A
SERMON OUTLINE By
Dr. James Modlish
God's
Green Pastures
(Psalm
23:2)
Intro:
The
Bible has much to say about Sheep, Shepherds, and
Pastures - it was almost a universal language in Bible
times. If the 23rd Psalm were written today like?
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The
Modern 23rd Psalm (Version
23.1a)
1). The Lord is my
(LAN - Local Area Network Administrator) I shall
not want.
2). He maketh me
backup my hard drives to flopticals, he leadeth me
to delete old e-mails.
3). He restoreth my
passwords, he leadeth me in the paths of (Office
2000 help-file) righteousness for his name's
sake.
4). Yea though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of Internet
viruses and canceled America Online privileges, I
will fear no evil; for my LAN Administrator is with
me, his firewall and (UPS - Unlimited Power Supply)
comfort me.
5). Thou preparest an
iMac workstation before me in the presence of mine
employer: thou anointest my floppy drive heads with
oil; my (cash, cache) runneth over.
6). Surely Internet
SPAM and e-mail attachments shall follow me all the
days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of
(Group Distribution Mail Lists) for
ever.
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Problem:
A computer did not die for us!
I. Pasture
of Salvation - (Jn. 10:1-9)
A.
Sheepfold - high stone fence with one door.
B.
Porter - hired night watchman - (slept in door
way).
C. Voice
- sheep respond to shepherd voice (vs.
27-30).
D. Saved
- comes from acknowledging who the door is and by
going through that door.
When
Dr. Ironside was guest of friends who raised sheep in
Washington State, one morning he was startled to see
an old ewe go across the road followed by the
strangest looking lamb! It had 6 legs and the last 2
were hanging helplessly as if paralyzed, and skin
seemed partly torn from its body.
One of
the herders explained: "The lamb is really not the
ewe's! The latter did have a lamb which was bitten by
a rattlesnake and died. The ewe seemed remorseful, and
refused to accept a new lamb which was an orphan and
needed a mother. At first she sniffed at it and pushed
it away, apparently saying: "That's not our family
odor!"
So the
herders skinned the dead lamb and carefully drew the
fleece over the living lamb - leaving hind legs
hanging loose. The ewe smelled it again and was
satisfied and adopted it as her own.
II. Pastures
of the Wilderness - (Ps. 65:9-13)
Natural
inclination is to assume the wilderness is associated
with desolation - but quite to the contrary. Mountain
wilderness areas possess some of the best pasture (Isa.
49:8-11).
Wilderness
pastures are a place that are:
A.
Difficult to get to.
B.
Isolation from the world.
C.
Dependence upon God.
D.
Great grass.
Lie down
in green pastures - Phillip
Keller, once a shepherd himself, in his book A
Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, relates:
The
strange thing about sheep is that because of their
very makeup, it is almost impossible for them to be
made to lie down, unless four requirements are
met.
First,
due to their timidity, they must be free from all
fear. Next, because of their sociability, they must
be free from friction with others of their
kind.
Third,
they must be free from flies or parasites if they
are to relax. Lastly, they will not lie down unless
free from hunger. And it is only the shepherd who
can provide release from all
anxieties.
Sheep need
to have the right shepherd due to their own
peculiarities.
A new
pastor was invited by the local Kiwanians to join
their club. The membership secretary reminded him,
however, that it was the rule of the club to have only
one representative from each profession and that they
already had one for the category of pastor. The only
profession not represented at the moment was that of
hog-caller. Would the pastor mind? "Well," was the
reverend gentleman's reply, "where I come from, I was
known as the shepherd, but, of course, you know your
group best."
III.
Pastures of Ingratitude - (Hos. 13:4-9)
Wilderness
pastures which ate green and rich often turn into drought
because hearts are exalted and God is forgotten. (Joel
1:18-20) Never has America had so much and yet so little
spiritual pasture.
A simple
song of gratitude may save your life!
Ira
D. Sankey was traveling by steamboat up the Delaware
River. It was a calm, starlit evening and and there
were many passengers gathered on the deck. Mr. Sankey
was asked to sing. Somehow he was driven to sing the
hymn "Saviour, Like A Shepherd Leads Us."
"Can
you remember when you were doing picket duty on a
bright moonlight night in 1862?" asked a
passenger.
"Yes," answered Mr. Sankey, very much
surprised.
"So do
I," said the stranger, "but I was serving in the
Confederate Army. I saw you raised your eyes to heaven
and began to sing. Music has always had a wonderful
power over me, and I took my finger off the trigger.
"Let
him sing his song to the end, I said to myself, I can
shoot him afterwards." "but the song you sang then was
the song you just sang now. I heard the words
perfectly: "We are Thine, do thou befriend us. be the
guardian of our way."
"When
you had finished your song, it was impossible for me
to take aim at you again. I thought: "the Lord who is
able to save that man from certain death must surely
be great and might" - and my arm dropped limp by my
side.
"Since
that time I wandered about far and wide; but when I
just now saw you standing there singing just as on
that other occasion, I recognized you. Then my heart
was wounded by your song. Now I wish that you may help
find a cure for my sick soul."
Deeply
moved, Mr. Sankey threw his arms about the man who had
been his enemy. Then the stranger found Him who was
their common Savior, the Good Shepherd.
IV. Pastures
of Promise - (Joel 2:21-27)
Even
though this is a millennial promise made to Israel in the
future, we have overtones of Christian New Testament
truth.
Example:
(vs. 25) Paul says redeeming the time for the days are
evil.
Shepherd
Waits for Sheep's Surrender -
"Dr.
Andrew Boar told me, how, in the highlands of
Scotland, sheep would often wander off into the rocks
and get into places that they couldn't get out
of.
The
grass on these mountains is very sweet and the sheep
will jump down ten or twelve feet, and can't jump back
again. They may be there for days, until they have
eaten all the grass.
"The
shepherd will wait until they are so faint that they
cannot stand, and then he will put a rope around
himself and go over and pull the sheep up out of the
jaws of death. 'Why doesn't he go down there when the
sheep first get there?' I asked. "'Ah!' he said, 'if
they did, the sheep are so very foolish they would
dash right over the precipice and be killed!'" - D.L.
Moody
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