The Lord is my shepherd 3 | Dr. Conrad Vine

pals, the shepherd psalm. And if you have your Bibles, invite you to open them to the 23rd Psalm. And we’re going

to be looking at some of the lessons we have uh from this passage. You know, um what what I like about the word of God is that you can read something 100

times. Each time you read it, God gives you a new lesson from it and he gives you new insights from it.

And so even though we are very familiar with the words of this passage, it’s my prayer that as we as we read through

this together and we kind of dwell on these words that God will give us new insights and reveal himself in a more um

perfect and complete way in each of our lives. So I’m invite you let’s bow our heads and we invite again the presence of the Holy Spirit. Our dear heavenly

father, we thank you for the privilege of serving you. We thank you for the blessings thus far during this Sabbath day. And Lord, as we share these moments

together and we ponder these words of the 23rd Psalm. I’m asking that you will lead us and guide us um not just um in

in um in the journey of life, but in in new paths of understanding. I pray,

Lord, that our our love for Jesus, our good shepherd, um will burn more brightly and our faith in you will put down deeper roots because of the time

that we share together. So Lord, we give these moments into your hands. In the name of Jesus, we humbly ask. Amen. All

right. So, we’re going to pick up if we can next slide, brother, please. Uh we’re going to pick up um Psalm um this

is what we’ve done so far. Let’s go to the next next slide, please. And uh and then the next slide. And there we are.

And then the next slide after that. And we get to the text itself. There we are.

Okay. Thank you. So, this is where we’re going to be starting out. We’re going to be picking up on the second half of verse three. This morning we went

through um he restoreth my soul and we’re going to dwell for a few moments now on he leads me in right paths for

his name’s sake. Some say some versions say he leads me in paths of righteousness. And so um this is an interesting thing because um how many of us today get have like a daily rat run?

A rat run. You call it a rat run here in America. In England we call it a rat run. Rat race.

Yeah. Rat race. Okay. You called a rat race. We called a rat run. But how many of us have a fixed daily routine every single day?

Yes. Uh you know, when you’re raising kids in the morning, you don’t want anybody to call you till you’ve dropped them off at school because from the

moment you wake up till you drop them off off at school, every second is budgeted for two or three times over.

And anything goes wrong getting your kids ready for school. Um it’s like he throws your whole morning gets thrown

out and um so uh my my um my my father was a minister and he had a friend in

the union office who used to like watching Formula 1. That’s a car racing like NASCAR down here. And uh my father

would call him uh you know um 2 minutes before the race starts all the cars lined up on the grid and my father would

call him on a Sunday afternoon to discuss an important pastoral matter in the church and he knew that this guy was

watching the Formula 1 and but he would call him you know regular as clockwork just before the race started and of course the guy couldn’t say yeah I’m

watching a race here could you please call out later so my dad would do this regular as clockwork but we all have routines and those routines are nice

because they enable us to get through a lot of life on autopilot.

So many times, let’s say you work somewhere, you’ve worked there for a few years, you go outside, you get in the car and the next thing you’re consciously aware of is walking into

your home and you have no conscious recollection of the journey you’ve just done because it’s burnt into your brain.

The you just drive on autopilot. And so we have these little routines and they kind of get us from from moments of conscious awareness to conscious

awareness through the day. And between those moments of conscious awareness and engagement with the world, we kind of run on autopilot. And sheep are actually

no different. Sheep are creatures of habit. They don’t like changing those habits unless somebody makes them change their habits. So, um, without a shepherd

to lead them, um, if the sheep are led out of the sheep pen every day, they will literally walk the same path across the field every single day. They’re not

going to change. They’re not going to go to the left. They’re not going to go to the right. They’re not going to go uh they’re just going to go in the the regular path. And that little path will

turn into a muddy rut. Then that muddy rut is going to get worn away. Then it’s going to get like a little a little gully developing where those sheep are

going year after year. And then all of the all of the grass is going to be destroyed there and it’s going to be filled with their droppings and polluted water. And that’s where they’re just

going to keep walking every single day unless a shepherd says, “I need you to I need to take you on a different path every single day for your own sake.”

And so sheep are like this. They will pollute their own ground till it’s teething with disease and parasites.

Without a shepherd to lead them, the sheep will destroy their own environment. So if left to their own devices, sheep will devastate the

pastures. Sh small sheep trails will become deep gullies unsafe to pass over.

Lush fields will be replaced by poverty grass that’s incapable of supporting the flock. Hillsides will become eroded and

wash away. Eventually the field is beyond repair and unless there is careful attention from a shepherd and the the flock will be underweight and

infested with worms, scab, nematodes and various kinds of illness. And so the flock and the land are caught in a

downward spiral because sheep will stick to their daily routines every single day.

This happens because sheep, even if even if the behavior is not good for them,

they still revert to it every day. They engage in self-destructive behavior. And the greatest safeguard against this self-destructive behavior for the sheep

is having a shepherd who leads them every day to new pastures, who knows where the new pastures are, and who guides the sheep away from their self-destructive behavior.

So that’s why sheep need a shepherd,

among other reasons. Now, shepherds will often walk the pastures before they lead the flocks to the pastures. They inspect for weeds. They pull up the roots. They

find polluted water. They’ll put um dam a little stream so it turns into um they put some rocks across the stream so it turns into a dam, a relatively fresh and

clean water for the sheep. They will identify where the poor grass quality is, eroded hillsides. And they must go before the flock so they are personally

acquainted with every step the flock itself is going to make.

and like manners says he leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Jesus as the good shepherd has walked the path of life before us.

He was a man of sorrows and he like us was acquainted with grief. He knows what it is to be despised and rejected by

men. He knows what it is to have no beauty in one’s appearance. He knows what it is to be tempted by Satan. He

knows what it is to be betrayed by friends, falsely accused by enemies,

misunderstood within your own family. He knows what it is to an honest day’s labor with his own hands, to be a refugee. He knows what it is to live in

poverty, to be homeless, and have nowhere to lay his head. He knows what it is to be a victim of a corrupt legal system. He knows what it is to be

tortured by law enforcement, to be brutalized, to be mocked, and to be publicly shamed, and then to be wrongfully executed. He knows all these

things, what these things are. He’s walked that path ahead of us. And because the good shepherd has already walked this path before us, he knows how to lead us today.

So that is why he leads me in paths of righteousness or right paths for his name’s sake. We are more like sheep than we care to admit. The next slide um

describes it thus and we saw this this morning. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have all turned to our own

way. That is repeatedly in life we follow our own desires, our own habits,

our own thought patterns, our own fallen tastes, our own self-destructive behaviors.

Rare is the person who gets home tired after work and says, “I’m really tired.

I think I’ll go for um I think I’ll go for a five mile jog, then have a kale smoothie.” Rare indeed is the person that says that.

In our country, in America, many people come home exhausted from work and just binge watch Netflix

with French fries or cookies or um sugary cola drinks and so forth, we we

cling to our fallen tastes and our fallen desires. And regardless of how self-destructive those behaviors are, and we rationalize it,

they say, “If you owe the bank $10, you have a problem. If you owe the bank a million dollars, the bank has a problem,

not you.

And um we engage into self-destructive behaviors and eventually um you know,

let’s say let’s say hypothetically, I’m looking carefully around the audience here today. When you get to £350,

putting on that extra pound isn’t such a big deal for you. The marginal increase is very, very small. You’ve already gotten used to where you are, and the

marginal increase is not such a big deal for you. So, we tend to rationalize and we accept our our past self-destructive behaviors. We do what we want to when we

think it’s best and be because it feels good. And so, the next verse on the screen explains why we do this. Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems

right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” The truth is, very few today are willing to trust the good shepherd

and to be obedient to his leading. And I referenced it this morning when we ask Jesus to be savior and lord.

Savior, we’re happy for him to be savior because he’s saving me from the consequences of my sin. But lord of my life means that Matthew 28 teaching them

to obey all that I’ve commanded you. Am I willing to submit to his commands in my life? Am I willing to submit to the teachings he gives us in Matthew, Mark,

Luke, and John, the four gospels? or am I preferring to follow my own wishes Sunday through Friday and appear to follow him only on a Sabbath morning?

And so the truth is most of us don’t want to be led in paths of righteousness.

We’re stubborn. We’re self-willed.

We’re self-sufficient sheep. That’s the reality. We insist on reverting day after day to the old paths of pride,

self assertion, self-control, and independence. And as with sheep, the results are the same. Broken homes,

broken hearts, broken bodies, broken hopes, addictive behaviors, and deaths of despair. Because each one of us

follows our own way, we have become a broken society. We see the evidence of that all around us. Because we really don’t want to be led in paths of righteousness.

We would rather be well, we’d rather follow our own fallen desires. Let’s just put it that way.

So, if anybody wants to follow the good shepherd, his invitation is found in Matthew um John 14:6. Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” And

Mark 8:34, if you can put that screen up, um Jesus invites us. He shows us how we are to move into following him in

paths of righteousness. And the text there, if you can um shift the text here for us, please Mark chapter 8:34. Thank

you very much. Jesus says, “If any want to become my followers, that is to follow him in paths of righteousness,

let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” And so many people say they are a Christian um but

they want the benefits of being a Christian, but they don’t want the spiritual discipline of being a Christian. They want eternal life tomorrow, but they want to follow their

own fallen paths today. And so uh in the west when we talk about the freedom of the gospel when Paul talks about freedom

he means that we are free to serve one another in love. That’s what Christian freedom is. That I serve you in love and

you will serve me. And because I will serve you when you are in need and you will serve me when I am in need. That means I don’t need to worry about

falling into times of need because there’s a network around me that’s going to help carry me through. I’m going to help carry other people through in their times of need. Um so that’s the freedom

of the apostle. Paul talks about but in the west today many Christians view attitude of freedom is what’s the minimum I need to know be and do to stay

in God’s kingdom then give me absolute freedom over all my desires other than that that’s what we really mean by freedom

like I what do I what do I need to do to keep my name in the lamb’s book of life and then don’t interfere with any other aspect of my life thank you very much

that’s what we really mean by it and so there are some faith you know faiths when when baptized some Muslims once and

they they wanted to know about how what what does God want for this this this and this situation and what I realized was that um when somebody comes from

Islam into the Christian faith they assume that Christianity will guide every decision of their life because that’s how Islam has guided them and

when they come into the Christian faith and they discover that that we talk about freedom and you’re led by the Holy Spirit and guided by the conscience and the text doesn’t actually delineate all

the outcomes for all scenarios you may face. It’s kind of hard for some people to accept that. But the reality is is

that we like we like our freedom and we want as much freedom as possible to follow our fallen desires without endangering our passport to heaven.

That’s kind of the sad reality for many Christians today. The truth is if we want to be led in paths of righteousness,

we’re going to have to yield control of our lives to the good shepherd.

This means a willingness to go against the flow of society all around us.

To be healthy in America today requires us to be countercultural.

I mean all of the food you go to a social events here and the food is a mixture of carbs, sugar and fat in various combinations.

So if you want to be healthy in America,

you’ve got to be countercultural. And if you want to be spiritually healthy,

you’ve also got to be countercultural as well. You have to be intentional about it. You have to be deliberate about it. It has to be the priority in your life.

Because if you just go with the flow of society, you’re going to end up filling your mind with the same garbage that’s filling most people’s minds.

The endless flow of entertainment, the latest game, the latest series, the latest music, latest movie, whatever,

what’s happening in some movie star’s life and so forth. If we want to be led in paths of righteousness, it means learning to hear the good shepherd’s

voice and shield the throne of my heart from myself and selfishness to selflessness and from me to him.

Philippians 2:12 says this the next slide there it says uh work out your own salvation. Work out your own salvation

with fear and trembling. On the next slide, thank you brother. uh work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work

in you enabling you to both will and to work for his good pleasure.

So ask when we ask God every day. No it’s not there brother.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Philippians 2:12 and 13. So we are commanded to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. There’s asking Christ every day as the good shepherd to

enter us, to dwell within us, to do for us far far more than we can imagine for ourselves. That is the best way to follow Jesus. I was sharing with

somebody the other day that it’s easy when you in difficult situations to rise every morning and you find that the weeds of anger have grown overnight. And

if you follow the good shepherd, you kind of have to ask the holy the good shepherd to send his spirit to clean up all those weeds for you because you

can’t fix it for yourself. A hurting heart requires the balm of Gilead. It requires the Holy Spirit as the comforter to draw near. And so when we

wake up every morning with bitterness or anger or rage or frustration, we have to ask the good shepherd to send his spirit to clean us from the inside out. And if

we don’t do that on a daily basis, those weeds are going to get bigger and bigger and bigger and flourish in our lives. So to follow the good shepherd actually

means to lead us away from the bitternesses and the angers and the rage and the frustrations and the pain of the past because only he can lead us from

those barren fields to the green fields that that he wishes for us. The next the next um passage is very interesting. Um it’s the fourth verse of the 23rd Psalm.

Uh if you switch to the next slide there. Now, in this verse here, we switch from the third person in the psalm to the first person. In Psalms, in

the the first three verses of this psalm, it’s been in the third person singular, but now we switch to the fourth verse, and we’re switching to the

first person singular. Yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they

comfort me. So, what is this talking about here? So every year after the spring lamming season is done, the shepherd will lead his flock away from

the sheep pens in the valley uh and the farm and their winter quarters and they’re going to climb up to the winter grazing grounds. And now the summer

grazing grounds tend to be high up in the in the hills or the mountains and they haven’t been grazed since the following summer. That means the grass

is lush. It’s green. It’s fresh. It’s ideal for milking new as mother sheep. They need sustenance for their lambs.

And those fresh green pastures tend to be free of disease. But to get to the summer grazing grounds up here, you’ve got to get from the valley and the farm

down here up to the up to the summer grazing grounds. And the only way you climb a mountain like that is to go up through the canyons. They don’t have

aircraft. They don’t have elevators. You you don’t walk up the sides of the hillside. The sheep will always go up through canyons like the switchbacks

going up the side of the hill. They’ll walk up through the the narrow valleys or the canyons. Those canyons for sheep are filled with danger. You have

predators like wolves, foxes, lions, and bears. They know that the flock must pass this way. Flash floods can come in the spring and wash the flock away. The

summer storm can wipe out half the flock with hypothermia. Yes, sheep do get cold despite all their wool. And so therefore, to get to the summer grazing

grounds, they have to climb up those valleys of the shadow of death to get to the summer the summer feeding grounds.

But in this passage of the psalm here,

we’ve now switched from the third person singular to the first person. Yay,

though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you, second person singular, you are

with me. What does this tell us now? Now the sheep and the shepherd are now spending their day and nights together.

They’re climbing the valleys together up those summer grazing grounds. There are no sheep pens here. There’s no farmer up in the valleys. There’s no sheepfolds.

It’s just the shepherd and the sheep making that journey together. This is the most intimate relationship that the shepherd has with the sheep because

they’re bound together as they journey up those dangerous valleys.

And so this is in the first person singular. This is the most intimate form of expression possible. I and you. And so the sheep are trusting the shepherd to lead them through dangerous times.

Now we tend to think of wanting people say they want a mountaintop experience with God. Have you heard that expression? People want to have a mountaintop experience. They’re

generally referring to Mark 9 where you think of the mount of transfiguration.

Then you come down into the valley where the disciples are trying to cast out a boy with a demon in it. That’s what we’re normally thinking of, the mountaintop experience. Then you come

down to the valley where the disciples are facing discouragements and defeat.

Um, but in this passage here, um, the mountaintop experience, in order to get to the mountaintop, you’ve got to climb up through many valleys.

And you don’t get to the top unless you go through the valleys. Every mountain has its valleys. There is no other way

to the mountaintop for a flock of sheep than to go up those narrow gullies and canyons all the way to the very summit of the mountain there. Why is this

important to talk about? The psalmist doesn’t say I die in the valley of the shadow of death. He doesn’t say yay

though I get stuck in the valley of the shadow of death. He says I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. And

why is that important? Is that when we follow the good shepherd, we walk through difficult valleys, but we’re not defined by those valleys. He doesn’t let

us to be stuck in those valleys. He doesn’t abandon us in those valleys. As we’re always moving forward and upward,

experiencing the valleys, but not defined by those valleys. As we journey through the valleys, we learn that God will provide, will pro, protect, and in

his providence, he will lead us to where where is good for us. We learn to trust in the valley moments of life when life is painful, difficult and disappointing.

Know I had a somebody asked me to define what is marriage like. I said marriage is like a good colonoscopy

and you all think that’s rather humorous and girls you can ask your mom later what a colonoscopy is. She will explain

to you. So I say why is marriage like a colonoscopy? So I’ll give you my experience of a colonoscopy.

I had a my doctor I reached that stage of life where the doctor says Mr. Vine,

the time has come. Now you must have a colonoscopy.

And um so I went up and I went to the hospital. My wife was with me and they knocked me out in the in the pre-op room. Then they did the colonoscopy. And um I remember them poking around inside.

I remember that cuz they couldn’t get it round. Some bends in there. And uh when when they came out in the recovery room, I remember saying to the doctor like,

“You were struggling there. Like I could feel it.” He said, “How did you know that?” I said, “Well, I could feel it.” He said, “Weren’t you under anesthesia?”

“Yeah, but I could feel it.” Well, the next thing I knew, I woke up at home in my own bed.

And I woke and I was lying there in bed and I was thinking to myself, I thought I was in a hospital having a colonoscopy.

How did I get here? So, I got up and I walked into the kitchen. I said to my wife, I said, “Um, how did I get home?”

And she said, “Remember yesterday the doctor said you’re not to sign any paperwork for 24 hours after a colonoscopy?” I said, “Yes.” She said it’s because you look like you’re awake

but your brain isn’t awake. That you can walk around but you’re actually your brain isn’t awake yet. You’re kind of recovering from anesthesia. She said so

after your colonoscopy you lay there and you were talking to the surgeon about Soldier Nitson recovering from cancer and giving his life to God in a cancer

recovery ward in the Soviet Union. And the doctor thought you were just kind of going crazy and I was trying to hush you up but you weren’t listening to me. I said, “Oh, okay.” She said, “And then I

could see that we we got you dressed and I could see that everything wasn’t quite right. So I put we put you in a wheelchair and we wheeled you out to the

parking lot and I put you in the car and you talked nonsense all the way and I thought, well, he’s awake. Let’s go to Walmart and do the groceries.” So we

went to Walmart. I left you in the car and I did the groceries. I came back.

You put the groceries from the the trolley into the car. We came home and you emptied all the groceries from the car into the kitchen, but I could see that you still weren’t present. Well,

more than usual, you might say. So, she says, “I put you to bed and now 4 hours later, you’ve woken up.” And I said,

“Okay, am I now awake?” She say, “I think you’re awake now.” I said, “Okay.”

And now that’s why marriage is like a colonoscopy. And why and why do I say that? Why do I say that? It’s simply this.

Because when I came out of that colonoscopy and I came home, other people thought I looked awake, but my wife knew I wasn’t. and she took care of

me. And when I wasn’t aware of what was happening, she’d take she took care of all my needs. Then I woke up and I realized she’d only done good for me

when I even wasn’t aware of what she was doing. That’s why marriage is like a colonoscopy.

Somebody is doing good for you even when you’re not aware of it. They’re looking out for you. They’re taking care of you.

They’re doing stuff when you don’t even know it’s happening. So that to me is why marriage is like a colonoscopy. And when you go through the valleys of life,

that’s when you learn that God is providing for you in ways that you never even realized before. When the marriage breaks up, when you get the cancer

diagnosis, when your business goes bankrupt, when your home is repossessed,

when you’re battling depression or drugs or other addictive behaviors, that’s when you discover God’s presence in your life in a way that you’ve never

experienced before. It suddenly becomes evident not in the good times of life but in the bad times of life just how

merciful the good shepherd really is. So we walk those dark valleys also because when you’re climbing a mountain with

sheep the water doesn’t run down the hillside. The water only runs down through the valleys. That’s where the creeks are as you’re walking up the side

of a mountain. The richest grazing to the top of the mountain is through those valleys. So in in order to climb to the mountaintop, we’re forced to walk

through the valley of the shadow of death because even though there is danger, that is where the greenest grass is on the side of the mountain and that’s where the most fresh water is. So

we walk through the valley of the shadow of death and we actually find that the richest spiritual experiences are to be found in those valley moments, not on the barren hillsides that are out there.

It’s in the dark valleys that we find the Holy Spirit like never before. We learn to recognize the good shepherd’s voice like never before. our walk with

the good shepherd is forever meaningful precisely because we’ve walked those valleys together.

You know, when you look at um when veterans come home and they gather for a regimental um convention a few years later, um when

those veterans are talking about what they went through, it you’re either in the group or you’re out the group, but you can’t enter into the group. When

those veterans sit down and talk about going through D-Day or going through Fallujah or going through Vietnam together, if you weren’t there with them

in that valley moment in their life, you could never break into that group. They have a unique bond amongst them because they went through kind of a living hell

together. And they’ve bonded in a way that nobody else will understand exactly what they’ve been through. And when we walk up the side of the mountain through the valley of the shadow of death,

facing all the threats that come with it, that’s when we bond with the good shepherd in ways that nobody else ever will because we’ve seen him at work.

We’ve leared to trust him. He came through for us in those darkest and deepest mo most painful moments in our

lives. And the water of life can flow through the valleys carved into our own lives into those around us. See, if you

suffered bererement, you can empathize with somebody else who suffered bereiement more than somebody who’s never been bererieved. If you’ve gone through the pain of divorce, you can

better support somebody else going through the pain of divorce than somebody who’s never gone through divorce themselves. If you fought in can fought cancer and you’ve beaten it by

the grace of God and you’re in remission, you are far better placed to sit down with somebody who’s just had a diagnosis and say, “This is how God got me through and this is how he can get

you through as well than somebody who’s never gone through it.” Um, when God allows us to go through those valley experiences precisely so that we can be

a blessing to those who are following tomorrow along the same valley. Everybody has those valleys in life.

Nobody escapes life without those valley experiences. You cannot get to the mountaintop without going through some valleys. We are not to be shaken though

by those storms of life. These valleys are not invitations to despair, but they’re invitations to trust God more

fully. The question is not why me, but is he with me in this valley experience? I will fear no evil, says the psalmist,

for thou art with me. If Jesus is my shepherd, we can face these valley experiences with a peace of heart. the

world can never give us. Why? Because he’s my shepherd. He’s leading me. He’s with me in the valley experience. He’s

promised he will never leave me nor forsake me. He’s promised to be with me to the end of the world. So if I lift my eyes above the storm, I see the one who’s in control of the storm.

And what of this rod? It says in the passage, “Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.” Well, I don’t know if you ever seen a shepherd’s rod.

There are two sticks that shepherds tend to carry. Um, one is um the rod and there is the staff. And the staff is that some people call a crook. You know,

it’s a stick with like a like a loop on the end. We’ll come to that in a minute. But what is the rod the shepherds carry?

Well, um if if you go to um South Africa where you had shepher shepherd boys all over the place, they have these little um shepherd’s rods. They’re called knob carries.

You heard of a knob carry? I have one at home. I was going to bring it with me and it didn’t fit into my luggage but and I was going to carry it on the plane because under the Americans with

Disabilities Act, nobody can question if you’re using a we a walking cane. Yeah.

I thought uh I I could just claim to be disabled and walk on the plane with what is essentially a weapon here. But uh anyway, so what is a knob carry? Um you

find that there are variations on a theme all around the world. A knob carry is is a is a is is a stick of wood and it can be up to like three or four feet

long. And um on one end um they they’ve taken the roots and they’ve carved it and and shaped it. So it’s like a big

ball of wood at one end and then it’s a long rod. And so it looks like it’s like a a long finger with a big lump of flesh at the end here. And um that lump of

flesh is very heavy. And this thing is polished. and shepherd boys when they’re watching the sheep, they will practice and they will throw that that rod and

and the heaviest component the the head at the end, it will go first through the air and they become very very accurate with those rods. So when a shepherd boy

um sees a fox coming up to the sheep, he can throw that rod a decent distance and it will hit the the fox and drive it

away. And when the shepherd sees a sheep that is um maybe going away off off the main path that is getting maybe wandering off into a thicket, he can

throw that rod at the stick, this rod at the sheep, but long before he can get to it physically and the sheep will be hit on the back by that rod and it realizes,

okay, it’s time to come back to the flock. And so shepherds use the rod um the the rod is an extension of the boy’s

arm and it’s also an extension of his will over the sheep. It’s a symbol of his power and his ability to solve a

crisis. A shepherd go a sheep going astray or a predator coming towards the flock. It’s used to scare those predators away and it’s used to correct

wayward sheep and to bring them back into the into the flock. And Jesus used the rod of scripture to drive away Satan in the temptations in Matthew’s gospel.

And so may we. The rod reveals the shepherd’s will in any given matter. The rod therefore represents the word of

God. God’s expressed will given with his authority. And the word of God is a revelation of God’s perfect will for us

and his perfect intentions to fallen sinners. Next slide, please. Psalm 119 says this, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” And so,

um, uh, next slide, please. Uh, there we are. Thank you. So, and then the following slide after that. So, there’s the rod. There’s a new Zulu knob carry.

I have one of those at home. It looks like a somebody’s feur. I didn’t kill somebody to get it. It genuinely is a knob carry from South Africa. Um I

wouldn’t suggest, you know, digging up some bones and turning them into a knob carry, but um you can make it out of wood. And that’s those are the roots at the end that have been shaped and and

ground down into that shape. And that basic rod is used in many parts of the world by shepherds as an expression of

their will. and they can throw it and it will drive predators away and it will bring the wandering sheep back into the flock. It’s an expression of the

shepherd’s will just as the word of God is an expression of the will of God. So if we move forward a slide here um so

what we find your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. So so through the rod of scripture God reveals

his perfect will to us. He guides us. He comforts us. He protects us. It reveals his will. It rebukes our sins. It

nurtures our souls, convicts of sin and converts our hearts. That is the rod of God, the word of God. Now the rod has a

sharp end. So you have the knob carries the thick end at one end and it peters down and the other end is very sharp.

And so they don’t use this for walking with but they carry the rod with them to the shepherd boys. And why why is the the one end of the rod very very sharp?

That’s because every day the shepherd inspects his sheep. And when they have the wool, you can’t put your fingers through the wool. your fingers aren’t sharp enough. So like the rod is like a

a needle. It come they push it down to the skin. Then they kind of wiggle it around like that. Then they can see the flesh under the wool. That’s how they

inspect every inch of the she of the sheep’s body. And so the shepherd becomes adept of putting the rod down into the sheep down to get to the flesh

and he wiggles it around like this. And then he sees all the flesh. He sees if there’s any cuts in there, there are any scabs. um there are any um bugs down

there, any fleas, anything that needs cleaning out. It’s only through the rod being pushed down to the flesh that a

shepherd can find the hidden cuts, the festering sores, and the bug infestations that that need to be treated. And the next slide talks about

how God does this for us. The psalmist says, “Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Test me and know my thoughts. see

if there is wicked any if there’s any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. So when we read the word of

God, I don’t know if you’ve experienced this. I hope you have. When I read the word of God, more often than not, it is

God who is reading my heart. I read the word of God, but God is reading me through the word of God. And so the the

word of God is is the rod of God that that reads our hearts and reveals to us our sinfulness. It guides us. It

comforts us. It It gives compassion and encouragement we need it. It gives a n a nudge, a murmur of encouragement. It gives guidance on a decision we have to

be making. But the word of God is akin to the the rod of God that reveals God’s will to us. And if we don’t read the

word of God on a daily basis, it’s going to be harder for God to reveal his perfect will to us on a daily basis. But to the extent that we read the word of

God prayerfully and reflectively, not to master the text, but that God might master us through the text.

So we hear the voice of the good shepherd on a daily basis.

When we read the word of God, it’s really God who is reading us, revealing ourselves to us in brutal honesty. There was a time in my life I was really angry

about something and I was really depressed about it. Because when you have anger and you don’t resolve it in a healthy way, it often turns into depression.

The anger, depression is often internalized anger because you haven’t dealt with anger in a positive in a spiritually healthy way. Um, you may

have anger in in righteous sense and somebody may have hurt you and you’re innocent, but unless you deal with it in a biblically faithful manner, that will

often turn it’s internalized into depression. And I was reading the Psalms every day and I was hoping to find a text where God says, “I will smite down your enemies with with deadly diseases.”

And I and I was just imagining the deadly diseases. I wanted to find a text where it was smite them down with rheumatide arthritis and St. Vitus’s

dance. So one the body doesn’t want to move and the other body can’t stop moving, you know, and they can have constant pain. All right. I I I I I

wanted to find those verses where God would strike down my enemies with, you know, awful awful diseases. And what I

found was that rather than I was reading the word of God, say, “God, you need to smite them down.” And in reality, God was pointing a finger back to me and said, “Conor, what about your heart here?”

And I kept reading it every day that Lord, there must be a text where you’re going to smite my enemies. And I didn’t find it. But what I found was that God wanted to heal my heart.

And so when you read the word of God,

that is that the rod of God that comforts me as I go through the valley experiences of life. But what about the staff? Well, if the rod represents the

word of God, the staff represents the Holy Spirit. And why is that? Well, a staff is uniquely designed for sheep

because it has a crook at one end. The reason it has a crook is very simple.

When you have lamming time, all the sheep are in the Euing shed. All the pregnant you use are in one big barn and there may be two or 30 hund’s and

they’re all giving birth and the lambs get lost and if a mother doesn’t bond with its lamb it will immediately it will never accept that lamb and if there

is any other smell on that lamb of a human being it will never bond with that lamb. So the shepherd walks through the rod with his crook and with with the the

kind the ubend at the bottom and if there is a lamb that is lost he will scoop it up with the crook and gently carry it back to its mother without

touching it with his hands and the mother will accept the lamb because there’s no human smell on that lamb.

That’s why they have a crook on the shepherd’s crook is to help at lamming time.

This is the shepherd also uses the crook to draw a lamb or a ram or a u to himself for closer more intimate examination. Sometimes sheep are shy.

They don’t want to come to the shepherd.

They’ve not yet leared to trust him. But the crook is essential because it leads the sheep to the good shepherd. And the

role of the Holy Spirit is to lead us to the good shepherd that is Jesus Christ.

And when you’re walking in the valleys with sheep, you may have an an an elderly sheep or a wounded sheep or a skittish sheep or a sheep that’s just been bullied by the rest of the flock.

And that sheep needs comfort. So what will often happen is a shepherd will walk behind a troubled sheep and he’ll

rest the end of the rod that the crook on the shepherd’s back on the sheep’s back. He just rests it there and the sheep knows he can feel that the

shepherd’s crook on his back. He’s just resting there. What this means is that the sheep and the good shepherd are in constant touch with one another. And that crook brings comfort to the sheep.

It knows it’s doing the right thing. It knows it’s going up up the right pathway. When you come to a fork in the path, the shepherd will gently guide

with the tip of the crook and he’ll guide the sheep into the right path. And so thy rod and thy staff and thy rod,

they comfort me as I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. The rod is the expression of God’s will. He reveals himself to us through the word

of God. And the crook represents the Holy Spirit that draws us to the good shepherd when we’re wandering away, when we’re lost, and when we don’t know which

path to go. As I yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I’ll fear no evil, for thy rod and thy crook, they comfort me. And so

as they walk through the valley, the shepherd walks side by side with that troubled sheep and guides him through the touch of the staff. John 16:13, the next ver next slide there says this,

when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. And the next passage there, Isaiah 30:20, says

this. Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teacher, speaking the Holy Spirit, will not hide himself

anymore, but your eyes shall see your teacher. When you turn to the right, or when you turn to the left, your ear shall hear a word behind you, saying,

“This is the way. Walk ye in it.” So yay, though I walk to the mountaintop,

through the valleys of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. You

reveal your will in the word of God, and you draw me closer to the good shepherd through the work of your Holy Spirit.

God guides us and leads us through the word of God and through the Holy Spirit.

And we stay in contact with God through his word and through the convictions of the Holy Spirit. And that’s how we walk through the valley of the shadow of

death. Not on our own. God speaks to us through the word of God and he speaks to us through the convictions of the Holy

Spirit upon our convict upon our consciences. And when we are secure in the presence of the good shepherd who protects us with his word, who drives

off Satan with his word, who leads us and comforts us with the presence of his holy spirit. We can walk through those valleys one by one until we reach the

top of the mountain. Which brings us to the next verse, Psalm 23 and:e5, which says this, “Thou prepareest a table before me in the presence of mine

enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil and my cup running over, runth over.” So the summer grazing at the mountaintop,

that’s the prize for the sheep and the flock. That’s the prize for the lambs because that’s where the mums get the best grass and it’s a prize for the

leopard. And those high plateaus around the world are called messes. You hear me? Is there a Spanish word? Yes. Messa.

I think we have a next slide, please, brother. You have a picture there.

There’s a typical messa. That’s from Southeast Africa. There. And you can see they’re going they have to climb on the other side up steep canyons in order to

get to the summer grazing grounds on the top of the Messa. And you see this in Arizona. You see this in Texas. You see it in all the way through the Rockies.

You have these tabletop mountains that are ideal for the feeding of sheep. And you find similar formations in much of Africa and in many parts of the Middle

East as well. In the word in the Swahili language, the word um table is also the word messa. So it’s in the Swahili

language as well. And so uh thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. What does this

mean? So um the shepherd before they the flock leaves the the the sheep pen in the valley and the winter lodging, the

shepherd will make the journey up through the valleys. So the shepherd knows exactly which path they’re going to take through the valleys. And the

shepherd is also going there to prepare the summer pasture. What does this mean?

It means that poisonous plants and weeds will be removed. Pitfalls on the tracks will be taken away. Clean water supplies

must be found and small dams must be built on the mountaintop to provide watering spots for the sheep. Baron hillsides and clifftops are identified.

And the mountain also attracts predators that wish to snatch away a lamb. So the shepherd goes ahead of the sheep and he prepares the summer gr grazing pastures.

So he knows he knows everything about that mountaintop experience.

Now the problem with sheep is they they’re tempted to nibble at everything that they pass by.

We’re a bit like that as well. We nibble at everything in life, not just food,

but I’m just going to play this. I’m going to dabble with that. I’m going to yield to that temptation three minutes.

And the shepherd knows that this is what the sheep are like. Sheep will nibble anything not knowing whether it will bless them or poison them. And we are

tempted to try new experiences all the time, not knowing whether we’ll be blessed or hurt through those experiences.

That is why we need the good shepherd to go before us as Christ has gone before us. Christ has walked all of life’s difficult paths before us. He was

tempted in all points as we are. He knows that we are frail. He knows that we are but dust. He knows how hard it is to overcome temptation. He knows what

sorrow, physical exhaustion, and excruciating pain feel like. He knows what it feels like when your family is attacked by Satan. When your family rejects you, when you face betrayal,

infidelity, or hatred from those you love. He n he understands the paths that we’re going to take. And he is ever interceding for his flock that we may

make it path through up to the mountaintop safely. On the next slide, we see how Jesus interceded for Simon. He said,”Simon, Simon, this is Peter.

Listen.” He said, “Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail.” And in John 17, Jesus prays

for us, his disciples, today that we will be led by the Holy Spirit and secure in this world. We find that throughout Luke chapter 17. So, as the

sheep stay close to the shepherd, so we’re invited to stay close to the good shepherd, to read his word, to sing his praises, to enjoy morning and evening

devotions with him, to trust him to ward off the attacks of the evil one. Such sheep are shepher such sheep are secure

because the shepherd has gone before them. When you think of the Lord’s prayer, give us this day our daily bread.

You think of that expression?

He doesn’t say give us a freezer full of six months worth supply of food. Says just give us today our literally it’s give us our food for today or sufficient

for today. And a great example of this in the Bible is Elijah. When Elijah was fed by the ravens by the brook Cherith what? Well, he was fed by the ravens.

Can ravens give you three month supply of food? No. A raven will give you one day supply of food maximum. And so

Elijah was learning a daily dependence upon God. Like the Israelites had to collect mana fresh every single morning other than on the Sabbath day. So God

was teaching the Israelites and God was teaching Elijah that we can trust him but we need to trust him on a day-to-day basis. And if he gives you three months

food supply in advance, then you’re going to ignore God for the next three months because your three months are provided for. And so when you say give

us this day our daily bread in the Lord’s prayer there in Matthew 6 uh Jesus is teaching us to develop a daily dependence upon God for our daily needs.

And even when Elijah went by the brook Cherith and you know there was water there in the in the drought he watched as that

brook slowly went down and down and down then it faded away. Remember that story?

It says and when the when the brook was dry then the word of the Lord said to him go to Zarapath for I’ve commanded a widow there to feed you. Earlier in that chapter in first Kings 17:2, God says,

“Get thee at once and go to go across the Jordan to to the brook Cherith, for I’ve commanded the ravens to feed you there.” And when the when the water ran

out, then God says to Elijah, it’s almost the same words in the Hebrew. He says, “Get thee at wants to Zarapath because I’ve commanded a widow there to

feed you.” And the word Cherith means cut off and cut down. That is, you’re going to be taken away from the public scene. You need to learn dependence upon

God away after the adrenaline rush of the confrontation with Ahab. And then God says once the water is run dry, God says now I’m inviting you to trust me

again. I’m sending you through Israel up into the widow of Zarapath which is ruled that’s entire in Siden. That’s Jezebel’s homeland. This is not the Bible belt. This is the Baal belt.

And the word Zarapath means a furnace or a crucible.

And why does God in invite Elijah to make these journeys? Because Elijah,

first Kings 17, when we first meet Elijah, it says Elijah the Tishbite, a man from Gilead. And at the last word,

the last verse of that chapter says, the widow says to Elijah, now I know that you are a man of God because the word of God is in you. And so it is through those journeys from Gileads to Ahab,

from Ahab to the brook Cherith, from the brook Cherith to to Zarapath that Elijah is transformed from a man from Gilead to a man of God.

Because he’s obedience to the word of God. There are seven times in that chapter it says the word of the Lord said. And each time Elijah does exactly

as he’s commanded by God. And so when we trust the good shepherd and we stay close to him and we’re obedient to his

word, God is in the process of refining us. Zarapath means a place of refining.

It wasn’t pleasant to be in Zarapath. It wasn’t pleasant to be leaving by the brook Cherith. But even by the brook Cherith, um Elijah saw the water going

down and down and down, but he still trusted God. And when the water was gone, he still trusted God. And there are times in life when the brook that we rely on is loading fading away as well.

Our health is fading. Our finances are fading. Our business is fading. Our marriage is fading. We we sit by these

brooks that add joy and life, joy and meaning to life. And we watch them sometimes and they just get lower and lower and lower and lower and then

they’re gone forever. And it’s not a sign that God has abandoned us as in the story of Elijah. It simply means God is preparing us for the next chapter of

life. And if we always had that brook every single day, we would cease to see the miracle every single day. Because a

miracle that’s repeated every single day ceases to be a miracle in most people’s eyes.

And so a dying brook is not the sign that God has abandoned us. It’s the sign that he’s preparing us for the next chapter of life.

So we follow before the good shepherd who’s gone before us upon that mountain.

It says there and go go to the next slide, brother, please. Oh, okay. Well, that’s my mistake. So,

we’ll just leave that up for there for now. But the text says, “You anoint us my head with oil.”

Now, most of us today, we don’t anoint our heads with oil, do we? I mean,

literally, we wash our hair. When I was a kid, when was when I was a kid? No,

when I was at college, I was living on almost nothing and I was weighed like 120 pounds and I cycled 30 miles to

church every Sabbath and 30 miles back cuz we were like living in real poverty as students back in England. And during the week, I ate nothing but pasta and

frozen broccoli. And then on Sabbath, I binged on salad and fruit salad because those were my vitamins for the week. And I was stocking up. I didn’t touch the

carbs on Sabbath. I just wanted vitamins from fruit and and and salad. And um I I I decided I need to save money in all

ways possible. So I just got some industrial cleaning fluid and use that on my head rather than soap. It saved a lot of money. And my my wife my my wife

so my mother was not happy about this cuz my hair looked like a hedgehog at all times like spiky with this kind of like this this industrial fluid on my

head. Well anyway, I thought I was saving money. She no she says you need to use proper shampoo and you need to use proper soap and and anyway when you’re a student you do these things.

Okay. These are your pre-marriage days.

But anyway, it’s good to anoint your head with oil from time to time to wash your head, comb your hair, clean your hair, and all the rest of it. And sheep,

they’re no different. Because when the sheep go up into the mountains,

you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, those are the predators. You anoint my head with oil.

It’s precisely in the summertime that the sheep are most pested by all the bugs. Wobble flies, bot flies, heel

flies, nose flies, deer flies, black flies, mosquitoes, gnats. They have these little minute winged parasites in

the Middle East that come out every summer. Sound like IRS agents, don’t they? Well, those nose flies, apologies to any IRS agents present here today,

but those nose flies, they literally swim. They fly up into the nose of the sheep and they let they they they they they burrow into the nasal passages and

the sinuses and they lay their eggs in there for the sheep. It’s absolutely terrible. And those eggs hatch to form

wormlike lavi which burrow deeper into the nasal passages of the sheep’s heads.

So the sheep are walking around with these like wormlike creatures burrowing through their sinuses and it drives them crazy. They’re desperately trying to get

rid of this sensation of something crawling around in your nasal passages.

You know, I when I was a student, we used to do silly things. Students tend to do this kind of thing. And we used to play this game. Um you you’d have to

drink Coca-Cola, then hit your put your head forward, and it goes up through your nasal passage and out through your nose. You ever done that?

No. We should try it. It’s You can Girls, you can do it. Okay. You won’t drown.

No, you’ve never done it, so it can’t be done. So, you take Coca-Cola and then you and you bend your head forward and you kind of like you don’t swallow it,

but you let it run up through the up through the nasal passage and down out your nose. This is what we guys would do as entertainment on Sabbath night. All

right, it’s possible to do it. Um, and I can tell you but when after you’ve done that, it clears your sinuses out, you know, and it clears, you know, if your

nostrils are blocked up, Coca-Cola does a wonderful job of burning its way through.

But those sheep, when they’ve got those flies in their nasal passages, there’s no way they can get them out. And so the sheep will butt their head against rocks

and against trees, desperately trying to dislodge those flies from within their nasal passages. And they can’t get them out. It literally drives them crazy with

distraction. Um, they will frantically run to escape those tormentors. They will hide in the brush. They’ll jump off cliffs. The lambs will be lost. The

youth’s will miscarry. They will die in their attempt to get rid of those summer flies. And the only solution for the sheep is for a shepherd who will

preemptively anoint the sheep’s head with oil and the nasal passages. And they’re not just putting oil on it. They’re putting a mixture of of liquids.

And in every part of the world, it’s slightly different depending what kind of fly they’re dealing with, but they’re putting this in order that um the flies are driven away. This is the uh this is

the repellent, the insect repellent they’re putting on the sheep. In Ireland, we we had to do the sheep sheep tip twice a year, beginning and end of

summer. And the sheep go through a narrow little chute and then the the water the about this wide and the and

the water is like six feet deep. And I always thought it was cruel at the time,

but when every sheep goes through, you have a big you have a rod with like a a square bead at the bottom and you put it over the sheep’s head and you have to

push it down under the water and you hold its head under the water for 5 seconds to make sure that liquid’s gone up all up into their nostrils into their

mouths and every inch of every crevice crevice in the body and then it comes up. The sheep think it’s drowning down there. But that’s the only way in this

is how we did it. you you ram them under the water and you hold the whole body under water, but the head in particular is held down, count to five, then you let them up again. Then you know that

the the the chemicals in the sheep dip that will kill all of the all the lavi,

all of the eggs within their nasal passages. This is what it means to keep sheep healthy even today.

You know, farming is a is a very different world, but this is what it means. But once you have that antidote,

that oil on your head, the relief is immense. The sheep are now at peace. And spiritually,

we’re sometimes driven to distraction by poor interpersonal relationships,

strained marriages, betrayal among friends, backstabbing at work, by colleagues and fellow church members.

The antidote is not found within us, but it’s found through the anointing of the holy the oil of the Holy Spirit. Some might call it the baptism of the Holy

Spirit across the flock. Luke 11:13 Jesus says this, “If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly father, your heavenly father,

give the holy spirit to those who ask him.” So we are to ask daily for the baptism of the holy spirit. Because life happens on a daily basis and we receive

wounds and cuts and bruises also on a daily basis. The spirit replaces the works of the flesh with the fruit of the spirit. The weeds of anger that grow

overnight are removed in the presence of the Holy Spirit as he searches us, convicts us, cleanses us, comforts us,

teaches us, directs us, and guides us through life. And when a sheep is infected in this way, this is the terrible thing about sheep. They will

pass on the the the infection to the other sheep because sheeps will often rub noses together. They rub their heads

together. It’s a form of comfort. You know, like you see a mother rubbing the noses of sheep of its lambs. the two two sheep will come together and they will

rub their noses together like this. It happens all the time in u in in the flock. What happens is that this passes on the infection from one head to the

next in the flock. And once one sheep is infected, it’s only a short period of time before the entire flock is infected by that particular parasitic infection.

And other than in cases of direct abuse,

sin is also passed when mind connects with mind in our own human experience.

When we feast our minds on sinful ideas or behaviors or temptations, when we cling to spiritual strongholds

of um selfish thoughts, selfish attitudes and fallen entertainment options, we allow sin to pass through the flock from others to us through our minds.

Because of this, we are to be careful where we allow our minds to dwell. Next, next um slide, please, brother. Finally,

beloved, says the apostle Paul, whatever is pure, honorable, just, um, whatever whatsoever is true, whatsoever is honorable, whatsoever is just,

whatsoever is pure, whatsoever is pleasing, whatsoever is commendable, if there is any excellence, and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about

these things. And that phrase, think about these things, is a present imperative, which means don’t just think once about these things, but continually

think about these things. We are to be continually only allowing our minds to dwell on that which is true or honorable

or just or pure or pleasing that is pleasing to God or commendable or excellent or anything worthy of praise.

And if you if the first if the first metric there is allow your mind only to dwell on that which is true. That would suggest you don’t watch most of any of the mainstream media whatsoever today.

Like be careful where you might allow your mind to go. Be careful what information you allow into your mind. Um because most of the time we’re being

lied to by people pushing one narrative or or another narrative. You during the pandemic I used to ask myself who do I listen to? Because in the pandemic the

question was really who do you trust? Do I trust Dr. Fouchy or do I trust the Holy Spirit? That was kind of the it boiled down to that kind of question.

Trust me I am the science said Dr.

Anthony Fouchy. And the Holy Spirit says well no I’m the Holy Spirit. He know I know better than Dr. Fouchy. So I I built I had these these questions I’d

ask myself and before I listen to somebody, I’d ask myself the question,

has this person ever lied to me in the past?

If yes, then I’m not going to listen to them today. So has Fox ever lied to me in the past?

Oh yes. Has CNN ever lied to me in the past? Oh, absolutely. Has MSNBC lied to me in the past? Pretty much continually.

So on that basis alone, that metric I ain’t going to listen to and say. Second metric was um is this person being paid to say what they’re saying to me right now?

If yes, don’t listen to them because they’re being paid to they’re a hired gun. They’re hired gun. They’re a hired hand. They’re not speaking out of

conviction. They’re speaking for need of a paycheck. So, have they lied to me in the past? If yes, don’t listen to them.

Is this person being paid to say what they’re saying? If yes, I don’t need to listen to them. The next question is this. Would this person be fired if they

said anything other than what they’re saying now? If yes, don’t listen to them because they they’ve got a gun to their head. Not me, not not literally, but you

understand. Would they be fired if they said anything different? Yes. I’m not going to listen to them. And the fourth question was this. Um, what has has this

person sacrificed anything to tell me what they’re saying now? Have they lost anything? Have they risked anything? Have they sacrificed anything? If yes,

then I don’t need then then I will listen to them.

And I as I look through those four criteria,

have has this person lied to me in the past? Only Jesus perfectly I can say no to that. Would this person be fired for

saying anything other than what they’re saying? No. Um has this person sacrificed to tell me what he’s now telling me? Oh,

absolutely. Laid down his life for me.

And so only Jesus has passed all of those text tests perfectly. And that’s why I want to listen to his Holy Spirit rather than the voices of this world when I’m having to make major decisions.

So this passage here reminds us that that sin is passed from as just as disease is passed from mind to mind

among sheep, so sin is passed from mind to mind among human beings.

And we need to be careful which mind we allow our mind to rub up against. And by being careful about what we allow into

our mind and guarding the avenues to our minds, we we’re cutting off the avenues for sin into our lives. Rene Dar rene

deart said this kito ergosum that is I think therefore I am. And so our sins

are they all take take place in our mind before we put them into action with our bodies. Our personalities, our characters are all shaped by our

experiences and how these impact our brain. And so we’re going to follow the good shepherd. We need renewal in our thinking to take every thought captive

to tear down every stronghold for sin in our lives and to replace them with the character of Christ. The next slide it talks about sister white talks about the

desire of ages about receiving the character of Christ. She says the Christian’s life is not a modification or improvements of the old but a

transformation of nature. This change can be brought about only by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit. So

spiritual growth which is restoring the image of God in fallen and broken humanity is an intentional cooperation

between God and the sinner. It doesn’t just happen by chance. Spiritual renewal and a transformation of nature comes

about when we are partnering with God in the process of character transformation.

And the next slide talks about a book education very famous quote says to restore in man the image of his maker to bring him back to the perfection in

which he was created to promote the development of body mind and soul that the divine purpose in his creation might be realized. This was to be the work of

redemption. This is the object of education, the great object of life. And so our goal as we follow the good

shepherd is to experience character transformation and sanctification today as we walk towards that ultimate

mountain that is Mount Zion where the new Jerusalem is. So what do we say in conclusion of time? Our time is up now.

I bring this to a close. If we can move brother to the next slide forward and then the one after that to our conclusions. The last verse of this psalm is very is very nice. says,

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

Now, um I remember this morning I was talking about deconstruction. Did you remember that in Sabbath school? Then my mind got distracted and went down

another rabbit hole and didn’t finish what I was talking about. Now, I’m going to tell you what I was talking about this morning. Okay? Um deconstructionism is a literary approach that says the

text never means what it proposes to say. There’s always another meaning to it. Okay? So deconstruction means that

you can never know who the author is. Uh the author can never reveal his will to you. Nobody can have the same possible

understanding of the text. But most importantly, the text never means what it says. So if I ask you the question,

um let me give you an example. This is the 23rd Psalm. This is an example used by deconstructionists. They say, “Is the 23rd Psalm a psalm of comfort? Yes or no?”

Yes. Would you would you agree?

Yeah. Hey, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thyself, they comfort me. Fair enough. So, if you’re a sheep, where do you not want to go?

You don’t want to go to the house of the Lord because the house of the Lord in David’s time is the tabernacle in Jerusalem. And guess what happens to the sheep in the house of the Lord?

They get sacrificed. So what is allegedly or purportedly a psalm of God’s comfort is a psalm of terror because this is a psalm of how the

shepherd leads you to have your throat cut in the tabernacle. That’s where you end up in the psalm. That’s a deconstructionist reading of of the psalm that the ostensible meaning is not

the real meaning. You have to find the real meaning which is often the exact opposite of the intent or the ostensible reading of the text.

So how do we read this passage here today? Let me ask you this question.

What actually follows us today? That is what is your legacy?

Do we leave behind a legacy, a trail of broken relationships, hurt feelings, bitterness, and anger?

Is your memory blessed or cursed by those we leave behind?

When you leave work, when you leave home, when you leave church, do people remember you well for the blessing that you were or do they remember you and say, “I’m glad they’ve gone.”

What follows us all the days of our lives? Blessing or curses?

What do we leave in our trail? Is our legacy the mercy and the goodness of God? Do we leave a trail of blessings that others wish to follow?

Do we in life leave a legacy that encourages others to want to follow the good shepherd just like we have been following him? What legacy? This psalm

is inviting us to dwell to reflect on the question of what legacy are we leaving as we journey through life? Do our footprints lead others to Jesus or do they lead them away from Jesus?

What legacy do we leave behind us? Well,

I’m coming to the end here. Our time really is up. We need to bring this to a close. I would say this.

I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

I gave my life to God when I was 13. I was baptized when I was 14. And all of God’s promises in the scriptures have come true in my life. He’s been

faithful. No questions asked. There have been tears of joy and there have been tears of sadness.

That that’s that goes I think for everybody in life. But I have the promise if I follow the good shepherd that I will dwell in the house of of

Yahweh or the creator God forever and ever. That this this psalm ends on a a note of hope, a promise that I’m not

going to live in the valleys. I’m not going to live in the tabletops. I’m not going to live in the euing shed, the s the lamming shed. I’m not going to live in the sheep pen in the valley. I have

the promise if I keep following the good shepherd, one day I’m going to live in the house of God.

And if I’m going to lead leave a trail of goodness and mercy after me, it’s a trail that other people can follow so they can dwell in the house of the Lord forever. My children, my grandchildren,

my relatives, my work colleagues, my neighbors.

I want us to think today about what kind of trail are we leaving behind? Are we leaving behind a trail of goodness that talks of the goodness of God and the

mercy of our heavenly father as we spoke about in our sermon today? Or do we leave behind a trail that turns people away from God, that makes people curse

God because of what we did to them? What are we leaving behind? What kind of footprints are we leaving behind us? I

chose to follow the good shepherd when I was 13. I was born again of water and the spirit when I was 14. And God, the good shepherd, has been good every day of my life.

And you can trust him to be your good shepherd today as well. You can trust him to, as the psalmist say, he will

make sure that you do not want. He will make sure you lie down by green pastures. He will lead you beside still

waters and restore your soul. He will lead you in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. He promises that he

will walk with you personally through the darkest valley, the valley of the shadow of death, so that you are not afraid of the evil out there. He will

make sure that you are comforted because his rod, his word, and his staff, that is the Holy Spirit, they comfort us and guide us and guard us. He prepares a

table before us, those summer feeding areas in the presence of the predators in this world. He anoints our head with oil. He takes care of the the the um

those things that annoy us and overwhelm us on a daily basis so that our cup overflows, that our lives are filled with a sense of goodness and his abundance and his blessing in our lives.

And he promises us that if we walk and we follow him closely, the rabbis used to say, they had a saying in ancient Israel that a disciple followed a rabbi

so close that the dust from the rabbi’s shoes was on the students faces. That’s how closely they followed the rabbis. If

you followed rabbi, there was like no space between you and them. That there was no daylight there. Wherever the rabbi went, the disciples would go. And the good shepherd promises that if you

follow me and you accept the creator of the universe as your personal shepherd and saying goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life,

not because of who you are, but because in following the good shepherd, you’re going to be changed in the process. And you’re going to leave a legacy that’s

worth following. A legacy that other people will want to follow. A legacy that other people will hold up and say,

“That’s the kind of life that we want for ourselves and for our children.” And we have the promise that we shall dwell in the house of the Lord our entire

lives. It’s a beautiful promise the end of this psalm. And uh so when I go to re

hospitals or you visit with somebody and they’re facing life’s ultimate moments,

this is a beautiful psalm to read with people. I want to encourage you when you minister to people to maybe read this psalm with them and just take the time

to explain some of the some of the insights that this psalm gives us into the character of the good shepherd. What he does for us. The fact that he walks

with us. The fact that he goes before us. The fact that he’s walked the paths that we walk ahead of us. He knows where we’re working walking because he’s

already walked there before. He prepares those mountaintop experiences and he doesn’t abandon us in the valleys either. He’s always there with his

sheep. And one day we’re going to dwell in the house of the Lord our whole lives. Uh to people who are you often read the psalm to people who are suffering, they’re dying in hospital.

And the promise that one day we will dwell in the house of the Lord is precious indeed. It’s a precious,

precious promise. I would encourage you to follow the good shepherd.

He’s done me no wrong. He’ll do no you wrong. He’s done me no harm. He’ll do no he’ll do you no harm. He’s gone before

us. He’s preparing a place for us. He protects us from the attacks of the predators. He heals us with the gift of his Holy Spirit. And he’s doing

everything to prepare a home for us in heaven above. As he said to Peter, “Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me. In my house,

in my father’s house are many mansions.

If it were not so, would I have told you so? But I go now to prepare a place for you. And if I come again and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that

where I am, there ye may be also.” That is the blessed hope that Jesus will take us to our heavenly home and we will rest

secure from all predators, from all temptations, from all attacks of Satan,

and we will be one flock with our good shepherd. That is what we look forward to as Christians. It’s a beautiful hope.

And in this world, it’s not just a blessed hope, but it’s our only hope. A world that is torn apart by hatred and violence. The only hope is a new heavens

and a new earth and a redeemed people where sin is done away with forever and love pulsates throughout the entire

universe. It’s our only hope and that hope is what carries us through the valleys today. So follow the good

shepherd, trust him where he leads and see how he blesses you. Amen. Let’s close with a word of prayer. Our heavenly father, we want to thank you

for this uh this psalm. The Lord is my shepherd. We shall not want. Father, we thank you today for the promises it

contains, the guidance it has. Lord, I thank you that Jesus said that he is the good shepherd, that in him we see a picture of you, our heavenly father.

Lord, I want to ask today that whatever other voices we’ve been following in life, from this day forward, we will follow the voice of the good shepherd.

Lord, I ask that you still those other voices, that you take away any attraction our mind has for those other voices. I pray that we will learn to

recognize your voice. That you’ll give us the discernment to perceive your voice. Um the grace to accept your voice and the courage to follow where you

lead. So Lord, we give our lives and our hearts into your hands aresh today. Or bless this congregation and all who worship here. Lord, bless the leaders,

the pastor and his family, the elders,

the Sabbath school teachers, the um all those who fulfill different roles. Lord,

may this house of prayer be a place where people meet with the good shepherd from Sabbath to Sabbath. I pray, Lord,

that our following of the shepherd will get would become closer and more meaningful as we go through life. And Lord, I pray that each one of us will

leave a legacy of goodness and mercy wherever we go. We thank you, Lord, for hearing and for answering our prayer today because we pray in the name of

Jesus, our Lord and Savior and good shepherd. Amen.