When You Are Wondering In Your Wants Cry To The Shepherd

The Old Testament scripture reading this morning is found in Proverbs 28 verses 13 and 14, if

you would please stand.

Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain

mercy.

Blessed is the one who fears the Lord always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.

New Testament reading this morning is from Titus chapter 2,

verses 11 through 14.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness

and worldly passions, and to live self -controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting

for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself to

redeem us from all lawlessness, and to purify himself, a people for his own possession,

who are zealous for good works.

You may be seated.

Good morning.

That person that shall remain nameless, whose name is Andy, I

want to feel bad for him, but I don't.

Last week, he made fun of my short sermon last Sunday, and so I shall go extra long while he's

struggling to stay awake.

Turn to your Bibles, please, to Psalm 32.

Psalm 32.

Psalm 32, a Masculine of David.

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose

sin is covered.

Blessed or happy is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and whose

spirit there is no deceit.

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me.

My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer, Selah.

I acknowledged my sin to you.

I did not cover my iniquity.

I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of

my sin, Selah.

Therefore, let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when

you may be found.

Surely, in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.

You are a hiding place for me.

You preserve me from trouble.

You surround me with the shouts of deliverance, Selah.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.

I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

Be not like a horse or a mule without understanding, which must be curbed with bit

and bridle, or will not stay near you.

Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.

So be glad in the Lord.

Rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

O God in heaven, may we, your people, pursue paths

of righteousness.

Lord of ourselves, we know that there is no path of righteousness available for us, but there's only a path of wickedness and

iniquity and judgment.

But thanks be to our great Lord, who is our shepherd.

He is the one that provides us with the righteousness, the water.

He provides the food.

He provides the green grass.

We all know it's for our good and his glory as he feeds us righteousness.

O Lord, may we be content with what he has for us.

May we, as we learned last week, not want anything else, but what Jesus provides in his righteousness.

But Lord, we know, we know that we are of the flesh.

We know that we have fleshly desires left over.

And so there are times in which we do not do what the sheep should do.

We do not follow willingly.

O Lord, may we see what you do in those circumstances and see that even in that there's worship to be had

and thanksgiving to be had because our shepherd is our great shepherd and he cares for us.

Thank you, Lord, for Jesus Christ, our risen Lord, our shepherd.

May we, Lord, look closer to him now, especially in this hour as we have your word opened up to us.

Jesus' name, amen.

Well, last week we went through Psalm 23.

And in that psalm, we saw the happy state of a sheep following its shepherd.

And of course, we know that that is us as the shepherd of Christ, or as the fold of Christ,

we follow our shepherd and the happy state we have as we follow him in paths of

righteousness.

And I think here we have this happy state described in Psalm

32.

If you look at verse one and two, blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, righteousness, right?

Whose sin is covered, righteousness.

Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, righteousness, and whose spirit there is no

deceit.

We see that happiness is involved with being on the pathway of righteousness.

Look at the end of this psalm.

Be glad in Yahweh and rejoice, O righteous sheep,

and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

Indeed, we see that this is a sheep.

This is the story of a sheep who truly is following the shepherd in righteousness.

And it is a joyful experience for us indeed.

But I think the psalm is telling a story in between here.

That this isn't just a psalm about the happy sheep that follows, but what happens when this happy sheep fails

to follow the shepherd.

Look at verse nine.

God says,.

See, I think this is a story of mule syndrome.

When instead of acting like sheep in which we faithfully follow our shepherd because he wants and he has our

best and righteousness, instead we become like stubborn mules and we go a different path.

A path of destruction.

A path that is not good for us.

See, I think this is a psalm of a sheep that finds himself with this mule syndrome that we

can find ourselves in consistently in our Christian walk.

When we act more like mules instead of like sheep.

When Jesus describes what a sheep should be and the shepherd, if you remember, I'll just say it to you.

John 10, one through four.

Jesus says,.

To the shepherd the gatekeeper opens and the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by

name and leads them out.

When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them and the sheep follow the shepherd.

So the sheep is supposed to do.

It's supposed to be everything within the sheep.

I want to follow the shepherd.

And we see, of course, that Jesus says, I am the shepherd and you are the sheep.

But of course, here we see a syndrome.

When instead of acting like proper sheep in which we follow Jesus and all that he has for us and his righteousness and

we enjoy that like blessed and happiness of that state, instead we act like a mule

that goes constantly different directions.

Like Lydia Parker's goats that I took care of, they always want to go the wrong direction, especially for me.

Didn't like me.

Didn't want to follow my lead at all.

Wanted to go direct opposite.

What happens when we're acting more like mules and we're not acting like sheep?

I think we'll see.

Oh, we will see in this psalm that the shepherd acts in very good ways to us

undeserving sheep slash mules.

This morning, I want to look at really four things.

How does this mule syndrome happen to you?

How does your shepherd respond when we, you fall in that estate?

And what it's meant to drive you to and the happy result.

Well, let's start with the first one.

How does mule syndrome happen?

Well, look at 32 .2.

Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, in whose spirit there is no deceit.

In whose spirit there is no deceit.

See, in our really sheep -like existence, we're following the shepherd.

There's no deceit.

We're not believing lies.

We know that what's best for me is the shepherd.

He's leading me in paths of righteousness and that's where I go.

I don't care if it's a pathway that is hard for me.

My shepherd's there, I'm going, right?

That is a sheep.

That is a spirit without any deceit.

No lies does it believe in.

It knows the objective truth.

But when deceit is found in the soul, when we start believing lies, what will we do?

Well, the shepherd is going in a direction that I'm not too keen on.

So I shall go this way instead.

Oh, there's that mule syndrome happening within us.

You see, deceit is the reason why mule syndrome can happen to us because deceit

brings us into a falsehood existence in which sin, alternative

paths, are better for us.

You know, and we talk about this often.

But anger outbursts, right?

In this moment, it is just better for me to act this way instead of the way that my shepherd has told me to act in this

difficult situation.

So I'll just have an outburst of anger.

It's just better for me here, right?

Or you know what?

Again, using analogies from last week, I know I'm supposed to be patient while I'm waiting

on the Lord for things that I think are good for me, like a spouse and children.

But you know what?

This is just too long and so I shall be bitter now.

I shall be bitter now.

There's this idea that, you know what?

In this situation, it is better to follow my own path and do my own thing and not follow the lead

of my shepherd.

Deceit will make it look more palatable and appetizing to you, so you shall go to it.

But this psalm is more specific though, because look at this.

In verse three, it says, for when I kept silent, when I kept silent.

Now, he doesn't mean totally silent, because what does he go on to say?

Through my groaning.

And so what he means by silent is that I should be repenting of my sin.

I should be seeing that I'm in a bad path and then repent and go to my shepherd.

But instead, I kept silent instead.

That is what I'm doing.

So you see, deceit will bring you along the bad path and deceit will keep you along the bad

path.

And you'll think as you are dying, this is better for me.

It's deception.

It's a false reality and it's made by Satan of cotton candy

and sugar cones and everything.

It tastes good, but it only delivers death.

It's like a drug addict.

I think I've used this before, but whatever.

You know, you look at a drug addict and you think, my goodness, you're killing yourself, right?

Look at you.

You know, you got your sucking cheek bones and everything, your skin and bones.

It's clear that the drugs are killing you, but to the drug addict, this thing is my life.

He is completely deceived in this false reality.

Beloved, it's no different for us whenever we are convinced that this sin is better for me than the righteousness that the

shepherd has provided me in a path that's harder, no doubt, but nevertheless able by him.

No, instead I will deceive myself and be in this sin and I will deceive myself by staying in this

sin.

Mule syndrome happens because we deceive ourselves.

And I say this often, but you lie to yourself more than anyone else will lie to you.

We are master deceivers because we believe the great deceiver.

Deceit will cause you to go a different path.

Deceit will cause you to think it better to remain there.

Thus, the beginning of stubborn mule syndrome is found in deceit.

Now, is the shepherd deceived by our deceit?

Does our great shepherd get confused as we do as sheep?

Oh, thank God he does not.

So how does the shepherd respond to our mule syndrome?

Well, look at 32 .4.

For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me.

So you see, we have David that's in this state.

I'm not going to repent.

I'm not going to talk about my sin.

I'm just gonna stay in it and be silent.

And what is the response to the shepherd?

The hand of the shepherd was heavy upon the sheep.

Remarkably, not to kill him, right?

My goodness, how many times my sons don't follow the clear orders I have for their good and I

want to strike them dead, right?

But see, we have the shepherd.

He doesn't strike us down to death.

He puts his hand heavy on us.

But what is it for?

Not for our hurt, but for our good.

This is the way the shepherd handles with sheep that are acting like mules.

He comes down hard on them, but in love.

Look at Hebrews 12, 5 through 11.

Let's go to Hebrews 12.

Tim, I don't want to seal your thunder, all right?

So don't be alarmed at this.

I won't preach this nearly as good as you will.

Hebrews 12, this is the way the shepherd

deals with the sheep.

Verse five, and have you forgotten, Hebrews 12, verse five, the exhortation that

addresses you as sons, as if I may say it, sheep?

My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, the hand coming down hard, nor be

weary when reproved or corrected by him.

For the Lord disciplines the one who he loves and he chastises every son whom he

receives.

So it is for discipline that you have to endure.

God is treating you as sons.

For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them.

Shall we not much more be subject to the father of the spirits and live?

For they discipline us, that means our fathers, for a short time as it seemed best to them.

But he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the

peaceful fruit of, there it is, paths of righteousness to those who have been

trained by that.

So what is the heavy hand coming down?

What is it?

It's discipline, right?

It is to correct us.

It is in love for us.

It is painful purposefully.

Have you ever noticed a child will not respond to, please Johnny, don't hit your brother.

It doesn't respond well to that, but a good spanking drives the point in love, right?

That's just the way it works.

Well, Jesus is no different in which that he provides negative reinforcement, a painful experience

when we're in sin to show that although you're deceived to think that that sin is good for you, let me

show you through my discipline that that sin is bad for you.

The world believes their sin is good for them.

Praise be to God, you have a shepherd who won't allow you to do such a thing.

He will show you just how bad this sin is by disciplining you, his hand coming down on you so you

are no longer deceived by the lie.

You see, the shepherd responds in love by placing his disciplinary hand on you,

his rod comes down on you, but it's not to kill you, but it is to make you

righteous.

And so it's amazing, this is a side note and I probably shouldn't even say it, but it's amazing to see the world has no understanding of how

a painful disciplinary action could actually provide life to someone.

They have no concept of that at all.

But we see that this is the way our God works.

He works this way.

It's painful and we see the pain that David is going in, right?

In the psalm, it's physically painful for him, it's spiritually painful.

Look, spiritually he's groaning.

The hand of God is on him because he's not repenting of a sin and he's groaning within.

Spiritually, he's in anguish and he's also physically just dried up by this

ordeal.

He says in verse three, my bones wasted away through the groaning all day long.

My strength in verse four was dried up as by the heat of summer, Selah.

You see, he is experiencing the painful yet needed discipline of his

shepherd.

And this is what we yearn for ourselves when we are found in a sin that just seems so much better.

You know what that feels like.

You've been in that situation.

You know it's disobedience but it just seems and feels too good to get out of it.

How much in that moment you're needed the shepherd to put his hand on you to show you are not going to enjoy

this anymore.

This is oftentimes what you need to do when you're caught in a sin that you just can't get out of.

Ask Jesus to make this sin no longer enjoyable to you.

This is a divine work that the shepherd does because he loves and cares for you and disciplines you in grace.

He groaned because spiritually he was distraught.

Groaning all day long.

You know and when groaning does not lead to repentance, groaning tends to lead to complaining.

When we become complaining Christians and sadly complaining Christians is one of those acceptable sins.

But no, our groaning is meant to be finished with repentance to Jesus as he fixes us.

But when we just carry on in our groaning, in our complaining, or in our groaning because of the sin,

we then turn into complainers.

And it's physically painful.

There's sins that physically cause us distress but also it's proven.

It's shown that whenever we are not, oh what's the way to describe this?

I almost want to say live in our best life now but that's just heretical.

When we're agitated within our soul, right, it just shows itself

physically in other areas.

It does.

And this is, we see, this is God's hand coming down on us to show

us that where we are at, the sin that we are enduring, whatever it may be that you think is

better for you, he's showing it is not and he's bringing you out.

So when the good shepherd, when he sees you in sin, like a stubborn mule going a different direction, he goes to you

and he puts his hand firmly upon you in discipline.

And what is this described as?

Look at Psalm 32 verse 10.

It is a great benefit to you that when you are experiencing the discipline of the Lord, you realize that

this is his great love for me.

By the way, whenever we're parenting, we need to parent.

We need to discipline.

And our child, even whenever we inflict pain, they need to know that this is because my father or mother loves me.

Because this is the way that our shepherd disciplines us.

So that's the shepherd's response.

How are we to, what's the, what is this response of the shepherd

supposed to drive you to?

What's your response to be in light of the response of the shepherd?

We'll look at 32.

Look at five.

He's under this distress.

And so what's his only answer?

What's the only thing I can do right now to get out of this?

Well, I acknowledge my sin to you.

This is how he responds.

I acknowledge my sin to you and I did not cover my iniquity, he

says.

I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin,

Selah.

And he goes on to say, therefore, let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time

when you may be found.

Surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.

So what is the response of the sheep, the mule that's acting foolish?

He repents.

He acknowledges his sin.

He acknowledges his folly.

He is driven by the pain of the discipline of the Lord to say, I must confess this sin now.

I must bring it to him.

It drives him to bring it to the Lord.

And our sin will remain quiet about it to try and cover it up.

That's what we like to do.

Why do we remain quiet about our sin?

Because we're trying to cover it up.

We're trying to make it not appear there while we're still enjoying it, right?

But Jesus comes, he makes it hurt and so then we go to Jesus to cover it up.

You get what I'm saying?

We try to cover sin up on our own, let it be there, be friends with it, but Jesus makes it hurt.

And so true repentance is to acknowledge it to the Lord so that he will cover it up and we'll find life therein.

The goal is, as we see here, he says, I will not cover this up, he says in verse five,

because we want Jesus, our shepherd, to cover it up.

But in order for Jesus, our shepherd, to cover it up, we must acknowledge the sin and say, this is sin

that I'm doing and bring it to him.

But in our pride, how hard is it to do that?

We don't want to be wrong, we want to be right, but Jesus will not allow that.

The proper response to get out of such a state is to say, I'm no longer going to cover this sin up, Lord, I'm going to

rely upon you to cover this up and that means I'm going to acknowledge it as sin, own up to it, and see

what you can do with it, my great shepherd.

It's really important to underline repentance in the Christian life.

One thing I think is often missing is that we don't understand that repentance

is not just a one and done thing in your life.

Repentance is the meat and potatoes of your worship.

Every day.

Because we just love,.

We love,.

You love to make idols.

And so the meat and potatoes of your Christian life is repentance of those made idols, bringing it to the Lord.

Far too often in this kind of weak Christianity that we live, repentance, if that's even a thing, is

mentioned once at the beginning but never thought of again.

But we see that the Christian life is one in which we are so prone to be mules that we

constantly need to seek repentance and that is part of your worship.

Again, consider that repentance is actually an avenue of your worship to the Lord, not something that's

contrary to it.

Many times our Bible studies are weak.

Our prayer life is boring.

We don't want to spend time with the Lord and you know why because God is saying you need to repent of some

sin.

So your very beginning of your worship.

Ought to be,.

Oh Lord in heaven,.

I know you're placing your hand down upon me here and I need to confess this to you and be healed by my

great shepherd of righteousness.

We see that this is, again, supposed to drive us to repentance.

And I want you to notice that it says, in verse six, let everyone who is godly

offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found.

You see the godly person is not one who looks like they got everything put together,.

Is it?

The godly person is the one who acknowledges their sin and confesses it to the Lord.

That's the godly person.

But in our very structured Christianity, I don't know if that's the way to put it, but in our very,.

Oh,.

Showy Christianity, the godly one is the one that just looks like they have everything put together so well.

But the godly person here is the one who faithfully acknowledges their sin to the Lord and finds their

worship in acknowledging their sins to the Lord and finds their joy and passion and deliverance in the fact

that Jesus, our great shepherd, brings us back to the fold with loving arms.

If you're not confessing your sin and you're not experiencing that vital part of your Christian life, beloved, you are missing out on a very

vital aspect of the Christian life, repentance and Jesus healing your wounds.

We need to constantly be on the alert.

What in my life is disobedient to my Lord?

What am I letting just be there because it's just too darn cute to get rid of?

And we need to find it our great pleasure to bring that to the Lord and see what he does with it.

We need to be a repentant people.

So again, to be godly is not ignoring your sin or acting like it's not there but putting a spotlight

on it so it is dealt with by our great shepherd.

So what is the happy result then?

What is the happy result of this whole situation in which we have found ourselves

a stubborn mule going down the pathway that's bad for us but yet by deceit we're there.

Our Jesus comes, our shepherd comes who has righteousness in mind and he lays his disciplinary

hand on us and makes that sin no longer palatable so that we confess this sin to him

and we acknowledge it and bring it to his gracious hand and what is the happy result?

Look at 32 .5b.

There's a few different results.

That we'll go through.

Look at 32 .5.

And you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

Right, that's the response of the sheep.

I acknowledge my sin to you and I did not cover my iniquity.

I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and what is the happy result?

And you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

One of the most profound things about God is that he is faithful to forgive.

You imagine a situation in which we don't know if he'll forgive.

We'll see.

That is the kind of life that the Muslims live in.

They don't know if God ultimately will actually forgive them and have them enter into paradise with

their false God.

But we have, as a Christian, you are commanded to have full confidence that God is a God of

forgiveness, period.

It doesn't matter what sort of sin you find yourself in if you, in true faith

and believing upon him, if you acknowledge your sin to him, you are commanded to be fully confident

that this God forgives sinners like you.

And so the happy result of the shepherd bringing you into this situation is that you can confess your sin

and you can be confident, not in your own self, but in the confidence of the shepherd for his ability to

forgive sins.

What a needed thing when you find yourself in a season of sin that you can faithfully go

to your shepherd and he will faithfully forgive you.

It is far too often a response as I cannot go to my shepherd, I cannot go to him because I am so

messed up.

Well, beloved,.

That's when you need the physician the most.

The happy result is the fact that you can be forgiven if you truly look to your shepherd and respond to

him in faith.

What's another happy result?

Look at 32, six.

Now at first, this verse kind of confused me at first.

If you look at verse six, therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found.

Surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.

See, I thought at first, perhaps I didn't see anyone actually thought this way, so that was kind of weird.

But it says that, I was thinking that it's saying you need to call out to God when he can be found because

in the flow of great waters, you won't be able to reach him.

But all the commentators that I see the way that it's set up is that what's being said here is it's saying

that offer prayer when he can be found and when you do that, the rushing waters of God's judgment

will not reach you.

Make sense?

That if you truly cry out to Christ, forgive you, he forgives you of your sin, the great waters of his

judgment will not reach you.

You can be confident that you will not sustain the judgment of God because of his great forgiving love.

So the happy result of being a sheep, being cured of your mule syndrome is that the

rushing waters of God's judgment will not reach you.

This is something worthy to be joyous over.

What is your greatest issue in life?

It is not that you might lose your house because you lost your job.

It's not because you can't afford that nice car that you want so bad.

Your greatest issue in life every one of you is that God's judgment rightly

belongs upon you.

That is your greatest issue.

And if you truly understood the wrath of God and how serious business that is and how awful it is, you

would acknowledge that all of my problems amount to the fact that I am not right with God.

And that is a terrifying experience.

And so whenever we see that there is a way in which we rely upon the shepherd of our souls to bring us into righteousness and he brings

forgiveness of sins and we see that the great waters of judgment will not fall upon me when I have him as my shepherd and I'm

following him, we see that my greatest problems are met in Jesus.

So what shall I fear?

So the issues of our life become smaller, manageable because our greatest problem is

dealt with.

It's a happy result when we realize the forgiveness of our sins in Jesus.

Everything is put in its proper place.

I guarantee you if you are overcome with worry and anxiety over all these

things in our lives that do that to us, you are making your greatest problem

of God's judgment and the release of that found in mercy and grace of Jesus, you're making that very small.

But when that becomes everything to you, I'm not saying you don't have any problems anymore because you do, but they become

very manageable.

Wake up and proclaim the gospel to yourself every morning.

Oh God, how is it that the waters of your judgment will not touch me?

It is because of my great shepherd who rescues me.

If that is the meat and potatoes of your worship, oh beloved, I'm telling you it will be

a happy result in your day indeed.

Look at verse 7 for another happy result.

He says,.

You are a hiding place for me.

You preserve me from trouble.

You surround me with shouts of deliverance.

You see, instead of hiding in sin whose goal is to kill you,

deceitfully, doesn't tell you it's gonna kill you, it makes it feel good.

So instead of hiding in sin that wants to kill you but makes it look like it's so good for you, instead of hiding there, you

hide in Jesus.

You know what Jesus is doing?

Well, we already talked about that.

He loves you.

He cares for you.

He wants your best.

So that means he will bring you through certain paths that are not easy, but it's for your good.

Where sin is always easy because it's for your bad.

You see, a happy result, instead of hiding in your sin, you will hide in Jesus.

He will be your hiding place and his goal is for your good.

And of course, the final result, happy result, is true, and this has

been the theme of the Psalms, at least for my preaching, is true and genuine worship

to God.

Again, let's just go over it.

32, 1 and 2.

Happy is that person.

That person is objectively happy no matter what is going on in your life right now.

7, you are a hiding place for me.

You preserve me from trouble.

You surround me with shouts of, well, not groaning,

but shouts of deliverance is that happy result.

True worship, and of course,.

11,.

Why?

Because the shepherd of your soul is leading you on a path of righteousness, even as you tried your best

to avoid it.

This is a great happy result that we can have genuine worship in light of our shepherd bringing us back on the path

of righteousness despite ourselves.

So, Jesus can make even the dreaded mule syndrome a means of

greater worship in your life.

You fall into it by deceit, you flounder in it by deceit, but your loving shepherd comes and

disciplines you with love.

And his whip.

With the purpose that you would no longer like the sin, but seek his righteousness and repentance instead.

The happy result being that he forgives, he becomes our hiding place and the source of all happy worship.

Oh, praise be to our shepherd who never leaves us or abandons us, but he always follows us despite

our ever -wandering soul.

Would you look to him right now?

Stop looking to your sin, stop living in deceitfulness, and look to the one who can rescue you from that.

He is faithful and good and true.

Let us pray.

God in heaven, oh Lord, how much I can just lie to myself constantly.

I am always amazed by it.

I'm always amazed how I can lie to myself and to say it is good for me.

It is my happiness to be rude with my wife or rude with my children, to be short with them.

This is where I'll find my happiness, to take my anger out upon them or whatever nonsense I tell myself.

Throughout the week.

But I'm so thankful that Jesus, you don't allow that sin to be palatable to

me for very long, but you put your disciplining hand upon me.

It hurts, I groan, but Lord, your kindness

shows me the way out and that is by the comforting, shepherding tool of Christ.

I see it, I know it.

I know that this is meant to make me see Jesus clear in his grace.

Oh Lord, I know that there's people before me, Lord, who's dealing with sin right now.

They may even be allowing it to happen because for some reason they are lying to themselves thinking that this is better for me.

Oh Lord, that you would not allow them to be stayed in that place for very long, that you would put your hand

upon them to show them that this is not good for you, that it would cause it to be a great grievance to them so that they

wouldn't just become complaining Christians, but rather they would bring it, they would expose it to you and say, oh Lord, heal

me.

I'm so thankful that we serve a shepherd who heals us.

You hear us and you come for us and you banish our wounds and you speak peace

and grace to us.

Oh Lord, may you be worshiped today.

May you be honored by your saints today and may we live this week in light of this grace that Jesus has won for us.

Praise be to his great name, amen.