THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD
Courtesy: Francis Chan
Psalm 23: The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,[a]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
Being Fearless
Am I depending on holy spirit’s power or my own cleverness? Depending on the supernatural. Lord is really my shepherd that I can walk in any situations. What is there to fear? I am going to speak to the same People, who believe in the same God as yours. God is going to speak through me. There are people struggling with courage.
Psalm 23. He wants his people with this picture with absolute confidence and peace. Eph 6, 19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. pray for me that I may preach with Boldness. Apostles are constantly praying for boldness Acts 4:29 – 31. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
What did the believers’ pray for: Boldness. Something literally shook and there was something that filled these apostles. People saw and were astonished by the apostles boldness. There’s something about this boldness. vs 13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. Has anyone been astonished with the boldness that they have projected? When was the last time, people said that I am astonished at how much scripture or God is within you? Church called to be bold. Phil 1: 27 7 Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit,[a]striving together as one for the faith of the gospel Stand firm, not frightened by your opponents. That’s the sign, when people see us fearless, and that’s when people are going to believe. Striving together for this gospel. They are saved. Secure in the shepherd. They are fearless. Others are going to repent and they are going to believe in this supernatural. It’s not a small thing that they are talking about, they are saved, they are restored. Satan wants to keep us in our fears and lack of confidence, wondering if God’s going to come through, rather than walking side by side, because unbelievers are going to believe. We want to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Our favourite stories that we learnt in Sunday School – David and Goliath, Jonah, Daniel and Lion, Parting of the Red sea, the fish and the bread, Noah’s Ark, Shadrach Meshach and Abednego, Crucifixion, Samson. Think about all about those stories and walking out of Sunday School and saying My God can do anything. You are in awe as a kid. Our teaching changes as we grow up. Those were the kids stories and now I am not going teach those stories like Lion and Daniel, etc. We are more educated now. Do we still believe that Elijah called fire. James 5: 17 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.
. Elijah was just like us. He was just a person. All these others were all just people. He was a person and he prayed earnestly. As we grow up, people are causing us to not believe anymore. They say believe more responsibly. Often we come to these places and feel discouraged. They squash our faith. Be careful with our words. Very often we have this child like faith, where we believe that God can do something through me. And everyone goes no no no. It’s like my God can do many things. Early church encouraged one another. They gave courage to one another.
When we were early believers, you feel we can do anything but then people say you don’t know much. Wait, study, bible college, seminary, you know it all! Which makes us feel more discouraged and inadequate. I don’t have compassion, leadership gifts…etc. Elijah was a man just like me. Remind myself. Don’t you look at these people and put them on a different level than you. Do you really believe you are same as Noah, Elijah, Moses. But the bible says that Elijah was a man just like me. We got to stop believing in these lies, that there was something special about them. They prayed and believed. Something different was the Holy Spirit. Which is upon us. Therefore, we need to be more supernatural than them. A greater boldness that they walked with.
Everyone knows Psalm 23, everyone preaches it. Sometimes we have a tendency to break the verse a bit too much and then we don’t get the essence of it. Eg. Humpty dumpty, an egg sat on a wall, broke his crown, all the kings’ horses couldn’t put humpty again. How can the horses put the egg together. That’s the way we look at it and then we say, just leave that poem as it is. The same thing applies to Psalm 23. It’s a beautiful psalm, overall proclaims peace and confidence. Creator of universe, the most powerful being in the universe is my shepherd. He leads me beside green pastures. God himself restores my soul. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, it’s a literal translation. You have a ravine and then there’s this steep valley, dense, full of ferocious animals. There were people who would hide there to harm you. Imagine walking through the predators, people who would harm you, everyone is against you. Therefore, even if I walk through the valley of the shadow. What we try to do is, we try to protect ourselves from going through the valley of shadow. If Jesus is really your shepherd, a mighty God, imagine, him walking with you. Wouldn’t you want to go through the valley, only to see what this great God would do. Just to see what happens to me. It’s a complete confidence, a thrill about it. It’s amazing to have Jesus walk with you as a shepherd, in green pastures, besides quiet waters but we should be equally excited to see Him walk with us in the valley of Shadow of death. I am going to see God come through even in difficult circumstances. We try to settle our lives down in the green pasture. Other side of the shepherd. We generally believe the lie of the world, where god has called you to do something and we try to avoid it, by not going there. He wants us to be radical. We generally allow people to talk us out of it. Because, any responsible person will say don’t go in the valley of shadow of death, don’t let your shepherd lead you there. Why would you do that? A value of a good steward is simply staying away from the valley of shadow of death. Which responsible person will ever go there? We set up a fear in us. Don’t let your shepherd lead you through that. Sheep is fearless, because he is with him. It’s going to be exciting cause he would lead me through that. Why am I doubting now? Question my leadership ability, my knowledge, my capacity, etc. Look at the mirror and get depressed. We get involved in human pity party. Why wasn’t I intelligent for this? Why me? Don’t use me. Remember God called Moses.. and he said send Aaron. Take Aaron but what happened with Aaron, when Moses went to the mountain to pray. I can’t speak well, God says who made your mouth? Generally we feel we are humbling ourselves by putting ourselves down, but actually we are putting our creator down. God just messed up with my mouth, my mind, etc. I shouldn’t be doing anything but God just says that I am your shepherd, and why are you afraid. People always doubted my God. This is about my God and not money thing. Doubts about our future.. Something’s got to come through. I got to worry about today, about the Kingdom today. Why should I worry about 30 years from now? Offering that never went low. God is a provider, a shepherd. We gave away everything, people said it wasn’t wise. Should have kept a back up. Emergency is you and your family, is it? By living responsibly and not in faith. I can take my family anywhere, because God will be with me throughout. You are grown up now, you have four children, now you need to be wise, but what we forget is that we have the same shepherd. He cares even now. Go back to child like faith. Care less about the economy. We strive side by side for the Kingdom of God. We don’t fear any more. Foolish mistakes, foolish choices, do it for his Kingdom, go through the valley. May be changing your life and people, they try throwing things at you, what if this happens and that happens…etc. I am going to do this for the rest of our life. Satan tries to attack you, people try to attack you. We are going to take the steps of faith. This is for the Kingdom. It’s not the healthy wealthy thing, it’s how rich I am in Christ. The Lord is my shepherd . He is my treasure.
I want to dwell in your house forever, he can shut the mouth of the lion. No fear of people. All early believers lived that way.
Sandra wife of Virjil . The New Hope Community is situated in the heart of the city between Old and New Panvel. We can confidently share that New Hope Community is a Church in Kamothe, Church in Khandeshwar, Church in Khanda Colony, Church in Panvel, Church in New Panvel because we are centrally located and these places surround our church Venue.
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