{"id":3713,"date":"2020-06-03T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-03T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/?p=3713"},"modified":"2020-06-03T12:55:27","modified_gmt":"2020-06-03T17:55:27","slug":"word-pictures-of-the-church-the-flock-of-god-why-sheep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/word-pictures-of-the-church-the-flock-of-god-why-sheep\/","title":{"rendered":"Word Pictures of the Church – The Flock of God – Why Sheep?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Of all the ways Jesus could have described His relationship to His followers, why did He choose the shepherd and sheep analogy?  Let\u2019s compare a few of the ways that we are like sheep.<\/span><\/div>\n
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1.  Sheep are totally dependent upon the shepherd for their survival.<\/span><\/div>\n
They cannot live on their own.  God made us to live in complete <\/span>dependance upon him.<\/span><\/div>\n
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2.  Sheep are easily distracted.  <\/span><\/div>\n
When sheep are grazing, they will eat without noticing where they are going.  They will simply follow the grass wherever it leads them. It\u2019s not uncommon for them to wander off and get lost. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Isaiah speaks of all people as wandering sheep and the need for Jesus to die for them.<\/span><\/div>\n
Isaiah 53:6 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned\u2014every one\u2014to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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Peter speaks of believers who have lost their way, but were drawn back into the \u201cfold.\u201d <\/span><\/div>\n
1 Peter 2:25 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Jesus depicts the wandering sheep and the need for a shepherd to bring them back.<\/span><\/div>\n
Matthew 18:12 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?<\/span><\/div>\n
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Which leads us to the next observation\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
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3. Sheep are of great value to their shepherd.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Jesus not only describes the serious searching for the one sheep who had went astray, but He depicts how meaningful it was to the shepherd when He had found the lost sheep.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Matthew 18:12\u201313 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
12<\/sup><\/span> What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? <\/span>13<\/sup><\/span> And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Remember this: God has placed such value upon you that He sent His Son to pay the penalty for your sins.  How valuable are you to the Father?  There is no price tag to match the cost of His Son.<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of all the ways Jesus could have described His relationship to His followers, why did He choose the shepherd and sheep analogy?  Let\u2019s compare a few of the ways that we are like sheep.   1.  Sheep are totally dependent upon the shepherd for their survival. They cannot live on their own.  God made us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3713"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3713"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3715,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3713\/revisions\/3715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}