"that's All I Want!"

MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK

(PowerPoints used with this message are available for free. Just email me at mnewland@sstelco.com & request #376.)

TEXT: Psalm 23; Philippians 4:11-12

For nearly 30 centuries the 23rd Psalm has been one of the best known & most beloved passages in the Bible.

ILL. In his book, “I Shall Not Want”, Robert Ketchum tells about a Sunday school teacher who asked her group of children if any of them could quote the entire 23rd Psalm. A little 4½-year-old girl raised her hand. A bit skeptical, the teacher asked if she could really quote the entire psalm.

The little girl nodded her head, came to the front of the room, curtsied, & said: "The Lord is my shepherd, & that’s all I want." She then curtsied again & sat down.

Like the little girl, we may not be able to quote it completely, but we do treasure it, & often read it in times of stress or sorrow because it speaks to the heart. Its word pictures connect with us where we live, whether we know anything about sheep & shepherds or not.

ILL. Henry Ward Beecher, a famous American preacher of the 1800's, in a flowery tribute to the 23rd Psalm said, "This Psalm has flown like a bird up & down the earth, singing the sweetest song ever heard. It has charmed more griefs to rest than all the philosophers of the world.

"It will go on singing to your children, & to my children, & to their children till the end of time. And when its work is done, it will fly back to the bosom of God, fold its wings & sing on forever in the happy chorus of those it had helped to bring there." Wow! (Copied from Dr. Roger W. Thomas on SermonCentral.com)

There are only 115 words in this great Psalm (NIV). Yet these 115 words reach to the very depths of our being & sustain us in hours of difficulty & trial.

But I would like us to consider it in a slightly different way this morning. I’d like you to see in this psalm 3 great reasons to be thankful to God.

The Psalm begins with these familiar words, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want." When someone says, "I shall not be in want," we need to sit up & take notice because this is an age of discontentment.

Many people never seem satisfied, & almost everybody wants more. A little child wants more toys & more television time. A teenager wants more freedom & more popularity. Most adults want more possessions & more leisure time.

And as we age, we want a healthier body, more friends, & more respect from our children. But sadly, none of these things will ever bring us real contentment.

Listen to the Apostle Paul, "I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want." (Philippians 4:11-12)

How can we experience contentment in spite of our surroundings? A good place to begin is not by complaining about what we don't have, but by always being thankful for what we do have.

There should be a spirit of thankfulness in us that brands us as belonging to Him. So with the 23rd Psalm in mind, notice 3 great reasons to be thankful.

I. IN THIS LIFE THE GOOD SHEPHERD GIVES US ALL WE NEED

The first one is this: "We can be thankful because in this life the Good Shepherd gives us all we need."

A. Frequently in the Bible human beings are compared to sheep. Now that is not a compliment, because sheep are among the dumbest & dirtiest animals in the world.

So when the prophet Isaiah says, "We all, like sheep, have gone astray." (Isaiah 53:6), he is saying that we too are lost & in need of a shepherd. And when Jesus looked out on the people with compassion, the Gospel writers say that He saw them "like sheep without a shepherd." (Matthew 9:36)

ILL. Philip Keller was a sheep rancher & in his book, "A Shepherd Looks at the 23rd Psalm," he says that they require more attention than any other livestock. They just can't take care of themselves.

Unless their shepherd makes them move on, sheep will actually ruin a pasture, eating every blade of grass, until finally a fertile pasture is nothing but barren soil.

Sheep are near sighted & very stubborn, but easily frightened. An entire flock can be stampeded by a jack rabbit.

They have little means of defense. They're timid, feeble creatures. Their only recourse is to run if no shepherd is there to protect them.