Your Shepherd

1 Peter 2:²⁵ “Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls.”

What would you consider the greatest sacrifice you can make? Can you die for anyone? There is someone who died for us, He is the great Shepherd who lays His life down for the sheep. That is a big part of our study for the next few days. Please read John 10:1-42. John 10:¹ “Verily, verily, I say unto you…” (KJV], the word verily is Amen and Amen. The One that is Amen, Jesus is saying, ‘Amen and Amen, I tell you…’. The One that is The Truth is saying, ‘truly, I tell you the truth…’. It is like God said, ‘because I cannot swear by another, I swear by Myself; in blessing I will bless you.’ So, Jesus, The Truth, is saying here, ‘I tell you the truth…’ and it is a big emphasis. We need to pay attention to all scriptures but particularly when Jesus says, ‘truly, truly’.

 And all He wanted to say is that He is the Shepherd of our souls. Jesus is the Shepherd of our souls. Jesus is the Shepherd of my soul. Jesus is the shepherd of your soul, if you belong to Him. Shepherd means Pastor. Jesus is the Shepherd of our souls and that is the overarching message that He wants us to get. Jesus is saying to you even now, ‘I am the Shepherd of your soul.’ We did an entire series on Psalm 23, and there is a lot to say about God being our Shepherd. But the key thing here is, God is saying to you and I, ‘I will take care of you the way the shepherd takes care of the sheep.’ The person that wrote Psalm 23, David, was a shepherd boy. He was explaining the relationship between the sheep and the shepherd in Psalm 23. When David introduces the concept of the Lord being our Shepherd, the first thing he said after that is, ‘I shall not want, I shall not lack’. Our Shepherd determines our provision; the Lord is our Shepherd.

I do not know about the people that claim that you have to be in poverty to be humble. It just does not make sense really because I have seen a lot of very poor and proud people. Similarly, people can be wealthy and proud. The truth is, money [wealth] is neutral. It just brings out who you really are. I like to say that if you feel I have been pretending to be humble and it will take money to reveal who I am so I can repent, right? Bring it on, so that I can really and truly find repentance. I hope you got the joke? A lot of us are not growing because we cannot see ourselves. The day you truly see yourself for who you are, that day, your repentance starts.

And the day you repent, God begins to help you. You think you are okay, but you are not, and so you cannot go to God for help. Even if you go to God for help, it is lip service, it is not from a heart that is thirsty for that help. 1 Peter 2:²⁵ “Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls.” When you turn to Jesus, you turn to the Shepherd of your soul, the guardian of your soul. When you are away from Jesus, you are like someone that is wandering away. A sheep that is just wandering is open to attack, open to lack, open to confusion.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I turn to You the Guardian of my soul, keep me, in Jesus Name. Amen.