Kingdom Contentment - Part two

We are delving in some deep spiritual things; we are taking about Kingdom contentment, the true secret of success. How do we live lives that are content? So, let us get down to the nitty gritty this morning. How many of you are unashamedly sharks supporters? Well done, even if you turned off the TV half way through. Yesterday, it was tough if you are a Protea supporter, and a sharks supporter, it has been a tough weekend. But now, let us get honest one to another. How many of you support a different team? Do you know that we have an ‘all rights reserved’ right by the ‘admission reserved’ over this church? I thought to myself, “How do we deal with people like this?” Then I remember that Jesus spend time with tax collectors and sinners. So, we need to be gracious. But this is what got me thinking. When you think about our rugby teams, we sharks, lions, blue bulls, the stormers. Do you know what struck me that you do not have? We do not have the lambs as a rugby team. We do not have the sheep as a rugby team either. When I thought about all these mucho names, why is that? Where are the lambs and the sheep? Who would want to be a part of the sheep team? But this is what I love, David, the giant slayer of the Old Testament, was unashamedly a part of the sheep team. Think about this for a moment, I love the fact that David was a sheep supporter. Israel’s famous warrior king was a part of the sheep team. When you think about David, you think about this amazing man who took down the thirteen foot Goliath. He was the man who raised up this team of mighty men around him. When people saw David, they sang ‘Saul killed his thousands; David killed the tens of thousands.’ So when people saw David, they saw this mighty man of valour. When David saw himself, he saw a sheep. He had a relationship with the shepherd. He penned those famous words; “The Lord is my shepherd. “ You know Jesus; I think it was that dual nature with Jesus also. When you think of Jesus, He is our King, He is our saviour. As He was introduced to the world by John the Baptist as the Lamb of God. And they nailed a sign to the cross, ‘King of the Jews.’ We have the lion and we have the lamb. I love the scripture in the book of Revelation. Revelations chapter five verses five and six says, it was a vision that John had of heaven one day, and they were looking for someone worthy to open the scrolls to bring redemption, and it says in verse five; “⁵ Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” ⁶ Then I saw a Lamb.” A lion and a lamb. There is this amazing dual nature that mighty men of God like David and Jesus our saviour seems to carry. A lion speaks about authority and power, conquering Satan, sin and death. The Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. Here is what struck me is when our hearts are surrendered to God, like a sheep before a shepherd, when we have that view of ourselves, then it is as if God can take us and raise us up to be lions of authority and power. But the problem is, not when we see ourselves as sheep with a shepherd is when we see ourselves as lions, we do not need someone to care for us. When we think about it, on the inside when we get aggressive and self – reliant, and independent and unyielding, and proud and arrogant, there is a small verse when Jesus saw the crowd, He has compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. That is what happens to us when we do not have an understanding that we are created to be like sheep who need a shepherd. Then Jesus said we become helpless and harassed. We are speaking this morning about Kingdom contentment. I do not want to live my life helpless and harassed. Many of you in different situations might be able to identify with this, it is like God, I am feeling powerless, I am feeling that everything is against me, helpless and harassed. What is the problem? Sheep without a shepherd. This morning what I want to speak about, I want to have a look at this revelation that David had. And understand how this mighty king, this giant slayer could have seen himself as a sheep. And how it brought to his life this incredible sense of contentment. So, I am going to read one of the most famous passages of scripture, I am not going too deeply into it this morning. You can preach about it for weeks and weeks. But there are some key things I want us to notice this morning. The words of David, some of the most famous scripture of all, Psalm twenty three says: “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. ²     He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, ³he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. ⁴ Even though I walk through the darkest valley,^[a] I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. ⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ⁶ surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Is that not beautiful, I am sure that so many of you have heard that so many times before, yet there is something about that Psalm. To me, that speaks of pure contentment. The big thing I want to pick up today is when we have this revelation of what it truly means to be a sheep under our Father – shepherding care, when we get that revelation, I believe we will begin to understand like David did. Through all his troubles and stresses and hardship, he found this incredible sense of contentment. The big point, the sheep/ shepherd revelation is the secret of contentment. There is a few things I want us to notice from this passage. Firstly, is how it defines contentment. Listen to a few of these phrases, it says: “I will not be in want. “ Is that not what contentment really is? In the book of James says; “The reason why you squabble and fight and argue is because you do not get what you want.” Is that not true? If you have to think about all those reasons you have fought, it all comes down to the same thing, you are not getting what you want. But David said, when the Lord is my shepherd, I will not be in want. That is contentment when Jesus is fulfilling those inner needs. It says He restores my soul, is that not contentment? When your soul is whole, when there is healthiness to your soul. It says, I will fear no evil, is that not contentment? So many people are robbed of contentment and peace because of fear, anxiety, stress, worry. I will fear no evil. It says His rod and staff, they comfort me. Knowing the presence of God, it says my cup overflows. That is contentment, that sense of abundance, inner abundance. And it says surely goodness and love, as someone was pointing out to me last week as we were talking about it, it says not just love and goodness and love will follow me, actually they pursue me. As we pursue Jesus the shepherd, love and goodness will begin to pursue us. This is a beautiful picture of what contentment really is. So what is the key? David had this revelation of contentment. But the key word I want us to focus on this morning is simply this word; dependence. The heart of what it means to understand the sheep/ shepherd relationship is this word, dependence. David had learnt to depend on the shepherd, and so0 draws strength and comfort and life from the shepherd. Listen to these phrases, it says; “He makes me lie down, he restores me, he leads me, he guides me, he is with me, he comforts me, he prepares a table for me in the presence of my enemies. He anoints me, he over fills/ over flows my cup.” Did you get that? That is dependence, this revelation that actually God wants to be God to us. God wants to do what only He can do to us. And at the heart of understanding, this revelation of sheep/ shepherd is allowing God to be God to us. It is allowing Him to lead us, and guide us, and to fill us, and to correct us, and to teach us, and to train us. The big question is; will you let Him? Will you, fellow control freaks, let him? Will you let Him? It is so easy under pressure to default back to my way. I am going this way. I know the shepherd wants me to go that way, but this way, to me, looks better. Dependence, the heart of walking in contentment of a sheep/ shepherd relationship is the trust and dependence we have on our shepherd. Learning the secret of depending on the Lord, if we are going to do it, the third thing for me out of this simple passage is; dependence is based on conviction. I love that word conviction, conviction is the word about I have thought this through, I have come to an understanding, and now I have now become convinced of something. I have a new favourite word that comes out of this passage, right at the end of this passage, David has gone through all these different areas, and he comes to this word right at the end, he said, surely. Find someone close by and say to them; surely. It is like, think it through, if God is your shepherd, and He wants to do this and that, and He is all – powerful, all loving, all mighty, surely, obviously. Surely goodness and love will pursue me, or follow me all the days of my life. This is the conclusion; when we have a revelation that Jesus is not just a shepherd, He is my shepherd. Reiterating, my shepherd. That is what David said. The Lord is my shepherd. When that is how my level of conviction, then surely good ness and love will follow me. When you get the revelation that Jesus is a shepherd, but the Bible says He is the good shepherd. Even an average shepherd should provide for protection, and direction, and care. I mean, that is what shepherds do. Jesus is the good shepherd. John chapter ten verses eleven says: “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays his life for his sheep.” So, surely goodness and love will pursue me all the days of my life. This is the heart of what I want you to catch this morning in terms of contentment. If we realize and understand the wonder and privilege that we have to be shepherded. I think this revelation was so important that Jesus wanted to almost act out; Jesus wanted to demonstrate to us this very song so that we would catch it. I never really looked at it before until I studied this passage during the week. It says in Mark chapter six verses thirty four to forty four, it is a well – known passage, but I want us to look at this passage today and think of Psalm twenty three at the same time. Jesus had god across the lake in a boat, and as He arrives, He gets off the boat at the water’s edge. The people are ready and expecting and waiting for Him. So, the story happens in verse thirty four says: “³⁴ When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. ³⁵ By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. ³⁶ Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” ³⁷ But he answered, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages^[e]! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?” ³⁸ “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.” When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.” ³⁹ Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰ So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. ⁴¹ Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. ⁴² They all ate and were satisfied, ⁴³ and the disciples picked up twelve basket fulls of broken pieces of bread and fish. ⁴⁴ The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.” This is like Psalm twenty three right here. The meet beside the water’s edge, He guides them in paths of righteousness as He teaches them the Word of God. He directs them, makes them sit down on the green grass. He prepares a banquet for them in the presence of one of the biggest enemies we have. We do not have enough money. How are we going to do this? In the presence of this enemy, or sometimes our finances in the battle, He prepares a banquet. I love the fact that their cup overflowed, literally, twelve baskets full of overflows were left. And He restores their souls; it says the people were satisfied. I think that Jesus was trying to get us to understand just how important this Psalm, this revelation is to each one of us. Jesus is the good shepherd, so surely goodness and love will follow us and pursue us as we follow and pursue Jesus. The key word is dependence. I want to leave you this morning with just two thoughts about dependence. How do we develop a dependent heart?

1.      It is going to take humility. It takes humility to call yourself a sheep, and not a bull or a lion, or a tiger or some other macho inner self esteem picture you might have of yourself. By humility, you say actually, I am a sheep that needs a shepherd. It takes humility to admit that you need a shepherd and you are not the cowboy. I mean, that is the image we like to have. No, I need a shepherd for my soul. It takes humility to let God be God to you. I think David was a man of incredible humility, he was a man that God used as Israel’s warrior king, and in his heart, he had a heart of humility, he knew he needed a shepherd. And in that revelation, he found contentment.

2.      A faith response. Sheep respond in faith to a good shepherd. They believe that is way, his path, he knows the paths. He is going to take me on the best one. Sheep believe that staying close to him will be their best protection. In times of crisis, you want to seize back control, or do you want to keep your eyes fixed on the shepherd. And sheep believe that when there is danger, or they get separated, the shepherd will come looking for them to find them again. As a sheep and a flock under the care of a good shepherd must surely be the most contented places to be. And the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that we have been invited into such a relationship. Rather than roaming free out there on the hills, trying to make it on our own, thinking we are lions, but actually, we are sheep. Jesus invites us, the Bible says; “Now, we have returned to the shepherd and overseer of our soul.” The invitation of the Gospel is that we can come back to that relationship, see Jesus as our shepherd. Remind our hearts that we have a shepherd. Humble yourselves under it, and by faith respond to the shepherd. And in that, I believe, we will find great contentment. Two secrets of contentment we have seen so far. Number one, contentment is not about circumstances, it is about strength in Jesus. Number two, contentment comes from dependence on our shepherd, in Jesus Name.      

 Outlook church.

Senior Pastor: Brent Brading

Website: Outlook Church