Tasting the Gruel of Love

The Sheep Follow

Dr. Larry Thorson
February 7, 2010

Proverbs 14:12

There is a way that appears to be right,
but in the end it leads to death.

John 14:6

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 10:4b

and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday. For you non football fans two teams, the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts will square off for the title of professional football champion. The Saints have never been in the Super Bowl in their 42 years of existence. After Hurricane Katrina in ’05 it looked like they might not even play in New Orleans again. But team owner Tom Benson made some decisions that kept the team in New Orleans, and hired new personnel that changed the future direction of the team.

The Indianapolis Colts started life as the Dallas Texans before moving to Baltimore in the early 1950’s and becoming the Colts. One night in 1981 owner Robert Irsay contracted with his neighbor who owned a Mayflower Moving Co. franchise and secretly moved the team to Indianapolis before the Maryland governor could seize the team in eminent domain because of threats to move the team. I mention that because both football team owners looked at where their teams were going and decided to change their direction.

Change is possible, even for us. Every morning when you awake, regardless of your age or condition there are different paths you can take your life on. Believe it or not you have choices. The questions for today are do you know what direction you’re going in and do you like it? Maybe you feel helpless in changing your direction. Maybe you think change is possible only for multi-millionaire football team owners. But those who are able to accomplish the most in their days have come to understand their direction and then have become good followers of it.

If you haven’t already done so recently, take an inventory of where your life is headed. What areas are you happy with? What areas do you think need improvement? What goals do you have for your life? Are your goals broken down into manageable, attainable steps? Are those goals taking you in a consistent direction? Goals can be like a sailboat in a headwind when the direction is wrong for you.

Allow your imagination to soar to what could be accomplished in your life if you weren’t afraid to set it in a new direction. For example what if someone was capable of showing you how to make an additional $100,000 by the end of the year with a $1,000 investment and it wasn’t a pyramid scheme? I wouldn’t believe them or trust them enough to follow them.

But most of us will sit there and think that we can’t change. We don’t even know how to change. We’ve done fairly well in life up to now but we have no idea what it would take to improve what we’re doing.

Now you begin to understand how sheep think. They do the best they can to find grass to eat but all they know is the little world they live in. That’s where the shepherd comes in. In the tenth chapter of the Gospel of John where we’ve been since the first of the year, Jesus describes what a good shepherd does. The purpose of shepherds as we’ve been looking at in this series is to protect the sheep and to keep them on a course that will make them most productive. He moves them to fields where they can get the most nourishment with the least effort.

That’s the purpose of Jesus the Good Shepherd in our lives. He came to protect us from outside forces that seek to destroy us and to rescue us from our own sin. He also came to put our lives in a direction that will make us most productive and most fulfilled.

Proverbs 14:12 says “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” Life is kind of like a maze. It’s your choice as to whether you want to turn left or go straight ahead. If you decide to turn left you might get out of the maze but you might hit a dead end. If only we could get up above the maze we’d be able to see the shortest path through it. But if we could get up above the maze we would be God. But we have the next best thing, access to God.

But the decision to turn left, right or go straight ahead is ours. It’s always ours. In John 14:6 we read: Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. That’s the path or the way that Jesus set. If you want to get on that path it’s your choice. It’s always our choice. If you want to make a change to something in your life it’s your choice. If you make a choice to lose weight by following the Jenny Craig method you have to follow the Jenny Craig model. If you make a choice to go back to school you have to follow the school’s requirements for graduation. Whatever course you go on, it will require you to change your daily will to follow it.

You can change the direction of your life or even a piece of something in your life by following a few simple steps. First consider what needs changing. Maybe it’s your weight. Maybe it’s your lack of exercise. Maybe it’s your lack of prayer. Second, once you decide what you want to change, then you need to explore your options. If you want to lose weight you might look at three or four different diet plans. Third, once you decide on an option, you need to develop a daily plan that you can and will follow to get you where you want to get.

Positive change only happens when we make a decision to change our will to follow something or someone worthy. Merrill Lynch sells financial advice. H & R Block sells financial advice. When our son was in the 6^th grade I took his college money and put my trust in a 50 year old financial consulting company in Boston to help it grow. They assured me that by the time he reached college it will have grown for him. I lost 50% of what I invested for him through their advice. It wasn’t their entire fault but I don’t follow that company any more.

Change, whether big or small is possible for every one of us. But it requires making a decision about what or who we’re going to follow. Every one of us is following something, it could be an ideology or a habit or a person we really respect. Make sure that what it is or who it is that you’re following is trustworthy and will get you where you want to get. But for that you need to know where you want to be when you get there. I know where I want to be when this body gives out; in the presence of almighty God. I also know that I want to take a big ocean liner full of people with me there. What about you? Where do you want to go?

In John 10:4b Jesus says of a good shepherd “and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.” They know and they trust his voice. Our shepherd, Jesus was willing to lay down his life for us. Jesus the Good Shepherd came to save us from our sin and to make us productive helpers in this damaged world.