OPEN: In the classic novel: “Alice in Wonderland,” Alice comes to a fork in the road. One path leads one way, and the other path leads the other… and she asks the Cheshire Cat for advice:
“Would you tell me please,” she asks “which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the cat.
“I don’t much care where,” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
APPLY: There are a lot of people who (just like Alice) don’t seem to know where they’re going. They just kind of drift thru life. For all intents and purposes it looks like they’re not going anywhere… and they are not really doing all that much with their lives.
But if you were to ask them, I think most would say they really want to do more with their lives. They’d like to believe that there’s more to living than just “getting by”. They’d like to believe they have a reason to live.
And, you know, that’s natural, because God has built that yearning into our hearts.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men…”
He has set the belief (in your heart and in mine) that there’s more to life than just “living”.
It’s like He’s created this big hole inside of us… this feeling that we’re meant for more than just surviving in this life.
But many people aren’t quite sure what their purpose in life might be.
The problem for most people is they don’t know where they’re going and they’re not sure they ever will.
Now, David didn’t have that problem.
He never worried about where he was, where he was going, or what he was doing because - as he said: “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want… He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters.” Psalms 23:1&2
David knew where he was going because he had a shepherd who was leading him.
And that Shepherd (GOD) knew the path that David needed to follow.
I. Now there are other options in life.
You don’t have to take God as your good shepherd.
You don’t have to follow His leading in your life.
You can go merrily on your way wherever you want to go. And a lot of people do just that.
Of course, somebody has to decide what path we’re going to take.
If it isn’t God… there’s only two other options I can think of
1. You
2. Someone else.
The Bible tells me the problem with those other kinds of shepherds is that - whether it’s me or someone else choosing the path: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” Proverbs 14:12
* Highly educated people (for example) tend to seek out the wisdom of philosophers and great thinkers. When I attended a secular college I took several philosophy classes. And what I discovered was these philosophers and great thinkers often disagreed with each other about what path people ought to take. I took one philosophy class that was dedicated to presenting and ripping apart many of the major philosophical concepts known to man.
But what really sticks with me is the memory of the fact that many philosophers weren’t even sure they could prove that they existed.
One great thinker named Descartes struggled with this question of his own existence and he developed what many regard as an earthshaking conclusion.
He said “Yes I exist”
How did he know?
Well… he concluded “I think… therefore I am”
Now, isn’t that dumbest thing you’ve ever heard of?
But that’s the kind of thinking you can end up following, if God is not your shepherd.
People with this kind of intellect can end up living in a land of death because they can’t even accept the truth that they EXIST.
* Less scholarly people tend to listen to the advice of their peers.
I’ve watched a few TV programs over the past few years that have tried to show real life in a fictional setting. They’ll have one of their actors struggling with a relationship, or a job problem or some other difficulty they can’t quite handle. And several times I’ve heard their friends say give this advice:
“Why don’t we go down to the bar, and get a couple of drinks”
And – I’m thinking: WHAT?
How’s that going to help you deal with your difficulty?
But many people really do reason just this way. They try to bury their difficulties in booze or drugs or other distractions of life. They numb themselves hoping that when they wake up again the problems will be gone. But, of course, the problems DON’T really go away… they just hide for awhile.
And eventually, that feeling of hopelessness and death returns.
* And then there are other people who seek to know the truth of life by other means.
They want to know where the path of their personal life lies… but they don’t ask God. They are not satisfied or don’t like the answers they believe He may give to them. So they’ll turn to Astrology, horoscopes, séances, ouiji boards, and the like.
Now, all these activities are demonic. Scripture condemns them all. But at the heart of all of this seeking to know my destiny - by the stars, or the tea leaves, or the speaking to the “dearly departed” - at the heart of it all is death.
Eventually, someone will get around to asking the ultimate question: When will I die?
And true to form, they’ll get an answer.
One of their “spiritualist” advisors will tell them the date when they’re going to die and they live in a fear of that inevitable destiny for the rest of their lives.
But that’s just what I’d expect, because “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” Proverbs 14:12
II. The Bible compares us to sheep,
And just like sheep we’re going to follow someone or something
But if we don’t make it a point to follow the right shepherd, we will lose our way.
Israel had that problem. The people of The Law, chosen to be God’s people. But even with all that for their legacy, they still often ended up following the wrong shepherds so that at one point Isaiah cried out:
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way….” Isaiah 53:6
ILLUS: I recently read the story of some sheep that followed their own way.
Back in 2005, in Eastern Turkey, 1500 sheep from various flocks were gathered together in one pasture land. The shepherds were having breakfast nearby, but it seems nobody was actually “watching” the flock.
One of the sheep wandered off from the others, and fell over a nearby cliff to the rocks several feet below. The other sheep in the flock must have figured the first sheep knew where he was going and they all followed him to bottom of the ravine.
In a matter of a few moments, 400 of the sheep lay dead at the bottom of the cliff, and the rest had suffered serious injuries.
The total loss was estimated to be around $74,000.
There is a way that seems right unto a sheep… or a man… but if we’re not following the right shepherd the end thereof is death.
III. As I got to this point in my sermon, something occurred to me.
When do usually hear Psalm 23 read?
At funerals. And if you weren’t a church-goer, you might think this is a psalm about death.
But it’s not!
It’s a psalm of life. We’re called to follow the good shepherd and that good shepherd intends to lead us into life everlasting.
When people seek to follow some OTHER shepherd, other than God, they can end up walking down a lot of blind alleys or off a cliff
But David knew that he didn’t have to worry about walking down blind alleys or off a cliff.
His shepherd had created him.
His shepherd knew him intimately.
His shepherd knew what David could do, and where David needed to be.
His shepherd had created him to have the best that he could have in this life.
His Shepherd wasn’t just leading him to some “Pie in the sky by and by”
His Good Shepherd was leading him to “Steak on his Plate while he waited”
Just think about what David is saying here in this Psalm
“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters,
he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” (emphasize the words that reflect what God does for us as you read it aloud).
Think about that!
God leads him, feeds him, guides him, comforts him, protects him, etc.
This Psalm is all about following the Good Shepherd so that we can receive all the blessings He wants to give us.
As one little girl who quoted this psalm said: "The Lord is my shepherd, that’s all I want."
IV. But now, that’s NOT TO SAY that we won’t encounter hardship and loss in our lives.
If you were to read thru the Psalms you’d find a startling number of place where David is almost despondent and filled with despair and hopelessness.
Psalms 4:1 “Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer.”
Psalms 10:1 “Why, O LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?”
Psalms 13:1-2 “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?”
In each of these psalms David is pouring out his heart to God. He’s telling God exactly how he feels at that moment in time. That doesn’t mean that he’s lost faith in God. It means that there are times when life is so dark & hopeless that it can seem like God isn’t there, and He doesn’t care.
There are Valleys that seem as dark as Death itself. Times when you’ll feel like no one knows what you’re going thru, and no one cares.
David had been thru enough of them that, by the time he wrote the 23rd Psalm he was able to say:
“Yes, I’ve been thru the valley of the shadow of death and I’ve learned to not to be afraid because God never left me.”
God was his good shepherd, He was always close at hand to protect him with His rod and staff.
ILLUS: Dan Baker, a Medical psychologist and the author of “What Happy People Know: How the New Science of Happiness Can Change Your Life For the Better”
He interviewed 1000s of people in the US who were age 100 and better and he discovered:
“What these folks have in common is a general sense of optimism, an ability to deal well with loss” In great part because of their spiritual beliefs eased emotional burdens.
These were people that had learned that the LORD was their shepherd. That He would never leave them. Never forsake them
V. But now… there is a catch.
There is something that we must do in order to have this kind of assurance in our lives.
There is something we must be willing to commit to in order to have God as our shepherd.
.We’ve got to let God BE the shepherd.
We’ve got to be willing to let Him take over.
That’s not easy for many people. In fact while there are plenty of people who say they would like to serve God – they only want to do so in an advisory capacity.
In other words… they don’t want God to be the shepherd. They don’t want God taking over the direction of their lives.
WHY? Because God might not get it right… He just might mess it up.
ILLUS: They suffer from what I call “preacher’s disease”. That’s where preachers won’t ask other people to do the work in the church because it’s so much easier to do it themselves. And so a lot of preachers end up working themselves to death. They don’t think anyone else can do the job nearly as well as they can.
That’s how many people respond to God being “in charge”.
It is hard to let God be God. It’s hard to let Him be our shepherd.
Even people who really want God to do so, occasionally struggle with this concept.
ILLUS: I encountered this kind of thinking at Church camp this last week.
Now these were all good, faithful, Bible believing men. But as I listened to them they spoke of being upset by churches – both in denominational congregations in our brotherhood - that were slipping away from scriptural thinking. They were frustrated and more than a little angry at the man-made thinking they saw throughout Christendom.
The more I listened to them the more I realized they were angry about things they would never be able to personally change.
And so I said “Sometimes guys, you’ve got to let God be God. There’s not a thing you’re going to be able to do to change most of the things you’re upset about. So you’ve got to accept the fact that there comes a time when you’ve just got to turn things like this over to God and let Him worry about the things you can’t change… and do what you can to change what you do have influence over.
ILLUS: We have a prominent preacher in our brotherhood that I have great respect for and whose company I really enjoy. But oftentimes he’ll go off on a tangent about many of the problems he sees within the independent congregations of our brotherhood.
When he does this I oftentimes pull hi s leg by suggesting a solution to the problem. I say:
“I tell you George, what we need to do is create a denominational headquarters, and elect you president. Then you could dictate all the doctrine that was fit to teach.”
Of course George would never have any part of such a scheme because he (like I) see too many problems with denominational structures and creeds. We both believe that churches aren’t going to listen to Scripture they certainly aren’t going to listen to doctrine imposed on them by mortal men.
We need to allow God to be God.
We need to let the Good shepherd take over things we cannot control.
And we can usually tell when we’re not doing that.
Whenever you get angry or upset. When you sense frustration with your job, or with your family or with something in the congregation or your neighborhood. Whenever I get like that, my wife tells me to go take a nap… but in reality those are warning signs that tell us we’ve moved into the driver’s seat of our lives and forgotten to look to God.
In Psalm 23, David sees himself as a sheep in the field.
He remembers what it was like to be a shepherd with his flock.
His sheep never had to worry because he was always there.
His sheep never had to concern themselves with the dangers of the hills because their shepherd was prepared to fight to save them.
Thus, his sheep always had reason to be confident and to grow and prosper because their faith was in their shepherd.
ILLUS: Charles Spurgeon once said: “The sheep is not safe because it says, ‘I am stronger than the lion;’ or, ‘I am able to escape from the bear;’ or, ‘I shall always be able to avoid the wolf.’ Silly sheep, what canst thou do to protect thyself from thy foes.
We’re the sheep, He’s the shepherd. Sheep have their job, the shepherd has His. And we obtain assurance and self-confidence only when we know God as our shepherd.
CLOSE: One of my favorite stories is about a famous actor was once the guest of honor at a social gathering where he received many requests to recite favorite excerpts from various literary works.
An old preacher was amongst the audience and he asked the actor to recite the twenty-third Psalm. The actor agreed on the condition that the preacher would also recite it as well.
The actor stood and began to recite the famous Psalm and it was everything you could expect from a polished thespian. The phrases were elegant, his voice rose and fell to give each thought it’s proper emphasis. And when he finished, the crowd broke into a lengthy applause.
Then the old preacher rose. His voice was rough and broken from many years of preaching, and his diction was anything but polished. But when he finished there was not a dry eye in the room.
Later, when someone asked the actor what made the difference, he replied "I know the psalm… but he knows the Shepherd."
