Ah-ha Moments - Here’s What Is Yours

Tom Shrader teaches through Psalm 23, examining the imagery of God as our shepherd and believers as sheep. He walks through each verse to show how the Lord provides relationship, supply, rest, refreshment, healing, guidance, protection, hope, and eternal security. Shrader emphasizes that because the Lord is our shepherd, we have everything we truly need, even in the midst of life's difficulties and valleys.

“You cannot make God love you more, and He will never love you less.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Ah-ha Moments (2016)

Recorded: 2016 at Cannon Beach Conference Center

Duration: 50 min

Themes: shepherding, provision, guidance, protection, rest, security, trust, comfort, facing difficulties, needing guidance, seeking comfort, struggling believer, new believer, going through valleys, feeling insecure, pastor

Scripture: Psalm 23, 1 Samuel 17:28, Isaiah 53:6, 2 Corinthians 4:8, James 4:8, Psalm 46:10, Matthew 11:28, 1 Peter 5:7, Hebrews 4:16, Psalm 42:11, John 3:16, Psalm 145:18

Theological Themes: pastoral care, divine providence, god's provision, shepherd imagery, covenant relationship, spiritual security, biblical metaphor, sanctification

Full Transcript

Thank you very much. Good evening. It's great to see you. These are always... Sandy and I were talking when we left this morning, the difference between a morning meeting and the afternoon meeting. There's a freshness in the morning. It's still early. It's always a little cooler in the room. Now you've eaten ten times. You've been down to the beach. You've been in the sun. And now you come in here at night. It's a tougher time just to pay attention, just to stay awake. And I'm talking about me now. And just to get through it. So it's so good to see you. So grateful to be here.

Let me repeat, though I don't like repeating announcements, but I want to make this clear. We will be out of here tomorrow morning by 10:45 because I want to go to the parade. And it's right here. I'm just giving you a warning. If you've got little kids, keep them away from me because I'm going for that candy full bore when it hits the street. We were at Bruce's today, warming up, picking out the candy. And so we're ready to go. We're looking forward to it.

Tonight's Focus: Here's What's Yours

You had the notes available when you came in, and hopefully you got them. The absolute winner is the app. I was on the app today, and they've loaded the kids program on it, which wasn't on it yesterday, and that's a winner. But I really want you to have a copy of these notes tonight. They're on the app, or I'm going to ask if you didn't get them, if you raise your hand, the guys will bring them to you.

There's just a great connection with tonight's passage. It's such a familiar passage. It's what John 3:16 is to the New Testament. Psalm 23 is to the Old Testament. I'm assuming many of you know there are 150 psalms. That makes it the longest book in the Bible. It's a book that we associate primarily with David, though there were others who contributed to the book of Psalms. But this is a psalm. It's no doubt the most familiar of the psalms and maybe the most familiar passage in the Old Testament.

Here's how I got into this. My mentor, Larry Wright, used to go nuts when he would go to a funeral and they'd do Psalm 23. In my research, as close as I can tell, Psalm 23 was not in the common book of prayer for funerals or associated with funerals until about 1920. It's not a psalm about dying. It's really the ultimate psalm about living.

Eight Weeks in One Message

Eight or nine years ago, I taught Psalm 23. And I took eight or nine weeks on it, which makes tonight really tough. It's easier to take one message and move it to eight than take eight and move it to one. Trust me. But when I got into this psalm, I found that here was all, and here was the title I have for tonight. And it is, let me acknowledge, it's really lame: Here's What's Yours. I don't know what that means.

But when I got into it, I said to myself, here's all this stuff, these incredible attributes and peace and characteristics that we have in our life, and we may not know they're there, or we may know they're there and we've never really taken advantage of them. I was with a guy, and he was on his phone, and he was showing me something he could do on his phone. And I'm looking at him and said, that's incredible. And he said, well, I bet it's on your phone. What kind of phone do you have? And I said, well, it's black. And he said, well, what kind is it? I said, I don't know. It's an Apple. Is it a three? I said, I don't know. And he gets messing around, and he goes, you've got it on your phone. You had this incredible thing and didn't know it, and that may be Psalm 23 to you.

The Foundation: Because the Lord Is My Shepherd

If you write in your Bible, and if you don't, you should. At the beginning of Psalm 23, by verse 1, write the word because or since. Because the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. And I would suggest that the rest of this psalm is just commentary on that first verse. Because the Lord is my shepherd. And that's the imagery that David uses in this psalm.

One author writes this: One day as David was watching his sheep, the idea came to him that God is like a shepherd. We know from 1 Samuel 17:28 that David spent his youth with a few sheep in the desert. So that's what he's commenting on. He thought of the incessant care that the sheep required, their helplessness, their defenselessness. And he recalled their foolish straying from their safe path, their constant need for a guide.

He thought of the time and patience it took for them to trust him before they'd follow him. He remembered the times when he led them through danger. They huddled close to his heels. And he pondered the fact that he must think of his sheep, fight for his sheep, guard his sheep, find them pastures, quiet pools. He remembered their bruises and scratches that he bound up. And he marveled at how frequently he had to rescue them from harm. Yet not one of his sheep was aware of how well it was watched. Yes, he mused, God is very much like the good shepherd.

Look at it in verse 1. And you'll see throughout this verse the singular personal pronouns. But he doesn't say the Lord is a shepherd or the Lord is the shepherd. This is the relationship we talked about last night. The Lord is what? My shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. And that's what David has in mind. His key thought is the Lord and who He is. God and who He is.

And because He's my shepherd, all of these characteristics are there. So let's do a flyover, then we'll come back and jump into it, especially the first four or five verses.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. That's supply. He makes me lie down in green pastures. That's rest. He leads me beside still waters. That's refreshment. He rescues my soul. It's healing. He leads me in path of righteousness. That's guidance for His namesake. That's my purpose.

Verse four. Even though I walked through the valley of the shadow of death. That's testing. I'm going to fear no evil because He gives me protection. You are with me. Do you see a shift by the way? In verse one through three, David is, if He will, talking to us and God is listening. When he gets to verse four, he shifts. He's talking to God and we're listening. You are with me. It's His faithfulness. Your rod and staff comfort me. It's discipline. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemy. That's our hope. You anoint my head. It's consecration. My cup overflows. That's abundance. Surely, goodness and mercy follow me all the days of my life. That's the blessing that we have. I shall dwell in the house of the Lord. That's security for how long? Forever. That's eternity.

The Comprehensive Nature of God's Care

See how this fits together? Because the Lord is my shepherd, let me just run the list. I have relationship and supply and rest and refreshment and healing and guidance and purpose and testing and protection and faithfulness and discipline and hope and consecration and guidance and blessing and security. It's almost overwhelming.

Dave Roper writes this: "This is a psalm for people who, like David, are experiencing major upheaval in their life. Perhaps you too have children who are rebelling or a home in turmoil or long-standing economic problems. This is for you." Now, you may be sitting there tonight and saying, "Well, I could have skipped it because everything's going great. It's never been better."

I was with a guy, a friend of mine the other day, and he's one of these annoying personalities to me. Oh, he's cheery and upbeat. The world needs him, I guess. But I said to him, "How are you doing?" "Any better, there'd have to be two of me." And I said, "You have another order of fries and there will be. I mean, you're getting big as a barn here. Let's put a lid on this."

But these are the things we have. These are the promises we have. As you study, you can almost feel, if you're one of those people, you're saying, "It's good and never been better." Well, here, let me give you a tip. This too shall pass, my friend. And you're one of those people that you're saying, "Valley of the shadow of death. I don't know if I'm walking through it. I'm in it." Let me say to you, this too shall pass.

God's Pursuit in Our Discomfort

This is one of those psalms that just, as I was going through the notes this afternoon, you just feel the comfort. One author writes, "Our discomfort is God's doing. He hounds us. He hems us in. He thwarts our dreams. He foils our best laid plans. He frustrates our hopes. He waits until we know nothing will ease our pain. Nothing will make life worth living except His presence. And when we turn to Him, there He is to greet us. He's been there all the time." Psalm 145 verse 18: "The Lord is near to all who call on Him."

The Lord is my shepherd.

Understanding Our Nature as Sheep

Now, I need to do a true confession. I don't know a thing about sheep. I've read a lot in the last 10 years, so I've learned a lot about them. But it's all been secondhand information. But my job tonight is to present, wet your appetite, help this imagery come alive. So you need to help me out. If the Lord is our shepherd, we are... that was really weak. We must have a lot of Oregon State people here. I don't know. Or Washington State people. I don't know. Well, if the Lord is the shepherd, then we're sheep.

Here's the six things I've discovered about sheep. This is you and me. Number one, they are dumb. You'll find a horse trainer and a dolphin trainer and a dog trainer. You're never going to find a sheep trainer. It's a waste of time. They're dumb. They're defenseless. They have no claws, no fangs. They can't outrun you. They are dirty. They can't clean themselves. They're stubborn. So, therefore, they're always lost. Isaiah 53 verse 6: "We all have wandered like sheep, each gone our own way." And they are subject to a mob mentality.

I was reading a book where this gentleman was talking about, as a young guy, he used to have sheep. One day, a friend came to see him, and the friend had a chihuahua. The chihuahua jumped out of the car. I don't know if this is the right terminology. And caused a sheep stampede. They're very much afraid and very much a mob mentality. So that's what the Lord is dealing with. That's who we are intuitively.

A Song of Self-Reliance

When I was younger and cockier, I had a song. And I said, at my funeral, I want you to play this song. You'll know it if you're older. You'll know it. It's an old Frank Sinatra song. Not that old Frank Sinatra. Newer Frank Sinatra. Here, let me read it to you. And listen for the personal pronoun.

"And now the end is near, and so I face the final curtain. My friend, I'll say it clear. I state my case, of which I'm certain. I've lived a life that's full. I've traveled each and every highway. And more, much more than this..." What? So you got that one. The Bible stuff you didn't get, but an old drinking, smoking song, you got that one. So I don't know what to say about you. I don't know what that says about you.

Listen to this. Listen to how self-absorbed. "Regrets I had a few, but then again too few to mention. I did what I had to do. I saw it through without exemption. I planned each charted course. Each careful step along the byway. And more, much more than this..." There you go.

"Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew, when I bit off more than I could chew. But through it all, when there was doubt, I ate it up." You can see the defiance in this. "I spit it out. I faced..."

I've loved and laughed and cried. I've had my fill, my share of losing. And now as tears subside, I find it all so amusing to think I did all that. And may I say, not in a shy way, oh no, oh no, not me. I did it my way." Listen to this last verse: "For what is a man, what has he got? If not himself, then he has not. To say the things he truly feels, not the words of one who kneels. The record shows I took the blows and did it my way."

You can write "sheep" right by that. That's who we are naturally. That's our instinct.

God's Call to Surrender

And here's what He says to us, God: "The Lord is my shepherd. I'm your shepherd." Now, you may say, "I don't need a shepherd. I'll do it my way." Or "I don't want that shepherd. I'll find my own shepherd." And you'll seek all these things—relationship, purpose, meaning—through eternity.

And I say to you, you are doomed for frustration if you seek to find that shepherd in any person, place, or thing other than the one true Shepherd. You will be searching for a shepherd forever. A shepherd that may give you a momentary brief reprieve whenever your need is. A momentary sense of peace.

Jesus says that: "I give you peace, but not as the world gives." Not peace that you can buy or rent or snort or shoot or touch or feel or whatever it is. "I'll give you My peace."

The problem with most of us, one author writes, is that we have no clear picture of the God we long to worship. That's what we've lost. A.W. Tozer says it this way—I love it: "The problem with us is our theology does not ascend high enough. In other words, we don't let God be God. Or descend low enough. We have too high a view of ourselves."

The Good Shepherd's Promise

The Bible brings us face to face with this imagery of the shepherd. The good Shepherd. Jesus calls Himself that. So let's make it through: "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want."

One of the paraphrases, the New Living, says it this way: "The Lord is my shepherd. I have everything I need." Very similar in The Message, Eugene Peterson: "The Lord is my shepherd. I don't need a thing."

Now the minute I read that, I go, "Well that kind of doesn't line up with my experience because I still have desires and needs." He's not saying I won't have any wants or longings. We'll talk more about that in the morning. But this is staggering: according to the Shepherd, I have everything the Shepherd thinks I need for this moment.

There may be other things. And let's be really clear—David's not saying or painting a picture that life's going to be smooth and easy and no challenges and no difficulties. He's not saying there won't be suffering. Just the opposite. He's going to promise you suffering and hardship. But in the midst of this, the Lord is your Shepherd.

Paul's Testimony of God's Sufficiency

One of my favorite—and maybe that's a sad comment on me—but one of my favorite passages that Paul writes is in 2 Corinthians 4:8. Paul writes autobiographically to the church at Corinth, and he's describing his own situation. So this isn't me. This isn't some guy struggling. This is the apostle.

I'm going to read it to you from The Message: "You know for yourselves that there's not much in us to look at. We've been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we're not demoralized. We're not sure what to do, but we know God knows what to do. We've been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn't left our side. We've been thrown down, but not broken."

"The Lord is my Shepherd." That's the experience.

The Shepherd Is Greater Than Everything

So here you go—not in your notes. You can type it if you're using the app, or you can write on the back. Here's what's important: The Lord, or the Shepherd, is greater than what you don't have. And the Shepherd is greater than what you do have.

The Shepherd is greater than what you don't have. That house you don't have. That car you don't have. That scholarship you didn't get. That promotion. Greater than that spouse you don't have, or greater than the one you do have. The Shepherd is greater than the kids, or the problem, or anything. He's greater than those, and He's greater than what you do have.

He's greater than the cancer. He's greater than the broken relationship. He's greater than the rebellious kid. He's greater than the dad you didn't have.

Ministry to Hurting People

I spend a ton of time with two groups of people, demographics: old guys and millennials, primarily men. Twenty-five to forty.

When we go to summer camp—I used to go every year, I don't anymore—we would take 500 junior high and high school kids to Point Loma University. And the hurt and pain in these kids' lives—dads that are gone, parents that are separated. There was a little girl, and that sounds almost demeaning, but she was. She was just this cute little girl. And she got up on the last day of camp, and she just began to cry. And she said, "I didn't even know a place like this existed. This is like something I read about or saw on TV."

There's so much hurt and so much pain. And so you have that. And maybe you've grown up with that. Here's what I'm saying: the Shepherd is greater than what you have. He's greater than that MRI or greater than that cat scan. Or greater than whatever deficiency you think you have.

Counting Our Blessings

And the flip side of that. Here's one of those—I've got a lot of songs tonight—one of those great old songs: "When upon life's billow you are tempest-tossed, when you're discouraged, thinking all is lost, count your many blessings, name them one by one. You'll be surprised to see what the Lord has done."

Remember that old song? We used to have Sunday night church. And we had a guy—they'd wear suits in the morning, but at night they'd let their hair down and wear blazers and sport coats and ties. And I can just see them up there. And it was shout-out numbers: "648." They wouldn't even have to turn. And I can just see them: "Count your blessings, name them one by one." And I thought, that's so cool.

Count your hardships, name them one by one. Count what sucks in life, name it one by one. That's how I tend to think. I wish I didn't. I'm working on it. I'm doing better. Which really makes you wonder, how bad was it? But that's what it is.

The Lord Gives Rest

That's the Lord. "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures." That's not sheep grazing. It's sheep resting. Literally stretched out. And as you read the accounts of it, you see how hard it is for the shepherd.

Remember the picture of sheep? They're dumb and afraid. They're very much afraid, very timid. And He has to create this perfect pasture for them.

Here's some stats I came across. They're probably a little bit dated, and I'm sure they have not improved. 70 million Americans suffer from insomnia. 68,000 deaths each year are credited to insomnia. 64% of teens blame it for poor school performance. Middle-agers face it. Researchers say the most severe cases of insomnia occur between the ages of 30 and 40. 50% of people over 65 have insomnia.

Finding Rest in Our Relationship with God

"The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters." He gives me rest. He's a person, and I can have a relationship with Him. James 4:8: "Come near to God, and He'll come near to you." "Oh God, you are my God. Earnestly, I seek you."

Solitude. We're in the world. It's a crazy world. Things are moving so quickly, and we're talking about apps, and we're talking about Wi-Fi, and your problems are home with you.

When I talk to men, 30 to 40, probably a little more on each side, every one of them says the same thing to me. Every one: "I'm so tired." I'm going, really? I mean, I'm tired, but I'm twice your age. Doing twice as much, probably. And then they add this: "And I'm not doing well anywhere. I'm not really great at work. I'm not really good at home. I'm not really good at church. I'm not really taking care of myself. I'm not really a good friend."

Be Still and Know

Here you go. Psalm 46, verse 10: "Be still and know I'm God." Rest. If you're that busy, then you need time management, and you need to get control. You set your own schedule.

We got families running from ballet to gymnastics to swimming to baseball. Here's what we did with our kids: Pick one. I don't care what it is. Pick one. But you're not going to be Mike Trout. You're not going to be Gabby Douglas. You're not going to be Michael Phelps. We're trying to wear you out so you'll go to bed. I mean, that's the whole point of this thing. And I'm not your chauffeur. And you're the parent.

I got to tell these guys this all the time. You're the dad. Climb into the captain's chair. Here you go. I'm a long way from Psalm 23. It's stuck in my head. But here's the deal: You got to control dinner time and bedtime. You can't have chaos at these.

The Importance of Simple Rhythms

And I'll give you young families something. I know you're not going to do it. Start doing the dishes by hand. My mom, four boys, my mom made us do the dishes every night. So every fourth night you were on. And some of the best conversations I ever had with my mom were doing dishes. She'd let you wash or dry, you take your pick. I always thought washing was easier. But there was just that quiet. It was just that rest.

The nature of the world we're in is you have to take control of that. And it's not just getting away in solitude. It's not just running away from the world. It's running from the world to God. "Draw near to Him. I'll give you rest."

Four Conditions for Rest

For sheep to rest, four things had to be present. They had to be free from all fear. They had to be free from the friction, the social pressure with other sheep. Don't you see that? You can almost hear that. Peer pressure, social friends. Free from pests, flies, parasites. And they had to be free from hunger. They had to be fed.

Whatever you're afraid of, Jesus is the answer. The most frequent prohibition Jesus gives us in the New Testament is "do not be afraid." Why? Because He knows we're like sheep.

Here you go. We're afraid when the market goes up. We're afraid when the market goes down. We're afraid in bed when we see a shadow. And we turn on the light and see there's nothing there, and we're still afraid. We're afraid, probably not that we're going to lose everything, but we're afraid we aren't going to have enough.

Jesus' Invitation to Rest

Reminder, reboot. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." Here's how Jesus says it in Matthew 11:28: "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Isn't that one of the great things about just coming here and just the rest? You can sense, you can kind of decompress. "All who are weary," that deals with internal. It refers to arduous toil. Seeking to please God, even. Relax, He's already happy with you. You aren't on probation.

Big thought. You cannot make God love you more, and He will never love you less. That's a huge deal.

God's Unconditional Love

When we talk about the love of God, it's a very hard thing. Because when we think of love, we think of it in our terms. Which always, under the best scenario is, "I'll love you if," "I'll love you when," "I'll love you because."

Sandy and I were having dinner one night, and I can talk too much, I can talk not enough, and I said to her, "Sandy, I love you." And she said, "Why?" I don't know. It's not really a discussion question. I just thought I was going to make her happy, and I really felt it. But I regrouped. I said, "All right. Get your composure." And there's some obvious answers for me. She's very pretty. But you don't lead with that. I know not to lead with that.

So I said, "You're really smart. You're a godly gal. You've got great taste in men. You're pretty." "Would you love me if I wasn't pretty?" We probably wouldn't be here if you weren't pretty. But she went right to the guts of it. "Would you love me if?" We love that way, don't we?

I learned it as a kid, and I'm not beating up my dad. But baseball was my thing, and if I went 3 for 3, the ride home was very different than if I went 0 for 3, if I got a ride. Now we come to God and we think, uh-oh, I went 0 for 3. I'm going to help you out here. He doesn't care. He isn't going to love you more.

So rest. Come to me, all who are weary, heavy laden. That's external stuff that's piled on us, and I will give you rest. Literally, refresh, revive. 1 Peter 5:7, cast all your cares on Him. Most of you know that verse, 1 Peter 5:7. Cast all your cares on Him. You know what the next part of that verse is? Because He cares. Cast all your burden and your anxiety on Him because He cares. He cares about you.

He Knows You Intimately

He is your shepherd. You hear His voice. He knows you intimately, and that can be a very scary thing. He knows everything you've ever thought, everything you've ever said, everything you've ever done, everything you will do, what you're thinking right now. And He says, you know what? You're mine.

I've sat in these counseling sessions with couples where one of them will say, if I knew that about you, what? I would have never married you. God's never going to say, if I knew that about you, I would have never chosen you. You're His forever. He's hanging on to you, not you hanging on to Him.

Gentle Guidance in Confusion

Let me tell you, He leads me. He leads me. There's the guidance in a world that's absolutely confused. He leads me. He guides me. And it suggests, listen to these words, how comforting they are. The word is a verb that suggests gentle persuasion, patiently, persistently. I wrote slowly, leisurely, peacefully. It's not He's dragging you. He's leading you quietly.

He leads you for His namesake, for His purpose, for His glory. The very movie that we showed this morning in here, all of it, all we do is for His glory. It's not, and this is a killer. It's not about you. So the question is, who's your shepherd?

Strength Through the Valley

You can have confidence. Even though I walked through the valley of the shadow of death, that's the testing you're going to have. In the midst of this, He said, I don't fear any of this. Why? Because I'm so strong? No, because He is. As I said before, it's not me hanging on to Him. That would be shaky.

I'm in the middle of this physical therapy, and like I said at the end, and so we've added, I've increased my stamina, which is still not great, but a week ago, we started. Makita said, All right, today, Tom, we're going to plank. Do you know what plank is? She said, and I said, I do. In fact, do you guys know what planking is? I'm on my elbows, on my knees, and I'm holding, and my core is just ripped. You can just, it's ripped. And I said, Makita, I do know, because a guy three weeks ago set the world record for planking, eight hours, one minute. I mean, his core has got to be like this.

So Makita said, well, you don't need to do eight hours. She said, let's do three sets of 30 seconds. I said, all right. So I did the first one, and probably not very well, and then the second one, and by the third one, I'm shaking. You could have put a margarita pitcher on my back, and I'm shaking. Everything on me is shaking at about, just shaking, falling apart.

And if my faith in Christ, in relationship, was based on me holding onto Him, it wouldn't last very long, because my arms would shake, and they'd grow weary. But here's the shepherd. Think of the shepherd holding the sheep. Think of that little baby in the midst of the valley of the shadow of death. I fear no evil. Why?

Grace for Today's Needs

Well, Hebrews 4:16, Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. God meets your needs today. What about tomorrow? Hey, He'll meet them tomorrow with tomorrow's strength. Lots of people are worriers. There's a guy who says, Don't tell me worry doesn't help. 95% of what I worry about never comes to pass. Don't tell me this worry doesn't help.

I'm in the middle of that. There's the future. What about the future? I don't know. I was talking to my daughter, Haley, today, and she has a daughter who's right on the cusp. It's kindergarten time. And she really, I think, and I'm not her dad, she really needs to go to kindergarten. And Haley didn't go, and Haley's thinking, Haley's my daughter, Haley's thinking, I don't think she's going to go.

And so she called today just to see, What's the weather like? I said, Well, you don't want to hear that part. And I said, How are you doing? She said, Lucy's decided she's going to go to kindergarten. She's ready to go, but she's already going, What am I going to have for lunch? What's lunch going to be like? I need a lunch pail, and she's a pink girl, and I need pink, and they found pink, but it was too bluish pink. And here's this poor little girl. She's never worried about lunch. You know what's going to happen at lunch? She's going to open a box, and whatever's in there, she's going to eat it.

No Reason for Fear

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you have no reason to be afraid. You, see this change there? You're with me. Psalm 42 verse 11, Why so downcast, O my soul? Put your hope in God. You're with me. Your rod, Your staff. It's a picture of comfort. It's a picture of discipline.

How a sheep gets in trouble is they get too fat, or too comfortable, or they lie down. Think of a turtle on its back. It's a sheep on its back, a cast sheep. It's totally helpless. But You'll rescue me. You'll discipline me. You'll prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

Hope in a Weary World

That's the hope. This world, and again, it can just be me, and I can project too much of myself into this. But I hang around, like I said, with two groups of people, and the one group, the younger guys, but with the older guys. Every conversation is the same thing. What's your PSA? Just so you know, those of you that keep score of this, mine was 32 earlier this year. What's your PSA? How are you feeling? How are you doing? This hurts, that hurts. And

All these guys do is get up every day, watch Fox News, buy gold, and complain. That's all they do every day. It doesn't take long for your hope, if you're looking to the Republicans or the Democrats or the Tea Party or the Libertarians or Iowa football or anything, if you're looking to any of that for hope, it's going to disappoint you.

But the Lord is my shepherd. He prepares a table in the presence of my enemies. Satan, roaring lion, subtle serpent, angel of light. You don't have to fight him. All you have to do is draw near to Him, God. He'll draw near to you and you resist the devil. He gives you that power. And there's the hope.

And He anoints my head with oil. It's cleansing, consecration. My cup's overflowing. There's an abundance. It's beyond anything that we can imagine.

The Illusion of Dream Jobs

I'm sitting with a group of guys one day, five or six of us, and we're downtown, and we're in this magnificent office, and we're doing red dot time. You know red dot? So when you walk into a mall, there's the directory, there's the red dot, and by it, it says what? You are here. So it's red dot time. Where are you?

The one guy's talking about his job he has, which is a national high-profile job. You might even know the guy. And he's flying over the country, and he's talking about how tough it is. Another guy's going, my phone rings all the time. I'm always getting calls. I said, you're a doctor. Didn't this occur to you when you were in med school, and you're doing a residency 24 hours on?

And we went around the room, and each guy had what they thought would be the dream job. And they had it, but they were trusting it, and me too. I've had an incredible life, and the opportunity to do this stuff, and yet if I'm not focused on Him, my enemy will come in and say, well, what about that?

The Promise of Abundance and Security

There's an abundance. Here you go. Goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. Blessing. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord. That's security. Can't get any safer than that. Life lock isn't going to give you that. It's that security. It's that thing you want. Everything else, and this leads into tomorrow morning, everything else is like a greased pig that I hang on to.

And here may be the best part. If I took verse one, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. How's that going to go? Last word, forever.

Drawing Your Last Breath on Earth

Maybe a month ago, I went to three funerals in a week, and probably a bit of an aberration, I love officiating funerals. I think accurately, I do an incredible funeral. I love to do funerals. And that sounds really weird, but I love to do them. And those three was a man 24, a man 74, and a man 94. And all believers, appropriately at these funerals, we're talking about, he went to be with the Lord. He's with the Lord.

And somebody said, you know, Brett last week drew his last breath on earth. It was during our share time. And then the guy sat down, and I said, here's something that's really amazing. He drew his last breath on earth, and then drew his first breath in heaven forever.

And I used to use this as a line that I thought was fairly clever, but I've kind of lived it a little bit, is remember this, no matter how bad it gets, it can only last a lifetime. No matter how bad it gets, it's only going to last, I don't know, what do you think? 20 years? 30 years? 40 years? And then I leave here, we sang about it, and I'll gaze upon Jesus' face. I'll see His face.

The Best Part of Heaven

When we talk about heaven, we talk about no tears, no worry, and I got it. I'm so selfish, that part of the reason I want to go to heaven, is just to get rid of the hurts and pains. But the best part of heaven, isn't no tears. The best part of heaven is, Jesus is there. The One that I say is my Lord, and Savior, and Master, and my Shepherd, and when I'm there, I'll be with Him forever.

Let me say it another way, I'm as certain of heaven, as the saints that are already there. Now that's what I want you to see, again, if the Lord is your Shepherd, which is what we talked about last night, and if that Bible is true, and we know that it is, believe that it is, and the Lord is your Shepherd, it's going to be okay.

It may not turn out, the way you anticipate it right now. Haven't you said, or been with people who say, I would have never wanted to go through that again, never, but I wouldn't trade it, for what it taught me, what I learned?

Looking Ahead

In the way I like to teach, I like to build. I like to just lay this thing out. Tomorrow morning, done by 10:45, promise, we will talk about what I think, is the missing ingredient, in most people's lives, and I'll even go, most Christian lives, may surprise you. We'll look at it in the morning.

Let me pray, as the guys come to close this. Father, thank You for this awesome, and amazing truth. It seems so simple, and God, they're not just words on a page, they're words on a page that are true, and so we incorporate them into our life. Father, You are my shepherd, for each one of us. We'll put our name in there. You're Bob's shepherd, Betty's shepherd, Bill's shepherd, Mary's shepherd. God, You're our shepherd, personal, You know us, we know You, You hear us cry out, we hear Your voice, we come to You, and we shall not want, because You as the shepherd, have us in Your hands. God, thank You for that amazing truth. Take it past our head, into our heart, and let us live in that truth, each and every day. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.