He Makes Me to Lie Down

I want to read tonight a very familiar passage of scripture in fact I suppose that of all the passages of scripture that I could read in your hearing tonight I will probably read the most familiar it's found in Psalms chapter 23 the Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want he maketh me to lie down in Green Pastures he leadth me beside the Still Waters he restoreth my soul he leadth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake y though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies th knowest my head with all my cup run is over surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord Lord forever I want to go back after that first scripture the Lord is my shepherd I shall not M and the very next phrase I'd like to borrow tonight he maketh me to lie down would you pray and I'd like you to ask the Lord tonight to anoint us for the next little bit I'd like for the Lord to open our understanding perhaps there's so many things that we accept simply by faith that we have no not the nearest not even the nearest possibility of understanding but if the Lord could just simply breathe upon us tonight with just a little Spirit of understanding I would be so very grateful Eastward you know what I want you to pray before I even tell you to I'd like for you to lift your hands with me and here's what I'd like for you to pray that God would anoint the lips of his feeble servant that he would anoint our hearts melt us together in his presence and anoint our ears to hear the word of the Lord would you do it father we love you tonight we love you tonight we love you tonight we love you tonight we worship you and we appreciate you with all of our hearts and I pray that you would anoint the lips of your feeble servant tonight melt our our hearts together in your presence and anoint our ears to hear the word of the lord we ask it in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ we ask it in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ we ask it in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah thank the Lord thank the Lord thank the Lord Eastwood I don't think I have to tell you this because you have been so very responsive and so very kind to me since I have been back trying to take part in these services but simply just just a little hint don't forget I might not be able to holler as loud as I would like to and I might not be able to get around over the platform as briskly as I would like to too but don't let my don't let my being just a little slow or just a little soft don't don't let me have to reach for you tonight okay preach with me would you God bless you thank you so much you may be seated

David in the very second chapter or verse of that chapter that all of us have quoted and read so very many times I suppose that the 23rd psalm would probably be the most quoted chapter and the most readed chapter and perhaps the most knowledgeable chapter in all of the word of God and it was only a few days ago that something stood out to me in this that I had not seen before and how how common place that is in the word of God for us to read things dozens and dozens of times and then all of a sudden through certain Circ circumstances or in a particular environment or in a particular situation you find something that you would read many times takes on a total different meaning than that you had ever read into it before this very familiar most familiar passage in the word of God that we all can quote just simply At The Mention Of 23rd psalms anyone in this congregation can start out the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want and that very next phrase it never had done to me what it did just a few days ago he maketh me to lie down I had found the Green Pastures and I had stood so often by The Still Waters I had cherished the restoreth my soul and I had Bas as I trait the paths of righteousness for his name's sake I had cramed but yet trusted so many times through the valley of the shadow of death and I had gloated over fearing no evil taken so much comforting thou art with me and I had handled the rod and the staff that comfort so many times and I had just enjoyed the table before me in the presence of my enemies and I had literally felt the anointing on my head all my cup had run over so many times and I had trusted that surely goodness and mercy would follow me but I had somehow missed understand I had checked out the Green Pastures but I had never noticed he maketh me to lie down for all of us from the very time that a child is born into this world and is big enough to do anything after he finally if he's very brilliant begins to mutter and to mumble some kind of a gargling muttering sound and Mom and Dad is able to interpret that into mama and daddy early from that first interpretations of mom and dad to me Mom and Dad one of the first things that child is expected to do is to learn how to walk men are not particularly made to lay down because lying down is an act of well it's it's an expression that is totally self beneficial it's an act of choice it's something that you are not

particularly made to do men were made to walk they were made to run they were made to work they were made to serve others they were made to till the ground they were made to construct buildings they were made to Saw Timber they were made to labor laying down is just something that we don't all look at with a great deal of well it's just something that we understand that we were not made for in fact to have to lay down you almost consider that a weakness if you get tired after a Long Day's Work work and you have to retire you don't like to lay in front of anybody you want to retreat to the privacy of a room to admit that you are tired that you need to rest and it's in the privacy of a bedroom that you restore yourself in your rest if you are ever before people you want to have the briskness of Step you want to have the greatest look of of being aware and being capable and being strong you want to put your best foot forward there's just a little stigma about laying down and we don't particularly like that now if we can do it in privacy but it's some kind of an admission of weakness almost it's almost an admission of weariness it's almost an admission of I'm not quite able I'm not quite willing or I'm not quite up to coping and so it's almost only in privacy that we come to lay down in fact I think probably most of you will remember the times when you were a child yourself mom and dad knew so much more than we all did as children because Mom and Dad had lived long enough that they understood that there were such things as rest that were needed and sleep that must be acquired because that was the body's way of replenishing itself and that was the body's way of recouping from its exertion and its loss of energies and that was the body's way of restoring itself and we as children did not understand a lot of times we just simply did not understand we thought that everything had just simply suddenly gone wrong when mom and dad knew well that it was our being irritable because of weariness and Mom mom and dad would lay aside that little particular time of the afternoon somewhere in the Midstream of a long day Mom and Dad would lay that little segment of time away and say you're going to lay down at this hour how many of us have kicked and paed and scratched and we have we have thrown our little temper tantrums and it was not something that we came adust adjusted to or became adjusted to it was a daily Affair that they had to convince us all over again that at this hour you are going to lay down for just a little while but I'm not sleepy Mama I'm not sleepy daddy don't make me lay down you lay down anyway but why do I have to lay down when and of course the very fact that needed to expressed itself with our little temper tantrums and getting all frustrated and upset and that only proved to Mom and dead the more that our irritability need caused us to need to lay down that's right but I'm not sleepy well whether you sleep or not Mom I can't go to sleep I've been here 25 seconds I can't go to sleep I've been here here 5 minutes mama and I'm not

asleep yet well just go ahead and lay there but I don't want to lay here but you are going to lay there anyway but what good is it doing me Mama and finally again into tears and hardly before the tear was dry on the cheek off into that deep Slumber and then up on a rising it took so much more when we got totally awake to cause us to be irritable we could cope so much better I don't know tonight whether you're getting what I'm saying or whether you have gone with me in the direction that I'm headed or not but I want you to understand that God knows us better than we know ourselves and I realize tonight that as far as our as far as our desires as far as our our concerns and our acceptability and our concept of things this business of laying down is the furtherest thing from our wants it's the furest thing from our concepts of what we need it's the f motherest thing many times from our ideas of what the will of God is for our lives we had rather Ro the paths of righteousness we had rather Feast on the tables that have been prepared we had rather feel that anointing oil and we had rather feel the power of all of the other things that the 23d psalm has to say but somewhere in our lives every one CE in a while he maketh me to lie down he knows better than we know ourselves and though we pitch our little tantrums and though we I don't need it and though we cannot recognize our own irritability and though we do not understand the situations yet God knows what we need and at the proper time he is able to command Hallelujah David did not say he invites me to lay down he did not say and understand he said he maketh me to lie down in Green Pastures now Green Pastures are made to feed in Green Pastures are made to graze in Green Pastures are made to get fat in but David did not speak one thing of grazing or feeding or getting fat or stuffing or any of that he said he made me lie down now you understand that it's a very difficult thing for a sheep to lay down conditions have got to be just right for a sheep to lay down there are four things that have got to be right for a sheep to lay down and one thing first of all a sheep has got to be released from fear he's got to be totally free from Fear if there is any kind of fear lurking that sheep is immediately on his feet prepared because of his helplessness to run for protection he's got to be free from Fear number two a sheep has got to be free from friction of others of their kind if there's any kind of dying for positions or

grazing places or if there's and of course the study is so very deep when it comes to dealing with sheep and the study of that but there are those among the Sheep who are the older yous that love to assert authority to the younger and they can be very cruel sometimes and their piing on the others and the weaker ones but there has got to be the freedom from friction of the others for them to lay down and it's only when they are free of the tormenting pest NS and flies and and all of these things but they've got to be freed from those things to lay down and they must be free from Hunger these are four requirements conditions have got to be just right for a sheep to lay down it's very seldom that one lays down of his own accord David said he made me he made me he made me lay down there are different occasions in our lives different positions and different things that of course we know that the number one cause for lying or laying down is the need for rest we understand that we understand that as children to lay down in the middle of a day and of course the rest is at nightfall when the time was made for us to rest but as children we need to rest sometimes in the middle of the day because of weariness and then there are other situations and reasons why perhaps it would be acceptable for one to lie down and that is sometimes there are tasks that need to be done that you simply cannot get to from a standing position some jobs underneath cars underneath Machinery there are some situations that cannot be taken care of and some work that cannot be done standing and you must lay down but then there comes the time when in escaping for your life from that enemy that lurks behind the under's boulder the enemy that Waits behind the Ambush sometimes simply for the sake of exposing your total self on the battlefield the safest position is lying down the more of you that stands the more Target the enemy has and In the Heat of battle you find a trench you find a prone position and it's hard for the enemy to drop a bullet in on you because he can't see you there are times that you need to be hidden away I don't know in my own experience and in my own life I cannot tell you that I've got the answer I cannot tell you that I've gotten it all figured out because I don't I don't know the extent of it all but I tell you what the Lord has shared with me I and let me just give you a little personal experience now for the next few moments and then I hasten to a close I don't suppose there's anybody in the world that is enjoyed my labor any more than I have and I really suppose that the thing that happened to me and of course you know well a lot of Concepts and a lot of rumors of

things that have happened but you know because you have been here and I have been here it first started off with a six-month episode with my voice and I thought when that happened how can I exist how can I live how can I go through this and that was quite a valley but the Lord said to some degree lay down and it was only while I was lying down that I understood that I had become weary and I did not know that I was weary I had been engrossed and been so involved in the work of God from coast to coast and here at home and and doing everything that I knew to do for the cause of God and I guess perhaps I had maybe abused myself and my voice to some degree and and I thought it was going to be just a temporary thing and then it would all be over but somehow the Lord though I did not understand and though I shed tears of my little temper tantrums I didn't get angry with the Lord but you understand in my in my immaturity I guess I didn't understand about it all and and I I didn't want to question but yet I couldn't understand why why why why you you you you're you're making me lay down right In the Heat of the day when I need to be doing something else and I'm I'm stuck here laying down and then right on the heels of that when I had finally gotten myself to where I felt like I could use my voice again and lo and behold the very first engagement that I accepted somewhere else then I was unable to go because of a blood clot in my leg and he maketh me to lie down and just about the time that I was feeling fit and fancy over a tenure of rest and recuperation from the blood clot preached one Youth Camp went to one singing and here I was in the throws of pain again and he said again go lie down I don't know the extent of it all and I can't tell you that I have all the answers but I tell you what I do know I know that through it all my soul has been restored I can testify to that and I'll tell you something else I know while I was lying down there were times when Nets and flies tried their best to swarm me to himer my rest but the most comforting thing for a sheep when they're laying down is to be able to feel or to hear the presence of the shepherd amen when the NS and the flies come to disturb my rest I felt the shepherd I'll be honest with you when I tell you that while I was lying down I heard some bears of Doubt

growling at the edge of Camp I heard some lines of frustration roaring but I promise you when I heard the Roaring and the growling Within moments I heard the footsteps of my shepherd glory and I want to tell you also that I heard some guns are firing and I heard the howls and the whales of the enemy with their swords and their Spears and their daggers and I even heard some bullets wizzing overhead and the enemy said they're made for you son I've been reminded so many times of the story that I heard from those boys that were training for battle in Vietnam one of the saddest things I'd ever heard heard they say that in training for the heat of combat that those boys in training have an episode or or a particular ordeal they go through that they have to crawl on their stomach and only 18 in over their backs 18 in from the ground are the fiery Tracer bullets the boys they fire a tracer bullet ever so often so the boys can see to keep their head to stay down but under that fire they have to crawl from one point to another point and weave their way through a maze of Bob wire while doing it I heard the story one time of this young Soldier just an 18-year-old boy I make no mistake it was only in training it was not the real thing it was just a simulated situation but yet real bullets were being fired and that boy was so tense and he was so very so very frightened and so fearful that trying to get from this point to the other point beneath the fire of those bullets his nerves totally gave way on him he couldn't control himself any longer he jumped to his feet in the midst of the fire and the last thing they heard him say as he fell from the bullet wound mama I heard the sound of the bugles I heard the sound of the enemy gunfire I heard the sound of it all but I heard the steps of my shepherd I felt his canopy as it was folded over me tonight I can truthfully say and I have only been able to say these things because of empathy and because of faith that I knew it would work but tonight I tell you from a different vantage point he make me lie down in Green Pastures and he led me by Still Waters but he restored my soul and Y though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with

me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever than you don't become so sure that you'll never need a tenure to lie down that you would be all out of sorts or lose out with God if he were to see you needed to lie down because probably somewhere between your starting and your finish somewhere you will no doubt have that little tenure and the chance that he'll point to you and say go lay down it's immediately repulsive but if you'll notice David said it was after I laid down and being carried by the book the next was He restored my soul and so the consensus of it all Jesus you know what I thank God you know what I need to talk in tongs you know what I need to Feast at a table you know when I need to dance in the spirit and you know when I need to run the a you know when I need to walk the paths of righteousness and you know what I need to feel the anointing all on my head you know it all but you also know when to tell me lie down you know when my soul needs restoration would you stand would you close your eyes I think perhaps you have heard the story so many very so very many times of the orator who stood before the congregation the masses of people in that great Coliseum that night the orator with his silver tongue and his expression that was so beautiful to the ear started out on the chapter that I have preached in your hearing tonight and with the eloquence that was almost unequal with human tongue he began the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want he maketh me to lie down in Green Pastures he leadth me beside the Still Waters he restoreth my soul and so eloquently and so beautifully he made his way with his silver tongue down the trails of that beautiful psalm when he was finished with that discourse the crowd they put their hands together in an Applause and they clapped and they clapped and they clapped and they clapped the place roared with approval with hands being clapped the expression the whistles they loved what they heard when he was finished and the crowd and their Applause had died out he said is there an old preacher is there someone in the building that could come and quote that chapter behind me and there was an aged Old Gentleman with gray hair filling his head he down the steps of the Coliseum

bleachers to the floor where the platform was the oror gave him the microphone and he began with broken HED voice stumbling words with not quite such a perfected tone hardly into it his voice broke in tears could not only be detected in the eye but in the voice the Lord is my sheer I shall not want he make his me to lie down and G pastures he leadth me beside Still Waters he restoreth my soul when he got through there was not a great Applause in fact they didn't even lift their hands to put them together all that could be heard was the snips SBS throughout the Coliseum the aror took the microphone once again and said ladies and gentlemen you now have heard the difference between someone who knows the 23rd psalm and someone who knows the shepherd to understand what I speak of tonight you've got to know he's your Shepherd now can you say tonight the Lord is my shepherd thank you Jesus when you can say the Lord is my shepherd thank you Jesus and you can say I will fear no evil thank you Jesus when you can say the Lord is my shepherd you can understand though he say lay down oh yeah when you can know that the Lord is your Shepherd you just simply understand that there are times when you need to be restored there are times when you need your head an wanted there are times when you walk the trails of righteousness there are times when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death yet fearing no evil for thou art with me you know what I'd like tonight I'd like for everybody in this building you know no doubt how to quote the 23rd psalm but I wish you would leave here tonight acquainted with a sh that would make so much difference in your life if you could just leave here knowing the shepherd I wonder tonight in this building how many of you would say I don't know him quite like I want to I don't know him as closely and as intimately as I would like to if he were to tell me to lay down I don't know whether I could understand or not if he were to Lead Me by paths that I didn't understand I may not be able to follow if he led me through the valley of the shadow of death I might lose my faith brother please let me know the shepherd a little better would there be anyone tonight that would slip out from where you are and slip down the arm admitting I need to know the sheer instead of just the 23rd song I I want to know