Sheep in the Ditch

Billy Graham was saved under the preaching of Mordecai Ham. And one day, Billy Graham asked an older evangelist for advice. Mordecai Ham looked him in the eye and said, Billy, don't ever lose your sweetheart love for Jesus.

I believe, friend, that a walk with God is an intimate love relationship. But I also believe that there are some here tonight who may have lost their sweetheart love for Jesus. Be honest, friend.

Are you head over heels in love with Christ in a red-hot love relationship with Him? Or has the flame gone out? One of the saddest things in a marriage is when the flame goes out. Your sweetheart is no longer sweet. The passion's gone.

The love once so thrilling and exciting has become mere routine. Let me ask you, friend, and please be honest before God, because God loves you so. He loved you so much, He sent His only begotten Son to suffer, bleed, and die on a cruel cross of infamy so you could have life and be reconciled back to God.

But perhaps your walk with Jesus has become dry and mere routine. You've lost your sweetheart love for Jesus, but He hasn't lost it for you. Perhaps someone else has replaced His priority in your life, or something else has replaced it.

I remember a story about a teenage boy who grew up on a farm, and that boy had a dog. And every morning as that boy stepped out onto the front porch, that dog would be waiting for him, and it would wag his tail, so happy to see his master. And off they'd go on a romp through the woods or down by the stream.

But wherever that teenage boy went, that dog went with him. Then one summer, the teenage boy met a freckled-faced, red-headed girl, and he could not wait to see her. He'd come bounding out the front door, and jump on his bike to go see that red-headed girl, and his dog at first would tag along.

But soon the boy grew tired and weary of his faithful friend, and treated the dog cruelly, so would not bother him and the girl. Finally, he beat the dog so badly that the dog ran off and was never seen again. Are you like that teenage boy? Has another or another thing made your love for Jesus go cold? You'd rather spend time doing just about any other thing than spend time with him.

The title of my message this evening, friends, is Sheep in the Ditch. And my text can be found in the Gospel of John, in Chapter 10. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in verses 11 through 15. This is the great chapter about the shepherd and the sheep. Let me read this tender passage of Scripture to us at this time.

And it is my prayer that the Holy Spirit will attend the reading of God's Word. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

But he that is a hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are night, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth. And the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is a hireling, and careth not for the sheep.

I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.

That's a comforting passage, friends. Jesus is called our good shepherd. Believers are called sheep.

A sheep is a dumb animal. One jumps into a ravine, and three more will fall in after it. A sheep can't defend itself.

It has no claws or sharp teeth. It is harmless, helpless, and hopeless if it falls into a ditch, because it cannot even extradite itself from that ditch, but will only lay on its back or side and bleat until the shepherd comes to its rescue. Then once the shepherd rescues it, puts it up on its shoulders, and brings it back to the fold, it pours oil on its wounds, and balm on its sores, and then that sheep will hug close to that shepherd and stay near his side.

Sheep have a tendency to stray from the shepherd, and they often wind up in a ditch. Maybe you, friend, are off in a ditch in a backslidden condition, and try as you may, you can't get out of your ditch unless the shepherd comes to rescue you. But first you have to admit you are in a ditch and away from God.

Perhaps it is the ditch of your career or business that has stolen your affections from Jesus. Your business takes all your time, and you have no time for God or spiritual things. Jesus is no longer first place in your life.

Another is. Perhaps you spend your time on things of this world, and you have forgotten to spend time with Jesus. I remember a story that Leonard Ravenhill told about a friend of his.

He said every time he got with this particular friend, all this man wanted to talk about was Jesus. All he wanted to speak about was Christ and the gospel. He made you thirsty for Christ.

Do you know someone like that, friend? Then one day, this man began to collect stamps, and one day he called up Leonard Ravenhill and said, Come on over to my house for lunch, and I will show you my new collection of British Colonials. I just paid $50,000 for them. And Leonard Ravenhill said, This man no longer wanted to talk about Jesus, but only stamps.

A little harmless thing like a stamp came between him and Jesus. He no longer wanted to talk about things of eternal worth. He just wanted to talk about stamps.

What is it with you, friend? Could it be golf or a hobby? I used to let golf steal my affections from God. Then one day, God told me what golf really stood for as it pertained to my life. G-O-L-F Golden Opportunities Lost Forever Sheep in the ditch Whatever ditch may it be, it separated your affections from Christ Jesus.

Maybe you are in the ditch of disappointment. That's a bad ditch to be in, friend. Someone has let you down.

Friends, people will disappoint and let you down. Listen to me, friend. The best of men are only men at best.

They will let you down. And that disappointment has come between you and God. Maybe you are in a ditch of discouragement and you feel God doesn't love you anymore.

Oh, friend, Jesus loves you. He loves you more than you'll ever know the sight of heaven. Is Jesus still wonderful to you? There's a story about Duncan Campbell whom God used mightily in revival in the Scottish Hebrides in 1949.

One day, he was upstairs in his study preparing a sermon and he heard his teenage daughter downstairs in the kitchen singing a hymn. He went downstairs and asked her why she was singing at six o'clock in the morning. She replied, Oh, Daddy, I just spent an hour with Jesus in my Bible.

Isn't Jesus wonderful, Daddy? Isn't Jesus wonderful? Duncan Campbell turned and walked back upstairs thinking to himself, Jesus isn't wonderful to me. Here he was, a man, a pastor preparing a sermon and he had lost his sweetheart love for Jesus. Oh, friend, are you a sheep in a ditch? Are you away from the shepherd of your soul? Maybe the ditch you're in is a ditch of trial and hard circumstance and rather than bringing you closer to God it has distanced you from him.

You feel God has forgotten about you. Perhaps you're in a ditch of care and worry and your eyes have been on your troubles and not on Jesus and you're sinking. Maybe, friend, you are in the ditch of grief.

God's removed a loved one and you feel God is unfair. Your heart has become hard. Maybe you're in a ditch of bitterness and unforgiveness towards another and it's poisoning your walk with God.

Why, every time you see or think of that person who offended you, you seethe with anger and that root of bitterness has come between you and God. Perhaps you are in a ditch of sin and you are sick of sinning but your heart is away from God and you need grace to get out of your ditch and whatever ditch you're in, friend, if you're honest with yourself, you must admit it separated you from your sweetheart love and for your savior. And if that's your case, as you sit here right now, then your story is more tragic than the boy and his dog because, although the dog's feelings were wounded, it was only a dog.

You have wounded the heart of God by your backslidden condition because it has hardened your heart to spiritual things. Admit it, friend, for the prodigal son to return to his father, he had to first admit his pitiful condition. How is it with you? How is it with you, friend? Jesus is your faithful friend.

He will never forsake you. He will never let you down and he will never let you go even if you let him down and let him lose priority in your life. He still loves you like that dog still loved that boy even though cruelly treated.

Billy, said Mordecai Ham, don't ever lose your sweetheart love for Jesus. How about you, friend? How about you? Are you willing to ask the Lord right now to come fetch you out of your ditch? Are you ready for the good shepherd to come and pour the oil of repentance on you to bring you back into a right relationship to him? God says in Malachi, return to me and I will return to you. I think what we need right now is some time of quiet.

I'm going to stop preaching so someone here can get serious with God. Listen, friend, God gets serious with those who get serious with him. I'm going to lead us in a prayer and then I'm going to get quiet and turn us over to God and will you just let me pray? Lord Jesus, things get in the way.

They get in the way sometimes and we lose sight of you and when we lose sight of you, we lose our sweetheart love for you. Other things capture our attention and steal our affections from you. We might love others more than you.

We might love other things more than we love you. You know the reason, Lord, that what the cause is while we've walked away from you. Our affections are less than what they should be for you.

We've let something come between us and when that happens, we backslide away from thee like a heifer gone away backward. Turn our hearts, great God, I pray. Turn our hearts back to thee.

Forgive us for turning away from thee. Grant us the grace of repentance. You say in thy word, return to me and I will return to you.

Grant us the grace to turn back to you. Dear Jesus, put a flame back in our heart for thee so we can enter back into a red hot love relationship with thee. Oh, great God, give us back our sweetheart love for Jesus.

I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus Christ. Amen.