Five Powerful Words
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
If I were to ask the question, what is the most famous psalm in all the world, which psalm do you think most people would attribute that to?
I think the large majority, if not almost completely, would say it is Psalm 23.
Psalm 23 is the most popular of all the psalms for certain.
Psalm 23 is memorized more than any other psalm.
Psalm 23 is read at weddings.
Psalm 23 is read at funerals.
Psalm 23 is read when people are struggling with life and when things are going great in peoples lives.
Even if people have not memorized the entirety of the psalm, they certainly know how it begins.
The Lord is my shepherd…
For the lesson this morning, I want us to focus on those first “Five Powerful Words” of Psalm 23.
The Lord is my shepherd, as each of these words reveal the relationship God wants with each and everyone of us.
With that in mind let’s examine the first seeming insignificant word, yet most certainly is not, the word…
THE
THE
Our Only God
Our Only God
This little word might not look like much, but it holds a valuable truth with in it.
This word singles out the reality of our God as “the only God.”
Our Creator, God the Father, Son, and Spirit are “one God.”
Again, as we have discussed before, the reason there can be three personalities but one God is because the word “God” is not describing the Father, Son, and Spirit’s name but their nature.
The term God demands deity and all that this encompasses, which is omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence.
This is why God the Father, Son, and Spirit demand throughout the scriptures that they are the “one and only God.”
Because though they are three distinct personalities they are of a singular nature, deity.
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
5 I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, 6 that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.
60 that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other.
This is the foundation of the argument made by Paul for eating meat sacrifice to idols or those created images that are said to be “god.”
4 Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.”
Now, that simple truth should bring all of humanity, including you and I, great comfort.
If there truly is “one God” we don’t have to worry about which god to follow, for there is only one we must learn about, learn to trust, and learn to obey.
Summary
Summary
Thankfully, this morning each of you here have made the determination to come and worship with each other “The one and only God.”
And that we are truly blessed to be loved by “our only God.”
The next powerful word we find in those open five words is the word…
LORD
LORD
Our Master God
Our Master God
Now this particular word is Yahweh, or more commonly known today as Jehovah.
The word Jehovah was not actually ever used by God in the scriptures but when Jewish scribes started adding vowels to the Hebrew language, they added the vowels of “adoni” which means “master” with YHWH, which gives you Jehovah.
In other words, because the Jewish scribes thought it wrong to “utter the name of God” they created a way to write the name of God by discussing who he is to all humanity in this term “Jehovah” i.e., our Creator who then is our Master.
Therefore, the significance of this word is that God is not just our Creator.
He should be our “master” or the one that should have rule over our lives.
It doesn’t take much to see this expectation of reality to be found throughout the scriptures.
24 No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he has mercy upon us.
22 For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver; the Lord is our king; he will save us.
8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
Summary
Summary
This is why in 1 Peter 3:15 that we must “honor Christ the Lord as holy” because he is our Lord our master.
He should be the ruler of our lives, ever decision we make should be filtered through our love for obeying our Master.
15 If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
The third powerful word to in the opening statement of Psalm 23 is the word…
IS
IS
Our Present God
Our Present God
This present tense word demands that God lives.
By that I mean that God has always lived, now lives, and will always live.
32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
6 “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
Summary
Summary
Again there is great comfort in knowing that there is One that loves us that is from everlasting to everlasting.
That the same God Abraham, Job, David, and Daniel loved and served is the same God we can love and serve today.
The fourth powerful word in Psalm 23 is the word…
MY
MY
Our Relationship God
Our Relationship God
Here is the crux of everything done for humanity from Adam’s creation to when Christ destroys the world at his second coming, God’s desire to have a relationship with us and how we can have a relationship with God.
Our God is not some aloof entity or abstract power that created everything and then sits back to watch the chaos created by sin.
No, our Creator wants a personal relationship with each of us.
In fact, our salvation is entirely based on our relationship with “our Father.”
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Summary
Summary
The LORD is “my” God, the God who created the entire universe, is “my God.”
He wants a personal relationship with each of us that is not based on distance, but rather God longs for us to draw near to him so that he may draw close to us, love us, and ultimately save us.
Lastly, we find our fifth powerful word in the opening words of Psalm 23 which the word…
SHEPHERD
SHEPHERD
Our Leader God
Our Leader God
A good shepherd is one that lovingly cares for, feeds, guides, and protects his sheep.
This is exactly what God does for us if we are faithful to him.
God lovingly cares for us.
7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
God lovingly feeds us.
25 Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
God lovingly guides us.
8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
11 And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
God lovingly protects us.
1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
10 The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.
3 But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.
Summary
Summary
v
Conclusion
Conclusion
v
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent
33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
32 Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
