I MYSELF WILL BE THE SHEPHERD OF MY SHEEP
A Brief Study of Ezekiel 34
Judgment Ezekiel 34:7-10
They are fired.
….the sheep are rescued from their greedy mouths.
The Kingdom Ezekiel 35:11-16
The Lord himself becomes the Shepherd.
But how does he do it all?
Through the Messiah, Jesus, who has now called us to be "unofficial" shepherds under his direction.
Jesus is the Shepherd, embodying his Father's will, and working through those who receive his mind.
His mind Mark 10: 42-45
No one can be effective as an under-shepherd of the Lord Jesus until this lesson is learned.
James and John still hadn't "got it" after all their time with Jesus.
Many of us still don't "get it."
1. The "lust for position" mentality.
2. The "executive board" mentality.
3. The "celebrity" mentality.
Philippians 2:5-11
The heart of Jesus is love.
The mind of Jesus is servanthood.
We need both.
We think of ourselves as servants,
But is it Servants (capital "S")?
Or servants (small "s")?
Our first priority
As Jesus' first priority was to please his Father, our first priority is to please him.
"Simon, son of John, do you love me?……Feed my sheep."
In obedience to him,
Under his direction,
Using his methods, not our own,
We feed the sheep with such a clear word from him,
---that they become his disciples.
---that they are constantly built up and strengthened as his disciples.
(as opposed to groupies gathered around our own "dynamic personalities")
Daily cultivating the mind of Christ, some practical essentials:
1. Prayer as the foundation of our ministry.
Daily giving thanks and praise to God.
Daily listening through immersion in scripture as a source of communion.
Daily intercession.
Beginning with our own household and extending to the entire "flock" and beyond.
2. Faithful under God in dealing with our own households.
Our spouse.
Our kids.
Our aging parents etc.
3. Staying in personal touch with the "sheep."
Visits.
Phone calls.
Emails.
Special emphasis on the "invisible" ones whom nobody sees.
(If our prayer life is healthy we will never be at a loss as to
who to reach out to.)
4. By the Spirit's power, making Hebrews 12:14 a daily reality:
"Strive for peace with all men and for holiness without which
no one will see the Lord."
Including sexual purity as expressed by our Lord in Matthew 5:29:
"If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell."
5. Faithful to God in the unrighteous mammon.
"If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you the true riches." ---Luke 16:11
No under-shepherd is safe with the Spirit's authority who is
Undisciplined
Careless
Anxious
Stingy……with money.
From brother Gordon Greene:
"Around these parts there are not a lot of people who "live and breathe" Jesus. It is part of other people's lives, not their lives."
From brother Paul:
"For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."
How can we expect the ones we serve to "live and breathe" Jesus, unless they see in us at least a hint of what that means?