“The Ministry of the Shepherd”

Text: Psalm 23

Today Pastor Durham taught us from a very familiar passage of scripture, Psalm 23. In this sermon titled “The Ministry of the Shepherd”, we are reminded that when God is your shepherd, you don’t have to want for anything.

In true farm life, the shepherd has many roles. One role is that of leader for his sheep. In this psalm, David was expressing the fact that he knew that God was his shepherd. God had taken care of His people in the past, as well as led them out of Egypt. God also fed His sheep with manna from heaven. He even protected them while they wandered in the wilderness.

Another thing that a shepherd does is restore. The shepherd keeps the sheep on track. Sheep, by nature, are very unstable creatures. They lose their focus easily. The shepherd is always busy getting the sheep out of some sort of mess. This relationship between the shepherd and the sheep is a direct parallel between God and the believer. God is always getting us out of something we had no business being in. We are like the sheep by nature. Without the guidance of God in our lives, we would be very unruly beings.

Now that the role of the shepherd was understood, Pastor began to explain a little more about the nature of the sheep. In a flock of sheep, there are three different types of sheep, each one with it’s own unique characteristics and issues. The shepherd has to be knowledgeable about all of them in order to keep the flock in line. The first type of sheep is the stubborn sheep. This sheep refuses to follow direction of the shepherd. To make a parallel to man, this is the person who has a problem with authority. You can’t tell them anything! In order to get this type of sheep to behave, the sheep has to be broken. The shepherd breaks one of the sheep’s legs with his rod. The leg is then allowed to heal, as the shepherd nurses it back to health. Once the leg is healed, that sheep is a faithful follower of its shepherd. In scripture, this reminds us of Jonah, who had to be broken by God. Even though God broke him, He never left him.

The next type of sheep is the straying sheep. This is the sheep that won’t stay with the flock. To correct this problem sheep, the shepherd uses his staff. The staff is a tool of correction, while the rod is a tool of discipline. The staff is shaped somewhat like a candy cane, with a hook on the end that is used to rescue the straying sheep. When God’s people get careless, they get into trouble. That’s when He comes to our rescue. Instead of us being careless, we need to learn to be careful.

The last type of sheep in any flock is the sick sheep. This sheep needs healing. To equate this type sheep to man, the sickness represents sin that hasn’t been confessed. When Christians don’t confess sins like they should, it can make them physically sick, or sin-sick. In the Old Testament, when you sinned, God would take the Holy Spirit away from you. This is what happened to King Saul. David also had the Holy Spirit taken from him when he sinned. In Psalm 51, he prayed to God to ask Him to restore the Holy Spirit unto him. In the New Testament, however, the Holy Spirit doesn’t come and go. It comes to live in you at conversion. If someone is sin-sick now, all they have to do is go to God in prayer and He will see it through. Because of calvary, all of our sin debts have been paid. It’s good to know that Jesus’ death took care of all of that. We just have to humble ourselves and go to Him. No matter what type of sheep you may be, God is our faithful, unwavering shepherd.

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