How Jesus Treats His Sheep

Jesus does not scold, lecture, or abandon his sheep when they fall. He reaches down and pulls them out of the pit. That is the central claim of this message from Psalm 23, and Rick Warren spends the bulk of it explaining why that matters—and why most people assume the opposite.

The Pit and the Five Worldviews

Warren sets up the problem with a vivid image: you are walking down a street, trip over construction debris, and fall into a 25-foot pit with no way out. The pit represents any major failure—a moral collapse, a season of depression, a financial disaster, a ruined relationship. You are stuck, and you cannot rescue yourself.

At this point, Warren argues, your worldview determines whether you run toward God or away from him. He walks through five alternatives to show what they offer someone in that pit.

If Buddha walks by, he says you are there because of karma. You did something bad in a previous life, and you are now paying for it. There is no innocent suffering in this view. Warren recalls being on Larry King three days after Hurricane Katrina alongside a Buddhist monk. When asked what words of comfort he could offer people who had lost everything, the monk had nothing to say. If suffering is your fault, there is no comfort to give.