Saturday, January 19, 2013

011613: The Lord is My Shepherd




I.                    Read Psalm 23
a.       Over the next few weeks we are going to work through this Psalm as a guide for us on how to survive and thrive in the middle.
b.      That is how to hold onto your faith in God and live in a way that changes you and your world for the better.
c.       Today we are focusing on v. 1 “The Lord is my Shepherd.”
d.      This is the first action we can take to survive and thrive in the middle.
II.                 The Play
a.       Give a play to 6 people and have them act it out, no speaking except for their lines.
b.      In order for a play to be a success, each actor must know which role is theirs and actually do their part.
c.       In order for us to survive and thrive in the middle each of us as believers must know our role and actually do our part, otherwise it becomes a confusing mess and makes us want to no longer be in the play.
III.               Psalm 23:1
a.       v. 1 gives us our role and God’s role – He is the shepherd, we are the sheep
b.      The role of the shepherd is to lead and protect the sheep.
c.       The role of the sheep is to allow the shepherd to lead and protect them.
                                                              i.      If a sheep leads herself, she’ll get lost and may cause others to be led astray too
                                                            ii.      If a sheep protects himself, he’ll end up dead because he doesn’t have the strength to stand against his attackers.
IV.              Conclusion
a.       God is willing to lead and protect you, but are you willing to let Him?
b.      Letting Him lead and protect means:
                                                              i.      Staying close to Him
                                                            ii.      Trust (His way, not ours is best)
                                                          iii.      Submission, “yielding to his lead” (if he tells you to give up something or to start doing something, you obey even if it is difficult)
c.       Ask if anyone wants to say tonight, “Jesus be my shepherd, help protect and guide me, I give control over to you.”

No comments:

Post a Comment