-Transcript-
00:25 Amen. Welcome to the program. Welcome to the cafe.
00:29 Pastor Clark Covington here with another episode of KJV Cafe. Here we are in the second part of a two-part series on looking at who’s influencing you, God’s love, his incredible love, and man’s rebellious nature.
00:42 And we’re looking at, we’re going to pick up here on talking about sheep and how the characteristics of sheep closely relate to men.
00:51 And so it makes sense as to why we are called sheep in the Bible and why Christ is called the Good Shepherd and how we shouldn’t be following the herd, so to speak.
00:59 That’s where I’m picking up here. And for time’s sake, we got to kind of jump right into it so we don’t miss anything here in this second part of this two-part series.
01:08 Thank you so much for listening. So we’re just going to dive in right now. So here we go, talking about sheep and their traits.
01:19 And as sheep are vulnerable, their prey, we are oftentimes vulnerable as well. Amen. We are vulnerable.
01:24 We are prey to the devil. We can’t outsmart the devil and we are prey to his ways, especially if we’re not in God’s word and we aren’t sold out to God. We are very vulnerable.
01:32 And we’re dependent on our senses just like sheep are, sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste. That’s how we kind of get around, amen. And we’re dependent just like sheep are, very similar in that regard.
01:42 How about this one? Motivated by food. I don’t know about you, but I’m motivated by food. I mean, I look at my schedule, I got a busy day and I have a ton of stuff to do.
01:51 I’ll tell myself, okay, finish this. You have a coffee break. Okay.
01:56 You get these things done and you’re going to get this good lunch. Amen. Like that’s what’s motivating me during the day.
02:00 Well, that makes me no different than a sheep. Amen. And it makes you no different than a sheep if you’re also motivated by food.
02:06 Our kids are too. Amen. Our kids are too.
02:10 For time’s sake, I won’t harp on that, though I could. Emotionally intelligent, just like how humans are very emotionally intelligent. So are sheep.
02:14 And short lifespan, you know, we don’t live only 10, 12 years, but you know, the Bible says we’re only promised 70 years or so. And even that seems kind of long. Many people I’ve seen dying in their forties and fifties and sixties lately.
02:27 We are not promised a long time. Amen. Life is but a vapor.
02:33 Amen. We never know when it’s going to be over. My wife had a pretty serious surgery on her neck last week and we were praying that God would allow her to live.
02:40 Amen. That’s a crazy prayer to pray for someone that’s 39 years old like she is, but we were praying that prayer. Amen.
02:47 Life is so short and so we need to be very cognizant of that and give our lives to God and seek God and become aware of our sheep like nature so that we can get close to the shepherd.
02:57 You know, we look at these traits, we can see how like sheep, we have a way that often seems right to us, but is deadly and it’s not just deadly and like a mortal physical death, but to our relationship with God, right?
03:12 To our faith, it can be deadly. Why is this, you know, why is this reason so? Well, I think there’s a couple of reasons, mainly the mind and the heart.
03:24 So we’ll start with the heart, that deepest part of you, Jeremiah 17, nine, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
03:31 Who can know it? You know, Jeremiah preaching this, writing this, uh, when the Israelites were facing captivity, amen, uh, Babylonian captivity, uh, and they didn’t want to admit it.
03:46 They wanted to believe that they were still God’s chosen people in the sense that they were privileged and that they would be privileged by God and that they were not going to be judged for their sin and that they were going to be able to live on as they wanted to live.
03:59 Does that sound familiar? Does that not sound like today here in America where people are thinking just because God has blessed, he will bless. And just because God has held his hand largely from judging America, that he will hold his hand.
04:13 Friend, tomorrow is not promised. How long can God hold out? Amen. The time is at hand to seek the Lord and repent because he will absolutely judge this land.
04:21 The rapture is coming. He’s going to call his church home and he’s going to start dealing very harshly with this world. Our natural self is, is enmity or warfare to God.
04:29 Amen. Romans 8:7, because the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God. God neither indeed can be.
04:38 That idea of carnal is like natural. And here we have here enmity, the state of feeling or being actively opposed or hostile to someone or something. It’s an active opposition, amen, is actively opposing God and the ways of God.
04:55 And so our heart is deceiving us often to help us think something’s going to happen when it won’t. And our mind is taking us to a place where we think we’re okay because we hate God and that’s okay. Others around us often are not leading us closer to God.
05:12 So our natural self is an enemy to God. Others around us are not leading us closer to God. And the culture in this world is not of God.
05:21 It’s of the little g god of this world, the devil. How can we be close to God? Who can reconcile us to God? Only Jesus Christ. This is where we see God’s love for mankind, the clearest right here.
05:33 Isaiah 53:6, I’m going to read the whole verse and we’re going to look at the latter half here. All we like sheep have gone astray. We’ve turned everyone to his own way.
05:43 And here’s the latter part of the verse. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
05:51 And so we see here, Isaiah 53, six, we already looked at how we’re like sheep and we’ve gone astray individually, collectively, we’ve gone astray, we’ve turned our own way.
06:01 And then we see the latter part of the verse and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Who’s him? That’s Jesus Christ.
06:07 What does iniquity mean? That means sin. That Lord God, the father sent God, the son to put all the sin of all mankind onto God, the son on the cross at Calvary.
06:18 That’s why it was such a bitter death because Jesus Christ had to drink from that cup of sin past, present, and future for all mankind.
06:26 And when Christ died on that cross, it was buried three days and was resurrected miraculously by God the father. Then the passion was finished. Jesus Christ has victory over death in the grave.
06:37 And we now have a savior in Jesus Christ if we accept him as Lord and savior. God’s love for man is shown perfectly in the person of Jesus Christ. I have spent the majority of this message outlining the problem with man, the problem with man’s heart, the problem with man’s mind, the problem with groups and personalities and how we’re like sheep and we follow bad leaders and we can’t help it.
07:00 I’ve heard a preacher say before, don’t be mad at a sinner for sinning. All they know to do is sin. They’re naturally going to sin.
07:08 My children, I love my children and they sin every day. Naturally that’s who they are, amen. But the cross and the implications for mankind are huge because it’s everything.
07:20 Literally, in a world that’s so complex, everything comes down to the decision that we make whether to accept Christ as Lord and savior or reject him. And when we reject him, are we not being rebellious children, right?
07:33 And I use that word loosely, children, because to be a child of God, a true child of God, we must be born again, amen. But the idea of someone created by another and then spurning them, being rebellious.
07:47 We were created by God. We’re all created by God, but we’re not born again until we accept Christ as savior. And those that reject his free gift of salvation are acting in rebellion.
07:57 And then you can see that so much. I mean, you see that so much in this world. In this world, like everywhere you see people rebelling against God.
08:08 Whether it’s choosing homosexuality or choosing to deform their body or whatever it may be, or choosing to say bad words, amen, or choosing to live in a state of drunkenness or on drugs, or choosing to steal or kill and all these other things.
08:32 You know, all of this is a form of rebellion against God, is it not? And this is what we really have to choose, whether we’re choosing God’s love or choosing to rebel, which is this fleshly, carnal nature.
08:46 The way God loves us in spite of ourselves shows us just how deep his love is.
08:54 And I’m going to give you this example to help you understand, because I’m not trying to offend you today. If you’re living in sin, if you’re living far off from God, just hear me out for a minute. Imagine a friend leads you astray.
09:03 Imagine you didn’t even go astray on your own. A friend led you astray, and you end up committing a crime of robbery, brutal robbery. You rob someone, you beat him almost to death, okay?
09:13 You’re caught, you’re caught by the police, the judge sentenced you to life in prison, and you have no money, you cannot afford bail, you don’t even have an attorney.
09:25 There’s no attorney available for you. You’ll have to wait a long time for that. So you’re literally out of luck, you don’t have anything.
09:30 You’re doomed pretty much if you’re left alone. And now, the man that you robbed and beat, he shows up, and he bails you out. He then becomes your attorney, and he represents you in court, and he pays all your fines for you.
09:44 He literally gets you out of prison, out of a life sentence, and then he builds you a new house. And on top of that, he visits you every day to check on you and to help you with your day-to-day life.
09:55 You are now free and forgiven all by the very one you wronged in the first place.
10:02 This is God’s love. It is a love so deep, it shows up when most anyone else would offer up hate and judgment. God offers forgiveness, freedom, and reconciliation.
10:13 Now, think of you as the criminal that’s now been given a release, given freedom. You’re completely not guilty anymore. Your record has been cleared and wiped clean, and you have no debts, and you’re doing better than you ever have.
10:33 Now, think about your attitude towards that man that you wronged. You would surely look at that man and say, I’m so sorry. You’ve been so good to me.
10:41 How can I ever repay you? I want to serve you. I want to do something for you. I’m indebted to you forever.
10:48 You see, that attitude of gratitude is how we should look at our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, rather than an attitude of rebellion. Because what Christ did, he already paid the price on the cross. It’s already been done.
11:03 Christ doesn’t need to go back to the cross for you. He’s already been done. If you accept Christ as Savior, you’re born again.
11:09 The free gift is presented to you, friend. All you have to do is say, yes, I want to accept Jesus Christ as Savior. I have sinned, and I cannot do it on my own.
11:18 You know, the Bible word is trespass. Amen. And sometimes we end up trespassing.
11:25 We don’t even know what we’re doing. We do it, and now we’re in trouble. Amen.
11:32 I was a child. I ended up in somebody’s yard, and that individual had recently had their home robbed and had all kinds of problems. We weren’t doing any of that.
11:40 We were just trying to jump in his pool, and he pressed charges. And my explanation of number one, we didn’t know what we were doing. And number two, we didn’t do any of this other stuff.
11:50 You know, the court didn’t really care. I was a kid, you know, and ended up, I don’t know what I had to do. I ended up being a good kid for a long time.
11:59 But the point is that, you know, with God, our judgment is sure, and our explanation will not hold weight. And we must realize that the endpoint for man is sin and death.
12:10 And the endpoint, if you choose God, is redemption, reconciliation, and life eternal.
12:15 We have to realize that, look, making this choice is not easy because we’re swimming upstream in this culture. I can preach this message, and as soon as it’s over, you can turn on another channel, and they’ll tell you everything is okay. Be yourself.
12:26 Do your own thing. Rebel against God. Sheep DNA, like we’re like sheep.
12:33 It makes us prone to follow the herd, even over the cliff. The enemy is so creative in finding temptations to get us off course, to sin and to backslide, and to create idols. You know, we’re like sheep.
12:42 We’re vulnerable. The world offers this false sense of security, this flock. And we think just because we’re in a group, everything’s okay.
12:47 But we will be individually judged by God. Understand this. Every single person will face a holy, righteous God.
12:54 Choosing God’s way is possible. But first, you have to have faith. You have to believe that Christ died for you.
13:00 You have to have a repentant heart. You got to get pride out of the way. God won’t have it.
13:07 You have to repent. You have to realize you’re a sinner. Amen.
13:12 And you have to have spiritual maturity. You can’t be like a leaf blown in the wind. You can’t say, well, I’ll just go to a church that doesn’t preach like this because I don’t like it.
13:23 That’s not going to make a difference. Amen. And it’s not going to make a difference.
13:26 It’s not what entertains us. It’s not what gets us excited in the flesh or what we can gain that matters. It is God’s way.
13:29 And His way is so different than ours. I want you to choose God’s way today, the purpose to end that rebellion against God. You know, God loves you.
13:37 And His love in the context of what we are, sinners, is so great because He provided the Savior. He provided the Lamb. Amen.
13:44 When Abraham was up there with Isaac and he thought he’d have to sacrifice his son that he loved so much, what did God do? He provided that ram in a thicket.
13:55 That ram in the thicket is a symbol of Jesus Christ and what God Himself provided, that sinless, spotless Lamb to die on the cross for us, to shed His innocent blood so that we could be saved, to take our sin onto His shoulders so that we could be saved.
14:08 And when we believe in what Christ did on the cross, His death, burial, and resurrection, we are saved.
14:14 As it says in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. So choose Christ today. Don’t let another day go by without purposing to accept Christ as Savior. Thank you so much for listening.
14:27 Till next time, take care. God bless and amen.