Not long ago I visited a church where I got to hear The Sheep Sermon again. It had been quite a while, years I guess.

But The Sheep Sermon hadn’t changed a whole lot over the years. It even still had the part about the broken leg.

You may have heard some version of it, but this version started with Isaiah 53:6.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned every one to his own way,

And the Lord has laid on Him

The iniquity of us all.

I noticed that the preacher assumed that the “we” referred to us Christians, right now. He also assumed that the “have gone” means presently, right now.

Then he proceeded to spend a very long time telling us what sheep are like, the essence of which boiled down to his three points:

  1. Sheep are dumb.
  2. Sheep are defenseless.
  3. Sheep are directionless.

Because his description was at times even disgusting, I was thinking maybe there should have been a fourth point:

  1. Sheep are disgusting. (That had to do with how filthy they can be, and I won’t go into it.)

But he didn’t add that one.

He then applied his points to us, the Christians sitting under him right at that time, and told us:

  1. We are dumb.
  2. We are directionless.
  3. We are defenseless.

Then he told us that God would take care of us by being a Provider, a Protector, and another P word that I can’t remember. (Maybe you’ve heard The Sheep Sermon too so you can let me know what it was.)

What’s the part about the broken leg, you may ask if you haven’t been initiated into The Sheep Sermon.

I think it went under the “directionless” part. He said just like a shepherd might have to break the leg of a wandering sheep, so the Great Shepherd, God, might have to break our legs (bring bad things into our lives) in order to get us to obey Him and follow Him. The implication was that this made the sheep useless, at least for a time. (No worries that it’s not in the Bible.)

As it turned out, he didn’t really mention Jesus and how He took the iniquity of us all, I guess because he just ran out of time spending so long telling us all the disgusting details about sheep and that long story about a man getting a traffic ticket (the point of which we never did quite get).

So . . . .

 

 

 

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This article has now been incorporated into the book Untwisting Scriptures to Find Freedom and Joy in Jesus Christ: Book 4 Wolves, Hypocrisy, Sin Leveling, and Righteousness. You can find that book here.

 

 

 

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Go here to download your free Guide, How to Enjoy the Bible Again (when you’re ready) After Spiritual Abuse (without feeling guilty or getting triggered out of your mind). You’ll receive access to both print and audio versions of the Guide (audio read by me). I’m praying it will be helpful.

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