The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E19 - Our Shepherd

Episode Date: April 22, 2020

Hey church family, it is time for devos. If you got your Bible, Psalm 23. How familiar. I don't know about you, but for whatever reason, in my own personal time of the Lord, I have just been meditating upon the Psalms, Psalm 91 and 34 and 46 and one, and then one I just thought we would walk through.

In our time together is the 23rd Psalm. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Before we go any farther, let's just be clear. In this crazy time of COVID-19, with layoffs and political divide and health scare, and when do we go back to normal? And God forbid, if you know someone that is sick, one of the things that never changes is that the Lord, our God, shepherds us through this. And the role of a shepherd is, is to know and to love and to protect, to care for, to feed. And this is what our God does for us.

He says, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. That God, a relationship with him satisfies the deepest longings of our soul. There may be some things that you think you want. There may be some temporary things in this world where you think, I got to have that. But the Bible says, David says, man, but when I am in that right relationship with him, then he is the all satisfying one to me.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Now, I know this is a very famous passage, and even if you're brand new to Bible study, you've heard this one before. But when the Bible calls us sheep, it is not a compliment. Did you know that sheep are like the dumbest animal on the planet? That's why they need a shepherd. I mean, think about what other animal group needs a shepherd. You don't have a, it does, like, you don't have to have a human keep a group of giraffes alive

or a group of impala or a group of deer, anything like that. They all figure out how to make it on their own, but not cheap. You know why they're so dumb? Almost every animal has a fight or flight mechanism. I mean, they either have, like, they're super fast or they're good in camouflage, or they have, like, fangs and teeth or, they have, like, fangs and teeth, or, They can climb, and a sheep is not that fast, and they kind of stick out like a sore thumb,

you know, look like a cotton ball walking around. And not only that, God made them with like Velcro head to toe, so they're easy to grab by the predator. They're not very good. And they're dumb. Do you know, they're really dumb? Do you know that sheep are so dumb that they don't, they're one of the few animals on the planet

that cannot distinguish poisonous from non-poisonous foods and berries and that kind of thing. Also, like, they'll graze themselves right into death. Also, sheep are so dumb that when there's like a babbling brook, you know, white water in a stream, that they're intrigued by it, and they'll go to drink from that, and they'll stick their head in too far, their wool gets saturated with water, and it drags them in, and they drown. And because of that, the psalmist says, he makes me lie down in green pastures. And he leads me beside still waters. Do you know why?

Again, because left of their own devices, sheep will eat stuff that will kill them and drown themselves while trying to get water. You know, you and I left our own devices, then we will make some decisions that that are like the worst things that we can do. We will make these kinds of decisions that kill us and so.

steal from ourselves and destroy God's good purposes for our lives. And so God shepherds us through that. It says, He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Now, don't miss that last little part. Because when you first, when you first read this, you think, man, God is really into me. I mean, he is my shepherd. He leads me besides still waters. He leads me to green pastures. He restores my soul. And one of the problems in modern evangelicalism, and it comes from a whole bunch of...

Honestly, it comes from people not really reading the Bible and putting us at the very center of it all. We will begin to believe that God is all about us. Now, let me be very clear. God is for you. He is for you. And God loves you, no doubt. It's just not about you.

that the reason that he is our shepherd and the reason that he makes us lie down in green pastures and the reason that he leads us besides still waters and the reason that he restores our soul and the reason that he leaves us in past of righteousness is what it's not for your namesake it's not because you're awesome it's for his namesake that god is most glorified when his people are most satisfied in him that the reason god does all these wonderful wonderful things to shepherd us is not because we are awesome, but because he is awesome. It is for the glory of his name. And if we can get our head around that, it's like the most freeing thing in the world. You see, I hope and pray that through the gospel, you will have like

this Copernicus moment. You know, Copernicus was the one that went public saying that I don't think we're the center of the universe. I think we actually revolve around the sun and not the sun around earth. It almost got killed by the church, by the way. Because this world will turn against you if you ever look at someone and say, you're not the point. It's not all about you. But if you think you are the point and if you think God is revolving around you and your universe, do you know how debilitating that is? That means every single day, everything has to line up for you, for you to have the kind of day that you're looking for. The traffic has to be right. Everybody has to treat you the way that you know you deserve to be treated. the weather has to be right for you.

It is crushing if you think you are the center of your universe. But when you're free to understand that it's not about you and your glory, but your story is a part of his glory, then you can be free to be shepherded by the Lord himself. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. And even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Notice, David just said, the Lord's his shepherd, okay? He loves us for sure, for his own glory. And so,

the prosperity preachers would have you believe that if the Lord is your shepherd, and if the Lord is leading you in paths of righteousness, then you would never suffer, you would never experience pain, you will never experience heartache, you'll never experience sickness. but right after David makes this big deal about how much the shepherd loves his sheep and how he takes care of us, then the very next verse is, and even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. You see, we don't follow after Jesus because following after Jesus makes life better. That's not why we follow Jesus.

However, parenthetically speaking, most of the time it does. If you do life, God's way, most of the time, it goes better. If you do money, God's way. I'm just telling you, it goes better. If you do sex and relationships, God's way, I'm just telling you, it goes better. If you do forgiveness, God's way, it just goes better. Most of the time, following Jesus, it works out better for you. You won't make as many dumb decisions, you'll have better friends.

There's all of these kind of things that are better for you. However, there are no promises that if we follow after Jesus, then it's just all cotton candies and Cadillacs. You see, in fact, sometimes God allows you to walk through the valley of the shadow of death because your neighbors are watching you. And they want to see how you respond when you run into this thing called life. I mean, I know you go to church, and I know you say you have faith, and I know you say you trust Jesus,

but when it hits the fan and the world starts falling apart and the wheels start coming off, they are watching you walk through the valley of the shadow of death. And I've seen it over and over and over, faithful men and women in our church. And as they walk through the valley of the shadow of death, this crazy thing happens. There's this peace that transcends understanding that guards their hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. And people look at them and go, how are you doing it? I mean, you're walking through the valley of the shadow of death.

How are you handling it when your kid is sick? How are you handling it when you lost your job? How are you handling it that he left? And you legitimately are like, I don't know what to say. It's like I have this piece that transcends understanding. All I can tell you is that he is with me. You see, because if the story, story of the Christian is, if you follow Jesus, then it's all cotton candy and rainbows. It's just all

cash and prizes. And then your neighbor wants to come to Jesus. They don't want Jesus. They want cotton candy and rainbows, Cadillac and Cotton Candy. I mean, that's, God will not be, God will not be a tool in your own idolatry. He won't. And so it is not promised that all is going to be will. But the promise is that he is with us. Jesus says in Matthew chapter 28, I will never leave you, I will never forsake you. And

the reason that you can fear no evil is not because God looks at you and says, you bow up and you suck it up and you buck up. No, no, no, no. He says, you look up to me. The reason you can fear no evil is because even

though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, because the Lord is with us and he's with us to comfort us. And not only does he not just prevent us from walking through those kind of circumstances, even relationally, you prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. So even though I've got some people against me, I'm walking through the valley of the shadow of death, even though, even though I don't know what's going to happen in my financial situation, relationally. I'm strained right now. Even though physically or medically I may have some problems going on, I know this. I will not

have to fear those circumstances because you, the sovereign king of the universe, that you are with me. And surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. You see, the promise of the 23rd Psalm is not that just God. merely shepherds us through good times and bad while we walk these days of our life. But the real promise and good news of the 23rd Psalm is when the shepherd calls to the sheep, and the sheep hear his voice and the sheep follow him, then you follow the shepherd in the direction that he is going, and Jesus says to his disciples,

I'm going to go and prepare a place for you. I'm going to go prepare a place for you. In my father's house, there are many rooms. And if it weren't so, I wouldn't tell you this. But I am coming back to take you where I am going. And so not only does God comfort us in these crazy times, but then God also promises us that one day, one day, when we breathe our last here on earth

and we breathe our first in his presence, then the shepherding continues forever and ever, and ever, and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And green pastures turn into banqueting tables where we celebrate the goodness of God. Amen. Amen. So Church of 1122, no matter what your situation is right now, if it seems dire, if it seems like the valley of the shadow of death, would you lean into your good shepherd? Would you lean into him understanding that he has a rod and a staff. So that one rod was to protect the sheep from evil and the staff was to save the sheep from their own dumb mistakes. Would you lean into him? Would you receive his

anointing with oil? That he pours on you his love. He lavishes you on you his love. Would you sit at his banqueting table and understand that he loves and shepherds. us. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, we thank you that you are a good shepherd and that you were willing to lay down your life for your sheep. Lord, I pray during this time, even though a lot of seem to be kind of, I mean, we're, we don't even know what our schedule is. We're a little off-kilter in this time, Lord, would you turn down the volume of our world and would you turn up our ears to be able to hear the voice of our shepherd calling our name.

And may you just remind us over and over because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and because of the empty tomb that you are with us. Even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, that you are with us. And because of that, we don't have to fear evil. And because of that, because of that, we will dwell in your house forever and ever. Amen.