Ezekiel

We're gonna read, ezekiel 34 versus 1 to 24.

The word of the lord came to me. Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, this is what the sovereign lord says. Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves. You should should not shepherds take care of the flock. You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals.

But you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed those who are ill or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd.

And when they were scattered, they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over the all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no 1 searched or looked for them. Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the lord. As surely as I live, declares the sovereign lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd, and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock, but cared for themselves rather than for my flock.

Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the lord. This is what the sovereign lord says. I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and I will no longer be food for them.

It will and it will no longer be food for them. For this is what the sovereign lord says, I, myself, will search for my sheep, and look after them as a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them. So will I look after my sheep? I will rescue them from all the places where they are they were scattered on the day of clouds and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land.

I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will tend my sheep and make them lie down declares the sovereign lord. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays.

I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice. As for you, my flock. This is what the sovereign lord says. I will judge between 1 sheep and another and between rams and goats.

Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet.

Therefore, this is what the sovereign lord says to them. See, I myself would judge between the fact sheet and the lean sheep. Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away. I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between 1 sheep and another.

I will place over them 1 shepherd, my servant, David, and he will tend them. He will tend them and be their shepherd. I, the lord will be their god, and my servant, David, would be prince among them. I, the lord, have spoken. Please, do have a seat.

And, if you'd like to turn back to Ezekiel 34, and that chapter, which Dean read for us, if we haven't met before, my name's Tom, and I'm 1 of the, pastors here at the church. And if you are brand new to Cornerstone, this is a series that we have been working through for some time now. Izekiel is, a prophet, and he's in Babylon with a load of exiles who have been taken into Babylon from their homeland, and we've been seeing over these weeks and months what god says about them and their condition and about their future. And it's been extraordinary, hasn't it? To have this long slow gaze at the holiness and the kindness of god together, in this book of ezekiel.

And so here we are, ezekiel 34, and, we're just gonna start working our way through the chapter. So if you look with me at verse 1, The word of the lord came to me. So this is ezekiel speaking, the word of the lord came to me as it has done so many times in this book. In fact, by my count, that is the 40 fifth time That phrase has appeared in this book, the word of the lord came to me. Ezekiel is an inspired prophet of god who is speaking the words of god to god's people.

The word of the lord came to me. Son of man prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. So here is the subject of the chapter, and it will be the subject of our message this morning prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Now he probably has in mind there, not just 1 subclass of religious leader, but everybody who was given authority to care in some way for god's people. So it probably does include kings like Zedekiah in chapter 17.

You might remember we looked at him. It probably includes the priests who we looked at in chapters 8 and 9 some months ago. It probably includes the false prophets that we were looking at in chapter 13. It's probably shorthand for anyone who was called to love and to serve god's people and to use their authority in order to serve care and protect for the people of god. That's who it includes, the shepherds of Israel.

And interesting, isn't it just to spend a bit of time on that name, shepherds of Israel? You notice he doesn't say the word of the lord came to me sonaman prophesy against the CEOs of my people or prophesy against the managers of my people because that wasn't mainly the sort of leadership that they needed. They didn't just need to be a well managed people. And they didn't just need to be a people with streamlined operations. They needed to be a shepherded people.

People who were loved and served and fed and protected and cared for. The shepherds of Israel. And so this word comes to numbers to son of man prophesy, and you notice the word against prophesy against them. So what we are about to read is not a commendation of their work. It is not a positive evaluation.

Already we see in the first sentence, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. And here's what they've done wrong, verse 2. This is what the sovereign lord says. Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves. Should not shepherds take care of the flock.

You eat the curds, you clothe yourselves with the wool, and you slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. Now in a minute, we will come to the condition of the sheep and see how they have fared under this leadership. But you notice there in verse 2 and 3, the fundamental problem with the whole lot of them. They are selfish. They are a selfish people.

They are self interested, and they are not servant leaders. You see how he describes them there in verse 3. It's basically saying you you leaders are awash with luxury. You've got all the luxuries of this life. You eat the finest foods and you wear the finest clothes, and this authority that you have been entrusted with has been used by you only to advance yourselves.

You've used everything that came with your position, all the responsibility and the finances only to feed and bless yourself. So it's not that these shepherds didn't know how to care for people, but they just directed all of that caring energy in on number 1. They cared only for themselves. You eat the curds. You clothe yourselves with wool, and you slaughter the choice animals.

All of that self interested care. But you do not take care of the flock. In other words, they did not have the instincts of of a shepherd. Some years ago, me and, some friends, a family, family who are friends of our family. We, we went to the, to the zoo together.

And, we were walking around the zoo and, you know, doing what people do at the zoo, you know, looking at the animals and things. And, we realized about halfway through that, 1 of the children was missing. And, it was not 1 of ours, thankfully. That sounds terrible, isn't it? Thank.

Not 1 of ours, thankfully. It was 1 of theirs. That's alright. You know? And, you know, it it, it turned out that they were only, just a few meters away.

But, just in that moment, you know, when you realize 1 of the children is missing, the panic that begins to flood through, the heart and the the mind of the parents involved. You know, all of a sudden, the whole day is on hold. You don't care what the lions look like or where they are anymore. You everything else is on hold. Whilst you try to find your lost child in this busy place.

And that that is just something that's instinctive to a parent. You you never get taught that in parent academy, you know, like, should you ever lose your child? These are the emotions that you must feel. Number 1, surprise, an alarm. Number 2, panic.

Number 3, complete meltdown. Number 4, you know, you don't get taught how to feel in such a situation. But rather your whole instincts is to find and protect and to care for. You just can't help, but have the worst case scenarios come into your mind, and you want to, by instinct, do everything you can to, avert disaster. That's just an instinct.

And these shepherds had nothing of that instinct. They didn't care at all. They didn't care that the sheep were lost and scattered over the high hills. They didn't even know that they were. Scap.

That's quite something, isn't it? It's 1 thing to not care that your child is lost. It's another thing to not even know that they are lost because you're so busy in the zoo cafe looking at your phone and laughing and spending money on yourself and feasting and clothing and feeding yourself, that you don't care where that you don't even know where they are. You don't know. Well, these shepherds were self interested to to that degree.

And so look at what the sheep had become. Verse 4, you have not strengthened the weak or healed those who are ill or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd.

And when they were scattered, they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains on on every high hill they were scattered over the whole earth and no 1 searched for them and no 1 looked for them. This is like the post mortem of a sheep, isn't it? Sure you've seen those, those murder related documentaries, or or fictional programs that there are on on the telly. And if you I mean, it's that there's hundreds of them, isn't there?

A hundred across all the catch up services, there must be hundreds of murder related, programs, which says something quite strange about us, doesn't it? And yet if you've ever seen 1 of those or read any detective fiction, you'll know that that moment when the autopsy or the post mortem happens is so key isn't it? It's so key to the case. The legal case is handing on it and the the hanging on it, and the police need to know about it, and the family need to know about it. The cause of death needs to be determined.

You know, how how did this person or these people actually die? And I know it sounds a little bit grisly, but that is sort of what we have in verses 4 to 6. We are to imagine we're in the lab and on the table before us is a body called Jerusalem or or a group of sheep that used to be called Jerusalem. And 4 to 6 tell us the cause of death, and they they show us the sort of trauma that these bodies had inflicted on them. Do you notice that?

There was a physical trauma that was inflicted on them. There were sicknesses. We're told in verse 4 that were not healed. There were weaknesses of the body verse 4 that were not strengthened. There were injuries that were not bound up.

There were broken bones that were not reset. The body before us has clearly undergone physical trauma. But then did you also notice in those verses there's a kind of mental trauma There's scar tissue on the brains of these people. It's this repeated idea, isn't it? That they were lonely, and they were scattered, and they were abandoned and they felt that they didn't know where home was or even if they had a home.

And you'll know if you've ever felt anything like that, that is a mentally distressing condition to be in, isn't it? To not have a safe environment to call home. To not have somewhere safe in which to grow up, to lack a clear sense of direction and purpose and identity. Well, that is what these sheep had been left to. They had no home under these leaders.

They didn't know who they were or what they were supposed to be doing. And so on this body in front of us, we can see not only physical trauma, but the mental trauma of abandonment on their brains. But also as we look deeper, we can see a form of spiritual trauma. Verse 6, their souls are not in good condition. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill.

1 commentator thinks that that is probably a reference. To the idolatry that god's people had been abandoned to. Cause if you've read through the Old Testament, you'll know that idol worship often took place on high hills, that it was up there that the bales and the Ashtoreth were worshiped on the high hills. And so this is probably a reference to the shepherds who had abandoned them to pagan worship. They'd just let them go up to the high hills.

In order to worship whomever they wanted to worship. And so as you see, here we are, and we're doing a post mortem on these people, and there is physical, and there is mental, and there is spiritual trauma that has been inflicted on them. But as we get the death certificate open in front of us, and it comes to us now to write the cause of death, how how did these people die? How did they die? The cause of death, I think we could say, was neglect.

They were neglected. They have injuries consistent with neglect. These are neglected people. The condition of the sheep. Couple of weeks ago, we, had a, a Q and A at the hub, and, some of you were there for that.

And we, invited the home groups to come down and to ask some questions about the book of ezekiel. And somebody asked a great question. They said, how would god's people to know whether ezekiel was a true prophet or not. You know, how were they to know that? There they were in Babylon.

They'd suffered under false prophets. How were they to know that he was the real deal? And 1 of the ways that you can know is Do the words of this profit actually come true? That's a fairly good test. You know, does what he says actually happen.

But also, it seems in ezekiel that the main way that you discern between the true and the false is by what kind of lives those profits lead. Do do do they care about the flock or not? Now of course it's true that all Christian leaders, just like everybody else, it's gonna struggle with with selfish ambition, and they're gonna be lazy from time to time when they ought to work harder for other people. Or sometimes they might, you know, be too controlling when they ought just to relax a little bit, there will be the ordinary sin patterns familiar to all in leadership. But the question is what is the overall tenure of this person's life?

Is it is it fundamentally self interested self serving? Is it a use of the platform in order only to further their own ambitions and dreams, or is the general tenure of the life 1 of laying down for the sake of the flock and giving for the sake of the flock and serving. That is a very good indicator whether you are dealing with a true or a false prophet. And therefore, it should make us, shouldn't it, as Christian people, at least be careful about how much influence we allow you 2 preachers to have over our spiritual formation? It's not that there isn't helpful stuff online.

Online is full of helpful stuff, but before we give over our spiritual formation to a leader we cannot observe and cannot see, we just gotta remember ezekiel 34. Because here, a false shepherd is defined, yes, by their words, but more by how they lived, they they used their platform to further themselves and they neglected the sheep. And therefore friends, if we are influenced mainly by people whose lives we cannot observe, whose marriages we can never see, whose homes we never go into, we, you know, let's be careful. Let's be careful. Because here we have a group of leaders who had allowed the sheep to die under their watch because they simply did not care for them.

And so verse 7, therefore, you shepherds hear the word of the lord. Therefore, in light of what you have done, and what you have inflicted upon my people because of that, I want you to hear this message. Verse 8, as surely as I live, declares the sovereign lord My flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals and because my shepherds did not search for the flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock. That's therefore you shepherds hear this word. This is what the sovereign lord says.

This is terrifying, isn't it? I am against the shepherds. And I will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves in light of what they have done. And what has happened under their watch?

The sovereign god of heaven declares himself to be against these shepherds. He is frightening, isn't it? He is against them. He's gonna mobilize all of his power and thinking and planning against their well-being. He's gonna rescue and redeem the sheep that were in their jaws and he's gonna remove them once and for all from their position.

You see the responsibility that they bear. So last week or couple of weeks ago, rather, in chapter 18, You remember we learned there that the soul who sins will die. In other words, every individual is responsible before god for what they do with his word and therefore each individual sheep in the flock also bears a measure of responsibility. If they go and give themselves to idols, they will have to answer for that. If they forsake the lord god, they will have to answer for that because the soul who sins shall die.

And yet here in ezekiel 34, the lord god says without contradiction that from another angle, I hold the shepherds of my sheep accountable for what happens to the flock under their care. They are responsible because the soul who sins shall die, but so are these my so called leaders. They will be accountable. They will bear responsibility for the condition of the flock. 2 words of application on that.

Firstly, have a look with me at 1 Peter 5. Hopefully, this will pop up Steve and just notice the similarity in language. I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and witness to the sufferings of Christ, as well as 1 who shares in the glory about to be revealed. Here's a message from 1 elder to another. Shepard god's flock among you.

Not overseeing out of compulsion, but willingly as god would have you. Not out of greed, for money. In other words, not just because you might be able to eat more curds this way or clothe yourself in finer garments this way, not out of greed for money, but eagerly. Not lording it over those who entrusted to you, or in the words of ezekiel, not ruling them harshly and with brutality, but being examples to the flock, that's 1 thing they certainly weren't. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

How does the lord Jesus Christ evaluate Shepard leaders? In the old testament and the new. He evaluates them not by the size of their fields, and not by how many sheep they had in their flock, and not by the quality of their diets or the quality of their clothing, and not buy their gifts in the pulpit or their ability with words. He evaluates them on this thing. Did they care?

Did they care for the flock? Did they use their position in order to feed, love, serve, and protect others? That's how he evaluates them. And so as I know many of you already do, please might you see that as an encouragement to keep praying. For those of us in this church, whether it be pastors, elders, home group leaders, youth leaders, and once it's anyone with a position of spiritual responsibility, please would you see these texts as an encouragement to keep praying that the lord would help us to evaluate ourselves in the way that he thinks is important.

And that we would use whatever authority that has been entrusted to us that is not ours by right, but has been entrusted to us to use for the well-being of the flock. Second word of application on this before we move on, and this is perhaps not a very British application, or a British way of phrasing things. But I I was just struck reading this, this week that, 1 of 1 of the applications, it seems to me, is that in so far as the elders and the home group leaders at our church do lead in this way, We ought to be grateful for that. Now are we perfect? Certainly not.

And do we make mistakes? We certainly do. And can we go wrong in this way? We certainly can. But unless I'm completely blind, when I look around at our home group leaders, I don't see a bunch of self interested narcissists who are only trying to use the position that they've got.

To further themselves and to care nothing for the flock. I have to say in my honest assessment, unless I'm completely blind, I see a group of shepherds who do try to lead in exactly the opposite way. To that which we find in chapter 34, a group of people who do try with their personalities and with their various failures to give themselves for the sake of the flock. And it strikes me that in as much as that is true to not be thankful for a good thing is a bad thing. We we ought to be thankful for where and when this isn't the case among god's God's people.

So do pray and let us be thankful for where this is not the case. And so now we come to verse 11. Let's see what the lord is going to do in response to this situation verse 11 for this is what the sovereign lord says. I, myself, will search for my sheep. And I will look after them.

As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock or as he ought to, so will I look after my sheep? I was reading a paper. In fact, the elders have been reading this paper in the past couple of weeks, and I've put the title of it on on the screen. Steve, perhaps you'd, get that up for us. It's a recent piece of research that has been done.

Across evangelical churches in this country, and it's a rather wordy title, but this is the title of the research. I'm blocking the pipeline, identifying and addressing obstacles to ministry recruitment, in UK, reformed evangelical churches. In other words, why haven't we got as many leaders as we would perhaps like to have? That would be a way of paraphrasing it. And basically, what they had done is surveyed a group of people between the ages of 23 and 34 who had at 1 time been considering full time set aside ministry, but had decided for various reasons that they did not want to go into that kind of life.

So quite a specific group, 23 to 34, might have gone into ministry, but decided in the end why. And they were trying to work out what were the main reasons that people took a backstep from pursuing that kind of life. Very interesting piece. If you'd like to read it in full, I'd be very happy to send it to you. And here's 1 of the top ones.

This was number 5, I think. Those approached, that's what I said. That was that was the group. And then at the bottom there, 12 percent indicated that they were put off by a toxic leadership culture, which has left them unwilling to enter that world. 12 percent were put off by a toxic leadership culture.

Which has left them unwilling to enter that world. Now I have to say I'm not entirely sure everything that is meant by that phrase, a toxic leadership culture, and sometimes I do wonder where the labels like that, which are very general, cannot be as or aren't as helpful as they would be if they were a bit more specific. And I wonder sometimes also if labels like that can be applied wrongly in contexts where that really ought not to be applied. But that's an impression that people have got. It's quite interesting, isn't it?

That's an impression that as people look at Christian authority, as with all authority in the world, it seems to me. 1 of the reasons they don't wanna be part of it is because they perceive it to have a toxic leadership culture. That's what 12 percent said. Now, I was reflecting on that this week, and I think it would be true to say that there are probably no more or less examples of bad Christian authority today than there always have been. And if you just read the new testament, you see that's true.

Okay? That there has always been that. But could we say that these examples are more public now than they ever have been? I think we could. More likely to be played out on social media now than they ever have been, we certainly could.

And so a group of people here are saying, I don't wanna go into Christian leadership because I perceive it to have that kind of culture. Now, 1 offshoot of that is that some people are starting to suggest even in evangelical churches that we now cannot with the Bible lead or encourage anybody to change. Which sounds surprising, doesn't it? But there are actually voices in the evangelical church that are saying, Christian leaders now have no right and are not called to lead people into change with the Bible rather what we have to do is to allow people to change themselves as they read the Bible in the ways that they feel called. And that no 1 has the right or the responsibility to help lead change in a group of people.

And so that's 1 offshoot or 1 backlash. We don't like leadership culture, and so what we need is no leadership at all. And I don't know if that, you know, you'll have to tell me, but I don't know if that something like that would even be true in the secular world. In in, you know, in the jobs that you have, would it be true to say that even if you've got a good boss the whole idea of actually being managed and led by anyone at all is is triggering. You know, it's sort of galling.

Like, who who is this person? What right do they have to manage or lead me or tell me how I've got a work. I just wonder if that general suspicion of authority kind of finds its way all all all across society. And yet it's quite interesting, isn't it in ezekiel 34? That the lord's answer to bad leadership is not no leadership.

It's good leadership. Good leadership. Is the answer to bad leadership. And so we must not, in light of statistics like that, throw the whole concept out with the bathwater. Because you notice when god looks at bad leadership, he doesn't say, I'm done with this whole idea.

Let them lead themselves. No. That that was precisely the problem. His answer to bad leadership is good leadership. And my goodness, how good the leadership is, verse 11.

For this is what the sovereign lord says, I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. And then by my count, from here until the end of verse 24, There are 17, I wills. First 12, I will rescue them. Verse 13, I will bring them out. Verse 13, I will bring them in verse 13.

I will pasture them. Verse 14. I will tend them. Verse 15. I myself will tend them.

Verse 16. I will search for them. Verse 16. I will bind them verse 16. I will destroy the strong and the selfish verse 16.

I will shepherd them verse 17. I will judge between 1 sheep and another verse 20. I myself will judge verse 22. I will save my flock verse 23. I will place over them 1 shepherd verse 24.

I, the lord will be their god. Yes. There are bad leaders, but god is not planning to leave a leadership vacuum here. He is going to step in. And he is going to fill the gap and he is going to provide exactly the sort of leadership that they always needed.

You might summarize it in verse 16. Do you see how he does everything they failed to do? I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthened the week. I will shepherd the flock with justice.

The image that came to my mind as I read that was of a very tender nurse going through the A and E waiting room. Just lovingly triaging every 1 of the patients. 1 over here with mental trauma that needs encouragement and consolation, another over here with physical trauma that needs their bones resetting and their diseases healed. Another over here with spiritual trauma who needs to be led back in repentance to the worship of the true god and around and around the waiting room she goes, inspecting and triaging every 1 of these wounded sheep and doing for them exactly what they need to have done a wonderful picture of leadership and care. But do you notice part of this care will also be judgment among the flock?

Do you notice that? Verse 17, as for you, my flock, So he's addressing now. This is what the sovereign lord says. I will judge between 1 sheep and another and between rams and goats. Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture?

Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? Therefore, this is what the sovereign lord says. I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you've driven them away, I will save them.

And so here he's got in mind a group of people that are not shepherds necessarily, but abusive selfish sheep within the flock, that even amongst the flock, not all Israel was Israel, that there were some sheep who were gorging themselves and neglecting the weak, and they were trampling the pasture for the others. They themselves were eating all the good grass, but with their hooves, they were tramping down the rest. So no 1 else could eat any. They were going to the crystal waters and drinking for themselves, and they're muddying the waters so nobody else could drink. It's a little picture of selfishness, even amongst the flock.

And god here is essentially saying, I will not allow my sheep to be abused by anyone whether they be shepherd or fat selfish sheep not gonna allow anyone to abuse my people. I'm gonna come and cut it out wherever I find it. And did you notice right at the end of the chapter? How this leadership is gonna be exercised. It'll be exercised through a servant shepherd king.

Who will do this triaging and this feeding and this perfect judging. It will be a shepherd with royal blood. I will place over them 1 shepherd. My servant David. And he will tend them.

He will tend them and be their shepherd. I, the lord will be their god and my servant David. Will be prince among them. I, the lord, have spoken. I know, very little about art, but, 1 of 1 of my favorite, Christian paintings is this 1.

I don't know how this will come across on these screens. But Steve, perhaps you'd be able to, click that up for us. This is by, an artist, called Henry Tanner. Is that there? Is it come up?

Is it not? Oh, no. Oh, I put it in. Never mind. Anyway, I'll describe it to you.

Okay? I'll describe it to you, which is a real shame, but never mind. Basically, what you've got, Henry Tanner, who is an American, artist, he drew a picture called the Good Shepard. And in this picture, which you can look up later on, the reason why I love it is because very often when you think of Christ the good shepherd and artwork, you imagine a rather pale skinned blue eyed blonde haired Jesus. Clothed in sparkling white just holding a lamb in his arms.

But this picture of the good shepherds is of a lonely solitary figure. Walking at dusk through the high hills of Israel completely alone, shrouded in darkness with the moon behind the clouds, searching for his sheep. And to me, that is just a picture that really describes the shepherding ministry of Christ out there alone. You know, that that is not the sort of work that you do. If your main ambition is to be comfortable in this world because a shepherd never lived in palaces and had comfort.

He was up on the hills. It's not the sort of work you do, if you're just looking for job satisfaction all the time because the sheep would be wandering time and time and time again. You only do that work when you are totally taken up. With the well-being and the welfare of the sheep. And isn't that our lord Jesus Christ who says in John 10, I am the shepherd with royal blood.

I am the king who sits on David's line throne. And I am the good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep. That is the lord Jesus Christ, who wanders through darkness and danger and loneliness and abandonment and even to death in order to save and to redeem and to bring home the sheep. The answer to bad leadership is not no leadership. It is the leadership of the lord Jesus Christ and all who lead by his example.

Matthew Henry, 1 of his quotes up as it's Steve, quote by Matthew Henry. There we go. He says this in his commentary on ezekiel 34, Though magistrates and ministers fail in doing their part for the good of the church, yet god will not fail in doing his. He will take the flock into his own hand. Rather than the church shall come short of any kindness that he's designed for it.

The under shepherds may prove careless, but the chief shepherd neither slumbers nor sleeps. They may be false. But god abides faithful. And I just think 1 application of all of this for us as Christian people is to be grateful that we all as individuals find ourselves in the hands of this shepherd, hearing him promise to care for us in this way. No matter what happens with leadership, and no matter what experiences we might have, every single 1 of us is in the hands of this chief shepherd, and he will not fail to do his part.

For any 1 of his sheep. Praise the lord. Praise the lord. And so lastly, we'll close with this. This is, I think, just another application for all of us.

Whether we are leaders of any description or not. As Christian people, do we not all want to grow in this shepherding instincts towards 1 another? I think it would be a strange Christian who heard a sermon like this and applied it by saying, yeah, well, my leaders jolly well better be like that, but I'm not gonna be like that. I'm not called to love, serve, care, protect, nourish, feed other sheep. That's their job.

And if they don't do it, they're toxic, and they're failures. Not my calling. Be a weird Christian. Wouldn't it to apply it that way? But rather brothers and sisters with those who have the spirit of the good shepherd abiding in our hearts.

Is this not a likeness that we all want to be conformed to? Is this not an instinct that we all wanna be growing in? This kind of mutual shepherding and loving? The answer to bad leadership is not no leadership. It's the leadership of Christ.

It's pastors who shepherd by his example, and it's a shepherding church who leads and feeds 1 another with the word of god. Let's pray together. I will save my flock. Heavenly father, we thank you for the lord Jesus Christ, that good shepherd of the sheep, who is our perfect savior and leader. We thank you, Lord, that you, and this would be the testimony of so many of us here, that you have shepherded us through all kinds of lonely valleys and dangerous places.

Through all kinds of threatening situations and dangers that you have proved yourself to be, the loving, caring, leading shepherd that we need. We do pray for the pastors, we pray for the elders, we pray for all leaders in this church that you would save us from being narcissistic selfish power abusive people and that you would help us to care for the flock. We pray that you would help us even as non leaders to have this instinct for 1 another, that where we see brothers and sisters wandering into danger, that we would not first think, I hope some leader sorts them out. But that we ourselves would go towards them to feed and shepherd and call back. In other words, lord, we pray that by your spirit, you would create this shepherding heart.

Amongst every 1 of us here, leader or not, and we pray in Jesus' name.