What does it mean to be a shepherd? In the literal it’s to tend sheep. A shepherd leads, protects and provides for the flock that is left in his care. He fights off enemies, he leads to safety, he sets boundaries that keep each sheep and all the sheep within his sight and he teaches them not how to care for themselves but how to recognize and follow his voice and trust in His character. In many ways shepherds are like parents, they are not in charge of the sheep as much as they are responsible for them. Shepherding is not merely a job that makes sure the sheep are well fed and in line when it is time to be sheared, it is a commitment to be strong where the sheep are weak, to be wise where the sheep are unaware and to be willing to provide discipline when the sheep are stubborn or unwilling to follow. There is one fact about shepherding that I want to address from the very beginning because I believe it is very important to this and every conversation. Sheep are not dumb. I’ve heard this for years, sheep need a shepherd because they are dumb. They don’t know how to find food, they have no ability to defend themselves and they wander off without someone to set boundaries for them. All of these traits have led many to say that sheep are dumb. None of these traits equate to being unintelligent or “dumb”, these are all traits of dependence not ignorance. Sheep are dependent, they were created to be dependent upon a shepherd; I believe they were created to be an object lesson of our relationship with God and our relationships to each other. David famously wrote in Psalm 23:1 “The LORD is my Shepherd . . .” God promised Israel in Jeremiah 3:15 “I will give you shepherds after My own heart . . .” and Jesus said in John 10:11 “I am the good Shepherd”. We were not created “dumb”, incomplete or inept. After God created man, He stood back and looked at all of His creation and declared that it was all “very good”. We are not lacking, we are exactly as we were intended to be, we were created to be dependent upon God, not to grow out of our need for Him but rather to grow more and more convinced of our need and surrendered to His heart, His love, His character and His will. What I pray we can see today is that God’s standard of leadership is always established by His own example. Leaders in God’s kingdom must lead like God. Jesus told His disciples, in Matthew 20, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It’s not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant.” We live in an age in which we need more shepherds and fewer kings. We need more servants and fewer legislators. We need more protection and provision and less opinion and postulation. In this morning’s text we find David, the King of Israel, the “Shepherd of Jacob” doing what was in his heart but not doing it with God’s character and by this his leadership cost a man named Uzzah his life. My prayer today is that we will understand that Uzzah’s life should have mattered more than David’s desire, that shepherds never sacrifice one sheep for the good of the rest of the flock and that until each sheep matters the flock may have a leader but it is missing its shepherd.