I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep, verse 12,
but he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not,
seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the wolf catches them, and scattereth
the sheep, the hireling fleeth, because he's hireling, and careth not for the sheep. Now
obviously Jesus Christ is the ultimate shepherd, so he has ultimate care and concern for the sheep.
He's not going to leave us high and dry. He'll never leave us or forsake us.
Jesus loves us. He cares for us, and so this applies to Jesus, but also the word pastor
means shepherd, and if you've heard of people having a pastoral way of life,
it doesn't just mean that they all preach to each other. When they have a pastoral way of life,
it means that they take care of sheep. Think about the word pasture. Pasture is where animals graze.
A pastor is a shepherd, but today we don't use the word pastor for shepherd. We use the word
pastor only for a spiritual shepherd, but that's what it means. It's the same thing.
So Jesus is the over shepherd, and we are basically as pastors, we're the under shepherds.
You know, we're like a lieutenant to Jesus shepherding the flock. He's the big shepherd,
and we are the lesser shepherds on this earth, but obviously these principles about a shepherd apply
to us as well as pastors. Now when you see this here, it talks about the hireling versus the
shepherd. Now some people have tried to use this to say, well a pastor should not be paid because
then he's a hireling. Wrong. Because let me ask you this, do shepherds just do it pro bono?
No. Are shepherds just doing it as a hobby? Are shepherds just doing it on the side or do shepherds
do that as their livelihood? I mean think about it, like I know a guy who's a literal shepherd,
Eric up on the Navajo reservation, and for those who know him, and uh you know he's a shepherd.
I mean he has like well over a hundred sheep and goats, and he takes care of these, and I told him,
I said hey we're both shepherds. You know, I said I'm a shepherd, you're a shepherd. He's taking
care of the physical flock, I'm taking care of a spiritual flock, but guess what? He profits from
the flock. It's not just a hundred and some pets that he has. Okay, and guess what the Bible says
specifically about pastors? The Bible says the laborer is worthy of his hire. The laborer is
worthy of his hire. So it's not saying that not getting paid or getting paid is the difference
between the shepherd and the hireling. You go to your job, right, and you get paid, don't you?
But here's the thing, you're not the owner of the company.
So you're a hireling. Agreed? You're a hireling. That doesn't make you a bad person, it's just
you're a hireling. Now let me ask you this, does the owner of the company just he doesn't take any
money? It's just a hobby for him, it's just something he does on the side, it's something
he does out of the goodness of his heart. No, see the owner of the company is also getting paid.
The hireling is also getting paid. What's the difference? The difference is the stake that
he has in the company's success. Have you ever known people where at their job they don't really
care how well the company does, they just kind of care about getting their own paycheck? Don't you
think there are a lot of people who have that attitude? Nuts to the company. Who cares if the
company makes money? They just care about how much they're going to get paid. So you'll go to places
and get bad customer service sometimes because they're like, I'm getting the same amount per
hour. Nuts to you. Instead of having the right attitude that the customer is always right.
That's like been forgotten a long time ago, that principle. We need to bring that back, amen?
The customer is always right. But today you go to a lot of places and you get bad service
because everybody's making minimum wage and they don't care. But here's the thing,
that's why you're still making minimum wage. Because you know what? If God looks down from
heaven and he sees you making minimum wage and doing a great job, you know what God's going to
do? God's going to give you an opportunity to make more money. God's going to open a door for
you to make more if you give it your best. Because when God sees us working, he will compensate us.
And if he sees you saying, well, you don't pay much, you don't get much.
Well, then he's going to be like, okay, sounds like a plan. You'll just keep not getting paid
much then because you don't do much. But what's the difference? Imagine if you will,
a manager of a company responding to something like, say the building's on fire
versus a minimum wage employee when the building's on fire. He might just be like,
yeah, let's get out. Who cares? The managers or the owner is probably more likely to grab a fire
extinguisher and get in there and try to fix things. You see what I'm saying? Here's the thing,
if the place is being robbed or something, if you work there, you're not going to try to defend it.
And I'm not saying you should, because it's probably better just to give them the money
and just, it's not worth your life to protect anything, even if you own the place. But I'm
saying who do you think's more likely to pull out the gun and actually risk his life
to defend his goods, the owner or the workers? I know these aren't perfect illustrations.
I'm just trying to kind of give you some illustrations to get you to understand the
difference between the shepherd and the hireling. What about this? Now let's get an even better
illustration that's closer to home. How about the one who's babysitting the kids versus the parents
of the kids? In an emergency, if something goes bad, somebody's drowning, somebody's in a fire,
somebody's under attack, who do you think is going to do more to save their kids, the mother
or the babysitter? And look, they're probably both going to do what they can, but if it comes
to risking their own life, the mother is going to not even think about it. She's just going to
jump in and do it instinctively. And hopefully other people would as well. But the point is,
especially when it comes to property, when it comes to an animal, who do you think is going to
be more likely to risk themselves for the sheep, the shepherd or the hireling? You know, the shepherd,
these are his sheep. He sees them every day. He calls them by name. He knows them. He cares about
them. He takes care of them. He owns them. He has ownership of them and he cares and has concern.
Whereas the hireling can just go get another job. He can get another gig. He's not going to go face
off with some rabid wolf. Whereas the owner might. He might get in there and hazard himself for the
sheep. Am I right? Well, here's what the Bible is talking about here. He's talking about that
the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. The good shepherd will face the wolf. Look at
verse 12. He that is in hireling and not the shepherd, and here's the colossal difference,
what's the difference? Whose own the sheep are not. So it's ownership that's the difference.
Does everybody see that? Whose own the sheep are not, see at the wolf coming and leave at the sheep
and flit and the wolf catch at them and scatter at the sheep. Now here's the thing, this is why
a lot of people don't understand the decisions that I make as a pastor because they don't have
the heart of a pastor or they've never done the job of a pastor so they don't understand
my perspective as a pastor. And this is why my perspective as a pastor is always going to be
different than the perspective of say a Christian radio host or a Christian tv channel or a Christian
business or whatever. As a pastor I'm going to have a different perspective. I'm going to have
different priorities. I'm going to make different decisions because I'm the shepherd. Now I don't
own the sheep but the sheep are my own. I love the sheep, right? This is my family. This is my
church, right? And you feel the same way, amen? I mean you love faithful word. You love the church.
It's like an extended family. I mean church is a place where our friends are and we're invested
in it. We love it. We care about it. We're not just like every man for himself. It means something to us.