The Good Shepherd

Lesson Transcript

Well, I want to say good morning to all. Um, it's good to be here. Just a little disclaimer: I came down with a doozy of a cold here just a day or so ago, still suffering the effects of that. I feel just a little bit foggy-headed this morning, but trust that God will be with us in that. The other thing, just interesting: I started the week out and was intending to continue the study on the Kingdom of God, having to do with the kings and the prophets, and it just seemed like I couldn't get any traction.

And so I felt like the Lord was nudging me to share a message I shared at the ordination at St. Thomas a few months ago, and I wasn't aware at the time that it has to do with leadership in the church, and I didn't know that that was going to be somewhat of a subject of our Sunday school discussion. So I guess my inspiration for this is simply, you know, we've been having some discussions in brothers' meeting about how we govern, and I guess part of church life is leadership is part of that.

And so, in some ways, this is a sermon—it's a little bit awkward, but it's a sermon to myself—and I just want to express my heart to the congregation here of what I feel like the Scriptures teach about leadership in the church. So you can turn to 1 Peter 5. I'm just going to read a few verses here. This will be our text for this morning. 1 Peter 5, verses 1 through 5. 1 through 4.

"The elders who are among you"—and this is Peter speaking—"I exhort, I, who am a fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed, shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly, nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away." Let's bow

our heads for prayer.

Father, we come to You this morning at the beginning of this message. Lord, we just ask for Your Holy Spirit to be here this morning. I pray that You would just guide us in our thoughts. We thank You for being with us. We thank You for that You are the chief shepherd, that we can look to You as an example in all things. And Lord, we just ask that You would be with us as we move forward. In Jesus' name, amen.

"First one sheep jumped to its death; then stunned turkey shepherds, who had left the herd while they had breakfast, watched as nearly fifteen hundred others followed each, leaping off the same cliff." Turkish Media reported yesterday. This was in July 8, 2005. "In the end, 450 animals died," the daily newspaper Axum said. "Those which jumped later were saved, as the pow got higher and higher, cushioning the fall.

There's nothing we can do; they're all wasted." Nivat Beyam, a member of one of the 26 families whose sheep were grazing together in the herd, told Axum, "The estimated loss to the families of the town of Givas, located in the Van province in eastern Turkey, is about 100 Turkish lira, or approximately 43,000 British pounds, which is around $57,000 in today's—in our exchange rate.

A significant amount in a country where average GDP per person is around $2,000 a year." So every family had an average of 20 sheep, Axum quoted another villager, Abdullah Hazaris, saying, "But now only a few families have sheep left. It's going to be hard for us." I guess I'll read that story because it illustrates the fact that sheep need shepherds. And I thought it was interesting: the shepherds had left their sheep while they ate breakfast.

And while they ate breakfast, one sheep kind of went towards the cliff and fell, and the rest of them just followed right on behind. And I guess the question I would like to ask and think about a little bit is: do we know what that means? I was talking to a friend of mine probably a year ago from a totally different church background, and he just made the comment.

He said, "I would like to hear sometimes some teaching on what it means—what does shepherd leadership look like?" And, you know, sheep and shepherds as a metaphor for people and their leaders is a theme that goes all throughout Scripture, from the Old Testament even into the New. And you think about it a little bit: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David—they were all shepherds. Literal shepherds. They actually shepherded real sheep. And yet they were also great leaders, or leaders of a group of people.

And so when the whole idea of what does it mean to be a shepherd, they would have understood that from personal experience, what it means to be a shepherd. And those that were listening as they talked would have also understood, because it was part of their culture. Now, I know absolutely nothing. I have no experience with raising sheep, or being a shepherd, or lambing, or anything like that. My experience runs more to pigs at this point. I have a couple pigs.

And I'm really thankful that that's not the metaphor that God used for it, because pigs are not—they're loud, they're obnoxious, they're smelly, and they're selfish. And just yesterday, the pigs I have are ready for the butcher. They're getting obese, and it's time to move them on. But the little feed trough is there that's smaller. It's a low-feed trough. And they've created this habit.

There's a dominant one and one that's just not quite as—and so the dominant one, when I put the feed in there, will stand in the trough, and then the other one has to eat underneath his belly. And that's how they do it every day. But pigs are not very nice animals. So I don't have any experience with sheep and shepherding. But I wonder sometimes if, you know, when we think we understand it, but it's maybe somewhat of a dead metaphor to us. You know, we have these examples of dead metaphors.

We say, "Time is running out." Well, where did—why do we say that? Well, the hourglass. We flip it over. And we use that statement all the time. "Well, time is running out." Well, what does it mean? Well, because of the hourglass, there was a visual there that the time was running through the glass. How many of you still say, "We hang up the phone"? Very few of us—some of the younger generation don't even know what that means, hang up the phone. What do we mean? Well, they used to have a hook there.

You put the receiver on the hook. But it's a metaphor that we use that we understand, but now we just hit a little button. We don't really hang up the phone. And so I think sometimes if we're not careful, when we think we understand, or, you know, understand the metaphor of a sheep and shepherds and stuff, but we really don't have a good idea, a grasp of that.

So this morning I'd like to just a little bit see if, from what I can read and just a little bit understand, what it means to be—what it is to be sheep and what the duties of a shepherd were. So let's think a little bit about the nature of sheep. Number 1: Sheep easily go astray. Sheep become bewildered very quickly. We once had a cat that we wanted to get rid of, and so we took it about 15 miles away in a cat carrier in the back of our van.

And there's a song that says the cat came back, and that's exactly what happened. A few days later, the cat showed up at our door again. And it had an incredible sense—I still am amazed at this point—incredible sense of direction. Somehow going there 15 miles away in the back of a van, in a cat carrier, not seeing everything, and it found its way back. Sheep are not that way. Sheep become bewildered. They become very perplexed.

Zechariah 10:2 says, "For the idols speak delusion; the diviners envision lies and tell false dreams; they comfort in vain. Therefore the people wend their way like sheep; they are in trouble because there is no shepherd." So it gives you the picture of, without a shepherd, sheep just kind of are very susceptible to becoming confused, bewildered, and so on.

Of course, a very familiar verse in Isaiah 53:6 says, "All we, like sheep, have gone astray." And I guess that's one of the things that I would like us to think about, is that none of us are exempt from these characteristics. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. Jeremiah 50:6 says, "My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray.

They have turned them away on the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place." Which kind of leads us to the next characteristic that sheep have, and that is that they're very vulnerable. They can't protect themselves. They go astray—not only do they go astray, but they're easily led astray. Very vulnerable to predators and so on. You know, sheep need to be led. And years ago, not so much anymore in the days of automation, but how many of you ever heard of a Judas goat?

A Judas goat. A Judas goat—so the abattoirs, where they had sheep, a lot of them were sort of set up in like a four or five-story big building. And the thing is, they went into the top of the building on the killing floor, and they used gravity and so on to—as they came down through the building, they exited at the bottom as packaged meat. But the challenge was, how do you get sheep to the top floor? Cows and pigs and things like that can be driven.

They can be—but they said sheep, if they tried to do that, they'd just—they'd turn around, they'd become completely confused. And so what they would do is they would have—each of these abattoirs would have a very valuable animal that they would keep there, and they would get addicted to nicotine. They would get addicted to cigarettes. And this goat was trained to go up this very complex set of ramps and so on, through gates and so on.

And it would take off, and the sheep would follow, follow right along, right up to the killing floor. When it got to the top, the old goat would go into a room, the sheep would all go in to meet their demise. And then they would give the—they would reward the goat with a cigarette, just a—not lighten it, but just let it chew it up so that it would become addicted to that. And it was called a Judas goat. And I think we understand that. It was betrayal.

But it just illustrates again that sheep are creatures that need to be led, and they're very vulnerable to be led astray. And God warns about that. There's many a person been led to their destruction by following the lead of a false teacher. 2 Peter 2:2 says, "There will be false teachers among you; many will follow their destructive ways." So they're vulnerable. They don't have much of a defense. Remember David, as a shepherd, had to protect the sheep against a lion and a bear.

New Zealand has 4.5 sheep for every person. In 2023, it was the latest I could find statistics, there was about 24.4 million sheep in New Zealand. And the reason there—one of the reasons for that is there's no natural predators there. Like, the sheep do not have natural predators. Third thing: Sheep need help to eat and drink properly. Sheep will eat poisonous, obnoxious weeds. You know, some animals have the ability to distinguish between that. Sheep will not—do not always have good judgment in that.

They will eat things that are toxic to them, poisonous to them. If a well dries up, sheep will stand and stare at the dry mud until they die. They simply don't—they just don't have that ability to sort of look out and find and fend for themselves. And it's for that reason that I think Peter says, "Feed the flock. Feed the flock." Number 4: Sheep cannot keep themselves clean. Or the idea of a nice little white woolly lamb, that doesn't last very long.

If you've ever been around sheep that have a big thing of wool, they become very matted. And so they need help to keep themselves clean. They need to be sheared. They need to be dipped to prevent insects and ticks and so on. And most of them have their tail stocked to prevent fly-borne illnesses and so on. Their fleece can become so heavy and full of lanolin, which is the oil in the wool, that they can fall on their backs and they can't get up again. That's called a cast sheep.

And if you have—sometime you—if you're able to—there's videos of that. And so especially in a field where there's maybe a wagon path or a rut, they're heavy, their wool is full, and they'll step into that and they'll fall on their side. And they just sit there and paddle their legs, and paddle their legs, and paddle their legs. And what the shepherd will do if he sees that is he'll come and grab that sheep and he'll put it up. And their legs are numb because they've been on their side for so long.

So they'll kind of stand there for just a long time. Eventually the sheep will—but they will die. A cast sheep will die if it doesn't have somebody to help it out of its position there. Sheep do not function well independently. They're a flock. They have a flocking instinct. So you see sheep banding together. If a sheep gets separated from the flock, it becomes bewildered.

And I think there's a lesson in that for us too, when Jesus compares us to sheep, the independent spirit of our age, that, you know, I believe God has designed us to live our lives together. And there's a reason why he compares us to sheep. We live our lives together as God's people. So he says that all we, like sheep, have gone astray. Sheep go astray easily. Sheep can't protect themselves. Sheep are vulnerable to predators. They need help to eat and drink properly. They need help to keep themselves clean.

And they don't function well independently. That's a sheep. What about shepherds then? Well, a shepherd is someone who leads the sheep. They don't—a shepherd doesn't drive the flock. A shepherd is someone who cares for the flock. Isaiah 40:11 says, "He will feed his flock like a shepherd"—speaking of Jesus—"He will gather the lambs with his arms and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those who are with young." So he leads the sheep. He cares for the flock. He protects the flock.

And he seeks and rescues lost sheep. And we see that picture in Luke 15, where it says that if there's one sheep that's missing, that shepherd goes out until he finds it. And he puts it over his shoulders and he brings it back. And there's great rejoicing. A shepherd has to exercise a lot of different skills. And I found that there's a lady shepherd by the name of Kim Goodling from Vermont, and she lists 7 things about a shepherd. This is not from a spiritual perspective at all.

This is simply from the perspective of raising and looking after sheep. But I thought some of the things she said was very interesting. Number 1, she says, "A shepherd must be tough at heart." Shepherding is not about just about sweet lambs and bucolic pastures with sheep grazing. It's about the survival of the fittest. It's about making life and death decisions that will tear your heart apart. Number 2: Must be willing to do hard work.

Shepherding does not just require hard physical labor of moving fences, moving sheep, and handling 40-pound bales of hay. It's about heart work. It's about learning to do—having to do hard things and making hard decisions. It's about learning to go with your instincts and let your gut be your guide. Number 3: Must be willing to be humbled daily. Proud people need not apply. If there's any one thing that can bring you to your knees, it is shepherding.

There will be days when you will make the wrong decision, when you overlook the obvious, when the not-so-obvious will attack and leave you on your knees. If you ever thought that you knew it all, forget it. There will always be days when you realize there is much yet to learn. Number 4: Must not be afraid to learn new things. On a regular basis, you will be required to learn a new skill, a new task, a new way of doing things.

An experienced shepherd once told me, as she was coaching me over the phone on how to do an internal exam on a laboring ewe, "If you don't want to do it, then you should not be a shepherd." Shepherding will take you out of your comfort zone at times, and you will have to be willing to step forward. Number 5: Must have great endurance. Shepherds must be willing to work in all adverse weather and conditions: rain, sleet, snow, sub-0 degree temperatures, extreme heat and humidity.

And they must be able to keep sheep alive in such adverse conditions. They must be able to work with little sleep, lift with little strength, study with weak knees. Number 6: Must exhibit ability to observe. One time my husband found me just standing in our paddock area with the sheep. He asked me what I was doing. I responded, "Getting to know my sheep. It takes great observation and getting to know what normal looks like to identify what is not normal." And number 7: You must have the patience of a saint.

Sheep will test you, and you must be able to outlast and outsmart them. Once you think you have them figured out, they're at it again. I just thought it was interesting, and I think it's not too hard to make some parallels there between how we act as sheep and how the shepherd needs to. Especially it stood out to me the one where the shepherd has to study his sheep to learn to know who they are, and learn to know them, and learn to know what's normal and what's not.

And when I think of a shepherd or a pastor's heart, it is the ability to look on and sort of sense when something is not right. So shepherd or sheep are pretty much all the same, but not all shepherds are the same. I'd like you to turn to Ezekiel 34. Ezekiel 34, and I want him to read the first 24 verses of this chapter. "And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 'Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God to the shepherds.

Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat and clothe yourself with the wool. You slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock.

The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick or bound up the broken, nor brought back that which was back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them.'" So they were scattered because there were no shepherd, and they became food for the beasts of the field when they were scattered. "My sheep wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill.

Yes, my flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them. Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord, as I live, says the Lord God. Surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became food for every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, nor did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed my flock. Therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the Lord.

Thus says the Lord God: 'Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my flock at their hands. I will cause them to cease feeding the sheep, and the shepherds will feed themselves no more, for I will deliver my flock from their mouths, that they may no longer be food for them.'" For thus says the Lord God: 'Indeed, I myself will seek—will search for my sheep and seek them out.

As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out my sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them to their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the valleys, and in the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in good pasture, and their fold shall be on the high mountains of Israel.

There they shall lie down in a good fold and feed in rich pastures on the mountain of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek what was lost and bring back that what was driven away, and bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick. But I will destroy the fat and the strong and feed them in judgment. As for you, O my flock, thus says the Lord God: 'Behold, I shall judge between the sheep and sheep, between rams and goats.

Is it too little for you to have eaten up the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures, and have drunk of the clear waters, that you must foul the residue with your feet? As for my flock, they eat what you have trampled with your feet, and they drink what you have fouled with your feet. Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: 'Behold, I myself will judge between the fat and the lean sheep.

Because you have pushed with side and shoulder, butted all the weak ones with your horns, and scattered them abroad. Therefore, I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep. I will establish one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, my servant David. He shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David, a prince among them.'" I, the Lord, have spoken. So here we read of some shepherds that were bad shepherds.

They were leading the sheep astray. They were not caring for the sheep. They were instead feeding themselves. And then he ends this by saying that he gives this promise of a shepherd out of the line of David, who is a good shepherd. And he said, "I will be their God, and my servant David, a prince among them." I, the Lord, have spoken. And if you read that, it should sort of make your ears perk up a little bit and tingle a little bit from the words of the prophet Micah.

In Matthew 2:6, it says, "For out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel." And I'd like you to turn now to John 10. Who is this good shepherd? John 10:1-16. "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the sheepfold, by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them." Not he doesn't drive them. He goes before them, and the sheep follow him. "For they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers." Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which he spoke to them. Then Jesus said to them again, "Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep, but a herrling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The herrling flees because he is a herrling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and I am known by my own. As the Father knows me, even so I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.

And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also I am a spring, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd." And then skip over to verse 25. Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you did not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me, but you do not believe because you are not of my sheep. As I said to them, 'My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.

Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one.'" So here we have a very clear example of what a good shepherd is like. Jesus is the good shepherd. And so I guess the question is, how does this affect us then? How does the whole thing of shepherding the flock? And Ephesians 4, I'm just going to read a couple of verses there, very familiar verses.

Speaking of the gifts he gives to the church, verse 11, he says, "And he gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers." And the word pastor there is the same word as shepherd.

"For the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things unto him who is the head, Christ,

from whom the whole body joined and knit together by that which every joint supplies, according to the effect of working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love." So what he's saying here is that God has ordained that because we're sheep, we need leaders.

Obviously, Christ is that good shepherd, and it's from him that all things come. But he does call some people to shepherd the flock of God, as he says in 1 Peter. "Christ and the Holy Spirit call men to be his under-shepards, overseers of the flock, and to exercise leadership." And Jesus came and exemplified that very clearly. I'd like to also read a few verses in Acts 20, just to sort of solidify in our minds that in the early church, this is how it was. Acts 20:25-32. So this is the church at Ephesus.

When he was writing there in Ephesus, he said he gave some to be evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Now he's speaking to these elders in Ephesus, and he says, "And indeed, now I know that you all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, will see my face no more. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.

Therefore, take heed to yourself and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also, from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore, watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone, day and night with tears.

So now, brethren, I commend you to the grace to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified." So here he's speaking to those under-shepards, those ones that were appointed. And he says to take heed, to watch, and to guard the flock from these influences, from the wolves that want to come in and wreak havoc.

So I'd like to now go back to our text that we read at the beginning and just look a little bit then at what it sort of make this personal. Like what does the shepherd, the under-shepard's responsibility as he leads the flock? So 1 Peter, you can just, if you want to turn back there again to 1 Peter 5. There's eight questions here that I would like to just think about. And as I said, this is personal, I guess, to me, questions that I want to ask myself.

The first question is, do you love your ministry more than you love Jesus? And we have Peter's experience to look on there a little bit. John 21, where he comes and he says, "Peter, do you love me?" And Peter says, "You know I love you." And he says, "Feed my sheep and feed my lambs." And he does that three times. Love for Christ above all else is a must if we want to lead, if you want to lead effectively. And it has to come.

And I think there's a danger in ministry if our love for our ministry overshadows a love for Christ. Second question I would like to ask is, are you content to care for the congregation that God has entrusted to you? He says to the elders who are among you, "I exhort, shepherd the flock of God, which is among you." So there's this temptation, I think, as leaders, maybe as shepherds, to sort of start to look around at other congregations and at other maybe things are going, seem like they're really going well.

And there's this temptation to sort of look around. And Peter's making it clear here that we're to shepherd the flock of God, which is among us. In other words, it's the immediate congregation that is the responsibility. We can ask advice and so on. It's already been alluded to this morning. But I think as a shepherd, the shepherd's primary concern is the flock that is under his that he's been entrusted to. And to not start to look around.

The third question is, is shepherding a job for you to perform or a passion for you to fulfill? In verse 2, he says, "Serving as overseas, not by compulsion, but willingly." And it has the idea there of it's something that you have a desire to do. It's not something you're doing out of duty, but you do it willingly, you do it eagerly. Number 4, are you pridefully concerned about what others think about you, or are you humbly concerned by what God has called you to?

And he says there that not for dishonest gain, but eagerly, nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being an example to the flock. Pride is the downfall of many of a leader, of many of a shepherd. And I think we need to have the attitude that John the Baptist had in John 3:30, where he says, "He must increase, but I must decrease.

He must increase, but I must decrease." And later in 1 Peter here, he talks about God resists the proud, that we're to be clothed with humility, and that he gives grace to the humble. Jonathan Edwards once said, "Spiritual pride is the main door by which the devil comes into the hearts of those who are zealous for the advancement of Christianity. It is the chief inlet of smoke from the bottomless pit to darken the mind and mislead the judgment.

It is the main source of all the mischief the devil introduces to clog and hinder the work of God." Pride is very much an enemy to good shepherd leadership. Number 5, are you driven by what you get or what you give? He says we're not to do this for dishonest gain. And we may say, well, we're not salaried. Our leaders aren't salaried, so that's not a big deal. But what about the praise of men? What about power, position, and things that so easily can go and be motivation?

And so he says that we're not to do this for dishonest gain at all. Number 6, is your leadership based on intimidation of others, or is it based on a trusting relationship? Not as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples of the flock. Do you drive the sheep, or do I drive the sheep, or do we lead? Do we lead the sheep? Is our life, number 7, is our life worthy of imitation? He says, "Lead by being an example to the flock." People are looking on.

Jesus exemplified that very well in John 13, when as the creator and ruler of everything, as the ruler of the universe, he stooped down and he got a basin and he washed his disciples' feet. Is my life worthy of imitation? Am I a good example? These are questions I'm asking myself. And then number 8, does the way we lead make sense in all eternity? He says in verse 4, "When the chief shepherd appears, then things are going to be revealed.

You will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away." Are we seeking the reward in this life? So again, just in this passage, do we love the ministry more than we love Jesus? Are we content to care for the congregation that God has entrusted to us? Is it a job to perform or a passion to fulfill? Do we do it willingly and eagerly? Are we pridefully concerned about what others think about you, or humbly consumed by what God has called us to? Are we driven by what we get or by what we give?

Is leadership based on the intimidation of others or trusting relationship? Is our life worthy of imitation, and does it make sense in all of eternity? And it's a very high calling. And leadership has been very much abused even in church settings. And I think for that reason, sometimes we shy away against it. But I feel like the fact remains is that we're all sheep, including the under-shepards. And I feel like I fall very much short of that.

I guess I just this morning wanted to sort of share my heart as to what I believe the scriptures teaches about this and what I would like to reach for. Hebrews 13:17 says this, "Obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch for your souls. As those who must give account, let them do so with joy and not grief, for that would be unprofitable for you." So he says that with becoming an under-shepard, there comes a lot of responsibility. And there's account needs have to give an account for that.

But there's also the responsibility of the congregation. He says, "Make it easy for them," basically is what he's saying. "Do with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you." So I guess I just want to encourage us all. I want to recognize that in some ways, the analogy can break down because we're shepherds, but we're also sheep. I recognize that very much, that I'm also a sheep and I'm prone to the exact same things that we all are. Those same tendencies are here, maybe more so.

Jesus is the ultimate example that we need to follow. He's the perfect shepherd. And yet in our world, he gives responsibilities for others to do that. And so I would just like to call our attention to him. I think as was mentioned in our Sunday school, it's something we all ascribe to do as we're leaders in our home. I think these principles of leadership, shepherd leadership, servant leadership, apply really across the board when it comes to the responsibilities that we have.

And in closing, I thought we would be remiss if we didn't quote Psalm 23. So in closing, let's quote Psalm 23. "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." And I'm just so thankful for that good shepherd that we all serve. Any comments or corrections before we close?