Still Leading - With Special Guest Kristen Harlin

Psalm 23 declares that "The Lord is my shepherd" in present tense, meaning God actively leads us right now through life's complexities. None of us have everything figured out, whether we're children, parents, or retirees - we're all making educated guesses while trying to balance work, relationships, and daily challenges. The story of the man born blind in John 9 shows how Jesus sees us as people, not problems, and how faith grows through experience from curiosity to worship. Sometimes God makes us slow down in green pastures because we won't do it ourselves, filling every hour until we're exhausted in ways sleep can't fix. Through sanctifying grace, God continues shaping us after we come to faith, teaching us to listen more closely and follow more faithfully as we grow little by little.

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Transcript

Good morning. How is everyone?

Well, we are in Lent and so it's a time of reflection and a time of kind of seeing and following Jesus to the cross before we get there. So have you ever sat back and reflected just a little on your life and noticed the changes that have taken place? So I have returned actually a few times to where I grew up in the past couple weeks. And people like to tell stories. And some of mine are funny, embarrassing, and some I cannot believe I was ever the person that I was growing up.

I grew up in a small rural area in Oklahoma. I was First Spirit. I was fearless and I was very outgoing. I had never met a stranger. You could say my report card had good grades, but it generally had the words talk too much also written on my report card, jokes on my teachers.

I now get paid to talk in front of people. I would also try anything once. When I would try to do anything sticky, I would get caught. So I learned to tell the truth. And if I was going to do something, there was going to be consequences.

But I was the child that would weigh to see if the consequences were worth go ahead and doing it anyways.

Generally it would lead me to weighing. The punishment was actually not quite as bad as getting to do what I thought might be that amazing or that awesome idea. The older I am, the less and less I am like that little girl. I have moments of being a free spirit, but I would not describe myself as fearless, outgoing, and I'm not near as social as I used to be. Over time I have changed.

I have learned to try to do the right thing and try to avoid consequences that may be negative or those bad decisions. I can say this as I've changed that I've grown up and I've had to mature, I can also look back over my life and see that I was never alone, even on the darkest days, even in those really fun and dangerous moments. Before my executive function kicked in, I had a shepherd walking alongside me. Today we are talking about two scriptures that many of us know well. One is probably the most familiar passage in the entire Bible, Psalm 23.

The other is a powerful story from the Gospel of John about a man born blind. And when we read them together during Lent, they remind us of something important. Following Jesus is not a moment. It's a journey. It starts at birth and continue all of the days of our life while we're here on Earth.

It's a life of being led. Because if we're honest, none of us have everything figured out. Not kids, not teenagers, not Parents juggling the crazy schedules. Not adults as we just try to navigate. Not even as retirees that have decades of faith behind them.

And certainly not me. We're still here, learning, still growing, and still being led. Psalm 23 begins with a simple statement. The Lord is my shepherd. Not, was, not, might be, is.

And that matters because this psalm is not describing a hope or a maybe. It's a describing a relationship. In today, the Lord is my shepherd right here and right now. As a mom and a wife and someone who spends my work days walking alongside people through difficult times, that present tense definitely matters to me. Because life rarely pauses long enough for us to say, now everything is perfect.

I wish my parents would have actually warned me about that. Life is not as simple as all the adults have made it seem to be over life. When I was younger, it seemed like adults. They had it all together. Then, as I am adult, I have figured it out.

This is what I have figured out. It's a lot of juggling educated guesses and dealing with others who are trying to do the same. Well, we are all trying to drink enough water.

We are all juggling family, career, church activities, laundry, bills, dishes, dogs, cats, exercise. But did you drink enough water? It's eating what the current healthy things are. Keto, paleo, Mediterranean. Wait a minute.

Did you drink enough water? And somewhere in the middle of all that, we are trying to stay connected to God and yes, even drink enough water. Psalm 23 reminds us that faith is not about reaching a place where we finally have life under control. Maybe whenever life is not in order, but he will lead us. Faith is about trusting the one who walks with us through it all, leading the way when we listen.

And guess what? Even whenever you don't drink enough water. Often this psalm is read at funerals or referred to as the funeral Psalm. But there's so much life. It gives us hope for the present day.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. Sometimes God has to make us slow down, because I know I don't slow down myself. I run metaphorically and literally. I fill every hour.

I say yes to too many things and I get tired. I know I am not alone, because I hear many of us say that we are exhausted and we are tired. We are tired in ways that sleep can't fix. But that's this part of the church calendar. It gives us seasons like this, like Lent.

Lent is a time when we slow down. It's a time to reflect. It's a time to return to God because transformation rarely happens while we're extremely busy. It is a scheduled time of year for each of us to stop and to reflect and to rely on God. The psalm continues, he leads me beside still waters.

Notice the movement The Lord is He makes. He leads. Faith does not stop it's constant movement. God is always leading us somewhere. And 23 continues.

He restores my soul. Restoration means more than comfort. It means being made whole again. He leads me in right paths for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil, for you are with me.

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Not only is he walking through it with us, he is helping to guide us and to comfort us. 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 my whole life long. He chased us before we knew who he was. He accepted us and forgave us when we learned who he was and and he walked alongside us for our entire life. This is what Matt was telling us last week, using those words of provenience, justifying and sanctifying grace.

The Lord is my shepherd means we are not walking alone. Even when the path is unclear, even when the path feels dark, even when faith feels difficult, the shepherd is still leading, still guiding, and still restoring. And during Lent, we're invited into that relationship even more. Our second Bible reading from today tells us about Jesus shepherding a blind man. And before we get started, it is 41 verses in the lectionary this week.

So we're going to do some reading and I promise we will not be here all afternoon. But in John 9 it starts like this. As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, rabbi, who sinned this man or his parents? But he was born blind.

Jesus answered, neither this man nor his parents sinned. He was born blind so that God's work might be revealed in him. So let's take a moment to pause in those first three verses. The disciples immediately want this situation explained, while Jesus does something a little bit different. He sees a man before anyone else.

They're trying to explain the situation, but Jesus stops and offers to help him. Somebody wants to impose blame. Is it the parents? Is it his fault? Is that why he's blind?

They want an answer of why, but Jesus tells them it's not his parents or his fault. But here is a place where God's work can be revealed. So in verse four, it says, we must work the works of him who sent me. While it is day, night is coming. No one can work as long as I am in the world.

I am the light of the world. When he said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with saliva and spread mud on the man's eyes, saying to him, go wash in the pool of Siloam. Then he went and washed and came back to sea. Here, Jesus takes on the role of the shepherd. The shepherd notices what the other sheep seem to overlook, what the other sheep would try to cast blame for.

And sometimes we forget that God sees us like this too. In the middle of ordinary days, in the middle of stress, in the middle of questions. The Lord is our shepherd right now and here, even on the Sabbath, even when societal norms would say, now is not the time, Jesus meets the man there the same way he meets us here. Right here, right now. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, is this not the man who used to sit and beg?

Some were saying, it is he. Others were saying, no, but it is someone like him. He kept saying, I am he. But they kept asking him, then how were your eyes opened? He answered, the man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes and said to me, go to Siloam and wash. Then I went and washed and received my sight.

They said to him, where is he? He said, I do not know. The blind man shared with others the difference Jesus had made in his life. Then cue the next part. In 13, they brought the Pharisees, the man who had formerly been blind.

Okay, so keep in mind the Pharisees, they are the rule keepers. They are the strictest rule for the strictest rule keepers of the time. For those who are religious and they believe in purity, they believe in the law of the Torah. The Torah is the first five books of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

They are the Mosaic Law or the laws of the books of Moses. There are 613 laws in total. The Pharisees see themselves as the enforcers of the law. And their approach was opposite of what Jesus was doing and teaching at this time. They did not do this in love or try to be objective.

They did not view each person in their own individual context. They wanted the laws enforced at all times and at all costs. Verse 14. Now it was the Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight.

He said to them, he put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see. Some of the Pharisees said, this man is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath. Others said, how can a man who is a sinner perform such signs? And they were divided.

So they said again to the blind man, what do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened. He said, he is a prophet. Then the Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight. Until they called his parents of the man who has received his sight.

And they asked them, is this your son who you say was born blind? Then does he see now? His parents answered, we know that our son, this is our son, and that he was born blind. But we do not know how it is he that sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him.

He is of age. He will speak for himself. His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews. For the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, he is of age.

Ask him. So for the second time, they called the man who had been blind. And they said to him, give glory to God. We know that this is a man, that this man is a sinner. He answered, I do not know whether he is a sinner.

One thing I do know, that I was blind, and now I see. They said to him, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? He answered to them, I have already told you and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again?

Do you also want to become his disciples? They reveled him, saying, you are his disciple, but we are the disciples of Moses. The man was blind. He tries to speak the truth. And he tried to tell us the work that Jesus had done.

But they dismissed him, saying, you can go be his disciple, but we are still going to enforce the law. They didn't care who he was, what he had done, that this man had broken. Some of those 613 laws.

Verse 29, it says, we know that God has spoken to Moses. But as for this man, we do not know where he comes from. The man answered, he's an astonishing thing. You do not know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to the one who worships him and obeys his will.

Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. They answered him, you were born entirely in sins and you were trying to teach us. And they drove him out. They literally kicked the man out for telling the truth and sharing the miracle which had been done in his life.

But the story did not end here. Jesus hears and he comes back to take up for the man. He did not leave nor forsake him. Even whenever society did, he did not heal him and disappear forever. He still cared for the man.

Verse 35, it says, Jesus heard that they had driven him out. And when he found him, he said, do you believe in the Son of Man? He answered, and who is he, sir? Tell me so that I may believe in him. Jesus said to him, you have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.

He said, lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. Jesus said, I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind spot. Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, surely we are not blind, are we? Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would not have sinned.

But now that you say we see, your sin remains.

And the man in John 9 experiences grace step by step. At first, the man called Jesus healed me. Later, he says, the Pharisees, he's a prophet. And by the end of the story, when Jesus finds him again, he says, lord, I believe. Do you hear the journey in the story of the blind man?

His understanding grows, his faith deepens. That sanctifying grace that is the grace we have when he is still leading us. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, talked about grace not just as a moment we have to come to faith, but as a grace that continues shaping us afterward. He called this sanctification grace. John Wesley was teaching his followers that Jesus, just like he, had healed the blind man and did not forget about him, that same Jesus is walking with us now.

Wesley believed this so strong that his final words were, best of all. God is with us. As he passed on from this life to the next. That sanctification grace is the grace that teaches us, grace that challenges us and grace that helps us to grow. Sanctification is the act of making or declaring something holy, causing it to move from sin and making it purified.

During this season, this week, take the time to intentionally slow down. Put away the phone, turn off the TV, turn off a smart device and take 30 minutes. Go on a walk, read your Bible, pray, meet someone where they are, take something that distracts you and be intentional in living in the moment, relying on the this shepherd, praying for his guidance and looking for him to lead you through this week, through the day, through the moment none of us arrives fully formed. We grow as we keep following the shepherd. We are still being led.

And that's exactly what we see in John 9 and in Psalm 23. Sometimes grace will works like that, not in instant solutions, but in patient transformation. God changes us little by little to listen more closely, to follow more faithfully, to trust that God is not finished with me yet. No matter where we are in life, young, old, right here in the middle, certain are questioning this promise remains. The Lord is our shepherd.

He makes us rest when we forget how he leads us when we can't see the way. And day by day, step by step, he restores our soul. And the beautiful truth of it is we are still learning, we are still growing and we are still becoming who God created us to be because we are all still being led. Join me in prayer.