0:1010 seconds Uh, thank you very much, pastor. It’s a privilege to come and share with you here in beautiful South Carolina. I’m not sure I’ve been to South Carolina
0:1919 secondsbefore, but you live in a beautiful part of the world. And the drive to church this morning was just lovely. um up in Michigan yesterday. I was going to go
0:2727 secondsfor a walk with my wife before going to the airport and we had uh snow was coming down and um which is kind of
0:3434 secondsdepressing in in middle March and uh uh we had ice and tornado um tornadoes
0:4141 secondsswept through earlier this week just south of us. Um some people lost their lives in those tornadoes. And so I come down here to South Carolina think, “Oh,
0:4949 secondsthis is like paradise. this is warm and the trees aren’t bent over double in the in the wind and so forth. So, it’s just
0:5656 secondsa real privilege me for me to come and share with you here uh during these um precious Sabbath hours as we like to give a warm welcome for those who are
1:041 minute, 4 secondspresent for those who are watching online. Uh we welcome you to the uh service today. So, um uh I I I have to
1:121 minute, 12 secondsconfess that um the um as I was coming here yesterday, somebody reminded me this is a religious liberty Sabbath. And
1:211 minute, 21 secondsI I I wasn’t quite sure and and so um it’s funny how these things happen, isn’t it? It was not so
1:281 minute, 28 secondsfunny. Um um I my my memory isn’t that great these days. So, I thought um I wrote a sermon on Thursday night and
1:361 minute, 36 secondsFriday um called 72 virgins which I did prepare for religious liberty Sabbath.
1:421 minute, 42 secondsSo, I’m going to preach that for our main worship service today. Um and uh that’s on the assurance of salvation and
1:481 minute, 48 secondsa few other topics as well. But um uh for our Sabbath school this morning and for this afternoon, I I want to talk
1:561 minute, 56 secondsabout uh the 23rd Psalm. uh because what I find um very often among Adventists is a lack of assurance of salvation. And uh
2:052 minutes, 5 secondswhen they come to face um their moment of passing away, I find many people struggle with the assurance of salvation. And um part of religious
2:142 minutes, 14 secondsliberty is having the assurance of salvation and knowing that we have a savior. And um if you know that you are saved and you have a good shepherd who
2:232 minutes, 23 secondsis looking after you, it’s far easier to walk through life’s difficult moments.
2:282 minutes, 28 secondsAnd so um invite you to um open your Bibles. We’re going to look um if we go to the next slide, uh today we’re going
2:352 minutes, 35 secondsto look um in the first sermon, we’re going to look at um again this was a late change. So we’re going to look at the first three verses of the Lord is my
2:432 minutes, 43 secondsshepherd for Sabbath school. Then we’ll look at verses 3 through six this afternoon.
2:512 minutes, 51 secondsAnd um I hope and pray that it’s a blessing for everybody. So um as we open our Bibles, invite you to uh bow your
3:003 minutesheads with me. We invite the presence of the Holy Spirit again. Oh heavenly father, I thank you for the blessings of the Sabbath day. We thank you for the
3:083 minutes, 8 secondsfreedom we have to come and worship you according to our conscience. Father, we thank you that you’ve given us the Sabbath day, a cathedral of time um of equal measure to every man, woman, boy,
3:183 minutes, 18 secondsand girl that is ever born. A time to reconnect with you. Now Lord, as we um as we read these inspired words from
3:263 minutes, 26 secondsscripture, the 23rd Psalm, Lord, words that we are very familiar with, I’m asking that the same Holy Spirit that gave these words to David on those um
3:353 minutes, 35 secondsthose hills of of the Middle East, I’m asking, Lord, that your same Holy Spirit will speak through me and for me, and that the message of this psalm will sink deep and take root in our lives today.
3:453 minutes, 45 secondsSo Lord, I pray you will still the voices of the world outside and may you the good shepherd be glorified in our lives today. In your holy name we pray.
3:543 minutes, 54 secondsAmen. All right. So um perhaps next slide please. That perhaps the most loved passage um in all of scripture is
4:014 minutes, 1 secondthe 23rd Psalm. Um people like they read the 23rd Psalm all around the world. Um,
4:084 minutes, 8 secondswhen you’re in Pathfinders, it’s one of the first psalms that you memorize together with Psalm 19 is one of the one I had to memorize in Pathfinders and
4:164 minutes, 16 secondsPsalm 8. And and so the 23rd Psalm is beloved by people all around the world. Some people call it the shepherd psalm.
4:244 minutes, 24 secondsSome people call it the hymn of martyrs. Other people call it the hospice psalm.
4:294 minutes, 29 secondsIt’s a psalm we often read in hospice situations. And it’s a psalm we often read beside people when they’re in hospital and they’re passing away. And
4:384 minutes, 38 secondsyou know, as a pastor, when you visit somebody who is um who is facing death,
4:434 minutes, 43 secondsum I often ask to see their Bible and uh I um I look through I look through the for the portions of the Bible that are
4:514 minutes, 51 secondsunderlined because that’s what means most to those people. And if you and if you if you’re wanting to bring comfort to somebody
4:594 minutes, 59 secondslying in a hospital bed, maybe with morphine, um they’ve got pain medication and often times their senses are
5:065 minutes, 6 secondsstarting to fade, but the hearing is generally the last sense to go. Um if you look through their Bible and you open it, you’ll find the passages that
5:135 minutes, 13 secondsthey’ve underlined. You know, that’s what’s most meaningful to them. Those are the promises that really speak to their heart and their circumstances. And
5:225 minutes, 22 secondsmore often than not, you’ll find that the 23rd Psalm is either completely underlined or partially underlined. It seems that everybody likes the 23rd Psalm. And so it has a universal appeal.
5:335 minutes, 33 secondsSo um in verse um 1-3 um this speaks of God’s loving guide guidance for his children. Says, “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.
5:445 minutes, 44 secondsHe makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me by still waters.
5:505 minutes, 50 secondsHe restoreth my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. And then in verse four it reads, it speaks
5:575 minutes, 57 secondsof divine protection, not just divine comfort. It says, “Yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are
6:066 minutes, 6 secondswith me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.” And then the final two verses, five and six, speak about God’s gracious hospitality to his children.
6:166 minutes, 16 secondssays, “You preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies and anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows.
6:246 minutes, 24 secondsSurely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
6:316 minutes, 31 secondsAnd so um when I was um at at uh in New College in England, uh we were studying modern approaches to scripture. And one
6:396 minutes, 39 secondsof those modern approaches to scripture is called deconstructionism.
6:436 minutes, 43 secondsNow that’s a that’s a pretty long word particularly early in the morning. I was in Virginia recently and I was looking at some of the history of the Baptists
6:516 minutes, 51 secondswith religious liberty and uh some of the some of the Baptists um they were um I learned this word
6:586 minutes, 58 secondsdisestablishmentarianism that’s quite a word isn’t it like theology has this kind of habit of giving you these long long words. So if
7:077 minutes, 7 secondsyou are uh if you are in favor of the established church that is the Anglican church or the episcopal church was the official religion of Virginia in
7:157 minutes, 15 secondscolonial times the Baptists they were against having an official state church so they were against establishmentarianism. So they were disestablishmentarianism.
7:257 minutes, 25 secondsThat’s quite a word to learn and maybe young girls you can recite that back to your mom and dad later today. Uh try and remember that word disestablishmentarianism.
7:337 minutes, 33 secondsBut um as as we look through the the the 23rd Psalm here um it has these three components. Loving guidance, divine
7:417 minutes, 41 secondsprotection, and God’s gracious hospitality. And uh this morning, uh we’re just going to look at the first three verses and then we’re going to
7:487 minutes, 48 secondsthis afternoon look at the other two verses. So uh the next slide, please um that we’re going to look at the first verse that says, “The Lord is my
7:567 minutes, 56 secondsshepherd. I shall not want.” So um this isn’t the first guy in the Bible. The first time in the Bible, we find the
8:048 minutes, 4 secondsconcept that God is our shepherd. And just as as I begin this, has anybody here ever raised sheep in their life.
8:118 minutes, 11 secondsHas anybody Yes. Yeah. We have some people, a few people with with with agricultural or farming backgrounds. Uh
8:188 minutes, 18 secondson my my grandparents, my uncle’s farm in Ireland, they always had a large flock of sheep. And those flock of sheep
8:268 minutes, 26 secondswould be kept in the in the in in in the uh the pens and and the the warehouses in the winter and or the barns. And in the summer they were let loose in in the
8:348 minutes, 34 secondshighlands, the mountains. And uh I can tell you that um hering sheep through the roads of Ireland is not a pleasant
8:418 minutes, 41 secondsexperience. You have to be as fit as a fiddle to chase those sheep up and down those highways because they seem to have a mind of their own. Um but uh the first
8:518 minutes, 51 secondsperson in the Bible to talk about God as his shepherd uh you find actually in Genesis 48 and uh this is uh you find that in Genesis 48:15-16.
9:029 minutes, 2 secondsOur next slide please. And this is what it says there. It’s speaking about Jacob. It says, “He blessed Joseph and
9:099 minutes, 9 secondssaid, “The God before whom my ancestors Abraham and Isaac walked, um, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to
9:189 minutes, 18 secondsthis day, the angel who has redeems me from all harm, bless the boys.” And that phrase, my shepherd, is literally the
9:269 minutes, 26 secondsshepherd of me there in the Hebrew. And this is one of the most beautiful blessings you’ll read in the Bible. when when Jacob was was was dying, he he
9:349 minutes, 34 secondsdecided to bless Joseph and all the other his his other boys and he referred to God as his shepherd. And of course,
9:429 minutes, 42 secondsJacob himself had been a shepherd all the days of his life. Our next slide,
9:469 minutes, 46 secondsIsaiah 14:11, um reads as follows. It says, “He that is God will feed his flock like a shepherd. He’ll gather the
9:549 minutes, 54 secondslambs in his arms and carry them in his bosom and gently lead the mother sheep.”
10:0010 minutesAnd Micah goes on to say, speaking about God, he says, “You shepherd your people with your staff, the flock that belongs to you.” And so in in ancient Israel,
10:1010 minutes, 10 secondsum, shepherds were a very familiar scene. Every town, every village had two or three shepherds who look after the flock of the entire community for the
10:1810 minutes, 18 secondsday. And what would happen is everybody would have some sheep. Um, maybe if you’re lucky, a cow. Um and and every morning the shepherds would walk through
10:2710 minutes, 27 secondsthe village and all the animals would leave their sheep pens um and they’d join the flock and the flock would go out on in into the hills and the
10:3510 minutes, 35 secondsshepherds would watch over the flock and at the end of the day the shepherds would come back and they’d walk through town and all the animals would break off
10:4210 minutes, 42 secondsinto their own sheep pens like they know where their homes are but they also know to go out with the with the herd the flock in the day. And so um the these
10:5110 minutes, 51 secondspassages here speak of the fact that Jehovah God or um Yahweh Jehovah God he is the shepherd of his people
11:0111 minutes, 1 secondand just want to ask you like the creator of the universe it says the Lord is my shepherd that word in your Bible is in capital letters L O R D is it not?
11:1111 minutes, 11 secondsYes. That means that means it’s Jehovah.
11:1411 minutes, 14 secondsThat’s not just doesn’t mean just Adonai. That means Jehovah. So the the creator of the universe is my shepherd.
11:2111 minutes, 21 secondsThat’s wonderful news because in many people live their lives with a sense that um my life is drifting. My life has no direction. My life has no purpose.
11:3011 minutes, 30 secondsWhy do things keep going wrong in my life? And this psalm brings us back to the realization that he who spoke the universe into existence is our personal
11:3911 minutes, 39 secondsshepherd. And shepherds identify with their sheep. You know, um cattle divers,
11:4511 minutes, 45 secondsthey drive the sheep. You don’t you don’t lead cattle. You drive you drive cattle, but you have to lead sheep.
11:5011 minutes, 50 secondsSheep will only go when they trust the shepherd. Whereas cattle will go wherever you prod them, and they don’t really trust anybody. But sheep will go um they will always follow the shepherd.
12:0012 minutesOur next slide speaks about the fact in Ezekiel 34 that there are actually bad shepherds out there. And um my wife
12:0812 minutes, 8 secondswho’s a teacher will look at this slide and she will chastise me when she sees this online one day. And some of you are nodding with my wife there. I can see
12:1612 minutes, 16 secondsthat because there’s way too much text there. So, um, what I did was I I I interspersed some of the sentences in black and some in red just to kind of
12:2412 minutes, 24 secondshelp you read it and just for ease of comprehension. But this is where God, he speaks against the the bad shepherds,
12:3112 minutes, 31 secondsthe the leaders of God’s people who are not fulfilling their spiritual responsibilities. And it says, “For thus saith the Lord God, I myself will search
12:4012 minutes, 40 secondsfor my sheep and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks, when they are among their scattered sheep, so
12:4812 minutes, 48 secondsI will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they’ve been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I’ll bring
12:5612 minutes, 56 secondsthem out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel by
13:0413 minutes, 4 secondsthe water courses and all the inhabitants inhabited parts of the land.
13:0813 minutes, 8 secondsI will feed them with good pasture in and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture. There they shall lie down in good grazing land and they shall
13:1713 minutes, 17 secondsfeed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. Sounds like the 23rd Psalm,
13:2113 minutes, 21 secondsdoesn’t it? He goes on to say, “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, sayaeth the
13:2713 minutes, 27 secondsLord God. I will seek the lost and I will bring back the stray and I will bind up the injured and I will strengthen the weak but the fat and the
13:3613 minutes, 36 secondsstrong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice. Now this isn’t a rebuke to those who go to the gym every day. Okay.
13:4313 minutes, 43 secondsUm the strong in our midst. Um if you read that passage later, you realize that the fat and the strong are fat and strong. Those are the bad shepherds and
13:5313 minutes, 53 secondsand they’re likened to the dominant sheep in the flock that butt all the weaker sheep and drive them away from the clean water and the green pastures.
14:0114 minutes, 1 secondBut in this passage here, God promises that he is going to seek out his people. He will be the shepherd of his people.
14:0714 minutes, 7 secondsHe is going to bind up the injured. It’s like Nazareth manifesto of Luke 4 where Jesus came to bind up the brokenhearted.
14:1414 minutes, 14 secondsThat God will strengthen the weak. That God will bring back the stray. and God is going to seek the lost. And so with this kind of imagery in mind, we start
14:2314 minutes, 23 secondsto understand some of the parables that Jesus spoke um and John 10 where he says, “I’m the good shepherd.” And the parable of the lost sheep, they start to
14:3114 minutes, 31 secondsmake more sense. Jesus is identifying as the Lord God of Israel. That he is the fulfillment of this Old Testament
14:3814 minutes, 38 secondsprophets from Ezekiel 34. And who is this shepherd that is mentioned here?
14:4414 minutes, 44 secondsIt’s a literally it’s Yahweh Adonai in this passage that is Jehovah God.
14:5014 minutes, 50 secondsIt’s Jehovah God. And Jesus uses this passage as a background for John chapter 10 in verse 11 where he says I am the
14:5914 minutes, 59 secondsgood shepherd. And that phrase I am is not just saying I am the good shepherd like I am from South Carolina. That
15:0715 minutes, 7 secondsphrase I am is the English way of saying Yahweh Jehovah God. So I am the great I
15:1415 minutes, 14 secondsam the creator of the universe is our good shepherd. I think it’s a profound a profound thing. And so um when you think
15:2215 minutes, 22 secondsabout that the the shepherd has an intimate knowledge of his sheep but he always walks with his sheep through the valley of the shadow of death. Uh the
15:3115 minutes, 31 secondsgood shepherd looks after his sheep. The good shepherd knows his sheep. He inspects his sheep. And this ver this passage is telling us that the creator
15:3915 minutes, 39 secondsof the universe, he identifies with each one of us. He knows us. He looks for us.
15:4515 minutes, 45 secondsHe cares for us. He watches over us. He wants to make sure we have still waters and green pastures. Uh this is an
15:5215 minutes, 52 secondsincredible promise from God that the creator of the universe who spoke the universe into existence and by the word of his mouth, the stars and all their
16:0016 minutesbrilliance and the galaxies were created. He is my shepherd.
16:0616 minutes, 6 secondsYou know, I I just uh imagine do you have a local soccer team here in in Greenville?
16:1216 minutes, 12 secondsGreenwood. Are we in Greenwood or Greenville?
16:1416 minutes, 14 secondsGreenwood. My apologies. Okay. All right. You know, it’s it’s really embarrassing these days. I I speak in a different place every week and after a
16:2216 minutes, 22 secondswhile it all it becomes a blur and people come up to me, they say, “Nice to see you, Brother Vine.” I said I said, “Do we know each other?” He said, “Yeah,
16:2916 minutes, 29 secondsyou stayed at my house last Friday night.” I said, “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” So, we’re in Greenwood. It’s good to know I’m in Greenwood. I thought it was Greenfield for a minute, but
16:3716 minutes, 37 secondslet’s say that Greenwood had a soccer team. Okay. Do you have a soccer team here in Greenwood? No. Okay. So, you’ve probably got like an amateur team
16:4616 minutes, 46 secondssomewhere. Let’s say the they’re going to be the the the Greenwood um amateur soccer club. And then on the local news,
16:5316 minutes, 53 secondsit announces that Lionel Messi, the greatest player in world history in soccer, is now signed up to be the striker for the Greenwood Soccer Club.
17:0217 minutes, 2 secondslike the people will be shocked like how did Lionel Messi come to Greenwood? Like what was there about this? Did they offer him a billion dollars for a
17:0917 minutes, 9 secondsseason? How did that work out? And all the world’s media will be camping out in Greenwood and instead of 50 people watching those games, you’ll have a
17:1817 minutes, 18 seconds100,000 people coming in every weekend to watch Lionel Messi. And people will be saying, “How did Greenwood get Lionel Messi?”
17:2617 minutes, 26 secondsWell, even more incredible to think about is the fact that how did I acquire the creator of the entire universe as my personal shepherd?
17:3617 minutes, 36 secondsYou know, so when you when we normally say the 23rd Psalm, we say it like we’re in a funeral, don’t we? The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. That’s how
17:4417 minutes, 44 secondswe normally say it. Yes. But really, it starts with a note of celebration that Jehovah God is my shepherd. like Lionel
17:5217 minutes, 52 secondsMessi is the striker for the Greenwood soccer team. You’re not going to say that Lionel Messi, yeah, yeah, yeah, he’s he’s the striker for Greenwood. No,
17:5917 minutes, 59 secondsyou’re going to say Lionel Messi is the striker for our soccer team. And thus,
18:0318 minutes, 3 secondswe as Christians, we can say that the creator of the universe, the maker of all things is my personal shepherd.
18:1018 minutes, 10 secondsAnd people can and then people say,
18:1218 minutes, 12 secondswell, how did you get him as your shepherd?
18:1518 minutes, 15 secondsAnd we live under the rule of Satan and he destroys. But how did you get the creator as your personal shepherd?
18:2118 minutes, 21 secondsHow did he get into his flock? Well, the Bible is pretty clear about this. If you look in uh next slide, John 1 and verse3
18:3018 minutes, 30 secondsand we see there all things came into being through him. Speaking of Christ,
18:3418 minutes, 34 secondsthe good shepherd and without him not one thing came into being. So he is my shepherd by virtue of being my creator
18:4418 minutes, 44 secondsbecause he’s my creator. Therefore, he is my shepherd. He sustains he sustains trillions of stars, countless galaxies
18:5218 minutes, 52 secondswith a splendor and an order and a beauty way beyond our wildest imagination. If you look at the Hubble space pictures, the the pictures from
19:0019 minutesspace, it is hard not to be overwhelmed with the beauty and the glories of our universe. You know that the heavens declare the glory of God. Yes, we read
19:0919 minutes, 9 secondslater in the Psalms that the heavens declare the glory of light and night after night the stars they pour forth speech that you look at the stars at
19:1619 minutes, 16 secondsnight and the galaxies and you’re just overwhelmed that if this is what God made how great is our God and he is our
19:2419 minutes, 24 secondsour shepherd number one by virtue of the fact that he is our creator. And so with the phrase the Lord is my shepherd links
19:3219 minutes, 32 secondsa lump of d of clump links a lump of clay down here on planet earth to the great god of the universe himself. It’s an incredible personal connection.
19:4219 minutes, 42 secondsIt’s a profound it’s a wonderful thing to realize that the creator knows about me personally that um if have you seen that um picture
19:5119 minutes, 51 secondsof of the earth hanging in that in in the beam of light in space.
19:5619 minutes, 56 secondsThere’s a very famous picture and it was taken from um Hubble and um that they looked back towards the Earth as as it
20:0320 minutes, 3 secondswas disappearing off into outer space and they took a picture of planet Earth and the the you see um like the dark universe and that there’s there’s a ray
20:1220 minutes, 12 secondsof light crosses the the middle of the of the photograph and in the middle of that that that beam of light you see Earth this little spot in the in that
20:2020 minutes, 20 secondsray of light. It’s a very famous picture um of Earth as a little little speck of dust hanging in space and you realize
20:2720 minutes, 27 secondshow small the planet is and then how small we are as individuals.
20:3220 minutes, 32 secondsAnd the idea that the creator of all that is my shepherd, it gives me a sense that I’m not insignificant at all. I’m
20:4220 minutes, 42 secondsnot unimportant. The God of the creator of the universe knows about me personally and he’s caring for me personally and how small I am. But when
20:5120 minutes, 51 secondsI realize that he is my shepherd, that means I’m not as small as the world may think of me. I’m not as insignificant as this world that they may say about me.
20:5920 minutes, 59 secondsI’m not um so unimportant um that the God of the universe doesn’t know about me and care about me personally. The Lord is my shepherd and I am personally
21:0821 minutes, 8 secondsimportant to the creator of the universe. And so the Lord is my shepherd is the creator God himself. Now modern
21:1621 minutes, 16 secondsman denies this connection. Modern philosophy denies the connection between the creator and between mankind. And
21:2421 minutes, 24 secondsmodern man generally denies the fact that we have a creator. And the reason they do that um from with secular humanism is the idea that in in the
21:3221 minutes, 32 secondsevolutionary period man is the pinnacle of the period of the pyramid. And we don’t answer to anybody.
21:3921 minutes, 39 secondsAnd so if you believe we live in a universe um that is cold and the universe doesn’t care about you, if you live or if you
21:4721 minutes, 47 secondsdie, the universe will go on forever. If you believe that we just live in a universe and we are the pinnacle of creation and there is no God out there,
21:5421 minutes, 54 secondsthen life is very cold and hard. But the Bible teaches we live in a cosmos, not in a universe, in a cosmos. And a cosmos
22:0222 minutes, 2 secondshas a creator. And a cosmos has a moral order. And we are moral beings responsible to our creator for how we
22:0922 minutes, 9 secondstreat one another and those the animals of which we have jurisdiction and stewardship care.
22:1522 minutes, 15 secondsAnd so modern man denies that the Lord is my shepherd. And this leads to the the modern culture of decay, the
22:2322 minutes, 23 secondsphilosophy of despair that permeates America, the deaths of despair that are surging all around our nation these days. This is what leads to this. When
22:3222 minutes, 32 secondswe turn our back on a moral cosmos and a loving creator in favor of blind evolution and a cold universe, then you
22:4022 minutes, 40 secondsare basically a random collection of water and chemicals and nothing more.
22:4522 minutes, 45 secondsAnd so the Lord is my shepherd is reminded that I’m a created being in a moral universe and I am morally
22:5322 minutes, 53 secondsaccountable to my creator for how I treat my brothers and my sisters and that one day every jud every deed will be judged by a heavenly court.
23:0423 minutes, 4 secondsSo another reason why we why we celebrate the fact that the Lord is my shepherd is on the next slide Isaiah 53
23:1123 minutes, 11 secondsand verse 6. It says there, “All we like sheep have gone astray. We’ve all turned on our own way and the Lord has laid on
23:2023 minutes, 20 secondshim the iniquity of us all.” That is the good shepherd looks for sheep for his flock. He doesn’t just He’s not our good
23:2923 minutes, 29 secondsshepherd just by virtue of creation. He is also our good shepherd by virtue of redemption. On Calvary, the good
23:3623 minutes, 36 secondsshepherd demonstrated his desire for the uh to for all humanity to come into his flock, for all of us to be under his
23:4523 minutes, 45 secondsloving care. He bought me for his flock at the incredible price of his own shed blood and laid down life. We were bought
23:5223 minutes, 52 secondswith a price beyond anything this world has to offer. And when such a sacrifice is made by the shepherd, it leads to an intimate relationship with the sheep.
24:0224 minutes, 2 secondsAnd why is that? Because if you’ve never raised sheep, um I’ll let me tell you this. Um you can leave, you know, beef cattle you can leave out in the fields.
24:1124 minutes, 11 secondsGoats will take care of themselves.
24:1324 minutes, 13 secondsChickens will kind of take care of themselves as well. As long as they have a regular supply of water, chickens will will they they take care of themselves.
24:2024 minutes, 20 secondsAnybody here kept chickens? Yes. When they say that chickens are a clean animal, don’t believe them. Okay. Chickens are the most dirty of animals.
24:2924 minutes, 29 secondsAnd I don’t know why they say I mean the Bible says chicken is a clean feet meat.
24:3224 minutes, 32 secondsBut it seems to me that chickens are like the cockroaches of the bird the bird family. They will eat literally anything and everything. Um even if you
24:4024 minutes, 40 secondsput a dead chicken in front of a bunch of chickens, they will eat the dead chicken. They will cannibalize each other. They will eat dead birds. They’ll eat if you find an old rabbit or
24:4824 minutes, 48 secondssquirrel, they’ll munch that as well. Um uh there’s nothing a chicken will not eat. But sheep,
24:5624 minutes, 56 secondssheep require constant attention.
25:0025 minutesYou don’t have a healthy herd unless you have a good shepherd. And the character and the health of the herd depends on the character of the shepherd.
25:1025 minutes, 10 secondsIf you have a bad shepherd who says they’re all going to end up in the slaughter house anyway, the sheep live and suffer before they get to the
25:1725 minutes, 17 secondsslaughter house. But a good shepherd takes care of his sheep. Sheep require endless attention and meticulous care
25:2425 minutes, 24 secondsotherwise they become thin and weak and riddled with disease and paraph parasites. So the health of any flock or any individual sheep uh depends on the
25:3325 minutes, 33 secondscharacter of the shepherd. Without a good shepherd who personally knows and cares for the flock, every member of that flock will suffer. And just like
25:4225 minutes, 42 secondssheep, this verse says all we like sheep have gone astray. We suffer like sheep from the same traits that sheep have.
25:4925 minutes, 49 secondsSheep have mob instincts. They have fears. They have anxieties. They’re afraid. They are stubborn and they are willful animals. They have selfish behavior. And they have perverse habits.
26:0126 minutes, 1 secondAnd so do we as human beings.
26:0426 minutes, 4 secondsBut despite our failings as individuals and as a human race, the good shepherd still created us. He bought us with his
26:1126 minutes, 11 secondsblood. He calls us by name. He makes us his own. And he delights in caring for his sheep. He’s not turned off by his sheep.
26:1926 minutes, 19 secondsMany years ago in Azabaijan, I was running a a micro finance program and um when we’d you’d have um this is how people left live lifted out of poverty.
26:3026 minutes, 30 secondsSo you’d have a public school teacher this postsviet era and his his official or her official salary is $5 a month
26:3726 minutes, 37 secondswhich buys five loaves of bread and that wasn’t enough to feed a family on for the month. So, um, we had this group lending methodology where you’d have 10
26:4626 minutes, 46 secondsteachers would come together and they would each receive, um, $200. Um, that’s $2,000. And each of them could buy four
26:5326 minutes, 53 secondssheep with $200. So, um, immediately those 10 sheep have a flock of 40 sheep.
27:0127 minutes, 1 secondAnd they, one of their sons will take or two of their sons will take the sheep off into the mountains for the summer.
27:0727 minutes, 7 secondsAnd next year those uh those 40 sheep when it’s time to repay the loan um those 40 sheep have turned into maybe 75
27:1427 minutes, 14 secondssheep and they pay back the loan and then they get another loan because they they don’t have credit history out there but they they they create their own
27:2227 minutes, 22 secondscredit history through these micro finance programs. Now they can double the loan. So next year if they pay back all the $200 plus interest next year
27:3127 minutes, 31 secondsthey can borrow $400 and they’re building up credit history.
27:3527 minutes, 35 secondsAnd with those $400 um they can buy 80 sheep. So now they have they started with zero and just over one year later
27:4427 minutes, 44 secondsthey have the original 40 plus 40 lambs plus 80 new sheep. They have 160 sheep between those 10 farmers. Like this is a
27:5227 minutes, 52 secondsthis is starting to become a commercial enterprise now. And they they they they pay one of their two of their sons. They go off into the mountains. They go after
27:5927 minutes, 59 secondsthe sheep. And next spring they come down after after lamming season they come down and uh they pay off their $200
28:0728 minutes, 7 seconds$400 and next time they can get $600 and it goes up and by the time they get to a a $1,000 loan per shepherd each of those
28:1628 minutes, 16 secondsshepherds may have 250 sheep. At that point they are financially wealthy. They because a sheep 250 sheep is like a bank
28:2528 minutes, 25 secondsaccount. Your child gets sick, you sell a sheep, you pay the doctor. You have to pay for school fees. You sell two fe two sheep and you go and pay your school
28:3328 minutes, 33 secondsfees. And this is how you lift people out of poverty using micro finance with these smallcale loans that revolve very
28:3928 minutes, 39 secondsquickly. So I was doing that and uh sometimes somebody wouldn’t pay back.
28:4728 minutes, 47 secondsWhat did we do? We’d go with the police the next morning and we would take their sheep
28:5428 minutes, 54 secondsand we’d put them in the market and we’d sell the sheep in the market. They’d be shash shish kebab by that night and we got our money back.
29:0429 minutes, 4 secondsAnd um you have to do this because if you don’t take the sheep back from one person that doesn’t pay, then nobody will pay you back. So the way that everybody’s lifted out of poverty is if everybody plays by the rules.
29:1529 minutes, 15 secondsAnd uh uh many a time I’d go with the police at 6:00 in the morning with a court order and the police would go with me. We go into the the pen and we say
29:2329 minutes, 23 secondsthat you owe us eight sheep. So I’d take eight sheep and I had a truck. It was it was it was a toy to Hilux. Um and if you
29:3029 minutes, 30 secondsput the sheep in the in the bed at the back then the sheep would jump out. So you’d have to put the sheep in the back seat. You had to squeeze them all in. Uh and and I can tell you that, you know,
29:4029 minutes, 40 secondsnobody wanted to drive in my truck because sheep are smelly animals. They leave all kinds of mess behind them.
29:4929 minutes, 49 secondsThey have scab. They have fleas. They have ticks. They have all manner of problems. They are absolutely filthy animals.
29:5929 minutes, 59 secondsBut they’re still cared for by their shepherd. The shepherd still cares for them. See, those who never come under the good shepherd’s care come under the
30:0730 minutes, 7 secondscontrol of the bad shepherd. That is Satan.
30:1130 minutes, 11 secondsSatan leaves his mark on those who are under his control. And when you have a flock, you always put a tag in the ear of the sheep.
30:2030 minutes, 20 secondsNow, these days, they’ll put a little plastic tag there, but um that’s a relatively recent thing.
30:2630 minutes, 26 secondsUm, but throughout all of history and even many parts of the world today, a shepherd will, you know, cattle drovers,
30:3330 minutes, 33 secondsthey will brand the cattle, but a shepherd will cut a notch in the ear of his sheep. And and that notch is is is unique to that shepherd in that region
30:4230 minutes, 42 secondsso that everybody can tell at a glance who’s who that sheep belongs to, that there’s the mark of the shepherd on the sheep’s ear. And it’s on the outer edge
30:5030 minutes, 50 secondsof the sheep’s ear. So, um, you have to kind of hold the sheep down. and take a sharp knife and you cut a certain pattern into the ear here. It’s a bloody
30:5930 minutes, 59 secondsprocess and it’s a painful process for the sheep, but everybody knows that that sheep belongs to that shepherd from that moment on.
31:0831 minutes, 8 secondsSo, it’s easy to tell at a at a distance um who which sheep belongs to which shepherd and Satan leaves his mark under those under his control. disease,
31:1831 minutes, 18 secondsdivorce, drugs, depression, despair, death. That’s his mark.
31:2631 minutes, 26 secondsAnd we also, if we follow Jesus, if he is our shepherd, he gives us a lifelong mark of ownership as well. When we enter
31:3431 minutes, 34 secondsthe flock of the good shepherd, we bear a mark. And it’s what Jesus calls the mark of the cross. Mark 8:34, the next slide, speaks about this. says that he
31:4331 minutes, 43 secondscalled the disciples, the crowd of his disciples and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and
31:5031 minutes, 50 secondsfollow me.” And so each one of us is to bear our cross on a daily basis. We have to make a choice every morning. Will we
31:5831 minutes, 58 secondsbear the cross of Christ or will we choose our own sin andful, foolish, and fallen ways? Either we belong to the good shepherd every morning or we don’t
32:0632 minutes, 6 secondsbelong to the good shepherd. We may do wonderful things for the good shepherd but in the final judgment he may tell us to depart from him because he never knew
32:1432 minutes, 14 secondsus as his own. So do we belong to the good shepherd? Do we recognize his claim over us by virtue of create creation and
32:2132 minutes, 21 secondsredemption? Do I acknowledge his authority over me and my decisions, my mind and my heart? Do I find peace and contentment in this arrangement? If yes,
32:3032 minutes, 30 secondsthen I’m thrilled that Jehovah God is my personal shepherd.
32:3532 minutes, 35 secondsAnd if you don’t have a shepherd, you’re going to wander through life and get lost and get stuck and fall into all kinds of problems because you don’t have
32:4532 minutes, 45 secondsthe good shepherd. Therefore, the shepherds, the writer says, I will not want. The Lord is my shepherd. I will not want. Now, what is what does it
32:5232 minutes, 52 secondsmean? I will not want. Now, David, who wrote this, um he he experienced many years as an outlaw. He survived in the
33:0033 minutesdesert. He hid in caves. For years, he was on the run, afraid for his life. He was pursued relentlessly by his enemies.
33:0733 minutes, 7 secondsDavid didn’t live in a nice condo in town. When it says, “I will not want,”
33:1333 minutes, 13 secondsDavid is not talking about physical comfort here because his the first, you know, from the age of about 17 to 30, he was an outlaw, public enemy number one.
33:2233 minutes, 22 secondsAnd the king was trying to kill kill him, King Saul. He knew what it was to live with hunger and cold. and in the deserts of of just south the south south
33:3133 minutes, 31 secondsend of of Judea there David knew poverty hardship and anguish of spirit so he’s not speaking of physical comfort here
33:3833 minutes, 38 secondsand the good shepherd does not promise us a difficulty-free life next slide John 6 16:33 says this I’ve said this to
33:4633 minutes, 46 secondsyou so that you may have peace in the world you face persecution but take courage I have conquered the world see
33:5433 minutes, 54 secondsthe lady in church at the end of time is financially rich She’s increased in goods and in need of nothing materially,
34:0134 minutes, 1 secondbut she is lost unless she repents of her ways. Wealth does not necessarily equal God’s blessing. So what is the psalmist referring to here when it says,
34:0934 minutes, 9 seconds”I shall not want.” It’s the contentment from knowing that the creator of the universe is your shepherd.
34:1734 minutes, 17 secondsAnd if he could speak the world into existence, there’s nothing he cannot do for you. And there’s nothing he cannot see in the future that’s not going to
34:2534 minutes, 25 secondsaffect you either. A bad shepherd does not care for the sheep. He doesn’t ensure that they have good grazing. His land is neglected. His sheep are left to
34:3434 minutes, 34 secondsforage for themselves. They fall prey to lions, dogs, cougars, and thieves. Each winter there is no provision of hay or grain in the sheep sheep pens to feed
34:4234 minutes, 42 secondsthe pregnant youth. No shelter is provided against the storms and blizzards of winter. There’s no salt or other minerals laid out to offset their
34:5134 minutes, 51 secondssickly pastures. The water for the bad shepherd is polluted. It’s never clean.
34:5534 minutes, 55 secondsAnd the flock is forced to seek sustenance on barren fields and impoverished pastures. Some call it poverty grass where there is grass but not enough to support a flock of sheep.
35:0635 minutes, 6 secondsWhen the shepherd is bad, he does not tend to the she the bodies of the sheep. Does not give them relief from wounds, from bruises, disease, ticks, parasites,
35:1435 minutes, 14 secondsor bugs. The bad shepherd doesn’t care for his sheep because they’re all going to end up in the slaughter house one day anyway. So why pay any attention to
35:2135 minutes, 21 secondsthem? But the good sheep, the good shepherd trust looks after his sheep and his sheep have leared to trust him
35:2935 minutes, 29 secondsindividually that he takes care of me. The next passage here, Philippians 4:11 through13 on the screen, uh the Apostle Paul says
35:3835 minutes, 38 secondsthis, “Not that I’m referring to being in need, for I’ve learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to
35:4635 minutes, 46 secondshave plenty. In any and all circumstances, I’ve leared the secret of being wellfed and of going hungry, of having plenty, and of being in need. I
35:5435 minutes, 54 secondscan do all things through him who strengthens me. So, just as a good shepherd does, the good shepherd himself
36:0236 minutes, 2 secondsexamines his sheep daily. He knows everything about us. Nothing is hidden from our heavenly father, and he knows
36:0936 minutes, 9 secondsjust how to lead us. He is another name for God, Jehovah Gyra, the God who provides for us today and for our
36:1636 minutes, 16 secondseternal salvation. And so the next slide, this the psalm goes on to say, “He makes me lie down in green pastures.
36:2436 minutes, 24 secondsHe leadeth me beside still waters.” So next slide, please. You see the the you see the passage up there. Now um if you ever led sheep, you know that there are
36:3336 minutes, 33 secondssheep will only lie down if four conditions are met.
36:3736 minutes, 37 secondsFirst of all, they have to be free from all kinds of fear. Secondly, sheep need to be free from friction with one another. Sheep are always fighting
36:4536 minutes, 45 secondsamongst each other. The third condition for sheep to lie down is they have to be free from fleas and parasites. And fourthly, they have to be free from
36:5336 minutes, 53 secondshunger. And all of those requirements can only be met if there is a shepherd watching over his flock. Let’s just go through those in a bit more detail.
37:0137 minutes, 1 secondFreedom from fear. Did you know that sheep are really easily scared? The sheep have no defensive mechanisms.
37:0837 minutes, 8 secondsSheep don’t attack anybody. Sheep will only run. And when one member of the flock gets spooked, they all get spooked. And the sheep will run so fast
37:1737 minutes, 17 secondsthat the you who are pregnant, the mother mother sheep, they will spontaneously abort their lambs as they’re running around the fields. So if
37:2537 minutes, 25 secondsyou get a dog in a field of sheep and just running around, the sheep will go crazy because they don’t know what to do about this. and all the youths will
37:3337 minutes, 33 secondsspontaneously abort their lambs. They have no means of self-defense. But if the flock knows there is a shepherd with
37:4037 minutes, 40 secondsthem and the shepherd drives off the predators,
37:4437 minutes, 44 secondsthen the flock is not afraid. The next slide on the screen talks about this. It says, “I will both lie down and sleep in
37:5137 minutes, 51 secondspeace, for you, oh Lord, make me lie down in safety.” that when the flock realizes that they have a shepherd who
37:5937 minutes, 59 secondsprotects them, that means they don’t need they’re not going to stay awake at night driven by fear of what is happening in the world around us.
38:0738 minutes, 7 secondsLikewise for the Christian today is the abiding presence of Jesus and the assurance that he will always be with us
38:1438 minutes, 14 secondseven to the end of the age gives us comfort when the world is going crazy all around us. The next condition for sheep to sleep is that they need need to have freedom from friction.
38:2538 minutes, 25 secondsSo sheep have a pecking order. Now if you ever raise chickens, you know they have a pecking order. Yes. Sheep have what we call a butting order. And you
38:3238 minutes, 32 secondsget the strong sheep, they but the weak sheep. And the strong sheep get first access to the water and first access to the food. And they lie down in the
38:4038 minutes, 40 secondssmoothest grass. And then the the weaker sheep, they get buted by the stronger sheep, but they in turn butt the really weak sheep. And so the sheep have a
38:4938 minutes, 49 secondsbutting order amongst themselves. And every day in a flock there is butting and they’re running up against each other. And every day it’s like they don’t remember the pecking order.
38:5838 minutes, 58 secondsThey’re trying to reestablish dominance um amongst each other. So the sheep,
39:0339 minutes, 3 secondseven though it looks peaceful as you drive by on the road, the sheep are always at it amongst each other. Like who’s the top sheep here? Who’s the bottom sheep? And who are the middle sheep within this particular flock?
39:1539 minutes, 15 secondsBut what is it that stops the butting among the sheep? It’s the presence of a shepherd. Because when the sheep have a shepherd,
39:2239 minutes, 22 secondsthey know that he’s the top sheep and they don’t fight among each other.
39:2639 minutes, 26 secondsWhen there is a shepherd present, you leave sheep on their own. They’ll just go at each other. But you have a shepherd present and the sheep know that’s the top dog. I mean, that’s not
39:3539 minutes, 35 secondstop dog. That’s the top sheep over there. And because he is the top sheep and none of us can compete with him,
39:4139 minutes, 41 secondsthat can give us peace amongst ourselves. When our eyes are fixed on Christ,
39:4839 minutes, 48 secondsthis is a rebuke to our own petty rivalries and fights for dominance within our congregations as well. When our eyes are on the good shepherds and
39:5639 minutes, 56 secondsnot on each other, only then can we find peace as a flock and as a congregation.
40:0140 minutes, 1 secondThe next condition for sheep to be able to lie down in green pastures is freedom from fleas. Now flea um sheep are tormented by all manner of fleas and
40:0940 minutes, 9 secondsproblems. They have nasal flies, bot flies, wobble flies, and ticks. And the sheep get desperate for relief, and they will stamp their legs, and they will
40:1840 minutes, 18 secondsbutt their heads against a tree, and they wipe their heads in the thistles trying to anything to get relief from from the um from the fleas and the flies
40:2840 minutes, 28 secondsand all all these other bugs that that drive them crazy. And so, a good shepherd, he knows that the sheep will be driven literally crazy by all these wble flies and nasal flies and so forth.
40:3940 minutes, 39 secondsAnd so um he will he will apply to their heads um the anointes my head with oil.
40:4440 minutes, 44 secondsHe will apply soothing oil every day to the heads of the sheep and that oil acts as a repellent against all the bugs of that area and because you get different
40:5340 minutes, 53 secondsbugs in different areas the oil has a different ingredients. So like in some parts of the world they use linseed oil, some
41:0141 minutes, 1 secondparts of the world they use kind of a der derivative of tar literally uh depends on the part of the world and so the shepherd will anoint the sheep’s
41:0941 minutes, 9 secondshead with oil so that the that drives away the bugs that would drive the sheep drive the sheep crazy.
41:1641 minutes, 16 secondsLikewise, we face daily irritants that drive us mad. And I’m not talking about your mother-in-law, but we all face irritants that drive us mad, do we not?
41:2441 minutes, 24 secondsThere are things that annoy us on a daily basis. small inconsequential things that seem to have a disproportionate impact on our emotional well-being.
41:3341 minutes, 33 secondsWe all have those in our lives. They cause irritability, mood swings,
41:3741 minutes, 37 secondsdepression, and the antidote is to ask for the oil of the Holy Spirit to be poured out upon us. Jesus came to give us peace, not as the world gives it.
41:4741 minutes, 47 secondsNext slide, please. Philippians 4 6-7.
41:5041 minutes, 50 secondsHe’s Jesus. We are taught here that do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be
41:5741 minutes, 57 secondsmade known to God. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
42:0642 minutes, 6 secondsAnd so when we commit everything to God in prayer and we say, “Lord, I have these problems. I cannot fight these battles on my own, but I’m giving it to
42:1342 minutes, 13 secondsyou.” Then we can sleep easy at night because he’s taking care of the problem.
42:1842 minutes, 18 secondsAnd my in my own life, I’ve got my own fair of st my own fair share of stress as many of you know. But I generally sleep well at night. Why? Because I give things to God in prayer at night. Say,
42:2942 minutes, 29 seconds”Lord, the battle is yours. The battles are fierce, but if they belong to you,
42:3242 minutes, 32 secondsthen I know that you’re going to win these battles.”
42:3642 minutes, 36 secondsAnd so like sheep, we have things that drive us crazy. And like sheep, we have oil called the Holy Spirit, the oil of
42:4342 minutes, 43 secondsthe Holy Spirit, his presence to take care of these things. Then sheep need freedom from hunger.
42:5042 minutes, 50 secondsThe sheep are leaning lying down. It says he makes me lie down in green pastures. If there’s green pastures, that means there is food for the sheep.
42:5842 minutes, 58 secondsAnd these sheep are lying down. That means they have no need to eat. They’re already full. But green pastures don’t happen by accident.
43:0643 minutes, 6 secondsGreen pastures don’t exist naturally. In order to have green pastures,
43:1143 minutes, 11 secondssomebody has got to do the backbreaking work of removing the stones, pulling out the weeds, uprooting the the um the the
43:1843 minutes, 18 secondsthe roots from trees, taking out the brush, and careful soil preparation. Green pastures don’t happen by chance.
43:2643 minutes, 26 secondsSo, if he makes me lie down in green pastures, it means that the good shepherd has been preparing the pasture for the sheep.
43:3443 minutes, 34 secondsIn the parable of the sewer, we see there are four kinds of soil, but only one will yield a suitable harvest for God. And for our lives to be a green
43:4343 minutes, 43 secondspasture suitable for receiving sustaining true spiritual health, we are to cooperate with a good shepherd as he
43:5043 minutes, 50 secondsremoves the rocks of cherished sin, the weeds of besetting sin, the cares of this world, the lure of wealth, and the
43:5843 minutes, 58 secondsmaterial desires from our hearts. God wants us to live victorious lives with victory over sin that we may more perfectly reflect our heavenly father’s
44:0644 minutes, 6 secondscharacter every day. And so he makes me lie down in green pastures is an invitation to us to allow um the good
44:1444 minutes, 14 secondsshepherds to clean up the pasture of our hearts and to take out the sins and the the the besetting sins and the cherished
44:2244 minutes, 22 secondssins and the hatreds and the prejudices and the bitternesses and the angernesses. the angeres, the angers of
44:3044 minutes, 30 secondsour own lives in order that God might yield a harvest of righteousness in our hearts. He maketh me lie down in green
44:3744 minutes, 37 secondspastures. The next slide says, “He leadth me beside still waters.” Now,
44:4444 minutes, 44 secondsum I do quite a bit of hunting in my spare time and in the summer in Bering Springs, I run an end of life care program for groundhogs.
44:5344 minutes, 53 secondsAnd um groundhogs, they they burrow under Adventist homes and they and in winter and um they create these big
45:0145 minutes, 1 secondholes and then the snow and the ice goes down there under the basement and it expands as ice in the winter and when
45:0845 minutes, 8 secondswater expand uh freezes. It expands and then when the spring comes it melts and then the ice the ice melts and it’s it’s
45:1545 minutes, 15 secondsit’s pushed up the cement and when it turns back to water the cement crumbles around it. So it it destroys your foundations. And during the pandemic,
45:2245 minutes, 22 secondsmany Adventists were planting vegetable gardens, at least in Bering Springs. And they didn’t know there was such thing as groundhogs until you get back from ASI.
45:3245 minutes, 32 secondsUm, and your crops are ready for harvest when you get back from ASI. But the raccoons know that and the groundhogs know that. And when the Adventists go away for ASI or Michigan camp meeting,
45:4045 minutes, 40 secondsthey come back and their entire garden has been eaten away. So everything’s just like half an inch above the ground.
45:4545 minutes, 45 secondsEverything is gone. And so um I started running an end of life care program for groundhogs because this is a service to the community and it protects people’s
45:5345 minutes, 53 secondscrops and sister actually supports this very explicitly in case you’re wondering. But what I learned about groundhogs is is that groundhogs like
46:0146 minutes, 1 secondsheep don’t drink water although they they sheep do drink water but groundhogs in particular don’t.
46:0846 minutes, 8 secondsgroundhogs and sheep, the best way to get water into them is to take them out early in the morning when it is still dark and wait for the dew to fall
46:1846 minutes, 18 secondsbecause the water that is the dew that is on the grass is the purest water there is.
46:2346 minutes, 23 secondsIt hasn’t lain stagnants in any pool anywhere. There’s no liver fluke in it.
46:2746 minutes, 27 secondsThere’s no neatodes in it. There’s no viruses. There’s no bugs in stagnant in Jew because Jew is not stagnant water.
46:3446 minutes, 34 secondsSo, a good shepherd will lead his sheep out um when it is still dark. So, when the Jew is falling at daybreak, they’re eating the wet grass. And actually,
46:4446 minutes, 44 secondsgroundhogs also eat the wet grass cuz they can’t drink water as well. That’s the best time to get them, by the way.
46:4946 minutes, 49 secondsSo, uh the the the sheep, they eat the dew that is on the grass because that is the purest water there is. And a shepherd knows this.
47:0047 minutesAnd so he leads his sheep out early morning and just at when at sunset to make sure that the sheep have sufficient
47:0747 minutes, 7 secondswater and sufficient pure water in their bodies. And the good shepherd modeled this for us. Next slide. We look at the the life of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark.
47:1647 minutes, 16 secondsIt says in the morning while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place and there he prayed.
47:2447 minutes, 24 secondsWe’re to rise in the middle of in the early of the morning to feed on the word of God and to take in the words and life of the good shepherd himself. We are to
47:3247 minutes, 32 secondsrise as did Jesus early in the morning that we might have the water of life before anything else is going to cross our minds or pollute our thinking for
47:4147 minutes, 41 secondsthat day. Many people though they don’t do this and like sheep they seek their water elsewhere. You see, if you have a
47:4947 minutes, 49 secondsflock of sheep, you’ll know that sheep will stop at any dirty puddle and try and drink from it without realizing that some of the worst
47:5747 minutes, 57 secondsproblems for sheep, such as liver fluke and internal parasites, come from polluted puddles of water.
48:0448 minutes, 4 secondsLikewise, we often satisfy our hunger not by rising early in the morning and feasting on the word of God, but by drinking from the world’s wells.
48:1348 minutes, 13 secondsThinking a little here, little bit here, and a little bit there won’t hurt us.
48:1748 minutes, 17 secondsThat’s how drink sheep drink. Then they get cursed with diseases and we drink from the waters of this world world the wells of this world the puddles of this
48:2548 minutes, 25 secondsworld lies around us and we end up paying a bitter price later. Next slide.
48:3048 minutes, 30 secondsJeremiah chapter 2:13 says for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me the fountain of living water
48:3748 minutes, 37 secondsand dug out systems for themselves cracked systems that can hold no water.
48:4148 minutes, 41 secondsSo let me ask you this morning, what well are you drinking from? Are you drinking as did Christ from the from the well of life, the waters of life, the
48:5048 minutes, 50 secondsword of God first thing in the morning that is fresh and clean and pure? Or are we filling our minds from the wells of this world, the entertainment industry
48:5848 minutes, 58 secondsof this world, the the the opinion makers of this world? And just as drinking from the dirty wells will will
49:0549 minutes, 5 secondsdestroy the sheep, so if we fill our minds with the wells of this world, it will destroy our minds and our hearts and will destroy our walk with God. What
49:1449 minutes, 14 secondswell are we drinking from today? The good shepherd wants us to drink pure water and that is not the world’s water.
49:2449 minutes, 24 secondsWithout a faithful shepherd, no sheep can lie down in peace in green pastures or find pure water. Then we come to our last verse for this morning. I need to
49:3249 minutes, 32 secondsspeed up here because our time is up here. Uh Psalm 23:3 it says, “He restoreth my soul.” Uh next slide,
49:4149 minutes, 41 secondsplease. And so yeah, and again, so next um Psalm 23, it says, “He restoth my soul.” So why how do sheep need
49:4949 minutes, 49 secondsrestoring? Now the psalmist asks, “Why are you cast down, oh my soul?” Now, um again, if you never manage sheep, you
49:5749 minutes, 57 secondsknow that sheep when they’re full, they lay on their side. Does anybody here like to lie down when your stomach is full? And be honest about it. Yes. Yes.
50:0650 minutes, 6 secondsUm, so when when a sheep is full, they lie to they lie to they like to lie down. But when the sheep lie down, when
50:1450 minutes, 14 secondsthey are over full, they they kind of they lie down and the center of gravity shifts. And so they’re lying on their back with their feet in the air. And
50:2150 minutes, 21 secondssheep can’t get themselves up from that position. They are stuck. And what happens is the gastric juices build up in their stomachs and they swell and
50:2950 minutes, 29 secondsthey swell and they swell and merely hours later they are dead. And when they’re lying on their back, they are completely helpless. Any predator can
50:3850 minutes, 38 secondscome and feed on them while they’re alive. The crows can come and peck out their stomachs while the sheep is lying on its back, and the sheep can do nothing about it.
50:4950 minutes, 49 secondsHe restoreth my soul.
50:5150 minutes, 51 secondsWhen the sheep is on its back, it’s easy prey for the predators. And the salvation only comes when the shepherd
50:5850 minutes, 58 secondsrealizes that the sheep is missing. And the shepherd goes looking for the missing sheep. When a shepherd finds a sheep like this, he rolls it on its side
51:0651 minutes, 6 secondsand that relieves the pressure on the gases in the stomach. He then rubs the stomach to start dissipating the gases inside the sheep. He then holds the
51:1551 minutes, 15 secondssheep upright, but because the sheep’s legs are numb because there’s no blood in them from lying on its back, the shepherd has to stand over the sheep and
51:2251 minutes, 22 secondshold the sheep between his legs and rub those legs up and down so the circulation can be restored. And then the sheep starts to walk away. pain. At
51:3051 minutes, 30 secondsfirst they stumble, but with after a bit of time they learn to walk again. The next passage here, Psalm 56:13, speaks
51:3851 minutes, 38 secondsabout how God restores the life of sheep. It says, “For you have delivered my soul from death and my feet from falling so that I may walk before God in
51:4751 minutes, 47 secondsthe light of life.” And when you read this through the lens of a shepherd, the the shepherd has to restore the legs of the sheep so that they can walk before
51:5451 minutes, 54 secondsGod in the light of life. And the apostle Paul put it this way. So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. And why does this happen to us today?
52:0552 minutes, 5 secondsWell, sheep fall over when they’re seeking a comfortable soft hollow in the ground. And when they’re in such situations, they roll over easily.
52:1352 minutes, 13 secondsLikewise for Christians, there is great spiritual danger in always seeking for material comfort, physical pleasure,
52:2152 minutes, 21 secondsunorldly gain. Self-indulgence leads to physical danger and spiritual danger.
52:2752 minutes, 27 secondsI’ve I realized recently that it is the pursuit of comfort is actually detrimental to our physical and emotional health. If you spend all day
52:3552 minutes, 35 secondssitting in a lazy boy, is it good for you? No, it’s not. And so the pursuit of comfort isn’t actually in our best
52:4252 minutes, 42 secondsinterests. It’s nice to have a bit of comfort, but it’s not nice to stay in comfort. We have to have hard work times to keep our bodies active and so forth.
52:5252 minutes, 52 secondsAnd so he, it says, he restoreth my soul. Self-indulgence leads to spiritual danger for Christians. And that is why
53:0053 minutesum a shepherd will always keep his sheep moving. The flock never stands still.
53:0553 minutes, 5 secondsThe flock is always moving forward. And that way he keeps the sheep the sheep in motion and uh they can avoid rolling over um on the on their own backs.
53:1553 minutes, 15 secondsAlternatively, and we’re going to come draw this to a close in a few minutes here. Um, a sheep when it lies down on its side and it has a big thick coat of
53:2353 minutes, 23 secondswool on it, that wool becomes filled with mud with burrs and other debris with manure and the the the all the all
53:3153 minutes, 31 secondsthe junk in the in the the wool of the sheep literally weighs it down and causes it to fall over. All the junk it’s carrying with it in in its fur.
53:4253 minutes, 42 secondsAnd did you realize in the Old Testament that wool was never allowed into the Holy of Holies?
53:4853 minutes, 48 secondsWool was never allowed into in the tabernacle service to be worn by a priest going into the Holy of Holies. In fact, into the holy place either. Uh you
53:5653 minutes, 56 secondscould not wear wool if you went into the the tabernacle service. When rescuing a sheep, a shepherd will actually shear it down to prevent it from happening again.
54:0754 minutes, 7 secondsWhen a sheep has fallen over and stuck on its back, its wool is often full of junk. And so not just standing the wool on its two feet again, a good shepherd
54:1554 minutes, 15 secondswill shear whatever wool is on that sheep and store it for future use, but he will shear that sheep so that there’s not that there are there’s a little
54:2354 minutes, 23 secondsweight holding that sheep down and turning it on its back. It’s part of the recovery process for a sheep. Colossians 3:9-11 uh not the next slide says this.
54:3454 minutes, 34 secondsDo not lie to one another since you have stripped off the old shelf, the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with a new self which is
54:4154 minutes, 41 secondsbeing renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. The shearing of the old self may be painful involving
54:4854 minutes, 48 secondsobedience to the Holy Spirit uh responding to the conviction of sins upon our heart, repenting and embracing a new life in Christ of obedience to his
54:5754 minutes, 57 secondscommand. But it keeps us safe from being cast over and facing spiritual death.
55:0355 minutes, 3 secondsAnd finally, the uh sheep may simply become too fat. Fat sheep are unsteady on their feet and are the sheep most
55:1055 minutes, 10 secondslikely to be cast down. And what is the cure? Well, literally a good shepherd will put the fat sheep on a diet.
55:1955 minutes, 19 secondsThat’s that’s what a good shepherd does.
55:2055 minutes, 20 secondsThey put their sheep on a diet. Um, does the fat sheep like this? Not particularly. I don’t think anybody likes going on a diet. Does it protect
55:2855 minutes, 28 secondsthe sheep from itself? Yes, it does. So when we feel that we have arrived in our career and our 401k and stock portfolio
55:3855 minutes, 38 secondswas bulging, we’re on spiritually dangerous ground.
55:4255 minutes, 42 secondsThe Leadyian church is spiritually wealthy, but she is lost unless she repents and accepts the rebuke and the counsel and the fellowship of the good
55:5055 minutes, 50 secondsshepherd who knocks on the door of every member’s heart. God disciplines those whom he loves. We read that in Hebrews 12:6. Such discipline is never pleasant
55:5955 minutes, 59 secondsat the time, but it produces a deep inner peace because it reminds us that there is a good shepherd who is watching over me and he’s doing what is in my
56:0856 minutes, 8 secondsbest interests even though I may not like it at the time, but he’s still watching over me. He’s protecting me.
56:1456 minutes, 14 secondsHe’s shearing me. He’s feeding me. He stands me on my feet again. He waters me. He guides me away from the polluted waters and wells of this world and away
56:2256 minutes, 22 secondsfrom my own stubborn habits and fallen desires. and he keeps me on the move.
56:2856 minutes, 28 secondsAnd so as we draw this draw this to a close and conclusion, I want to share the next slide there. The finish off this particular verse here. The next
56:3656 minutes, 36 secondsslide, brother. It says um Oh, it doesn’t say that.
56:4156 minutes, 41 secondsWell, I thought I had another slide there and apparently I don’t. So, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.
56:4956 minutes, 49 secondsThe assurance that there is a good shepherd who will always come looking for me even when the other 99 are safe brings me peace.
56:5856 minutes, 58 secondsIf you have a 100 sheep and one goes missing, most people would just say let it go missing. Write it off as a bad debt bad debt provision because next year those 99 sheep will be 190 anyway.
57:0957 minutes, 9 secondsIt’s not going to make a big difference at the end of the day. But the fact that the shepherd goes looking for the one missing sheep when there are 99 safe sheep in the sheepfold tells us how much we mean to the good shepherd.
57:2157 minutes, 21 secondsWe may be cast over. We may be a victim of Satan’s attacks. We may have drunk from the wells of this world. We may be
57:2957 minutes, 29 secondsmay have lapsed and fallen under the control of a bad shepherd who’s bringing nothing but destruction unto into our lives. But there is a good shepherd. He
57:3857 minutes, 38 secondsknows us by name. He counts his flock morning and evening. And if I am missing, he sets off on a determined search to bring me home, to rescue me,
57:4857 minutes, 48 secondsto restore me, to heal me, and to save me often from myself.
57:5457 minutes, 54 secondsSo today, I want to invite you to think about accepting the good shepherd to be your shepherd. To say with with the
58:0158 minutes, 1 secondpsalmist, Jehovah God, he is my shepherd. The creator of the universe is my shepherd. He’s the shepherd who laid
58:0858 minutes, 8 secondsdown his life for this sheep. He’s the good shepherd that came looking for this sheep. He’s the good shepherd that sets
58:1558 minutes, 15 secondsthis fe sheep on his feet again. He is the good shepherd that leads this sheep by pure still waters and make sure that
58:2258 minutes, 22 secondsI rest in green pastures without falling on my back. He is my good shepherd. I want to invite you today to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your good shepherd.
58:3358 minutes, 33 secondsHe will find you. He will heal you. He will stand you on your feet again. He will lead you to pure waters. He will
58:4058 minutes, 40 secondsheal us. If we are struggling with besetting sin, he will shear us. If we are polluted, he will lead us by still pure waters. I praise the Lord that
58:4958 minutes, 49 secondsJehovah God is my good shepherd. Is he your good shepherd today as well? Let’s bow our heads for a word of prayer. Our
58:5758 minutes, 57 secondsheavenly father, we we thank you that Jesus is the good shepherd. Father, we thank you that he knows exactly where
59:0459 minutes, 4 secondshis sheep are. He calls his sheep by name. I thank you, Father, that he seeks the lost. He restores the brokenhearted.
59:1259 minutes, 12 secondsHe heals the sick, and he brings us back into the heavenly fold. And we’re asking today, Father, that Jesus as the good
59:2059 minutes, 20 secondsshepherd will be our shepherd. And Jesus, today we commit to follow you in trust, in obedience, in love, trusting
59:2959 minutes, 29 secondsthat you will lead us by still waters and green pastures, and that goodness and mercy will follow each one of us all
59:3659 minutes, 36 secondsthe days of our lives. So, Father, we thank you for being our good shepherd.
59:4059 minutes, 40 secondsLead us, guide us, watch over us, and protect us. This is our prayer in Jesus’ name. Amen.