Psalm 23: 2
Green Pastures and Still Waters

I speak to that subject today.  It is not to lessen cross-bearing:  "If anyone would be my disciple, let him take up his cross and follow me," Jesus said.  And let no one think it is not real and serious in its demands. Many of the first generation of disciples died as martyrs with this in mind.  It is true that the crucifixion motif is figurative, (or usually so).  But it is real.  But at the same time as this cross-bearing is going on, such things as are well described as "green pastures" and "still waters" are going on.  What I am speaking about today is a counterpoint to the cross-bearing.  And just as is the case of counterpoint in music -- a second melody going on at the same time as the primary one -- and the two things put together make up the music -- so these two things make up the Christian life.  If you were not here Sunday, you might want to call up the sermon from our web site theuniverssitychurch.org.

My plan this morning is to survey the areas in which God leads us as his sheep to "green pastures" and "beside still waters." 

I.  ONE OF THOSE AREAS IS THE LIMITED WAY THAT THE LORD MITIGATES OUR BURDEN OF CROSS-BEARING BY MAKING OUR LIFE PHYSICALLY COMFORTABLE.

1. He does this at some places and times more than at others.  We Americans, in contrast to our brother-Christians in many, many other places on the earth and other times in history, have been greatly blessed with economic and physical blessings from God.  In areas of health, climate, stable government, personal security, varieties and safety of food, convenience, technology and in a thousand and one other ways he has blessed us by our being born here and now in history.  If you don't believe this, you need to take a walking vacation in some underdeveloped country to see what life is like or even read a book about life in ancient times or even about life a hundred years ago.

2. But we must attempt to hold many of these things lightly, for we have no guarantee that cross-bearing may not call us to a much more severe and sacrificial life at any time.  The choice is God's, as far as we are concerned if we are Christ's disciples.

Does this strike you as something you "signed up" for when you became a disciple of Jesus?  Do you see some serious demands of the gospel on your life that are, figuratively, like a cross for you to bear?  And in the midst of all of this, don't you see how God has been merciful to you in helping you in the difficulties of life as a mitigation of the potentially overwhelming demands of discipleship?  Then give thanks to God for his mercy!

II. AND THE SUPPORT AND LOVE OF FAMILY, FRIENDS AND THE LOCAL CHURCH IS CERTAINLY ONE OF THE THINGS THAT ARE LIKE GREEN PASTURES AND STILL WATERS AND WHICH ENCOURAGE US IN THE MIDST OF OUR DISCIPLESHIP.

1. God intends for us to be a communal people.  You may not have many personal friends in such a mobile society as ours; And you may not have any family; But you should always have the local church, which is a spiritual family.

2. They are an enormous blessing in times of "cross-bearing" to have the remembered presence or actual presence of those we love in the time of trouble.  Hundreds of examples could be remembered by the people here this morning.

We should continually look for ways in our church to enhance this ministry of God.  It is one of the ways a small congregation is immeasurably better than one that is trying to win the title of the biggest church in the city, state or world and where the people wear name tags.  Let us be a place of green pastures and of still waters where God's sheep are able to drink.

III. A THIRD AREA THAT IS A COUNTERPOINT TO CROSS-BEARING IS THE MANY WAYS IN WHICH WE ARE FREED UP BY GOD'S WORK OF SALVATION TO FULFILL THE ORIGINAL IMAGE OF GOD IN OUR LIVES.

1. This happens in human relations with those we love.  We are given the ability to love others and to control our vices. 

2. It happens, also, in our attaining a cultural level and sophistication in cultural things that we would never have attained had we not known Christ.  Particularly, as I speak to a congregation who are most all college or university educated people (or will be some day) this is prominent.  When you look around and see the barbarism and lack of any decent cultural awareness on the part of university students you realize that civilization is in short supply in the present generation even though, ostensibly, it is the most educated generation in history.

Take note; I do not equate sanctification with education and cultural sophistication.  But sanctification evidently raises the cultural level of those in whom it works.  And many of us have discovered that one's Christian faith and the healing of the Holy Spirit enhances mere education.  And we see it dramatically when we look at "the rock out of which we were hewn."  We see all around us x rated movies, comic book art, grunge music, ugly architecture, plastic lifestyle, 800 word vocabulary and the like.  And we see this in a university community.  Yet we are conscious that God has enabled us to attain a significantly higher cultural level.

3. God's people can rise above their native culture.  You can see it in history; you can see it in a world survey; you can see it in your own life.  This appreciation of the finer things of human culture is often a result of our Christian faith -- a "by product" you might say.  And we enjoy all this even in the midst of a cross-bearing life.  We bear our cross as it has been given to us.  But we are not ascetics.  God enables us to grow as human beings in the midst of cross-bearing.

1. We must not forget these: Such things as the knowledge of the forgiveness of sins and the peace of conscience that it brings; a method of settling judicial sinfulness (by our justification), -- of settling day by day sinfulness (in simple prayers of confession to a God who has become our Father instead of our judge); the knowledge that there is some point to our lives because the Holy Spirit is bringing it all to a purposeful conclusion; and the peace that it brings to our hearts and minds.

2. God's grace in the Christian life helps us avoid much of the misery that is a comeuppance for personal sin in the life of the individual who committed it.  God has no doubt given us grace in that matter.  And this too is a result of our faith and a part of this counterpoint to cross-bearing.

1. We, in the midst of some aspect of cross-bearing, remind ourselves that God has an ultimate reward for any aspect of cross-bearing we have been called to endure.  We are taught that every negative thing God is pleased to lay upon us will be rewarded with a blessing that is simply immeasurable in comparison to the hurt or burden.  This has been of great comfort to countless numbers of people who have suffered greatly but also to people who have simply not succeeded greatly or those who feel there is no meaning to their life.

2. We are taught to imitate our dear Lord Jesus Christ "who for the glory of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame."  The sense of "despising" in this case is being contemptuous of it -- as if to dismiss it as nothing.  The negatives of cross bearing are nothing! -- they are things to be dismissed as nothing -- in comparison to the "glory that shall be revealed" in  recompense for our bearing the cross God lays upon us. And the sense of many Biblical passages that speak about this in one way or another is that there will never be one thing we have suffered or endured for Christ that we will ever -- in the slightest degree -- seem not to be rewarded.  The reward will never be a disappointment.  We will never say, "Is this all?"  "Is this all I am going to get for the thing that burdened and ruined my life for 10 or 20 or 40 years?"

This is a counterpoint to the motif of "taking up the cross and following Jesus" as he took up his. In any particular life one or the other might seem more prominent.  But both are present. And these blessings are counterpoints to the cross-bearing.  This whole Psalm in many ways talks about this counterpoint of the joy of the Lord; the blessing of God upon his people, the sense that God's hand is upon them.  Hear the Word of the Lord:
                                                           "23: 1-6"