I Am The Door

and we've got families at the lake and families everywhere. Hopefully, they're able to watch online, but I wanted to say welcome, specifically to the saints.

Welcome to those who are poor in spirit. The kingdom of heaven is yours.

You know that, right? And this gathering is, as we like to remind ourselves, it's kind of like our embassy.

You belong here. I wanna say welcome to those who mourn, for you are guaranteed comfort.

It's a guarantee, a comfort found in him and a comfort that is experienced in and through the gathering of his saints, his people this morning on his day to worship him.

Welcome all who are meek, for the earth belongs to you. They out there, the strong, the mighty, they think this earth belongs to them.

Little do they know it's our inheritance. They're just prancing around on our soil that belongs to us.

Welcome to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for you are satisfied in him and him alone, amen?

This world has offered you all week to quench your thirst, to appease your hunger with saltwater and rotten meat.

That's all they've had to offer, isn't it? Are you guys awake this morning? But you've tasted and seen that the

Lord is good. Amen. That's why you want to come and gather. Welcome to all who are merciful, for you have truly received mercy.

Welcome to those who are pure of heart, for you shall surely see

God. Welcome all peacemakers, for you have been made sons of God.

Welcome to the persecuted, those who have been persecuted for righteousness sake this week for the kingdom of heaven is yours in Christ.

And all God's people said, amen. I just want to welcome all of our covenant members, those who were able to be here today.

Thank you for bringing your gifts and abilities to this body, this particular body of Christ.

When you entered through those doors this morning, you were at home, you are with your true family gathering to come into the presence of our father, the creator

God. That's why we gather. We come with fear and trembling, but with boldness.

And why do we come with boldness? Come on, because Christ, we're covered.

We've been given the righteousness of Christ. And so we get to come boldly, covered in the righteousness of Christ.

But I also want to say welcome to all of our guests today. We have many guests that are coming to visit today.

We're so glad you're with us this morning. We pray that you would grow in the fear and knowledge of the Lord today.

We pray that you would see the glory of Christ, this glorious Lord's day.

Well, before we start our worship, one of the habits that we have here as a church is we like to remember that we're not alone.

We like to remember that it's not just us, that there are other saints all over the world, other brothers and sisters that are worshiping.

And we like to pray for a local church. And this local church is near and dear to our hearts. Many of you remember

Creston Thomas from Christ the Redeemer. They are a church plant in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

And he keeps us updated. I haven't been able to reach out to him this week and get a specific prayer request, but we know what they're dealing with down there and what they're working with and trying to be obedient to kingdom work.

So we just wanna bow this morning. We wanna pray for the brothers and sisters there in Christ the

Redeemer. Pray that God will be honored in their worship this morning. So if you would, please bow with me to pray for our brothers and sisters.

Well, dear heavenly father, we stop now and we come before you and we wanna thank you for who you are.

We thank you for your good providence. We thank you for your sovereign hand. We thank you for your kindness in not leaving us to ourselves.

Father, you have brought us together as a people to worship you and you have also brought us into perfect union with our brothers and sisters all over the world, specifically right now, those at Christ the

Redeemer there in Pine Bluff. Well, we thank you for them. We thank you for those wonderful brothers and sisters that stand firm in your word.

I thank you for Creston this morning. I pray that you bless him. I pray that you give him boldness this morning as he prepares to preach your word.

Lord, I pray that you would give him wisdom, that you would raise up leaders there in that church so that he may too have a plurality of elders, of leaders that are qualified men to help as under -shepherds of the church, that they would be obedient to the good shepherd,

King Jesus. Lord, I pray that you'd be with their people. They are in a very difficult and broken community.

Lord, we pray for their brothers and sisters that are there, that they have unique struggles, unique difficulties, and that they desperately need your grace.

They desperately need your guiding hand in their life to be salt and light in a lost and dying world.

So we lift them up to you. We pray that you would be honored in their midst this morning. We pray that they would worship in spirit and in truth.

We thank you and we pray that you would do your mighty work, that only you can do.

And we pray all this in Christ's name, amen. Amen. Well, this

Lord's Day is a very special Lord's Day. They're all special, but particularly today we have a baptism.

And so before I introduce who's getting baptized today, I wanna speak to the importance of what baptism is as an ordinance that God has graciously given to his people to celebrate.

I wanna read a passage. And I want this to always be in the back of our minds when we start doing things like baptism or partaking in the

Lord's Supper. It's very clear on how a person is made right before God. And it's always by faith alone in Christ alone.

The apostle Paul said in Ephesians chapter two, for by grace, you have been saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of work so that no one may boast.

But Paul goes on to say, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.

So baptism is something that believers obey in and participate in as a picture, as a representation to say,

God has saved me by his amazing grace. And baptism is a declaration of your faith to the body saying, hold me accountable.

I need to live life together with the body. So that being said, Katie, will you please come and share a little bit of your testimony of how

God has saved you by his grace? amazing grace. Thank you. My name is

Katie McDaniel. I'm from Perigold, Arkansas, and I was born and raised in the Methodist Church.

My family was very heavily involved in that church, and we loved doing missions with the youth group.

Our pastor there decided that it was no longer necessary to go on missions or on mission trips or church camp because it costs too much money.

My family and I became exiled by the congregation along with the faculty and staff. I can't say that we were kicked out of the church, so I won't, but we were pushed to the door long enough to where we decided that we couldn't stay any longer.

So my mom, my sisters, and I started going to almost every local church we could find.

We found another Methodist church that we loved, and my sister and I even joined the worship team. Then there was the huge division between the

Methodist Church. Not long after that, we left the Methodist community entirely. I started identifying myself as non -denominational or inter -denominational, dividing myself amongst other

Christians. I didn't realize it then, but I was cutting myself off from uniting with other brothers and sisters.

My family and I then found a really good Baptist church, which is crazy to me because I was raised with people who told me that Baptists were crazy.

With this church, I finally felt like I belonged. My whole family was baptized and joined the church as members.

I joined the worship team and made many friends. One night in the back of my mom's car, I decided to give my life to God.

Knowing all the things that happened after, I realized that I was not following Jesus in any way. For two years in high school,

I have struggled with every kind of sin imaginable. Even through this sin,

I started writing sermons to try and preach to my youth group at church. Well, then we left that church.

We joined another Baptist church. This one was better, but I couldn't stay for long because I was going to college and I didn't want to drive that far back and forth.

I started drinking with my friends. I could feel myself getting an addiction to alcohol.

I started college. Then I was brought to this lovely church by my friend Nathan. Even with the first service,

I felt like my eyes were just opened. Everyone was so nice and everyone is so welcoming. Then I started struggling with depression and not long after that,

I became suicidal in November. I couldn't take it anymore.

I was so lonely. I came to Christ and I told him everything and it felt like the weight of the world had been lifted.

I remember a wise woman once told me that even though I've come to Christ, my life would not get any easier.

Boy, was she right. I lost my childhood dog. I got broken up with.

I gave up on alcohol and became sober. Then I fell right back into depression. I lost my best friend since preschool.

My depression got way worse. I started downloading dating apps, allowing worldly people into my closest relationships.

Then the worst that could have happened. I lost three of my best friends in the whole world that I had made music with for years.

I cannot describe to you the emotional pain I was going through all while still attending this church.

So I cut off emotional contact with everyone. I stopped going to church consistently.

I hardened my heart and theater was the only thing that was keeping me going until the musical I was in ended.

I started having suicidal thoughts again. Felt right back into drinking and clubbing and partying and I fell back into my addiction.

I kept having panic attacks before, during, and after church. Gave all my attention to the world.

I knew it was wrong but I couldn't stop. My last night at the club, I went back to my friend's house with a couple of boys.

I knew if I continued down this path, I would end up with those people every night and the morning after.

So I went to church the next morning and I was falling asleep during the sermon. I knew I had to stop.

So I repented and officially decided to join the church and follow Jesus and not just to be with him but to follow him.

If you were to ask me what was the official day I accepted Jesus, I would say that there were many days.

I don't have a date on my calendar because it was never my choice to follow Jesus. My King chose me before I was born and he chose me during my addictions and he never failed me and I think that is much more important than a date on a calendar.

After realizing this, I finally reconciled with a brother and that was the final step in this process of joining this church and that brother helped me realize that I needed to fill the void with Jesus Christ.

Praise God. You can go ahead and stay standing. Come on, let's stand as we get ready to start our service.

What a great start to the day and later on at the end of the service we're gonna be bringing her up for new member recognition to be part of this covenant body.

Praise God. Let's go to our great God in a call to worship. Our call to worship comes from the 150th

Psalm and before we jump into it this morning as we prepare to declare this great psalm,

I want us to pay very close attention to what the psalmist is calling God's people to do in worship, okay?

I want you to pay very close attention and I want us as a people to compare it to what much of even specifically

Reformed worship looks like now. Yes, God is to be worshiped with awe and great reverence.

He is to be worshiped in a very orderly fashion. We affirm that that is biblical but guess who gets to define that?

Not church history, not some tradition, and definitely not us.

Not you, not me. God in his own words. And so as we declare this call to worship from Psalm 150 this morning,

I want you to think about that for one moment. How is God calling us as a people to worship him?

Fair enough? The psalmist says praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary.

Praise him for his mighty deeds. Praise him with the trumpet sound.

Praise him with tambourine and dance.

Praise him with sounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the

Lord. And all God's people said, amen. Let's go to our great

God in a prayer of adoration before we begin to sing to him. This is all worship, right?

What we've been doing already is worship. The songs aren't the worship. The songs are a part of worship. We are worshiping through song.

Right now we worship through a prayer of adoration. Please bow with me. Heavenly Father, you are the

God who was, you are the God who is, and you are the God who will forever be.

You are from everlasting to everlasting. And so we praise you in your sanctuary.

We praise you in your heavens. For we are not confined to worship you in a temple.

We're not confined to a mountain or a tent. The veil has been torn and the Holy Spirit has made his dwelling place within us.

We, your people who are in Christ, are your temple. We worship you in spirit and in truth.

You are worthy of our praise. So we praise you for your excellent greatness.

We praise you for your mighty deeds. We praise you with the sound of the guitar this morning. We praise you with the melody of the keys.

We praise you with the rhythm of the drums. We praise you with our voices. We praise you through joyous dance.

We praise you with our clapping. We praise you with our hands raised high. And in all of it, we praise you with our hearts for there truly is joy in the house of the

Lord today. We sing to the

God who saves. We sing to the God who always makes a way.

Sing this out. We hung up on that cross. Then he rose up from that grave.

My God, still rolling stones away. The house of the

Lord. There's joy in the house of the Lord today. We won't be quiet.

We shout out your praise. There's joy in the house of the Lord. We shout out.

Now we're royalty. We were the prisoners. Now we're running free.

We are forgiven, accepted, redeemed by his grace.

Let the house of the Lord sing praise. Come on, sing that out. We were the beggars.

We were the prisoners. There's joy in the house of the

Lord. There's joy in the house of the Lord today. And we won't be quiet.

We shout out one more time. There's joy in the house of the Lord. We won't be quiet.

We shout out your praise. We shout out your praise.

Sing this with us. What's your name, oh

God? Bless your name, oh God.

Each day you come to set us up.

Make us out of clay. Fix us up.

Sew with each breath. Now as generations sin.

How long did you protect? My need to please you.

Or always be afraid.

Gracious and provide. No mercy runs too wide.

I love myself. It's the

Lord. It's the

Lord. Creation will rejoice.

Works of wicked men. Will be finally destroyed. To Christ we stand.

Oh great is the Lord. And great need to be found.

Amen. Praise you God. Sing this with me.

When I fear my fate. When I fear my fate.

Eyes will hold me fast. When the tempter will prevail.

He will hold me fast.

Eyes fearful bow. For my love is all to call.

He must hold me fast. My Savior loves me so.

He will hold me fast.

Those he saves are his. Christ will hold me fast.

Precious in his own sight. He will hold my soul.

Promises shall last. God will hold me fast.

My Savior loves me so. He will hold.

One of the ways that we know that we are in Christ is that and that he will most certainly hold as fast as we have been declaring is not through a sinless perfect life lived out by us is it?

There's a reason we have to sing he will hold me fast not I will hold me fast. If that were the case we would all be without hope.

We would most certainly lose our grip. A heart that desires holiness that desires righteousness the evidence of a changed life and a changed heart is a desire for that holiness and righteousness that we can never seem to achieve but is seen through the ongoing confession of sin in a believer's life.

So let's take a moment to publicly go to the Lord and a prayer of confession bowing before him and acknowledging our sin against him acknowledging our inability to do the things that we ought to do acknowledging that we often do the things we ought not to do praise

God it doesn't depend on us we will confess that but we will also pray a prayer of assurance the assurance that we have in Christ that he will certainly hold us fast please bow with me.

Heavenly Father we are often an unfaithful people we are drawn back to the flesh the sin that had enslaved us to unrighteousness that no longer has its chains on us no longer has hold on us but we we fall prey to it still as we are left here in this present darkness that we do not walk in the perfect unity that we have in the triune

God we do not walk in the perfect unity that we have with each other brothers and sisters we allow conflict and division we bring disunity into the body that you have made perfectly unified forgive us we speak of things we should not speak of and we hold our tongues in times where we should speak truth and speak the word forgive us we confess these things before you

God we know that we are not to come before you making offering as if we are making penance for these these sins because we know that we stand righteous in Christ that he has already paid the price our savior

Jesus Christ has already paid for even those sins and we stand in the great assurance that we have covered in the blood in his righteous perfect spotless blood that when you look at us

God you do not look at us as unrighteous you look at us as a new creation that you have made you see the righteousness of your son imputed to us given to us and we stand in that boldness we acknowledge it we confess it to one another we confess it ultimately to you but we do not we do not have to wallow in that we can come before you boldly as our father and our great savior holds us fast

Jesus said all that you have given me I have not lost one of them oh I praise you that you have not lost me help us to rest in this this morning be honored in our work my life he bled

Christ will hold me fast justice has been satisfied he will bless with him to end his life he will hold until our faith is turned to sin he so he

I got so caught up in the fact that he will hold me fast I forgot we are going to go to the table this morning in preparation to go to the table we have prayed a prayer of confession and assurance but we want to encourage you saints if you are in Christ this morning and you are in good standing with a local evangelical church you're welcome to this table you must take this very seriously this is not a time of penance this is not your time to get right you and God get right with God this is a time to rest in what he's done but Paul does give warning not to come to this table in an unworthy manner some are sick and some have even died for coming to this table in an unworthy manner what does

Paul mean if you are not in Christ that's an unworthy manner but also if you are harboring sin if you have sin in your life we all have sin in our life but if you're not wanting to confess that sin and lay it at the foot of the cross you need to lay that sin at the foot of the cross before you come and take of the wine and the bread there is something spiritual going on at this table this is not just something normal this is an ordinance of this church of the church let us pray that God would be honored in it and as soon as we do the way this works is we'll probably split the room somewhere in this arena we'll come around the outsides grab of the wine and the bread and then go back to your seats through the middle aisle hang on to the elements usually you can partake once you sit down but it's the first day of the month so we partake together as I read from 1

Corinthians 11 but let us pray that God would be honored in our worship through this ordinance father we come to you once again we bow before you we thank you for this sanctifying work of the table that we get to come and partake of the wine that represents the blood of our

Savior Christ that was built for us the bread that represents his body the unleavened bread that has no leaven in it that is pure like his body was pure the wine with the alcohol that is pure so that there is no impurity in it and then also the single source we are eating from the same loaf of bread we are drinking from the same cup of wine because it represents all of the unity that we have in the one

Savior Jesus Christ if there is any sin harbored in the heart of any saint this morning

I pray that they would look to the cross lay it at the foot of the cross before they come and partake and that you would be honored in our worship that you would mold us we know

Christ that you are with us in a unique and special way at this table we thank you for that work in our hearts and minds today we pray in Christ's name amen you may go to get the elements as I read from the first part of 1

Corinthians 11 where Paul says for I Paul received from the

Lord what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it please stand with me as Paul as we just read he said that this was given to him he received it from the

Lord and he had given thanks and he broke it bow with me

Lord we thank you once again I know that this is just bread this is not literally your body oh but it represents your glorious magnificent perfect body that was given for us we thank you for it

Jesus said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me in the same way he took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood oh what a better covenant right do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me

Paul says for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup what are you doing you're proclaiming the

Lord's death until he comes let's sing of the greatness and goodness of our savior

God the triune God, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit the guys will come by and gather the cups so if you hang on to them they're going to come by with a tray and gather those from you but my

God when I see the stars it sings my soul my savior

God to thee I'm ready how great thou art it sings my soul my savior

God to thee how great thou art sin scarce can take it sings my soul to thee how great thou art it sings my savior

God with shouts of acclamation and take me home where you shall feel my love sing it so how great thou art it sings my savior

God to thee how great thou art sing that chorus one more time it sings my soul how great thou art my savior

God Father we sing this worship to you this morning how truly great you are we've sang that in every song

Father we've proclaimed it in the liturgy this morning God we've proclaimed it through the act of baptism

Father how great you are how true and magnificent is your word Father proclaimed this morning

God as we continue our worship service in this time of giving and offering

Father I pray that you are magnified and glorified and honored Father this whole service is nothing but worship to you

God the singing the reading the response the prayers Father even this offering giving show us

Father in our minds and hearts how this is the act of worship to you as one God Father I just pray that your

Holy Spirit would be in the word this morning Father we know it is as Keith brings his word

Father that you have prepared in him Lord God that you would open our ears to hear and receive give us ears to hear this morning when the

Spirit speaks in the church of God in Christ's name we pray how great thou art wow what a great day it's been together in the house of the

Lord and to experience what we've seen his mighty hand at work and that's the whole point of this series that we're going through you know we've labeled this series who do you say that I am because at the end we want to come through and see just how great our

Lord and Savior is how great our God is and in doing this we've been going through the seven great

I am statements that Jesus made in the gospel of John two weeks ago we covered I am the bread of life last week

I am the light of the world now we're going to have just a small mini series within this series because we're going to be covering

I am the door and I am the good shepherd and those are both contained in the same quite long section of scripture so we're going to be kind of doing an introduction and covering part of that today and then we'll finish that up next week but what we've been covering in the last two weeks has been more on an individual level who do you say that I am

Jesus asks as a person and we've seen this conflict that Jesus has been having with the

Pharisees with the religious elite what John terms as the Jews and that's the

Hebrews that's the citizens of Israel but it also includes the religious elite of the day the

Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Sanhedrin and we're going to see this conflict escalate today as it continues to escalate up until the upper room so we're going to see that but today we're going to kind of switch gears instead of being on a personal level we're going to be speaking as a church church,

Jesus Christ asks who do you say that I am you see if the church gets this wrong if they don't get the answer correct to this question they're most likely going to be teaching their members heretical doctrines by not preaching the truth about our

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and they will run the risk of not even being a church at all,

I want you to understand how serious that is if you're not preaching the truth about our

Lord and Savior it is as written in His word as God has revealed it in His word you run the risk of not even being a church that is serious and sadly this is the case of many churches throughout history and it also appears to be more prevalent in the time that we live we see churches teaching salvation by faith and works we see that Jesus has already returned, they're teaching

Jesus has already come our blessed hope has already happened it teaches that all humanity will be saved by the atoning work of Jesus Christ and that's not what scripture tells us they teach us that some of Jesus' words are false, they just ignore it and then they accept others because that's the way they believe and that's the way they want to live their lives they teach that Jesus' words were true but only during the time that He walked the earth because it was only applicable to the culture that He lived in it's no longer applicable to our culture today because we've changed we're more enlightened so it's really our truth that we're going to worship well sadly to say when you're answering this question personally or as a church there's no margin or allowance for error many in the church today are so considering the side issues why the vital and central doctrines remain undecided they remain ignored or at worst they're not even addressed and even if they are it's not according to the truth of scripture so whose responsibility is it to make sure that these doctrines are correct is it the leaders of the church's responsibility or is it the members' responsibility in the church well you may have guessed the answer is yes it's both however ultimately those in the position of leadership bear accountability the most accountability to make sure that it's done that rests with them these leaders in the church in Jesus' time as I described a minute ago they're the

Pharisees, they're the Sadducees the Scribes, the Sanhedrins the Rabbis of the time today those religious leaders they're the deacons the pastors, the elders and the bishops these are the ones that can and do at times lead their congregations down the dead end road of scripture based on cultural norms and other worldly concerns instead of the truth of the

Bible they have let over time the powers of darkness in the form of culture money, power numbers acceptance and influence lead them into the mire of the pit of ignorance instead of following Jesus Christ into the truth of green pastures they become as we will discuss today false shepherds false shepherds for which the

Lord has a scathing rebuke in Jeremiah 23 1 woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture declares the

Lord, that's how serious it is well last week John told us, the apostle John in his very first chapter

I quoted said the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it and what a picture this was of the condition of Israel their spiritual ignorance their spiritual numbness that the leaders of Israel had concerning the truth of God's word especially in the

Old Testament so today and this week I'll be addressing the third and fourth of the great

I am statements as I said, I am the door and I am the good shepherd now we'll be building context like we have throughout the other two today, it'll be an introduction it'll be terminology that we need to understand and then we'll go into the verses and then next week we'll finish it up but last week we were in Capernaum, Jesus says

I am the light of the world and the Pharisees replied to him, you are bearing witness about yourself your testimony is not true and I told you that this is basically the

Pharisees telling Jesus you're just a bold -faced liar you're not being truthful about yourself at all and what is actually happening here, this was in John 8 12 and if you'd like to go ahead and turn to John 8 because we're going to be picking up there and this is a long discourse that runs all the way through John 10 21 which we'll be ending up at next week now this summary from John details a long conflict that Jesus is having with the

Jews the religious elite, the Pharisees of the day the place of this conflict is still in the temple, most likely still in the court of the women where we were last week when he made this claim and the way

I want to address this is that I want to point out three contrasts as we build up to the section that we're going to be in today the sermon text first contrast is going to be light and darkness and that's where we left off last week when

Jesus said I am the light of the world let us pray before I get started

Father we just thank you so much for your revealed word of our

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Father today I just ask that you would change hearts

Father that hearts would be able to understand what is being spoken about your son

Jesus Christ and the work that he performed, the words that he said the things, the works that he did

Lord Jesus Father just give me clarity to be able to explain this section of scripture,

I pray in Christ's name Amen so as we get started here in John 8

I'm going to be kind of doing like I did last week kind of a quick drive through I want to develop context for the text scripture that we're going to be in so we're going to be kind of moving along a little bit but there's two things

I want to point out for you to be aware of one of them is who is speaking and I will point that out because it's not always clear since I'm kind of jumping around a little bit and the other is which

Father the word Father is capitalized in which word

Father is not now I know this is the case in the ESV Bible I am not sure it is in other translations but I will point that out also because I believe it's important so we're going to be starting in John 8 28 after this conflict with the

Pharisees this discourse you could even call it a debate if you was listening to it on YouTube you'd probably think that it was that he is having and it says so Jesus said to them talking to these

Pharisees when you have lifted up the Son of Man then you will know that I am

He and that I do nothing of my own authority but speak just as the

Father taught me note Father is capitalized here He's talking about His Father, Father God that's who

He's talking about and note here I want to say He said when you have lifted up the Son of Man this is a reference to His crucifixion when they lift

Him up on the cross He's saying then you will know who I am and He who sent me is with me

He has not left me alone yeah

He has not left me alone for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him as He was saying these things many believed in Him and we have seen this before we saw this last week as He is speaking words and truths to these people many are coming to Him and this is a problem the

Pharisees are noting this and this is an issue to them now look down in verse 37 and 38 this again as Jesus is speaking

I know that you are the offspring of Abraham yet you seek to kill me because my words find no place in you

I speak of what I have seen my Father capitalize and you do what you've heard from your

Father Father is not capitalized so it's not the same Father he's speaking of here it's a different Father now

I want to point out here we see Jesus states He says I know you're offspring of Abraham and I want to explain kind of what

He's talking about and it has actually to do the same thing of Moses because Abraham and Moses was a big storm cloud in the thought process of these religious leaders they clouded everything that they did everything that they thought of you go all the way back to Abraham the

Abrahamic covenant that's what gave the nation of Israel the people of God and it was the lineage all the way back to Abraham that they were so proud of they could trace their roots all the way back to Abraham and that's what they're talking about here here a bit later we're going to see or we're going to talk a little bit about Moses and you have the

Mosaic covenant that's where the laws came from for the nation of Israel and that covenant and that's what controlled their whole life that controlled their religion their government everything they did from sunup to sundown and that was so much of their pride that they could do every bit of this little law all the way down to the smallest bit so in 41 if you'll look there the

Pharisees are replying to Jesus what they're saying is you are doing the works your father did not capitalized they said to him we were not born of sexual immoralities we have one father which is capitalized and they even tell us who it is even

God so I mean what Jesus has told them when he's talking about who he is

I mean it's just blown them away and so the only reply they have to it is to do a little bad mouthing to Jesus and it's exactly what they do when they say we were not born of sexual immorality if you look in the

NAS translation the new American standard it translates the

Greek word for sexual immorality is fornication what they are saying is hey you were born out of wedlock

Jesus you were born in sexual immorality but no not us we can trace our lineage is pure all the way back to Abraham but not you and we have one father and that is

God so then we see in John 44 this is

Jesus talking again and Jesus is going to get a little more pointed with them just in case they didn't understand what he was saying you are of your father not capitalized the devil and your will is to do your father's desires he was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there's no truth in him when he lies he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies but because I tell the truth you do not believe me they can't believe him and why well he told us back in I believe it's 37 or 38 he says my words find no place in you what he is saying is there's nowhere in you that my words can take hold and we'll talk more about why but we've talked about that in the last two weeks too he's saying that but then he gives them the answer to why or us the answer to why in verse 47 he says whoever is of God hears the words of God and the reason you do not hear them is that you are not of God so basically what he's saying and here we see it again we've talked about it and you're going to hear the phrase again and you'll hear it probably in every sermon in this series whoever is of God hears the words of God hearing the word of God is receiving and understanding the testimony of God concerning his son

Jesus Christ Jesus said I speak the words of my father and as he speaks who he is this is the father speaking of who the son is and the

Pharisees do not have the ability to understand it or to take hold in their lives and we will see this in action here in just a little bit so the first contrast this light and darkness it ends in this next section and Jesus is going to make another startling statement that's going to further solidify his claim to deity these are the

Pharisees speaking are you greater than our father Abraham who died and the prophets died who do you make yourself out to be so they're asking

Jesus the question that we're trying to answer who do you say that you are Jesus answers if I glorify myself my glory is nothing and this was a direct affront right back in their face he's saying you walk around glorifying yourselves all the time and if I did the same thing that you do

I'm going to have the same result it's going to be nothing it is my father who glorifies me of whom you say he is our

God but you have not known him I know him if I were to say that I do not know him

I would be a liar like you but I do know him and I keep his word your father

Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day he saw it and he was glad so the

Jews said to him you are not yet fifty years old and have you seen Abraham and Jesus said to them truly truly

I say to you before Abraham was I am so they picked up stones to throw at him but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple but once again

Jesus blew their minds with another statement it was this I am statement we've talked about this the last two weeks this refers directly back to what

God said to Moses in Exodus 3 14 I am that I am exact same

Greek words that the Septuagint translates these words from I am that I am

I and the father are one is what he was saying so that was the first of the contrast we have light and darkness the second of the contrast

I want to point out is blindness and sight and this is going to bring us right up to our verse that we're going to talk about today and it's really important as far as the context is of it we're going to go right down into chapter 9 so if you look there and this is the account of Jesus healing the blind man and this is we're going to find out is a blind man that was actually blind from birth he was born blind in verse 1 through 12 gives us the account of Jesus restoring his sight and then in verse 13 through 34 details an investigation by the

Pharisees some of his friends bring him to the Pharisees and they question him then they send him away and they bring his parents in because they don't believe what he says about him being born blind and they question his parents and they assure yes he's born blind and then they start asking them more questions and say hey he's of age ask him these questions so they bring him back again and they start questioning him and then in verse 35 through 41

Jesus seeks out the blind man and then again Jesus is again confronted by the

Pharisees and we're going to be starting in verse 32 verse 32 in chapter 9 this is the blind man speaking to the

Pharisees never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind so what he is stating there is no record of anybody ever healing a man that was born blind and if you will look above we're not going to cover it today but they've been talking a bit about Moses and he's making a direct reference that not even

Moses all the works that God did through Moses didn't even heal a blind man that was born that way from birth the man blind man goes on to say and pardon me

I'll probably call him blind man even though he isn't anymore the Bible actually does it I looked so I think

I'm safe in doing it too if this man were not from God he could do nothing and what a statement hey guys open your eyes this guy's out here doing all these works if he weren't from God he couldn't do anything and so once again

I think the Pharisees have a problem and we know that they do because we can see they're always going off and so what they said they answered him we're in 34 you were born in utter sin they said and you would teach us how dare you come in here and try to teach us somebody that's been born in utter sin and what do they do they cast him out this is a temple this is where the presence of God is supposed to be they come in and they give sacrifices they give their offerings they're seeking peace joy and hope when they come to the temple they seek out the religious leaders that maybe they can help them live a better life or help them with their problems and what do they do they cast him out of the presence of God in 35 wow

Jesus heard that they had cast him out and having found him he said do you believe in the son of man and he answered and who is he sir that I may believe in him

Jesus said to him you have seen him and it is he who is speaking to you and he said

Lord I believe and he worshipped him Jesus said for judgment

I came into the world that those who do not see and those who see may become blind

I want to park here for just a minute before we move on now I want to point out that here in just a few verses actually in verse 40 it says that some of the

Pharisees near him heard these things so this isn't a private conversation that he's having with the blind man it's public and even there's some

Pharisees snooping around probably trying to hear what Jesus is saying I want to go back to 37

Jesus said to him you have seen him and it is he who is speaking to you and he believed you know before this blind man was taken from physical blindness and darkness to sight this is a miracle nature had been contradicted but now two great words but now another miracle occurs

I don't want us to miss this another miracle occurs he was taken from spiritual blindness and darkness to the spiritual light to the light of life two miracles in one day talk about a good day my so what happened

I mean what happened in between the blind man saying who is he and a couple of seconds later he's saying

Lord I believe Lord I believe well two things occurred for this miracle for his regeneration for his justification for his sanctification for his adoption into the family of God to take place first Jesus spoke he spoke the word of God he spoke about himself he says and it is he who is speaking to you second he was given the ability to understand and receive the testimony that this

Jesus who spoke to him was the son of man as he claimed to be the son of God and what was his response it was the only response that his new heart his heart of flesh could make he said

Lord I believe and he worshiped him now

Isaiah 42 6 7 is all about this passage that we've been talking about God says

I am the Lord I have called you into righteousness and he's talking about Jesus I will take you by the hand and keep you

I will give you as a covenant for the people a light for the nations to open the eyes that are blind to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon from the prison those who sat in darkness and that's exactly what he did with the blind man it wasn't physical sight that really mattered it was spiritual he brought him out of the dungeon he opened his spiritual eyes and he no longer sat in darkness our

Lord and Savior now going back to verse 39

Jesus said and I'm repeating for judgment I came into the world that those who do not see may see and those who see may become blind some of the

Pharisees near him had heard these things and said to him said to Jesus are we also blind?

Jesus said to them if you were blind you would have no guilt but now that you say we see your guilt remains and this is a scathing rebuke of Jesus to the

Pharisees he's passing judgment on their spiritual blindness they were only concerned with what they could see with their eyes it was their self confidence their self complacency it was their pride that proved them to be blind in Matthew 15 14

Jesus says let them alone let them alone they are blind guides and if the blind leads the blind both will fall into the pit so now we arrive at the third contrast which will be in for the rest of today and also next week and that is true and false religion now one thing

I want us to keep in mind is we have a chapter break here those are not inspired this is the same continuation of the same discourse that's been going on this is

Jesus replying to them right after he's judged and rebuked them for their spiritual blindness and what is he telling him?

what is he telling them? this is who I am and this is who you are that is what

Jesus is going to be telling them so we're going to be in John 10 starting at verse 1 we're going to go through 18 this is a fairly long section of scripture we won't be covering it all today but I want us to understand exactly all that's taking place truly truly

I say to you he does not enter he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way that man is a thief and a robber but he who enters the door is the shepherd of the sheep to him the gatekeeper opens the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out the sheep hear his voice and he calls

I'm sorry I'm repeating it and leads them out when he has brought out all his own he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice a stranger they will not follow but they will flee from him for they do not know the voice of strangers this figure of speech

Jesus used with them but they did not understand what he was saying to them so Jesus again said to them truly truly

I say to you I am the door of the sheep all who came before me are thieves and robbers but the sheep did not listen to 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 comes only to steal and kill and destroy

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly I am the good shepherd the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep he who is a hired hand and not a shepherd he who does not own the sheep sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf snatches them and scatters them he flees because he's a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep

I am the good shepherd I know my own and my own know me just as the father knows me and I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep and I have other sheep that are not of this fold

I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice so there will be one flock one shepherd for this reason the father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again no one takes it from me but I lay it down of my own accord

I have the authority to lay it down and I have the authority to take it up again this charge

I have received from my father now most people when they read this they feel like it is a pretty complex section of scripture there's a lot going on here but when

John says in verse 6 that this figure of speech used this is actually taken from the

Greek and can mean a parable a metaphor an allegory a simile what it is is it's figurative language that Jesus is using to emphasize a truth and most scholars call this an allegory which

I will and this allegory contains metaphors which we'll be talking about in a minute now many like I said they've had difficult in really understanding exactly everything that's going on here and their number one failure is always the number one failure with not understanding scripture and that is context is the key it is the key and that's why

I spent so much time bringing us up to this point so that we can understand the context of why

Jesus is saying this now the number two failure along with others is not distinguishing between the three doors that are mentioned in this section of scripture and I'm going to go through this rather quickly but we will be stopping as we go through and I'll explain in a lot more detail so if you're taking notes and you don't get it all you'll have another chance later but first is the door into the sheet fold and that's in verses 1 and 2 he says truly truly

I say to you he who does not enter the sheet fold by the door so this is the door that goes into the sheet fold and 2 he says but he who enters by the door so this is a door that leads into the sheet fold the second door is down in verse 7 the door of the sheep so Jesus again said to them truly truly

I say to you I am the door of the sheep third is the door of salvation which is down in verse 9 he says

I am the door if anyone enters by me he will be saved and he will go in and out and find pasture so we have these three different doors and that's usually a problem for people they're trying to distinguish what do these different doors mean are they all the same thing or some but we'll get to that in just a little bit but it's a very first of this allegory

I kind of want to talk about what is what and who is who before we get started and mentions a sheet fold and this sheet fold

I want to give you a little bit of a description about what he's talking about in the Middle East they had communal sheet folds in every town and the shepherds would go out during the day they would take their sheep from to the pastures and feed them and then at night they would bring the sheep in and they would put them inside this sheet fold and they would shut the gate these sheet folds were typically had rock walls and like I said had a gate the reason why they put them in there was to protect them they didn't want any predators coming getting them or any thieves stealing them and they would hire a gatekeeper this was a person that would watch the gate at night and the shepherds could go watch a ball game or something

I don't know they'd go home and eat dinner but then they would come back the next morning the gatekeeper would open up the door make sure that this is a true shepherd that owns the sheep the shepherds would get the sheep out separate them take them back out to pasture and it would all be done again now there's a difference between shepherding sheep in the

Middle East than there is say in the West or Australia in the West or Australia they mainly use dogs and what these dogs is they move the sheep by intimidation they're driving the sheep from one place to the other and then when it's time to bring them back to the barn or wherever they're keeping the sheep the dogs would actually drive them back but in the

Middle East it was the shepherds who would lead the sheep they would take the sheep they had a relationship with the sheep they knew them and they would lead them from pasture to pasture to pasture and then back to this community sheepfold so what does this sheepfold represent well it's a metaphor for Israel for the kingdom of Israel which is under the control of Judaism at the time the

Pharisees these religious leaders had changed it so much that it was now a false religion that's one of the reasons

Jesus came and Jesus who was he talking to he's talking to the

Jews he's talking to the seeds of Abraham this is not heaven and this is not the world as some people think it's not the heaven we know because thieves and robbers don't climb into heaven

I mean that's kind of simple and it's not the world because if you'll look down in verse 16

Jesus says and I have other sheep that are not of this fold I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice so if this was the world then these other sheep had to be somewhere else and that doesn't make sense either

I mean where is he going somewhere else besides the world to get them so like I said this the sheep fold represents

Israel and so who is who we have thieves we have robbers and we have wolves and these are the religious leaders of the day that we've been talking about the purveyors of Judaism they were only concerned with their own interests and their own power and their own influence we have the door of the sheep we have the good shepherd and Jesus identifies himself as both of those but then we have the gatekeeper and there's a little disagreement with this person some people feel that this is

Christ also and they make a pretty good debate about it they can be convincing but I find it a little hard to believe that if Christ identifies himself as the door and the good shepherd why wouldn't he identify himself as the gatekeeper some scholars don't even broach the subject of the gatekeeper but there are those and I am among them that feel that this is actually the

Holy Spirit that the gatekeeper is representing the Holy Spirit I'll explain that a lot more here in a little bit so we have these flocks of sheep that are in this sheep fold there was multiple flocks of sheep well the sheep themselves they're the

Jews of historic Israel they're the Hebrews they're Abraham's seed but among these sheep in there was the sheep of the good shepherd and the sheep of other shepherds was in the fold in verse four it says when he has brought out all his own talking about a separation of the sheep he goes before them it doesn't say when he has brought out all the sheep he says all his own all those that belong to him and of course as we've talked about in the last two weeks these are the elect amongst the

Jews that belong to the good shepherd verse 29 describes this if you'd like to look down at 29 my father who has given them to me and I'm going to paraphrase my father who has given these sheep to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand so that indicates that there are sheep in there that are his and sheep that aren't and notice too

I pointed this out before we used this verse in the first sermon the first week that we were talking has given his past tense before the foundation of the earth before time began is when

God gave these sheep to the son so my first point in the sermon on the door and the sheep do

I hear some grumbling I've only got one point today so it's not as bad as it sounds the first point is the door into the sheep fold the good shepherd enters lawfully so we've talked about the sheep fold we've talked about which is a metaphor for Israel and the sheep are actually the

Israelis the citizens of Israel now some of those we've talked about is

God's elect and some are not and the contrast that's actually being brought out here in this first section is between the false shepherds and the true shepherd between Christ and the

Pharisees verse 1 and 2 says truly truly I say to you he who does not enter the sheep fold by the door but climbs in another way that man is a thief and a robber but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep so he starts out with this double term truly truly or verily verily in the

Greek it's amen amen and the guys who's taking Greek I know

I probably didn't pronounce that right but you get the point but what this is this is a strong affirmation of what's being declared is what he's saying this is very important truly indeed it is true that is what

Jesus is saying and he's talking about those that climb in another way and he gives them names they're a thief and they're a robber and again this was a direct affront to these

Pharisees that he was talking to they were not the true shepherds of Israel in fact they weren't shepherds at all if they were

Jesus would call them that but what he's doing he's saying you're illegitimate you're the one that's not legitimate shepherd you're no better than a common criminal that's what he's saying the word for thieves the

Greek word for thieves is where we get our word kleptomaniac it's the one who uses stealth and trickery to get what is not theirs what has not been given to them robbers is a reference to those who use violence to get what is not theirs what has not been given to them so he's saying you're thieves and robbers because of your arrogant pride you've taken what is not yours and you've done violence to them that's what he's saying you should be caring for them and you're not they had driven the sheep by fear as a predator would they cannot enter by the door because they have not been called by the father to enter by the door they do not own the sheep the father did not give them to these purveyors of Judaism now

I want to go to Ezekiel 34 1 -4 because he paints a fantastic picture of exactly what

Jesus is talking about about these false shepherds Ezekiel is saying the word of the

Lord came to me son of man prophesy against the shepherds of Israel prophesy and say to them even to the shepherds thus says the

Lord God and listen I can just feel the anguish of God here all shepherds of Israel you have been feeding yourselves should not shepherds feed the sheep you eat the fat you clothe yourselves with the wool you slaughter the fat ones but you do not feed the sheep the weak you have not strengthened the sick you have not healed the injured you have not bound up the strayed you have not brought back the lost you have not sought and with force and harshness you have ruled them what a perfect picture of what was going on in Israel at the time of Jesus and I want to contrast this

I want to contrast what God is saying about these shepherds these false shepherds to what we saw just a little while ago when the true shepherd was interacting with the blind man we have the false shepherds and what

God has said about them and what we've seen in the verse about the blind man with the true shepherd

God is stating you slaughter the fat ones but the true shepherd went to this blind man and gave him life they wanted to kill he gave eternal life to the blind man eternal life the bread of life

God says you do not feed the sheep and we saw the word of God feed the blind man the word the true word of God God says the weak you have not strengthened and we saw the son of man give the blind man eyes to see the light of the world he strengthened his faith instead of weakening him spiritual strength faith

God says the sick you have not healed the injured you have not bound up the

Messiah healed the blind man but not just physically he healed him spiritually the lost you have not thought remember

Jesus went and found the blind man he just didn't have a happenstance see him coming by he went and looked for him and he sought him out and he found him and he brought him into the presence of God number six with force and harshness you have ruled him the true shepherd showed him nothing more than what we talked about a week or two ago short of the divine love and compassion of our

Lord and Savior what a contrast between these false shepherds and the true shepherd so back to verse one

Jesus states he who does not enter by the sheep fold by the door but climbs in by another way now this shouldn't be confused with the other doors like I said he's talking about another way and here is a contrast from climbing in some other way this door is being contrasted with climbing in some other way into the sheep fold the contrast the opposite is the lawful way of entry into the sheep fold the false shepherds do not have a lawful way of entry into the sheep fold verse two but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep this entrance that it's speaking of is the true shepherd submitting himself to all of the conditions that was set forth by the father that built the house that built the sheep fold which is what we're talking about is the kingdom of Israel Jesus met all of the conditions that the father set before him he had the right to enter the sheep fold and to claim what is his he did the father's will and he spoke the father's word he met all of the conditions verse three says to him the gatekeeper opens the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out when he has brought out all his own he goes before them and the sheep follow him because they know his voice so the gate keeper is the one who opens the door and vouches for the shepherd he is presenting the shepherd to the sheep and Jesus is being presented as the true shepherd the genuine shepherd and that certain sheep in the fold belong to him this is the

Messiah who is now presented as the savior to God's elect in Israel they are his sheep this is a picture of the working of the

Holy Spirit now before I go into that any deeper I want to point out three things that set aside the true shepherd from the false shepherds number one we talked about he enters the fold by the door and does not climb over the walls as the thieves and the robbers did he enters the door by the gatekeeper giving him access to the sheep he proves himself number three because the sheep recognize and respond to his voice remember the blind man when

Jesus said I am speaking he recognized and responded to his voice now note in verse three it states that the sheep follow him for they hear and they know his voice

I'll make sure we understand that so the question is when we were saved when

Jesus called our name how did we recognize that it is his voice and how did we know to follow him how was that as we've been talking about it was the working of the

Holy Spirit it was through the regeneration of our heart it was our heart being changed from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh it was by the

Holy Spirit opening up the door of our new heart and us being able to understand and receive the testimony of God concerning his son

Jesus Christ without the working of the Holy Spirit we could have not known that it was the voice of Jesus Christ calling us it was his work that enabled us to go through these steps of salvation that we've been talking about note in verse 3 it is his sheep who hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name he calls

Meredith Caleb Brenda Elizabeth Blake Christy Chris by name he knew you he loves you and he calls you by name now in John 6 37 through 39 we talked about this two weeks ago

I pointed out that here in this section we have four of the doctrines of grace the workings of salvation and I'm going to paraphrase just a little bit so bear with me all the sheep that the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me

I will never cast out for I have come down from heaven not to do my will but the will of him who sent me and this is the will of him who sent me that I should lose none of the sheep that he has given me and all the sheep that he has given me

I will raise up on the last day the sheep know his voice they recognize his voice they understand that it is his voice it is different from any other voice that they've ever heard and that his sheep was not all of the

Jews I know I repeat myself it's clear from the 25th and 26th verse of this chapter here we find the shepherd saying to the unbelieving

Israelites says Jesus answered them I told you and you did not believe the works that I do in my father's name bear witness about me but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep is what he says now if you look at the

Greek for among another way to say it is one of or part of he's saying you are not one of my sheep you are not part of my sheep so there was a section of sheep that was not among his sheep now

I wanted to say a little bit about this call it says that Jesus calls and those who hear his voice he calls his own sheep by name

I don't want there to be any confusion here because there's actually two types of calls that go out

I'm given one of those today that's the general call I'm preaching the gospel I'm calling out and proclaiming

God's word if you go give testimony if you go witness you are giving the general call to lost people is what you're doing but then there's a special call it's a particular call it's an effectual call this call is inward and it's invincible and that's why it is effectual and that's what

I was talking about the blind man it was effectual when Jesus called him he had no other response that he could make with his new heart he had to go that way that was the only way that he could see to go because now he could see his eyes had been open this effectual call is heard by each of his sheep because of the regeneration of the

Holy Spirit we have been given ears to hear Matthew 22 14 says many are called but few are chosen think about that many are called but few are chosen it does not say many are called but few make up their mind it does not say many are called and few are waiting about it so they can think and come to a logical conclusion whether they should accept the call or not it says many are called but few are chosen verse 3 and 4 he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out when he has brought out all his own he goes before them and the sheep follow him because they know his voice these are the true followers of Jesus Christ it's the elect these are

Christ's sheep that believe in him that have faith in him that love him that trust him that follow him because they know him and he knows them they have heard his voice they have authentic faith he says them individually and he calls them individually by name it's a personal relationship that we have with Jesus Christ but they're still in a flock they're still a flock of sheep we follow him together as a body as a flock we are one body in him that has an individual component it says he leads them out and they follow him what a beautiful picture of being discipled and following and being in the presence of the good shepherd you probably knew

I had to get here sooner or later the 23rd Psalm the Lord is my shepherd

I shall not want he makes me lie down in green pastures he leads me beside still waters he restores my soul he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake verse 5

Jesus says a stranger they will not follow but they will flee from him for they do not know a stranger's voice and this is a common mark found on all of Christ's sheep they will not respond to the call of the stranger they may flee a little bit they may go and wander into the stream or something but they will come back because he says no one will snatch them out of my hand and why because Christ is in us we have the indwelling of the

Holy Spirit in us and we are in him verse 6 this figure of speech

Jesus used with them but they did not understand what he was saying I mean of course they couldn't understand we've talked about this at length too as long as they were separated from the good shepherd they couldn't

I mean he was talking to them about spiritual truths they were blind guides they thought they could see he told them and as a result their guilt remained because they were darkness

Isaiah 44 18 speaks of this they know not nor do they discern for he has shut their eyes so they cannot see they were blind guides and he has shut their hearts so they cannot understand in closing

Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3 19 and this is the judgment the light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil for everyone who does wicked things hates the light does not come to the light least his works will be exposed we had three different contrasts here we had light and darkness we had sight and blindness not just physical spiritual sight and blindness and now we're seeing a picture of the true and false religion the true shepherd and the false shepherds let us pray father we just thank you so much for your word father that you speak it so many times father we're so thankful that you open our hearts you speak into us you give us the capacity to understand what you're saying and apply it to our lives father

I pray for those whose hearts have not been changed father

I pray that you would change their hearts that you would speak to them that you would call them out of the fold and into your flock of sheep

I pray this in Christ's name amen wow praise

God we get to see the magnificence of that miracle of from blindness to sight in a spiritual sense we get to see in real time often that the sheep do hear his voice and we saw that this morning with Katie Katie if you don't mind coming on up here with baptism just the representation of that that has taken place in her life and so Katie has shared and she shared this morning in her testimony come on up here watch your step that she has shared interest in becoming part of this covenant body

Katie's gone through the process she's been with us now for a few months coming and yep almost a year oh wow and so she's gone through the membership process she has gone through extensively the membership covenants and she understands what it means to be part of a covenant community so once we the sheep hear the voice of the shepherd we come to him in obedience as Lord as the shepherd and one of the acts of obedience is being a active participating member in a local church if you claim to be a follower of Christ and you are not an active participating member of a local church you're not being obedient to the shepherd and that's what

Katie is desiring to do this morning and so we as the elders we've met with her we obviously affirmed the baptism this morning and we would like to present her as a member covenant member of twelve five church and I know we're missing a lot of members this morning but I'm sure some of them on the live feed on their vacation will be able to stand in affirmation but those that are here please stand if you affirm

Katie to be part of this family amen and I'm sure there's others standing online praise

God well everybody let's stand real quick I want to commission you we do this every time with every new joining member is this isn't a gift this is a representation of what we're about we're about King Jesus and his words right and we want to commission you with this

ESV study bible we know that you have a bible already but this is a imagery of what we hold dear here and this is the rule book everything and as a member as a participating member of this body whatever gifting

Jesus has called you in and being a part of this it all stems from this and if this body doesn't abide by this you get to be the body part that calls us out according to that amen amen let me pray with Katie please bow your heads pray that God would be honored and glorified in her ministry here walking with us dear heavenly father we come to you once again we thank you

I thank you for Katie I thank you for her love for you I thank you for her love for your bride I thank you for her desire to serve you father use her gifts

Lord mold her and sanctify her and continue to grow her in you that you would utilize her in the ways that you

King Jesus see fit and desire for her to be a part of this body help us to encourage her help her to walk with us help us to walk with her

Lord we thank you in Christ name amen thank you Katie well guys let's let's sing the doxology together as we get ready to go into the next part of our service of Koinonia feast and to be able to fellowship together and worship it's not the

Lord's hour it's the Lord's day we are going to spend some time and fellowship we've got some good food if you're a guest please stay this is a big part of our service we do this every week and we can fellowship with each other men we actually are going to do something a little different today we're going to bring out the round tables into this room and set up so if you you men can help

Adam set those tables up we're back to the way it used to be right it'll be good and and I want to remind you members right after Koinonia feast before sermon discussion we do have a family meeting we need to meet briefly and I think we're going to try and meet in that back room so guests y 'all can stay for sermon discussion too but family we're going to meet back there we'll kind of gather everybody when we get to that point