Welcome to ECB's weekly sermon podcast. ECB is
an international church in Bangkok, Thailand,
with dozens of nationalities worshiping together.
We invite you to connect with us from wherever
you are through our website ecb .asia or our
mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed
by this week's sermon. In this series, what we
are doing is we are unpacking five different
uh psalms or poems songs that are collected in
this book that we call uh the psalms and it's
right found right in the middle of your your
bible so if you're new to the faith that's where
you're going to find it and these 150 psalms
are written by people from different times different
eras but what they're all doing is they are using
poetry and songs to connect themselves to god
in this language of prayer So these are to be
sacred companions for us. And so the intent of
this series is this. We would like to offer you
and us as a community five of these songs, and
we're at the last one today. This is like a mini
playlist to get you, if you have not made the
book of Psalms something that shapes and forms
your life, this is made to invite you into that
space. Now, what are some of those that we've
done? We started with Psalm 93 in a proclamation
that God's got you. From there, we turn to Psalm
119. God knows you intimately and he's always
drawing you to himself. Then Psalm 19 that declares
that God can be known. And we see this in the
world around us, things we see and don't see
and experience the fact that God is there and
he's the creator. And then Psalm 147, which is
that God heals you. Before we turn to our psalm
today, I want to pray once again. And we are
putting ourselves in a posture before God saying,
hey, would you please speak to us? Would you
encounter us in this space? We want to be shaped
and formed in the image of Christ. We'd like
you to help us to do that. So would you join
me in prayer? Father, we are thankful for your
word. Thank you that you are a God that wants
to be known and you have done everything possible
to make yourself known to the point of sending
your very son that we just sang about again and
again and again, the visible image of a God that
we cannot see. Thank you. Holy Spirit, for those
who are in Christ, you dwell within us. Would
you empower us to not only see the beauty of
who you are, but to listen well so that we would
be changed going forward from here, that we would
be more like your son Jesus, more like you created
us to be from the beginning. So as we look at
another psalm, a very well -known psalm that
has meant a lot to many of us, we invite you.
You are welcome in this space. Do your work.
We pray this and seal it in the name of Jesus.
Amen. Well, there's a true story from the country
of Turkey, or Turkiye is, I think, the correct
pronunciation of that, that is of some sheep
and some shepherds. And one day, the village
shepherds took hundreds of sheep up into the
mountains, and they got up to a place where the
sheep could graze. And as the day progressed,
the shepherds finally decided that they were
going to go and take a break to have a meal.
So they left the sheep grazing and they went
nearby and began to have this meal together.
But it was at that point that something very
unfortunate happened. This is a true story. One
of the sheep jumped off a cliff. It's about 15
meters down. And one by one, the rest of the
sheep, 1 ,500 of them, followed this sheep. off
the edge of a cliff. How peculiar. What in the
world is happening in this story? So is this
a mass suicide by these animals? And if that's
the case, that's very strange. Or perhaps maybe
this just points to the fact that sheep are really
dumb creatures. Either option is not very good
for us because God's preferred, one of his preferred
metaphors for you and for me to understand who
you are and who I am and who he is in our relationship
is to compare us to sheep. So here's the invitation
then is rather than allow that to come to you
as an insult and to be like, well, I'm not like
that. Allow the shocking comparison. to speak
to the very nature of who you are and to ask
these two questions. Who am I? Who are you? And
how can you live the good life? We want to know
this, right? We struggle to live the good life.
And so if God is comparing us to sheep, is there
something we can learn about their existence
that helps us to know how to live the good life
and to understand who we are? Now, one of the
best passages that captures this is the best
known psalm, Psalm 23. And it begins, the Lord
is my shepherd, I shall not want. We know this
psalm very well. And we're going to turn to this
psalm this morning and look at it not as just
some words of comfort, but a roadmap of spiritual
restoration. It gives an outline, a framework,
if you will, about what it looks like to walk
in a way like a sheep before his or her shepherd
and to be shaped into what we were always intended
to be, the good life. And it's going to do this
in four different stages. But here's what I'd
like us to do before we get to those stages is
I'm going to have you stand back up again and
we are going to read all six verses of this psalm
together as a community. We ready? 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 leads me in paths
of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil. 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 overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all
the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the
house of the Lord forever. Go ahead and take
your seats again. By the way, this would have
been the practice of God's people for all of
time is to read his word aloud together like
that. And it's different than when we read it
on our own. The author of this psalm is King
David. From everything we know, it's King David.
And King David has a really, a life that we want
to pay attention to. Why? Because on one level,
he was a shepherd, really a nobody. But on the
other level, he eventually became a powerful
king. He lived in an anonymous way, and he lived
as somebody who everyone knew. He was an artist,
a musician, but he was also a fierce warrior
and led all kinds of battles that were successful.
He was a family man. and brought order not only
to his family, but the nation that he ruled over.
But he also caused incredible disorder, not only
within his family, but in the nation that he
was leading. David was also called a man after
God's own heart, something that any of us would
say, Lord, would you please say that about me?
May that be the case. But David also committed
some sins that were so atrocious, shocking, including
committing adultery with one of his friends and
fellow servants, his spouse. And then to make
things worse, trying to hide this, he ended up
having this friend killed so that he could cover
over what he had done. So when David writes a
psalm, he's not writing from some experience
he wrote or read in a book or heard somebody
talk about. He's writing his direct experiences.
And so for that, I want to invite you to listen
well to that because not only does he have a
wide range of experiences, but he's inspired
by the Holy Spirit to write what he wrote. So
let it speak to us. There's a quote by Dallas
Willard that says the following. It says, self
-sufficiency is the enemy of the soul. We were
made to live in the constant presence of God,
not in the illusion of independence. So self
-sufficiency is the enemy of the soul. We were
made to live in the constant presence of God.
So God confronts our illusion that independence
and the habits we form to maintain this illusion
are gracious, and then he graciously restores
us under that care. And this is what you and
I have in common with a sheep. We are deeply
dependent on our shepherd. We are made to be
intertwined with the God that we follow. So what
was happening with those sheep? We'll get to
that in just a moment. But another way of saying
that Psalm 23, it offers a poetic framework with
four different parts, four different stages of
our spiritual journey. And these stages, all
of us are invited to. To go through them in life.
Now, I want to be clear. We like to break things
up and make them really nice and organized. That's
not how life works, is it? These are all messed
up and intertwined and connected and they circle
through it. And there's this saying that we have
around the leadership team here that is the ing,
ing, ing. What is that saying? It means that
we are always being transformed. So we are being
changed into. So it's an ongoing process. So
you may think, okay, I've got this part of this
stage settled. Let me move to the next stage.
Done. Let's go on to the next. You're going to
have to come back here again and circle through
that and go on to the next one. But the core
thing that you need to hold on to is that God
is more fiercely committed to your transformation
than you are to it. So keep your eyes on the
shepherd as we go forward. And these four points
will be what guides us as we move along. So in
the very first stage, what God is going to invite
you to is an awareness of a life of lack and
what we do when we have this feeling that something
is lacking in our life. Raise your hand if you
feel like something is lacking in your life.
Oh, there's, okay, there we go. It took a little.
Some other people, a little honesty to like sheep.
You need to have one raise their hand and then
the rest will do so. So what David is going to
do in this first part is address this illusion
because that is what actually God does to us.
And Psalm 23 begins in this well -known phrase
that we know, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. Now, we've talked about this a few
times in the Psalms when it's all capitalized
Lord and anywhere in scripture, it's Yahweh,
which is God's preferred name. It's the one he
gave to Moses, who was a shepherd also in that
situation. And this is identifying a specific
God, the God, the only one and true God is my
shepherd. That's a bold claim. But not only that,
let's add to it that I shall not want. That's
another bold claim, right? Is that a weight on
our shoulders that say, oh, I can't want, I can't
want, I can't want? Or is that something different?
Well, let's go ahead and look forward to this.
The sheep did not jump off that cliff because
they were dumb or because they were suicidal.
The sheep jumped off that cliff because of something
that was part of their design and an instinct
kicked in at that point. And it's an important
thing for us to pay attention to. And in order
to do that, there's a wonderful book by a shepherd
named Philip Keller. And I came across this book
a number of years ago, and it has been deeply
influential to me. It's a beautiful book. This
man grew up in Kenya, East Africa, and learned
from nomadic shepherds there what it was like
to take care of sheep. Then he moved back to
his home country of Canada and he became a shepherd
full -time. That was his job. And on the weekends,
he was a different kind of shepherd. He was a
pastor, which is the same word for shepherd,
in a church. So he made his income from taking
care of sheep, the animals, and then he did pastoring
as a way to follow what God is saying. He also
had a life with all kinds of ups and downs and
struggles. He lived through... was born, I believe,
in the 30s and so lived through all kinds of
things, including his wife dying of cancer. And
so he doesn't speak to you from some place without
understanding. He speaks to you like King David
with this understanding of what it's like to
be a shepherd. And so this book, A Shepherd Looks
at Psalm 23, it's going to give you a verse -by
-verse, idea -by -idea capturing of what it is.
to be, or to understand Psalm 23 better. So here's
what I'd like to do. I'd like to offer this book
to somebody completely free. If you raise your
hand, I think I just saw you. Go ahead and come
up, and I'll give you the book, and then I'll
tell you the conditions of it. Yeah. Okay. So
here are the conditions of it. You can go ahead
and take a seat. What I'd like you to do is as
you're reading that book and you're just learning
probably more than you ever would like to know
about sheep, later I would love to have a conversation
with you and you just share how the book has
impacted you. And that's for two reasons. One,
because God is going to do a work in and through
you through that book, but it also helps me because
I feel like I know too much about sheep and I
want somebody else to share in that pain as well.
So yeah, there's a lot in there. So Philip explains
the following. He says that when the basic needs
of sheep are not met, they are going to instinctively
act to satisfy those needs. So if there's a path
in front of them, they're going to begin walking
on it in order to try to find something to solve
whatever need they have. Similarly, there's another
instinct. If the sheep that begins moving and
acts upon something does so, and they're a leader
by any means, the other sheep are going to instinctively
follow that one. So what likely happened in Turkey
is the lead sheep, or one of the lead sheep,
all of a sudden was aware that there was a need.
Maybe the grass right in front of him or her
was not to his liking, and he saw a path, and
so he just started following it. And then the
other sheep were like, oh, he's going there,
I'm going to follow him as well. And that's likely
what happened with this tragic event in Turkey.
So to start this psalm with the declaration that
God is my shepherd and that I lack nothing speaks
to a profound choice that you have and that I
have. Who is your shepherd? You and I were never
meant to follow another person. If you are following
a pastor, a shepherd, only follow him as long
as he is following Christ. As Paul says, follow
me as I follow Christ. You are only meant to
follow your true shepherd, God. And this goes
for all other kinds of ways of following. We
follow people all over the place, right? Always
allow God the shepherd to be the one who guides
you in that. Why is this such a problem? Why
do we have this choice? Well, let's go back to
the beginning, a story with Adam and Eve, who
God helps them to realize, or sorry, God's enemy
points out to them that there's something lacking.
And he does this through this tree, right? And
he says, hey, I know that God has put you in
this garden and he said he's taking care of all
of your needs, but let me give you a different
vision. There's something he's keeping from you.
There's something more you need. So mistrust
God, trust me and follow me and you'll see that
your eyes are going to be open. So let's read
the passage from Genesis. It says, now the serpent,
was more crafty than any of the wild animals
that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman,
did God really say you must not eat of any tree
in the garden? Do you notice the lie here? The
truth was there's one tree you're not supposed
to eat of, and instead they took this to a whole
different reality. He said, did God say that
you can't have what you need? When the woman
saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food
and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for
gaining wisdom, wisdom in our own sight as opposed
to God's is a form of mistrust. She took some
and ate it. And now here's the following sheep.
She also gave some to her husband and he walked
off the cliff as well. Well, who was with her
and he ate it too, right? Both of them are just
as culpable in this situation. They both acted
on their instinct in a way trusting a false shepherd
rather than the true shepherd. And so their eyes
of both of them were opened and they realized
they were naked. Here's this need that they see.
So what did they do? They acted upon that need
and they sewed fig leaves together and made a
covering for themselves. Now, if you know scripture
well, God actually comes and he encounters them
and he calls Adam and Eve out of hiding. And
what is the first thing he does for them? He
makes a covering for them. He makes a covering
for them. Because what he wants to do is confront
our instinct for self -sufficiency. And he's
saying, I will take care of you. I know you were
the one who decided to mistrust me and head in
a different direction. I will be the one to bring
you back home. And that's the psalm that we're
looking at here. So David begins the psalm addressing
this fundamental problem and instinct, one that
you and I actually do share with sheep. To be
our own shepherd or under the care of any other
shepherd than God himself is a disaster. This
is why David in this countercultural and yet
necessary spiritual resistance, he says, the
Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. How does
God actually restore trust in that situation?
Well, he continues on and he says, he makes me
lie down in green pastures and he leads me beside
still waters. This is provision. So in a recognition
of lack, God says, I will provide for your needs.
And I'm going to bless you with that. I'm going
to provide for you. Now, depending on the translation,
this make you lie down, some of you, if you have
your Bibles open or you've been looking through
the app, it may say, lets me lie down in green
pastures. Well, letting and making are two different
things. If you bring them together, you really
have the picture of what David is saying here.
And to do that, you've got to understand sheep.
And this goes back to that book. So the shepherd
Philip. realize that there's four things that
sheep need in order for them to actually lie
down. So if you invited a sheep to come and lie
down and these things were not taken care of,
the sheep will not lie down. You can try to force
that sheep to lie down. It'll just get back up
again. And they're not going to want to do that.
What are those four things? Well, they need to
be free from fear. Free from fear. They need
to be free from friction within the flock, the
group. They need to be free from flies or insects
that bother them, and they need to be free from
hunger. They sound like pretty needy creatures,
don't they? We're kind of needy creatures as
well, aren't we? For a sheep to lie down and
rest, these need to be taken care of, and that's
exactly what the psalmist says here. He makes
me lie down, so he's done the work to make it
so the sheep can lie down in that green pasture.
What does this look like actually as we follow
Jesus? For those of you who have been walking
with him for a season or maybe even if it's new
to you, oftentimes the turning point from when
you, your old life to your new life is characterized
by huge transformation. You're heading in one
direction and it is truly a U -turn in a different
direction. God's word. satiates your hunger like
you've never known before and you just begin
to read it. I've heard brothers and sisters,
especially those who are in countries where they
can't practice their faith and they come upon
a Bible and they just read it and read it and
read it. They're just feasting upon it. It also
speaks to the fact that we're going to have these
incredible feelings of God's love for us in this
season. In the beginning season. And so you hear
baptism stories where it's just profound transformation.
And that is the way God gifts us in this stage.
But he does more than just giving us this rest
in him of this new way of life. He also renews
us. And it says, he leads me besides still waters.
Again, to understand the sheep will not drink
from rushing water. They need the water to be
still, but the water can't be like a pond that
is just sitting there and with lots of parasites
in it because why? Well, a sheep like you and
I is made up of 70 % water. So if they're either
deprived of water, they're going to die soon.
If they drink polluted water, they will die eventually
as it slowly attacks them going forward. And
here's the thing about sheep too. They will follow
one another in that instinct behavior where they
say if a sheep is in front and ends up coming
upon some water and ends up urinating in that
water and keeping on walking, the sheep behind
will just drink straight from that water. It's
disgusting. And within that then there's these
parasites that begin to kill the sheep. So a
good shepherd knows this and he leads them to
still water where they can lie down and where
they can enjoy the water that he has prepared
for them. Now, what does this look like for us
as followers of Jesus? Well, for those who follow
Jesus, who find ourselves to consider him to
be our shepherd, we have the indwelling spirit
within us that renews us. Moment by moment, day
by day, reality by reality of what we used to
be and what he's calling us to. And the scriptures
picture this as flowing water that just brings
life into a space. And that's often an unseen
way within us. And this is part of God's provision
to us. So for those who declare that the Lord
is my shepherd, things have changed drastically.
Their life has been renewed. And so asking you
a question this morning, can you declare I lack
nothing? I lack nothing. It's okay if you can't
because your need is actually a way that the
shepherd turns your attention to him to continue
to provide for you. So when you are aware of
something that is lacking, turn to the shepherd.
That sheep and turkey, if he had turned to the
shepherd, it would have been drastically different
for all of them. Even though the shepherd was
a little ways off, if he had turned to him, it
could have changed the whole day going forward.
So turn to your shepherd in that. Well, you may
ask, well, this sounds like the good life. Look
at the sheep back here in this green pasture.
Why would I want to go anywhere else? I'm just
going to sit here and continue to consume and
enjoy God's provision over and over and over
again. But there's a problem with that. God does
not want us to stay just receiving from him.
He wants to take us on a journey of deeper intimacy
with him. And just like sheep, there's a reason
for them needing to leave the green pastures
at a certain time, which we will get to next.
He's going to take us from comfort -based faith
to a different way of engaging with him. And
I want you to listen to this. Comfort -based
faith is longing for life now at the cost of
intimacy with the life giver. It comes at the
cost of intimacy with the life giver. So the
good shepherd, he's fully committed to restoring
us. He's going to take us to where he can begin
to restore intimacy with him. And here's how
it starts. It says, he restores my soul. Great.
I'm so glad, God, you've restored my soul and
he leads me in paths of righteousness for his
name's sake. Back to the book and understanding
a lot about sheep. Sheep will continue, as I
said before, to just gorge themselves. If they
are in a green pasture, they will eat and they
will eat and they will eat and they will return
to their same routines that have brought them
this nourishment again and again and again. Now,
if I go to the same path and I come back and
then I go to the same path, I'm going to end
up making a rut in the ground, right? I'm going
to make a divot there. And while I'm doing it,
I'm also eating a lot, which means I'm getting
bigger than I'm designed to be. And one of the
things that the shepherd wants to do is lead
us out of these green pastures, not only to care
for the ground, but also because it's good for
us to go out. We need to do this. Now, we don't
know exactly what David is talking about here,
but Philip tells us or gives us an insight into
sheep that is possibly what is happening here
with the idea of restoring a soul. Here's what
it is. If I go again and again as a sheep and
I'm getting larger and larger and continuing
to eat, sheep will actually fall down. And because
of the way they are designed, they are not meant
to be very large. They will end up on their back.
unable to turn back over. Now, it sounds kind
of funny, but I'm going to show you what ends
up happening with it, and then we're going to
talk about it. So they've fallen in this thing.
They end up on their back like this, and then
all they can do is just move their legs, and
they're like this, right? And they frantically
do that in their own self -sufficiency, trying
to turn themselves right side up. But they can't.
They can't. They need the shepherd to come and
restore them, turn them right side up, and lead
them to paths of righteousness for whose namesake?
For the shepherd's namesake, because he knows
what you need better than you know what you need.
And he's going to lead us in that way. So here's
what my invitation is. Why did I just do that?
Because I want an image to stick in your minds
every time you think, man, God, I remember back
to those days. when everything in my life was
changing so fast and I loved it, let me just
go back there. Because he's leading you on to
something else. And what is it that he's leading
you on to? He is leading you away from the green
pastures into something else, which is the dark
valley. And in order to do that, let's talk about
a few other things here. A good shepherd doesn't
just join the sheep. where they want to go, but
he leads them to where they need to go. As we
practice the way of Jesus, it's common to find
ourselves stuck in those ruts, but he's going
to call us out from them because he loves us.
He wants to confront our instinct for comfort
and bring us to something new. And he's going
to do that, actually, in a special way. But before,
let's look back at these three verses. What word
has been circled? He. In this part of the poem,
the shepherd or the sheep is looking at the shepherd
and saying, he's doing this for me. He's doing
this for me. He's doing this for me. There's
a relationship there, right? But it's kind of
like he's far out there. He's helping me. But
something changes when we get to the next portion
of scripture. It says, even though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil for you. Are with me. Do you notice the
change there? It's not he's helping me. It's
you are right here beside me. You are with me.
Your rod and your staff comfort me. They're with
me right here. Now a rod and a staff, they're
symbols of both authority and the ability to
guide. And so it's saying, yes, even though I
go through the valley of shadow of death and
I don't understand why I'm here and my fear has
been activated in this place. that you are with
me and you're drawing me into an intimate relationship
with you even in this space. If I'm left in the
pasture where I'm just gorging myself, I don't
really need God. But if he leads me into that
valley, a dark valley where it's just me and
I'm afraid and I'm alone and I don't know what
is next, his presence becomes something that
is deeply important to me and I cling on to him
in that. To help us understand this, there's
an author, Alicia Britt Scholey, who tells the
story of her own father. They lived in the southern
part of the United States where there's these
really strong thunderstorms. So these are storms
that your house is shaking. There can be tornadoes.
There's different things like this. It can be
terrifying, especially as a child. Lightning
coming across the sky. Now, for any of you who
work with kids or who have children, if a child
is scared, saying, don't be scared. How successful
is that? Don't have fear. They're actually probably
going to fixate on it even more. But what Alicia
tells is that what her father would do to help
her overcome the fear is he would lead her outside
onto the porch, and they would sit together,
the dad and the daughter right there, in the
middle of the storm just raging around them.
And because of his presence there, things changed.
And she came to the point where now when she
hears a storm, goes through a storm, she's reminded
of that experience, of the gift of the presence
of her father being there with her. Valleys are
not pointless detours or bugs in the operating
system of life. They are features of our journey
and they're part of the path. We don't sign up
for them. We don't run to the... closest dark
valley in order to force our restoration to go
forward. But there will be seasons in our life
where we will end up in a dark valley. And that
doesn't mean that there's something wrong with
the journey. That means God is doing a new thing
in that space with you. So our instinct when
facing fear in the valley is to try harder to
get back to the green pastures of providence.
But remember that the valley is an invitation
for intimacy with God. And who accompanies you
in that valley? Jesus himself. John describes
it this way. He says, perfect love casts out
fear. Not trying really hard to not be fearful,
but perfect love casts out fear. The only one
who can give you the perfect love that you were
designed for is the shepherd himself. So draw
near to him. And that is what helps your fears
to begin to go away. So this is where trust forged
in green pastures and still waters deepens into
relationship as we cling to our shepherd. And
God invites you to allow your fear to awaken
that awareness, not to feel bad about your fear,
not to try harder and beat yourself up over it,
but realize that that's an invitation to turn
to him. Well, the journey of restoration continues,
confronting another aspect of our tendency of
self -sufficiency. And in this stage, perhaps
a continuation of the valley we've journeyed
through, we're now confronted with the illusion
of control. What does control look like within
our lives? Well, control looks like things that
we can shape and form and change in order to
pursue the good life that we're all longing for.
So I'm going to do everything I possibly can
to fix relationships around me because I want
peace and harmony. And God asks for that, right?
And I try as much as possible to be successful
in whatever job or career I have because I want
stability and I can provide for the needs of
those around me and myself. And that seems to
be a good way to control life as well. We can
try to control our relationship with God. And
we can do this by going back to the same patterns
and routines and keep working at it and saying,
this is going to be what changes me. But the
song takes a turn in this stanza and it moves
to something different. And we have here that
you prepare a table before me in the presence
of my enemy. My cup overflows. You annoy my head
with oil. These are beautiful pictures, but what
is in the middle of it? The enemy. This is an
invitation for us to learn to feast even when
life is not fixed. To feast even when life is
not fixed. And the only way to do that is to
journey along with the Savior who comes and restores
you. There's a well -known story of a lady named
Corrie ten Boom who wrote a number of books.
She lived through the time of World War II. She
and her family worked to the risk of their lives
to help to rescue Jews from going to the concentration
camps. So much so that at one point she actually
was caught, the family, and they were sent off
to those same camps that they were trying to
rescue people from. And she recounts a story
of being in one of those camps and at one point
the guards made all of the prisoners strip down
completely naked and walk in front of them for
whatever reason, something to do with the concentration
camp and the way they were controlling it. Completely
humiliating, right? Her sister later ends up
dying and amazingly, Corrie is freed at the end
of the war. She ends up traveling around the
world preaching a message of forgiveness and
reconciliation. That's what God has asked us
to do is to forgive as we forgive those who have
trespassed against us. But she tells this story
of being in a setting like this and she's presenting
the message. And it's in Germany. So she's in
enemy territory after the war, but in enemy territory.
And she presents this story and this message
of reconciliation. And they end up walking out
at the end, kind of this somber attitude. But
one person walks towards her. And he comes up
to the front. And she realizes this was one of
the guards who was there when she and the rest
were required to walk naked in front of them.
And the guy comes up and he says, you know, you
probably don't remember me or recognize me, but
I was one of the guards at the camp that you
told about and I just want to ask for your forgiveness.
Oof. Oof. So Corrie Ten Boom is sitting there
in the presence of her physical enemy who represents
all of the way that she was violated in life.
And she's standing there. And she says, I froze.
That's the key to this. Because if she could
do it in her own might, then that control continues
again and again and again. If we can make our
spiritual formation happen, then that's actually
just us doing it and we're not acting very sheep
-like. So instead what she did is she went to
move her hand and she just said, God, would you
help me? God, would you help me? And he prepared
a table. before her in the presence of her enemy.
Not just a couple crumbs, but a feast for her
to have, which she describes this overwhelming
feeling of not just being able to reach out and
shake his hand, but for her whole being wanting
to forgive her enemy. That can only happen because
of God acting within you. And it's in this stage
that you are asked to do things that you cannot
do on your own because if you can, you're going
to depend on your control. And so you face things
where you say, God, would you be the one to do
this? I look back on my own life and I have a
story with this where, especially compared to
Corey, it seems quite... It pales in comparison.
But I had a friend, a colleague of mine, who
in a meeting ended up accusing me of something
and betraying me in a way that was deeply painful
and hurtful. And I remember that evening going
back home, and I spent the whole night tossing
and turning, activating every ounce of control
that I could possibly do to try to fix what had
happened. Thinking, okay, tomorrow I'm going
to call him, we're going to do this, and then
I'm going to go back to the meeting the next
week, and I'm thinking about all these things.
And then it would go to, well, it can't really
be fixed over, so I'm going to forgive him, forgive
him, forgive him. I woke up the next morning,
or really just continued on because I really
didn't sleep much, was exhausted by all my efforts
of trying to do this. And I remember waking up
and sitting in this chair before my shepherd,
and my hands were genuinely clenched. And it
was a symbol of kind of where I was. And I was
like, I can't do this. I can't do this. But even
me saying that to God was all that was needed
for the Holy Spirit to then help me to lift my
hands away from them being clenched and slowly
open. And again, also this feeling of like, I
want to forgive him. I tried all night long and
I couldn't solve it myself. But one act of the
Holy Spirit, the good shepherd working within
us, and it brings about a transformation we can
never do ourselves. And that's what it looks
like to move us from control to receiving, receiving
from him. And it's here that we turn to the final
stage, the final stage of where the good shepherd
is going to lead us. And this isn't really a
stage. This is our end goal. It's what we call
the telos. which isn't just, I'm just trying
to get here. It means I was designed for living
life in this way to get to this end. So what
is that end? That end is that surely goodness
and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for
a little bit of time. No, for ever, forever and
ever. But this isn't something I'm just holding
onto and waiting. For that to happen, this is
the feast that I begin to experience now in the
presence of God, a God who is actually intimately
connected with me, a union with him, where in
the words of Romans 12, I have been transformed
so much in the likeness of Christ that the way
I think and move and am shaped is according to
the good, perfect, and pleasing will of God himself.
And so David reflects on this final journey with
this celebration at the end. He's taken me there.
He will continue to take me there. And in the
end, that will be my final place. It's a place
of me being a beloved son. I'm no longer a visitor
receiving something from him, a visitor who then
knows him a little bit more. I am now a beloved
child of God. And that's sheep -like nature to
come into that position. So there we have it.
We've gone through the four different stages.
And as I said at the beginning, please do not
think, okay, I'm going to try to move through
these systematically because what have you just
done? Activated your desire to control this.
That is not sheep -like behavior. Sheep -like
behavior is to say, shepherd, what's next? Take
me there. Move me there. Shape me in that way.
Like sheep, As Isaiah says, we have all wandered
off and we've all gone in our own way and we've
all inched closer and closer towards that cliff.
But as we become trapped in these sinful habits
and the self -sufficiency, the shepherd is pursuing
us. He's acting on our behalf. He's changing
things and he's inviting us to come and follow
him. And that's what Psalms 23 declares so beautifully,
so poetically, that you can come and turn to
him as a good shepherd. And why can you turn
to him as a good shepherd? Because Jesus not
only is that shepherd, he was also the perfect
sheep. He came into this world in the middle
of everything being out of control, and he modeled
what it looks like to be completely dependent
on the Father. And he modeled again and again,
no matter if he was in a season of high or a
season of low, when everything was taken care
of or when he was in a valley. He modeled what
it was like to turn to his father again and again
and again. And he even prepared a table and he
feasted in the presence of his disciples, one
of which would be the ultimate enemy and betray
him. And he feasted with those disciples who
would in that night betray him by leaving him
to figure out things by himself. But he wasn't
by himself. He was with his father. So he could
feast with them in that place. And then, of course,
we know the story. He was crucified on your behalf
and on my behalf so that we could be reconciled
to our shepherd and declare the Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want. So here is my invitation for
us in the next two minutes. Just wanted to be
quiet in here. And I want you to take this up
with your shepherd. You can use the words from
Psalm 23 and just say, Lord, what is it that
you would like to do with me next? Be careful
not to go into this saying, okay, let me see
what I think he wants me to do. Because again,
you've activated your desire to control. And
instead say, Lord, would you move me? Would you
shape me according to your word in this space?
God, we turn our attention once again to you,
our good shepherd. Jesus, you came and you identified
yourself as the good shepherd, one who would
lay down his very life for the sheep. And you
did it. And then you rose victoriously, not only
as the lamb, but the lion. And you hold all power
and control and authority. And so, yes, this
life is filled with all kinds of experiences
as the Psalms declare. And so we cling to you
and we ask that we would be aware of your presence
restoring us again and again and again. And that
we would turn each day in that way to say, Lord,
I'm here again. Have your way with me. Shape
me, form me. You're the shepherd and I'm the
sheep. Do your work, your good work. And we can
rest assured, as we proclaimed in song earlier,
that he who began a good work in us will take
it to a point of completion. And so for myself,
for my brothers and sisters here today, for anyone
listening online or for those who will join in
later, we ask that you would continue to shape
and form us, and we know that you will do so
through the power of your Holy Spirit, forming
us to be like Christ. Thank you for being a shepherd
that we can trust with our very being. We love
you, God. In Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for
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