Green Pastures and Quiet Waters
Psalm 23 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Do you know why 4 didnt ask 5 out on a date? He was 2 squared.
We all know we live in a super busy world. Most American’s consider themselves busy, how many of you this morning would say that you are very busy people; that you always have something to do, that there is no down time for you? Here is something I could almost promise you, if you were to run into someone you know at Walmart, I can almost guarantee the conversation is going revolve around how busy the person is, or how busy you both are. We ask how are you, but what we answer is how busy are you. So when we are asked we talk about everything going on in our lives, all our kids games, the things going on at work, the other things we have to run, and maybe we sprinkle in what we are doing to help at church, but it has become a badge of courage in our culture to be BUSY. So the reason we answer how BUSY we are when we are asked how we are is because society tells us that is how we define our worth, by the amount of work we have done - our value is the things we do. So it becomes inevitable that we talk about how busy our jobs have kept us.
Listen, this doesn’t just end with normal jobs, pastors do it as well. When pastors get together we love to talk about how busy we are and all the things that we have going on in our church. When someone asks “How’s the church?” It is a question that is inevitably answered by numbers and people who have showed up. For instance, a conversation with other pastors may sound something like this:
Hey brother what’s up?
Oh, nothing much, you know same ole, same ole. We had 79 people in service last Sunday, and the giving has been up about 10%, its been going great, how about you?
And this is where things could potentially get interesting because we have this tendency to want our numbers to sound better so they may respond with:
Oh man, that is amazing, we had 110 people last week, and it may be true but there is this tendency to want to make sure. Like I know some guys who count every person in the building, every child in the womb, and if someone says they wanted to be there but didn’t wake up in time, they may add that person to the number as well. The guy may go on to add, OH we had our trunk or treat a few weeks ago, and we had over 600 people there, it was killer!
But its all about how busy we are and the things we are doing for all of us. I read a study that said 59% of American’s wish they could slow down in their lives, more studies would show that the other 41% need to slow down but are too crazy to know better. Okay, I didn’t read that but it would stand to reason it may be true. At the same time I think there are great number of us who would admit we wish we weren’t as busy, we wish we didn’t have as much going on in our lives, but we need to keep up with the rat race. So, we keep moving forward, and keep adding more on because that is what we are supposed to do. In the face of all of that we find today’s scripture in the 23rd Psalm and it says
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
When we look at this scripture I want to give you an acronym for what I think God is teaching us in this scripture for how we can get more peace in our life. The acronym is the word, Relax
RELAX
The R here stand for Rest.
R - Rest
The first thing we need to realize is God wants us to rest - the verse tells us HE MAKES ME, he makes me rest, and if I am being honest that is the kind of God I really want, a God who will make me rest. We have to know God knows our best interest, remember we just said last week I lack nothing because he gives me all I need, so we know he has our best interest, so he knows I can’t keep burning the candle at both ends, so he MAKES me rest.
If I am being honest this may be one of the things I have the most trouble with, one of the things Jennifer has to call me to all the time because I am always wanting to do the next thing on the list so I can check it off. I need to finish the list that I know could never end because there will always be knew things being added to it, but if I am not working on the list I feel like my skin is crawling.
For some of us we have to find the correct environment for us to relax in, its impossible for us to relax in some situations or places so we have to find that place that makes us happy. I know for some of you you take those vacations at the beach because you love the sound of the waves, I’m a mountain guy I love looking at the beauty of the world God has created and just seeing it all it helps me to relax.
But our places and our environments to relax cant just be places we run to once a year it has to be a place where we can be happy and retreat to much more often. So where is that spot for you, where is the spot you can retreat to and relax and give some of your burden to the Lord so he can refuel you.
The next letter in the acronym is
E - Evaluate your choices
We currently live in a world where we have more choices than ever before - we play the choices game from the moment we wake up until the moment we go to sleep at night. This morning for most of us we had to decide what we were going to wear to church, some of us have a few more options than others, or maybe you had to decide if you were going to make some breakfast or just run through the McDonalds drive through across the street, am I going to make coffee before I leave, or am I going to just make me a cup when I get to the church. Perhaps the hardest question of all time for married people, the one no class or seminar ever prepares you for, “what’s for dinner?” Seriously, this is the worst part of life, figuring out what is for dinner, I don’t mind making dinner, but trying to decide what to cook - the pits.
Some of you this morning are thinking, where am I going to go to college, what job should I get, who should I date, how many more kids should we have, not me, I don’t think about that so don’t start thinking thats what I’m thinking.
With all the choices we have and all options, how do we decide if we are even making the correct choice, or the right one? Let me give you 4 simple questions you can ask when you are making choices.
Is it Helpful?
Look at what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:12
12 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial…
So you can chose anything you want, but not every choice you will make is helpful, so ask yourself is the choice you are making helpful. When we ask this question, it wouldn’t be fair to find out if it is helpful just to me, the question is it a helpful choice overall to make, to me, my family, my neighbor, the kingdom.
Does it bring me under its power?
Look at what the second part of that verse we just read says, 1 Corinthians 6:12
12… “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything.
The question is will the choice you make take over your life? Will it take hold of you so deep that you cannot do anything else. The easy thing to think of when we think about this question is how some type of drug or addiction could take over our lives if we make the wrong decision. You know what else takes over our lives when we are trying to get to a place where we can RELAX, saying yes to everything. Often our caring hearts and love for people, and not to mention our fear of disagreements, make us not want to say no to anything. So we over commit and eventually all of those decisions start to master us and take us over.
Does it hurt others?
13 Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.
I want you to understand something, we have the right to do everything, but not everything is beneficial, even more some of the things we have the right to do can hurt other people and cause them to fall. That is exactly what Paul is talking about here, when being questioned about eating meat sacrificed to idols and if it was okay to eat it or not, Paul says I have the freedom to do so, but if it causes my brother or sister to stumble I will never eat that meat again. Understand, for some of those Christians they felt they were safe eating the meat, because the idol the meat was being sacrificed to wasn’t real in the first place, so there was nothing to fear, but the other group still thought they shouldn’t eat it because of the intent behind the meat and they wanted to stay true to Jesus. So Paul says, neither one of you are wrong really, but if Me eating it causes my brother to make bad decisions or fall away from the Lord I will never do it to help save them. Again, Paul teaching us others are more important than self, and we need to make sure we aren’t causing people to stumble. So does it hurt others, and lastly.
Honestly, this is where it comes with me and alcohol, I have nothing bad to say about the occasional drink for people, but I don’t do it because I know so many people who would see a pastor drinking and think, Oh my gosh, I can’t believe he is doing that. Even if they are drinkers themselves.
Does it Glorify God?
31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
And Paul is basically saying, listen, no matter what you decide, the answer should be that you are doing everything for God’s glory. In this instance he is really telling us its not as important for us to be right as it is to glorify God, so is the decision you are making glorifying God?
If you ask those four questions I truly believe it will help you make a better decisions and have a peaceful life.
L - Limit your Labor
We live in a world that we are completely addicted to the noise of it all. We love to be busy we love the noise of the world coming in our ears, its the way we are wired. Just ask Jennifer, I am the type person when I walk into a room I turn a television on, I like the noise in the background it makes me feel more settled and like I can pay attention more I know that sound ridiculous to you normal brained people, but it is what has always worked for me. The question is, how addicted to the noise are you?
Many years ago, I heard a great quote from Bill Hybels who started Willow Creek in Chicago, “There was a point in my life where the rate at which I was doing the work of God was ruining the work of God in me…” Just think about that for a minute, it is not everything that we do is bad, but sometimes the more we work the more harm it can actually do to what God is trying to do in our lives.
This is what we talked about when we talked about the importance of being able to say no a few minutes ago, but not only that, we cannot forget that Exodus 20:8-9 says,
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work,
God tells us we should work six days out of the week and on the seventh day we should rest, and we have some serious problems with that in our culture. I already told you Jennifer helps keep me in check. I love when people say, “The devil never takes a day off, so why should I?” I am sorry, I was unaware the devil was supposed to be our example in life.
So you may say, when I take a sabbath what should I do? Here are the three things I think are important:
1. Rest Your Body
2. Recharge your emotions
3. Refocus your spirit
Realize God Wants you to rest
Evaluate your choices
Limit your labor and then
A - Adjust your values
How many of you remember the story of the rich young ruler in Mark 10? He came to Jesus and asked how to get eternal life, and Jesus tells him to keep the commandments, and he says he has done that, and said there is one more thing, Sell all your stuff and gibve it to the poor and then come and follow me. And the ruler walked away disheartened, because he had lots of money and possessions. He had a lot of things he didn’t want to let go of.
Don’t you see what that story is about? It’s about adjusting your values to see what is truly important. If you really want to reduce the busyness in your life you have to change what you think is important in your life. It means reshaping your values and assessing which of those should be the most important, and I think this is where so many of us fail the most. So, while we are here let me say this as well, don’t let anyone define what an emergency is for you. I learned this a long time ago, someone taught it to me and I think it is a valuable lesson; you can’t let other people tell you what is important in life because to some people a stubbed toe is important, some people think that other things are important and you can’t let those people tell you that that has to be important in your life. If we let other people define what is important in our lives it can ruin what God is trying to do and teach you.
Listen, I truly believe that the enemy can use people with good intentions to ruin Gods plan for your life; he wants to get in the way of what you have going on and slow you down from the place you need to be. We can’t just be busy to stay busy, we can’t just attempt at accumulating more just to have more.
So, we Realize God wants us to rest, Evaluate your Choices, Limit your labor, adjust your values, and lastly:
X - Exchange your pressure for God’s Peace
We are constantly told by society if we are perfectly relaxed it is a sin, there has to be something wrong with you if you are still, because there is too much going on in this world for you to be totally relaxed, you sinner.
You know my favorite part of this entire verse this morning, of course we talked about he makes me lie down, he shows me I need a rest but the best part is:
2 …He leads me beside still waters.
You know why its so important to lead the sheep by still waters, or calm waters? If he led them to rushing waters the sheep would be terrified and run amuck, they would never stop to take a drink, and he is so good to us he takes us to a place where we can easily take the drink we need to refresh ourselves. What happens in the pressures of this world, the deadlines, our OWN desires, normally cause so much stress it makes the waters rage around us and it is too hard to get a drink from what God is wanting us to take.
The fact of the matter is most of us are so stressed out we never see the quiet waters he is trying to lead us to, the waters are always rushing around us so we cannot refresh ourselves and we never get what God has for us so we get fatigued, Physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
You may hear me this morning and think, you’re right pastor, I need a vacation, but that will only help the first type of fatigue, that physical fatigue. It will not help your emotional or spiritual fatigue - there is only one thing that can help with either of those. A deeper, more intimate relationship with the shepherd, we need more of that in our life. Let’s take a look at the verse one more time as the worship team comes.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
We can see clearly God’s presence is with us, he is walking with us, trying to make us rest. The problem is, so many of us are like children at midafternoon nap time; we fight, we kick, we scream we’re not tired when we are obviously showing the signs. We are resisting what the shepherd knows is best, because we don’t trust he actually knows what is better for us, we don’t believe he could possibly know more than us, so we take matters into our own hands and run full force.
It is time to rest and allow him to lead you to those green pastures and quiet waters. What are those for you? You have to know the answers to those questions so you can hear him. For some of you this morning you may have never given your life to Jesus as your personal savior and in a moment the team is going to sing and we want to give you the opportunity to call upon the shepherd.
For others of you, you may be hear this morning and you are so busy running yourself ragged you may not even remember what the shepherds voice sounds like as he tries to lead you. This morning I would suggest you come and be still at the alter and allow the shepherd to speak to your heart on what you need to do next.
