Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Analytical
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Conscientiousness
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Introduction
A mother bird cares for here young with ceaseless devotion and undivided attention.
She warms the eggs until they hatch.
After they hatch she makes countless trips to bring the food to her young.
She chews it up and delivers it to them in a way they can digest it.
Those young birds are entirely dependent upon the provision of the mother.
They wait patiently with open mouths waiting for her to fill them.
They trust that she is going to keep them fed.
The are confident that when she flies away, she has their best intentions at heart.
They know she will return.
They know she will feed them.
They know every need is supplied in her.
They simply wait.
This is a picture of our reliance upon the Lord, our shepherd.
He will provide.
God’s provision requires three things of us as His children.
As we learn these requirements we will be equipped to receive His provision.
His provision supplies everything we need for service and growth in the Christian life.
Requirement #1…
1. Provision Requires Submission
According to this first line, what does God do?
“He makes me to lie down in green pastures.”
The Hebrew word translated “makes” is causal.
God causes us to lie down.
In our opening illustration we talked about baby birds waiting on their mother.
They have no choice but to depend on her provision.
We are waiting on the Lord, we await His provision.
That sounds beautiful, right?
It sounds like this peaceful scene.
However, notice what is happening in this verse.
We, as His sheep, are in green pastures.
There we are, surrounded by the green food, surrounded by His provision.
Yet we are not content.
We are not at rest!
I picture the sheep here standing in the middle of a green field, looking at the next field over.
What does the good shepherd do?
He makes the sheep lie down.
Provision requires submission.
We are in the green pasture.
We are standing, surrounded by the abundance of His provision, and yet, we do not enjoy His provision until we yield ourselves to it!
This is a lesson we learn in Philippians 4:18-19.
Philippians 4:18-19
The Philippians submitted to God by giving to Paul and his ministry.
Here the promise is that God will meet all their needs!
We submit ourselves to God, He provides our needs.
We will never have peace when we are looking at where we aren’t standing, what we don’t have, and what we feel we deserve.
What looks like green pasture in the next field over might just be artificial grass!
It might have snakes roaming where you can’t see.
It might be poisonous!
As our Shepherd makes us lie down we submit to Him.
If this is the field He has chosen, stay there until He moves you.
He has chosen for our nation to have its current leadership.
Submit to Him.
He has chosen for this pandemic to continue.
Submit to Him.
The difficulties and trials we endure are for our good.
He has chosen them.
Submit to Him.
Lie down in the green pasture where you are.
He provides as I yield myself to Him.
There is no provision when I resist.
If the mother bird comes to the nest and the babies refuse to open their mouths, they get no food.
Don’t resist the provision of the Lord.
#385 “Near The Cross”
There is rest for those who are near to Christ.
When we submit ourselves to Him, we find the peace we desire.
Requirement #1.
Provision requires submission.
Requirement #2…
2. Provision Requires Trust
What does the shepherd make His sheep do?
“Lie down in green pastures.”
We’ve already discussed how the Shepherd makes His sheep lie down.
Now I want to examine what exactly He makes the sheep do.
He makes us lie down.
For many animals, lying down is a position of vulnerability.
This is especially true for sheep.
Why?
Because if a sheep somehow rolls unto its back, it cannot get up without help.
Let me show you a video of what happens.
What David is communicating here is that the sheep have to trust the shepherd.
He makes us lie down.
He places us in positions of vulnerability and we must trust Him in those circumstances.
We lie down in the green pastures because we know that God is in control!
We know that our Good Shepherd cares for His sheep!
We trust His protection.
You do not lie down if you do not feel safe.
We are safe in the arms of Jesus.
We submit to Him trusting that where He makes us lie down there is safety and there is provision!
We don’t lie down in barren wastelands, we lie down in green pastures.
This doesn’t mean there are not trials and troubles, there are, and we will be looking at them later in this Psalm.
The point is that When He provides He does so abundantly and completely.
Notice that He makes us lie down in green pastures.
Plural.
This is abundance!
He always does exceedingly abundantly above all we could ask or think!
Paul makes this point in Ephesians 3:20-21.
Ephesians 3:20-21
He gets all the glory because of His abundant provision.
He also provides completely.
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