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Jesus The Good Shepherd

In this intriguing sermon by Robert Carrillo, the theme of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is explored to communicate the significance of living a fulfilled life through faith. The message underscores the importance of having a deep, personal connection with Jesus as the key to living the 'life to the full,' countering the worldly view that fulfillment comes from material possessions or status. The service highlights the appointment of three new elders in Orange County, emphasizing the continuous growth and leadership in the church. Carrillo shares an inspiring story of Mabel, a bedridden woman with unwavering faith, illustrating the extraordinary power of faith amidst adversity. He calls upon the congregation to embrace their paths, drawing parallels to Jesus' own perseverance and the concept of becoming shepherds in their community to support each other in faith. The sermon closes with encouragement towards spiritual growth and the need for Jesus in a world full of challenges.

00:00 Introduction and Humor

00:51 Opening Prayer

02:27 The Good Shepherd

03:49 Understanding Zoe: Life to the Full

07:19 The Story of Mabel

14:08 The Power of Faith

18:33 The World Needs Jesus

19:49 Jesus, the Good Shepherd

21:27 Personal Reflection and Conclusion

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OC Church of Christ

Transcript
Speaker:

Amen.

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So it's since it's, uh, it's, uh,

I guess it's Hispanic month, right?

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So the sermon today will be in Spanish,

but don't worry, we've got headsets.

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They'll pass them out so you

can listen to the translation.

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No, no.

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Okay.

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I do want to encourage everybody

to learn Spanish because I was

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told on good authority that Spanish

is the language spoken in heaven.

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So you don't want to spend eternity

with headsets listening to translation.

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I'm just kidding.

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Okay.

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I'm just kidding.

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Please don't quote me on that.

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Amen.

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Jesus, the good shepherd.

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We're going to have a little

sermon and then go right

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into the main event of today.

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The appointing of three new elders

in the Orange County region,

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which I'm super excited about.

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Um, let's, let's, before we

jump into scripture, let's,

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let's go to God in prayer.

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Father God, we're so excited

about all the things that you're

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doing all over the world, God.

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And yet we also know that there's so,

so much great need in our world, Father.

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We pray for all our

world to know you, God.

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For everyone around to know you.

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For there to be many more baptisms

and many more people who know you and

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live with you and walk with you, God.

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We pray especially for

our brothers and sisters.

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In Beirut right now, father, the

sisters and brothers that we've

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had in Ukraine, who've just been

surviving bombs and warfare.

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And now we have our brothers and sisters.

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Some of them are very dear friends to me.

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God, please be with them, protect

them, protect especially the

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Children all over the world, God.

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Be with them, help them to

know that you are with them.

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Help them to find you, to discover you,

to know you, God, help us to be a light

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to the world so that we can help everybody

who wants to, to know you and be with you.

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God, we love you and thank you.

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As we have time now to study your word,

uh, open our hearts and our minds, help

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us to focus God on your scriptures,

to open up our hearts and minds so

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that your word can penetrate and

transform us, God, and change our lives.

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God, help us.

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to be like Jesus.

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Please bless this time that we have.

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In Jesus name we pray.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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So John chapter 1010 is the

classic, the good shepherd, right?

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The good, the good shepherd scripture.

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And he starts out by saying, before

he introduces himself as the good

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shepherd, he says, The thief comes

only to steal and kill and destroy.

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I have come that they

may have life to live.

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and have it to the full.

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This is Jesus introduction

of what his role is here.

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If you're visiting and you're

wondering exactly what is this about?

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Maybe you're already been,

you know, going to church.

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Maybe you know a lot about,

maybe you don't know much,

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maybe you don't know anything.

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This is Jesus introducing himself,

telling us why he's here and he's

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telling, he starts, I said, the thief

comes only to kill, to steal and to kill.

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That's of course we know who the thief is.

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It is Satan.

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And there is evil in the world.

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All you gotta do is turn on the news.

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We know there's evil in the world.

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And our world is in a raging

battle between good and evil.

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And no matter how you may see

it or your world view, but we

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know there's a battle going on.

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And the Bible tells us

it's a spiritual battle.

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It's not necessarily just an

obvious battle often times.

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It's a battle that's fought

out in our hearts and our minds

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for what is right and good.

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And why we need Jesus.

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He says, I have come that they may

have life and have it to the full.

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What does he mean by that?

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What does he mean by life to the full?

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And a clue is in the word,

which, if you've listened to my

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sermons, you know I love this.

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It's one of my favorite words.

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Zoe.

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It means life to the full.

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There's another word for life.

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Bios.

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And that's just what everything

has, that breathes, that grows.

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Plants have bios.

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Animals have bios.

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Everything has that

breathes and lives has bios.

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Like we get the word biography, biology.

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But this word is special.

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And you thought it was

just somebody's name.

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No, it's Zoe.

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It's powerful.

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It's life.

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It's what we think of the good life.

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And it's what Jesus came for.

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It's what He came to give us.

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He came to give us the good life, the

right life, life as it should be lived.

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We only get one shot at this.

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One shot.

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And I would love to believe in

reincarnation, but it's just not true.

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It sounds wonderful, doesn't it?

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That you could just do a mulligan on life.

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I'll just do over, you

know, be like a video game.

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I'm just gonna start over.

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And that would be great,

but that's not reality.

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The Bible says that everybody

lives and dies and appears

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before God on Judgment Day.

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One time.

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So don't blow it.

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Let's get this life thing down.

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And Jesus presents himself to us as

the way, the truth, and the life.

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Sowing.

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He says, this is what I've come for.

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To give you this.

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And the thing is, everybody

wants a good life, right?

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Everybody, whether you live in

Hollywood or Compton, whether you're

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young or very old, whether, everybody

everywhere wants a good life.

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Even if they don't know the word

Zoe, they don't know what it

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means, but that's what they want.

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Everybody wants that.

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And the world thinks that a good

life, Zoe, the great life, comes from

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money, comes from beauty, comes from

education, comes from possessions,

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comes from having the right boyfriend or

girlfriend, or finding the right spouse,

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or, or, or just having the right career.

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That's it.

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But yet, there, we know, we can

look around, the truth is there

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are many people who have plenty of

money, lots of beauty, education,

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possessions, a boyfriend, a girlfriend,

a spouse, and they don't have Zoe.

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They don't have life to the full.

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Why?

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Because that comes from Jesus.

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That comes from Him.

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That's the truth.

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We do not have life to

the full without Jesus.

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He shows us the truth.

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The way in fact, it's incredibly difficult

to even have a good life To have a

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great life why because the world just

throws all kinds of stuff at us all the

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time Whether you're a teen trying to

find a group to belong to in school or

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or college Trying to figure out your

future your life and who you're going

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to get married Are you going to get

married or you're in a career trying

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to figure out am I in the right career?

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Jump career wherever we're at Jesus

is the way You And the problem

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is, this is like, this is why it's

called the secret of the kingdom,

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because most people don't know that.

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They don't know that.

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And that's the secret of the kingdom.

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That Jesus really is the way.

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I want to read you a story.

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I'm going to challenge this a little bit,

so pay attention, because it's four pages

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long, but hang in there with me, okay?

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It's one of the most powerful stories.

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I've ever heard to explain

what we're talking about here.

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From John Ortberg's book, the

life you've always wanted.

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The state run convalescent

hospital is not a pleasant place.

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It is large understaffed and overfilled

with senile, helpless and lonely people

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waiting to die on the brightest of days.

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It seems like it seems dark inside and

it smells of sickness and stale urine.

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I went there once or twice a week for

four years, but never wanted to go there.

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And I always left with a sense of relief.

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It is not the kind of

place one gets used to.

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On this particular day, I was walking

in a hallway that I had not visited

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before, looking in vain for a few who

were alive enough to receive a flower

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and a few words of encouragement.

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This hallway seemed to contain

some of the worst cases, men

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and women strapped into carts.

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or wheelchairs looking

completely helpless.

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As I neared the end of the hallway, I saw

an old woman strapped in a wheelchair.

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Her face was in absolute horror.

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The empty stare and white pupils

of her eyes told me she was blind.

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The large hearing aid over one

ear told me she was almost deaf.

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One side of her face was

being eaten by cancer.

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There was a discolored and running

sore covering part of one cheek, and

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it had pushed her nose to one side.

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dropping an eye and distorting

her jaw so that would have, what

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would have been the corner of her

mouth was the bottom of her mouth.

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As a consequence, she drooled constantly.

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I was told later that when new nurses

arrived, the supervisors would send

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them to feed this woman thinking that

if they could stand this site, they

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could stand anything in the building.

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I also learned later that this woman was

89 years old and that she had been there

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bedridden, blind, nearly deaf and alone.

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For 25 years, this was Mabel.

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This is a true story.

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I don't know why I spoke to her.

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She looked less likely to respond

than most of the people I saw in that

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hallway, but I put a flower in her

hand and said, here's a flower for you.

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Happy Mother's Day.

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She held the flower up to her

face and tried to smell it.

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And then she spoke and much to my

surprise, her words, although somewhat

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garbled because of her deformity.

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We're obviously produced by a clear mind.

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She said, thank you, it's lovely.

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But can I give it to someone else?

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I can't see it, you know I'm blind.

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I said, of course.

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And I pushed her in a chair back down

the hallway to a place where I thought

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I could find some alert patients.

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I found one and I stopped the chair.

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Mabel held out the flower and

said, here, this is from Jesus.

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That was when it began to dawn on me That

this was not an ordinary human being.

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Later, I wheeled her back into her room

and learned more about her history.

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She had grown up on a small farm

that she managed with only her

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mother until her mother died.

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Then she ran the farm alone until

:

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sent her to the convalescent hospital.

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For 25 years, she got weaker and

sicker with constant headaches,

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backaches, stomach aches,

and then the cancer came too.

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Her three roommates were all

human vegetables who screamed

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occasionally but never talked.

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They often soiled their bedclothes,

and because the hospital was

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understaffed, especially on

Sundays when I usually visited,

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the stench was often overpowering.

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Mabel and I became friends over the next

few weeks, and I went to see her once or

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twice a week for the next three years.

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Her first words to me were usually

an offer of hard candy from a

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tissue box she kept near her bed.

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Some days I would react to her from,

I would read to her from the Bible.

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And often when I would pause,

she would continue reciting the

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passage from memory, word for word.

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On other days, I would take a

book of hymns and sing with her.

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And she would know all the

words of the old songs.

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For Mabel, these were not

merely exercises in memory.

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She would often stop in mid hymn and

make a brief comment about lyrics

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she considered particularly relevant.

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I never heard her speak of loneliness

or pain, except in the stress she placed

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on certain lines and certain hymns.

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It was not many weeks before I

turned from a sense that I was

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helping to a sense of wonder.

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And I would go to her with a pen and paper

to write down the things she would say.

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During one hectic week of final exams,

I was frustrated because my mind seemed

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to be pulled in ten directions at once

with all the things I had to think about.

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The question occurred to me, what

does Mabel have to think about?

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Hour after hour, day after

day, week after week.

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Not even able to know

if it's day or night.

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So I went to her and asked, Mabel, what

do you think about when you lie here?

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And she said, I think about my Jesus.

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I sat there and thought for a moment

about the difficulty for me of thinking

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about Jesus for even five minutes.

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And I asked, what do

you think about Jesus?

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And she replied slowly and deliberately,

deliberately, as I wrote, I think

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about how good he's been to me.

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He's been awfully good to me in my life.

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You know, I'm one of those

kind who's mostly satisfied.

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Lots of folks wouldn't

care much for what I think.

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Lots of folks wouldn't think

I'm kind would think I'm kind of

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old fashioned, but I don't care.

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I'd rather have Jesus.

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He's all the world to me.

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And then Mabel began to sing an old hymn.

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Jesus is all the world to me.

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My life, my joy, my all.

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He is my strength from day to day.

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Without him, I would fall.

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When I am sad, to him I go.

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No other one can cheer me so.

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When I am sad, he makes me glad.

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He's my friend.

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This is not fiction.

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Incredible as it may seem, a human

being really lived like this.

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I know I knew her.

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How could she do it?

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Seconds ticked and minutes crawled and so

did days and weeks and months and years of

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pain without human company and without an

explanation of why it was all happening.

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And she lay there and sang hymns.

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How could she do it?

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The answer, I think, is that

Mabel had something that you

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and I don't have much of.

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She had power.

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Lying there in that bed,

unable to move, unable to see.

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Unable to hear, unable to talk to anyone.

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She had an incredible power.

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Here was an ordinary human being

who received supernatural power

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to do extraordinary things.

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Her entire life consisted of following

Jesus as best she could in her situation.

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Patient endurance of suffering,

solitude, prayer, meditation, and

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scripture, worship, fellowship.

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When it was all possible, when it

was possible, Giving when she had a

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flower or a piece of candy to offer.

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Imagine being in her condition and saying,

I think about how good he's been to me.

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He's been awfully good to

me in my life, you know.

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I'm one of those who's, who,

the kind who's mostly satisfied.

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This is the 23rd Psalm come to life.

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The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

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For anyone who really saw Mabel,

I Who was willing to turn aside.

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A hospital bed became a burning bush.

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A place where this ordinary, pain filled

world was visited by the presence of God.

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When others saw the life in that hospital

bed, they wanted to take off their shoes.

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They were on holy ground.

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The lid was off.

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The turn came with a catch of breath

and a beating heart and tears.

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They were standing on holy ground.

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Do you believe that such a life is

possible for an ordinary human being?

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Do you believe it is possible for you?

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This is promised in the gospel.

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The good news proclaimed by Jesus.

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The kingdom of God has come near.

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Repent and believe in the good news.

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The good news, as Jesus preached, is that

now it is possible for ordinary men and

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women to live in the presence of God.

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And under the power of God, that

good news as Jesus preached is

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not about the minimal entrance

requirements for getting into heaven.

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When you die, it is about the

glorious redemption of human

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life, your life and my life.

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This is real Christianity.

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This is real faith.

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This is authentic faith.

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This is real religion is God intended.

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It something that is a hidden treasure,

that is a pearl of great value, that

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is worth more than everything and

all that we have to have this faith.

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Why and how could she do it?

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'cause she had Jesus, she

had the good shepherd.

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Mabel is authentic.

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What could make a person's life?

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So full of suffering,

yet so full of peace.

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How could anyone survive such

horrors, and yet be kind and

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gentle, even giving and loving?

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Most of us struggle with a whole

lot less suffering than that.

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We struggle with this.

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Mabel understood and overcame

because she knew the Good Shepherd.

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She knew Jesus.

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I love that she says, my Jesus, my Jesus,

she understood the value of life with

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Jesus and therefore had the power to

overcome challenges to be healed from

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this life and its many damages to love,

the love to overcome hatred, anger, and

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fear that is just destroying our world.

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The patience to wait on the Lord and

let Him work over the days, over the

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weeks, over the months, over the years.

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The faith that sustains a person

through any hardship and any suffering.

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The faith that keeps us

strong and going forward.

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At this very moment, we have brothers

and sisters hiding from bombs.

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Trying to find food to feed their kids,

our own members going through this.

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I've been talking to Mofeed in Beirut

and there, you know what they're doing?

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They're out trying to help refugees

and they're baptizing people.

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People are turning themselves into Jesus.

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There are people waking up on

the streets of LA, no home.

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Some of these people are children.

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Trying to figure out how to

survive another day under

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a bridge or in a shelter.

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There are people trying to sober up

today before they go to work tomorrow.

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Trying to hide their addiction before

somebody finds out and fires them.

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There are people trying to heal

hurts inflicted by people who

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were supposed to love them.

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There are people just lonely,

lonely, wanting a friend.

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And some of them, of these

people I'm talking about,

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are right here this morning.

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And on and on and on,

the world needs Jesus.

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The world needs the Good Shepherd.

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Jesus goes on and He says, and

we'll close out with this, He

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says, I'm the Good Shepherd.

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The Good Shepherd lays down

His life for the sheep.

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The hired hand is not the shepherd

and does not own the sheep.

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So when he sees a wolf coming, he

abandons the sheep and runs away.

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Then the wolf attacks the

flock and scatters it.

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The man runs away because he's a hired

hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

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I am the good shepherd.

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I know my sheep and my sheep know me.

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Just as the father knows

me and I know the father.

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And I lay down my life for the sheep.

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Who is he talking about?

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Talking about us.

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He's talking about you.

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That he lays down his life for you.

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And what are you going to do about that?

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He talks about being the good shepherd.

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Who stays and fights the bear

and the wolf and the lion.

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And doesn't run away.

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When things get hard, it's

so tempting to run away.

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It's so tempting to just

say, I'm out, I'm done.

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This is hard.

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I didn't sign up for this.

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Thank God Jesus didn't run away.

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Thank God when things got

tough, He didn't quit.

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He kept pushing forward as the Hebrew

writers for the joy set before Him.

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He endured the pain.

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It's hard to endure the pain.

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It's hard to press forward.

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I remember one time I was I was, this

was my pre christian days and I had

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visited my cousin and we were at his

house and I had a really nice lowrider.

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1969 Grand Prix, shag rug,

chandelier, chrome steering wheel,

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chain, chrome chain steering wheel.

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My car, oh yes, it could

go up and down, yes.

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I was cool, believe it or not.

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And I was at my cousin's house who

also had a really nice lowrider.

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And we got a call that there

was a TV station that wanted

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to do a report on Barrio Unity.

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You know, and so they needed

lowriders from the community.

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So we all went, all his

friends, we all went there.

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We're all parked in this parking lot

waiting for the news channel to show up.

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And this other lowrider cruised

by from another neighborhood,

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another barrio, you know.

391

:

And he looked at us and there was about

five of, uh, about five or six cars

392

:

parked and we're all hanging out there

and he takes off and we're like, Oh,

393

:

and he comes back in about 20 minutes.

394

:

We're still waiting with about six other

low riders and they parked across the

395

:

street and they get out of their cars

and I see this one guy pull a chain.

396

:

Another guy grabbed a crowbar.

397

:

I said, another guy grabbed a bat.

398

:

And I thought, Oh, we're in trouble.

399

:

This is going to happen.

400

:

This is going to go down.

401

:

And I ran, grabbed my crowbar and

my cousin grabbed his crowbar.

402

:

And I was like, we could just run.

403

:

We could just go, you know,

but it was such a battle.

404

:

Cause I was like, I don't

want to get hit by a crowbar.

405

:

I don't want everybody to swing

a chain and hit me over the head.

406

:

And we're like, we can't, we can't run.

407

:

We want to run.

408

:

I wanted to run.

409

:

I wanted to go.

410

:

I've, you know, I've been shot at.

411

:

I've been stabbed at.

412

:

I've been beat up more times.

413

:

It's painful.

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:

I wanted to run.

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:

And thank God, as they started

crossing the street, the TV van

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:

and the, and the truck pulled up

to do a special on Barrio Unity.

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:

Everybody quickly hit

their crowbars and chains.

418

:

And they asked us to drive together.

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:

In their, in their thing, you know.

420

:

I understand.

421

:

The desire to run.

422

:

The desire to quit.

423

:

The desire to just say,

this is too hard, forget it.

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:

I didn't sign up for this.

425

:

That's the classic line.

426

:

I've been waiting for years to get this

right and they're not got it right.

427

:

This church, it's got problems.

428

:

Christianity is too hard.

429

:

Where's Jesus?

430

:

I get it.

431

:

I get it.

432

:

Thankfully, Jesus didn't quit.

433

:

He didn't quit on me.

434

:

He knew me then, and loved me.

435

:

And I was difficult.

436

:

He knows all of us.

437

:

The Good Shepherd knows his sheep.

438

:

He knows you.

439

:

He knows you.

440

:

He knows your hurts.

441

:

He knows your pains.

442

:

He knows your sorrow.

443

:

He knows your joy.

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:

Amen.

445

:

He knows you want Zoe.

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:

You want a good life.

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:

And it doesn't matter if you're

16 or 76, we all want a good life.

448

:

The amazing thing, he's not

even talking about heaven.

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:

He's not talking about

what happens after you die.

450

:

He's talking about right now

what's happening right now.

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:

How did Mabel have so much peace?

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:

How could somebody going through so much?

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:

I think peace

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:

is one of the greatest

evidences of the power of God.

455

:

It's one of the things that shows most

that somebody is walking in the spirit

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:

because it takes the spirit of God to

overcome anger, to overcome hatred,

457

:

to overcome resentment and bitterness.

458

:

It takes God.

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:

But see, here's the thing.

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:

Jesus is actually building

an army of shepherds.

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:

It's what he wants to help take

care of God's people so that

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:

they can be a light to the world.

463

:

He pulls together men and women

who will go and preach the gospel,

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:

and many of them become evangelists

and women's ministry counselors.

465

:

And they advanced the gospel and

they advanced the kingdom of God.

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:

But he also pulls up and raises up

the veterans, the old guys, the,

467

:

I won't say the old group women.

468

:

Okay.

469

:

I won't say that the old

guys and their wives,

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:

the old guys and their

beautiful young wives

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:

to take care of that group of

people who've gotten baptized.

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:

Who have committed their lives

to Jesus to help them thrive.

473

:

To help them shine in this world.

474

:

So that we can make a

difference in this world.

475

:

But it is a fight, make no mistake.

476

:

And thankfully Jesus isn't a quitter.

477

:

He fights for you, for me.

478

:

He fights for the church.

479

:

He told Peter, Even the gates of

Hades will not overcome his church.

480

:

Why?

481

:

Because Jesus is here.

482

:

Even with all our warts and

all, even with all our issues

483

:

and struggles, Jesus is here.

484

:

That's just the way it is.

485

:

None of us will ever be perfect

in the sense of flawlessness.

486

:

We all need Jesus.

487

:

And so I'm very excited because

we're adding to that army

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:

of shepherds this morning.

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