06

Jump Start # 4195

Posted on November 6, 2026 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 4195

John 10:13 “He flees because he is a hireling, and is not concerned about the sheep.”

  Our verse today comes from the beautiful picture of the good shepherd. What a powerful illustration for God’s leaders today. The role of the good shepherd was a relational concept, rather than by position or power. In the military, rank gives you authority. However, rank doesn’t necessarily make a good leader. The boss at work is in charge because he is the boss. The owner of the company is in charge because he is the owner. But how they manage people, make decisions and connect may all be based upon the fact that “I am the boss and you are not.”

The in relational model, leadership takes place based upon compassion, care and knowing what’s best. Throughout the John 10 picture, we find the sheep know the voice of the good shepherd and the good shepherd knows the sheep by name. They have spent time with each other. They know each other. There is a trust level there. The sheep will not follow a voice that they do not recognize. Great stuff for all leaders today.

Sprinkled in this context is the difference between the hireling, or hired hand, and the good shepherd. For the hireling, watching sheep is just a job. It’s a means to a pay check. When a wolf appears, the hireling takes off. He runs. He abandons the sheep. He is only thinking about himself.

And, in a very revealing statement, our verse says, he is not concerned about the sheep. Others state it:

  • Phillips: he has no interest in the sheep
  • CEV: they don’t care about the sheep
  • CEB: sheep don’t matter to him

Take this hireling out of the fields of Judea and put him in our setting today. Imagine a cook who doesn’t care about the food? A doctor who doesn’t care about his patients? A mechanic who doesn’t care about cars? You know the results. Disaster.

When one doesn’t care they will not go the extra mile. They won’t pay attention to the details. They work stay late to make sure things are right. A lot of mistakes and trouble follows when one doesn’t care. A student who doesn’t care about grades will flunk. A person who doesn’t care about their health will have a lot of aches and pains. A person who doesn’t care about their house will have messy yards, leaky roofs and a pig pen to live in.

Sadly, sometimes a person is appointed a shepherd in God’s church who doesn’t care about the people. His success in business is what got him appointed and he will run the church like his business. Out of touch, not listening to others, doing what is quick and easy, the church drifts and people become weak and discouraged as long as he is at the helm.

Sheep don’t matter to him – what a statement.

How is care demonstrated? Do I care about others? How do I know?

First, care is shown by doing things without being asked. When people are announced at church as being ill, the one who cares hears that. A card will be sent in the mail. A phone call is made. Food is taken. No one asks or is told to do those things. That’s the natural response to someone who cares.

In many congregations, the announcements are one of the last things said at the close of services. For some, it’s like the two minute warning in a football game. Time to gather things up, put on your coat, and get ready to leave. And, in doing that, the announcements are not heard. Nothing is ever done, because one is more interested in leaving than caring.

Second, care is shown by my private prayers. A brother or sister is home bound because of a surgery. You think about that person. You offer a prayer for their recovery. No one may ever know that you prayed. God does. You’ve taken a moment to think about your church family and you have prayed for them. The sheep do matter to you. You realize that you love them. You need them. They are part of your spiritual family.

Need we say this, how often are our prayers focused and based solely upon ourselves. Our health. Our concerns. Our lives. Our needs. The one who cares is often praying more about others than himself. He loves others. He is always thinking about others. And, when alone, he is praying for others.

Third, it is a shallow and selfish heart that only cares about self. That’s the main difference between the good shepherd and the hireling. When the wolf comes, the hireling is thinking about his safety. He runs. He doesn’t care about the sheep. And, the good shepherd? He’ll stay in there and defend and fight for those sheep. Much like young David who pulled a sheep out of the lion’s mouth, the good shepherd puts the wellbeing of the sheep above his own safety.

Sadly, I’ve heard people moan and complain when a person wanted to be baptized at the end of services. It meant staying longer. It meant they couldn’t eat lunch right away. Rather than rejoicing over the salvation of a sinner and joining with the angels of Heaven in celebrating a heart coming to the Lord, they mumble under their breath because it meant they were delayed in doing what they wanted to do. The hireling only thinks about himself.

Sheep matter to us. They matter because they matter to the Lord. When one is not doing well it ought to grab out attention. We pray. We do what we can. We encourage. We help out. Why? Because the sheep matter to us.

Do sheep matter to you?

Roger

05

Jump Start # 4194

Posted on November 5, 2026 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 4194

 

Matthew 10:24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master.”

 

Throwback Thursday: an article written from the past

A Servant of Christ

 

Servants—that thought isn’t very appealing to us unless we are the ones who have servants. Sure, it’d be rather nice to have someone bring you a glass of ice tea while you sat in your chair. It’d be nice for someone to take care of your clothes, clean them, iron them, hang them up. It’d be nice to be driven around. Being served isn’t a bad thing. Many moms feel like servants.

 

Throughout the N.T., God’s faithful, such as Peter, Paul, John, James, and Timothy are referred to as “bond-servants” of Jesus Christ. This was not a demeaning term. This was not something that was considered “low” on the totem pole. It was what they were. They served Jesus. They were servants of Christ. All that they did was to please God.

 

We’ve gotten away from that expression. We rarely refer to each other as “servants of Christ.” Moving away from this idea has also moved us away from the spirit and the heart of being a servant. Too many want to be served rather than to serve.

 

There are some reminders about servants that we forget. Consider just a few.

 

  1. Servants put the work of Christ before self. The apostles endured many hardships. The pay was pitiful. The conditions harsh. The treatment often violent. Why did they do that? Because they were servants. Servants serve. They fed the master before they fed themselves. They took care of the master before they took care of themselves. Spiritually that’s translated into the apostles traveling, preaching, teaching in all kinds of circumstances for the cause of Christ. The one who looks for the easy way, the cushy job, the most perks, has lost the spirit of a servant.

 

  1. The work of a servant is often long and hard. Servants serve. Many classes. Many sermons. Many studies. Many discussions. Jesus said that the laborer is worthy of his hire. Sometimes things get mixed up in our heads. We get the idea that God is working for us. God serves us. Wrong. We are the servants, not God. We serve Him.

 

  1. Servants often do thankless jobs. The work of servants isn’t done to receive praise. It is to please the Master. There isn’t much ‘climbing the ladder’ among servants. They do things because it is right and it’s what the master wants. If it is attention and praise, the servant will be disappointed. Servants aren’t praised, God is.

 

 

  1. The reward of the servant is that they are engaged in the greatest work in the world and what they have done is recognized by Heaven. Their reward is Heaven. Jesus said even a cup of cold water given to a disciple would be remembered. The prodigal remembered that his father’s servants had more than enough to eat. God is good to His servants.

 

 

  1. The heart of the servant is to love the things that God loves. The servant is interested in the growth of the kingdom. The servant will give up Saturday mornings to serve. He will give up an evening at home to serve. He will stay long after worship has ended to serve. Helping God’s people is his interests. Making things better is his goal. He serves because he loves God.

 

 

I feel that some preachers have forgotten that they are servants. The servant will sacrifice personal interests for the kingdom. He will endure hardships, as Paul reminded the preacher, Timothy.

 

I feel that some elderships have forgotten that they are servants. Some act like bosses. They are good at snapping out orders that they expect others to complete, but when it comes to serving, they are on the short end of that stick. Shame on them. Shepherds serve the flock. There is no way around that.

 

I feel that some brethren have the idea that they have outgrown the servant concept. They show up, want everything to be perfect and if it’s not, they will complain and possibly even leave. Where’s the heart of a servant?

 

Lord, make me a servant.

Roger

March, 2014

04

Jump Start # 4193

Posted on November 4, 2026 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 4193

Acts 5:14 “And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number.”

There is something interesting that happens in the first few chapters of Acts. It is found in Acts 5 and 6 and 8. Where there are problems and challenges, the church continued to grow. Notice this:

  • Acts 5 death of Ananias and Sapphira. This is the first recorded deaths of Christians and they were punished by God for lying. Yet, as our verse today shows, multitudes of men and women were constantly being added. The shame and the death of these two didn’t hinder the growth of the kingdom.

 

  • Acts 6 neglect of some of the widows. A plan and a solution was implemented to take care of this problem. In verse 7, “The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.”

 

  • Acts 8 Saul was arresting men and women who believed and putting them in prison. In verse four, “…those who had be scattered went about preaching the word.”

 

What a great picture and lesson for all of us. Much too often, when trials, troubles and turmoil arise, everything comes to a screeching halt. Evangelism stops. Encouragement stops. Until the storm passes, nothing gets done. But, that’s not what we see in Acts. In the midst of the storm, these early Christians never forgot their mission, their duty and their roles in the kingdom. The word was spread. More were converted. The kingdom grew.

Here are some things to remember:

First, Satan loves to get us sidetracked and bogged down to the point that we no longer do what we ought to do. Satan doesn’t have to defeat us. He just gets us to stop. We can become obsessed with the trials and troubles. Our every prayer, our every thought, our every sermon, our times together becomes one topic, the trials that we are going through.

Looking at our three examples from Acts, lying, neglect and persecution, yet the work carried on. God is greater than these problems. And, God doesn’t give us a time out to sit on the sidelines until things improve. Onward we must go. We have a job to do and we must do it.

Second, through these troubles in Acts, we see the disciples coming together and being united in what they should do. Neglected widows is enough to splinter and split into a Hebrew church and a Hellenistic church. Instead of that happening, a plan was introduced. Acts 6:5 says, “The statement found approval with the whole congregation.” Unity prevailed. This was not going to be a storm that shipwrecked them nor destroyed the good that was being done. Hearts that loved the Lord and loved each other prevailed.

When sides are taken and we begin firing shots at each other, forgetting who the enemy is, Satan smiles. He wants us to turn against each other. But, arm in arm, stepping forward, the problems are dealt with in a Biblical fashion and the work carries on.

Third, these early disciples understood the great opportunity and privilege placed in their hands of sharing the Gospel message with others. If they didn’t do it, no one else would. There is no outside organization that can be paid to do what God wants us to do. If we do nothing, then the growth stops. Who else is going to do this? And, if we allow a problem or challenge to stop us, there will be more challenges and more problems that follow. Work through these things while still being faithful to the cause and purpose of the Lord.

Vision, unity and purpose – that’s what these early Christians had. And, when sin, neglect and persecution tried to slow them down, it was vision, unity and purpose that saved the day.

Does your congregation have problems? Don’t let that stop you from doing the work that God has designed for you.

Roger

03

Jump Start # 4192

Posted on November 3, 2026 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 4192

Hebrews 9:28 “So Christ also having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.”

In our verse today, the closing words, “those who eagerly await Him,” is fascinating to me. There are things in life that we do anticipate. Children count down the days to Christmas. Expectant mothers eagerly await the birth of their child. Workers look forward to retiring. And, there are things in life that we tolerate, put up with, but don’t really look forward to. At election time, it seems just about every commercial on TV is a political ad taking a jab at an opponent. Those get old real fast with me. Medical procedures are something that we put up with and have to have, but we don’t really look forward to them. Paying taxes, sitting through long HOA meetings, waiting for repairmen to come to your house are part of life, but we don’t wake up in the morning excited about these things.

Eagerly awaiting Jesus. Ready for Jesus. Alert. Faithful. And, what’s really interesting about this is that when Jesus comes, He’s not coming to your home for dinner. You won’t get to drive Him around town and show Him some of your favorite things to see. No, when Jesus comes, life as we know it is going to change. And, it’s something we have never experienced before. It’s something that no has gone through before. We eagerly await Him, but what huge and radical changes will come when He comes.

First, according to the words of Peter, this world will be destroyed. Three times in a row Peter says that the world will be destroyed. We won’t be living here any more. We have only known this place. This world has been our home. But, it will end when Jesus comes.

Second, the dead will be raised. That’s what our Lord said in John 5:28-29. All who are in the tomb will come forth. You think about all the cemeteries that dot the landscape of this planet. People who have been gone for centuries. People who are famous. People who are nobodies. All who are in the tomb will be raised. Here at Halloween time, I have seen so many skeletons decorating people’s lawns. Then I think about this massive resurrection that will take place when Jesus comes.

Third, those who are alive will be instantly changed. A new form. A different form. The mortal puts on immortality. We’ve never seen anything like that. What would that feel like? No one knows.

One might think, with all these gigantic changes coming, why would anyone “eagerly await Him?” It’s easy to think that all of this sounds scary. It’s easy to conclude that many will be confused and want to hide.

The eagerly awaiting Him has to do with believing in Christ. It has to do with wanting to be with Him. It is built upon the promises that He will take us to His Father’s home. It is about love, fellowship and knowing that the battles we have fought here will finally be over. The devil will be cast into the lake of fire and never again will he accuse us, tempt us or bother us. It means that the hard and ugly side of this life, such as sorrow and death, such as pain and trouble will be no more. God promises to wipe every tear from our eyes. There is no night in Heaven. There is no evil in Heaven. There is no devil in Heaven.

The eagerly awaiting Him is built upon the spiritual benefits of walking with the Lord. Will we miss earth? Will we miss our homes? Will we miss our favorite things? I doubt it. Because for the faithful of God, where they will be will surpass anything that this world has even at its best.

The book of Revelation ends with the words, “Come, Lord Jesus.” Can you say that? Do you wish it would happen even today? Some day it will be. And, as the children say in their games, “ready or not, here I come,” so the Lord will come. Best be ready. Best be alert. Best be faithful.

Eagerly awaiting…

Roger

02

Jump Start # 4191

Posted on November 2, 2026 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 4191

Ephesians 5:17 “So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

  I’ve been reading a book about Richard McNemar. It is a deep dive into the early American Restoration movement. McNemar was one along with Barton W. Stone at Cane Ridge who parted with the Presbyterians and sought to return to the New Testament way. In just a short while, McNemar got caught up with the Shakers and became one of their most important leaders.

The book is not a light read. There are 53 pages of footnotes. The bibliography is 13 pages long. This is a scholar’s book, referenced and documented heavily. Yesterday, as I was reading this, I came across the word “flummoxed.” A few pages later, McNemar is described as the “plenipotentiary” sent to deliver a message to one of the Shaker villages. I don’t think I have ever used those words in my life. I had a pretty good idea what they meant, but to be sure I had to look them up.

Flummoxed means to be bewildered or perplexed.

Plenipotentiary is a person, especially a diplomat, invested with the full power of independent action on behalf of their government, typically in a foreign country.

Those words are fitting the type of book I was reading. Scholars like to use words that most of us never use.

As I was thinking about flummoxed and plenipotentiary, I was reminded how simple the Lord’s sermon on the mount is. One doesn’t have to run to the dictionary with that sermon. Jesus spoke the language of the people. It is a masterful art to be able to take Bible concepts and principles and make them understandable and easy to grasp.

Our passage today reminds us that we can understand the will of God. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” The truth from Heaven is something that we can know. The Bible can be understood. As Peter preached, the crowds were amazed because they knew him to be untrained and not formally educated. His words were not over the heads of the audience. His words spoke to the heart of the listeners.

We ought to see some lessons here:

First, don’t try to be impressive. Let God’s word be what is impressive. Using words that few understand may make you seem intelligent, but it’s not you, but the word of God that matters. There is a place in understanding the words that God used, but without practical application most will forget what you said before you are even finished talking. Don’t let your advanced learning get in the way of God’s simple message. Making the complex simple and understandable takes more talent and effort than what most realize. Now, making the simple complex may make you seem educated, but if it confuses the audience, you have failed in your mission.

Second, speak the language of the people. Of all the languages in the world, Jesus spoke the words of the common Jew. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is the longest word in the English language. It is the chemical name for titin. I have no idea how to pronounce it. No one I know uses that word. In the audience are all kinds of people, from college educated to those who are still in high school. Speak in such a way that they leave understanding the will of God. Explain and define words as God uses them. Be the bridge so people can come to God and know Him. The old expression, “hiding behind the cross” can be lost by the choice of words that we use.

Third, the use of parables, simple, common stories that the audience could understand put color and life to the principles that the Lord was teaching. What an example for us teachers and preachers. Long, complex stories that only a few get will confuse the audience and make them wonder what is this all about? Don’t forget that not everyone in the audience has seen the movies you may use as an illustration. Simple. Easy to understand. That’s the key to being a good teacher of God’s word.

In Nehemiah eight, as God’s word was being read, it was explained and made sense to the people listening.

Flummoxed…I’m perplexed that the author didn’t just say “perplexed.”

Roger