{"id":3719,"date":"2020-06-05T06:00:08","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T11:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/?p=3719"},"modified":"2020-06-05T06:47:37","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T11:47:37","slug":"word-pictures-of-the-church-the-flock-of-god-why-sheep-continued-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/word-pictures-of-the-church-the-flock-of-god-why-sheep-continued-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Word Pictures of the Church – The Flock of God – Why Sheep? (continued)"},"content":{"rendered":"
Of all the ways Jesus could have described His relationship to His followers, why did He choose the shepherd and sheep analogy?  We are comparing a few of the ways that we are like sheep.<\/span><\/div>\n
So far we have looked at:<\/span><\/div>\n
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1.  Sheep are totally dependent upon the shepherd for their survival.<\/span><\/div>\n
2.  Sheep are easily distracted.  <\/span><\/div>\n
3.  Sheep are of great value to their shepherd.<\/span><\/div>\n
4.  Sheep need protection.<\/span><\/div>\n
5.  Sheep are not meant to carry burdens.<\/span><\/div>\n
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As I said yesterday, sheep have the reputation of being \u201cdumb.\u201d  Actually, they are very smart. And there is one way that we, as the Lord\u2019s sheep, should seek to emulate them.<\/span><\/div>\n
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6.  Sheep know how to distinguish between the shepherd\u2019s voice and other conflicting voices.<\/span><\/div>\n
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John 10:2\u20135 (NIV)<\/span><\/div>\n
2<\/sup><\/span> The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. <\/span>3<\/sup><\/span> The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. <\/span>4<\/sup><\/span> When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. <\/span>5<\/sup><\/span> But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger\u2019s voice.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
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Here, Jesus describes what would happen when a shepherd called his sheep out from a community sheep pen where several flocks are housed together. During the night, the sheep from various flocks may have intermingled. The shepherd does not separate his sheep by walking through the pen, but by standing at the gate and calling their names. His sheep would recognize his voice and come running to him, while the other sheep would run from him. <\/span><\/div>\n
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These sheep show us how we should respond to our Shepherd.  When our Shepherd calls us we should learn to recognize His voice and follow Him.  But, when the voice is not that of our Shepherd, we should run in the other direction. <\/span><\/div>\n
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I think, sometimes, sheep are smarter than I am. There have been times in my life when I ran from my Shepherd\u2019s voice and towards the stranger\u2019s voice, only to find myself in great trouble. <\/span><\/div>\n
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That thought leads me to suggest that there is another way in which we do not want to emulate sheep\u2026<\/span><\/div>\n
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7.  Sheep will settle for less when they could have more.<\/span><\/div>\n
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When sheep are thirsty, they will stop at a dirty puddle right in front of them. They are not aware when there are clean, still waters nearby. Sheep are content with filth, so long as it satisfies at the moment. <\/span>They will stink and never even know it. They have no discernment for what is best.<\/div>\n
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I find we are not much different. Many times, we see a dirty puddle in front of us and go straight for it because we think that is all there is in life. We think we are satiated, but we stink instead.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Perhaps, it even looks enticing at the time because, after all, it is \u201cwater.\u201d  Many times we KNOW it will harm us, yet we still do it because we are stubborn or blinded from the truth. God compares us to sheep in the Bible because we don\u2019t always know what is good for us.<\/span><\/div>\n
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That\u2019s why we need a shepherd who sometimes will make us do what we should have wanted to do in the first place.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Psalm 23:1\u20132 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
1<\/sup><\/span> The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. <\/span>2<\/sup><\/span> He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
We have only touched on a few of the shepherd\/sheep analogies. Let\u2019s conclude with an eternal perspective. <\/span><\/div>\n
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Revelation 7:17 (ESV)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cFor the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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There is coming a time when Jesus, the Lamb, the perfect little sheep, will at the same time be our Shepherd forever. In God\u2019s eyes, these two metaphors stand side by side: Jesus is forever the Lamb of God and the Eternal Shepherd. <\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
As the church lives as God\u2019s flock today, we are being prepared for an eternal life of joy flowing from the leadership of the Great Shepherd.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Give praise to the good Shepherd.  Listen to His voice. Respond to His discipline. Follow Him exclusively. <\/span><\/div>\n\n\n

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Of all the ways Jesus could have described His relationship to His followers, why did He choose the shepherd and sheep analogy?  We are comparing a few of the ways that we are like sheep. So far we have looked at:   1.  Sheep are totally dependent upon the shepherd for their survival. 2.  Sheep […]<\/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\/3719"}],"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=3719"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3722,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3719\/revisions\/3722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}