Wednesday Night Bible Study

praise the lord everyone oh it's good to hear your voice and to see you here at first apostolic church so good to be back in the house of the lord with every one of you and glad to see you here for bible class and bible study tonight a time of worship in the word i give honor to our bishop and sister mccool and their absence they are taking care of some business uh with my uncle that they're the caregiver for and we pray that the lord would give them a safe passage and safe journey and all let me tell you it is great uh to be back home sister jamie and i had the the privilege and the honor of preaching the 35th pastoral anniversary uh for uh by the david and sister janie atkins uh this past weekend uh over in north carolina what a wonderful time we had there newland north carolina such a beautiful place my grandpa used to tell about he pastored just a couple of mountains over and he said if you've ever gone to western north carolina mountains he said that's the heart of the world and as a child i didn't understand that but getting to go over there i can say between there and upper east tennessee this part of the country that we live in i totally agree and so we were blessed but there's nothing like getting back to first apostolic church and getting home here at first apostolic church of knoxville and it's good to see everyone let me also say a special thank you uh to everyone uh who have uh sent me birthday wishes i'm not greatly adept at answering all of those uh wishes that i get uh on uh i know how to answer text messages but i'm not sure who all i've answered on facebook i don't use facebook much so if i said thank you and you didn't send any thing thank you for the thought and if i'd if i missed you it wasn't because i was avoiding you i just didn't know which button to push uh but i've received so many wonderful uh messages and birthday wishes today and i appreciate that so very much and i would ask and concur with the announcement that brother whitley made earlier let's continue to be in special prayer uh for sister irene reagan and for uh brother winston reagan and their entire family unless the lord undertakes uh she is not long to be with us she is finishing her course and we're praying that the lord would give them strength and comfort i was up with them at the hospital today and we're continuing to pray that god's will be done and that whatever his will is that we can say yes to his will i'm excited to get into the study of the word of the lord tonight our bible class curriculum i'm going to refer back to it for uh as i began studying i was so blessed to once again uh visit uh one of if not the most familiar chapter uh that you can read in the word of the lord many and most of you as i begin reading tonight uh will have already committed this entire chapter to memory and you'll be able to quote it with me as i read it but this is where we find our lesson our lesson comes from the 23rd psalm tonight and just for uh the enjoyment of hearing the words again uh we've heard it in so many uh contexts heard it in uh so many different styles of of services from a a comfort uh passage at a funeral to an encouragement and a strength in a difficult time i want to read from the 23rd psalm again we read the lord is my shepherd i shall not want he maketh me to lie down in green pastures he leadeth me beside the still waters he restoreth my soul he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake yea though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and my staff they comfort me thou preparest the table before me in the presence of mine enemies thou anoint us my head with oil my cup runeth over surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and i will dwell in the house of the lord forever isn't that a beautiful passage how encouraging it is to hear it once again and the title of our lesson tonight is simply our shepherd our shepherd there are two primary points of interest that as i began studying this that i noticed in the presentation of the 23rd psalm number one is this and i as many times as i've studied i've read it i've heard it preached it hadn't occurred to me quite like it did when i began studying yesterday and today psalms 23 can be described as a metaphoric personification of a sheep by the psalmist or more accurately an anthropomorphism which is a literary device which means that you are giving human traits a writer is giving human traits ambitions emotions or an entire behavior to an animal or a non-human entity now that's a fancy way of saying the 23rd psalm is written from the viewpoint of a sheep think about that just a minute the 23rd psalm is written from the viewpoint of sheep and the number two point that i would make is the point of view of the sheep is personal and is possessive notice how much different would the 23rd psalm read if it read this way the lord is a shepherd one shall not want he maketh one to lie down in green pastures he leadeth one beside the still waters it's not personal then is it but i've got news for you david when he began in only the way he could writing from the point of view of a sheep it personal he said the lord is my shepherd aren't you glad to know that he's talking about our god our lord and that it is a personal relationship i learned a long time ago that if as a pastor and as a minister i tried to influence folks by just preaching my point of view and getting folks to follow a bunch of rules when they fell out with me or fell out with my philosophy they probably wouldn't follow rules but i also found out a long time ago when folks develop a personal relationship with jesus christ suddenly everything in the word of the lord becomes a personal relationship there's no sacrifice too great there's no problem that they'll face that they won't follow what the word of the lord has for them if it's a personal relationship so tonight following those were my observations that weren't in the curriculum but with those things in mind i would like for us to revisit the 23rd psalm and verse by verse let's look at just what this relationship is like between the shepherd and the sheep it said the lord is my shepherd it's personal and consequently i shall not want it's good to be able to put your head on the pillow at night and know that god is going to provide for you when you're serving him he's going to look out for you he's going to care for you i i doubt very seriously that there are any sheep that have a good shepherd that are worried about whether the shepherd's going to feed them they just know he's going to take them or they need to be fed they're not worried about care because he has always cared for them he goes on to state he maketh me to lie down in green pastures he leadeth me beside the still waters he gives me direction aren't you thankful for the direction of the lord sometimes he directs us in paths he has to make us do some stuff that's good for us he has to direct us where we're going to be fed sometimes he maketh me to lie down in green pastures he leadeth me beside the still waters he expresses his love to us because of the things that he does for us all of the gospels are filled with demonstrations of jesus doing marvelous works he healed the sick raised the dead spent time comforting the lonely and the outcasts of society but most impressive of all is he laid down his life and died and rose again for us we know that but why did he do all these things his underlying motive behind all these actions were simple yet profound it's because jesus loves us now that sounds like an oversimplification but isn't it amazing how sometimes we forget that everything that happens that the lord does for us because he loves us he really cares about us and when we get this revelation of who god is and it's seemingly simple many still have a difficult time comprehending it why would he love me who am i in the eyes of an almighty savior it's sometimes hard to even imagine that the great god of heaven personally loves every one of us he has that ability to have that personal relationship with every person in this place every person in this city every person in this nation and yes every person around the world why because he's that kind of god he's just that big of god it's hard for us to even comprehend that but the relationship is being compared from a sheep's point of view to the shepherd when jesus compared himself to a shepherd he was essentially making a promise to his followers to nourish to protect to provide and to do all the things that a shepherd does in a natural sense anything that a sheep would need the shepherd would try to provide and please understand in the text as well this is a master shepherd pinning the words in the natural for david was a well-equipped shepherd david's entire life is intermingled and intertwined with references to being a shepherd from his first being recognized of god as a warrior that could defend against goliath it was his skills as a shepherd his experience as a shepherd when he had defended the flock against the lion and a bear he would use the weapon of a shepherd to defeat goliath so david was well versed in the ways of being a shepherd and you just got to think he was relating as he penned these beautiful words to that relationship his emotions said the lord is my shepherd david had faced a lot of adversity but he would go back time and time again and draw on the wisdom that he had gained as a child shepherd if you will i shall not want and then notice it says in verse 3 he restoreth my soul aren't you glad to be serving a god of restoration i don't know about you but i need to be restored sometimes i saw a marquee on a church somewhere as i was out today don't even recall where it was but the marquee said no perfect people allowed i had to concur i don't think there's a line for the perfect people coming into the church i need restoration there's times i need to be restored what a beautiful idea and understand he restoreth my soul that means he forgives me he cares for me when i've made so many horrible mistakes i read a lot of lore and i will call it that i don't know how factual all of it is but i've read a lot of lore about sheep and shepherds through the years one story in particular that was related was that sometimes there were lambs that were quite unruly and adventurous and just didn't understand the importance of staying with the flock they would run off this is why the analogy is given scripturally of the shepherd leaving the 90 and 9 and going to look for that one lost sheep and that there were some that it was in their nature to wonder and not not stay with the herd or with the flock and this lord said that there were some shepherds who would in an attempt to keep that from happening would eventually take that unruly lamb and would fracture one of his front legs and then would mend it and bind it and would carry it until the leg healed because the shepherd was building a relationship between himself and that lamb now whether that lower is truth or not i felt like a few times god had to go crack kept going the wrong way kept doing the wrong thing kept making the same mistakes if you've ever ever felt that way sometimes you know it feels like god finally said i got to get your attention crack but then invariably he picks me up starts carrying me and there's a relationship i'm dependent on him listen i i want to know that he's a god of restoration he brings me back that term restoration define literally means to bring back sometimes we wonder away we get lost we get in the thicket we eat bad food we're in danger of falling prey to predators the shepherd continues to pursue and continues to restore and then he said he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake in our limited human knowledge we don't know which path to take in our limited human knowledge there's a lot of roads that look good but it's not the road to travel there's too many of us feel like we're smarter than gps god's positioning system because the enemy will put up false road signs and open up paths that seem like the right way to go in fact proverbs 14 12 said there is a way which seemeth right under man but the end thereof are the ways of death there's a lot of highways that are dead ending into destruction but if you'll let the good shepherd lead you if you'll look for a guidance in the paths of righteousness doing right being right living right oh how often do we find ourselves faced with difficult decisions in life because doing right is not the path of least resistance there's a lot of times it would be easier just to be a little dishonest i'm gonna make more a lot of times it would be easier just to stumble over the truth i won't be involved in so much conflict it'll give me a better reputation but if we'll stay on the paths of righteousness just do right just be right he'll lead us in the paths of righteousness proverbs 3 and 6 said in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths the reason many of us have a difficult time getting on the right road there's certain ways we don't want to acknowledge him man i want to acknowledge him while i'm at church whoop i want to be now i'm a good christian at church but i don't want folks to know i'm a christian businessman i don't want folks to know i'm a christian employee i don't want folks to know i'm a christian athlete because they're going to expect more out of me you're right and we should take that on as our personal testimony that that he's going to lead me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake in all thy ways acknowledge him in my business in my work in my play whatever i do i want to acknowledge that i am a christian i'm a servant of jesus christ unashamed unafraid that's how i conduct all of my affairs if we keep our eyes on the good shepherd at all times we know he will lead us in the best direction and then he went on to say yea though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death again let it come alive to you every statement it's i me it's personal every one of us will have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death now in if you visit the middle east and you go to israel there is a place that's called the valley of the shadow of death and it's a place because of the topography of the or the lay of the land and the mountains and the rock it gets very little sunlight even in the daytime but even though that place is called that i do believe that david meant more than a physical location other versions of scripture define this term or state it this way though i walk in the darkest valley yea though i walk through the darkest valley thou art with me every person in this place have faced dark valleys figuratively there's times that it seems like the enemy is closing in on every side oh but if you've got a personal relationship with the good shepherd you're not alone thank the lord that you know that today aren't you thankful that you know he's there with you in the valley of the shadow of death he'll be there this is not just talking about physical death this is talking about all the issues that we deal with in life the troubles the trials the tests we might be tempted to go astray in the valley of the shadow of death but he's with me he said i will fear no evil for thou art with me did you know many folks it's not that they have a problem surviving the trial they have a problem surviving the fear that went along with it i've read a lot of examples of folks through the years who survived a catastrophe but were injured and killed because of fear i remember reading particular several years ago there was a baseball player his name escapes me at this moment but he was good enough that he was supposed to be the starting pitcher for a professional team to begin the season and a couple of days before he was supposed to start he dreamed that there was a spider in his bed and he injured his arm and was unable to pitch for several months fighting an imaginary spider in his bed one that didn't exist sister jamie had if she had that dream would have the same issues and i probably would too she'd probably beat me to death but many times the enemy's number one weapon against us is not an actual trial but the fear over the trial he'll find us in the weak moments he'll whisper things in our ears and try to get into our subconscious that you're not going to survive it everything's going to be bad all's lost let me tell you no the good shepherd is gonna be with you he'll take your fear i will fear no evil for thou art with me jesus is with me no matter what you face it doesn't matter if the financial things seem to be tough right now don't be afraid i'm talking to somebody right now don't worry about the political climate everything's going to be all right god's got his people in his hands hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah and then he says in that same phrase after he said i will fear no evil for thou art with me how do i know you're with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me what an interesting interesting analogy reading about the rod and staff of a shepherd and many of you have heard this before but it bears repeating again according to much of the lore about shepherds this was not two separate devices but you've seen the idealized paintings and pictures and even actual photographs of a staff that was way above the head of the shepherd that's got a great big crook on it and he carried that and lord says the reason for the crook and trying to carry such an instrument that that crook was intended for extending the reach of the shepherd if a lamb was in a thicket that his human arms couldn't reach to he could lengthen his reach and take that hook and hook it under the body of that sheep or lamb that was in peril and pull it to safety we used to sing an old song that said his hand reached farther down than i could reach up aren't you glad when you can't even reach jesus he's got a great big long reach that he can get a hold of you when he's your shepherd he knows how to get a hold of you if you'll just cry out to him if you'll talk to him he can lengthen his reach to wherever you are but it said thy rod and thy staff as the lord continued that same instrument had a crook on one end and had a knob on the bottom end and that knob on the bottom end was what some of us might refer to as a skull thumper sometimes when he was hurting the sheep he had to get their attention sometimes it wasn't reaching for him sometimes it was crack get back in line a little pop on top of the head thump get back in line you're headed in the wrong direction get away from that cliff thump sadly i feel like the lord's had to thump me on top of the head a few times spiritually he's had to rock my world a few times say hey you're going the wrong way you need to turn around get back in line aren't you thankful for a god that loves you enough that he will chastise you when you need it and put you back in line why because he loves you he cares about you that i know of there are no shepherds in the house jesus was the master of speaking to audiences and knowing his audience and relating to what they relate to you know when he talked to in the book of luke he talked at one time about physicians he was he he said uh that there was no need for a physician if everyone was healed he was relating to something that luke and those around knew about man when he went to simon peter and he was telling him to put up his nets and follow him he said i'm going to make you fishers of men when he talked to fishermen he talked about fishing well most of us are not shepherds for say but we have skills and one of two things we're usually either parents or pet owners and i'm both don't know how good i am but i'm both i sister jamie and i inherited a yorkie poo ten years ago this was before anybody ran for president so this was not a political statement but my son anthony went to new york city and he saw the trump tower and he saw a pic a picture of donald trump with his hair all messed up in the wind and then he found the runt of a litter the only one left in the litter its hair looked the same way so i was out of town on a business trip i told my family i'm never going to own another dog we had a a dog that uh that has many stories that i won't tell you about but uh it's suffice to say we were heartbroken when we lost that animal i said we'll never have another and i went on a trip uh to st louis and i got a picture of this little dog and anthony it said something to defective his name's trump and he doesn't bark at that point he didn't but we brought trump who we affectionately called t.t now his whole name is trump manning and i've told you about trump manning before but he's now as heavy as he's ever been he weighs about nine pounds a little bitty thing if somebody would break in the house he probably couldn't do a whole lot to defend us he probably wouldn't be very good if he tried to take him on a hunting trip at retrieving anything he probably not much as far as a race dog or a guard dog or any kind of working dog he probably couldn't herd sheep like a shepherd dog can but you know what he can do he can give you love he's done a whole lot for my blood pressure at times he is an a number one lap dog and if i sit down in the house here he'll come tt he'll claw at my leg and then boom up in my lap he'll go and he he's pretty particular about the way i see it if i'm not sitting properly he'll scratch until i sit where he's comfortable he's about got me trained preacher what are you trying to say jesus related to folks personal relationships the only thing i can tell you he can't do much but we love that silly dog we care about him we feed him i mean we buy extra we buy personal dog food just for him he go he goes to the doctor more than i ever do why because we love him that's just how much god loves us multiplied infinitely we don't deserve his love it's not what we can do for god he loves us he cares about us if i could appeal to the pet owners in the house i don't even need to relate to you how much you love your children when they make mistakes when they need restoration and you love them you try every way you devise means to restore them when they make a mistake oh when when when your pet messes up you love him you care about it why because it's that unconditional love god loves us oh if we can relate to some of those things in our lives we don't need to view the shepherd as some ogre that's up here looking for us to make a mistake so he can crack us on top of the head but instead as a last resort to save us to protect us to keep us where we need to be as our provider you see philippians 4 19 says but my god shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by christ jesus paul penned those words likely from a prison cell how could paul write such words in prison my god shall supply all your need you know what he didn't say my god shall supply all your want because sometimes there's stuff we want that we don't need and many times god is just supplying what we need but the apostle paul even in a jail cell with all of his freedoms nearly eliminated said my god shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by christ jesus when we submit our desire for once to knowing that god has what we need we suddenly will quit imposing our carnal will and start trusting in god for us and then i had toward the end he said thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies thou anointest my head with oil my cup runeth over he still has provisions for us when we're under attack and then it says thou anoint us my head with oil i i found that interesting and did a little study on that and i found one statement that said ancient shepherds would anoint their sheep's heads with oil for a variety of reasons this could help them not get their heads stuck in tight places help prevent infections and protect them from insects this seemingly simple act was yet another demonstration of the shepherd's care for his sheep throughout the bible anointing is a symbolic demonstration of god's favor and god's blessings those who god specially appointed for a task were anointed as part of their commission they experienced blessings beyond their wildest imaginations this was certainly true of david remember david took a ready shepherd boy from the shepherd's field and put him in a king's palace no wonder the next words was my cup runneth over brother whitley mentioned that tonight as we receive the offering that god wants to overflow his blessings if you'll just have your cup ready god will overflow your blessings he will provide with riches untold it may not be the monetary thing you're expecting but sometimes we don't have don't really understand how to count how rich we are until we look around us at the things that god has truly blessed us with the relationships the family david said it this way in psalms 37 25 i have been young well that's appropriate on your birthday to read that isn't it i have been young and now am old yet i have not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread david was overwhelmed with the blessings all the things david had suffered at his own doing all the mistakes he had made david would still be known as the man after god's own heart why because he understood the relationship of the sheep with the shepherd god's love went above all so i take us home by telling us that jesus had that idea of shepherding in mind with much of the things he did in matthew 9 36 jesus was moved with compassion when he saw the multitude the bible says but when he saw the multitude he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted or scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd jesus had this comparison this analogy in his mind when he saw the throng of people that had come for healing and for teaching and the bible said he had compassion that's when he ordered them he there was order in the way jesus did thing we could we should even be reminded that jesus did things in order he didn't just say start handing out bread and fish he could have he said let's get in line let's get everybody in rows seat them let's let's prepare for something god is not in disorder god is in order and he he had compassion and he he saw this need the psalmist finished up the psalms by saying surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and i will dwell in the house of the lord forever i guess i will until my dying day hear bishop's voice as he gave his rendering of this passage he said since we're talking about sheep and shepherds he said i view goodness and mercy as two old shaggy shepherd dogs that's constantly nipping at my heels god's goodness god's mercy aren't you thankful that it's always right there his goodness is just right there keeping me alive his mercy says i i'm going to forgive you again his mercy endureth how long forever his mercy is there forever surely goodness and mercy shall follow me it's going to pursue me all the days of my life and after all of this everything in the entire passage was what the shepherd was doing from the sheep remember this is a sheep's point of view but the last line the sheep makes a commitment the sheep makes one commitment he says i will dwell in the house of the lord forever oh if you want the good shepherd to be in charge of your life there's one commitment you need to make i'm going to be in the house of the lord forever i'm going to be part of the church forever there's nothing going to drive me away from the house of god nothing's going to take me away from the kingdom of god i will make this commitment i'm not going to give up nothing's going to turn me aside i will let goodness immerse me mercy keep me in the house of the lord i will dwell there forever jesus made this proclamation and i'll close with this in john 10 jesus said i am the good shepherd the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep but he that is a hireling and not the shepherd whose own the sheep are not seeth the wolf coming and leave at the sheep and fleith and the wolf catching them and scattereth the sheep jesus isn't going to bail on you he's going to be there the hireling fleeth because he is a hireling and careth not for the sheep he went on to say i am the good shepherd and i know my sheep and am known of mine there's that reciprocal relationship i know them and they know me i know jesus and he knows me as the father knoweth me even so i know the father and i laid down my life for the sheep and notice this because this i feel is to the church it says and other sheep i have before we get to feeling like we're so chosen that we're exclusive of everyone else listen there's a big old world out there and jesus has a lot of sheep hear me there's apostolic jesus name folks that have committed just like you have all around this world in nations where they're not even allowed to praise and worship there's committed saints of god around this world that we should pray for and lift up i've had the privilege of traveling to several different countries and meeting saints that spoke different languages but they loved the same jesus they had different customs but they loved the same jesus that we do i've been to the north i've been in the south i've been to the east been to the west i've heard a lot of different dialects and i've heard a lot of different voices but all of them love the same jesus and jesus loves them he said and other sheep i have which are not of this foe them also i must bring and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one foe and one shepherd aren't you glad to know we're all serving the same jesus tonight would you stand with me right now could we give him love and give him praise because he is our shepherd tonight mighty god i do love you lord i'm grateful for your word lord as we revisit this passage of scripture lord let it be open to our eyes lord let us once again realize the beautiful relationship that you have for us lord if there's one in this house who's needing mercy tonight for we all need mercy lord if there's one who's gone astray god i pray that you would once again reveal to them how much you love them lord let them realize again how much you care and lord that you are theirs and they are yours lord be with us go with us from this place let us keep our hearts and our minds centered on you lord let us return to service this coming sunday morning expecting a great time in your kingdom for all this we're grateful and thankful in jesus name we pray amen amen remember remember sunday school sunday morning 10 o'clock come expecting a great time in the lord you're dismissed in jesus name greet each other as your personal protocol affords you the comfort to do