The Lord is My Shepherd: Discovering Who I Am to Jesus

In this episode, Mark Page breaks down Psalm 23 to identify who we are in light of the leadership of the Good Shepherd. If Jesus is my Shepherd, this is what I discover-

1. I am loved.

2. I am fed. 

3. I am protected.

4. I am anointed.

5. I am favored. 

Thank you for listening to the podcast! 

"Come to Jesus Podcast" with Mark Page

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

What is up, everyone? Welcome to the Come to Jesus Podcast. My name is Mark Page, and it is my passion in life to empower the people around me to leverage their lives for God's kingdom purpose. I want to teach and train and equip and help my brothers and sisters leverage every moment of their lives for maximum gospel impact. We're going to be talking about that every week, all the time. You can make a difference in your generation. So thank you for joining us today on the Come to Jesus Podcast. What is up, y'all? Welcome back to the Come to Jesus Podcast. My name is Mark Page, and it is my honor to host this podcast. It's been a while since we've been in the studio. So just excited to share this word with you guys, man. The topic of today, the thought of today, the idea that God has been putting my heart for today is that the Lord is my shepherd. I have what I need. Man, what does it mean to be resourced with the things that you need mentally, spiritually, emotionally, physically to be successful in the kingdom, man, as a kingdom man, as a kingdom woman. And so sometimes there's like this active chasing that we do that's good to be successful, but other times there needs to be an active resistance to that chasing, a stillness, a calmness. And uh today I just want to talk about that. What does it look like to let the Lord be our shepherd, to let the Lord uh slow us down? And so as I was preparing, I just took a group of about 45, 50 people to camp uh in the mountains, student ministry camp, uh called Fuchs Camps, but uh saw a lot of life change and I was preparing for the trip. The theme was could shepherd? And what is a shepherd? A shepherd is someone who watches and um leads sheep. And sheep are not real smart, and sheep have a lot of problems, and so I'm leading the trip. But before the trip, I prayed on Lord, what are some words um from your word that I could use and utilize to align us throughout the week on what it means to be uh led by the good shepherd. So this is where I uh came from. I'm gonna go to Psalm chapter 23. So jump in here with me, grab your Bible or look at your phone, or just listen, because it's good if you do it any of those ways. So we'll read the whole passage. The Bible says, The Lord is my shepherd. I have what I need. He lets me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he renews my life. The old translations say he restores my soul. He leads me along the right paths for his name's sake. Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger or evil. For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, we'll talk about what that means. They comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Only goodness and faithful love, which means mercy, will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live. That's forever. So as we jump into the word today, this podcast, I just want to give you a few things that God gave me as I as I thought through Psalm 23, good shepherd. What does it mean to have a good shepherd? So I the first question before we jump into those words, and they're really I am statements, you know, when Jesus is my shepherd, I am. And the first one I'll just give you so you have context is I am loved, because a good shepherd loves. But before we get into what all of those words are and all those statements are, um, I wanted to ask the question, why do we need a shepherd? If you're listening to this, um, why the question is, why do I need a shepherd? Why do I need a good shepherd? Um what's so important, you know, about having a good shepherd. And the the thing that I've come to and what I'm understanding is I need a good shepherd for a few reasons. Number one, I'm not trustworthy alone. I don't even trust myself. A lot of us have trust issues, but some of the time that's because we have broken our own trust to ourselves. I need somebody to stop me before I run off the road, before I run into a ditch, before I get into something that could be detrimental to my life as a sheep. So why do I need a good shepherd? Number one, I don't, I'm not trustworthy. And guess what? As much as we all want to keep our word and be people of our word, which we should, and people of integrity and people of honesty and people who work hard and people who have a good ethic and people who do all the moral things correctly. You and I both know if we're honest with each other, we break our word to ourselves more than to anybody else. I'm gonna go to the gym today. I'm not gonna eat that today. I'm not gonna drink that today. I'm not gonna look at that today. I'm not gonna go there today. I'm not gonna do that to my family today. And guess what we do? We turn around and we screw up. I need somebody in my corner who can lead me out of that let cycle, whatever the cycle might be for me, or whatever the cycle might be for you. And so Jesus is the one who steps in as a good shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. I have what I need. He lets me. Another translation translation says, He makes me lie down. Why has he got to make me? Because I'm rebellious. Because I'm rebellious, man. I'm rebellious, I'm disobedient, I'm often angry, and and uh I don't want the leadership of a good shepherd. But the thing about a good shepherd is if a sheep is bad enough, this is crazy true. It's the true story. If a sheep is bad enough, the shepherd would break the legs of the sheep. The sheep that keeps running off. You know, the Bible says the good shepherd leaves the 99 to go get the one. He will break the legs of the sheep, bind up the wounds, and carry that sheep on his back until the sheep gets the point that he is the shepherd. You've got to follow me. I love you too much to let you run off and die with those legs of yours, to let you run off and the wolf gets you. So I'm gonna break your legs, I'm gonna hurt you in the temporary so that you can have a long life. Man, that's crazy good. So let's break it down. What when the when the shepherd, the good shepherd, Jesus, is our shepherd, who are we? What does that make? And I pulled these straight from scripture and I'll explain each one. But number one, if Jesus is my good shepherd, I understand that I am loved, man. I'm loved, not in a worldly sense, not in a conditional sense, not in a transactional sense. It's not like the shepherd's like, hey, sheep, if you rub my feet or you rub my back, I'll make sure the wolf doesn't eat you. No, no, no. The shepherd says, I know how bad of a sheep that you are sometimes. I know that you're honestly a little too dumb to get it sometimes, but I'm gonna choose to protect you and to love you. What does love look like? The Lord is my shepherd. I have what I need. Love looks like provision. Giving the sheep what the sheep needs because the sheep is not going to be able to get it by himself. No, he lets me lie down in green pastures. Love says, I'm gonna lead you to a place where you can rest and you can eat. So green pastures are important because it's comfortable for rest and it's important for food. The Good Shepherd provides, man. He leads me beside quiet waters. Love looks like helping those under your leadership, helping those in your life, your family, your kids, your wife, your friends, your team, your whatever, your church family, your brothers and sisters, and Christ, even the lost, find a place where they can be still and sit and listen to the Lord and drink from the well. The sheep needs still waters because a sheep is too scared to drink from troubled waters. They won't go down there, and if they do, they'll likely fall in and drown. A sheep needs still water to feel secure. True love provides. True love provides sustenance, rest, and security. I know that when the good shepherd is leading me, I'm loved because he protects me, he covers me. Psalm 91, he uh shelters me in the in the power of his wings, those wings of protection, of covering. Man, to be covered and spiritually is so important, but to be uncovered spiritually is very dangerous. If you're in a place in your life where you're not covered because you're in rebellion, you're not covered because you're outside of the fold, you're not you're not chasing Jesus right now. Let me beg you, get back under the covering. Jesus looks at Jerusalem, knowing that it's about to be wrecked after his death, burial, resurrection, and persecution is coming. And he says, How I wish I could gather you together and wrap my arms around you like a mother hen wraps her wings around her chicks. Like Jesus loves us that much. The Lord is my shepherd, I have what I need. Excuse me, he lets me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul, he renews my life. Another thing that the good shepherd does in his love is he lets us spiritually drink from the well that he is. He restores my soul. You feel like you're losing your soul out here in this grind for money, in this grind for love, in this grind for whatever. He restores your soul. He redeems what the locusts have eaten, what the enemy has stolen. God can bring it back and restore to you. So, first is I am loved. Second, I am fed, man. We talked about that a little bit, but God wants to feed you mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and physically. God wants to feed you. He wants to restore you to full strength. He understands that you can't just go forever and not eat. You gotta eat, man. And that's why he takes you to the green pastures so you can eat and you can graze. And you know what I love about the word graze is like graze implies that it takes time to be fed. When's the last time we took time to let our soul get fed by the Lord? You know, sheep have sheeps. Sheep have four stomachs. You know how long it takes to j digest food if you got four stomachs. You eat, you chew it, you swallow. Regurgitation. Down to stomach two, regurgitation, down to stomach three, regurgitation, down to stomach four. Think about that. There's gotta be something in that. Like it takes time to digest what the good shepherd has to give. So I am fed. When I realize I am fed, it makes me be still to rest, to lie down, to eat, to receive from the good shepherd whatever he has for me. Number two, I am fed. It's a bad thing to be hungry, man. I'm telling you. Um, I've heard so many stories about, you know, in in the uh the Holocaust camps in Germany, people would starve. They'd be get all the way down to skin and bones, and one little crust of bread or one little sip of water would be like a life-saving thing for them. And uh, if you think about poverty around the world today, one of the things that we want to end in our generation is world hunger. Like no kid should be starving, no person should be starving to death. Um, it's a terrible thing to be hungry, and it makes people do crazy things. But when we have a good shepherd as our leader, he feeds us, he provides for us, and then he allows us to go and be that provision for others as well. So, number one, I am loved. Number two, I am fed. Number three, I this is really important. I am protected. The Bible says he restores my soul, he leads me along the right paths for his name's sake. The wrong path is the path with no protection on it. God can't bless your sinful brokenness. Now he can redeem it, he can rescue you from it. But when you go down the right path, this is what it says. Even when I go, remember, we're walking down the right path, even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me. I have no hope when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, except for the protection of the God who called me to walk down that path. Now, if God called you to it, he'll get you through it. And don't you dare doubt in the darkness what God spoke to your heart and your life in the light. But the reality is sometimes it's a valley, man. That's why I love Psalm 121. It says, I lift my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord. You cannot lift your eyes to the hills if you're on top of the mountain. You can only lift your eyes to the hills when you're down in the depths of the valley, when you're in the valley of the shadow of death, when you look up and you remember the times that you had with God on the mountain, but you're not there right now. Even when I go through the darkest valley, darkness is a horrible thing because in the darkness you don't know what's what. You can't make heads nor tails of anything you can't understand, you can't see. It's scarier in the dark. Faith has to activate when it's dark. But the psalmist David says, Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger. Why? For you are with me. God's presence is so much more powerful than anything in our life. If God is present with us in our lives, it does not matter what's going on, what's not going on. If I know that he is with me and I know that he is for me, he will protect me, then I understand I am protected. It says, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Why do they comfort me? Because I know with the rod and the staff of a good shepherd, I am safe in his presence. Let me explain the rod and the staff. The rod was used for two things. Number one, it was used to smack a wolf in the head if need be. It was a heavy club type thing. You could just fight off the enemies. You could fight off the evil ones. So when the enemy shows up in my life, I know my good shepherd is ready to pop him in the jaw, man, to stop him, to knock him back, to fight him if he's got to. Listen, don't make the good shepherd pop you in the nose. Don't make him do that. Because the other thing, you're riding your staff, the staff is a staff of direction. That's the one you see the shepherd always holding. It's the curved staff that if a sheep falls in the ditch or they're not walking the right way, then he can save them and rescue them and direct them. It's direction. He wants to protect us. He has to correct us, but he also wants to, more than anything, he wants to direct our lives. He wants to lead. Jesus said, My sheep know my voice and they follow me. Remember, we're not running out in front of the good shepherd when we're under his protection. We're behind him. We're walking in his footsteps. We're following closely. Jesus said in John 15, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you'll bear much fruit. Like abiding in the presence of the Good Shepherd helps you understand and stay under the protection. He who dwells in the secret place, Psalm 91 again, of the Most High, will abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I want to be, man, listen, if I'm a dumb sheep, I want to be under the shadow of the shepherd. I want to stay there. I want to be correct. I want to be protected. I want to be corrected, and I want to be directed by him. He says, For you're with me, you're riding your staff. They comfort me. I heard a story about sheep from a friend of mine. He said, um He was in Israel when he was young. His name is Paul. He said uh he was watching the shepherds, the eastern shepherds over there in Israel. They were, they had the rod of uh the rod of correction. They were they were kind of like hitting the sheep and running them into this fence. And he said, I don't remember this in the Bible. Like I thought these shepherds would lead by speaking, and the sheep would know their voice and follow them, they would follow in their footsteps. He said, What is up with these shepherds? Why are they running these sheep, like driving them like cattle into the into the fold, into the fence? And he asked the person, he said, Hey, why are they uh not leading the sheep? Why are they why are these shepherds being so aggressive and running these sheep into this pen like that? The guy laughed. He said, Although that's not the shepherd. He said, That's the butcher. When the butcher, the devil, Satan, the enemy, is trying to run after you in your life, it will not feel like a good shepherd calling you and drawing you and loving you and serving you. It will feel like a butcher trying to shove you into a place where there's no peace and there's no joy, and he wants to get you in a dark place in a dark corner so he can end you. But because I am protected and the good shepherd is my leader, I can cut through all the fog and all the haze of temptation and lies, darkness, deception by listening to the correct voice, following him, and staying under his protection. Don't get outside of what God has for you as a good as a sheep, as a human, as a person that Jesus loves, Jesus died for, and Jesus called. He goes on, he says, You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, meaning, even when I'm sitting and the enemy is sitting there too, and I'm sitting at the table trying to have lunch, I can rest in him, have lunch, eat food, have a good time while the enemy is trying to lurk around without being afraid. I'm protected. Then he says, You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Man, I love this. Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life. Number four. So we've got number one actually is I am loved. Number two is I am fed. Number three is I am protected. Number four is I am anointed. When the Holy Spirit of God anoints a person and they discover their anointing. You like I remember when I discovered I was anointed as an evangelist, the power was in the evangelism that flowed out of my life. Like I was anointed for ministry, set apart for that. It changed everything. He says, You, the good shepherd, anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Remember that David, little David, was the last of all the brothers. He was out tending the daddy's sheep when Samuel came and said, These guys, all these guys, Eliab and all these guys are not the one. They're not the king. Where is your other son? Do you have another son? And Jesse, David's dad, said, Well, I got little David, you know, he's out there tending the sheep, which by the way was the lowest on the totem pole job you could have in a family. And so Samuel says, Let's go, let's go to him. So little David knows what it felt like to be anointed in the wilderness whenever you weren't even developed for what you were anointed for. But what I'm trying to say is this I understand that if the good shepherd is my shepherd, I am anointed for something. And discovering that anointing changes my life, my effectiveness, my passion, my purpose, my platform. It changes everything to be anointed. Do you know what you're anointed for? Are you anointed to lead people to Christ in your workspace? Are you anointed to lead your family? And trying to do God's work according to God's will without the anointing is a very frustrating, painful, and fruitless task. But when the anointing of the Holy Spirit falls on a person and the oil of the Spirit is on a person, you can see the difference because the power is different. It leads to movement. And when God is moving through his anointing, now people might reject the anointing, but at least you don't care what people have to say because your anointing is leading you. First John says that your anointing will teach you what you should say. The Bible says, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. That's what my mama would call Miss Christine Page, leading from the overflow. Don't forget to refill. Lead from the overflow. As the Spirit moves on you, you overflow the Spirit on others. And then I love this. When your life is under the anointing, this is what it will look like. I hope you're ready. And this is kind of the last one, too. But it says, 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, and I think that is I live spiritually, which is forever. So I'm anointed. My life has authority, my life has power. I get to overflow that anointing. Instead of trying to live in the deficit, man, and live in what I don't have, I get to function and what God's given me. And then lastly, I am not only loved, fed, protected, and anointed, but I am favored. When you're under the favor of God, your life will look like this. There'll be goodness in your life. There'll be faithful love in your life. And even when you are faithless, I think it's 2 Timothy says, even when we are faithless, he remains faithful. Because it doesn't just show up in our life. No, no, no. Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me. The good shepherd leaves the 99 to go get the one. The love of God, the goodness of God pursues us. That's why I like that song, The Goodness of God. Your goodness is running after. It's running after me. And I can tell you from my own personal life that God has pursued me. Man, when I when I try to drift away, when I start listening to the lies of the devil, when I start leading from a place of my own strength or insecurity, he pursues me with not anger, not bitterness. That's never the good shepherd. He draws me with cords of love, but he pursues me with his goodness and his faithful love. Jesus is going to show up in your life again and again and again and again. And he wants to work on the things in you that are broken so that you can become all that he has for you. Are you under and are you following the leadership of your good shepherd? Or are you still out here trying to do it alone? Praying every now and then to a God you don't know personally. Today I would say this: if you hear God's voice speaking to you, there's only one way to come to the Good Shepherd. It's to understand that the Good Shepherd laid down his glory 2,000 years ago, stepped into our time and space, continuum, our reality. He was born of a virgin. He lived a sinless life to become not only a good shepherd, but also the spotless Lamb of God who died on the cross to take away the sins of the world. So how can it be that the shepherd of the sheep man laid down his life and died to save me? Not only is Jesus the good shepherd, but Jesus is the Lamb of God at the same time. So he understands what it's like to be a sheep out here. He sympathizes with our weaknesses. He's not angry at us when he sins, but he does convict us to draw us to repentance because he knows it's better to be in his presence, to be loved, fed, anointed, protected, and favored. He knows that that's better than to be out here in the world without the anointing, still having to go through the valleys with no love, with no protection, with no provision. So I would say all that to say this. Today, as the podcast is named, come to Jesus. He died on that cross for you. It's by his grace, not how hard you can work to earn it, that he saves us. And guess what? The Good Shepherd, the great shepherd of the sheep, didn't stay in that grave. He stepped out. 2,000 years ago, he stepped out of a tomb, a garden tomb, to declare victory over sin, death, hell, and the grave. The Spirit of God that raised him from the dead now lives in us. If the same Spirit of God is the one that leads us, how can we ever fail when we follow the Good Shepherd? Thank y'all so much for listening today. God bless you. And uh, hey, listen, last thing I'll say, I'll say it again. Jesus loves you. Come to Jesus.