https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+10%3A22-33&version=ESV (John 10:22-33) A painful thing in life, which people struggle with, is the matter of insecurity. I suspect we all have an insecurity or two rolling around in our heads and a variety of questions we wonder and worry about: • Am I doing good enough at work? • Have I saved enough? • Have I done a good job of raising my kids and taking care of my family? • Am I pretty enough (or handsome) enough? • Am I smart enough to do that? • Will my health be well enough to take care of myself as I get older? • Is my heart well enough to avoid a stroke or heart attack? • Do my kids love me enough to take care of me if I need their help? • When I die, will my spouse have enough money and capability to take care of herself (or himself)? • Am I safe enough in this troubled and violent world? • Have I done enough good to be received into heaven? The list goes on and on. Living in this broken world of ours makes it difficult to avoid having a few insecurities. Did you notice the word “enough” seems to be a major culprit in our insecurities? Our questioning? It implies a sense of inadequacy. One of my favorite preachers of God’s Word, Stuart Briscoe, said a number of years ago, “Deep down, we have a sense of individual insecurity to cooperate with other people.” Maxwell Maltz who wrote the book, “Psycho Cybernetics,” estimates 95% of people in our society have a strong sense of inadequacy. I have no difficulty believing that figure. My only surprise is why the other 5% aren’t feeling insecure. Jesus, in our passage for today, has some reassuring words, which have proven helpful for me in facing – even overcoming – insecurities in life. I’m sure you will find them helpful for yourself as well. The words stem from a conversation Jesus was having with some of His adversaries who are trying very hard to wreck His reputation and ministry. They even went so far as to do Him in once and for all. They surrounded Him in Solomon’s colonnade around the temple area and asked, “How long will you keep us in suspense, Jesus? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus responded to them by saying, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you refuse to believe because you are not among my sheep.” Then Jesus speaks these wonderful words about the blessing of belonging to Him as one of His sheep. My sheep hear my voice. So many voices speak out to us, offering misguided, harmful information that can harm us saying, Follow my advice and wisdom, and I will show you how to live the good life. Satan is always busy seeking to make a wreck of our lives and destroy us. He throws temptations our way and says, Go ahead! Give into it. You will enjoy it. Nobody will get hurt. You deserve it! Jesus promises to speak into our lives. He is our Shepherd. Though usually not audibly, He speaks to us as we open His holy Word. He assures us of His love. He shows us His way. His voice is a voice of wisdom and truth, which protects me, guides me, and gives me real life. It is the voice of real love reassuring me that I belong to Him. I recently read this story by David Prince. I know a family who adopted an older child from an unspeakably horrific orphanage in another country. When they brought her home one of the things they told her was she was expected to clean her room every day. She fixated on the responsibility and saw it as a way to earn her family’s love. In other words, she isolated the responsibility and applied it to her existing frame of thinking, which was shaped by life in the orphanage. Thus, every morning when her parents came to her room, it was immaculate. She would sit on the bed and say, “My room is clean. Can I stay? Do you still love me?” Her words broke her new parents’ hearts. Eventually the girl learned to hear her parents’ words as their unconditionally beloved child who would never...