VICTORIOUS Shepherd

Our Good Shepherd is the VICTORIOUS Shepherd.  And on this Good Shepherd Sunday as we consider all that our God provides for us, do you realize how hard his job is?  My fellow sheep, we run away to foolish habits and lazy sins.  We stress about the kinds of wool we wear and stalls we sleep in.  We follow the voice of our lambs, we follow the voice of the wolf, some days we follow the voice of everyone accept our Good Shepherd!  I know it’s complicated.  Sinful thoughts stain me; my motives aren’t pure.  Even if I look white on the outside, my soul isn’t white at all.  My soul before God is a wreck.  All of the sudden I look up and realize I have strayed from what I need to be doing and where I need to be – that’s with my God, the Good Shepherd.

When the Lamb looks at me I look sparkly white.  How?  Jesus makes our wool white through his blood, washing away all our sin.  That doesn’t mean we stop sinning; it means we’re completely forgiven.  That’s simple.  And so are these last few verses.  I want to close with these.  My grandma lived on a farm most of her life.  When we would go and visit – I always wanted to go out to pasture.  She thought that was so funny that I as a “little shaver” wanted to go out to pasture.  How me -at the age of three and four- would want to hang it up.  It’s all just too hard.  Life was so simple to me.  One day we will all go out to pasture and find peace.  These last few verses of Revelation 7 describe the pasture that awaits all of the Good Shepherd’s sheep.  I can’t wait to get there.

Therefore, “they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.  ¹⁶ Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst.  The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. ¹⁷For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”