The Great and Personal Shepherd

scripture reading this morning is found in the familiar words of Psalm 23 words that surely each of us have found to bring us joy, comfort, and great assurance of God's great care and love for us. Here now the Word of God. 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 namesake. 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. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The Word of God, the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

Amen. And thank you, Dr. Gatlin, and I greet all of you in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is wonderful to see your faces. My name is Paul Lawler, and I have the deep honor of serving as your lead pastor. This morning, I want to take a moment before we dive into teaching scripture. to once again thank you for your love, your warmth, your hospitality, the delectable meals that have been dropped off. In our home we are spoiled. And from the depth of mind and Mrs. Hearts. Thank you. Now I'm also delighted today, this morning that Missy is here. And last week, you may remember she was recovering from COVID and vertigo. And so my dear wife is sitting right here, I'm not going to ask her to stand or twirl around. Because that would be an uncomfortable subject at lunch that I would have to navigate with her if I invite her to do so. But she is seated right over here, and amen.

But I'm thankful to have her here as well. Now, if you I know Jackie just did a beautiful job of leading us in prayer but because I too am dependent upon the Lord, as we open the Word of God, would you allow me to lead us for just a moment? Let's pray together now. Father, you've heard us pray something similar to this last week and I come to you in the same spirit. The apostle Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus that a spirit that the Holy Spirit would work and move, revealing eternal truths. And we acknowledge where our help comes from our help comes from you. Oh, Lord. So we petition just like the apostle Paul, we asked that a spirit of revelation and knowledge of you would be at work in our midst, as we worship together now through Your Word, and we pray it in Jesus name. Amen. Now loved ones we learned last week that David say it said so much was so few words when he referenced that Elohim that God is Jehovah. Now, if you own an American Standard Version of the Bible, you would be aware that the translators actually translated Psalm 20 threes opening in this fashion fashion, Jehovah is my shepherd. And the idea that Jesus is a shepherd is certain found rooted in Scripture, but it's also been treasured for 1000s of years. We know from archaeologists when they are uncovering ancient artifacts that in the catacombs of ancient Christians, that often the motif of Jesus as a shepherd has been personified through works of art. This has been something valued by Christians for 1000s of years of a familiar thread that runs through the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. Now, this morning, we're not going to cite all the examples of the shepherd imagery of Christ or God himself. But what we want to do for a few moments is ask this question. Why is the theme of God as Shepherd significant in Scripture? In fact, more importantly, we might ask the question, if Jehovah if God is a shepherd, then what are the implications for our lives? And so loved ones we learned so much about God in this verse, just Psalm 23 In the few words that we're looking at, but we also We've learned so much about ourselves from these verses as well. And so what we'll do for a few moments is ask this question, How is God both personal and how is God this great shepherd. So let's begin here. First, if the Lord is a shepherd, if this is an image that God wants us to see about himself, if the Lord is the shepherd, then that has implications. And the implication would be that if he is a shepherd, then we must be like sheep. Now, this is the part of the teaching that will feel and is, well, less flattering, I'll say, because when you really study the nature of sheep, you find that they are helpless creatures, and they don't survive well and thrive without a shepherd. And so when we really look at the nature of sheep, and this won't be news to many of you, but sheep are dumb animals. They're not very teachable, they don't learn well have eyesight, they don't hear well. They sheep are slow. They run they quote me rephrase that they cannot run when faced with danger. Sheep have no claws, sheep have no hooves, they have no powerful teeth, or powerful jaws to ward off a predator. Furthermore, they are easily frightened, and they're easily confused. Sheep are notorious for not being able to think for themselves. In fact, sheep had been known to plunge blindly off a cliff just following one another. I remember reading a newspaper article years ago, about two sheep herders in the nation of Turkey. And they decided as they were hurting their sheep, that they would ease over to a little coffee shop that was on a precipice overlooking the area where their herd of sheep were herded, if you will. And so as they're sipping their coffee, their Turkish coffee together, they noticed one, one sheep out of the herd wandered off, and he went right over a cliff. Well guess what happened next? One sheep saw that sheep go over the cliff and the other sheep went and follow the sheep right over the cliff. And they sat drinking their coffee, the entire herd went over the cliff one at a time. That is so bad. I know, I know. I want to invite you if you're going out to lunch today, and you have a hamburger have a piece of cheese on your hamburger in my honor for what I just did. Okay? But but here God's word. Isaiah 53. All we like sheep. Let's stop right there. Now I recognize all of us are in different places. I just understand that as a pastor. Now, I'm going to say something I believe that I look forward to teaching on maybe sometime in a few months, or maybe in a few years. And here it is. I do believe that the scripture is inspired by God. Paul writes that to Timothy that all scripture is God breathed. I believe that I believe scripture carries authority. But I also want to say you don't have to check your brain at the door to believe that, that what we'll get to eventually is I look forward to teaching why we believe that. But the reason I lift that reality, I do believe that I believe that in faith. And I believe that there's substantive reasons for a Christian to believe that. But the reason I share this is because if that is true, then one of the things that God wants us to understand is that you and I are we have a bit of a sheep nature. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way. Now, this is not something that's just said in the Old Testament. This is said in the New Testament. In fact, when Peter was writing to a group of Christians, he wrote these words in first Peter 225, for you were you were straying. And there's the comparison again, like sheep. Charles Spurgeon once said that a person cannot truly say that the Lord is my shepherd, that a person must first understand his or her sheep nature. I quote Spurgeon, for he cannot know that God is his shepherd unless he feels in himself that he has the nature of sheep. And it's important we understand based upon what we see in God's word here is that if the Lord is a shepherd, here's the implication. We must be like sheep but Secondly, if the Lord is a shepherd, of church, if he's really like that this is too good to be true. And it's too true to ignore.

Because if God is really like this, oh, look with me in Matthew 936, where Matthew describes when Jesus was in his teaching ministry, in healing ministry, and he saw the crowds, he records it this way, all the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless. And here it is, again, like sheep, like sheep without a shepherd. Now want to caution us about something before we go any further. We're not to look back in history at people in ancient times, or people who lived in the time of Jesus, and just think that well, they're intellectually inferior to us. We're more enlightened now. In the 21st century, CS Lewis, who is a professor of ancient literature at Oxford, I promise you I can preach without talking about CS Lewis. It just happened today, CS Lewis, who was a professor of ancient literature called looking back when you think you're intellectually superior to people who've gone before us, he called that chronological snobbery. And the reason I bring it up, is because it is possible that some of us have been more conditioned in understanding biblical scenes or scenes out of the New Testament. Some of us may have a greater revelation of Monty Python's version, or even just a poorly done Christian movie, where we sometimes think that people were harassed and helpless in Jesus day, because you picture people wearing animal skins and grunting at one another. And I want to remind you that they are suffering and dealing with complexities, they're harassed and helpless, because they are just like us. You see, they are suffering from the brokenness of the human condition. They are suffering from the effects of sin in their own hearts. They're living among a fallen people who are also suffering from the brokenness that sin brings to a culture collectively as well as us to to us individually, and that was even personified when Jackie was leading us in prayer today, praying for the brokenness in our city. And so we recognize that they like are like sheep filled with paranoia, fear, shame, unforgiveness, people pleasing, addiction, tension with family tension and relationships in general codependency, thinking things at times, that we don't even want to think navigating jealousy, lust, pride, comparison, feelings of inferiority, feelings of superiority, we could go on and on, and what we recognize, in light of the fact that we are like sheep, and we have each gone our own way. And we participated in a rebellion, if you will, we recognize that because of all the brokenness that it's brought, that sin actually diminishes human flourishing. Let me illustrate. Let's say there's a group that enjoys playing bridge together once a week I grew up in a home where Friday night was bridge night, that's what my parents did. They had people from all over wheeling. Well, let's don't get into details. Okay, focus. I'm talking to me, not you. And so, so, let's say you have a bridge group that you play bridge together regularly, and you enjoy making memories together, you enjoy each other's company, and I'll just throw out a fictitious name. Let's say Marge is a part of the group if your name is Marge, please know that I know nothing about any of the marches here at Christ's Church. But let's say Marge has a problem with gossip. And she begins gossiping. And she gossips about people in the community, maybe people in her church family, maybe her own family, and the joy that everybody was experiencing, in being their hearts being free and joyful, as they come together to play bridge once a week has been inhibited, human flourishing has been diminished. Because now not only are people uncomfortable, because some there are persons being talked about who are not present in a less than gracious way. But the dynamics in the group have changed because now people in the group are going what is March say about me when I'm not present.

Sin diminishes human flourishing. Maybe you play golf once a week with a foursome. And you've journeyed together for years, every Saturday morning at a certain time. This is a part of your pattern in life, but maybe one guy in the group will call him Dave and I know all the Dave's here are awesome guys, but we'll just call this one day. Dave, and Dave has a problem with jealousy. And now, when you come and you've traveled during the summer, you come back from your vacation, and you want to share with the group what you and your wife and your kids did on vacation. You're aware now that every time you share something good out of your life rather than Dave rejoicing with you, he's jealous. And he always has to do the one upmanship and the joy and the fun that you were once having together has been diminished because of the presence of our fallenness sin. Let me throw this in for free. Okay, I like to come in front of the pulpit, when there's free stuff, here we go. Here it is, church, listen. Sin is a tutor. And sin will tutor you. That's why Jesus says, they were like they were harassed. And sin will tutor you in fear, and shame and diminish your capacity, human flourishing. It can happen in a community and it can happen in an individual, and it does. But I want you to notice something that Jesus, he we see in the passage, that he has compassion for the crowd, take note of that, you know what that means? Think about the implication of that. What that means is, is that Jesus has a compassion for how sin affects a community, which means as we're gathered in the name of Jesus, He is present in our midst. What it means is even right now, Jesus has a compassion for people called Christchurch Memphis. But that's not all. His compassion for you is individual is both for the community, the crowd, and the individual. And we know that because of what Jesus said in Luke 15, for regarding his shepherd heart, he said, What man of you having 100 sheep, if he's lost, one of them does not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one that's lost until he finds it Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it prone to leave the God I love. And what I want to invite you to personalize this morning is that the shepherd's heart of God is not only filled with compassion, that it feels with us regarding the fallenness of our human condition, corporately and the way it affects us. And we do life together as community, but the way it affects us individually. But also note right out of the Scripture and the imagery of a shepherd, that is compassion is redemptive. Now, before I read the verse that supports that, I want to remind you of the root word of what redemptive is, based on the word redeemed and redeemed literally means to pick you up out of one condition and place you in a preferred condition. Bible even says that the depth of what God does when he redeems us to Christ, listen to this. He literally transfers you out of a kingdom of darkness, and places you in a kingdom of light. And so with that in mind here, John 1015, again, out of the imagery of a shepherd, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, listen to what Jesus says the Great Shepherd, I lay down my life for the sheep. Now, before I came to know, Jesus, I was an agnostic, I was, I came to Christ alone in my bedroom, I'm not going to share my testimony today. That's not where we're going. But I want you to know, as a former agnostic, what would trip me up, I was never militant, never argumentative. Most people didn't even know that I was agnostic. But what tripped me up is that I could not wrap my head around Jesus laying his life down for the sheep, I could not wrap my head around. How is it that a person goes to a cross, and somehow that whatever that is, has an effect on my life and my eternal destiny, I could not wrap my head around that, whatever that was at that time. And that's how I would explain it. Be see if you understand what I'm saying. But when I came to Christ, I was, again, born again alone in my bedroom. And I knew I want I want to go to church and that kind of mess with my mom when I want to go to church and I went back to church as a college student. And my at the time, I didn't know it, my future father in law began to disciple me that no, he would be my future father in law at the time. But he just began discipling me and the way he explained the cross to me was so helpful. He said, This, Paul, understand that out of the heart of the shepherd, the Great Shepherd, you cannot be loving, unless you are just and he went on And to explain that, let me explain it in a similar way that he explained it to me. But in the first person, missy, and I have four kids, three sons, and a daughter, I grew up with a brother didn't grow up, you know, with a sister or anything, but I know this, that when my sons were born, I, you know, you, you have this longing as a father to develop them and to see them grow into strong Christian men. But but with a daughter, I have to be honest with you and tell you that, yes, I had that in my heart. But I also had the sense I want to protect her. I just, it just in in me, I was like, Okay, well, that's a different emotion that I'm identifying. And you know, those of you when you become a parent, you begin feeling and experiencing things you haven't experienced or felt before. And so I want I want to, I want to help nurture her and her grow and be a good role model as a man before her and I want All we like sheep have gone astray, we've turned everyone to his own way. But the Lord has laid the iniquity of us all on him. I'm paraphrasing the verse, the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all, and that is that God is loving. He's a loving Shepherd. But what happened at the cross when I'm going to point to these cross of the cross above my head, is that when Jesus was hanging there, do you know who he subbing therefore, he subbing for you? Paul wrote in Second Corinthians, he knew no sin, Jesus became your sin, my sin that you and I would become the righteousness of God. God has laid our sin, our brokenness on the person of Jesus Christ, see His compassion Church, His compassion is redemptive. You're harassed by sin, we have a compassionate Shepherd, who is provided away. And if the Lord is a shepherd, than I would lovingly submit to you, this is too good to be true and too true to ignore. And then, thirdly, if the Lord is a shepherd, then there's the question, then is the Lord, my shepherd. In other words, ask yourself that in the first person, you know, the most significant mono syllable found in the Bible is found in Psalm 23. In my opinion, it's the word my, The Lord is my shepherd, it's my is a possessive pronoun, take note of that, my means this relationship with the Great Shepherd, it's personal. Now, I want you to pretend with me for just a moment, pretend this morning, when I got up to come to the Christ Church campus got in my truck, I'm driving down Poplar Avenue, and I have a flat tire. And I get out of my truck. And in order to get here on time, I've got to change my tire quickly. But while I'm changing my tire, an 18 Wheeler comes and runs over me. And I get up, and I brush myself off, and I finished changing the tire, and I get here on time for the 830 service. Now, I did invite you to pretend with me, but if I actually told you a story like that you would go I'm a little concerned about our new senior pastor.

And we all get that. But I want to say to you, that that happens almost every day. Let me explain. There are people who pray a prayer or walk now and I'm not belittling that. That's really important.

who profess faith in Christ, who go I've met the one true sovereign God of the universe, the all powerful, majestic, creator of the heavens in the earth, the Great Shepherd. But there is no transformation, no effect, no cause and effect relationship that aligns with their profession. Now listen to Jesus words, Shepherd, once again, he's using Shepherd terminology, John 1014, to 15. I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, I lay my life down for the sheep. Now, I want you to know two things. First, note this note the equivocation note that he's saying in the same way, that Jesus that I and the Father relate to one another, that kind of personal wholeness, that kind of union, that kind of intimacy is the same kind of intimacy. A believer who has professed faith in the Great Shepherd should be experience, experiencing and knowing with the living God, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, My sheep know me, Nate, take note of that. But secondly, note this. Listen, I trust you read your Bible regularly. But if I'm honest with you, there's certain passages in the Bible when I read them, they make me tremble. I shake. And there are several places where I thought God help helped me helped me and one of them is Matthew seven, where there are these people standing before Jesus, and it's kind of a picture of the calm They should have time. And they're saying this to Jesus, Jesus, we taught your Word, Jesus, we ministered to people and help them get free from evil. We did all kinds of things in your name. And then Jesus says these words he goats Depart from me.

I never knew you. That makes my inside shake. And I, that kind of verse I don't know about you, that kind of verse challenges me.

But then upon deeper study, I think I started understanding a little bit more of what's going on here. Because when Jesus says, Depart from me, I never knew he's using there's a unique Greek word that's that's used there. It's the Greek word, good, no scope. If you want some more cheese, turn to your neighbor and say, you know, Cisco, and I'm sorry, that was poor choice of words. But here's what I want you to think about for a moment. That word is a word for deep intimacy. In fact, when you're reading the New Testament, the Scripture says Joseph did not know Mary, in terms of how the scriptures contextualize the virgin birth. It's a reference to that Joseph had not had any any intimacy with Mary. And the point is, is that the Greek word that Jesus is using regarding his shepherd heart in John 1014, and 15, I am the good shepherd, I get no SCO. I know my sheep intimately, My sheep, also good notes go they know me. It's deep. It's deep. It's personal. Chris Carter, where are you this Chris, would you come help me. And by the way, I asked for Chris help before the service. So this is not spontaneous. I don't call people out and just do things like this. I want to say before I share an illustration how much I love this brother. The first time we Amen.

The first time Chris and I met, we talked nonstop for two and a half hours, and it felt like five minutes. And I honor Chris, and I'm very thankful he and all of our staff are on this team. But I want to illustrate something. Chris, when you and I met each other, or when all of us when we're greeting one another want to illustrate what we don't do. We don't go Hey, Chris. And just Okay, now, don't take a picture, do not upload this to social media. Okay. But this is, this is what we don't do, if you will just stay with me for a minute. What I'm illustrating is this for a lot of us, our relationship with God is all above the shoulders have a lot of head knowledge. Now, don't get me wrong. The scripture says that my people perish for lack of knowledge, lack of understanding, lack of vision. So it's not that those things aren't important. We're Wesleyan Christians, we believe in a warm heart and enlightened mind. So we understand that having knowledge and understanding is not an option. But it's not sufficient. You can't stop there. Remember, John Wesley, my heart was strangely worn when he understood that Jesus had taken his iniquity. And so what I want to remind you of is what looks natural. What is natural, Chris, my brother, bless you. And thank you. But you see the picture. But you see the picture, what looks natural, and what's life giving? Is heart to heart. And the question for us, is, is he a shepherd? Or is he my shepherd? We all like sheep have gone astray. We have each turn everyone to his or her own way, your pasture included. But the Lord is laid upon Jesus, the iniquity of a soul so that you and I can say in the first person, The Lord is my shepherd, and the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Would you pray with me for a moment? Now I want to invite you to just express to the Lord you may already be a Christian, or you may be considering Christianity, but would you express in your own heart, just the can Fashion of your mouth and heart, that Jesus is Lord just expressed that to the Lord. If you can do that in faith, I want to encourage you to do so. But also to believe that Jesus is alive. He's risen from the dead as the scripture says, he's at the right hand of the Father, but he's also dwelling in you. But as you make that confession, expressed to him the belief that he bore your iniquity, your waywardness as a sheep on the cross, and as you do, express to him, I trust you as my shepherd. And it's in the name and power of Jesus that we pray, Amen.