from Psalm 23, I say unto you, hear the word of God. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for you are with me. You are rot in your staff that 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. Let us pray. Jesus, I pray simply that you would come by your spirit and you would open the eyes of the blind in the ears of the death. And I pray for those of us who see but dimly that you would give us a clearer vision of yourself and your work on the cross and your resurrected body and your intercession on our behalf. And I pray that you would be in my head and in my thinking, in my heart and in my understanding and in my mouth and in my speaking and in the words of the hymn writer, I say, Savior, like a shepherd lead us even now. And your name we pray, amen and amen. For those of you who have been coming to grace, at least for the past few weeks or months, and you've heard me preaching through the book of first Timothy, that's not over yet. Basically, we're preaching through the book of first Timothy because the book of first Timothy in some sense is like a book of church order. Remember Paul writes to Timothy and says, I write you these things so that one may know how to conduct himself in the household of God. What is church supposed to look like as far as mercy ministry, as far as roll gender relationships, as far as leadership and all these things? And so the first two chapters we finished, and this week we would have hit chapter three, which is Paul giving us the qualifications for an elder in God's church. And you know as I thought about it, I thought before we talk about the qualifications for an elder, given the nature of our congregation, many of you are new to the Christian faith and what have you, that I thought I needed to spend a few weeks talking about what an elder actually does. Right? Because Paul just presumes that you know what an elder is and when he goes into the qualifications. And I think for our congregation it will be helpful for me to actually talk about the role in the job description of an elder. And with that said, given the fact that most people in this room have very little experience to none, with barnyard animals, I also need to preach about what it means to be an elder, because elders, by definition, at least biblically, are shepherds. Right? And so I could say, if someone said, Tommy, what does an elder really do? And I could say, it's a shepherd. And most people in our congregation, I'm guessing, would say, now what does a shepherd do? It takes care of sheep. But what does that entail? And so with all that said, I thought to myself very quickly and without much thought, I know I'll just preach Psalm 23. Right? The shepherd's psalm. It'll be easy. It's a short psalm. We can knock it out in one week, and we don't know what elders do, and then we can go back to 1 Timothy. However, before a couple hours was up in my study, I felt like Will and Holly from the land of the lost. When I was a kid, remember that television show, the fleece stacks after them all the time. And there are these things in the land of the lost that they called, I think, Pylons. They were little temples. And the odd thing about the temples is they looked small, and when you walked inside, they were infinitely large. They were much bigger on the inside than they were on the outside. And that was sort of my experience this week. I thought Psalm 23 is the most famous psalm in the world. It's done at every funeral. It'll be easy. And when I stepped inside, it was infinitely bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. And I originally thought, man, I need to preach six sermons on this one psalm. And then I thought, no, I'll just preach four. And then I thought, well, try and do it in two. So today, I'm going to preach only the first three verses of this psalm. And next week, I'll do the next three. And we're going to look at basically three things today. We're going to look at what a shepherd does and what the shepherd does, and how it even that applies to the office of elder. And in some sense, I can only apply it to myself now, because I'm the only elder here at this point. So basically, the shepherd does three things. First is he pursues a life of inconvenience. These are the things we're going to look at this morning. The shepherd pursues a life of inconvenience. The second thing is that the shepherd ensures rest for the sheep. And the third thing is that the shepherd's happiness is contingent upon the welfare of the sheep. So with all that said, let's jump in to our passage in Psalm 23, verse 1. The shepherd pursues a life of inconvenience. And verse 1, David makes a statement that on the surface seems simple, that at the bottom of it is infinitely profound. He says, the Lord is my shepherd. Big deal. It's a huge deal. What does he mean by that? I mean, David is made. This is one of the most profound statements I think in the whole Bible. And the reason is this. This is for one thing he's saying, the Lord is my shepherd. This is Yahweh, right? This is the guy, this is the same God, the same name that created all of the heavens in the earth. He spoke them into existence. And then when he wanted to judge the earth, he pulled the one who sent the flood. And he made all the covenants. And when Moses came, he was the one who appeared in the burning bush and gave him the law. This one, this one who's high in mighty and who dwells in an approachable light, is my shepherd. Now that would cause you dissonance if you lived in David's day, because that would have been the equivalent of saying, the Lord is my garbage man. Right? I remember when I grew up, like that was the big threat whenever you didn't get good grades. You know, you're going to grow up in big garbage man. Why? Because it's just sort of a dirty job that sort of, in most people, they feel like they're superior to it. Right? Who wants to deal with garbage? And yet we all know that if the garbage man don't work, even for one week, what happens? The city shuts down. And in the ancient Near East, it was the same thing. When David says the Lord is my shepherd, he's making a huge theological statement because what he's saying is the one who dwells in an approachable light has become my shepherd. He's taking the lolliest, nastiest, imaginable job. Shepherd. Right? And David knew that it was a load-disgusting, nasty, thankless, lonely job. Why? Because he spent the bulk of his life being a shepherd. This psalm comes from his own experience. What made it so hard to be a shepherd? And the answer actually is very simple. The sheep arguably are the most stupid creatures ever to be created. They're just stupid. They're dull. I spent a summer raising pigs when I was about 22 years old. And the great thing about pigs is they're so low maintenance. Right? You throw anything in the pig pan. And they eat it. You don't have to keep them clean. You don't have to worry about parasites. You don't worry about anything. And the pigs, and then he killed them, it's over with. And they're pretty smart on top of that. Sheep on the other hand. Sheep are dull. They don't know anything. You know, sheep are so stupid, in fact. I was reading in the Atlantic monthly a few months ago about the grizzly bears that are being reintroduced into Idaho. And one of the farmers was complaining that at one night, a grizzly bear came. One grizzly bear came into his flock, which is sort of a free-range flock around his ranch. And killed 100 of his female sheep in one night and did nothing more than eat the mammary glands from the sheep. So I guess that's a grizzly delicacy. And just left the carcasses of sheep littered all over his ranch. Now, that's incredible that a grizzly bear would kill 100 sheep in one night just to eat one little part of them that I guess is a grizzly delicacy. That's amazing to me, and it's quite fascinating, frankly. But what's more fascinating, in a negative sense, is why didn't the sheep run? There were free-range sheep. They could have run. One grizzly came. One sheep could have gotten bitten, and the rest of them were gone. But apparently sheep are so dull that they will just sit there and watch the grizzly eat another sheep, and they don't know to run. They don't know how bad off they have it. So they might be afraid, they might be skittish, they won't sleep, but they won't run either. And so sheep are also prone to wander, right? We know that. And apparently, as shepherd and the ancient areas could take a sheep and put them down in a field of grass, and the sheep would eat all the grass and not know better than to leave and go to another field of grass next door. On the other hand, he might put them in a field of grass, and the sheep would be so stupid that he would actually wander into the desert and not know to go back. Sheeper incredibly dull. Sheeper incredibly needy. Sheeper incredibly high maintenance. And that's what comes out of this first line. What makes it so profound is that David makes two incredibly theological statements. He says on one hand, the Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is condescended to do the nastiest of all jobs and to take care of and pursue the most dull and foolish and prone to wander of all creatures. And the second profound statement is this, I am that creature. You see, by saying, David, the Lord is my shepherd. David is my implication saying, and I am a sheep. So here's the king of Israel writing poetry. And on one hand, like he's dishing God, God's the garbage man, and I'm the garbage. God's a shepherd, and I'm the sheep, but that's the gospel. That's the nature, and that's the crux even of the gospel of Jesus. Because what is the gospel of Jesus say? Remember, in Isaiah 53, we all like sheep have gone astray, but the Lord is laid on him, the iniquity of us all. When Jesus wanted to communicate to people, the Pharisees came and said, tell us for real. Come on, they've been arguing with them for ten chapters in the book of John, and they said, tell us for real. Like, who are you? Remember Jesus says, you haven't gotten it yet? And he basically says, just follow me, and they basically say, although they don't use this language. So the Lord is our shepherd, word Abraham's children, and Jesus is, what? I am the good shepherd. I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for a sheep. Right, the wolves come in and try to kill the sheep and scatter them, but the good shepherd comes to save the sheep. And I do this of my own will. Remember, he says that, no one takes my life from me, but I lay it down, that he pursued a life of inconvenience on behalf of the sheep. So he not only pursued the sheep, but he actually pursued the inconvenience that it would take to win them. And on the other side, of course, is us. You've got to ask yourself a question. The Bible makes a big deal of this metaphor, sheep and goats. Right? The sheep and the goats, sheep and the goats, you hear that all over the place, right? In the end of Matthew 25, it says at the end, Jesus will take the sheep and separate them from the goats. Why? Because where sheep are dull and high maintenance, goats are very smart, apparently, and completely no maintenance and independent and lawless. They just are. I, in the providence of God, have had the opportunity to kill both the sheep and goats, and I can tell you the sheep when you kill a sheep, it stands there. When you kill a goat, when you try and even grab a goat, when you try and harness a goat, it bucks and it runs. In the question, Jesus would ask, yes, from Matthew 25, sheep or goat, what are you? Right? The sheep sees itself as needy. The sheep sees itself as dull and is willing to admit that. And the sheep says, I need a shepherd or else I will be scattered. The goat says, I don't need anything. And that's really the question that you're left with. Even in the first one, the Lord is my shepherd, David says. The thing you have to ask is the Lord, you're shepherd. Right? He's only your shepherd if you see yourself as a sheep. And the shepherd persists the life of inconvenience. You see, that's the hard thing. It was hard for Jesus. He left glory. It's hard for me because I tend to be very selfish. Right? If you're a pastor, you're an elder, you're a shepherd. You often have inconvenience, foisted upon you and you think that's good enough and you can get away with it because people think, man, that's hard to be a pastor. It's hard to be an elder because look how much inconvenience you bear. But that's quite different than pursuing a life of inconvenience. Why do I tell you this? I tell you so you know what an elder does, but also I tell you so that you know what an elder does when we have elders so that they can't, that they might sit in a room and know this, but you also know it. So they're you ought to expect that an elder or a shepherd or a pastor pursues you in it's hard. I tell you because David says the Lord is my shepherd and because of that, I shall not want. I shall not lack anything. Now the problem is what the sheep need and what the sheep want are completely different. Right? And when the shepherd comes to give the sheep what he needs that he doesn't like, maybe has to crop his tail or sheer him. Sheep often turn around and bite the shepherd, right? The shepherd or the shepherd is the most often bitten in the process of helping the sheep. So it makes being a shepherd hard and of course Jesus was bitten by the sheep when he came to help them. Right? The good shepherd comes to save the sheep and who kills him, but the sheep bitten. He says David says because the Lord is my shepherd, though, because he has seen fit the condescend I will shall not want and he means I shall not lack any good thing. And what does he mean by that? He means verse two. Right? The shepherd enables rest. Right? What's amazing about the 23rd Psalm is that we're all so familiar with it. It's easy to miss all of the imagery here. He says he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. The shepherd enables rest. You see apparently in the shepherding world, it's amazing by the way how much stuff is on the web about sheep. You think they would have better things to do like taking care of sheep, but nonetheless a sheep apparently is not only the dullest creature in the world, but apparently they're nearly impossible to make rest. They're nearly impossible to get them to lie down and just rest. And of course if they don't rest, they'll walk themselves to death. And so you have to get, how do you get a sheep to rest? Well apparently there are four things or four problems that keep a sheep from resting and those have to be taken care of or a sheep won't rest and if it doesn't rest, it'll die. And what are those four things? The first thing is fear. Right? Before a sheep will lie down, before a sheep will rest, there can be no fear. I mean apparently sheep are very skittish, which is very interesting dichotomy in sheep on one hand. They're like they see a grizzly bear and will be afraid so they wouldn't go to sleep, but they wouldn't run away either. But they can have no fears or else they won't go to sleep. So they'll just spend their life being very skittish, afraid that something is going to get them unless they're completely sure that nothing is going to get them that no predator can attack them, they won't rest. The second thing is conflict. If a sheep has apparently sheep are very snipy and if a sheep has any conflict with another sheep, they won't rest. Right? Because if a sheep gets into another sheep's territory, they'll nip at each other and if sheep are nipping at each other, they won't rest. Conflict between the sheep. So the shepherd's job is one to remove insecurity, but the other hand, it's to remove conflict from between the sheep. He actually breaks up conflict between sheep. The third one is parasites. Right? Sheep apparently because they're very woolly, fur and very thick fur are very prone to getting parasites. Fleas, ticks, lice, you name it and apparently sheep can get it and since they have thick necks, they can't really get to them. They can't bend around. They don't have big long tails to swap things with and so parasites apparently get underneath their fur and just eat away at them and while they're being eaten away with parasites, they won't rest. So what does the shepherd have to do? The shepherd has to get rid of the sheep's parasites and the fourth thing of course is hunger. If the sheep's hungry, it won't sleep. So all of those things have to be taken care of before sheep will actually be made to lie down and if they're not taking care of it won't. And so when David says he makes me lie down, he's not sort of giving you sort of a pastoral, you know, you know what he makes me lie down. What he's saying is that he is born. He has pursued inconvenience on my behalf and in pursuing inconvenience on my behalf, he has removed my fear. He has removed my conflict. He has removed my parasites and he has fed me. Right? And those all four of those things are the things that define your life. I know because they define my life. And that's why you and I don't rest. Right? That's why we have no rest. Why? Because we're riddled with fear. Let me tell you something. If you're a human being, I know one thing about you is that you are riddled with massive, incredibly huge umbrella-like insecurities. That your whole life is one big coping mechanism for your insecurities. I know because mine is. And if your life is defined by your insecurities, you can never rest. Why? Because you're always looking over your shoulder. You're always wondering if someone's going to find you out for who you are. They're going to know what's in the core of your soul and once they find out that either want to be your friend or at worst they'll score in you or at worst they'll attack you. And the Gospel of Jesus says he removes those fears. Why? Because he has borne them on the cross. He has taken away all of your guilt and all of your shame. And because he has taken away your guilt and your shame, you can stand before God and confess. Here's who I am. And what does he say? Leave me? No, he rejoices. Remember in Luke 15, this is one of the most misused parables in the Bible. Remember it says when a shepherd loses his sheep and he goes out and finds it and brings it back, there's rejoicing. And then he says most of us think that when the next part of the parable says and there is more rejoicing that the angels rejoice when one center repents when one center comes back. And it doesn't say that. It says there's rejoicing in the presence of the angels and who is in the presence of the angels? God. That he has come and he has removed every basis of your insecurity. And remember Jesus says I know my sheep and no one will snatch them out of my hand. That you cannot be separated from the love of Christ. He has removed your insecurities. Rest sheep. The other thing is conflict. The biggest thing a shepherd has to deal with I know from being a shepherd elder, pastor in the church is conflict between the sheep. Why? Because sheep generally speaking are very petty and snipy. If every single week it greets the ideal with conflict after conflict after conflict. And it's not just people having conflict with me, it's that I have conflict with each other and it almost always is something petty. Sometimes it's big. I don't want to say don't come to me with conflict. But my point is that the cross has done something with our conflict. You see the biggest conflict we have is a conflict with God. We have offended him and offended his justice and now we deserve wrath. And Jesus went to the cross and he died and it's taken away the wrath of God. And because he has done that we no longer have conflict with God. We in fact are reconciled. And the gospel says that if you're reconciled with God therefore go out and be reconciled to each other. Why? Because to the extent that you understand you've been forgiven you can forgive others and that's the root of conflict. Is a failure to forgive why? Because you want them to pay the bill. What the gospel says is that Jesus paid your bill and now sheep go out and pay the bill for other people. The third thing is parasites. You and I are riddled with parasites. And I'm not talking about the kind that my three-year-old always gets from playing in the dirt. Her nickname has become ringworm. You and I are riddled with parasites and what I mean by that is things that eat away at us. And what are the things that eat away at us? The biggest things that eat away at the sheep as far as I'm concerned are guilt and anger. Most of us in here if you're not eating away with your guilt you're eating away with your anger and most of you are eating away with both of them. And it's really interesting to see because guilt says I don't deserve anything and I'm ashamed of myself and I'm waiting for God to crush me at any time. And I've done so many bad things. If I could just be good maybe he'll help me and so you'd best relate between feeling guilty and then feeling guilty about not feeling guilty enough. You don't deserve anything and so you walk around wondering and it eats away at you. The other thing of course is just the opposite but they coexist and that's anger because what does anger say? Angers when you say I deserve something but I didn't get it or I didn't get something that I thought I deserved and so you become angry because you didn't get what you thought you deserve. And so you walk around in life with this conflicted existence. I feel guilty because I know I don't deserve anything and I've done wrong and the other hand I think I deserve everything and I've been done wrong. And it eats away and kills you and there's only one thing that can take it away and of course that is the cross of Jesus. Why? Because when you look at the cross you see I don't deserve anything. In fact that's what I deserve. I deserve to bear the wrath of God and yet Jesus has born it on my behalf. Hallelujah. And then you say I don't deserve I deserve guilt but I look at the cross and say I don't have guilt anymore because Jesus has born it on the cross my parasites if you will or taken away I can rest. And the last thing of course is our hunger. How do you know if you're hungry? And the answer is very simple you know if you're hungry if your life is defined by being a consumer. And I don't mean just you buy a lot of stuff I mean that you're constantly a consumer either buying things or pursuing pleasure or pursuing recreation or pursuing anything but Jesus and other people if that if your life is defined by those things you're a hungry person. And how do you meet that hunger? Remember Jesus set up like a whole crowd one time he fed five thousand in the book of John and then he left and they came looking for him because they wanted more of that good bread that he had served them. And they finally found him and they said give us some of that good bread and Jesus said the bread you need is the bread my father gives from heaven and they said give us of that bread now and for always and Jesus said I am the bread. I'm the bread of life and whoever feeds on me will never be hungry again and whoever drinks of my blood will never be thirsty again and remember the next line and many disciples left that day because I just didn't get it. And Jesus says are you hungry I am the bread I am what you need I'm the only thing that will satisfy you and to the extent you pursue other things you will always be hungry and to that extent you will never rest. And in the gospel he says I offer you rest right he says come on to me all you are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. What else does he do the shepherd gives life kid has put his face against the glass in the back. Sorry. The shepherd pursues inconvenience the shepherd enables rest but the shepherd also gives life to the sheep and the reason the shepherd gives life to the sheep is because his happiness is contingent upon the welfare of the sheep. Let's look at the last verse. He says he restores my soul and he guides me in paths of righteousness for his names sake. Right again the Hebrew language what's nice about the Hebrew language is very stark and so this could be translated in any number of ways. It could say he restores my life or it could mean he converts my life it could mean he restores my soul or he converts my soul or he saves my soul or he saves my life. Either way you shouldn't get caught up in all that because David is using the language of a cast sheep. What's a cast sheep? It's very interesting on one hand it's extremely difficult to get sheep to lie down but apparently it's very easy to knock them over. Apparently it's sort of an ancient nirys version of cow tipping and if you tip a sheep if a sheep falls over on its back it can't get up. And the reason it can't get up apparently is because it's stomach flips over within itself and the stomach flips over and all of its innards twist and since they're all twisted up he lays on his back within an hour the sheep will die. And so when David says of God he restores my soul or he saves my life he's using this language of what the shepherd does for his sheep that has fallen on its back and is completely hopeless in and of itself. And that's what David's saying about himself that in and of myself I am hopeless not only is he my shepherd and he pursues me not only does he enable rest but none of that would be possible if he did not save my life. That I'm hopeless in and of myself I'm like a cast sheep laying on my back and unless he comes and lifts me up and massages my stomach and turns me over. I'm no good I'm dead and in the gospel of Jesus that's exactly what we see remember in Ephesians chapter 2 Paul says that we were by nature children of wrath we were born in transgression and sin and yet. God in his greatness in his mercy made us alive in Christ and then he has this in parenthesis it is by grace you are saved dummy. That the whole gospel says that you and I are helpless and hopeless in and of ourselves in Jesus the good shepherd has pursued us and opened our eyes and made us alive and if he made you alive if he going to let you die. You see when you follow the sheep metaphor it becomes very interesting because the shepherd's whole welfare and his whole livelihood is dependent upon the health of the sheep. And if a shepherd is going to take care of a sheep will not God take care of his sheep and yet we don't believe that right a shepherd's livelihood is dependent upon the sheep resting so it gets fat and eating and being full and making it to the end.
And if a shepherd is concerned about a sheep is not God concerned about you and God is even more concerned because now he has paid such a great price you see all of God's wealth is tied up in his sheep. Every bit of his wealth you see when he created Adam and Eve and they sinned in the garden he could have said you know what I blew it I made a mistake angels but smite them and start over and we said that to Moses but smite them and start over he didn't say that instead he promised to redeem them and when he became a man a sheep himself he tied his happiness with their happiness together. And God will never be happy again until all of his sheep have come home to the flock why because Jesus has paid the infinite price all of the wealth of God the only thing he has the very life of his son he gave and he paid it as a ransom for the sheep and if all of his wealth is tied up in the sheep how in the world is he going to let anything happen to them. Next week we'll talk about discipline the rod and the staff because you think gosh a lot of stuff's happening to me now with the beauty of the gospel as you know the shepherd if you know that God is proactively out to do you good then you look at the bad things in your life and you have a different lens right you so you begin to look at your problems through the lens of Jesus instead of Jesus through the lens of your problems that's what most people do. Most people look at Jesus through the lens of their problems and he is distorted and ugly and they can't understand it but when you look at your problems through the lens of Jesus your problems all of a sudden begin to make sense and that's what the gospel says that you and I ought to be doing why he guides me in the path of righteousness not for my name sake but for his name sake he is more concerned about my arrival at the end than I am that's the gospel of Jesus and that's the responsibility of an elder to make sure you get to the end right now your responsibility as sheep is to do what to stop biting Hebrews 13 I love I'll close with this Hebrews 13 just Paul Paul didn't write the author of Hebrews just sort of stuck it in there at the end of Hebrews you have just all these moral excertation stuck in there and one of them just says obey your leaders and submit to them because they give an account for your soul. God what he's saying is that all of the wealth or wealth that the happiness of your elders is bound up in your happiness and you're making that you're making it to the end is actually going to be credited to their account somehow that they're responsible for seeing you to the end and so what does he tell the sheep to do follow follow the elders follow God the shepherd follow Jesus certainly but some day you will have a lot of pastors. And the gospel says follow them as well because their happiness is dependent upon you think about that. Jesus we pray now that you would simply help us to understand more and more what it means for you to be the good shepherd and for us to be sheep that you saved us not because of the righteous deeds we had done because of your mercy and I pray that you would raise up a great Seattle. Many wonderful shepherds and elders who pursue lives of inconvenience and who give rest to your sheep and who empathize so much with the sheep's condition that they will not be happy unless the sheep are happy and so we pray these things to the end that you would be glorified and for your names sake amen and amen.