15 Minutes With Jesus / Robert Haymes
The Lord Is My Shepherd
Greetings in the name of Jesus! This is Rob Haymes. This is 15 Minutes With Jesus. Wherever two or three are gathered together in My name, Jesus said, there am I in the midst of them. To those of you who love Him in truth: mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied.
Thank you Lord! We thank you for this program Father; we thank you for this day; we worship you; we praise your Holy Name! Father, I pray that you would bless your people, every one of us; open our ears; open our hearts to receive the things that you are saying by your Holy Spirit. Thank you Father. Today’s program is called The Lord Is My Shepherd. So let’s turn there, to Psalm 23, verse 1, The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. If the Lord is your Shepherd, you shall not want. In John 6:35 Jesus said,... I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
Let’s turn to John chapter 10, verse 1, Jesus said, Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them. Then Jesus said to them again, Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. Let’s go down to verse 25, Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me. But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one. The hireling does not care for the sheep. He is only in it for the money. When Satan comes to destroy you, the hireling will not stand with you, but he will flee, because he is a hireling. Not so with Jesus! He is the good Shepherd. He knows His sheep, and His sheep know Him, and He laid down His life for His sheep. He said, I will be with you always, even unto the end. Is He your Shepherd? Really? Be honest with yourself: are you really following Jesus, or are you following a hireling, a businessman, who cares nothing for you. If Jesus is your Shepherd, you belong to Him, and He will care for you! He bought you with His own Blood, and no one can take you away from Him! Glory to God! Praise God!
Psalm 23, verse 2, He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He is leading you there; you are following Him, and you shall never hunger; you shall never thirst. Verse 3, He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake. You are following Him, and He is leading you in righteous paths to deal with you and to restore your soul. Verse 4, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You are not afraid of deadly situations and places; you are not afraid of death because you are following Him, trusting in Him, and He promised you that He will never leave you. You fear no evil! His rod and His staff: His authority and power in every situation, comfort you! Glory to God! He has not given you a spirit of fear, but of love and of power and of a sound mind! Verse 5, You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; If you will truly follow Jesus, He will bless you, right in front of your enemies! You anoint my head with oil… that is the anointing: Jesus will baptize you in the Holy Spirit if you truly follow Him. If you don’t want to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, you’re not following Him! Shall not the Father, Jesus said, give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? And He will fill you to overflowing with His joy and His presence. Jesus said, If any man will be My disciple, let him deny himself, every day, take up his cross and follow Me. The Holy Spirit will lead you to follow Jesus to do the will of His Father, and He will lead you into all truth. And if you will love Him and keep His Words, you will abide in Him and He will abide in you, and you will bring forth fruit in your life, and His goodness and His mercy shall follow you all the days of your life, and you will dwell in the House of the Lord forever! You will inherit eternal life! Glory to God! That’s what that verse is talking about: dwelling in the house of the Lord forever: you are with Him in His glory; you shall never perish; you have eternal life! All of this is if He is truly your Shepherd; if you continue in His Word and in His Holy Spirit to deny yourself and follow Him to do the will of your Father in Heaven every day.
It is deceit to take Psalm 23 unto yourself and say, “The Lord is my Shepherd”, if you are not hearing His voice and following Him. The Apostle Paul said, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. His servant you are to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness. Are you obeying Jesus? Are you really following Him? Are you in His fold, or are you hanging out with the goats? Remember, Jesus said, Not every one who says, Lord, Lord, is going into the Kingdom of Heaven, but they that do the will of My Father, He said. Are you yielding to the Holy Spirit every day, denying yourself, your own desires and plans, taking up your cross: the fellowship of Jesus’ sufferings, and yielding to the Spirit to follow Jesus? He leads us by His Spirit to do the Father’s will. Jesus only does the Father’s will.
God created you, and you fell into the traditions and sins of your fathers; you were defiled in all your transgressions, and He, in His great love, sent His Son to die for you a brutal death upon the Cross to save you from your sins, and He raised Him from the dead to justify you and to give you eternal life in Him, and He brought you to Him. No one can come to Me, Jesus said, unless My Father draws him. And what are you doing now? Are you following Him? Do you think you can stay with the goats and everything will be ok? The goats are going to the Lake of Fire! Jesus said, in Mat 25, that when He comes in His glory, He’s going to sit on His throne, and He’s going to set the sheep on His right hand, and the goats on His left. And He’s going to say to the goats, Depart from Me you cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels… The goats are going into everlasting punishment: they would not show mercy; they would not have compassion. Are you a goat, or are you a sheep? If you are a sheep, then you need to be with Jesus’ sheep, following Him. Stop chumming up with the goats! Evil communications corrupt good manners! Bad company corrupts good morals. Remember: Lot was vexed with the things he saw and heard every day while he was living in Sodom, with their evil deeds and their evil conversation. But Abraham, his brother, interceded before the Living God for him, and God remembered Abraham and brought Lot out of Sodom before He destroyed it. Make no mistake! Just as Sodom was destroyed, so this evil world is going to be consumed by fire.
I want to intercede for you right now. If you are a sheep who is hanging out with the goats, and you know you need to return to Jesus’ fold: those who are truly following the Good Shepherd, I want you to do all you can do to receive this prayer and agree with me now. So let’s pray. Pray with me, Father, in Jesus’ name, I pray for everyone reading this message. I know you have given this program by your Holy Spirit, and there are some who are reading this, you know who you are: you’re hanging out with the goats; you’re delighting in things you ought not to be doing, and they are having an effect on you, and you need to return to Jesus, and the Lord is pleading with you right now. Father, in Jesus’ name, have mercy on them; have mercy on them. We pray: you said you would have mercy on whom you would have mercy, and whom you will you will harden. So we pray right now, for whoever it is, that you would help them; that you would soften their hearts; that they would humble themselves and come back to you with weeping and mourning, confessing their sins, and turn to you and be washed in the Blood of the Lamb, and return into your fold, Jesus! We pray this, Father, in the name of your Son Jesus. Glory be to God!
Thank you for reading this message from 15 Minutes With Jesus at roberthaymes.com . May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you who love Him in truth, Amen.