Many are familiar with the story of the Titanic. In 1912 it was the largest ship of its day. It had the best of everything: the best engines, the best accommodations. It also had a state of the art flood control system that was said to make the ship unsinkable. And yet, even with all that, we know what happened on its maiden voyage from England to New York. It struck an iceberg and sank, with the loss of over 1000 lives.

After nearly 100 years since that tragedy, one thing that I can’t help but think is that the tragedy could have been avoided. Everyone knew that icebergs were in the sea at that time. In fact there were radio reports that icebergs were seen in the area that Titanic would be sailing. Where they should have taken it very slowly through these know ice fields, they instead raced through them at almost full speed. Once an iceberg was spotted dead ahead, they were going too fast to stop or to turn away so the ship struck it and its hull gave way.

Why were they going so fast through dangerous waters? One big reason was headlines. They were the fastest ship in the world so why not break a speed record on its maiden voyage. Another reason is probably more human – there own stubbornness. The Titanic was a technological marvel, it could survive anything. Why worry about warnings when it was suppose to be indestructible? Why take it slow when you can survive anything?

The point of telling this long story is that there are probably times in our lives when we show the same stubbornness. Do we ignore warnings? Do we believe in our own indestructibility? Do we rush into things without thinking? Then the next thing we know, we have struck an iceberg of life. Our lives are going too fast to slow down. We cannot turn from our present direction. Our lives begin to feel like we are sinking with not enough lifeboats.

Is that you? What are the icebergs in your life? Is it finances or illness or sin? What is it that makes your life feel like you are sinking? The Bible tells us that our problem is that we often go astray in this world. Isaiah 53:6 says, "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way."

Bible often compares human beings to sheep. While we may resist such a comparison, when we look at some of the characteristics of sheep, we see that it is not too far off. Sheep are gentle creatures overall, but stubborn. They are easily distracted by other things. There was a story told about how one day a shepherd had to watch in horror as his sheep starting walking off a cliff. What happened was the lead sheep got distracted by a blade of grass it saw in the distance and decided to eat it. However, what the sheep did not know was that between it and that blade of grass was a cliff. As the lead sheep went after that grass, all the other sheep followed, too stubborn to notice the cliff or all the sheep ahead that were disappearing.

While it may be easy to laugh at the sheep, how many times have we focused on that blade of grass in our lives? That blade of grass can be just about anything that we believe can satisfy our every desire, but instead causes us to fall and stumble off a cliff? As we saw with the Titanic, their blade of grass was a speed record they wanted to break.

However, despite all the negative things about sheep, there is one good thing about sheep that we can apply to our lives. Sheep know the voice of their shepherd. In fact, so great is the bond between sheep and their shepherd that they will only listen to that voice. If a false shepherd tries to order the sheep around they will not listen. Sheep need their shepherd. The Shepherd is one who protects the sheep from predators like wolves, but also guides them through dangerous paths.

We too, as sheep, have the voice of our shepherd in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one who protects us from the great predator himself – Satan. Jesus also guides us through the dangerous paths we have in this life. Our shepherd, Jesus Christ, says only one thing to us, "follow me." We as Christians follow that voice of our shepherd. However, unlike real sheep, there are times we do not follow the voice of our shepherd. Maybe when times are hard, we look to another false shepherd who is promising us salvation, but delivers only destruction. The great predator himself, Satan, tries to distract us the voice of our true shepherd, Jesus Christ. We become stubborn and follow the promises of those other false shepherds who offer to fulfill our every desire, but instead bring destruction.

In our text today, we read our Jesus extended the metaphor of a shepherd by saying he is the door. The image may be hard for us to understand today, but what Jesus is saying is that he is the door to the sheepfold. At night sheep were gathered together inside a sheepfold, which was pretty much a fence that kept the sheep in and predators out. The only way in or out was through the door. A good shepherd would sleep at that door so if a predator wanted to get the sheep he would have to get through the shepherd. A good shepherd would rather die than let a predator get through the door.

Jesus as our good shepherd is the door that keeps the great predator himself from devouring us. Our good shepherd gave his life on the cross to protect us from Satan. By giving up his life, the great predator was unable to destroy us. That is what Jesus’ death on the cross did for us: save us from destruction by giving us forgiveness and eternal life.

Whenever we hear the voice of our good shepherd calling "follow me," as Christians we follow that voice. We keep hearing the voice of the true shepherd, Jesus Christ; as he leads us through the path we call life. There will be other voices from false shepherds who tell us that we can break a speed record or that we need that blade of grass on the other side of the cliff. But there is only one voice that can lead to the promise land: the voice of true shepherd Jesus Christ. In our lives, when we are hearing other voices that are distracting us, remember to listen for the voice of Jesus Christ our shepherd as he will lead us through the icebergs of life. Amen.