At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (Luke 13:31-35 ESV)
So, when I first read this I thought, “What? The Pharisees are concerned about Herod wanting to kill Jesus?” These were Jesus’ enemies, although perhaps not all of them. But they mostly wanted him dead. So this made no sense to me. So I looked it up in an old commentary, and the author said basically what I was thinking, that this was a trick to try to get Jesus to stop what he was doing, which seems evident by Jesus’ response when he called Herod a “fox,” for that indicates deception, trickery, and a con job.
And Satan is going to use the same methods on us who are following Jesus with our lives to try to get us to stop obeying the Lord and to stop sharing the truth of the gospel and to stop refuting the lies of the enemy. For he doesn’t want people to know that Jesus said that if we are going to come after him that we must deny self, take up our cross daily (daily die to sin) and follow him in obedience to his commands (New Covenant). And they don’t want us to tell people they will die in their sins if they don’t obey God.
So, one of Satan’s methods (tricks) to try to get us to back down from obeying the Lord and from doing what he has called us to do is to have someone show concern for us and to try to sweet talk us into backing down from serving the Lord in the way in which he has called us to serve him, and for us to take a break or a vacation and to not take things so seriously. And it may be under the guise that they are concerned for our health or they are concerned that people are coming against us and attacking us, etc.
And I am not saying that there are not people out there who care about us and who are genuine in their concern for us, but whether knowingly or not, a lot of people, well meaning or not, are being used as tools of Satan to try to get the Lord’s servants and messengers to back down from serving the Lord in the way in which the Lord has called them to serve and to be more like everyone else, more like the world and less serious about God. And we can’t give into the temptation to withdraw by believing those who seem to care.
We need to respond like Jesus did. For if truly we are doing the will of the Lord, and we are obeying him and his word, and we are fulfilling his purposes for our lives in encouraging the body of Christ in holy living, and in sharing the truth of the gospel, and in refuting the lies of the enemy, then we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be talked out of that, but we must keep doing what we are doing today and to do it tomorrow and the next day, and the next, until we die or until Jesus returns and he takes us to be with him.
And then, like Jesus, we should be people who grieve over those who are putting their hands up to their ears and to their eyes and who are refusing to see and to hear the truth of what God’s word teaches, because they prefer the lies instead. For the lies convince them that they can keep living in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord, and against other humans, but while they profess Christ as Lord and Savior and heaven as their eternal destiny. It should pain us deeply that they will not yield to the Lord.
And then we should pray for them that they will surrender their lives to Jesus Christ, and that they will submit to Christ as Lord of their lives, and that they will now forsake their sinful practices and that they will now walk in holiness and righteousness and in moral purity, uprightness, integrity, honesty, and faithfulness to the Lord and to his commands. And pray that they don’t keep resisting the Lord until it is too late to the point to where they hear Jesus say, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness.” And it was because they would not obey the Lord.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-24; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-11; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
Video Talk
https://youtu.be/IKVD2Fkmb7Q
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My Sheep
An Original Work / June 24, 2012
Based off John 10:1-18 NIV
My sheep hear me. They know me.
They listen to my voice and obey.
I call them and lead them.
They know my voice, so they follow me.
They will never follow strangers.
They will run away from them.
The voice of a stranger they know not;
They do not follow him.
So, I tell you the truth that
I am the gate, so you enter in.
Whoever does enter
Will find forgiveness and will be saved.
Nonetheless whoever enters
Not by the gate; other way,
He is the thief and a robber.
Listen not, the sheep to him.
Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,
Who laid his own life down for the sheep.
I know them. They know me.
They will live with me eternally.
The thief only comes to steal and
Kill and to destroy the church.
I have come to give you life that
You may have it to the full…
They know my voice, so they follow me.
https://vimeo.com/114938263
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