Good evening. My mother used to tell me when she was getting old, don't get old. And I said, mom, what's the alternative? She says, oh, I didn't think about that. share a message with you concerning the Good Shepherd. And I want to take it from two passages of scripture, actually three. Can everybody hear me okay? Okay, everybody, okay. And, The other passage of scripture you can mark it, I won't get it to it right away, but it's in John the 10th chapter. And I wanna look at Psalms the 23rd chapter. But before I can even begin to share with you Psalms the 23rd chapter, I need to take you back to Psalms the 22nd chapter. And you say, why? Well, that's a good question and you'll find out why after I start getting to reading it. This passage of scripture is dealing with Jesus Christ on the cross and he's looking down from the cross and he is sharing the things that he is seeing, including himself. And the reason why you have to really understand the 22nd chapter before you understand the 23rd chapter is that Jesus Christ has got to be your savior. So in Psalms 22, verse 11, he says, be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. Many bulls have surrounded me, strong bulls of Bastion, they encircle me. What he's talking about is the high priests, the Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, they are all around him. They open wide their mouth at a raving and roaring lion. In other words, they're ridiculing him and they are mocking him. I am poured out like water, and my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potter's shirt, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws. And thou dost lay me in the dust of death. For the dogs have surrounded me, that's Gentiles. Guess what? You guys are a bunch of dogs. A band of evildoers has encompassed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me. They divide my garments among them. And for my clothes, they cast lots. Now look at verse one. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now, unless you understand that passage of scripture that I have just read to you, that Jesus Christ has to be savior before he can be good shepherd. You understand that? And so these two passages scriptures is not a coincidence that they're put together. It's by the Holy Spirit that did that. So that you would be able to see that you have to have a savior in order for you to have a good shepherd. Now this passage of scripture is used by many heathens who quote this passage and they talk about it, but they haven't got a clue what it's talking about. In fact, a lot of Christians don't know what it's talking about either. So I wanna be able to unfold some of it, and I probably won't get past verse two. So I hope that you wouldn't mind me just digging in a little bit, all right? Now, the first two words that you're gonna find in chapter 23 is the Lord, is the Lord. You see, you can know him as savior, but you've got to know him as Lord as well. And so the Lord is my shepherd. And so in order for you to be able to realize that Jesus Christ is Lord, he's Lord of everything, everything in your life. I like what Steve Lawson says. He says, salvation is free, but it's gonna cost you everything. And when you look at lordship, it is a total transfer of ownership. There isn't anything that you own that is yours. It all belongs to him. Now, you may say, well, yeah, but he always owned it. So I'm just, I'm just letting him have it, right? No, he owns it. and you are recognizing the fact that he is Lord and that he is the Lord of lords and king of kings. He received the name Lord from his father. Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall obey him, shall confess him. Now, Jesus refers to us in the Old Testament as people of his pasture, as sheep, 80 times. Now that's a bunch of times, right? So I'm gonna read all 80 to you. No, I won't do that. But I do wanna read a few verses to you. 7852, Psalm 7852. that he led forth his own people like sheep. Notice the correlation, people, sheep. 79, 13, but we, your people, the sheep of your pasture. Psalms 95, seven, for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture. Psalms 103, know that the Lord, he is God, he is God. It is who made us and we are his. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Isaiah 53, 6, all of us like sheep have gone astray. Jeremiah 56, my people have been lost. My people have been lost sheep. In Matthew 9, 36, and seeing the multitude, he felt compassion for them. because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd. So Jesus refers to us as sheep. And I've got news for you. That ain't a compliment. Sheep have no defense system. They have no claws, no canine teeth, no speed, No sense of direction. I fit in there really well. Thus they wander. They emulate other sheep and their shepherd. Sheep must have a shepherd. They cannot make it without a shepherd. And if you think that you can make it without a shepherd, I'm telling you, you cannot. because that description of sheep fits you just right and me just right. So there's three things I want to be able to share with you today. One is the lordship of the good shepherd is not wanted. The good shepherd makes the sheep lie down and the good shepherd leads his sheep to still waters. Now, I used to be a farmer, believe it or not, and I had goats. And I didn't want sheep because they were too much trouble. But I studied an awful lot on sheep because I wanted to know why I didn't want them. So I found out a lot of things about sheep and that's what I want to be able to share with you so you can make a correlation between sheep and us because we're sheep. So let's look at the passage of Scripture. I'm gonna read it to you, and then I want you to go over to John, the 10th chapter, and we're gonna read some verses over there. So let me just read the entire chapter of Psalms 23, just to give you the full scope, even though we're not gonna cover it all. 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 guides me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou dost prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Thou hast 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. Switch over to John 10th chapter with me, please. I'm gonna read verses 14 to 18, and then 27 to 29. I am the good shepherd. Now, is there any doubt about that now? He's the good shepherd of Psalms 23, and he's a good shepherd here. And I know my own and my own know me. Even as the father knows me and I know the father, and I lay down my life for the sheep, and I have other sheep which are not of this fold, I must bring them also, and they shall hear my voice, and they shall become one flock and one shepherd. For this reason, the father loves me because I laid down my life that I may take it again. No one has taught. No one has taken it away from me. But I lay it down on my own initiative. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This command I've received from my father. Now notice in verse 27 to 29, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give eternal life to them and they shall never perish and no one shall snatch them out of my father's hand or out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all. And no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand. Do you see the picture? Jesus' hand and the father's hand. Now, good luck trying to get you out of there. There's a power source there. You can't get them out. So you're very secure. Now let's look at the passage of scripture here that we want to look at. Psalms 23. The good shepherd is not wanted. Now there are some that want to say that this really says, I shall not be in want. But see, that's not what the passage of scripture says. It says, I shall not want. There's a big difference between those two phrases. And the reason why he says, I shall not want, what is it that they don't want? They don't want the lordship of Jesus Christ. They don't want Lord, the good shepherd. because see, they can receive Jesus as the good shepherd and that's fine. But when it comes down to the Lord is my shepherd, that's a different story. And so that's a situation that possibly there are those here even tonight have a problem with the Lordship of Jesus Christ. because everything that you have, everything that you own, every thought that you have, every minuscule of your mind is belonging to God himself. It doesn't belong to you. It belongs to Christ Jesus. You are bought with a price. You are not your own. You are not your own. You're not your own. How many times have we sought to try to be our own? Well, God disciplines us to help us understand that we're not our own. Is Jesus Christ your Lord? I ask you that question that you would think about that answer. And please don't tell me, just keep it to yourself. Is he your Lord? Psalmist David says that you don't want him. And see, that's where the rubber meets the road when a person is now begin to hear the gospel message of Jesus Christ. And when they hear the fact that that Jesus Christ has got to be Lord of your life, they shrink back. And I wonder if that's the reason why there is those that are in this church is not willing to make the decision to follow Christ because they don't want Jesus Christ as Lord. But the good shepherd chose us. And John 10, 16, it says, I have other sheep that are not of the fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Did you catch that? They will listen to my voice, so there will be one flock and one shepherd. That is the irresistible call. The voice of Christ calls you. And when he calls you, it's an irresistible call. It's like irresistible grace. It is a quickening. It is making you alive. It makes you realize you're a sinner. It opens your mind to understanding who you really are. It helps you to see what sin is really like. You see sin like God sees sin for the first time. And once you begin to start seeing sin, then you begin to want to be free from that sin. And that's when it comes to understanding that Jesus Christ is Lord. So it's an irresistible grace. So sheep will respond. Sheep will respond. They have to respond because they're chosen of God. They have to respond. And those that reject this gospel, it's either they say, I just love my sin and I don't want to give up my sin. Or it is, I just don't want him as my Lord and I just can't, I can't go that route. Or, and may I be so bold, it's to say that possibly you may be a goat. You say, well, that's really, that's mean. Well, am I going to send you off to hell number one or hell number two? It is a matter of you understanding that if you're not responding, if you continually hear the gospel continuously over and over and over and over again, but there's not a voice that's calling you, then something is wrong. And you ask, well, how do I know the difference between Me being a sheep and a goat, it's very simple. He said it. My sheep hear my voice. He makes me lie down in green pastures, verse 2. How does he get the sheep to lie down in a green pasture? How does he make them lay down in a green pasture? You know, some shepherds may have some 50 to 100, maybe 300 sheep. And he certainly didn't go along every one of them and try to push them down on the ground. That's not what he's talking about, making them lie down in green pastures. Believe me, he's not doing that. What he does is the shepherd brings the sheep to green pastures. He makes them lie down in green pastures. He brings them to green pastures and the sheep will eat the green pastures and then when they are satisfied or full, they naturally lay down. They just naturally lay down. Now see, that is the same concept that we have as when we get full of God's word. When we come here and we listen to the word of God being preached by our pastor Jeff, and when he preaches the word, we become satisfied, but see, satisfaction with the word of God, there needs to be something else that is added to it. When the sheep lay down, they have to ruminate. They have to ruminate. In other words, they've got, you know what ruminate means, that means chewing your cud, right? I know I'm not talking about city slickers here, I don't guess. But anyhow, they ruminate. And they have to ruminate because if they don't ruminate, they die. They have to have the nutrition that is processed through by the food going through all the four different stomachs. Now we don't have four stomachs, thank goodness, but we do need to ruminate on the word of God. Jeremiah said, thy word was found and I ate it. and it became the joy and rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by thy name, O Lord, God of hosts." What he's saying is this, it became the joy and rejoicing of my heart. Why was it joy and rejoicing of his heart? Because he ate the word and he meditated on the word and made the word of God more effective. It went to his heart. It became conviction. So when we look at the pastures of his word and Psalms 103, notice what he says. Know that Jehovah is God. He made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Now we don't eat grass now, do we? We eat the word of God. And he's talking about the green pastures of the Word of God. He's talking about getting into the Word of God and meditating on the Word of God. We have to ruminate it. We have to ruminate the Word of God. If we do not ruminate the word of God, see, if you get hearing the word, you get satisfied hearing it from the pulpit, from our pastor, and you say, I am satisfied. That's not the end. Blessed are those that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. It's not the end. You have to meditate on the word of God. You have to turn it around in your heart. It has to become a part of you. It has to be made conviction in your heart. So naturally, you just walk it out. It's like eating a meal. You don't have to instruct your stomach to digest the food. You know it just does that naturally. But see, when you begin to meditate on the word of God, you begin to put it in your heart and it becomes a natural thing for you to walk out. That's the reason why he said in Joshua 1.8, meditate on the word of God day and night. Why? Because God knows that we're forgetful. And he wants us to continue to work that word over and over again in our minds and in our hearts so we can be the type of people that we need to be for the glory of God. So just being satisfied is not going to make it. Now there are some sheep, when they haven't eaten right, they have what we call bloating. And so a sheep will go right up on its back and it looks like four sticks and a marshmallow. And so we have, We have to digest the word of God so it becomes a part of us. That's the reason why God is so much interested in us getting the word of God in us. Through memory study, through meditation, through devotion, we must have it in our lives. Oh, I wish I could make that as clear as I possibly could It's so important. You've got to meditate on it, guys. It's got to be a part of you. If you don't have conviction, then how are you going to know what's right and what's wrong? If you don't have conviction, you're not going to make a stand for what you know is right. When persecution comes your way, are you going to be able to stand strong because you had the conviction of God's word in you? If you don't have that conviction, you're not gonna stand. This is the reason why it's so very important that we be like the sheep and we ruminate on the word of God. Amen. Fodi Bakken would say, Oh me or amen. So I don't know which one is best here. The good shepherd goes out into the green pastures of his sheep and he's got to find poisonous plants. Now the poisonous plants, sheep will eat and they will die. So therefore, it's up to the shepherds to get the poisonous plants out of the green pastures before he lets the sheep in there. Is that not what a pastor does? Does he not pull out poisonous doctrine? Does he not pull out poisonous things that he knows is going to be harmful to his people? Is that not what the shepherds and the elders are all about? Is that they are watching over the flock to be sure that there is not any poisonous doctrine that has crept in, that there's no crept in unawares that are spreading some false doctrine. That's why it's important that we don't have a teacher A preacher or any other person that comes in here either stands behind the pulpit and the probability is that he won't get there, is that he spreading it around to everybody else. And we had a person like that not too long ago. Is that not right? And thank God that we had the elders on it and they got him out. This is not only going to be the only case. There's going to be other poisonous plants that are going to come within the body of believers and Satan puts them there because he wants to destroy the body of Christ. And we must not let him do that. And so the elders need to be vigilant. The pastor needs to be vigilant in all ways, making sure that the body of Christ knows what is the poisonous plants and what are not. The good shepherd leads the sheep to still waters. He leads the sheep to still waters. Hmm. I love this part. You see, what it means to lead is to have others follow. Am I right? Sheep cannot be driven, they must be led. Sheep are not cattle. You can drive cattle, but you can't drive sheep. They would, like that. You've got to lead them. That's the reason why Jesus says, I lead my sheep and they follow me. They hear my voice and they follow me. This is part of understanding that if you're a pastor in the seminary, I'm saying to you, that you can preach one of the best sermons that you ever preached in your life, but if you don't walk it out, your people won't follow you. You can't push them into it. You must lead them into it. It must be something that they follow. Leading, leading, Jesus Christ had set the example in leading us. He leads us. He doesn't push us. He doesn't drive us. He leads us. So we'd follow him. So we'd follow him. Sheep will emulate sheep. I visited a farmer who was a sheep herder. And I asked him the question, is sheep really dumb? And he said, oh, yeah. And I said, why do you mean? He go, let me show you something. Well, there's this bale of hay that was in the path and the sheep were jumping over this bale of hay. And he says, watch, he pulled the bale of hay out of the way and the sheep that were behind the one that jumped the bale of hay kept jumping over an imaginary bale of hay. And all the sheep emulated that and they all jumped over and there was no bale of hay there. And I said, that's really dumb. So sheep emulate sheep. Sheep will emulate their shepherd and they will follow the shepherd. When we talk about sheep following sheep and they're being led, there's, There's a problem sometimes with sheep that wander. We call them independent sheep. Wandering sheep, independent sheep don't like coming up under authority. Independent sheep don't like coming up under authority. Now, this is the time you raise your feet so you don't get your toes stepped on. When we talk about the authority, we're talking about lordship. God's authority is lordship. And when God puts delegated authority into your life, he's teaching you lordship. He's teaching you how to follow the lordship of Jesus Christ And he puts delegated authority in your life in order for you to learn that. And a lot of times we have a real problem with delegated authority because we don't want that delegated authority over us. But they're there because God put them there. And you say, well, I can do a whole lot better under the authority of God than having to work with the delegated authority. Oh, really? I've got news for you. If you think that delegated authority is hard, wait till you get under the authority of God. So God allows this delegated authority to take place in your life. Now we have a problem with that delegated authority. We all do. We have bosses, we have husbands, we have all kinds of delegated authority. We all have problems with delegated authority. But the one thing that you need to learn to do is pray and let God have his way in your life. And when God has his way, when God helps you understand what authority is and that he's the lordship of your life. See, every time that you come against a problem in your life, that is another area of lordship you're going to have to come up under. Every trial that you come through, God is going to teach you lordship, lordship. Okay. A good shepherd leads his sheep besides still waters. So this is a time that you get still before God and you listen to him. Still waters. Why does sheep need still waters? Because they will not drink by brushing water. The reason why they won't drink near rushing water is because they can't sense their enemy. They can't sense a lion or they can't sense a wolf or something. They can sense things, but when the water is rushing, they don't sense that. The shepherd knows that, and so, therefore, he takes