Where is our hope? Is our hope of heaven found in Jesus. Why do we believe we are going to heaven? Is it because we have believed in Jesus. If we believe in Jesus then our hope is not for something that comes after death, our hope is lived out today. If we believe in Jesus, then we will live for him today. He will be the centre of our lives today.
The Good Shepherd isn’t asking to do things, we don’t have to try and find him, he comes to us. We don’t have to atone for our sin, he does that for us. We don’t have to clean our act up, he does that by declaring we are a new creation. We simply allow the shepherd to lead us. We listen to his voice and follow him.
When our goal is the church, we are robbing people of something incredibly important. Jesus. Jesus is the gate; Jesus is the one we must bring people to if we want them to become part of the church. Everything we do is about pointing people to Jesus.
Is God taking away our position in society, is he taking away our security, our ability to survive and function as we always have done, is it so incredibly difficult to get leaders to ensure the church will function, because our hope has been in the things God gave us, rather than in God himself?