"FEED MY SHEEP"

“FEED MY SHEEP”

Sunday, September 8, 2024

Pastor Carolyn Sissom

As the Lord is again calling and aligning His Great Church for the coming Harvest, and as we hear the Lord calling forth the Evangelists, the call of the True Shepherd is once again being heard in the land.  After COVID and even before, as the whole earth is being shaken, the sheep are scattered upon the mountains, “as sheep having no shepherd…”  Even God’s itinerant ministers, traveling from place to place are searching for fresh oil, clean water, and green pastures to set their feet upon and then go forth refreshed by a pure stream of worship and God’s word.

Matthew 18: 10-14: Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.  For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.  What do you think?  If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?  And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.  Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

Luke 5:32: I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Luke 15:4-7:  What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?   And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, “rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!”  I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

My people have been lost sheep… Shepherds have turned them away on the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting place (Jer. 50:6).

 Yes, Presidents, kings, and government leaders are also shepherds and surely the people of God in the U.S.A. as well as other nations’ civil shepherds have caused them to go astray. 

Let not the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ and His True Shepherds cause the sheep to go astray. 

The Church of Jesus Christ has a deep divide within.  It is not a division of black and white, Jew and Greek, male or female, rich or poor,   It is a division of good and evil.  Part of the church, like this fellowship, believe the Lord God is the sovereign over all nations. We stand against abortion, same-sex marriage, sex trafficking, non-binary gender identification, religion of global warming, illegal immigration, corruption of endless wars, liberal education, lawlessness, etc.  There are other Christians who believe the rule of government has nothing to do with their Christian faith.  Thus, they totally separate their faith from the rule of Civil Law and their responsibility to govern as Kings and Priests.

These are not just apostate Christians, but people within our own circles of friends who are calling the militant church to stand down in the name of “unity and peace.”  This is blindness of the people.

Isa. 42:13-14:  The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war; he shall cry, yea, roar, he shall prevail against his enemies.  I have held my peace for a long time.  I have been still and refrained.  Now will I cry like a travailing woman.  I will destroy and devour at once. 

So, I speak today of two Shepherds, the King who rules a nation and the Priest, who shepherds the flock of the Lord’s pasture.  Both are to be held accountable to the One True Shepherd, Jesus Christ.

Ginny Bell gifted me with a copy of the latest book by Jonathan Cahn, The Dragon’s Prophecy.  I have only read a few pages, but he defines evil: “Evil was not created… What is it that makes evil, evil?  Evil is an inversion --- an inversion of truth of reality, of existence.” 

We clearly understand that evil became the Devil and we choose whether to choose evil or good.  There is an evil of  division in our nation.  It is now dividing Christian from Christian, and even families. (Mt. 10:21).  

We are not our own,” for we have been “bought with a price.”  The Psalmist said, “We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.”  We are God’s inheritance.

Many have never caught the vision of the “glorious church” that God has promised to bring into being… with every member walking in the Spirit and vitally joined unto Christ in abiding fruitfulness; and many others who have seen the vison have grown weary along the way and have succumbed to the temptation to just “go to church” or just “go to the ballgame.”

Jesus promised us that the time would come when he would gather His scattered sheep into one-fold, and that the sheep would “go in and out and find pasture” (Jn. 10:9). He has promised us that He would lead us by springs of living water, and satisfy our soul in drought.  He has assured us that in time of the gathering together of His sheep, there would be “ONE fold and ONE Shepherd: (Jn. 10:16).  God desires for Himself a people who will come into intimate union and relationship with Himself…  But invariably, in the history of God’s people, the sheep of God’s pasture have grown weary in pursuing this call unto fellowship with Him; and as the vision begins to dim, they become impatient in spirit, and are willing to conform to patterns of life and conduct that they observe in the world system around them.

Men and women then build their own kingdom devising a pecking order based on their own egos, and their own righteousness.

Like Israel of old, the Church has given its power over to “Kings” over our nation who have taken our fields and crops, our money, our health care, the education of our children, the authority over our children, ammunition for the god of war (forces) which the kings worship, and provide ships and ammunition to fight wars.

And so the Call of the Shepherd continues to go forth in the earth… calling the sheep of His pasture into this intimate union and relationship with Himself.  The sheep are responding for they know the Shepherd’s voice, and a stranger they will not follow.

In this season of worldwide chaos and overturning, for a season the sheep may seem to be a little uncertain as the call of the shepherds and the cry of the hirelings mingle together, but this is all part of the process the sheep must undergo as they seek to learn His voice and understand what Jesus is saying.  Then all perplexity gives way to positive assurance, as we are able to discern both good and evil…”And discerning what is GOOD and what is EVIL, we are able to find in Christ sufficient grace to follow that which is GOOD and to abhor that which is EVIL.  The line of demarcation between the two will clearly be defined, and no longer will they call evil GOOD and GOOD evil.

 “The good must be freely chosen and thus requires a free will… since evil is spiritual and beyond flesh and blood, its origin must be found beyond flesh and blood, beyond the human, in the realm of the spiritual” (Cahn).

Isa. 56:11: They are shepherds that cannot understand; they all look to their own way, every one for his own gain, from his quarter…

God has a Shepherd’s heart.  He is greatly concerned about the “sheep of His pasture,” and in this hour He is sending forth the voice of the true shepherds to lead His sheep back into the pastures of truth and righteousness.

Ez. 34: 6-16: My sheep wandered through all the mountains; and upon every high hill; yea my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.  Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: “As I live, says the LORD GOD, surely because my flock became a prey and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock; therefore O ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: “Thus says the LORD GOD; Behold I am against the shepherds, and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves anymore; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.  For thus says the LORD GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out… I will feed my flock and I will cause them to lie down, says the Lord God.  I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away; and will bind up that which was broken and will strengthen that which was sick…

To be a pastor is a serious matter.  As far as I know, I have never abandoned anyone sent to me by the Lord.  However, God alone is the TRUE SHEPHERD of the sheep.  Shepherds appointed here on earth are only true as far as we walk in the ways of the True Shepherd.  His ways and requirements are not our ways.  We must also do the works of the True Shepherd.  The Office can only be conferred upon them by God and not by man. 

It would take a book (not just a sermon) to cover the subject of God’s commission to Peter “Feed My Sheep.” (John 21: 15-17).

Rev. 7:17: For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. 

The people of this pasture, Eastgate Church, have no fear when our Shepherd speaks to us “Come up hither.”  Fear not to ascend the unknown pathways that lead to higher heights in God, as long as we hear the Shepherd calling.  If others have found sufficient pasture on the Eastern paths of Jordan, like the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh… then the call to move forward and upward into the hills and mountains is not for them.  But there are those of us whose eyes have moved into the heavenly realms into a perfect union with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Perhaps we will rest along the way, but the call is ever, “Come up hither.” (Rev. 4:1; 11:12).

Carolyn Sissom, Pastor

Eastgate Ministries Church, 10115 West Hidden Lakes Lane, Richmond, TX

Scripture from N.K.J.V. and K.J.V. I entered into the labors of “Feed My Sheep” by George H. Warnock; quote as indicated from Jonathan Cahn, The Dragon’s Prophecy.  Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of those who I entered into their labors.