The Good Shepherd

Introduction

Thank you all for making time to come here today. I know many of you have very busy schedules, so it means a lot that you all took time to come listen to but a lowly student ministry associate.

If for some reason we have never met before or you’ve never been over to Grace Students on a Wednesday night, my name is Logan Heidenreich. I am our student ministry’s middle school associate. If you don’t know what an associate is, that means that I associate with middle schoolers and I need your prayers. Many of you may know my sweet wife, Marybeth Heidenreich, was Davis. Jeff Davis is my father-in-law, and I’m grateful to serve on the same campus as both of them.

As many of you already may know, Pastor Kyle has been pouring into myself, Joe Tullock, and Ethan Mysliewic for the past 3 months, taking a few aspiring pastors and teaching us the ropes of effective preaching. So today is a big day for myself as I get to show you all what I have technically been working on for 3 months, so you better not fall asleep on me here!

Having said that, you all will be critiquing me today, following this sermon. I would prefer that you write these thoughts down instead of yelling them at me while I’m up here like my 7th grade boys do on Wednesday nights. The way that I want you to think about it is everything that you write down will be used to help me grow as a communicator. So I want you all to be honest even if it requires that you be brutal.

So! If you all will turn in your Bibles with me to Psalm 23 where we will be looking at the first four verses of this wonderful Psalm. While you are turning there, I want to share with you a bit of a testimony that I have with this text and why I chose it for this sermon today:

Testimony: It’s very dear to me because a little over a year ago, when I took the position as the middle school associate here at Grace, I began to struggle with some very deep-seeded anxiety that was very much so related to my view of Christ and my relationship with Him. I was struggling with something that I’m sure no one else in this room has ever struggled with, so you’ve probably never heard of it. It’s called “Imposter Syndrome.” The Enemy was in my ear daily, whispering reasons why I didn’t deserve to be where I am at Grace. He brought up past sins that I have long sense repented of and moved on from, and he caused me to believe many lies about who I was. But God used this Psalm to tell me a lot about who I am, and much more importantly, who He is. He is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep.

If you’ll looking with me at verse 1, David says:

Psalm 23:1–4 (ESV) The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 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. 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.

Let’s pray together. *Pray*

Transition:

I believe this is one of the most beautiful of all the Psalms because when David portrays the Lord to be a Shepherd, he’s really saying so much more than ‘He cares for His sheep.’

Having once been a shepherd, David knew the experience of not only caring for his sheep, but also knowing his sheep, keeping count of them, herding them, protecting them from the dangers of the land, caring for their every need.

So when David says the Lord is my Shepherd, he’s saying three things about the Lord’scharacter, the first of which is the Lord is my provider.

The Lord is my…

Provider (v.1-2)

Explanation:

The Lord Knows His Sheep

He says, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”

David asserts that the Lord is His Shepherd, and because of this fact, he will not want for anything or in more laymen’s terms, God will give Him everything that he needs.

Why? Because the Lord knows the needs of His sheep.

He knows when they’re tired, when they’re hungry, and when they’re thirsty.

And He not only anticipates the needs of His sheep but also knows how to meet those needs.

He knows that when they are tired they need a safe place to lie down. He knows that when they are hungry, they need rich, green grass to eat. He knows that when they are thirsty, they need calm waters to drink from.

Our Shepherd who knows the very depths of our hearts knows what we need before we ever bring it to Him.

The Lord Shepherds Our Souls

I think often, when we think about the Lord meeting our needs, we think in terms of physical means such as the Lord providing for our health or blessing us financially when we’re in trouble, but the Lord does this and more.

If you think about the life that David lived, he spent a lot of time fighting in wars and hiding from people that wanted to kill him. His life was constantly on the line, but he continuously ran to the Lord for refuge because He knew He was the Shepherd not only of his life but of his soul.

David found more than his material needs met in the Lord, he found peace. That is what lies at the heart of all our fears, the desire for peace.

And the only source of true peace is the Lord Jesus. The One who though He is in the form of God (Notice how I said that present tense), emptied Himself by being born in the likeness of men and, though He knew no sin, bore the sins of the world on the cross.

It’s only in salvation through the Lord Jesus that we find our biggest needs met. We find peace in knowing that the Lord will give us food and water in our stomachs and a roof over our head, but also… peace with God.

Because when we were sinners, we were separated from God! There was enmity between us and the Lord, but through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, we are no longer at odds with Him, there is peace between us.

Illustration: You see, this is where I was stumbling in my walk with the Lord over a year ago when I was struggling with anxiety and panic attacks. It was because I didn’t rest in the peace of what Jesus had already done for me. I was listening to lies that the enemy was whispering in my ear. “What if they find out about the sinful things you’ve done in the past?” “What if they find out about who you truly are?” *Pause* But Grace Family, who I truly am is a child of God. Who I truly am is a born-again sinner resting in the peaceful embrace of my Good Shepherd, and praise God the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep! (John 10:11)

In the Lord’s eyes, I am no longer a sinner, you are no longer a sinner, but we are now sheep in the Lord’s flock.

And if the Lord can pay the lofty cost of our salvation, how much more can He care for our daily needs?

Application

John 3:16-For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son…

Jesus loves you so much that He laid down His life for you. He cares enough about the birds and lilies to feed and clothe them, how much more will He care for you?

So, those of you who are His sheep, I want you to think about how you have trusted Him to care for your every need. How have you trusted Him to be your provider?

Have you seen Him provide for you before, yet you still doubt Him?

Have you seen Him pay your bills when it didn’t logically make sense on your budget sheet, yet you wonder if you’ll be able to pay those hospital bills?

Have you watched the Lord seemingly over night cover the cost of that $2500 mission trip to Costa Rica you felt called to go on last year, yet you’re kept awake at night afraid that you won’t be able to find a reliable vehicle to get you to work every day?

Friends, the Lord will provide for you.

Transition: The Lord, our Shepherd is our Provider, and He is also our Guider. Point 2.

Guider (v. 3-4)

Explanation:

We Stray From the Path

Looking at verses 3 and 4, David says, “He restores my soul.”

The Hebrew word used here for “restore” has a connotation regarding the return of or the bringing back of something.

“He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” And then he says in verse 4, “Even though I walk in the Valley of the Shadow of Death I will fear no evil.”

David reveals God to be a guide for His sheep, but this texts also implies that the sheep need to be kept on the path. Because we stray from the path.

I suspect that the Lord keeping us on the path of righteousness is like herding cats. Probably even worse than that! It’s like herding two year olds.

Illustration: It’s like when you see a class of 2 year olds here in the hallways on their way for their parents to pick them up. You often find two or three lagging behind or one wandering in a random direction. One day, I was coming in from a lunch meeting in the back door to the offices and there was a class passing through. There was a child staring up at the big lit up green button that’s used to unlock the door and let you through, but he was just staring like he was day dreaming about all the things he could do with a green button. One of the teachers saw the look in his eyes and yelled, “DO. NOT. PRESS. THAT. BUTTON!” IMMEDIATELY, not even that child; another kid pushed two other kids out of the way and slammed his little porkchop hand into the button. One of the other teachers sighed and grabbed him muttering to herself, “We just told you not to do it.”

This is what it has to be like for the Lord to restore us when we’ve gone astray because we often wander from the path of righteousness, do we not?

Examples of sins: We speak without thinking, we react in anger, we even try to justify ourselves. We say, “Well he pulled out in front of me! Of course he deserved for me to punish him by riding his tail for five miles flashing my brights at him.”

The Lord Restores Us to the Path

But the Lord Restores us to the path.

He guides us with His staff. The shepherds would have a staff that would be bent or rounded at the top to guide the sheep, keeping them from veering off.

So when we find ourselves venturing off the main trail, the Lord gently guides us back. This is why David says, “Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” Because for those of us who have walked with the Lord long enough, like David, we have learned to find comfort in the gentle nudging along of the Lord’s staff.

And He does this nudging with His Word and with conviction from the Holy Spirit.

As you grow in your walk with the Lord, the guidance becomes less and less frustrating because you learn that the Lord knows better than you. The path He is on is for our good and His glory.

But sometimes the path isn’t comfortable.

We Look to the Shepherd

Unfortunately, sometimes the path we’re lead down is through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. This is where it’s important to be careful of where you look. Because We (must) look to the shepherd.

You can get transfixed on the scary darkness around you or the sharp, jagged edges of the cliffs above you, and you lose track of your Shepherd.

Like Peter when called out of the boat to walk on water with His Lord, we too take our eyes off of our Guide to look at the loud, crashing waves around us, and suddenly, we find ourselves sinking into the treacherous waters beneath us.

In the Valley, it’s easy to get lost because you cannot see your Guide as well. The darkness around you begins to take your sight, the fear sets in and turns to panic, and your judgment becomes clouded. It feels like the creepy part of the song Thriller.

BUT that doesn’t mean your Shepherd is no longer there. He is still walking with you, and now more than ever you need to draw closer to Him as He leads you out of this valley.

Because the valley isn’t forever.

The valley is temporal. It’s a season of life for us, and there are all kinds of valleys, with some being harder than others. A valley can look like marital strain. It can look like a season of depression. It can look like the sudden loss of a child.

For me, it was fighting off sudden panic attacks that would come at any moment. I had them so often and for so long that many times I pleaded for the Lord to take the anxiety away. I just couldn’t see the light at the end of this tunnel. I prayed and prayed with my wife, by myself, with friends, but it felt like it would never go away. Anybody who has suffered from anxiety like this knows how much of a pit self-doubt and fear can feel like. It feels like there’s no way out. It came to the point that I began to accept that that would be the thorn in my side. But I found that as I ran to the Lord more and more and I memorized more scripture about fear and anxiety (one of those being this Psalm) and I spent more time in worship, I found myself hiding myself in Christ. I found myself walking more in His freedom. I found myself walking through the Valley right next to my Shepherd.

Just as Peter sank into the water, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” And the Word says immediately He caught him. Immediately, the Lord catches you from wandering to different paths. Immediately, the Lord grabs you and walks you back to the boat.

Application

When you’re in the valley, where do find your eyes going?

Do you listen to your feelings and hyperfocus on the dangers around you?

Or do you fix your gaze on your Lord?

Do you remember that He is walking right there next to you? Do you fix your eyes on his rod and staff He so often uses to keep you moving along with the rest of the heard?

The Lord’s corralling is no longer a battle between our wills and His, but rather a loving correction reminding us of our Shepherds presence near us.

Lean into His guidance and stay on the path of righteousness He’s leading you in. Even if it’s through what you imagine are your biggest fears in life, He’s still guiding you.

Transition: It’s in these dark paths that He shows Himself to be a Protector too. My last point for us.

Protector (v. 4)

Explanation:

The Lord Saves Us From Danger.

David says that even when he walks through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, He will fear no evil.

He shows confidence in the Lord when walking down those dark paths because the staff and the rod that the Shepherd carries are not just for guidance but also for defense. It’s for protecting His sheep because there are dangerous things in this world that desire to destroy the flock. That want to steal the sheep away.

And when we’ve gone astray, the Lord saves us from danger, and restores us back to His side.

In John chapter 10, Jesus teaches on what kind of Shepherd He is and what kind of dangers there are to the flock. He said the enemy has come to steal, kill, and destroy.

But He says He’s not like the hired hand who abandons the sheep when a wolf attacks the flock. No, our Shepherd protects us.

Our Shepherd is actually much like David in this sense. In 1 Samuel 17 when the Philistine giant, Goliath, was opposing the Israelites, David went before King Saul to plead with him to face the foe himself. He tells him in verse 34 and 35, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. and if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him.”

Our Lord will not suffer His sheep to be poached. He chases after whatever beast has taken us away from our Shepherd’s side and He strikes them down and redeems us back to Himself because He is our Mighty Protector. *Pause*

Nothing can take us from the Lord.

Romans 8:38–39 ESV

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Transition: Not even death itself can separate us from our God. *Pause*

Because when we as human beings strayed from God through the eating of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, He went and took us from the mouth of the lion by laying His life down on our behalf. Because the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep (John 10:11).

The Lord will not suffer one of His flock to be taken. Once we are His we are HIS. For all of eternity. Because our Shepherd is our Protector.

Conclusion

Gospel- Final VotSoD

One day we will come face to face with the Valley of the Shadow of Death. We’ll stop at its entrance, horrified to go any further because this is where no one has ever gone and returned! *Pause* But our Good Shepherd will be right beside us to usher us through.

He will walk us through the final doorway to eternal life because when I said that no one has ever gone through the Valley of the Shadow of Death and returned I was wrong.

Gospel: 2000 years ago, Jesus, though He had never sinned, became sin and died on the cross for all who would believe in Him. The story doesn’t end there because three days later, He rose from the grave victorious over sin, death, and Satan, our Adversary.

Our Shepherd has already gone before us. He knows the trail that lies ahead, and when we come out the other side what awaits us is eternal glory with our Lord.

Closing Statement: We will be with our Shepherd who is our Provider, our Guider, and our Protector.

Reflection

As we close out here, I want you all to bow your heads for a moment.

I want us all to take a moment out of our busy days to think about how the Lord has been all of these things for us. After that, I’ll pray for us and Kyle will come up and dismiss us.

Maybe you need to thank Him for how good He has been to you. Maybe you need to trust Him as I needed to trust Him over a year ago. Maybe you are not a part of His flock. If that is you, I implore you to trust Him. Make Him your personal Shepherd today.

Think about how has He been your Provider? How has He provided for you? How is He your Guider? What has He brought you through? How has He been your Protector? How has He kept you?

*Wait a minute* Let’s pray...