Our Journey With God #1

Our Journey With God

Psalms 23:1-6

1 Peter 2:21, 25

PROLOGUE

John Bunyan, in his “Pilgrim’s Progress”, has made many people realized that Christianity is not just a religion –in fact, it is not- it’s more than a religion, it’s a way of life, or maybe in this case I would like to say, it is someone’s journey with God and to God [God’s heart].

The word “journey” basically means: one day walk! Or, in other meaning is simply to make a day-by-day journey with God. Folks, it’s talking about our daily life with God!

ILL. – One day many preachers gather together in an important meeting One of the events in that meeting is the reading of Psalms 23 by the youngest and the oldest pastor who attend into that meeting. When the time has come for the reading, the youngest pastor come forward to the pulpit, then he begin to reads Psalms 23 with a marvelous voice and expression, so, when he finish it every one make a standing applause for him. Now it’s the time for the oldest pastor, and here he is, an old man, with a stick and still need someone to help him to take him to the pulpit. “Wow, he’s too old to read the Bible, he hardly blind. It will be a long and boring moment for all of us,” everyone think. Then, this old man begins to open his Bible as soon as he arrives at the pulpit. He puts his glasses; he needs to bend down so he can read his bible good enough. “Th… th… ththeee… LLLorrrd i…i…is my, my Shhhepherd, I… I… ssssh… shalllll not wa…wa…wa…nt.” And everyone begin to laugh at him, “Oh he is so nice, but he also so funny!” But this old man keep reading his Bible, “He ma… ma… kkethh mmmeee t…t…to lie d..d…down in gre…greeeenn pas…pas…pas…tu…ture. Hhhee l..l..lea…leadeth m…m…me be…be…side th…th…theeee still wa..wa..wa..ter.” Everyone begin to become quite, somehow they all can feel the presence of The Lord begin to fill that place. And it’s become so quite, until the only voice that everyone can hear is this old man’s voice. You can hear this old man voice, “Yea, th..th..th..ough I wa…wa..wa..lk [quite]…” And in that quite room you can hear this old man begins to cry, you also can see his tears flows from his old eyes – oh, so beautiful -. And everyone begin to cry with him. And that old man never finished his reading, because everyone crying and praising God.

My beloved, the young preacher read Psalms 23 with a beautiful voice and makes it a beautiful poem; BUT the old preacher reads Psalms 23 with a beautiful heart and makes it as his own life with his own God. Bible not just an art, The Bible is God’s love letter, it’s talking about our personal experiences with God.

There are 6 things we need to know about our journey with God in Psalms 23:

1. What we need to bring before we make a journey? (v.1) Things you must learn before make a journey.

Before you make a travel, you always need to check some important things to take with you. Before we begin our journey with God, there are some important lessons we must learn:

1.1. God must owns you! "The Lord is my Shepherd..."

Is God really your Shepherd? Do you trust Him to lead every step of your life? This is a very important decision before we begin our Christianity journey with Him. Israel, in the Old Testament, failed to recognize this important message; they did not prepare to trust Him. Will you make the same mistake they made? Peter said, "Follow His steps!" Just follow His footprints that He left for us! He walks in front of us, He leads our journey. How can we know which footprints is His? Simple, His footprints had blood on it. Put your feet on those blooding footprints! Walk in His redemptive power every day!

1.2. We must own God! "I shall not want."

It means to be satisfy by Him alone, and let He be the answer for all our need. I do NOT say that God must answers all your needs, BUT I do say that God must be the answer of all your needs. There is a different between them. If God must answer all our needs, it means our satisfaction is base on the fulfillment of all our needs. If Jesus can’t solve my problem, then I shall find other "gods" who can. BUT, if God IS the answer for our entire problem, it means our satisfaction is base on Him.

Don’t walk alone in your own strength, your own abilities, in your own passion and for your own purpose; walk WITH God; do not depart from Him, from His love and His power.