The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 6: I Shall Not Want

Episode Date: May 29, 2022

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. – Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd.

Amen and amen. How we doing, church? Good. Man, you sounded extra good today. Everybody stood up straight, grab your Bible, go to Psalm Chapter 23, lean in. We're going to have a good time. Psalm 23, very, very famous Psalm. As you're turning there, by the way, I just want to point out Travis Cummings, the guy in that video as one of our state representatives, and you guys know that we have been doing, we have launched campuses in prisons over the last several years, and Travis leveraged his influence in Tallahassee to get us into those prisons. That dude is how we got in there.

So that's pretty cool. And if you're into that, which you better be, we've got more information coming this fall for more prison ministry, but I can't tell you about it. You've got to come back in the fall. All right. Psalm, chapter 23, very famous Psalm.

Even if you're brand new to Bible study, you've heard about this one, okay? If you've ever been to a funeral, you've heard this one. In fact, as I was prepping for it, I was reminded that way back when I was in the sixth grade, back in the 1900s. my sixth grade English teacher, we had to memorize all these poems and Shakespeare

and all this stuff that I can't remember. But one of the things we memorized as a class was the 23rd Psalm. And boy, how things have changed, right? And so, but she said, just regardless of what you believe, in order to, like, being American, you've got to know this one because this text has been a pillar

to people in our country for hundreds of years. Matters a bunch. Again, it's very, very famous. It's a Psalm of comfort. and boy do we need that right now amen so psalm 23 even if it's brand new to you i hope you're brand new or familiar i hope you'll dig in it starts out this way very familiar words the lord is my shepherd now i told you this a couple weeks ago so i know that you remember this but when the bible in english says lord capital l capital o capital r capital d that is referencing the covenant name of god yahweh

yahweh is the name that god gave to moses through the burning bush and he says to Moses, go to Pharaoh and say, let my people go. This is the covenant name of God where God was saying that he was going to squish Pharaoh, that he was going to bring ten plagues, that he was going to bring the plague of the firstborn and the plague of the sun and the plague of the Nile turned into blood. This almighty sovereign king was going to part the Red Sea and then have the Red Sea cave back in on the armies of Pharaoh. And yet David says, that king, that sovereign, that sovereign,

That judge is my shepherd. That God is the sovereign king of the universe, but he also wants to be your personal, intimate shepherd. He says, the Lord is my shepherd. Takes a lot of humility for God to be known as a shepherd, because just so you know that shepherds, it was very, very, very, very low-class work back in the day. and maybe, maybe David wrote this later in his life.

We don't know when he wrote the 23rd Psalm. I think because of some of the depths of the emotions that he goes through in the 23rd Psalm, I think maybe David is later in his life and he's remembering back to those days when he wasn't in charge of all of Israel. All he was in charge in was just a few sheep. Some of you big boss types, big CEO, started your own company kind of people. Don't you ever just sometimes remember back to the days where you had like one job and that's all you, did. Nobody called you at night. Nobody bothered you. Nobody was trying to kill you. And he's like, oh, I remember those days. The Lord is my shepherd. Now, what's interesting is that Jesus says that he's

the good shepherd, John chapter 10, that he's the good shepherd. And every single one of us, if we are a follower of Jesus, we are supposed to be like him. And lots of us have opportunities to be shepherds. If you're a parent, you should be a shepherd. Teacher, coach, boss. teamate, that we have an opportunity to be a shepherd. In the New Testament, the word shepherd and pastor are the same word. That's kind of neat, but it kind of makes me nervous a little bit. The reason it makes me nervous that we're called shepherds, and I mean this for all of us, is that in our Western Americanized, individual kind of world that we live in,

we got a whole bunch of cowboys and not very many shepherds. And let me just be honest, cowboys are awesome. Cowboys are cool. Who doesn't love a good cowboy? Anybody watching Yellowstone right now, all right? Sinners, I can't believe you people. I'm just kidding. So good, isn't it?

I'm just going to go on record. RIP is the coolest dude who has ever been on TV in the history of TV. All right? He is, man. I mean, when he steps up, says, you want to fight, fight me? I wish that was in the Proverbs. I swear I wish it was. He's cool, man.

Who don't want to be a cowboy? But the problem is the Bible has not called us to be cowboys. The Bible has called us to be shepherds, and they're very, very different. You see, cowboys count heads of cattle. And shepherds know their sheep. That's different. Every pastor's conference I speak at, which is a bunch of them,

all over the place all the time. Do you know what? Everybody asks me all the time. How many are you running? How many did you have at Easter? You know what? Nobody ever asked me? What's the condition of the flock?

See the difference? You see, cowboys just count numbers. Shepherds care about the sheep. You see, cowboys just fatten up. the calf so when they take them to slaughter, they can make more money. But shepherds feed the sheep. This is, by the way, while we go verse by verse through the Bible, because my job is not to entertain you.

My job is not just to give you cotton candy so you'll feel good for the day and then die because you're starving to death. My job is to feed you the Word of God and, more importantly, teach you to eat on the Word of God so you're not just swinging your big umbilical cord around here like a fat baby. If you notice how a cowboy leads, the cowboys in the back, making a bunch of noise, pushing everybody. And a shepherd goes first and says, follow my voice. And like Paul says in 1st, Corinthians 111, follow me as I follow Jesus as I follow my good shepherd. And then maybe the one that scares me the most is this. Cowboys love being a cowboy. And shepherds love the sheep. That's

different, man. I mean, did you know that you could be a cowboy and not have a cow? You realize that? Like we have cowboy stores in Jacksonville, and you can go by cowboy boots, which I typically wear, and cowboy jeans. I got wranglers and cowboy shirts and cowboy bet buckles and cowboy hats, and I have all those cowboy things, and I don't know a cow. Do you realize what I'm talking about? That there are even games or cowboys compete against other cowboys to see who the best cowboy is. I ain't ever seen a shepherd's store.

You ever seen a shepherd's store? You'd be like, hey, could I get like a shepherd's crook and like a Jedi robe and some weird sandals? No, man, ain't nobody trying to be a shepherd. What I mean by this, man, there's a lot of people. Sometimes there are people in ministry that love ministry more than they love the people that they minister to. You understand what I'm saying? It's kind of scary.

I bring all that up just to say this. And I speak on behalf of Gretchen also. One of the greatest honors in my entire life is to get the shepherd this flock. And you guys are the best. You guys are the best. Not all of you, but most of you are the best. Okay. And the only reason I get to do what I do is because we have a staff full of

shepherds. And any time you bump into a staff member of 1122, like when you pick your kids up and see all that kind of stuff, I need you to say thank you, thank you, thank you, because they do such a good job. Amen? The Lord is my shepherd. Let me ask you this. Is he your shepherd? Is he your shepherd? What's crazy is he will be your shepherd if you'll simply stop and say, I would like for you to be my shepherd. That's all it takes. It's for you to ask him for a favor. God, I got a favor.

Will you be my shepherd? He will answer that with a yes, 100% of the time. The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want. When I memorized it in the sixth grade, I thought, well, if he's your shepherd, why don't you want him? That's not what it means. The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not be in want. But it doesn't mean exactly what we think it means. Some translations translate it, and I lack nothing.

That's what it means. Because there's some things that we want. There's some righteous things that we want. Like I want all my one more is to come to Christ. I want the Bulldogs to win another national championship. Let's go ahead and keep that rolling. That's God glorifying, I'm sure. I want my kids to be like Psalm 1 planted by streams of running water

and all that they do prosper. I want that, don't you? It's not, there's nothing wrong with wanting. God puts those wants and desires in us. What he is saying is that with you that I lack for nothing. that because you are my shepherd, there are no temporary things of this world that could fully and finally satisfy me

because all that I need is in you. The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall have no one. Now, everybody's into it so far. Regardless of what you believe about the Lord or whatever, man. Who don't want a shepherd like this? This is good stuff. The shepherd that meets all of my deepest desires. I'll take that.

Verse two is going to offend you, especially if you're younger. He makes me, but, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on. No, no, no, nobody makes me do anything. All right, well, I got a newsflash for you there, sunshine. Guess what? This shepherd makes people do stuff. He makes you do stuff. And he's like, not me?

Well, then you're going to need another shepherd. In fact, if the Lord has not made you do some stuff that you don't want to do, then guess who your Lord is? You. There's all kind of things in the Bible that he makes me do that I don't want to do. Like confess my sin, admit when I'm wrong, ask for forgiveness, okay? And this shepherd would love you another. to make you do things that he knows are better for you than if he left it up to you.

He makes me lie down in green pastures. First of all, he's going to make you lie down. Now, God created us to live in a Sabbath rhythm so that regularly we stop and we rest and we find our rest in him so that we can be ready to do what he has called us to do. Now, your options are you can lie down or you can lie down. That's how this thing goes. You can either live in the room. that God created you to live in,

or you can just burn out and you will lay down. Like you can bow or you can bow. These are your options. And I need you to see that when the shepherd makes us lie down, it's because he loves us and it's a gift to us. That living our life in Sabbath rhythms are God's gift to us. Think about it. Before anything had ever gone wrong in the world,

God created human beings. He creates Adam. Adam wakes up. He's face to face with God. And then God puts him to sleep, and he wakes up, and there's his name. this naked wife and Adam's like, this is awesome, put me to sleep again, this is going great. And so then there's Adam and Eve. They've been given the cultural mandate, subdue and

cultivate, to be fruitful and multiply. Can you imagine? Their first full day of human existence, you know what they do? Nothing. Nothing. They're created on the sixth day and then can you imagine like, what are we going to do tomorrow, boss? He's like, nothing. He's like, are you sure? Because we've got a lot to do. We've got the cultural mandate. We've got to subdue and cultivate. I'm really excited about this be fruitful and multiply thing that you commanded us to? What are we doing? He goes, here's what you're going to do. I need you to orient yourself in such a way that you realize that I am before all things. And if you get that out of whack, I don't care how you orient your life. Your whole life will be disoriented. We have a good shepherd that makes us lay down in green

pastures. I read a book by a guy named Philip Keller. He's a shepherd. His book is called A Shepherd's Look at Psalm 23. And he shared a bunch of shepherd stuff in there. It's pretty cool. By the way, he said the only time sheep would lie down in a green pasture is because they are full. They're content. He also makes it abundantly clear that when the Bible calls us sheep, not a compliment. You see, because when we hear sheep because of like the Bible bookstore, we think of those pictures of like Swedish Jesus, blonde hair, no split ends, English accent, Miss America's Sash, petting just a big fluffily sheep. Hello, sheep.

That's not who he is. Have you ever seen a sheep from far away, man, they're great. They're lovely. They look nice and fluffy. You get real close to them? They're stinky. They're dingy. They're dirty.

And God goes, know who that reminds me of? Us. That's what it is. By the way, not only are they stinky and dingy and dirty. They're dumb. Sheep are the dumbest animal on the planet. Sheep cannot determine or distinguish between poisonous things to eat and good food to eat. that is why a shepherd has to lead them into green pastures

or they will eat things that kill them. Can you believe that there's an animal on the planet that is so dumb that it would ingest things into its body that would kill it? Can you believe that? And so this shepherd makes them lie down in green pastures. Not only are they dumb, but they're about worthless. Did you know, every other animal on the planet

has a fight or flight kind of mechanism? They can either go camouflage or fly away or run away or have sharp teeth and claws. Not the sheep. Can't outrun anything. It's white out there in the middle of, you know, the woods. And in fact, it's got no claws, no sharp teeth. From head to toe, it has Velcro,

so anything that wants to eat it can have a good grip as it just eats it up. You realize this. I mean, what other animal on the planet needs a full-time employee to be out there with the animal to make sure it can make it until tomorrow? Small humans and sheep. That's it.

everything else is pretty good on its own. And when God says, you know what, these things need a babysitter, he goes, that reminds me to somebody. In fact, they're so dumb that they don't really pay attention to what's going on. And sometimes they can topple over because they've got a little too much wool, and they become what's called cast. And when a sheep falls over, he can't get his fat self back over onto his feet and his legs fall asleep and he just lays there until he dies unless there's a shepherd to like prop him back up on O'4 and massage his legs so they got to get the tingles, you know what I'm talking about, and then he can walk away.

This is the church. It's you and me. And he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me besides still waters. Do you know why the shepherd has to lead the sheep besides still water because the sheep will see like running water, will see the white water and be so enamored with it that it'll go stick his head down in the rapids

and the wool will get saturated and then he'll fall in and drown. That sheep are so dumb that they can take a good gift of God, fresh water, and treat it in such a way that it kills him. Can you believe there's that kind of animal on the planet? Now, if you're still thinking, well, if you still think we're talking about animals, then, man, you're a sheep, man, I'm just telling you. But it's not just about him taking care of our physical surroundings. The Lord is my shepherd, and he also does this.

He restores my soul. Some of you need some soul restoration today. And listen, man, there's not a vacation that can restore your soul. And there's not a circumstance that can restore your soul. There's no amount of money. There's no other human being that can restore your soul. There's no pill that can be prescribed to you that can restore your soul. And I'm not anti-vacation.

I'm not anti-stuff. I'm not even anti-pill as long as you get it from the right people, okay? Like God through his common grace heals through prayers and people. and pills. Save God for all of them, but none of those things can restore your soul. Only the good shepherd can restore your soul. He restores your soul and he leads me in paths of righteousness. He leads me in paths of righteousness. Why does the shepherd need to lead the sheep in paths of righteousness? Because left to their own devices, one of the things that sheep will do is sheep will take the same path over and over and over and they use the bathroom.

them on that path and they can't distinguish between what they're supposed to eat and not eat and then they get sick on their own waist and die. Can you believe that there is an animal that will keep doing the same thing over and over and over even though it's going to kill them? It's crazy, isn't it? And the shepherd comes along and says, no, no, no, no, no, let's try a different path. I want to lead you on a path of righteousness. You know why?

Because in and of ourselves, we don't often wake up and just choose righteousness. I know that you're just like me. and if you've been around church, you know this old hymn, come thou fount, and in it, the hymn writer says, prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Anybody else prone to wonder? Okay, anybody testify with me, all right? It's those of us with our hands up, and then the liars that are sitting around you.

Man, every single one of them. Isn't it crazy? I know he's my good shepherd, and I don't know one person, I've been doing this for 30 years. I've never met the person that wakes up one day and be like, you know what I'm doing today? Today I'm ruining my life. Today's the day.

Everything's been going fine, but today I'm getting fired for my job. Today I'm going to get addicted to the thing. Today I'm going to steal the money. Today I'm going to cheat. No, no, no, no, no, man. You see, we like dumb sheep are just kind of prone to wonder, just one little step at a time, one little step at a time, and we're prone to wander, leave the God we love.

But praise God, we have a good shepherd that would love us enough to come, and reorient us and redirect us and say, no, no, no, no, follow me on this path of righteousness. I don't have this fully developed, okay? I'm going to talk about it a lot over the next year. I can just tell. I'm talking to a pastor buddy of mine a couple weeks ago. We were having this conversation that being a Christian is not simply sin management. It will not sustain you. Being a Christian is not just don't do things because they are wrong and do these things because they are right. It's not enough to sustain you. What you have to understand is,

is that every single time our good shepherd says, this is how you ought to do life, that he wants you to be on a path that leads to life. And even when you can't understand how taking a step of obedience, when it comes to sex and sexuality, finances, forgiveness, you pick the subject, it doesn't matter. When we do it God's way, there is always life at the end of that road. That those steps of obedience and submission give birth to life.

but there is another path. And every single time we stiff-armed God, the author of life, and say, forget you, God, I'm going to do this thing my way, then it gives birth to a death in your life, even if you can't see the consequences of it in that moment. And our good shepherd leads us in paths of righteousness that lead to him, a right relationship with him, that lead to life. in Philip Keller's book, it's pretty incredible thing that shepherds used to do. They kind of changed some of their practices, but back in the day, if they had a sheep that was prone to wonder, they knew that if it wondered too many times,

that a wolf or a tiger, lion, or something, would eat it up and it would be dead. And so out of a great affection for that sheep, what the shepherd would do for the one that had a tendency to wander away is the shepherd would break the front legs of the sheep. And it takes about three months for those legs to heal. And in that time, in that three months, wherever the flock went, the shepherd would take that sheep

and put that sheep on his shoulders and walk that sheep with the flock. And when the sheep's legs healed back up, he wouldn't wonder anymore. You think? And it wasn't necessarily that he was afraid of his legs being broken. It was because of that intimate relationship

with the shepherd that he stayed close to the sheep. shepherd. Just listen to me. We have a good shepherd that would love you enough to, to discipline you and me and to allow us to go through some serious discomfort so that we would not wander away, but so that we would stay close to him. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness. Now, when we get to this part, I think up to this point, this is probably one of the reasons that Christians love this Psalm so much. Because if you read it up to this point, you think, hey, man, the Lord is my shepherd, and I'm just going to be honest, he's into me.

I mean, he's really into me. Like, what do you mean? Well, I mean, he's restoring my soul, and he's making me lay down by green pastures, and he's leaving besides still waters, and don't bring up the broken leg thing, but he's leading me in paths of righteousness. He's really into me. And then I think David puts this next part in here so that you would realize it ain't all about you. He says this, for his name's sake.

Not your namesake, but for his name's sake. Now again, man, if you're like a millennial young, younger, just put your seatbelt on. It's going to hurt your feelings a little bit. But listen, man, it ain't all about you. I know, I know. Breathe, all right? This is a safe space. It ain't all about you.

Now listen, God is for you. He's for you. anybody that dies for you is for you. And Romans 5-8 says, God demonstrated his love for us in this that while we were yet still sinners Christ died for us. It just ain't all about you. And the reason that God is such a good shepherd

is because he is love. That God, one God, one God, in three persons, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and a perfect love relationship with himself, that his love for himself overflows onto you, and he loves you. But he does not love you just because you are so lovable. He loves you for his namesake.

That's why he purchased you. It's why he wants to forgive you. It's why he wants to adopt you. It's for his namesake. Again, man, he's for you. It's just not all about you. My definition of love is this. I made it up a long time ago.

The love is our joy in the Lord towards one another at great expense to ourselves. And God loves you that way. God loves you because his love is found in and of himself and it's expressed out of an overflow towards you at great expense to himself. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Now, you would think, like if I was writing the Psalm, which we can all agree, that would be the worst idea ever. But if I was writing the song, you would think that the direction of the Psalm would be like, the Lord is my shepherd. He's making me lie down by the green pastures, and he's restoring my soul. And if I'll just follow the shepherd,

then surely goodness and cotton can't, Andy and Cadillacs will be in my future forever and ever. Amen. That's not where he goes. Do you know why that's not where he goes? Because that's not where life goes. David's been through some stuff. And so even though he is our shepherd and he's taking care of us and he's sovereign and he's king. Verse four, he says, and even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, there's been a lot of that lately, hasn't it? I mean, do we even have to mention it? Obviously, the school shooting in Texas.

I mean, when they put those pictures, man, that was a little 10 years olds and 8 year olds, how do you just, how do you not just weep? And think, Lord, what is going on? Or just a couple weeks ago, mass shooting in Buffalo, an 18-year-old person with a hate for people because of the color of their skin tries to find the blackest grocery store he can in Buffalo.

rolls in there and just starts shooting people. This is evil personified. This is the valley of the shadow of death. How about the church shooting a couple weeks ago in California? A Taiwanese church. I'm out of rage. I mean, this is, we're talking about demonic things here. Somebody rolls up into a church and starts shooting.

And we don't have to go coast to coast in our own community, a rains football player. Hours after graduation last week is gunned down. Or just a couple weeks ago in Chicago, at Miracle Mile, where you go shopping, 10 people shot. Look, this is all just stuff on the news right now. It's not like I have to do research for this. You realize that? And not just in our country, man.

4,000 Ukrainian civilians that we know of has been senselessly killed, and 300 of those are children and babies. Or how about this one never gets pressed. Every five seconds in our world, a child dies of hunger-related causes. every five seconds. Or in our country, over 200,000 unborn babies have lost their life to abortion this year. And though I walk through the valley

of the shadow of death. And here's how sick our hearts are. Even this weekend, I got an email because I did not mention the tragedy that checked somebody's political box. How sick is that? You see what I'm talking about? even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

And listen, David is not just talking theoretically here. David's been through it. This is why I think that he writes this towards the end of his life. Because the valley of the shadow of death that he's walked through, it could have been when Saul, his king was trying to kill him, and he lived as a fugitive on the run, like hiding out in caves thinking he was going to die. It could have been when David blew up his life and, family. And when the other kings were off the war and that's where he should have been,

he sets his eyes on Bathsheba, a woman who was not his wife, he has an affair with her, she gets pregnant. So he has her husband killed, thinks he gets away with the whole thing. And then Nathan, the prophet of God addresses him and said, bro, you're guilty before the Lord. I'm sure he felt like he was walking through the valley of the shadow of death there. Or it could have been when he lost a child, David lost a child. If you've been there, he's been there with you. Or maybe it was when David, this one doesn't get taught in Sunday schools, this is going to be new to you probably. It could have been when David's daughter got raped by one of his sons.

And then another one of his sons kills his son that raped his daughter. And then that son grows up, his name's Absalom, and then launches a coup against King David, and it works. And he's thrown off of a throne for a while, and he has to, like, live on the run. Yeah, David knows what it's like to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. and here's what I know, man. Many people come to our church, and some of you right now feel like you're walking

through the valley of the shadow of death, that the scans came back, and it's cancer. And praise God for doctors and medicine and technology and all that they can do that today. But man, you get some kind of diagnosis like that, and it feels like you're walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Or maybe your marriage feels like the valley of the shadow of death.

Like she ain't even here, or he ain't even here. Or maybe you're just faking it in front of everybody, but you get home and it just feels completely dead. Or maybe it's what we talk about all the time, man. There's something going wrong with your kid, man. Ain't no pain like kid pain. You would do anything on the planet to make that right. Or maybe you lost a loved one.

And you know all the right Bible verses, and you know all the things that you're supposed to say, but still in your mind, it feels like a valley of the shadow of death. You're like, Lord, there's a lot of people out of taking off this planet, that dude wasn't one of them. One of you? Sometimes this is one of the hardest ones to deal with as a Christian.

Is that there's a depression. There's a mental illness. There's thoughts of suicide. And you don't have a category for that because you're a Christian and you know you're going to heaven and you're supposed to be filled with the joy of the Lord. But when you look around at your life,

all the circumstances seem to be okay but you can't turn okay on. And every single day you wake up and everybody's like, what's wrong? And you don't, I feel like I'm walking through the valley of the shadow of death. You ever been there? This is what David's talking about.

But notice what he says, and ye, though, I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why, David? Because your best days are before you or you can see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Nope, that's not what we just says. He says this, for you are with me. You see, we serve the kind of God that doesn't just stand at the other end of the valley of the shadow of death and be like, come on, come on, come to me, and you can make it, and then it'll be okay, but he meets us in the middle of the valley of the shadow of death.

And the Bible says the reason that we fear no evil is not because there's not evil to fear. The reason that we fear no evil is because he is with us, and perfect love drives out fear. Listen, I got some really good news for you. The opposite of faith is not doubt. If you've got doubts, if you've got unanswered questions, cool, man. Welcome to being a human. And if you've got doubts, and if you've got answer questions, and if you're like,

I don't know why God would allow this, you could make a really, really great disciple. Do you know why I say that? Every single one of the disciples were virtually clueless to the teachings of Jesus. Do you ever notice that? He would teach something and they're like, we don't know what you're talking about.

Sweet, and God used those dudes to change the world. You know what you do if you got doubts and unanswered questions, And God, why did you let it work out that way? You pick up your doubts and you follow after Jesus by faith. That's what you do. The opposite of faith didn't doubt. The opposite of faith is fear.

You see, the Bible says perfect love drives out fear. Paul tells Timothy, God did not give you a spirit of fear. Fear is not a feeling. Fear is not a personality type. Fear is a spirit that is not from God. He says, but I have given you the spirit of power and of love and of self-control. And David knows that though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why?

Because God is with me, for you are with me. Notice the prepositions, by the way. I know you probably don't look at the prepositions when you're doing Bible study, but notice. When he first starts, he's using third-person prepositions, and he's talking about God. He leads me, he guides me, he restores. And now when he walks through the valley of the shadow of death, he's not talking about God. about God anymore, he's talking right to him. Why? Because when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you don't just talk about him, you talk to him. And though I walk through

the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Yeah, man. You see, God promises his presence, not on the other side of the battle, but right in the middle of it. And listen, we have an advantage that David doesn't have. We have in dwelling in us for anyone who has ever put their faith in Christ. We have the very spirit of God that had the power to bring Jesus back from the grave. We have the spirit of God living in us. Here's the way Paul will say it in Philippians. He says this, anybody anxious? It kind of makes me anxious for you to ask you that. Yeah, I'm kind of anxious. Paul's like, okay, stop. Excuse me? What do you mean? Just stop. Yeah, yeah. He says, be anxious for nothing. Paul. How am I going to do this?

that. I'm just going to be anxious for nothing because be anxious for nothing, but by prayer and supplication, make your request known to God, and then here's the promise. And the God of peace who transcends all understanding will guard your heart and guard your mind in Christ Jesus. Let me tell you what that means. You ever seen somebody walk through the valley of the shadow of death? And I'm not saying they're not upset, and I'm not saying they don't have issues, but they do it with such a faith that makes you scratch your head and be like, like, I don't know how you're making it. Because I feel like if I was going through what you're going through,

I don't know how I would make it. And you go to them and say, how are you even making it? And they go, I don't even know. It's like I have this peace that transcends understanding. And as I lean into him, he guards my heart and mind in Christ Jesus. And yea, though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, fear, no evil. Because the almighty sovereign God is with you. And here's how he's with you.

Here's what brings the comfort. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. The rod was an offensive weapon. The staff was to extend the reach of the shepherd. The rod was a stick with a big ball on the end of it, so when a wolf came up, you cracked that wolf on the head. By the way, shepherds didn't pet wolves, they didn't play with wolves, they didn't try to tame wolves.

They just killed wolves. So just so you know, if you're a wolf here at 1122, you are not welcome. I want to give you the right foot of fellowship. You better get out of here, you understand? My job is not to tame you or pet you or try to negotiate with you. It's to crack you in the head, all right, to the glory of God. But there's also a staff like the big shepherd's crook.

And what they would do, what the shepherd would do is when the sheep were prone to wonder and they were putting themselves in danger, the shepherd would reach out, grab that thing by the neck, and then pull it back into the flock. And God does not mind the shepherd of the sheep feeling a little discomfort in order for it to get back to safety. your rod and your staff they comfort me

now check this next part out he says you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies to which I want to go Lord why don't you just prepare to take out my enemies that sounds better and God's like oh that's not how it works

by the way I need you to know that you do have an enemy but your enemy is not flesh and blood we don't fight against flesh and blood your ex is not your enemy Let me say that one more time loud. Your ex is not your enemy. We don't fight against flesh and blood, but against principalities of evil, to which you might say, well, my ex is full of that.

Maybe I haven't met her, I don't know, okay? But it is, man. We got an enemy that wants to steal, kill, and destroy. That's the only thing he wants to do. And what's crazy is that our good shepherd prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. You know what he's talking about here? that in the presence of conflict and chaos that we can find peace through a relationship, not with our circumstances, but through a relationship with a person who is the Prince of Peace.

Peace will never be found in your circumstances. Peace is found in a person in his name is Jesus. And though everything else is going crazy, he prepares a place, a table, for us to abide in Christ and Christ to abide in us. And that's where we find peace. This is what Paul's talking about when he says be anxious for nothing but through prayer and supplication. By the way, you know you don't have to make an appointment

with somebody that you're sitting at the table with. You just say, I got some prayer. Supplication just means to pray for something. That's all it means. As you're sitting at this table in the presence of your enemies, he's like, Jesus, I need some help. And he promises a peace that transcends understanding and he promises to guard your heart

and guard your mind in Christ Jesus. and while all the chaos is going around that you're sitting at the table with the sovereign king of the universe. This is what Jesus is talking about in Revelation 320 when he's talking to the church at Laotasia and he says,

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. And anyone that hears my voice, if he'll just let me in, I will come in and eat with him and he with me. The king James says, I will come in and sup with him and he with me. In high school, I thought that means Jesus walking into your life and be like,

sup. And then you'd be, it kind of is, though, because you'd be boys. You see, our problem, though, is that God prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies, and it's supposed to be just a table with you and Jesus, and feel free to invite anybody to the table that is going to help you hear the words of Jesus. But oftentimes, we sit down and we invite the enemy right to the table and believe the lies of the enemy. Don't give them a seat at your table.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. this is a picture of the Spirit of God. Oil in the Old Covenant, when they would anoint people with oil, it was a picture of you being anointed by the Holy Spirit. And then he says, my cup overflows. My cup overflows. He does not give you just enough of himself to make it through the day.

That's not what he does. John's going to say it this way in 1 John. He says, oh, what manner of love the Father has lavished upon us that we would be called the children of God. Do you know what that word lavish means? Lavish means more than enough. that God did not just give you enough love so that you can make it through the day

and then maybe one day go to heaven. That's not what it is. He pours it into you and he ain't got an off switch because God is love. It gets filled up with his love real quick and then he just continuously lavishes the love and lavishes the love and lavishes the love

so that the love of God poured out of God who is love, pours into us, overflows off of us, gets on everybody around us and the reason that we can love one another is because God first loved us. That's what it means for God to lavish his love on us. Like when my kids were little and they'd take a bubble bath in our bathroom,

they would lavish the bathroom with the suds. That's what I'm talking about. It could not be contained in just the little bathtub that we have. There's four times bigger than then. He said, my cup overflows. And then he closes it this way. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Okay, what is that talking about?

He's not talking about two little kids like dressed up at Halloween and be like, oh, are you goodness and mercy? No, no, no, no, no. Who's following him around, man? The only one that is good and merciful is God himself. Listen to me, if you're a Christian,

praise God that you've been following after Jesus. And praise God that Jesus has been following after you. Surely goodness and mercy have been following you all the days of your life. In Psalm 139, he's going to say it this way. You go before me and you come behind me. There's nowhere I can flee from your presence. You hem me in from the front and the back.

That goodness and mercy is a person in his name is Jesus, and he has been following you all the days of your life, and I need you to know if you've never met him as Savior, if he is not your good shepherd, he has followed you until this very moment right now to the seat that you are sitting in, and he wants you to stop and say, okay, that's what I need. I need a good shepherd because my paths ain't working, and I need somebody to leave me in paths of righteousness.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That's Old Testament speak for, and I shall go to heaven. Because you can't dwell in any house forever, because you're going to die. There's not even a temple anymore to dwell in. He's talking about I'm going to go to heaven. And so if you're reading this and you go, all right, David, how?

How are you going to dwell in the house of the Lord forever? is it because you're so good? To which David would be like, no, did you not hear my track record earlier in the sermon? I had many bad things that ought to disqualify me from being considered righteous. So how is it? Is it by being good enough? If you notice in Psalm 23, what did David do? He is the passive agent the entire time.

The Lord is my shepherd. He makes me lie down. He leads me. He guides me. He restores my soul. He walks. through the valley of the shadow of death. It's not what I've done, it's what he has done for me.

The way that he is going to dwell in the house of the Lord forever is because goodness and mercy have been following him all the days of his life, and that goodness and mercy is Jesus. That's how. That's how. A couple weeks ago, amen, Frank, sent me a sermon. You know Amen Frank? Amen.

That guy, he was at Thursday night. He sent me a sermon clip. And I've been watching it. I've watched it about 50 times, man. And it's, it ruins me every time I see it. I even know what the guy's going to say, and it still ruins me every time I see it. It's by a pastor named Alistair Begg.

Alistair Begg. You should Google it, you should watch it. It's way better than my sermon right now. But all the rest of it is from his sermon. Alistair Beg. He's from Scotland, so he's got this awesome, it's like Braveheart preaching to you. And when you hear his accident,

you're going to add like 25 IQ points to him because if it's cool, that you typically subtract about 14 for me just because of mine. All right. In fact, my accent is what it is. 722, a bunch of people text me and said, I didn't even know Alex Trebek was a Christian. I was like, I wasn't saying Alex Trebek. I was saying Alistair Begg. Okay.

Alistair Beg, G, G, okay? It's a Presbyterian guy. Now, he's preaching at this thing with a bunch of like up, it was a Presbyterian church because The Frozen Chosen are there. There's a choir behind him. And it's the greatest sermon on the gospel I've ever heard. And they're just like,

can y'all be quiet? The man's talking, you know? So, if they're saved, they should tell their face. But anyway. The point of a sermon is that we must continuously preach the gospel to ourselves.

We must continuously preach the gospel to ourself. And he says, if somebody were to ask you that Fort Lauderdale spring break question, if you were to die tonight and you were standing before heaven

and you had to give an account of why you should be able to be to enter heaven, what would you say? And then he says, if you answer in the first person, you've already gotten it wrong. Because I, because I have faith, because I believe, because I. And if you answer in the first person, very quickly you will begin to move

from justification by grace through faith to faith and works. That you'll think you're a pretty good sheep and you belong in the flock. So you can only answer in the third person because he, because he saved. me because he redeemed me because he gave me the gift of faith to even believe in him. And then he says, consider the thief on the cross. And he says, I want to meet that guy.

Now, if you're brand new to Bible study when Jesus was crucified, he was crucified between two thieves. And one thief begins to rail at Jesus and says, if you are who you say you are, then save yourself and save us with you. By the way, that's how most people come to church. God, I'm coming to you on my terms. If you are who you say, you are who you say, you are. say you hard, then this is what I require of you. Pretty arrogant thing to say to the Almighty God. But then there's another thief on the other side that realizes that he is there

and he deserves to be there, and he asks Jesus for a favor. By the way, if you've ever surrendered your life to the Lordship of Christ, that's all you're doing. You're saying, God, I need a favor. And it's a prayer request. He will answer 100% of the time. And here's the favor he asks.

He says, Jesus, will you remember me this day when you go before your father in heaven? somehow it clicked in this thief's mind, not because of any good thing that he had did. He realizes that when you dying on the cross somehow counts for me. And Jesus says, truly, truly I tell you,

today you will be with me in paradise. So if anybody in the whole Bible ever made it to heaven, we know that dude made it to heaven. And then Alasherbegg says, and I wanna talk to him and I wanna say, how did it shake out for you? I mean, how did it go? Because you made it. I mean, if anybody made it, you made it.

And you didn't know anything about church membership. You never been to a Bible study. Never sponsored a kid. Never went on a mission trip. Never raised your hands in worship. Never actually went to a worship service. And yet you made it. How did it go?

And then he just speculates. Imagine the guy. Think about this. One minute, he's on the cross saying, remember me this day. And Jesus says, surely, today you will be in paradise. And he breathes his last. And then the next thing, there he is.

He's standing before the pearly game. and there's the angel. And he looks at the thief on the cross and he goes, what are you doing here? And the guy goes, I have no idea. What do you mean you have no idea? Like this is a big deal, this is heaven, okay? By what means do you stand here?

And the guy goes, I don't know what you're talking about. And they're just staring at each other. They don't even know what to say. And the angel's like, let me get my supervisor. Goes to get a supervisor. Like an archangel or somebody comes rolling in.

Like, oh, sir, here there's a problem to be solved. Let's just cover a few things. Could you tell me about your understanding of the doctrine of justification by faith? I never heard of it. Never heard of it. Well, you can't be serious. Well, then, how about the doctrine of the inspired

and infallible word of God? I have no idea what you're. you're talking about, to which the angel says, then by what means do you intend to enter heaven? And the thief says, the man on the middle cross said I could come. That's it. That's the whole gospel. The man on the middle cross said I could come. Surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life. And the only way I get to dwell in the house of the Lord forever is because his invitation. When I share this on Thursday night, I got a text from Jack Johnson, not banana pancakes guy. There's a dude in our church named Jack Johnson. And he said, the only paperwork

that gets me into heaven is not my resume, but Christ's invitation. It's because the man on the middle cross said, I could come. This is what Psalm 23 is about. It's that every single one of us are like sheep. We've dumb. Half the time we do it to ourselves. We all take paths of unrighteousness and we've gone astray and we have a good shepherd who has come on a rescue mission for us. And the man on the middle cross, Jesus who died in our place has invited every single one of us to understand surely goodness and mercy have been following us all the days of our life. And if we would just believe like the thief believed, somehow when you died on the cross, that counts for me, then we are invited to be in his house forever and ever and ever.

He's a good shepherd. He loves you. And I would like to give you the opportunity right now if you've never put your faith in Jesus Christ, not put your faith in some sort of religious version of yourself where you're going to do good for God. That's not what we're talking about. Not put faith in some sort of doctrinal knowledge that you have about what the Bible says. that won't do it for you either. To put your faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

In John chapter 10, Jesus says the thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But I have come that you may have life and have it to the full. And then he says, I am the good shepherd. And he says, my sheep know my voice. And the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Maybe right now for the very first time, you were hearing the invitation of the good, shepherd for you to admit it I'm a sinner I need a savior for you to believe or trust that when he died on the cross that counted for you and if so then you ask him for a favor god I need a favor I'm ready to

claim you the Lord as my shepherd I want to give you the opportunity to do that if you'll bow your head and close your eyes and if you're ready to surrender your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ and for the very first time in your life to claim him as your lord and your shepherd would you lift your hand right where you are. Lift it high. Would you say, praise God. Would you say, Father, I am. I surrender my life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Our good and gracious heavenly, Father God, I thank you and I praise you for the men and the women right now all over this place that are lifting their hands and surrendering their life to you. And it's not their hand in the air that saves them. It's what you did on the cross that saves them. And God, I thank you. I thank you

for the dozens of sheep that were lost who are now a part of the family. And God, you were such a good shepherd and God we love you but the reason we love you is because you first loved us and you sent your son on a rescue mission for us and God I lift up to you the men and the women the families the singles that are walking through the valley

of the shadow of death right now Lord I pray that they would know that you meet them in the middle of the fire in the middle of the storm in the middle of the valley and you will never ever ever let them go and there is nothing the enemy could do. There's nothing they could do. There's nothing another person could do to separate them from your love because you're the good shepherd and you love us. And Lord, I pray. I pray that you

would give us a peace that transcends all this understanding. And Lord, I pray that you would prepare that table that we would sit down with you and that through our deepening relationship with you, we would know that you are a shepherd and you take care of all of our wants and needs. And we pray this in the good strong name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Church, would you please stand as we respond? I know some of you are walking through it, and so I would highly encourage you to come and pray, because we have a good shepherd that wants to hear what's going on in your life. He loves you and wants to walk with you through it. I would encourage you, too, to bring somebody down here to pray with you. Don't do this thing alone. We have an enemy that loves to use lies in isolation to take you out.

and so grab somebody and just come down front and pray we also bring we bring our ties and our offerings our first and our best because it is our act of worship to worship him with the resources that he's given us and we're going to sing and now that we know psalm 23 we're going to sing the 23rd psalm again and then we're going to sing about the goodness of god again and if you know that he has been good to you we should lift our voices and sing it like we many so let's pray Let's bring, let's sing. Let's respond.