Our scripture reading today is once again from the Psalm 23. You'll find the words on the screen but here now the Word of God. 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 namesake. Even 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. 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. The Word of God for the people of God.
And Amen, and Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Wonderful to see you this morning church family. Let me if I may kind of dive right in if you don't mind. The verse that we're teaching this morning out of Psalm 23, is right there. The phrase, He leads me beside still waters, He restores my soul, He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. So on the front end, want to ask two questions. First, is being led of God, optional for a believer? Or is it essential? Second question is, if we're to be led by God, then that would necessitate hearing the voice of the Lord, the voice of the shepherd. So is hearing God's voice or leading, is that normative for a believer? Or is that some type of anomaly? Well, as we answered this question today, what I want to do with you for a few moments, is simply look at the qualities of the shepherds leading and hopefully we will answer that question as we journey together. And also look at how that answer, or those qualities is wed with his heart of restoration. So as we jump in together, let's dive in. Here we go. First, let's look at this theme together. Here it is, deep lead, not driven sheep or lead, not driven. Jesus does not drive the sheep, Jesus leads the sheep, He leads me beside still waters, He leads me in paths of righteousness. Now notice, David writes this, like, it's just the fact, here's what the Shepherd does. He leads. And so as Paul puts it, in the New Testament, we also see this in other places in Scripture. For instance, Romans 814, those who are led by the Spirit of God, are sons of God. Now, I want to submit to you, we don't have time to drill into the depth of this this morning. But the blessing of being led by the creator of the universe is incredibly vast. There are 1000s and 1000s and 1000s, no exaggeration of implications and potentialities for your life and for us, as a church family, as well. But I want you to note something with me out of the way, Paul writes about being led by God when He says, Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God, here's what I think is important for us to note, whether you're male or female, in the context that Paul writes here, I would submit to you that you would want to be a son. Now, you may say, please don't be offended by that. But you would logical question is, why is that? Why would you say that pastor? Here's why, in Middle Eastern culture, when you referred to a son and context like this, and other contexts in the New Testament, remember that firstborn son inherited everything from his father. Now, we're not here to talk about whether or not that was fair right now, we look at those things differently. Now, but that was a cultural norm when this was written. So what we understand that Paul's pointing to is that those that are sons of sons of God, that you're inheriting you have an inheritance in all that the creator of the universe has available his wisdom, insight, his knowledge, understanding, blessing, guidance, illumination, a on and on. I mean, we could we we don't have time I say there were 1000s of applications. So you want to be a son. Now, I'm going to this is a rabbit trail where I'm going, but some people live there. So we'll be very brief here. But I want to say I want you to know this, just so we keep the ground level. If you're a male, you also want to be abroad. Scripture says that, as Christians, we are the bride of Christ. My point is that when we get into these areas, there's a little bit where females may give a bit to understand the meaning of being a son, and inheriting all that the Father has for us as we are led by the Spirit led by the shepherd. But let's also remember for those men here, that you are also abroad. But what we note in the passage is this picture of sheep being led, we see it throughout the three and we see it specifically in these tours. But let us note together, we, as sheep are invited to be led, not driven. Now, as we're being led, as Psalm 23 illustrates, it important and essential. If you're being led, that we need to hear the shepherds voice. So look with me here, the following that the sheep know the shepherds voice. Now, Missy and I, as I shared a few weeks ago, we have spent a great deal of time in different parts of the world, primarily Asia, but other parts as well. When you get outside of Western context, you're aware that it is normative as you're riding down the highway, or a back road to see sheep being herded, very common. But what's really fascinating is when all the sheep in different herds are actually corralled into one large pin. And when it's time for the sheep to be divided, the shepherd of the sheep can simply begin to call the sheep that are his, and they will come forth, and they will follow the shepherd. So when Jesus uses the knowledge in the New Testament, on 1027, My sheep, hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
Now, I want to invite you church, pay attention to that. Because what Jesus is saying is that it's normative as a believer for you to hear the Shepherd's Voice. Now, I'm sure that what I'm about to say never happens in the Christ Church family. I'm sure it only happens in other churches, or, you know, those other people probably never happens here. But I've encountered the following on numerous occasions where someone says, you know, I'm just not hearing God right now. And I always want to be tender and loving and be a good under shepherd, and caring and supportive, but always say to my sisters and brothers in Christ, you can hear from God. I heard from him this morning directly when I opened his word, and I meditated on some passages in the Psalm before I came to church. And my my point is, God has spoken and God is speaking, and God is available to you to speak into your life. And we have his word with 7000 promises in it for believers. And I want to encourage you, that you have the opportunity to hear from God. But what about circumstances where I am making a strategic decision, or a really heavy decision, and the scriptures may not necessarily directly address my circumstance, I would call that when God leads in this way, as the Great Shepherd, I would call that more personal revelation. And it always when you're really receiving personal revelation from God, it always aligns with scripture. It never contradicts Scripture, I want to affirm that, but that can come through a myriad of ways, in the person in power of the Holy Spirit. It may be a divine impression, it may be circumstance, God speak to you in a certain way, it may be confirmed a certain direction, Godly counsel of other peoples, that God does have a myriad of ways of speaking into our life and heart. But could I take a moment May I take a moment and share a failure with you in my life? If I put it more frankly, sin in my life Always know anytime as a pastor, I say I'm going to confess my sin, people pay attention. When I was in seminary, Missy and I, she had just finished her undergrad degree. And I was in my first year, or in my first year of seminary, and I had a friend contact me and said, Paul, there's a church, and they're looking for a staff person in this particular area, we think you would be a perfect fit, would you consider this position? And I said, Well, yeah, I would, it was two and a half hours away from campus. And I would then be commuting to campus. And so Missy and I went, and in the interview, they looked at Missy and said, we realize you just received your education degree, we got a place lined up for you to teach at your grade level where every all that's lined up. And then they went through the job description with me. And then when we finish the interview, they said, but there is one condition, we have to have your answer right now. And Missy and I were young, and the Lord Missy was far more mature than I am as she is today. I'd only been a Christian for about 60 months at that time. And so we stepped outside of that meeting space. And I looked at her and what I want you to notice is what we did and what we didn't do. We talked about it. We didn't pray about it. And I said, What do you think she says, Well, it sounds good to me. I said me too. And we walked back right back in the room and said, Okay, we accept this offer. And we'll start on this date. And we got in the car and rode two and a half hours back to campus. That night, when I put my head on the pillow. I couldn't sleep that went on the first night. And then the second night when I put my head on my pillow I couldn't sleep. Now most of you who've walked with the Lord, you already know that I'm under conviction from the Holy Spirit. We're going to cover that a little later in the song. I am experiencing conviction from God. But I'm so still so young in the Lord that I don't understand. Because everything to my personal preference in the realm of my personal preferences seem right. And then we get into the third night, I'm still I can't sleep. And so at 2am tossing and turning, I grabbed my Bible go into the den, and it finally occurs to me. Maybe, maybe I've missed God. And I opened my Bible and I ended up in Proverbs chapter three. And I'm reading along and I get down to a verse that's very familiar to many of you, where the scripture says this trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in every way, acknowledge the Lord. He will direct your path. I read that and it caught my attention. And then I stopped and I began to meditate on it. In other words, just let it regurgitate in my thinking, and in my being. And the more I did that, and at 2am in the morning, and loved ones, I recognized that my every time I experienced the presence of God, which is not in the way I'm going to describe doesn't happen all the time. It does happen to work. It often works into sermon illustrations, I will say that. But what it is I don't want to misrepresent what God did, because this doesn't happen every day. But the spirit came. There's a difference between the omnipresence of God that He is everywhere, and the manifest presence of God, and the manifest presence god of God came. And I continued trust in the Lord with all my heart, lean, not on my understand, on my own understanding every way acknowledging you'll direct my path. And these words, not audible, these words just dropped in my spirit. I knew it was the Lord. And it said, he said this. Stay put, I've got something better. Now, when you're in your late 20s, and you have to call someone and say, I know I said, yes. But now I'm saying no, that's awkward. But I made that phone call. And it was hard. And they weren't happy. But I had Jesus piece. I had the piece of the shepherd. And that meant everything. Three days later, the phone rang out of the blue. And the voice on the other end said, Paul Lawler. Yes, we got your name through such and such such and such we understand you may be looking for a staff position while you're in seminary, and it was a United Methodist church that was 45 minutes from campus. And God aligned us there and we had a fruitful time during the years there. And what all I'm simply trying to illustrate is that sheep are LED and that the shepherd really does lead and I want to ask you this with in light of the Creator of the universe being willing to lead us what is at stake in that what is at stake is this one thing for you to know that you have been born. But it is another thing to know why you've been born. And I would lovingly submit that the why you've been born can only be discovered in the heart of your Creator, the one who engineered you, and who has designed for you now do I say that flippantly know the Scriptures. revelate give us revelation in the heart of God on this very matter. Look with me at Ephesians 210 that says this For we you and I as believers, we are His workmanship. Now, what that means loved ones, it's your not your own idea. You didn't invent yourself, you didn't come up with you, God came up with you. For we His Word, His workmanship, the original Greek there's your odds work of art. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, when you are justified by faith, through grace, in Christ alone, what happened in your life loved ones, you became a new creation, old things pass away, new things come you've been created in Christ Jesus, for good works for an expression of the heart of God through your mind will and emotions through your spirit, which God get this, which God prepared beforehand. That translates before you were even born? Before you were even born so that you might walk in it? So let's give this question is it possible for a person to never discover why they were born?
Yes, yes, it's a tragedy. But all you've got to do is fail to listen to the leading of the shepherd. Your life has meaning and you were born for a purpose. sheep know the shepherds voice. And based on Jesus words, it's normative. So sheep know the shepherds voice. But thirdly, sheep are invited into the shepherds rest, and righteousness. Now these are all related of sheep being led not driven us our capacity to hear the shepherds voice, but also now the Shepherd leads into arrest in righteousness. Now, we talked a little bit about the rest in him last week, when we talked about green pastures. But in the verse this week, there's a different nuance, he not only He leads me into rest, but David describes this with the metaphor of still waters. And that's significant because sheep are afraid of rushing water, they and the reason they're afraid of rushing water is because of the heavy fleece they carry. And if they fall into moving water, they become water law logged and cannot get out. So a good shepherd will lead the sheep to still waters. It's very calming for the sheep, they can draw nourishment, and they feel secure, and they can drink. And so we recognize there are two beautiful descriptions of rest in this psalm, the green pastures that we described last week, and pools of water that are life giving. In fact, the Hebrew word here for still waters is me minutes off, which means restful waters, or refreshment. And again, I say to you, as we said in part two, if this is true, this is too good to be true and to true to ignore to know that that is the heart of the shepherd church family. But he also leads me into righteousness. Now, let's pretend we're in a basketball game, I would stop and I'm going to call timeout. Okay. Well, it'll, we'll have a March Madness moment. Here in August. Here we go time. Why are we calling time we're calling time because some of us have a default mode in our brain. And when we hear the word righteousness, we go. Boring.
It's because we don't understand what it is and what it means and the gift that it is. And we're going to ask if you will take that part of your brain if that's you. And if you will, kind of you can put that in a different place just for a few moments because, right, this really gets into your experience is this if this is where Jesus is leads you this, this is good, and I'll explain why. When righteousness gets into your experience, what happens is you're experiencing the right way of thinking acting and feeling. It's a gift to you the right way of acting and feeling and if that's true, then how does the right way of thinking I can and feeling get into your experience as a believer. Now the Scriptures speak of this righteousness in two ways, in the Scripture speak of the righteousness that Christ gives you. And then also the righteousness that Christ empowers you to walk out. Now, let me explain this in a different way. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to use it to two theological terms. And the reason I'm using two theological terms, is because I want to equip you, because I want you to have the categories to be able to wrap your mind and heart around the reality of what righteousness is. So here we go. Here's the two theological terms, imputed righteousness, and imparted righteousness. If I wanted to be cheesy right now, I'd have you say it with me, but I'm not going to do that. Tempted but I'm not going to do that, in imputed righteousness, imparted righteousness. imputed righteousness is what you've experienced and what you have, when you were justified by faith. In the person of Jesus Christ, the word justified means made right with God, that you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, that when you confess this became your confession, Jesus, I believe you've risen from the dead, you've taken my sins of the cross, and I've turned from my old life and surrendered to you, you were justified, you are made right with God. It's a gift from God. Visions to says, You didn't earn it. It's not about your good outweighing your bad. It's about what Jesus did for you at the cross. And when you put your faith in Him, the Scriptures teach that Christ now lives in you. Remember the word we quoted last week? Galatians 220. It's not I who lives it's Christ who lives in me and the life that I now live. I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me, imputed righteousness. It's not a righteousness that you've earned. It's been gifted to you by Jesus. You hear the sovereign say and pay attention. Okay, just validating the noise. Here we go. Now, imputed righteousness. Now we look at imparted righteousness imparted righteousness and John Wesley talked a lot about this is the gift of the person of the Holy Spirit, who empowers you to live differently, in conjunction with the revelation of God imparted righteousness imputed, and imparted much more we could say about that, and we will at another time, but here's what I want you to see. Why does David Why does he weave this phrase? He restores my soul when he's talking about still waters and him leading us to righteousness. I appreciate you asking the good question. But here's the deal. Remember that your soul is made up of your mind will and emotions it's not a mystery. Your soul is your mind will and emotions. Remember that the word restore means to return to a former condition, a place a physician to repair or renovate. And so the beauty here is that what God does when he leads us into his way into his righteousness, imputed and imparted he restores a believer soul to the right way of thinking, acting and feeling and in the process, your mind and your will and emotions are restored to the glory of God. I don't expect that you memorize the first sermon that I shared here. But there was a story I shared, I want to go back to it. I shared the story of a young lady who was a human trafficking victim who happened to be from Memphis, Tennessee, didn't share a real name, I wouldn't do that. But at the altars of Christ's Church, Birmingham, and I remember two or three Sundays, she was in the altar and this was her prayer before the living God, Lord. I want my man back. God, I want my mind back. Oh, God, I want my mind back.
And we watched as God not only met with her, she humbled herself before the Lord and cried out for the beauty and the gift of His mercies and grace we watch God restore this young lady's mind and her heart and her spirit. She's a force for Jesus Christ today. Glory to God. And he does this loved ones through leading us to his gift of righteousness, church righteousness is not boring. slife slife now, this begs a call Question. I'm seeing this phraseology in scripture of how he leads, he leads, he leads to righteousness leads to still waters, the Shepherd leads. And so here's the thing, if you are lead, you don't have to be concerned about being outside of his will. Which also begs the question, How do I know God's will for my life? Good question. Let me give you a kingdom axiom this morning. Here it is. When I walk in his way, I will all fill his will. When I walk in his way, I will always fulfill His will. Righteousness is his way, but he leads, but when I walk in his way, I'll always fulfill his will he Stanley Jones, the great Methodist missionary to the nation of India. By the way, if you've never read a Stanley Jones, I want to encourage you to do that I call him timeless Jones. Jones was one who was sharing Christ with the intellectuals, government officials and leaders in the nation of India and beyond. extremely gifted man, but read him he's timeless. But here's here's the picture, I want you to hear something he said he Stanley Jones once said this, when I'm in his way, in other words, living in his way, his way works, when I'm not living in his way, the way he doesn't work here that when I'm living in his way, his way works, when I'm not living in his way. The way doesn't work. So let me illustrate from scripture, why the will of God doesn't have to be a mystery. It's not complicated. When I walk in his way, I will always fulfill His will. Let's go back to Proverbs three, five and six. Is it okay? If I quote some scripture in church is that legal here, okay, we go, here we go. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean, not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him stop. That's his way. I participate in his way. Notice that when I'm practicing his way, notice that God takes care of the rest. God says, ha. I'll direct your path. Now this is not isolated in Scripture. Look at with me at Romans 12. One and two, I appeal to you, therefore brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Don't be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That this way, has been wonderful to teach on that we don't want to, can't do that because of time this morning. But being might that's the way But then notice what God does the way he shows up in your life. He says this, by the renewing of your mind that by testing, you may discern what the will of God is what is good and acceptable, and perfect. Some of your Bible say good, pleasing, and perfect. Now, when you hear the phrase good, pleasing and perfect, here's something that's important for all of us to know about God, here it is. God cannot exaggerate. God cannot exaggerate, because he can only speak what is true. And so when the Lord declares that His will is good, pleasing and perfect, he's not just talking about for him. He's talking about for you and them, that when you're walking in your design, and what you're designed, well what you're designed to live in and who you're designed to live for God and you go, this is good. This is pleasing. This is perfect. And so God cannot exaggerate. Secondly, you cannot improve on God's will. You can't, you can't improve on the will of God for your life. That's how a lot of lives get turned upside down. But you can one more scripture, is that legal? Here we go. Psalm 34, seven, delight yourself in the Lord. You see, let Jesus be your delight, the shepherd, pinnacle of your heart.
He'll give you the desires of your heart. Now, let's be careful, because we've all been exposed to some TV preachers that not all bad, but some of them have hijacked that passage, delight yourself in the Lord and you'll get a bitly Okay, that's not what's in the passage. We know that. But what's happening in the Hebrew here is as we delight ourselves in the Lord, He's writing desire on our heart. That's good, pleasing, and perfect. Do we have any students here this morning, high school, college students? I see some of you Yes, God bless you. When you're a senior in high school, and some of you are you will make five decisions that will affect the rest of your life. Here are those five decisions. Where will I go to college? What will I major in? What will I do for a living? To statistically this next one will happen in the next 60 months for the majority of people? Who will I marry? And where will I live? Now, a lot of people put can put a lot of pressure on themselves around this, but what I want to say to you students walk in Jesus way. He'll take care of that. It might be an impression on your heart, it may be through Godly counsel, but he has a way of defining that. Let me let me let me say this before we close, okay, let me find a good place where I want to do this. Here we go. A lot of people think about the will of God. They think about it like this, like I'm walking, tell you what, let me do it down here.
I probably makes you nervous that I'm coming down here. Let me be real. I'm nervous, too. Okay. But a lot of people think about the will of God, like it's a tight rope.
Okay. And oh my gosh, I hope I don't make a mistake. And I just want to remind you, that is not the nature of a shepherd. It's not fear based. You see, that's not what God's asking you to do. That's not how the will of God works. The will of God walking in the will of God is not like walking a tightrope. Walking in the will of God is more like a dance. Now I'm not going to dance I'm not I'm so I'm a processor. I'm just processing that. Um, but here's what I will say stay in the dance with Jesus. That's the picture. Get in the dance with the person of Jesus. And as you dance with Jesus, as you look him in the eyes, and you're trusting in Him with all your heart, not leaning on your own understanding and acknowledging him, Lord, you're in that I'm in this with you. I'm following your lead. He'll direct your path. It's not a place of pressure. It's a place of liberation. That's the beautiful thing about our shepherd, is that he's a liberator. You don't have to fight to discover your purpose. Now you might fight for your heart. But you don't have to fight. Jesus is willing to lead you. And when we dance with the shepherd, he unfolds his purpose. Now we're about to close. It's I didn't realize it's 1205 I don't even I'm still learning Christchurch. Okay, so please be patient with me. But this is very quick.
Is there a place in your heart where you feel a bit of sorrow for people who don't know the shepherd because of what they're missing. If that's in your heart, I want to say that's a good thing.
Because ultimately, the reason we would want to reach people is because God loves them and he, he really does want to light up his glory over every human heart. Which is why David says that he does this for his namesake. Solomon went wrote wrote once wrote these words, bless it as the one who listens to me, referring to the Lord watching daily at my gates waiting beside my doors forever. Whoever finds me finds life. See, righteousness is life giving CHRIST IS LIFE GIVING ultimately righteousness as a person. So his peace and obtains favor from the Lord but he who fails to find me injures himself. But I want to remind you as the Christchurch family that the scripture says he's doing this for His glory, for his namesake, there's a this doesn't sound very pastoral, but it's I think it's true that Jesus is saying, I want to show off my glory, in and through your life. That's why David appeals to the shepherd for his namesake, the glory of God and your purpose for living are synonymous. They're one in the same as why Aaron as once said, that the glory of a human being is fully alive in Christ as a paraphrase. Some of you've heard of a guy named David Brainerd, for many of you that may be a name you've never heard but David Brainerd only lived into his 20s he died. He's a servant of the Lord. He was one of the servants in one of the Great Awakenings that took place in early history, early part of the history of America. I know many of us in the Christchurch family are praying for spiritual awakening and revival right now picked up on that. And God's done it before and God can do it again. But what I want you to be aware of is what David Brainard has unique style of reaching unreached people among the Indians. See Jonathan Edwards, who mentored David Brainerd was one who talked a lot about repentance and turning to Christ and, and we'll talk about that too, because it's in Scripture, but we're starting the text this morning. But But Brainerd as he was falling, the leading of the Great Shepherd, Brainerd went among the Indians. And what Brainerd did, is that even though he wasn't preaching Psalm 23, what he did is he lifted up the benefits of knowing God, the blessings, of knowing the one true sovereign God of the universe, and all of His mercies and all of His graces, and all of his beauty and all of his glory. And before he said a word about repentance, the Indians one by one, we're going to their knees. Because they began to grieve, what they were aware was available, but what they had not been responsive to.
He is the Great Shepherd. And he's willing to leave lead you not drop you.
He's available to lead you in paths of righteousness, My sheep know my voice. Want to ask if you would? Would you stand to your feet this morning? Would you with me? Here's what I want to ask you to do. As we close today, I want to invite you in light of the text to ask God, two questions. The first question is this. God, in light of what we've heard through Your Word this morning, God, what do you want to say to me?
That's the first question, what do you want to say to me? And then there's a second question, Lord, in light of what you're saying to me, Lord, what would you have me do? What do you want to say to me? What do you want me to do? Let's bow our heads gonna take about 30 seconds of silence. And just you ask the Lord, those two questions, Lord, what do you want to say to me, Lord, what do you want me to do? So Lord, we understand that your sheep hear your voice. This is normative. Let's so we pray sensitize our hearts, to your leading your will in your way, both in what we hear from you, but also sensitize us to do what we need to do in light of what you may be saying. And the name and power of Jesus, we pray, Amen.