What Does It Mean to be the LORD’s Sheep?

INTRODUCTION

I am eager to preach this sermon today. I feel that our church needs to hear from Psalm 23 today.

I’ve had the privilege to be a part of this church for almost 4 years now. I’ve had the honor to get to know you all. And to share life with you. And as I observe our church week after week, I think that many of us may feel tired and weary.

Some of us have faced incredible challenges this year.

Some have lost friends.

Some have lost health.

Some have lost homes, far away from our friends and loved ones.

Perhaps one of the greatest trials we face are the questions that don’t go away.

· Am I going to get a visa to stay in Turkey?

· Am I going to find a job?

· Am I going to get healthy again?

Hardships at home, hardships at school, hardships at work. I think you know what I mean.

In these moments of hardship, all of us face a similar temptation. Here’s what we often do. First we look at our hardship. And then we look at our own resources.

How can we face these hardships in our own strength? We can’t.

Instead, the Lord invites us to remember something very important today.

ILLUSTRATION: DAD, “Remember Who You Belong To”

When I was a kid, my dad said something to us over and over and over again. It was very important to him that we remembered it. Here’s what he told us over and over and over again.

“Remember who you belong to. You belong to the Lord.”

My dad knew something. Remembering this truth would impact the way we lived our lives. It would give us comfort in hardships. It would motivate us to obedience when we were tempted to sin. It would turn our eyes away from our problems and onto our Savior.

So today, we come to Psalm 23. In this Psalm, it’s as if the author King David tells us over and over and over again…

“Remember who you belong to. Remember what it means to belong to the Lord your God.”

King David was a man familiar with trials.

As a young man, his brothers mocked him. His father-in-law tried to murder him multiple times. He had enemies. At one point in his life, his own son led a rebellion against him and tried to kill him.

Many times King David had to flee for his life.

Before becoming king, David was a shepherd boy. The Lord used those early years as a shepherd to give David perspective.

And you know what? David shared that perspective with us in Psalm 23. Many of you probably remember the first words from memory.

“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.”

Today, the Lord wants each of us to remember what it means to belong to him.

Today he wants us to remember that we are his sheep. And that he is taking care of us. Even when the days are hard.

SHEEP ILLUSTRATION:

When I was a boy, we didn’t live in a place with many sheep.

One thing I love about Turkey, is seeing flocks of sheep just pop up out of nowhere. Sometimes I’m driving home from the Mall, and there’s a flock of sheep on the side of the road.

I don’t know all that much about sheep. But, the Bible uses this metaphor over and over again. We are God’s sheep. He is our shepherd.

Since that’s the metaphor God uses, I wanted to learn a bit more. So I got a book.

It made for some really interesting reading.

What surprised me most was how similar we can be to sheep.

Let me explain:

· Sheep are by nature anxious creatures.

· They easily panic

· They often fight with one another.

o the bigger ones bully the smaller ones

· They easily fall down on their backs

o It’s actually very dangerous for a sheep to fall on its back, because they can’t get themselves back up on their feet

o One shepherd said this…

o When they fall on their back, the become very “gassy”

o And for whatever reason, this becomes quickly deadly for a sheep

· They are creatures of habit.

o They do the same thing over and over again

o They make the same mistakes over and over again

· They are weak. They are anxious. They are unable even to care for their own needs

· They are foolish. They often choose the dry ground over the lush grass provided by good shepherds

· They are quick to drink from the wrong puddles of water

o This can make them quite ill because parasites live in bad water

· They cannot protect themselves from danger

Sheep are anxious, foolish, bossy, weak. And my favorite…they are gassy.

The shock is not in our difference from sheep. The shock is how similar we are to sheep.

And yet, I learned something remarkable from the book about sheep. Human shepherds really love their sheep.

King David can verify that. He said that on different occasions he fought with bears and lions to protect his sheep. He sacrificed his life, to save a few sheep. That’s love.

But there’s something even more amazing we will learn today.