Psalm 23

good morning sound great this morning um we would like to read psalm 95 with you this morning would you join me on the underlined portions oh come let us sing to the lord let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation let us come into his presence with thanksgiving let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise for the lord is a great god and a great king above all gods in his hand are the depths of the earth the height of the mountains are his also the sea is his for he made it and his hands formed the

dry land oh come let us worship and bow down let us kneel before the lord our maker for he is our god and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand our god is great and he's a good king to his people let's sing to him this morning because he alone is worthy of our praise you can stand with us to sing if you like [Music] we won't fear the battle we won't fear the night we will walk the valley with you by our side you'll go before us you will lead the way we have found a refuge only you

can see [Music] praise your voice now no love is greater who can stand against us if our god is for us [Music] you will not forsake you will cheer me on with never-ending grace seen with joy now our god is for us the father's love is a strong and mighty forces praise your voice now no love is greater who can stand against us if our god is [Music] neither high nor death could separate us hell and death will not defeat [Music] neither high nor death [Music] and death could not defeat us he gave his son to freedom [Music] is [Music] sing with joy now our

god is for us the father's love is a strong and mighty fortress raise your voice now no love is greater who can stand against the siva god is for us father's love is a strong and mighty fortress praise your voice now your love is greater who can stand against us if our god is for us [Music] [Music] [Music] my hope is built on nothing less than jesus blood and righteousness i dare not trust the sweetest spring but holy lean on jesus name is [Music] is is [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] is sinking sand all over is seeking [Music] [Music] do [Music]

[Music] [Music] [Music] worthy is the lamb who was slain holy holy is he singing a new song to him who sits on heaven's mercy sees the lamb who was slain holy holy is he [Music] singing a new song [Music] is the lord god almighty who was in his and is to come with all creation i sing praise you are my everything and i will adore you [Music] flashes [Music] is the lord god almighty who to was with all creation i think praise to the king of kings you are my everything and i will adore you [Music] filled with wonders [Music] jesus your name is [Music]

holy holy holy is the lord god [Music] you are my everything and i will enjoy [Music] is [Music] and i will adore you [Music] [Music] heavenly father god we give you this morning we just thank you for all that you are for all that you do for your continued love for us for the new mercies every morning for the daily graces that you provide it is all by you for you through you let me give you all the glory amen do you all be seated for a time of confession please our time of confession this morning comes from psalm 32 here's what david writes blessed

is the one whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered blessed is the man against whom the lord counts no iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit for when i kept silent my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long for day and night your hand was heavy upon me my strength was dried up by the heat of summer i acknowledged my sin to you and i did not cover my iniquity i said i will confess my transgressions to the lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin in this psalm david's acknowledging and confessing his sin before the lord because he

recognized that when he did not have this rhythm of confession and repentance in his life is as if his bones his body was wasting away because of the sin that he was holding on to so this morning let's just follow his example of confession and repentance before the lord knowing that the promise we receive that we are blessed because our sin has been covered by the blood of jesus let's just take some time to confess this morning heavenly father god this morning we just want to confess where our hearts are bitter where there is sin that is persistent in our life that we're not giving

over to you and god if we're in a season where there's not a blatant sin that feels heavy on our hearts would you reveal if there is something that we are missing so we may turn it over to you god we don't want to live with the weight of sin on our shoulders because we know that you have taken that weight from us you ask us to put our yoke upon you to walk with you and god we know that we don't have to hold on to those things because you have sent your son to take the weight of the sin of the world away

from us god that we can walk in freedom so god we just confessed this morning those areas of sin that we need to get rid of so that we can walk in that freedom and live in the light with you do you need to pray amen amen well good morning everyone we will go ahead and dismiss the three and five-year-olds and i believe the six and seven-year-olds as well six and seven-year-olds so they make their way out to their classes and for the rest of us if you've got your bibles go ahead and open them or turn them on we're going to be in psalm

23 today psalm 23. and uh josh was supposed to preach today but he was flying back from south carolina yesterday or was supposed to fly back from south carolina but had some delays and some cancellations and so asked me to go ahead and fill in for him this morning and so always happy to do that but um we'll see what we have because i'm less than 24 hours of prep on this one so uh psalm 23 is is what we're gonna look at and uh i don't think there's any other passage of scripture that i'm aware of that really is as well known or as

often quoted and just consistently leaned on by weary just exhausted people like the 23rd psalm and i think god accomplishes this comfort for our souls just not not by talking a lot about us but by talking a lot about himself and and what he's doing and and not only what he's doing um in the grand scheme of life but also what he's doing in the intimate relationships that he has with with his people or as we'll see here today as as his sheep and uh so i think it's going to be a at least for me i know this is a psalm that i constantly

go through or go to both in times of weariness and exhaustion but also in times of of peace and comfort and times when things are i mean you know the difference there are seasons where your highs and your walking on the mountaintops and you're just experiencing a lot of ease and and comfort and just good things happening and then there's also those seasons where you're walking in the valley and you're walking in low points and you're walking in stress and anxieties and i think this psalm speaks into both of those seasons and so i felt it would be a good one for us this morning

to to just kind of walk through and again just see the type of leader because i really think this psalm is is more about not the valleys that we walk through or the highs that we walk through but i think it's more about the leader that we are entrusting ourselves to and what he's doing for us on a constant basis and so that's kind of the outline i'm going to give you real quick that we're going to walk through is just there is a leader who we can trust that's going to be the first point and then from there what i want to look at

is where is he leading us and then also why he is leading us so that's what we're going to look at today and so as we read psalm 23 it's only verses so i'm going to go and have you stand for this one just to show reverence for god's word and this is god speaking to us this is god opening up his mind opening up his heart to us and so i just want us to give some reverence to the word of god and let this speak over you this morning psalm 23 starting in verse 1. the lord is my shepherd i shall not want

he makes me lie down in green pastures he leads me beside still waters he restores my soul he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake even though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil for you are with me your rod and your staff they comfort me you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies you anoint my head with oil my cup overflows surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and i shall dwell in the house of the lord forever father we ask this morning that

as we look at this psalm and as we look at this good shepherd the great shepherd and we realize that for him to be a shepherd we must be the sheep may we understand that relationship better this morning that we understand our role and that there's nothing that we can do to fix our situations or to solve or resolve our situations or our circumstances there's really no control we have over our life whether we find ourselves on the mountain or we find ourselves in the valley at the end of the day what we know is we have a good shepherd who is leading us who

is for us and who is providing for us goodness and mercy every step of the way so may we see him not as the lord the good one the one that we can entrust ourselves to and submit to and follow and when he speaks the sheep hear his voice and we run and we know there that we will be protected and provided for above all else let us see jesus this way this morning for it's in his name that we pray amen you can be seated so the first one i want to look at here is that the leader who can be trusted if you

think about god as creator or you think about god as lord they emphasize his transcendence they emphasize his bigness if you will they emphasize his might and his majesty and that should create in us that that feeling we feel when we stand in front of the grand canyon which i got to do uh just literally three days ago i was standing in front of the grand canyon and just looking out and just feeling this sense of of all uh and also just terror as well because as i'm standing there no rails you can literally just walk to the edge and i'm like i mean you

you trip you're you're gone and so there's this sense of like there's this magnificence that i'm looking out at it but there's also this this kind of feeling of like i'm i'm a little uneasy about this and when you think about god as creator and god is king and god is judge those are of terms that are attributed to him where there does sense that feeling of and he he is big he is all struck like he's he's magnificent and he's got a majesty that he can do anything as he pleases but depending on where i find myself whether i'm in his grace or in

his wrath that can be a terrifying thing and so this term that i love that the lord attributes to himself of being a shepherd is one where it kind of pulls us down a little bit from those larger terms and it brings us into one that's a little bit more intimate if you will one that it's someone willing to come out and maybe grab you and pull you alongside of maybe walking hand in hand with the lord in an intimate way and i think that's what david's really kind of getting at here is we're talking about a man who had seen the highest of highs

and the lowest of lows now saying the lord is my shepherd i mean we have david who understands that terminology because he was a shepherd boy and we know that if you know anything about like church history and you know anything about your bible david and goliath the one of the famous stories that maybe you've heard when you were a little child in in sunday school or whatever it might have looked like and and where was david when this war this battle was about to happen he's off back at home taking care of the sheep he's a shepherd boy but he understands that relationship between

shepherd and sheep protecting them providing for them feeding them tending to them giving them whatever they need so that they're able to say he says here i shall not want better translated what else could i want the lord is my shepherd what else could i want he's providing for me literally everything that i need he says he's the kind of leader who should make us go who else would we want to lead us the lord is my shepherd i shall not want jesus himself would say there's a kind of leadership that's a bit sketch if you will and there's a kind that can be submitted

to there's a kind of shepherd that you should not entrust yourself to or follow or submit to but there's a kind of shepherd who you should not look for anything else from anywhere else and he says this in john 10 starting in verse 11 jesus and this is him going back and referencing this psalm he says the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy i came that they may have life and have it abundantly i am the good shepherd the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep he who is a hired hand and not a shepherd who does not own the

sheep sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf snatches them and scatters them he flees because he's a hired hand and he cares nothing for the sheep so i don't know if you're drawing the parallels between these two passages but surely you can feel as you look out in the world like who could i possibly trust and what kind of person could i possibly trust i mean let's just talk briefly about this let me ask you a question is there anyone you trust a hundred percent is there anyone you trust a hundred percent of those in this room who are

married are like why are you asking me that question there's they're standing next to me right now or sitting next to me but i'll be the first one to put the cards out on the table i know my wife does not trust me a hundred percent and the reason i could say this because she's in the room over there with our youngest right now but i know she doesn't trust me 100 because every monday night she has to remind me to get the trash ready to be taken out for tuesday because she knows i'm going to forget about it she doesn't trust that i will

remember to get the trash taken out on time when it should or there's often times where she'll come home and she'll ask me the question so what are your plans for the evening i already know exactly why she's asking me that because she knows that whatever plans i have for the evening are probably not the best plans to have for the evening she has a different set of plans for the evening they're going to be more productive rather than binging netflix or something and so there's this side of her that's not it's not that she doesn't trust me it's just that she doesn't trust me

100 percent because i'm human she knows that enough about me and our marital problems we did just celebrate we were at the grand canyon because of 10 years of of marriage and so i feel like i can begin to say these things now it looks but who can we trust i mean look at i mean the political realm even if it's within your political party that you kind of align with there's not a political leader in your political party that you would say man i trust every decision that they're going to make 100 percent no there's no athlete out there that you trust a hundred

percent that they're going to get the job done at the end of the day there's no one no human being alive with a beating heart and a flawless mind that that is going to allow you to put 100 percent trust in no matter where you look in the world right now so who can we say i'm following that person no matter what happens things will go well what jesus is arguing and i think david is pointing to the fact that a life surrendered to jesus christ puts us under the leadership under the authority of the one who will be for us and not against us

in fact on repeat the bible talks about jesus in this way that the only person you can actually trust 100 percent that they will do what they say they will do that they will see it to completion and that everything that they say of themselves is 100 percent true 100 true the bible from genesis to revelation is only pointing to one person that we can have confidence in saying i trust them that's jesus that's jesus in psalm 84 the psalmist says no good thing will be will he withhold from those who walk uprightly second corinthians 12 my grace is sufficient for you as jesus saying

my grace is enough for you you need nothing else you need no one else all you need is jesus romans 8 all things work together for good of those who are in christ jesus that's saying from the mountaintops whether you're in the va whatever it is that's happening to your life whether that's because of your sin or because of someone else's sin or whatever it looks like whether it's your success or someone else's success whatever is happening in your life what we can say with confidence is that jesus the good shepherd is using all of those situations all of those careers all of those relationships

that are in your life and he's working them out for your good that's what the shepherd is doing for his sheep to make sure that it is working out for your good why because he is the good shepherd and he's one that can be trusted where then is this good shepherd leading us where is he leading us to since jesus is the good shepherd the great shepherd the one who's leading the one who's guiding providing where is it that he's leading us well let's dive into the text he's leading us toward rest and restoration that's verses two through three in fact one of the things

i i like about it is there are plurals in this it's green pastures it's still waters it's not just a one and done thing it's not just uh get yourself to mecca eventually and then you will find the rest and restoration or relaxation that you're so longing for no this is a constant process where jesus the good shepherd is leading us towards rest and restoration especially at times when we desperately need it when we desperately need it in our lives and if you've tried to follow jesus for any period of time you know this to be true we we go and we're in green pastures

and and we feel seen there we feel loved we feel known and the presence of god seems near to us and i think oftentimes we we feel that presence more especially when we're coming out of seasons where we're in the valley where we're in the valley because especially westernized culture the way that we've kind of created things is is is be very successful and then once you reach whatever that success is then you can take a vacation you can rest you can relax but in christianity it's really kind of the flip side of that it's not necessarily that we find rest of relaxation whenever we're

successful it's kind of honestly the opposite it tends to be when we find areas of success that we then enter into valleys we enter into turmoil we interact mo money mo problems i mean we just enter into issues in life and it's after we enter into those times of suffering those times of stress those times of anxiety that we then feel the shepherd pulling us into a green pasture pulling us into an area of still waters leading us hand in hand in order to be able to find his goodness and his peace and his comfort his rod and his staff in order to protect us

in order to provide for us and in those moments in order to just hug us a little tighter than maybe what we've felt in the past even though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil why because he simply says because he's with me he's with me i mean there's no one and this kind of comes back to whether you've got a best friend whether you've got a mom and dad who who are constantly the person that you're always going to whether you've got a spouse that's that person whatever it is there's no one in your life who

can truly say to you i'm with you always i'm with you always and you might have a good spouse you might have a good mom and dad you might have a good best friend but at the end of the day they're limited when jesus the good shepherd is not he's not even though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death and and what that means because i know that is i mean that's been used in songs that's been used and all kind of i know some of you right now are thinking through those songs um the shadow it's not just this superficial where

you're probably thinking like literally a mountain with a valley and there's like bones and stuff and and it's just walking through that no it's it's the shadow of death oftentimes the new testament refers to shadows of the old testament into the new testament as things that are are kind of pointing to or examples of and when we're talking about shadow of death we're talking about everything that death represents the circumstances that you walk through in life that are shadowing death basically things that are destroying you things that are causing stress and anxiety things that are decaying things like bad conversations that are not going the

way that you want them to go bad finances that are not going the way that you want them to go whatever it looks like that feels like it's killing you even though i walk through the valley of the shadow of everything that's representing death i'm able to walk through these things because jesus is walking through it with me he's walking through it with me he's carrying me he's there for me because he's the good shepherd what jesus said in john 10 is when it comes to the wolves coming when it comes to the dark night of the soul others will leave others will leave people

in your life will leave they will not be there others will abandon it's not safe enough for them so they're getting out of there they just don't care but jesus is going i'm not going anywhere i'm not going anywhere i'm here i'm here with you not only am i here with you but i'm going to kill the wolf even if it tries to kill you or kill him and he's there to do this for your good for your good this is what jesus does in the laying down of his life a leader that can be trusted is one who's willing to lay down his life

for your good for you to have life and life abundantly he's leading us through difficult times and then look at verse five he's leading us into joy it shouldn't be lost on you that we went from even though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil if you are with me your rod and your staff they comfort me and then moves into you prepare a table for me or before me in the presence of my enemies here's what he's doing he's he's literally sandwiching rest and relaxation with the suffering in the middle so he's the good shepherd who's

leading us out in the green juices so we're really just making us lie down in green pastures leading us beside still waters like if you're not resting he's going to make you rest at some point don't know what that's going to look like but he'll make you lie down in green pastures because we need that rest and relaxation restoration we need that and then there's going to be times where we walk into the valley of the shadow of the death and then out of that he's preparing a table before our enemies he's literally gathering you for a feast to fill you up and to provide

for you what you need for strength and for comfort he's leading us into joy the leadership of jesus leads us not into a really thin kind of happiness based on circumstance but it's deep rooted joy that he's for us and not against us a deep rooted joy that he was with us through the valley and he wasn't with us through the valley kind of going well if you would have just done this we wouldn't be here or if you'd have just done that or we wouldn't be here but he's with us with his rod with his staff comforting leading and guiding we're we're going to

get through this together he's not abandoning us then we come out of that valley into a banqueting table with the oil of gladness being poured all over us i like the terms of gladness and joy versus happiness because at the end of the day you can be glad and joyful even in the valley of the shadow of death but you probably will not be happy right like you could you can walk out of this room right now and having a great conversation where someone compliments you in some way and it makes you happy you can go outside and a bird can drop something on you

that changes that entire feeling of happiness right you can pull out of the parking lot and a car hits you and there goes the happiness but gladness and joy that's provided by the lord cannot be robbed from you cannot be stolen from you and i think that's what so frustrates the enemy is that he's doing this in their presence he's providing a banqueting table for us and the gladness of oil anointing us in the presence of our enemies what that means is is the enemy the thief has come to steal kill and destroy he's come to make sure that you have nothing good in your

life he's come to make sure that you don't see jesus that you don't see the shepherd and what he's providing for you and what he's doing for you what the what the thief is trying to do is rob you of anything that would cause you to worship god to give him glory to say he is good and he's awesome and that you are standing in front of him like you are the grand canyon where you're all struck in that moment that's what the thief is trying to rob you of and what jesus is doing is he's putting you right in front of the enemy and

he's saying you know what enemy i want you to see what i'm doing here i want you to see what i'm providing for for my sheep i want you to see how i'm caring for them and taking care of them and there's nothing that you can do to rob them of this nothing like that's good news for us because how many times for us is there this this mentality that we have where we might give more credit to the enemy that we should when it comes to the circumstances that we're walking through and we're just whoa is me or how terrible the circumstances that i'm

going through i mean we're giving credit as if the victory in those moments have been won by the enemy when we look hopeless and helpless because we don't have our eyes on our shepherd we're not hearing his voice we're not seeing what he's providing for us when we look hopeless and helpless the enemy is happy and thinking that they're robbing us of something but in those moments when we're able to put our eyes back on jesus and we're able to see the fact that even though those circumstances might not be different we're still in the valley of the shadow of death and as we're coming

out of it and he's preparing this banqueting table for us and he's anointing us with gladness and joy when he's doing that and we begin to worship him regardless of our circumstances it is nothing but a slap in the face and is actually instilling and destroying anything that the enemy thought that they had that's what's happening in that moment that's why you see in the new testament when you're looking at the different characters of especially the disciples i mean you could not affect their lives in such a way especially from the enemy's perspective that would make the enemy happy i just couldn't be done i

mean paul has to be one of the most frustrating people and when i say enemy i'm literally referring to satan i'm referring to the demonic realm i'm referring to sinners i'm referring to even us at times that when when the enemy is trying to rob them or stop them of the advancement of the gospel you know what you know how we can stop paul let's throw him in prison if we throw him in prison he'll stop writing letters he'll stop worshiping jesus he'll stop telling people about jesus he won't do any of those things because we're literally putting him in a cage and what does

the apostle do hey you get pen and paper let me write some letters to some churches i need to encourage them in the lord right now i need them to know that my shackles and chains cannot shackle and chain the gospel like it needs to get out and it's going to get out give me some paper and pen not only that he's literally singing he's singing he's praising the lord while he's in his own valley of the shadow of death and not only that but he's looking at the guard hey guard have you ever met jesus before let me tell you about him and the

guard gets saved i mean nobody could harm him or or thwart him of the presence that he had with jesus and what he's experiencing with jesus so much so that no matter what his circumstance look like he's making sure jesus is being made known and that he's being made much of like that's what the apostle paul is doing in those moments you could not thwart that why because he sees his good shepherd he knows his good shepherd he hears his good shepherd's voice and his good shepherd is guiding him every step of the way no matter what he's experiencing in those moments that's what's happening

let me take the beloved disciple john who in his comfort is is just reclining against jesus's chest knows his good shepherd intimately knows his good shepherd to the point where they try to boil him alive and when they realize that it's not killing him they think some freak show and then that's when they sent him out to the island of patmos where he's like hey give me some pen and paper i'm going to write down revelation i mean this is this is the disciples because of verses like this that comfort them that they can trust you know it doesn't matter what you guys try to

do it doesn't matter what the roman rule is it doesn't matter that everyone is all about caesar as lord no jesus is lord jesus is my good shepherd you can do whatever you want to me i mean humbling so much that even peter himself peter we're gonna we're gonna kill you because of jesus okay we're gonna crucify you because of jesus okay no we just said we're gonna crucify you because of jesus if you're going to crucify me could you at least just crucify me upside down because i don't want to die in the same way that he did because i don't find myself worthy

enough i mean how frustrating is that if you're the guard like i thought this was going to be a pleasing thing that we're killing these guys no it's just frustrating they're worshiping more we're not destroying this we're actually advancing it and we don't even know it and that's actually probably one of the most brilliant things i think c.s lewis has ever written is when he's talking about the crucifixion of jesus and he's talking about satan thinking that satan is winning by killing jesus on the cross and what satan doesn't know is that in him thinking that he's having victory over jesus at the cross is

that he's actually committing suicide himself he's actually executing the very thing that's going to turn the entire world upside down and thwart every possible plan that he has so at this point when he sees the resurrection of jesus all he's able to see is all we got is to try to just rob them as much as we can of joy of seeing jesus at the end in the end jesus is going to win i mean they've got access to the same scriptures we do they know jesus wins all they're trying to do is rob you of seeing what jesus is doing on a daily basis

when the people of god walk in gladness and difficult seasons not happiness but when they walk in gladness it just transcends you in a way it transcends you out of your circumstance out of your situation and it just it just causes this type of calmness now you might not feel calm all the time but it just causes this type of calmness that that i'm in this pasture i'm among sheep and i've got a good shepherd it provides the only thing that this world cannot offer you and it provides you hope like it provides you hope i mean when we go back to the idea of

trusting anything 100 i mean what i think hope is what we're talking about what can i put hope in that is going to be good for me let me vote for this candidate let me pursue this career let me marry this person let me have these amount of kids like i'm hoping that this is going to work out for me at the end of the day the only thing that we can with 100 confidence say when i hope in this i actually feel hopeful i feel hopeful that's jesus that's jesus that's it jesus and that's what david is saying here and the lord is my

shepherd i'm hopeful i don't want anything else i don't need anything else and i think it's why he's leading us because what that does is that when we see that jesus is our greatest hope and we're glorifying him in that place we're magnifying him in that place we're seeing that it's actually him being for us is actually still not about us lord is my shepherd i shall not want he makes me lie down in green pastures he restores my soul he leads me beside still waters for my name's sake no for his namesake for god's name's sake and and the reason why that should actually

provide for you the most hope in this room is because god's name is at stake god's holiness is on the table god's goodness is on the table god's righteousness is on the table so when he says i'm going to do these things for my name's sake what he's saying is if i don't do these things i cease to be god i cease to be god i cease to be good i cease to be holy i cease to be righteous i cease to be the the whatever you need for hope and comfort and peace i can't do anything if i don't come through on these things

what god is saying at the end of the day is i'm going to be a good shepherd because i am the good shepherd i am the good shepherd i am rest i am relaxation i am comfort i am peace if you do not experience those things with jesus as your shepherd jesus ceases to be shepherd that's huge that's huge because all of christianity is literally hinging on whether or not jesus is true whether or not he's true and whether or not he's right and what we've been able to see is this isn't just the first time that the bible has been opened we've been looking

at this for 2 000 years since jesus's crucifixion and there's not been one moment in those 2000 years where it's come back void not one moment for those who are in christ jesus for those who trust him for those who see him for those who know him for those who abide in him there's not one moment that has come back void now there might be times in your life where you're in those valleys and this is why i love the psalms because i think they're honest there's times where david is walking through and his enemies are are literally coming around him and it's different types

of enemies than what you have all right like i don't see people like surrounding your house with like fire and swords and chariots like literally about to just demolish the building in hopes that they're going to kill you that's the kind of enemies that david's found himself with all right and in those moments he's crying out lord where are you where are you but yet he still has the same breath the next day to write down another psalm and say lord everywhere i go there you are i mean he's really like the schizophrenic theologian of the of the scriptures but there's moments where we just

see ourselves and in those moments it's easy for us to yell out and scream out god where are you but what we don't see in those moments is the fact that jesus is still there and he still is holding you and he still is with you and he still is literally carrying you and providing everything that you need in those moments so that when you come out of that valley of the shadow of the death and you see that banquet you're able to then say lord everywhere i look there you are i can now look back and see clearly where you were when i was

crying out where are you i can see that i know i've had conversations with you guys in in the in the past about that where i can look back on seasons dark seasons where i'm like okay lord like you're the good shepherd you're protecting your sheep like why where were you where were you but now i can look back and i can see i mean like you know just using a couple of examples for you two years ago at the entrance to my neighborhood i know many of you know the story that a guy tried to stab me twice and i'm looking in those moments

like i'm here planting a church for you lord like i'm here i'm trying to raise kids i'm trying to be a good husband to my wife like i'm trying to be a good friend to others i'm trying to and we've got a guy trying to kill me at the front entrance to the neighborhood like where are you lord and then now i can look back and be like you know what maybe the lord was helping direct this guy on not being able to to be good with a knife because he missed i just walked away with a scratch that was it like that's that's the

lord being good in that moment for me i mean this actually i haven't hardly shared this with anybody it happened two and a half weeks ago again i was walking down broad ripple and a dude tried to mug me like it's just and this one i i was able to see it a little bit quicker and so i was able to defend myself better and i was actually able to walk away angry because i was just i was just mad that it happened way different than the first situation but in that moment okay lord i like literally i just walked away from a meeting where

i'm i'm meeting with a burmese pastor who's wanting to plant another church on the south side of indianapolis and trying to help him get some funding for that and then i walk out of that and i'm just walking down the street and a guy tries to rob me i mean in that moment i could be thinking i'm walking away i'm like seriously lord but then in the moment i can be like you know what thank you for the fact that last night i was at my son's karate practice and they were just practicing spartan kicks i mean just straight to the gut and that's exactly

what i did to this guy and so i'm just in the moment thinking you know what thank you i don't know that i would have thought about that if i wasn't seeing that last night and watching ezra do that to some other kids you know like it's it was good like as i look back i can see where the lord is at in valleys i can see it and i think you will too right now you might be walking through the valley of the shadow of death you're like you're just you're just in it and you're wondering i mean you're just wondering where's the goodness

of god where's his grace in his mercy where is his love and his affection and you might be there and and literally the only thing i can promise you is that the good shepherd is preparing a banqueting feast and he's preparing it in the midst of this enemy encampment that you're experiencing right now and he's going to shut them up he's going to shut them up and you're going to be filled with gladness and you're going to be filled with joy when you partake it's a feast and there might be others in this room who have come out of that and you're you're full i

mean you've just feasted you're you're comforted and in the same moment with that comfort and with that joy hey you worship god you praise god but i think what you can also do is i think you can also look around look around and see those who are in the valley see those who are in the shadow of death and how can you comfort them how can the shepherd steer you along and bring you over to them and say hey i still got a little bit left over from my feast can can i share with you i just want to encourage you i just want to

love you right now i just want to can what can i do to to help ease something in your life right now what does that look like can i cook you a meal can i watch your kids for a night can i you know just write just write them a letter send them a text message pray for them whatever it looks like because in this room you're either in the valley or you're out of it you're you're laying down in a green pasture somewhere you're just resting right now that's really the only places we're in use those moments to look for jesus because he's either

fighting off the enemy or he's passing the plate he's doing that for you he's doing that for you he's the good shepherd and we can trust him we can trust him let's pray together father we thank you so much for this morning we thank you for this psalm that shows us how good you are as our great shepherd and that everywhere we go because you're with us goodness and mercy follows all the days of our life and we know that because we're with you we are dwelling literally in the house of the lord and so father that that allows us to to experience some type

of rest maybe right now for those who are in this room weary for those in this room right now who are anxious knowing that you are with us provide some type of peace for those in this room right now who are unsure about the future knowing that you are with us it provides hope hope because god you are for us you are for us because ultimately you are for yourself and your great name to be spread over the entire earth and so lord we just trust you we look to you and we trust you there's no one else that we can trust like we trust

you and so when we find ourselves in those valleys when we find ourselves in those green pastures the only posture that we can possibly live in is surrendering and submitting to you you're the good shepherd it's in your beautiful son name we pray amen we close each of our gatherings out with communion and communion is is a beautiful picture a beautiful ceremony if you will of several things that i talked about today literally several things that i talk about the good shepherd as jesus dick you know declares of himself in john 10 says that when the enemy comes he doesn't run and hide he doesn't

leave you no he lays his life down for you and that's exactly what jesus did at the cross was the good shepherd went and laid his life down for us by dying in our place for our sins that's exactly what the shepherd did he went and he died so that the sheep might have life and have it abundantly and also what communion is is it is a banqueting feast now it's not going to fill you up in literal tangible substance but it's more for your soul it's for your soul it's a feast for your joy it's a feast for your gladness it's a feast that

we know every time we partake of it and his body is broken and his blood is shed and we're remembering that happening every time we do that our soul is comforted that that's what he's willing to do in order to forgive us of our sins when we were enemies of him how much more now is he willing to continue to pursue us and provide for us that we've been adopted into his family i mean that's what we're remembering when we partake of communion what jesus sacrifice did was not just remove your sins and forgive you but it's then to lavish his love on you and

for you to then one day in glory receive his inheritance i mean literally the bible says we are co-heirs with christ how much does the father love jesus and what he's giving jesus as an inheritance he's also giving that inheritance to us so that we are co-heirs with christ as romans 8 says so let this meal be one that allows you to be humbled by our sin that put jesus on the cross and what he was willing to do to break his body and shed his blood let's remember that death and proclaim it and in addition to that also coming out of that as he

raises us to a new life let us also know that that new life is fully refurbished if you will fully furnished with everything we need so that when you walk out of this room you're able to say i shall not want i shall not want so if you will go ahead and stand if you don't have the elements please go back and grab them and then come back to your seat and we will we will worship jesus together as we partake of this the apostle paul declaring to the church in corinth about this meal he says i received from the lord what i also delivered

to you that the lord jesus on the night when he was betrayed he took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and he said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me and i just want to point out one thing here that again we read this every time we do this but jesus gave thanks that means jesus was thankful for what he was about to do he was thankful for what he was about to do at the cross in the same way also he took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in

my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me forever as often as you eat this bread and you drink the cup you are proclaiming the lord's death until he comes let's proclaim his death together and let's worship him in this time [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] your will be done my god and father [Music] my heart is drawn to self-exalting help me seek your kingdom first as jesus walked so i shall walk held by your same unchanging love be still my soul o lift your voice and pray father not my will but yours be done [Music] how in that garden

he persisted i may never fully know the fearful weight of true obedience it was held by him alone what wondrous way to bear that cross to bear my sin what wondrous love my hope was sure when there my savior prayed father not my will but yours be done [Music] when i am lost when i am broken in the night of fear and doubt still i will trust in my good father yes to one great king i bow as jesus rose so i shall rise in ransomed glory at the throne my heart restored with all your saints i sing father not my will but yours be

done [Music] and as go forth our god and father lead us daily in the fight that all the world might see your glory and your name be lifted high and in this name we overcome for you shall see us safely home now as your church we lift our voice and pray father not my will but yours be done father not my will but yours be done father not my will but yours be done [Music] lord if christ is the example that in that moment staring death down and knowing what was to come that he can say father not my will but yours be done pray

that you would give us increasing faith to say the same thank you lord for the word that was spoken today and thank you for the worshipful hearts that we're able to bring here and to lift our voices to you in song it's in your precious son's name we pray amen you can go ahead and