The Lord Is My Shepherd – Part 8

First Gen Series

First Gen Challenges

• The parable of the Sower is really about how God us.
• A shepherd’s job is to lead and feed. God does both with His .

Four Kinds of Soil/Four Kinds of Listeners

• Wayside (Level 1)
• Stony (Level 2)
• Thorny (Level 3)
• Good (Level 4)

The Level 2 Listener

• The Level 2 listener (Stony Soil):
• Matthew 13:20-21
  • Immediate and joyful reception.
  • Temporary Endurance.
  • Tribulation or Persecution
  • Immediately falling away

Looking Beneath the Soil

When the emotion is absent, are you still committed?

Emotions aren’t bad. They’re just inconsistent.

God leads and feeds us through a spiritual system.

The deeper we are in the Word, the deeper our root system.

Word depth is not developed while we are listening to the sermon on Sunday, but while we are meditating on it on .

What does scriptural meditation look like?

Reading, Talking, Listening, Pondering, Reflecting Day and Night

God leads us as we meditate on the Word.

What Every Successful Student Knows

Successful students get information.

Inside information is hidden people who don’t want it and hidden people who do.

• Matthew 13:10-11 
• Matthew 13:12
• Matthew 13:12 (Dr. Joshua’s Version): “To the one who has [humility], more [grace] will be given, and he will have an abundance [of knowledge, understanding and wisdom], but from he who has not [humility], even [the grace that] he has will be taken away.”
• James 4:6–8

Two Options for Living

Option # 1

• Be Humble, Get .
• Submit to God, Receive Authority.
• Resist the devil, he will flee.
• Draw Near to God, He will draw near to you.

Option # 2

• Be proud, Lose grace.
• Rebel against God, Lose Authority.
• Tolerate the devil, he will stay.
• Stay away from God, He will stay away from you.

When God avoids you, you don’t just lose God, you lose His .

When God pursues you, you don’t just get God, you get His .

The Shepherd’s Paths of Righteousness

This is a progression: the closer you draw to God, the brighter your path gets; the further you get from God, the darker your path gets (Proverbs 4:18-19)

The You Factor

As you draw near to God, the of His instruction increases.

Your commitment to God affects the kind of pastors who are in your life what they teach.

(Jeremiah 3:14-15)

The human person you call pastor is not the source of the words communicated to you. God is.

• You’re not ready for more insight from God until you’re ready for more insight from God.

© Joshua D. Smith, Ph.D., 2021