1. Psalm 23:1 – The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want
Psalm 23:1 – The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. 2 – He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads be beside quiet waters He restores my soul; he guides me in the paths of righteousness, for His name’s sake.

2. Psalm 23:3 He restores my soul
Good Shepherd: as a member of His flock we listen and follow His voice – but not always. Sometimes we fall into temptations and face failures in life & severe circumstances outside of our control and even discipline

3. Psalm 23:3 He restores my soul
Sower – rocks (persecution); weeds (cares of the world)
John 17:15 I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.

4. Psalm 23:3 He restores my soul
2 Cor 1:8,9 For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively; beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life.
Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead

5. Psalm 23:3 He restores my soul
Verse 10 – who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us

6. Psalm 23:3 He restores my soul
Thorn (placed there - my weakness = God’s power/grace) / discipline
a. Jas 1:2-4 trials lead to testing producing endurance
b. Rev 3:19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline
c. Heb 12:4-11 just as our earthly fathers discipline us so does our heavenly Father – because He loves us

7. Psalm 23:3 He restores my soul
II Cor 12:10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I a weak, then I am strong
Phone call: Satan tries to separate us from God but instead drives us closer to Him.
We trust in Him rather than ourselves

8. Psalm 23:3 He restores my soul
David/Bathsheba’s son’s death = 2 Sam 12:24 The David comforted his wife and went in to her and lay with her; and she gave birth to a son, and he name him Solomon.
Deut 3:24-29 the Lord denies Moses’ entrance into the Promised Land but allows him to go to the mountain top and SEE the whole of the land.
The children are allowed to enter the promise land.

9. Psalm 23:3 He restores my soul
Prodigal Son – father offers love and restoration
Job 42:10-17 The Lord restored the fortunes of Job and increased all that Job had twofold; lived another 140 years and died an old man full of days.
God restores us here in our lives – true blessings

10. Psalm 23:3 He restores my soul
No remembrance of our sins/evil deeds –
Isaiah 43: I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins. 54:8 In an outburst of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting lovingkindness I will have compassion on you.” Says the Lord your Redeemer

11. Psalm 23:3 He restores my soul
Rom 8:1 There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus
I john 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

12. Psalm 23:3 He restores my soul
Heb 10:15-17 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us: for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them – I will put My laws upon their hear, and on their mind will write the,” He then says, “and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

13. Psalm 23:3 He restores my soul
Restoration:
Comfort to accept and grow through difficult times
Restoration to a better life in THIS world
Process by which we grow closer to Him and becoming the child He wants us to be
Freedom from the guilt and punishment of being sinners – instead we are adopted into His family as His children.

14. As His children: Psalm 23:3 He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness, for His name’s sake.
Self: sheep pastures can become useless when the sheep are left to struggle for themselves – left to go their own way, left to the whims of their own destructive habits. (AA organizations) (king)

15. Psalm 23: He guides me . . .
Sheep cannot be allowed to pasture in the same spot – constantly moving along the shepherd approves of. (milk)
Prov 14:12 There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. (blind leading the blind)
Sower – thorns/weeds

16. Psalm 23:3 . . . He guides me . . . Good Shepherd:
John 14:6 I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh to the Father, but by Me.
John 10: 2,3 But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name & leads them out.

17. Psalm 23: He guides me . . .
Building a house on the Rock will withstand the storms of life
Mk 8:34 If any man will follow Me, let him deny himself daily and take up his cross and follow me

18. Psalm 23: He guides me . . .
Mtt 7:13,14 Enter through the narrow gate: for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

19. Psalm 23: He guides me . . .
John 14:16,26 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with forever; But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, & bring to remembrance all that I said to you.
2 Tim 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.

20. Psalm 23: He guides me . . .
Mtt 28:20 “teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with your always – even to the end of the age.” IF, we are walking as children of the Light, then the Lord will always be with us in whatever we are doing.
Rom 8:31 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?