The Good Shepherd – Week 2 (4-3-22)
The Good Shepherd
What Is A Shepherd?
April 3, 2022
Why we need shepherds?
What is a shepherd?
Sheep are…
- Dependent Creatures
- Stupid
- Prone to wander
- Can’t see well
Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
Contemporary Version of Psalm 23
I am in charge, all I do is want.
I don’t have time to slow down, much less lay down.
The once green pastures are now parched land.
The once abundant water now just muck and mire.
I walk the path of least resistance to be seen, to be known, to make a name for myself.
Truth be told dark shadows surround me with constant fear and little comfort.
I have prepared my feast but my enemies have welcomed themselves to my table, all of them… fear, anxiety, anger, addiction, discouragement, shame and regret… their voices drown out all other voices.
Surely worried and fear will follow me all of the follow me all of the days of my life and I will wander as an exile longing for home.
Ezekiel 34:2b-6
Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? 3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. 5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. 6 My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.
John 10:7-10
7 Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
Titus 1:5-9
5 The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. 6 An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. 7 Since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless— not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. 8 Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. 9 He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.