Exhausted Spiritually? You Might Be Listening to the Wrong Voice.

I'm glad we're together today in this space. My name is Mark Cummins. I'm the pastor at Church of Hope. And if you're a regular attender, welcome. So glad that week after week, we join together in this space. And if by chance, this is your first time, I'm really glad that we're beginning our friendship today. Understand that this broadcast literally goes around the world for free. See, we believe that life's at its best when people discover hope in Christ. There are people who give generously so this broadcast can be reached across every continent. If you've never given, I would invite you today to give. You can go to our webpage, hopeinOcala.com, and drop down on the giving bar and give a one-time gift. Or you can give generously beyond just today. And if God's blessed you, help us as we give hope around the world. But for now, I want you to open up your heart and your mind. Let Jesus speak to you, because what I believe is that when we open up our minds and let Jesus speak to us, life doesn't become perfect and all the problems don't go away, but you experience his presence in you, with you, and for you. Open up your heart. Let Jesus speak to you today.

Peace. In life, sometimes we get stuck. And when we get stuck, we need someone to help you get free. But more than getting free, we need someone to guide you so you don't get stuck again, right? It's a thing. In life, we get stuck. Sometimes in life, our choices deliver us to the mud. And in the mud, we get dirty, we get stuck again, and we need help getting out of the mud. But more than a rescue, more than a shower, we need a guide who will lead us away from the mud. And here's the good news, is Jesus, the good shepherd, doesn't walk away. He stays with us. And that's what we're gonna talk about today in John chapter 10, and in verse 11, Jesus shows up and he says, I am the good shepherd. And Jesus laid down his life so we could lie down in peace. Now, that is life-changing. You're gonna see five different times in these verses where Jesus says, I laid down my life. Last Wednesday was Lent. We are walking towards the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, where he, on the cross, paid the penalty for my sin, your sin, our sin.

He laid down his life. No man took it from him. See, Jesus doesn't just send help. Jesus shows up. As we've been learning that, like last week, he says, I am the bread of life. He says, I am the way. I am the truth. I am life. He isn't just your guide, he is the good shepherd. Now, as we talk together, and particularly this image of us being sheep and Jesus being the good shepherd, there can be a negative mindset as far as sheep go. Sometimes there's a mischaracterization about sheep, like they're just fluffy and dumb. And that couldn't be farther from the truth. In Bible times, sheep were a declaration of wealth. Wealthy people had sheep. They had large herds of sheep. Those sheep provided wool. Those sheep provided milk. Those sheep were a valuable asset. So sheep are valuable. You are valuable. We make decisions sometimes that are less than best. We get stuck in life. That doesn't minimize your value. Why are you valuable? Because you are created in the image of God.

Why are you valuable? Jesus Christ died. God died for your sins. So sheep are valuable. We are valuable. But there's another truth. Sheep are also vulnerable. And we are vulnerable. Sheep, due to their status. as prey animals with almost no natural defenses, relying entirely on flight or flocking behavior. It's not like they've got claws or sharp, sharp teeth. They really don't have those abilities at all. They can be prone to parasites, which would cause them to become sick. And if their wool isn't trimmed back, it literally will grow over their eyes and they become blind. Like the really, the only true defense mechanism that a sheep has is back off. That was good. Back off. You're gonna use that this week to make fun of me. But Jesus says, I'm the good shepherd. And the good news this morning is that you and I, just like sheep, valuable and vulnerable, we have a good shepherd that sees our value and shows up in our vulnerability. See, here's the tension. The tension is although right as human beings

and as North Americans in the United States, in Florida, in many ways, we have increased our sense of strength. We have education, we have careers, we have fiscal security. We like to look at ourselves and figure that we can win the day against whatever trouble might come our way. But Jesus wants us to see it a little bit different this morning. And if you'll stay with me in the hero of your life, like your life, the story that you're living, you know that there are problems. You know there are pressure points. And this morning, Jesus is showing up and saying, I'm the good shepherd. I wanna show you a better way. I don't want you to become prey to the adversary. I want your marriage to go the distance. I want things in your finances, in your health. Now, when I say go the distance or be better, it doesn't mean that it's easier. But when we learn to trust God and his word, we learn to do hard better. And the faith in Christ begins to grow us along the way. So here, you got your Bible, John chapter 10 in verse 11. He says, he's the good shepherd. He says that he lays down his life for the sheep. What he says next is he wants to draw a contrast. So this morning, you can walk away

with a deeper confidence of who he really is. Because watch this, this is so true. Many of us have had somebody enter into our life and say that you're valuable. Say they wanna help you. Say they want to be a part of your life. Only to have them walk away. When the situation, when the circumstances got tough, when the marriage started to limp a little bit, when the job wasn't as exciting as it was on the first day, when your health and your body started to betray you, there is this tendency in our minds that people have walked in and said, hey, I'm for you. I'm committed to you. I'm your friend. Like, we're gonna do this together. But the moment it got tough, they started going. And so he uses an illustration with the sheep on how an owner of the sheep could hire somebody to watch over the sheep. But that's very different than the true shepherd. And that's what I want you to see, is that although you and I have had people who have betrayed us, although you and I have had people who've walked away from us, the good shepherd, Jesus, his promise is he's never leaving us. So here, notice what it says in verse number 12. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep.

So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he's a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. Here's the contrast. I, Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me. Jesus didn't die for the flock, he died for you. It's personal. He knows you. and he loves you and he died specifically for you. And he knows us and we know him. Now notice what he says next and put this in the context of how important what Aaron and Bob just shared with us. Verse 16, I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must, listen to that language. Jesus says, I must, I've got to do this. I must, this is imperative. This is important. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. In other words, Jesus, I'm glad we're here today. I'm glad you're joining online, but here's the deal. There are still people who are on the outside. They have not discovered hope in Christ yet. And so what Jesus is saying, they must too come in. He wants everybody.

Jesus wants every man, every woman to discover hope in him. He wants none to perish, but all to come unto repentance. That's why this work is so important. Well, we do a lot of important things at Hope, but I would suggest that perhaps potentially one of the most lasting works that we do is we partner with Bob and we partner with Aaron and their agencies to go out into places around the world that do not have a copy of God's word yet in their own language. And we fund that work. And then they go and they go into the community and have people translate that word so that people in their own language can hear the voice of God, can know the voice of God and move from being on the outside of the pen, on the outside of having a relationship with Jesus to the inside. That's exactly what Jesus is teaching here. But there's a tension. There's a tension that happens here in the scriptures and there's a tension that happens in our own hearts. Here, go back to your Bible. Look at verse 19. At these words, the Jews were again divided. Many of them said, he's demon possessed and raving mad. Why? Listen to him. But others said, these are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon.

Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? Speaking of the miracles that Jesus had begun to do, opening up the blind eyes, feeding of the 5,000, walking on the water. And so that division then and now is true. In your own mind right now, what you're trying to decide, you have the freedom of choice. You're trying to decide, can Jesus really be my good shepherd? And the challenge is, is you've had people walk into your life, make promises to you, but then walk away. And so then you begin thinking to yourself, I gotta take care of me. Betray me once, shame on you. Betray me twice, shame on me. And so then we try to control our world and events around us. And the tension then and the tension now is will we really trust that he is the good shepherd and he has good intentions for me? And that's our call to action. That's the question that you have to answer for yourself. Who do you say that Jesus is? That's all these I am statements. When you make the decision, do you say that Jesus is my good shepherd? Have you heard his voice? Do you know his voice? Are you responding to his voice?

Because here's the principle, is sheep survive by proximity, not power. Scripture says it this way in Zechariah chapter four, it's not by might nor by power, but by my spirit says the Lord. See sheep have no defense mechanism. They have no ability to fight back, to push back the adversity, the trials, the tribulations in their life. So their best recourse is not by power, it's by proximity, staying close to the shepherd. And the illustration is that we are the same. You are valuable, but you and I are vulnerable. We have tendencies to get hurt. We have tendencies to get discouraged. We have the tendency to think that we can fix it. And all of that leads us further and farther away from the shepherd and the invitation this morning is to change how you think, to move from the failure of a sheep who thinks I don't need the shepherd to move into success that says, the shepherd is who gives me peace. The shepherd is the one who provides. In proximity to the shepherd is the safest place I could be. All throughout scriptures you'll see, it says the good shepherd provides for me, Psalms in 23. The good shepherd protects me, Psalms 121. Look at these verses this week

and use it a part of your Bible study. On Monday, have it God provides. On Tuesday, God protects. On Wednesday, God watches. On Thursday, God sacrifices. And that really is the essence of it. Five times he says, I lay down my life. Nobody takes it from me. I willingly give this. And the call to action is for you and I to begin to see where we're headed towards the cross. The cross of Christ was not an accident, it was intentional. And you ask the question, why? Why was the cross intentional? It's because of the danger that we live is real. The temptation is to trivialize the cross, to kind of just brush over it. It's a moment in the springtime. And then we get to the resurrection and then we get to summer and then we can't wait to get to Christmas. And then the cycle goes over and over and over again. Jesus laid down his life because the danger, sheep are in danger. There are predators that want to take. I taught you a few weeks ago that the devil, Satan, is like a roaring lion. He's prowling around looking for you and looking for your family and looking to devour you. So we in close proximity to the shepherd are safe.

But delayed obedience is also a disguised distrust. Many of us know that we should be in close proximity. Many of us would say, Mark, I know I should get up in the morning and I mean, read God's word. I'm feeling convicted this morning to hear about people in faraway places who gave their lives so that the Bible could be translated in a language. I mean, those people are really committed and I'm feeling convicted that I don't even wake up and read my Bible in the freedom of the country in which I live. Delayed disobedience actually is disguised distrust. See, that's the issue that you gotta work out. Will you really trust that God is a good shepherd? Will you really trust that he's your guide? You're trusting somebody, a social media influencer, your opinions, your preferences, your culture, your background, you're trusting somebody. But when you and I choose not to obey God and his word, it's disguised distrust. And some of us are just wore out, we're tired, we're exhausted, and it's not because life is hard, it's because we're following the wrong voice. There's all kinds of people who are trying to tell you how to live your life, where to go, what to do. But the sheep are in close proximity and they're familiar with the shepherd's voice so they're able to listen and respond. And one of our setbacks for many of us,

we just don't know his voice. We know about him, but we don't know his voice. So when the pressure of everyday life, the pressure of relationships, the pressure of what you see on the news, the pressure of how you feel on the inside, all of those pressure points that you have, we start leaning on how we think and how we feel because we've been taught along the way, follow your heart, you've got good intentions. But all of that is deceptive because we are sheep, we are valuable, but we're vulnerable to drift away from him. And that's what we do. As sheep, we often drift before we die. Many of us have drifted. You might not be as close to God as you once were. You might be more familiar, I prayed in the previous gathering that God would turn us from being more familiar with Yellowstone, the TV show, we would be more familiar with God's word than Yellowstone, the TV show. We drift, sheep drift way before they die. You're still functioning, marriage, your business, your finances, your health. It's kind of like being at the beach, right? Where as parents, you're sitting in your bed. your beach chairs, and you're watching the kids have fun in front of you, and they're on their boogie boards, and they're enjoying the, you know, the surf. But because of the current, invariably,

they start drifting. And from the safety of your chair, you'll shout or you'll kind of wave for them to come back, right? But they keep drifting further and farther. So then you say to your significant other, like, are you going to go get him? I mean, is it your turn? Is it my turn? And depending on who wants more steps for the day, you get up, and you walk down, and you get their attention, and you bring them back. What? You're not trying to minimize their fun. You just know that when they drift far from you, safety drips as well. As they are in front of you, enjoying the boogie board, enjoying the surf, enjoying the beach, you're right there so you can care for them. So Jesus, this morning, and this is the good news for all of us. Jesus, because we can think that Jesus wants us to get stronger, to get smarter, to get faster. Jesus is not asking you to get stronger. He's asking you to get closer. That's the key, is being close to him. So what I want to do in the few moments that we have left, I just want to give you a few practical steps that you can apply this week so that you can live under the care of the Good Shepherd. Just like a workout plan that you would apply to your physical body, this is a spiritual plan. You can't just hear it. You deceive yourselves when you just hear the Word of God. The Bible says that we hear the Word of God, and we do the Word of God. We can't just walk up and hear it, and then walk away and not do anything about it. The Bible says that's like a person looking in the mirror, and you seeing that you got, you know, whatever you had for breakfast, you got some oatmeal kind of just hanging off on the side right here. And you kind of look at it and say, oh wow, I got oatmeal on my face. And then you just go on. No, no, no. You clean it up. The mirror requires you to make some changes. That's what God's Word is. It requires us to change direction from what we want and what we think to what we believe. The Good Shepherd wants for us, and He wants what's even better for us. So a few ideas. Write them down. Number one is this. Spend 15, between now and next Sunday, spend 15 intentional minutes daily with Jesus. Sheep stay safe by staying close. So have a fixed time, same place. Consistency builds intensity, and then intensity, it builds your spiritual muscles. The safest place, the safest place in life is close to the Shepherd. And so I honor you as parents, right? You want your kids to be in a safe school, and so you've made choices so they can be in a safe school. That's great. But make the best choice. Have your kids in the close proximity, the safety of the Shepherd. Number two, write this down. Measure voices by Scripture, not emotion. Measure voices that you're hearing, go do this, don't do this. Those voices in your brain, measure them by what God's Word says more than your emotions. We're emotional beings. We feel it, and we put a

high priority in our feelings, but your feelings can change. Man, my feelings are always kind of changing. I feel like I want, right? So, hey, what do you want to have for lunch today? I don't know. Are you feeling like it's Italian? Or is it, you know, Chinese? And we want sushi. Is it American cheeseburgers? Is it ribs? Our feelings are always changing, but as Christ followers, we don't follow based on our feelings. We follow by the fact of God and His Word. That's why we can trust this, the establishment of God and His Word. Many of you last year went with me to the Museum of the Bible. You can get online and to look, and people are always looking for empirical data. I mean, by faith, I have embraced God's Word. I believe it. It is the infallible, inspired Word of God. But you can go to a place like the Museum of the Bible, and you can look at the empirical data, how throughout the centuries, how God's Word has come into being and the miraculous nature of it. That's how you explain men who would risk their life to go travel abroad, to partner with people, to translate the Word of God in places where it's illegal to have a Bible, where you could be taken from your home and murdered under the law. How would you explain the validity of the Scripture? So measure the voices by Scripture, not emotions. What we know versus what we feel. I'm just following my heart. Well, the question is, okay, let me ask you a question. If you're following your heart, like, how much plaque do you have in and which ventricle? How healthy is your heart? Is it a fast heartbeat? Is it a slow heartbeat? I'm just going with my gut. Like, what kind of bacteria in your gut are we following right now? I mean, some of these sayings just make absolutely no sense at

all. God did not give you a gut to follow it. He gave you a gut to digest what you put in your mouth and you swallowed and put in it, right? So it's about following God at his word. Let me give you a verse, 1 John 5 and 13. This verse has been a great source of security for me. The Bible says, I have written these things, I have written these things, I have written, I've given this, I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you would know that you have eternal life. He doesn't want you to kind of know, I don't know, shucks, I mean, I was in vacation Bible school, I went to summer camp, I mean, I think I believe, I mean, I think I've had Jesus in my heart my entire life. No, he says, I've written, I've given you the scripture so that you would know that you can be

confident that you have eternal life. Number three, write this down, is this, identify one area where you've been resisting God's direction. We all have an area in our life where we resist what God is saying, how God is directing us. I know this to be true, worry shrinks when trust grows. So what is it that you're having a hard time trusting what God says in his word? So you identify it, right? A problem well-defined is half solved. Everybody in this gathering follows a voice. The question is, who is this person? Who is this person? Who is this person? Who is this person? Who is this person? The question is, who do you trust? What's the authority, the consistent authority that rules your mind, your decision-making

process? And then you can name your fears, right? We all have areas that we need to release, but some of that's rooted in a fear. And so we grow in that trust. Here's something else, just write it down quickly. Stop striving to prove your worth or be in control. And this is hard for us, right? Because we're trying to protect ourselves, we're trying to protect others. So we're trying to, you know, prove ourselves, I got this, I want them to be proud of me, I want them to think good of me, I don't want this to be out of control in my life. But here's the deal, sheep don't create security, they receive it. You don't create your own security. This is why you get so upset, so discouraged. Or people will be like, man, I can't believe God would let this happen.

Because you're trying to create your security when the security didn't happen, now you get discouraged, you can even get embittered. You don't create security, you receive it. The good shepherd shows up and says, I'll be your protector. The question is, will you let him? Will you trust him? Remember the Jews, they were divided. I mean, can I really trust him? And this is the battle. The battle is because we've all had broken trust in our life. Can you really trust that he is the good shepherd? Following is safer than figuring it out. Some of us, we spend so much time trying to figure it all out. I'm just telling you, when you choose to follow God at his word, believe what he says will satisfy you most. That settles it. That gives you strength and

security. Something else I would tell you is join or start a weekly group. When you're in community with people, and I know many people already do this. Many of you come to the women's group on Tuesday night or the men's group on Tuesday night. You're in a small group. You know the benefits of it. When you're in that community group, you've got people you can talk to, you get to know them, they get to know you, it builds. Isolation invites temptation. Community invites protection. When you're in a community together, you are protected together. And the last thing I'll say to this is say no this week to one thing. Intentionally to say yes to time with Jesus. You're busy, I get it. You got kids, you got your family, you got a relationship, you got the drop-off line, everybody's asking you to commit

to this. There's all kinds of things that are happening in your everyday life. Your world is full. But what I also know is this, no matter how old or how young you are, no matter how wealthy or how poor, no matter how much money you have, no matter how wealthy or how poor, male or female, you're a business owner or you work for somebody, every single one of us in this space has exactly. 1,440 minutes today. 86,400 seconds today. Nobody gets more time. So you get to make the decision of how you will invest that time, how you will spend this one. It's your life. You're the hero. You're writing the story. You are living the story of your life. The call to action is to actually believe that your story is better with the Good Shepherd. But that's the tension this morning because some of you are like, yeah, but Mark, I've got to control this

and I got to control that and I really want to get this done and I really want to get that done and you're convinced if you get this or you get that, then you're going to have more satisfaction and the tension this morning, the life that you're looking for is rooted when you make a decision to let the Good Shepherd guide and direct your life. Thank you. Being together in this space today is really good. If you've never begun a relationship with Jesus, I'd like to invite you today to start following Jesus. It's not about your behavior. It's not about your church attendance. It's about the reality that Jesus is for you. God's not mad at you. He's madly in love with you. Would you right now pray this prayer with me? Hey God, it's me. I've sinned and I know it and I can't fix me. But today I receive you Jesus as my Savior. I believe that you died on that cross for me and that you were buried for three days and then you became alive again and I invite you into my life to guide me and direct me all the rest of the days of my life. And with that prayer my friend,

welcome to God's family. I'd like to continue our friendship. If you would email me, Pastor at HopeInOcala.com I'll follow up with you and together we'll celebrate Jesus in your life. Peace.