Obedience

Introduction:

· A promise in an overly busy world

LET’S LOOK AT HOW BRINGS US TO A PLACE OF DEEP REST WHEN WE WORSHIP HIM AS A SHEPHERD KING, AND TRUST HIM AS A SHEPHERD KING.

I) A Call to Worship The Shepherd King (vv. 1-7a)

A. Putting the cart before the horse: A Call to Worship

i. The Call to Worship: exhaustive praise of God!

1. The Psalmist calls for a myriad of praise responses (vv. 1-2, 6)

2. APPLICATION: a varied diet of praise for God’s people!

B. Worshipping God as the King who Rules His People (vv. 3-5)

i. The Basis of God’s Kingship: As Creator, God claims authority over all

1. This is royal language that focuses on God’s authority (vs. 3)

2. God’s authority is rooted in his ownership by virtue of having created all

3. C.S. Lewis – Satan tries to encourage a sense of “ownership” but only God can properly use the word “Mine!”

ii. The Meaning of God’s Kingship: God actively governs ALL THINGS!  

1. As King God governs all molecules & milliseconds in creation

2. APPLICATION:

a. A missed flight, missed opportunity, a breakup, or breakdown

b. We can learn, repent, grow…and: TRUST A SOVEREIGN GOD!

C. Worshipping God as the Shepherd of His People (vv. 6-7a)

i. Not a tyrant or a dictator, but a shepherd:

1. Not a an aloof or tyrannical God – but OUR maker! (vv. 5, 7)

2. God, a shepherd-king redeems Israel to be the sheep of his pasture

ii. Jesus the Good shepherd: (John 10:14-16)

John 10:14–16 ESV

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

1. He draws us into relationship: safeguards, provides, protects, knows us

2. Walks with us through life’s darkest valleys

iii. APPLICATION: Some of us:

1. Are trying to do life on our own: Find rest in the arms of the shepherd

2. Are walking through a dark valley: remember, the shepherd is with us

IT SEEMS LIKE THIS WOULD BE AN APPROPRIATE PLACE TO END THIS PSALM.

II) Trusting God as the Shepherd-King (VS. 7B-11)

A. The Challenge of the Wilderness

i. The Ominous Ending

1. God’s warning is a response to our doubts: Is God good? Powerful?

2. The sin of Massah-Meribah stands as a warning (see Ex. 17)

ii. Is God really competent to lead his People? A question of kingship

1. The first question: Does God know what he’s doing? (Wilderness?)

2. EXAMPLE:

a. Job loss as a result of your obedience to Jesus

b. A high school athlete with a promising career is injured

c. You love a neighbor…and are met with cruelty

d. The adoption is interrupted

iii. Is God really good to His people?

1. The second question: Is God good? Will he meet our needs or not?

2. EXAMPLE:

a. An ITEM-trained pastor in India is killed in March

b. Why does he allow children to get cancer?

B. The Proof of the Wilderness (Ex. 17:5-6)

Exodus 17:5–6 ESV

And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.

i. God’s Response to His Wilderness People

1. God was hit with the rod of justice & Provided water for his people

2. BUT: the people were prevented from the rest (vs. 11)

ii. God’s Ultimate Response to His Wondering People (1 Cor. 10:4)

1 Corinthians 10:4 ESV

and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.

1. Another king would stand in the prisoner’s dock & be struck with the rod of justice

2. The shepherd king laid down his life to provide living water for us

iii. God’s rest for His weary People

1. In Jesus, we have the infinitely satisfying rest of trusting that the sovereign king of the universe loves us, governs us, and that he is

2.

3. Of course it won’t always make snes – that’s what faith is!

Transition:

Conclusion

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