Paths of Righteousness

To you who are new or visiting today, thank you for spending your time with us.

I recognize that it can be a scary thing to come to a new church.

And you might feel like you have better things to do than come to a church on Sunday morning.

There's mountains to go to, Labor Day weekend, all of these things.

So we're really grateful that you're here.

I'm grateful that you're here.

I work for the college ministry that is the wing of this church,

the Presbyterian Church in America.

It's called Reformed University Fellowship.

We are a ministry that works on your behalf as a ministry of the Presbyterian Church.

And so in many ways, I am sent out by you through the giving,

through the prayers to minister to college students.

And so it is a real treat to come and always see you all, report to you all the work.

The fall season is a really busy time for college ministry.

It's the time where we're relaunching and meeting freshmen, meeting new students.

And I thought I'd give a real quick report.

The goal of RUF is to reach students for Christ and equip them to serve.

So there's two parts in that.

There's reaching, there's finding students and exposing them,

welcoming them into the gospel of Jesus Christ, the saving news of his death and resurrection.

And then there's discipling them, equipping them to walk with Jesus in the church

for the rest of their lives or until Christ comes.

And we've had a really great start.

It's hard.

Campus ministry is challenging these days, but it's also really, really fun.

We have a student who this summer, she first, well, she first started coming to RUF last year

and grew up nominally Catholic.

And then a couple of, mid-June, she sits down with me over coffee and says,

I don't think I've understood the Christian faith before, but I think I'm in.

How do I do it?

And so right then and there, I said, well, do you want to ask Jesus to be your Savior

and your Lord and your King?

And she said, yes, how?

And so we sat down and we prayed.

And she says, yes, I'm in.

Jesus saved me.

And then she said, how can I do more?

And can I come and serve RUF more?

And how do I come to church and all these things?

And so right now I'm working with her this semester to sort of train her a little bit more,

but then she's going to come on to our servant team.

But already she's been meeting new students who've been coming in and welcoming them.

On the other side of things, on Friday, this is wild, I had a conversation with a witch,

a druid pagan, and that's what she calls herself.

And I was very curious about her spirituality.

And I said, I'd like to talk with you more about it.

How can we set up a standing coffee?

And she said, I'd love that.

And so please pray for me.

As I get to know, well, paganism is the fastest growing religion in the U.S. right now.

And there's lots of students who would say that they are pagans.

At the end of the day, it's very legalistic.

There's a bunch of things that she has to do so that spiritual forces will be kind to her.

So it's very much earn and deserve and prove.

Obviously, there's a lot of spiritual forces at play in that.

So please pray for me.

On the other side of equipping, we've added 12 new students to our servant leadership team,

including a student from this church who are, and they are killing it.

They are meeting students, getting phone numbers, texting them, inviting them to our Labor Day picnic tomorrow,

asking them to join small group Bible studies.

I find myself either doing less ministry, which is a good thing,

or being able to reach more broadly because the students are being equipped to do ministry.

And so it's a fun time.

It's a really exciting thing.

If you're curious about my work, I'd love to get you on my email thread.

If you're interested in helping me through prayer or through giving of resources financially or otherwise,

please come talk to me.

Turn in your Bibles now, if you would, to Psalm 23.

Psalm 23, probably one of the most famous passages in all of literature, certainly in the Bible.

Maybe only second to John 3.16, which we see on football signs through the end zone.

Other than that, this might be the top.

It's the passage that I first learned growing up in the church.

The Lord is my shepherd.

And there's good reason for that.

This passage has been comfort to billions of Christians across thousands of years.

It has strengthened so many people.

And it seems like it's always appropriate,

from deathbeds to morning devotionals to evening prayer to Sunday worship.

It does it all.

It does it all.

And today, we're only going to look at half of one verse.

Half of one verse and see how it cares for us today.

We're just going to look at verse 3, part B.

But before we do that, let me read us the first three verses and pray,

and then we will dive in.

So this is God's word, Psalm 23, verse 1.

Psalms 23:1

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.

This is God's word.

Would you pray with me?

Father in heaven, we are grateful to come into your presence,

to be around other Christians,

to be in the presence of your Holy Spirit,

to join with thousands of millions of Christians around time and this earth,

to worship you.

We know that our hearts are pulled to adore many other things,

and so we need this course correction this day.

We need your Holy Spirit to rightly comfort those who are afflicted

and afflict those who are comforted.

We need you to send your Spirit to show us Jesus.

So we pray now that as we look at your words,

as we prepare to take the sacrament of the Lord's Supper,

that you would be with us,

and it's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen.

I'm reading the Chronicles of Narnia with my seven-year-old daughter right now,

and we just finished the second,

well, I think it's the second book.

There's debate about whether or not Prince Caspian,

what order it's in.

I think it's the second one.

But we're reading the story of Prince Caspian.

In book one, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,

probably the most famous of the Narnia stories,

four children, the Pevensie children,

are pulled away magically into an alternative world, Narnia,

and they have an incredible adventure.

You're probably familiar with this story.

And they grow up,

and they become the great kings and queens of Narnia,

and then at the end of their reign,

they're pulled back to their homeland in England.

And they spend a year reminiscing

and sort of recovering to being children again

and to their story.

And a year has passed.

But in that one year,

hundreds of years pass in Narnia,

and Narnia comes to need them again.

And so you remember, if you've read the story,

they're at a train station,

and they hear a horn blow,

and they think it's the train,

but then they're whisked back to Narnia.

And they find themselves in what they once,

they thought, is this Narnia?

It looks completely different.

It's a completely different landscape.

They no longer know their way around.

A river has cut a new canyon

where there was once a small creek bed.

And they're trying to navigate their way through Narnia,

and they know that they're called to rescue

or assist King, well, Prince Caspian

to becoming the king.

And so they need to find Caspian.

And they're trying to find their way to Caspian's camp.

And they find themselves hopelessly lost,

if you remember the story.

And Peter and Edmund, the two brothers,

think they can figure out their way,

navigate their way,

particularly through a very rough canyon.

And so they try to go through the canyon on their own,

and it leads them straight into King Miraz's camp,

the bad king, who has taken over Narnia.

And they have a very close encounter with death,

and they retreat back up into the canyon.

And they're at their wit's end.

And if you remember the story,

they're eating boiled apples again,

and they're hungry, and they're tired,

and they don't know what to do.

And then Lucy, who's the most faithful of the children,

falls asleep,

and she starts awake in the middle of the night.

And she sees Aslan, who is the guardian lion,

the divine figure,

telling her to follow him.

And he leads them.

She wakes up their siblings and says,

I've seen Aslan, and they can't see him.

They say, he's not there.

And she says, trust me, would you follow me down?

And they look, and they start to see,

actually, there might be a hidden path

through the canyon that they had not noticed.

And they follow the path,

and slowly as they go through,

they see the path become more and more clear,

and they begin to see Aslan more and more clearly.

And at the end, they reach the place

that they were trying to reach safely,

the place they'd been trying to get to the whole time,

and they realize that Aslan had been leading them

the entire time.

Even when they weren't aware of it,

even when they hadn't seen him,

even when they had strong trust or weak trust, doubts.

And that part of the story is a picture

of what our text tells us.

In fact, I've often, I've thought,

as I've thought through this passage,

if C.S. Lewis had this in mind

as he wrote that part of the story,

that Psalm 23 tells us what that story was,

which is this.

God guides our lives,

guides the lives of Christians for their good,

and his glory all their lives.

That is the simple truth

that this passage shows us today.

The one thing that I would ask you to try and remember

as you walk away from church today

and seek to follow Jesus this coming week

is that God guides Christians

for their good and his glory all their lives.

And the way that I want us to consider this simple truth

is to look at it in three ways.

And the first thing I want to do

is almost do a word-by-word study

through this short phrase, sentence.

Look at what each word means.

And then second is to make some pastoral applications

or reflections on it.

And third, to see how it applies to our lives.

So let's, shall we, if you would, come along with me.

Let's dig in to this verse and see what it says.

It says here, verse three, part B,

he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Now the first three verses of Psalm 23

are a metaphor of God's care for Christian lives.

And it uses the image of a shepherd caring for his sheep.

And it's a shepherd who is walking his sheep

on, in this last phrase, paths of righteousness.

But let's look at the first word.

It says, he leads me in paths of righteousness.

Who is this he that is referring here?

Well, it's very clear.

You can go up to the very first sentence

and it says, the Lord is my shepherd.

But it's more than that.

Notice here that in your translation,

it has the word Lord in all capitalizations.

That word is capitalized and it says,

the Lord is my shepherd.

And whenever we see that, we need to be cued off

to a whole new, our minds need to telescope

and expand to a whole rich story

that the Christian faith teaches.

And it's this, that that word Lord

is God's personal name.

It's his personal name.

And it's the name that God reveals to Moses

all the way back in Exodus 3.

And it's God's personal name, Yahweh.

I will be what I will be.

And if you remember, in Exodus 3,

God comes to Moses out of the blue,

who is not exactly walking with the Lord,

who had grown up a pagan in the middle of Egypt.

And he says, I am the God of your fathers

and I am going to rescue the children of your fathers.

And Moses says, who are you?

Who should I say is this God that's going to,

and he says, I will tell you who I am.

And it's very famous.

You know it.

He says, I am what I am, Yahweh.

And that name, God's personal name,

means something.

Just like your name,

if you've probably done a little bit of Googling,

means it's something.

Well, what does God's name mean?

God's name means this.

I will be what I will be,

or I am what I am.

Or I will be what I am,

or I am what I will be.

What it means is that God's name

is consistency, continuity.

Really what it means is that he is,

at the very core of his being,

a promise keeper.

He will do what he says,

and what he says he will do.

God's name,

baked into the very character of him,

is stability,

reliability,

trustworthiness.

Perhaps you're here today,

and you're curious about the Christian faith.

For whatever reason,

maybe you've been here your whole life,

and you're curious about the Christian faith.

Maybe you stumbled in here,

and you don't know why you're here.

What do Christians believe?

Let me tell you this.

At the very core,

the center of the Christian faith

is the belief that a personal God

reveals himself to human beings,

and that he is consistent.

He is a promise-keeping God,

that his character is reliable.

He is a personality who is able to be trusted,

and it is this he who leads us.

This is the next word.

He leads me.

What does this mean?

That this character,

this personality,

this God,

guides,

directs,

plans the trajectory of our lives.

Now,

this might feel a little obvious,

but I want to pause and say,

what are the counter stories

that our world tells us about our lives?

One of the stories that you can hear regularly

is that our lives

are just the products

of cosmic blind evolutionary forces.

You are the product

of blind biological forces

that somehow

led you to be in this place.

You are just the product

of biology.

It's blind,

it's random,

it's even chaotic.

That's one story.

Another story,

which is frankly

at the source of paganism,

the resurgence of paganism

that we see in our world today,

the fastest growing religion,

which says this,

our lives are the pawns

of greater spiritual forces.

Gods,

spirits,

whatever,

are using us as pawns,

and we are just their playthings.

Often when we think about

the trajectory of our lives,

we're faced with two different stories,

and actually both of them

appear in the movie The Odyssey.

How many of y'all saw

The Odyssey this summer?

Great movie,

really enjoyed it.

Both of them are in this movie,

so you know the story of The Odyssey,

even if you didn't see it.

The Odyssey is about

a great hero of the Trojan War

named Odysseus,

and he's trying to get home,

and he gets to Poseidon's son,

who's a cyclops,

and he gouges his eye out,

and just as he gouges his eye out,

Poseidon's son,

the cyclops,

and he calls down a curse

from his father Poseidon

and says,

would you have struggles

getting home?

Would you not get home?

Poseidon hears this

and swears that he will buffet

and afflict Odysseus

all his way home.

On the other side

is Athena,

who is Odysseus' patron goddess,

and she says,

I will help you get home.

And so the rest of the story

of The Odyssey,

what makes the story so exciting,

is that Odysseus

and his men

are essentially

thrown about

by two warring gods,

Poseidon and Athena,

and they're just getting

tossed about.

They are thrown around

by spiritual forces

greater than themselves.

At the same time,

there's another narrative

in the movie,

The Odyssey,

that's this,

that Odysseus

is a strong man.

He's a pivotal man,

and at one point

in the story,

he says,

and you remember,

if you saw the movie,

he growls,

someone says,

it's fated by the gods,

and what does he growl?

He says,

then I defy the gods.

Right?

And in fact,

that line,

defy the gods,

that was the banner line

for the whole movie.

It was defy the gods.

It was the tagline

of the promotional trailers.

And so this is

the conflicting stories

that we hear

in our world today.

One,

on one side,

is that our lives

are our own to lead.

Defy the gods.

Whatever forces

are out there,

whatever's trying

to tell you

to do or be

or act in some way,

defy it.

Be your own person.

Challenge the status quo.

We set the trajectory

of our lives,

large and small.

Here's what it is.

We decide where we live.

We get to decide

where we work.

We get to decide

what our hobbies are.

We get to decide

who our friends

or our spouses are.

And even if there is

some greater force,

spiritual or otherwise,

that seeks to manipulate

or control,

we rebel,

defy the gods.

But on the other side,

we have another story

that we often hear

and are told,

which is this,

that we are pawns

tossed about

by impersonal forces

or personal forces

greater than ourselves.

Fate is inevitable,

unavoidable.

You're poor

because you were born poor.

You're kept down

because of your race.

In the Odyssey,

the whole crew

of Odysseus

is fated to die

and as try as he can,

try as hard as he can,

Odysseus can't stop

his men from dying.

Sometimes this story

takes the form

of social science,

our class,

our family,

our upbringing.

Either way,

the stories we tell

say that either

I'm on my own

or there's nothing

I can do.

Do you see that?

Now,

contrast that,

dear friends,

with what

Psalm 29

says,

the Lord

is my shepherd.

He guides me

on paths

of righteousness.

We are neither

the captains

of our own destiny

nor

mere manipulated

pawns

of impersonal forces.

Here,

a consistent

promise-keeping

God

who's in control

of everything.

This is what we said

in our confession

of faith,

providentially working

all things out

for our good,

leads us.

A divine shepherd

cares for us,

directs our lives.

your life is neither

up to you

to control

on your own

nor

are you a victim

of fate.

A heavenly shepherd

who has affection

and even love

leads you.

but how does he lead us?

How does he lead us?

Well,

the next phrase,

he leads me

in paths

of righteousness.

In paths

of righteousness.

When God,

our shepherd,

leads us

in righteousness,

he takes us,

and this is what

it means,

he takes us

in life directions

that will shape us

to be more like him.

Paths of righteousness

are directions,

events,

parts of our lives

that will shape us

to be more like him.

And all of this

is captured

in the word righteousness.

It's a very,

it's a very Christian word,

right?

We hear this word

tossed around a lot.

What does it mean?

In this context,

it does not necessarily

mean what Paul,

how Paul uses the word

when he talks about

Christ's perfection

given or imputed

to us by faith.

That's a beautiful truth

in the Christian faith

and I would love

to talk with you about it

if you're curious about it,

but that's not

what is,

what's being referred to here.

In Psalm 23,

the paths that lead us,

that God leads us on,

the righteous paths

are marked by

two characteristics,

two things.

First, holiness.

Second, purity.

Paths of righteousness

are marked by holiness

and purity.

First thing is they write

that righteous paths

are holy,

another common Christian word.

What is a holy path?

Well, when something is holy,

we mean that is separate,

it's distinct,

it's set apart

from the rest.

It has its special purpose.

Think of it this way.

In my house,

we have a lot of brushes.

Yesterday was cleaning day

in my house

and so I was scrubbing

my whole house.

I scrubbed the floors,

I scrubbed the stairs,

I vacuumed the carpet

with this special brush,

I scrubbed the toilets.

because there's lots of brushes

for cleaning in my house.

But there's one brush

that has a very special purpose.

My toothbrush.

And my toothbrush is set apart

for a very special task.

And as soon as my toothbrush

scrubs anything other

than my teeth,

it is no longer my toothbrush.

It then suddenly has

a whole new task.

It is a holy brush.

It is set apart

for a very special task.

God sets us apart

in a holy way

for a special path.

The second characteristic

of righteousness

and it's connected

is purity.

Righteous paths are purity

and these mean

that they are marked

by a special cleanliness

that aligns with God's character

and with his law.

When something is holy,

it's clean.

It's not spoiled.

It's pure.

It's the difference

between a clear mountain creek

that you can dip a cup into

and drink

and a river

that's full of industrial

toxic dump sludge.

It's a clean,

there's a cleanliness

to holiness.

And it's a cleanliness

that is not something

that we get to decide,

but it's something

that is aligned with God,

with who he is,

the very center

of holy purity.

So when God takes us

on paths of righteousness,

it means that the paths

that he takes us on

may not be easy,

may not always be fun,

but they will be marked

by purity and holiness.

And that makes them righteous.

David Calhoun is an old,

was, he's now with the Lord,

an old seminary professor

who writes what I think

is the best meditation

on Psalm 23.

I haven't read them all.

There's thousands.

But the best one I've read,

it's called A Sheep Remembers.

I highly recommend the book.

David Calhoun is an old professor.

He taught at Covenant Seminary

where Matthew and I

went to seminary.

He's dying of cancer

as he writes

A Sheep Remembers.

He's 84 years old

and he's meditating

on this line,

he leads me on paths

of righteousness.

Listen to what he says.

He says this,

I went to Bible college

at Columbia Bible College

where there was only

one major, Bible.

Sometimes I wish

that I had gone

to the University

of South Carolina

and studied English.

After Bible college,

I went to Covenant Seminary

and I learned

all about the Bible

from Genesis to Revelation.

And I learned

that all the Bible

is about one thing,

Jesus.

After seminary,

I went to Labrie

in Switzerland

and I talked about the Bible

with many wounded souls.

Bible college taught me Bible.

Covenant Seminary

deepened my understanding

of the Bible.

Labrie widened my view

of God's world.

Then I taught Bible

at Jamaica Bible College

where I learned

to follow Jesus

with Jamaican Christians

who were utterly unlike me.

Then I went to Princeton Seminary

and got a PhD in history.

Then I taught theology

at Galilee Baptist Church,

a black church

in inner city St. Louis.

And now I find myself

in my last years

in Chicago.

And my wife and I

ask ourselves,

what would you have done differently?

What choices

other than what we did

would we have made?

Pay attention to what he says.

Listen to what David Calhoun says.

Looking back over our lives,

we see that the Lord

has led us

in the right paths.

And though at times

one or both of us

hesitated to turn aside,

he always brought us

to the paths

of righteousness.

They were not the paths

we would have chosen,

but they were the right paths

for us.

What is he saying?

This man looks back

over his whole life,

a full life,

traveling the world,

full of education,

full of places

where he could have done

something different.

Studied English

instead of theology,

taught,

not gotten a PhD,

taught it in a different place,

and he says,

through it all,

like Aslan,

leading the Pevensey children,

he discerns

someone

was leading him

on paths

that made him

more like Jesus,

on paths

that made him

know Jesus more.

This was the right path

that God took us on.

Here's the point.

Here's the point, friends.

When you follow God,

when you follow

the God of the Bible,

he will lead you,

not always on easy paths,

but paths

that are like him,

paths that are righteous,

holy, and pure,

and they will make us

like him,

holy and pure.

Paths of righteousness

are life directions

that will make you

trust God more,

make you see God more,

make you more like him,

more like Jesus.

Now, to what end?

Why does he do this for us?

Well, it tells us,

he leads me in paths

of righteousness

for his name's sake.

For his name's sake.

Why does God do this?

Why does he shepherd us

on green pastures

or quiet streams

or paths of righteousness?

Well, it's not for our good.

It's not for our pleasure.

It's not so that we have

nice experiences in life.

It's for his name's sake.

Namely, so that his name,

a name of consistency,

a name of trustworthiness,

a name of I will be

what I will be,

is made what the Christian,

what the old Christians

have called glorified,

what I call the college students

big and beautiful.

It's so that God is made

big and beautiful in our lives.

God shepherds us

so that God is the main character

in our lives.

Everything that God does

in this world,

everything that God does

in this world

is so that he will receive

more attention,

more adoration,

more affection.

Isaiah 48 says,

God says,

I don't act for my people's sake.

Here's Israel

who has wandered far astray

in the book of Isaiah

and they deserve to be wiped out

and yet God says,

I will save a remnant

but not for their sake.

But for his fame,

for his character

to be shown into the universe.

And there's a challenge

built into this,

one that frankly

chastens my heart.

And it's this,

that our lives

are not about us.

Our lives,

this church,

your family,

your marriage

is not fundamentally,

your work,

your hobbies

are not about us.

They are about his fame,

about God being glorified,

about his fatherly care

and his tender compassion

being displayed.

If there's anything

that's about us,

it's so that we are made

more like him.

And this is hard

because as a college minister,

I want to grow

a campus ministry

that might get written

about someday

in 50 years.

you as a parent

might want to have

a child

who appears

on dean's lists

in school one day.

You as a married person

might want to have

the younger couples

come and consult you

on marriage one day.

You as a worker

might want to be

nominated

for employee of the month

or for the big bonus.

And those things

are all well

and good

and true

and beautiful

but those are not

why God

leads us

on paths

of righteousness.

It's for his reputation

and his honor.

Where are the places

in your heart

where you are

in this Christian thing

for the perks?

For the things

that you think

would get out of it?

Where are the places

where you can

maybe need to

repent and say,

Lord,

I've done this

for my sake.

Okay,

let's summarize.

What does this verse mean?

This verse means,

this half a line

means that a personal

God of the universe

directs our lives

personally

and powerly

in directions

that are good for us

to make us more like him

and to bring him glory.

Now,

let me give us

some pastoral reflections

on this.

First,

and I've hinted

at this already,

a personal God

leads our lives

not impersonal forces.

Think about karma.

It's a very popular

idea today.

I promise you

that your neighbors,

if not you,

have some

either implicit

or explicit

sense of karma.

Karma says

that something,

a personal force

or an impersonal force,

balances all things out

and that what comes around

goes around.

That's not here.

That's not what

this is saying.

A personal God

has a plan

for our lives

and he is disposed

towards his people

as a shepherd.

Stu on this

for a minute.

Imagine if we viewed

hiking the way

karma would say.

If we viewed hiking

that way,

we would just say,

I'm going to walk

that way

and hope I reach

a mountaintop.

No,

that's not how

we live our lives.

We study a map.

We gather information

from people

who have gone before us.

We pick a place

that says

this is going

to be beautiful.

We do not just

start walking.

No,

a guide

who wants

to lead you,

shepherd you,

care for you,

take you to see

the best sites

that this state

has to offer

on the best routes.

That is what

our shepherd does.

You are not

tossed around,

your friends

are not tossed around

by blind forces,

but by a shepherding God.

Second application

is this.

The Christian life

is not a

choose your own adventure.

The Christian life

is not choose

your own adventure.

One of the greatest lies

that we believe

is that we get

to follow God

the way we want.

This is what

the Pevensey children

wanted.

They wanted to go

down the canyon

on their own terms

and it went very poorly

for them.

And all of us

have places

and ways in our lives

where we want

to do what we want

to do.

Perhaps it's with

our money.

We get to set

how we use our finances.

Perhaps it's with

our career.

I will force myself

to work in this job.

Perhaps it's in our

romantic relationships

or in our habits.

We will assume

what Odysseus says

when he says

defy the gods.

I'll do what I want.

Being a sheep

is not being scattered

in any way we want

but we follow a shepherd

who directs us

through his word.

The paths of righteousness

are not

choose your own adventure.

You do not

frankly get to follow

God any way

that you want

but as he has revealed

to us in his word.

And if you find

yourself living

some way in your life

that is contrary

to this

then with all the love

in the world

that is not

the path of righteousness.

Third,

the paths

of righteousness

are not always easy.

The next line

even though I what

walk through the valley

of the shadow of death

the paths of righteousness

are not easy.

It's not always lucrative.

Late in the book of Acts

Paul very clearly tells

I mean God very clearly

tells Paul

go back to Jerusalem.

Go back to Jerusalem

and preach the gospel.

And Paul says

okay I'll go.

And immediately

all of his friends

start saying

all of the apostles say

you know what's going to happen

if you go back there.

They're going to arrest you.

And then another prophet

comes and binds

Paul's wrists

and says

the man who owns this belt

will be arrested

in Jerusalem.

and they say

please Paul don't do this.

You're our best player.

You've planted

dozens of churches

all around the Mediterranean.

Please don't.

And he says

I have to go.

And so what does he do?

He goes

and immediately

is arrested.

Immediately gets

the snot beat out of him

three to four times.

Gets shipped

all the way to Rome

in a very unpleasant

series of crashes

and shipwrecks

and getting bit by a snake.

And then he's killed.

That's God's path

of righteousness

for Paul.

We would look at that

and say

not the win

not what we would have

had in mind.

Following a shepherd

at work

can be costly.

It will cost you

as Jesus says

everything.

Take up your cross

and follow me.

And this means

the death

of something

in your life.

Probably multiple things.

For some of you

it's your view of money.

For some of you

it's your view

of relationships

or what you can do

with your body

or your sexuality.

Something will have to die

on the path of righteousness

and that will be unpleasant.

It will hurt.

But we trust

that it is a good

shepherdly

righteous path.

Third application

righteous paths

are God's direction

and our cooperation.

Righteous paths

are God's direction

and our cooperation.

The New Testament

picks up on this theme

of paths of righteousness

with the word walk.

Walk.

And Paul uses this

all the time

in his epistles

in his letters

when he says

walk in a manner

worthy of your calling.

Walk by the spirit

and you will not

gratify the desires

of the flesh.

Or 1 John

where he tells

little children

walk in the light.

We have to trust

that God will direct us

but then we also

have to make choices

wisely

under the counsel

of God's word

and of his church

in a way that cooperates

obeys

our good shepherd.

God directs

and yet we obey.

Very practically

what does this mean?

What does this mean?

It means that you

must be a person

who is putting yourself

in places

where you will receive

the counsel

and the care

of the shepherd.

Put yourself

in places

where you will be

shepherded.

Namely

this place.

Come back

next week.

find yourself

friends

who have been

walking with Jesus

for a long time

and ask them

would you help me?

Join the men's group.

Join the women's group.

Join a home group.

Find places

where you can

and will be shepherded.

Ask yourself

which of the two stories

are you tempted

to believe

that either

defy the gods

I'm the master

of my own fate

I can do whatever

I want

or it is fated.

Which of those two

do you

incline to be?

For me

it depends on the day.

Some days

I'm like

I'm going to do

whatever I want

with my life.

I'm going to be

what's really bad

about me

is I'll baptize

it with ministry.

I'll say

I'm going to be

this kind of a pastor.

There's other days

where I'll say

there's nothing

I can do.

It's too big.

It's too big

of a

I can't

I can't do anything.

Which one

are you tempted

to believe?

And I would invite

you

to repent.

I would invite

you

to see

that there's

a better story

that Psalm 23

Psalms 23:3

verse 3 says.

And I would invite

you to

imitate

Psalm 1.

Blessed

is the man

who does not

walk

in the counsel

of the wicked

or stand

in the way

of sinners

or sit

in the seat

of scoffers

but his delight

is in the law

of what?

Yahweh.

A personal God.

God leads us

but we follow.

And so how do

we do this?

I've already

hinted at it

but we listen

to the shepherd

and we stay

in the flock.

Very practically

we listen

to the shepherd

and we stay

in the flock.

Our New Testament

reading was

from John 10

where Jesus

comes and says

what does he say?

I am

the good shepherd.

And immediately

he is relating

his attribute

goodness to

the character

of God

keeping promises

steadfast

trustworthy

I am

the good shepherd.

I know

my sheep

and my sheep

know me

and they will

listen to

my voice.

The application

for this

is to listen

to the good shepherd.

Put yourself

in places

where you can

be led

in paths

of righteousness.

Stay in the word.

This is an invitation

not to have

to read your Bible

but to get

to read your Bible.

An invitation

not to have

to come to church

but to get

to come to church.

Not to have

to fill your schedule

with one more

small group

that you have

to do

one more errand

that you have

to take your kids

to

but to get

to do it

because we have

a fatherly shepherd

who is guiding us.

And then the second

application is

to stay in the flock.

To stay in the flock.

The temptation

always

is to

well John tells us

scatter.

Scatter.

John 10

the wolf

and the thief

come to scatter

the sheep.

The world

the flesh

and the devil

want to isolate

you from the visible

body of believers

in any

and every

distraction.

Colorado Springs

is particularly

prone to this.

I'm learning this

from my wife.

She grew up

in a place

where she says

people don't scatter

in other places

like they do here.

We scatter

with mountains.

We scatter

with

sports activities.

We scatter

with

all of our hobbies.

And I would invite you

I would encourage you

to don't buy it.

Stay

in the flock

when you move

and I know

this church

has a lot of people

who move.

Matthew always tells me

it's a church

that receives

and sends.

Find a new church.

Make it a top priority.

If you're not

a member of this church

consider joining it.

Matthew just says

it's not too late

to join the new

members class.

Talk to him

about it.

Lastly

as you go out

this week

as you go out

tomorrow

take great assurance

that this is so

beautiful but so

simple.

Everything's going to

turn out all right.

Everything's going to

turn out all right.

Tim Keller always

said famously

if the Christian

faith is true

three things are

certain.

A.

The bad things

in your life

cannot last.

B.

The good things

cannot be taken away.

And see the best

is yet to come.

The bad things

cannot last.

The good things

can't be taken away

and the best

is yet to come.

Why?

Because the Lord

is your shepherd.

Take comfort in that.

Listen to the shepherd

and stay in the flock.

And he will lead you

as the very end

of Psalm 23 says

he will lead you

to the house

of the Lord

forever.

Let me pray for us.

Lord we pray

that you would

indeed shepherd us.

You've promised

that you will.

You've sent your son

to show us

your great love

for us on the cross.

You've committed

that you will not

one will fall away.

Help us to trust that.

Help us to repent

of the places

where we want to

set our own path

where we either

defy the gods

or despair.

Help us to be

help this to be a church

that is marked

by obedience

and listening to

the shepherd

in all of it.

And we will give

you the glory

because it is all

for your name's sake.

It's in Jesus' name

we pray.

Amen.

Amen.