Simple Faith

Bill Henry: He is our peace who has broken down every wall. And he calms the waters so that we can drink of him. Well, I don't understand the word of God. Make sure you have a translation you can understand.

But then also pray as you're reading, "Lord, help me to understand," and he will calm the waters of his word. Because they're spiritually discerned. You see, again, Jesus is our good shepherd and he will always lead us beside the still waters. Now, the invitation again is fresh this morning and it's fresh every morning. Will you deny yourself, pick up your cross, and allow Jesus Christ to be your shepherd?

Guest (Male): A few years ago, close to 1,500 sheep jumped off a cliff in Turkey. 450 of them died. The first ones were killed by the fall, but about 1,000 survived by landing on the bodies of the first 450 to go over. I'm told the sheep were actually being watched by shepherds who had left to go get breakfast only to come back and watch the sheep jump off the cliff.

Throughout the Bible, we're often referred to as sheep, but the good thing is we have a good shepherd who will never leave us. He takes care of us, so there's no reason to fear. Pastor Bill Henry has more to say about our relationship with the good shepherd today on Simple Faith as we revisit Psalm 23, verse 2. Here's Pastor Bill.

Bill Henry: I've talked to Christians who say they are Christians—I say professing Christians because I don't know—but they're sad, they're lonely, they're discouraged, but it's not just a little point, it's continuing on and on and on. And it's a life of continual defeat. And here's the crazy part: they don't change. They just keep going the same way. What's the thing about insanity? Insanity, the first thing that marks it is you want change but you just keep doing the same thing.

What's odd and sad for me to see as a pastor, I see this continually. Those who claim Christ, yet they are so sad all the time, they're miserable all the time, and at best, melancholy in their lives. It's crazy when I give them counsel from God's word, biblical counsel, either personally or from the pulpit. Most times, they just kind of shrug it off to the side and say, "Oh, I've kind of tried that already. I need something different now, something new."

Christianity is not something you do, it's something you are. It's someone you've become because you've been born again of the spirit of God. It's a change. It's not all of a sudden like, "Well, I tried this Christian thing and I did read through the Bible one time, it was all right." No, it's a life. It's who we are. We are now children of God. We've been born again.

The only thing that we now need is Jesus Christ and the waters that come and flow from him to bring refreshment to our soul. Being led by him through his word and by the power of his Holy Spirit, that thirst is quenched. When we lead or the world leads, it always leads us to a polluted water, rough water, and unsatisfying water.

Turn with me, please, to Luke chapter 16. I think we get a glimpse into this. It's a little different. It's talking about hell, but I still think we get a little glimpse into this thirst. Luke chapter 16, verse 22, and we come into the Lazarus and the rich man, the true story. We believe it's true because it's the only parable that the Lord actually used a name. And so we believe this is actually a true story and we come into the middle of it and Jesus is speaking. He says this in verse 22:

"So it was that the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. But the rich man also died and was buried. And being tormented in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.'"

Now what if this is just a picture right now? People out there, and I believe this is it, they're just dying for a dip of water. They're dying for just some water. I just need something cool to drink to satisfy this thirst in my soul. And then again, when so many who profess Christ say the same thing: "I'm a Christian, but man, I'm still miserable, I'm still thirsty." We need to come to Christ and drink.

We don't just say, "Lord, would you please just dip your finger and give me just a little, just a little cup of water, please? May I have some more, please?" No, the Lord says, "Dude, when you're born again, I'm not just giving you a little, I'm giving you this whole cistern. Matter of fact, I'm going to pour it in you. I'm going to pour it in and pour it out."

But you see what's happened is for a lot of people who profess Christ—and again, I'm not saying they're Christian or they're not, I don't know sometimes—but in Jeremiah 2:13, he said this, "For my people have done two evil things. They have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all." And that describes so many who profess Christ today.

They've abandoned the word of God. They've abandoned him through his word. It's crazy out there when you hear people attacking the word of God continually, and from within the churches even. Saying people like us who believe the Bible, we're fundamentalists. I don't care what label you put on me. I really don't care. I'm believing the word of God above all else. Period. Period. Unashamedly, by the way, but not pridefully either. This is the truth.

But notice they've not only abandoned the fountain, but they've also dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all. Does that describe your life today? Even though you profess Christ, you're hardly ever happy, you're always down, there's always something wrong. Hey, that's not the Christianity of the Bible.

You see because what happens is what brings that peace, what brings that security to us is we were once headed to hell for all eternity. And then Jesus came on the cross and died for our sins even while we were yet sinners. And now we're headed to heaven. Is that not enough to put a smile on your face?

I don't care if you just found out you got cancer. I don't care if you just found out somebody you love has died or is dying, or you lost your job. Again, I'm not saying those things can't be rugged, but when you put them in light of this, everything else is like, "Well, that's just small stuff."

And I've gotten the call: "You have cancer. You have the worst kind of skin cancer there is." All right, well, let's keep going. We're going on vacation, we'll keep going, see what the Lord does when we get back. I've gotten the call in the middle of the night: "Someone's been shot in the head, your brother." I've gotten other calls. And it's not of me, it's of my shepherd.

Because when I look at him, I am his. He died for me. He's holding me. He's my surety. He's given me his Holy Spirit to live within me. All these other things, I know that he's going to be faithful to take care of me, even if that leads to my death.

Jesus led to the cross. How do we think we're more important than Jesus? "Well, I don't like this cross where you're leading me. That means you're not a good shepherd." We all have a cross. We all need to deny ourselves, pick up our cross, and follow him. When the good shepherd is leading, he always leads us to good, pure, and still waters.

When I was a kid, me and my brother Bob, we'd go out on the hot summer days. I'm talking when we were probably he was three and I was five or he was two and I was four. We were real little. But we'd always love it when we'd come out, and we lived in tract homes. We'd come out and there was this stream running by front of our house. Blue skies, hot Southern California day, but there was this stream going by the front of our house, going right in the gutter.

We used to love to go out there and look around make sure, "Oh, looks pretty good, looks nice and clean," and we'd just go down and start sucking up this gutter water because it was stream water. We didn't see Joe Johnson up the stream washing his car and the water coming down. That was bad water. Bad water.

But that's what we do as human beings. I remember another idea I had when I was three. Took one of my mom's, she just finished a bottle of Clorox, and so I took that bottle and thought, "I'm going to make myself a canteen." So I washed that thing out two or three or four or five times. I mean really good. All right, now I'm ready for some good fresh water. Gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp... bleh! Just terrible.

But you see that's the key: when we go, it's just polluted. The things in the world, whether it's movies, whether it's stuff, whether it's even relaxation, whatever. When we try to fill that void with anything but Jesus Christ. You see, he comes, he brings good, pure, and still waters. He leadeth me beside the still waters.

Turn with me, please, to John chapter 6. We're going to stay in the Gospel of John for a few minutes looking at several different scriptures. John chapter 6, starting in verse 35: "Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.'"

When we're thirsty in this world still, when we're not satisfied with anything but Jesus Christ, there's something wrong with our walk with Jesus Christ. We're getting too caught up in the things of the world. Now, turn with me to John chapter 4, please, just back a couple chapters.

In Isaiah 55:1, it says, "Come, all you who are thirsty. Come to the waters." I love that. Now we have a picture of this in John chapter 4, starting in verse 7: "A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, 'Give me a drink.' For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to him, 'How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?' For the Jews, John points out, have no dealings with Samaritans."

"In verse 10, Jesus answered and said to her, 'If you knew the gift of God and who it is that says to you, \"Give me a drink,\" you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.' And the woman said to him, 'Sir,' and you could almost hear the kind of making fun of Jesus, 'Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then do you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?'"

"Jesus answered and said to her, 'Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.' The woman said to him, 'Sir, give me this water that I may not thirst nor come here to draw.'"

Now remember back in those days, they couldn't just turn the sink on or even go over to a pump. They had to go to a well or to running water and fill their cistern and bring it back. And so she was like, "Hey, I don't want to thirst anymore," so she's focused again on the physical.

Take a sidestep for just a moment as we come into verse 16 because notice that Jesus now is being the good shepherd. He's leading her. Check this out in verse 16. Jesus said to her, \"Hey, go call your husband and come here.\" Well, the woman answered, \"I have no husband.\" Jesus said to her, \"You have well said, 'I have no husband,' for you have had five husbands and the one whom you have now is not your husband. In that, you spoke truly.\""

Just stop there. Because check this out: in leading the Samaritan woman to the water, notice where he first leads her. He leads her to her own sin. In leading to the water, he leads her to her own sin. And in coming to the waters of peace that are found in Jesus Christ, we too need to be looking first at our own sin. For that sin is what parches our soul. The sin is what dries it out and just makes it disgusting and gross.

We need to allow ourselves to feel guilty over that sin. To feel that guilt and then to turn away because the Holy Spirit of God has come and he's convicting us of sin, of righteousness and judgment, Jesus said. Because in that conviction, we then turn away from that sin and we come running to Jesus Christ.

We ask God for forgiveness of our sins. We believe on Jesus Christ to be the Lord and Savior of our lives. And then again, our souls are then just flooded with the Holy Spirit of God as we're born again of the spirit of God. Read through the book of Acts and see how it's supposed to be our lives as Christians. It's radically different than what we see in Christianity today.

But I love this because then Jesus comes with this spirit and he abides in us with his glorious living waters as we're born again of the spirit of God. Turn with me to John chapter 7 and we'll read a little bit about what this is supposed to be like. We think it's like, \"Well, I'm born again and it's all good and my life I'm just going to keep on going straight. It'll be a little cleaner now that I'm a Christian.\" No, check this out.

John chapter 7, verse 37. On that last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." Notice that. But notice in verse 39: "But this he spoke concerning the Spirit whom those believing in him would receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus had not yet been glorified."

So here we are saying, "Well, what's Christianity to be like? What's it supposed to be like?" Well, it's just down most of the time or sad most of the time or fearful. No. It's to be those who go out into a world who have, notice what: his heart will flow with rivers of living water. Does that describe you as a Christian this morning? Does that describe me? It should. It should describe every one of us who profess Christ.

It's not like, "Well, he's the weird Christian that has all that fancy Holy Spirit stuff going on." No, this is to be a part of every one of our lives. And again, I'm not talking about, "Hey, let's stand up there and talk in tongues or do these other things," while the gifts of the Spirit are to use decently and in order.

I'm talking about our everyday living. When we're talking to our wives, when we're talking to our children, when we're talking at work. The Holy Spirit is just flowing, just these rivers of living water flowing out of us. Jesus said in Matthew 5:6, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."

Let me read this out of the Amplified. I love this: "Blessed and fortunate and happy and spiritually prosperous, in that state in which the born-again child of God enjoys his favor and salvation, are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, uprightness and right standing with God, for they shall be completely satisfied."

Notice how it says that. Blessed, fortunate, happy, spiritually prosperous. Does that describe your life this day as a Christian? It should. And if it doesn't, then guess what? You just need to come back to your shepherd. Maybe come to him for the first time. But just come to him and come through his word and say, "Lord, teach me, show me. I want to follow you now. I want to come into that. I want more of you."

Now, notice lastly back in our text here in Psalm 23. Notice it says, "He leadeth me beside what? The still waters." You see our good shepherd leads us beside still waters. I've been borrowing some stuff from a commentator that he was a shepherd when he was younger, in his early 20s, and he became a pastor later on, a shepherd of sheep. And so it's kind of cool he applies really practical things to spiritual things.

But one of the things he said that there are three main ways that sheep get their water. Number one: sheep can be watered through wells that the shepherd or others have constructed. Wells, cisterns, things like that where they can come and take the water out and water their sheep.

Other times, it's a calm pond. It's a stream or a river that has a calm part of it and the shepherd would bring them to those calm portions of that. And still other times, and this was quite interesting, the sheep would receive the water through the morning dew on the grass.

As you look at those three ways briefly, it says our good shepherd has given us the well of waters to drink from himself. Remember in Jeremiah, his people went away from the wells of drinking of him. And Jesus is the living water. Remember, living means it's not stagnant. It's fresh, it's refreshing and that's who Jesus is.

Our good shepherd gives us the waters from the well of himself to drink. He also brings us to streams and rivers to drink of himself as well, through his word as well, by his Holy Spirit. But he always brings us to the calm and easy portions. Our family, we like to go up to the Lewisville Park and there's the Lewis River that goes through.

One of the forks of the Lewis River comes by and if you go to one part, it's kind of ripping by pretty quick, I would never take animals. But if you go to this other part just around the bend, it almost looks like just a big pond. And it's all part of the same river and that's where the good shepherd would take their sheep so they wouldn't get washed away. And that's what our Lord does with us. He understands our weaknesses. He understands our frailties. "Come and drink. Come and be strengthened," he says.

Now think about the last way that the sheep are watered. This is very interesting: the dew on the morning grass. You see apparently the sheep would wake up early when the weather was good for this and they would get up about an hour or two before sunrise and they would eat the grass in the fields that had dew upon it. And they would eat and they would be drinking at the same time as they're eating the grass. And the water on the grass and the dew would give them water.

The sheep when they're getting water this way, they can last up to two months doing that. No other water source, just that dew. Now again, what a great spiritual application for us today: to be those who wake up early, the first thing we come to our good shepherd through prayer, through his word.

And as we're feeding upon his word, as we're drinking in his Holy Spirit, we're refreshed. We're strengthened for the day. And we go out and it's like the stuff that Peter talks about about a dog returning to its vomit, that old sin. We don't want it anymore because we had a good meal in the morning. We had good breakfast with the Lord.

We don't want to go to the things of the world. The Bible says as we walk in the spirit, we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. As we're filled up in the morning on the things of God and meditate on those throughout our day—you know how cows chew the cud, they kind of regurgitate back up and chew on it. That's the thought, by the way, of when we read scripture in the morning.

The rest of the day, we kind of regurgitate it back up in our minds and we're chewing on it and we're thinking about it and it's helping us get through the day because we're refreshed. And then when sins come our way, when I'm tempted to act in a certain way or say something, it's like, "No, no, man. I want to be him who's been led by the still waters." And I'm just going to be those who have that river of living water flowing from me.

Again, notice the still waters. "He leadeth me beside the still waters." And even though the waters of the world around us may be raging, Jesus with a word calms the storm. When you go through hard times and if you haven't, I'm sure probably most of us here have. You will. And even if you have been through hard times, there are more to come. Great promises, amen?

But here's the beauty: the world when things happen, they go crazy. "Oh, this is terrible. What are we going to do?" But the Christian, the sheep of God, knows that his shepherd is in control, her shepherd is in control. And we find rest and we find trust even when the seas are raging around us. The waters that God brings us to, they're still and they're in him and they're strengthening and they're quenching and they're refreshing.

Even though everybody else might be freaking out, we are standing and resting in Jesus Christ. And you know what, guys and gals? This is the key: that Jesus Christ is our good shepherd. He leads us to places of peace. When we're our own shepherd, it leads us to places of weakness and confrontation and conflict.

But Jesus Christ in him, he is our peace who has broken down every wall. And he calms the waters so that we can drink of him. "Well, I don't understand the word of God." Make sure you have a translation you can understand. But then also pray as you're reading, "Lord, help me to understand," and he will calm the waters of his word because they're spiritually discerned.

You see, again, Jesus is our good shepherd and he will always lead us beside the still waters. Now, the invitation again is fresh this morning and it's fresh every morning. Will you deny yourself, pick up your cross, and allow Jesus Christ to be your shepherd?

That's the question this morning. As we close, let's turn to one last scripture back in Revelation chapter 22. Most of us are familiar with this verse, but it's easy to kind of skip part of this. Revelation 22:16: "I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star. And the spirit and the bride say, 'Come.' And let him who hears say, 'Come.'"

We usually kind of stop right there, but notice what he says, "And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely." Stop being that Christian that is tired and weary. Become that Christian that is taking from the waters of life freely and be refreshed.

Guest (Male): Thank you so much for joining us for Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Now, if you were blessed by today's message from the 23rd Psalm, you can go to our website and watch the video or download an audio MP3.

And we have a large number of Pastor Bill's messages archived there. You can find them all at simplefaith.org. That's simplefaith.org. And if you'd like to contact us via the U.S. mail, our mailing address is Post Office Box 55, Battle Ground, Washington, and the zip code is 98604.

Here at Simple Faith Calvary Chapel, we have two services on Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. So if you're looking for a church home, make plans to join us for fellowship, worship, and a great time in God's word at 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. every Sunday morning.

Thank you so much for joining us today and be sure to set aside another half hour next weekend at this same time as our study in Psalm 23 continues here on Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, brought to you by Simple Faith Calvary Chapel. Have a wonderful week in the Lord.