Several times in scripture humans are likened to sheep. This is not a compliment. Isaiah famously intones that "all we like sheep have gone astray." We are weak, learn slowly, and require the leadership of a shepherd. Sheep that do have a shepherd - especially when His name is Jesus - reap countless benefits of safety, provision, community, and on and on. Those without a shepherd are lost in every way. Jesus' answer to this is His call to US to ask the Lord to send out workers (Matthew 9). Most of the time, part of His answer to that prayer is to send us. Quoting Bill Hybels, we never lock eyes with someone who doesn't matter to God, who doesn't merit an all out search. (Read here.) We are His search and rescue team!

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Last week we concentrated on seeing people the way Jesus does. The next thing Jesus does after seeing a person is: He loves them. He has compassion for them. He cares about them and for them. One of the challenging things He sees in them is that they "are harassed and helpless." They are under the thumb of the enemy, and unable within themselves to change their situation. Jesus, however, can handle it. All of it.

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Jesus sets a clear pattern in His ministry of deeply seeing people. Many of those people are on the margins and are not seen by others. Human tendency is to self-protect with distance and an “eye bounce” that avoids seeing them. In contrast, when Jesus sees someone, His first reaction is to love them. BECAUSE He loves them, He speaks and ACTS in their first, best interest. To follow Jesus in loving and living like He did, our hearts must soften and our agendas must shift from pursuing our needs first to meeting others’.

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Looking at Jesus' Kingdom through the lens of Romans 5, we are encouraged to remain faithful and confident in our salvation because of the lengths to which God, Jesus, and the Spirit have gone to rescue us from sin and death and restore us to eternal friendship with our Creator.

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Being a Christian doesn’t remove us from the hardship in our lives. Far from it. However, because of the Kingdom of God (and its King), we take strength and comfort from three things: His past faithfulness: His current indwelling (and PERMANENT) presence, and the perspective established for us by Jesus' resurrection and the promise of His return. Until He does, His presence beside us brings us comfort.

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The Book of Psalms is sometimes called “The Little Bible.” It mirrors the five books of law, and Blake Adams tells us “We should read it not as an assortment of poems and songs but as a single rhapsody on God’s covenant promises.” This year’s Midwest Preachers’ Retreat was held this past week, led by Hebrew scholar and former Oakhaven member, Dr. Lance Hawley, focusing on the psalms as a deep, remarkable resource in our walk with God. In addition to an overview of the book, we examine more closely Psalm 103. The final sentence of Psalm 103 is the one upon which all else in heaven and earth turns: YHVH has established His throne in the heavens; His kingdom rules over all. If all these things are true then…”

Technical note: center third of sermon was without sound and so has been cut from podcast. You'll barely miss it.

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According to the standards of the world, Jesus assumes a very low profile in His ministry that launches the inbreaking of the Kingdom of God not by edict, governmental action, or human might, but by compassion that drives Him to recover the helpless sheep that need a shepherd. Through it all, though, Jesus is the glorious King revealed as the Son of Man to Daniel, not a wolf in sheep’s clothing but a king in shepherd’s clothing. He is the same to us, invoking His authority to assure us that His death is His choice, and then invokes His authority one last time to spur us to share the amazing news of what He has done.

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Recent sermon themes converge today as we see the arc of God’s interactions with humans adapting over time as He matures the human race to have the capacity to receive His greatest self-revelation: Jesus. We note again how Moses’ and the hebrews’ experience of Yahveh met them “where they were at” and moved on from there, spiritually and literally! Then God reveals Himself most fully in Jesus, who intones the inbreaking of the kingdom of God here and now. Peter joins the story as our representative, and Jesus calls him in a way tailored to Peter’s sensibilities in a huge catch of fish in impossibly hot water. Then as this fisherman turns into an ambassador of the kingdom fishing for people, our example is set to follow in his footsteps and fish for people ourselves. This is all the result of who Jesus has made us: His brothers and sisters, the sons and daughters of the king. Cultivating awareness of our identity and call are essential if we are going to walk them out in every day life, for “if we aim for nothing, we’ll hit it every time.”

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