John 10: 1-5

Sean Smith

When I think of shepherds' I automatically recall my childhood memories of being sat in front of the television watching One Man And His Dog!

For all those people who haven't got a clue what I'm on about. Let me take you back around 21 years, before remote controls (yes you used to have to stand up and go to the television to change channels) before digital & satellite television where you can flick through hundreds of channels to eventually decide that there is nothing on!

On Sunday evenings there used to be a program where there were shepherds' with their sheepdogs and a herd of about 8 sheep. The shepherds would compete against each other to see who could get the sheep from one pen to another through a series of gates in the fastest time. Why? I hear you asking. Good question!

The point of all this waffle, is that in the days of Jesus and the land that Jesus lived in, dogs were unclean animals; So the shepherds never used dogs to help them. The only way that the shepherd could get the sheep to follow him was for them to get to know his voice.

John 10: 1-5
"I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice."

There are 3 ways to get to know the shepherds voice.

1. Location - The sheep had to be in the right place.

Where do you spend most of your time? The sheep were in the pen waiting to hear from the shepherd, if they weren't they would not have heard his voice.
The first challenge for us is to be in that place:
(A) Physically (where our backsides are, like in church etc.)
(B) Spiritually (spending that quality time with God, which is so important)

2. Listen - The sheep will hear his voice.

We live in a world where we are surrounded by noise, from the moment we wake up until the moment we go to sleep, these are all just a distraction for us to not listen to God's voice.

Whenever I talk about this I do a little demonstration to illustrate this point. I get a group of people who I know and give them a sentence for all of them to say in turn, and then I say (with my back facing them) who it was speaking. Out of about 20 different people I have only ever got one wrong (they had a cold at the time). This is to show that the reason I knew who it was, is because I have a relationship/friendship with them.

So the second challenge is do we have a good enough relationship with God to recognise His voice?

3. Leading - he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

Have you ever felt as if you have had a word of prophecy, or encouragement, but felt too scared to give it? As we begin to listen to God's voice we will begin to know and be able to tell the difference between when God is saying something to us or not.

The third challenge for us is to get to know His voice, so we can tell the difference and begin to make a difference to our families, friends, enemies and all those people that without us knowing God's voice are heading to an eternity without hope and without God.

"The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice."