The Lord My Shepherd

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to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to the 23rd Psalm.
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Christmas is undoubtedly one of the most hectic times of the year.
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J.J., sit down.
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I ain't worried about your jacket.
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Sit down.
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Let me start that again.
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Christmas is one of the most hectic times of the year and it is common to use the term hustle and bustle.
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And that's a very common thing to do for this type of time of year.
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We say the hustle and bustle of the season, from planning family gatherings, to purchasing gifts, to placing decorations, we find ourselves stretched thin and stressed out during a season which is supposed to be marked by peace and goodwill.
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People tend to be uglier to each other in the shopping centers.
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People tend to be, especially in the parking lots, I think some people just go to the parking spaces, put their reverse lights on, and sit there just to drive people crazy.
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It's as if there's an attempt to just encourage indignation among one another.
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And in the midst of all this, I'm moving this week as well.
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And so Christmas plus moving equals very stressed time of life.
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But today is the second Sunday in Advent.
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And the second Sunday in Advent is the time that we focus on peace.
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So while I've been a little stressed, and as many of you are feeling the stresses of the season, this whole week I've been having to meditate on the concept and the idea of peace and preparing to preach on the subject of peace.
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And over the years, I've preached on this subject many times.
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And often in Advent, I will stop whatever I'm preaching on normally, and I'll take an opportunity to focus on these themes.
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They're such wonderful and timeless themes that need to be addressed.
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And so this is not uncommon that I would do this.
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And over the years, often on the Sunday of peace, I will preach about the peace that we have with God through Jesus Christ, by Jesus receiving in himself the punishment due our sins, thereby removing the wrath that was for us because of our sins, Christ having absorbed our wrath, having taken it from us.
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And we now, according to Romans 5, 1, have been justified by faith, and we have peace with God.
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Glory and amen.
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That's the peace that I've often focused on.
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But today, I want to focus on another aspect of peace.
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Today, I want to focus on the peace that belongs to all believers because of the work of Christ, the peace of having an intimate relationship with God as our shepherd.
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So not only do we have a, what we might call a forensic peace, and the word forensic simply means a legal peace, we have, God has declared peace with us.
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He has declared eternal shalom with those who are in Christ.
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We have a forensic peace, but we also have an experiential peace.
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We get to experience peace with God.
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And so today, I want to talk about the experience of peace that we have.
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And the apostle Paul says in Philippians 4, 7, it is a peace which passes all understanding.
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And I believe it is expressed beautifully and comprehensively in the 23rd Psalm.
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Now, I realize for many of you, the 23rd Psalm may be associated with a very difficult time in your life because the 23rd Psalm has often been read in funeral services.
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And therefore, you may hear the 23rd Psalm and your thoughts may go to a time when you didn't have a lot of peace, but maybe you had a lot of discomfort and pain.
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But my hope is to show you today the peace that we have by having the Lord as our shepherd, even in times of difficulty.
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So one last thing I want to say before we read the text.
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I have memorized this text, but I might mention this when he preached last week.
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Sometimes when you say things in the old King James, you feel extra spiritual.
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Well, I happen to have memorized this in the King James.
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So I'm going to read it in that tone, not to sound super spiritual, but just because it's how I know it.
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So please let us stand.
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And as I give the recitation of the word, we will prepare our hearts.
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The Lord is my shepherd.
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I shall not want.
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He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.
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He leadeth me beside the still waters.
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He restoreth my soul.
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He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
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Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me.
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Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
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Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
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My cup runneth over.
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Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
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And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
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Our Father and our God, we thank you for this opportunity to be under the teaching of your word.
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I pray even now that you would keep me from error as I preach.
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Lord, I am a fallible man incapable of preaching error.
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And I pray also that you would keep me from cowardice.
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Lord, help me to preach with both accuracy and boldness.
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And may it be that your word is what is heard and your spirit is the teacher.
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Lord, help me to step out of the way.
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Let the spirit take over and teach.
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And Lord, may the word of God go not only into the ears and not only into the mind, but down into the heart.
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Teach us all now, Lord, from your word in Christ's name.
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Amen.
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A few weeks ago, I decided to give some time to preaching through a few of the psalms.
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And so that's what we're doing for Advent this year.
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I felt as if the church needed a time of encouragement.
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It's been difficult the last few months with some things that have been happening.
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And God provides the psalms to us as a balm for the soul.
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They are inspired poetry, which has the power to grasp us not only by our intellectual minds, but also by our hearts.
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The psalms, I think, is just as much emotional as it is theological and intellectual.
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And I have chosen today to preach Psalm 23, a passage which I have never preached before.
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I have read this passage hundreds of times.
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As many of you know, I serve families that need funerals performed, and I perform funerals all the time.
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And this is a favorite to be read in funeral services, as I mentioned earlier.
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And so I have read this particular text many times over the years.
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And Psalm 23 is, of course, very common.
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But I've never given an exposition of it.
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I've never given an exposition of it until today.
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Today is the first time.
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And the reason why I have chosen this text today is because today our theme is peace.
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And as I said before, I believe there is no greater peace that we can experience than the peace that we have with God, the peace that we experience with knowing that the God of the universe is, in fact, our shepherd.
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The one who spoke the world into existence cares about us individually.
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That's enough, right? I could just stop preaching there.
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I ain't.
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But I could because the God of the universe who made everything, He made Saturn, right? And there's something going on this week where Saturn is going to be in the line of another planet.
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It's going to be this huge, beautiful star in the sky.
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I don't know what the other one is.
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I think it's Saturn and Uranus are going to come together.
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It's going to be this huge.
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God made that, made every part of that.
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And the God who made Saturn, the God who made Uranus, the God who made Pluto, which is a planet, the God who made all of that.
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Now, I don't care what Neil deGrasse Tyson says.
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It's all, you know, he is intimately involved with my life.
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He knows me and he calls me his.
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That's that's an amazing reality.
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It really is.
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I mean, it should knock our socks off.
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The fact that God knows us, you know, the deists don't believe that deism is the belief that God created the world, but he walked away after creating it.
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He essentially got the world spinning.
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He created the laws that make everything function.
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And he simply steps back and he lets the world work itself out the way that it's going to work itself out, however it's going to work itself out.
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And that's not theism.
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That's called deism.
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And that's the way most people think, right? God set the world spinning like a top and it's just spinning on its own now.
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But that's not what the Bible says.
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The Bible says God keeps the world spinning.
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The Bible says God keeps my heart beating.
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And the Bible says God has fashioned my days before me, before there was ever even one.
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By the way, that's our psalm for next week, Psalm 139.
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Because when we look at love, what greater love is there than to know that the God who formed me in my mother's womb has already fashioned every one of my days when there wasn't even one of them.
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That's how much God loves me.
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And therefore I can experience peace.
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Because I have the God who made everything knows my name.
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And my name is written on his hand.
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He knows my name.
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And he cares.
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The one who made us walks with us.
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Psalm 23.
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I want to mention the context real quick.
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Because understandably that the Psalms were written at different times in different places, but they are arranged canonically in a particular way.
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And it's important to understand that Psalm 23 does fit within a context between two other psalms.
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Psalm 23 comes right after Psalm 22.
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And Psalm 22 is about what? Psalm 22 is about Jesus.
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It begins with these words.
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Look at it.
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My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Who said that? Jesus, when did he say it? He said it on the cross, right? So Psalm 22 is about, Jesus uses Psalm 22 about himself.
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And he cries out the words of Psalm 22 while he's on the cross.
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That wasn't just anything Jesus was saying.
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Jesus wasn't just crying out in agony.
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He was quoting scripture.
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And Psalm 22 is about the cross.
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And then you go to Psalm 24.
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And guess what Psalm 24 is about? Psalm 24 is about the king coming in victory.
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So Psalm 22 is about Jesus coming the first time as the suffering lamb of God.
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And Psalm 24 is about Jesus coming the second time as the king of kings and the Lord of lords.
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What does Psalm 24 say? It says, who is this king of glory? The answer is the Lord.
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He, Jesus, is the king of glory.
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And so we have Psalm 22 is about the cross.
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Psalm 24 is about the second coming.
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You've got the first advent.
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You've got the second advent.
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And right in between those, you have David's great shepherd's psalm.
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Who is Christ now? The shepherd of our souls.
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He who came to die on the cross, and he who will come again, is walking with us now as the shepherd of our souls.
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And it is very important that we don't ever forget that we have the benefit of the New Testament.
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Don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't look at the Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament.
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You should look at the Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament, because we have the lenses of Jesus Christ.
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Like these glasses make things clearer for me.
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When I put the lens of the New Testament on, I can see Jesus in these passages.
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And that's what I'm supposed to do.
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I'm supposed to see Christ as the suffering servant.
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I'm supposed to see Christ as the Lord of glory.
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And I'm supposed to see Christ as the good shepherd.
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In fact, I don't say that as an opinion.
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I say that as fact.
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Hold your place at Psalm 23 and just very quickly jump over to John chapter 10.
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In John chapter 10, find your place at verse 11.
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Now this is Jesus speaking.
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Notice what he says, I am the good shepherd.
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The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
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By the way, there's a good little verse for limited atonement.
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If you want to get into the conversation about particular redemption, Jesus says, I lay down my life for who? For the sheep.
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That's right.
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And he goes on to say, 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.
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He flees because he's a hired hand and he cares nothing for the sheep.
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I am the good shepherd.
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Same thing he said in verse 10 or verse 11.
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He says again in verse 14, I am the good shepherd.
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I know my own and they know me just as the father knows me and I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep.
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Then down in verse 27, he says this, he says, my sheep hear my voice.
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I know them and they follow me.
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So we see here in John 10, Jesus using the great shepherd imagery that David gives us in Psalm 23.
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He's using it of himself.
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He says, I am the shepherd.
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I am the good shepherd and my sheep know me.
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This week I shared a video.
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Some of you may have seen it on social media.
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There was a video of a shepherd and I think it was overseas somewhere, probably over in Russia somewhere.
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They had people go out and yell for the sheep.
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It was some lady walked out there, I, I, I, she yelled.
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The sheep kept eating, didn't turn, didn't look, didn't do anything.
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Another man comes out, I, I, I, I made noise.
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I don't know what they were saying.
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Again, it was a different language.
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Sheep didn't do anything.
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And then some guy walks out, I, I, I, and all the sheep heads popped up and they all came running because he was their shepherd.
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When other people yelled, they didn't come.
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They didn't even quit eating.
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They heard the I, I, I, didn't get up, didn't come.
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But when their shepherd, the voice they knew, spoke, they got up and they came a running.
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They knew the voice of the shepherd.
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My sheep hear my voice.
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I know them and they follow me, Jesus says.
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I'll tell you this, this is one of the things.
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If, if you are a person who sits under the teaching of the word week after week and you hear not the voice of the shepherd, that would concern me for your soul.
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If you are not hearing the voice of the shepherd.
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Now, I'm not saying it's some mystical thing, but what I'm saying is Jesus said, my sheep know my voice.
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They know my word.
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I mean, we, we know there are people who can sit under the word five years, 10 years, 15 years, even longer and not be converted.
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And that's, that's heartbreaking.
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But I tell you this, if the, if the, if the voice of the shepherd does not bring conviction to your heart, if the voice of the shepherd does not bring urgency to your heart, if the voice of the shepherd does not resonate in your heart, maybe that's because you're not his sheep.
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You know what Jesus said? You don't believe because what? You're not my sheep.
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My sheep hear my voice.
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I know them and they follow me.
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Jesus is the great shepherd.
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Now, I haven't even gotten to Psalm 23 yet, but we're getting there because, because all this, I'm just setting the stage.
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When we read Psalm 23, what we have to understand is this is, this is Jesus.
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This is the shepherd of our souls, right? JJ, sit back.
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Don't do that.
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All right.
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Now let's all go back to Psalm 23.
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What I want to show you in Psalm 23 today is I'm going to show you what it tells us about our good shepherd, because Psalm 23 tells us about Jesus.
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It tells us about our good shepherd, tells us three things about him specifically, and I'm going to put them on the board for you.
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Miss Pam, I have them on the screen.
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There you go.
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We see three things.
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One, we see our relationship to the shepherd.
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Number two, we see the providence of the shepherd.
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And you'll notice that that's not a math problem, I promise.
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What that is, that's the second half of verse one, and that's verse three and verse five.
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And then the confidence that we have with the shepherd, that's verses four and six.
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So if you're writing an outline, that's how I've outlined it.
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All right, so let's look first at our relationship to the shepherd.
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Notice what it says in verse one, the Lord is my shepherd.
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That is extremely personal.
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And it is, it is ascribed according to the titles, which I've mentioned over the last few weeks.
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I don't know if those are, I don't know if those are inspired.
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They go back historically a long way, but whether or not they were part of the original inspiration is up for debate.
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But ultimately, those titles tell us at least how they have been understood.
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And this has been understood to be a Psalm of David.
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David himself was a shepherd.
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David would have understand, he would have understood the heart of the shepherd and how shepherds operated.
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And therefore, when he looks to God, he looks to Yahweh.
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And by the way, if you notice, it is the capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, that's Lord.
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That means it's a transliteration of Yahweh, which is the covenant name of God.
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Yahweh is my shepherd.
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And by the way, as my brother Mike mentioned in his prayer, the Trinitarian view is Yahweh is Father, Yahweh is Son, Yahweh is Spirit, God.
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So this is Jesus, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
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The Lord is my shepherd, David said.
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Notice he does not say, notice he does not say the Lord is the world's shepherd.
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Notice he does not say the Lord is Israel's shepherd, even though that would be true.
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He says the Lord is my shepherd.
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And I point this out because David is not in this moment speaking about everyone else.
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He's speaking about his intimate relationship with the shepherd.
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The Lord is mine.
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He's my shepherd.
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Matthew Henry is, you've probably all seen Matthew Henry's commentary.
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It's been around forever.
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Most people read it and use it for study.
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In Matthew Henry's commentary, the very first line on his comments on Psalm 23, he says this.
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He says, this is about the pastor of the universe.
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I liked that.
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That almost was the title of my sermon, pastor of the universe.
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That sounds good.
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But then I thought about it.
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I said, that's not what this is about.
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And I'm not really challenging Matthew Henry.
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I realize, brilliant man.
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But this isn't about God being the pastor of the universe.
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This is about God being the shepherd of the soul, the individual soul.
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This is not about everything.
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This is about the individual soul.
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The Lord is my shepherd.
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And this psalm is not for everyone.
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Because, beloved, there are people who are not a part of his flock.
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There are people who are not God's.
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One of the worst myths in modern Christianity is the universal fatherhood of God.
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That is a heretical false teaching from the pits of hell.
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God is not the father of everyone.
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God's the creator of everyone.
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But you have to be born again for God to be your father.
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You have to be born again and adopted into the family of God through faith in Jesus Christ to be able to say God is your father.
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And that same thing must happen for God to be your shepherd.
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For him to be your shepherd, he has to first be your savior.
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This is why Psalm 23 comes after Psalm 22.
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Psalm 22, he dies on the cross.
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He's your savior.
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Now he's your shepherd.
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He's got to be on the cross for you before he leads you.
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You understand? If Jesus has not, if you have not received Christ as savior, if you have not received Christ as Lord, you do not have him as shepherd.
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This is not a universal psalm.
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This is for believers only.
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And notice, also, there is an, there is a inference here, a necessary inference.
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And the inference is this.
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If the Lord is a shepherd, what does that make us? Sheep.
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Now I want to say this.
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Sheep is a common description given to believers.
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Psalm 79, 13, we are your people, the sheep of your pasture.
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Psalm 100, know ye the Lord, he is God, it is he who made us and we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
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Isaiah 53, 6, it says all we like sheep have gone astray.
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Right? So we are sheep, we are sheep.
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The Bible says that.
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Here's the thing about sheep though.
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That is not a positive description.
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In case you were wondering.
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Sheep are known for four things.
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Well, they're known for not being four things.
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They're not smart, they're not clean, they're not powerful, and they're not noble.
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I'll say it again.
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They're not smart, they're not clean, they're not powerful, and they're not noble.
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Sheep are dumb, sheep are dirty, sheep are weak, and sheep are foolish.
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They are easily led astray.
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Amen? They taste good.
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Okay.
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But wouldn't it, wouldn't it seem like the average person would rather be compared to a lion or an eagle? In fact, that's what, you know, this whole, when I was a kid, everything was about self-esteem.
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And you had to drill into your kids' minds just how great they are, and just how they never do anything wrong, and just how perfect they are.
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And what have we created? We've created a generation of people who don't understand what sin is anymore because they've never done anything wrong in their life.
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You see, sheep are dumb.
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And just so you know, that's an apt description of us.
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Because of the fall, we think wrongly about many things.
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We have what's called the noetic effect of the fall, or the effect in our mind of the fall.
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We're dumb, especially when compared to God.
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I know some people think they're pretty smart, and some of you may be, but when compared to the God of the universe, you'd be dumb.
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Okay? Just so you know.
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And we're dirty.
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We're sinful.
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We're unclean.
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We are weak.
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Sin robs us of our strength, and we're also foolish.
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Not only are we dumb, but we're foolish.
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And there's a difference, right? One is a lack of intelligence, and the other is a lack of wisdom.
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Not only do we not know right, we don't do right.
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We lack moral integrity.
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This is why you need a shepherd.
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And this is honestly too, this is why people are so desperate for a shepherd.
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See, when the people don't have the Lord as their shepherd, they'll find a shepherd in anyone.
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They'll go off to Hollywood and find some of the biggest fools in the world, and they'll make them the hero of their soul.
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And he'll become their shepherd, or she'll become their shepherd.
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And they'll sing their songs, and they'll watch their movies, and they'll be so happy to have this shepherd in their life.
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Someone they can look up to, who's just as dumb, and dirty, and foolish as they are.
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We need a shepherd, and the only one who qualifies is Jesus Christ.
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So that's our relationship to the shepherd.
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He is our, he is my shepherd.
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If you are his, he is your shepherd, and you need him.
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You need that relationship.
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You need a shepherd.
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I need a shepherd.
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And Jesus Christ is the shepherd.
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Now let us look at the providence of the shepherd.
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The providence of the shepherd.
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The psalm reminds us, and we're going to go through it a little quicker now, because there's a lot to get through, and I've taken a lot of time already in all this.
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So I'm going to go through these relatively quickly.
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The psalm reminds us of several things that God does, that the Lord does in providence.
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Now you know what providence is? Providence is how God manages our lives to bring about his glory in our life, and our good.
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The Bible says he works all things together for our good, and for his glory.
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Therefore that's providentially managing our lives so as to bring about his glory in our good.
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And we see that in five things.
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One, meeting our needs.
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It says, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
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Now does that mean that God fulfills all of our fleshly desires? No.
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That would be wrong.
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Do you have children? Do you give them everything that they desire in their heart? No, because that would be wrong of you as a parent, to give you everything that you want.
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To give your child everything that they want.
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And so God does not give us everything that we want.
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But way past here it says, I shall not want.
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What the word here means is it means to lack that which is needed.
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And I will say this, God is not interested in filling your greeds.
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But as Dr.
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Jerry Powers, one of my teachers, used to say, God isn't about our greeds, but he is about our needs.
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And God does fill our needs.
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And that's why the Shepherd Psalm begins, I shall not want.
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Notice what Philippians 4.19, backing that up, it says, my God will supply every what? Need of yours, according to his riches and glory in Christ.
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Dr.
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Votie Balcombe in his comments on this passage said something I never really thought about before, but it was really profound.
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And maybe you might take issue with this.
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I hope you won't, though, because it really, it took me, it took a minute to sink in with me.
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He said, if God doesn't give it to you, you don't need it.
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Because God will meet your needs.
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And if you didn't get what you asked for, it was because it wasn't what you needed.
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And that was like, to me, wow.
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Because I think I know what I need.
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I always think I know what I need.
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But the Lord is my shepherd, I will not want, I will not lack what I need.
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That's powerful thought.
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But not only does he meet our needs, he gives us rest.
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Notice what it says, he makes me lie down in green pastures.
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Now, we could talk about the bodily Sabbath rest that we all need here, and yes, that is true, but I think that this specifically is referring to the rest that we have in Christ, that real spiritual rest that we have, because why do we lie down? We lie down to rest.
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Why do we lie down in green pastures? Because it's comfortable and it's nourishing.
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You don't lay down in the desert, you lay down where it's comfortable and it's nourishing.
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And you lay down because you need rest.
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And Jesus said, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you what? Rest.
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I'll give you Sabbath for the soul.
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You see, prior to coming to Christ, we all try to work our way into heaven.
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Before you repented of your sin and trusted in Christ, you know what you thought was going to get you into heaven? All the good things you did.
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Before you repented and trusted in Christ, you know what thought? You thought, hey, I'm a good guy or I'm a good girl.
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Santa Claus has a naughty and nice list, Jesus must have a naughty and nice list, and certainly I'm on the nice list.
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But the problem with the naughty and nice list is that's not how God operates, because we're all on the naughty list.
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But when we come to Christ, we lie down in him, because his work, not our work, is what we're resting in.
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We rest in the shepherd, right? In his pasture.
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We're the sheep of his pasture.
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I got to hurry, I got a lot more to say.
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He provides us refreshment.
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He leads me beside the still waters.
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Notice, it's still waters.
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Sheep don't like running water.
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Do you know why? Because wool be heavy.
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And if you fall into running water with a wool jacket on, it's going to take you down.
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And a sheep is wearing a wool jacket all the time.
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And so they don't like that.
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They like ponds and springs where they can go and drink without fear of being taken away.
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And so the image of David is the image of the still waters, because God gives us peace.
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It's a picture of peace.
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Peace, not only in this world, but peace for the soul.
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He rejuvenates our soul.
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Notice it says he rejuvenates, he restores our soul.
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And again, this reminds us this isn't all physical.
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There is some physical blessings by being in the shepherd and being with the shepherd, but this is more of a spiritual truth.
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He rejuvenates the soul.
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You remember the hymn, My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
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What does it say? When all around my soul gives way, he is all my hope and stay.
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When everything else is going wrong, when the world is going to pot and everything around us looks awful, our soul is revived in him.
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He is the shepherd.
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He restores our soul.
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He leads us in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
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I want to say something, and this hopefully won't be too controversial, but I'm going to say this.
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We have come to a place in the church today that's very dangerous.
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Not just our church, but I'm going to say it's not invisible here.
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I see it here too, but it's in a lot of churches.
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And that is the idea that it doesn't matter how you live because you're under grace.
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Doesn't matter how you live because you're under grace.
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Let me say this about that.
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God is concerned about your holiness.
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In fact, I will say this.
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People always say God wants me to be happy.
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God is much more concerned that you're holy than you are happy.
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And I'll add a thought to that.
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When regarding happiness and holiness, consider this for just a moment.
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Righteousness is a blessing, not a burden.
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For the people of God, doing what is right is a blessing.
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The burden is sin.
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Say, oh, it's so hard to do what is right.
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No, you know what hard living is? Hard living is just giving way to sin.
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Because sin is satisfaction for a moment.
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And the moment is fleeting.
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Now again, our righteousness is in Christ and certainly our righteousness, our righteous standing before God is in Christ.
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But Christ, what have we been saved for? For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
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It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
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For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.
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Don't ever let anybody tell you that as a Christian, we don't have a responsibility to seek practical righteousness.
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We absolutely do.
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John wrote in his epistle, I have written these things that thou shalt not sin.
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But if you do sin, know that you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
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So yes, he knows we're not going to be perfect, but he's writing for what purpose? That we not sin.
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Let me tell you brothers and sisters, if you're living in sin today, I hope you're miserable.
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Because you need to repent.
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Whatever little bit of joy you may be squeezing out of that fruit of sin that you are nursing is nothing to be compared to the path of righteousness that is in the shepherd.
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And that's the path that he leads us in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
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Why does his name matter? Why does that even mentioned? Because here's the thing that is most shameful.
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Someone who bears the name of Christ and who walks the way of the devil.
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This is why we excommunicate from the church.
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Because when someone is bearing the name of Christ and they are unbelieving devils, they are to be put out of the church.
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Because that is bringing shame upon the name of Christ.
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We want to see him restored and all those things, but ultimately there is a path of righteousness and he leads us in that path for his name's sake.
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Now, in verse 5, David abandons the shepherd metaphor and he switches to the metaphor of a host.
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And he says this, he says, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
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Now, he could still be talking about a shepherd here and it's possible, but generally you don't prepare a table for sheep.
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So I think there's a mixing of metaphors here where I think he's talking now about a host.
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God is not only our shepherd, but he's also our host.
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He welcomes us.
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And the cool thing about this part, he says he prepares a table before us in the presence of who? Our enemies.
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Why does that matter? Because as children of God, we will have enemies.
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As children of God, we will be hated.
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As children of God, we will fight battles in this world.
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But God prepares us a table where we may eat in peace, even though outside in the yard, even though outside in the world, even though in the halls of Congress, even though in the White House, even though in the governor's mansion, no matter where they are, we have enemies around us and we can still eat in peace.
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Like the children of Israel ate their Passover meal while the destroyer went through Egypt, destroying every firstborn.
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The children of Israel ate in peace because they were covered by the blood of the lamb.
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And we too are covered by the blood of the lamb.
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Therefore, we can eat in peace.
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You know, when I was a little kid, I was terribly afraid of the dark.
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I mean, bad.
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I still don't like the dark.
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Even as a 40 year old man, I may have a nightlight.
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But when I was a kid, I really was afraid of the dark.
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And when I was about 7 years old, 6, 7, I would get up in the middle of the night and I would make my way through the house.
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My house, my bedroom was on one end of the house.
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My dad's bedroom was on the other end of the house.
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And I'd make my way through the darkness.
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There was a clock in the living room that was lit up.
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And so it gave just enough light to where I could make my way.
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And I would bring my blanket and my pillow with me.
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And I would go in and I would lay my blanket beside my dad's side of the bed.
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And I'd put my pillow there and I would crawl.
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And I couldn't get in bed with him without waking him up.
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So I would lay on the floor next to him and I would go to sleep.
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And I couldn't sleep in my bed because I was afraid.
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But I fell asleep immediately when I was on the floor next to my dad.
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Even though the floor was a lot less comfortable than my bed, I was safe.
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And so that's, this is divine protection.
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He prepares a table before me in the presence of my dad.
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You see, no matter what was in the darkness, if I was next to my dad, I was safe.
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And I didn't have to be afraid of the darkness anymore.
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You understand? When I was there, I wasn't afraid.
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Now my dad got upset because when he had to get up to go to the restroom, he couldn't get out of the bed because I was there.
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And he would step on me.
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But that was a different story.
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But the point is, I'm there and I'm safe.
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This is why later he would say, Thou art with me.
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Thou art with me.
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That's, that's the protection we have.
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We don't have to be afraid.
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We don't have to be afraid.
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He has prepared a table in the presence of our enemies.
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And notice it says, He anoints our head with oil.
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That was something that hosts would do.
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If you remember when Jesus went to the house of the Pharisee to eat and the woman came in and she was, and her tears were washing Jesus's feet and she was drying them with her hair.
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And he was, she was anointing his feet with oil.
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And Jesus looked at the host and he said to the host, you did not give me oil for my head, but she has not stopped anointing my feet with her tears.
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Why did Jesus mention the oil for the head? Because that was a common, that was something that was very common in that part of the world that when a host would invite a guest in, he would give them oil to anoint their head.
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Jesus didn't receive that from the Pharisee and Jesus called him out on it.
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He said, you didn't give me this, this very common thing that you give to guests, you didn't give to me.
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So God is not only saying we're his sheep, but we are welcomed as his honored guests.
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He sits us at a table, he anoints our head with oil and he gives us a cup that runs over.
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Charles Spurgeon said about that cup running over, he said, every man in this world has a cup that he tries to fill with something, but when you try to fill your cup with the joys and the pleasures of this world, that cup has no bottom.
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When you try to fill your cup with the joy of money, you'll never have enough.
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When you try to fill your cup with the joy of sexual gratification, you'll never have enough.
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When you try to fill your cup with the joy of anything, it'll never be enough unless you fill your cup with Christ and then it will overflow to abundance and you will always, always be satisfied if you're satisfied in him.
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God is most glorified in us.
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John Piper said this, God is most glorified in us when we're most satisfied in him.
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Can we be satisfied in God? Remember what Job said? Everything was taken away, children killed, land destroyed, fortune destroyed, and what did he say? Though he slay me, yet I will trust in him.
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My satisfaction is in my savior.
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You understand? That's the cup that runs over.
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See, Jesus drank the cup of God's wrath and now we have the cup of God's blessing and it runs over.
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Finally, very quickly, we have confidence in our shepherd.
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We have confidence in our shepherd.
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We need not fear.
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Look with me at verse 4 very quickly.
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He says in verse 4, he says, Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
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Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
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The rod was an instrument that the shepherd used to fight off animals and wolves and animals that would come after the sheep.
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The rod was an instrument of protection.
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It could also be used to discipline the sheep, but it was mainly a weapon of protection.
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And the staff, you remember that crooked staff? The crooked staff of the shepherd? What was that crook for? To bring them back to God.
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When the staff went up, the sheep see it, they follow the shepherd, and when they get out of line, he brings them back.
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And that's why David, in writing, he says, Your rod and your staff remind me of who you are.
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You are the God who protects and you are the God who brings me back.
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You're the God who loves me.
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You're the shepherd of the sheep.
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And I don't have to be afraid.
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You know what the word confidence means? The word confidence comes from Latin.
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It means with faith.
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Confide, with faith.
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And you know what the opposite of confidence is? Fear.
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When we have the Lord as our shepherd, we have confidence that the Lord is with us.
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That the Lord has a rod to protect us and a staff to guide us and bring us back.
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And we have the confidence that not only will goodness and mercy follow me in this life, but that I have something even better to look forward to in the future because I'm going to dwell in His house forever.
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You understand that? Goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.
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Now, I know what some of you are saying.
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Man, Pastor, I've had some bad days.
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I've had some really, really bad days.
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I've had some days that I couldn't say, I looked around and I didn't see goodness or mercy.
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Let me remind you of what the Bible says.
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This is in Lamentations.
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What is the word Lamentations? It means crying.
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It's the writings of Jeremiah as he watched his people go into exile under the torturous Babylonian empire.
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And he wrote Lamentations and he wrote these words in Lamentations chapter 3 verse 22.
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The steadfast love of Yahweh never ceases.
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His mercies never come to an end.
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They are new every morning.
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Great is your faithfulness.
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And he goes on to say this.
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The Lord is my portion and therefore I will hope in Him.
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You see, if you don't have anything else, guess what you still have? The Lord.
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If you lose everything else, guess what you still have? The Lord.
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And you know what? The guy on the hill with the mansion and all the money and the beautiful family and the beautiful cars, if he doesn't have the Lord, he ain't got a thing.
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Because that mansion is going to burn down one day.
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All of his fortune is going to go to somebody else one day.
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They don't put a U-Haul in the back of a hearse.
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Right? One day that fortune is going to go to someone else.
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One day that money is going to go to someone else.
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One day that beautiful family is going to be lost because he is going to die and if he dies apart from Christ, none of that will have mattered.
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But if you have nothing but you have the Lord Jesus Christ, you have everything.
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The shepherd is mine.
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He gives me rest.
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Sit up.
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He gives me rest.
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He gives me rejuvenation.
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He gives me restoration.
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He gives me righteousness.
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He gives me respite.
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He gives me his love without restraint.
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And because the shepherd is mine and I am his, I will not lack for anything.
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I will not fear whatever may come and I will not be separated from the shepherd forever.
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Today's theme is a theme of peace.
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How do you experience peace in this life? The Lord is my shepherd.
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How do we have confidence that all things will work out for good? The Lord is my shepherd.
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How do we know that even if the world dissolves under our feet, we need not fear? The Lord is my shepherd.
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Is there any wonder why this particular passage has been a favorite of believers down through the centuries when needing to find comfort and peace? The Lord is my shepherd.
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But may I remind you and I'll close with this.
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The Lord is only shepherd to those he is the Lord of.
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The Lord is my shepherd.
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Therefore, if he'd be not your Lord, he'd be not your shepherd.
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So my question for everyone in this room today is the Lord your Lord and therefore is he your shepherd? For if he is not, I call you this day today for the Bible says there is today is the day of salvation today.
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I call you today to turn from your sins and trust in the Lord.
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And if you know the Lord, know this.
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He is your shepherd.
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Let us pray.
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Father, I thank you for the opportunity to preach your word.
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And I know that in this short time, I certainly have not done justice to the weight of this text.
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But I praise you and thank you that we've had an opportunity to look at it.
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And I praise you that you are the shepherd of our souls.
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And now, Lord, as we turn our attention to the participation in the table, I pray first and foremost, Lord, that you would prepare all of our hearts for this.
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For, Lord, your word tells us this is the only thing in the in the text of Scripture that says that we need to actually examine ourselves before we do this.
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So, Lord, let us examine ourselves truly, not seeking good works from ourselves as if we somehow save ourselves, but seeking to know that we have genuinely trusted in the Lord and all that he has done, that we've genuinely trusted in his finished work.
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And also, Lord, if there be any wicked way in us, we pray, Lord, that you would give us the gift of repentance today to turn from that wickedness and trust in him and his finished work.
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And Lord, not look to ourselves for salvation, but to him alone.
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We pray this in Jesus' name and for his sake.
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Amen.