BULLETIN STUDY OUTLINE:
1. Name something you have a lot of sentiment (and survival) attached to? Car? Cellphone? Imagine not having access to water, having to go look for it every day. Now imagine a drought. You can just start to relate to most of the people of the Bible and how they valued wells & water.
2. What do you think has similar significance and sentiment in our culture as wells did in the Old Testament? Should these things have that kind of power? What are the consequences of that?
3. Comment on the quote: “Psalm 23 is the most quoted, least believed, passage in the Bible.” What are some indicators you believe Psa 23 is true in your life?
4. As a care-giver, do you think Psalm 23 applies to you? If so, how? What are some key lessons you’ve learned today from Psa 23?
5. Name a dark time in your life. Can you see the darkness ebbing and the light of Christ starting to appear? Look up “darkness” in your Bible’s concordance to see 2 Sam 22:29 echoed over & over. Name the times it has echoed in your life.
6. Do you think every experience in your life has some benefit? List some experiences, good ones and difficult ones, which have taught you good lessons & had good outcomes.
7. Comment on this quote and its application in your life: “We do need to know the secrets of where to dig to find ‘water’ in life. We need to sharpen our skills. Smarts are usually better than stupidity. But we also need to know to depend on God AND call out to Him. Because the smart shepherd knows he can’t bring water from the earth or make it rain (or stop). He can only depend on God & call out to Him to do the things that are really life-giving. These only fall from Heaven and the hand of God.”
I. It’s commonly known we can survive around 40 days w/o food, hence the length of Moses’ and JC’s fasts in the Bible. So I was doing a 40 day “juice only” fast. I was into my 25th day doing great…no problem. I own one of those industrial strength juicers, so I was juicing steaks, fries, & tacos. Teasing.
A. While can go up to 40 days w/o food, we can last barely 3 days w/o water. Yet a nurse told me once that if you could get just 1 tsp. water/15 min. you would not dehydrate.
B. Water is life. We are 70% water. Interestingly, water covers 70% of the globe. God knows how important water is. 6000 children/day. Yet we take it so for granted. That’s why at least one of our adult classes and our youth group is constantly raising money for third world wells.
C. FDS’s request for water 4 tornado victims.
D. There are 45 Arabic words for “well or water retaining area” (cistern, spring, ravine, etc). You can tell what’s really important in a culture by how many words they have for something. Ill. Eskimos have over 40 words for snow. We have how many for: lunch, brunch, munch, munchies, meal, eats, feast, fixins’, viddles, grub, bite, dine, dinner, supper, snacks, spread, chow, FOOD…and more! (p. 47 Laniak).
E. Conflict over water is the third most popular theme in Arabic/Bedouin folk tales (after thieves & raiding). It is a common Bible theme (Gen 26:17-25).
This text could be the basis for a whole series called: “Wells, Altars and Names,” all of which have so much significance in the Bible. I’m trying to think of something we have so much sentiment and survival attached to in our culture, and came up short. Our cars or cell phones come the closest, but still pale.
II. “The Lord is my Shepherd…He leads me beside still waters” (Ps 23:1-2). I’ve heard this called the best loved, least believed Psalm in terms of real, experienced comfort. ???
A. As we look at the Good shepherd psalm we can learn many things about our relationship with Jesus, His care and love for us, but also how to care for others. This is for pastor-shepherds. But it’s also for anyone who gives care or is in charge of others.
That would be parents, pastors, managers, mentors, coaches and care-givers of all kinds--EMTs, doctors, nurses, social workers, counselors, CPAs…on and on. Most of you will see yourselves in (Psa 23) on the care-giving side, and for sure on the receiving end as we learn about our Great Shepherd’s care for us.
B. Four places sheep drink water, according to real-life shepherd, Phillip Keller in his A Shepherd Looks At Psa 23.
1. In dark caverns i.e. the pits. This is the most dangerous place, where predators can easily pounce. We are most needful of the shepherd in the dark places and times of our lives.
a. But (2 Sam 22:29; Ps 139:12; Jn 1:4-5).
b. Are you in a dark time right now? Look up “darkness” in your concordance to see (2 Sam 22:29) echoed over & over.
2. In quiet pastures. Here the pics is of the morning dew glistening on the grass. This is the best according to shepherds. They can go for weeks w/o water if they are feeding on dewy grass.
3. In rushing waters. We get the pics here the psalmist is speaking of the floodwaters that come after a hard desert rain. The wadis (valleys) turn into torrents of turbulent rushing water (Ps 69:1-3).
a. That’s when the shepherd has to wade in and build a dam to slow or stop the rushing waters, or the sheep won’t drink (Ps 69:1-3). Sheep will often die of thirst before they will drink from a running, turbulent waters.
b. If the shepherd can’t build a dam to quiet and pool the water, he has to become the dam himself, with his own body. This reminds us of (Jn 10:9, 11, 15b).
c. This is also reminiscent of how often the Father in the OT, and Jesus in the New, had to quiet the stormy, troubled waters for His disciples? For you?
d. The shepherd fears the floods of the wadis as much as he fears the droughts that plague the middle east and much of the world today (Jb 6:15; Ps 69:1-3).
4. It’s the still, calm waters the shepherd wants for his sheep.
III. For many JC leaves them in the dust as an example. We say he’s an unfair model because He was fully God and fully man. We can’t use the same excuse with Moses.
A. He knew something about shepherding in nasty, dry desert conditions. At 40 years old, when many are comfortably settled in their careers, Moses found himself having to leave the office abruptly one day, because his boss was literally going to kill him for his on the job performance. Remember he killed an Egyptian who was beating a fellow Israelite. Now he’s beating the path to a new career path…not by choice. Some can relate.
B. There in the Midian desert he stumbles upon a water dispute (huh!). By watering the flock that was being unfairly treated ingratiated himself w/ his future father in law and wife by intervening in a watering battle. Desert protocol, custom & survival required you share water supplied even if they belonged to you…at least once (Ex 1-2).
C. This launched his career for the next 40 years as a shepherd in a dry & barren land. There he learned desert survival skills, including secrets of finding water. Dr Tim Laniak, who wrote one of the books I’m reading on shepherds for this series (While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks, pp. 49-50), said he was w/ a group of shepherds one day looking for water. They examined the rocks and ledges, dug down about 10 feet, and eureka! They knew the moss pattern on the rocks above pointed to water below.
D. So 3 guesses who would be a great choice to lead God’s “flock” of millions of people through this same desert after honing his desert survival skills for 40 years?
E. Which begs the question: Do you think God has something in store in your future for all those experiences you’re going through…good experiences and difficult ones? I’ve heard it said: there is nothing wasted for the child of God. Do you believe that?
F. But we must be careful not to rely too much on our own skills, secrets or smarts, because those are limited and God’s are infinite. We can offer people life-giving water only after we receive it from God. That is true in the material realm and the spiritual realm. We cannot make water and we cannot make living water that springs up to eternal life. They both come from the hand of God.
G. Back to Moses. Remember when Moses was commanded by God to strike the rock in (Ex 17, Mt Sinai) and water gushed out. In that area the rock solid granite. This was clearly a miracle.
1. Later God tells him to speak to the rock for water. Instead Moses struck the rock and water gushed out. In that area, the Desert of Sin, the rock is porous limestone that often contains hidden pools and springs of water. Moses likely knew this from his desert survival skills. So because God had clearly commanded him to SPEAK to the rock, and instead he strikes it, it appears his way is better than God’s. And isn’t that the essence of sin? We think our way is best; God’s way is not (Num 20:6-12).
2. Moses gets the glory instead of God. Do you see the consequences in terms of Moses’ not getting to go into the Promised Land?
3. It doesn’t have to be outright, obvious sin. There is a lesson here for us when we rely on our own skills, smarts or secrets to get things done instead of doing it God’s way and calling out to Him in prayer. Wow!
IV. We could misinterpret the message here. We need to sharpen our skills. Smarts are usually better than stupidity. But how often do we think we know best and do it our way? How often, because we think we know best, fail to even pray?
A. The smart shepherd knows we can’t make water come from the ground, or the sky (or make it stop). We can only depend on God & call out to Him to give people life-giving water. These only fall from Heaven.
B. Even Paul go tripped up here. So, dya think it could happen to us? He was operating too much in his own wisdom in Athens when arguing with the intellectuals and philosophers. He could match their intelligence and academic credentials (Acts 17). But we never read of a church there that he was able to start that way.
C. So when he went to Corinth he had a different spirit (I Cor 2:1-5). Oh that we would learn this lesson with Paul and Moses.
D. Would you, with me, pray: “Lord, help us LEARN & DO this.”
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