(I started the sermon by singing the first verse of “He Leadeth Me” and then asked the congregation to join me in the chorus)
“He leadeth me, O blessed thought! O words with heav’nly comfort fraught! Whate’er I do, where’er I be, still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me.’
(CHORUS) He leadeth me, He leadeth me, by His own hand He leadeth me; His faithful foll’wer I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me.”
The 23rd Psalm is one of the best-known passages in Scripture. It’s only 6 verses long, and yet in those short 6 verses David describes God with such depth and power that entire books of theology couldn’t even begin to touch it. In those verses David tells us truths about what God meant to him and what He can mean to us.
And the one of the most important Biblical truths he declared was this: The Lord Is My Shepherd!
Until you understand that simple truth nothing else in Scripture makes any difference. What David was describing here was a God who really cared for him. He said “the Lord is MY shepherd.” He’s not A shepherd and He’s not THE shepherd… the Lord IS MY SHEPHERD.
ILLUS: Years ago, someone told of a dream he had. In his dream he moved among the temples of ancient Greece. Near one of them he met a priest and began to talk to him. Pointing to people approaching the temple, the dreamer said to the priest: "I suppose these people honor and love their god." And the priest just laughed "Honor? Love? What do you mean? They fear him because he may destroy them, but love ...." 'Whoever loved a god?' '
"But," said the dreamer, "don’t these people seek to know the will of their god?'' And the priest said. "He does not work by will, but by whim, by caprice. He may smite with illness, curse with barrenness, blight with disaster. No one can know the mind of a god. One may only appease his anger." (from a book by James Black).
You see… that’s the way a lot of folks look at God. They see Him as uncaring… EVEN cruel A deity to be feared and avoided - BUT NOT DAVID. David declared: The Lord is MY shepherd. It’s personal for David. This is his God. God was HIS shepherd, and because of that - David KNEW he was safe.
Psalm 59:16 I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.
Psalm 61:2b-3 I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.
You see, this was the key to David’s being a man after God’s own heart. David wasn’t a Sunday Go To Meeting guy. He didn’t just show up for an hour on Sunday and live however he wanted the rest of the week. David was sold out for God because he KNEW that his Lord wasn’t just a god who was WAYYY up there… and who didn’t really care.
The God that David loved… loved him back. And so DAVID wrapped his life around this God.
ILLUS: David’s attitude toward God reminds of story of a Sunday school teacher who asked her class if any of them could quote the entire 23rd psalm. A little girl was raised their hand. When the teacher asked if she really knew the entire Psalm, the little girl nodded and then said: “The Lord’s my shepherd… and that’s all I want.” (From the book “I Shall Not Want” by Robert Ketchum)
That’s the best theology you’ll ever hear all year! The Lord is YOUR shepherd, and He’s all you will ever need and all you’ll ever want.
But that does raise the question… is the Lord YOUR shepherd? Is He ALL you want? Until you figure that out… you’ll miss out on the best God has to offer. And one of the most important things God has to offer you is this: He’s got a plan for you
“He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Psalm 23:2-3
God KNOWS where you need to be, and if He is YOUR shepherd… He’s gonna take you there. When God is YOUR shepherd… He has plans for you. He has a destination for you in His mind.
That’s what Jeremiah 29:11 says: “For I know the plans I have for you plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future.”
Now there are those who will try to tell you that THIS promise doesn’t apply to you. They say it was a promise ONLY for the Jews of Jeremiah’s day. And that’s always annoyed me because I know they’re wrong. I’m convinced this promise is for ALL God’s chosen people… including you.
The reason I know they’re wrong is because - the same kind of promise shows up in Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
GOD HAS A PLAN FOR YOU! He has good works prepared in advance just for you to do.
ILLUS: Scott (our associate minister) tells me that the reason many folks reject this promise out of Jeremiah is because there are prosperity preachers who use the promise from Jeremiah to hoodwink people into thinking that God intends to make them rich and successful (if they just follow the heretical teachings of that preacher).
But in reality, when God said “I know the plans I have for you plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” Judah was about to be led away into captivity. They’d been a baaaad people and God was about to punish them for their bad behavior.
But even when God was punishing them He was still saying: I don’t want to hurt you. I HAVE A PLAN FOR YOU! I have a plan to give you a hope and future. God still wanted to be their shepherd even when they were being punished for disobedience.
God ALWAYS has a plan for His people. God ALWAYS has a destination marked out for us. A destination where we can have a HOPE and a FUTURE. It may not be a destination where we’ll be rich and famous and successful… but that’s not the point!
When God says He has a plan for your life - what He’s saying is that He is giving you a reason to exist. He’s giving you a purpose for your life.
ILLUS: One person once said: “I don’t fear death. I don’t think I have ever been afraid to die. What I’m afraid of is that I will waste my life.”
When the Lord is your shepherd you know your life will not be wasted. You may not end up being rich or famous or successful BUT IT WILL MATTER THAT YOU LIVED because God will make sure that your life matters.
William Barclay once said “There are two great days in a person's life – the day we are born and the day we discover why.”
God says… follow me and I’ll show you WHY you were born.
But here’s the deal - in order for your life to be worthwhile you’ve got to follow HIM. He’s knows where you need to go. But if you don’t follow HIM… you may end up where you don’t want to be.
ILLUS: About 15 years ago in Eastern Turkey some shepherds had taken a break to eat their breakfast. Apparently, they weren’t watching things very closely because one of their sheep wandered too close to cliff /fell to its death. Now sheep tend to follow their shepherds, but if the shepherd’s not around they’ll follow other sheep. And that’s what happened here. When that one sheep fell over the cliff… 1500 other sheep followed it.400 of them died… and many of them were injured.
They died and were injured because they followed a SHEEP but not the SHEPHERD. They followed that other sheep because they figured “Hey, maybe he knows where he’s going.” But he didn’t.
And that’s what happens too often to Christians. They take their eyes off of their shepherd and they start paying attention to - “Experts,” "Important people", "People of influence" - who are often just sheep like us who are. But they’re very good at convincing us that they know where they’re going. And before you know it (if you listen to them) you find out they don’t know where going and they’ve led you off a cliff.
Here’s the deal… I can’t trust other sheep. They’re only guessing about where I should be going. They don’t understand life the same way God does. I mean they’re not necessarily evil or deceptive (tho’ they might be). But I just can’t trust them because really don’t know where they’re going.
ILLUS: Now I’m going to let you in on a secret. (Conspiratorially) Don’t tell the people in the Sound booth… but there’s times I don’t know where I’m going. Sometimes I’m not even sure I know where I’m at. BUT GOD DOES! I can trust Him because He knows what lies ahead and He’s quite literally in my tomorrows knowing what is best for me.
As I was working on this morning’s sermon a question occurred to me: If God knows what lies ahead and He wants to lead in a path that is best for me… why do I have such a problem TRUSTING God? I’m not talking about you. I’m talking about ME! You see, because I don’t know what lies ahead (like God does) when life begins to fall apart…. I get scared; I panic; I get frustrated… even angry. Sometimes I just want to give up!!!
That’s why the Bible repeatedly tells me… Trust God. Wait on God. Believe God.
And that’s why the Bible repeatedly tells us things like “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.” Psalm 56:3
“Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7
The main question is this: Do I Trust God?
CLOSE: Years ago my nephew Josh was 8 or 9 yrs. old he came to stay with me. Now Josh and I have always been close. He even had a nickname for me – he called me “Ta.” I remember one Christmas when he was younger and someone in the family had bought him a set of walkie talkies. They’d wrapped the separately and when he opened the first walkie talkie he was all excited … it didn’t occur to him that he needed two of these things to make it work. When the next round of gifts were opened he opened the 2nd walkie talkie and his eyes got wide as he looked at me and cried “Look Ta, there’s one for you too.”
Well, at the last church I served, they had a big backyard and Josh and I were out playing tag. He was big for his age and he could really run and I was chasing him to tag him back. He was laughing and looking back over his shoulder at me… and about 10 feet away there was a tree and he was heading straight for it. I shouted out for him to stop and he turned around just in time to smack right into the tree. He broke a tooth and began crying. We carried him into the house and put him on the bed and he cried almost hysterically the whole time. His aunt and another person were trying to comfort him but he was having none of it. I realized he wasn’t going to calm down any time soon… but then an idea occurred to me. I stepped over to the bed and sat down beside him. In a calm but firm voice I said “Josh LOOK at me.” Still crying he looked up at me. Then I asked him “Josh, do you trust me?”
That one simple question seemed to get through to him. He realized he DID trust me and he began to calm down. “Josh, it’s going to be OK. Yes, you’ve gotten hurt, but it’ll be OK.” Ten minutes later, he was up and running around again in the back yard.
DO YOU TRUST ME? That’s what God is all about. And that’s what the 23rd Psalm is all about.
The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea 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 mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”
Someone once said: “When life gets hard, you do not need reasons — you need comfort. You do not need some answers — you need someone. And God does not come to us with an explanation. He comes to us with His presence." Bob Benson
The Lord Is My Shepherd I Shall Not Want.
INVITATION
