Time to kick things off!  It’s time for a new season to begin!  Are you excited as I am??  Yes, Pastor, we know you are excited that Sunday School and Bible Studies and the church’s fall programs begin again today…  Yes, I am.  But that’s not what I’m talking about!  I’m talking about football!  The NFL kicks off today!  At 1:00pm, my team, the Packers, begin their 2007 season against the Eagles.  I’m filled with excited, nervous anticipation!

I’m also excited because in a very generous gesture, my wife allowed me to get tickets to go to a Packer game this season!  In November, when we are in Detroit for family Thanksgiving, it happens that the Packers are playing in town.  So last week, I tried to get tickets on the internet when they went on sale.  Even though they sold out in 15 minutes, I was lucky enough to get some!  Think I was excited?  It’s been a while since I have been to a game…

Twelve years ago, my friends and I went to a game in Wisconsin.  Only this time, we didn’t have any tickets!  These were the days the Packers were going to Super Bowls, and tickets were scarce.  The only place to find them was from people selling them in the parking lot.  So we went and took in all the festivities going on outside the stadium, and sure enough, found someone selling tickets we could afford.  The only catch was, they were all single tickets!  None of my friends or I got to sit next to each other.  We sat alone.  But we got in!

No one wants a single ticket!  (That’s why they were available!)  Who wants to sit alone?  Would it be worth it?  Would it even be fun?  Wouldn’t I be lonely watching this game all by myself?  I wondered.  But then I got in.  I saw the players on the field.  I saw the crowd in the stands.  The whole spectacle of the event.  And something about being in a crowd is exhilarating!  Contrary to what I feared, not once did I feel lonely in my seat.  I felt a part of everyone there!  This is our team!  I gave high fives!  People were sharing snacks!  I got hugs!   By other men!

How is that possible?  How could I sit as an individual in a crowd of 70,000 people and not feel a little alone?  How did that day end up being a great experience for me?  I have thought about that.  Pondered it.  Researched it.  And I have come up with the answer to why that is true.  Are you ready for it?  Here’s the secret to why a single person in the midst of a stadium crowd doesn’t feel alone:  … The Tail-gate Parties!

Before the big Celebration Event begins, before the big Stadium gathering for the game, the “small groups” meet in the parking lot!  Nobody walks into that stadium thinking “I don’t know anyone.”  They got to know people in the parking lot in small groups!  I didn’t mind sitting alone in the stands because I already had been filled up with friendship and fellowship all day long with the friends I ate with and had fun with in the parking lot!

Tail-gate parties are so much fun!  Especially in Green Bay. (show images).  You can just see people having fun.  Dressing up crazy.  Throwing footballs around. Playing games.  And you will never forget the smell of the BBQ.  The smell of brats on the grill.  Nothing like it!  I have walked out of the stadium after games, and some of those tail-gate parties are still going!  Still throwing the football!  Still eating!  Some go to the tail-gate parties and never go to the game!

But I guarantee, as we speak, that there have been people in the parking lot of Lambeau field since 8AM this morning, eating and mingling and getting ready for the game!  People spending time together.  Eating together.  Laughing together.  Tailgate parties...  Small groups.

We can learn from this!   OK, our crowd isn’t that big.  But why is it that people can go to a sporting event with 70,000 other fans and feel connected?  … But then come to a church gathering of 100 and feel lonely, isolated, or disconnected?  Again, I’ve done a lot of research, studying, and thinking about this.  And here’s my conclusion:  The secret is the “Tail-gate Parties”!  In order to make sure people don’t get lost in the crowd, we have to understand that the ministry we do in small groups is just important as the ministry we do in our “big events”!

Now, tail-gate parties are meaningless if there is nothing going on in the stadium!  All of this is just hype if there is no reason to gather together.  And there is one reason for people to gather more important than any other.  “The good news of the kingdom” that Jesus was proclaiming!  The Word of God, the Gospel of forgiveness through Christ!  The most important reason to gather, the reason we gather here, anyway, is to worship our gracious Saviour, who has given us heaven!  That’s what makes our celebration here meaningful!

But the celebration in the “stadium,” the large gathering, becomes a cold, meaningless experience without the connectedness and fellowship that happened in the “parking lot.”  What we do here as a group in worship becomes so much more meaningful when we are growing in the Word in small groups, Sunday School, and Bible studies during the week!  The big event, our worship service, is important!  It should be moving and inspiring and uplifting!  But it is in our smaller groups, our Bible studies, where people are really growing in the Word of God!

How many of us are involved in some kind of Bible study with a smaller group of people you can really explore and apply God’s Word with?  How many aren’t?  How many of your spiritual lives are really being looked after?  Our text helps us understand how the Lord feels about people who aren’t receiving guidance and direction from the Word.  (Read Matt. 9:35-36)

Jesus saw crowds of people who had NO shepherds.  These people were NOT in the Word.  They had no comfort from it.  Our text says they were “harassed and helpless.”  Now we might just skip over that because sometimes we think we feel harassed and helpless when someone cuts us off and takes our parking place, making us late for an appointment.  But that isn’t the “harassed and helpless” our text is talking about!  The word for harassed means to flay or skin!  Causing distress, worry, trouble, harassment!  This is the distress of an animal being flayed or skinned!  These people Jesus saw were cut up and bleeding!  Spiritually harassed and bewildered by those who should have been teaching them!  And then they were helpless.  The real word there says they were cast down, lying prostrate on the ground from a drunken stupor or mortal wound!  You have to picture a man lying unconscious, passed out drunk in a back alley.  Or picture a soldier, who has just had a limb blown off or been speared through, lying on the battlefield, waiting to die.  Pathetic.  Awful.  Horrific.  Helpless.  Abandoned.

That is how helpless people who don’t have a shepherd are!  These people Jesus observed were harassed by sin and guilt because they hadn’t yet come to faith in Jesus as their Saviour!  They were helpless because they were spiritually lost!  They had no hope.  And let me tell you, we see the same today!  Look at the troubles people are having right now because they have not been in the Word, in Jesus’ teaching.  Because they have not been shepherded.  Marriage troubles.  Relationship conflicts.  Self-image problems.  Confidence issues.  Loss of hope.  Despair.  Have you been harassed and helpless when you have been away from God’s Word?

When Jesus sees people like this, the Bible says “He had compassion on them.”  Yes, He did!  But do you know what that original word says?  It says that his heart, liver and lungs moved!  Organs were considered the seat of your emotions.  And to have them “move” is to feel the deepest pity for someone!  You know when you watch that awful news report or see that heart-wrenching movie and you feel sick to your stomach and your insides tear apart?  That’s how Jesus feels when He sees people without anyone to look after them.

Do we share Jesus’ compassion for sheep without a shepherd?  We have people here who are unconnected!  We have people here with major life problems!  Is there anyone they can share those with?  Is there anyone who can give them direction?  Encouragement?  Or are they like shepherd-less sheep?

Have you felt like shepherd-less sheep?  Flayed, bleeding, and distressed?  Lying on the ground helpless and dying?  If so, do you think there is maybe more strength you could receive from the Lord of life?  From the good news of his kingdom?  Do you really think you know enough about God’s Word?  You graduated our intro course, right?  So you know enough about God?  OK – so each of us here could explain the difference between justification and sanctification, right?  Pastor, where is the practical value in that?  OK, so who wants to come up here and explain what comfort and what passages could be helpful when your good friend is in the middle of a divorce?  Who could list 5 passages that insure you are forgiven?  Five passages that guarantee you are going to heaven?  What! You couldn’t? Your life depends on these truths!

You Thought You Knew Enough About God?  Well, if you do, then you will know how much He wants you to be in his Word.  John 8:31-32:  “Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."  And notice what Jesus was doing in our text:  TEACHING and PREACHING.  And He was doing it constantly.  Because it is something we need a daily diet of!  2 Timothy 3:15-17: “15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” So if you know enough about God, you will then know how much He wants you to be in his Word!  If you can admit today that you DON’T know enough about God, well then, you NEED to get into a Bible study right away!  (So we got you either way! J ).  Blessed if you do.  Blessed if you don’t.

Who shepherds you?  Who calls you up?  Who do you call up when you need someone?  Who gives you the sense of belonging?  Who encourages you with the Word of God?  I can’t shepherd you all.  Not like Jesus talks about in John 10.  But small groups can help!

If you are NOT part of some small group, if you DON’T come to the tail-gate party, you can get lost and no one will know that you are gone!  That won’t happen if you have a shepherd!  It won’t happen if you are part of a small group, if you meet regularly for Bible study.  You need to be part of a group that knows if you are missing!  We don’t want you to get lost in the crowd!  You have got to go to the Tail-gate Parties!  Sunday School.  Bible studies.  Studying the Word in small groups.  Get into the Word!  And as excited as I might be about football today, it doesn’t even compare to how excited I am about this kickoff!

What matters is not that we KNOW enough about God… What matters is that God KNOWS you!  Do we believe it?  Are we fueled by it?  Do we practice it?  Do we live it?  See you at the tail-gate party!   Amen.