PURPOSE: To help listeners appreciate that the things we fear most are often used by the shepherd to refresh us.

I. Sheep often need refreshment, but they draw back from water.

After a long day in the wilderness, sheep are tired and thirsty. They need refreshment.

They may come to a river that has fresh cool water.

Sheep are afraid to get water on their wool. They realize instinctively that they can become waterlogged and sink beneath the stream. As a result, they draw back from the waters.

The shepherd takes his rod and pries loose some large stones and dams up a quiet place beside the river where the sheep are able to drink.

II. What a shepherd does for his sheep, our God does for us.

At times we look ahead to some situation that we dread. It resembles a rampaging stream. We are afraid.

We often look back on those situations and discover that out of the things we feared most the shepherd has brought spiritual refreshment.

III. Sheep often wander off from the flock and cannot find their way back.

The shepherd goes out to find the sheep and carries it back to the fold.

Occasionally a shepherd will have one sheep that constantly wanders off, and he continually goes out to bring it back. But there are times when a shepherd may break the leg of a sheep and then set the leg in a rough splint.

The sheep is helpless, and the shepherd carries him for several days.

When the sheep is able to walk, it is dependent on the shepherd. It cannot handle the obstacles that other sheep handle with ease.

But when the leg of that sheep is completely healed, it has learned an important lesson. It needs to stay close to the shepherd’s side.