Now for us to say the Lord is my shepherd, what do you and I have
to 1st admit? That we are sheep.
Sheep. And what is it that sheep are
really, really well known for? Wondering.
That's one. Yeah.
Anything else? The grass.
Thank you. Yeah.
Anything else? Water.
Anything else? You've still not got the thing
I'm thinking of getting lost. Stupid sheep are well known for
being stupid. And it's true, isn't it?
No creature will lose itself quicker than a sheep.
The sheep will leave the lush green grass and it'll walk
straight into the wolf's den. Just like that hymn that I I
didn't pick it, but it was picked providentially.
That they're prone to wander, aren't they?
They? They wander.
And the fact is this, without a shepherd, the sheep simply would
not survive. Have you ever heard this before?
In society we're often told don't be a sheep.
Have you heard that before? Whatever you do, don't be a
sheep, don't be a follower. And yet the Christian must.
He must follow his Saviour. So before I give you my sort of
three headings for today, could I be a little bit personal with
you? 2020's not been an easy year for
us, has it? It's been tough, it's been a
hard year. And there's a man who's
particularly dear to me, the man who discipled me, a man called
Vinny Commons. And after I got saved, he took
me under his wing and he taught me how to open air preach.
He cared for me, looked after me, a lovely man, 61 years old,
but he never married. And last week we were on Zoom, a
few of us evangelical workers, we were on Zoom having a chat,
talking about different things. And there was also another young
man who was also single and lived on his own.
And Vinny asked the young man, He said, how are you finding
this lockdown? And he said, I'm finding it
tough. And he said, do people ever ring
you? And the young man said, no, I
have to call them so that I don't feel lonely.
And then Vinny said, you know, sometimes you do have to take
your own medicine. And I wonder now if there's
someone in this room perhaps, who feels like that.
You feel very, very lonely. Perhaps there's someone in this
room and maybe you're a bit like me.
You've been quite anxious. You hear what the media is
saying, you hear what everyone's saying, and you've got a bit
panicky and mental health might be an issue.
Perhaps that's someone here. Perhaps as as Tim was saying
before, perhaps there's someone who struggles with besetting
sin, who lives in besetting sin and this lockdown has been
poison for you. Well, I just hope that today
Psalm 23 can touch us, can speak to us and can restore us.
So I'm going to split it up into three chunks.
The first one is the Christians wants.
Firstly, the Christians wants. Secondly, the Christians
restoration and thirdly and finally, the Christians shadow.
OK, firstly, the Christians wants sweep over to verse one
with me. It says the Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want. Can I ask you a big question
now? Are you content with your life?
Like are you really, really content with your life?
If everything was stripped away and you were left with just
Jesus Christ, would he be enough?
Is the Lord Jesus enough? Or is it, if I get this sorted,
OK, then I'm happy, if that, and then Jesus.
And everything's so big, but God is so small in your life.
You see, when a man or a woman comes to Christ, there's a sort
of stillness that falls on their life with the Lord Jesus Christ.
He leads them to those still waters.
And you know what I'm talking about, don't you?
When you first got saved, there was a joy there, there was an
excitement. You just wanted to have a bag
full of tracks. You wanted to go out, you wanted
the whole world to know about Jesus Christ.
And then what happened? Life happened.
You got older, you got busy, and suddenly those still waters have
now become so restless and dare I say, muddy?
Wouldn't it be beautiful if we became so reliant on God that
when we pray the Lord's Prayer, when we say give us this day Our
Daily Bread, we believed that the very hand of God came out of
heaven and fed us that bread straight away into our hand.
Wouldn't that make the bread taste a little bit sweeter?
I'm going to say something that might shock some of you now.
Are you ready for it? But did you know this?
You provide absolutely nothing for yourself. 0 Nothing.
And the school of life teaches us that, doesn't it?
Sometimes we can be sailing that boat to success and then
something like COVID-19 comes along and shows us just how
fragile we are. Sometimes we're just living our
life and one phone call can show us just how weak we are, just
how much we need the saviour. Here's something else a little
bit controversial. Sometimes I think it can be good
for us to be taken out of that lush green pasture.
Sometimes it can be good for God, if you like, to inject a
bit of suffering into our lives. If we're fed every single day
without a pinch of anxiety, we soon forget the shepherd.
We become expectant, we become entitled, and we think all these
things that we have, they're our rights rather than our gifts.
In a moment's time, I'm going to ask you to raise your hand.
I'm going to ask you to do a vote.
I want to ask you, do you think there are more Christians in
Ethiopia or more Christians in Hollywood?
OK, so over to you. Raise your hand if you think
there are more Christians in Ethiopia.
Raise your hand if you think there are more Christians in
Hollywood's. Put your hand up if you think
this is a trick question. Let me tell you, I think, I'm
not saying everyone in Ethiopia is born again by any means, but
I think there are more Christians in Ethiopia.
Why is that? We go down to Hollywood Blvd.
and we see those brats, dare I say, who have iPads, who have
everything they need and they're miserable, they're spoilt,
they're unhappy. But you go to a third world
country and you give a child a yoghurt pot and their face
lights up with joy. And it's that same kind of idea
that that God allows these things to happen to us to show
us that we need Him. When we've got everything that
we need, we become so proud and ignorant of the fact of just.
We're just dust and ashes. And sometimes I think there's a
reason why God withholds a dream from us.
The Bible says he will supply our every need, not our every
lust nor every craving, our every need.
And sometimes God knows that at the moment it's not right for me
to have this thing in my life. Let me quote some some men on
this theme of contentment. Thomas Carl once said abundance,
like want, ruins men. Another man said this.
For every 100 men who can stand adversity, there is only one man
who can withstand prosperity. And Charles Spurgeon, the Prince
of Preachers, once said this, If you are not content with what
you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled.
So let all of our selfish, vain ambitions die and let us trust
on the sovereign Shepherd who says, I'll give you just what
you need, all that you need, I'll give it to you.
And let's trust that whatever is in our life, whatever's in our
path, He's given it for us and we should rely on him alone.
OK. Secondly, the Christian's
restoration, trot over to verse three with me.
It says he restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of
righteousness for His name's sake.
Do you notice there's something there?
It says he restores my soul. It's not another.
It's only he. It's only the Lord God who can
restore your soul. There's something I passionately
believe pretty much more than anything else, and it's this.
Our hearts were designed to worship.
If we plunge right now into the jungles of Papua New Guinea,
we'll find a tribe and they'll be worshipping something.
We go, and I don't know who you support, whether you're Man
United or Manchester City, but we go to a football match and we
see all of these big burly men. What are they doing?
They're worshipping, aren't they?
And yet let's stand in the Lake District.
Let's go onto the side of the Lake District, and let's stand
on a mountain. And we look at all these vast,
vast mountains and we feel so very, very small.
And those mountains feel so very, very big.
And it feels amazing. Why is that?
Because you and I were designed to worship a God.
A God who is so big that the universe can't contain him.
And yet what do we do? We like to make ourselves feel
really, really big and everyone else feel small and it makes us
so very miserable. So what am I trying to say to
you? Because our hearts are designed
to worship, they will actively, automatically run to worship
something else. So if you're not actively trying
to to worship Christ, if you're not actively trying to fill
yourself up with the good things with worship in the Lord Jesus
Christ, your heart which is designed to worship will
automatically run to another poison.
Whether that be the praise of man, whether that be the
luxuries of life, whether that be a sin, it will run to
something else. And just look at the world
around us. We've got a world who is doing
that. There's millions who self
medicate themselves on holidays, on self help schemes, on gym, on
comedy, on alcohol. But the Bible says it is only he
who can restore the years which the locusts have eaten.
And the disturbing reality is this.
We're either fascinated with Christ's Kingdom or the devil's
Kingdom. There's no middle grounds.
There's no halfway house. It's either darkness or light.
It's either him or the devil. It's either we put our faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, we repent, we turn of our sins, or
we go the way of the devil and follow after the Father of lies.
I hope I don't sound harsh at any point this afternoon.
You do know the man who's standing in front of you is a
Sinner. And I wonder if I ask you this
question, since you have come to the Lord Jesus Christ, is there
anyone here today who's failed their Saviour?
Is there anyone here today who who's made a mess since you've
become a Christian? What do we do if we fail God,
not just once, not twice, but we fail Him often?
What happens then? Let me tell you this.
In the whole history of sheep and shepherds, has there ever
been a sheep which was murdered when it was stood by the
shepherd's side? Has there ever been a wolf
that's managed to catch a sheep when it's been stood by the
shepherd's side? No, and likewise, there's never
been a St. who has been hardened by the devil's schemes when he
has been stood by the Saviour's side.
So if you wrestle, if you struggle with sin, do you know
what the answer is? Deeper fellowship with the Lord
Jesus Christ. I'm kind of glad that my wife's
not here today because I can let you into a few secrets about my
wife. OK, so between you and me, let
me tell you something about my wife.
My wife loves chocolate. Is there any other women in the
room here? I'm not going to.
I'm not going to go there. But my wife loves chocolate.
And if you go into our house, you'll notice that pretty much
everywhere you go, there'll be chocolate.
You open one drawer and there's a big Dairy Milk bar.
You open another, buttons full on.
You Skittles. Everywhere you go, there's
chocolate. There's sweet stuff.
I'm exaggerating a little bit, but me, myself and I, I'm not
the biggest guy who likes sweet stuff because it's always in
front of me. I'll find myself eating a Galaxy
bar. I'll find myself eating
chocolate. But here's what's very
interesting. When we filled our house up with
lettuce, with cucumbers, with pumpkin seeds, with all those
sorts of boring things that are good for you, fruits and
vegetables, When we filled the house up with those things and I
started to eat them things, suddenly I didn't have the room
anymore for those nasty things. And likewise, I'd like to say
this to you, my dear brother, my dear sister, if you fill
yourselves up with the good things, with prayer, with
fasting, with reading the Word of God, with evangelism, with
church fellowship, if you fill yourself up with those things,
suddenly you won't have the same room anymore for those sins, for
those temptations which can so easily get a grip of us.
I believe you. You know, my former pastor, some
of you might, because I think he preached this church in
February, a man called David White.
Do you know him? Yeah, David White's actually the
man who led me to the Lord's. And I remember when I first got
saved, around 1819 years old, I went up to David White and I
said to him, I'm really struggling with a sin and I just
can't get free from it. And I'm starting to doubt, am I
even saved? Does God love me?
What do I do? This is what he said to me.
Joe, when you were a child, do you remember those little
ladybird books that had a little ladybird on the spine?
Do you remember those books? Well, those books had a motto in
them and it was this. Every day is a new page.
And that's how the Christian
should live his life. So today, Lord, I've failed you.
Today, Lord, I've made a mess. But tomorrow is a new page.
So if that's you and you failed the Lord, perhaps you have
you've had an argument with your wife, perhaps you are that
you've struggled with a sin, come back to the Saviour,
repent, turn from your sins. As Tim said very powerfully, the
Lord will chastise the sons that he loves.
And if you're going to wonder if you are truly born again, God
will bring hard things into your life.
Bad things will come to you. But any of you, I see a lot of
children, any of you are parents in this room, you would do the
same thing to make sure that you would bring your children back
to that place of righteousness. And so our Heavenly Father who
loves us, he will sometimes bring things into our lives.
But that's a good thing. And don't despise the, the
chastisement of the Lord. So if there is anyone wondering
today, I just plead with you, come back, come back to the Lord
Jesus Christ, the gentle Saviour.
He's the doctor, but he's also the medicine.
OK, my third and final sort of chunks sort of heading.
Is this the Christian's shadow? OK, check out verse four with
me. It says this.
Yeah. Though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with
me. Your rod and your staff, they
comfort me. Now, I don't know Hebrew, but I
did a little bit of research and if you look into the word the
shadow of death, it can be translated to mean the shades of
death. And I find that quite eerie, the
shades of death. But remember, it's only a shadow
for the believer. Now suppose that I pull out a
sword now, OK. And suppose the sword falls on
Tim. OK, Will the the shadow of the
sword. Suppose the shadow of the the
sword falls on Tim. Will Tim die from the shadow?
No, he won't. Let's let's go to America.
Suppose I, I pull out a rifle and and the shadow of the rifle
falls on I don't know everyone's name on Paul's.
Will the shadow kill Paul? It won't, Will it?
And likewise with Christ. The sting of death has been
removed. It's only the shadow which
remains. But that doesn't make walking
through the valley of the shadow of death a bed of roses.
Have you ever been in a cave before that's so black that you
can't even see your hand in front of your face?
Have you been there before? Well, that's what death is like.
It's dark, it's gloomy. The very shadow chills the
heart. When a man or woman is in
darkness, there's no hope, just darkness, No peace, just
darkness, No sun, just darkness. Anxiety is their friend and
sorrow is their companion. And all day long, these shivers,
these chills of death, follow them around.
And then we start to warm up again.
And just when you think everything's OK, the chills
return. Some of you have got no idea
what I'm talking about, have you?
But others of you, I'm describing your life.
If you know nothing of this gloom, praise the Lord today.
Laugh, rejoice, be silly whilst you can, because there are some
of God's people who've forgotten what it is to laugh.
We've forgotten what it is to smile.
Oh, how we need to pray for those who are plagued with a
restless mind. You see, God's in his kindness
has given you a mind at ease. But your sister carries a cross.
Some of the best Saints, some of the most godliest Saints, they
walk through that valley of of death.
They, they struggled with darkness, with depression.
I mentioned Spurgeon earlier, Charles Spurgeon, when he would
preach, literally thousands of people would come to hear and
preach. And these pranksters, they, they
got wind of it and they snuck into his church and they stood
at the back and they shout at the top of their voices.
Fire, fire. So all the people that like,
they bolted for the doors trying to get out and there was a
crush. And that day, seven people died.
And for the rest of his life, Charles Spurgeon carried this
darkness. He felt this guilt that it was
his fault that these people had died.
David, the man who wrote this Psalm, he said this, my eye is
wasting away with grief. He also said this, you, Lord,
have collected my tears in a bottle.
And some of you might say, well, there's not a bottle big enough
to to carry the tears I've cried in my life.
Job said this. I have one request.
Crush me. God.
The prophet Elijah was also suicidal.
He said it is enough now, Lord, take away my life.
And that's just the men. Have you heard of Doctor Helen
Roseveer? You heard of her one one day,
she was she one night, in fact, she was working away in Africa.
And these Congolese soldiers, they snuck into her house and
they abused her, they beat her, they terrorized her.
And because of her wound, she actually got breast cancer later
on in life. And she walked that darkness for
the rest of her days. And then we've got Hannah.
In the Bible, Hannah was barren. And then let me ask you this, do
you remember Mary Magdalene? When Mary Magdalene fell at the
feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and she started to cry and she
washed Christ's feet with her hair and her tears, do you think
those tears were tears of joy or do you think they were tears of
brokenness? That here in front of her was
perhaps the only man that has ever respected her in her life?
Suffering Christian remember this the the some of the
greatest Saints have ABS sailed through that valley of the
shadow of death, but they still left their mark on the world.
Why? Because the Man of Sorrows, who
is acquainted with grief, was their guide.
Remember this, it says. Here it says, though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death.
You might have just been diagnosed with a terminal
illness, but you've still got to keep walking.
Your home life might be falling to pieces, but you've still got
to keep walking. Every single dream which you
once had might have been snatched from you.
It might be gone, but you still have to keep walking.
Why? Because lying down the feet in
the valley, that won't save you self pity.
That never did anyone any good. No, you need to keep walking.
But you might be thinking, but Joe, I can't.
You don't realise how much I'm struggling.
I, I don't feel like I can keep going anymore.
Well, to you, I'd say this. Just take one step at a time.
One step. But the Valley's deep.
It's long. It's what goodwill one step do.
Well, let me ask you this. The Notre Dame Cathedral was
built just one brick at a time. The Leaning Tower of Pisa was
built just one brick at a time. So just take one step at a time.
Keep your eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ and He will get you
through that valley. But again, note it does say he
walks the man of God, the woman of God, she doesn't run through
the valley of shadow of death. They don't Sprint through the
valley of the shadow of death. They walk, they quietly endure
the trial that the Lord God has put in their life.
The same God who has given all the good things has also allowed
this trial to enter sovereignly into our lives.
Am I the only one who's thinking this?
You're hearing the whisperings on the news.
In March, the lockdown will be over and we start to get, I
can't wait. I just can't wait for March to
come. I can't wait to do it.
And we rush. We rush it, but we need to
remember that God in his sovereignty is allowing these
things to happen. And we mustn't rush the lectures
of God, because when we finish we will get a PhD in suffering,
which is better than anything you'll get at Harvard, better
than anything you'll get at Manchester University, Oxford,
because it's come from gods. The poet Robert Browning
Hamilton once wrote this. I walked a mile with pleasure.
She chatted all the way, but left me none the wiser for all
she had to say. I walked a mile with sorrow and
never a word said she. But oh, the things I learned
from her when sorrow walked with me.
Above all, remember this when we get there, when we get to
heaven, will there be any shadows in glory?
No, because the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ will shine far
too brightly for there to be any shadows in heaven.
Like the children's hymn goes, shine, Jesus shine and he will
shine. He'll shine so brightly.
Can I ask you another question? If tonight was your last night
on planet earth, do you know that you would be going to
heaven? Do you know that heaven is
assured for you? If you have not yet come to the
Lord Jesus Christ? You know what he once said.
I am the Good Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd lays down his life
for the sheep. Are you one of His sheep?
If today you can see the Son of God bleeding, dying, hanging on
a cross for your lies, your blasphemy, your sex outside of
marriage, your lust, your pride, all, if you can see him there,
bleed in there crucified, breathing his last breath, don't
look the other way. If today, this very day, God has
granted you this heart of repentance, where you think,
Lord God, I can see that the Son of God rose from the dead.
I know He rose from the dead so that he might grant me eternal
life. And if today you can hear him
knocking on the door of your heart, I plead with you, do not
close the door in his face. Turn to the Saviour.
Repent. Turn from all your wasteful
ways. It's none of it is worth it
compared to knowing the Lord Jesus Christ, compared to
knowing the Saviour as your Lord and Saviour.
Let me leave you with one final thought.
Is there anyone here today who's ever been to an after dinner
speech? Just raise your hands.
Yeah. Oh, a couple of you.
I didn't think you look particularly cultured, but maybe
you are. So there's a few of you have.
OK, well, let me tell you about an afternoon speech that
happened one night where there was a Shakespearean actor.
And they they asked the Shakespearean actor to do all
these different requests. And at the end of the night, he
said, I've got time for just one more request.
Does anyone have one more request that they'd like me to
to say as I finished the night off?
And this old dodering minister, about 80 years old, stood up and
said, excuse me, Mr. Actor, do you know Psalm 23?
And the actor said, yes, I do. And he said, would you mind
reciting that for us? He said, yes, I will, but under
one condition, that after I recite Psalm 23, well, you, Mr.
Minister, you also must recite the Psalm.
So the minister agreed. Anyway, away went the the
Shakespeare enactor. He he recited it with colour,
with diction, with charisma. When he finished, everyone stood
up and gave him a standing ovation.
And then he looked into the crowds and he found that that
old doddering minister. And he winked at him.
It's your turn now. The minister stood up.
He needed a chair to sort of steady himself, and he
stammered, and he stuttered his way through the Psalm.
When he finished, the sound of clapping wasn't heard, but the
sound of weeping was. And when everything died down,
the actor stood up again. And he said this.
Now do you see why I asked the minister to go after me?
I know the Psalm, but He knows the Shepherd.
I know the Psalm, but He knows the shepherds.
My dear friends, do you know the shepherds?
Can you say the Lord is my shepherd?
I shall not want. If there's anyone here today,
you can't say that. I plead with you.
Come to the gentle arms of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He loves you, He died for you, and He wants you to come to Him.