Psalm 23:3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Restoration of
- Old Cars
- Old houses
- Old paintings
How did you get you get to the point of uselessness?
- Neglect, Abuse, Cast aside, Forgotten
1. Cast Sheep
- Turned over on its back
- Cannot get up by its self.
Can happen the sheep lays down.
- They pick a comfortable place like a little depression in the ground.
- When they lie down and stretch out just a little to let their legs relax and in an instant they relax and they role too far.
This happens because of the center of gravity is off and once they loose contact with feet they cannot right themselves.
2. The Cast Down Sheep
- Panic
- Stress - Gas begins to expand stomach
- Stiffening - Blood circulation to the legs are cut off.
- Death - in a few hours if it is hot or a few days if it is cooler.
If this happens to be an ewe then a threat to the unborn lamb is at stake as well.
- It becomes easy prey to predators
- Buzzards, Vultures, Dogs, Coyotes, Cougars
- Shepherd spots the cast & runs to the sheep roles the sheep on its side.
- He lifts the sheep up and straddles the sheep.
- This is needed because the sheep has lost equilibrium and cannot stand on there own.
- The shepherd does not take time for discipline but rather begins to rub the legs.
- While rubbing the shepherd begins to speak to calm the sheep down and soon the sheep begins to take the first step.
- First one is a little shaky but soon they regain their balance and they head out to graze once more.
Ps 42:5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
- He restores my soul” – Literally “He renews my life”
- To bring back to original beauty, design, purpose and to reestablish
1 Co 10:12
12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
3. Becoming Cast Down
(a). Looking for a Soft Spot
- Sheep like a rounded hollow
- Easy to roll over
- How we want a place of ease
- No hardship
- No need for endurance
- No demand upon self-discipline
- Self-indulgence looks for the soft life
- Rich Fool
Lk 12:19-20
19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. 20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
(b). Having Too Much Wool
- Shrek the hermit ram took six years to grow his massive fleece.
- Named after the troll from had been on the lam and living in mountain caves for six years after escaping from his flock.
- Ranch owner John Perriam said the ram would have had "little food in winter" when snow piles up more than 6 feet deep, bitter winds blow across the mountain peaks, and grazing would only be possible when snow was blown off slopes.
- Average fleece weighs around 9.9 lb,
- Exceptional weights up to around 33 lb.
- Shrek’s fleece weighed 60 lb
- Enough wool to make 20 suits for men,
- Long, heavy, matted with mud, manure, burrs, stuff
- The weight makes it easy to become “cast”
- Sheering necessary to remove the wool
- Along with the weight of wool
- Dirt, Mud, manure, burs, sticks & bugs are removed
Re 3:17
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked
- Things of earth can weigh us down
- Attached to things & possessions
- The dirt of the world can cast us down
- Priest were never allowed to wear wool when he entered the Holy Place
:
(c). Overweight Sheep
- Too fat is unhealthy, and unproductive
- Heart disease
- Breathing problems
- No longer strong or sturdy
- My heart disease – Living my first love (Neglect the Word)
- My bre4ating problems – No time for prayer
Race
Heb 12:1
1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
1 Co 9:24-27
24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. 25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
4. The Cast Down’s Escape
1 Sa. 30
v. 3, - David had lost his home, family, friends,
v. 6 - His life threatened
1 Sa 30:6
6 And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.
How do you encourage yourself in the Lord?
Jud 20-21
20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,
21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
