May 7, 2017                      Children’s Sermon

                                                                    

         What do you know about sheep? Sheep eat grass. We get wool from sheep. Sheep travel in flocks, but sometimes get lost. Baby Sheep are called lambs.  Anything else….

         Well, one other interesting thing about sheep is that they are prey animals. Left alone, they might get eaten by wolves or bears. That’s why they have shepherds to protect them. And because they are prey animals, they get scared very easily. I was once on a sheep farm and reached into a sheep pen to pet one of them. The sheep jumped, and then the sheep next to it jumped, and suddenly there was a wave of jumping sheep, because they all got scared. Now if the sheep weren’t in a pen, they might have scattered and run, got lost, or even trampled each other.       

In our gospel reading this morning, Jesus refers to himself as the Good Shepherd, and to those who follow him as sheep. Now some people don’t like being referred to as sheep, because they think that sheep aren’t smart.  But that’s not why Jesus refers to us as sheep. Jesus refers to us as sheep because like sheep, when we get scared, we might jump, run, get lost, or even hurt ourselves or others. 

         But the good news is, that we don’t have to be scared, we have a Good Shepherd who loves and cares for us. And when something happens that makes us afraid, we can turn to our Good Shepherd in prayer, and trust that He will care for us, and keep us safe.

         So the next time your afraid, remember that you have a Good Shepherd who will take care of you!