The Lord Fulfills

Today,we are wrapping up our sermon series “The Lord is My Shepherd”, We are using the book “A Shepherd looks at Psalm 23 by Phillip Keller to help us better understand the role that God plays as our shepherd. This week we see how “The Lord Fulfills.

We havebeen using a different translation of the Bible each week to look at Psalm 23 in six distinct ways. This week we are using “The Message” translation.

1-3 God, my shepherd! I don’t need a thing. You have bedded me down in lush meadows, you find me quiet pools to drink from. True to your word, you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction.

4 Even when the way goes through Death Valley, I’m not afraid when you walk at my side. Your trusty shepherd’s crook makes me feel secure.

5 You serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies. You revive my drooping head; my cup brims with blessing.

6 Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life. I’m back home in the house of God for the rest of my life.

Pleas pray with me…

This last verse of Psalm 23 offers us how we as the sheep should feel about the Lord after this journey is complete. We have a Lord who provides for us, leads us, restores us, and has prepared a place for us. A Lord who doesn’t just leave us on our own but takes the journey with us. A Lord that fulfills all the expectations and promises that we hear within this psalm.

Psalm 23:6 says “Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life. I’m back home in the house of God for the rest of my life.” When we realize what God has done through having his son die on the cross for us; we receive three promises.

· Our sinswill be forgiven.

· We willbe set free from the power of sin.

· We willstill sin; but the power that sin can have over us disappears because Jesus’ act on the cross has set us free.

· Our Lordwill never leave us or forsake us.

· We havebeen given a companion on our Christian journey.

· Our Lordwill never leave us because we have the Holy Spirit within us, helping us find our way during our life journey.

· We willhave eternal life.

· We receivea promise when we give our life over to our Lord.

· We willbe able to reside with him forever.

· Our bodymay pass on, but our spirit will reside with our Lord forever.

· Three promisesgiven to us by God. He does all the heavy lifting. All that we are required to do is be willing to accept his son as our Lord and Savior and request that our sins be forgiven. Three promises that God will fulfill.

When welive our lives as the sheep that has let our Lord be in charge and has decided that the Lord has our welfare in mind, we can begin to trust him. We can trust him because we remember that he has fulfilled the promises he has made with us.

We canfind another place that the same promise was given to Israel when we focus on today’s first scripture reading. We cansee throughout the journey through these verses that God has fulfilled his promise to the Israelites.

· When noone else will provide for us, God will.

· These versesin Ezekiel are all about those that were supposed to be shepherding the people of Israel instead choosing to take advantage of them.

· God respondsby letting the bad shepherds and the sheep know that God will be there for the people.

· The secondpart of Ezekiel 34:10 says “I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.”

· God haschosen that since the people who were supposed to be in charge were not going to do the job of providing for their sheep than God was going to do the job for them.

· God wasgoing to do the job that a good shepherd would do.

· We havea Lord that when it seems like no one else cares, he cares.

God iswilling to talk to us and be with us. The poem “Footprints in the Sand” that ends with the writer asking a question and the Lord answering them:

“Lord, you said once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way. But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life, there was only one set of footprints. I don't understand why, when I needed You the most, you would leave me." He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you, never, ever, during your trials and testings; when you saw only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."

Our Lordis with us during the good and the bad. He stays with us even when we don’t deserve his love and his care. Our good Shepherd will never abandon us.

· Our Lordwill also lead us when no one else will. Ezekiel 34:13 speaks of how God will rescue the Israelites from their captors. It says “I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land.”

· Our Godwill lead us out of the predicaments that we may get ourselves into.

· It is notthat he will always rescue us from the consequences, but he will be with us during our times of trouble even if they are our own doing.

· As wespoke of a couple of weeks ago our Lord restores us.

· In the caseof the Israelites the good shepherd takes them from captivity and restores them back into their own land.

· He returnsthem back to their original place that he had first promised them.

· Our shepherdrestores us as well.

· When Jesusdied on the cross the Lord removed sin from the lives of those that were there that day and also promised to remove our sin as well as long as we believed in him and what he did for us.

· It is throughour willingness to accept Jesus as our Lord and shepherd that we can be restored back to before Adam and Eve brought sin to the earth.

· It doesn’tmean that we will no longer sin, but it does mean that when we ask for forgiveness it will be granted.

· Each timethat we ask for forgiveness we are restored.

· The Lordalso protects us as he tends to our needs. In Ezekiel 34:14 the Lord says, “14 I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.”

· The Lordnever left the people of Israel. When we read what we call the Old Testament we can recognize the love that God showed the people of Israel throughout his interactions with them.

· He caresand protects them when they are in captivity and when they were free.

· But healso gave them free will, which at times led to trouble for them.

· An examplewould be their decision to have human kings instead of God as their king and have the priests be the authority figures for the community.

· God let themhave a human king and when you read about the different kings you can see that sometimes it was a good decision and other times; the king would mistreat the people and the people would have to face the consequences of the decision made by their ancestors.

· We notonly should accept that we have a good shepherd that has us believe that we will have goodness and love for the rest of our lives but we should also be the ones spreading that goodness and love to others.

· We arenot called to only accept the love offered to us by God, but we are also called to spread that love to others.

· This ishow Keller explains this idea of spreading goodness and love to others. (Read bottom of page 131)

The last words that we hear from the Psalmist is that “I’m back home in the house of God for the rest of my life.” When we look at our journey so far, another way that we could state that our journey is complete is to say that “Our shepherdhas returned us to our home to stay.”

Our shepherdhas done so much for us that we want to be around him for the rest of our lives. We know that we could not have a better shepherd. He will never leave us. He will always do what is best for our well-being. He has fulfilled the promises that he has made with us.

· We areblessed to have a Lord that never wants to leave us.

· A Godthat wants to always be in contact with us. So much so, that he has given us the opportunity to be with him even after our time on earth is complete.

· He wants to reside with us forever and allow us to be with him for eternity.

· We should let others know about our shepherd.

· We are able to spread the word that if you are looking for someone to provide, lead, restore, protect, and prepare the way for you we have a Lord that wants to do that for you.

· We have a God that will never leave you. This is how Keller explains this opportunity, (Read middle of page 137).

Do we live our lives like we want to always be with our shepherd? Do we listen to our shepherd? We should remember that he will only have us do what is best for us to do when we follow what he calls for us to do. Our shepherd loves and cares for us each and every day that we let him. Are we willing to let him have control of our lives?