Entertaining the Goats

-: 00:38

Lord Father God, thank you for placing me and all of us in the position that we are in.

-: 00:43

Help us each day to recognize our role in your church.

-: 00:48

Help us follow verses like Ephesians 4:11 to understand our calling.

-: 00:55

Whether you've called us to be an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, a teacher, or a pastor.

-: 01:00

We pray that this episode is a blessing on those who hear it.

-: 01:04

And that it is your words that come through and not mine.

-: 01:09

In your son Jesus name, in the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen.

-: 01:13

Thank you so much for joining me today.

-: 01:15

Today is a two-part message.

-: 01:20

I'm gonna record both of these and then release these over the next two weeks.

-: 01:27

I have a really interesting story as how I came about to these two topics.

-: 01:36

Sometime in July, I wrote a note on I have a note in my phone that I keep podcast ideas and

-: 01:41

things that are placed on my heart at different times, and I always pray.

-: 01:47

And a lot of times when I record this, I don't know that morning exactly what the topic is going to be.

-: 01:53

Sometimes I do throughout the week, but this was an instance this week where I didn't know what

-: 01:54

the topic was going to be.

-: 02:01

And I was going through all the show notes of all the previous episodes and all the notes of

-: 02:03

ideas and those sorts of things.

-: 02:10

There was this separate note and I didn't really know why it was there, but I opened that note

-: 02:14

and it just said one thing is the title of the note with nothing else.

-: 02:23

And it said something along the lines that we are entertaining goats over feeding sheep.

-: 02:32

That is a quote that is largely attributed to Charles Spurgeon, but many others have repeated

-: 02:39

it talking about in future days this will happen, or even in current days, this will happen.

-: 02:49

And I think it's a fitting statement to where we're at, not only from a growth statement of

-: 02:53

a lot of churches out there, but certainly in comparison of the church to the world.

-: 03:04

Jesus describes over and over goats as a negative, using goats as symbolic for the people of

-: 03:13

the world, and he uses sheep or lambs in a positive light, as in his children, his followers, people of the church.

-: 03:22

And as we'll talk about in the 21st chapter of John, he refers to his sheep and specifically

-: 03:27

instructions to Peter on how to tend his flock, tend his sheep.

-: 03:33

And this statement, as I sat there and wondered why it was there, and I saw that it was created

-: 03:37

sometime in July of this last year, I'm not really remembering why.

-: 03:42

I'm sure I wrote it down at some point in time, but it's certainly also possible that I wasn't

-: 03:45

the author of that specific note.

-: 03:53

Regardless, it is on my heart today through what is relevant over the past few weeks, specifically

-: 03:59

in my life, and certainly relevant over the last hundreds of years, if not thousands of years

-: 04:03

on earth, of the current state of events for the world.

-: 04:09

The Lord has really been working on my heart, less of the world and more of Him.

-: 04:12

And less things that I find entertaining.

-: 04:19

And as I push away from entertainment of the world, I begin to loathe it.

-: 04:25

I was just talking to students this week and perhaps last week also about not even being able

-: 04:33

to watch a football game anymore without all the ways of the world coming through with the politicized

-: 04:40

nature of the NFL as a business, the actions of the players, the actions of the crowd, the actions

-: 04:46

of the cheerleaders, and sideline staff can't even watch a football game anymore.

-: 04:55

And that's okay because a football game, apart from the gentlemen in the game that are devoting

-: 05:03

their lives to the Lord and also showing some good things in this mess, apart from their dedication

-: 05:12

and their life's work, football aligns way more with the world than it does with the ways of God's kingdom.

-: 05:20

And so as I grow as a Christian, I find myself more inclined to participate in things that bring

-: 05:26

glory to him, as opposed to things that glorify the world and the wickedness of the world.

-: 05:37

I don't want this podcast, this episode, to be a big soapbox experience about all the things the world does wrong.

-: 05:45

And in that, the episode is probably improperly titled entertaining the goats because because

-: 05:48

I don't want to go into a whole lot of detail of entertaining the goats.

-: 05:52

What I do want to go into detail is what God commands us to do.

-: 06:00

And from a church perspective, that is to go through his word and teach his word entirely.

-: 06:05

Teach nothing but the Bible and teach all of the Bible.

-: 06:14

As we shift from the world to churches that may very well still be the world, but identify as

-: 06:23

churches, we have Lots of instances where churches are teaching what we call topically.

-: 06:28

And the topical preaching can be done well.

-: 06:31

It also can often be done poorly.

-: 06:39

And when it's done poorly, there's search for a relevance of a topic that is something that

-: 06:42

will resonate with people at that moment in time.

-: 06:50

And that idea isn't necessarily evil, but it's a slippery slope that gets us to what the world

-: 06:57

wants and what the people of the world are looking for, as opposed to what God is commanding that we teach.

-: 07:08

So as someone who is a gifted teacher, not by my means, but by the Lord's means, and I'm encouraged

-: 07:17

by him to teach more and to dive deeper into his word, I'm encouraged to do what is unpopular

-: 07:18

in terms of the world.

-: 07:25

You know, I've been bothered a lot the last few weeks, months, and even years about the worldly

-: 07:28

success of this podcast in our family business.

-: 07:32

And part of it, I haven't given a fair shot.

-: 07:34

I haven't released the textbook yet.

-: 07:43

But part of it, I've realized even culminating today is that I'm focused way too much on worldly

-: 07:45

standards of what success is.

-: 07:53

And as I reframed the podcast, regardless of the number of listens, subscribers, members, any

-: 08:02

of that stuff, I realized that the last three, four years of podcasting at various levels and

-: 08:09

shows and those sorts of things has been a tremendous success because I'm viewing success now

-: 08:17

through the eyes of the Lord and I'm doing his work and I'm not picking specific episode titles

-: 08:20

that the world will find enjoyable.

-: 08:22

For the sake of getting viewership.

-: 08:29

I'm picking topics that he places on my heart, and I don't claim to be batting a thousand on that.

-: 08:38

I'm human, and I know I've made mistakes, but in this podcast, more often than not, as I make

-: 08:46

adjustments like open in prayer and I focus more in my prayer on having the title of the episode

-: 08:50

and the content of the episode brought to me, even if it appears to be last minute.

-: 08:54

As opposed to have things designed months in advance.

-: 09:01

The doer in me, the perfectionist in me, would like to have episodes done for the next year

-: 09:02

that I could just publish at will.

-: 09:09

But that's not relying on him, kind of like financially how I'd love to have a huge bank account

-: 09:13

and I'd love to have this retirement all set up so I could kind of coast.

-: 09:16

But am I relying on him in that?

-: 09:18

I would argue that I'm not.

-: 09:27

So in the same way, I want the episode titles and content to come to me through prayer, even

-: 09:33

if it seems like it's the last minute for him and certainly not for the world.

-: 09:42

So if the podcast continues on the path that it is, I receive that as affirmation that we are

-: 09:48

doing his work, his calling, in our lives and we're doing it beyond adequately, we're doing it well.

-: 09:58

Perhaps if I receive more worldly success, that will be another form of testing that I will

-: 10:02

have to look at and wonder, did I make a wrong term somewhere?

-: 10:06

Because we shouldn't be seeking the entertainment of the goats.

-: 10:09

We shouldn't be seeking approval of the world.

-: 10:16

We should always have our eyes on Him and focused on His approval, storing our treasures in

-: 10:19

heaven and not storing our treasures here on earth.

-: 10:25

Quite an introduction there without getting into God's Word, so I'd like to do that now.

-: 10:32

But as we continue to speak in this episode, I continue to emphasize that the Lord has placed

-: 10:37

on my heart the testing of this world, but our citizenship in His kingdom.

-: 10:43

I always remind myself of that, that if I feel like an alien here on earth, it's because I am

-: 10:45

one, and this is not my home.

-: 10:54

Today, we're going to talk about the 21st chapter of John, specifically verses 15 through 17.

-: 10:58

We're going to segue into Jeremiah with the next episode that is going to follow this in sort

-: 11:05

of a two-part series where we really emphasize feeding the lamb or feeding the sheep.

-: 11:13

But here in verse 15 we see that so when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter,

-: 11:17

Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?

-: 11:21

He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

-: 11:25

He said to him, tend my lambs.

-: 11:31

He said to him again a second time, Simon son of John, do you love me?

-: 11:37

He said to him, Yes, Lord, you, know that I love youe.

-: 11:40

He said to him, Shepherd my sheep.

-: 11:50

He said to him a third time, He said to him the third time, excuse me, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

-: 11:57

Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, Do you love me?

-: 12:00

And he said to him, Lord, you know all things.

-: 12:02

You know that I love you.

-: 12:06

And Jesus said to him, 'Tend my sheep.'

-: 12:14

what a powerful set of statements and powerful that it occurs in the number of three.

-: 12:22

We know what happened with Jesus's prophecy relating to Peter's denial before the rooster crowed.

-: 12:24

He would deny him three times.

-: 12:29

And what a significant impact this must have been for Peter.

-: 12:33

In fact, it tells us that it says he was grieved because he said it to him a third time.

-: 12:39

We can focus maybe minimally on the differences between lamb and sheep.

-: 12:41

Lamb represents a young sheep.

-: 12:43

Sheep is an adult sheep.

-: 12:49

And we do notice the first time he says, 10 my lambs, and then he says, 10 my sheep.

-: 12:52

The third time, and in between he says, Shepherd my sheep.

-: 12:59

Now, apart from potentially some sort of translation difference, perhaps your translation reads

-: 13:05

differently, I'm reading out of the New American Standard Bible, specifically the 1995 edition.

-: 13:13

But apart from that, we could read from this that he's saying to feed the children, then to

-: 13:17

shepherd the flock, and then to feed the flock.

-: 13:25

And if that is to be so, I can see how that's intentional to begin feeding the children and

-: 13:35

as they grow and as Peter or you or I prove ourselves more trustworthy, that we are to then

-: 13:40

Shepherd or Pastor the flock and continue feeding the flock along with the children.

-: 13:53

I think of the parable of of the Good StewaRt, where we have multiple talents, depending on

-: 13:57

what your translation reads, multiple talents given to one.

-: 14:03

I believe it was five talents, perhaps it's 10 talents given to one and then two talents to

-: 14:05

another and one talent to another.

-: 14:12

And we know that the first and second StewaRt, that they are able to use those talents to create

-: 14:19

profit or benefit, and that the third buries his because he's fearful to lose it.

-: 14:25

And we know how Jesus reacts, which depending on how we're thinking of those talents to be financial

-: 14:32

or otherwise, we might be stunned by how Jesus reacts to the burial of the talent.

-: 14:38

I think that a lot of these things in our world are confused as financial related when they're not.

-: 14:46

Because of the prominent deeming of success in this world, which is oftentimes Financial.

-: 14:53

But I look at those talents as more what the word talent means, in that we're all given talents,

-: 14:59

and some of us kind of bury them and do our own thing, and some of us utilize them and we use them to serve.

-: 15:07

And that grows the kingdom of God and that uses our talent for good and for his will, not ours.

-: 15:15

The purpose of this episode isn't to provide commentary for that specific parable, but it does

-: 15:19

connect with what we're talking about here in verses 15 through 17 of John 21.

-: 15:32

As I grow and as I get older, it is more, I believe, a part of my calling to begin to pastor

-: 15:41

and begin to Shepherd going to Ephesians 4 11 We see that apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers,

-: 15:48

and shepherds or pastors are called, but some translations will list teacher/pastor or teacher/shepherd.

-: 15:55

And as I grow older, I'm beginning to feel that I know with certainty that the Lord put me on

-: 16:02

earth to teach, but I'm growing to learn that he requires pastoring of me as well.

-: 16:08

Which hopefully can be accomplished in this podcast and perhaps in a church one day.

-: 16:13

I'd like to speak more about that in our members only section as we continue on.

-: 16:21

I'd also like to speak about a meeting this morning that I had with my father-in-law that was

-: 16:24

absolutely an answered prayer in his life and our life.

-: 16:31

And as I transition to this members only section, I want to share with you a quote.

-: 16:33

I have shared quotes from A.W.

-: 16:38

Tozer before, but this one is fitting to the episode title that we have today.

-: 16:44

It says that the church cannot worship that cannot worship must be entertained.

-: 16:49

And men who cannot lead a church to worship must provide entertainment.

-: 16:56

And again, going back to Ephesians 4:11, we need to make sure that the right people are in the right positions.

-: 17:01

In the church, including the teachers and the pastors, including all five of them, of course.

-: 17:07

But this quote emphasizes the leaders of the church, the teachers of the church, the pastors

-: 17:09

or shepherds of the church.

-: 17:15

And I was watching a sermon that talked on this a little earlier today also, and he talked about,

-: 17:19

you can certainly grow a church by appealing to the ways of the world.

-: 17:23

You can fill stadiums by appealing to the ways of the world.

-: 17:32

But the moment that you teach the Bible, the moment that you teach God's word, that attendance will disintegrate, essentially.

-: 17:35

And so I'd encourage all of us to be,

-: 17:43

oh, what's the word? I don't want to say attracted, but maybe an affinity for some of the smaller

-: 17:49

churches out there, perhaps even in smaller communities, good Bible believing churches that

-: 17:50

are doing the right thing.

-: 18:00

You won't know them by their social media status or their prominence in the community in terms

-: 18:07

of popularity, but you will know them based on the preaching coming directly from God's word,

-: 18:16

not deviating from God's word, teaching what people need to hear as opposed to what they want to hear.

-: 18:23

And you will see a steadfast congregation that is serving the community through their God-given

-: 18:24

talents in the proper way.

-: 18:34

I am very lucky to not only be a part of a church that does that locally, I am also very lucky

-: 18:43

to be a part of a men's group that does that locally, not affiliated with the church, which

-: 18:50

speaks to the numerous churches we have in the area that are doing God's will, and a family

-: 18:55

that is doing that for the benefit of God's will and not our own.

-: 18:58

I wish all the same things for you.

-: 19:04

And while I don't have recommendations for a Bible believing church in every area because I'm

-: 19:11

not familiar with those areas, I'm confident that in prayer you can find a church that is a

-: 19:14

good Bible believing church doing the will of God.

-: 19:22

So my question for us is, are our actions simple actions like what we do in our rest time on

-: 19:31

the or complex actions like how we're raising our children or contributing to the community, contributing to our church.

-: 19:38

Are those actions contributing to entertainment of the goats or feeding of the sheep?

-: 19:48

Our podcast members only segment that I'm transitioning to now can be found through biblicalanatomyacademy.com/

-: 19:54

You can click the links that make sense, podcast, support the podcast, and you can get access

-: 19:56

to the full length of this podcast.

-: 20:01

It would be wonderful if you could, but only if God is calling you to do so.

-: 20:08

That is really the only reason we would like you to sign up is if God is calling you to do it.

-: 20:14

We've set it up so it's a possibility for blessing for our family to help support the podcast.

-: 20:22

But we don't promote it, we don't advertise it, and we don't look for cheesy reasons for people to do so.

-: 20:26

We really only want people to sign up if they're being called to do so.

-: 20:32

And we believe people are being called to do so because the message is valuable and directed

-: 20:36

at their heart with God's will being Focus, not ours.

-: 20:38

So we're going to transition to that.

-: 20:44

I thank you for your time that you've spent with us so far in this public episode, and I wish

-: 20:45

you nothing but the best. God bless.

-: 20:52

Until next time, may the peace of Christ dwell richly in you.

-: 21:01

And may I also express Maranatha, which is an Aramaic word translating to come, Lord Jesus.