The Good Shepherd

Had a great time at camp. Man, this is seriously, thank you so much for sending us. Man, I get it for some of us, you know, looking at that, you’re like, man, all they’re doing is just kind of jumping around and having fun or, man, like, why do they need to be at someplace like that? Man, I tell you, you know, one of the best ways to help the next generation make the most important decision they can ever make to follow Jesus is you meet them where they’re at and you put them in an environment that’s tailored toward them. And I just want to say, I’m so proud of y’all for sending just a select group of our next generation here at Sauldam to go and be part of all that.

So what I want to do right now as we finish up this moment, I just want to pray once again for our students. Some of y’all got the wristbands last week with the students’ names on it. Thank you. Clearly, the prayers of righteous men and women availeth much, and three of our students gave their lives to Christ. Man, thank you so much for that. So let’s take one more Sunday to pray for our students. Now we’re not praying, looking forward to Infuge. Now we’re praying, looking back at it, asking that God would solidify the work that He did in these students’ lives. Grab a neighbor, circle up, pray for these students. If you know one of them by name, pray for them. I’ll put a bow on it here in a second. Thank you so much.

Holy Spirit, thank you so much. Thank You for working and moving at camp. God, thank You for all the things that You did in the lives of these 11 students and in myself, Al, and Becca. Thank You for putting it on Sauldam’s heart, Lord, just to help fund that and to send us off. Lord, thank You for the prayer that our members offered for these students and for us. God, thank You for the ways that this was not just Becca’s idea. God, this was a ministry of our church. I’m so grateful for that. Lord, for the students who chose to give their lives to You at camp this past week, God, I beg that You would solidify and submit that work in their hearts. Lord, that they’d be able to look back on Infuge 2026 and know that that was the defining moment of their eternity. Lord, I trust You’re still working in the others’ lives too. I believe from my conversations with the students that there’s a couple that are still weighing their options spiritually, who have not yet chosen to follow You. And I pray, pray, I beg, Holy Spirit, that You get a hold of them over the next few minutes and that they would make that commitment. God, for all of us, as we open up Your Word for just a few minutes, I pray that You would minister to us, that You would help us to just revel and rejoice and celebrate our Good Shepherd who watches over us, His sheep. God, it’s in Your great name that we pray. Amen.

If you do have your copy of the Bible, open it up to Psalm 23. I’m going to take a bit of a break from our Judges series, and I’ll get to that in a few minutes. But Psalm 23, it was the theme of camp this week. Clearly, it’s the Good Shepherd. And man, I’m so grateful that the camp directors chose that as the theme. As you could see from the video, there is a generation of middle and high schoolers who are yearning to know who can they trust, who has their best intention at heart. Because something that I’ve come to recognize about today’s teenagers is that they are extremely good at looking at what is presented to them and determining if it is authentic or fake. They can see through that. And I’m grateful that Will, the pastor over the camp, he spoke every night about how Christ is our Good Shepherd so that these students can see that there is an authentic Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, who has their best interest at heart, who doesn’t want to manipulate them, doesn’t just want to influence them, doesn’t want to use them, but wants to protect and serve them. And at the same time, Jesus does not just want to save middle and high schoolers and put them up on the shelf until they die so that they can get to heaven one day. Now, the Good Shepherd has plans for each of His sheep, and He has specific assignments and ministries and missions. You know, one of the things I personally really appreciated about camp was that multiple times every day, leaders of the camp talked about the missionaries that the North American Mission Board and the International Mission Board have sent overseas. In fact, our students gave to a collection where we were just making a big missions offering to the North American Mission Board and the IMB. And for our students and for all those other students to know that the Good Shepherd does not just want to save and protect us. He also wants to, I mean, He wants to employ us. He wants to give us assignments. He has a bar for us to rise to.

So what I wanted to do this morning for a few minutes is just look at Psalm 23 with you all. And if we can just take a few moments to make a couple observations. I’m going to read it for us. Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd; I have what I need. He lets me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He renews my life. He leads me along the right paths for His namesake. Even when—say that with me—even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger. Why? For You are with me. Your rod, Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of what? My enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord. How long, church? Forever, as long as I live.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd. The question for you this morning: are you one of His sheep? Jesus is the Good Shepherd. There’s no doubt about it. Jesus proved time and time again that He was not just some special prophet and traveling teacher rabbi who had some interesting things to say. Nor was He only just this powerful miracle worker that was used supernaturally. No, Jesus displayed time and time again that He is God in the flesh. And obviously, His most incredible display of this was that when Jesus gave His life on the cross and He was buried in the tomb, three days later, He fulfilled His own promises and the promises of the Old Testament. When He rose from death, completely defeating sin and the grave, making a way for us to live eternally with God forever, starting now. There’s no doubt about it. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Are you one of His sheep?

I really want you to sit in this. I want you to get quiet. If you have to close your eyes, close your eyes. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Are you one of His sheep? You know, we went to camp with 11 students that I think Sunday morning would have all said, “Of course, I’m at church on some regularity. I know about Jesus. My family probably prays at least sometimes. I know a little bit about the Bible. I know some words to some hymns or some worship songs. I may have even given some tithes at some point. I may even talk about Jesus occasionally with a friend or a classmate.” But for a couple of our students, they were able to recognize across the week, “Of course, Jesus is the Good Shepherd. I’m not actually one of His sheep.” The question for you. And I’m not trying to make anybody doubt anything overly, but what I am wanting to do is to make sure that we have an authentic interaction with the Lord this morning. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Are you one of His sheep?

The main thing I really want to say this morning is, if you’re not, I hope today’s the day you become one. There’s so many reasons why we should want to become a sheep under the care of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. There’s three incredible reasons in this psalm. I’m sure you could come up with 20 or 30 or 40. I’m just going to harp on three. The first is this, if you’re taking notes: the shepherd is always present with His sheep. The shepherd is always present with His sheep. Notice what David, who wrote this psalm, says: the Lord is my shepherd. He leads me. He renews me. When I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger because You are with me. You prepare a table for me. Only goodness and love will pursue me. I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live. The shepherd is always present with the sheep. No matter where the sheep go, the shepherd is either right by their side or always will pursue to find the lost sheep. No matter where the shepherd leads me, He is always with me. Even into the darkest valley, even when life is so chaotic and so confusing and so frustrating and so dark, even when I cannot see Him, when I struggle to hear Him, when I am not able to feel Him, I as a sheep can remember that the shepherd is always with me.

Man, are you going through anything right now that is making it hard for you to feel, see, or hear the shepherd? Man, are you going through some medical situation and you’re like, where’s God in this? Are you going through some sort of family strife or some sort of relational breakup and you’re like, man, I don’t feel God’s love in this moment? Man, are you going through some financial strains and you feel the stress of making your money work, but you do not quite feel the love of God? My promise for you this morning is that if you have given your life to Christ, even if you cannot see, feel, or hear Him, the shepherd is with you, His sheep, this morning.

Isn’t that good news? Isn’t it good news to know that even for me as a pastor who’s been walking with Christ over half of my life, even when I get stupid and run away from the shepherd because I am pursuing sin, that shepherd will leave His flock to come and find me and bring me back in? Isn’t that good news for a bunch of people who struggle to always walk with the Lord? Yes. The answer is yes. This is good news.

And because of this, because of the presence of the shepherd with me, guess what? You can fear no. Thank you, Val. Nothing you ever have to fear. There’s no diagnosis you have to fear. There’s no breakdown you have to fear. Death, where is your sting? Sin, where’s your victory? Nada. Gone. Zilch. Because of Christ, we do not have to fear. Because the shepherd is with me, I do not have to fear the dangers, the lions, the bears, the tigers. Oh my. Because I know there is a good God who is always with me.

Man, my invitation for you this morning, if the shepherd is always present with the sheep, man, enjoy His presence. Here’s something I know about sheep and shepherds. Though I have to break the bubble, I am not the most agriculturally inclined or educated. Shocker. Purpose of a shepherd is to be with the sheep. That, man, they live with the sheep. They sleep with the sheep. They eat their food with the sheep. Their lives are totally wrapped up in being in the presence of their flock. Man, the sheep don’t have to wonder, is the shepherd going to be with me today. The shepherd, by His very vocation and identity, has already promised to them, I’m with you. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you.

So if you’re a sheep this morning, enjoy the presence of the shepherd. Here’s what that looks like for me. I begin every day with prayer and reading the Bible. I’m not trying to brag on myself. In fact, it’s the opposite because when I don’t do this, I have a very lovely wife that reminds me I need to pray and read my Bible. She will stop me during breakfast and she will say, hey, do you want to go be alone for a moment? And what Becca’s really saying is, hey, you want to take your Bible to the bedroom, close the door, and just read it for a few minutes and pray and just try to up the sanctification quotient because you’re dangerously low at this current moment.

I’ve come to recognize if I don’t spend time with Jesus at the beginning of every day, I, it’s bad. It’s bad. Do you? I’ll be the first to admit when my eyes popped open this morning, I’m immediately thinking about all the stressful aspects of my life. Y’all, just because I’m a pastor, just because Al’s a pastor, that does not mean that we’ve reached some upper echelon of holiness and sanctification where we no longer need to spend time with God. In fact, the longer I follow Jesus and the deeper I get into pastoral ministry, the more I feel my utter desperate need to be with the shepherd.

Please spend time with Him every day. Read the Bible. Pray. Just be in His presence. Sing some worship songs. Whatever it takes for you to be present with the shepherd, do that. The second reason that you should become a sheep today is this: the shepherd does not—he’s not just present with the sheep. He provides for the sheep. Man, look back at this psalm. Look at the ways the shepherd is taking care of David, the psalmist, the sheep. David says that the good shepherd prepares a table for me in the presence of my enemies. The good shepherd lets me lie down in green pastures. He leads me to quiet waters. The good shepherd renews my life. Man, you never have to doubt the faithful love and provision and generosity of the shepherd toward you. You never have to wonder, “Is He going to take care of my needs today?” I know that the news will make you wonder that with gas prices and inflation. I know that your friends might make you wonder that as you all kind of gripe and complain about how expensive it is to live in Charleston now. But if we would have our eyes, our gaze, our attention fixed on the shepherd, we would remember, “Oh yeah, He has never forsaken me. He has never failed to lead me to a place where I can get everything I need.” Even in the valley of darkness, even in the scary, frustrating, confusing, chaotic places, there is a good shepherd who provides for and takes care of His sheep. Why? Because He loves you. He does not begrudgingly provide for you. Man, He’s not opening His wallet and saying, “Okay, here we are again. Here’s a 20 for lunch.” No! He’s—look at this—He’s preparing a table for you in the presence of your enemies. Your cup can overflow with the provision of the shepherd.

Man, anybody gone through a time in life where your cup did not feel like it was overflowing? Where you’re like, “Man, there might be a dribble in here. The bank account’s real low. The pantry is a bit empty. You got a little more month at the end of your money.” And didn’t God show up? Didn’t the good shepherd provide for you? Is there somebody in the room that’s felt this before? If you have, you should say, “Yes.” I think back to when Becca and I were in seminary. We’re paying off my college student loans. We’re paying tuition on seminary classes. I’m just working kind of odd hours around the seminary schedule. Becca’s the main breadwinner. And tuition comes up and it’s for a couple thousand dollars and we had like a couple hundred dollars and multiple times getting that check in the mail from somebody we didn’t know for the exact amount that we needed for tuition. Not because we’re special, but because we have a special shepherd who looks after His sheep. Where God leads you, He will provide for you. Do you believe that? Do you? I’m going to ask it again. Do you really believe the good shepherd will provide for you? Always does. Thank you, Richard.

But don’t we fail to live with the faith that the good shepherd will provide for His sheep? Man, we’ve seen His faithfulness in the past. We can sit and we could talk about how God has provided at every milestone, but still we get to the next thing, right, Michaela, and we’re like, “God, I don’t know how You’re going to do this. I don’t know how You’re going to raise $70,000 for Martin Hall. I don’t know how You’re going to provide this new vehicle. I don’t know how You’re going to get me through this issue.” And God’s like, “Don’t you dare question My provision. I provided for you the greatest cost ever. I paid your debt of sin against My holy standard, a debt that nobody in their righteousness could pay. I totally took care of it, and not for the best person or one person. Uh-uh. God in Jesus Christ paid the sin debt of every single person in this entire universe.” Man, if God could pay for that, man, He could pay for your HVAC. If God can pay for that, He could take care of where your next meal is coming from. The good shepherd provides for the sheep.

The final reason I hope you trust in the shepherd as your Savior this morning is this: the shepherd promises good to the sheep. He is present with the sheep. He provides for the sheep, and He promises good for the sheep. Look specifically at verses five and six. I’m going to read them again. “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” Look at this. Only goodness. You just say that.

with me. Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.

Man, that word pursue is interesting. Put yourself in the body of a sheep. You’re grazing on the hill. There’s green grass everywhere. Maybe some clouds in the sky. You’ve got a good shepherd. So on that hill there’s also a little stream going where you just drink some water. You’re grazing on the grass. Off in the distance you see another four-legged creature. You start to feel a little funny on your backside. Getting a little nervous. Everybody else around you is starting to get a little nervous. And that four-legged creature starts coming a little closer and it’s growling. Baring its teeth a little bit. And you know you’re about to be pursued by something bad.

But what this psalm says is only goodness and faithful love will pursue me. And as that thing gets closer you realize it’s not a wolf. It’s not a lion. It’s not a bear. It’s actually goodness and faithful love. And it’s going to pursue you for the rest of your life.

Now I’m not saying that whenever you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ that everything’s easy. Cody, your life about to get harder. Jack, we talked about this. The standard’s higher for you, bud. Colby, sweetheart, life does not get easier when you place your faith in Christ. But what I can tell you is that goodness and faithful love, that’s what’s pursuing you. So as you go through the dark hard times, you can rest knowing that you have a good savior, a good shepherd looking after you.

So when the cancer comes, when your mom dies, when the car breaks down, when you get that flat tire again, when you’re late for that job interview, when your friend says the nasty things about you, whenever that girlfriend breaks up with you, whenever these bodies start failing, you can know that even behind or within every single one of those difficulties, goodness and faithful love are running after you.

The shepherd promises good to his sheep. Some really good promises here. I’ve come to find that I can’t actively believe a promise from God when my heart is anxious though. I have to get myself to a place of rest. I’ve learned a practical way to have rest no matter where I am. You want to do it with me? I want everybody to get your hands out like this. This is called a box prayer, a box breath. We’re going to practice it a few times. I’m going to add a layer to it every time. First, just watch me do it. So you inhale for four counts. You hold it four counts. You exhale four counts. You hold it four counts. All right. So now do it with me. Can’t you feel your heart rate dropping a little bit? So now when you inhale, what I want you to do is think the good shepherd loves me. You exhale. He provides for me.

This morning I wake up and my mind is anxious. My thoughts are running and I had to do this. So before my feet hit the floor, I’m saying I had to rest. Believe in God’s promises. You physically rest your body through controlling your breathing. You can remind yourself of the promises of God so that when that phone call comes and it’s your enemy on the phone, you take a moment for you. And that diagnosis comes and the doctor’s in the room. You just say, doc, can I just breathe for a second?

We as sheep need to recognize that the shepherd promises good to us. We need to know that the shepherd is present with us. We need to know that the shepherd provides for us.

I know there are a few people who came in here this morning. You know some things about the shepherd, but you are not yet one of his sheep. Would everybody close your eyes, please? No movement in the room. Everybody close your eyes for a second. I want you to answer this truthfully. I’ve asked you six or seven times. Jesus is the shepherd. Are you his? If you are not and you want to become one, if you want Jesus to become your Lord and Savior, if you want to give your life to Him so that you can enjoy His presence, His provision, and His promises, you’d pray a prayer something like this.

Jesus, I hear that you’re the good shepherd and I want to become one of your sheep. I hear that you’re present with your sheep.

I hear that you provide for your sheep, and I hear that you promise good to your sheep. I need to become one of those sheep. Jesus, I’m done living my way. I’m done leading myself. I’m done being my own shepherd. Would you become my shepherd? Jesus, deal with my sin. Forgive me of my sin and how I have fought you. Save me, please, Jesus. Help me to follow you like a good person. You are the good shepherd.

Keeping our heads down, we’re keeping our eyes closed. If you just prayed that prayer for the very first time, would you raise that hand, please? I’m going to ask that question again. If you just prayed that prayer for the first time, would you raise your hand?

Now I’m going to invite Michael and Lindsay and the other music leaders up. In a second, when we sing our final song, Al and Becca are going to join me up front, and we’re going to be ready to pray for any of y’all that just raised your hand. We’re also going to be ready to pray for anybody that’s going through a hard time, and you just need prayer.

Let me pray for us one final time before they kick us off with some music. Holy Spirit, thank you for applying the truth of this message to our souls. I want to pray for the folks that just raised their hands, and I’m begging, God, if anybody really did just make that transition from death to life, you’d get a hold of them, and you would solidify and cement that work. I’m begging that you would please help us to follow you, the good shepherd, with everything we’ve got. Lord, we love you. It’s in your great name that we pray.