Sermon
Series: He Calls His
Own Sheep By Name
Fear No Evil
John 10:14-18; Psalm 23:4
Dr. Larry D. Thorson
Today we
continue our study of sheep and their shepherds in the twenty third Psalm as we
look at what it means to fear no evil while going through something called “the
valley of the shadow of death”.
Roy
Campanella, the famous former Dodger baseball player, was in a bad accident
years ago that left him a semi-invalid. In his autobiography It’s
Good to Be Alive he talks about the many nights he cried himself to
sleep, as a result of the pain that racked his body and the deep depression
that clawed at his mind. He writes, “All
my life whenever I was in trouble, I had turned to God for help. I remembered
my Bible and asked the nurse to get the one from the drawer in the night table.
I opened it to the 23rd Psalm. Verse 4 leapt out at me: ‘Yes, even
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil;
for you are with me.' From that moment on," he continues, "I was on
my way back. I knew I was going to make it!"
A few weeks
ago a
My wife has
been reading a book entitled The Gift of Fear by Gavin DeBecker. The premise of the book is that fear is
actually a good thing because it helps to warn us to take precautions around
potentially dangerous situations.
This past week
began the trial of Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, the former heads of Enron Corporation. Recently I watched the documentary “The
Smartest Guys in the Room” based on the book with that title by Peter Elkin. It chronicled the rise and fall of the energy
giant Enron Corporation in
On the other
end of the spectrum is the person for whom fear paralyzes them. When someone is anxious about something I
like to ask the question “what are you afraid is going to happen?” Fear keeps people from going out of the
house. Fear keeps people from shaking
hands. Fear keeps people from doing
healthy things. Fear keeps churches
locked into their safe past instead of stepping out into the dangerous world of
faith. That’s unhealthy fear.
We can’t
eliminate fear out of our lives because evil is always going to be around us
and fear helps protect us. I used to
live in Chino Hills which billed itself as the second safest city in
What we need
is a healthy sense of fear. That’s what
David’s sheep had in verse four of Psalm 23.
Each week I’ve been saying that David wrote this Psalm as if he was one
of his sheep out in the field.
Up to this
point in the psalm, the sheep seems to be bragging to his neighbor sheep about
the kind of flock he lives in. “The Lord
is my shepherd and in our flock we’re not in want.” “Our shepherd takes such care of our
needs. He leads us to green pastures
where we can relax, lie down and rest. But now in verse 4, the psalm seems to
take a turn, when it seems that the sheep begins talking to his shepherd: Even though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil, for you
are with me; your
rod and your staff, they
comfort me.
This is a significant change in
language. Look at it for yourself. The reason he’s no longer talking to sheep in
the neighboring pen is most likely that his shepherd has led his flock from
home base to their spring and summer pastures in the mountains. Philip Keller
in A
Shepherd Looks a Psalm 23 says it’s normal for the good shepherds to
move their sheep to higher ranges during the summer where they can get more
lush grass.[1]
It’s
there in the mountains that a shepherd and his sheep become intimate. They talk to their sheep just like you talk
to your dog or your cat. They’re
together 24/7. It’s also in those
mountains that they encounter a lot of evil.
They go through thunderstorms and floods together. Sometimes there’s sleet, even snow. There are cold, dangerous rivers to
cross. Of course the eyes of their
predators are on them at all times.
Tradition
tells us that there actually is a real place called the Valley of the Shadow of
Death. It's a valley, or a mountain pass, that gets its name from shepherds
because of it has steep sides and sheer rock walls. It’s also a terrifying place for skittish, defenseless,
fearful sheep. In the steep cliffs on both sides of the valley there are
innumerable caves and rocks and crevices that are perfect hiding places for
predators - both animal and human. Sounds echo and amplify in the valley,
making it all the creepier for the terrified sheep.
The actual word for death in
the “Valley of the Shadow of Death” that David used in his native Hebrew doesn’t
just mean end of life as the English translation might have it. Instead it means walking through a valley of
deep gloom. Death may be included; death may be feared; but it’s broader than
that. It includes daily problems, trials, difficulties, frustrations, fears,
and temptations that come upon us. It
could be translated as “I walk through a valley shadowed by frustrations and
difficulties, problems all around me.
If you think about it the things that
we’re usually afraid of is the death of something or someone we really
like. If a mugger attacks us we’re
afraid that our health will die. If our
boss is not happy we’re afraid that our livelihood and our lifestyle will
die. If cancer strikes we also fear the
death of our health and the lifestyle we’ve come to treasure.
I’m reading a
book right now entitled An American
Hostage by Micah Garen and Marie-Helene Carleton. It’s the story of the kidnapping by Iraqi
terrorists of Garen, an American photo journalist in
Shadows
symbolize things that we fear like walking down a dark street in
I want you to understand this; David’s
sheep couldn’t avoid the steep, dark canyon because their shepherd led them
through it. In other words if they were
in danger it was because they followed their shepherd not because they sinned
and strayed away.
Last summer I followed my shepherd,
the Good Shepherd Jesus Christ to
But the canyon got darker and darker
the further into it I went. First it was
the loss of Amy Stolte working with our children’s education. I admire her work and her decision to step
down when she did was the right one and not evil. Then it was the departure of the Aherns as
youth directors. I also admire their
work and their decision to step down is also the right thing to do and not evil. Yet I feared.
I had to ask myself over and over “what do I fear?” I feared failure; that is not being able to
see this church reach its mountaintop.
Then the realization hit me, that I’m
not the shepherd who led you here, I am the border collie fed by the shepherd
to help move his sheep to higher ground.
A good shepherd, not the border collie always provides everything that
his sheep need when they need it. Remember
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.” At the exact time, not a minute too soon the
shepherd who knows what’s ahead provides what we need to get through this
valley.
The week that we were announcing the
Ahern’s resignation Dick and Janet Gall came to see me. They told me that a young college student
whom I had met named Melody Drumm assisted by her high school sister Harmony
were willing and ready to begin a junior choir for children at the 9:00 hour on
Sundays paid for through the Growth Through Music scholarship program. Now you have to grasp the timing of all
this. God has given me the vision for a
program for children in this church as a feeder program into our new junior
high ministry. When it looked its
darkest and scariest the Good Shepherd pulled out his instrument and sang a
Melody with Harmony.
"I will fear no evil…” That sheep didn’t say that because he was one
tough sheep. He didn’t say it because he
took self defense courses and had a black belt.
He didn’t say it because he had a bullet proof car surrounded by secret
service men. That sheep will fear no
evil because he says to his shepherd “You are with me." That’s the key to
the sheep’s confidence: that somehow or other he is going to be able to make it
despite the periods of disappointment, discouragement, dead end streets,
dilemmas, difficult days, and the fears that he has to surmount on the way
there.
Recently I read an illustration by a woman who was standing in front of the bathroom sink brushing her hair when she noticed a clear shadow of her arm on the shower curtain beside her. Suddenly, one of those spiritual WOW moments came! As she looked at that shadow she realized that though the image was certainly recognizable as her arm, it wasn’t her arm. It was only a shadow! And God seemed to whisper in her heart “and when the light changes, the shadow will disappear!” Jesus is called the light of the world. When we allow the Light of the World, our Savior Jesus Christ to fully illuminate the bad situations in our lives, the shadows and unknowns are replaced with hope and the fulfillment of his plan for us. You’ve got to remember that the “shadow of death”, whatever that may be for you in any situation, is merely that … a shadow. The one to fear, honor and respect is Jesus Christ. If you haven’t yet accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior do so this morning by opening your heart and inviting him to come into your life. Say “Lord Jesus I want you to be my savior, I acknowledge my sins and accept your forgiveness. Come into my life and save me.”
If you know that Jesus is your Savior,
in our time of reflection this morning I want you to ask yourself this question
“What evil do I fear today?” Church
officers I want you to ask yourself this question “What evil do I fear for this
church?” Things going back to the way
they were? That won’t happen because
the Good Shepherd has us on a journey to a new land and we’re not going
back.
I recommend that if you’re going through what feels like a valley in the shadow of death that you memorize the 23rd Psalm and you pray back to the Good Shepherd these words “I will fear no evil because you are my shepherd and I shall not be in want”. When the engineers laid out the roads
across the
There’s
a great spiritual purpose behind this. It would be so easy if we could get into
that close relationship with God by avoiding those things and skip our way
through life, ignorant of all the dangers that are around us; but that is not
the way it is. God wants you and me to be aware of the shadowed areas. He wants
you to know that even though you go through them, He is holding your hand the
whole time. He understands the difficulty. It is absolutely necessary that we
go through those periods with Him holding our hands or with Him that close to
us. We are aware for ourselves of His presence through those difficulties.
There
is a second reason why it’s necessary one must reach the top by going through
the valleys of dark gloom, and that is that even as the valleys are where the
roads and paths are most likely to follow, they are also where there is going
to be water. Water means life. Water means refreshment. That is where the
streams are going to run. The snow is going to melt from the high hills. It is
going to seep its way into lower levels, and it is going to do that by going
through the valley.
Water
is a strengthener and refresher. What God is saying here is that it is through
the valleys of dark gloom, it is through those periods of disappointment,
dilemmas, testing, trials, and frustrations that those things are going to
prove to be a source of life and refreshment for you. Can you imagine that
trials, testing, and fear are going to be productive? That is what is going to
produce the fruit, in company with the Spirit of God.
Fruit
is something of which other people eat. Pretend that you are a tree. A tree doesn’t
benefit from its own fruit except as it falls on the ground, rots and becomes
fertilizer. By and large, the great majority of the productivity of a tree is
for those who pluck the fruit.
Going
through the valley of dark gloom is going to produce fruit that is going to be
of benefit to others, because you are going to become a king and a priest.
Along the way, you are going to be fellowshipping with a lot of other people
who have not yet gone through the kinds of things you have already experienced
in the hand of the Shepherd. You are going to be able to give them the benefit
of your experience of walking through those difficulties and trials of life
with Him.
Then
you will be able to give comfort; then you will be able to give encouragement;
then you will be able to give hope; and then you will be able to give
instruction. You can say without bragging, "I was there before. I did it.
I experienced it. Here is what happened. Let me try to buck up your faith. Let
me try to help you and encourage you."
If
you never had any experience in that, how could you relate in any way, shape,
or form with that through which others are going? The fruit of your experience
could very well mean the salvation of some other person.
The implication of moving to
higher ground is moving into a closer, personal, more intimate relationship
with God. This verse is describing how one gets into a personal, intimate, and
close relationship with God. Many of us have the idea that somehow or other we
can be airlifted by helicopter from home base up into the high range lands
where we are really close to God.