SPEAKER_01: Let's read God's word together.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 23, a Psalm of David.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is my shepherd.
SPEAKER_01: I shall not want.
SPEAKER_01: He makes me lie down in green pastures.
SPEAKER_01: He leads me beside still waters.
SPEAKER_01: He restores my soul.
SPEAKER_01: He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
SPEAKER_01: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
SPEAKER_01: For you are with me.
SPEAKER_01: Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
SPEAKER_01: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
SPEAKER_01: You anoint my head with oil.
SPEAKER_01: My cup overflows.
SPEAKER_01: Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
SPEAKER_01: And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
SPEAKER_01: This is God's word.
SPEAKER_02: We are so thankful, Lord, that we can come in your presence this morning, Lord, to be filled with your word, with your spirit, with your saints, Lord, that we can have this time, Lord, set aside to hear a verse that most of us are familiar with, Lord, and some of us hear most often at times end of someone's journey here on earth, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: That we know that David pinned these words, Lord, for his day and stretches all the way to our day in perfect harmony with your love and your protection.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, we live in a world of distraction and despair.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, we know that even though the world has a plan to distract and uh pull us down, Lord, that you had a plan and this word was part of that plan.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, we just pray that we have the ears to hear today what you want us to hear, and that Robert is used in a mighty way this morning and sharing that word.
SPEAKER_02: I pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, brothers.
SPEAKER_00: You guys can be seated.
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't already done so, let me invite you to open your copy of scripture to Psalms 23.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna jump there in just a moment.
SPEAKER_00: But before we do, I want to give you guys many of you faithfully served this week, and others of you may not have served and maybe not even known what was going on, but we had BBS this week, and um it was a sweet time.
SPEAKER_00: Michael made mention to one of the really sweet answers from a child about what what sin is as he shared with us the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And I I want to turn your attention.
SPEAKER_00: I know you guys know you know we're not we're not numbers, we're not a numbers church.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I I want to speak to something that ministered to my soul this week when Katie sent it to me in in 2024.
SPEAKER_00: So this was however many years ago that is.
SPEAKER_00: What year are we in?
SPEAKER_00: 2026.
SPEAKER_00: So this was three VBS's ago.
SPEAKER_00: We averaged 35 to 48.
SPEAKER_00: Last year we averaged 48 to 55.
SPEAKER_00: This year we averaged 55 to 65, and I think we had over 70 total registrations, which is uh something to celebrate.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and here's the number that'll get me that's even more worthy to celebrate.
SPEAKER_00: We had 13 kids.
SPEAKER_00: So do the math on that out of 60, 70.
SPEAKER_00: We had 13 kids indicate that they are either in the beginning stages of processing this journey to faith, or they want to continue a conversation.
SPEAKER_00: So there'll be 13 different kids and families that we reach out to in the days ahead to have conversations, gospel conversations with.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the reason that we do VBS, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's not we have cool crafts.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you saw the crafts, they're cool.
SPEAKER_00: We have cool food.
SPEAKER_00: Like one night they made these little half donuts.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I got distracted by the donut, but they had these little half donuts that was the to represent the empty tomb.
SPEAKER_00: So it's all pointing to the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So the reason we do VBS is the gospel, and we have 13 kids who want to have gospel conversations, so we should certainly celebrate that.
SPEAKER_00: And it takes multiple, there was over 50 volunteers.
SPEAKER_00: So if you volunteered, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: There were times I came up here after 9:30, 10 o'clock, and there are people setting up and getting ready for VBS.
SPEAKER_00: You know who you are.
SPEAKER_00: I would embarrass you to say your names up here, but thank you for that.
SPEAKER_00: And most importantly, this week at VBS, they looked at John 8:12, and that the everything pointed to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They looked at Jesus as the promised one, Jesus as the perfect one, Jesus as the powerful savior, and Jesus as the proven savior.
SPEAKER_00: So there are 70 plus kids who walked away this week, knowing that Jesus is promised savior, perfect savior, power for savable savior, and proven savior.
SPEAKER_00: So we celebrate that, and we are so grateful for that.
SPEAKER_00: And thank you if you served this week.
SPEAKER_00: Now to the text.
SPEAKER_00: This is always a hard, that's always a harsh transition, but we we have to celebrate that because it's worth celebrating.
SPEAKER_00: We're in Psalms 23, and I have more content than normal, and I kept talking to myself and to the Lord about what to delete and what to leave.
SPEAKER_00: So I left it and I may delete some of it.
SPEAKER_00: I may leave it all.
SPEAKER_00: So be prepared.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna let the spirit lead.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to be aware you to be aware from the beginning that I, like you, am a sheep and Jesus is the shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: I like you am a weary sheep and Jesus is the shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: So as we begin this morning, I want to ask you two very specific questions.
SPEAKER_00: What troubles your soul this morning?
SPEAKER_00: And the other one is what has broken your heart this week, this month, this year, or in your lifetime?
SPEAKER_00: And whatever that is, what I want you to see in the text this morning is that he is a faithful, trustworthy, and good shepherd, and you can trust him in any circumstance that you walk through in this life, regardless of what it is, and you can trust him at all times.
SPEAKER_00: Psalms 23 is what many would say, myself included, is kind of the center point of what we see in this trilogy of Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: If you read Psalms 22, 23, and 24 back to back, you're gonna see this trilogy.
SPEAKER_00: And what you see in Psalms 22 is you see the suffering of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: In Psalms 23, as we're going to see, you see the faithfulness of the good shepherd, and then in Psalms 24, you see the reigning of the conquering king.
SPEAKER_00: And it's this trilogy, and it's it's beautiful, and right in the middle, that nestled right in the middle of it is this emphasis and point, pointing, David pointing clearly to he is the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: I want you guys to know him being our shepherd should be should be very sweet to us in all times, but especially in times of trouble.
SPEAKER_00: Most of us, myself included, outside of what we see in God's word about shepherd and and sheep, walk in with little to no understanding of what it means to be an actual shepherd or what it means to be an actual sheep, or even the relationship between the two.
SPEAKER_00: The author, David, would have had a very clear understanding of what it meant to be a shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: He would have been informed on what it meant to be a shepherd because he was a shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: So he knew what shepherds did, and he knew how sheep acted.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to make a point at the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: When we say shepherding in this passage, we are most primarily talking about the shepherding of the Lord, right?
SPEAKER_00: Not the shepherding that the pastor does for the congregation.
SPEAKER_00: Although there are implications of that for us here.
SPEAKER_00: But instead, what I want you to see most primarily is that David is pointing to the shepherd, right?
SPEAKER_00: The shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: How the Lord cares for his sheep, how the shepherd cares for his sheep.
SPEAKER_00: And one of my favorite readings about this psalm is a little book called A Shepherd's Look at Psalms 23.
SPEAKER_00: And it's where the author, who is an actual shepherd by trade, speaks to the significant.
SPEAKER_00: He's also a lay pastor elder, he speaks to the significance of what is being communicated in the entirety of the psalm with this unique perspective of the way that a shepherd and a sheep interact.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the statements that he makes in the first part of the book that sticks with me throughout the book and even helps me understand the context of this passage is this one of the greatest problems amongst Christians is our tendency to talk in ambiguous generalities.
SPEAKER_00: And I want that to set the context for what we're going to see in Psalms 23, because what he's getting at in that is we as Christians talk in ambiguous generalities as if we are in control of all things, as if we own ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes on to make the point that the sheep also take on the character of their shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: So they take on the character of their shepherd and they are owned by their shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: I want that to be the framework in your mind as we work through this passage.
SPEAKER_00: We should be taking on the character of our shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: And we should understand that we are owned by our shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: On this side of the cross, we can clearly see that Jesus Christ, as Michael pointed out a moment ago, Jesus Christ paid a price for your sin.
SPEAKER_00: He paid a price for it.
SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite pictures I have from the different travels I've done around the world is I'm standing in the very footsteps of Paul, right?
SPEAKER_00: I'm standing in the very footsteps of Paul, an ancient Philippi.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, it was ancient this picture is an ancient Corinth, but in ancient Corinth, and overlaid across the picture, I've I've put the passage where it says, You are not your own.
SPEAKER_00: You were bought with a price.
SPEAKER_00: So glorify God with your body.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, we have to look at this passage and the reality that the Lord is our shepherd and understand that He paid a price for us.
SPEAKER_00: That is why we should take on the same spirit of our shepherd as it relates to the way that we act and the way that we behave.
SPEAKER_00: We have to understand that as we dive into the text.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is my shepherd in verse one has deep implications for us on this side of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to highlight three passages of scripture that should help us in the way that we read Psalms 23 through the lens of the blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to start with Ezekiel 34, 23.
SPEAKER_00: And it says, I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them, he shall feed them, and he shall also be their shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: He's pointing us to the shepherd king.
SPEAKER_00: Micah 5.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have time to read all of it, but he points to the shepherd will come from Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_00: And then Hebrews 13, 20 says, Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ is our shepherd, and he paid a price for us.
SPEAKER_00: We are his sheep are silly animals, right?
SPEAKER_00: I had all different ways to define this, right?
SPEAKER_00: They're prone to wonder.
SPEAKER_00: They do stupid things.
SPEAKER_00: They are silly, right?
SPEAKER_00: They are just silly.
SPEAKER_00: We are silly people.
SPEAKER_00: We are people who are prone to wonder.
SPEAKER_00: We are people who often do stupid things, much like sheep.
SPEAKER_00: We should be praising God for the shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to notice the difference.
SPEAKER_00: Look in your passage of scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Notice a difference in the pronouns in verses one through three and verses four through six.
SPEAKER_00: We see a lot of he and verses one through three, and we see a lot of I in verses four through six.
SPEAKER_00: What I want you to notice there is Joe David didn't just talk about God.
SPEAKER_00: He talked to God.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't just talk about God, he talked to God.
SPEAKER_00: David also just didn't talk to God, he talked about God.
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to see and understand that our study of God's word should be running parall on parallel tracks with our prayer life, right?
SPEAKER_00: We should be a people who study God's word and we should be a people who pray.
SPEAKER_00: We shouldn't just be a people who study God's word and don't pray.
SPEAKER_00: And we also shouldn't be a people who just pray and don't study God's word.
SPEAKER_00: They should be running on parallel tracks for us.
SPEAKER_00: So as we work through the text, here are the three primary things I want you to see with all of that framework in mind.
SPEAKER_00: He is the shepherd and he gives food and water.
SPEAKER_00: Second thing is, he is the shepherd and he gives rest and direction.
SPEAKER_00: And the third thing is, I am the sheep, and he is present and eternal.
SPEAKER_00: And in the midst of the greatest suffering, in the midst of the greatest fear, he is looking after you as a shepherd would look after his sheep.
SPEAKER_00: So with that, let's dive in to the beginning that we see in verse one and two, and that is that he is the shepherd and gives food and water.
SPEAKER_00: I pointed out to this point already.
SPEAKER_00: Shepherds have sole ownership over their sheep.
SPEAKER_00: If you double-click on that, the other thing that we know about the relationship between a shepherd and a sheep is that shepherds know their sheep intimately.
SPEAKER_00: They know their sheep intimately.
SPEAKER_00: One of the fascinating things for me as I studied this is did you know that shepherds mark their sheep to point out their ownership?
SPEAKER_00: Similarly to the branding of a cattle, from my understanding, they'll mark their ears.
SPEAKER_00: They'll cut their ears in a unique way to acknowledge this is my sheep.
SPEAKER_00: It acknowledges whose they are.
SPEAKER_00: But they also know and are aware of the ones that are susceptible to certain infections.
SPEAKER_00: They know and are aware of the ones that are susceptible to certain sicknesses, they know and are aware of the ones who are particularly uh will wander in this way or in that way and go in certain directions.
SPEAKER_00: They are intimately acquainted with their sheep.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what we have to understand Jesus Christ, right?
SPEAKER_00: The God man, the son of the living God, is intimately acquainted with you.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to think about this for a second.
SPEAKER_00: Think about your favorite movie star.
SPEAKER_00: Think about your favorite movie star, or your favorite musician that you love, or your favorite athlete that you love and appreciate, or the favorite author that you know, or the favorite leader that you know.
SPEAKER_00: Now imagine this.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine them walking into the room that you were in, walking straight up to you, and they know your name.
SPEAKER_00: They know your name.
SPEAKER_00: The God of the universe knows your name.
SPEAKER_00: He knows your name.
SPEAKER_00: He is intimately acquainted with you.
SPEAKER_00: Yahweh is the proper name for the God of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: David proclaims in verse 1, Yahweh is my shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: Yahweh is my shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: And in 2026, in the midst of whatever you are walking through or have walked through or will walk through, regardless of the sins that you have committed, that you did commit or you will commit, you have the opportunity to proclaim, Jesus the Christ is my shepherd because of the blood.
SPEAKER_00: And it's because that same blood that your relationship with Yahweh is restored.
SPEAKER_00: One of the most beautiful aspects of the Psalms to me, as we've worked our way through them, is the number of times it prompts us to take a step back and look at the Lord's provision, right?
SPEAKER_00: To look at the Lord's provision.
SPEAKER_00: How many times have we talked about over the last couple of months the provision of the Lord for the nation of Israel, specifically when they're leaving Egypt?
SPEAKER_00: Time and time and time again, he provided for the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Through all of the things they went through, even the things that were self-inflicted because their rebellion against God, he provided for them.
SPEAKER_00: They may not have had it all they wanted at times, but they had all they needed.
SPEAKER_00: They had every single thing they needed.
SPEAKER_00: And today, the Lord shepherds us through the blood of Christ, through all things.
SPEAKER_00: We may not have all that we want at times, but what we do have is all that we need.
SPEAKER_00: I want to contrast something for you that I think will help provide some understanding here.
SPEAKER_00: There is a difference between what we in our fleshly state or the earth would define as satisfaction and what the Bible would define as satisfaction.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to understand that to get what David is saying here in Psalm 23.
SPEAKER_00: Earthly satisfaction is to be pleased and having all of our wants met.
SPEAKER_00: Having all of our wants met.
SPEAKER_00: Biblical understanding of satisfaction is to be content in whatever the Lord gives us, knowing that He will provide us all that we need.
SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the day, He is all that we need.
SPEAKER_00: One of the most convicting things I've ever experienced is traveling to areas of the world that face persecution for the sake of the gospel or suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: These brothers and sisters are living out, truly living out the sh uh that he is the shepherd and he is all that I need.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to ask yourself a question.
SPEAKER_00: If the Lord took every aspect of prosperity from your fingertips, if he removed every relationship that you treasured from your fingertips, would he be enough for you?
SPEAKER_00: How would you answer that question?
SPEAKER_00: Would he be enough for you?
SPEAKER_00: In verse 2, David makes reference to the shepherd providing green pastures and still waters.
SPEAKER_00: The shepherd knows his sheep intimately, he knows what they need.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things I found as I researched shepherding was the term fence dwellers.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you may have heard of that before.
SPEAKER_00: A fence dweller is a sheep that is constantly at the fence, looking at the neighboring pasture, right?
SPEAKER_00: Looking at the neighboring waters, in essence, jealous of what the neighbor has, desiring something other than the sustenance that was right in front of them.
SPEAKER_00: And what's the sad reality about this is oftentimes in the sheep world is they are standing at the fence, looking at the neighboring pasture that is dry and desolate and barren, desiring to chase after it.
SPEAKER_00: And for us, that would be to chase after the things of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And behind us is the lush, green, waterful pastures of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Fence dwellers are dangerous to themselves and they are dangerous to the flock.
SPEAKER_00: Dangerous because they can be so obsessed with getting through the fence.
SPEAKER_00: That they ignore the nutrients that are right bef behind them and they do not get the nutrients that they need.
SPEAKER_00: And dangerous to the flock because they can have the high potential to raise up a group that will follow suit to also stand at the fence and ignore the nutrients that is right in the pasture that they are standing in.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, we have the shepherd who provides all that we need.
SPEAKER_00: May we not be a fence-dwelling people.
SPEAKER_00: So he is the shepherd and gives vision through water and food, and he is the shepherd and gives rest and direction.
SPEAKER_00: That's the second thing we're gonna look at in verse three.
SPEAKER_00: As I read this chapter this week, the one of the statements that hit me over and over and over again is He restores my soul.
SPEAKER_00: He restores my soul.
SPEAKER_00: When I read something like that, I don't know about you, but when I read something like that, I think about man, I don't deserve rest.
SPEAKER_00: Or I don't deserve restoration.
SPEAKER_00: Sit on that for a second.
SPEAKER_00: We don't deserve rest, and we don't deserve restoration.
SPEAKER_00: But what this passage tells us is that he gives it to us.
SPEAKER_00: We don't deserve it, but he gives us to us, gives it to us.
SPEAKER_00: I don't even remember where I read this, or even if it was just something that came from my my mind or my heart.
SPEAKER_00: Either way, it's true.
SPEAKER_00: The one who finds rest and renewal to be the most palpable in their life is the one who consumes the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: The one who consumes the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And one of my favorite things to do is read biographies, and there's all sorts of books out there speaking.
SPEAKER_00: To the faithfulness of men and women over the years and different circumstances and different decades and different sufferings and different joys.
SPEAKER_00: And the common theme I have found in every single one of those books that I have read, learning about somebody's life and how they endure through the most difficult and crazy situations, and how they found rest and faithful endurance is that they faithfully consumed the life-giving word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: As to say, when you get your teeth kicked in, do not grow weary.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord will put them back in.
SPEAKER_00: When you get your legs taken out from under you and you don't know how you're going to stand to go another day and to face another situation, the Lord will pick you up and put you back on your feet.
SPEAKER_00: It is so very easy for us to forget that the very one who rescued us, the very one who rescued us from the sin that we didn't deserve rescue from, is the same one who rests, gives us rest.
SPEAKER_00: As to say, he may be faithful to forgive, but he is not faithful to give me rest.
SPEAKER_00: If the Lord is faithful to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, why do we often overlook that he is faithful to give us rest?
SPEAKER_00: I think it's because we do not understand what rest is.
SPEAKER_00: Rest isn't ease, rest isn't a lack of suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Rest is having an eternal perspective in the midst of suffering.
SPEAKER_00: There's a key truth for us in verse 3 that I don't want you to miss.
SPEAKER_00: There's purpose in the way that he leads us.
SPEAKER_00: His namesake.
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss that.
SPEAKER_00: His namesake is that purpose.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord leads us in the right the right direction every single time.
SPEAKER_00: There is a reason why this is a statement in our bylaws, in our membership covenant.
SPEAKER_00: It's a reason we we say this often.
SPEAKER_00: I will submit to scripture as a final arbitrator of all things.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: The word will not misdirect you.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord will never give you or direct you or give you peace about something that is not in opposition to his word.
SPEAKER_00: Over the last 16 years of, or actually more than that now, of ministry, I've heard people say things like the spirit prompted me to do this, or the spirit gave me peace about this.
SPEAKER_00: And that be clearly in opposition to God's word.
SPEAKER_00: That is mind-blowing.
SPEAKER_00: If the spirit is prompting you to do something that is in violation of the word, it's not the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It's the enemy in disguise.
SPEAKER_00: He is the deceiver.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3 says, He leads me in paths of righteousness for what?
SPEAKER_00: Not for my sake, not to please me, not to please others, but for his name's sake.
SPEAKER_00: Here's something that hit me this week, and I'll put my name in here.
SPEAKER_00: Robert, you are not the beginning and end of his guidance.
SPEAKER_00: Robert, you are not the purpose of his guidance.
SPEAKER_00: When we lived that way, we were just like sheep staring at at the fence, staring in the pasture, and we missed the beauty of the pasture that's right in front of us.
SPEAKER_00: John Piper said it this way, far more eloquent than I.
SPEAKER_00: God is the beginning, and God is the end of all my righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: The path of righteousness has his grace as its starting point, for he leads me into it, and it has his glory for the destination, because he's leading me through it for his name's sake.
SPEAKER_00: May we not be so blinded by comforts that we miss and desires that we miss the comfort and guidance of our Savior.
SPEAKER_00: May that not be us.
SPEAKER_00: There is a reason that David uses sheep to illustrate this.
SPEAKER_00: As I laid out earlier, sheep are prone to wonder.
SPEAKER_00: There is no creature on this earth that is more likely to get itself lost, hurt, or in desperate need faster than a sheep.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have probably seen this video floating around.
SPEAKER_00: There's a video of a sheep, and there's a ditch, a trench that has been dug, and the sheep is in the trench, and the shepherd is like bending down like this, and he has something wrapped around the feet of the sheep, and he is pulling and tugging to get the sheep out of the trench.
SPEAKER_00: And finally he pulls the sheep out of the trench, and it's like nothing ever happened.
SPEAKER_00: The sheep bounces, like he does, like two little hops, and a second hop, he bounces right back into the trench.
SPEAKER_00: 30, not even 30 yards.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't get 30 yards.
SPEAKER_00: We are in danger of doing the very same thing.
SPEAKER_00: When the shepherd gets us out of the ditch, we'll jump right back into the ditch.
SPEAKER_00: David did that, remember?
SPEAKER_00: He sinned through adultery.
SPEAKER_00: He found his shepherding in something other than the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Dove right into another ditch by committing murder.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord rescued him from his dumb decisions.
SPEAKER_00: When he had a broken and contrite heart before the shepherd, his soul was restored.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord knows when you need to lie down, the Lord knows when you need to stand up.
SPEAKER_00: He knows when you need green pastures, he knows when you need still waters.
SPEAKER_00: Taste and see of God's trustworthy goodness.
SPEAKER_00: You can trust him.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the reality that's hard for us to comprehend and understand.
SPEAKER_00: You can trust him, even when it seems like what he is doing makes no sense.
SPEAKER_00: You can trust him.
SPEAKER_00: So David had proclaimed that he was the shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 4, we see this shift I alluded to earlier from talking about God to talking to God.
SPEAKER_00: I am the sheep, and he is present and eternal.
SPEAKER_00: I love the depth of the phrase, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
SPEAKER_00: Most of you have heard that before.
SPEAKER_00: If not on a Sunday morning and in a gathering like this, you've heard it at a funeral.
SPEAKER_00: This passage is often used at a funeral.
SPEAKER_00: The shepherd never leaves his sheep.
SPEAKER_00: I read a story in that same book I referred to earlier from the Keller, the shepherd, of he was taking his sheep through this valley in a mountain range and it rained and then it fleeted and then it snowed and then it hailed, and he was the shepherd, and he hunkered under this little bush or rock or whatever it was, and he never left his sheep.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but if it starts hailing on me, I'm going home.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going home.
SPEAKER_00: But he never left his sheep.
SPEAKER_00: If you are a follower of Jesus, Jesus will never leave you or forsake you.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care how messy it gets, he's not going anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: He's not going anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: Hear me, he is not going anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: Some heavy news for you today.
SPEAKER_00: One day you will suffer pain that is too hard to even fathom.
SPEAKER_00: That may be physical pain, that may be emotional pain.
SPEAKER_00: One day you will suffer suffer suffer physical death unless the Lord returns first.
SPEAKER_00: The good news is in the midst of that suffering, whatever it is, in the midst of the death that you will certainly face, and all those experiences you do not have to fear because he is present, because he is faithful, and because he is eternal.
SPEAKER_00: Our greatest lessons in this life come through our sufferings.
SPEAKER_00: Our greatest lessons come through our suffering.
SPEAKER_00: The continuation of that story that I started a moment ago about the sheep being in the valley during the storm and the shepherd not leaving the sheep is that he didn't just accompany them through the valley.
SPEAKER_00: He was with them all the way through the valley to the next hill and into the next valley.
SPEAKER_00: And into the next hill and into the next valley.
SPEAKER_00: He was ever present.
SPEAKER_00: In the midst of the most intense suffering, the Lord is present and active in your life.
SPEAKER_00: For whatever reason, the last 18 months has been a roller coaster of sufferings for our family.
SPEAKER_00: It feels like as beginners, as soon as one door closes, another door opens.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, as soon as we get to the top of one valley, we get shoved back into another one.
SPEAKER_00: Recently I was sitting with my wife, and she made the statement of me: I don't think the goodness of God has ever been more present in the midst of suffering than it is right now.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is present with you in your suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever situation you find yourself in right now, I don't, I don't know what it is.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever deep, dark, difficult valley you are in right now, even if you are the person who is staring at physical death right in the face, the shepherd is with you.
SPEAKER_00: His rod and his staff, they comfort you.
SPEAKER_00: The rod protects you.
SPEAKER_00: I read stories about shepherds who could sling the rod so fast and hard that it would fend off the attack of violent creatures on the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord protects you in that way.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord also comforts you.
SPEAKER_00: The staff is something that is used to support and to guide sheep.
SPEAKER_00: If you wonder, if you ever have what you need to endure, let me just tell you, you don't on your own.
SPEAKER_00: If a sheep wanders into the valley without the shepherd, ball game over.
SPEAKER_00: They're toast.
SPEAKER_00: If a sheep wanders into the valley with the shepherd, they are comforted and they are protected.
SPEAKER_00: So as a follower of Jesus, there is no valley that you will ever face alone.
SPEAKER_00: None.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord may feel absent, but I guarantee you his presence.
SPEAKER_00: C.
SPEAKER_00: S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis, this is one of my favorite quotes of his and the problem of pain.
SPEAKER_00: If you've never read that, I would encourage you to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Says this, we can ignore even pleasure, but pain insists upon being attended to.
SPEAKER_00: God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains.
SPEAKER_00: It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
SPEAKER_00: Often we don't need more pleasure, more desires that we treasure.
SPEAKER_00: Often what we need is more pain.
SPEAKER_00: And verse 4 speaks to his presence in the midst of that very pain, in the midst of death and suffering.
SPEAKER_00: He is there.
SPEAKER_00: Think about sheep again for a second.
SPEAKER_00: In the midst of an attack attack by coyotes, the shepherd would put himself, right, put himself between the sheep and the attacker to provide protection.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you may feel like you've taken a lot of losses lately.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you may feel like the enemy is getting a foothold, as if he has a hammer and he's driving you and beating you into the ground over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: As though the coyotes or whatever predator it is has surrounded you, and they're about to totally consume you as you wear down.
SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, you're getting just enough breaths to survive.
SPEAKER_00: As I read in one commentary, your enemies may surround you.
SPEAKER_00: Your enemies may surround you, but God sustains you.
SPEAKER_00: David is speaking about suffering and he is speaking about difficulties, and then he gives this picture of not just any banquet, but the great banquet.
SPEAKER_00: The great banquet.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord prepares a table before me.
SPEAKER_00: Look, I like to eat.
SPEAKER_00: I like to eat a whole lot.
SPEAKER_00: And there are certain foods that I like to eat even more than others.
SPEAKER_00: There's a certain person in this room who makes really good egg rolls that's been on my mind all week as I prepared the sermon, right?
SPEAKER_00: There are certain foods that we desire, right?
SPEAKER_00: There are certain cooks that we desire to eat their food because we like the way they use their spices or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00: Think about this.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't just any table.
SPEAKER_00: It's the Lord's table.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't just any person preparing the meal.
SPEAKER_00: It's the Lord preparing the meal.
SPEAKER_00: Get ready to feast.
SPEAKER_00: As my son Marcus says, we're having a feast.
SPEAKER_00: Get ready to feast on something good.
SPEAKER_00: What a table that will be.
SPEAKER_00: I really wrestled with the in the presence of my enemies part of this verse in verse five.
SPEAKER_00: Let me be clear with you on something.
SPEAKER_00: I spent as much time on this one section of the sermon as any others.
SPEAKER_00: Let me be clear on something.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy is not going to be sitting beside you at this table.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read for you to set some context, John 14.
SPEAKER_00: In my father's house are many rooms.
SPEAKER_00: If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
SPEAKER_00: And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and I'll take you to myself that where I am you may be also.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord goes to prepare a place for his children.
SPEAKER_00: And the presence of my enemies doesn't mean that the enemies will be dining with his children at the table with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: What it means is the enemies will be the footstool, and they will have to look at you, the redeemed, eating with the Lord, and realize the mistakes that they have made.
SPEAKER_00: The enemies will not be dining with you.
SPEAKER_00: A sheep will be enjoying the most glorious meal ever to be had.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5 also speaks to anointing my head with oil, and my cup will be overflowing.
SPEAKER_00: You know, in antiquity and in the ancient world, it was commonplace for guests to walk into homes and be greeted in multiple ways and multiple things to express hospitality.
SPEAKER_00: And one of those is they would mix beautiful oil and fragrance, fragrance, and they would rub it on the heads of their guests, and it would it would be there for them to smell as a welcome.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it would even drip down onto their clothes.
SPEAKER_00: It was to express excitement.
SPEAKER_00: You are my guests.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being here.
SPEAKER_00: We are so glad that you are here.
SPEAKER_00: The good shepherd is excited to welcome you, the wandering sheep who keeps jumping into the ditch to welcome you to the table.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
SPEAKER_00: His cup isn't half full.
SPEAKER_00: His cup isn't empty, his cup overflows.
SPEAKER_00: It overflows.
SPEAKER_00: He has, he is, he always will be enough.
SPEAKER_00: And the beautiful thing that we see here, we see two types of cups in scripture.
SPEAKER_00: We hear about the cup of blessing and we hear about the cup of wrath.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to think back to the garden for a second.
SPEAKER_00: Think about what Jesus prayed.
SPEAKER_00: Father, if there is a way for you to take what from me?
SPEAKER_00: Anyone know the cup?
SPEAKER_00: He's not referring to the cup of blessing.
SPEAKER_00: He is referring to the cup of wrath that he is about to endure for you and for me.
SPEAKER_00: If there is a way, take this from me, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But if not, I submit.
SPEAKER_00: I submit.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want you to see.
SPEAKER_00: The reason we have the opportunity to consume the cup that overflows is because he endured the cup of wrath for us.
SPEAKER_00: We get the cup of blessing because he took the cup of wrath.
SPEAKER_00: And then you and I, as children of God, will dwell in this house of the Lord forever.
SPEAKER_00: Right now on today.
SPEAKER_00: You may feel like you're ostracized right now on today.
SPEAKER_00: You may feel like someone or a group of people or even the world is against you.
SPEAKER_00: But one day you will dwell in the house of the Almighty.
SPEAKER_00: You will sit at his table, you will consume his food.
SPEAKER_00: And you will experience the fullness of his grace and mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we as sheep, silly sheep, are often led astray by sin.
SPEAKER_00: Yet the good shepherd, Jesus, through his broken body and shed blood, provides rescue for us.
SPEAKER_00: David Paulison pinned what he referred to as an anti-salm.
SPEAKER_00: And this is how I want to finish our time together.
SPEAKER_00: And he he does this, it's an anti-Psalm 23, and he does this on what it looks like to live with the Lord absent in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to read this, and then I'm going to read Psalms 23, and that's how we're going to finish our time together.
SPEAKER_00: This is the anti-salm.
SPEAKER_00: This is what it looks like to live without the Good Shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: I'm on my own.
SPEAKER_00: No one looks out for me or protects me.
SPEAKER_00: I experience a continual sense of need.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing is quite right.
SPEAKER_00: I'm always restless.
SPEAKER_00: I'm easily frustrated and I'm often disappointed.
SPEAKER_00: It's a jungle.
SPEAKER_00: I feel overwhelmed.
SPEAKER_00: It's a desert.
SPEAKER_00: I'm thirsty.
SPEAKER_00: My soul feels broken, twisted, and stuck.
SPEAKER_00: I can't fix myself.
SPEAKER_00: I stumble down some dark paths.
SPEAKER_00: Still, I insist, I want to do what I want, when I want, and how I want.
SPEAKER_00: But life's confusing.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't things ever really work out?
SPEAKER_00: I'm haunted by emptiness and futility, the shadows of death.
SPEAKER_00: I fear the big hurt and final loss.
SPEAKER_00: Death is waiting for me at the end of every road, but I'd rather not think about it.
SPEAKER_00: I spend my life protecting myself.
SPEAKER_00: Bad things can happen.
SPEAKER_00: I find no lasting comfort.
SPEAKER_00: I'm alone facing everything that could hurt me.
SPEAKER_00: Are my friends really my friends?
SPEAKER_00: Other people use me for their own ends.
SPEAKER_00: I can't really trust anyone.
SPEAKER_00: No one has my back.
SPEAKER_00: No one is really for me except me.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm so much all about me.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's sickening.
SPEAKER_00: I belong to no one but myself.
SPEAKER_00: My cup is never quite full enough.
SPEAKER_00: I'm left empty.
SPEAKER_00: Disappointment follows me all the days of my life.
SPEAKER_00: Will I just be obliterated into nothingness?
SPEAKER_00: Will I be alone forever, homeless, free falling into void?
SPEAKER_00: Hell is other people.
SPEAKER_00: I have to add, hell is also myself.
SPEAKER_00: It is a living death, and then I die.
SPEAKER_00: If you are attempting to live your life outside of the safety of the Good Shepherd, the sad reality is what I just read in that anti-Psalm 23.
SPEAKER_00: They're not just words on the page, it's your reality.
SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't have to be your final story.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read for you Psalms 23.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to the difference.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is my shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: I shall not want.
SPEAKER_00: He makes me lie down in green pastures.
SPEAKER_00: He leads me beside still waters.
SPEAKER_00: He restores my soul.
SPEAKER_00: He lifts me, leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
SPEAKER_00: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
SPEAKER_00: For you are with me.
SPEAKER_00: Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
SPEAKER_00: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
SPEAKER_00: You anoint my head with oil.
SPEAKER_00: My cup overflows.
SPEAKER_00: Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
SPEAKER_00: You can walk and live in Psalms 23.
SPEAKER_00: Joyfully confess the Lord is my shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: Joyfully confess the Lord is my shepherd, and it will anchor you in the Lord's provision.
SPEAKER_00: It will anchor you in the Lord's peace.
SPEAKER_00: It will anchor you in the Lord's presence, and it will anchor you in the confidence that the Lord is eternal and he is preparing a place for you at his table where you will dine at the greatest feast ever to be had.
SPEAKER_00: What a picture that is for us.
SPEAKER_00: May we be a people who live that way.
SPEAKER_00: Just a moment, I'm going to pray.
SPEAKER_00: If you, if the Lord is working on your heart, we got we have several things that are going on.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to participate in the Lord's Supper together as we remember what was done on our behalf and we look forward to this meal that we get to have at the Lord's table.
SPEAKER_00: There'll be a song of response after that.
SPEAKER_00: If you would like prayer at any point during the service, please come find me, find one of our other elders.
SPEAKER_00: Most primarily, my prayer for you today has been simple.
SPEAKER_00: May we be a people who live under the guidance and in submission to the good shepherd who will never leave us and never forsake us.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we are grateful for who you are.
SPEAKER_00: We are grateful for your word and the opportunity that we have to read it, to study it, God, to live in submission to it.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a have to for us, it's a get-to.
SPEAKER_00: And we are grateful for that.
SPEAKER_00: So, God, this morning I pray, whatever way you're working in the hearts and minds and spirits of the people in this room, God, for the unbeliever, God, I pray that the weight of what was read and the anti-Psalm 23 would be what you use to spark a response in then this morning, and that they would put their faith in Christ for the first time, that they would believe and confess that Jesus is Lord and that God raised them from the dead, and then they will be saved, and they too will have a place at the table.
SPEAKER_00: And God, for us as believers, God, may we live under the reality of what we see in Psalms 23.
SPEAKER_00: God, it's so easy to be distracted.
SPEAKER_00: It's so easy to be discouraged, it's so easy to flee from the Good Shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: God, may we live in the reality that you are the Good Shepherd, and that you care for us and that you love us and that you're ever present with us in the midst of all things.
SPEAKER_00: Pray all these things in your son's name.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.