RTW 2022

“For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search and find my sheep. I will be like a shepherd looking for his scattered flock. I will find my sheep and rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on that dark and cloudy day.“
Ezekiel 34:11-12

And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.
Ezekiel 36:27

So so thankful He put the Spirit inside me!

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Scatter

• to separate and drive off in various directions; disperse:

Search

• to go or look through carefully in order to find something missing or lost:

How are we scattered from God?

• By our choice: sin
• By God’s choice: discipline

People who were scattered from God

• Adam and Eve: eating the fruit in the garden, then God sent them from the garden.
• Jonah: disobeyed the instructions to go to Nineveh, then God sent him to the belly of big fish.
• Zacchaeus: his sin, and God invited Himself to dine and fellowship with Zacchaeus.

But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.
Isaiah 59:2 (ESV)

Sometimes we scatter from God, and sometimes God scatters us from Himself.

• For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.
  Luke 19:10 (NASB)

• “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.”
  1 Chronicles 28:9 (ESV)

• Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
  Isaiah 55:6-7 (ESV)

• Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short That it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear.
  Isaiah 59:1 (NASB)

We have a good Shepherd.

• I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So, I sacrifice my life for the sheep. I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock with one shepherd.
  John 10:14-16

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Do my best not to be scattered or to scatter myself from the Lord, and live thankful that when I do, He searches for me and brings me back.