Tuesday, December 13, 2011

The Lord is My Shepherd, Part 7 of 10

TEXT: Psalm 23

IDEA: We need courage to trust the shepherd.

PURPOSE: To help listeners realize that courage is bound up in trust.

What kind of courage does a sheep need?

I. David says, “When I walk through the valley of deep darkness, I will not be afraid.” So the question is legitimate: what kind of courage does a sheep need?

A sheep does not need courage to fight its enemies.

The most courageous sheep would be an easy victim to the smallest wolf.

A sheep needs courage to trust the shepherd.

II. What kind of courage does a Christian need? We need courage to trust the shepherd.

We fight against an enemy that is not made of flesh and blood.

We cannot fight this enemy on our own. The evil one is too clever, too powerful.

The Christian in the midst of spiritual danger needs to trust the shepherd. As long as we know that the shepherd is close by, we can go back to grazing again and that takes courage.

III. David says, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

The rod was a small club, usually about 2 feet long, with stones embedded in the wood.

The skillful shepherd could use it like a missile or as a weapon to beat off a predator.

The staff was the long stick with the crook at the top.

The staff used it to keep the sheep in line, or to rescue a sheep that had stumbled into a ravine.

Both the rod and the staff were emblems of the shepherd’s power. Undoubtedly they made enemies afraid.

IV. We can have comfort in dangerous situations when we realize that God’s power is at our disposal.

We often think of God’s power with awe, but not necessarily with comfort.

We may feel that God uses his power indiscriminately, like the gods of the ancient Greeks.

V. God’s power is always at the disposal of His love.

God is the most self-limited Being in the universe.

He cannot use His power apart from His love.

He cannot display His love apart from His holiness.

God has the power to do whatever His love demands.