Shepherd | Week 1

it's been weird outside with all the fires happening, you know, California, Oregon, God's smiting them or something, I don't know, no, it's sad, but it's been kind of hazy outside, like almost like a fog, but it's not because it's making my lungs go crazy. I don't like it very much, but it got me thinking

about growing up here in Arizona and I thought about fog and I thought we don't really get fog very often. If you grew up here not too often, every now and then over a field in the early mornings, you get a little bit of fog, but it's gone pretty fast.

And I thought about that because when I was, I don't know about you, but fog is kind of creepy, isn't it? I mean, they use it in horror movies all the time. One of the main reasons I think they started using fog in horror movies is because you can have a cheaper budget. You can hide stuff.

Can like be sitting in someone's living room. You fog it up, you have no idea where you're at. But fog is kinda creepy. Well, I remember when I was in middle school, I spent the night at a friend's house, it was just, he only lived a few blocks away,

and he had cable. Cable was a new thing back then, you know, they'd invented electricity, and Ben Franklin did that, and then TV, so then we had cable. So we didn't have it, but he did, so we stayed up late, his parents went to bed,

we start flipping the channels, and a movie came on. It was an old horror movie called The Fog. Anybody, they've remade it a couple times, but the original was kind of terrifying, and it's about this seaside town that had done something horrible, and so this ghost ship that was cursed

came back in with this giant fog, and at the night, the zombie sailors would go throughout the city, and like they would kill people and stuff, but you know, but you didn't see them until they were right there, because the fog, right? And so we watched this thing, like terrified me. And

all I could think about is like these sailors, these zombies are gonna come and get you. Well then the next day when I went home, I'm walking home, and it was one of the few times ever in the history I remember growing up in Arizona, a fog had rolled in. And it was actually foggy in my neighborhood.

And I looked outside, I'm like, I'm trying to call my mom to come get me. She's like, No, I'm at the store, just walk home. And I'm like, no, want you to get, why? It's a few blocks, why are you so lazy? And then I didn't wanna tell her I watched this horrible rated R movie at night, so I was like, no, okay. So then I had to walk home in this,

and as you first start to walk, you know, when you're in a fog and you start to get scared. If you notice when you start to worry, you start to get scared. At first, it's not the most ridiculous things you're worried about.

Like I thought, this fog is so thick, and you'd hear a car and you'd come by and like, what if a car just didn't, it hit me? Now that's kinda crazy, but at least more reasonable. Then I heard a dog bark, and I'm like, you know, and this dog's barking and I'm like, is it in its backyard or has it gotten out?

And in the fog it might freak out too and attack me and kill me. You know, now it's getting a little bit more ridiculous. But after I've walked like a half a block, your brain starts going nuts. You can't see anything because when you're in a fog you can't can't see. So every noise is like exaggerated to you. Every like

sense of movement freaks you out. So as the further I walked towards my house, the more my craziness took over. I started worrying more. So next thing you know, I'm actually thinking, I'm gonna get attacked by zombie sailors, which if it's not ridiculous enough that there would be zombie sailors,

how did they get to Arizona? I mean, did they sail on their ghost ship up the canal that I was walking by? I don't think so.

And so it freaked me out. I started running at the end. I was like just so in my head freaked out, and that's because, you know, is what I was doing got my brain going the other way, but this fog kinda took over and actually paralyzed me with worry and concern. And I think we do that in our lives.

I think when we start to worry, we start to have a fog, and then the fog makes the worry worse, which makes the fog bigger. Because you know what? I read in the Washington Bureau of Standards a stat, which I don't know if I trust Washington standards, but still this was the stat. They say they a study said,

if you take seven city blocks and have a 100 foot high fog, do you know how much water it takes for that much fog?

About this much? Isn't that crazy? A big glass, a little bottle of water, a large glass of water can create seven blocks of fog 100 foot high. This is what worry does to our lives. We take a little bottle of something to be concerned about and we let it take up seven blocks of real estate in our head.

And it fogs everything. It confuses everything, and then next thing you know, you're afraid and you're worried, and that worry consumes you and nothing makes sense, and we freak out. And 2020 has probably been maybe a case of these, I'm not sure, but it's been more than one bottle.

But it's still, we take it and make a huge fog, and we can't see past it, and we get stuck, and that's what worry does. Worry is this fog that doesn't let us see things clearly,

and that's what we want to talk about today as we start this new series through Psalm 23. I just want to talk a little bit about, you know, hope for the worried. How do we have hope for the worried if you're worried? Because the problem with worry is it's unhelpful, first of all. Worry is unhelpful, first of all.

It's like a fog. It doesn't really help you. Worry is like turning, like revving your car engine in Wildson Park. You're wasting gas, you're creating pollution, and you're not going anywhere. It's just revving your brain up. That's all it's doing. It's also unreasonable.

It's unreasonable. Because if you think about it, if you're worried about something, you have a concern. You have two things that are possible. Either one,

you you you can do something about it. Sometimes we worry about stuff. Like I remember when I was in school, you worry about that paper that's due in three weeks, and you continue to worry about it until six hours before.

In college, I wrote a paper two hours before it was due, a 10 page paper. I mean, talk about the worry I carried all the way through. It was my theology class, by the way, so good luck with my preaching.

I got an A on it, so but but you know, but think about all those that you knew the paper was due, you knew and it's all I did was worry about it a little bit every day. And then as you get closer, the worry starts to consume you more. Well, here's the problem with that worry. That was stupid worry. That was that was unreasonable worry, because if you can do something about a worry and you don't do anything,

that's not that's stupidity. That's what that is. That's procrastination. But it still builds a fog. The other thing is you're worrying about something you have absolutely no control over.

So why worry? All you're doing is draining yourself because it's also unhealthy. Worry is unhealthy. So when you let a bunch of things sit on your heart and worry about it, they've, stab after stab has shown that worry can shorten your life. Now you're like, great, I didn't know that.

Now you've added that to your worry list.

But it's so unhelpful, unreasonable, unhealthy, and finally it's unnecessary.

Because what we're gonna see in the series we're starting today, we're gonna really what we're gonna see in Psalms 23 verse one is how do we deal with worry? How do we have hope when we have worry? And here's the big idea we wanna talk about today,

and I know Pat McCullough, who's preached for me, always says I come up with these really cool sounding kind of mind bending big ideas. Well, this isn't one of them. I felt like, you know what? We need a little simple right now. We just need some simple truth with simple hope.

And so the big idea today is simply this, believe God will take care of you. We just need to believe that God will take care of you. That's the answer to worry.

Because when you're worrying about stuff that's really not in within your control and all that, you just have to embrace that God is the one that will take care of you.

And where we're gonna get this from is we're gonna look into Psalms twenty three one, but a little bit of background for this psalm. I mean, everybody's probably heard of Psalms 23. It's most famously known as like the funeral psalm,

which is sad because it does talk about this walking through the valley of shadow of death, and when you die, God's with you if He's your shepherd. And so it's got that beautiful part, but the truth in this psalm is something we should probably celebrate, focus on, and embrace while we're alive,

not just have read at our funerals. And what's happening in Psalms 23 is it's written by King David when he was older, and actually Psalms 22, 23, and 24 are a trilogy of Psalms. He invented God invented the trilogy. So he's it's a trilogy of Psalms that they're called the Shepherd Psalms, and they actually are prophetic.

As David was writing about his own life and his own struggle, it prophesying about Jesus. So Psalms 22 is about past Jesus, for us the past, what He did is it's Jesus on the cross. Jesus quoted Psalm 22. Lot of the line, things He said when He was on the cross comes out of Psalm 22.

Psalms 23, what we're gonna be in the next few weeks is called the Shepherd's Lying, that's the present. So that was the the past was the Shepherd who laid down His life for His sheep. Psalms 23 is the Shepherd that walks with us in life. That's the He is with us. He's there,

and and and He's He's the Shepherd in our life. And then Psalms 24 is about resurrection and hope. Not just Jesus' resurrection, but our hope that we have eternal life, and so it's past, present, future. What you have to understand is David wrote this, and he was probably

in a depression possibly, or at least stressed out and worried. He wrote this most likely at the end of his reign as king,

and he knew he was called a man after God's own heart. It didn't mean he was a knucklehead that didn't sin. He would do dumb things, and he was stressed about he was seeing the results of some of the mistakes he made in his family, and his family rebelling. One of his sons had rebelled against him, which caused a problem in his kingdom. So he has all these worries going on, and a lot of the worries were caused by himself,

and he knows that. And the Holy Spirit inspired him to write these Psalms, and especially Psalms 23. In the midst of all that, he wrote about this hope as a king and as a former shepherd. He understood the shepherd analogy.

So what he's really saying when he writes this, where you get the hope is is to believe God will take care of you. And so in Psalms 23, he writes this beautiful picture of God, of who he is.

Matter of fact, it's a really beautiful it reminds me of the story that happened. A little girl in Sunday school class was drawing a picture and the teacher says, hey, what are drawing? She goes, I'm drawing a picture of God.

And she's like, sweetie, no one knows what God looks like. And she looks up and smiles and says, they will when I'm done. Well, Psalms 23 is a passage that really draws an incredibly clear and beautiful picture of who God is. First, he's described as a shepherd, which is a

newer this is one of the first times in scripture that God's been described that way. And what do shepherds do? They provide, they protect, they guide, and they correct. They provide, they protect, they guide, and they correct. And so he's describing this beautiful picture of God, but what's interesting in this passage,

in the whole Psalms 23, six verses, which we're gonna take one verse a week and find hope in it as we take it apart. Because there's a lot more depth here than you think. And there's a huge amount of depth found in its simplicity. But as he describes God, what you might not realize in the Old Testament,

there's seven names that describe God. They're the adjective names. Now Yahweh is like the formal name, but he's got seven names of God start Jehovah, and there's these names that are a description of who God is. Well in the first verse, when we see, you know, the Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need,

What it's really talking about is not just the simple things you think you need in life. It's saying that all we really need is God. All of God is all that we need. And what's interesting is in these six verses, all seven names of God are there.

So it's a complete picture of who God is, and these seven names are the descriptors of what we really need. We need Him. Matter of fact, in the first verse, there's two of them. There's two of them. Jehovah Ra, God the shepherd, and Jehovah Jireh, God the provider.

God provides. So here's what I wanna do. I wanna look at verse one and talk about what does this mean to believe God will take care of me. But I want to start off and just kind of I just wanna read the whole Psalms 23.

And I think for some of us, just doing that might help no matter what you're worried about. Let's just listen to God's word. Here we go. The Lord is my shepherd. I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows. He leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength.

He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to His name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.

You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Surely the goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever. I don't know about you, but this is I just love when I'm stressed or worried, I often go back to this passage,

and what I'll do, and I'll recommend as we're going through this series, pray through it. Let it be an outline for prayer. Pray each verse and then add your own words to like what is it saying and see what happens to that stress and that worry level. It can drop.

So he starts off, the Lord is my shepherd. Verse one. That's what I want to look at today. I have all I need. What he's saying there is all we need is God. We need to believe that God will take care of me. We need to believe that God is our shepherd. We need to embrace God as our shepherd. And that's kind of critical because that's a beautiful picture of God as a shepherd. Because shepherds provide, protect, they guide, correct. You know what shepherds do? They are amazing. Shepherds actually

name their sheep. In the eastern shepherds of this day, they would actually give their sheep's name because the sheep would learn their name, and they would come to them. They would learn his voice. They would come to them. But it's just beautiful because to be a shepherd takes a lot more care than to be like a rancher.

Because sheep have to be led, they can't be driven. And the other thing is it's this beautiful picture of God, but calling us sheep, in some ways, I think is a little bit of an insult. It's not that much of a compliment. You see, what makes a shepherd such a good

image is because of the care they have to take care of their their flock. Because sheep, you know, of all the animals in the world, like every animal has at least some kind of defense mechanism

when they're in the wild, their natural state. Some defense. Either they're powerful, they have claws, they have teeth, they can fight, or they're fast, or they have incredible senses of sight and smell and all of that stuff. They can tell. Sheep don't have any of those things. Sheep are slow. They're not very smart.

They don't see very well. They have no defense. If if if they get knocked over have you ever seen that? You could look up a video. A sheep, if they get knocked over sometimes, they can't even get themselves back up. Now some of us, I've eaten too much before and felt the same way, so you can relate.

But but sheep are are are are are that way. They're skittish. We'll see as we go through this thing. There's so much power in some of these descriptions because you're gonna see that what does that mean as a shepherd, like still waters? What does that mean with the sheep? Don't miss. We'll talk about that. It's like just the way they operate and the way they work. God is so caring to be the shepherd that takes care of us.

And so by calling him the shepherd, I do have all that I need. The idea is do you believe God will take care of you?

Whatever you're worried about. If it's something you actually can, it's just procrastination, something else, well then commit to do something about it. But if it's something that's really out of your control, I think the worry at the heart is, do I trust that God has got this? Do I trust God's plan?

Do I trust that He can take care of me? Is the Lord my shepherd? So what I want to do is just give you three things here. Three things on how I can let God be my shepherd that come out of this passage and a few other verses. Just three things, but here here I do wanna give a disclaimer before I go into these three things.

When I say that trusting God will take care of me is how you battle worry, That's very true. And I think every person, no matter where you're at in life or physical, anything, this will help you manage it. But I always have to give this disclaimer because there's someone that will hear what I'm not saying.

There are physical causes of worry that actually is anxiety. And if you have enough worry, it can be anxiety. And some people, your anxiety and the struggle, the depression you're struggling with is actually a physical base. We live in a broken world where our bodies don't work right. You might have a chemical imbalance.

Or you might need more advanced counseling, but some of us are maybe even on a medication. I did not say, well if God's got this, go flush your medicine down the toilet, okay? Because security doesn't want to have to deal with you when you go psycho when you're here, okay?

No, I'm just saying that God works in alignment with that, but even if that is you, this will help you manage better because this is the heart of worry, of where it comes from. Sound good? So here we go. So three things. How do I let God be my shepherd? The first one is accept Jesus as my Lord. Accept Jesus as my Lord.

The very first statement, and this first verse is the controlling theme for the other five. The whole thing is about the Lord is to be your shepherd, and when the Lord is your shepherd, He takes care of you.

And that's the whole point of this passage, this Psalm. And so the first thing is I need to accept Jesus as my Lord. Because you know it says, the Lord is my shepherd. If you have your Bibles and you wanna write in them, underline Lord and my shepherd. There's a key point here. This is where you read something super simple, and we've probably spent most of our lives, even if you grew up in church and knew this verse by heart, you might have missed the obvious

statement it's making.

We say I don't wanna worry because I want because I want the Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. And you wonder why you're still worrying. You're wondering why you don't feel like you're being taken care of. You wonder why you just can't connect the dots. And the problem for many of us is because we say the Lord is my shepherd, but we refuse to let the shepherd be my Lord.

Uh-huh, so you think, you should write that on your refrigerator. Think about it. The Lord is not your shepherd unless the shepherd is your Lord. He's not automatically your shepherd.

David even wrote the reason he went back and wrote this, which I imagine he was crying as he wrote this, he realized, I've messed up my life. I've gone my own way. I've created a lot of his problems. He had to get back to who is my shepherd? Is it me or is it no? He goes, the Lord is my shepherd. God is my Lord. I need the shepherd to be my Lord before the Lord will be my shepherd.

Does that make sense? In other words, you need to ask yourself, do I listen? Do I know? Do I follow Jesus?

Because in John 10, He talks about Jesus talks about being the good shepherd, and He talks about being our shepherd, and He says something about us as sheep. What do He expects? He goes, you are my sheep, my sheep. When He says my sheep, that means if you're His sheep, that means He's your shepherd. And he describes how you know if he's your shepherd. He says my sheep know me, first of all. They know me. That means I know who Jesus is. I believe in him. It's like if if if we're a Christian, how that would apply today is I know that Jesus died on the cross for my sins. He was resurrected. He is God the Son, and by His death, burial, and resurrection for me, I can have all of my brokenness and my sins forgiven,

and I made right with God only through that, and I put my faith in Him, to know Jesus. So I could say, yeah, do that. I believe in Jesus. He's my savior.

But then he says, they know me. They listen to me. Meaning they don't just say, alright, I got the fire insurance. You you I know that you saved me. I'm going to heaven. But do you continue to be in the word? You continue to listen to him. And then not only listen to what he says,

he then finishes it with, and they follow me. That's what it means for the Lord to truly be your shepherd to take care of you. If you want the Lord to take care of you and you believe he'll take care of you, you do have to choose to make the shepherd your Lord. You have to know, listen, and follow. Jesus can't just be

if he's your shepherd, he's the one you follow. He's the ones you listen to. He's the one that calls your name. A lot of us make Jesus just maybe the top of the list of our posse of advice givers. He's not the only one.

We like look at what Jesus says, and then this and that, and then we kind of decide what we're gonna do. Here's the problem. If you listen to what Jesus says and then listen to other stuff, and then you make your decision, Who's really being the shepherd in that moment? Who's being the Lord in that moment?

I am if I do that. You see, to accept Jesus as Lord means who is in control of your life. If you look at how you live, I don't care how many times you come to church. It's just ask yourself as you make day to day decisions where you go in your life, who is Lord of that?

You see, to really embrace and trust that God will take care of me means I have to surrender to Him. If I want to believe He's gonna take care of me, I need to let Him take care of me because that's the root of worry. Did you realize the root of worry is to try to control your own life and not trust God?

And the root of worry is actually worry is the root of all sin. Go back into Genesis when then Adam and Eve and Satan came in and tempted them. What did he tempt them with? See, God gave them this beautiful garden, totally took care of them. He gave them one boundary. He said, just don't touch this tree.

He gave them an opportunity to obey. Well, Satan comes along and starts saying, you know what?

You know, God said you're gonna die if you touch that fruit, if you eat the fruit. Actually, he didn't even say touch it. Satan exaggerated it. And he says, he goes, you're not really gonna die. He was telling half truths because he knew Adam and Eve thought death meant cease to exist.

And he goes, yeah, you will eventually die physically, but what God really meant is you're gonna die in a different way. You're gonna have sin and brokenness. It's gonna separate our relationship.

It's gonna cause he goes, you won't die. As matter of fact, you're gonna be like God. And he wasn't totally wrong on that. They would be like God, in that they would truly understand what evil was. They would understand what brokenness is. They would understand right and wrong. They would understand what guilt and shame was. They would be like God, in that they would know some things. What they heard and what Satan planted this seed of doubt is he made them worry. What did he make them worry about?

God is holding out on you, and what God's asking you to do is actually too difficult, unreasonable, and you'll be better off if you just do what you wanna do. Does that make sense? That's what every sin is that separates us from God.

God isn't some some some big old miser that says, I just randomly made a list of do's and don'ts, and I get really mad at people that that that don't do the dos and do do the don'ts.

And so if we come to church, we go, we gotta make God happy. What's the dos and the don'ts? And as long as I do more dos, then I do don'ts, then I won't do the do don'ts, do do do do do, and then you you know, yippee dee doo dah, here we go. You know what's funny is that sounds stupid,

but that's really, if you really analyze your life, how many of us, that's kind of our operating procedure. We misunderstood what sin is. Sin is simply God does take care of you. God wanted to create your life in regard. God knows what's best for you, and God puts some boundaries. He says do this in relationships.

This works, this doesn't. He says do this with your time. This is what I've built you for, not that. God says here's how you should spend your money and your resources. This is what I've asked you to do with it. Do this. Don't do that. Because not because it's just some random list that he arbitrarily made. It's because he made us. He knows. He wants to take care of you.

He wants to be the shepherd because He's the one that knows where to go. But if we don't listen to Him, how is He a shepherd? The Lord is not my shepherd if the shepherd is not my Lord.

And a lot of us have a lot of worries that are really boiling up because we're still buying into that lie. And then when you hear the words of Jesus say, this is the way to make your life work? To us, that doesn't make sense. That seems scarier. I don't have time to do that. I can't afford to do that.

I'm afraid of being alone if I date that way.

And we think the worry is coming from God asking us to do something unrealistic. And it's not. The worry is coming from me being God. So I need to accept Jesus as my Lord. So what does that mean? That means if I know Jesus, I'm a Christian, I need to continually daily

say, am I gonna yield to the Holy Spirit and surrender again to Jesus today? So I'm gonna stop here and I'm gonna pray for minute. I'm gonna do something normally I do at the end of a service. I'm just gonna it right now. If you are a believer,

I'm gonna ask you to right now just start praying. Just ask in your heart, does my life align? Is the shepherd my Lord right now? Do I surrender to Him in my life right now? And let the Holy Spirit talk to you about what you maybe need to surrender to. Then to some of us in this room and online, I wanna talk to you about

accepting Jesus as your Savior to begin with. That's to come to know Jesus. Some of you, you might come to church, but you've never come to Jesus. And that's to accept Him.

To say, I'm gonna put my faith in what He did for me, not what I do for Him. I'm gonna put my faith in Him, not me. I'm gonna put my faith that Jesus died on the cross, He was resurrected, and by my asking His forgiveness and putting my faith in what He did, that's what makes me right with God.

That's what it means to be born again, to become a Christian, and some have never done that. So I wanna stop and pray right now for you in this room and those online to say, hey, you can meet Jesus right now. You can start the journey of letting

the Lord be your shepherd because you've now declared Him Lord, and you're asking him to be the shepherd. So let's pray. If you're with me on that and you've never just put your faith in Jesus to begin with,

just pray something like this. But it's gotta be your own prayer, your own words between you and God. It's just a prayer of confession and profession. Professing him as Lord. Confessing that we need him. So just pray something like this. Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for being the great shepherd.

Thank you that you came and you lived that perfect life and you laid down your life for for me so I can be one of your sheep.

And right now, in the best way I know how, I wanna turn from all the ways I'm trying to make life work myself, all the plates I'm trying to spin. I'm done being God in my life, and I'm turning to you. Thank you for what you've done for me. Please be my Lord. And may I follow you as my shepherd.

And as I go from this moment, may I just hear Your voice every day. May I be familiar with it. And may I be willing to follow it. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus, Amen. Hey, if you just prayed with me in this room or online, welcome to the family. Welcome to the fold. You are now a follower of Jesus.

And you're like I know some of you are like, but what of all the horrible things I did? That's what makes it better? Yeah. That's the gospel. That is what makes it better. That's why the Lord is my shepherd. I'll have all I need. Because you know the number one thing I need is? I need redemption,

And only Jesus can do that. Only Jesus can do that. We don't earn God's love by doing the things He says to do. He gives us His love and we accept it. When we choose to follow Him, it's because we realize the big idea, which he thought was so simple.

I embrace and believe that God does take care of me. And if He does, following Him is not to get him to love me and putting up with stuff I don't like. Following him, I start to realize, is the only way that I can truly live. It's the only way I will find the joy, the peace, the happiness that he wants for me.

Does that make sense? Accept Jesus as Lord.

Because for the Lord to be your shepherd, the shepherd needs to be your Lord. The second thing is another symbol. Because these all ABC is my acronym. ABC. The ABC of making Jesus your shepherd. Accept Jesus as Lord. B, begin praying about everything. Begin praying about everything.

You know, we need to pray. Like, a lot of times we worry so much about what's going on, and and and and we get these worries, and we never think to talk to God. You're like, well, got this problem. I'm worried. Am I? And and I go and and usually we go to God as a last ditch effort. You know, I've tried everything else. I guess it's a long shot, but I could talk to the God of the universe who made everything and made me and knew all this was gonna happen before it ever happened, and he has all the power and all the presence. I know that's a huge long shot, but maybe He has an idea.

You know, that's how we do it, isn't it? We we we try to get everything done without Him. I mean, praying in and of itself will calm you.

Because I think praying starts to get us to see through the fog. That light burns through the fog. The warmth of God's love, it burns through that fog, and it helps us to not worry as much. Even if something doesn't change in our circumstances, something changes in our heart and our attitude.

And so we need to pray about everything. Matter of fact,

Think about let me describe it like It says in first Peter five seven that we should cast our cares. Talk to him. Cast our cares on him. The problem is that word cast in the Greek literally means just to drop. To drop and walk away.

Like, if I got a problem or worry that I can't get, it's like, here God, it's yours. You said you'll take care of me. I'm done. I'm detaching from this thing. The problem is we cast our cares like we do when we fish. You know when you go fishing and you have your rod and your reel, do you do when you cast?

I'm strong. It was really far. But then what do you immediately start doing?

There you bring it right back in. We do that over and over again. But

you know, we're not we're worse. We don't just have one worry in our life. I I when I used to live at the beach, go down to the pier and there's this old guy that would be there fishing all the time. He had like eight rods that he would get in the water at the same night. And

then he would see something moving. He'd run around and pull this one in and that one and then he's running back and forth. I gotta get this one in. One time I saw he didn't get to one that aligned and get get it. He lost his rod. He just went, whoop, right into the ocean. And and it's like, you're running back forth. That's where where you why do you think you're so stressed out and worrying all the time? When we try to cast our cares on the god, we got all these worries. We cast, we cast. Well, now I'm rolling this one in. You know what? I'm not gonna worry about this COVID thing. Oh, maybe I will. I'm not gonna worry about my family. Alright. I'm gonna keep worrying. I'm not gonna worry about this and

we we say, we cast it to God and then pull it right back. We need to begin praying about everything, but really pray in a way where we just let it go. Because you know what? The things that we used to, we tend to well, I don't want to make you be me, okay? What I tend to do, and maybe you're like me,

is I find myself that I get caught in worry over the dumbest things. It seems like some of the actually more complex things that you would expect to worry, it's almost like you're prepared for that. You knew that test was gonna be on that question was gonna be on the test. Right?

You kind of expected that test, but it's those little dumb things that come in sideways you didn't expect to throw you off. I'll give you a just last night before the first service,

my throat's been bothering me, I was worried, know, and so I was like, I've been drinking a lot of tea, So I was back there like about a minute before I'm supposed to be out here, and I'm like, gotta get some more of this tea. I'm just drinking it, and I'm drinking it, and I'm I'm back in my room back there, and all of I go and I go, what what the and it dribbled out of the cup wrong and poured all down my shirt right here.

I'm like, ah, I gotta go preach right now. This is gonna look stupid.

It's gonna look like it was just entered a wet t shirt contest or something. I'm like, I I I I got and then so but then it's tea, don't want it to stain, so I grab my water and I'm making it worse. But then I start grabbing just paper towels because I didn't know what and I'm just trying to,

you know, get enough heat, get enough heat, dry off, dry, but I got like a minute or so, and I'm waiting, and one of guys goes, I'll go get you another shirt in the in the coffee shop. Alright, hurry. I don't if there's enough time. He runs out and I'm sitting there going, ah, and I'm starting to freak out and worry and all of sudden hit me. Just talk to God like, why are you worrying about this? You get to go preach the gospel in like forty five seconds.

And and you know what? Said, so I just stopped saying, know alright God, calm me down. This is not the worst thing. And I heard the Holy Spirit just kinda say, you're right, it's not the worst thing. You've done so many dumber things.

You're about to say wet t shirt contest in church. And

he's like, just I'm like, that's true. And I just calmed down and I stopped worrying. As right as I started to walk out the room, one of those light bulb moments popped into your head, only this light bulb popped right in front of me. I go, wait a minute, a light bulb. I can dry this off.

And I ran over. Energy efficient, energy efficient, the two light bulbs. And I looked at the third one to my big lamp in there, and I go, oh, remember I had to change that light bulb and didn't have the energy of it. I have the old school kind, the kind that used to when you wanted to convince your parents you were sick, you stuck the thermometer to it, and then you didn't know how long to hold it because you couldn't read the thing, so then she'd go a 128. I don't think so. You know,

was I the only one that ever did that? Man, I'm a terrible person. So I

ran over there and I grabbed this this big lamp and I just held it up against my shirt. I guess like and then pulled the strings so I wouldn't burn mine. I'm like, I'm trying to hold this thing like this. And also the guy comes back with a t shirt. Goes, you go. He's like, what are you doing? I go, don't judge me.

And it worked. But I don't know about you, but it's those little worries that we let get in there. Pray about everything. Sometimes we think that's something stupid I shouldn't pray about. It's the stupid thing that's gonna get to you. So accept Jesus as Lord, begin praying about everything,

and then finally consider one day at a time.

In Matthew six, Jesus is talking about how we everybody worries about what's gonna where are you gonna get food? Are gonna eat this? Where are gonna there's all and he says, that's what the world does. We shouldn't be that way. He goes, you know what we should do? Is is after we cast our cares, he goes,

you know, focus on the kingdom. Just follow Jesus.

He says, you do that, God takes care of everything for you. It's what Lord is my shepherd. I'll have all I all I need. Now what's interesting is where we struggle though with that is I go, but I've prayed. I've done this. I didn't get all I needed. But was it really what you needed or was what you greeted?

He gives us all of our needs, not all of our greeds. So sometimes the conversation you're having where you keep saying, this isn't working. I'm following God and I'm still not getting this thing I'm asking. Well,

you probably need to sit down and ask, all right God, do you really want from me? Because apparently maybe you don't want that for me. And you're gonna have to surrender.

So that's really what he says. He says, Don't worry about tomorrow. And then he goes on to say, Don't worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will already have its own bottle. He basically says, Just drink down and deal with the problem of the day. Oh, great.

I did not do that on purpose.

One day at a time. Don't worry about tomorrow. Worry about today. What would happen if you just unhooked, would truly cast all these things you're worried about that might never happen out there, and just deal with what Jesus is saying to you right now?

That could change everything, couldn't it? Because God is the one that really takes care of it. Do you believe it?

Let me sum it up this way, because this whole passage goes on and talks about so many things. Hope for the worried, the hurried, the emotionally drained. We're gonna talk about all these things. But you know, there's a passage, the verse a few verses down says, even though

this says darkest valleys, but I like the more traditional on that. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are right there with me. Now

that can be taken two ways, and it does mean it both ways. One, even if you're in a shadow, a valley that just seems like there's no hope, Jesus is right there with you. He walks. He doesn't take us around it, He walks with us through it. But the literal, the most literal translation for it too,

is what He's really saying at a deeper level is, He's talking about actual death. That's why we read this at funerals. He's saying, if the Lord is your shepherd, you know what you have that you need? When you die, Jesus is right there holding your hand and taking you in

to real life. The rest of life. Because we're living in a broken world. So he says, here's the cool is even if you die, you have hope, if the Lord is your shepherd. And think about it. Of all of our worries, all the things you're worrying about, what's the worst thing we could possibly imagine? But did you die?

You ever said that your kids hey. I I get they're freaking out over it's not gonna kill you. Then this is the worst thing ever. I go, I I hate school. I did you die? I mean, am I the only one that ever says that? You didn't die. Why are you so upset? Because dying is our biggest fear. And it says, even if you die,

there is hope. Because a matter of fact, if the Lord is your shepherd, when this body stops working,

we go to something even better. And that's the hope. Even in death, and let me say that got a pastor and evangelist named Wilbert Chapman. He was in the late eighteen hundreds, early nineteen hundreds, and and and he he was at a hospital.

And he got asked by the nurses to go pray with this 10 year old boy, and they said, I'm just gonna tell you, it's sad. He's terminal. He's got maybe a day or two to live. Max. He's got cancer. He's dying.

And so he went in to talk to the boy, and the boy wanted to talk to him because the boy listened to him preach. And the boy says, I believe in Jesus. So he goes, So you believe? Yeah. And he goes, Well then what do you want me to pray with you? He's like, Well I believe in Him. I believe He's gonna take care of me. I believe I'm gonna be with Him forever, but I'm scared.

And that's our problem, because what we don't know, we don't know. The sense of worry is we get in that fearful part. Like, I can say I believe in God, I say I believe, but you get in these dark moments, and even death, and we're like, I'm scared. I'm worried. I'm a little bit afraid.

And so Wilbur goes, Do you know Psalms 23? He goes, Yeah, I've memorized by heart. He goes, What's the first five words? And the little boy says, The Lord is my shepherd. He goes, Yeah. Do you believe that? Yes. He says, well then he goes on to say, you'll have all you need.

And then he showed them, you know, if you walk through the valley of shadow of death, you realize the second you take your last breath, Jesus is right there with you to walk you into the hope of all eternity. All of eternity.

And so he said, I'm gonna show you something. He said, take your hand. And the little boy held up his hand. He goes, here's what you need to do when you're afraid to pray to God about this as you sit here in this hospital bed. He says, just take your hand and say this, the Lord is my shepherd.

So he goes every time you get to the index finger, that's my I want you to grab that. The Lord is my shepherd. So he goes, alright. The Lord is my shepherd. He goes, let's do it again. The Lord is my shepherd. And he did it with them, then he prayed, he's like, okay, you just do that. Well, two days later,

they found the little boy dead in his hospital bed

with his hand clasping his index finger and holding it on his chest.

He walked into eternity holding the hand of his shepherd. He really did believe God can take care of him. He said, thought you were gonna give me hope. Why are making me cry and telling a story about a little boy who dies? You know why? Because that's the point of this passage.

That no matter what you're worried about, no matter what, even if you die, the Lord is my shepherd. Do you believe that?

Can you do that with me? Do it right now. The Lord is my shepherd. And if you have the shepherd as your Lord, and he is your shepherd, it doesn't matter if even death comes. If this was your last day to breathe on this planet, you are heading to something so much better, and we forget that that the Lord will take care of me all the way even through death. All the way into death because we don't really die. That little boy is more alive than you and I are right now.

Because the Lord is his shepherd. Do you believe it? Do you look in scripture? Do you believe what God actually does in the Bible? Do you believe the power? Do you believe in the Old Testament that God constantly talked about, I have the power to bring life out of death.

He he gave the prophet Isaiah a vision of a valley of dry bones. It was where the Israelite army had been wiped out years ago. And and he said, and he watched. He goes, watch what I'm about to do. And it says, those dry bones rattled to life. And he brought them back. And he says, even in this valley of death, I am the God. I am the great shepherd. I am the one that can bring life back out of anything.

What do you have to fear? What do you have to worry? What do you have to care about? Who cares about COVID? Who cares about a man? Who cares about his president? Who cares about what's gonna happen tomorrow? Because today, right now, in this moment,

Lord is my shepherd. And I know that. And you know that you can trust him because in the New Testament, he walked right out of a tomb after three days. Just ask the stone that got told to move.

And you know that when God says that's gonna move, it's gonna move. When he says, come back to life. When he says, Lazarus, come out. He walked out of the grave. That's the God who is our shepherd. Do you believe it? Do you believe that God can take care of you?

That God is able, that he can save, that he can deliver, that he can heal, because he is our shepherd. In him, we have everything that he need. So come on. We declare this in faith. My god is able to save and deliver

Amen.

Do you believe that? Do you believe that God makes the dry bones rattle again? Because he is our shepherd. The Lord is your shepherd if the shepherd is your Lord. Amen? Well, hey, guys. Thanks for being here. And I just wanted to say before you go,

if, if you said yes, if you prayed with me today either in this room or online,

we would love to hear about it to be able to pray for you and also tell you about baptism that's coming up. Because there's nothing we like to do better when someone surrenders to Jesus than to hold you underwater for a little while. No. Baptism is a powerful thing. We all know it's coming up. So you can either go to rockpoint.io

and and fill out just click the tab I said yes. Or if technology terrifies you and you're in this room, you can grab one of these cards and just fill out the back, tear it off, put it in the offering box. Thank you for that. So with that, if you need to pray with someone, once again, online, you can go to rockpoint.io.

Click the tab Need to Talk. Or if you just wanna pray with someone here, we have our people over in our prayer room. And so with that, let's just go enjoy the day. God bless you. And I can't believe it's been so long since I said this. Go cardinals. Amen.