-Transcript-
00:27 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the program.
00:30 Welcome to the Cafe. Pastor Clark Covington here with another edition of KJV Cafe. Hopefully you’re doing well, staying warm if it’s chilly outside like it is here.
00:41 A little bit of rain going on and it’s a perfect day to be inside. Amen. And to get into God’s Word, you know, when it’s warm, what do you want to do?
00:47 You want to throw on a blanket or some comfortable clothes or get near that fireplace if you’re lucky enough to have one.
00:57 And that satisfies the outside, but spiritually, what we need to do when it’s cold outside is to get into God’s Word, amen, to warm up our hearts and our minds and to get a comfort us spiritually and to edify us and to help us to understand his great plan for us, which is so opposed to the way things are here in this world, amen.
01:21 If you watch a lot of news, and I’m just going to throw this out there. If you watch a lot of news, maybe consider turning it off, you know, deleting the app, whatever it may be.
01:32 There’s so much bad news in the world and the world’s got an agenda that’s so different than what God has for you. So that’s what we’re going to talk about here today is who’s influencing you today. God’s love and man’s rebellion, kind of a unique title there.
01:41 Who’s influencing you today? In 2005, a sheep in a village in Turkey walked off a cliff. Over 1,000 more sheep then did the same, resulting in the death of 450 sheep.
02:00 And you say, well, if 1,000 went off the cliff, Brother Clark, how come only 450 died? As I understand it, those 450 kind of paved that landing pad for the rest of them.
02:13 The shepherds were just distraught. They couldn’t believe one after the other all fell off this cliff to their demise. They were following the leader.
02:22 In China recently, so that was 2005, that first example. This one’s much newer here. In China recently, sheep walked in a circular pattern for 12 days straight.
02:31 And the spectacle started with just a few sheep and grew bigger. And there was even some sheep in the middle that just watched them. And this one, you can actually search it up online.
02:40 You can see video, like security camera video of these sheep just walking in a circle over and over and over. And they’re following a leader into no good way, into just a waste of time.
02:51 I mean, look, I was telling my congregation, if I walk in a circle 12 minutes, I’m probably winded 12 hours and I’m really going to be hurting in 12 days.
02:57 I’d be done. Amen. I’d be done.
03:02 That’s deadly. In both instances, the sheep were not close enough to the shepherd to heed proper advice, leading to their own peril. And the question I have for you here today, are we so much different? You know, we serve a loving God and we are by nature rebellious.
03:22 Our text verse here, Proverbs 16:25. There is a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
03:33 This proverb is mentioned in so many different worlds. It’s mentioned in the light of relationships and business and kids listening to their parents or rebelling against their parents in so many different ways. But here today, we’re looking at how man oftentimes is like a sheep.
03:58 You know, the Bible constantly references us as sheep and Christ as the good shepherd. And we are like sheep in the way that we oftentimes follow a leader that doesn’t know what they’re doing. Isaiah 53:6, all we like sheep have gone astray.
04:15 We have turned everyone to his own way. That’s the first part of Isaiah 53:6, and we’re going to park it right there and spend a little time in this first part of Isaiah 53:6. All we like sheep have gone astray.
04:28 We have turned everyone to his own way. That’s Isaiah 53:6 the first part. And then linking that up with Proverbs 16:25, there is a way that seemeth right untoa man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
04:52 The verse tells us that the way of man, it’s like us turning to our own way. And this way is not the way of God. And so we’re like sheep turning to our own way.
04:55 And oftentimes I’ve thought of this verse. I drive by a sheep pasture on the way home, a couple of, I don’t know, like a mile from our house and these sheep are each kind of in their own little patch of grass, right?
05:08 And so, but they’re all kind of in the same vicinity. So I kind of picture that like, okay, each sheep kind of goes their own way.
05:14 You know, we all go our own way and that way is not godly. But really I think this verse also is alluding to the idea that collectively we’ve all gone our own way away from God. We are collectively going astray from God.
05:28 So all we are like sheep and we’ve gone astray, we’ve turned everyone to his own way together away from God. Amen. And that’s the idea.
05:37 If I’m looking at all these sheep and they’re generally in the same area, but in their own little patch of grass, it’s imagining the shepherd on the other side of the field and he wants the sheep to come down there and they won’t. That’s kind of the idea. Amen.
05:52 This idea of the way we’re talking about the godly way, right? The godly way. Christ is referred to as the good shepherd and we are referred to as sheep, not often going a godly way, but an earthly or carnal way.
06:06 And so one idea that I had is to look at the characteristics of sheep to see what we can see about how sheep act and how we can relate that to the idea of us following a way that is not of God.
06:22 Okay. And so let’s just break it down like that. Because, you know, it’s funny in my research, almost universally, the article would start with people say that sheep are dumb and they’re not.
06:35 Or contrary to popular opinion, sheep are not dumb. And so people get offended when they’re called sheep in the Bible, but I don’t think we should be offended. I think we need to do more research.
06:38 Sheep actually have a lot of interesting traits and they have a lot of intelligence. And so we need to be mindful of that.
06:46 I told my wife, you know, one day, hopefully we’ll have some sheep or we get a little, we have a little pasture of land and hope to hope to one day build on it and have some sheep there.
06:57 So I could tell you from personal experience of being like a little shepherd. But in the meantime, I had to do a little bit of research here about sheep. Number one, sheep have a flocking instinct.
07:08 And by the way, this research is from a college professor who’s had sheep for many years on and on. I think one of the websites was sheep101.com. You can look it up. It’s very reputable.
07:20 This individual’s writing with firsthand knowledge. Okay. And then I researched more to make sure these sources were backed up.
07:24 Hey, I know how to study. Amen. Okay.
07:30 So number one, sheep have a flocking instinct. They prefer to move in a flock or a group. Why do sheep flock together? Because they think there’s safety in groups or numbers.
07:38 Sheep typically follow a leader. Even when the leader doesn’t know where they’re going. Like the two examples I gave.
07:46 One in Turkey, the sheep going over the cliff and a thousand following. Another one where the many sheep walked in a circle for 12 days. By the way, this wasn’t a big circle.
07:54 This wasn’t like a racetrack circle. This was like a very small circle. It was small enough they were easily able to catch it on camera.
08:01 Sheep must socialize. I learned this one. This is fascinating.
08:05 Sheep that are alone become very stressed out. They must see others. They must be social.
08:12 Sheep are a prey animal. They’re fairly defenseless. It speaks to their vulnerability.
08:18 Another reason, again, why they like to be in the flock. Sheep don’t really have a lot of mechanisms to defend themselves. I saw a bit on donkeys, I think for our class lesson for school, for our homeschool kids.
08:29 The donkey has a really bad rear kick and it’s very, very potent and strong. Even zookeepers said they’d rather be kicked by a horse than a donkey. That’s an example of a way to protect themselves.
08:42 On and on, snakes have venom. Lions are vicious. A dog, even a dog can bite.
08:49 Animals have different ways to protect themselves. Sheep are very vulnerable. They don’t really have a way.
08:55 They’re prey. Sheep are dependent on their senses, such as sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. And as you research sheep, you learn that sheep really do have deep senses, as in they’re not just kind of muted, but they have great eyesight and really good hearing and on and on.
09:12 Sheep are motivated often by food. You can motivate a sheep by food. They’re emotionally intelligent.
09:16 Studies have shown they can feel bored or happy or sad. And that studies have shown that sheep even emotionally can be optimistic or pessimistic. And sheep, get this, only live 10 to 12 years on average.
09:30 I was really shocked by that. I’ve got a dog in the backyard that’s older than our teenage son. He is, or she, excuse me, she is 18 going on 19 years old.
09:35 And so she’s almost doubled the lifespan of a sheep. It’s incredible. But sheep don’t live too long.
09:46 And then you can get into the details about what breed of sheep and how long they’re good to use for before they’re culled or taken out. And it’s not long. Amen.
09:56 It’s not long. So let’s look at these traits. I’ve gone through them and I’ve kind of bitten my tongue.
10:01 I’ve taken my time not to give the human reference, but I’m sure you maybe if you’re listening here, and by the way, if you’re listening, thank you. I appreciate it.
10:09 If you’re listening today, amen, you probably have thought of some similarities between sheep and humans as individuals.
10:15 And again, what I love about these traits, and this is not exhaustive by any means, but these traits are really specific and they really don’t show some one-sided dumb creature, but a complex creature like humans are very complex. Okay. Flocking instinct.
10:32 Flocking instinct. Think about that. You know, flocking instinct.
10:37 You have the group there flocking together. You know, it’s the idea almost of like there’s safety in numbers, right? And as a kid, you’re in a crowd. Oftentimes you get in trouble when you’re with a group of friends, right? As a child.
10:51 And then when you get older, you know, you’re around a peer group. You know, you may do things you would never imagine doing on your own.
10:59 I can think of a situation a friend of mine was in one time years ago, and I couldn’t imagine the things he was doing, but his friend group was a poor influence.
11:07 We can be living in this world and simply, you know, just not living for God. There’s a movie, I can’t think of the name of it.
11:19 And the individual was going to see a movie every Friday night, you know, totally acceptable to the world.
11:24 But the movies now we know oftentimes blaspheme, God have nudity and so many violent themes in them. We know the devil is the prince of the power of the air.
11:34 We know that these Hollywood productions 99 out of 100 times are completely rotten to the core and that they’re speaking to us for an hour and a half, two hours, maybe three hours without us even being able to talk back.
11:46 And so it’s there’s so much bad part of it. Yet there was like the stigma, at least when I was younger of going to the movies was like staying out of trouble. Oh, I just went to the movie with a friend or, you know, at work, oh, we don’t go out to the bars or anything.
11:59 We just go to the movies, you know, and this movie really, ironically, Christian movie, but it really, you know, was indicative of this idea of like the flocking instinct that we think there’s safety in numbers because other people are doing it.
12:12 And it was touching on the idea that these Hollywood pictures could be very dangerous. You can apply this idea of flocking to anywhere in the workplace or at school or wherever you may be, even with your family.
12:24 Amen. Thinking there’s safety in numbers, following a leader, even when the leader doesn’t know where they’re going, kind of also like flocking sheep, follow leaders blindly. And oftentimes we do too.
12:36 We’re electing politicians that are wicked, that are evil. And I guarantee you, Christians are going to the polls and electing these politicians.
12:41 Christians are voting for politicians that believe in values that are completely antithetical to the Bible, values that a living God would never stand for.
12:50 And Christians are going in, voting these people in. Again, they’re following a leader. They don’t even know that the leader is leading them to destruction or could be a leader at work or school or whoever it may be.
13:04 And that’s like a sheep. We’re just going astray. We’re going our own way.
13:09 We’re following into the sinful ways of mankind, of this world. That’s what the devil wants us to do. Maybe we’re influenced by a celebrity, right? Maybe we have idols in our life and these things are leading us astray.
13:21 Even though we don’t want to go away from God, we end up going away from God because we’re following a leader blindly. And I hate to say in the church, there’s a lot of pastors that are no longer preaching Bible.
13:28 They’re no longer preaching heaven sweet and hell hot and sin being death and repentance and all these things are just preaching these feel good messages to tickle the ears.
13:44 Sheep must socialize sheep that are alone, become very stressed out. Are we not the same way? Have you ever spent a prolonged period of time alone? It’s not fun. Amen.
13:55 It’s not fun at all. I’ve spent some time alone in my younger years and it was the worst times that I could think of the most depressing times. God made us to be social creatures.
14:09 And look, I wish I had more time, but you’re going to have to tune in next time for the next episode of KJV Cafe to catch the second part of this two part series on who is influencing you rebellious man and God’s love.
14:24 I thank you so much for listening today. Again, tune in next time. Take care. God bless and amen.