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John 1010 through 15.

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The thief comes

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only to steal and kill and destroy.

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I came that they may have life
and have it abundantly.

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I am the good shepherd.

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The good shepherd
lays down his life for the sheep.

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He who is a hired hand
and not a shepherd, who does not own

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the sheep, sees the wolf coming
and leaves the sheep and flees,

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and the wolf snatches them and scatters
them.

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He flees because he is a hired hand
and cares nothing for the sheep.

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I am the good Shepherd.

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I know my own and my own know me.

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Just as the father knows me,
and I know the father.

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And I lay down my life for the sheep.

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Everybody, good morning
and welcome to Christ Community Chapel.

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My name is Joe.

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I'm one of the pastors here.

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And, thanks for coming.

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Listen, we have people
that are still trying to find seats.

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If you could squeeze
in, that would be great.

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If you have a seat next,

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you could raise your hand,
let people know that they can sit there.

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All right.

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It's good. It's
a great. It's a great weekend.

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We are baptizing,
68 people, over this weekend.

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Yeah.

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You can run.

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And we'll get to that in a minute.

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But, we are in the middle of a ten week
series.

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We're actually looking
at what Jesus says about himself.

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This is the second week
where we have been looking

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at the word picture of a shepherd
with sheep.

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It's actually one of Jesus
favorite metaphors.

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In the Gospel of Matthew,
he tells his disciples

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that he has been sent
for the lost sheep of Israel.

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In Luke chapter 15, he tells the story
of a shepherd at 100 sheep,

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and one wandered off, and the shepherd
left the 99 to go after the one.

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And then here in John chapter ten,

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he calls himself the good Shepherd.

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And as soon as he would say that,

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everybody in his original audience
would think of the same thing,

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all their minds
would go to the same place,

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which was the most famous psalm,

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which is Psalm 23.

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The 23rd Psalm is still probably
the most beloved psalm.

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It's the most requested psalm
for funerals.

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And there's a reason for that.

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There's something, soothing, something

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wonderful about Psalm 23.

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It's like a goodness
that settles into the room.

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And because it was in the minds
of the original listeners to Jesus,

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I want it to be in your mind as we talk
about Jesus being the good Shepherd.

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So I'm going to try something.

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I'm going to read Psalm 23.

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But I'd like to ask you
just to close your eyes

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and let the words fall on
you like a gentle rain.

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Listen to Psalm 23.

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The Lord is my shepherd.

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I shall not want.

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He makes me lie down in green pastures.

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He leads me beside still waters.

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He restores my soul.

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He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.

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Even though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

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For you are with me.

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Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

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You prepare a table before me
in the presence of mine enemies.

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You anoint
my head with oil, my cup overflows.

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Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life.

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And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.

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There's something just wonderful
about that.

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I didn't grow up with sheep.

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You probably didn't either,
but it doesn't really matter,

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because there's something about that song
that strikes a chord that runs

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very, very deep inside of every one of us.

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There's a longing that we have

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for someone to lead us

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and guide us
and bring us to something that is good,

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somebody who will

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walk with us when life gets dark,

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someone who will restore our aching

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and weary hearts.

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And that runs so deep
that if we if we don't find it in Jesus,

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we will spend our entire lives
looking for it.

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And Jesus,
when he's talking to his original hearers,

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he is saying that Shepherd
who you long for

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to lead and love you,
to protect and provide for you.

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I'm the one.

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I am the good shepherd.

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The passage we're looking at in
John chapter ten is only six verses long.

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Let me read it again, and then I'll give
you the three points that I want to cover.

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Sweet Jesus says, the thief comes
only to steal and kill and destroy.

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I came that they might have life
and have it abundantly.

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I am the good shepherd.

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The good shepherd
lays down his life for the sheep.

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He was a hired hand and not a shepherd
who does not own the sheep, sees

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the wolf coming,
leaves the sheep and flees,

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and the wolf snatches them and scatters
them.

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He flees because he's a hired hand
and cares nothing for the sheep.

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I am the good shepherd.

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I know my own and my own know me.

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Just as the father knows
me and I know the father.

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And I lay down my life for the sheep.

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My three points are really three truths

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and the three truths,
if you will affirm these three truths.

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If you wake up tomorrow morning
and you affirm

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and live by these three truths,
your life will get better.

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All right.

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Here's the first truth.

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I'm a sheep.

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That's it. That's person. I'm a sheep.

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Second truth Jesus is the good shepherd.

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And the third truth is I am Jesus sheep.

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I first.

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I'm a sheep.

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You have probably been in a group
where somebody has asked the question.

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Listen, if you could be any animal
in the world, what would you be?

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I have asked that question to my kids
when they were little.

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I ask it to my grandkids. Now,

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and let me tell you something.

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No one wants to be a sheep

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like nobody.

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They want to be all kinds of other things.

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But let me give you
my first little insight.

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The reason that no one wants to be a sheep
is the same reason

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Jesus chooses it as a metaphor
to describe you

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and me.

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It's the same reason.

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Let me tell you a little bit about sheep,
because I did some research.

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One of the reasons
that people don't want to be a sheep

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is because sheep don't do
well in the wild.

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There are no wild sheep.

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They are dependent.

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They need someone to care for them.

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Like, I, look out in my backyard.

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I have a lot of wildlife
that go through my backyard.

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I've seen deer.

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I see deer pretty often.

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I've seen, raccoons.

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I've seen a wolf.

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Oh, no, not a wolf.

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I have seen a coyote. I've seen fox.

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If I looked out

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in my backyard and I saw a sheep,

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I would be going, that guy's in trouble.

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Because sheep just don't do
well in the wild.

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That.

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The other thing is
that sheep tend to wander

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and they don't
have a good sense of direction.

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So they can't ever find their way back.

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That was the point of, Luke chapter 15.

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The shepherd had 100 sheep.

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The one wandered off,
you know, one coming back.

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So he left the 99 to go find the one.

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Other animals find their way back.

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You know, you've you've probably

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all read stories about people
who've taken their dogs on vacation.

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And for some reason,
they forget their dog.

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And their dog finds its way back home.

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A thousand miles finds its way back home.

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Now a sheep.

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Sheep rounding the corner.

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It's gone and it's not coming back.

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Also, sheep have,

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no discretion over
what's good for them and bad for them.

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A sheep will eat poisonous plants
unless a shepherd leaves them.

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Which is why the psalmist says
he makes me lie down

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in green pastures.

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And then this is something that was funny.

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I read this, that when it rains, and sheep
have not been shorn in a while.

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Their wool gets,
you know, really saturated with water.

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And when it thunders,
the sheep gets scared

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and they will stick their noses
into the wool of another sheep,

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and they can actually drown like that
unless the shepherd

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goes and separates them.

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Nobody wants to be a sheep.

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Nobody wants to be compared
to a sheep, compared to, a creature

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that wanders, that tends to not know how
to get back to what is good.

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A a creature that

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doesn't know necessarily
what's good for them or bad for them.

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A creature that does really stupid things
every once in a while.

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And even though
we have all those similarities with sheep,

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most of us
we don't want to be compared to sheep.

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We want to think of ourselves as being,
you know, pretty good decision makers.

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And and when we do that, even those of us
who are Christians, we tend to treat

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Jesus like he's a consultant,
like he's on retainer.

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So if we ever, you know, we pretty much
are in control of our lives.

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And then every once while,
we might make a decision

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that we know is so important,
we need his help

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or we've made a bad decision,
we need a way to get back.

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We don't know how to get back,

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but this is what's true.

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You will never, ever know

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Jesus as your good Shepherd

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until you're willing to embrace the truth

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that you're just the sheep.

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You're a sheep
that is prone to wander, a sheep

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that needs a shepherd, and the listen,

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you have to embrace the idea
that you're not even an exceptional sheep.

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I think we tend to what you like.

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You want to feel better, like you're
a better sheep than the sheep that you're

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sitting around right?

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Tomorrow morning, when you wake up,

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this is the first truth
I want you to just tell God.

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I want you to just admit to God.

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Listen, I'm a sheep.

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I know I'm very, very similar to a sheep.

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I know that I need a shepherd.

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That's the first truth.

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The second
truth is Jesus is the good shepherd.

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He starts this passage out
talking about other

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shepherds, that there are shepherds
that are hired, shepherds

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that aren't necessarily
good for the sheep.

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One of the things, you know,
when I say that Psalm

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23 hits a chord
that runs really deep inside of us,

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what I mean is that every human being
has this longing for someone

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who will protect and provide for him,
who will love them, lead them.

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And that longing, if it's not met by
Jesus, you'll look for it somewhere else.

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It's why the world is full of shepherds.

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How about this?

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In 2010, The New York Times
came up with a word to describe people

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who fill social media content with

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content
that actually impacts people's behavior.

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They called them influencers.

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That was 2010.

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A social media influencer is a shepherd

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and their followers are sheep.

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They will tell you what to eat.

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Sometimes literally.

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They'll tell you where to go, what to do
in order to get what you really want.

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They're shepherds.

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Have you ever wondered
where like, fashion trends come from?

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I was thinking, you know, I lived through
the 70s, went to high school in the 70s.

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One of the things I was thinking
of what I used to wear, and I remember

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wearing a silk shirt with clocks on it,
and I have no idea why.

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Like, now I wear these.

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I have these shoes.

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These are my cool shoes.

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I don't know why they're cool,

00:12:00:48 - 00:12:03:48
but they're cooler than the shoes
I used to wear.

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Why do I think that

00:12:07:42 - 00:12:08:59
I'm being influenced?

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You are being influenced.

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All the time.

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I watched a documentary
called The Social Dilemma,

00:12:14:39 - 00:12:19:18
and it's about the the power of Instagram
and Twitter and Facebook.

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And I know those are older platforms,

00:12:22:48 - 00:12:24:31
but the scariest quote

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in that whole documentary was this

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if the product is free,

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then you're the product.

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And what I was saying is

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the world is full of shepherds
gathering sheep.

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I just read this
that one out of eight people

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turn to AI to help them as life coaches.

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People looking for a shepherd.

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Jesus says the world is full of shepherds.

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There are hired hands.
There are two kinds of shepherds.

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What he says is a hired hand.

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And then the owner of the sheep
and the original audience

00:13:01:48 - 00:13:04:08
that Jesus was speaking
to would know the difference right away.

00:13:04:08 - 00:13:07:08
They would understand
exactly what Jesus was saying.

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The reason that Jesus said
that a hired hand would run away

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if there was danger to the sheep,
because the hired hand doesn't really care

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about the sheep,
the hired hand is just trying to.

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They're making a living off the sheep.

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But the owners different.

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An owner of the sheep.

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His entire wealth was represented
by the sheep.

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The sheep were his.

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Where his pride and joy,

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his glory and his treasure.

00:13:35:20 - 00:13:38:34
And Jesus says, I am the good Shepherd

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who lays down his life for the sheep.

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This whole series we are heading
toward Easter, where we celebrate

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the fact that Jesus lived in our place,
died in our place, and resurrected.

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And we celebrate that because Jesus was
and is our good Shepherd.

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Which means that
if you went to the foot of the cross

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and you looked up at Jesus
and you said, Shepherd,

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good Shepherd,

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why are you dying on the cross?

00:14:08:34 - 00:14:11:34
Why is the father forsaking you right now?

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Jesus would say,

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I'm doing this for the sheep.

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I'm laying my life down for my sheep.

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And if you were to say to Jesus.

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But that doesn't make any sense,
why would you give your life

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for witless, dumb, prone
to wander, silly sheep?

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And Jesus would say,

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because they're my treasure.

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They're my treasure.

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That's what Jesus feels

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when he looks at you.

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Listen, that first truth.

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You know, I woke up this morning
and I said to God, I'm a sheep.

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Not even an exceptional sheep.

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I'm just a sheep.

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That's a hard thing to really grab on to.

00:14:58:33 - 00:15:00:21
That's a tough truth.

00:15:00:21 - 00:15:03:18
But this second truth,
Jesus is the good Shepherd,

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is the most wonderful truth
anyone has ever heard.

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And that's the truth.

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I tell you.

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And that brings me to a third point,

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which is you are Jesus sheep.

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I'm Jesus sheep.

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You know, every Christmas,
Christmas morning I pick up my Bible.

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I do the same thing.
I've done it for years.

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I read the same passage
for my to my family.

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It's from Luke chapter two.

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It's very familiar.

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It starts like this.

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And there were in the same region,

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shepherds abiding in the field,
keeping watch over their flock by night.

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And lo,
an angel of the Lord appeared to them.

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Glory of the Lord shone round about them.

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And then you know the rest of the story.

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They end up
going to the manger, finding Jesus.

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But that story starts

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with shepherds
in the middle of the night, out

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with their sheep, because shepherds
would never leave their sheep.

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Listen, the Bible gives us a lot of titles
for Jesus.

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He's a Savior.

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He's our Redeemer, he's our King.

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He's even our friend.

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But there may be no more
comprehensive title

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than the title of Shepherd,

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because the shepherd
is intimately involved

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in every aspect of a sheep's life.

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Get this.

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Let me just note this is the the key
to having your life actually be changed.

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You can wake up tomorrow morning
and you can believe that you're a sheep.

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You can believe that
Jesus is the good Shepherd.

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But until Jesus is the shepherd
in every area of your life,

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you will not have the life

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that you really want.

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You will not have the more
the abundant life

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that Jesus is talking about

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and in any area of your life
where you know that

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Jesus wants you to go one way
and you're saying, well, I'm

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going to go this way, you need to know
you are following a different shepherd

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and it won't take you
where you really want to go.

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This is what I would suggest
you do take your life.

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And just in every category,
look at your social life,

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your sexual life, your financial life,
your professional life, your family life,

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your recreational life,
all those different places.

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And go to God and say, I'm a sheep.

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Jesus is the good shepherd.

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If I'm going to be Jesus sheep,
just show me

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how you want me to live in this area.

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What you want me to do in this area?

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If you show me, I will follow you.

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You know, because

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I've been preparing for this message
every morning I have been reciting

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the 23rd Psalm to myself.

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And there was something that hit me
as strange I hadn't seen before.

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At the very end of that song.

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The psalmist says,
surely goodness and mercy

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shall follow me all the days of my life.

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And I was thinking,
that's the reason that struck me.

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As strange as goodness is something
that I feel like I'm that I chase.

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That's what social influencers will say.

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Listen, if you do this, you will.

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You will end up finding goodness.

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You will find mercy.

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That's not what the psalmist says.

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The psalmist says, I follow Jesus

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and goodness and mercy chase after me.

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I don't know about you, but
I would love to live my life in such a way

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that when I slow up or stop, it's goodness
and mercy that hit me in the back.

00:18:28:12 - 00:18:31:12
Listen, tomorrow morning when you wake up,

00:18:31:40 - 00:18:34:06
affirm three truths.

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Say I'm a sheep.

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Not even an exceptional sheep.

00:18:38:27 - 00:18:41:16
I'm just a sheep and I need a shepherd.

00:18:41:16 - 00:18:44:16
Jesus is the good shepherd

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and I am Jesus.

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Sheep.

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And wherever he wants me to follow,
I will follow and let goodness and mercy

00:18:54:34 - 00:18:57:34
chase you all the days of your life.

00:18:58:21 - 00:19:00:54
You pray with me,

00:19:00:54 - 00:19:04:20
Lord Jesus, we come to you and,
I am grateful.

00:19:04:39 - 00:19:06:26
I'm grateful that you tell us

00:19:06:26 - 00:19:09:30
the truth about ourselves,
that we really are like sheep.

00:19:10:31 - 00:19:12:46
And I am grateful
you don't just leave us there.

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But you have come and said that
you are the good Shepherd, the one who

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we long for, who can provide and protect,
who can love and lead,

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who will walk with us in the darkness,
who restore our aching and weary hearts.

00:19:27:57 - 00:19:29:26
I pray for every person here.

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I pray that we will be your sheep.

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We will declare that truth
and we will follow you wherever you lead.

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And let goodness and mercy chase us.

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Thank you. We pray this in your name.

00:19:43:34 - 00:19:44:02
Amen.