The Lord is My Shepherd: Trust and Obedience

Over the next few weeks, we're going to be going over Psalm 23. We're going to go verse by verse to dig into it a little deeper, both practically and spiritually. So, the first verse is, "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want." Let's break this down. the Lord. Remember when it has the all capital letters L O R D that this is in place of YHWH Yahweh which is the name of the Lord. And interestingly enough Yahweh the Lord also holds the title as Lord. And the word Lord defined as one having authority, a master, an overseer, a ruler, leader, chief, or superior. It's important to recognize Jesus is Lord because he is. [00:00:00]

In Colossians chapter 1, picking up in verse 15, it says, "The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, for in him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning of the firstborn among the dead because of the resurrection, so that in everything he might have supremacy. [00:00:56]

For God was pleased to have all of his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile himself to all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. And if you confess Jesus as Lord with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you are saved. That's Romans 10:9. He is both savior and lord. I've known too many people though throughout the years who are interested or love having Jesus as their savior but show little to no interest in Jesus as Lord. [00:01:46]

They live their lives in every sinful way imaginable, Monday through Saturday, and then carve out an hour of time on Sunday for Jesus, thinking maybe they're doing God a great favor by showing up to church once a week. In John 14, Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commands." In John 15:9-13, Jesus says, "As the Father loved me, so I have loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my father's commands and remain in his love. [00:02:30]

I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this. Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for his friends. You can see here that obedience is based on relationship. Which brings us to the next two words in the verse and that is is my. Is my is a sense of belonging to know and to be known. I am my beloveds and my beloved is what? Mine. Stacy is my wife. Jeremiah is my son. [00:03:12]

I have my mother, my extended family, my students, my friends, and my shepherd. Again, this is a sense of belonging. This is a relationship, not of ownership. It's not like the seagulls on Finding Nemo that say, "Mine, mine, mine. Um, if you've seen it, it's quite the thing. Um, this is this is all relationshipbased. In response to these things, Stacy would say my husband. Jeremiah would say my dad. My mother would say my son. My students would say my teacher. And so on. The Lord would say this is one of my sheep. [00:03:57]

This makes me think about the kind of authority that we have to speak into one another's lives. It is based on relationship. Now, God has both hard and soft authority. What I mean is is that God has the power to command because he has the authority and power to do so. This is the or else or because I said type of authority. This is the authority that sometimes we run into with law enforcement because I said the authority has teeth, if you will. But God also has a softer influential authority that says do this out of a place of relationship, out of love. [00:04:44]

And part of this relationship brings us to the shepherd. A shepherd is a caretaker, a pastor, a guide, a guard, and a protector, and a minister. David was writing this psalm out of the perspective of being a shepherd himself. He could have said, "The Lord is a shepherd or the Lord is the shepherd." But he made it personal by saying, "The Lord is my shepherd." Expressing a personal and loving relationship with the Lord. As many as received him, he gave them the right to become children of God. To those who believed in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, or the will of the husband, but born of God. [00:05:37]

This is John 1:12. And in John chapter 10, picking up in verse one, Jesus says, "Very truly I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought them all out, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. [00:06:25]

They will never follow the voice of a stranger. In fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize his voice. 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 down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this pen, and I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. I've seen this experiment done on the side of a field that's full of sheep and a handful of people get up and they try to call the sheep in, and the sheep don't listen. [00:07:04]

They don't care that there's a bunch of people hollering off in the distance. But when the real shepherd stands up and starts calling out the names of the sheep one by one and then suddenly the whole flock starts running towards the shepherd because they know his voice. Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd and my sheep know my voice." If you're in a crowded room and somebody that you have relationship with calls your name, your ears perk up and you know who is calling you. It was during COVID that I was working in the garage on a project and I heard a voice calling out, "Dad, and I knew that it could only be one voice calling to one person, and that is me." [00:07:48]

It was my son. He had fallen and hurt himself. So, I ran over, picked him up, and carried him home and bandaged his wounds. of all the noises of my power tools and wearing ear protection and other people outside. I knew who was calling me because we know each other's voice. This is relationship. So I have to ask you whose voice have you been listening to? Do you have reckless people speaking into your life? Are they telling you that it's okay to sin and dragging you into sin like the things listed in Galatians? It says the acts of the sinful nature are obvious. [00:08:32]

Sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like. You have people who are who are saying it's okay. Who's going to know? Who's it going to hurt? You only live once. These are dangerous voices to listen to. Do you hear a voice? Do you listen to a voice that says that you're not good enough? I found one of the most familiar voices sound like my own voice. It's called negative selft talk and it could be the most destructive. [00:09:16]

So it's a voice that can say you're not good enough or a voice that tells you you're not smart enough or you're too young or too old or too fat, too thin to something that makes you unworthy of love or are you listening to the good shepherd Jesus who says to you, "I love you. I died for you. I am the one who makes you worthy. I am the one who cleanses you from your sins. Follow me and have eternal life. You may be thinking, "It is so hard to hear the shepherd when there are so many voices demanding my attention." [00:10:05]

Well, you've got to get away from all the noise. It's not just auditory. It's also visual. You've got to get away from the noise and get alone with God. You've got to get alone with God in prayer and reading your Bible because you will never know the voice of the shepherd if you do not know his word. We have a rule in my house that we sometimes follow that we're not supposed to talk through walls or communicate through walls because oftentimes the message is misheard, misunderstood or ignored. Um the best way to communicate is in the same room face to face and that way you know that the other person understands what you're trying to say. [00:10:44]

The same is true with God. We don't want to talk to him through um you know I don't want to center my prayers while watching YouTube videos or listening to music or playing a game on my phone. These ways are not going to be clear communication with the Lord. This is like trying to talk to through the walls to your family. It's going to get miscommunicated, misheard, or ignored. So, we want to listen to our father. We want to get away from all the noise and spend time with him. The closer you are to the shepherd, the more you can hear and understand his voice. [00:12:01]

Jesus is the good shepherd. And I'm so thankful that he left the 99 to go out and find me. And I'm thankful that he left the 99 to find you. brings us to our last part of the passage. It says, "I shall not want or I shall not be in want. There is nothing I lack. My needs are provided for." I'm reminded of the widow's oil and flour that did not run out when she was providing for Elijah or when Jesus fed the 5,000 on five loaves of bread and two fish. And each time the disciples reached into the basket, there was more food. [00:12:22]

And then at the end of the day, they gathered up 12 baskets full of food. I'm also reminded of some of the conversations I've had with you guys and some of the conversations we've had over pizza and how the Lord has provided for people in different ways, sometimes very unexpected ways. Psalm 37:25 says, "I have been young and now I am old. I resemble those remarks. Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken forsaken or his children begging for bread." The Bible has a lot to say about God providing for our needs. [00:13:08]

And I've just brought a very short list because when I looked it up, there was a very long list. So I brought a very short list. One of them says, "My God will meet every one of your needs according to the riches of the glory of Christ Jesus." God is able to bless you abundantly so that you may have all that you need and more so that you can share generously with others. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Consider the birds of the air. They do not sow, nor do they reap. [00:13:55]

They do not have storehouses or graineries, yet they are fed by your heavenly father. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through the knowledge of him who has called us by his glory and his goodness. And as was read this morning in Philippians, Paul says that I've learned to be content whatever the circumstance. I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. I've learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. Whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. [00:14:40]

So the Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want. Got to throw a little song. I'm not going to sing, but I'm going to throw a song in here. Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling. He's calling for you and he's calling for me. Are you listening for the voice of the good shepherd? [00:15:24]