The Key to a Life of Satisfaction 2

We are back again, friends, to conclude the message we started last week, the Key to a Life of Satisfaction or the All-Sufficient Shepherd and the Satisfied Sheep. And we took it from Psalm 23, the favorite Psalm that most of us were taught or were trained to memorize when we were young.

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
² He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
³ He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.

⁴ Yea, 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.

⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.

PRAYER:

Father, we’ve come to search Your Word again. And thank You for this opportunity and privilege. Into Your hands I commit myself and friends and audience. And we ask, O God, that You would speak to us now by Your Spirit, in the Name of Jesus. Amen!

This is one of the psalms of David we saw last time. And it is the application of knowledge or the transfer of knowledge from one sphere to the other, from the physical now to the spiritual. David is using his experience as a good shepherd. He is using it and is transferring it to his relationship with God or with Jehovah.  And we said in the scripture, the sheep is a metaphor for those whose nature God has changed through their relationship with Jesus Christ as Savior. But those who are still unchanged, they are referred to in the scripture as either goats or wolves. And it is my prayer that all who hear me today will fall into the category of sheep.

The Shepherd – the Good Shepherd gives a life of satisfaction to His sheep by:

2. Caring for the sheep.

We saw the care for the shepherd. The care of the shepherd is broken down into:

• He makes the sheep lie down in green pastures.
• He leads the sheep besides the still waters – waters of rest.
• He restores the soul of the sheep by sustaining the sheep when the sheep is sorrowful, sanctifying when the sheep is sinful, and strengthening when the sheep is stumbling.
• Also He leads in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

His love leads. It does not drive. His love constrains; convinces me to do what is right for His name’s sake.

That’s where we stopped last time, and I promise you we will finish it this time. And so we go to the next one,

2. He comforts me with His rod and His staff.

Your rod and Your staff comfort me. When I stray from the paths of righteousness His rod of discipline and His staff of support are readily used to bring me back.

There are those who are never disciplined by God because they are not His children. Please do not envy them for they are in danger of losing their souls.

A  Persian wise man once said, long ago, ‘I fear God.  And next to that I fear him who fears Him not.’ In other words I fear God and I fear the person who does not fear God. You should fear the man or the woman who does not fear God. He or she is capable of anything, sometimes capable of things unimaginable.

He does not only comfort He,

3. He prepares a table before the sheep in the presence of enemies.

Imagine a sheep that lies down to eat in the green pasture with enemies around yet is unperturbed. Why? Because the Good Shepherd, the Lord, has taken care of the enemies.

It is a picture of the shepherd in those days coming to the green pastures. The first thing the shepherd did was, and perhaps they still do it today, to go round where the sheep was going to graze and pour some oil in every hole that the shepherd will identify – because the greatest enemy of the sheep are the snakes. And the shepherd takes care of these enemies because no snake will be able to crawl out because of the oil poured into the hole. There will be no friction to enable the snake to crawl out. The shepherd knows how to take good care of the sheep by making sure that the enemy is checked.

4. The satisfaction of the sheep.

The sheep is marked by two things: certainty or assurance and satisfaction. The sheep’s assurance!  The Lord is my Shepherd. My Shepherd is first person personal pronoun. It didn’t say the Lord is our Shepherded even though He is the Sphered of all the sheep. But this is personal.

Can you say, friend, that the Lord is Your Shepherd? My Shepherd! Do you have a personal experience with the Shepherd? Do you have a personal experience with Jesus Christ? Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil. He walks; does not run, neither does he crawl. He walks through. He is not stuck there. Though I walk through…

To this sheep death is not a wall but a door to walk through. To this sheep death is not a goal but a passage he passes through. He does not walk through the valley of death. He walks though the valley of the shadow of death. The shadow of a mad dog cannot bite. The shadow of gun cannot kill, neither can the shadow death hurt the sheep. See? The reason death is a shadow is because of the presence of the caring Shepherd who is also called the Light of the world. Shadows appear only because of the presence of light. What this tells me them is that the Shepherd, the good shepherd will walk with me through death, and death becomes a shadow, and a shadow never hurts anybody. In other words, to the sheep death does not hurt. When people come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and know Him well, they will not fear death as they do when they don’t know Him.

The sheep’s satisfaction!

5. I shall not want. The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want. This is an expression of contentment. Socrates said, ‘Contentment is natural wealth. Luxury is artificial poverty. The poor man is not one who does not have much, but the one who is hardly satisfied by much’. That is the poor man. I shall not want. The sheep shall not lack.

2. My cup runs over.

A leaking cup does not run over. And the leak is dissatisfaction manifested in greed, covetousness and complaint. The sheep is satisfied. The cup overflows.

7. Goodness and mercy shall follow me.

Those who are satisfied with God will find that His goodness will always supply their needs and His mercy will always blot out their sins. And that is not just some days – all the days of their lives: the days of fasting as well as the days of feasting; the bleak days as well as the bright days. And as such are blessed, assured of a place in the presence or the house of the Lord.

Do you know the caring Shepherd personally? His name is Jesus: the Christ. The caring Shepherd says He is the Way, the Truth and the Life and no man can come to the Father except by Him. Come to Him and find the assurance of heaven and a satisfaction in this life.

PRAYER:

Father, thank You for the good Shepherded, the Lord Jesus whom You sent. For as many as have received Him or are receiving Him now, I say dear Lord, may they find satisfaction in Him. And those who do not know Him, may You compel them to come, that they may find satisfaction in life and enjoy their God, now and forever, in Jesus Name. Amen!