Transcript
Speaker: Psalm 23, very familiar psalm for most of us. In fact, J.M. Boyce, the theologian, wrote this. He says, Millions of people have memorized this psalm, even those who have learned few other portions of Scripture.
Speaker: Ministers have used it to comfort people who are going through severe personal trials, suffering illness, or dying. For some, the words of this psalm have been the very last they have ever uttered in their life.
Speaker: It is one of the most loved and treasured passages of Scripture in all of the Bible, and it's for good reason. We believe that David likely wrote this as a young man, but he wrote it after a period of facing lions and bears, of facing Goliath as a giant, running from a jealous king who pursued him for a good portion of his life, and of course,
Speaker: standing up to enemies of the nation of Israel as the king of Israel. So he's been through a lot of stuff at this point and what this psalm speaks to is ah his expression of tremendous deep confidence in the care and presence of God in his life.
Speaker: You and I both know that the world loves to use fears and in this day and age to drive us to motivate us to try to direct us in their way of thinking um media recent study just said that eight out of every 10 stories on the news are negative why because they live by the mantra if it bleeds it leads If it bleeds, it's the lead story on the news. Why? Because that's what we respond to. That's what causes emotions to attach to stories.
Speaker: And so sadly, rather than talking about the good things or even neutral stories, they're driven towards fear and paranoia. Politicians. Use fear to drive us towards certain policies they want approved or things that they want on their agenda that somehow fear can motivate you in that direction.
Speaker: Jesus, 2,000 years ago, said we would hear of wars and rumors of wars and that those fears would cause us to react in a certain way. And then last year, and I don't remember how many years in a row this has happened, but last year the United States far and away led the rest of the world in the use of medications for paranoia, anxiety, depression, and discouragement.
Speaker: Fear motivates us. It scares us. It causes us
Speaker: to be anxious. But David says there's a better way. And again, this is a man who's lived what you and I live, even as a king. He says, the way of trusting the shepherd is the way of peace.
Speaker: I want to invite you to read this psalm with me. I know all of you have heard it at some point, or at least heard portions of it. And if I told you, let's recite it. Some of you could, but the problem is we've all read it in ten different translations, right?
Speaker: If I said the Lord is my shepherd, some of you would say I shall not want. Others of you would say I have no need. Some of you would say there are no needs. There's different translations. So I'm going to put the translation up here. We're going to read this together.
Speaker: If you do know this particular translation, you might want to close your eyes and um just read alongside of it. It's also the one on page 517 in your Bible. So you can follow that way.
Speaker: The Lord is my shepherd. I have what I need. He lets me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters.
Speaker: He renews my life. He leads me along the right paths for His name's sake. Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for You are with me.
Speaker: 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.
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. Amen.
Speaker: As I said, this is a powerful passage because it connects with us on an emotional level. Many of us, as we live in a world that's filled with darkness and chaos and conflict and fear and evil, all those things toil around us, boil around us,
Speaker: Cause us to feel it almost on a day by day. Some of you this morning here are even in a season where you would em admit, man, it just seems like the the world's kind of pressing in. Or maybe I've been struggling with a physical issue for a long, long time. And I just can't seem to find peace in what I'm dealing with.
Speaker: My prayer is that the words of David and the and the things we're going to pull out of this this morning would cause you to stop and reconsider how God's presence in your life can absolutely change.
Speaker: your perspective and your view on these things first thing we see here is that the shepherd is a provider he provides what we need when David said the Lord is my shepherd it was an acknowledgement a very radical acknowledgement in fact for a king to say that Yahweh God Jehovah is the power behind my throne That day and age in the ancient Near East, you would not have heard very many kings acknowledge such a thing because they were total authoritarians. They were totalitarian in their ah running of their governments and and the use of their power. But here is a king who says, not only do I acknowledge there's another power, but I submit my authority completely and totally to his authority.
Speaker: It's a shocking thing for a king to say. Especially because of the fact that in that culture, as you and I have talked about before, the the work of a shepherd was very lowly stuff.
Speaker: So to say that your God was a shepherd was to say something incredibly powerful to the people who read this, and that is this. Holy God has stooped himself to our level so that he can tend to our needs better, so that he can be for us and be there with us in our greatest times of need.
Speaker: Now, as an eight-year-old growing up in church, I used to hear this psalm all the time. And my favorite verse was Psalm 23, 1, because it says, The Lord is my shepherd.
Speaker: I have everything I need. Right? And as an eight-year-old, what you hear is, Man, my Christmas list is going to be good this year. Because I am trusting Jesus to have all of that stuff. And what's sad is, in our day and age, we have many grown adults in churches who still approach this psalm that way.
Speaker: If I just follow Jesus, he's going to give me everything I want. And that's not the promise of the scripture. The promise is that you have nothing that you need.
Speaker: Nothing that you need. He is a God who provides for our needs. Now, two things I want you to hear about that. Number one, what's the greatest need of every human? Forgiveness. Salvation.
Speaker: And God went the full length from the very beginning of time to provide everything we needed so that our salvation could be taken care of. But there's a second thing here, and it's attached to another psalm that's credited to David.
Speaker: Psalm 37.4 says, As an eight-year-old growing up, heard that one too.
Speaker: as an eightyear-old growing up i heard that one too And in my mind, I pictured the brand new Corvette that would be sitting in my driveway at age 16 because that had to be God's desire, right?
Speaker: But what you need to understand is that the better translation, the more appropriate one in the original Hebrew is this idea. To delight yourself in the Lord means to align your heart with His, not to bring His heart in alignment with yours.
Speaker: To delight yourself in the Lord says, I'm going to line myself up with where you want to take me. And in doing so, you will provide for me the things that you know are best for me in this journey.
Speaker: In other words, i'm not goingnna I'm not going to be in a a very bad hiking guy. Okay? Let's say I took you out for your first hike ever. And I said, here's your backpack that you're going to be carrying things.
Speaker: There's a TV in it. There is a Nintendo game system. There is a Berkey water system and your pillow.
Speaker: Have you heard anything that you needed in a hiking trip? No. Okay, maybe the pillow. Okay.
Speaker: In other words, I haven't given you what you needed. I've given you things that are cumbersome and not necessary for the journey. Our God as a shepherd comes alongside of us and says, let me take away the things that are going to unnecessarily weigh you down and give you the things that are going to help you make this journey when it gets difficult, not if.
Speaker: He wants to provide for us. And it's a conscious choice that we make to not desire anything more or anything less than what God wants to give us.
Speaker: may shock some of us and maybe scare a little bit to know that God knows us better than we know ourselves. Right? For instance, God knows I don't need to win the lottery. As much as I desire it every Saturday night, seeing it on TV and thinking, man, if I had $134 million, dollars I could so bless Jesus' kingdom with it.
Speaker: And Jesus is going, you do not have my kingdom in mind, big boy. You've got something else on your mind. And so I am thankful that I have a God, a shepherd who walks with me. And many of you are in that same boat who says, you know what? I'm not going to give you so much that you forget who I am.
Speaker: And I'm not going to give you so little that you have to rely on something else to get by. In other words, we're going to go day by day by day. This is the image of the shepherd in the Near East. ok you know that That video was really great and I love it, but that's not a realistic image of what you experience in the Middle East. okay If you've ever been to the Middle East, what you see is those wilderness images. you know Lots of brown.
Speaker: And so for the sheep, what would happen is they literally would have to trust the shepherd to get them from not one pasture of grass to the next, but from one tuft of grass to the next.
Speaker: You see, what happens over there is this interesting phenomenon. The wind blows off the Mediterranean Sea across the nation of Israel and brings with it the moisture from the Mediterranean. And as that moisture hits the rocks on the high side of those hills, on the ocean side of those hills, it'll hit that moisture on the rock.
Speaker: It will collect and it will drop to the ground and it creates little tufts of grass everywhere that happens. And so quite literally what the shepherd would do is he would take him to a tuft of grass. The sheep would eat it. If you know anything about sheep, they don't just eat the top of the grass. They eat it all the way to the root.
Speaker: So wherever they go, there's no more grass. And so when they're done, it would be the shepherd's responsibility to go, okay, let's find another hillside in order for the sheep to eat. And they would trust him to go to that place so that he could take them where they needed to go.
Speaker: Something else we know about sheep is they don't like running water. It scares them to death. okay So we would have to find pools of still water so that they could drink and not be scared away.
Speaker: The point I'm trying to make is that David is speaking here for us as sheep that the greatest thing we have is contentment in knowing that God is with us as a shepherd.
Speaker: Our contentment does not come from knowing where the next piece of grass is. It comes from knowing where the shepherd is. Because in knowing where the shepherd is, we have peace and comfort. that he will be there to provide for us.
Speaker: The second thing we see is that our shepherd is the one who leads us in our journey. He provides for those necessities, takes us where we need to go. Now, years ago, there was a shepherd, a professional shepherd, who came out and said, hey, I want to tell all you pastors something you need to know about sheep. There's four things that sheep have to have before they can find peace and be contentment. In other words,
Speaker: They can lie down and rest with their shepherd. Four things that they have to have. Number one, they will not lie down if they are afraid. If they are afraid, they are up and their heads are constantly looking around for the danger that's around them.
Speaker: So they can't even eat. They're so nervous. But once they are reassured that the shepherd is on duty and that he is protecting them, then they finally can get to that place where they can eat comfortably or rest if it's time for that.
Speaker: Another thing we know about sheep is they will not lie down if there's friction among the sheep. In other words, if there's a quarrelsome sheep in the middle of them for some reason, they get all hot and bothered about it and they become alarmed.
Speaker: It's kind of like what happens when gossip enters into a church fellowship. Right? Any of y'all like that when there's when there's like division in the church and you get all nervous and you're like, I can't sleep. It makes me nervous that they're going bump into each other in the hallway and it's going to be World III in the hallway. And y'all must go to a different church.
Speaker: I'm that way. That's why as your pastor, if I think something's going on, I'm going to come to you directly. I want it dealt with. I'm not losing sleep over your problem. So I want it dealt with. I want it taken care of. Let's get this out of the way.
Speaker: That's the way a loving shepherd takes care of his sheep. He sees the problem sheep and he removes them.
Speaker: Now if you see me coming towards you in the hallway, don't run.
Speaker: There's a 99% chance you're going to get a hug. not a Not a shepherd's crook. Alright? But sheep, I mean shepherds, the leaders of this church, John, Kyle, the elders, we have a commitment to remove the quarrelsome sheep so that the sheep the sheep flock can rest and be in contentment and be at peace.
Speaker: That doesn't mean there aren't going to be moments, right? It doesn't mean that there aren't going to be times when things are unsettling. But by and large, when there's a quarrelsome sheep, the shepherd's job is to take them and isolate them so that the rest of the flock can go on and eat and drink and have peace in their herding.
Speaker: The third thing we see is this. They will not lie down if there are flies or parasites.
Speaker: That's where we get this image. He anoints my head with oil because what the shepherd would do is anoint the head of the sheep with oil because that helped to keep the flies away. It would deter their pestering of them.
Speaker: Some of you here today are going, you know what, I've got a brother sister that is annoying me like a parasite.
Speaker: Some of you going, I've got a wife that's annoying me like a parasite. I know there are some women who going, I've got husbands that are acting like a fly buzzing around my head and getting on my last nerve. Seriously, there are relationships.
Speaker: Guys, when we come together, when we come together in this room, 600 plus of us every week to get together and worship, we're not all the same. We're not all alike. We don't all have the same preferences or likes or those kinds of things.
Speaker: So that means there's some moments where some of us might need to anoint our head just a little bit to learn to live in peace with one another. Right? Are you all with me this morning? I'm have to get out my shepherd's group.
Speaker: Okay. The fourth thing, um they will not lie down if they're worried about food or water. If they don't know where the food or water is coming next, then they will not rest because of that. They become anxious.
Speaker: So for sheep, true sheep, rest comes when the shepherd deals with fear, friction, flies, or famine. There's your alliteration from your pastor this morning. Fear, friction, flies, or famine.
Speaker: And it says that when he deals with that, he leads me along right paths. The idea being that right paths are the places he wants us to live. If you go to the Middle East to this day and look on the hillsides outside in the wilderness where the sheep run, there are paths that lead across the mountain. you can see clear, distinct paths where the sheep follow the shepherd, one after the other.
Speaker: And he wants to set them back on the right path. And the only way to do that is for the shepherd to show up and defend them, separate the quarrelsome ones, feed them and treat them for the things that are annoying them.
Speaker: And then and only then can the shepherd have them restored. Again, it's not about geography. It's not about the place he leads them to. It is about the proximity of the shepherd.
Speaker: How close the shepherd is for them. Lastly, what David talks about here is a shepherd who hosts us as his children.
Speaker: He says in verse 4, Even when I go through the darkest valley. The darkest valley, that phrase implies the place where the greatest danger lurks for a sheep.
Speaker: I think I've said this to you before. Sheep are absolutely defenseless. they they can't They can't do anything. They can't protect themselves. They don't camouflage themselves. They don't have sharp teeth.
Speaker: um They can't even raise up and use their hooves anything. I mean, there's just no way they can protect themselves. So they are utterly under the care of the shepherd. And in this moment, when he's in the darkest valley, notice that the language of the psalm changes because he goes from talking about the shepherd to talking to the shepherd.
Speaker: Because it's in that moment... That moment where faith becomes personal.
Speaker: The phrase there literally says, it is the shadowiest of the shadows. That's fun to say. The shadowiest of the shadows. You see, after the green pastures, after the still waters, after the paths of righteousness, this is a reminder that life, no matter how good it gets, always contains danger.
Speaker: Always contains fear. Evil always contains pain, always contains all those elements that are part of this world.
Speaker: The danger still exists for us in this planet, but with the shepherd, the presence of the shepherd, the fear of the danger is what is taken away. The danger is not gone, it's just the fear of the danger that is removed.
Speaker: When do you find yourself in your closest with your relationship with God? Isn't it normally when you're in the darkest moments, the hardest moments of your life, when you really, really are just needing some reassurance that He is there?
Speaker: One of my favorite places as a dad when I was a young dad and had all my kids growing up was the nights that we would have storms in South Georgia when we were growing up. Because inevitably with the first crash of thunder and the flash of lightning, I would have a lap full of children.
Speaker: And my daughter would always be right there in my face going, Daddy, are we going to have a tomato tonight?
Speaker: And I would reassure her no tomatoes were coming to our house that night. But in those moments as a dad, I loved that because I knew my kids were close. And as a God who loves you, not just as a mass of humanity, God loves you individually as he created you.
Speaker: As a God who loves you, he desires to have you that close in intimacy with him. He loves to hear you come to him and say, God, am I going to have to go through this surgery?
Speaker: God, am I going to have to face this broken relationship the rest of my life? God, this financial struggle I'm in, is there some end to it? Is there some place where I don't have to deal with this anymore?
Speaker: Please make this note. God always walks us through the valley, not to the valley. The valley is never your end destination. He is always taking us through the valley to the next pasture.
Speaker: And then when the next valley comes, he is there reassuring us of his presence yet again. Again, Charles Spurgeon, he writes this, I have learned to kiss the waves that crash me against the rock of ages.
Speaker: What Spurgeon was acknowledging that in those moments, those waves are what drive me to the place I really want to be in the first place. Before I ran astray, before I got off course.
Speaker: He says in verse 5, You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You see, God is the host at a fabulous banquet.
Speaker: And it's not the banquet we know is going to come at the end of time. You know, the end of time, it says that that's what we're going to have is this great wedding feast that we're going to be able to sit with with God and we're going to be able to enjoy the fellowship of Jesus. And that's going to be wonderful.
Speaker: But this is a different one. The reason we know it's different is because it says, in the presence of my enemies. You see, in heaven, enemies will be gone. Conflict will be removed. There will be no more war, pain, tears, or an anxiety.
Speaker: So that's a different kind of banquet. This one, it's like the commander has come right into the trenches, has set up a table. He's spread out this tablecloth. He's put not just MREs or snack food.
Speaker: He's put the finest banquet the world has ever seen on the table. The best bread, the choicest meats, great cheeses, and he's laid them on the table. He's pulled out the chair and he's saying to you and I, come sit with me.
Speaker: you know what's so cool about that? The enemy can't do anything but watch. There's nothing he can do to stop the fellowship. The only thing that stops us from enjoying this banquet is if we refuse to sit at the table.
Speaker: If we refuse to enjoy the fellowship of this God. Spurgeon again says this. He says, In the presence of enemies, God prepares a banquet with no panic, no haste.
Speaker: Just peace in the middle of the storm. 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.
Speaker: That's what God does for us. He doesn't always take us out of the conflict, but he does always bless us in the midst of the conflict. He anoints us with favor and it says he fills our cup, not just a little bit, not just three quarters of the way. He fills it till it overflows.
Speaker: So there's some things I want to share with you here today. Before I do, I just want to remind you of a story that Hopefully connects this dots for us. Remember in Daniel chapter 3. The story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. It's one we all grew up with. if went to church. We got to see the images of Daniel in the lion's den. And then Daniel, Shadrach, and Abednego.
Speaker: And if you aren't familiar with the story. King Nebuchadnezzar. Because they refused to bow to him. He throws them into a fiery furnace. Whatever that picture looks like in your head. There's three guys in the fiery furnace. Until Nebuchadnezzar goes over and looks. And goes wait a minute.
Speaker: There's a fourth man in the fire. There is a fourth man in the fire. Why? Because God did not remove them from the fire. Who removed them from the fire?
Speaker: Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar is the one that took them out of the fire. God kept them in there. Why? Because he wasn't going to remove them until his purpose was accomplished. In the meantime, he was going to go in with them.
Speaker: And he would carry them through that trial. The trial did not end when they wanted. The trial ended when God's purpose was complete. And he goes in great detail to say this when they come out.
Speaker: Their clothes were not singed and not a hair on their head was burnt. This is the God that you and I have access to. So let me share some things with you very quickly that I think we can take from this story. Before I do, I want to say this.
Speaker: If this morning as I am talking about these things, you go, I don't i don't sense that. I don't feel that. I don't experience that. I encourage you to examine about whether or not you know the shepherd.
Speaker: Not know about the shepherd. Do you know the shepherd? And let me just explain something very clearly to you. If you walked in here today to church, that does not mean you know the shepherd.
Speaker: That means you walked into a building. If you're counting on the fact that you got baptized at 2 before you even knew what the Bible was... That's not knowing the shepherd.
Speaker: If you're going, hey, I'm a good guy or I'm a good girl and I try my best to keep the Ten Commandments, that's not knowing the shepherd. There is only one way, the Bible is very, very clear, there's only one way that you and I know the shepherd and that is by admitting to him that we need his direction in our lives and then giving complete, total control to him over who we are and what we do.
Speaker: The church has done a disservice, especially in the United States, in the West. It's not just about say a prayer and it'll be okay. I've seen lots of people in very deep, intense conflict say prayers the next day who walked out and didn't mean a thing they said.
Speaker: If you don't pray a prayer to Jesus and give your life to Him for His complete lordship over your life, you can't truly call Him your Savior. And so as we talk about these things, it's kind of like a little bit of a checklist to go, hey, I don't i don't know that I have that.
Speaker: I don't know that I'm fully there. And that's not bad because, praise God, you are aware of it today and there's something you can do about it. The time to worry is when your life is over.
Speaker: So this morning, I encourage you, open heart right now. As we talk about these things and ask yourself genuinely, do I know this to be real in my life? First thing, God has prepared everything you need.
Speaker: God has prepared everything you need. Again, not everything you want. I don't need everything I want. I'd be a miserable man to live around. Okay? Not everything you want, but everything you need.
Speaker: Moses, when he was talking to the Israelites as they were preparing to enter the promised land, said this to them in Deuteronomy. Be strong and courageous. Don't be terrified or afraid of them. For the Lord your God is the one who will go with you. He will not leave you nor abandon you. There should be great peace in your life today, even in the darkest of the shadowy valleys.
Speaker: There should be great peace knowing that the shepherd is nearby. There's never been a moment that he wasn't aware of you. Something else we see today is this.
Speaker: The enemy is going to try to sit at your table and take your feast. He's going to try to sit at your table and take your feast. If you are not committed and living intentionally to keep him away, he will sit and feed you lies about your circumstances. He will tell you, hey, let's talk about your God because he's not much if you think about it.
Speaker: Think about all this. Think about this moment. Think about this season. Think about this promise. Think about those things. And he will try to deceive you into believing that the master of the banquet doesn't care about you.
Speaker: And I said, you have to be intentional to keep him away. Please hear this. Stop inviting the enemy to sit at your table. You're going, I would never ask Satan to come sit at my table. Really? Really?
Speaker: Really? What do you allow into your home?
Speaker: What are you allowing your kids to bring into your home? What are you allowing your husband or your wife to bring into your home? What are you choosing to bring into your home? You see, every one of those are doors that are creaked open so that the enemy can take a step in. He usually doesn't come rushing in. He usually sneaks his way in by the front door.
Speaker: If I were to sit here today and say to you, my wife and I had dinner last night, and after dinner I invited a guy in who decided he was going to rape, pillage, and destroy my home.
Speaker: You would think I was crazy. But every time you turn on the TV and invite culture into your world, you're inviting rapists and killers and murderers and people who choose evil to come in and educate your kids, to influence your wife, and to corrupt your own heart. You're inviting the enemy to your table.
Speaker: The good news is when Satan lies to you, God's there to tell you the truth.
Speaker: I loved it. I didn't notice it as much at 930. This is not a knock at you. But at 8 o'clock this morning, when um they we started reciting, but when Kyle started reciting Numbers chapter 6, one of the verses that the graduates got, over here I could hear an entire section quoting it along with them.
Speaker: And I thought, man, that's so cool because they have hidden God's word in their heart. And what does the Psalm 119 say? It says those who want to follow God, those who want to be true to God, those who want to avoid the sinful paths are the ones who hide God's word in their heart.
Speaker: Listen to God's voice. John chapter 10, verse 10. Jesus spells it out as clearly as possible. He says, a thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. Sound familiar? That's the guy we just invited at our table a minute ago.
Speaker: A thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I've come so that they may have life and have it in abundance. And then in 1 Peter 5, 8, the apostle adds his words to this. He says, be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary, the devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for anyone he can devour.
Speaker: Satan has nothing good intended for you or your family. Nothing. Death is the only thing that will satisfy him.
Speaker: To that point, I want to say this. When a child hurts, you hurt. If you're a parent, you know that, right? Your kid falls down, it breaks your heart. How many of you have ever had to take your kid to let them do allergy testing?
Speaker: Oh, man, just the hardest the hardest thing in the world is a parent to sit there and go hey, be still. They're fixing to stick 60 needles in your back, and we're going to see how that goes, all right? And your kid's looking at you going, what are you doing?
Speaker: Man, we hurt when our kids hurt. The devil's goal is not to hurt you. You don't matter that much to Satan. His goal is to hurt the father.
Speaker: And when he hurts you, Jesus hurts. That's how deeply he cares for you. When you weep, he weeps. When your heart is broken, the shepherd's heart is broken right along with you.
Speaker: When the devil tells you you're not going to make it, God says, we are going to make it. We're going to walk through this valley. You will not die in this valley. Let that be an encouragement to you as you look around you and all you seem to hear or feel is the darkness pressing in on you.
Speaker: You need to know you will not die in this valley. It is never the end destination for those who are followers of Jesus Christ. It is just a part of the journey.
Speaker: The devil's going to say you are not good enough or worthy enough, but Jesus laid down his life for you. And that means that you're your value, your life's value is inestimable. Did say that right?
Speaker: Where are my educators? Did I just say that right? Sounds good. I say it with confidence. Maybe you'll believe that's the way you say it, right? In other words, your life is worth a whole lot to God.
Speaker: It's worth the life of his son. That's what he gave in exchange for you. Again, Jesus in John chapter 10 said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Speaker: Lastly, this ought to be the most encouraging news of the morning. Paul says this, if my God is for you, who can be against you? If my God is for you, who can be against you? What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us,
Speaker: Who can be against us? Again, that whole image of the enemy having to sit and watch you enjoy the feast in fellowship with your Savior because he can't do anything about it unless you let him into the room.
Speaker: So my question this morning, who is your shepherd? The world's going to throw a lot of options at you. And they're going to give you all kinds of choices. The truth be told, there's really only two.
Speaker: The Lord is your shepherd. Or I am my own shepherd.
Speaker: The Lord is my shepherd or I am my own shepherd. What does that mean? Well, if you've ever watched a sheep that chose his own path, 100% of the time it ends in death. 100% of the time. Some may last a little longer than others, but ultimately it always ends in death.
Speaker: The question this morning, are you willing to trust him with what you're going through? Are you willing to trust Him with the full course of your life and say, God, on this hillside, I'm looking around, I'm not seeing a whole lot of grass, but I'm trusting you to get me to the next tuft of grass.
Speaker: Or as you're walking and you're looking ahead and you're seeing the season in front of you and you're going, man, it looks like the darkest of valleys ahead, but I'm okay because I know that the shepherd is there with me, guiding me, leading me.
Speaker: This morning, the news the news is this. The feast table, the banquet table has been set for you. And the invitation of our Father, the Good Shepherd, is to sit down in peace and be one with your Father.
Speaker: Will you bow your heads as we pray? Father God, you are indeed the Good Shepherd and all you do is good.
Speaker: And this morning, we want to thank you for that goodness because it is such a kind reminder of who you are and what you desire for us. This morning, if there's anyone here who needs a little encouragement, a little reminder, a little bit of peace in the midst of their personal chaos, if there's anyone who just needs their soul to be lifted, or if there's someone today who says, you know what, I've chosen my path for way too long.
Speaker: It's time for me to trust the shepherd. I pray that those conversations will happen in these next few minutes. That we would be courageous enough to get up and take that step knowing that the only way to peace in this world, the only way is through relationship with you.
Speaker: I can't be good enough. My parents can't do it for me. No action or activity that I've ever been a part of is goingnna is going to change that. I have to give my life to Him.
Speaker: It's in Jesus' name I pray. This morning we're going to do something a little bit different. These two ladies behind me are going to sing a song for us. It's a new song. It's actually written by Vivian.
Speaker: Thank you very much, Vivian. Beautiful, beautiful song of reflection. So I'm going invite you to remain seated. might want to close your eyes and just listen or whatever. But ponder what we've talked about this morning. This song, these words are going to remind you of what we've talked about.
Speaker: During that time, we'll have staff up here as we always do. If you want to come and pray, the altar is always is open. If you want to come up and talk about a relationship with Jesus Christ, we would love the pleasure of doing that.
Speaker: but Maybe you just want to stop this morning and listen and reflect on all the good, good things that God has done for you as your shepherd. You listen, respond as God has led you.
