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Psalm 23 - Get It Out of Your Head Series
63 Plays1 year ago
In this week's sermon by Ridley Barron, the focus was on Psalm 23, emphasizing the presence of God in the midst of darkness and fear. Barron shared a personal conversation about leaning into Jesus during difficult times. The imagery of God preparing a table in the presence of enemies was presented as a reality for those who trust in the shepherd, and the unbreakable bond between believers and Christ was highlighted through the concept of dwelling in the house of the Lord forever.
Timestamps:
00:00 Handling relationship moments, church hurt, overcoming anxiety.
05:15 Psalm 23: Submission to God's authority essential.
07:08 Knowing and trusting God fulfills true needs.
11:26 Life's challenges and faith's guiding support.
15:25 David acknowledges God's role in his life.
19:33 Discussing life, marriage, parenting, and faith struggles.
21:40 Seek God in times of trial and triumph.
26:30 God protects in trials, not necessarily rescues.
28:34 Jesus warns believers to avoid the enemy.
33:11 Psalm writer relives victories and trials vividly.
35:21 God desires to be your shepherd and presence.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Get It Out of Your Head' Series
00:00:00
Speaker
You will take your Bible's turn to Psalm 23. We are wrapping up a series we have entitled, Get It Out of Your Head. And as you're turning there, just kind of want to recap a little bit of what we've talked about over the last few weeks. Three weeks
Anxiety's Impact on Spirituality
00:00:14
Speaker
ago, we began the series by talking about anxiety and how anxiety immobilizes us, keeps us from having
00:00:23
Speaker
relationship with God like he desires. It can keep our mind off the focuses that should be on and get it distracted in many different ways. Two weeks ago,
Depression as a Faith Development Tool
00:00:32
Speaker
Kyle did a fantastic job talking about depression and how depression, even in seasons of darkness, how God can use those seasons of depression to train us, to develop our faith, to help us to grow in our relationship with him.
00:00:46
Speaker
I hope that you have understood, especially those first two weeks, that anxiety and depression are not things that make you unqualified to be a Christian. They don't disqualify you from being a follower of Christ. It's not
Faith Amidst Anxiety and Depression
00:00:59
Speaker
that you get those moments, it's how you handle those moments that makes the difference in your relationship with Him. And then last week we talked a little bit about church hurt and how
00:01:09
Speaker
The truth is that church hurt doesn't exist.
Church Hurt and Forgiveness
00:01:11
Speaker
What hurts is people who hurt us, people who have broken relationships and who can sometimes lash out at us inappropriately or sometimes it's our own unforgiveness that causes us to live in those seasons of hurt and brokenness. Today
Significance of Psalm 23
00:01:24
Speaker
we wrap up with what is familiar to many of us as the
00:01:27
Speaker
Shepherds Psalm or the 23rd Psalm and so we're gonna talk a little bit about that before we do I just want to remind you I think we've pointed out well over the last three weeks that one of the tools that Satan uses Against us is things like anxiety, right? The more he can keep our mind fragmented or distracted or divided the better off it is for him because if we're anxious or we're depressed our mind is not where it needs to be so we live in a culture that thrives off our Anxiety and our frustration and our discouragement. It's everywhere you turn
00:01:57
Speaker
And the more they can create anxiety, the more they profit, the more they benefit off of it. How many of you have ever been sitting watching TV at night and in the middle of your favorite show, a commercial comes on where they go? If you have itchy
Media's Role in Anxiety
00:02:08
Speaker
eyes, you could be going blind. Right? Or if you have high cholesterol, take this drug, but if you do, you could die, you could die, or you could die.
00:02:20
Speaker
And in exchange, you could get your cholesterol lowered, right? If you're reading the news lately, you may hear or see the latest studies reveal. And right in the moment you're reading that, you're going, wait a minute, didn't the last latest study say the complete opposite of what this study says? And so they constantly are changing the price tags, constantly changing the description of things. It keeps us a little bit distracted and anxious.
00:02:46
Speaker
Not to mention the promises of Matthew 24 where Jesus himself says, you know what? There are going
David's Psalm 23: Context and Confidence
00:02:51
Speaker
to be wars, there's going to be rumors of wars, there's going to be floods, there's going to be earthquakes, there's going to be weather issues, there's going to be all kinds of things. And before you know it, we are anxious and all tied up in our own emotions. They've even gone after our breakfast cereal. Have you noticed that? Honey nut Cheerios may lower cholesterol.
00:03:12
Speaker
OK, so you're sitting at the breakfast table and you're at a dilemma. Does it or does it not? I'm hanging on a cliff here. Do you? I mean, this is going to help me or hurt me, right? Yeah, they don't even care. They don't. They're just kind of making up the rules as they go. The Psalm is a familiar one. It's familiar just about to a lot of people, even outside of the church, for many reasons.
God's Provision vs. Human Wants
00:03:34
Speaker
It was written by David. We know that for a fact. What scholars disagree on is exactly when in his life he wrote it. I'm one of those who believes that he probably wrote it after becoming king. Because if you listen to what he talks about in here, there are life stories here. He's speaking out of experience. It's not just some young man wishing these things were true. It's somebody who has known and tested the name of God, the character of God, and has found that he never comes up lacking.
00:04:00
Speaker
And because of that, he's writing from his experience and he's telling us, this is the shepherd that I know. This is the shepherd that you can lean on, the shepherd you can trust. In fact, this entire psalm is a psalm of confidence in who God is. So follow along me, we're gonna read through the psalm and then I wanna come back and kind of take it apart a little bit, pull some of the meat off the bone, if you will, and talk a little bit about how this good shepherd protects and keeps us. Psalm 23, verse one, I'm reading from
00:04:29
Speaker
the Christian Standard Bible, it says, the Lord is my shepherd. I have what I need. He lets me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He renews my life. He leads me along the right path for his name's sake. Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger. 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.
00:04:59
Speaker
My cup overflows. Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live. First of all, I want you to see that the shepherd provides what you need. The shepherd provides what you need. If you look at verse one, it says, the Lord is my shepherd. And as I said, I think this was King David writing this. This was a big thing for a king in that day and age to acknowledge that there was anybody in greater authority than him.
00:05:29
Speaker
And so David was saying, I'm no king unless God is behind me. It is he who is behind my throne. It's he who gives me the authority to be who I am. And I want to suggest to you that many people have claimed the promises of Psalm 23, but let me just warn you that you can't claim the promises of 23 unless you know the God of Psalm 23.
00:05:51
Speaker
Until you're willing to submit your kingdom to his kingdom, you can't claim these promises as your own. And so if you're here today and you're going, I have a little bit of confusion about my relationship with God. It doesn't feel like it's alive. It doesn't feel like it's dynamic. It doesn't feel like it's going anywhere. Might I suggest to you that you don't know the shepherd of the psalm? In fact, the verse literally says, the Lord is my shepherd.
00:06:16
Speaker
It doesn't say the Lord is a shepherd, the Lord is the shepherd, the Lord is a good shepherd. He says the Lord is my shepherd and because I know this, as a fact, I also know that He's the one who gives me the ability to do what I do and to be who I am.
00:06:31
Speaker
He goes on to say, the Lord is my shepherd. I have what I need. Some translations, many of the more common translations say, I have everything I want. But this isn't a communication of the fact that God will give you what you want. In fact, if you go back and you trace the life of David, you'll see he faced many challenges where God didn't exactly provide what he wanted.
00:06:51
Speaker
David had to go through different family challenges, people who didn't support him the way he thought. David spent much of his younger life hiding in caves and other places because King Saul was after him. So there were moments where David knew what want was. Instead, I think that what the psalmist is writing here is to say that when I know God and when I trust God, I have the things I need and I learn there isn't so much that I want that I wanted before.
00:07:19
Speaker
In fact, it's a conscious acknowledgement that I am only choosing to receive from God what he offers to me as what I really, really truly need.
Journey of Life: Dependency on God
00:07:30
Speaker
The second thing I want you to see is that the shepherd leads us in this journey. The shepherd leads us in the journey. Verse two, it says, he lets me lie down in green pastures. For some of us, our translation says he leads me
00:07:46
Speaker
to green pastures or he makes me lie down in green pastures. When we hear that phrase, this is what we think about. Pretty little sheep, pretty green grass, bouncing around in the meadow, enjoying all those things, got everything you need, right? Let me show you what a more realistic picture of the area around Jerusalem looks like. This
00:08:10
Speaker
is where the psalmist sat and wrote words like, he lets me lie down in green pastures. Here's another picture. And still another. You see, what happens in the area around Jerusalem is that there's not a whole lot of rain. Rain doesn't come very frequently. In fact, when it does, it's quite often a danger because the ground is so hard, so baked in hard, that rain quite often turns into floods very quickly.
00:08:41
Speaker
But the rain is not an issue because it just doesn't come very often. It gets its moisture where you see the little bit of grass that is there comes from moisture that's coming off the Mediterranean Sea that's brought in by the westward winds that come in and blow it across the land. And as it does, that water hits the mountains that you see in these pictures and the moisture will find its way into rocks and crevices where seeds get watered and grass will begin to grow.
00:09:06
Speaker
So as David is writing this, and he's trying to paint a picture for those who are familiar with the area, what he's saying is, God doesn't lead me out to a big green meadow and just leave me there to run and play. Instead, literally God leads us from tuft of grass to tuft of grass, from moment to moment. After all, this is the relationship that God desires with us.
00:09:28
Speaker
He doesn't want to say, hey, you're saved, I'm going to turn you loose, go run and live your life. Instead, what God wants is literally a moment by moment dependence on Him, an opportunity for us to lean ever closer and to trust in Him and to give our confidence to Him. In many
Paths of Righteousness vs. Ease
00:09:44
Speaker
ways, it's like those of you who are parents. You love it when your kids come to you and go, dad, I need your help. Or mom, I'm going through a difficult situation. Can you help me go through what I'm going through?
00:09:55
Speaker
This is the relationship that God seeks with us. And so the shepherd leads where he can provide the necessities of life. Shepherds of that day and age would have to sometimes take long, long journeys just to find the little bit of grass that is there in that area around the city of Jerusalem. In verse three, he speaks about having a renewed life.
00:10:18
Speaker
And this idea of renewed life comes in part from God's willingness to lead us on paths of righteousness. That's what some of the translations say. The one we read this morning talks about the right paths, the right paths. These are the ones that really get the sheep where they actually need to go. So I was thinking about this this morning and I got to thinking about lazy rivers. Any of y'all ever been to like a water park or a big resort where they had those lazy rivers?
00:10:47
Speaker
For many of us, our thinking and our understanding of a relationship with God is it's like a lazy river, right? We just jump in and we just enjoy the current, right? We just, life is smooth, it's good, but you know what the problem is with lazy rivers? You never go anywhere. You always keep coming back to the same spot, right? They're circular, so they just keep taking you around. Many of you are in that pattern in your relationship with God because you're looking for comfort and ease and luxury in your relationship with God, and that's not what he promised you.
00:11:18
Speaker
I rather pictured that the relationship that God desires for us is the relationship of the Ocoee River, or the Colorado River, right? Yeah, there are those seasons where you can sit back and relax in the raft, but there's more often those times of turbulence, the rapids, the two and three class rapids, where you're bouncing and bumping and rolling and sometimes even being thrown out of the boat. And what you need is not comfort and luxury. What you need is a shepherd who can grab you by his crook and pull you back into the boat and say, you're gonna be okay.
00:11:46
Speaker
Those are more like what the patterns of our life look like on the planet that we live on. This is the life we are sometimes forced to face. So he
Intimacy with God: Personal Names Analogy
00:11:57
Speaker
says, I'm gonna take you on right paths, and those right paths will lead to a life of blessing, but they will not lead to a life of ease.
00:12:06
Speaker
So can I just say to you right here today, if you've ever been under the teaching of a pastor who tells you that receiving Jesus will make your life easy, I apologize. If you've ever been forced to endure the teaching of a pastor who says that following Jesus is going to take away the bumps, the bruises, the pains, the agonies, I'm so sorry you've been misled.
00:12:31
Speaker
Because the Bible that you and I read, if you read it clearly, says not only will you face those trials, but you're gonna face them pretty frequently. James chapter one says, count it all, join my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds, they're gonna come your way. And the promise is that the shepherd will lead us in these journeys. He will take us along these right paths for his name's sake. You see, in that day and age, your name said something about you.
00:13:01
Speaker
It spoke to your reputation. It spoke to your character. It told you a little bit about who the person was, which makes me go all the way back to Exodus chapter three, that moment, that story we all hear where Moses is shepherding sheep in the wilderness. And he sees the burning bush and the Bible says he turned aside and he went to go see what was going on. And as he got there, he had this conversation with the creator of the universe. Can you imagine that moment?
00:13:29
Speaker
That moment, I mean, think about it, Moses hadn't really actually heard or seen God at this point. He's still actually not even a true follower of God necessarily, because he hadn't really embraced everything that God had said to the Hebrew people even at this point. But as he's there and he's on that mountaintop, God says to him, you're gonna be the one that goes to deliver my people. And it says in that moment that Moses said to him, well, who am I gonna tell him sent me? Why would they even trust me? Why would they even believe me?
00:13:59
Speaker
And he says those incredible two-word sentence in the English language. I am. I am. Now, that was an introduction. That was an intimate introduction. Some of you know me as Pastor Ridley. Some of you know me as the pastor. Some of you know me as Ridley. But there are some people in here who are really, really close to me who call me Ridd. Okay? Now, you might be saying, I want to get rid of him in this moment.
00:14:29
Speaker
I sure do wish I could get rid of his voice in my head from Sunday morning. But there are some of you who are a little bit closer to me and you're invited to use that word because it shows a little bit more intimacy. You have pet names for each other, right? Right?
God's Comfort in Dark Valleys
00:14:45
Speaker
You look at your husband, you don't go. Ridley Baron III, which by the way, I'm a third. Ridley Baron III, you know, this is the opportunity for us to engage in conversation. I'm gonna look at my wife and go, who are you? I'm not a stranger to you.
00:14:58
Speaker
I have sweet little pet names for my wife. You don't get to know any of them. And we talk about those things. It is an intimacy that we enjoy. Now this is really key because if you look at the next verse, verse 4.
00:15:12
Speaker
Verse 4, you will notice a change. He says, even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me. Notice to this point, he's been talking third person. He, he, he, speaking of God, this time he says, no, this is my God.
00:15:30
Speaker
You, the one who's watched out for me, the one who's taken care of me, the one who has been with me on that day when I stood in that valley and faced that nine foot opponent that looked like he could eat me alive. Those days when I was out in the wilderness all by myself watching my sheep and it was you who guided my stone and my staff to protect the sheep that were under my care. It's you who has been following me around the wilderness as I ran from King Saul and not only protected me but provided for me and my men as we did this.
00:15:58
Speaker
and it's you who has been here to anoint my authority as the king of Israel and without you I would not be much of a king." He says, this is the God I trust. This is the God I know to be mine. At the most dangerous point in the psalm, he changes to you. It's personal now.
00:16:21
Speaker
The Hebrew phrase here where he says, the darkest valley literally means the most extreme possible darkness there is. In fact, I'm making up a word this morning. It is the shadowiest of the shadows. Try to say that real fast. I didn't do so well in the first service.
00:16:41
Speaker
You see what he's saying is that after God has walked you through the green pastures, and after he's led you to the still waters, and even after he has taken you on these paths of righteousness, this life at the end of the day is still filled with darkness, it's still filled with evil, and it's still filled with pain. And you're gonna have to face all of those.
God's Constant Presence
00:17:01
Speaker
But the psalmist reminds us, we have nothing to fear because the character of the God we trust is impeccable.
00:17:07
Speaker
He is faithful, never failing, never refuses to keep His promises. Now, make my mistake about it. The psalmist has reasons to fear, right? Giants in the valley, lions that come in after your sheep.
00:17:27
Speaker
real kings with swords and armies that are chasing you down. Nobody is discrediting those fears. Nobody's discrediting the source of those fears. Instead, what he's saying is that in those moments, God's presence changes the reality. It changes how you feel about those things. This morning, if you're here and you came maybe even this morning because you've heard some of the sermons and you're going, man, my life right now just feels a little crushed.
00:17:55
Speaker
or my life feels just a little discouraging, maybe I'm a little overwhelmed by life, don't hear me or Kyle or any of our staff saying to you that the source of those fears are not real. I mean, worrying about World War III is a legitimate thing. Worrying about a corrupt government that doesn't know right from wrong anymore, that's a legitimate fear. Worrying about the grocery store prices, that hurts. Right here, right?
00:18:24
Speaker
It's real. But what the Psalmist is saying is because our God is who he is, you can be okay in those seasons. You will be okay in those seasons. And you know why he says you can be okay in those seasons? Look what it says. Even when I go through, we have to go through the darkest valley. He doesn't say to the darkest valley.
00:18:50
Speaker
In other words, the end of your story doesn't stop in the valley. The story is that he's not going to take you around the valley, but he's going to go with you through the valley. You could might even say that this might even be a foretelling of the arrival of Jesus in the sense that Jesus was declared to be Emmanuel, God with us. And this is exactly what Jesus is for us. He is the presence of the Almighty in our darkest situations.
Seasons in Relationship with God
00:19:23
Speaker
I have an opportunity once a quarter to have a conversation with a guy who is my counselor. He calls himself my soul care guy, whatever his name is. He's a guy that I have the opportunity just to sit with, to talk, to unpack some things, to talk about all of y'all so that you don't know I'm talking about you. And process just some of the things that I go through, my marriage, my children, all those kinds of things.
00:19:49
Speaker
Earlier this week, I had that conversation I shared with some of the guys Wednesday night. And in that conversation towards the end, he said to me, he said, really? What is it about your life that causes you to lean into Jesus more? Or maybe even cause you to step away from Jesus more? What season is it where you find yourself just a little bit closer to God and who He is?
00:20:13
Speaker
I thought about it for a second, and he said, so tell me, is it the high moments, those moments where things are great, where God really seems to be blessing what's going on in your life, blessing your family, there seems to be fewer problems, or is it those dark, dark seasons, the dark valleys that the psalmist writes about? Which one is the biggest danger for you? And I said, I have to be honest and say it's actually the in-between times.
00:20:37
Speaker
Because you see in the high seasons when I've got really good days and things are going well and you people are encouraging me and maybe I've just led somebody to Christ. I'm like, man, this is awesome. Go God, bring me more. And I am trusting him and man, we got this great relationship. Then there's those dark seasons, those moments where y'all aren't so nice to me and it happens. It happens.
00:21:01
Speaker
Or maybe I'm just not getting along with Lisa. We're not on the same page. Maybe I'm discouraged by something that's going on in my own life. In those seasons, it's really easy to lean into God because I know I need to. I need Him. I can't do those seasons alone. So the dangerous times for me is those in-between times, the normal days, the routine days, because it's then that I take Him for granted.
Trials and Closeness to God
00:21:25
Speaker
It's then that I forget that He is my constant presence.
00:21:30
Speaker
It's even then that sometimes, sometimes, I get that mentality, I got this, God. I got this. It's all under control. And if I'm still, if I'm quiet, and if I shut out the noise of the world, what I hear is God laughing at me, going, you don't have a thing, buddy. There's nothing about you that's gonna be able to handle this by yourself. I'll be here when the dark season comes, and I'll be here when your celebration starts.
00:21:57
Speaker
That's my promise, to be your presence, to be your constant shepherd. Charles Spurgeon once said this, I have learned to kiss the waves that crash me against the rock of ages.
00:22:14
Speaker
I have learned to kiss the waves that crash me against the rock of ages." The rock of ages is obviously a reference to God. And Spurgeon was acknowledging that the things, the trials, the challenges, the temptations, all those things that bring him back to God are worth it because they bring him back to God. They throw him at his mercy. And it's there that he learns to trust him more. Then in verse five, we read this.
00:22:43
Speaker
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You see, God is the host of a fabulous banquet. You think Baptists are good at fellowships? You just wait to see what God has prepared, right?
00:22:56
Speaker
We're all excited about that day when we stand in heaven and we get to sit at what is described as the wedding feast of the Lamb. That's gonna be an incredible high moment for us. But this is not what the psalmist is talking about. Yes, there will be that feast, but what the psalmist is talking about here is the here and now, because notice what he says. He prepares a table for me in the presence of my enemies. They're still here. We're still here.
00:23:22
Speaker
And so the presence of God is a real presence here in this season. In other words, on earth, God's presence gives us the ability to stand in the face of our enemy and to refuse to listen to the lies that he feeds us. Spurgeon goes on to say, when a soldier is in the presence of his enemies, if he eats at all, he snatches a hasty meal and hastens to the fight. But observe thou preparest a table.
00:23:51
Speaker
Just like a servant does when he unfolds the tablecloth and displays the ornaments of a feast on an ordinary peaceful occasion. Nothing is hurried. There's no confusion. There's no disturbance. The enemy is at the door and yet God prepares a table and the Christian sits down and eats as if everything were in perfect peace. This is what the psalmist knew to be a reality for his own life and says can be a reality for us if we trust the shepherd.
00:24:20
Speaker
Last verse, he says, dwelling in the house of the Lord forever. You see, dwelling in the house of the Lord is an already but not yet event that's described in many ways in scripture. From the moment you acknowledge that God is your shepherd, that Jesus is your savior, from that moment in your life, you begin what is this constant fellowship with the one who created you.
00:24:45
Speaker
and you get to dwell with Him. And the way the Bible speaks about it, it talks about His presence, it talks about the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, it talks about the presence of God in our lives, it talks about our eternal dwelling with Him. In other words, you and Christ, when you enter into relationship, become an breakable bond. So reading through
God's Protection vs. Enemy's Intentions
00:25:06
Speaker
this psalm takes me to a story a little bit later after the life of David, but one that exhibits exactly what David talked about.
00:25:14
Speaker
It's in Daniel chapter three, many of you might remember or be familiar with the story. It's about three young men named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And what happens is that as they live there in captivity in the capital of Babylon, King Nebuchadnezzar is encouraged to build a statue and idol to himself and everyone in the land is compelled to bow and worship before him.
00:25:39
Speaker
And when the music plays and the time comes, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse to give in. They refuse to bow. So his punishment Nebuchadnezzar throws them in a furnace. And when he goes by to check on them and to see how bad his punishment is going for these three gentlemen, he is shocked to find that it's not just three lives in that fire, there are four. And the king makes a remark and says, their God, their God has sent an angel to protect them.
00:26:09
Speaker
They walk out without singed clothes or burnt hair, and Nebuchadnezzar orders everyone to worship the one true God. You see, Jesus had gone with them in the fire, but note this, this is important. God did not remove them from the fire. Nebuchadnezzar did. Go back and read the story. It wasn't God who took them out of the fire, it was God who protected them in the fire.
00:26:36
Speaker
You see, if you're in a struggle today and if you're in a trial, if your marriage is rocky, if your job is rocky, if your economic situation is rocky, God doesn't come along and say, I will rescue you from those situations necessary. Can he? Yes. Will he? Maybe not. But what he has promised is that no matter how long you stay in that fire, I will not let it harm you if you will just trust me. If you will just trust me.
00:27:02
Speaker
So at the end of the day, it's not about God pulling you from your trials, it's about God being with you in the midst of them. Deuteronomy 31.6, we read these words, be strong and courageous, don't be terrified or afraid of them. Hear, them is the enemies that Hebrews, the Israel people were facing. He says, for the Lord your God is the one who will go with you. He will not leave you or abandon you.
00:27:33
Speaker
You see, physically, mentally, spiritually, relationally, God has prepared everything you need to get through this life. But you will have to go through this life. He's not going to protect you from it. He's going to protect you in it. But here's what you need to know. If you submit your kingdom to God's kingdom, one thing that's going to be guaranteed is that the enemy is going to have a seat at your table.
00:28:01
Speaker
the enemy who we know is real, he's gonna sit at your table and he's going to begin to convince you of things that are not remotely true. If you're committed to following the way of Christ, he will sit down and begin to tell you lies about yourself and to tell you lies about your circumstances and lies about your relationship with God and lies about what God desires for you. We shouldn't be surprised though because Jesus said this, a thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy.
00:28:31
Speaker
And I have come that they may have life and have it in abundance. Jesus was pointing his finger at the enemy and saying, he's nothing but a liar. All he desires to do is bring you down. So the question we must ask ourselves as believers is why do we come cozy up to him? Why do we compromise and allow him in the door? Why do we even crack the front door open and give him a chance to have a seat at our table?
00:28:57
Speaker
And then in 1 Peter 5, 8, the apostle writes this, Be sober minded and be alert your adversary, the devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Does this sound like Satan wants to be your friend? Does this sound like the enemy has good intentions for you? But here's the shocking thing. Satan really isn't concerned about you. I mean,
00:29:24
Speaker
I know you may think you're a big deal, but he doesn't. Satan's not out to get you, he's out to hurt God. He's out to hurt God and the way he hurts God is by getting to you. And the reason that hurts God is because there's nobody who loves you more than God. If you've been a parent, then you know what that feels like. You pick your kid up from school and they're crying because somebody's been mean to them and bullying them.
00:29:53
Speaker
You hurt for them. You ever had to take your kid for allergy testing and they stick all those needles in them and you're trying to explain to your two-year-old why dad is just sitting there watching while they're sticking all these needles into them? You hurt for them.
00:30:11
Speaker
Or maybe your daughter has her heart set on being the lead role in the school play, and you think, man, she's got it. She's gonna nail it. She comes in, gets in the car, and says, they picked somebody else. You hurt for them because you thought maybe, maybe there was a chance. Like a good father, God loves us and desires what's best for us, and it hurts him when we choose the other way. When we choose paths that aren't paths of righteous living, it breaks his heart for us.
00:30:42
Speaker
So here's my encouragement to you. When the devil tells you you're not gonna make it, remind him that God's already told you you will. When the devil says I'm gonna take you into the dark valley, remind him that God has promised that he will go with you in that valley. When the devil tries to tell you you're gonna die in that valley, say no, no, no, my God will take me through this valley and I will come out on the other side. He has promised this for me and my God never breaks his promises.
00:31:09
Speaker
When the devil says, you're not good enough and you're not worthy enough, you remind him of John 10, 11, where it says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep and Jesus doesn't die for somebody he doesn't love. When the Satan comes after you and he says, there's nobody who cares about you. There is nobody who thinks that you're worthy. You remind him of verses like Romans 8, 31, where it says, what then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, then who can be against us?
00:31:39
Speaker
And can I just tell you today, in case you're confused and you haven't caught it to this point, our God is for you. Our God is for you. He desires what is best for you. He wants what is best for you. He has paved the way for you to have what is best for you. And what is best for you, what is best for you, is him. Shepherd
Accepting God as Shepherd
00:32:03
Speaker
watches your back like a good shepherd does. You can't watch your own back
00:32:09
Speaker
You ever tried that? It's hard, physically and spiritually. It's hard to watch your own back. And even if you could, you wouldn't be very good at it. But if you know right now in this season of your life, in the middle of your difficult circumstances, if you're in the middle of your dark valley and you know that still even in those seasons you're free because of his presence, then you are truly free.
00:32:37
Speaker
You don't have to live with a life of anxiety. You don't have to be buried under a wall of depression. You don't have to worry about the things that the world has to worry about because you have a God who is unlike any other. And he has promised that he will be with you. Now let me take us all the way back to the very beginning of this sermon because it's important that you hear this. David writes, the Lord is my shepherd.
00:33:11
Speaker
The Lord is my shepherd. As he wrote this psalm, and this is just my imagination, I picture the king sitting in one of maybe his royal reading rooms or maybe even his throne room. And he's probably not writing this psalm himself because kings didn't do a whole lot for themselves in that day-to-day. He's probably got some servants sitting there at his feet with a pin and a scroll.
00:33:37
Speaker
But as he writes about these words, as he expresses these thoughts, I've gotta know, I've gotta believe at least in my mind's eye that David is going back and reliving those moments when the lion came and God protected him. He's gotta think fondly back to that moment in that valley where all of Israel's future was riding on what was about to happen and he picked up five rocks and God said, you won't need but one.
00:34:11
Speaker
I gotta believe there are moments that he thought back to, those seasons where he literally was spending night after night in cold, damp caves, trying to hide himself from a jealous king who was coming after him. And in those seasons, he was reminded of victory after victory after victory when it looked like all he had was defeat in his face. So maybe, maybe, just maybe,
00:34:42
Speaker
It was with tears in his eyes. He said to the servant, write these words. The Lord is my shepherd. I have everything I need. My prayer for you this morning is that that is the description of your life.
00:35:09
Speaker
that right here in this moment, that is what you feel. Because I go back to what I shared with you earlier, if that's not the description of your life, there is a God who desires to be your shepherd, who desires to be your presence. This morning as we stand, as we respond, as we sing, I encourage you, if you have needs, please come and talk to us at this altar.
00:35:35
Speaker
maybe it's time for you to make a decision to receive Christ and give your kingdom over to his kingdom and give him full direction of that. I invite you this morning to stand and respond as we sing.