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He Is Our Good Shepherd
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I can see healing all through the 23rd Psalm. If I don’t “want,” then I don’t “want.” “The Lord is
my Shepherd, I do not want.” I don’t want for forgiveness. I don’t want for righteousness. I don’t
want for fellowship with Him. I don’t want for being cleansed, being made holy, and being made
right in His sight. I don’t want for peace for my mind. I don’t lack strength for my soul. The
Lord is my Shepherd, so I don’t lack healing. I don’t lack health. I don’t lack strength. I don’t
lack days of life to finish my course and do what I’m put here to do. The Lord is my Shepherd,
so I don’t lack money, I don’t lack stuff, and I don’t lack help. I just don’t lack. I don’t lack or
want for anything. I do not lack because He is good.
What we’re going to begin to see as we get into Ezekiel 34 is that the condition of the sheep is a
reflection on the shepherd. It speaks to the quality of the shepherd.
Does God have a double standard? Does He hold us to a standard that He Himself does not
adhere to because He is above it? Some people try to say that He does. But how could that be
just? The Bible says in 1 Peter 5:2, “Feed the flock of God.”
Is he talking about sheep or people? He’s using this symbolism because there are similarities, but
he is talking about people. We are all part of a flock, and there is the Great Shepherd, and He has
appointed under-shepherds. What is the under-shepherd supposed to do? Feed the flock. Feed
them with what—peanut butter and jelly, hot dogs, and hamburgers? No, feed the flock of God
with the Word. He said, “Man does not live by bread alone but by every Word that proceeds out
of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).
You are supposed to get fed when you go to church. Some things you like to eat better than
others, in the natural. If there is a time in a service when nobody is shouting, that doesn’t
necessarily mean the food is bad. Your body doesn’t need ice cream and potato chips all the
time. But there are some things you need, like vegetables, and you need some minerals and
vitamins.
I started saying years ago, “If it’s good for me, I like it.” And boy, there was some stuff I didn’t
like, but I started eating it by faith. I thought, “If it’s good for me, I like it.”
If you say, “I can’t stand that, and I can’t eat that,” for 30 years, what is going to happen? You
are not going to be able to stand it. But, if it’s something you’re supposed to have, go ahead and
put your words on it. I’m telling you how to make it easier on yourself.
You might say, “I got by so far without it.” Yes, but you’re not done. You could have a long way
to go, and you just want to do what the Lord directs you to do, and be happy about it, and use
your words to help yourself.
He said in 1 Peter 5:2-3, “Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight
thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being
lords over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock.”
We’re supposed to lead not just by teaching and precept, but by example. Nobody wants to
follow someone who doesn’t practice what they preach or doesn’t live what they preach. I don’t