Know the Good Shepherd | John 10:1-11

So, I am so excited to be here with you. I have been looking forward to this literally for months since Diane called me back, I believe in March. Excited to come to Hawaii for sure. Should be good. Perfect. Excited to come to Hawaii because who wouldn't want to come to Hawaii? But honestly, for this conference, it has truly been a blessing to me and I hope that it will be a blessing to you as well. I want to start by introducing my family. I believe I have a picture of them on the slides. There they are. That tall guy in the middle is my husband. His name is Rob. And he is the dean of men and the head men's basketball coach at Marinatha Baptist University in Watertown, Wisconsin, which is where my family lives currently.

I work part-time at the university in the business office and then I am a full-time wife and mom and we have five children as you can see there. My oldest son Griffin was just here a moment ago singing with me. He is 20 and he is uh still praying about what God has for his future at this time. My second son is there in the brown sweater. His name is Ree. He just started his senior year of high school. So, we've got another one getting ready to leave the nest, and that's kind of a weird place to be in life. And then my youngest three, Trick, Drake, and Kira. They're triplets. So, that's kind of my fun fact.

We have triplets. They're a ton of fun. They're 12 years old, and they just started seventh grade. So, they have now just entered middle school. And this is a crazy new place that we are at in life. As we begin here tonight, I want to just kind of give you an overview of the four sessions that I will have with you and kind of where we're going with each of these topics. So, our theme is abundant life filled and overflowing. Who doesn't want that, right? And the word of God tells us where we can find it. John 10:10 says, "I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly."

So, session one tonight, we're going to talk about how abundant life comes only from knowing the good shepherd. We'll talk tomorrow about how abundant life overflows with gratitude and obedience. Abundant life is filled with hope and comfort, and abundant life produces confidence and good works. So, that's kind of an overview. Tonight, we're going to look at John 10 1-1. I believe it's typed out in your notes and I think I have it on the screen as well. So, let's just dive right in. I'm going to start by reading these 11 verses. You can follow along while I read. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that enterth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

But he that enterth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadth them out. And when he puteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them. And the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. And a stranger they will not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers. This parable spake Jesus unto them, but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them. Then said Jesus unto them again, verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers.

But the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Let's begin with prayer. Dear Lord, I am so thankful for this passage of scripture. I am so thankful that you are the good shepherd. Lord, there are a lot of voices calling our names in this world. But Lord, I thank you that your voice leads us to abundant life and to eternal life.

And I pray, Lord, that you would set a guard over my mouth tonight to say only those things that you would want me to say. And I pray that your Holy Spirit would work in the lives of these ladies to bring them just what they need tonight. May you fill them. May you give all of us abundant lives that are overflowing with your goodness in your name. Amen. So abundant life comes only from knowing the good shepherd. So if you look down in your notes to point number five, you can see right off the bat here where I am going with this. If you look at the application, the application that I'm going to make tonight is so know the shepherd and know his voice.

That's where all of this is going to be pointing to. So the logical question is then how how do we know the shepherd? How do we know his voice? And the answer is by studying his word. He gave us his word, the Bible. And so part parts one through four in your notes, points one through four are really intended tonight to be a stepbystep guide on how to study God's word. So, I'm hoping that this will be very practical for you and that you'll kind of have an overview that you can take home with you as you study God's word in the future. So, you'll notice in your notes number one, culture. Whenever we are looking at a passage of scripture, it is very helpful for us to ask ourselves, who was this message to?

Who was the original audience that was being addressed? Now, this is only my second time in Hawaii, but from what I can see, you don't have a lot of shepherds here. And if you were to come with me to Watertown, Wisconsin, where I live, you would find that we don't have a lot of shepherds either. And so, sometimes the passages in scripture that talk about shephering or sheep can be a little bit confusing to us. But this was not the case for the original audience. These references were used because it was so familiar to them. As we look throughout scripture, we actually find 200 Bible references to shepherds.

200. There are 500 Bible references to sheep. In fact, it is the most frequently referenced animal in all of scripture, sheep. And this was because the original audience was very familiar with the concept of shephering. It is estimated that back at the time this was written, probably 80 to 90% of the population was in involved in agriculture of some kind. Whether they were raising crops or livestock, most people were very familiar. There were only maybe 10 to 20% of the population that were, you know, the ruling elite or your urban craftsmen that weren't involved in shephering, but even they would have seen it on a daily basis.

So it was very common to the culture of that day. Number two in your notes you can see author and writing style. So we ask ourselves who wrote this and what was the style that they used in their writing. Who is giving the message? Well here the apostle John. The apostle John was giving this message. What do we know about the apostle John? Well a few things quickly come to my mind. First of all, he was one of Jesus' closest disciples. Whenever you hear in scripture Peter, James, and John, those three often go together. This is that guy, that John. So, three of Jesus' closest disciples. He is also referred to in scripture as the disciple whom Jesus loved.

So, he had a very close relationship with Jesus. And probably the most important fact is that he was an eyewitness to the accounts of which he wrote. He saw most of them with his own eyes. So when we read John 10, Jesus said this, the people did this. John was right there. He saw it all happen firsthand. The writing style that the Apostle John typically uses is a blend of narrative and discourse. He just tells us the events that he saw and then he will say the discourse between the people. Interesting fact about John is that 42% of his writings are the direct words of Jesus. If you have a red letter Bible, those red letters are the direct words of Jesus.

And 42% of John's gospel is in red. So the direct words of Jesus and then the reaction of the people that were listening to that message. So the culture, the author, the writing style. And then number three, it's very important for us to understand the context. Whenever we are reading or studying a passage of scripture, we want to know what was happening before. Right before we got to this part, what was going on? And so, right before John 10 came John 9. John 9 has 41 verses. And there is the account of the man who was born blind. And we obviously don't have time to read that entire passage. But if I were to give you a brief overview of the chapter, Jesus was walking through town with his disciples.

They passed by a blind beggar on the side of the road. And Jesus had compassion. And so he made some mud. He put the mud on the blind man's eyes. He told him, "Go wash in the pool of Salom." The man did this and he was healed. Oh, and it was the Sabbath. So this miracle was mostly a private miracle, right? It was pretty much just the blind man and maybe a few of his friends who led him to the pool of Salom, but those were the only people that would have seen this miracle. But everybody saw the results. People who had walked by this blind man for years suddenly now see him walking. They can see him working.

They saw the effects of whatever happened to this man. He could now see. And so they take him and his family to the Pharisees. And they they say, "Here is this man. We've seen him for years. All of a sudden, he can see. You should you should talk to this man." So the Pharisees begin interrogating him. Who healed you? Well, obviously the blind man couldn't see who healed him. And so he says, "I don't know, but what I do know, I was blind. Now I see he must be from God. I'm following him. The Pharisees said, "No, no, no. He cannot be from God. He did this on the Sabbath. He cannot possibly be from God."

And they kicked the man out of the synagogue. You are no longer welcome here. After all, they were the experts. He was merely a beggar. What did he know? So this man is kicked out of the synagogue and he has a second encounter with Jesus. This time Jesus comes to him and he asks the man, "Do you believe in the son of man?" And now Jesus opens his spiritual eyes. And the man replies, "Lord, I believe." And then Jesus states at the end of John chapter nine, "I came into the world that the blind may see and that those who see may become blind." Now, the Pharisees were kind of standing at a distance and they hear this interaction between Jesus and the healed man and they're greatly offended.

Is he calling us blind? And this is the backdrop to John 10. So when we get to these verses that we read a moment ago, this is the continued discourse that Jesus is having with the blind man in the presence of some of these Pharisees who are listening and and wondering is he calling us blind. So now we get to number four. We get to the content the content of the verses that we are studying and we ask ourselves, okay, what information does this passage give us? Now it is important to realize that Jesus was a master teacher. Do we have some teachers in this room? Are some of you teachers? I taught school for a number of years and I have always marveled at Jesus the teacher.

He was a master at giving allegory at using par parables to bring a part a point to the people a spiritual point. And so here we see Jesus using the teaching device of allegory in verses 1-6. An allegory is a picture in which the characters and events acts as symbols. They are imagery that is familiar to the people and they are intended to get across a spiritual point. And so here we see the imagery of a of a shepherd and his daily routine. So, a shepherd's daily routine looked something like this. During the daytime, he would come and he would get his flock and he would lead them to pasture where they would graze.

But at night, the shepherd would take his sheep to the sheepfold where his sheep would sleep. Now, these sheepfolds were like stonewalled enclosures. They typically did not have a roof over the top. Often the stone was even surrounded by thorny brambles so that no animals or thieves could get in from the sides. There was typically only one door on a sheepfold. And interestingly, many or at least multiple flocks would often sheep sleep together in the same sheepfold. So the shepherds of the village would kind of pull their resources. They would build this sheepfold. They would hire a man, a porter, a guard to sleep there overnight while they would go home to their houses and sleep.

So, this was an entry-level job, a security guard. This man that would sit at the door overnight to guard the sheep. He he typically was motivated by a paycheck and nothing more. He knew the shepherds. They were his bosses, right? And early each morning after the shepherds had gotten a good night's sleep, they would come to the sheepfold to the entrance. The porter knew them and so he would open the door to them. They would come and they would call their sheep out to pasture. Now, how did they do this? Some would have a special call, a phrase, some might have a whistle, or some might have a song, but they all had something unique to call their sheep.

and their sheep, though sleeping together with possibly hundreds of sheep from the village, would know their shepherd's voice, and they would follow him out the entrance. Now, to you and I, this sounds crazy because we've never seen it, right? But to shepherds, this was very common. I have been these last six months doing a lot of shepherd research because it's such an intriguing concept to me and so unfamiliar and shephering is still practiced today in parts of the world and so I've been watching there's a lot of videos on YouTube you can watch about modern-day shephering and one I found that was just so interesting to me was a shepherd over in Norway this is modern present day who had sheep outg grazing at pasture and He had a group of tourists that had come to visit him.

And in this video, he's explaining to the tourists that his call for the sheep goes something like this. And he tells them all, "That's what I do when I want my sheep to come to me." So he asks the first tourist, "Would you like to try?" And it's a lady and she steps up and she calls out to the sheep all over the pasture. And nothing happens. And they're all giggling and laughing. And so the next person steps up and it's a man and he steps up and he does the same thing. Nothing. And they all giggle. Well, they go through all these tourists and absolutely nothing happens. And so the shepherd says, "Well, here let me try."

And he does the same thing. And you watch on this video as the sheep grazing all across the pasture instantly start coming toward their shepherd. It's just an amazing sight. But that would have been familiar to the people of this day. That's what the sheep did. When their shepherd came to the sheepfold and called his sheep, they knew, "Oh, that's the one I'm supposed to follow." And they would follow him out of the entrance and they would follow him out to pasture. Though this scene was familiar to the audience of audience of the day, verse six tells us that the they did not understand the spiritual significance of what Jesus was saying.

And so in verses 7- 11, we see Jesus explain it to them. Symbolism explained. The sheep represent the common people. You can see that in the passage where it starts out talking about sheep and then pretty soon it transitions to if any man come after me. And so we can see Jesus is saying the sheep, you are the common people. You're the people I'm telling this account to. And then in verses 7 and verse 9, Jesus explains and I am the door. He says, I am the only gate through which people can enter God's abundant provision. But he gives them a warning. He says, "Many false shepherds are calling you to follow.

There's going to be others that are standing at the entrance of that sheepfold calling to you. They're going to be saying, "Come follow me. I will take you to pasture." He says, "But they are thieves. They are robbers. They are just disguised as shepherds. They will not lead you to life." He says, "No, they will take you. They will kill you. They will they will feast on your spoil, but they will not lead you to life. And of course, here he is referring to the Pharisees who are listening. He's referring to the religious experts of the day, the national leaders who really were in many ways shepherds, guides of the people.

And yet they were the very ones who were blind to the truth. Jesus was the Messiah of whom they told the people they were all waiting and yet they could not see it right in front of them. They were blind. Jesus then goes on in verse 11 to say, I am the good shepherd. I am the good shepherd. I love that phrase. That word good in the original Greek language is a word kos and it means surpassing, better, best, ideal. Other places in scripture we can see Jesus referred to as the chief shepherd. And so we have to ask ourselves what what makes him better? What makes him a more ideal shepherd than all the others who are calling?

Well, he tells us in verse 10, first of all, he says, "I lead to better pasture." A shepherd's job is just that, to lead his flock to pasture to provide them with the food and the water that they need. Jesus says, "But I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly." He leads to better pasture. Not only that though, he goes on in verse 11 to say he also lays down his life for the sheep. Now, this is in stark contrast to the thieves and the robbers who were only there to to kill and to destroy. Jesus says, "No, I come to lay down my life so that they might live." Jesus would give his own life.

But, you know, at this time, it hadn't happened yet. He would go on to die at Calvary, but he hadn't done this yet. He was motivated by love. When he calls to his sheep from the entrance of the sheepfold, he is motivated by nothing but a deep and sincere love for his flock. If we had the time to read on in John 10, we would find many more references to the shepherd and to Jesus down in verse 28. He says, "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." He says, "I don't just give them abundant life here on earth. No, I also give them eternal life."

It does not get better than that. Following the good shepherd's voice leads to abundant life on earth and eternal life in heaven. So, let's move on to application. Application, the most important part. What does this mean to me? I've already given you the applications. If you notice though in these verses, there actually are no commands. There are no imperatives. Jesus doesn't say do this or don't do this. But there are many things that would have been implied that the early audience would have understood clearly. And the first is this. Sheep need a shepherd. I've got a picture I believe next in this slide of a sheep named Chris.

Chris, a Merino sheep in South Wales. He was separated from his flock as a young lamb. He wandered away. His sheep could shepherd could not find him. He actually lived in caves for years until one day a hiker found him looking like this bearing 89 lbs of wool, which did get him a world record. So that's how I know about Chris. He holds the world record for the most wool sheared off a sheep. Enough for 30 men's suits. But while Chris was alone in these caves away from the shepherd, Chris could hardly move. He had so much weight he could hardly bend down anymore to eat or to drink water. His limbs had had weakened.

He was he was very weak. Chris needed a shepherd. And the early audience that is being spoken to here also would have understood this that every sheep needs a shepherd. A sheep's well-being is completely dependent on who their shepherd was. And so abundant life, this abundant life that we read of in John 10:10 comes only from knowing the good shepherd, the best, the better, the ideal shepherd, Jesus. So application number one, letter A in your notes, know the shepherd. Do you know Jesus as your shepherd? Is he the one that you follow? Is he the one that you depend on for your well-being in life?

Have you entered his sheepfold by the door? It is open to all. He welcomes anyone. He says in verse 9, "By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved." What a wonderful promise. Have you accepted his free gift of salvation? Jesus the good shepherd laid down his life when he died on the cross of Calvary for your sin and for mine. And his sacrificial act of love paid the price for the sins of the world. And it brought you and I the hope of this abundant life that we're talking about. I'm not going to spend much more time on this, but I must tell you this is the foundation of everything we're going to talk about tonight and tomorrow.

If you haven't done this, the rest of it just doesn't even matter. Jesus must be your shepherd. He must be the one you follow, the one you depend on for life on earth and for for eternity with him in heaven. If you have not settled that, I would plead with you before you leave tonight to talk to somebody and settle that matter in your heart. But for those of you who say, "Yes, Jesus is my shepherd. He is the one I follow." for the rest of you. The second application is know his voice. Know his voice. I mentioned that my husband Rob is a men's basketball coach at Marinatha Baptist University. And one thing that I have always marveled about is the fact that when we are in the gymnasium for a basketball game, it's loud.

Okay, you've got you've got screaming fans, you've got the student section. They're outrageous. Okay, you've got noise makers. You've got both coaches yelling and referees yelling. There's a lot of noise. And yet I'm always amazed that they can hear my husband's voice. And I have asked them, we've had them over from for dinner a number of times, and I'll ask them, "Do you even hear the fans? Do you even hear the one who is heckling you from the sideline? Do you hear it?" And most of the time they will tell me, "No, I don't. I've just I've just tuned my ear to listen to coach." And that's the picture here for you and for I.

We need to tune our ears to the voice of the good shepherd. We do this by studying his word. He has given us the Bible. He has given us his word to follow. And so number one under know his voice, read it. Read it. Spend quality time in his word. Draw near to God. Psalm 119 says, "I will meditate in thy precepts. I will delight in thy statutes." Ladies, you hopefully, I think I have it in your notes, letter A, have a specific time each day that you are alone with God. Establish a specific time each day to be alone with God. Find a quiet place free from distraction. This is very, very important. Now, I'm sure there are some of you thinking, "But Heidi, you have no idea about my schedule and my life."

And and I don't. I don't know your specific schedule. But I know that I deal with this, too. And it has fluctuated over the years. It has looked different for me at different times in my life. That is for sure. I can think back to when we just had two children when Griffin and Reese were young boys and I would put them to bed at night and then nighttime was my quiet time with God because I knew they were asleep and so the house was quiet. That was when I would sit down. I would open my Bible. I would talk to the shepherd. That changed for sure when the triplets were born. Everything hit the fan because now it's from the second I get up to the second I go to bed and through the night.

And during that time period of life, honestly, the only time in my day that I was alone was when I was I was pumping breast milk. And so my devotions looked a whole lot different. It was in little increments throughout the day when I would lock myself in my bedroom for 10-minute increments here and there. It was different. Now my kids are a little bit older. So now they don't uh get up so early, but they stay up late. And so now I have found at this stage in my life, the early morning works best. My favorite part of the day is actually 5:30 a.m. which is shocking to say. I never thought I would say that.

But at 5:30 a.m. my house is quiet. Everybody is asleep. I can spend quality time with my shepherd and it is very very precious. You need that ladies. You need this as a part of your life. Now if that is a new concept to you, I want to just give you some hard facts. Okay, hard fact number one. You're not going to feel like it at first. You're not you're not going to feel like getting up early. Staying up late. Choosing God's word over social media. You're just not. Sometimes making it comfortable can help. That's just a tip for me. Coffee helps. A cozy blanket. In my Wisconsin home, I have a fireplace.

So, in the winter, the fireplace goes on. I love it. Maybe a scented candle, you know, something like that that makes it comfortable. I mean, what woman would not enjoy quiet time that looked like that, right? So, making it comfortable can help you get in a habit that becomes enjoyable, but at first it will not be. But here is what I want to get across and this is going to repeat itself a number of times throughout our sessions together. And this is very very important and it is this. Feelings follow obedience. Feelings follow obedience. Ladies, we are people of feelings, right? So I have actually heard ladies say to me, "I don't want to spend time in God's word because I would just be a hypocrite.

I didn't feel like it." But you've kind of got it backwards if you're thinking that way because I promise you the feelings will come, but they will come after you have obeyed. Feelings follow obedience. Think of this in other areas of life. How about dieting? Have you ever felt like putting a donut down? Exercise. When's the last time you felt like getting sweaty and sore? When is the last time you felt like doing junior high math homework or folding 437 pair of socks inside out again? That's my latest one. I don't feel like these things. But when I have done the right thing, the feeling follows.

I feel better afterwards. So blessings follow obedience. We see this in Joshua 1:9 when God commanded the nation of Israel. He said, "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night." And then he goes on to say, "For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success." Do these things, success and blessings, those will follow your obedience. So read it. Have a specific time and place in your life each and every day when you can read the shepherd's words and get to know his voice. Number two, study it. Study it. Don't be satisfied with just reading it.

No, dig deep. Discover the rich truths and they are there. The rich truths that exist in the word of God. Colossians 3:16 says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." Richly. It often helps to begin this time with prayer. The Bible promises us that the Holy Spirit dwells within believers and that he teaches and he guides us in all truth. And so, beginning with prayer, just a prayer, Lord, help me to understand this passage. help me to find these deep truths is often a really good place to start. But second, I would say have a plan. Know what you're going to read and know what you're going to study.

The plans for reading scripture abound. I believe I've got a few screens here of some sites that might be helpful re resources for you. This first one here is biblepro.com and that is just a small little snip of the page. Actually, it went on far below that. I think on that page alone there were 30 different Bible reading plans. There are of course Bible reading plans that are read through the Bible in a year where you kind of get a bird's eye view of all of scripture. But there are also Bible reading plans where you just dive into a specific book of the Bible, a book study, Genesis, Acts, Ephesians.

You just pick one and you study it. You can do a character study. Study the life of of David or Paul or Timothy or Esther. You pick a a character in the Bible and you just study it deeply. You can do a topical study. Study the topic of prayer, wisdom, shephering. But having a plan will help. It's not often a good idea to sit down with the Lord in your time alone with him and just randomly open. I'm not saying no benefit can be found in that, but to have a plan and to know where you're going, I think would help tremendously. And then next, use study resources. Use study resources. They abound. A site that I really, really love is a site called blueletterbible.com.

It is totally free. This is just a website. uh the basic overview. I think I have a few slides on this, but on this one here, the example, I used John 10:10, right? You click on the verse and then it will take you to the original language to each individual word. You can click on any word in that in that verse and you can find the other places it's used in scripture. You get definitions of the word. Many, many resources on this site. And then somewhere on there there's a little button you click on and it says further study resources. And I think the next slide will actually just kind of show you a little overview of what that looks like.

But it'll take you actually to commentaries. And I think the specific page I looked at was showing you like 160ome comment commentaries available on this passage alone. Just the book of John. This site alone could last you a long time in your study of God's word. And this one is totally free. Now, if you're somebody that likes a physical book in your hand, great. I I would maybe recommend the Bible knowledge commentary, the New American Commentary. These are good resources, but they're going to be a little pricey. I I did do a search and find some used ones that were a little cheaper, but those might also be a really great place to start if you like uh to have a physical book in your hand.

Then once you have your plan, you know where you're reading, and you have your study resources, you basically just do what we did tonight. You go through and you ask yourself in the passage of scripture that you're reading, okay, what was the culture of the day? Who wrote this? What writing style are they using? What was the context? What came before this passage leading up to these words? What's the content? And then what application can I make to my own life? So read it. Study it. Number three, memorize it. Memorize it. Store up God's word in your heart. Psalm 119:11, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee."

I will tell you ladies, Bible memorization for me personally has been the single greatest tool in my own spiritual life. This is largely because I cannot focus. I have a very very short attention span. I have often joked with with anybody I come in contact with if I were ever to go, you know, to a psychologist. I swear they would hook me up to an IV of rolin, okay? They would just I do not focus well. Okay? So, Bible memory for me has been a fantastic tool because for me to just say the same thing over and over and really get it deep in my heart has really really benefited me. So, Bible Memory, I started my habit of Bible memory with a little booklet called Five Smooth Stones.

I I looked it up online. It's still available. It's probably 30 years old, and all it is is this thin little booklet, but you can still get these. I don't use these anymore, but it set me up on a pattern where I'm memorizing a new verse each week, and then it moves to a new column to my review column, and then I'm it goes on and on from there. But this has single-handedly been the greatest tool in my spiritual growth. So memorize it. Memorize the word of God. Then number four, immerse in it. Immerse yourself in the word of God. Saturate your life with his word. Submerge yourself completely. In Deuteronomy 6:es 6-9, God again commanded the Israelites.

He said, "Bind up my word on your hearts." He goes on to say, "Teach it diligently to your children." He says, "Talk about it continually." When you're lying down, when you're rising, when you're walking, whatever you're doing, talk about it continually. And then he says, "And write it on the gates of your house. Submerge your life completely in God's word." So, what might this look like for you and for I? So, in Aside from I I should make clear this is aside from the time that I normally spend in my mornings with the word of God, my quiet time with him. But outside of that, the rest of my day, I might fill my life with Christian podcasts, Christian music.

I have a little screenshot here of just some of my favorites that I like to listen to, but that's just kind of my playlist. There are many, many, many more than that, and they are available to us. most most of them for free. Another thing I have found that is really beneficial to me is church sermon archives. This to me is one of the greatest things that ever came out of co I think that is probably up there. Uh and that is that most churches now record their sermons. I did a little checking and Ohana Baptist Church, they record theirs and so you can go on to this church's website, you can find their sermon archives.

But you know what? Most churches do this now. You can go back and listen to preaching from around the world on a regular basis. And so throughout your day, when you're doing laundry, when you're driving in your car, when you're mowing the lawn, whatever you are doing, use that time to submerge your life with the word of God. Also, put it around your home. There's a lot of pretty home decorations nowadays, Bible verses that you can put around your house. Verses like these. Be still and know that I am God. What a what a great reminder to see in front of you. This could be on note cards in your car, on your bathroom mirror, on your desk at work.

Submerging your life with the word of God, seeing it in front of you, hearing it throughout your day. In 2026, access to the Bible and to study resources abounds. We have the ability to surround and saturate our lives with the word of God unlike any generation before us. So know the good shepherd. Know his voice. Read it. Study it. Memorize it. And immerse in his words. He is standing at the entrance of the sheepfold calling. He wants to lead you to abundant life. But be warned, there are many other voices calling to you, aren't there? There are many voices calling you to follow. Do you recognize the voice of an intruder? Jesus is the good shepherd. He surpasses all the rest and following him leads to a better life. I am come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly.