Living with yourself is sometimes frustrating. You kinda screw this thing up a lot, don’t you? It’s as if the “do good” button in you is broken and you can’t get it fixed. You do good, until you aren’t doing good anymore … then you’re back on the struggle bus where you seem to have an assigned seat.



Were you created to always struggle? Were you designed to fail? Are you destined for this continual up and down, in and out, doing good/then stuck again routine for all your days?



No honey, you’re just created to need Jesus. You’re designed to follow him. You’re destined to a relationship with the one who can guide you exactly where you need to go.



Have you seen the video of the sheep who keeps jumping in the ditch? I’m including the link in today’s transcript (https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Ef7i1DdxW/ ). I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve watched this video because it perfectly summarizes my walk with Jesus. It’s hilarious and it’s painfully true at the same time. Just in case you haven’t seen it let me explain. Along a dirt road, there’s a long, narrow ditch dug out. In the ditch is a sheep stuck head first. A young man comes and pulls on the sheep’s leg to free him from the ditch. The sheep stands up, shakes off the dirt, and joyfully jumps and runs with the expression, ‘yahoooo, I’ve been saved.’ Exactly 4 seconds later, with one valiant leap, it lands itself squarely back into the same ditch. Head first, feet up, stuck again.



Yip, that’s me. Is that you? In need of continual rescue. Always getting ourselves stuck in something. Free until we’re not free.



Like I said, it’s exhausting living with our own selves sometimes. Didn’t we just get out of the last mess? Didn’t God just rescue us from our last fiasco, now we’re in one again? Seems to me like at some point God’s gonna get tired of pulling us out every 4 seconds from our ditch diving. And how about our children who continually get themselves stuck in ditches. Is God going to just leave them there?



Ahhhh, do you remember the episode from last week titled “Sheep Not Pigs.” Let’s revisit. Jesus said in John 10: 14-15, “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep.”



We aren’t left alone to wander through our lives. We don’t have to figure this out on our own, which is really good news because if you’re like me, you still haven’t figured it all out. Guess what … you never will! You’re not supposed to know! Isn’t that reassuring!



You’re not inherently broken with a messed up compass, you’re divinely designed to need a shepherd.



Sheep don’t live without a guide, neither do you. Your guide is always with you. You are never alone. He knows the way and all you have to do is continually stay close to him.



The Shepherd goes before the sheep to make a way for them. He ensures the path is safe, the way is clear, the enemies are removed.



Just imagine a shepherd removing briars that would entangle the sheep. See him staring at the cliff knowing the sheep would surely stumble and fall, so he makes a path where it is safe instead. Envision him leading the sheep down that path, continually looking back to make sure all are staying close to him because he knows the dangers nearby. He knows how they could get stuck. He knows how they could fall. But he makes a way by going ahead of them, then calls them on behind him.