Psalm 23, Part I
The Shepherd Leads His Sheep

Today I speak about how the Shepherd leads his sheep in amoral, behavioral and environmental sense. I will avoid the pressing and significant matter of guidance about personal decisions that must be decided either/or, yes or no so that I can treat the subject in detail next week. And I ask the discussion group to save that subject till next week also.

How does the Shepherd lead us, his sheep, in paths of righteousness? How is his rod and staff with us as we walk through the valley? How does he lead us? I believe that there are 4 ways he does so. Remember now, I am saving the subject of finding the will of God when it comes down to the point where you have to make a decision -whether you should quit your job and take up butterfly collecting, or buy a new Mercedes Sport Utility Vehicle that they are going to bring out, or start yet one more rock band in the city of Athens. I am speaking this morning, rather, about how you discover the Lord's will in a more general sense.

I. THE FIRST OF THE FOUR WAYS IS, OF COURSE, BY OUR TAKING HEED TO HIS COMMANDMENTS.

1. Some of them are very clear -- "perspicuous" is the word. Such things as the 10 commandments are basically clear, even though such clear statements of the will of God need some application on the edges of their meaning. E.g. How to keep the Sabbath; What does honoring your parents involve; What is stealing when it comes to murky areas such as gambling or excessive profit or high pressure sales? But the vast majority of the hundreds of commandments give us guidance as to the nature of God's will and are perspicuous.

2. As for the problem of how to apply the specific commandments, we have the benefit of the Christian community. I do not so much refer to your listening to my advice on how these apply but to the whole segment of the body of teaching that you have come to trust with its body of commentaries, theology and ethical treatises which have led the church from time in memorium.

I say "the teaching you can trust," because if you are determined to do what you want to do and not what God commands you to do, you can certainly find books and teachers and counselors to help you.

Is the experience of regulating your life by God's commands a familiar one to you? How many times in the past week have you done something or not done something simply because of the commandment of God?

II. THE SECOND WAY GOD LEADS US IS BY PRECEPT.

1. By "precept" I refer not to specific commandments such as "love your neighbor", "forsake not the assembling of yourselves together", "be filled with the Spirit," but principles of the Word that are clearly incumbent upon us as Christians.

And these principles are often not just about moral matters but are about the details of our daily life. "Do all you do for the glory of God"; "take up the cross daily and follow (the Lord Jesus)"; be a useful citizen in society at large and a generous, encouraging person in Christ's church; do what enhances the spread of the gospel; behave in a loving and kind manner before the watching world.

2. The Bible is filled with wisdom and principles having to do with daily life. And sermons, classes, discussion groups, personal counsel from other Christians make them evident and help to incorporate them into life.

Are you a maturing Christian? Can you see a depth to your understanding of Christian behavior that you did not have a year ago or -- in the case of those who have been Christians for a long time -- that you did not have 10 years ago? Are you growing in the Word and its application to life? Is your status as a Christian whole-hearted and whole-life in its quality?

III. THE THIRD WAY GOD LEADS US IS BY THE EXAMPLE AND ADVICE OF OTHER CHRISTIANS.

1. This is why the community to which you commit yourself is so strategic. It is said, "If you lay down with the dogs, you'll get up with the fleas." You need the continuing relationship with godly Christians who you think have their heads screwed on correctly. Of course you don't take their lifestyle as infallible but it is a supplement. Experience shows that time and time again a Christian's sanctification is strongly influenced by the Christians with whom he associates.

And I should add that this is just another reason to be serious about your own Christian life. Your life is a ministry to those with whom you are in fellowship. Your life has a serious impact on the other people in the community. When you fail it hurts the whole body.

2. And added to this is the example of the first Christians whose lives are recorded in the N.T. Of course we take care not to pattern our lives after the aberration of the Galatians or the Corinthians but after the wonderful saints in Philippi, Colossae, Thessalonica, and Rome and after those wonderful, godly saints Timothy, Titus, Philemon and his wife Aphia, Lydia and a score of others who are well known to us.

3. I say not only the "example" of other Christians but also the advice. Proverbs says "In the abundance of counselors there is safety." (Proverbs 11: 14) Christian friends are, of course, not infallible (and may not even be useful unless you pick them well) but God intended that Christianity be a connectional religion with not just an individual relating to his God but with the lives of Christians interconnected, helping the individual to find the will of God.

IV. THE FOURTH WAY THAT GOD LEADS US IS BY UNAVOIDABLE CIRCUMSTANCES.

1. He is sovereign in the history surrounding our lives and whether your life is burdened with unavoidable pain, bad health, a conflicting family situation, economic hardship or personal gifts that are restricted, you have a fairly unquestionable indication of the leading of the Lord.

2. I am struck with how often Christians are determined to reverse the irreversible in their lives rather than simply saying "The will of the Lord be done" in circumstances or conditions that cannot be changed.

In some cases they are embittered about the "bad deal" they have gotten because they have been poorly taught as to the nature of the Christian life and so they go from teacher to teacher trying to find someone who will miraculously deliver them from what is surely the will of God.

And, as always, I am quick to urge you to not be entirely passive in this. The Biblical approach is always to try to avoid what we perceive as negative. Pray about it! Ask for deliverance! Take steps to eliminate it from our lives--But then, when it is obvious that the negative thing is indeed the will of God for our lives -- then we pray for grace and pray that God will help us to see the purpose for this or that "thorn in he flesh" that afflicts our lives as it did the Apostle Paul's.

Do you indeed sense the leading of the Lord in the circumstances of your life? Can you point to several circumstances in your life where the Shepherd led your life by the imposition of unalterable negative circumstances? (I can think of numerous instances of this in my own life. At the time the circumstances were very burdensome and unhappy. But now, as I look back, they were the wonderful instruments of God's eventual blessing.)

Give thanks to him, for even if you do not know the reason for the negative things in your life, he is the good Shepherd who "makes (you) to lie down in green pastures" and "leads (you) by the still waters and restores (your) soul." "Goodness and mercy will follow (you) all the days of (your) life and (you) will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

There are many metaphorical pictures of God in the Bible but this one is especially dear to the Christian's heart. The Lord, the Triune God, is our shepherd. As incredible as it might seem -- given the sheer immensity and complexity of the universe and the great number of believers in the world alive at the same time -- as incredible as it may seem, the Lord is our Shepherd and guides our lives taking them through green pastures and beside still waters and sometimes even through the valley of the shadow of death, blessing us, protecting us, using us for his glory, and, especially, preparing us for our eternal habitation where we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Are you aware -- are you taking comfort in the inexpressible blessedness of the knowledge that this is so?

He leads me ! ("v. 1-3") He leads me! Thank God, he leads me! Thank God that I don't have to live my life like the lost and stupid sheep all around me in the world but that there is a Shepherd who leads me.