Shepherd And His Flock

'' Nehemiah 10:39 We will not neglect the house of our God.''

Dear precious servant of God, in this message, let us meditate and understand the importance of keeping the House of God in order.

House of God comprises of the shepherd and the flock.

There are two important aspects that we must seek, when we are given the responsibility as a shepherd

of God's house.

One is prioritising to spend on the church in order to keep it good state and in right conditions.

The other is, earnestly seeking to be filled with the Glory of God.

Glory of God comes only from Righteousness in Christ Jesus.

These two must be sought after with utmost diligence, in reverence and fear of God.

As we get into the meditation, let us first read from Ezekiel, and understand few aspects that a shepherd must and must not do :

'' Ezekiel 34:2-4
Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! 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 the sick or bound up the injured.You have not brought back the strays and searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.''

This Scripture speaks about how a shepherd must govern his actions, when he is assigned the responsibility of the house of God.

Let us make a list of the activities from the above Scripture, that a shepherd must focus on:

1. Strengthen the weak

2. Heal the sick

3. Bind up the injured

4. Bring back the strays

5. Search for the lost

6. Take care of the flock

Activities that a shepherd is not expected to do:

1. Rule harshly and brutally

2. Take care of themselves only

3. Eat curds, clothe with wool, slaughter choice animals, ignoring the flock.( Basically means living lavish life styles, ignoring the flock )

Dear precious servant of God, let us take this oppurtunity to introspect and learn if we fall into the first part or the latter.

Glory of God is wrongly presumed to be the glory that the riches of this world bring us.

Riches of the world are meant to be brought into the house of God.

However dear people, they are not the ones in which we must see God's glory.

The Truth in His Word, must be the Glory that should fill the House of God.

The Glory that God gives is the one that reflects through us. That flows from inside of us.

Through the word that God sows in us, our spirits are ought to stay reconciled to God's Spirit, and in oneness of Spirit if we all gather in the house of God, and worship Him, it is then we can see the Glory of God manifesting in the house of God. We can see the real power flowing from heaven into our churches.

We cannot please God with our righteous acts. It's only through Jesus that we can see God's glory.

Therefore, doing what the word of God says, is very very vital, in order to see the real glory manifesting in our churches.

But if the shepherds themsleves are clothed with desires of the world, and teach about delighting in things other than God Himself, then it is only preventing God's real power to flow in our lives.

Because kingdom of God is all about Righteousness in Christ Jesus.

And righteousness and greed cannot go together. If greed, the glory of the riches of the world is what is driving our roles as shepherds, then righteousness, which is the glory of the Spirit cannot manifest in us.

'' Isaiah 3:8 Jerusalem staggers, Judah is falling; their words and deeds are against the Lord, defying his glorious presence.''

'' Isaiah 3:10 Tell the Righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds.Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them! They will be paid back for what their hands have done.''

'' Isaiah 3: 14 The Lord enters into judgment against the elders and leaders of his people: It is you who have ruined my vineyard; the plunder from the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor?'' declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty. ' ''

Now, let us read about the importance of keeping our church buildings in right conditions:

Let us read from Haggai:

'' Haggai 1:3 -11
Is it a time for yourselves to be living in paneled houses while this house remains a ruin?
Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: ''Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much but have harvested little. You eat but never have enough.You drink but never have your fill.
You put on clothes but are not warm. You earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes in it.''
This is what the Lord Almighty says: ''Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored, '' says the Lord.
''You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home I blew away. Why?'' declares the Lord Almighty. ''Because of my house, which remains in ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.''

If we spend money on ourselves, and find delight and comfort in the things of the world, and call it the will of God, while the house of God is not in a pleasing state, we are only deceiving ourselves.

The money that God blesses into our churches, first must be spent on keeping the house of God in order and in right conditions.

We must be very cautious not to spend a penny on ourselves, neglecting the house of God.

Lets read what Jesus says about love of money:

'' Matthew 6 :24 No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.''

Delighting in the doctrines that contradict Jesus' instructions, and claiming them to be some knowledgeable teachings, which induce greed in people, is only coming from depravity of minds.

Such ones are totally missing out on the real meaning of taking care of the house of God.

'' Psalm 42:4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.''

As David said, we need to pour out our soul for God.
Pouring out our soul means sacrifising all that the soul desires for the sake of God and let His holiness manifest in us. And thereby sing songs of praise to Him, in thanksgiving and worship.

Being a shepherd one cannot nurture the souls of people with greed and at the same time nurture their spirits with the Word.

Then this is not the kind of house God delights in.

And if such shepherds are able to continue in their works, its just that God has given them away to the depravity of their minds ( in his wrath).

But it is saddening to see that these people presume that they are being bold and are approved workmen in the vineyard of God.

''Psalm 127 : 1 Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain.''

Then, how can one think to build the house of God, by keeping the very instructions of the Lord aside ?

We are called to imitate Jesus Christ. He is our Chief Shepherd.

Let us look into the attitude of Jesus towards what was assigned by the Father.

'' John 4:32 I have food to eat that you know nothing about.''
''My food'', said Jesus , '' is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. ''

This is how our dedication must be towards what is assigned to us by our Lord.

Work of God must be given importance as eating our food.

None of us neglect our food, isn't it ?

No matter in whatever conditions we are, we ensure we feed ourselves timely and defnitely we will be careful that we eat the right stuff.

Assignments of God must be undertaken with similar care. We need to be careful that we are handling our tasks in the right way.

When God takes delight in the way we work for Him, He will bless the work of our hands and takes us to higher levels, and assigns greater tasks and performs His wonders through us to bring Glory to His name.

Let us now look into Matthew 25:14 - 27 and learn few things on how God treats if one is lazy in doing His work.

''Matthew 25:14 - 27 ''Again, it will be like man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents and to another one talent, each according to his ability. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.
After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.
The man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See here is what belongs to you.' ''

''His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.' ''

Now, here the titles assigned to this servant are : 'Wicked' and 'Lazy'

This servant has dug a hole in the ground and hid the money.

He seems to have done this mainly because of his laziness.

He doesn't want to work hard. And therefore to justify himself, he figured out one aspect of His Master, that the Master is a hard man who will harvest from where he doesn't sow.

This shows he actually is thinking contrary to what the other two servants thought about the Master.

Which basically means, He does not know the requirements of his Master.

He wanted to do which is most convenient and easy for him.

It seemed easy for him to just go, dig a hole and put the money in the ground. And he wanted to relax and be at rest, as such he has a reason that he framed for himself for the shortcut, toilfree method he adopted.

Most of us do this. Don't we ?

We only look at one or few characteristics of God to justify our actions and doctrines, to fulfil our worldly desires and justify our actions, without trying to know and abiding by the requirements of the Word.

But word of God says, that an athlete must run according to the rules or he cannot win the race.

'' 2 Timothy 2 : 5,6 Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops.''

Dear servants of God, do not work with such notions picking up only one aspect of God, and base your doctrines only on that, in order to make your lives easy in this world.

..then, you are only playing with the Flame.

The flame that burned Sodom and Gomorrah for its wickedness, might turn on us any moment if we are over smart like this lazy servant who felt he had figured out a wonderful reason to justify his actions (doctrine) of hiding the talent in the ground.

We should not belong to this category.

You are not doing any ordinary job.

Know the requirements of the One who called you and entrusted His property to you.

Property here means the gifts of Spirit that God has given you.

It could be of teaching, of prophesy, preaching, or miracle working etc, that God entrusted to you to build up the church.

Get the word thoroughly, and ask God for revelations and chek the revelations with the word again, in order to ensure there is no deception coming from the enemy.

And once God confirms then go ahead and preach the doctrines.

Always ensure that you keep a regular and close watch on what you preach.

'' Psalm 75 :10 I will cut of the horns of the wicked. But the horns of the righteous will be lifted up. ''

Only the horns of the Righteous will be lifted up. Not of the wicked.

And without Jesus, righteousness cannot be manifested.

One cannot ignore the instructions of our Lord, yet claim to be a servant of the Lord.

If we keep the sound instruction of Jesus Christ aside and proclaim to base the doctrines from the word of God, then such an ideology is not coming from God.

For the word of God clearly says, we cannot go to the Father but by the Son.

Requirements of the Word must be upheld, with due diligence, in all our actions as shepherds of God's house.

Most of the shepherds become careless in keeping up their loyalty towards the One who called them to serve Him. And their focus soon turns towards money and they begin to think about how best they can improve their living conditions and fulfill their desires, by using the calling of God.

In this context, let us look into what Judas Iscariot did when he betrayed Jesus, being one of his disciples.

'' Matthew 27 : 3 - 7
When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. ''I have sinned,'' he said, ''for I have betrayed innocent blood.''
''What is that to us?'' they replied. ''Thats your responsibility.''
So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.
The chief priests picked up the coins and said, ''It is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.'' So they decided to use the money to buy the potter's field as a burial place for foreigners.''

Now, as we read here, Judas was chosen as one of Jesus' disciples.

But we see that he betrayed Jesus. That which traded Judas' loyalty was money.

The money that he made was by using his discipleship.

This money that Judas made is called Blood Money, as we read above.

But finally, he did not even enjoy the money, neither did he have life any longer, when he realised his mistake. It was too late by then.

The money that he made dwindled away from his hands, as well as his life!

Dear people, the blood Jesus shed for us is to redeem us from the evil of the world. And the love of money is the root cause of all evil.( 1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.)

Being one of His called ones, if we use His word to make money, how different is it from what Judas did?

'' 2 Peter 2:21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way righteousness, than to have known it and then turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. ''

God allowed Judas to get the money. Same way God might allow us, in His wrath, to engage in the work of making money, using His word. But won't it be called ''Blood Money''?

We are called to proclaim the salvation through the blood of Jesus.

Jesus shed His blood for us, and was crucified for our sins, and through His blood, He provided redemption from every evil desire of the flesh, of which greed is one.

But using His calling, if the shepherds focus on making money, how different is that money from what Judas Isacriot made when he betrayed the Living Word who called him to be one of His disciples ?

Doesn't the same destiny that overtook Judas, overtake such of us too?

Lets read what the word of God says about such of us:

'' 2 Peter 2: 13 - 22
They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are are blots and blemishes, reveling their pleasures while they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed -- an accursed brood. They have left the straight way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.
These men are springs wihtout water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.

They promise freedom while they themselves are slaves of depravity - for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way righteousness, than to have known it and then turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: '' A dog returns to its vomit, '' and, ''A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.''

Here is what is spoken about such churches that are luke warm:

'' Revelation 3 : 15 - 21
I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other.

So, because you are lukewarm - neither hot nor cold- I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.'

But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, blind and naked.

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

Those I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.''

Therefore, dear people of God, fear God.

Spend first to keep the house of God in right state.

Let not the glory of the materialistic things fill our lives.

But let the Glory that comes from Righteousness in Christ, by being one in spirit with God's Spirit, through Jesus, the Living Word, fill our lives.

God Bless You.