The Lord - Our Shepherd - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, March twenty-second. Psalm twenty-three reminds believers that Jesus is the one who restores your soul. If you've been wandering, follow God back to the safety and security of His flock. Here's part two of The Lord Our Shepherd. Now, I want to deal with the passage of Scripture that probably most all of you have heard it and read it many times.

And many people have memorized it and it's probably, of all the passages of Scripture in the Bible, it's the one that's the most known and the most quoted. So, I want you to turn to the twenty-third Psalm. Let's begin in verse one.

Everything rests on this first statement. What does it say? The Lord is my Shepherd, and then I shall not want. He says He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet, still waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. For 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 have anointed my head with oil.

My cup overflows. Surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Now, if you'll think about it for a moment, there are only fifty-five Hebrew words in this Psalm and a hundred and fifteen English words. And when He says, The Lord is my Shepherd, you'll notice in your Scripture that it's capital. All the letters are capital, capital L-O-R-D. That word is found five thousand, nine hundred and ninety-six times in the Old Testament. It is the word that we call Jehovah. And because this is the word for God. And so we start out by saying here, God Jehovah is my Shepherd. And if you start with that, you have to ask yourself the question now, who is this God? This God is the all-sufficient, eternal, everlasting, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, eternal God who is loving and kind and gracious and good to us.

That's who this is. So, with that in mind, let's look at what He says here. And I want us to see first of all, He says, He, Jesus says He is a personal Shepherd. Now, I'm glad He didn't say, The Lord is a Shepherd. He said, David said, The Lord is my Shepherd.

That makes it very, very personal. That is, as we just read in John, He says, My sheep know my voice, my sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me. He says, I'm known by my sheep and I know my sheep. Every single child of God is like a sheep. That is, we are known by the Father, known by the Lord Jesus Christ, and not only does He know us, but we know Him.

That is a personal relationship. Then, listen to what He says, The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want, and He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. That is, when you think about, He's a pardoning Shepherd. Every single one of us has strayed from God at some point in some way for some period of time.

It may be a short stray or a long stray. And I can just simply say this, the longer you live outside the will of God, the more costly it becomes. What does sin do to the soul? What does sin do to a person? Sin creates barrenness inside of a person. Sin creates a sense of emptiness and usually a sense of loneliness.

Think about this. You and I have a personal intimate relationship with God the Father. There's nobody else in the world who can fill up in your life the companionship and the relationship and the intimacy that only Jesus Christ can fill.

That's the way God made us. He made us for Himself. Only He can fill up this heart of ours. And when people stray away from God, if you ask them to be honest about what they're feeling, they'll tell you. And oftentimes I hear it.

I just feel empty. And yet, that's not what God offers. When you and I follow the Lord Jesus Christ, there's going to be fullness, there's going to be plenty of whatever God wants us to have whenever He wants us to have it. God doesn't come up short and He says a little later on here, He says, my cup runs over. That's not a stingy God. He always has the best for you. The question is, if you're not experiencing God's best, it isn't because the Shepherd has misled you.

It's because you've taken your eyes off Him. And now you're following something else. You know, we call the sheep dumb sheep.

And in Isaiah chapter fifty-three, you remember the Scripture says, all we like sheep have gone astray. We've each one turned to our own way. Why do we do that?

Because we're not listening. Now think about this. And I'll give you a perfect example of this that happened to me in nineteen sixty-three in July.

I'll never forget it. I was in Jay Rash in the Holy Land and we were getting a bite of something and just resting with my group. And these two shepherds showed up at this well with their two herds. They came in two different directions. And I watched all of a sudden all these sheep mingled with each other and I thought, now how in the world is He going to get them separated?

You know, He had His staff and His rod and so forth. And so they stayed there for a little while and my curiosity, I couldn't wait to see how this happened. And they talked for probably thirty minutes or less, somewhere thereabouts.

And finally, one of them, I couldn't understand what he said, not too loud, but loud enough to be heard. And he just started walking. And these sheep by themselves just separated themselves from each other. Next thing you know, he and his flock were moving in this direction. And the other shepherd, he said something and his flock moved in this direction. They all separated.

Now why? Because those sheep had learned to know the voice of the shepherd. They knew which one of those men was their shepherd. They knew where they could separate from each other. They knew the voice of the shepherd.

One of the reasons many of God's people get in trouble. You're listening to the wrong voice. You hear the voice that promises this and the voice that promises that.

And the voice that says, if you could just experience this, if you just knew that, if you just went there, if you just tasted this, if you tried that, you're listening to voices. You and I ought to listen to the shepherd. And that's why I say to you so often, one of the most valuable lessons you can learn as a Christian, as a follower of Jesus Christ, is to learn the voice of the shepherd. How do you know it's God speaking to you?

I'll tell you exactly the best way to learn. Best way to learn, get in the New Testament and begin to read. Just read the Gospels and see what Jesus said. Read Paul's Epistles and see what he said. Then when you hear a voice that tells you to do something or go somewhere that, listen, that doesn't match what Jesus and the apostle Paul, the apostles said, then you know that you're hearing the wrong voice. Jesus is never going to mislead you. The Word of God's never going to mislead you.

But you close this book and you're going to be misled. You stop reading the Word of God, dwelling upon the Word of God, listening to the voice of God. When you pray that you ask God to speak to your heart, yes. Would God ever say to you after a time of prayer or maybe let's say you've been tired and you're weary and you're sort of worn out, would God ever say to you, why don't you go down to the bar about six o'clock, find somebody you can fellowship with and just have yourself a drink?

But I can tell you, God's not going to tell you to go to a bar and have a drink with somebody and sort of get yourself together. You see, here's the thing about it. Think about this. The shepherd, he protects us. He's got a staff and a rod. And the reason they carried those is because they didn't have dogs like we have today trained to go keep the sheep.

And so, it was a matter of protection. I think some believers have the idea when they get out of sorts with God, if you put it in a shepherd and sheep, that God, the shepherd's going to beat him over the head with a rod. That's not who he is. Somebody says, well, I've disobeyed God and I don't sense the love of God anymore. Well, it isn't because God's beaten you.

You know what's beaten you? The consequences of sins beats up on us when we get out of sorts with God. And so, he's a loving God who loves us and he is willing to forgive us of our sin.

And so, what you have to ask is this. Am I wise enough to follow the shepherd? He loves me like no one loves me. He always has the best for me. He's promised by His divine omnipotence that He's going to take care of me and that He's going to watch over me and He's going to provide my needs. I mean, not always understand it all, but that's who He is.

That's what He says He'll do. How could I ever go wrong following the shepherd? That's why it's so important you learn to hear and detect the voice of the shepherd.

Listen to this, even dumb sheep know how smart that is. Then, he's a protecting shepherd. What does he say? He says, but though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, He says He'll guide me in paths of righteousness. That's part of his provision. He's going to guide me in paths of righteousness.

Now watch this. Then he says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you say, well, is He guiding me? Yes, because the shepherd would lead the sheep through valleys from one mountaintop or one hillside to the other. Now, somewhere along the way, people have the idea that this has to do with death and funerals. That's not what he's talking about. The shadow of death.

There's nothing wrong with reading this at a service because people usually want you to read this, and that's fine. Even though I walk through the valley, listen, the valley of the shadow of death, listen, the valley can be a shadow of tears, heartache, doubts, all kind of fear. In other words, we all walk through certain valleys in our life, even after we become a believer. And listen, there's never going to be a time when you've gone through the last valley until God calls your name. We're all going to see valleys at time in our life. So how are we to respond? Afraid?

No. Because listen, why is it the sheep's not afraid? Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil but one simple reason. For Thou art with me. That's King James, but I love it.

Thou, O God, art with me. What makes the sheep feel safe? The presence of the shepherd and that rod and that staff. And that rod is to protect the sheep from wild animals. And the staff, for example, has crook in it. When they get in a place that he can't reach, he can reach down and get them by the neck and pull them out.

It's a matter of rescuing them. It's safety. This book is like the rod and the staff. When I see it, I know what?

That I am protected by Almighty God, provided by Him, no matter what, because He's with me. Why? Because He says He is. Has He ever left you? No. You ever felt left?

Yes. Why'd you feel left? Because you're listening to the wrong voices. Satan will tell you, well, if God cared, He'd be with you. You tell Satan, Satan, let me tell you the truth. He is with me. He's always with me. Only the devil, only that which is supportive of the devil or something satanic could convince you that God's not with you.

I want to say again, every single one of these verses is about something God's doing for you and me. How could you not love Him? How could you doubt a God who positions Himself as a Shepherd to help us in the understand and to see in the picture for us this wonderful relationship of a Shepherd who guides the sheep, provides for the sheep, lays down His life for the sheep, watches over them at night, provides for them.

That's who He is. You must learn to listen to Him. And the way you learn to listen to Him is to read His Word, compare it to the other voices, and recognize that when you listen to this Word and you obey it, God honors you every time. Well, listen to what He says in this last part. He says, you prepare a table before Me in the presence of Mine enemies.

You've adorned My head with oil, My cup's running over. Goodness and lovingkindness follow Me all the days of My life, and I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever. So what He's talking about? For example, the word here, prepare place, means to prepare beforehand. The Shepherd always had the place prepared where they were going to spend the night. He thought ahead. He planned ahead. Because He had to have a place where He could keep His own and protect them.

The Bible says in John chapter fourteen, Jesus the Good Shepherd said, Let not your heart be troubled or be afraid. You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions and dwelling places.

If it were not so, I would have told you. I'm going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I'm coming again to receive you unto Myself that where I am, there you may be also. We have a heavenly home provided for us by the Good Shepherd. He says, I'm going to prepare a place and I'm going to bring you at the time. One of these days, in some split second, God is going to call each one of us. And at that moment, we're going to step out of this life into that life. And you know what that'll mean? That the Good Shepherd kept His Word and now you're in glory. You're in heaven.

I'll just give you a personal feeling. It's foolish not to be a follower of Jesus. It's so wrong to try to live your life apart from Him. It is so futile.

It is so empty. No matter how hard you try, no matter what you own, you can own all the property. You can have all the money there is in the world. But you know what? If you don't have Jesus and your heart beats the last time, how many people have come to the end of their life and would have given everything they have?

If they could just live a few hours longer or a few days longer. For all of us who follow the Good Shepherd, it's a done deal. It's a settled issue. He has already prepared a place for every single one of His children. It's a matter of trusting Him and following Him one day. That's where you'll be. Now think about this. Who are you following? You say, Well, I'm just following myself. That's dangerous. You're following yourself.

Well, let me ask this. Where is self going? How is self going to get there? What is self depending upon?

And who is self depending on? And when you think about your life, what's life all about? If you don't have Jesus, it's so futile. And no matter what your arguments might be, my friend, you're not going to be able to see the kingdom of God. And no matter what your arguments might be, my friend, you're not going to be able to see the kingdom of God.

It's so futile. And no matter what your arguments might be, no matter what your arguments might be, no matter what He says, except the man be born again, He cannot see the kingdom of God, no, will He enter into it. He's going to prepare a place for those who follow Him, And He will guide you through the last day. He'll be with you in the valleys and on the mountain peaks. Your needs for every single verse is what He is going to do for you. Eliminate Him from your life and it's all about what you're going to do for yourself and you have no promise, not only of tomorrow but of the rest of the hour in which you're listening to this.

I trust you'll be wise enough to ask Him to forgive you. Surrender your life to Him and watch Him do His awesome work. And watch things in your life begin to clear up. And watch your sense of purpose and your goal. Your relationships, everything changes when Jesus Christ comes into your life. And that's my prayer for you. Thank you for listening to Part 2 of The Lord, Our Shepherd. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.