A Life without Lack

Shepherd Me

“Life without Lack”

June 30, 2019

Introduction

This morning, we are continuing our summer sermon series, “Shepherd Me.” In this series, we are looking at .

(CSB)

¶ The LORD is my shepherd;

I have what I need.

He lets me lie down in green pastures;

he leads me beside quiet waters.

He renews my life;

he leads me along the right paths

for his name’s sake.

Even when I go through the darkest valley,

I fear no danger,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff—they comfort me.

¶ You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies;

you anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me

all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD

as long as I live.

Here is the phrase that we want to focus on this morning: I have what I need.

In other translations, the phrase might be, “I shall not want or I shall not lack.” The phrase is talking about satisfaction, contentment. I have what I need.

Our culture has confused want with need.

Illustration: 1890 survey: people have 16 basic needs

Same survey taken 100 years later: people now have 98 basic needs

Our culture has confused needs with wants. We are never satisfied. We always want more. We are always crave more.

Illustration: Culture Shock

Japan: Put your cell phone in “Manners Mode” (Silent or off). Using a mobile device in public is frowned upon.

Canada: Milk in a Bag

Food: Rat on Stick, Chicken feet in China, and horse meat in France

Hillbillies Bible Study: Wood Fire in Oven, Jethro think a flamingo is a chicken, cut down telephone poll for wood

This phrase that we are looking at today is culture shock. People in our culture are never satisfied, never content. People in our culture are always wanting more.

Culture shouldn’t shape our reality. As Christians, the Bible shapes our reality. As we consider this idea, “I have everything I need,” I want you to see two things that help reorient our lives to God’s Word so that we can live out this teaching.

1. True contentment is found in God.

Satan and culture try try to convince us that satisfaction is found in things like money, success, possession, promotions. So, we chase after money, success, possession. Yet, we are never content, never satisfied. We are looking for satisfaction in all the wrong places.

Illustration: Beth losing purse.

We are looking for contentment in all the wrong places. We keep looking for contentment in the same wrong places over and over again.

Look there is nothing wrong with money, success, possession, but those things are not the source of our satisfaction. True satisfaction can only be found in God. God is only one that can meet our greatest needs.

This word “need, want, or lack” goes back to the book of Numbers when God’s people spent 40 years wandering around in the wilderness. They didn’t have food. They didn’t have a good source of water. But God met their every need.

(NKJV) For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand. He knows your trudging through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.

That’s what God wants to do in our lives. God wants to meet our deepest needs that only He can satisfy. Verse 1 unlocks the door to finding satisfaction in life.

Illustration: Cabin in Alabama, Key is on the front porch in a jacket pocket

Verse 1 is the key to the front door to finding satisfaction. In the rest of this Psalm, we see how God meets our deepest needs.

V. 2: Rest, refreshment, nourishment

V. 3: restoration, God leads us down the right paths in life.

V. 4: In times of trouble, God is with us.

V. 5: Rod and Staff offer us protection. The table shows that God is our provider.

V. 5: the oil symoolizes the blessings that God pours out on our lives.

V. 6: Our greatest need is fulfilled: eternal security in Heaven because He sent His Son to die on the cross.

We see in that God meets our greatest needs not only on earth but also in eternity.

God is the source of our satisfaction and contentment. God meets our greatest needs.

When stop looking for contentment in all the wrong places and start looking at God for contentment, that’s when we are the right path to finding true satisfaction and contentment. When we look to God for contentment, we are on the right path to a life without lack.

2. True contentment flows from a relationship with God.

Last week, we looked at how we need to personalize verse 1. The first part of verse 1 doesn’t read, “The Lord is our shepherd or the Lord is your shepherd.” No, it reads, “The Lord is my shepherd.” The word “my” indicates a relationship with God our shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd.

Perhaps a way to read verse 1 would be this: As long as God is my shepherd, I shall not lack. As long as the Lord is my shepherd, I have everything that I need.

There are two words that describe the kind of relationship that we need to have with God.

A. Saved

I want you to turn in your Bibles over to . Look at verse 7-11. Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd; I lay down my life for the sheep.” Jesus is referring to his death on the cross.

In verse 9, Jesus says, “I am the door.” Jesus is saying that He is the door into Heaven. Salvation comes only through Jesus.

Illustration: Many doors to this church, Many doors to Home

Only one door to Heaven and that is through Jesus. A relationship with God begins when we are saved. We can only say, the Lord is my shepherd, when we are saved. We are never going to find contentment and satisfaction in life until we are saved.

Let me give you the second word that describes the relationship that we need to have with God.

B. Surrendered

Here in not only do we find the word “saved.” This chapter also talks about how the sheep follow the shepherd. (V. 4)

Look at to see what Jesus had to say about following him.

(NKJV) Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

(AMP) And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also].

Remember, the cross was an instrument of execution. It was a means of death. Jesus commands us to die to self and live out the Father’s plan for our lives. My hope today is that you will say yes to this command. My hope is that you will surrender to God’s plan for your life.

(NKJV) I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Dallas Willard: The gospel is presented today with very little connection to the complete surrender of our lives to God. This leads to the real possibility that we will miss the central necessity of dying to self. Christianity tends to be presented as if God is our servant, instead of us being his.

Saved but not surrender because we are self absorbed.

Let me give you a picture of the Self Life vs. Surrendered Life.

Self Life — Our Way — Always wanting more, never content

Surrendered Life — God’s Way — Fulfilled, Satisfied, Content.

Think about your relationship with God. Many Christian get saved but never fully surrender to God. As a result, we miss out on what God wants to do in our lives and how he meets our deepest needs.

True satisfaction in life flows through a relationship with God. Life without lack flows from a relationship with God.

Conclusion