The Lord Is Our Shepherd: A Message from Psalm 23
Introduction to the Message You know, we're in Psalm 23 today and although we don't have a per se Father's Day message, the title of our message today is the Lord is our shepherd. And that's kind of the title of this little sermon series. And you know the idea of the Lord being our shepherd and how he cares for us and how he loves us and how he protects us and provides for us. Certainly the goal of an earthly father should be to do something similar thing for their children when we're doing a good job to love our children to care for our children to feed our children. It doesn't mean they get Chick-fil-A all the time that they can eat what's on the table but to protect our children. So although it's not a per se Father's Day message, I think that idea of the Lord being our shepherd mirrors what we're to ask the Lord to help us do as fathers. Amen. For our children.
Reading Psalm 23 I wanted to read from Psalm 23. We're going to read the entire passage and we'll probably read the entire passage each Sunday, but today we're honing in on verse one. Now Psalm 23 was written by David. And he wrote it around 3,000 years ago under the inspiration of God. Some of you, I am quite certain there's probably some of you that have Psalm 23 memorized. It's one of those psalms that many people committed to memory at a young age. And I'm sure a lot of us don't. But if you don't have it memorized, I'm not saying it's about that we have to memorize the Bible, but it really is a blessing to us when we write God's word on our heart and we've got it there inside of us as a help to us as when we're struggling, when we're ministering, when the enemy is attacking us. And I would tell you as we're preaching through Psalm 23, if you feel led, just take some time to memorize each verse as we're preaching through them. Today we're in verse one. It's a pretty easy one to memorize if you don't know it. And we'll probably go to verses two and three next week.
I do invite anybody that would like to stand with me today in honor of the reading of the word of God. We're going to read the entire Psalm of Psalm 23 today and be honing in on verse one.
Psalm 23 beginning in verse one, the word of God says, "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yeah, 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 runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
Thank you. You may be seated.
Prayer Before the Message God, I just pray right now that you just as we continue to worship you and as we've read your word and we've worshiped you through song and through tithes and through prayer. I pray as we as the word is preached, Lord, first I'd say help me. And I pray you open our hearts to receive what it is you want to speak to us about today. And I pray you just open each of our hearts, God, to mold us as believers and to shape us more and more into your image. And Lord, I pray today if there's someone that you're working on about salvation and giving their life to you, Jesus, I pray today would be the day that they make the greatest decision of their life and make a full surrender to you. I also pray today if there's someone that needs to return to the Lord and rededicate their life to you that they do that today. God, I just pray you have your way. Let the Holy Spirit move through this place in Jesus name. Amen.
David's Understanding as a Shepherd David, he begins this psalm by saying, "The Lord is my shepherd." You know, David before he was king of Israel, most of us know when he was younger, he was a shepherd. So, David understood what it meant to be a shepherd and to care for his sheep. We read about the fact that he was a shepherd in several places in the Bible.
1st Samuel 16, I don't know, some of y'all might remember Samuel was coming to anoint the next king of Israel. And Jesse, who lived in Bethlehem, had eight sons. And at first by appearance I think he just assumed it was going to be the oldest son and he went to the next son and then the next son but he knew none of those he knew the Lord was telling him none of those were going to be the next king of Israel and it says in 1st Samuel 16, and Samuel said to Jesse are all the young men here then he said Jesse said there remains yet the youngest and there he is keeping the sheep. David was just a little shepherd boy in a small village.
Then in 1st Samuel 17, many of y'all know the story of David and Goliath. Well, in 1st Samuel 17, if you go to that chapter in the word of God, you'll read about how the Philistines were gathered, their army was gathered, and they were on one mountain and then Israel's army was on another mountain and there was a valley between them. And y'all remember, those of y'all that know the passage, every day a champion fighter who was a giant, who it seems from the Bible, when you do the math, might have stood 9'9. He was a giant. Goliath, every day he would come shouting and mocking God and mocking God's people. And he said, "Whoever wants to fight me, let's fight. And if we win, y'all become our servants. And if y'all win, we'll be yours." And Goliath would mock Israel and God's people and mock God day after day after day after day.
Well, then in 1st Samuel 17, we read that Jesse had three sons who were in the army for Israel. And he told his youngest son, David, who was tending the sheep, "I want you to take provisions and food to your brothers and check on them and see how they're doing and bring word back to me." Well, those of y'all that know the story know what happens. In 1st Samuel 17, David hears Goliath mocking God's people. And David's like, "Why aren't any of y'all stepping up? Everybody was scared to fight Goliath." And David said, "I'll fight him." And his older brother's like, "Be quiet. Be quiet." He's like, "I'll fight him." And then King Saul says to him, "You're just a youth. You can't fight this giant. He's been a man of war from his youth and he's a grown man and he's a giant." But then David describes what he did as a shepherd part of what he did as a shepherd 1st Samuel 17 beginning in verse 34 there the word of God says but David said to Saul your servant used to keep his father's sheep and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock I went out after it and struck it and delivered the lamb from its mouth and when it arose against me I caught it by its beard and struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God. Moreover, David said, "The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." And Saul said to David, "Go, and the Lord be with you." Talk about having some confidence. David had confidence in God.
But I share all that to say, David understood the shepherd life. David understood what it meant to feed the sheep. David understood what it meant to love and care for a flock of sheep. David understood what it meant to protect the sheep. He fought off lion and bear. And in Psalm 23, David being older and you know, he had been a shepherd and he'd also been a king. He writes this beautiful psalm where he takes his experiences as a shepherd and he realizes the Lord is my shepherd. I was the shepherd of these sheep. But the way he writes this psalm, he's like we are the sheep. The Lord is my shepherd. And just like David cared for his sheep and loved his sheep and provided for his sheep and protected his sheep, we can know that we're God's sheep and he cares for us like a shepherd would take care of his sheep. And for the fathers, it's a great parallel for us as well.
Is the Lord Your Shepherd? The Lord is our shepherd if we make him our shepherd. And just like God cares for his sheep and his children as fathers, that's what we're to do. We're to provide. We're to feed them. Now, again, that doesn't mean that we have to feed them, you know, everything they want, but we're going to feed them. We don't have to always buy them, take them out to eat all the time, but we're going to feed them. We're going to provide for them. We're going to protect them if we're doing a good job as a father.
But the Lord is my shepherd. That was the point David had gotten to that point in his life where he said, "The Lord is my shepherd." Question to ask is this, "Is the Lord shepherd of your life?" Today, as you're sitting here and you're hearing what David said when he wrote this psalm about 3,000 years ago under the inspiration of God, he said, "Is the Lord the Lord is my shepherd?" Is the Lord shepherd of your life? Is the Lord who guides you day to day or is it other things? Does the world guide you or does the Lord guide you? Do people guide you or does the Lord guide you? Is the Lord shepherd of your life? Is the Lord what rules in your heart more than anything? What rules in your heart? What guides you day to day? Is it the Lord or is it something else? And if it's not the Lord and if the Lord is if the Lord is by chance not shepherd of your life today, if he's not leading you today and leading your life, I want you to ask yourself, why not?
Listen, we have the opportunity to have the Lord, God himself, who created the heavens and the earth, care for us, love us, provide for us, encourage us, protect us, feed us, lift our spirits when we're down, restore our soul. If God is not shepherd of your life, why not? Why miss out on that blessing of having the Lord lead you? Is the Lord shepherd of your life today?
Making the Lord Shepherd of Your Life I'll tell you, if we want to have the Lord be shepherd of our life, it begins by trusting in the Lord. The Bible says, "All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one of us to our own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." All of you know, sheep in a big herd, a sheep will wander off on its own. And we've all been like a sheep where we've all strayed from our father. A sheep will wander off from their shepherd sometimes. And it's dangerous when they do. A wolf will come and get them. You know, we've all been like that. And maybe you're here today and you're doing that today in your life. Maybe you're straying like a sheep from the chief shepherd, Jesus Christ.
For the Lord to be shepherd of our life, it begins with trusting in the Lord. Every one of us are sinners. Every one of us are flawed. Every one of us fall short of the glory of God. But God is so gracious, so loving, so merciful that he made a way that someone as sinful as me and as sinful as you will be forgiven when we give our lives to Jesus. So for the Lord to be shepherd, it starts with making that decision to say, I Lord, I believe in you, Lord. I believe that you came down from heaven to this earth. I believe that you were born of a virgin. I believe that you suffered and you went to that cross for me. I believe that you died for my sins. I believe that you rose on the third day. Basically, it's not just creating I believe in the Jesus I want to believe in. No, it's Jesus the way the Bible describes him. So, it's making that decision first to say I'm trusting in Jesus. Have you done that? Have you made that decision where you have fully given your life to the Lord on good soil where it's a true conversion where you're saying yes I'm going to trust in you Lord and I trust in you all the days of my life for the Lord to be shepherd it starts with that but also for believers sometimes we can stray sometimes we can get out of fellowship sometimes we need to return to the Lord like God told Israel to return for the Lord to be shepherd of your life. If as a believer, we got to put Jesus first.
Is the Lord shepherd of your life today? And if you're a believer and you've made the decision to trust in Jesus still, is he shepherding you today? Is he leading you today or is something else? For the Lord to be shepherd of our life, we got to trust the Lord. And for the Lord to be shepherd of our life, we've got to put the Lord first.
If you're here today and you're a believer, what is it that's guiding you today day to day? What is it that when you get up in the morning that drives your day? What is it that rules in your heart more than anything? Is it the Lord or is it things of this world or is it people? Are people what's driving you or is it Jesus? For the Lord to be shepherd, we got to trust in him. And for the Lord to be shepherd of our life, we've got to put him first. Hey, maybe today you're here and maybe you're a believer. And maybe today you got to come back to the Lord. Maybe you've strayed like a sheep. Maybe you're out of fellowship with God. And maybe today you need to make a decision to say, "Lord, I'm choosing you. I'm choosing you over this sin. I'm not staying in that sin anymore because I know that's not who I'm meant to be." Or, "Lord, I'm going to choose you. I'm choosing you over all those things that have been ruling my days, you know, all the things that I've been doing that might not even be bad things, you know, but I'm so busy. I'm not even taking time for you. Lord, I'm choosing today to make you first." You know, sometimes we need to do that.
Maybe you're a believer and you want to do better with putting the Lord first, but maybe you're struggling. Do you ever struggle with putting the Lord first in your life? Ever have times you struggle? Do you want to put the Lord make the Lord first and make him shepherd of your life? How can you how can I how can we be helped to make him shepherd of our life? How can we be helped to put the Lord first? I definitely don't have all the answers, but I do believe it's biblical for the believer to gather to worship. The Bible says, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching." So, I think one thing that the enemy loves it when we try to be on our own, right? Y'all ever have that where you've kind of strayed off and you say, "Well, I don't need church and I don't need others." I'm I believe in the Lord and you just try to do it on your own. Has anybody ever done that and you've seen where it it's not good? Have you ever tried to do that where you've and listen, going to church doesn't save? It's only through the blood of Jesus and trusting of Jesus that we are saved. But once we're a child of God, the Lord left us his church. He left us his church. And the word in Hebrews says, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together." So I think one thing that can help us to put the Lord first is to have a church we call home. Amen. To have a church where we come together to worship Jesus with the saints and to have a place where we come to be encouraged. Do any of y'all ever have times you come to church and you're just uplifted? I have I mean I tell you pretty much every Sunday when we're worshiping just singing and praising with God's people, it blesses me. Is anybody else like that? It blesses me. There's something so special about coming together with the saints, with other brothers and sisters in Christ. Now, I'm not saying church ain't perfect. We know that. Amen. We got people and every one of us mess up. Every single one of us. So church can get it can get hard sometimes. Yeah. But that doesn't change that God's plan is for God's people to come together and worship. So I've been in prayer meetings on Mondays where it's a small number, but it's still come together with saints. Same thing. I've been I've felt like I've just been down and out one day. Didn't even feel like I could pray. And other saints praying just gave me strength. Do y'all know what I mean? Where you feel that? Hey, this last week at vacation Bible school, some of you that served, wasn't it a blessing? Didn't you have times where you just felt encouraged? Even though you might have been weary physically, you got uplifted. And I know that final night, parent night, when we saw person after person coming to receive Jesus. Talk about being uplifted. I was on a high. I felt high going home. Not in a way like I was drunk or smoking something. I had that good high, the best high from the Lord. Amen. There's no high you're going to get like that spiritual high from being in the presence of God.
But one way I think we can be helped to make the Lord shepherd of our life is finding a church we call home. And hey, if you're looking for one and God's leading you to come here, praise God. It blesses us having you come here. Every sheep, every child is unique. God designed each one uniquely. And when God's people come together, there's people with different gifts, people with different talents, and every one of us, we should use those for the Lord. It's beautiful when you see a diversity of people all in so many different ways. So that'd be one thing I'd say is don't try to do this walk on your own. The enemy when you try to do it on your own or if we try to do on our own, the enemy is pouncing on you. I mean, when you're on your own, we're better together. Amen. We're better building one another up.
Something else when I think about putting the Lord first and making them shepherd of our life is and by the way on the church, be active in the body. Come to worship, but don't stop there. Be active in the body. Be it will bless you. The more you give to the Lord, it's going to bless you. Another thing I think that helps us so much so that we can make the Lord shepherd of our life is every day we have struggles, right? I mean, there's challenges every day that come up on this earth. We need daily disciplines in our life and daily spiritual disciplines. And in particular, I think about the word of God and being in the word daily. And I think about prayer. You know, we're going to talk more about this next I believe next Sunday, but it says he makes me to lie down in green pastures. You know, sheep need to eat. And you get that picture of a peaceful place where a sheep is eating and they're eating grass. Well, for us as God's sheep, we need to be fed spiritually. And if we're not feeding ourselves spiritually, it's going to affect our relationship with the Lord. So, if we want to make the Lord shepherd of our life, I was talking to somebody about this. We were out at our pool in our neighborhood yesterday. Crystal and I were and there was a guy that was just talking about struggling with wanting to grow closer to the Lord. Basically wanting to make him shepherd and keep putting him first but struggling sometimes. I was like, "Well, welcome to the club." You know, I mean, we all have those times we struggle, right? And he was even talking about wanting to regularly be in the Bible more, but just kind of struggling. And I just told him one thing that helped me when I got saved. God just put it on my heart to want to spend time first thing with the Lord every day. And I told him, "Some days I feel like I connect with God. Some days I'm struggling. But every day I want to be disciplined and I've missed a day here and there, but I try to never I want to get that time first thing with the Lord and stay consistent in it because I need help from the Lord, right? I want to get that time in the word where I read the Bible. I want to get that time where I pray." So if you want to make the Lord shepherd of your life, one thing that helps is those daily spiritual disciplines. And not every day is a mountaintop. Not every day is where you're just seeing the glory of the Lord shining around you, but you're in the word of God. Do y'all ever get that where you're in the word and it strengthens you? When I sit down in the word and I'm blocking out a little bit of time, it's like God is so faithful. So, it seems like every time there's at least a nugget that just ministers to me. Do y'all get that when you read the word? And the same with prayer. And just one thing that I think helps is we try to get distraction free. We try to get the noise out of the way. Hey, reading on the phone is good and all and I use the phone to look up Bible verses, but I've found for me if I have the phone is the way that I'm getting my quiet time, distractions come up. You know, I use the Bible app. If I use it in Spanish and in English, but if I'm trying to get quiet time with the Lord, I prefer a Bible. And the reason is I won't get an email sent to me or I won't get a text sent to me or I won't look at a Facebook thing. You know what I'm saying? We need that time where it's just us and God if we want to be helped to put the Lord first. The word, it restoreth my soul. It says it strengthens us. And I'll tell you what else, we'll be helped to put the Lord first and make him shepherd. When we live for the Lord, every day we have battles with sin, with the enemy trying to with the flesh, but living for the Lord is vital if we want to make him shepherd of our lives.
So, if you're here today, who wants to make them more and more shepherd of your life? If you want to make them more and more shepherd of your life, a couple takeaways I think about is be active in the church. Find the church that you're going to call home where you can pour into. And maybe this is your church and maybe you just, you know, you're not that active. Get active. It'll bless you. Spend time in the word. Spend time in prayer and ask, make a decision to say, God, I want to live more for you.
I Shall Not Want You know, it says the Lord is my shepherd, but then the second part of the verse says what I shall not want. What does that mean? You know, when I think about that, I don't have all the answers, but when I think about that, what immediately comes to my mind is we live in a day and age where people get consumed with what they want. Have you ever, you know what I mean? Where people get consumed in all kinds of things they want. And we're all guilty of it. I'm guilty of it. We're all guilty. People get consumed in material things. Have you ever had those times you gotten consumed in wanting material things? People get consumed and say they want the new iPhone. Or people get consumed and they're like, "I want the new Xbox." Or people get consumed and say, "I want that big screen TV." Or people get consumed and say, "I want that new car." Or people get consumed to say, "I want that new house." Have y'all ever been there? Where you get consumed in wanting, wanting, wanting? We can all get so consumed in things we want. We can also get consumed in wanting what others have. Have you ever seen that where and it might be you just see somebody out at the school and man look at their kids and how good they are and how bad mine are. Whatever. I've got good kids. I'm thankful to God. But we can get consumed or social media or in you know Instagram, Facebook, all those things. People will start comparing that they're sitting there in their home all alone and they're saying, "Man, look at how good that husband is to his wife or how good that wife is to her husband." The grass ain't always greener, right? Green pastures that we ought to be thankful for what God has blessed us with, right? But we can get so consumed in what we want with sometimes it's wanting what others have. And by the way, when people put something on social media, that doesn't mean they don't have problems like you. Everybody's got struggles, right? We can get consumed in wanting material things. We can get consumed in wanting what others have. And when I think about that, I think about coveting. And the Bible warns us, do not covet, but we'll covet. We'll want what others have. But we can also get consumed in what others think about us in our self image. You are a child of God. God made you in a beautiful way. You are perfect the way you are. You are the way God designed you. You are a unique creation of God. And by the way, praise God, everybody ain't like me. Life would be boring. God made you one way. And he made you one way. He made you a specific way. And the way you are is just the way God wanted you to be designed to be. Embrace who God made you. And sometimes though, we can get consumed in what do people think about me?
Do you ever struggle with getting consumed and what you want? Do you ever have those times where you're finding your mind gets consumed in wanting something material-wise or wanting what others have or get consumed in wanting to have a good self-image to other people? When we get consumed in what we want, if we stay consumed it in it, it'll lead to harm. When we stay consumed in wanting this and wanting that, it can cause us great harm. It when we get consumed in things we want, sometimes it can lead us to focusing on wanting worldly desires instead of wanting to grow closer to the Lord. Day to day, what is driving you? Is it things of this world? Is it people? Or is it the Lord? Getting consumed in what we want and what others have can lead to jealousy, can lead to bitterness. It can lead to depression. When we put so much value on what we want, material things, what others have, whatever it might be, there will always be something else we want. Our appetite will never be satisfied. And things of this world are not going to bring peace. They're not going to bring fulfillment. But when what we want is to live for God, we can have peace and we can have joy.
So when I hear David say, "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want." What I think about is when the Lord is truly the shepherd of our life, the Lord will be enough. We won't. And I'm not saying it's bad to want things and have things, but we don't want those to be what consumes us. When the Lord shepherd of our life, the Lord will be enough. Do you ever have times you feel overwhelmed because you're just consumed and wanting this or wanting that? When we have the Lord as shepherd, we'll have joy. We'll have peace because that relationship with the Lord is enough. Paul was in prison. He said, "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice." But when the Lord is shepherd and leading our lives, what we will want more than anything is to live for Jesus. When we when the Lord is shepherd of our lives, we'll be less and less concerned about wanting this and wanting that, and life will be a lot simpler. We'll just be like, I want to walk with God. I want to please Jesus. Does anybody remember times where you feel like you're really growing in your relationship and living more and more for the Lord? Anybody remember times where you just made a step up in faith where you do that? Doesn't it bless you? When you are living more for the Lord and less for the world, it's a blessing. We won't be so consumed in wanting things and by the way, being consumed in wanting this and wanting that. And I mean, for our young people, I mean, that's like a pandemic in itself. The way young people all have all these things and they're comparing what others have. They have this car or they have this phone. But it happens to older people too. We won't be consumed on that. Rather, we'll want to live for Jesus. We'll just want to please Jesus and it'll bless us living life that way.
Closing Challenge It's a simple message today, but I as we think about this opening verse of Psalm 23, I hope that today we're encouraged to say, I want to make the Lord shepherd of my life. I want to make the Lord what drives my life. And I don't know where you're at today. That first step for you if you want to make him Lord of your shepherd of your life. It might be that you've never given your life to Jesus. And today the day that you need to take that first step of faith to make a decision to say, "Lord, I'm a sinner and today I'm making the decision to give my life to you." Or maybe today you're a believer, but you've strayed. And maybe today to make the Lord shepherd of your life, your decision to say, "I'm coming back to you, Lord. I'm rededicating my life to you." Or maybe today, you know, your decision is that you know, there's some things in your life that don't need to be there for the Lord to be truly shepherd of your life. And maybe you need to do business with God about that. You know, when the Lord is shepherd of our lives, it'll bless us. When we don't make him shepherd of our lives, we miss out on God's best. Life is not as good on this earth, there's no possibility it's going to be as joyful as peaceful without the Lord. But when the Lord is shepherd, he can give us a joy and a peace on this earth. And not to mention what we've got waiting for eternity in heaven.
Hey, we got a text, a message, and I talked to Tom, Cheryl's cousin today. The hospice nurse said she might have two days. Nobody knows the hour except for God. But she's raising her hand and praising God. Because in addition on this earth, we know best of all, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. We know best of all that we have a hope for eternity in heaven.
You know, when the Lord is shepherd of our life, we'll be more concerned about what the Lord thinks. We'll want to spend time with the Lord instead of on worldly things. When the Lord's shepherd, we'll want to chase after Jesus instead of chasing after things. When the Lord is shepherd of our life, we'll want to worship him. We won't care what others think to us. We'll just want to worship Jesus. When the Lord is shepherd of our life, we will want to serve the Lord. For the Lord, not for recognition, for the Lord. When the Lord's shepherd of our life, we'll want to give back to God. We won't think twice about tithing because we know everything we've got is from God. And you can't outgive God. When the Lord is shepherd of our life, we'll want to live for the Lord. We won't want to keep that sin in our life anymore because that I was talking to a guy yesterday. He was just talking about he's miserable because he's got something in his life that doesn't need to be there and he wants to get it out of his life. When the Lord is shepherd, you won't have want to have that sin in your life. When the Lord is shepherd, we will want to be bold witnesses. I hope that today that we're encouraged, you're encouraged to make the Lord shepherd of your life.
