WEBVTT 00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:08.800 So as we enter the fall, we are working our way through Psalm 23, just phrase by phrase of Psalm 23. 00:00:08.960 --> 00:00:14.080 David wrote Psalm 23 there in the Old Testament, pretty familiar Psalm to a lot of us. 00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:16.960 David was a shepherd, oppressed on the run. 00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:21.519 He later becomes king, which would have held some status and provision. 00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:27.120 So he has something to say to us, not that we would have a pain-free life. 00:00:27.359 --> 00:00:30.239 He's assuming we're going to have a difficult life. 00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:38.560 But a life where God is for us and with us, right where you are, right where you are this morning. 00:00:39.119 --> 00:00:42.079 So let's reread Psalm 23, 1 and 2. 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:45.759 We're going to focus on the last line of verse 2. 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:48.240 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:03.280 Again, it's like how I felt last week. 00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:04.560 I'm like, I mean, I need that. 00:01:04.640 --> 00:01:06.400 I don't know if you're like that, like, yes. 00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:08.879 Like, give me that. 00:01:09.040 --> 00:01:09.920 That's what I want. 00:01:10.079 --> 00:01:14.000 Like, I need that for my weary and overwhelmed heart. 00:01:14.079 --> 00:01:18.319 And yet there can be some frustration of like, why am I not getting more of that? 00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:20.079 Why am I not experiencing more of that? 00:01:20.159 --> 00:01:21.359 So let's break this down. 00:01:21.439 --> 00:01:22.640 We're going to break it into two parts. 00:01:22.719 --> 00:01:27.519 We're going to start with the second half beside still waters and then jump back to the first half. 00:01:27.840 --> 00:01:29.359 He leads me. 00:01:29.680 --> 00:01:35.680 Point number one is this God leads us into lessening fear and calm replenishment. 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:38.560 That's the imagery David is giving us here. 00:01:38.879 --> 00:01:42.560 David knows that the land is barren and dry. 00:01:42.879 --> 00:01:44.400 He knows that because he lives there. 00:01:44.560 --> 00:01:48.000 That's what the land of Israel was: barren and dry. 00:01:48.239 --> 00:01:59.680 And only a thoughtful, really proactive shepherd would be able to guide his sheep to quiet waters of provision, replenishment that were safe. 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:08.719 Because often waters could be fast and frightening, or even dangerous if they came after a big rain and it flooded. 00:02:09.199 --> 00:02:17.919 And David is just putting forth this idea that this shepherd is so good, so thoughtful, so proactive, and that this is what he wants for us. 00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:24.240 I learned this week that one of the most dangerous rivers in the world is in England, and it's called the River Wharf. 00:02:24.639 --> 00:02:26.719 Here's a picture of the river wharf. 00:02:27.199 --> 00:02:29.599 Fast waters, undercut rocks. 00:02:29.759 --> 00:02:33.280 If you fall in there, you get sucked down into tunnels and you drown. 00:02:33.360 --> 00:02:33.599 Period. 00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:34.560 It's dangerous. 00:02:34.879 --> 00:02:44.800 I'm just going to make an assumption that if you changed your career from being an accountant to a shepherd and you moved to England, you're not going to take your sheep to the river wharf. 00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:46.560 We can all kind of agree on that. 00:02:46.719 --> 00:02:49.120 Yeah, I wouldn't do that as a shepherd. 00:02:49.520 --> 00:02:50.479 Just wouldn't do it. 00:02:50.639 --> 00:02:54.960 Now here's uh here I am on the Chacoa River, an hour north. 00:02:55.120 --> 00:02:56.000 I was fishing. 00:02:56.080 --> 00:02:58.479 My buddy Trent was behind me in the canoe. 00:02:58.639 --> 00:02:59.840 He paddled the whole time. 00:02:59.919 --> 00:03:00.800 I fished the whole time. 00:03:00.879 --> 00:03:02.960 It was a great relationship. 00:03:04.080 --> 00:03:06.319 I caught four rainbow trout that day. 00:03:06.479 --> 00:03:07.360 Pretty sure it was four. 00:03:07.520 --> 00:03:10.400 Could be six by the end of the sermon, but I'm pretty sure it was four. 00:03:10.719 --> 00:03:11.439 Might have been two. 00:03:11.520 --> 00:03:13.360 I'll never tell you if it was two, though. 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:17.599 We were in this little canoe for two to three hours. 00:03:18.080 --> 00:03:19.280 Never once. 00:03:19.520 --> 00:03:21.520 Never once was I afraid. 00:03:22.080 --> 00:03:23.520 Quiet waters. 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:32.080 The heart of the shepherd is to guide his sheep to places of rest and replenishment. 00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:34.639 This is God's heart for you. 00:03:34.879 --> 00:03:38.719 You don't have to worry that his heart is something else for you. 00:03:39.439 --> 00:03:42.800 Lessening fear and calm replenishment. 00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:51.439 I received a text this week from my mentor, Scotty Smith, right when I was all kind of upset and angsty and questioning stuff this week. 00:03:51.599 --> 00:03:54.719 We had a lot going on this week in our church and in ministry. 00:03:55.360 --> 00:03:57.360 Just a lot going on inside. 00:03:57.840 --> 00:03:59.759 And here's what the text said. 00:04:00.960 --> 00:04:05.439 I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint. 00:04:05.680 --> 00:04:07.360 Jeremiah 31, 25. 00:04:07.439 --> 00:04:08.159 Isn't that nice? 00:04:08.319 --> 00:04:12.319 I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint. 00:04:13.039 --> 00:04:15.199 Hallelujah, we don't have to be enough. 00:04:15.439 --> 00:04:17.839 Buck up, bail out, or blame others. 00:04:18.079 --> 00:04:21.040 How does Jesus refresh and satisfy us? 00:04:21.360 --> 00:04:28.720 So many ways, but they all involve slowing down, owning our need, and coming to him. 00:04:30.879 --> 00:04:34.480 Two weeks ago, wonderful week. 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:36.079 School started back. 00:04:36.319 --> 00:04:41.839 Some of you cried because your sweet little five-year-old, you know, went to kindergarten for the first time and you cried. 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:46.000 Others of you cried, you know, praise God, you were crying, you're so happy, you're elated. 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:52.879 It's a wonderful arrangement we have here where you drop your kids off and other people watch them and teach them, and you just go on with your day. 00:04:53.199 --> 00:04:56.560 We have three schools and three routes in our family. 00:04:56.639 --> 00:05:00.560 So that week in multiple practices started up, so a lot going on. 00:05:00.879 --> 00:05:11.600 Christy and I finally started a Sunday night family calendar business meeting because she's very aware I'm gonna end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, or just not end up anywhere. 00:05:11.759 --> 00:05:15.839 That can happen, it's very possible, and they'll just be like a crying kid walking home or something. 00:05:15.920 --> 00:05:17.519 So we need that meeting at this point. 00:05:17.680 --> 00:05:20.720 It can all be really overwhelming, can't it? 00:05:21.199 --> 00:05:22.000 Just life. 00:05:22.240 --> 00:05:23.839 Life can be overwhelming. 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:26.560 And of course you're not always doing okay. 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:29.199 Even to pretend that you are is exhausting. 00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:32.319 That's overwhelming to pretend that you're always okay. 00:05:32.639 --> 00:05:39.519 Because you maybe you just can't shake that one issue, you can't shake that one memory, that one thing that happened. 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:43.839 You didn't plan on getting sick, but you did. 00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:52.000 I mean, you thought your brother at age 40 would stop being passive aggressive and controlling your family, and somehow he's still doing it. 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:57.120 And you don't want to kill him, but you would help him move to Mongolia. 00:05:57.600 --> 00:05:58.079 Right? 00:05:58.319 --> 00:06:00.160 You know what I'm talking about. 00:06:00.800 --> 00:06:03.839 Or maybe you're like me and you just thought you'd be a better Christian. 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:18.959 Like you just really thought, like at this point, like you would be more giving, or more thoughtful, or more loving, or more resistant to drink the third drink, or maybe the second drink, or maybe the fourth drink. 00:06:20.720 --> 00:06:22.639 You just thought you'd be better. 00:06:24.079 --> 00:06:26.000 Less self-obsessed. 00:06:26.319 --> 00:06:33.439 I mean, we really need when we talk about being a church that rests and grows in the grace of God, I mean, we really need that. 00:06:34.959 --> 00:06:43.839 The question is, will I allow my heart to be shepherded to the very thing my heart needs the most? 00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:48.800 He leads me beside still waters. 00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:50.160 Point number two. 00:06:50.399 --> 00:06:54.000 We are ready for water when we realize we are thirsty. 00:06:54.639 --> 00:06:56.399 We don't have to make things complicated. 00:06:56.560 --> 00:06:57.680 It's pretty simple. 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:00.560 We're ready for water when we realize we're thirsty. 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:04.240 Owning our need is the beginning of receiving the grace of God. 00:07:04.319 --> 00:07:09.120 This week I kept thinking about that thirsty woman in John chapter 4, the Samaritan woman. 00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:10.319 You might remember the story. 00:07:10.480 --> 00:07:12.160 Jesus was headed to Galilee. 00:07:12.319 --> 00:07:14.560 He went through a town, an area called Samaria. 00:07:14.879 --> 00:07:16.639 Now, a little bit of history here. 00:07:17.519 --> 00:07:22.879 When the Jews were exiled and moved out, some Jews remained. 00:07:23.040 --> 00:07:25.439 Those Jews intermarried with the Canaanites. 00:07:25.519 --> 00:07:28.720 They formed a new race called the Samaritans. 00:07:28.879 --> 00:07:35.120 So these Samaritans were a mix, a racial mix, but also a religious mix. 00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:43.439 And the Jews considered these people, these Samaritans, to be racial inferior heretics. 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:47.199 They thanked God they weren't like the Samaritans. 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:49.519 Thank you, God, I'm not born a Samaritan. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:52.000 They asked God not to save them. 00:07:52.160 --> 00:07:53.279 They despised them. 00:07:53.439 --> 00:07:54.319 They avoided them. 00:07:54.560 --> 00:07:58.000 Very kind, godly behavior here going on. 00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:01.120 But then there's Jesus. 00:08:03.519 --> 00:08:06.639 Always against what religiosity tends to do. 00:08:07.279 --> 00:08:16.240 And Jesus comes into that area, doesn't avoid it, and he comes to a well in the middle of the day, and he's sitting down and he starts a conversation with a lady who's a Samaritan. 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:18.959 That's the context going into it. 00:08:19.279 --> 00:08:23.360 John 4, verse 7, a woman from Samaria came to draw water. 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:30.639 Jesus said to her, even her, even him speaking this, it would have been shocking, a Jew speaking to a Samaritan. 00:08:31.439 --> 00:08:33.039 Give me a drink. 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:36.879 For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:43.039 The Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, a Jew, asked for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria? 00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:45.919 For Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. 00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:48.000 So it's the middle of the day. 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:49.279 Things are kind of odd here. 00:08:49.440 --> 00:08:50.799 This odd setup. 00:08:51.039 --> 00:08:53.279 Really, it would be brutal hot out. 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:55.840 And she's getting water in the middle of the day. 00:08:55.919 --> 00:08:56.639 That wasn't normal. 00:08:56.799 --> 00:08:58.159 So she's probably avoiding something. 00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:00.000 She's some sort of outcast. 00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:08.080 Point number three is this Jesus pursues us in our need and even in our resistance to him. 00:09:09.039 --> 00:09:10.480 That's good news. 00:09:10.799 --> 00:09:15.039 Because we are needy and at times we are even resistant. 00:09:16.240 --> 00:09:20.080 And Jesus loves us enough to pursue us in all of that. 00:09:21.279 --> 00:09:33.279 Jesus is pursuing this woman, verse 10, Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. 00:09:34.399 --> 00:09:37.360 The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw water with. 00:09:37.519 --> 00:09:38.960 She's not picking up on it right away. 00:09:39.120 --> 00:09:42.240 He just said living water, but she's not quite picking up on the metaphor here. 00:09:42.480 --> 00:09:46.159 The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw water with. 00:09:46.320 --> 00:09:47.360 The well is deep. 00:09:47.519 --> 00:09:49.279 Where do you get that living water? 00:09:49.519 --> 00:09:51.360 Are you greater than our father Jacob? 00:09:51.440 --> 00:09:54.720 He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons in his livestock. 00:09:54.879 --> 00:09:58.720 And Jesus said to her, Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. 00:09:58.879 --> 00:10:03.600 But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. 00:10:03.840 --> 00:10:10.159 The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:14.960 So Jesus is speaking about primary needs of the heart. 00:10:15.679 --> 00:10:18.159 Even more profound than a physical need. 00:10:19.279 --> 00:10:24.559 Love, acceptance, validation, righteousness, forgiveness, justification. 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:29.039 Verse 15, the woman said to him, Sir, give me this water. 00:10:29.120 --> 00:10:29.600 Give it to me. 00:10:29.679 --> 00:10:30.480 Yeah, I want that, right? 00:10:30.559 --> 00:10:32.399 I want that magical special water you got. 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:36.639 So that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water. 00:10:36.960 --> 00:10:42.480 And Jesus said to her, odd response, go call your husband and come here. 00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:45.039 What a strange interaction here. 00:10:45.200 --> 00:10:50.080 The woman says, She's in, and Jesus says, Go call your husband. 00:10:51.200 --> 00:10:52.559 She says she doesn't have one. 00:10:52.799 --> 00:10:53.679 He says, You're right. 00:10:53.840 --> 00:10:54.559 Remember the story? 00:10:54.720 --> 00:10:57.919 And she says, don't have one. 00:10:58.320 --> 00:10:59.519 And he says, Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:10:59.679 --> 00:11:00.879 You've had five. 00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:02.720 Living with another guy. 00:11:04.399 --> 00:11:07.120 It'd be easy to think Jesus is shaming her. 00:11:07.759 --> 00:11:09.120 Try to get her act together. 00:11:09.519 --> 00:11:10.399 He's not. 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:15.759 He's disrupting her life with grace. 00:11:17.039 --> 00:11:19.840 We need a disruption so often. 00:11:20.399 --> 00:11:28.799 We need to be disrupted into the belovedness that Jesus is trying to woo us into, that our heart might finally be at rest. 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:34.559 Remember the great quote, the great line by St. 00:11:34.720 --> 00:11:36.879 Augustine, the fourth century. 00:11:45.919 --> 00:11:47.360 That's our story. 00:11:48.639 --> 00:11:51.440 Now let's jump to the first part of the phrase. 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:54.399 He leads me beside still waters. 00:11:54.960 --> 00:11:55.840 He leads me. 00:11:56.080 --> 00:11:57.600 Point number four is this. 00:11:58.480 --> 00:12:05.519 We are ready to be led when we realize we are not as put together as we originally thought. 00:12:06.639 --> 00:12:09.519 We're just not ready to be led until then. 00:12:09.759 --> 00:12:13.600 We're just going to be independent, autonomous, we're going to attend church and kind of go home. 00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:19.679 But I'm talking about being shepherded, waking up to new mercies and crying out to God, lead me today. 00:12:19.759 --> 00:12:21.279 I want to hear your voice. 00:12:21.679 --> 00:12:22.879 I'm going to be led. 00:12:24.159 --> 00:12:27.840 Last year, Christian and I went on a day date up to LAJ. 00:12:28.559 --> 00:12:30.559 And so we headed up to Ellay. 00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:31.679 We had no real lunch plans. 00:12:31.759 --> 00:12:36.559 And so once we got up there, we saw the Arby's and the curly cue fries are good, but we're looking for something else. 00:12:36.639 --> 00:12:37.519 And so we need to be led. 00:12:37.679 --> 00:12:38.320 We need something else. 00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:41.120 And so she pulls up Yelp and she puts$1. 00:12:41.519 --> 00:12:42.720 I'm like, hey, hit the$1. 00:12:43.120 --> 00:12:44.559 That's what we're after, is the$1. 00:12:45.519 --> 00:12:50.320 And sure enough, what pops up is Tony's Country Corner Kitchen. 00:12:50.639 --> 00:12:52.960 Now that sounds like our kind of spot. 00:12:53.279 --> 00:12:54.080 Fantastic. 00:12:54.240 --> 00:12:55.440 Country corner. 00:12:56.480 --> 00:12:57.679 Well, we still need more help. 00:12:57.759 --> 00:12:58.480 We don't know where it's at. 00:12:58.559 --> 00:12:59.840 So then she's got to take that address. 00:12:59.919 --> 00:13:01.759 She's going to open up Waze and put it over there. 00:13:01.919 --> 00:13:03.440 We still need to be led, right? 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:06.639 We get there, turn by turn, we're led, right? 00:13:06.879 --> 00:13:08.639 We do this every day. 00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:11.440 We get there, it's a shack of a restaurant. 00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:13.679 Here it is, country corner. 00:13:14.159 --> 00:13:18.240 Shack of a kind of log cabin restaurant, up against a gas station. 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:19.200 You don't see that. 00:13:19.279 --> 00:13:20.799 The gas station's to the left. 00:13:21.039 --> 00:13:24.240 Pickup trucks are everywhere, which is a sign. 00:13:24.879 --> 00:13:25.679 You know it. 00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:31.759 Breakfast or lunch, pickup trucks are a good sign because they know where the good food is. 00:13:31.919 --> 00:13:33.600 The$1 bill good food. 00:13:33.679 --> 00:13:34.559 That's where you go. 00:13:34.799 --> 00:13:36.720 And we see this place, we're like, this is it. 00:13:36.799 --> 00:13:37.759 This is our kind of place. 00:13:37.919 --> 00:13:45.519 We settle into a booth, order a patty melt, tater tots, ice cold Coca-Cola, not Pepsi. 00:13:46.720 --> 00:13:47.360 Right? 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:54.159 This week, by the way, this week, as a some fancy schmancy restaurant down in Atlanta for lunch. 00:13:54.320 --> 00:13:55.440 I ordered a Coke. 00:13:55.519 --> 00:13:56.559 They brought me an R.C. 00:13:56.720 --> 00:13:57.279 cola. 00:13:58.639 --> 00:14:04.320 I know it's from Columbus, but I'm still recovering from that RC Cola. 00:14:04.480 --> 00:14:06.960 I'm talking about ice cold Coke. 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:08.480 We're from Georgia, folks. 00:14:08.559 --> 00:14:09.840 You know what I'm saying? 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:16.080 And that country corner had Coca-Cola, patty melt, tater tots, the booth. 00:14:16.320 --> 00:14:17.120 I mean, this. 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:21.279 You can take us out of the country, but the country's still in us, right? 00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:21.759 Amen. 00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:23.679 If you're from the country, you know what I'm talking about. 00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:24.960 This is how we grew up. 00:14:25.039 --> 00:14:26.320 We are settled in. 00:14:26.480 --> 00:14:27.679 This is our place. 00:14:29.120 --> 00:14:30.559 What an amazing place. 00:14:30.720 --> 00:14:35.200 And we would have never found it if we were not led. 00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:38.159 We had to be led there. 00:14:38.720 --> 00:14:40.799 Sometimes we just have to be led. 00:14:40.960 --> 00:14:42.720 You just don't have the knowledge. 00:14:42.960 --> 00:14:44.399 You don't have the experience. 00:14:44.559 --> 00:14:46.080 You don't have the wisdom. 00:14:46.399 --> 00:14:48.000 You don't have the capability. 00:14:48.240 --> 00:14:49.120 Here's my point. 00:14:49.279 --> 00:14:51.440 Maybe you noticed it in Psalm 23. 00:14:51.679 --> 00:14:55.120 Psalm 23 places God as the actor. 00:14:56.480 --> 00:15:01.440 We are the recipient of how He is acting upon us. 00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:06.399 God makes me lie down in green pastures. 00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:10.720 He leads me beside still waters. 00:15:12.879 --> 00:15:20.960 It's about our posture of receiving His leadership, His shepherding, His one-way love to us. 00:15:21.600 --> 00:15:28.879 The implication is our relationship with God is not pulling up our bootstraps and tying them tight and climbing up the mountain to God. 00:15:29.039 --> 00:15:32.639 The implication is that we own our need even more. 00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:37.759 And a posture of receiving that God comes down the mountain to us in the cross. 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:39.200 That's the gospel. 00:15:39.440 --> 00:15:47.519 Our sin put upon Him on the cross, His forgiveness put upon us, His righteousness put upon us, that we're forever His beloved. 00:15:48.320 --> 00:15:50.240 This is what changes our heart. 00:15:50.559 --> 00:15:53.440 Eternal life welling up within us. 00:15:54.879 --> 00:16:08.159 For me, for application this week, as I was thinking about it, I think the application comes into my spiritual practices, things like prayer or coming to church or a devotional life. 00:16:08.480 --> 00:16:15.279 These ideas of being shepherded into quiet waters by practices are not duty anymore. 00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:16.399 They're delight. 00:16:17.120 --> 00:16:22.799 For so long it was guilt motivated and then beat myself up if I'm not doing them. 00:16:22.960 --> 00:16:30.720 But now because I'm secure in Christ, they're grace motivated as a wooing to be reminded who I already am. 00:16:32.080 --> 00:16:33.919 How he actually feels about me. 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:45.440 And I get to, by the still waters, I get to the privilege to listen to the word and the spirit of how he's calling me to live. 00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:48.480 That's growth in the gospel, we would call it. 00:16:48.639 --> 00:16:50.080 Growing in grace. 00:16:51.840 --> 00:16:53.200 It's godliness. 00:16:54.159 --> 00:17:01.679 I think for my schedule, it means to slow down more, to be shepherded by the love that actually can quiet my heart. 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:09.359 For my relationships, it means to show, to just shower grace on people. 00:17:10.160 --> 00:17:11.039 Empathy. 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:12.880 Compassion. 00:17:13.759 --> 00:17:19.279 Not perfectly, by the way, but that's the movement. 00:17:20.079 --> 00:17:24.240 That's the movement we're looking for by a heart that's been quieted by his love. 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:29.200 To show compassion and empathy rather than judgment and resentment. 00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:36.240 And the question is always, will I allow him to shepherd me? 00:17:37.200 --> 00:17:47.759 Finally, into that conversation, Jesus with the thirsty woman, the woman said to him, verse 25, the woman said to him, I know that the Messiah is coming. 00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:51.680 He who is called Christ, when he comes, he will tell us all things. 00:17:51.839 --> 00:17:56.079 And Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am He. 00:17:57.039 --> 00:18:02.640 So he's leading her to quiet waters, and then he's saying, Hey, by the way, it's me. 00:18:03.200 --> 00:18:04.880 It's ultimately me. 00:18:06.160 --> 00:18:21.119 So what might happen to a person like this woman or like me or like you, who beautifully surrenders to their need, owning it more and more, surrendering to his provision, his goodness, his shepherding? 00:18:21.519 --> 00:18:23.359 What might happen to us? 00:18:23.759 --> 00:18:38.559 Well, a few chapters later in John chapter 7, verses 37 and 38, Jesus says this on the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 00:18:39.119 --> 00:18:47.440 Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. 00:18:47.680 --> 00:18:48.880 Out of his heart. 00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:51.599 So we're not talking about behavioral change. 00:18:51.839 --> 00:18:53.759 We're not talking about being moreless. 00:18:54.400 --> 00:19:18.079 We're talking about a heart that is growing more and more and being quieted by your secure belovedness with God through Christ, so secure, you're becoming more and more healed, coping less, wanting to grow in godliness, out of the heart, rivers of living water. 00:19:19.039 --> 00:19:20.799 It's a beautiful image. 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:25.359 I close with the same question from last week. 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:35.920 What if we, me and you, imperfect as we are, the mess that we can be even this morning, what ways might your heart be freed? 00:19:37.759 --> 00:19:38.720 Healed? 00:19:39.519 --> 00:19:42.240 What ways might your heart grow in godliness? 00:19:42.880 --> 00:19:50.319 If by the power of the gospel, you could say, The Lord is my shepherd. 00:19:51.119 --> 00:19:52.400 I shall not want. 00:19:53.920 --> 00:20:07.920 He makes me lie down in green pastures, and he leads me beside still waters, quiet waters, rivers inside of your heart flowing up. 00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:10.480 Living waters. 00:20:10.720 --> 00:20:12.160 Let's pray together. 00:20:13.440 --> 00:20:36.160 God, thank you for your grace and goodness to us, this image that you want to lead us, not to condemn us by dangerous waters or belittle us or limit us, but you want to lead us to quiet waters, lessening fear, calm replenishment. 00:20:39.279 --> 00:20:51.839 Help us to cry out to you more, owning our need, to know the goodness that we have in you, our belovedness, and what you want to do in our lives. 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:55.200 Help us to be able, in the grace of God, repent more. 00:20:58.160 --> 00:21:01.759 And to ask, what does living waters look like in me? 00:21:01.920 --> 00:21:03.759 What are you calling me to? 00:21:04.240 --> 00:21:06.240 What are you calling me out of? 00:21:06.960 --> 00:21:14.079 I pray that you would speak to us this morning right where we're at. 00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:17.519 For you love us right where we're at, and you are sufficient. 00:21:18.880 --> 00:21:22.000 That you are the good shepherd of our souls and our hearts. 00:21:23.440 --> 00:21:25.039 I pray this in Jesus' name. 00:21:25.279 --> 00:21:25.920 Amen.