FBCWest 627 | My Shepherd
Recorded On: 10/06/2024
Bulletin
Hymn # 216 “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”
SCRIPTURE READING – Psalm 100
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate
Praise and Worship
“Who You Say I Am”
“Raise a Hallelujah”
“Resurrection Power”
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“My Shepherd”
PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“God Really Loves Us”
“Look to the Son”
Sermon Notes
Psalm 23:1b The Lord is my Shepherd
John 10:7 – 10 Jesus is the door for the sheep to go in and out to find pasture
John 10:11 – 13 Jesus is the Good Shepherd who protects His sheep
John 10:14 – 18 He knows His sheep and they know Him. He lays down His life for the sheep and picks it back up again
Psalm 23B A statement of faith nothing is needed
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
I want you to imagine, or maybe you actually are, a classic piano player. The first time anybody heard you play any music, it was this classical music. But yet you had the same kind of talent in other musical instruments and even in your voice. So perhaps you were an outstanding guitar player as well as a singer. But every time people saw you, they wanted you to play classical piano. That's kind of the way Psalm 23 is. And we're going to take an in-depth look at Psalm 23, because usually when people hear it, it's during a funeral or a memorial service. But the comfort and the provision and the guidance of God is more than just during death and eternity. It talks about leading us, guiding us, and providing for us. So come along as we study Psalm 23 and what it speaks to us who are alive.
I am not going to read. I'm going to tell you what they're about. So I'm going to suggest that if you have a bulletin and a pen or pencil, you put them on that. If you don't have a bulletin or a pen or pencil, there is paper and pens where Donna has placed her flyer. So I encourage you to get that. And I will wait just a minute or two, give you an opportunity, and we'll go from there.
The situation is this.
As a pastor, unfortunately, I have done a number of funerals, memorial services, life celebrations, done it for members of the congregation, done it for a lot of my own family members. And I've gone to a number of funerals, memorial services, life celebrations, and you hear Psalms 23 a lot because it is a comforting passage in that time. But unfortunately, because it is so comforting at that time, people tend to overlook it at other times. So I'm going to spend a miniseries, if you will, on Psalm 23, because I think it's that important for we believers to understand that God's love, protection, provision, and guidance is meant for our lifetime. As well as those times when we face death and eternity.
And so I want us to deep, deep into this Psalm because I believe it's that important. Now it was written by David and it's believed that it was written after Absalom had dethroned him and he was playing and trying to reestablish his kingdom. And he's at this critical point in his life. And he uses two motifs throughout this Psalm. One is that of a shepherd and the other is that of a host.
Now David isn't the first to use God as a shepherd. And so I'm going to go through and not only is David not the only one, wasn't the first. David isn't the exclusive one. And so to show you that David wasn't the first, Genesis 48, 15 talks about the Lord is his shepherd. And then a bad shepherds are discussed in Ezekiel 34, one through 10. Good God as a shepherd is discussed in Ezekiel 34, 11 through 31. The coming Messiah shepherd, Isaiah 40, 11. The shepherd after God's own heart, Jeremiah 3 15. Jesus compassion because they have no shepherd is found in Matthew chapter 9 36. Them strain as sheep is found in first Peter 2 25. Law sheep, Matthew 18 12 through 14. The great shepherd, second Peter 2 25. Great shepherd from the dead, Hebrews 13 20, Revelation 7 13 through 17 and first Peter 5 4. Then there are two others that we'll discuss more deeply, which is Jesus as the door to the sheep and Jesus as the good shepherd is found in John chapter 10. And so as you can see by the numerous references to shepherds, good shepherds, bad shepherds, the Lord a shepherd, that this motif is a valuable lesson for us to understand what is happening. And so I'm going to read one B first and then we're going to go back almost word by word. It says the Lord is my shepherd.
The Lord.
I want you to consider that the God of heaven and earth.
The shepherd.
Yahweh, Jehovah.
The shepherd.
El Shaddai.
Jehovah Jairah.
Jesus Yeshua is the Lord.
And the Lord.
The Lord is the one who shepherded.
Unfortunately, sheep need a shepherd.
What happens with sheep is oftentimes they follow each other.
One sheep starts walking and they also are walking and they don't necessarily know where they're going. They're just all following one another.
And so it's important to know that we need a shepherd and that shepherd is the Lord.
Now there are those who also want to lead us besides other sheep.
There is a goat, a goat hurt her.
Jesus talks about that there will come a time when he will separate the sheep from the goats and the sheep will enter into his eternal glory and the goats he will cast out.
Well, the main goat herder is Satan.
And while God loves you and God is loved, Satan does not love you. He hates you. How do I know that he hates you? Because he's defeated.
He's going to hell.
And instead of saying, God, you won. I lost. I give up. He tries to take as many people with him or if he can't get you to go with him, he tries to stop you from being a good witness to the shepherd.
He's vindictive.
He doesn't want what's best for you. He wants what he wants. And that is what God doesn't want.
And so it's important for us to know that we have the Lord, not the goat herder, who leads us. And it says is, which means it doesn't say was. It's not going to be the Lord is my shepherd.
It is a constant. It is present tense.
It's not good enough to say, well, you know, Jesus was my shepherd, but I've gone to different paths than maybe Jesus wasn't your shepherd or maybe someday he'll be my shepherd and I'll follow him. But you know, I'm going to do my own thing today.
David understands it is present tense. The Lord is my personal. It's me. It's not what my family did. It's not what the pastor did. It's not what the crowd does. It's not what people it's my shepherd. I don't know what you're going to do. You may be sheep and you may do your own thing. I'm going to follow my. The one who loves me, the one who is going to guide me, the one who is going to provide for me, the one who is going to protect me. He's my.
All too often, people don't make God personal. Why we talk about him living inside of us that he dwells in us, that he may lead us and guide us, that he is my shepherd and shepherd.
My shepherd.
A shepherd is one who cares for the sheep. It is one who protects the sheep is one to make sure that the sheep go where they're supposed to go in the pastures and in the water and all these types of things that the sheep need. The shepherd provides for that. But the shepherd also protects the sheep because there are those wolves and other animals that want to eat the sheep.
And the sheep have no protection other than their wool to make them look fluffier and that the teeth may not sink it as much, but they will make sure that they kill the sheep. And so the shepherd provides and makes sure that the sheep are protected. And so Jesus is going to use this to his disciples and talk about him as a shepherd.
So it says this in John chapter 10.
So Jesus said to them, truly, truly. And when Jesus says truly, truly.
Pay attention. He's about to say something of importance, something that we need to understand, something that we need to.
Hold dear.
Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
You want to enter into the sheepfold. You want to be able to enter in through the pastures. Then it is Jesus that gets us through that doorway.
Jesus is the door of the sheep.
All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. Notice that Jesus. Other people came before and they claim to be shepherd.
They were probably goat herders. They claim to be.
But the reason that God's people didn't follow them is because they did not hear them.
Because the sheep are attuned to their shepherd.
I am the door. If anyone enters through me, he will be saved.
And we'll go in and out and find pasture.
Coming to me, make sure that you have a blessed life, that you don't have to worry about your food because you're going to find pasture.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundant.
Again, the goat herder isn't there. Our false shepherds are not there, but only to kill and to destroy.
They don't care about the sheep.
But Jesus came not only that we might live, but that we might have that life abundantly.
Now, unfortunately, most people think abundantly means a bunch of stuff.
You're blessed by a bunch of stuff.
Not what Jesus is talking about. He's talking about having an abundant life, a life worth living, a life.
People always talk about having purpose.
Yes, God gives us purpose, but the purpose isn't in certain doing of things. It is giving us eternal life abundantly.
Jesus came to do that. He's the only shepherd that can.
Then Jesus says, "I am the Good Shepherd."
Jesus wants us to understand that not only is he a shepherd, he's a good shepherd.
He does his job well.
The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Now, I want you to think about that.
If I, because I would not be a Good Shepherd, was raising a bunch of sheep, other than, quote unquote, the economic loss that might happen if something happened to my sheep,
I wouldn't die for it.
I'd get more sheep.
But that's not what Jesus does as the Good Shepherd.
He lays down his life for his sheep.
That's why he's my shepherd.
He's laid down his life for me.
He's laid down his life for you. He is the Good Shepherd.
He who has a hired hand and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf statches them and scatters them. Confess.
If I were a sheep owner, I'd be more like the hired hand.
But that's not our shepherd.
And quite frankly, that's not my job as pastor.
My job as pastor is to protect this congregation from heresy and from those who would try to rip us apart through various means. My job is to protect you, even at the cost of my life or my credibility or my reputation.
That's what I'm expected to do as a under shepherd.
So the hired hand doesn't do that. The hired hand splits.
He flees because he is a hired hand. It is not concerned about the sheep. It's a job. I'll find another one.
But the shepherd says, no, they're mine.
I've laid down my life.
Now, this is really important. I am the good shepherd and I know my own and my own know me.
Jesus didn't say, I used to know you, but I know you.
You don't lose your salvation because you have difficulties as Jesus knows you and you should know Him,
which is I'm going to give you a little modification and not that the people are bad or whatever, but there used to be this thing about what would Jesus do.
Sometimes Jesus would do things that I wouldn't do because he has the power. So, for instance, if there is a storm, he can say, be still and it's still. Maybe he wants me to just trust him in the storm. So it's not a matter of what would Jesus do. It's a matter of I hear Him. I trust Him even in the storm. It's not what Jesus would do, but what is Jesus saying?
Am I listening?
The thing we used to say is, you know, how is it that you know God speaking? Is it God speaking or pepperoni pizza? Because you should know the voice of the good shepherd. You should know the voice of God and you should know the difference between the voice of God and pepperoni pizza.
Because if you don't know the difference between the pepperoni pizza and God, maybe you not hearing Him at all.
If you're in my contacts on my phone and you call me, it usually tells you, tells me who you are.
So, for instance, when my son calls me, his name appears, no, it's him. But even if it didn't tell me who it was, and I answered the phone, I'd know his voice.
Because I'm his dad. He's my son. We have a relationship and we've talked a lot. I know his voice.
We had somebody call last Saturday.
I thought it was a different person.
It was, I thought it was the husband instead of the wife, but I knew who they were because I know their voice.
When God speaks, we need to know His voice.
And how is it that you might know His voice the better?
Read His word and His voice becomes more and more clear.
The Lord is my shepherd.
I am the good shepherd and I know my own and my own know me.
Even as the father knows me and I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Notice, there is no doubt that the father knows the son or the son knows the father. Just as there's no doubt of that, we should have no doubt about the voice of our shepherd.
And I think that's why so many people are anxious and lost and miserable and not sure about whatever.
Oh, they may think that they have their eternity secure and they're going to dwell on them forever,
but they're not living today following Him.
We should not be insecure with the fact that we are His.
Then He says again something amazing. I have other sheep which are not of this fold and must bring them also. And they will hear my voice and they will become one flock with one shepherd.
The Jews and the Christians who are believers become one body, one flock.
Now, I'm not going to try to change the course of church history.
Let's look at Baptists. There are more Baptists, types of Baptists, because we don't get along with each other.
So as soon as we don't get along with each other, we start a new church.
And that's why there's First Baptist and Second Baptist and whatever Baptists and free will and Southern and Northern and American. And there are probably more different types of Baptists than are all types of other types of denomination. And then people throw up their hands and say, well, I don't want to be in a denomination. So now non-denominational. And there's a whole bunch of non-denominational churches that are a whole bunch different from other non-denominational churches.
But we're supposed to be one flock.
Let's hear the voice of the Father. Let's hear our Shepherd, my Shepherd.
This reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. Notice, no one takes Jesus' life. He laid it down and he took it back up.
Many, it wasn't that long ago, a couple of decades ago, the Pope forgave the Jews for crucifying Jesus.
Well, number one, they weren't at fault. We were.
Because it was our sins that were placed on that cross.
And second, the Roman, the Jews took Jesus' life. He laid it down. And on the third day, according to the Scriptures, he took it up again.
We can trust the Shepherd because not even death can hold him.
No one has taken it away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative. And I have authority to lay it down. And I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from my Father.
See, Jesus says, I didn't do this because I thought it was a great idea. I did it because the Father said, this is what you're to do. And he gave me that command and that authority.
We are his sheep.
He's my shepherd.
The Lord is my shepherd. The Lord, the God of the universe, the all powerful one.
Is present tense. My personal shepherd.
If God is leading me.
I think I'm safe.
I think I'm provided for. I think I'm protected.
The second part of the first verse.
I shall not want.
I again, me, I am.
It's me who's making this statement and it is an awesome statement of faith. I shall not I did or I'm going to I shall I am placing my feet firmly on the ground. And as some people say, even 10 toes down.
I'm so steadfast of this that I shall not want. It is a statement of faith, not only that God provided for me in the past. It's not that I did not want or I won't want. I shall not want. It doesn't say I shall not need.
But I shall not want.
Because God has provided everything that I not only need, but want. And if he's not providing, quote unquote, what I want is because it is not good for me.
Sheep eat grass and whatever.
I don't know whether they can do or not, but I suspect can he's not good for them.
So if candy is not good for sheep, then even if the sheep may want it,
the good shepherd says that's not what's best for you.
And so what we have learned and what we should learn by our being followers of the shepherd is to know that I can be content in whatever I have, because what the Lord is providing me is for my good and not my harm.
I shall not want.
All said I've learned to be content in whatever circumstances I've been. Didn't say that it came naturally.
Said I learned.
There are times, but again, notice that Jesus said in beginning, I came to give them life and give it abundantly. If he's wanting us to have abundant life, then why would he withhold any good thing from us?
So the statement of faith that we should have is doesn't matter what the future hold.
I don't want.
Not that I'm in need. I don't want.
I shall not want the blessings that God gives me is good enough.
Because let's be truthful if you've ever experienced God's blessings.
They're far superior than we could even hope dream or ask.
Maybe rather than telling God what we want.
We say, Lord, bless us. And that's what we want.
I will have no lack.
I have no desire for anything other than what my good shepherd gives me.
And I hear his voice and I will listen to that voice and I will follow wherever he leads.
Whether it seems to be in danger or seems to be in safety because he would not lead me into danger unless he's going to protect me.
Trust him.
I encourage you to trust him.
And if he is not for him to be.
Your shepherd and