WEBVTT 00:00:24.809 --> 00:00:25.929 Well, good morning. 00:00:26.250 --> 00:00:31.050 If you have a copy of God's Word, please turn with me to the book of Psalms. 00:00:32.890 --> 00:00:36.170 If you need a Bible, you'll see one in the pew in front of you. 00:00:36.250 --> 00:00:40.090 We're going to be looking at Psalm 23 this morning. 00:00:40.810 --> 00:00:44.090 And I want to begin this morning with a confession. 00:00:45.450 --> 00:00:48.649 I have preached Psalm 23 at funerals. 00:00:48.890 --> 00:00:55.769 I've sat at bedsides and worked through this psalm with dying saints. 00:00:56.090 --> 00:01:03.129 I've preached two sermons on this psalm a couple of summers ago to the congregation here at Faith. 00:01:03.689 --> 00:01:10.810 I thought I knew this psalm, and then last year I finally needed someone to preach it to me. 00:01:11.769 --> 00:01:18.250 It was a hard year, the kind of year that doesn't show up on the outside. 00:01:18.890 --> 00:01:33.689 The church was healthy, church is growing, ministry was moving, buildings were going up, money was being raised, but on the inside, I was coming apart. 00:01:35.209 --> 00:01:43.369 I was experiencing some pretty significant depression and anxiety in a way that I had never experienced before in my life. 00:01:43.530 --> 00:01:58.810 I could not turn my mind off, I could not settle down, and I found myself sitting in a counselor's office trying to figure out how someone who preaches grace every single Sunday had stopped receiving it. 00:02:00.329 --> 00:02:06.649 And in the middle of that season, I came back to this Psalm, Psalm 23. 00:02:07.129 --> 00:02:14.330 In the middle of that season, someone also handed me a book by David Gibson, The Lord of Psalm 23. 00:02:14.490 --> 00:02:22.650 Much of that I will share with you, and I owe a lot to him for the things I'll share and his work, the things I'll share with you this morning. 00:02:22.969 --> 00:02:27.849 But that book was like water to a weary soul. 00:02:29.129 --> 00:02:34.090 And I suspect that many of you in this room this morning have been there. 00:02:34.810 --> 00:02:41.610 Weary on the inside, but everything on the outside looked just fine. 00:02:42.570 --> 00:02:51.770 We have given our lives to a calling as ministers of the gospel that is impossible to measure. 00:02:53.050 --> 00:02:55.930 There's the criticism that keeps coming. 00:02:56.570 --> 00:03:05.290 There's the person who walks away from your church very disappointed in your shepherding, very disappointed in your ministry. 00:03:06.170 --> 00:03:14.650 There is the misunderstandings being misunderstood, and you can't correct it. 00:03:15.850 --> 00:03:25.770 There's the things at home and the personal struggles that you have that you bring into the pulpit every single Sunday morning. 00:03:26.010 --> 00:03:33.930 We tend to everyone else's internal life while quietly we neglect our own. 00:03:34.409 --> 00:03:48.090 We spend our lives shepherding others, and oftentimes we're the last ones in the room to admit that the shepherd still needs shepherding themselves. 00:03:49.689 --> 00:03:52.490 Psalm 23 is for us. 00:03:53.370 --> 00:03:55.850 This is not a psalm about death. 00:03:56.810 --> 00:03:59.130 This is not a psalm for funerals. 00:03:59.370 --> 00:04:01.370 This is a song about life. 00:04:01.930 --> 00:04:05.050 This is a psalm about all of life. 00:04:05.370 --> 00:04:11.130 David wrote this psalm in the middle of his story, not at the end of his story. 00:04:12.090 --> 00:04:25.610 And this morning, what I want to do is I want us to let Psalm 23 speak to us, not to our congregation, to us. 00:04:26.810 --> 00:04:29.850 And so with that in mind, follow along with me. 00:04:30.089 --> 00:04:32.649 This is God's word, Psalm 23. 00:04:34.889 --> 00:04:36.889 The Lord is my shepherd. 00:04:37.129 --> 00:04:38.490 I shall not want. 00:04:39.290 --> 00:04:45.049 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters. 00:04:45.289 --> 00:04:47.129 He restores my soul. 00:04:48.089 --> 00:04:52.089 He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 00:04:52.569 --> 00:04:58.329 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. 00:04:59.049 --> 00:05:02.009 Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 00:05:03.289 --> 00:05:06.889 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. 00:05:07.049 --> 00:05:08.969 You anoint my head with oil. 00:05:09.289 --> 00:05:11.209 My cup overflows. 00:05:11.529 --> 00:05:20.250 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. 00:05:20.649 --> 00:05:29.370 Let me pray and ask the Lord to come to be with us as we hear the word and with the one who preaches as well this morning. 00:05:29.529 --> 00:05:30.649 Let's pray. 00:05:32.009 --> 00:05:38.329 Father, I want to ask you to do two things this morning. 00:05:40.569 --> 00:05:43.209 Holy Spirit, I want you to come into this room. 00:05:43.370 --> 00:05:45.370 It's no accident that we're here. 00:05:45.609 --> 00:05:49.449 You have brought us here to hear this word today. 00:05:52.409 --> 00:05:59.289 And in this room, we some of us have this psalm memorized. 00:06:00.089 --> 00:06:03.449 Some of us have preached on it many, many times. 00:06:03.689 --> 00:06:05.529 We know this psalm. 00:06:07.049 --> 00:06:09.529 And I want you to make it fresh. 00:06:11.370 --> 00:06:15.049 I want you, Holy Spirit, to put us on the edge of our seats. 00:06:16.169 --> 00:06:23.289 As if we're hearing this word for the first time, I pray that you would come and speak, O Lord, speak. 00:06:23.769 --> 00:06:25.370 We are listening. 00:06:27.370 --> 00:06:34.649 And secondly, I pray that we would all have a powerful encounter with Jesus this morning. 00:06:36.089 --> 00:06:38.169 Through this word, through your spirit. 00:06:38.329 --> 00:06:41.129 Lord, we we don't want to go through the motions. 00:06:42.729 --> 00:06:44.250 We want to be different. 00:06:44.490 --> 00:06:46.649 We want to be led to repentance. 00:06:48.009 --> 00:07:00.969 And I pray that you would show us just how good you are, and that it would change us and renew us and strengthen us and nourish our souls. 00:07:01.769 --> 00:07:02.969 In Jesus' name. 00:07:03.289 --> 00:07:03.930 Amen. 00:07:05.209 --> 00:07:09.289 Three things I want us to look at in this passage, in this psalm. 00:07:09.529 --> 00:07:13.689 First, the shepherd, secondly, the valley, lastly, the table. 00:07:14.089 --> 00:07:16.810 The shepherd, the valley, the table. 00:07:17.049 --> 00:07:19.689 Our first heading, the shepherd. 00:07:19.769 --> 00:07:21.769 Look at verses one through three. 00:07:22.649 --> 00:07:28.329 We race past this opening line oftentimes to get to the green pastures. 00:07:29.129 --> 00:07:35.849 And we shouldn't do that because really the first word is the most important word of the psalm. 00:07:36.889 --> 00:07:37.849 The Lord. 00:07:38.649 --> 00:07:42.889 You know this, all caps in your English Bible, that is Yahweh. 00:07:43.129 --> 00:07:45.529 That is the covenant name of God. 00:07:47.289 --> 00:07:50.569 The God who thundered on Mount Sinai. 00:07:52.089 --> 00:08:02.810 The God who spoke the world into being, the God who created all things and who sustains all things, the God who parted the Red Sea. 00:08:03.049 --> 00:08:06.329 In other words, this is no weak presence. 00:08:07.689 --> 00:08:09.849 This is the Lord of hosts. 00:08:10.729 --> 00:08:16.969 And David says, That God is my shepherd. 00:08:18.490 --> 00:08:22.569 Not a shepherd, not a shepherd in a general sense. 00:08:22.889 --> 00:08:33.450 My shepherd, the great God of the universe, has stooped down to personally shepherd you. 00:08:35.129 --> 00:08:41.129 And notice here, really, from start to finish, the language used to describe your shepherd. 00:08:42.250 --> 00:08:44.810 Notice how active he is. 00:08:45.610 --> 00:08:52.409 You look at the passage, he makes, he leads, he restores, he is with me, he prepares, he anoints. 00:08:53.210 --> 00:09:04.090 And if that's true, if Yahweh is your shepherd, then what follows makes complete sense and is inevitable. 00:09:05.449 --> 00:09:06.970 I shall not want. 00:09:08.409 --> 00:09:20.090 Better translated, I shall lack nothing, or as one scholar renders it, if the Lord is my shepherd, well, what more do I need? 00:09:21.850 --> 00:09:32.169 And the Psalm assures us here, and what is assumed is that everyone has a shepherd, that everyone is following something. 00:09:32.329 --> 00:09:41.850 In other words, everyone is looking for someone to care for them, something to protect them, to give them peace and to give them life. 00:09:42.009 --> 00:09:45.610 And so the question is never whether you have a shepherd. 00:09:46.649 --> 00:09:49.370 The question is which one? 00:09:50.169 --> 00:10:12.889 And you see the brutal irony for these of us, those of us who are in ministry is that the thing that most likely draws us away from God is actually and wants to shepherd us, and that we look to to shepherd us, is actually within ministry itself. 00:10:15.370 --> 00:10:23.129 The approval of our congregation, or the metrics of our church, or the reputation that we've spent years building. 00:10:23.929 --> 00:10:28.889 Those are not bad things, but they are terrible shepherds. 00:10:30.490 --> 00:10:36.569 Because they keep you performing long after you have nothing left. 00:10:38.250 --> 00:10:41.129 And friends, that performance is crushing. 00:10:42.730 --> 00:10:45.370 Performance is a crushing shepherd. 00:10:46.569 --> 00:10:54.889 And I know that because I've spent most of my ministry following that shepherd without realizing it. 00:10:56.569 --> 00:10:59.850 And it looks like faithfulness on the outside. 00:11:00.970 --> 00:11:03.370 But you know what it feels like on the inside? 00:11:04.490 --> 00:11:06.809 It feels like you're suffocating. 00:11:09.049 --> 00:11:14.090 When the Lord is your shepherd, it means we can stop. 00:11:15.850 --> 00:11:17.610 That we can slow down. 00:11:18.409 --> 00:11:20.169 We don't have to earn our way to God. 00:11:20.329 --> 00:11:23.449 We don't have to maintain everyone's perceptions of us. 00:11:23.689 --> 00:11:30.009 We don't have to keep all of the plates spinning in order to justify our place in his pasture. 00:11:30.250 --> 00:11:35.449 The shepherd has done everything to save us. 00:11:36.169 --> 00:11:40.090 He has done everything to make us a sheep in his flock. 00:11:40.329 --> 00:11:42.169 We already belong to him. 00:11:42.649 --> 00:11:46.329 And you see it in the passage, which means we can lie down. 00:11:47.850 --> 00:11:51.370 Sheep only lie down when they are free. 00:11:52.809 --> 00:11:57.610 Free from conflict and fear and pest and hunger. 00:11:58.809 --> 00:12:01.289 The shepherd handles all of it. 00:12:02.250 --> 00:12:09.449 A good shepherd removes all of those threats so that we can actually lie down. 00:12:10.649 --> 00:12:12.569 He makes us lie down. 00:12:14.329 --> 00:12:15.929 And he restores our soul. 00:12:16.090 --> 00:12:18.409 And the word restore there is very interesting. 00:12:18.490 --> 00:12:28.409 It means to bring back, it means to restore or to help someone breathe again. 00:12:29.689 --> 00:12:32.889 And so think about that in the context of sheep. 00:12:33.129 --> 00:12:41.929 They're found helpless when they're on their back, they're unable to fix themselves, and they are dying a slow death. 00:12:43.210 --> 00:12:47.769 And the only one that can fix them is the shepherd. 00:12:50.169 --> 00:12:52.090 Jesus finds you. 00:12:53.370 --> 00:12:56.809 Jesus restores you and he brings you back. 00:12:57.529 --> 00:13:01.610 You see, there comes a point in ministry when the reserves run dry. 00:13:02.730 --> 00:13:17.449 When you've given the sermon, you've made the hospital visit, you've handled the conflict, you've absorbed the criticism, and then somewhere in the middle of all of it, quietly, oftentimes without even noticing, you have wandered off. 00:13:19.210 --> 00:13:20.730 And it's not dramatic. 00:13:20.889 --> 00:13:22.970 It's not some major crisis of faith. 00:13:23.129 --> 00:13:40.889 You've just drifted, and your soul has become and just worn so thin and so frayed, and you're completely exhausted, and your inner life that fuels everything else, we know this, you start running on fumes. 00:13:42.490 --> 00:13:44.569 And you know what the shepherd does? 00:13:47.129 --> 00:13:48.649 He comes looking. 00:14:02.409 --> 00:14:07.129 No, Jesus, the shepherd, remember, leaves the 99 to go after the one. 00:14:07.289 --> 00:14:10.970 The only reason he does it is because you matter. 00:14:13.370 --> 00:14:19.049 And that is important, not because of your ministry or how many people show up on Sunday morning. 00:14:19.370 --> 00:14:20.809 You matter to him. 00:14:21.769 --> 00:14:24.569 We matter to him because we are his. 00:14:26.649 --> 00:14:38.970 And so when he finds you weary and depleted and flat, this shepherd doesn't stand over you with a clipboard. 00:14:40.730 --> 00:14:48.250 No, he puts you on his shoulders, and he carries you home, rejoicing. 00:14:49.529 --> 00:14:51.210 This is your shepherd. 00:14:52.329 --> 00:14:55.449 That is who God is towards you. 00:14:57.129 --> 00:14:58.730 Secondly, the valley. 00:14:59.370 --> 00:15:00.970 Notice the flow of the psalm. 00:15:01.129 --> 00:15:03.129 Look at verses one through three. 00:15:03.449 --> 00:15:07.210 We get this leading, providing, restoring, guiding. 00:15:07.289 --> 00:15:10.569 He's out ahead of the sheep, active, initiating. 00:15:10.649 --> 00:15:12.169 And then look at verse four. 00:15:12.409 --> 00:15:14.649 The sheep start walking. 00:15:16.569 --> 00:15:18.569 And notice where they start walking. 00:15:18.649 --> 00:15:19.769 Where are they going? 00:15:22.409 --> 00:15:24.730 Well, they're going into the valley. 00:15:26.169 --> 00:15:28.889 Look at verse 3, leads directly. 00:15:29.049 --> 00:15:35.289 The path of righteousness leads directly into the valley of deep darkness in verse 4. 00:15:35.370 --> 00:15:38.250 This is not a detour from the shepherd's plan. 00:15:38.809 --> 00:15:41.210 This is the shepherd's plan. 00:15:43.370 --> 00:15:48.329 We tend to think that the valley is the place where God is absent. 00:15:49.210 --> 00:15:51.929 Well, this psalm will not let us go there. 00:15:52.970 --> 00:16:11.049 If you are in the valley, it is because the shepherd has left you there, because it is there that he has things for us to learn and ways that we can grow that we cannot grow and learn in anywhere anywhere else and in any other way. 00:16:11.610 --> 00:16:31.769 Elizabeth Elliott tells this story about watching a shepherd with his sheep in North Wales, and she says the shepherd would dip the sheep into this pool of disinfectant in order to kill the parasites and the diseases that are living within the shepherd or within the sheep's wool. 00:16:33.129 --> 00:16:39.449 And as she describes it, she talks about how much the sheep actually hate what is happening. 00:16:40.889 --> 00:16:54.009 That they're really struggling, they're bleating, they're desperate, they are crying out, they're doing everything in their power to not let this happen. 00:16:54.169 --> 00:17:06.090 But the sheep, she said, what was interesting is right when they look like they're getting some relief, the shepherd takes them and one more time pushes them under again the disinfectant. 00:17:08.090 --> 00:17:18.569 And then she wrote, I wonder what it feels like to think that your shepherd is trying to kill you. 00:17:22.490 --> 00:17:25.450 That's what the valley feels like sometimes. 00:17:26.970 --> 00:17:31.930 It feels like the care has gone away. 00:17:33.849 --> 00:17:39.129 That the shepherd's care has stopped, like you are all alone in the dark. 00:17:41.129 --> 00:17:58.970 And I lived that in the last year, and the thing that I had preached for 25 years to my students in RUF and to this congregation for 10 years, that God is, He's present in the darkness in that moment was the thing that I was struggling to believe. 00:18:00.569 --> 00:18:09.210 And what made it harder was that there is almost no category in the world for a pastor to say out loud, I am not okay. 00:18:12.170 --> 00:18:15.529 Because pastors are not supposed to need shepherding. 00:18:15.769 --> 00:18:19.690 We are the ones that are supposed to be doing the shepherding. 00:18:21.930 --> 00:18:24.889 Notice the pronoun shift in verse 4. 00:18:25.369 --> 00:18:35.769 Up to this point, David has been talking about God, but in the valley, notice what changes gets really, really personal. 00:18:37.210 --> 00:18:38.569 It becomes you. 00:18:39.849 --> 00:18:41.450 You are with me. 00:18:43.129 --> 00:18:46.329 Your rod and your staff are with me. 00:18:46.569 --> 00:18:53.210 And the deepest, darkest part of this psalm is when it gets the most personal, and that is not an accident. 00:18:54.329 --> 00:19:00.889 The comfort in the valley is not that God removes the darkness, it's that he enters into the darkness. 00:19:01.049 --> 00:19:04.410 And remember who enters into the darkness with us. 00:19:05.849 --> 00:19:07.529 Not a weak God. 00:19:09.450 --> 00:19:27.129 Yahweh, the one who thundered on Sinai and parted the Red Sea, the Lord of hosts, that God is the one who enters in and is in the valley with us, and he stays. 00:19:27.289 --> 00:19:35.210 And look at what he's carrying: the rod, his authority, his power, representing his power. 00:19:35.609 --> 00:19:40.490 The rod is what he would use to count every single sheep at the end of the day. 00:19:42.490 --> 00:19:44.329 You are accounted for. 00:20:57.289 --> 00:20:58.250 It is a hotel. 00:20:58.410 --> 00:21:00.009 It is not your home. 00:21:01.690 --> 00:21:06.250 You are passing through, and you are not passing through alone. 00:21:07.690 --> 00:21:09.529 The shepherd is with you. 00:21:10.490 --> 00:21:12.329 He has not looked away. 00:21:14.329 --> 00:21:16.410 He is not disappointed in you. 00:21:17.930 --> 00:21:20.970 The Lord of hosts is with you. 00:21:22.569 --> 00:21:24.089 Lastly, the table. 00:21:24.329 --> 00:21:25.849 Look at verse five. 00:21:26.569 --> 00:21:29.210 Notice the imagery shifts here. 00:21:30.089 --> 00:21:34.250 And we move from the shepherd and sheep to host and guest. 00:21:35.529 --> 00:21:40.490 And this little detail stops me every single time when I read this psalm. 00:21:42.170 --> 00:21:46.170 You set a table, notice where. 00:21:49.210 --> 00:21:52.410 In the presence of my enemies. 00:21:54.410 --> 00:22:06.650 Notice it's not when the criticism is stopped, not when the difficult season in your church has passed and things finally start turning a corner. 00:22:08.650 --> 00:22:23.129 No, right in the middle of that, when the wolves are still circling, when ministry is still hard, when the results are still invisible, when people misunderstand you and they leave and they never come back, right? 00:22:23.930 --> 00:22:38.730 There, in that, God sets a lavish table for you and hosts you in the middle of that mess. 00:22:39.849 --> 00:22:47.450 In the ancient Near East, anointing a guest with oil was one of the highest privileges that a host could extend. 00:22:50.009 --> 00:22:52.170 And God does that for you. 00:22:54.970 --> 00:22:56.730 He's that kind of God. 00:22:58.809 --> 00:23:30.490 I love David Gibson says here, yes, God has a rod and a staff in his hands, but he also has perfume and oil and wine in his hands as a way to say God is not a tightwad, that he's generous and he's kind and he's full of abundance and he is extravagant towards his people. 00:23:33.210 --> 00:23:41.129 And my question for us this morning is: is that what your God is like this morning? 00:23:43.369 --> 00:24:03.930 Or has God quietly become someone you worked for rather than someone who is abundant and who is generous and who is kind and who overwhelms you with that kindness and abundance. 00:24:06.970 --> 00:24:09.129 Your cup overflows. 00:24:11.049 --> 00:24:15.690 It doesn't trickle, it overflows. 00:24:17.210 --> 00:24:18.490 Verse six. 00:24:19.769 --> 00:24:24.089 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. 00:24:24.170 --> 00:24:25.609 Don't miss the word surely. 00:24:25.690 --> 00:24:31.930 If you follow the footnote in the ESV, you see it can also be translated only. 00:24:33.690 --> 00:24:35.129 So think about that. 00:24:36.009 --> 00:24:41.690 Only goodness and mercy shall follow me every single day. 00:24:42.170 --> 00:24:50.089 Now that is an astonishing claim, not mostly goodness, not goodness just when I deserve it. 00:24:51.529 --> 00:24:57.769 Only goodness and only mercy shall follow you all the days of your life. 00:24:59.849 --> 00:25:02.170 And then the word there, follow. 00:25:03.930 --> 00:25:07.210 Commentators will tell you that's a pretty weak rendering. 00:25:08.410 --> 00:25:13.049 Because at the heart of this, the meaning, it's more pursuit. 00:25:14.009 --> 00:25:20.170 And so goodness and mercy are not just trailing along behind you at a polite distance. 00:25:20.410 --> 00:25:26.329 No, they are chasing you down and pursuing you. 00:25:27.369 --> 00:25:28.970 Every time, think about that. 00:25:29.129 --> 00:25:47.210 Every time you look over your shoulder, when you've preached the sermon that didn't quite land the way you wanted it to, you preached the sermon that you knew wasn't ready. 00:25:49.849 --> 00:26:06.009 When you led and you led poorly, and you end up making a mess, or you wondered in your honest moments, am I even cut out for this? 00:26:07.769 --> 00:26:11.769 Do I even need to be in the ministry at all? 00:26:13.609 --> 00:26:19.369 Or when there's a gap, you know the gap in your life? 00:26:19.609 --> 00:26:20.809 You feel that? 00:26:21.369 --> 00:26:25.210 Between who you want to be and who you actually are? 00:26:27.049 --> 00:26:36.569 Every single time that you look back, what is pursuing you is not condemnation and not disappointment. 00:26:37.049 --> 00:26:41.049 It is goodness and it is mercy. 00:26:44.170 --> 00:26:48.490 The Lord appears, did you notice in the Psalm by name only twice? 00:26:48.809 --> 00:26:49.769 Book ends. 00:26:50.250 --> 00:26:51.289 That's significant. 00:26:51.529 --> 00:26:53.769 Verse one and verse six. 00:26:54.329 --> 00:26:57.049 He encompasses the entire psalm. 00:26:57.369 --> 00:26:58.809 So think about this. 00:26:59.289 --> 00:27:00.730 Verses one through three. 00:27:00.809 --> 00:27:03.930 Remember, he's ahead of us, leading and guiding. 00:27:04.889 --> 00:27:10.250 Verse four, he's with you in the valley. 00:27:10.490 --> 00:27:16.730 Verse six, he is behind you and pursuing you with goodness and mercy. 00:27:17.849 --> 00:27:29.849 There is no direction in your life and in your ministry, no direction in your life and ministry where you can turn and the shepherd is not there. 00:27:32.809 --> 00:27:35.849 And then the question is well, how is this possible? 00:27:38.170 --> 00:27:51.769 Well, you know, David had no idea how good and just how merciful God really was when he wrote this song. 00:27:53.049 --> 00:27:58.009 Because century later, God would take on flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. 00:27:59.690 --> 00:28:07.289 And Jesus would come in John chapter 10, and he would say, I am the good shepherd. 00:28:08.809 --> 00:28:15.369 And I lay down my life for my sheep, and I lay my no one takes my life from me. 00:28:16.889 --> 00:28:21.129 I lay my damn my life down for my sheep on my own accord. 00:28:22.889 --> 00:28:43.210 And this shepherd didn't just walk through the valley of the shadow of death, he walked into death itself, absorbing the darkness so that only goodness and mercy would follow his people all the days of their lives. 00:28:43.930 --> 00:28:50.329 Who in the world, you know about sheep, you know who they are and how to describe them. 00:28:50.569 --> 00:28:55.289 Who in the world would voluntarily die for sheep? 00:28:57.609 --> 00:28:59.129 Well, Jesus would. 00:29:01.930 --> 00:29:08.009 And if he loved you enough to die for you, Jesus will keep you to the end. 00:29:09.930 --> 00:29:52.410 And there is this great passage that's easy to miss in Revelation chapter seven, where the multitudes are gathered around the throne, and it says, The Lamb will be their shepherd, and he will guide them, think about Psalm twenty-three, to streams of living water, and then it says, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, every tear, including the ones that ministry cost you. 00:29:54.809 --> 00:29:57.049 Will your reputation do that? 00:30:00.170 --> 00:30:02.089 Will buildings do that? 00:30:04.490 --> 00:30:07.849 Will your ministry do that in metrics? 00:30:10.970 --> 00:30:12.490 Only Jesus. 00:30:13.450 --> 00:30:16.089 Because Jesus is the good shepherd. 00:30:16.970 --> 00:30:24.250 There was a young Scottish boy, and I'll close with this, who was from the Highlands and he lost his parents very early on. 00:30:24.329 --> 00:30:32.650 So he's very young when he moved to stay with his grandfather, and his grandfather was an old man and uneducated. 00:30:32.970 --> 00:30:43.129 And the only way he knew how to teach this young boy uh the scriptures was through um him calling out the words on his finger. 00:30:43.369 --> 00:30:48.490 So he would take his left hand and we was teaching him Psalm 23, and he had a word. 00:30:48.569 --> 00:30:50.569 Uh, for every word there was a finger. 00:30:50.730 --> 00:30:53.769 So the Lord is my shepherd. 00:30:54.250 --> 00:30:58.730 The Lord, the Lord is my shepherd. 00:30:58.809 --> 00:31:01.450 So my here is on the pinky finger. 00:31:02.889 --> 00:31:19.129 And then the boy learned this psalm, and as he got older, a little bit older, he was a shepherd himself, and then one day he got swept off this mountain because of a horrible blizzard that came through, and he never came home. 00:31:19.450 --> 00:31:32.009 But they found this young boy the next morning, and he was frozen to death, but his right hand was wrapped tightly around the fourth finger of his left hand, like this. 00:31:33.930 --> 00:31:34.250 My. 00:31:36.889 --> 00:31:40.970 The Lord is my shepherd. 00:31:43.849 --> 00:31:53.609 Friends, the gospel that you give to your people every single week and that you preach is the same gospel you need. 00:31:54.809 --> 00:31:56.650 It's the gospel I need. 00:31:57.609 --> 00:32:00.089 It's the gospel that holds us. 00:32:01.930 --> 00:32:10.730 The shepherd that is faithful to shepherd your congregation is the same shepherd that will be faithful to shepherd you. 00:32:12.170 --> 00:32:20.329 And that goodness and mercy that we look at our people and say it's chasing them down when they fail. 00:32:21.049 --> 00:32:27.450 Well, that same goodness and mercy is chasing you down when you fail. 00:32:28.970 --> 00:32:34.250 You see, you're not just a shepherd, you're a sheep. 00:32:36.009 --> 00:32:38.089 And your shepherd is the Lord. 00:32:38.970 --> 00:32:39.529 Amen. 00:32:40.569 --> 00:32:41.930 Let's pray. 00:32:46.490 --> 00:32:49.450 Father, thank you for this wonderful psalm. 00:32:49.609 --> 00:32:57.769 Thank you for answering our prayer and for being with us this morning and meeting us in this place through your word. 00:32:58.809 --> 00:33:07.769 Thank you that you comfort us with your rod and your staff and that you pursue us only with goodness and mercy. 00:33:08.809 --> 00:33:17.289 We also thank you for this promise that we will dwell in your house all the days of our life forever. 00:33:17.690 --> 00:33:19.849 Be with us now as we come to your table. 00:33:20.009 --> 00:33:21.369 In Jesus' name. 00:33:21.690 --> 00:33:22.329 Amen.