Psalm 23 Week 6

He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

Have you ever followed someone on social media or in person that turned out not to be who you thought they were?

I remember on instagram I started following these old people that were in a retirement home or something.

Their videos were just funny and edgy.

However, then it turned inappropriate and I quickly realized after maybe a week of following them that this is not an account I want to follow.

What was older people doing trendy things spiraled out of control quickly.

What about you, have you followed someone on social media that you later unfollowed because they were not who you thought they were?

Any examples?

Tonight we are going to focus on Psalm 23:3

Psalm 23:3 NIV

3 he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

A question I have immediately is what are the right paths?

How many of you desire to be on the wrong path?

Of course not…

BUT! Do we end up on the right path accidently?

No.

You don’t accidently walk with Jesus.

You don’t accidently accomplish your goals.

You don’t show up to school on Monday and get a text from your coach saying “Congrats! I know you weren’t trying out for the team, but you made it anyway!”

That never happens.

We don’t end up on the right path of life on accident.

Whatever path you are on today, you are there because of who you’ve followed on that path.

Maybe it’s the footprints of the person who went before you.

Maybe the path your own seemed to provide the most light at the time, and not darkness, so you went down that path.

Maybe it’s the path your parents told you to go down.

Maybe it’s the path that everyone else is going down.

Maybe it’s a flip of the coin and you just randomly decided to take a chance.

Either way, we are all walking our path of life because we have followed or trusted someone to lead us there.

Is that Jesus? Is Jesus leading you?

If not, can we just pause for a moment and recognize the danger when we don’t listen to Jesus?

Let’s watch a short 2 minute clip from one of the greatest TV shows ever made if you don’t mind.

We will see what happens when we listen to the wrong voice and follow the wrong path.

*Show Michael and Dwight driving into the lake*

If you’ve never seen the office, you don’t know that Michael (the driver) is the boss of the office.

Dwight wants to be the boss, but he’s the overbearing, know-it-all, naive guy in the office.

I don’t remember the full context of the episode, but I just know this scene is one of my favorites.

Rather than follow the road and what follow the right path, Michael’s path led to destruction.

Quite literally, driving their car into a lake.

The rest of this scene is pure comedy as they dramatically struggle to get out of the car and the lake and the car sits on the ramp, half-submerged in water.

Then the realization at the end that Michael didn’t get the renter’s insurance is the icing on the cake.

Michael’s path led to many negative outcomes.

_________________________

If we are not being led by the good Shepherd, this is the truth of our lives as well.

We are following a path that’s going to lead us to ruin.

You see we can’t just follow any path…

Following whatever path we want may lead us into a lake.

I know on summer days, that’s where we want to be, but nobody wants to be in a lake with Michael Scott.

In the Shepherd looks at 23rd Psalm book, Keller mentions sheep cannot live anywhere.

They are not an easy livestock to keep happy.

In fact he goes so far to say, “No other livestock requires more careful handling, more detailed direction, than do sheep.” pg. 61

When Keller first purchased the fields for his sheep, his field were in bad shape.

Apparently sheep develop favorite spots and will return to those over and over eating even the roots of the grass.

The problem then is that sheep if left to the same field will destroy it.

A field that starts healthy, will get destroyed by the sheep if the Shepherd doesn’t move his flock between fields.

Keller says it like this,

““There must be a plan of action, a deliberated, planned rotation from one grazing ground to another in line with right and proper principles of sound management.” pg. 63

The Good Shepherd then plans out a path for his sheep.

He leads them strategically between pastures so that they do not eat too much, destroying one field.

A key here is not just that a Shepherd knows his sheep, but that a Shepherd knows his pastures.

He knows where they have grazed much and where the good grass is that is ready to be grazed upon.

The good Shepherd leads his sheep between these pastures strategically.

Keller mentions on page 64 also that “Whenever the Shepherd opens a gate into a fresh pasture the sheep are filled with excitement.”

Again though, don’t miss this, if the sheep don’t have a Shepherd, they will graze on their favorite spots until the grass is gone.

Then they will quite literally die waiting for the grass to grow back.

That’s one reason Isaiah 53:6 says “6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

If we choose our own way, we will stay where we want to stay.

We will suck all of life out of one area until there is nothing left.

This is our flesh like we talked about this weekend.

Our flesh wants us to choose our own way.

It says that we have all the answers in life.

But amidst all of this, the Good Shepherd reminds us in our Spirits

Mark 8:34 “34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

We have the choice to follow our Good Shepherd, or to go on our own path.

Another point here is that we have a choice to follow our will and make our name great.

OR

We follow the path of Righteousness for His Name’s sake.

It’s about His name, His glory, His purpose, His path, not mine.

His ways are far superior.

Matt Chandler is the pastor of Village Church in Texas… and contrary to what I often say, He is not dead now.

He is alive and well.

Johnie and Lindsay were joking with me last week that I often say a quote from someone I admire and then follow it with “They are dead now” and it’s true.

I say that often.

But Chandler is alive and well!

Anyway, He said this recently on insta.

“The world is not random. There is one who is in control and I might not understand how He’s sovereignly reigning and ruling, but I can trust He’s better at it than I am.”

This is what I mean by my last point in this verse tonight.

My life is about Jesus…

I trust Him.

Why?

Because He’s better at operating the universe than I am.

He knows what He’s doing and I don’t!

APPLICATION:

So how do we apply this today?

I’ll be honest with you, Keller has 7 applications that are awesome.

I want to read 5 of those with little explanation, then I want to play you a song and then apply this further tonight.

Instead of loving myself most, I love Jesus first and others more than myself.

Instead of insisting on my way, my path, I choose Jesus.

Play “Light the way” by 7th day slumber.

Some of the lyrics in that song say,

“Tearing out the part of me that keeps me far from you. It’s poison.

So light the way, light the way

SO I can see who I’m meant to be

Shatter me

Shatter me

It’s when you’re broken that you finally see

Who you’re meant to be.”

That’s cash money writing right there.

Let me tell you how I interpret that.

Until our flesh, our self, is shattered, we will never choose Jesus.

Following His path, is trusting that He lights the way for us.

I don’t light the way, He does.

I’m connected to Him and trusting Him to lead me down that path.

Along the way, there will be many distractions.

I read an article today called “the state of culture, 2024”

In that article it highlights how distraction is the leading form of entertainment in 2024.

One way it illustrates that is with this graphic.

The way to read this is:

Instead of movies, users get stuck in an endless loop of 15 second videos.

Instead of reading through a 30 page newspaper, we only read the headlines on our phones.

Instead of taking time to get to know the opposite sex, we eliminate gender, objectify people, and then we just swipe right if don’t like how they look…

The goal of a lot of the technology we have is 2 fold.

1. Get you addicted.

2. Give you dopamine in your brain, the feelings that make you happy.

Everything becomes a game to entertain you and addict you.

The only point I want you to see in this report is that so many thing sin our life right now are pointing back to one thing: Distraction!

I think that’s one of Satan’s favorite tools to use in our culture.

We’ve talked a lot about how I don’t believe Satan’s goal is to win you to his side, he just wants to make sure you aren’t on God’s side.

What better way to ensure that than to keep us distracted?

Whatever is keeping us from staying close to the Shepherd and following Him, that is something we need to shatter in our lives as seventh day slumber sang about.

So let’s just discuss that for a moment before we close.

What are some distractions we are all facing right now?

He leads me for His name’s sake.

I can trust that He knows better than me.

Are you willing to be led by the good Shepherd?