Keeping the Sheep, episode 47 (Repost)

0:00 Today in this episode of the When You Love a Prodigal podcast, God is promising to take care of you in every way. Have you found encouragement that God sees your tears and hears your prayers? This week we will consider two more names of God and the amazing promises they are to us. Patches, one of my many dogs, was an Australian Shepherd. She was beautiful and so much fun and truly a shepherd. She was always trying to get us to go where she wanted us to go. She would even approach a complete stranger, take his wrist in her mouth, and try to lead him.

0:49 This frightened a few people. I learned a little about sheep during my farmer son's brief stint raising sheep. Sheep had some great positives. They reduced the need to mow the pasture because they ate the grass down to the bottom. And the variety that my son and his wife were raising provided much desired wool, high quality wool. But sheep required a lot of care and they attracted predators. But oh, those baby lambs. In my favorite picture of our son, he is tenderly holding a newborn lamb. Helped me to fall in love with sheep. Shepherds, which is a contraction of sheep herders, have responsibilities to protect, supervise, care for, and discipline their sheep. It is no wonder that God calls himself Jehovah-Rohi or shepherd. We, his people, his sheep, need lots of protection, supervision, care, and discipline. Listen as I read through the most popular psalm of all time. You know the 23rd psalm. The Lord is my shepherd, Jehovah-Rohi. I lack

2:26 nothing. Does that just astound you? That the psalmist can say, I lack nothing because the shepherd is providing everything that I need? True for you and me too. The psalm goes on. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name's sake. Sounds good, doesn't it? In the midst of a wilderness journey.

3:06 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil. For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Any dark valleys in your life lately? Any fear of impending evil? Says you're with me. I can walk through that valley. Says you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Well, most of us don't want to sit down with our enemies. Certainly the major enemy is the evil one, but our loved prodigal can be an enemy sometimes too. Says I'm there. I'm gonna get you ready for this banquet and I'm gonna fill your cup up so that it's overflowing. Surely your goodness and mercy, or some verses say goodness and love, will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. What an incredible picture of what our God, our Shepherd, does for us. There are books written to help us comprehend all that God is promising us.

4:39 Goodness and mercy forever. And then the Lord Jesus amplifies it. He says I am the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Now that's a promise. He already did it. He laid down his life for you and me and for our prodigals. Then Jesus continues, my sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. And then one of my very favorite promises, he says no one can snatch them out of my hand. How much are you sure that the crowd that our prodigal is running with, or the addictions, or the choices that he's making, will snatch them out of the hands of the Lord? They may try to escape but he says I'm the good Shepherd. I'm holding none. I've held on to that promise so many times as I have prayed for my prodigal and for your prodigal. No one will snatch them out of my hand, he says.

5:54 But wait, there's another name and another promise that God gives us. When our drunk son yelled obscenities at me in the front yard in the middle of the night, turmoil just welled up in me. When the hospital called to say that our son had been in an accident, a serious accident, worry overwhelmed me till I knew how he was. When he disappeared for three days, fear engulfed me. Confusion, turmoil, conflict, worry, fear, every one of us experiences these in our day to day lives. But when you love a prodigal, these become often a way of life. I am a fan of peace. I don't care for noise and chaos and especially not for conflict. I am a confirmed conflict avoider. So I am grateful that God has named himself peace. In the book of Judges we learn of Gideon who was no stranger to chaos and conflict. The Midianites, very large and powerful group of people, totally oppressed and impoverished Israelites. God's people lived in constant fear of them. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, a youth in a very

7:30 insignificant family, and called him a mighty warrior. Did Gideon laugh? And then the angel gave Gideon this unimaginable assignment, you will rescue Israel. Gideon apparently responded, who me? Pardon me Lord, but don't you know I can't do that. Who am I? After much conversation, the Lord gave him a sign to assure him that he could and would do it, rescue Israel. But Gideon was still afraid and God said, peace, do not be afraid. Gideon received that peace and then he built an altar to the Lord there and called it, the Lord is peace, Jehovah shalom. Don't you want peace in your heart? God is the peace that you're seeking. Our Savior confirms this wonderful promise to us, peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. The Greek word for peace is very similar in its meaning to the Hebrew word shalom and it's called

9:04 Irene. And Jesus also promises in John 16, I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, boy do we know that. But take heart, I have overcome the world. In this world there's trouble but I am your peace. And the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2 uses the same Greek word for peace in this amazing statement. He, Jesus, is our peace. Who has made the two groups, the Jews and the Gentiles, one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to you who were near. This could be for you and your prodigal.

10:06 You're far away perhaps and there's animosity or there's tension. There's so many things that steal our peace and Jesus says, I'm here. I will give you peace and I will give your loved one peace and I will bring you together. Jesus is the source of peace both for our troubled hearts and for troubled relationships. So when our lives in the wilderness seem filled with chaos and conflict we can call on this name of Jehovah Shalom and rest in the promise that Jesus gives us his peace. So a question. What part of the 23rd Psalm, the shepherd's Psalm, speaks personally to you today? Maybe you should get out your Bible and and read the 23rd Psalm and let God speak to you through it today that he will care for you as a good shepherd. And what aspect of your current life and relationship with your loved one, what needs more of God's peace?

11:25 Ask him for it. He'll give it. God bless you.