3rd Sunday in Easter Service

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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4th Sunday of Easter Service

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That's how that goes. That's the normal loop for this one.

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Yeah, that's the normal loop for this one. Yeah, when we lost the feedback over there for the computer, that's going to make it such a big deal.

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I would like you to welcome you all to Kongsvinger Lutheran Church. Today is the third

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Sunday of Easter. Wow, all right, time's flying. Today we'll be following the order of divine service setting two.

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The psalm tone today will be B as in Cowabunga. I'm cheating a little bit.

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B as in Cowabunga. And the opening hymn is 711, and you'll note that this is

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Good Shepherd's Sunday. So if you're physically present here at Kongsvinger, please rise. Divine service setting two.

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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

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Let us then confess our sins to God our Father. Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean.

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We have sinned against you and thought word and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone.

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We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.

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We justly deserve your present and eternal punishment. For the sake of your

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Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways.

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To the glory of your holy name. Amen. Almighty God, in his mercy, has given his

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Son to die for you, and for his sake he forgives you all of your sins. As a called and ordained servant of Christ and by his authority,

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I therefore forgive you all of your sins. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

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Psalm tone B. The earth is full of the steadfast love of the

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Lord. Alleluia. Shout for joy in the

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Lord, O you righteous. Behold, the eye of the

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Lord is on those who fear him. That he may deliver their soul from death.

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Our soul waits for the Lord. Glory be to the

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Father, and to the Son, and to the

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Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.

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Amen. The earth is full of the steadfast love of the

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Lord. Alleluia. In peace let us pray to the

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Lord. For the peace from above, and for our salvation, let us pray to the

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Lord. For the peace of the whole world, for the well -being of the

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Church of God, and for the unity of all, let us pray to the

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Lord. For this

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Holy House, and for all who offer here their worship and praise, let us pray to the

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Lord. Help, save, comfort, and defend us, gracious Lord.

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This is the feast of victory for our

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God. Alleluia. The Lord be with you.

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And also with you. Let us pray. O God, through the humiliation of your

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Son, you raised up the fallen world. Grant to your faithful people, rescued from the peril of everlasting death, perpetual gladness and eternal joys, through Jesus Christ our

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Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

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You may be seated. And a reminder, there is no gradual today, but we have an extended thing that we will say for the verse for the

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Gospel. The Old Testament reading for the third Sunday of Easter is taken from the prophet

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Ezekiel, chapter 34. For thus says the Lord God, behold

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I, I myself will search for my sheep, and I will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will

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I seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.

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I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land.

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And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country.

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I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land.

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There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel.

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I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the

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Lord God. I will seek the lost, I will bring back the strayed, I will bind up the injured,

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I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy, I will feed them in justice.

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This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Our epistle is taken from 1 Peter, chapter 2.

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For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

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He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.

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When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

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He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

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By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and the overseer of your souls.

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This is the word of the Lord. We'll speak the extended verse together.

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Alleluia, the Lord was known to them in the breaking of the bread. Alleluia, I am the good shepherd,

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I know my own, and my own know me. Alleluia. The Holy Gospel according to St.

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John, the 10th chapter. Jesus said,

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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, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees.

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And the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he's a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

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I am the good shepherd, I know my own, and my own know me. Just as the Father knows me, and I know the

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Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold,

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I must bring them also. And they will listen to my voice, so there will be one flock and one shepherd.

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This is the gospel of the Lord. The sermon hymn is 790, you may be seated.

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Christ is risen, in the name of Jesus.

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Jesus says in our gospel text, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

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Ah, good shepherd, well does that mean there are bad shepherds? Absolutely, in fact, in our gospel text today, you'll note the context if you go back into chapter 9, is all about Jesus comparing himself to the

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Pharisees, who were awful shepherds. They were miserably, terrible, abusive shepherds.

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In fact, we kind of see that in chapter 9, but we've preached on that recently. So let's take a look at the context then of our

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Old Testament text, because you'll note then, our Old Testament text, God himself, the Lord Yahweh, is referring to himself as a shepherd.

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And the language there kind of implies, well, that Jesus is God, because Jesus is using that same language for himself.

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But let's take a look at Ezekiel 34 in context, by backing up to verse 1. And watch the contrast, it's stark.

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The word of Yahweh came to me, Ezekiel writes, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel.

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Now, shepherds of Israel, it's not talking about the guys who are actually tending sheep. That's not who God has in mind here.

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He has in mind the religious leaders of Israel. And prophesy against them, absolutely necessary.

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Let me remind you where Ezekiel is. He's in captivity in Babylon. Why is he there?

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Well, it goes something like this. The shepherds of Israel, those tasked with the job of preaching the word and telling people what the will of God was, back in the days of Ezekiel and Jeremiah and folks like that, they decided that they were going to imply a religious

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DEI system. And so they decided that we need to get away from this exclusive worship of Yahweh.

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And so they decided that they were going to bring in some diversity, some equity, a little bit more inclusion when it comes to deities.

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And so they were worshiping a Shira. Isn't that great? I mean, do you have a problem with the evil, toxic patriarchy?

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That's okay. You can worship a Shira. And you can have a female deity who's supposedly the consort of Yahweh.

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Isn't that awesome? Now we have a holy couple that we can worship. And, of course, if you're really, really into fertility cults,

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Baal is your deity. Let me tell you, Baal is the way to go. And don't forget about Molech.

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If you have children that you didn't really want to have, you can just sacrifice them to Molech. It's all holy and religious and stuff like that.

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And so the shepherds of Israel said, It's okay for you to worship Yahweh and a Shira, Yahweh and Baal, and we can all get along together.

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And so they created, well, they took Solomon's temple and turned it into the ultimate

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D .E .I. religious temple where you can offer sacrifices and incense to different deities as well as Yahweh.

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It was so gloriously inclusive. It was just so cutting edge and progressive.

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But you're going to note something here. It was flat -out idolatrous and disobedient to Yahweh.

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And so what did Yahweh do? He sent prophet after prophet after prophet.

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And it didn't really profit them much because they wouldn't listen to the prophets. And what ended up happening is God said,

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Eventually, since you're not going to listen to my prophets, you're not going to repent. You have now provoked me to the point where I'm going to take action.

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And God took action. God called the armies of Babylon to sack Jerusalem.

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Not once, not twice, three times. And by the time Babylon was done with Judah, 90 % of the folks had died.

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Only 5 ,000 people, about that amount, were actually taken into captivity in Babylon.

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And unfortunately for them, some of the people that got rounded up and marched off to Babylon also happened to be some of these

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DEI religious types who were all into progressive inclusivism. And some of the false prophets as well.

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And so even while in exile, and you can see this in the book of Ezekiel, they were not very quick to abandon their idolatry.

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They were not quick to exclusively worship the one true God. And so God himself is going to get to the source of the problem.

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The source of the problem is the shepherds who are telling people what they want to hear rather than speaking the truth of Yahweh.

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And so God says, Son of man, you prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to them and even to the shepherds,

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Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves.

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Kind of an interesting thing here. And that is that false teachers, false prophets, and heretics and the like, you know who they're not interested in?

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They're not interested in you. The one that they're interested in is themselves.

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And so you'll note, it's kind of a common theme when you're dealing with false shepherds or bad shepherds is that they're all about feeding themselves.

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The whole system gets rigged so it benefits them. And the one thing you are not allowed to do is ask a question that goes something like this.

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How come you're saying these things but the Bible says that? You're not allowed to point out that the emperor has no clothes on.

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You're not allowed to do that because if you do that, oh boy, there is wrath to pay. You will hear things like this.

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Touch not God's anointed. Who do you think you are? I am a man of God.

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And thou dare you ask questions of me. So you get back in the ship and you get down with the slaves and you start rowing like I told you to do.

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This is how this works out. And anybody who's been in a bad church who's been abused in this way knows exactly what

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I'm talking about. But boy, oh boy, the one thing they want are a bunch of ignorant people who do not know their

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Bibles basically eating up all the pig slop that they're serving them and making sure that they understand that it's their job to tithe.

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Make sure to tithe not off the net but off the gross. And that's just the minimum amount that you're supposed to be giving.

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Everybody knows that that's just the minimum entry of what God expects from you because if you don't even give that, well, then

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God's going to curse you by sending the destroyer. He's going to take your dishwasher and mess it up so that you have to constantly get that thing repaired.

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And about your cart also, it's going to constantly leak oil and have mechanical problems all because you're not tithing, so they say.

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I wish I was making these examples up, but I'm not. And unfortunately, I can give more, many more, hours long more of examples of how bad shepherds abuse and feed only themselves.

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So God asks these shepherds, should not shepherds feed the sheep?

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You know, God's sheep, you know what they're hungry for? The Word of God. Have you ever been in a church where you get about this much

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Bible? Just about this much, okay? And then you come up to the pastor and say,

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I'm hungry, I'm starving. There's only this much Bible. And they say something like this, how selfish of you to want more

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Bible? How dare you? Let's take a look at your tithing record. Well, if you can get your tithing record up, maybe

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I'll give you a little bit more Bible, right? Again, I'm not making this up.

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These are real people in Christ's church doing and saying these real things.

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And you'll note, the pattern goes all the way back. God noticed it and said that he's going to judge it.

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So he says to the shepherds, the bad ones, you eat the fat. You clothe yourselves with the wool.

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You slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened.

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The sick you have not healed. The injured you have not bound up. The strayed you have not brought back.

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The lost you have not sought. And with force and harshness, you have ruled them.

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You know you're in a bad church when that's the case. And by the way, sometimes pastors learn how to rule with force and harshness with a smile on their face.

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Understand this, that abuse doesn't have to come with yelling. Abuse comes with manipulation.

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And manipulation can happen while somebody is piously holding their hands in the prayer position and speaking smarmy words to you with a smarmy tone with a big old

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Cheshire cat smile on their face. They're still ruling you with harshness.

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Keep that in mind. So God says, my sheep then were scattered because there was no shepherd.

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And they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered. They wandered over all the mountains on every high hill.

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My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth with none to search or to seek for them.

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Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Yahweh. As I live, declares the

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Lord Yahweh, surely because my sheep have become a prey and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves and have not fed my sheep, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Yahweh.

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And you'll note a little bit of a side note here. Scripture talks about those who teach in Christ's church.

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Not a lot of you all should seek to do that because it says that we're going to have a stricter judgment.

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Right? Pastors and preachers and teachers in Christ's church, stricter judgment. One has to wonder here if this has something to do with that.

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So, because my sheep have become a prey, God says, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves and have not fed my sheep, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Yahweh.

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Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand.

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Whose sheep are we? We are Christ's sheep. Keep that in mind.

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You'll note that I'm an under good shepherd, Jesus. Y 'all aren't my sheep. But, oh boy,

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I know that they belong to Jesus and that he's going to ask me about all you sheep on the day of judgment.

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So, keep that in mind. If the next pastor comes along and he starts abusing you or whatever, don't put up with him.

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Take him outside and hang him by a rope, okay? But cut him down just before he dies just to give him a strong message that he's not welcome here anymore.

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You see what I'm saying here? Don't leave any marks. Did I say that out loud? The idea here is don't put up with him.

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You don't do that. Get yourself shepherds who will care for you. So thus says the

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Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds. I will require my sheep at their hand, and I will put a stop to their feeding of themselves.

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No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths so that they may not be food for them.

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For thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep, and I will seek them out.

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As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will

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I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.

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You'll note that Jesus says that he came to seek and save the lost. Who did he come to seek and save?

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His lost sheep. And you'll note here that Christ now has kind of, well actually

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God, and obviously we're talking about Christ as well, here he is not only looking at the bad shepherds, but he's looking at the ultimate bad shepherd who's responsible for scattering all of God's sheep, and that would be

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Satan himself. Keep this in mind, all bad shepherds are agents of the dark Lord.

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Period. Full stop. If they won't feed you, if they won't care for you, if they only care only for themselves, they are doing

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Satan's work. If they are scattering you, feeding you false doctrine, and beating you at the same time, they are sent from Satan, and that's exactly the abusive behavior that Satan has over all of humanity.

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So God here says that on the day of clouds and thick darkness, that's the day of judgment, Christ himself is going to come looking for his sheep, and that's you, and that's me.

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It's a beautiful picture if you think of it, because oftentimes when we think about the day of judgment, it kind of gives us that little bit of feeling of dread and fear, right?

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But for us, who belong to Christ, that day of judgment, the day of clouds and thick darkness, it'll be like us lost sheep wandering in that clouds and thick darkness, and Jesus showing up and going, ah, here you are,

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I found you. That's the picture, it's a beautiful one when you consider it here. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land.

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I will feed them on the mountains of Israel by the ravines and in all the inhabited places of the country.

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I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land.

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There they shall lie down in good grazing land. Oh, lying down, that sounds like a good amount of rest, right?

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Are you weary, heavy laden, tired of the toil that goes along with this world? Well, note there's a day coming when

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God himself will bring us into the new earth, and he will cause us to rest in a place of plenty rather than work and toil in a place of scarcity.

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It's beautiful. They shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel.

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I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep. God says, I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep.

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Yet in our Gospel text, Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. Starting to see the connections, they're intentional.

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I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep. I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord Yahweh. I will seek the lost.

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I will bring back the strayed. I will bind up the injured. I will strengthen the weak. Ah, but the fat ones, those who've abused the other sheep, the strong,

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I'm going to destroy them, and I will feed them in justice. Oh, bad shepherds, beware.

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Bad sheep, beware. God himself will feed you in justice, and that's not what any of us want.

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It's what we deserve, but Christ doesn't give us what we deserve. You'll note that Jesus' half -brother,

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Jude, also picks up on this similar kind of theme in his epistle.

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In Jude 3, Jude writes, Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation,

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I found it necessary to write appealing to you, to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints, contend to wage war, to fight for the faith, against whom and against what?

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Satan and Satan's agents that he has sent into the church. That's what

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Jude is telling us, who he's telling us to contend with, for he says, For certain people they have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were designated for this condemnation.

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They are ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only

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Master and Lord Jesus Christ. Where are these people, these certain people? They're in the church.

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They're in positions of leadership. They're pastors and teachers and people who have large followings on TikTok and on YouTube and Instagram.

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They're everywhere. They're on Christian television. They're behind the pulpits. They're in small churches, large churches, mega churches.

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They're everywhere. And so we are to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints against such people.

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So Jude reminds us. I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved the people out of the land of Egypt.

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I love that sentence, by the way. Jesus saved the people out of the land of Egypt. You bet your bippy he did.

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He did. Where's Jesus mentioned in Exodus? Every time Yahweh's mentioned. Good way to think about it, right?

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Afterwards, Jesus destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who didn't stay within their own position of authority but left their proper dwelling, he's kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.

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Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, they serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

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Now, here's what we have to do with this text at this point. Have you ever asked yourself a question that goes something like this?

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Why doesn't God just nuke the West Coast?

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Maybe from San Francisco on, right? Why does he continue to tolerate such abhorrent, rebellious, openly, horrifically perverse people?

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Why does he continue to do so? Why doesn't he just do what he did to Sodom and Gomorrah?

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The answer is actually given here. He doesn't need to do it again. He already did that with Sodom and Gomorrah, and what happened to them is a foretaste of what's coming on the day of judgment.

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And so God now, in his mercy, is calling all of them to repent. And what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah serves as the one -time example of God's judgment that then should cause everybody, pause.

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God doesn't need to do it again. Somebody asked me years ago, well, it says in the scripture that those in the church of Corinth who took the

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Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner, that some of them actually died as a result of it. Why doesn't

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God kill people who are doing that today? Answer, he doesn't need to. He did that to the church of Corinth, and that serves as an example.

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God doesn't need to keep on doing that because the idea then is that those things will then stand as their condemnation on the day of judgment.

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You kind of get the idea. So here, Jude is invoking Sodom and Gomorrah and angels who didn't keep their proper dwelling places and things like this as an example to us to warn us against the wrath of God, warning then these false teachers that he's warning us about to contend for the faith against, that, well,

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God has made it clear how this is going to go down with them. So then he says this. So in like manner, these people, these false teachers, they rely on their dreams.

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Sounds like the N .A .R. to me. Man, how many times have I heard somebody say, oh,

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I have a word of the Lord, I had a dream the other night, and in the dream I saw this, that, or the other thing. I'm thinking, you need to change your diet, lady.

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You need to stop eating anchovy pizza before you go to bed because that's clearly some kind of an anchovy fever dream that you're having.

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That was not a message from God. But yet she's up in the pulpit preaching it as if that's a word from God and none of it makes a lick of sense because there's no sense to be made there.

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False teachers, they don't rely on the Scriptures. They don't preach the Word. They don't feed Christ's sheep with God's Word.

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Instead, they rely on their dreams. They defile the flesh. They reject authority.

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They blaspheme the glorious ones. And here, Jude kind of points this out.

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However, in contrast, when Michael the archangel was contending with the devil and was disputing over the body of Moses, Michael the archangel did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment against Satan, but he said these words,

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The Lord rebuke you. But these people, these false teachers, they blaspheme all that they do not understand and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.

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Let me give you an example. Kenneth Copeland. March of 2020.

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Y 'all remember what he did. Got on television and said, COVID -19, I rebuke you in the name of God.

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Right? And you're all sitting there looking and going, what a cringe thing. And you'll note, people like Kenneth Copeland and others, they're constantly pronouncing their declarations, their decrees.

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They're rebuking cancer. They're rebuking mental illness. Do you suffer from depression? I rebuke the spirit of depression.

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Right? And things like this. This is what Jude is talking about. And this is the sign that you're dealing with somebody who's a false prophet.

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Because not even Michael the archangel was stupid enough to act in such a way. And when he had a real opportunity to call out

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Satan, he withheld his rebuke and said, the Lord, let

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Yahweh rebuke you. Because vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, not ours.

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But these people, they blaspheme all that they do not understand. They are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.

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But woe to them. They walk in the way of Cain. They've abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error.

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And they've perished in Korah's rebellion. Cain was the fellow who had religious activity but no faith.

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What good is a sacrifice to God if you don't even trust him? That's the point of Cain. And then

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Balaam's error. Balaam was the prophet for profit. And let me ask you, have you guys paid your $600 yet to get your prophetic activation from Jennifer LeClaire, who used to be the chief editor for Charisma magazine?

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That's Balaam's error in excess. And perished in Korah's rebellion.

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Korah was the fellow who refused to acknowledge that God had established particular offices within the church.

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And as a result of that, accused the people who held those offices of somehow thinking that they were better than anybody else.

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And Korah and his compatriots died as a result of their rebellion.

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Because the rebellion wasn't against men, it was against God. These false teachers are hidden reefs at your love feast as they feast with you without fear.

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Shepherds who feed only themselves. Hmm. Has anything changed?

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From Ezekiel all the way to Jude, it's the same. And to this day, it's the same. There's nothing new under the sun.

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They are fruitless trees in late autumn. And I've noticed, have you guys noticed this, that late autumn gets here a lot quicker than it does for the rest of the country?

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But always and again, I marvel because we have one of these trees in our yard that has some kind of berries that it puts out.

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They look like cherries, little small little things. And it's always in the fall when that tree is just heavy laden with these things.

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And I talk to other people, they've got apple trees, and they've got pear trees and stuff like that. And when autumn hits, what are they doing?

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They're canning. They're trying to figure out how to save this crop. And then some of you all have come up with a really interesting solution to dealing with all of your excess fruit that you get in autumn.

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You put it in bags and put it in my truck while it's sitting in the parking lot. And I bring them home to my wife, and my wife goes, what am

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I supposed to do with all of this? I don't know. You're the cook. Figure it out. And so you'll note that a fruit tree in late autumn that doesn't have any fruit on it is not a good fruit tree.

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It's just wasting space in your yard. Cut it down. Get yourself a fruit tree that knows how to produce fruit at the proper time.

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But that's the whole point. False teachers don't bear fruit that you can enjoy.

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They don't bear fruit at all. They are fruitless fruit trees. They might be fruit loops, but they're fruitless fruit trees in late autumn.

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They are waterless clouds. Who wants a cloud that doesn't drop rain?

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They're swept along by winds twice dead, uprooted, wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame.

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They're wandering stars, stars by which you cannot even navigate. You have to have a star that stays still.

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For whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. It was about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying,

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Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousand of his holy ones to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

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These are grumblers. They're malcontents. Following their own sinful desires, they are loudmouth boasters showing favoritism in order to gain an advantage.

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Are you getting the picture of what a bad shepherd looks like? This is what

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Christ is juxtaposing himself against. That's exactly what the

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Pharisees were. They were not people who represent Orthodox Judaism. I find it fascinating that the religion of the

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Pharisees now calls itself Jewish Orthodoxy. It's anything but that.

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It's very fascinating when you consider it. And so here Jude says this, But you, y 'all, must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. They have said to you, in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions.

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That's now. That's today. It is these who cause divisions.

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Oh, I'm so glad that's written in the Scriptures. So glad. Because you'll note that in my other day job,

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I spend a lot of time reviewing and critiquing people like this.

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And how many times have I been told that I'm causing division in the body of Christ because I am casting doubt upon the veracity that that person is speaking a true prophecy from God.

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Roseboro, you're causing division in the body of Christ. No, I'm not. The false prophet, the false teacher is.

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Pointing it out is what I'm supposed to do. The Scriptures make that clear. So it is these who cause divisions.

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They are worldly people. They are devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the

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Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, which is the gospel, waiting for the mercy of our

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Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. Oh, love those words. What are we waiting for?

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Christ's mercy to appear. And have mercy on those who doubt.

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Save others by snatching them out of the fire. To others, show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

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And then we get these wonderful words of doxology from Jude. Now to Him, Jesus, who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy.

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To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time, both now and forever.

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And the text ends with an amen. But note the words. To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to Him who is able to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy.

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Brothers and sisters, how is that even possible? Each and every one of us, not only have many of us been victims of bad shepherds and listened to false doctrine and worse, believed it, but we all have sinned greatly against God and we are also guilty of sinning against God's other sheep.

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You know, the people sitting next to you in the pews, the people that God has put around you in your life, the people that you work with, the people who are members of your family.

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You have abused them, sinned against them, lied to them, treated them horribly, and as a result of it, you have earned and incurred, well,

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God's wrath for what you have done. How is it that Christ is able to present us as blameless before Him?

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It all comes to this, our gospel text. You see, Jesus, unlike the bad shepherds,

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He does not care primarily for Himself. He's not into self -preservation or self -promotion.

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Jesus says, I am the Good Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

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In contradistinction to the bad shepherds, who care only about themselves, feed only themselves, and are complete wingnut wackerdoodles,

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Jesus, He does not care about His own life. Instead, He offers up His own life so that you and I can be forgiven of our sins.

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He lays down His life for the sheep so that they can live, so that He can gather them up on the last day and bring them as a

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Good Shepherd into the new earth. The one who's a hired hand and not the shepherd, who doesn't own the sheep,

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He sees the wolf coming, and He leaves the sheep and He flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

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He flees because He's a hired hand. He cares nothing for the sheep. But Jesus says,

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I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own, and my own they know me. Just as the

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Father knows me and I know the Father, and again He says, and I lay down my life for the sheep.

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Jesus didn't care about His own safety. He didn't care that they were going to crucify

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Him. He knew that that was the means by which He can save you and I, and that by bleeding and dying and taking our sins upon Himself, it makes it then possible for us to be presented before Him in glory, in splendor, in blamelessness.

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We who have sinned and transgressed God's holy law and done so miserably, Christ then freely forgives and pardons, and so we are clothed in His wool, if you would.

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He washes us clean from our filth, and He's able then by His crucifixion and dying for our sins to then present us blameless before His very presence, and that is done to great joy, not only our joy, but His joy as well.

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Who for the joy set before Him, Christ willingly laid down His life for the sheep.

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So brothers and sisters, Jesus indeed is our Good Shepherd.

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And we would then note, any under -shepherd under King Jesus needs to reflect that same love, willingness, and recognizes that Christ's sheep are a stewardship that He is responsible for.

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He must feed Christ's sheep. He must help those who are in trouble.

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He must seek those who are lost. He must bind up the wounds of those who are beaten.

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He must continually, week in and week out, feed them with Christ's words and with His body and blood.

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This is how we know the difference between a shepherd who is like our Good Shepherd, as opposed to a bad shepherd who is like Satan, the abuser, and the one who's come to steal, to kill, and to destroy.

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So let us praise God for the one who laid down His life, who thought nothing of His own safety, but only thought of our salvation, in order that He might present us as blameless before the presence of His glory.

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To Jesus, our God and Savior, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time, now and forever.

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Praise our Good Shepherd. Amen. We rise to confess our faith together in the words of the

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Nicene Creed. I believe in one

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God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, and in one

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Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds,

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God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the

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Father, by whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the

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Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.

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He suffered and was buried, and the third day He rose again, according to the

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Scriptures, and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father, and He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end.

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And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the

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Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.

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And I believe in one holy Christian apostolic church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

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Amen. In peace, let us pray to the

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Lord. For the increase of faith in Christ, who bore our sins, and for inspiration to follow

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His example, who suffered and did not threaten, who was judged and did not condemn, and who commended

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His Spirit to the Father, let us pray to the Lord. For the church, that God would send faithful shepherds to care for His flock here and scattered throughout the world, that He would keep them devoted to Christ and His truth, and so turn them in dutiful service toward His people, that God would spare us from hirelings who serve ego, belly, and the world's doctrines, and that He would give discerning ears to His sheep to listen for the voice of Christ, our

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Good Shepherd. Let us pray to the Lord. For the gift of good government, that as the

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Paschal Lamb has wrought peace between man and God, so He would grant peace and good days also to our citizens and between the nations of the world, and that we and all our neighbors may lead quiet lives in godly contentment.

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Let us pray to the Lord. In thanksgiving for our risen Christ, the firstfruits from the dead, who has secured forgiveness for our troubled consciences, that He would also bless with temporal health those who suffer.

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Today we especially pray for Clarence, Jana, Roger, Robin, Charles, and Bonnie, Judy, Louise, Deborah, Rachel, Mara, and Gloria, and all who we now name before the

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Lord within our hearts. We ask that God would grant us aid not only in this moment, but also true immortal health in the world to come.

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Let us pray to the Lord. For the faithful reception of Christ's very body and blood, that God would give us the

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Holy Spirit, so that what we receive with our lips we may keep in holy hearts and show forth in holy lives.

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Let us pray to the Lord. In thanksgiving for the fellowship of the Church, that our

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Shepherd would bring us at last with all His saints to share in the feast that has no end. Let us pray to the

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Lord. Lord God, out of your fatherly goodness, you have remembered us poor, miserable sinners and given your beloved

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Son to be our Shepherd, not only to nourish us by His word, but also to defend us from sin, death, and the devil.

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Grant us, your Holy Spirit, that even as this Shepherd knows us and helps in every affliction, that we may also know

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Him, trust Him, seek help, and comfort Him, and heartily obey

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His voice and obtain eternal salvation through the same Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the

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Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. We continue with the offertory.

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All right, you all may be seated. We're going to be bringing some people into membership here. There we go.