. I'm like, it's one thing to be
like, your word is sweeter than honey, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah. But you actually really taste
something sweeter in the world. What does it say?
It tastes sweet, goes in, it's bitter.
Do you love the word? Because loving the word shows,
proves, validates whatever else you that you are actually his
like. If you don't love the word, then
I would be very concerned. If you're just kind of like
flipping through pages and the more, hey, someone's going to
ask me a discipleship, you're a college student, you know,
someone's going to ask me. No one needed to ask me if I'm
reading the word. It was so natural.
It was so it was so like, OK, like this is innate.
Like I wake up, I spend time with God because it is natural.
Is it hard at times? You sleep, you snooze, whatever.
Yes, of course. You're you're you're tired.
I get it. You stayed up late.
I mean, that's a natural. But do you love the word when
you're reading it to you? You're like, man, this is so
good. This is so good.
Like that is a benefit of being inside the fold.
And then there's no way, no way you can get in.
There's no way you can get in without going through Jesus.
Amen. OK, so I, I want to, I want to
just share a few stories of what it means to be a part of the
family. OK, This is, you know, there's
so many benefits. And what he's saying is like
once you go in, like through the door, there's a sense of
freedom. And I want to, I, I want to
share this with somebody that, you know, like the only you find
life by going through the narrow door.
That's the narrow Rd. leads to life.
The wide Rd. leads to death, right?
It's so opposite. Everybody's going, right?
Everybody's like, everybody's going like the majority of the
people around you are going the wide path.
But here's here, here's what the Lord gave me one time
revelation. If you go in narrow, you come
out free. The idea is this like you, you
got to go in like there's a narrow way, meaning he's the
only way. It cuts out all other religions
and it seems so exclusive, so narrow.
It's like, oh, it's like almost frustrating because you grew up
in a pluralistic society. So like you're going through
that door, right? And but you come out and it's
free. It's like it's, it's, it's, it's
amazing. There's just so much room to
grow and, and roam and, and create and create businesses and
create, write songs and all this other stuff.
It's amazing. Like have you found that to be
true? Have you found the life in God
to be so incredible? Once you're like, it's hard,
it's like, OK, I have to repent of my sins and I have to say no
to the world. But once I'm in Whoo, it's
amazing. There's so much, so much
excitement, right? But then the other way, right?
It's like, man, dude, you look like that.
You're a loser. You're going into the narrow
door. What?
I mean, that's so ridiculous. It's so archaic.
I'm going this way and you, you're, you're going in with a
wide, the wide path. It looks so free and so awesome,
but you come out narrow. You come out and it's
restricting because sin leads to bondage all the time.
You understand, opposite. It's so good, man.
He's like, oh, this little narrow door.
That's how I have to come in. Yes, because you have no idea
what's on the other side. Amazing, amazing.
OK, so 2 girls came a couple weeks ago from Seattle and they
were sitting over there and I and, and they were, they were
just like, man, you know, this, they, they, they, they wanted to
meet me afterwards. They came in from a like a
women's conference and they were just like, this is so awesome.
Like what's so awesome, the amount of people that pray for
one another, you'd think we're at an encounter night.
Well, pretty much that's what Sunday mornings are like.
You encounter God and you you encounter God in different ways.
And, and whether it's through worship or people praying for
you or you praying for other people, it's amazing.
She's like, man, we lost all of that during COVID.
How in the world you guys keep that culture?
I was like, I don't know, it's just the Lord.
It's amazing. He leads us.
Well, pretty awesome, isn't it? Yeah.
He leads us into green pastures. Does that mean your life's going
to go amazing, Like, all the time?
Ask them for bones. Yeah, it doesn't.
It's very costly. It's costly to live this life
behind the scenes is very costly.
It's hard. But if you ask them, I think
they would probably say I have the abundant life.
Why? Because it's nothing to do with
circumstances. It's everything to do with what
God gave you, which is salvation and a family that is never going
to be taken away from you. Amen.
All right, so I, I want to also share there's, I don't know if
Michaela's here or not, but there is her husband's here.
Where's Michaela at? I don't know somewhere.
OK, so she, she texted me on the way home.
I got this text on the way home from Baton Rouge.
She just say, hey, I want to send you this.
There's a girl named Holly. She was, she worked with the
kids ministry. If you remember her, she has a
17 year old son. This is what she wrote.
She wrote to Michaela. She said this, my 17 year old
son last night was the best church experience he's ever had.
Thank you all for being obedient to the call that the Lord gave
you to come here. Isn't that worth it?
It's probably worth it just for that 117 year old.
I mean, we did a lot of stuff. It's amazing.
But for that dude, I don't even know him.
I never met him, but I'm thankful.
I'm thankful, yes, for the call to go to Baton Rouge.
That's amazing. I mean, he he calls us to go to
Baton Rouge. That's he calls us to go
everywhere he calls. I mean, just think of the
stories are going to come out of this summer, but going to seven
locations, it's amazing. And then just all the, all the
evangelism that we do throughout the week and on campus, we just,
that we just, he gives us this abundant life, which is himself
and his family. And I know that it's not just
because of teachings and this and that, although, yes, but it
was just the people just just being family.
I mean, I could, Ella was saying that, that, that, that people
were coming up there and saying, man, what a prayer culture, like
y'all carry this prayer culture. I we, we don't do any of that.
I mean, we do a little bit of that, but it's just amazing the
prayer culture, the family, the, the, the excitement.
I mean, people were coming. I mean, there, our nights were
ending super late. Wednesday night was this
encounter night where we were brought all the the people from
from evangelism and Antioch, Baton Rouge and Antioch Orlando
all come together. It was just this powerful,
amazing time together that just seeing the the the family
interact and love one another is amazing.
And then I have I have well, I'll say that till till later,
but OK, so then he leads us to our purpose.
He leads us to our mission. And so Jesus is saying here,
like if you, as you go through this again, the abundant life,
he's talking about obeying the Father.
He's talking about like that having this relationship with
God. That's his purpose.
Like every remember John five, he says everything that the
father does, I do. There's this a dynamic
relationship. So here's the deal.
If you have a relationship with God, you'll do what he says.
That's it. I mean, clearly, right.
You did an interesting, I'll show you something in
Revelation, Revelation 2 and three.
I really, really, really, really want to go to Turkey one day and
see all the, all the churches, the Revelation churches.
But here's here's the deal. Do you know what each one has in
common? Do you know?
Some of you do, some of you don't.
He says this in all 7 churches. I know your works.
I know your works.
Did I get 7? It doesn't say.
I know your faith. I know your heart.
I know your heart.
What does it say? I know your works.
Huh. Sounds like works.
Righteousness. No.
These people are already saved and Jesus is saying, look, I
know your works good and bad, but out of the overflow of
relationship with God equals living out the purposes and the
plans that he has for you. It means actually sharing the
gospel, making disciples, being obedient to everything God's
called us to do. We do it perfectly.
No, no, that's not what this is about.
It's just proving and showing you.
He doesn't say, oh, I know your heart is fine.
You don't have to do it. You're like, at least you wanted
to. You wanted to like he's not
going to say like, OK, guys, I know like you.
I've called you to make disciples of all nations.
Hey, hey, buddy. I know you wanted to, so it's
cool. It's fine.
No problem. Now, did you do it or not?
Did you do it or not do it? Big difference.
What's the difference? Something that you just feel,
something you actually do, it's a big deal.
OK, So I know it's not a lot, but we were only there for three
or four days at least the actual part of outreach.
But 271 gospel seats now they might not see them like a lot.
And I don't even know if that's a final count.
That is just what you guys put on the the drive.
But 25 nations reached and six people baptized.
That's amazing. Like that's, that's, I mean,
that's, that is a result of 150 people stepping out and saying,
hey, I'm going on mission with, with God.
I'm, I'm want to do the things of God.
I want to live those things out. Eli and Ronnie met a girl who is
going to UCF. Isn't that crazy?
She's just visiting friends and this girl's like, I'm a freshman
at UCF. This is kind of weird.
I'm here in at LSU. I'm a freshman at UCF, but I
meet UCF people. She's like how I want to check
you guys out at some point. That's amazing.
Nathan for the Met met a guy, but he was really sweet about
this is this person wanted to know if God was real and as I
read this testimony and heard it.
It was cool to just hear that it was the first time he was saying
this kid was saying it's the first time that any evangelist
who was sharing the gospel with him had listened to him because
the rest of them would just talk at him the whole time.
Do you think that person knew got to experience that God's
real of course, because Jesus not only speaks to me.
He listens. He listens and then Mr. Kim let
someone at Jesus and I guess the kid, they found out as they were
talking and getting to know one another, which is a really
important thing in evangelism to get to know the people because
you could use a lot of that material to segues to the
gospel. Don't be so quick to get into
the cross. Get there quickly after you find
out who they are and what their needs are.
But as you're as you're talking, as they were talking to each
other, they found out they were from the same hometown again.
What are the chances of that? It's just God putting these
pieces providentially together to open up people's hearts to
hear the gospel. And then Natalia and Andrew, two
guys, came to our encounter night.
Then they brought a friend. And then it was funny because
afterwards, as usually it gets a little wild in a good way, but
they're, they started doing the Congo line.
And then, yeah, I just start, it just happens.
It's like, how does this happen? We're all worshipping the Lord.
And then some goofball hears let's do the Congo line.
And then they just, you know, like, and then it's usually like
I'm always stuck like somewhere in the, in the, in the beginning
of it. And then Jonathan, like Jabo, he
just like puts me in the baby and I'm like awkwardly going
like this, you know, but but it was just it was just so much
that dude, the new guy like got in the line.
He's probably like, this is church.
Yes, this is church. This is how we do it around
here. But yeah, OK.
And then he also got like, there's if you saw at the end of
the video, there's this big picture of like Baton Rouge and
Orlando and everybody and then new people.
And then he just got in the line.
And then later on, he texted Andrew and just said, hey, man,
I'm just so thankful for that nightmare.
I want to get connected to ENIAC Baton Rouge, Amen.
So we just pray that in. Let's just pray that the Lord
would use that. All right, So the first one is
he leads us. Second one, he speaks to us.
So it says here that the sheep know his voice and not only know
his voice, but he calls them out by name.
Have you ever heard like the Lord just call you by name?
You're about to say something, do something dumb maybe.
And it's just like real simple. It's like Jessica, right?
Maybe not right? You hear his do you hear his
voice? Can you tell the the sheep are
even able to, to, to tell like if the sheep are all together
and they mix with other with another fold.
And then the shepherd stands up and says, Hey, it's time to go.
And he calls each one by name because each, each, each one
would have like a nickname and he they would know that like a
dog, like you know, you, you, you, you know, a Buster or
whatever. I can't think of any other ones
for some reason. Bella.
I grew up with like 18 Bellas. It's because my family were, you
know, they're Italian. Bella 1, Bella 2 Bella 3 Bella 4
So weird. But but anyways, Chihuahuas and
good, good shepherds. Yeah, good shepherds golden, but
German shepherds, not good shepherds.
Golden shepherds. No.
What am I saying? I'm like a dog lover.
But but anyways, so but each one would have a name and not only
that, but they would be, it would be they have, they would
have an accent like the, the the shepherd would even have a
certain accent and would be able to call them, you know, do you,
you have to discern there's a lot of voices in your head from
the world. Ton of voices.
I mean a lot of voices that you get.
I mean, you're hearing your mom talk, you're hearing your wife.
You're hearing that's usually the loudest.
No, I'm just kidding. But then you hear, you hear a
lot of different voices, right? Someone told me that the the
closest voice to the Holy Spirit is your wife.
And then it goes on from there, right.
It's true. Your mom might be up there, you
know, towards the top, right. Right.
Or so. Yeah.
So just curious, where's Alessandro?
Do you hear your mom's voice in your head ever.
All the time? Yeah.
Well, I want for homework, I want you to discern the Lord's
voice. Yeah.
OK. So but that it, it he even an
accent, they would understand and the the sheep would, even
though they'd be all mixed, right?
And they're, these are sheep, they're not human beings.
They would follow their shepherd.
Every single one of them would follow them back to the fold, to
the pasture. Amen.
And so it's so important that you know, and what this is
pointing to is that he knows us and we should know him.
What it points to is that the most important thing on the
planet is making sure that you have a tight relationship with
God. Everything else secondary,
right? So just I'll share this.
I thought this was good that I love these.
I love the what happens on these trips because I know people are
praying at home. I know people are praying there
in Baton Rouge. And so when we several months
ago, Renato, he he he's from, where are you from?
Honduras, Honduras, All right, Amen.
But he, he asked, he asked me to pray for him.
And I said, sure, I'll pray for you.
He's like, hey, I, I came to UCF to play soccer and, and I, I
have really bad shin splints. And so I, he's like, I can't
play. And so I, I, I start praying for
him. I, I, we came up empty.
We just said, OK, well, we're just going to keep praying.
We're going to trust that the Lord is, is going to kill you.
And so a couple months later, we're in Baton Rouge and Mrs.
Kim got to pray for him And and then they play this game
afterwards and he's like, it's kind of have to like hop around
or whatever, you know, just a college game and to start off
our morning times and he's like, wow, I just, I don't feel any
pain. That's crazy.
But he's like, you know, I'm just going to test it.
And that's a good thing too. You know, as we, as we pray for
one another, we know that God heals.
We're going to pray for one another and we just know that we
need to test those things. We need to verify.
We're not just going to be like, because it's so, so easy to be
like, all right, easy. You know, then the next day he's
like, actually, they still hurt. So we don't want that.
So we just said, OK, well, what do you need to do to verify
that? And so he said, hey, I would,
I'd love to go outside. And so I, I went out and I took
one other guy with me and I just watched him run back and forth.
He's like, what do you want me to run?
I don't know, I, I don't know. You're a soccer player.
You run faster than it was just just run back and forth.
So, so he did, he's like he and he and he, he, he's like, it's
amazing that he broke down. He just, he got down on the
grass and I took a picture of it just so you know, but he's
weeping. He's like, this is crazy, you
know, like I love his art, you know?
And then he's like, but we have to do one more test because
tomorrow I it's it's, it was night time.
We're just about to have team time.
We're like, oh, it'd be cool. Just like share, you know.
And then it's like, OK, well, let's just go one more test.
I'm like, yes, all right, let's do one more test because I could
wake up tomorrow with a lot of pain just because I just ran.
And so all right, so let's just do that.
So I, I went and found him in the morning and I was like, OK,
what's the deal? Like are you healed or not?
He's like, and he just starts breaking down crying and he's
worshipping the Lord. He's like, you're not going to
believe this. I am totally healed, totally
healed. But cool thing, but the whole
point of this is that just how God leads us and how he speaks
to us at the same time. I got a text message from Robin
and Robin was saying, hey, I really feel strongly about this.
I just want to submit it, but I feel strongly that God wants to
release healing in Baton Rouge, and it's just cool to see how
God sets that up. It doesn't always work that way,
right? And we want to be humble.
We want to verify miracles and all those things.
I mean, it's great. And that's not what we live for.
We don't want to be one of those churches that gets kind of kooky
about that. And it all becomes about the
miracle and all this stuff. That's awesome.
I mean, praise God. Like we're just actually
believing that he will play for the first team, right?
The team A at UCF and be able to give God glory, That'd be
amazing. That'd be awesome.
If it doesn't happen, that's OK. He you just got to experience
God and we all did as well. We all did.
And his voice is so the the sub point of this is his voice is
heard by his sheep. Second is his.
His voice points to a better way.
It points to a better way. He's always pointing us to a
better way, isn't he? And what I mean by that is that
believers have to recognize that his ways are better.
Do you remember? So what I taught Ed in, in Baton
Rouge, I taught him. So there was 4 points.
I was just about walking with God.
I just felt like this theme on my heart is like, hey, we need
to learn how to walk with God. That is the most important thing
that we can do. And I went through the
scriptures and showed how many people walk with God, Enoch walk
with God, Noah walk without Abraham, walk with God.
And, and then we went, there's four, there's 4 main points or 4
main sessions. The first one is that we we are
meant to walk with God in humility.
That was from Luke 5, right? That Peter experienced this
miraculous provision of fish, but then he got down.
He says that the kindness of God led him to repentance and we're
going to walk with God. He really said, look, because
you, you obeyed because you obeyed simply because you're a
man of humility. I'm going to use you now
powerfully says that was the first one.
Second one was that we're going to walk with God by faith.
And that's what we're talking about here that that in Hebrews
11, you know, the hall of faith Moses was was a man that was a
broken man, right? He he talked to God face to
face. He got to experience the
miracles of God and all these things.
But it's said that the reason why God could use him is because
he rejected the world and the passing pleasures of sin.
And so God always leads us away from sin.
And so his voice always leads us away from pride, away from sin,
Amen. That's what he does in our life.
And the third one is, and we'll get to here in a second, but the
we're we're called to walk with God in in integrity, walking
with God in integrity. So we did a guy's night.
We just kind of and that was one of the more powerful nights.
And and then fourthly, that God's called us to walk with him
in love. But John 1010 the enemy wants.
To RIP us off with the lie that sin satisfies even more than
God. He rips us off.
He's a thief. He comes and steals his abundant
life. He's trying to steal this
abundant life, which he can't take.
But we can give it to him temporarily, right?
How many know that sin it? It wouldn't be temptation if
there was no temporary pleasure in it, right?
It wouldn't be. How many of you guys are
attempted to just eat poison Anybody.
No, like on your breakfast, on your eggs.
I just people are like, what did you just put on my eggs?
Well, I put poison on it. What?
And and I eat my eggs that doesn't have poison on it.
And then I'm like, we eat. I made them for you, you crazy.
Nobody's tempted to eat that. It's silly, but no one's tempted
to do that. It's only temptation.
God, that the say this, the enemy knows exactly your weak
points. And he he says, hey, look, just
take it, it just just take it just just a little bit, just a
little bit. Not, not a lot.
Don't, don't do a lot, just a little bit because he knows if
you do a little bit, you'll take a lot later.
You want to end up destroying your life and his voice says his
ways are better. His ways are better.
First Chronicles 410 says this Jabez prayed God bless me indeed
and enlarge my border that you your hand might be with me and
listen to this that you would keep me from harm that it may
not pain me. I don't think I ever saw that
because we just did the prayer Jabez that that long ago right.
We just, if you remember that we just, we, we talked about that,
we prayed through it. But that last part is so good,
isn't it? Look at, listen, look at look, I
like you would keep me, just Lord, just keep me from what?
From harm that it may not pain me.
How many know that sin actually pains God?
But look at what it says here. What does sin also do?
Pains you, pains you, doesn't it?
And rightfully so thank God that you feel that, but how many know
you don't have to feel that if you hear the Lord's voice and
walk with him and I love this this little line here.
And so the Lord so the Lord answered his prayer at the guys
night. It was the girls did Nicole did
a great job too. I I wasn't there, but I heard it
was amazing. But for the guys night, it was
probably in my opinion, 14 years is probably the more powerful
guys night I've ever been a part of and I don't I still I still
look. I was like, I don't know what
the, I, I don't, I don't know what the, what the ingredients
were. I don't, I don't, I don't, I
don't know like why that happened.
Why, why was that? I was going back was like, it's
the teaching. It was at the prayer time.
Was it, it was just the Lord leading the whole thing the
entire night. But I think The X Factor was
vulnerability and humility and where guys, there was about 6
pods because I said, hey, who's really like really going through
it? I mean, we just need to pray for
you. So there were like 6 different
pods I guess of people all praying for somebody.
And then someone had a word again, just how God speaks to
us. Someone had a word just said,
Hey, I really feel like we're supposed to hold up the arms of
these men who are really struggling because they can't
hold their arms up themselves. And it's Acts 7 or Exodus 17, if
you remember Moses, right, was his arms are being held up for
the victory. And then Aaron and her were
holding him up. So I said, let's be Aaron and
her for from the Moses. OK, So we got around and it was
powerful. There was a Bartimaeus cry.
Did you ever hear a Bartimaeus cry?
Lord help, help. And it's like, mostly you're
like, oh, that's so awkward. You like shrivel up inside.
Do you know there was one person on that scene, blind barn
Emmaus, that didn't shrivel up? Jesus.
He was the only one in that whole circle scene that was
actually attracted to that cry. It's because of that cry the man
was healed. Sometimes desperation,
awkwardness, leads to the world's eyes, leads to healing,
leads to freedom. And that's what we got to
experience that night. It was powerful.
His voice always speaks His love.
It's the third part. His voice always speaks of His
love. Jesus willingly died for us
because of love. Therefore we can trust Him.
You know, some people sadly go into ministry because it
benefits them, not because of love for souls.
Be careful of those people, they leave.
What does it say? Listen to this, I'm the Good
Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays his life
down for the sheep. This is not a lift up man
moment. This is a lift up Jesus.
This is why we can trust and This is why we can trust his
voice. Because of this he's saying I am
the Good Shepherd. I am not like the hireling.
The hiring hireling leaves when things get tough, which is a
true test for a leader. When things get really hard, bye
bye plan BS come in the desire to protect yourself, self
preservation, whatever it is, it's you have to protect
yourself because you were ultimately in it for yourself.
But Jesus is like when it gets hard and it got hard on every
page, it got hard on every page, didn't it?
But he said, I'm not leaving because it's the real deal.
He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who is not the owner
of the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and
flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
He flees because he's the hired hand and is not concerned about
the sheep. He says again and again and
again, I am the Good Shepherd and I know my own and my own
know me that good. He'll never leave you nor
forsake you, no matter how hard it gets now, how much you bear
his shame. He's like, I'm not leaving.
Everybody else might, but not him.
Nicole got a word for one of the new girls.
It was really sweet just on this understanding that he always
speaks his love. They were in a worship service,
they were praying and they just, she just felt like, I don't
know, I got an image of her riding a horse and she was just
galloping over hurdles or whatever people do when they
ride horses. I don't know.
I don't, I don't ride horses. But she's like, pause, how did
you know? How did you know?
Like, how did you know I ride horses like I, I didn't know
that you're brand new. I don't know that I don't know
your life. It's just the Lord the Lord puts
on your heart is your prey, but it's not us.
It has nothing to do with us. Have you ever found yourself
just speaking and the Lord's using you and he's like blessing
the other person has nothing to do with you.
It's because Jesus wants to speak to you.
He wants to get to their heart out of love.
Why? Because he wants them to be
known. He wants them to be known.
Don't you ever just feel known by God?
When you get prayed for? It's like, wow, how did you know
that? And then lastly, his voice
speaks security, His sheep. We are his sheep forever.
The shepherd never leaves his sheep ever.
And as I love this, this, you know, I think somebody in the
room, maybe a few, you know, who always keep Downing their
salvation. One thing I do know is that you
will stray. Sheep stray.
They stray because Jesus isn't forcing the sheep to do anything
If they stray. Listen, if they stray, it's for
a season. And then he brings them back.
But you do not believe because you do not.
You are not my sheep, he says, but my sheep hear my voice and I
know them this verse 27 And they follow me, and I give them
eternal life and they will never perish.
Underline, they will never perish, and no one will snatch
them out of his hand. No one, not one person, not
anybody that, and not your enemy, not your parents, not
anybody else on this planet, not even the devil himself will be
able to snatch you from his hand.
And no one will snatch them out of your hand ever.
They were unable to. So what is he saying?
He's saying this. I I remember hearing this one
time that eternal security is different than assurance.
Everybody has eternal security, whether you believe it or not.
Everybody has that. If you've placed your faith in
Jesus, no one could be. No one can snatch you from that.
You're eternally secure. But here's the difference.
Assurance. Do you want that?
Assurance comes when we abide with Him.
You see, when we live in sin, we might have eternal security, but
we won't feel it because we're not close to Him.
Assurance is what God wants everyone to have.
It's the joyful like I'm his, I'm his, I'm really his.
But if you're living in sin and you're still a Christian, you
don't get to shout that because you don't feel that because
you're walking as and you're straying away from the Savior.
But not only that, I would just want to say this, that you guys
may not lose your salvation, but you may lose your passion for
Jesus. You're like one of those people.
You're like, oh, yeah. I just know what the word says.
I know what the word says. I know, you know, you know, you
know. But do you feel his presence?
Do you do you walk with him in a way that is vibrant and
passionate in the life? Guys, the abundant life is not
heaven. The abundant life is here.
Do you see that? It's here.
And this is how you get that. You go through the door, he
brings you to himself, he brings you into his family and you get
to experience the unity. He says there's sheep that you
that that you don't know about. He's like, I have other sheep,
which is not of this fault. What is he talking about?
I mean, in context, he's talking about the Jews eventually
gathering with the Gentiles, right?
Which a lot of those people didn't like.
But he's talking about Ephesians 2, broke the barrier between Jew
and Gentile and now they're slave and free, right?
He's bringing everybody in under one roof.
But what is he talking about too?
He's talking about the nations, He's talking about the nation's
coming. One day he's going to gather all
the nations that know him under one roof, under one place called
heaven. That's amazing.
And then lastly, he not only leads us and speaks to us and we
can, we can close here, but he protects us.
The thief tries to climb the fence, but Jesus is at the door.
He protects this place. I remember, let me just share
this that I, I mean, I've given so many messages on wolves.
I don't think I need to do that again, but I just, I want you to
see something in the context of this amazing parable that Jesus
shares about the Good Shepherd. He's, he's building something
among us, like globally and locally, he's building his
global church. And there are people who try to,
of course, hurt that, right. And I, I remember when the, the
six people were lining up to be baptized, I was like, well, you
guys here, we're doing this in Pensacola Beach, FL.
But there are other people who are being baptized on the beach
and they have black hoods on their heads and they have a gun
to the back of their skull. And because they committed to
Jesus, they would breathe their last.
And every time we baptize, I want you to remember the
persecuted church because while we have freedom, at least at
least right now, they don't. But they also are promised the
abundant life because the abundant life is not promised to
the to just Americans. It's like somehow they're fused
together that what Jesus offers and the the the American dream.
That's not what he's talking about somewhat the abundant life
that person with a hood on their head has the abundant life they
get to it says blessed are those who are persecuted and even
mistreat you and even kill you for my name for your names are
written in the book of life. You have a blessing.
They're blessed, they're more blessed than the American
Christian who is living for themselves and has Jesus on the
side. The abundant life is today.
Now the joy that you get to feel and experience of being in his
family and knowing him. So when we were when we're all
worshiping and praying, we had this moment.
I don't know if we can do this here.
It's my administrator said that it might be impossible.
I think it's still possible, but we'll see what happens.
But while we're there, we have about 150 of us or so.
And I just thought I had this word.
I felt like the Lord wanted to show us the generations.
So he sang that song Generations, You know, I forgot
the what's the lures, the blessing.
Sorry. Yeah, I renamed it The
Generations anyways, but so just I, I, so Nicole and I, we stood
up. We just brought everybody but
Judah, because Judah wasn't born yet.
So 2011, Ella was in diapers and the rest of them were pretty
small. And we just stood up in 2011.
That's when we started the church and then it was George
and who it was there in 2012. It was just George, just George,
just George represented 2012 and there's way more that represent
2012, but they didn't come and then 2014 and then 15161718.
And it was kind of cool. At one point you got to see this
like multiplication growth and the church.
It was just that little section of our church and you got to see
that. And we just said that, you know,
just that we sang the song, the just the, the, the blessings
from generation to generation. You know, just seeing people
come to Christ and like watching like man, we baptize you, you
share the gospel, you're bold. This is how you serve the
church. It was just beautiful to see all
that God was do is just a precious moment.
And then Edson, you know, just this, you know, people are
crying and said, and then Edson comes up to me and he says this,
he's like, This is why we protect.
This is why we protect, we protect this and Jesus is
ultimately the one who protects, yes, he gives us shepherds and
to shepherd the flock and that's part of their, their duty,
right? To feed the flock, lead the
flock, protect the flock. I mean, that's their duty to do
that is under shepherds, under shepherds.
But we have one Good Shepherd that says, I've started this
church and I will see it to completion.
Amen. That's who God says he is, Amen.
Some of you are like, are we going to do it?
Well, I don't know, probably not, but you can imagine it in
your mind. I'd love to.
It's just so hard with these chairs and stuff.
But it's just cool to see if you're part of this, if you're,
it was just cool to see also the 2026 people that just got here,
just got here and just seeing they were the front of it.
And I said, you guys don't let it end with you.
But then there's going to be there's going to be more.
The 27282930 whenever Jesus comes back, we want him to come
back soon. But we're just saying, Lord, we,
we want you to continue to do it again and again and again.
Would you do it again in the next generation?
He's a Good Shepherd, but he's not done with our fold.
He wants more to come in and that's what we're praying for.
So with this song just in your mind's eye, just thank the Lord
for this church. Thank the Lord for the Good
Shepherd. Thank the Lord that he brought
you, saved you. He saved, he brought you in, you
went through the door, He saved you.
He gave you a family and he gave you a purpose and a mission to
live for a He gave you a power to live out those commands that
Jesus gave us until the end. Amen.
Let's stand to our feet and let's worship.