TRANSKRYPCJA 🔗
WEBVTT
00:02:54.240 --> 00:02:58.240
Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:02.080
Blessed be God's family now and prayer.
00:03:02.800 --> 00:03:03.360
Amen.
00:03:03.520 --> 00:03:04.960
Let's pray together.
00:03:11.039 --> 00:03:13.520
And the spirits are here.
00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:19.599
Cleans the hearts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit.
00:05:18.319 --> 00:05:19.680
The Lord be with you.
00:05:19.920 --> 00:05:21.199
And also with you.
00:05:21.519 --> 00:05:22.879
Let us pray.
00:05:24.560 --> 00:05:27.920
Oh God, because without you we are not able to please you.
00:05:28.240 --> 00:05:40.480
Mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:49.519
As you're being treated, our children grades five and below are invited to join Godly play in the back with working and everything.
00:06:04.800 --> 00:06:06.639
Reading from verse Samuel.
00:06:08.480 --> 00:06:15.279
And it was about when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day after being dismissed by the Philistine ruler.
00:06:15.519 --> 00:06:18.560
The Amalekites separated the Negab and Zikli.
00:06:19.439 --> 00:06:25.759
They smoked Ziklag and burned it with fire, and they took captive the women who were in it, from young to old.
00:06:25.920 --> 00:06:27.360
They did not kill any.
00:06:28.879 --> 00:06:31.839
Rather, they led them away and went their way.
00:06:32.079 --> 00:06:39.439
So when David and his men came to the city, they found it and burned, and their wives and daughters and sons taken captive.
00:06:40.959 --> 00:06:46.720
Then David and the people who were with them raised their voices and wept, until there was no more strength in them to weep.
00:06:47.279 --> 00:06:55.519
Now the two wives of David had been taken captive, and the Jezreelite, and Abigail, the wife of Nabal at Armalife.
00:06:56.079 --> 00:06:57.759
David was in great distress.
00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:07.759
So the people said to stone him, because the souls of all the people were embittered on account of their daughters and sons, and David strengthened himself, and the Holy One is God.
00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:15.759
Then David said to Aviatar the priest, the son of Ahimeleh, Bring to me the Ephar.
00:07:16.160 --> 00:07:18.480
So Aviathar brought the Ephar to David.
00:07:18.560 --> 00:07:22.720
And David questioned the Holy One of old, asking, Shall I pursue this man?
00:07:23.600 --> 00:07:25.040
Will I overtake them?
00:07:25.920 --> 00:07:27.519
God answered them, Pursue.
00:07:28.240 --> 00:07:32.079
For you shall surely overtake, and you shall surely rescue.
00:07:32.879 --> 00:07:36.319
So David smote them from the twilight until the evening of the morrow.
00:07:36.560 --> 00:07:40.720
None of them escaped, except four hundred young men, mounted camels, and fled.
00:07:41.199 --> 00:07:44.160
And David rescued all the Amalekites he took.
00:07:44.399 --> 00:07:46.319
David rescued his two wives.
00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:53.680
None was missing, whether young or old, daughters or sons, spoiled for anything they took for themselves.
00:07:53.920 --> 00:07:56.000
David brought back everything.
00:07:56.399 --> 00:07:58.079
The word of the Lord.
00:07:58.399 --> 00:07:59.680
Thank you, God.
00:08:04.079 --> 00:08:06.319
The psalm for today is Psalm 13.
00:08:06.480 --> 00:08:09.279
We will read responsibly five and a half verse.
00:08:10.480 --> 00:08:11.839
How long, holy one?
00:08:12.079 --> 00:08:13.839
Will you forget me forever?
00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:17.120
How long will you hide your faith for me?
00:08:17.920 --> 00:08:19.839
How long will I counsel myself?
00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:22.319
Sorrow in my heart every day?
00:08:22.639 --> 00:08:26.319
How long shall my enemy be exalted for me?
00:08:26.639 --> 00:08:29.759
Look, answer me, faithful one my God.
00:08:30.319 --> 00:08:33.919
Enlighten my eyes will I seem to the devil.
00:08:34.799 --> 00:08:37.919
Then my enemy will say, I have prevailed over him.
00:08:38.480 --> 00:08:40.240
My father will rejoice.
00:08:42.799 --> 00:08:45.440
Yet I trusted in your loving kindness.
00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:49.279
My heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:52.080
I will came to the womb of life.
00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:55.279
Because he is Lord and Love Me.
00:09:08.480 --> 00:09:20.399
It was a fitting for God, because of whom and for whom all that is is in bringing many daughters and sons to glory, to make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering.
00:09:21.279 --> 00:09:26.399
For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of one.
00:09:27.519 --> 00:09:35.360
For this reason, Jesus is not ashamed to call them sisters and brothers, saying, I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters.
00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:37.919
In the midst of the assembly I will praise you.
00:09:38.399 --> 00:09:41.519
And again, I will put my trust in God.
00:09:41.919 --> 00:09:46.799
And again, here am I in the children whom God has given me.
00:09:47.440 --> 00:09:49.120
The word of the Lord.
00:12:26.639 --> 00:12:31.519
Jesus said, See to it that you do not treat one of these little ones with contempt.
00:12:31.759 --> 00:12:38.399
I say to you all that their angels in the heavens see the face of my Abba, who is in the heavens all day, every day.
00:12:38.639 --> 00:12:39.840
What do you all think?
00:12:40.080 --> 00:12:47.679
If a person had one hundred sheep and one of them wandered off, would they not leave the ninety-nine on the mountain and go search for the one that wandered off?
00:12:47.919 --> 00:12:56.399
And if they find it, truly I tell you, all truly I tell you all that they rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine who did not wander off.
00:12:56.559 --> 00:13:03.759
In the same way it is not the
Load full transcript
will of your Abba who is in the heavens that one of these little ones should be lost.
00:13:04.080 --> 00:13:06.240
This is the gospel of the Lord.
00:13:29.360 --> 00:13:29.840
Amen.
00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:31.600
Please be seated, friends.
00:13:31.840 --> 00:13:32.960
Good morning.
00:13:34.159 --> 00:13:38.960
It's nice to see y'all the blue, the blue crew up here, and the blue in the choir.
00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:40.720
It's really lovely for me.
00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:50.720
So last week I was not here and I was over at guest preaching at The Good Shepherd, and as I was there, I knew that the reading from this morning was coming up.
00:13:50.799 --> 00:13:55.200
And I was looking, it's of course they have a bunch of icons and different things about Good Shepherd.
00:13:55.360 --> 00:13:56.399
That's the name of their church.
00:13:56.480 --> 00:14:01.679
And I thought, isn't it nice that we're gonna get to talk about Christ the Good Shepherd?
00:14:01.919 --> 00:14:04.639
Am I the only one that finds it super comforting?
00:14:05.039 --> 00:14:11.679
Ah, we all come with stained glass with Jesus with a little lamb on his shoulders, and I I love it.
00:14:11.759 --> 00:14:12.799
I find it really comforting.
00:14:14.159 --> 00:14:20.799
But here's the thing, is like there is a there's a version of it in Luke, and that's the one that that I really like.
00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:31.840
You know, it talks about the good shepherd, the the shepherd who loses a sheep, and then the shepherd searches until the sheep is found, and then there's rejoicing and brings it back.
00:14:31.919 --> 00:14:38.399
And so as I sat down to read this version, I was like, oh, that's actually not what it says.
00:14:39.039 --> 00:14:51.919
It's like remember, folks, that each gospel has its own context, and even though there are similar stories in the different synoptic gospels and in John, they're they're sort of couched in a very particular way.
00:14:52.159 --> 00:15:03.679
For the Gospel of Matthew, it's in the 18th chapter, and it's when Jesus is responding to a very specific question that is being asked of him of the disciples.
00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:12.799
In fact, most of 18, if not probably all of 18, is just Jesus in in some way responding to a question that the disciples offer him.
00:15:13.120 --> 00:15:15.519
And it's a question that I think is really important.
00:15:15.919 --> 00:15:19.679
In fact, it's a question that we all ask ourselves.
00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:26.879
It's a question that I think is underneath a lot of our decision making and the way that we move in the community.
00:15:27.120 --> 00:15:32.159
Now, I will tell you that it is definitely not a question that we ask in polite company.
00:15:34.240 --> 00:15:36.240
Anyone know what that question is?
00:15:36.960 --> 00:15:38.000
Who matters most?
00:15:38.240 --> 00:15:42.399
Thanks, Mike! Somebody heard the eight o'clock sermon.
00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:48.320
That question is who matters most?
00:15:50.720 --> 00:16:04.639
The disciples say who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, but I translate it to who matters most, and we know that this is a question that we all answer in our communities, in our nation, and in our families.
00:16:05.519 --> 00:16:08.799
Whose opinion gets 51% of the vote?
00:16:12.159 --> 00:16:16.080
Who changes the energy of the room when they walk into it?
00:16:17.600 --> 00:16:32.639
Whose emotional state, whether it be their anger, or their sadness, or their anxiety, their depression, takes precedence over everybody else's emotional state.
00:16:34.080 --> 00:16:36.159
Who matters most?
00:16:38.960 --> 00:16:42.480
When they're gone, who gets noticed?
00:16:45.679 --> 00:16:49.279
And so the disciples ask Jesus, what does it mean to be great?
00:16:49.440 --> 00:16:51.519
Like, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
00:16:51.679 --> 00:16:54.480
And Jesus responds interestingly.
00:17:10.400 --> 00:17:12.400
We all love our kids, don't we?
00:17:13.200 --> 00:17:22.720
We love our kids so much that many of us, I would say, probably have a good portion of their identity wrapped up in how well their kids do.
00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:25.119
I can't be the only one.
00:17:29.279 --> 00:17:33.039
How much they like me, how successful they are.
00:17:34.799 --> 00:17:37.279
So of course I think, Jesus, grab the kid.
00:17:37.359 --> 00:17:40.640
It's the vulnerable cutie that we want to have, you know, yay.
00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:42.319
But here's the thing, y'all.
00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:47.440
Like, Jesus was not trying to subsidize our sort of idolatry of children.
00:17:47.680 --> 00:17:56.480
Jesus is taking a person in a society that has no rights or privileges.
00:17:57.279 --> 00:18:01.599
That as far as the society goes, I mean, the families love their children.
00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:05.119
Don't get me wrong, but society didn't care about the kids.
00:18:05.200 --> 00:18:06.079
They were expendable.
00:18:06.160 --> 00:18:07.599
A lot of them died when they were young.
00:18:07.759 --> 00:18:09.519
Like they they couldn't produce anything.
00:18:09.680 --> 00:18:13.119
They were basically, there was no rights or protections for them.
00:18:13.599 --> 00:18:18.799
Like, it's it's the kind of a thing that you can just disregard and move past, right?
00:18:19.119 --> 00:18:23.920
He takes the thing that society says has no value and he puts it in the midst of him.
00:18:24.160 --> 00:18:30.079
And that's what he uses as his object lesson to answer the question about who is the greatest?
00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:32.720
What does it mean to be great in the kingdom of heaven?
00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:42.079
And then the piece that we get to today is he says, be careful not to despise one of these little ones, is the translation.
00:18:42.319 --> 00:18:46.079
And then he tells the version of the lost sheep or the good shepherd.
00:18:46.480 --> 00:18:55.119
Now, what's interesting is that the word
despise, cataphronio, in the Greek, it's not hatred, right?
00:18:56.640 --> 00:18:59.599
It's like it's like disgust and contempt.
00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:02.559
I mean, hatred burns hot, y'all.
00:19:02.960 --> 00:19:06.880
I mean, if if I have hatred or anger towards you, I mean I'm I'm moving towards you.
00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:08.319
Like, that burns hot.
00:19:08.720 --> 00:19:12.559
Like this this word burns cold.
00:19:12.640 --> 00:19:13.759
I guess it doesn't burn cold.
00:19:14.160 --> 00:19:15.039
It's cold.
00:19:16.319 --> 00:19:20.559
It says I can just completely step over you if you were on the street and disregard you.
00:19:22.640 --> 00:19:31.359
And he says, be careful not of the ones in your life and the people that you have decided are no longer worth your time or your energy.
00:19:31.599 --> 00:19:32.960
And then he does this interesting thing.
00:19:33.039 --> 00:19:37.680
He says, because they have angels in the court of God who look upon God's face.
00:19:38.559 --> 00:19:42.559
Basically says, because heaven probably takes them way more seriously than you do.
00:19:44.079 --> 00:19:46.160
And then he tells you this interesting story, right?
00:19:46.319 --> 00:19:48.319
This parable of the sheep.
00:19:49.039 --> 00:19:51.279
I told you it's different than the Luke.
00:19:53.920 --> 00:20:01.440
He says the sheep doesn't say that the shepherd lost the sheep.
00:20:02.160 --> 00:20:04.240
It says that a sheep wandered.
00:20:05.599 --> 00:20:07.119
The sheep wandered away.
00:20:09.359 --> 00:20:15.839
And then it says that the shepherd went after her, and it says the shepherd doesn't the shepherd finds them.
00:20:16.319 --> 00:20:19.279
There's sort of like this conditional on there, which is interesting.
00:20:19.599 --> 00:20:21.279
Like these big differences, right?
00:20:22.240 --> 00:20:24.880
I started thinking about like the wandering.
00:20:26.400 --> 00:20:29.200
I was wondering, like, why did the sheep wander?
00:20:30.160 --> 00:20:41.920
My first image was like a cartoon I had when I was a kid where there was this cute little lamb and a butterfly catered, and it was like prancing after the butterfly, and it was like and maybe it just carelessly fell away.
00:20:42.319 --> 00:20:44.480
There's no malice or harm.
00:20:45.839 --> 00:20:48.960
I wondered, maybe there was like some bully sheep.
00:20:52.880 --> 00:20:56.319
And he like made it feel unsafe.
00:20:58.079 --> 00:21:02.400
And it like said, hey, we're all going over here, and then it went somewhere else, and then it was just lost.
00:21:02.559 --> 00:21:04.960
And maybe the sheep was just mad at the shepherd.
00:21:05.279 --> 00:21:12.240
Maybe the shepherd gave all the good treats to another sheep, and so it thought, forget this! I'm gonna go out on my own and I'm gonna get my own treats.
00:21:12.319 --> 00:21:14.000
I don't need this flock.
00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:19.599
And then I wondered, maybe it was just tired.
00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:23.279
Maybe it didn't sleep well for a couple of weeks or something.
00:21:23.599 --> 00:21:26.000
It was worried about the state of the world.
00:21:26.640 --> 00:21:32.000
And then like every day it just walked a little slower than everybody else until eventually it looked up and saw.
00:21:33.839 --> 00:21:36.880
I don't know why the sheep wandered, y'all.
00:21:37.599 --> 00:21:40.160
I just know that the sheep was in the wilderness.
00:21:43.200 --> 00:21:46.160
Boy, do I know what it feels like to be in the wilderness.
00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:51.279
Wandered away, and I have no idea how I even got there.
00:21:52.400 --> 00:21:53.599
Sometimes I do.
00:21:55.440 --> 00:21:58.400
And that's when I read the psalm, Psalm 13.
00:21:58.480 --> 00:22:12.400
I'm not particularly in love with the Translation we get, if you want to open up your prayer books, you can look at the other one because like four times right at the beginning, the psalmist cries out, How long, O Lord, I'm in the wilderness, I'm by myself.
00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:13.759
Where are you?
00:22:15.119 --> 00:22:16.079
How long?
00:22:17.519 --> 00:22:19.759
I thought I know what that feels like.
00:22:20.400 --> 00:22:23.200
How long am I gonna have to feel this pain?
00:22:24.480 --> 00:22:27.119
How long am I enemies gonna prevail against me?
00:22:27.279 --> 00:22:31.839
How long am I gonna have to wait to get some type of beauty and blessing in my life?
00:22:32.160 --> 00:22:33.680
How long, Lord?
00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:38.799
Sure, I've wandered, but here I am all alone, and I'm wondering where you are.
00:22:39.759 --> 00:22:42.480
How long must I wait?
00:22:43.119 --> 00:22:44.559
Do you even care?
00:22:46.960 --> 00:22:49.039
That is called a cry of lament.
00:22:51.200 --> 00:22:52.160
How long?
00:22:55.200 --> 00:22:59.599
And Jesus, I think, is trying to remind us what the psalmist says.
00:22:59.759 --> 00:23:06.160
If you look at the end of that psalm, is that the psalmist says, but I will trust that you are who you say you are.
00:23:06.880 --> 00:23:11.279
Just because I feel like I'm abandoned doesn't mean that I'm abandoned.
00:23:13.200 --> 00:23:14.559
And that's what Jesus says.
00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:20.880
Jesus says that God is like the shepherd who notices.
00:23:22.720 --> 00:23:26.559
See, I think my first thought was the miracle is that they found the sheep.
00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:27.359
You know?
00:23:27.599 --> 00:23:28.640
That is a miracle.
00:23:28.720 --> 00:23:31.119
But but even before that, I think there's another miracle.
00:23:31.279 --> 00:23:34.720
I think the miracle is that God noticed.
00:23:35.039 --> 00:23:36.079
The shepherd noticed.
00:23:36.240 --> 00:23:37.359
Like, I don't know about y'all.
00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:41.279
I mean, I'm kind of a perfectionist, but 99% is pretty damn good.
00:23:43.359 --> 00:23:44.400
Isn't it?
00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:49.519
I mean, I get to 99, I'm like, ugh, 9 out of 100, that's pretty good.
00:23:49.680 --> 00:23:51.519
I get to 90, I'm like, it's pretty good.
00:23:51.680 --> 00:23:54.960
But apparently, it's not good enough for God.
00:23:57.119 --> 00:24:01.440
God gets to 99 and says, somebody is missing.
00:24:02.720 --> 00:24:06.079
And it's in God's nature to go look.
00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:13.440
I started thinking about, man, wouldn't that be interesting as a church?
00:24:14.319 --> 00:24:19.839
I mean, the church isn't going to be the place that we don't fail.
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:20.720
You're going to fail.
00:24:20.799 --> 00:24:21.839
I'm going to fail.
00:24:23.039 --> 00:24:26.319
The church is not going to be the place where we don't wander.
00:24:26.559 --> 00:24:27.839
We're going to wander.
00:24:29.119 --> 00:24:32.000
The church isn't going to be the place where we don't argue.
00:24:32.240 --> 00:24:33.680
We're going to argue.
00:24:35.359 --> 00:24:40.559
But can the church be the place where somebody doesn't disappear unnoticed?
00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:49.839
Is it possible to live our life and be people who don't let people disappear unnoticed?
00:24:53.519 --> 00:24:58.000
You know, I'm not I'm not talking about like not coming to church.
00:24:58.079 --> 00:25:01.759
I mean, I'm not saying, like, hey, we should go out and we should start calling and checking on people.
00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:06.720
Well, I noticed that you weren't there on Sunday, so uh I think you need to explain yourself to me.
00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:09.039
Listen, y'all are adults.
00:25:09.359 --> 00:25:10.640
You're all adults.
00:25:10.880 --> 00:25:16.240
If you're not here on a Sunday, you don't owe me any explanations about how you decided to spend your adult time.
00:25:16.319 --> 00:25:17.519
You pay taxes.
00:25:17.759 --> 00:25:19.759
You don't owe me anything.
00:25:20.480 --> 00:25:28.480
But we could be sitting in this pew every single Sunday and be wandered off into the wilderness crying out, How long, O Lord?
00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:33.519
We could feel like we've been cut out and isolated.
00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:42.480
Perhaps we're the sheep that made a series of small choices every single day over the course of a long time, and now we're sitting in the wilderness.
00:25:44.960 --> 00:25:47.519
Wondering if we're worthy of God's love.
00:25:48.880 --> 00:25:50.720
Because here's the thing, y'all.
00:25:50.960 --> 00:25:55.279
Like, like when I imagine this in my head, I imagine it like a video game.
00:25:55.440 --> 00:26:02.880
So, like coming from the top, I'm looking down and I'm like, oh, there's the shepherd, and there's the sheep, and oh, he's just gonna go find the sheep.
00:26:03.119 --> 00:26:07.680
But like, if you're the sheep, you have no idea that the shepherd is looking for you.
00:26:09.440 --> 00:26:13.039
What you might get a hundred feet, a hundred yards, a line of sight.
00:26:13.119 --> 00:26:15.759
You don't know that the shepherd is out there looking.
00:26:17.279 --> 00:26:24.559
But in our
epistle today, it says Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters.
00:26:25.119 --> 00:26:32.240
Like, essentially, there is nothing that we can do that will exempt us for God searching for us as we wander.
00:26:39.839 --> 00:26:43.359
So I wonder what the invitation is in the story today.
00:26:43.440 --> 00:26:46.559
Like, what is the thing that Jesus is trying to tell us, right?
00:26:47.200 --> 00:26:51.680
Because, you know, it can't be that you gotta be good sheep or bad sheep.
00:26:51.920 --> 00:26:52.559
You know?
00:26:52.799 --> 00:26:56.160
It's not like there's righteous sheep and there's the one unrighteous sheep.
00:26:56.319 --> 00:26:59.119
There's obedient sheep and there's the disobedient sheep.
00:26:59.359 --> 00:27:01.440
Friends, there's just sheep.
00:27:02.319 --> 00:27:03.680
It's just sheep.
00:27:04.319 --> 00:27:06.480
And we're the sheep, we're all of them.
00:27:06.799 --> 00:27:19.519
Because sometimes we are out in the wilderness and we feel like we've wandered and we're all alone, and then nobody cares, and we're crying out, and sometimes we're on the mountain with the other 98 and we're feeling pretty darn good about ourselves.
00:27:20.480 --> 00:27:21.759
We're both.
00:27:22.559 --> 00:27:30.319
And I think the invitation is to recognize that there's nobody so high that they're beyond wandering.
00:27:30.799 --> 00:27:34.880
And there's nobody so low that they're beyond being sought.
00:27:42.960 --> 00:27:50.319
And so if we're in that place right now and we're the sheep, what does it mean to cry out?
00:27:50.480 --> 00:27:52.079
Don't fall into despair.
00:27:52.240 --> 00:27:55.359
Oh Lord, have mercy, don't fall into despair.
00:27:57.119 --> 00:28:04.559
I think Jesus is saying, don't fall into the trap of believing that tomorrow can't be different from today.
00:28:10.960 --> 00:28:12.559
Maybe I should just stop there.
00:28:15.680 --> 00:28:17.920
Don't fall into that trap, y'all.
00:28:19.599 --> 00:28:20.559
Cry out.
00:28:22.400 --> 00:28:27.279
Cry out, cry out in this place, cry out to somebody, cry out, Lord, how long?
00:28:28.240 --> 00:28:28.880
Lament.
00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:32.480
Just because you feel abandoned doesn't mean that you are.
00:28:32.640 --> 00:28:33.519
Cry out.
00:28:34.640 --> 00:28:35.680
Ask for help.
00:28:35.920 --> 00:28:39.119
Say that you're wandering, say that you're alone, say that you feel unloved.
00:28:39.279 --> 00:28:40.160
Cry out.
00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:44.000
Because the shepherd is looking.
00:28:45.680 --> 00:28:47.119
The shepherd is looking.
00:28:47.359 --> 00:28:56.240
God's love has a direction, and that direction is toward you and me.
00:28:58.480 --> 00:29:04.480
And if you're in the 99, if you're in the 99, if you're feeling pretty good, right?
00:29:04.880 --> 00:29:13.440
You know, friends, I'm saying sometimes, sometimes faithfulness looks like hallelujah, and sometimes faithfulness looks like how long, oh Lord?
00:29:14.240 --> 00:29:19.759
And if you're in that 99 and you're feeling like it's hallelujah, then maybe the call is to notice.
00:29:20.720 --> 00:29:23.039
Have you ever had somebody notice you?
00:29:23.920 --> 00:29:33.440
I mean, you know who I want to be when I'm older is that I I want to be somebody that people say, you know, when I'm with Sean, I feel like there's nobody else in the room.
00:29:33.759 --> 00:29:35.839
Boy, that's the man I want to be.
00:29:37.200 --> 00:29:39.039
I'm not that man right now.
00:29:40.319 --> 00:29:42.160
I want people to feel noticed.
00:29:44.400 --> 00:29:46.960
So if you're in the 99, maybe just notice.
00:29:47.119 --> 00:29:50.000
Did somebody wander physically, emotionally, spiritually?
00:29:50.160 --> 00:29:51.039
Are they feeling alone?
00:29:51.119 --> 00:29:53.519
Are they feeling in the wilderness?
00:29:55.119 --> 00:29:57.039
Are they feeling cut off and unloved?
00:29:57.119 --> 00:30:01.519
And if so, can you move towards them?
00:30:02.960 --> 00:30:04.720
And what does that look like?
00:30:05.920 --> 00:30:11.599
I mean, is there somebody in your life that you've decided you can just disregard?
00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:14.799
It's not worth the energy, it's not worth the time.
00:30:18.079 --> 00:30:24.000
And can we have the courage to join God because God is moving towards that person always?
00:30:28.799 --> 00:30:33.680
So, friends, I I guess what I'm saying overall is that we're all sheep.
00:30:34.880 --> 00:30:35.920
We're all sheep.
00:30:37.599 --> 00:30:39.440
And God is the good shepherd.
00:30:40.480 --> 00:30:42.960
And and God's love moves towards us.
00:30:44.960 --> 00:30:46.400
And I think Jesus is.