• I. The Shepherd's Voice -- Follow Me
  • • A. The Sheep follow Him John 10:27
    • B. Follow Him and not walk in darkness John 8:12
      • • 1. To follow Jesus expresses a union of the two, you and Christ 2. To follow Jesus shows that you are united or "hooked together" with Him 3. To follow Jesus is to go the same way as He goes
    • C. Follow Him and be a fisher of men Matt. 4:19
    • D. Follow Jesus and take up your Cross
      • • 1. Die to the importance of self 2. Put the Lord first in your life every moment of every day 3. Make Christ the number #1 priority in your living; serving; and giving
• II. The Master's Voice
  • • A. Occupy till I Come Luke 19 :13
      • • 1. here in Luke 19:13, it means "trade ye" or "gain your living" until He returns.
        • 2. Work, or do our daily tasks and jobs until He comes; work for the Lord till He comes again.
    • B. Jesus IS coming again in Glory
      • • 1. We don't know when -- He is on HIS timetable
        • 2. Let's be ready for His coming; looking; working; serving; not giving up and not giving in.
• III. The Savior's Voice
  • • A. Come unto Me Matthew 11:28 This basically means to "come here and follow" it is a command of the Lord Jesus Christ.
    • B. We are to give our burdens to the Lord; Cast your care upon Him
    • C. To come to Jesus and follow Him brings rest
      • • 1. rest here means "refreshment"
        • 2. the word "rest" as used here is NOT a rest from work but a REST IN WORK. This refers to the harmonious working of will; heart; imagination; conscience;
        • 3. As we work (labor) for the Lord, He will refresh us as we come and follow Him.
• IV. The Teachers Voice
  • • A. Learn of Me Matt. 11:29 let us be meek and lowly (humble) so that we can be teachable
    • B. Take His yoke upon you; this tells us that we should team up with Christ and submit to His authority.
    • C. We are to follow Christ's example I Peter 2:21-22
• V. The Voice of the Bridegroom
  • • A. The bridegroom has the Bride John 3:28-30
      • • 1. the saved belong to the Lord
        • 2. we were bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary.
    • B. He (the Bridegroom-Jesus) must increase in our lives vs 29-30
      • • 1. We need more of Christ and less of self in our lives
        • 2. We need more of what He wants for us and less of what we want for us
        • 3. When we give Jesus His rightful place in our lives, He blesses us more and more.
• VI. The Voice of the Friend
  • • A. I will sup with him Revelation 3:20 The word "sup" here means spiritual communion between Christ and you.
    • B. The True Friend knocks and offers help; encouragement and fellowship
    • C. Notice the context here:
      • • 1. We have a local Church that has shut Christ out. They may have their traditions; pageantry; ceremonies; etc. but not Christ nor His power. Therefore, they are a powerless congregation just going through the motions of "religion."
        • 2. Jesus is knocking at the door of a local church and, as a "Friend", offers to come in "if" any man (just one person) will hear the Lord and open the door to the Lord.
        • 3. This shows the love; mercy; and grace of the Lord as well as His patience toward mankind.
• VII. The Voice of the Physician
  • • A. Christ makes one whole John 5:5-6
      • • 1. we are complete in Him Colossians 2:10
        • 2. In Christ, we are complete in the "will of God" Colossians 4:12
    • B. He heals the brokenhearted Luke 4:18
      • • 1. sometimes we think of a physical healing; but there is the "spiritual healing" or the "mending" that is needed in a person's life after a heart - breaking experience.
        • 2. Let Christ heal you spiritually and do not dwell on the problems; give them to Christ by casting ALL of your care upon Him. I Peter 5:7
        • 3. Remember wounds take time to heal and Jesus, the Great Physician, heals broken hearts.

Numbers 14:1-3 NASB

How did they get here?

The possibility of something so much better just seemed to hard.

No one said following God was going to be easy!

God forgives, but blessings are lost

God’s people were continually complaining against the very one that gave them freedom

They could have had so much

Where are we today?

Do you fully trust God?

Evil is everywhere in this world today, and probably nowhere more prevalent than the United States

It has become so commonplace, most people don’t even flinch when they encounter it anymore

If I were the Devil...

This was a piece that Paul Harvey read on the air in 1965

WOW, he was right on target with how the devil was making our country his playground

We see exactly what you are talking about but what can we do about it?

That’s the thing, evil has become so prevalent that people feel as if nothing can be done.

I am going to read another letter to you this morning

These are the very instructions for how to deal with the evil in the world today

We are in the end times and we do not know the day or the hour of Christ return

We are usually pretty good with what we would consider the big things

Murder, Burglary, Assault….you know all the big things

But what about other stuff

We invite evil into our hearts on a daily basis

We have TV shows and movies that glorify evil

We go to movies that are even called Horror movies and pay to open our hearts to evil

We read books that are all about evil

You see instead of abstaining from evil or fleeing from evil we invite it in

The “we” I’m talking about here is not the lost world but people who call themselves believers

God’s people have got to wake up and realize that the toxic things of the world are exactly that, TOXIC

We know that judgement day is coming and instead of remaining vigilant and watchful we practice evil ourselves

I work for the NWS and their job is to keep the people safe by warning them of incoming bad weather

What if the NWS decided to just keep all the info to themselves and not put out the warnings. People would die!

If God’s people who know what is coming do not tell others, people don’t just die.

They spend an eternity in a devil's hell in eternal torment

Stop entertaining evil and instead pray without ceasing!

Sound the alarm and tell people how they can be saved!

Do you know Jesus?