Text: Psalms 100:1-5
(1) Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
(2) Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
(3) Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
(4) Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
(5) For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
This week, Apostolic Life Cathedral will be celebrating 100 years of existence here in the Guyandotte section of Huntington, WV.
100 years with all the joy and pain, gain and loss, births, graduations, weddings, life and death.
100 years of sound doctrine, new births, and ministries born and sent out.
100 years of capable and visionary leadership: Forbush, Kitchen, Harper.
100 years of shepherds leading God’s people and often going out into the streets, hollers, along creeks and riversides searching for stray sheep who left the safe pasture of the Church.
Look around the cathedral this morning and you will see that there are sheep missing from the fold.
Men and women, boys and girls, missing from this sheepfold.
The Good Shepherd is calling their name, just like he calls your name when you go missing.
Why? Jesus is interested in lost sheep.
“For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.”[1]
Jesus loves His sheep.
Before He went to the Gentiles, He first searched and reached for “the lost sheep of the house if Israel.”[2]
To find that one lost sheep Jesus will lead the 99 to a safe pasture, leave them there and go looking for 1.
1 out of 100 is as valuable to Jesus as the 99.
Do you see Him searching this morning?
Looking high and low for one lost sheep.
Ezekiel 34:12, “As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.”
“…we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”
“(11) For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. (12) How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? (13) And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray” (Matthew 18:11-13).
And what rejoicing there is when He finds that one lost sheep.
There is rejoicing in heaven when one sinner repents.
It doesn’t matter what your station, gender, job, career, education may be.
Everyone can and will at one point in their walk with God stray and be lost,
BUT the Shepherd comes looking, seeking, searching.
Luke 19:10, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
When Jesus Comes to Lodebar
2 Samuel 9:1-13
(1) And David said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?
(2) And there was of the house of Saul a servant whose name was Ziba. And when they had called him unto David, the king said unto him, Art thou Ziba? And he said, Thy servant is he.
(3) And the king said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul, that I may shew the kindness of God unto him? And Ziba said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet.
(4) And the king said unto him, Where is he? And Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he is in the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, in Lodebar.
(5) Then king David sent, and fetched him out of the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, from Lodebar.
(6) Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come unto David, he fell on his face, and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth. And he answered, Behold thy servant!
(7) And David said unto him, Fear not: for I will surely shew thee kindness for Jonathan thy father’s sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father; and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually.
(8) And he bowed himself, and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?
(9) Then the king called to Ziba, Saul’s servant, and said unto him, I have given unto thy master’s son all that pertained to Saul and to all his house.
(10) Thou therefore, and thy sons, and thy servants, shall till the land for him, and thou shalt bring in the fruits, that thy master’s son may have food to eat: but Mephibosheth thy master’s son shall eat bread alway at my table. Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.
(11) Then said Ziba unto the king, According to all that my lord the king hath commanded his servant, so shall thy servant do. As for Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table, as one of the king’s sons.
(12) And Mephibosheth had a young son, whose name was Micha. And all that dwelt in the house of Ziba were servants unto Mephibosheth.
(13) So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem: for he did eat continually at the king’s table; and was lame on both his feet.
Jesus will take His search to Lodebar
Lodebar simply means “pastureless,” or no pasture.[3]
It is a place where lost sheep find themselves.
Barren, rough, no place to forage, no safety, no security…
Lodebar was where the Shepherd-King David found Mephibosheth (“dispeller of shame”),[4] the lost prince.
When the Shepherd finds His lost sheep, He also drives away the shame of the past.
Luke 15:6, “And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.”
Do you feel lost this morning?
“…broken, hurting, marginalized…” do you often think you are “ignored and overlooked or worse, despised and abused.” Maybe it’s “due to your own mistakes of perhaps someone who was supposed to care” for you failed….do you now pass your days in a state of hopelessness, unable to believe that your life will ever be different.”[5]
The Shepherd is searching for you.
He wants to put you at His table.
He will erase the years of shame.
The lost sheep hears the shepherd’s voice:
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”[6]
Text: Psalms 100:1-5
(1) Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
(2) Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
(3) Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
(4) Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
(5) For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
[1] Ezekiel 34:11,
[2] Matthew 10:6, 15:24
[3] Strong’s. H3810.
[4] Strong’s. H4648.
[5] Paraphrased. https://churchsource.com/blogs/ministry-resources/god-of-new-beginnings
[6] John 10:27-28
The Pillar and Ground of Truth 