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Going to God as We Go With God
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Psalm 23
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Transcript
Introduction to Psalm 23 and Personal Anecdotes
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I'll be right up front, as transparent as I possibly can be. I love Psalm 23. It
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it was taught to me many, many, many years ago, and and I thought, boy, I have this one down. i love it. It's short, it's compact.
The Metaphor of Sheep and Human Behavior
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And then I went to Dallas Seminary, and I sat as a young seminary student in a small auditorium with a Bible teacher, and he said,
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Many of you will be like me someday. You will be launched into ministry and it will not be your full-time vocation. He said, I am a part-time Bible teacher and the other part of my time is I am a sheep raiser.
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He got some chuckles for some folks because there were a lot of city kids there. Didn't quite understand what it meant to be a sheep raiser.
Lessons from Sheep: Human Stubbornness and Resistance
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He said, let me explain something that I can bring to your city knowledge about sheep.
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He said, they're not fluffy and white. You don't count them when you go to sleep. They don't help sell mattresses. He said, they're stubborn and ornery.
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Most of the time, they just follow the path. But he goes, there's always one that likes to wander away.
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He says, and every time that sheep wanders, it's looking for something. He says, typically it's looking for fresh grass. And as it veers off, it leaves the pack.
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leaves itself vulnerable. Ineverably, without fail, it goes in search for greener grass, and it gets stuck in a briar or a ditch. He said, then my job is to go rescue that one sheep.
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I pick it up. I rescue it. He says, oftentimes you'll see in in old times, the the shepherd will have a big wooden staff with a hook on the top. right We don't see that very often these days. He says, that hook was to lasso that sheep around the neck and pull it.
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out of the water or pull it out of the briar. He says, if you've if you've never experienced a soaking wet sheep, he says, what was originally like 30 pounds is now 130 pounds. It's so heavy.
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He says, so i would take this sheep and I would throw it over my shoulders and I would hold it by both of
The Importance of Divine Guidance in Psalm 23
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its legs and I would take it back to the flock and I would set it down.
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He said, that same sheep, whoosh, immediately would start thinking, wonder where the greener grass is, and wanted to start veering off again. He said, my neighbor, who had been a rancher for much longer than I did, he said, he came over and he said, brother, let me just tell you a truth when it comes to sheep.
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Some sheep just don't want to be led. He said, that there sheep that you keep rescuing, that's one of them. he said, we both laughed. He said, but the truth is, many of us here this morning are that sheep.
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at various times in our life. We just don't want to be led. We get direction from God, but we think there's a shortcut. We see His provision in our life, but somehow we think we can find something better.
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We hear His voice, but we prefer our own. I'm guilty of that. Yet Psalm
Unpacking the Themes and Structure of Psalm 23
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23, brothers and sisters, tells us something beautiful. The life works best when sheep are led.
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Life works best when you and I let ourselves be led by the one true shepherd. And if you're here this morning, whether you're 10 years old or 20 years old, or like most of you, much older than that, every season in life we need to be led.
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Now if that's true, if sheep need to be led, And Psalm 23 will tell us it is, that's the case. It will also tell us who is the one that does the leading and where he's taking us.
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It's beautifully crafted, all six verses. So I thought as this arduous journey that we made through Judges, I thought to myself in the in the previous weeks, what can I offer to this congregation as a reprieve, something lighter? Well, I'm just going to give you six verses today.
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Six verses that I'll explain in the next two and a half hours.
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I'm joking. It's a beautiful psalm. I can't wait to share it.
David's Role: Shepherd, King, and Themes of Psalm 23
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I hope it radically changes how you view this psalm.
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Many of us know this psalm if you've ever grown up in the church. This is often referred to as the Lord is my shepherd. It's attributed to David, typically. So if you're taking notes today, you have your outline with you in the notes section.
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You may write David and then put two arrows. Shepherd and king. That's what I have in my notes. David, shepherd, and king.
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Because he was himself a shepherd. in his youth, before ever becoming king of Israel. But he's uniquely gifted, if you will, to write this psalm, to craft this in such a way where both of his experiences as shepherd and king, um it's just it's just beautiful.
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So the first thing I want you to write is David, shepherd, king. Then I'm gonna give you three words that I want you to write down. And I'm gonna do this up front for fear that you may sleep because Brother John told me this is what happens most of the time.
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that you guys get the full belly full in Bible study and then you come here and it's time to nap. I'm gonna give you three words that I want you to write down
Life's Journey: Green Pastures and Dark Valleys
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right now, right up front so that you can study them this week.
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Provision is the first word, provision.
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Second is protection.
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And third is presence. So we have provision, protection, presence.
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We're in the book of Psalms. Where is the book of Psalms? Because you've been in Judges for so long. For those of you who are unfamiliar with your Bible, let me help you out. first five books are the books of the law.
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right Then we have 12 history books, beginning with Joshua, ending with Job. So if you get to Job or Job, it's the very next one you flip over. The first five books, the next five books are...
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beginning in poetry and these are this is the Psalm. Psalm 23 in its entirety, the Lord is my shepherd.
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have all that I need.
Navigating Life's Twists with the Shepherd's Guidance
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He lets me rest in green meadows. He leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength.
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He guides me along the right paths, bringing honor to his name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid. For you are close beside me.
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Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil.
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My cup overflows with blessings. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life. And I will live in the house of the Lord forever.
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Psalm 23, brothers and sisters, is not just about a single event in David's life. He he didn't write this just you know in retrospect, like, wow, this one thing happened. it's It's a reflection on life as a journey.
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Green pastures, dark valleys, enemies, and finally a home. It's this movement, it's this journey in life that you and I walk, regardless of whether or not you are a believer.
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Unbelievers walk a life journey. You and I walk a life of journey. Ours is guided by somebody different.
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Many of you have walked through seasons of joy or seasons of sorrow. You've recently buried a loved one. Perhaps you celebrated birth or are getting ready to.
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You've had health scares. You've had marital
Reflecting on True Leadership and Spiritual Guidance
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problems. You've seen drought and you've seen bumper crops. Life is a journey. It's not a snapshot.
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It's a pilgrimage. Alistair Begg says this. you're You're a foreigner in this land on a pilgrimage. It's a beautiful picture, if you will.
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Oftentimes, I put as an illustration, we think about a long gravel road. Perhaps out here in the country, you live at the end of one of those long gravel roads. It twists, it dips, it turns, it climbs.
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Sometimes parts of it get washed out in the heavy rain. But we don't judge that road by any particular curve. We judge it by where it leads.
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Psalm 23 tells us this morning that life is this journey, it's this road, and brothers and sisters, it's leading us somewhere. Too often I put, we get stuck looking at a small snapshot of life. I'm in the middle of grief.
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I just lost a loved one and and I see life just in this quick snapshot of this moment where it's often helpful if we step back from that and we look at this as the psalmist says, as this lifelong journey.
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If it is indeed a lifelong journey, then brothers and sisters, if you're believer, there's only one person who's leading you on that journey.
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And that is the the shepherd. I say that today because many of you here today may think that you are a believer. It's the same question that was posed to me as a young seminary student.
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You may all think that you're believers here, but if you're being led by somebody other than the Spirit, other than the Shepherd, we're
Provision and Protection in Psalm 23
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going to have a problem.
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And so really, our professor really wanted to sit down and and think about this a little bit. Is that Shepherd leading your life.
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We can't talk about this journey without talking about the one who is in front of you because that's where the shepherd leads from. he is in the front. And David plainly says here that the Lord is my shepherd.
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Not was, not might be, but he is your shepherd.
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It's not an action verb. Matter fact, this verb is isn't even in the original language. Isn't that interesting? It really reads this way. The Lord, my shepherd.
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Is, we insert that word, it's for the sake of easy reading. But is not an action word. The Lord is not trying to be a shepherd.
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It's his very identity. This is why it's left out. He is the shepherd. And as the shepherd, he provides. That's why we wrote down provision. Provision.
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I shall not want. He also gives rest in green pastures. He leads gently by still waters. He restores my soul. He guides paths of righteousness. He protects even through the valley of the shadow of death.
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And notice something interesting here. he He does all this leading you on the right path for His namesake. You ever thought about that? This life journey that you and I are on as a believer is covenantal.
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He's invested in leading you and leading me rightly because his reputation is on, is on, is bound to that. Isn't that interesting? He's leading you and I on the right path because his namesake is involved.
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I have a great fortune of of meeting with some brothers here in this church and we we do a mission trip to Temple once a month or twice a month. We go and we seek the lost at this Chinese restaurant.
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One of this young men in this group told me how he recently injured his shoulder by lifting something really heavy. and i And I thought about this in this regard to what the psalmist is telling us here today. you ever worked some of you guys that are farmers, in baled hay, and they bale hay, and then you have to go, for some of you guys when you were a lot younger, right, take these bales of hay and just chunk them, right? You're you werere chunking left and right.
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Boy, is that hard work. Nothing like doing that once or twice, but imagine doing that all day long. It's like when you get you get done at the evening after work and then you just go and you collapse on the porch and you're just exhausted.
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You're like, okay, that that's a good day's work. I'm ah i'm exhausted. Brothers sisters, this is what being led to green pastures is like, the psalmist tells us here. It's rest provided by somebody else's
Imagery of Shepherd and King: Divine Protection
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oversight, somebody else's doings.
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It's interesting to me, and I can't take credit for this because my professor pointed this out. If you do me just one indulgence, and I know I don't normally jump different places in the Bible, but want to show you something really interesting. Go over to the Gospel Mark, if you will.
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Hold your place there in Psalm 23. Mark chapter 6. verse...
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mark chapter six
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39. This is in the feeding of the 5,000.
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Many of you are very familiar with this, right? He he takes these people out.
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There's all these people waiting to be fed. Jesus says, hey, you go feed them. Tells the disciples, hey, with what? Hey, we have this meager stuff. We only have enough to buy just a few things. How much bread do you have?
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Go find out. Verse 39, he says, then Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups on the
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Why in the world is this little detail included? i mean How many of y'all read past that never thought about green grass, what that means? He's getting ready to provide for 5,000 people. It's a picture of provision.
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It's the same thing that the psalmist picks up here, and he says, I'm going to provide you rest. You're gonna come and sit under my protection.
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Along with that rest, there may be valleys. These aren't theoretical valleys. He's saying some of you will experience great comforts, great highs, but there will also be these valleys.
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Some of you are in those valleys right now. I know because I'm your pastor. But notice it's a valley. It's not a cave. He's not sending you in. A cave has no way out.
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He's saying you're going to go in through the valley
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It might be midnight. It might be dark in there, but it's a valley, and you'll get through the other side. And notice the pronouns change here. You are with me. Notice he's with us there in that valley. When the valley gets darker, God draws near. He draws closer.
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don't know about you, but I put down great comfort in my notes here. Great comfort. Great comfort. restfulness of knowing that the good shepherd, he doesn't just provide pasture, brothers and sisters, the pasture himself.
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He provides himself to you and I, not only when the grass is green, but when we are in the valley.
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But wait, there's more. It's like the infomercial. But wait, there's more.
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He shifts imagery, if you will, as if the shepherd couldn't be great enough. The shepherd's not even grander than providing rest and provision.
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He then transitions over to this idea of kingship and palace imagery. Because sometimes sheep need more than just the pasture. They need protection from their enemies.
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You prepare table before me.
The Journey's Destination: God's Presence
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You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. See, the picture's changed already. He's no longer talking about a shepherd in the in the in the pasture. He's now talking about a king who's at the banquet.
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He controls, he prepares, he prepares the table. He comforts you, rod and staff is his picture of comfort. He honors you by anointing. He blesses, overflowing cup, all imagery of being at the king's table.
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It's royal hospitality. In ancient times, if you were seated at the king's table, you were an honored guest. And by the way, you were under his protection.
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Nothing would ever happen to you if you were at the king's table.
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You're under his authority. But notice he doesn't say that there's not going to be any enemies. No, he's saying there's going to be enemies. But they're going to just be powerless spectators.
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I like Dr. Kerrville says that. He says, how much more, how much greater is it to be sitting at the table of a king, but how about the king of kings?
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The enemies may be there, but they're just powerless spectators. The king's authority outranks their threat. Brothers sisters, you and I should sit in great comfort this morning knowing that he is the king of kings, that he's on the throne, that we're invited to the table.
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That as a shepherd, he walks with you, but as the king, he stands for you.
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Now, this journey doesn't just circle back to the pasture. It's actually going somewhere. it's There's a destination involved. Life as a journey, as a beginning, it has these ups and downs, these valleys, these high points, as Brother Pease mentioned today.
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but But we're leading somewhere. says, I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. right The journey ends with God's presence. Not merely his provision, not merely his protection, but his his presence.
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it's ah It's a covenantal language, again saying, brothers and sisters, this life that you're walking now, while you may have really great days, you may be sitting and feasting on green pastures, you may also be in the valley at some point, but he's saying, you're a foreigner here, don't get too comfortable.
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Your eventual destination is somewhere completely different.
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I put down as an illustration here, imagine being on a long road trip. The Morgans can can realize this right now. They've been road tripping. Imagine coming back and pulling into your driveway. Suitcases are unloaded.
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Kick off your shoes. You're finally home. I need a vacation from that vacation.
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Many of us think that this is Brothers and sisters, heaven is home.
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It's not floating on some clouds. It's not cherubim,
Applying Psalm 23: Prayer and Trust in Challenges
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seraphim. I imagine there's no harps, but there might be.
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I think those are in hell. I'm just joking. All the harpists right now are going, no, he didn't say that.
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Life isn't here, brothers and sisters.
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We're sojourners passing through. And every step of obedience now that you and I take takes us one step closer to that. that eternal house with the Lord.
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Every valley that you're with him right now is one mile closer to being with him home. Which brings us to the ultimate conclusion. If he is shepherd, and he is, and if he is king, and he is, and there is a final destination, which there is, then the timeless biblical truth, why do I say that, ladies?
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This is what we were studying. The whole reason we get through a Bible study is so that we can filter out these timeless biblical truths.
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Is this. If he is shepherd and he is king and we do have a destination. Then the Christian life means that we must go with God and we must go to God. How do we do that?
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How do you and I do this in a practical way? If I were to take Psalm 23, all six verses here. and say, all right, here it is. You've done your job on Saturday morning, ladies. You've all sat down.
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you've You've done your work. You've done your observation. You've come up with some conclusions. You've shared it amongst yourselves. You have this timeless biblical truth. It'll boil itself up to the top.
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And now how do we take this and apply this to our lives today? Well, that's where we're going to go next. What's one simple, measurable way that we can go with God and be with God this week?
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And I put that we commit to making prayer your first response, not your last resort.
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All week I've been thinking of the contrast between the green pasture and the valley. but How easy is it for you and I when when we're in the green pasture to worship God, to glorify God, to lift Him up? He's the first person I go to when everything's great.
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That was... i was Telling Ronnie just the other day, I said, we got a bonus at my work, and I'm so thankful for it. and We didn't get one last year, you know so somebody at my job was complaining that they didn't get one last year, so they were really trying to divide the one we got this year by two years. And I said, whoa, whoa, what are you doing?
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It's a blessing. It's a blessing from God.
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It's easy when the bonuses are are in, to go, thank you, Lord, things are so great. Thank you, Lord, when the health, all the bones are working the right way, the joints are working.
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It's easy to praise God when when the doctor comes back with a favorable diagnosis. But I put, what about when we're in the valley? What about when we're in the valley?
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Is God the first person we go to in prayer? Or is it after we've worried about it until we're sick? Or after we've tried everything we could possibly do to fix it ourselves, then we go, you know what, i this is not working out, Lord, I'm coming to you.
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And he's like, I've been here all along. Why have you waited so long to come to me?
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But Lord, you don't understand. called three of my girlfriends first, and I confided in them. the ladies are like, don't point us out that way. I don't like that.
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Ladies, don't worry, over Kung Pao Chicken, the men were doing the same thing.
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He sang, go to me first. You do it in the green pastures, why not do it in the valleys? What does that look like in real life for you and I today? Well, when that doctor report comes in, before you call the family and tell them the good news or the bad news, how about you pause right there and pray?
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When that bill arrives that wasn't included in your budget, how about before you panic, you pause right there and you bow and you pray and you bring it to the shepherd?
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How about that family situation, that ongoing family situation that's causing you stress? Instead of replaying that in your mind over and over and over, night after night after night, how about you turn that into a conversation with God immediately?
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I put better yet, tomorrow morning when you wake up, before you put your feet on the ground, you simply say, Lord, lead me today, and I will walk with you. Because, brothers and sisters, what that conveys is, Lord, you are my shepherd.
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You will lead, and I will follow. I want to be led. That's what he wants to hear. Why does this matter? Well, it's not just about praying more. I'm
Concluding Thoughts on Contentment Under the Shepherd
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not just telling you, brothers and sisters, you need to start praying more. That's not what I'm telling you today.
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It's about demonstrating your trust that he is shepherd and that he is king and that he can lead your life.
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I just put, stop running out ahead. That's not where he wants you to be. Stop lagging behind. That's not where he wants you to be. He wants you to be right next to him, close by.
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where you can hear His voice and you can respond.
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So the challenge to you this week, find that one situation in your life, health concern, financial stress, family issue, you name it, you know what it is. And when that thought pops into your mind, instead of reacting, instead of panicking, your immediate response is, I'm gonna go to God in prayer.
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I'm gonna turn that thought into a prayer.
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I'm going to go with God by going to God. I'm going to show him daily that I depend upon him. And I'm going to stay near the good shepherd.
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Remember that wandering sheep? That one sheep from the very beginning? Imagine one day he eventually got it. He figured it all out. Every time I stay close, there's lots of green grass.
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Every time I follow the shepherd, there's safety.
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Every time I listen to the shepherd, there's peace.
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I don't need to run ahead. I don't need to lag behind. I just need to stand next to the shepherd. Brothers and sisters, this is the picture of Psalm 23. Sheep content being under the shepherds.