The Good Shepherd | Upside Down – Psalm 23:3

Upside Down | Psalm 23:3

Psalm 23:1-3 (NASB) “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. 3 He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake”.

Psalm 23:3 “He restores my soul.”

Psalm 42:11 (NIV 1984) “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”

Cast Sheep.

Luke 15:4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?”

Psalm 56:13 (NASB, 1995) “For You have delivered my soul from death, Indeed my feet from stumbling, So that I may walk before God In the light of the living.”

I Corinthians 10:12 “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall.”

Basic Causes that Turn Christ Followers into “Cast People”

1. Some sheep only look for a soft spots.
2. Some sheep have too much wool.

3. The main cause of cast sheep is that they become overweight.

Matthew 19:23-24 “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Hebrews 12:6 (NCV)  “The Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as his child.”

Psalm 23:3 “He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”

Phillip Keller “No other class of livestock requires more careful handling, more detailed direction, than do sheep.”

Philip Keller The greatest single safeguard a shepherd has in handling his flock is to keep them on the move.

Isaiah 53:6 “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way;”

Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”

Fresh Attitudes Needed in Order to Follow Jesus

1. Instead of loving myself most, I will love Jesus and others more than myself.

I John 3:16 “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”

2. Instead of being one of the crowd, I am willing to be set apart.

Matthew 7:14 “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

3. Instead of being in charge, I’m willing to serve.

4. Instead of choosing my own way I willingly choose to follow Jesus’ way.

Philippians 2:13 “or it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”