My father grew up on a farm over near Bushnell. As was typical in the 40’s and 50’s, they raised not only corn and beans, but they also had cows and pigs. My dad was very successful showing livestock in 4-H and FFA. Of course, he learned parts of that from his grandfather who was a perennial grand champion winner with his Poland China Hogs. My mother grew up on a farm where her father managed one of the largest Holstein Cattle herds in the state. My Karen grew up on a farm that had a mixture of crops and beef…until her youngest brother went off to college, and then her dad decided that he couldn’t do it on his own with an eight-year-old daughter.
So, I have a history of farming all around me…but I grew up in town. I did raise some chickens, pheasants, and quail for 4-H. But, that’s a long jump to raising big Black Angus Cattle!
You’ll notice that while our families have been involved in raising various kinds of livestock over the last few generations, I didn’t mention that any of them raised sheep. However, I did have good friends who raised sheep growing up…and their dad continues to raise them. In fact, you can see the Caughey’s sheep along I55 between Chenoa and Pontiac. My daughter Hannah also has a friend from Carlock who will be showing her sheep at the McLean County Fair this week…so you can go and see some sheep up close if you want to!
The Caughey’s have verified for me over the years that as is the stereotypical case with sheep, they aren’t the brightest animals on the farm. They don’t try to get out of bad weather, they need the llama to protect them, they need more help than other animals in giving birth, and on and on the list goes. Here’s a video clip…let me know if you think other animals would have done this differently.
It is a little frustrating in the Scriptures to see that God often refers to us as sheep. My pride likes to think I’m more majestic…like a lion or bald eagle or at least an outstanding looking bull!
But for some reason, when in comparison to God Himself, we must need some extra help navigating life. There must be a reason that throughout the Word, we’re called sheep and the Lord…and spiritual leaders in the church are called shepherds.
As we look towards options in the future for our congregation, I thought it would be good for us to review some familiar passages as well as look at some passages that bring us encouragement in the middle of our concern, “upsetness”, anger, distress, relief, or whatever else we are feeling during this time.
This morning, we are going to look at Psalm 23. If I were to guess, most of us have memorized John 3:16, Romans 3:23; Genesis 1:1; and many of you have memorized way more passages than that. However, if we’re looking at chapters that have been memorized, my guess is that the 23rd Psalm is the most memorized (or at least in the top 3) whole chapter. Of course, it helps that it is pretty short!
We haven’t done this for a long time, but since this passage is short and since it is probably very familiar to each of us, I’d like for us to recite it together from the King James Version since that’s probably the version most known:
Psa. 23:0 A Psalm of David. 1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 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 thy staff they comfort me. 5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
Now, even reading this out loud brings comfort doesn’t it? This is a Psalm that is often read during trying times.
· Times when we don’t know what the future holds.
· Times when we are frightened.
· Times when we are sad.
· Times of sickness and death.
Let’s break it down and look at it in smaller pieces:
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
This chapter starts out with the focus on The One Who is in control…it is clearly the Lord who we must rely on…not ourselves! When you think about a shepherd…whether in ancient Biblical times, in the Middle East today, or on a farm in Carlock or Chenoa, what do you think of?
What kinds of things do shepherds provide for the sheep? Food, water, shelter, immunizations, safety, etc…
Each of those is part of this statement that King David makes…we don’t need to worry, because the Lord, our shepherd is taking care of us. Does that mean that we always have everything we wish we could have? No. Does that mean that Christians will always be the richest people around? No.
What is our heart attitude…thankfulness or entitlement
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
I love the symbolism in this verse as we’re reminded how well the Great Shepherd takes care of us. He takes us, his sheep, to places where our daily needs are met…for sheep, that’s the lush green meadows of great grass and the pure cool water from the mountain streams and ponds.
I was looking at the grass in my yard this week…how do you think it looks? Dry like everybody else’s yard does! Even the weeds look stressed by the heat! Would it be a good place for Bob Caughey to bring his sheep? NO WAY! We are working on putting egress windows into our new house. The fill around our house is all clay. As you can imagine, as we have been cutting the holes into the wall and as we’ve had some rain and water from the concrete saws the water has pooled in the bottom of the holes. As we pumped the mix of clay and water out of the holes, do you think that Bob Caughey would bring his sheep to come and drink from the end of that pump hose? NO WAY!
The Lord is very different in that he does provide the proper necessities for our life.
3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
I don’t know what you’ve encountered throughout your life. What trials have you encountered? Have you had disappointments? Have you had things in life go different than you planned? Have you been saddened about the future of the church? Of course, each of us have had those struggles? Even as I started listing these issues, many of you have left the sanctuary and are rehearsing those down times.
Come back!
Our Great Shepherd wants to restore our souls in the midst and after those trials. As you’re wrestling with the future of Goodfield Baptist Church, are you willing to let the Shepherd restore your soul, or are you going to go your own way and choose to not let Jesus comfort and restore you? It’s a choice…which option are you going to choose?
The second part of this verse talks about how the Lord leads us in righteousness. Again…this is a choice for us…will we follow along in God’s righteousness or will we go our own way? I think that it’s easy for us when things get tough to come to a crisis moment and then decide to not follow the Lord any longer. How many people do you know over the years who have had some kind of problem with the church or with another believer and then they just stop going to church. Some of them still say they are following Jesus, but they’re struggling with following His righteousness.
4 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 thy staff they comfort me
This verse is often used in funerals as it obviously talks about death. I think that it’s also a good verse for when people are going through struggles in life. There have been times in my life when I thought I was going to die. It could have been due to a physical problem, a problem in a church, a misunderstanding of someone else judging me, financial issues, job pressures, job losses, and so on. Have any of you had any of those issues, or am I the only one?
How does that work for us as we walk through this valley where we stare the death of our church in the eyes? Will we fear the future? Will we look at the death of the church as an evil event? Will we view those who have left the church as evil? Will we mourn appropriately or will we mourn as if the Great Shepherd is walking through this valley with us?
Most of us have experienced the death of a loved one. However, we haven’t been able to go with them all the way have we? Even with the long journey Karen’s dad had from health to death and even though we were there throughout the process, we didn’t cross the threshold of death with him. We got up to the edge of death, but couldn’t go all the way through that valley to the other side.
In contrast, the Great Shepherd is able to walk us all the way through death and bring us safely to the other side! I find that we can trust the Lord incredibly as we go through this time together. As I’ve thought more and more about this throughout this week, I was very encouraged.
How long have your families been part of Goodfield Baptist Church? How long has Jesus been part of Goodfield Baptist Church? How much has your family invested in this church? How much has Jesus invested in this church? How many members of your family are still here? How much Jesus is still here? Even if we all leave this building and never return, and another church takes it over, how much Jesus will be here?
See, as the author of Hebrews tells us…we need to fix our eyes on Jesus…the author and finisher of our faith. He’s also the beginner and finisher of Goodfield Baptist Church. He has been here before the original church was started over in Deer Creek and before any of our ancestors started here. Likewise, He will be here long after we have all died and after all of our descendants have stopped attending this church or whatever follows us in this location.
So, as we move through the coming months, we need to draw our comfort and our strength from the fact that Jesus, our Great Shepherd is walking right alongside of us. He is close enough to touch us with His rod and staff. He isn’t standing a long way off waiting for us to really mess things up or to fall into death’s valley without him being there with us!
In fact, verse 5 brings us back to the fact that we can even celebrate in the middle of these trying times.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
There are a couple of different interpretations here…one is that God is able to bring even enemies together so that they can participate together at a meal. The other one is that perhaps even when you think that things are terribly bad, you may win the battle and be able to parade your captives around in your celebration banquet after winning the war.
In either view, I think we have the opportunity in coming days to work on celebrating with those that some may consider our enemies. Two weeks ago, as I asked questions about our thoughts about the successes of other groups
I was doing some more research this week about two of the churches we’ve been talking with. East White Oak over in Carlock was started in 1892…just a year after we were officially started.
I found it more interesting to discover that Bethany Baptist Church in Peoria was originally started as a Sunday School outreach of First Baptist of Peoria (an ABC Church). From 1877 as just one Sunday School class to 1880 when First Baptist adopted it to 1891 when it organized as an official congregation, its history closely parallels our own.
As I discovered this information about these two congregations, it caused me to really wrestle with some things. I am 100% in support of the staff and ministries at these two churches. The staff are AMAZING men of God! However, I found welling up within me jealousy, discontentment, frustration, and anger about their current situations. How is it that these two churches who are almost identical to us regarding the starting timelines are so much healthier than we are? How can Bethany send three hundred people to Washington to start a church and regain those people in less than 18 months and still run around a thousand people on Sundays? OK…you’re right…they’re in Peoria, and we’re just in lowly Goodfield, there’s no chance for us to have that many people. Well…how do you explain East White Oak? They’re in the middle of nowhere, and yet, people drive from Congerville, Goodfield, Eureka, Downs, and LeRoy to attend there? I’m not sure what their attendance is now, but it was running somewhere around a thousand people.
WAIT! Aren’t these churches our enemies? Many people from Goodfield are attending Bethany’s church in Washington, several people from Goodfield are going to East White Oak and Faith Baptist Temple up in Eureka. They are stealing fish from our private fishing pond!
Oh, but in the coming six weeks or so, we’re inviting them to come and join us. We’re going to ask them about how they can help the Gospel message continue on from this location for future generations! In the presence of our “enemies”, we are going to prepare a lunch table as we eat together. We are going to welcome them in not as people who are poaching from our land, but as friends who are partners in the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! AND, we can CHOOSE to rejoice and let our cups of joy overflow in the process!
This chapter, this song, this word from King David, ends with the benediction:
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
What a reassuring text! No matter where we go. No matter what the future holds. No matter what we struggle with. No matter the crisis that we’re encountering. No matter what we discover in the valley of the shadow of death. The Good Shepherd is with us! The Good Shepherd is showering us with His goodness and mercy!
His invitation is for us to live with Him forever…whether that means the current physical state of us spending much of our time in this building, the current spiritual state of us living our lives in God’s presence, and of course, the ultimate reality of us living in God’s house in heaven.
As I’ve mentioned several times, I’m a type A kind of person who wants to always win and always bring people along with me as we charge the next hill. I know for each of you, the past two years have been especially tough here at church. One of the top songs playing now on Christian radio is “Blessings” by Laura Story. I think that it embodies our thoughts and feelings as we evaluate how God is working in our lives and our church at this point.
Let’s listen to it as we conclude today’s service.
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