Well, good morning. Howdy. How y'all doing? As missionaries, we're taught to contextualize our message. I'm not a y'all or howdy guy, but so good to be with you this morning. This church knows my love language. My love language is Dr. Pepper. The fridge at Jana's apartment was stocked with Dr. Pepper. I also love barbecue, and every time we come through here, we have wonderful barbecue and Dr. Pepper. So thank you for this church for the way you have received Sharon and I. This is Sharon over here. Will you stand, Sharon? Say hi. And we do have three children. They're all grown up now, actually. Micah's 24, Krista's 22, and Josiah is 20. Sharon and I are on kind of the tail end of a 6,000-mile road trip. And before you feel sorry for us, actually, we've really enjoyed this trip. It's been so much fun. It helps not having extra bladders to worry about in the back seat. and to be able to just enjoy visiting churches and people that have been so kind to us over the years, including this church here. Grace Covenant has stood by with us through some of the hard times that we've been through, and we so appreciate your prayers and your financial support that you have given to us over the years. So thank you so much. This morning, I'm gonna start by describing a little bit about our mission, the Africa Inland Mission. AIM had its beginning in the work of Peter Cameron Scott, who lived from 1867 to 1896, so only 29 years when he passed away, a Scottish-American missionary. He served two years in the Congo before he was sent to Scotland in 1892 because of a near-fatal illness. While recuperating, he developed his vision of establishing a network of mission stations which would stretch from the southeast coast of the continent of Africa to the interior's Lake Chad. He was able to interest several of his friends in Philadelphia in the work and in subscribing some funds, thus beginning the mission agency Africa Inland Mission. On August 17, 1895, AIM's first missionary party set off, consisting of seven adults, including Peter Cameron Scott. They arrived off the east coast of Africa in October. In little over a year, the mission had four stations all in Kenya. More workers came from America, including Scott's parents, and the small group expanded to 15. In December of 1896, barely one year into the effort, Peter Cameron Scott died, partly because of the extremely hard pace at which he had been driving himself. The mission almost dissolved in the next year, when most of the workers either died or resigned. But God raised up a new wave of missionary workers, and AIM continued to grow. In 1904, Sharon's great-grandfather, John Stauffiger, arrived in Kenya and was used by God to establish the field of Congo. Peter Cameron Scott served in Africa for only about a year, but his vision continues to guide the 850 AIM missionaries now serving throughout the world. AIM exists to see Christ-centered churches among all African people groups with an emphasis on the unreached. Still, there are about 1,000 unreached African people groups with little or no gospel witness. Today, we're going to look at a passage which was Peter Cameron Scott's motivating verse for forming the Africa Inland Mission. John 10, 16, I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. Let's pray. Father God, we come before you this morning with humble hearts, asking you to speak to us. Father, I pray that you would be glorified this morning, that you would teach us what you want. Father, I pray that the words that are spoken out of my mouth would be honoring to you alone, and I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, but to better understand the context of this verse, we're actually gonna scope out and we're gonna read through John 10, one through 16. So if you want to take your Bibles, you can read along with me. I'm actually going to be reading from the NIV. I'm not sure. I think you might have a slightly different version, but let's read this. And the word of God says, very truly, I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger. In fact, they will turn away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice. Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them. Therefore Jesus said again, Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate, whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and my sheep know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. So this is a beautiful passage of scripture where Jesus is setting forth this metaphor where clearly he is the good shepherd and the sheep are his followers. And the first thing I just want to draw our attention to is that the shepherd, Jesus, chose to get involved with his sheep. I think that's the most blatantly obvious part about this passage is that Jesus is the good shepherd who chose to give up his position in heaven with the Father to come down to earth to get messy with us sheep. He got involved in lives, involved with sinners. He loves us, and that is so important for us to understand as we look at this passage. But let's look specifically at verse three. In verse three, we're gonna see that Jesus, the good shepherd, calls his sheep by name. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. I want us to take home today that Jesus knows each and every one of us individually. He knows your name. The word of God says in Luke chapter 12 verse seven that he knows even the number of hairs on your head. Jesus knows us intimately. He cares about us individually. You aren't a big congregation that just kind of melts into one. He sees each of you as individuals and he loves you intimately and personally. In verse four, let's take a look at that. Verse four says, when he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. Jesus is the good shepherd who goes out in front of his sheep. He's not the strict, cruel shepherd from behind with a whip driving his sheep, but rather he goes out in front of them. And the sheep follow him because they trust him. They know him. If you know Jesus as your personal savior, and you have walked with him, you know that he is faithful and true, and you will follow him wherever he might lead you. Jesus is a good shepherd, and he leads us from the front. He is kind, and he is gentle with us. Let's look at verse nine, verse eight and verse nine. Verse eight says, all who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. He says, I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved. There is no other way by which we enter in to the sheepfold but through the gate. And the gate clearly is Jesus himself. This brings up the passage in John 14, six, where he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. There is no other way by which we are saved but through the name of Jesus Christ. He is that gate, and he is the one through whom we pass to have relationship with God, to have our sins removed, and to be restored to right relationship with the Father. So Jesus is the gate. Verse 10, actually this is a verse that I've used many times on our home assignments here in the United States, and it says that the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. We have seen the havoc that the enemy, that the thief, has wreaked on cultures in Africa. We have witnessed firsthand the devastation that he has brought to entire families, clans, and tribes. And it's interesting that we are in a relativistic era, a pluralistic era in this day and age where a lot of anthropologists and sociologists and even politicians might try to lead you to believe that these pristine cultures are better off on their own, that it's better that we leave them alone. Colonialism did too much to hurt them. We need to leave these people groups alone. I want to tell you some of the things that I have witnessed firsthand from living amongst two different unreached people groups. The first unreached people group that I want to talk about are the Mwani. The Mwani are a people group who are steeped in demonic oppression. Into the African still night, we lived in a village where there was no electricity, and so it was very quiet at night, except you would hear these drumbeats going, doom, doom, doom, doom. And it was a very demonic thing that was happening where they were trying to intervene in a spirit world because they found somebody in their family that was afflicted. They called in the witch doctors to do this whole ceremony. They built a little hut for the spirit and they would offer food and they would sing these songs and chant and beat the drums for sometimes 24 hours straight. That happened to the neighbor right across from us. They would try to understand which particular demon and negotiate and then try and help that person. And interestingly, this makes sense, that person usually would be a little bit better for a while, but the disease or the sickness or ailment would always come right back. This people group, the Mwani, were also stuck in sexual immorality and impurity. Polygamy was rampant in our area. Most men had at least two wives. It was very sad to see one of our neighbor, if you could go forward to the next slide, right? One of our neighbors, this lady right here, this girl, I could say, she was only about 13 years old when she was taken in to be a wife of an older man who was about 50 years old. And so these are things that we have witnessed. AIDS ran rampant in our area. A lot of the people in our area died because of AIDS. And it was really hard to watch. These are people who were gripped with superstition and fear, concerned that at any moment, someone in the village or in another clan might be against them and launch a curse against them. And they would have to protect themselves with amulets and charms. After our time in Mozambique where we were with this particular people group, we went to this other group in the Central African Republic, and many of you prayed for the Mbororo people. This was a lady, an Mbororo lady, and you can see all those amulets worn around her neck. Those aren't for decoration, that's not to make her look pretty, that's to protect her because of so many superstitions that she has that people are attacking her, the spirits are against her, and this is her only earthly way that she knows how to protect herself. There's pouches, there's Quranic verses written sometimes on little parchments of paper tucked in there, and they believe that that's their only way to make it through this world without having calamity come upon them and possibly even death. Next one, yeah, you can just see again, here's a man and he also has his pouches there. Curses come from known or unknown enemies causing superstition and fear. So I have seen the work of the enemy. I have seen how he has come to steal and kill and destroy. And it makes me sad when I see that. But praise be to God, we have abundant life offered to us through Jesus. The Good Shepherd offers us life, abundant life, and we can have that if we choose to follow him and to walk in his ways. And I have seen the transforming power of Jesus, of the gospel, in the lives of some of these very same people that we just talked about. I have seen the power of Jesus change the life of Mzee Alidi, who is a spiritually blind and physically blind beggar that would come into our yard every Friday morning. Friday was a beggar day, a day to give alms to the poor in Islam. And so we would have a host of people come to our gate pretty much at about 6.30 in the morning every Friday, and we would try and offer some bread and some tea and share a Bible story with them. Well, Mzealidi, led by his chain-smoking wife, would come into our yard a little bit later in the day, usually, and plop himself down on our steps outside on our back porch. And he kind of had this feeling like he was a special friend, and so he wanted a little special attention, I think. So I'd sit down and we'd start talking about his week and how he was doing, and often he would ask me for things, whether I had some toothpaste or whether I had some rice. And Sharon would go in the house and bring back a bag, maybe with a few onions or garlic and some rice. And sometimes he would, you know, feel through it and say, But I also need a pair of pants, and I also need... And sometimes I started having, I have to admit, not the best attitude when Mzee Elidi came into our yard. Well, this one day he comes in and he says to me, he says, Stephenie, was my name, Stephenie, he says, I want to join your religion. And immediately I have these red flags, like, I'm guessing he wants something really nice today. It's not a good attitude to have as a missionary, but I thought, okay, I'm going to try and explain to him one more time the gospel, and I did that as best I could in his language. He came to the end and he said, yes, I want to join your religion. I tried to tell him, Mzeyelidi, it's not a religion that you're following, it's a relationship with Jesus. All of us have fallen short of God's glory, but we can have our sins forgiven through Christ, and I was trying to explain, and finally, I just didn't know if I was breaking through to him, so I said, Mzeyelidi, what is it that's brought you to this point? And he said that he had had a dream, and that in his dream, He saw a very bright light. He saw two angels. And the angels said to him that the path of Isa, or Jesus, is the path to God and the path to truth. And that he should come and speak to me. At which point I got goosebumps all over and felt very humbled of my bad attitude. and was able to point him in the right direction toward Jesus. And I've seen the life of Mzee Elidi changed by the gospel, by the powerful gospel of Jesus Christ. So abundant living is made possible through the Good Shepherd. The lost need Jesus is the main point that I want us to take away from that verse, verse 10, is that the thief is real, but Jesus and his abundant living is also real, and more real, I would say. So what is abundant life? What is abundant living? You might be asking yourself. Abundant life doesn't guarantee an especially long life. Abundant life isn't an easy, comfortable life. Abundant life is a life of satisfaction and contentment in Jesus, living to the fullest who God created you to be for however long he has you on this planet. That is what abundant living is all about. The shepherd provides that abundant life. Let's look at verse 11. Verse 11 from John chapter 10 says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Jesus, the good shepherd, loved us so much that he gave his very own life that we might have right relationship with God again. Ephesians 5.2 says, Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. And this gospel truth ought to cause us to fall on our knees and worship him. and with grateful hearts for what he has done. He wasn't obligated to do that, but he chose to leave that throne room in heaven and come down to earth and make a way where there was no way. Can I have an amen? Amen. All right. And then let's just look at verses 14 and 15. Verses 14 and 15 say, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and my sheep know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. He knows his sheep, this was a striking verse to me, that he knows his sheep in the same way as Jesus knows the Father and the Father knows him. And I'm thinking between the members of the Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, there's a pretty tight bond. There's a pretty good, they're on the same wavelength. They understand each other because they have been eternally loving each other and in relationship with each other. And if Jesus says in this passage that I know my sheep and my sheep know me and compares that with the relationship he has with the Father, that is a pretty high standard, a pretty high bar for relating. And I thought that was an amazing, example of just how much Jesus does know us and how much we can also come to know Him if we choose to invest in Him and seek Him and read His word and be on our knees in prayer. Okay, now that we understand a little bit better about the scope of our passage, I want us to hone in on verse 16. This is just a review of what we've done so far. Verse one, he calls his sheep by name. Second point, verse four, he leads his sheep from the front. Verse nine, he alone saves and protects his sheep because he is the gate. Verse 10, he makes abundant living possible for his sheep. Verse 11, he sacrifices his life for his sheep. And verse 14, he knows his sheep intimately. Okay, so now let's look again at John 10, 16, where it says, I have other sheep that are not of the sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. I wanna break down this verse, and first of all, let's just look at I have. Okay, this word have in the Greek comes from echo, which has the meaning of to hold in the hand or to possess. And that evokes images of what happens a little bit later in this chapter where Jesus says, speaking of his sheep, I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand. We are in the palm of Jesus. We are in his hand. No one is going to steal us out of his hand. We are eternally secure if we have depended on him and him alone for our salvation. Okay? So I love that imagery, that we are eternally safe with the Good Shepherd. He has us. And then I also want to take a look at, I have other sheep. I have other sheep. What does this mean? First of all, I think it has two meanings. First of all, I think it means that Jesus here is saying, I have other sheep outside of the confines of Judaism. Now this would have been a radical concept in his day. Although in the Old Testament we do see some allowances for aliens to come into the Israelite community of faith, there was still a certain distance they weren't allowed to approach all the way into the inner court of the temple. They had to remain at a distance. A sign found by archaeologists dated back to the time of Christ is in the Museum of Israel today. and it was found in the outer court area of the temple, the temple that was built there, and it read, foreigners are not permitted beyond this point and will be responsible for their own death. So if you were a foreigner during the day and age of Christ, you would have been allowed to come into the outer court, but not into the inner court, where only those who were within the confines of Judaism, who because of their adherence to the Mosaic law, and because of the bloodline of being a Jew, were allowed to go in. But Jesus here is saying that he has sheep, and I believe in this passage he means that he has sheep outside of that, the confines of Judaism, who he wants in his sheepfold, in his sheep pen. The second area that I think that Jesus means when he says I have other sheep is that he was projecting to the future. He was projecting into the future and seeing that there would be other sheep that would come to him in the future. Ephesians 1, four through five says, for he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will. I think you all believe strongly in the doctrine of predestination, that we were all predestined to be a part of this sheep pen, that we are his sheep and that Jesus saw us before eternity began, before time began, that he knew each and every one of us would be in this sheep pen. So if predestination is all in God's hands, then what part do we play, the question might be asked. Romans 10.14 says, how then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? So there still is that responsibility on us to therefore go and make disciples of all nations. It is on the church of Christ to get out there and to tell other people the good news that there is a good shepherd who loves them, who has given his life that they might have eternal life as well. People need Jesus, and without him we are utterly lost. People need to know who Jesus is. Jesus' heart is for the lost sheep. Let's go to the next slide. He is for the 7,276 unreached people groups of the world, representing 3.4 billion people. That's a mind-boggling number to try to just even understand, that there are still 7,276 unreached people groups. And what do I mean by unreached? This is from the Joshua Project, in case you wanna look it up on the internet. But the Joshua Project came up with a way to define what an unreached people group is based off of if they have less than 2% evangelical Christians within their people group, then they will be considered an unreached group, that there is still 98% of that people group who have yet to have access even to the gospel. And so these are the unreached people groups of the world. Sharon and I recently had the opportunity to go to Chad to visit a very hot and dusty land in the middle of Africa where there are still over 80 unreached people groups that our mission, Africa Inland Mission, is trying to engage in. Not all of them at once, but we're doing bite-size, a few at a time, and trying to see how we can bring the gospel to these people. And in case you're wondering where all these unreached people groups are, this map here gives you an idea. Everywhere you see a red dot, that represents one of these unreached people groups. You've heard the 1040 window, that's the 10 degrees latitude and 40 degrees longitude that you can see where most of these people groups are found. But if you look carefully, you will see some red dots, even in the United States. That means that there are diaspora peoples who have moved from some of these other areas and are now living in the United States. So, lest we think that all of the unreached people groups are in other continents, they're right here. Believe it or not, there are 97 unreached people groups in the United States, representing over 14 million people. And I was trying to hone in on Texas, it's a little hard, I tried to blow it up a little bit, but there are other people groups here that are in the green, and lighter green, and even yellow, and if you see the yellow, that means that they're superficially reached. Now it's obviously a subjective term, but there are people groups even in, I'm sure, Dallas, Fort Worth area, who represent people groups from other countries in the world that have yet to have the gospel introduced to them. in a good way. How about the neighbor that you have down the street that doesn't know Christ? Okay, maybe they're not from one of these classical unreached people groups, but if they don't know Jesus, they are just as needy for understanding and knowing his love. Our verse goes on to say that I must bring them also. And I love the urgency, the passion that Jesus has when he uses this word, I must bring them also. You can see his determination toward reaching the unreached people groups of the world. Matthew 28, 19 says, therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. God's heart is for the unreached, for the lost sheep. 2 Peter 3, 8 says, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. The verse continues saying that they too will listen to my voice. So just as the already existing sheep listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd in the previous verses that we read, Jesus here says that these sheep who have yet to come, that they will listen to my voice. Just in the same way. There's going to be equal intimacy with this flock, the new flock, as there was with the flock during Jesus' day. And to understand the voice of the shepherd, we're going to watch a little video here. I love that video because it shows the intimacy that the good shepherd has with his sheep. I'm not sure if maybe Ted could call in his cows in the same way, I'm not sure. But the sheep listen to the voice of the shepherd because he knows them and they know him and they trust him. My question for you today is what voices are you listening to in your life? What other voices determine your identity, your self-image? Maybe today you're telling yourself you aren't spiritual enough, you aren't good enough. You aren't young enough. You don't have enough theological knowledge. You may have all these voices speaking to you that are pushing you down to be the best that you can be, to experience the abundant life that Christ offers. I want to tell you today, listen to the voice of Jesus. These last two years for me have been a time of wrestling through some of those voices. I've lived my life on the mission field, and because of a series of events, we found ourselves back here in the United States, helping to care for Sharon's mom and one of our kids that was struggling. So we were based here over these past two years, and I found myself pulled away from the front lines of ministry that I had grown to love so much, where I had really gained a lot of my sense of identity even. I felt myself pulled away from being Steve, the guy who likes to learn languages. I was only speaking English every day. Found my body breaking down a little bit. Steve the athlete was no longer as good as he used to be. And I started coming to a point where I even was loathing myself, if I'm going to be honest with you. I started thinking of myself as just kind of washed up and not good for much. But it was into that reality that God began to show me his truth, that the voice of God, the voice of the Good Shepherd broke into that darkness for me. And the thing that I think was the loudest voice that I heard was that God saying, I love you. God said, I love you. And I know that's a theological truth that most of us, we could quote so many scripture verses and sing songs that it's in our head, but how much of the time do we truly lean into that theological profound truth that God loves me? I came to a point where I just cried and cried when I finally, released, surrendered to that truth that I knew was here but I had to release in my heart and believe it and lean into it and trust that God loves me. And it's really transformed my approach even as we look to go back to Kenya and serve to come at it from the point of we love because he first loved us. And that is a basis that can't be taken away. That I can lose all these other things that maybe I'm losing but I have that truth and I can cling to it no matter where I go and it can be the basis, the foundation for ministry. God loves me. I challenge you to wrestle with that truth and think about it and meditate on it because I know it to be true. Finally, this verse finishes up by saying that there shall be one flock and one shepherd. There shall be, thinking of the future, one flock and one shepherd. And I think this is the picture of the final end that God has ordained, where it says in Revelation 7, 9 through 10, after this I looked. And there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne and before the lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands and they cried out in a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. Make no mistake about it, Jesus will win. He will triumph and he will gain people from every nation, language, and people group. Every one of those 7,000 some odd unreached people groups, they will be there in heaven one day gathered around worshiping the good shepherd and worshiping God. The question is, what part in this will you play? And that's the challenge for us. That's the application for us today. I would challenge you to pray for an unreached people group. Pick one of those 7,000 some odd people groups. Pick one and pray for them. How about you pray for them every day? Research what's going on amongst them. Find out, is there a church nearby? Are there missionaries engaging with them? And get to know them and pray for them. Open up your mind to see what God is doing in the world. Give generously to the missional efforts of this church. This church has been a beacon of light and hope for the nations. It's not just us. You have other missionaries that you support. Wonderful. Support them. Write them an email. Encourage them. And here's the final challenge. Be willing to go. Are you willing to go? Maybe God wants you to stay right where you're at, but maybe he wants you to go. I don't know, that's between you and the Lord, but be willing to go. Peter Cameron Scott's heart was for the lost sheep of Africa. Jesus' own heart is for the lost sheep of this world. The question I'm asking you today is yours. Let's pray. Jesus, we worship you today because you are a good shepherd. You have lain down your life for us, the lost sheep. You have called us into your fold, and we are grateful that we can be a part of the fold of Jesus. We're grateful that we have salvation. And God, our hearts cry out for these unreached people groups of the world, the 97 unreached people groups of the United States, the lost people who live right here in Weatherford. Father, we pray that they too might hear your voice, that they might be able to come into your kingdom, God, that you would give us opportunities to share the truth with them, and that upon hearing, they would believe, and that they would lean into the good shepherd. Thank you, Jesus, that you love us so much. May that be the foundation upon which any ministry is sprung forth from this church, that we are eternally loved by the King of kings and the Lord of lords. We're so grateful this morning We thank you in Jesus' powerful name. Amen.