Psalm 23 - He Makes Me Lie Down in Green Pastures
Tom Shrader teaches from Psalm 23:2 about how the Lord as our Shepherd makes us lie down in green pastures. He explains that just as sheep need four freedoms to rest (freedom from fear, social friction, pests, and hunger), believers need God's presence to find true peace. The teaching emphasizes the importance of solitude with God in our busy, device-driven world and trusting Him to handle both our fears and our daily aggravations.
“The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want, and because the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Psalm 23
Recorded: October 01, 2015
Duration: 39 min
Themes: rest, peace, fear, trust, shepherding, solitude, provision, comfort, feeling anxious, overwhelmed parent, busy professional, stressed believer, technology addiction, seeking peace, new believer, pastoral burnout
Scripture: Psalm 23:1-2, John 10:27, Deuteronomy 4, James 4:8, Psalm 63:1, Psalm 46:10, Isaiah 55
Theological Themes: pastoral care, divine providence, sabbath rest, spiritual shepherding, god's provision, biblical meditation, christian solitude, psalms
Full Transcript
If you have Bibles, open them to Psalm 23. I was thinking about this—I've been talking to a lot of younger guys who are preachers, and we're talking about how you do what you do. It's interesting. The text in a lot of ways determines almost how you teach.
Right now at Redemption Church we're teaching through the gospel of Mark. If you're teaching especially a gospel like Mark, there's a lot of story. Sometime when you're bored, you can turn to the gospel of Mark and if you just look at the verses, look at the first word, and you'll see a lot of "and," "therefore," "immediately." We think one of Mark's resources in terms of background and story was Peter, so Mark reads a little bit like if Peter wrote a gospel—a lot of action, short, quick. If you're teaching it, it's a lot of story.
If you're teaching the book of Romans or the book of Ephesians, you're into a lot of doctrine—not that it isn't all doctrine, but you're in some heavy weeds pretty fast. I was talking to somebody yesterday, and given my stage of life I don't remember who it was, but they're getting ready to teach. Oh, it's Frank. Frank's getting ready to teach and I said, "What are you going to teach?" He said, "Ephesians one." I said, "Wow, that's heavy," because that's a lot. If you look at your Bible and you look at the phrase "in Christ," "in Him," you'll see that a dozen times in there. You're talking about this positional thing. He said, "I found 24 blessings God gives us in Ephesians 1." I said, "Wow."
The Devotional Nature of Psalm 23
If you're teaching certain passages—and I'd suggest Psalm 23 is one of them—it's much more devotional. It's much more, to me, like a mirror where I'm looking at my own life. When you listen to someone speak, you should ask yourself: What did they say? Is it true? So what? I would add the fourth to that: Now what?
When I'm listening to somebody—and I get to a lot of different churches and they'll say, "How was the message?"—I evaluate what I hear based on: Can I get it? What he says, is it true? So what? And then now what? What do you want me to do with it?
Psalm 23 is very much to me in that genre. There's a lot of "so what." There's a lot of "now what." There's a lot of application. It's designed to be a Psalm that provides us extraordinary comfort.
Because the Lord Is My Shepherd
You've got it in front of you: "The Lord is my shepherd." We've said—now we're in the third week, we've said it for two weeks—that we could really write the word "because" in front of it. Because the Lord is my shepherd—personal pronoun, not "a shepherd," not "the shepherd," but because the Lord is my shepherd. Because that's true, all of these things we said are the results of that.
Because the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. I have everything I need—maybe not everything I personally think I need. These are huge points, but everything the shepherd thinks I need. I read you the quote last week, I believe from Max Lucado: "If your happiness comes from something you deposit, drive, drink, or digest, then face it—you're in a prison of want." There's never an end to that.
The imagery is this, and I'm sure we'll talk about it every week because you'll never get the depth of what David intends here if you don't get this in place: He's the shepherd, you're the sheep. Remember all those things that sheep are—they're defenseless and they're not very bright. They can't feed themselves. They're totally dependent. A sheep is totally dependent on the shepherd, and Jesus is the good shepherd.
What the Shepherd Is Greater Than
The picture is here's God providing all that you or me need. Again, Lucado: "What I have in God is greater than what I don't have in life." That made me think, and in my mind this was really good—but that doesn't mean it will be in yours. I made two categories: The shepherd is greater than what I don't have.
That's how I tend to view things: "Well, I don't have this, I need that, I wish I had..." The shepherd's greater than the house I don't have, or the education I don't have, or the success I don't have—bigger than anything in that list.
But then I said—hopefully this connects—the shepherd is also greater than what I do have. The shepherd is greater than the cancer. The shepherd is greater than this dysfunctional relationship. The shepherd is greater than the rebellious child, or the business challenge, or the job situation, or any sort of physical thing. Everything that I don't have I think I need, everything I have maybe I don't want—the shepherd knows each sheep.
He Makes Me Lie Down
Let's do this now: The shepherd knows—and the more we drill down, the better it's going to be—the shepherd knows you and what you need. The shepherd wants you to be safe and secure in His arms. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." And here's what we look at today, verse 2: "He makes me lie down in green pastures."
The idea here is rest. "He makes me lie down"—if you're a note-taker or you're putting these things in your Bible—the idea of "He makes me lie down" means literally to stretch out.
Sheep are—again, I stipulate each week, I think I probably need to do it every week—I don't know anything about sheep except what I read, and I read a lot. Sheep are best dealt with in a dry, semi-arid area. The routine of a sheep is pretty much the same every day. I think of it in terms of that big dairy right outside of Gila Bend. I mean, think of it on the way to Coronado—there's the huge... or going up, you go on highway 5 and you're north of LA and you're working up, and you're thinking if you're going to go over to Gilroy or not—don't—but you're thinking you're going to go that way. There's that job, it's the biggest... there's more cattle there. That dairy, it's the same every day. That cow doesn't know if it's...
Easter morning, Christmas morning, Fourth of July, your birthday—it's another day. The sheep are the same, and so for the shepherd, I think the shepherd's job would be a really tough job. We talk about mastering the mundane—that would be the job of the shepherd. Part of what would happen each day is they would sleep in kind of a dry, arid area, and then they would move into green pasture so in the afternoon they could enjoy the cool and the shade. The job of the shepherd was to get them there, to have the pasture prepared, to get them to lie down.
The Good Shepherd Knows His Sheep
John 10—this should be one of those go-to passages for you. The Gospel of John, the tenth chapter, filled with great imagery and great truth. John 10:27: "My sheep," this is Jesus saying I'm their shepherd, "hear my voice. I know them"—there's that intimacy—"they follow me, and I give them eternal life, and no one can snatch them out of my hands." There's great comfort if you're a sheep, and you are.
There's great comfort in this. He's not saying you're dumb and defenseless. He's not declaring that you are. He's not making you something you aren't. He's saying because of that, you desperately need a shepherd, and it's important that you find the Good Shepherd.
God Is a Person We Can Know
What the Bible teaches is that God is a person. A.W. Tozer writes this: "God is a person and as such can be cultivated as any person can. God is a person in the depths of His mighty nature. He thinks and wills and enjoys and feels and loves and desires and suffers as any other person might. God is a person and can be known in increasing degrees of intimacy as we prepare our hearts for wonder."
Deuteronomy 4: if you seek the Lord, you will find Him. James chapter 4, verse 8: "Come near to God and He comes near to you." Psalm 63:1: "O God, you are my God, I'm earnestly seeking you." That's the quest. That's the daily living.
The Journey Has Just Begun
We've talked about it, and this could be one of the shortfalls, frankly, of an evangelical perspective—that we come to Christ, we found Him, we've got Jesus in our heart, and we tend to think that's the finish line. No, that's the start line. That's where the race begins. Now the rest of my life and into eternity is growing closer and closer to Him that I can know Him.
We've used the imagery before—it's like being married to Sandy. How do I get to know her? How do I love her more? I'm doing a wedding Saturday, and I don't do many weddings. The guy has been in our church a long time and he's a wonderful kid, but I still wasn't sure. The wedding is down here at the hotel at Lincoln and Tatum, so that'll be—it won't be shorts and a t-shirt, so I had to buy a shirt because I don't have one I can button. I haven't eaten in weeks because I got to be able to button my coat, but I still wasn't sure I was going to do it.
Love Must Grow
I said, "Let me meet your fiancee." Well, I'm done. She was so cute, and I don't just mean physically—she was the sweetest. I said, "Well, you know, I'm kind of a control freak at weddings and there's a lot of variables." She said, "Mr. Schrader, we're getting married Saturday, October 3rd. October 3rd last year at exactly 4:45, when we're going to get married, I stood where we'll stand to make sure the shade was right." I said, "You're my kind of girl, buddy. You're not a wife, you're an admin—you're perfect. This is going to be awesome."
I said to him, "She's incredible." He said, "She's perfect." I said, "She's not perfect, but you're going to find out in the second week." But they don't know. They've dated for five years—that seems like a long time to me—and they're in love and nothing can stop it.
They said, "What's the funniest thing you've ever seen at a wedding?" I said we had a bride that was determined she was into the doves. She thought a dove release would be cute. Everything went wrong. We had cages of doves, they released those doves, and they were kind of homing pigeons, and they just flew over everybody and went all over everybody. It was like a movie. I said that was my favorite one, but you see all sorts of stuff.
Growing in Love Takes Time
I said, "She's not perfect." "Yeah, I know she's not perfect, but we're so in love." Well, that love is not a static thing—it has to grow. I got an invitation for Saturday to a guy's 95th birthday, and his wife. I just took them out for dinner. They celebrated, I think it was their 75th wedding anniversary. It's so cute, but they know each other and they love each other and they look at each other and they smile at each other. How did they get that way?
I said, "How did you meet?" She worked at the phone company—that used to be a big deal. This is how they met: she wouldn't go out with him, and then he kind of—in terms we'd use today—stalked her. Now they're married and they love each other.
God Craves Relationship With You
Well, God craves that kind of relationship with you, but it will only happen as you aggressively seek Him. If you don't, that relationship will grow static and stale, just like any other friendship or marriage or relationship.
Solitude Is Essential
In that—and we're going to do practical right now for about thirty minutes—one of the things this takes is solitude. This is Augustine's writing: "In a crowd, it's difficult to see God."
I think I've shared with you I'm spending way too much time—that's my view—with Millennials, although if you're in that group you hate that, just like I hated "boomers." But if you're 25 to 35, I'm spending a ton of time with these guys, and every one of them, all they say is, "I'm so tired, I'm so busy." I said to Sandy, "I don't remember when I was 30—I don't remember being tired. Were you tired when you were 30?" She said, "Well, I'm only 29 now," and she's never tired. But they're tired all the time.
What seems to compound it are devices like this.
I have mean of constant input. I get up this morning and had a little light and there's a four-foot text from a guy telling me how life's going. He's got me. It's not like I can say it got lost in the mail - he knows it's delivered so I can't get away.
So I've started to not take this out when Sandy and I go out. I don't take my phone because here's what'll happen: Sandy will be in the middle of telling me something and I go "wow that's pretty interesting, not as interesting as this right here, but pretty interesting." I just read an article the other day - I don't know who does these studies - that says if you're having a conversation and your phone is present, you're not even looking at it, you're distracted by its very presence.
You're in this busy world. It's like watching a football game on TV - if they don't get that mix right, all I get is crowd noise and ambient noise and yelling and I can't hear the announcers. You need to be in a place, probably physically but certainly emotionally, where you can communicate with God.
Here's the payoff pitch: Psalm 46 verse 10 - "Be still and know that I am God." Listen to me, listen to me. God pleases, pleads in Isaiah 55.
The Problem of Busyness
You're in that world, but by its very nature it seems... somebody yesterday was talking about going to the gym and they were saying our parents didn't go to the gym because they worked all day. I remember, and you can Google it right now (although don't), but if you Google John Wooden you'll find a lot of pictures of him. There's no film of him playing basketball. He was the college player of the year in 1932, three-time All-American at Purdue.
You'll see some classic pictures and there's one of him in a defensive position and he is massive muscle. His calves are like... he was strong. I remember asking him, I said "Coach, this picture - I look at this picture all the time and I mean you were massive - did you work out?" And he said, "Well, I had a mule and I had a plow, and that's how we worked out."
There has to be, in the midst of this busyness, in the midst of... here you go, give you stats I think I gave them to you last week: 40% of girls 5 to 17 are obese, 35% of boys 5 to 17 are obese. Sports are dropping like... I just read an article yesterday where schools now, high schools now, beginning to drop football for lack of participation as well as danger. We're getting fatter and dumber and lazier, and you add to it this stuff right here. It's hard to get away to get quiet: "Be still and know that I'm God."
The Disease of Our Age
There is a disease that essentially strikes every age group. Most severe cases are ages 30s and 40s. Fifty percent of the population over 65 has this. It's huge in the US - it's insomnia. I've never had that. I can sleep, but I took some medicine last year that wouldn't allow me to sleep and it's just awful. You know it right - your head spinning and your mind's racing: what have I got to do and what about this wedding and I can't get my shirt buttoned and all of these different things.
Interesting - the only other creature on the planet that has insomnia is a sheep. Cats have catnaps. Dogs rarely wake up. You know the whole list. The only one. Isn't that amazing?
So here's the connection. You got to connect it. You got to do the work now. I'm deliberate - you connect it.
Four Requirements for Rest
There's four things that a sheep requires for rest. Four freedoms. My guess is you're in the same boat. The first is freedom from all fear. I'll give you all four and we'll come back. The second is freedom from social friction - got to get along with each other. The third is freedom from pests or aggravation - flies, parasites. And the fourth is freedom from hunger.
It seems that sheep are chronically agitated, disturbed, discontent. You're like a sheep.
Freedom from Fear
Freedom from fear. Sheep are easily spooked. I'm told that sheep can be kind of hanging out together and a rabbit can pop up and put the whole herd, flock, into stampede mode. I was reading one man's chronicle of his experience as a shepherd and he said that as the predators would come he'd have a gun and he could fire the gun and defend the sheep. But he said there was nothing that secured the sheep and made them quiet as the presence of their shepherd.
So you have to ask: what are you afraid of? I remember one day listening to a guy, and this was early on in my Christian life, and he said the most frequent prohibition that Jesus gives us in the scripture. So the number one thing He tells us not to do - you know it right? Those of you that are Priority Living veterans, you know it. It is: do not what? Be afraid. Do not be afraid.
Well how can He say "do not be afraid"? It's a scary world. Did you not watch the news? Do you not have these apps? You don't understand what's going on in the stock market and ISIS and all around? You don't get it? No. He's not saying that the circumstances aren't scary. What He's saying is "I'm bigger than the circumstances. I'm your Shepherd."
So what are you afraid of? I remember after I heard that, and it was at a time when I was teaching a lot all over, one of my standard things used to be to go into a group, maybe half this size, and go "what are you afraid of?" I was doing a Champions Tour event. I think we were at Desert Mountain and there were 25-30 of the players there and their wives. There was a guy who is very famous, very successful, I would describe very self-confident, borderline cocky golfer. Won a bunch of majors. I said "what are you afraid of?" He was sitting right here with his wife and his wife said "rejection." He kind of chimed in but he wasn't going to go out on that limb very far. But that idea of rejection.
I was having a sandwich one day with a guy that's also won a major and we were talking about a variety of things and I don't know how we got into it. We were talking about a tee shot...
He said, "By far the most intimidating thing on the shot is not the shot or the placement. It's wondering what people are thinking about me." I've got enough problems when I play without worrying what Scotty's thinking about how my legs look, but he said he thinks about it all the time. That rejection—we might call it peer pressure—but it's real. It's a human condition.
Brayden was over the other day, and he was standing over here while we were watching TV. I kind of saw him looking and moving around, moving up to read something. I said, "Can't you see that, buddy?" He said no. He said his mom knows about it. So we don't want to go there—which is a red flag to me because I'm going right to it now. I said, "What do you mean your mom knows about it?" He said, "My mom knows that I'm having trouble seeing." I said, "Okay, when you go home, you have your mom call me because I want to talk to her about it."
Not in a punitive way. Do you know what punitive means? He said, "Doesn't sound good." I said, "Well, I'm not trying to punish you. If you can't see, you need to be able to see." So they called and said Brayden told me to call. I said, "Well, hey, he can't see. I mean, I was there myself. I've done this. He's squinting." She said all right, she'd take him in.
The Cool Factor of New Glasses
So he comes home Saturday and calls: "Papa, I gotta get glasses." I said, "That's gonna be so cool! Glasses are hip now. You'll be able to lead worship at any church in town now. If you just spike your hair, you're there, man. Just fix your hair, shave half of it, and get your glasses."
I said, "You find a pair you like?" He said, "Yeah, my mom likes a pair." So I said, "Well, let me talk to your mom a second. Hey, get him the pair he likes. It doesn't matter." She said she could save 30 bucks. I said, "I'll give you 30 bucks. Get him the pair he likes. He's gonna feel cooler, he's gonna look cooler, he's gonna wear them."
I know, dad, I know it's $30. Thirty dollars are hard to come by. I said, "Really? Is that true? Raising you, you never seemed to get that." Now it is $30. Really? Who would have thought it? But he came in, and I know him. You're nine, and you walk in with these glasses. Your first thing—this is Sunday—I said, "Buddy, tomorrow's gonna be incredible at school." He said, "What do you mean?" I said, "You're gonna see stuff. You're gonna feel a little weird for a while because it kind of feels weird, doesn't it? Doesn't it feel weird on your face?" He said, "Yeah, they're not quite right." I said, "Well, don't mess around. Just get them set, put them on there, and tomorrow's gonna be awesome."
But what was he thinking? He's nine. He's saying, "What are the kids gonna say? How am I gonna look? How am I gonna quarterback with these glasses?" I want to say, "Maybe it'll help you see that open receiver that we've been missing every day." But it's peer pressure—afraid of peer pressure, rejection.
Fear of Death and Other Common Fears
Death. I've been thinking a lot lately about dying, which is not new. But I've been thinking about what does that feel like, I wonder. So I'm sharing with a friend, and he goes, "You're wasting your time, buddy. Once they're dead, they don't come back to tell us what it feels like." But I'm not afraid of it. Why? Well, because Jesus died and put an end to the agony of death. This is it. This is as close to hell as I'm ever gonna be. You don't need to be afraid of death.
I made a list of some other things: Finances. I got a haircut yesterday, and I was talking to Di. She was saying she had to dip into her savings for some stuff, and when she gets there, she gets a little insecure. I said, "Man, I know how you feel. It's not like I'm ever gonna use it. I want to save for a rainy day, but I don't ever want it cloudy." Well, He said I'm gonna take care of those needs. I'm gonna feed you—maybe hot dogs. It may not be a steak. I'm gonna get you a place to live. It may not be like the mansion I see on channel 229. I'm gonna do it on your level.
Fear of failure. He said, "Listen, failure is part of the deal. Failure is life." I remember listening to Coach Wooden. They were playing Pepperdine. There was a weird interview after the game because he's so good, and they're asking him about any of the boys tonight. He said, "The boys tonight, I just wasn't happy." Well, they're going, "You won by 20," and he said, "Yes, but we only had"—I forget what he said—"four turnovers. We ought to have more turnovers than that. We played—they knew the boys knew they were gonna win. They didn't push anything." That's what that is. In life, our lessons come from the failures. You don't need to be afraid of that. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." That's what it is.
Social Conflict and the Pecking Order
Here's the second thing: fear of social conflict. We see it in the animal kingdom. We see it on an airplane: VIP, first class, pecking order. When you put two people together, there's immediately conflict.
Sandy and I got married. We didn't date very long. I think she was swept off her feet, but I was kind of going, "I love you"—how I understand that term. I'm not sure what that means totally, but I love you. You remind me of me. So we're going to bed. It's not gonna be as good as you think it's gonna be at this point.
We're going to bed. Well, for 35 years I slept on the right side of the bed. In another part of the country, unbeknownst to me, she was sleeping on the right side of the bed. So that first night it's pretty crowded on the right side of the bed, if you get my drift. So I said, "Well, I'll sleep on the left side of the bed," and I thought I was really taking a bullet for the team on this deal. I mean, I thought, "Man, I'm good." She never said thank you. I'm laying over there tossing the first night. I can't figure out which arm to put under. She's snoring, and I'm thinking...
Is it really a big deal? We laugh at it. It's silly. But that could have been a big deal. What happens in our relationship is every time we start hitting this friction point, one of us backs off because I can't think of something worth fighting over that jeopardizes that relationship. It's like the guy the other day. She's perfect. She's not perfect. She's cute. She smiles. She's organized. But trust me, she's got flaws in there.
If you're self-employed and have management labor problems, you've got issues. You need to work that out. But the minute you have an employee, you need an HR department. I'm in a meeting yesterday, and they're talking about our church needing an HR department. I said, what for? There are a lot of issues. I said, really? See, it's people. The shepherd comes along and resolves all of these conflicts.
Dealing with Life's Aggravations
The third thing is the aggravations: fleas, ticks, flies. One author writes this is one of the main functions of the Holy Spirit in Scripture. He symbolizes the oil. There's the picture of the shepherd dealing especially with flies. It's an intense job. Sheep require intensive care.
The oil represents the picture of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes and takes that aggravation and that pressure away. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. That's what the Holy Spirit brings into my life.
My personal experience is that I handle the big things pretty well, but I don't handle the little things so well. I handle the doctor. I handle sitting with Dr. Robert Reilly when he goes, "Well, here's what..." and he starts talking about pictures of my heart. I said, "I don't need to know that. You know it, right?" "Yeah." "OK, we're fine. Tell me when to be here."
That's all I have to do - show up, and you put me to sleep and then wake me up. He said, "Well, not always." I said, "Well, OK, whatever. It doesn't matter. If I'm asleep, I can go to sleep. I don't care. But you take care of it." I handle that. I can handle that. I can't handle a red light. I can't handle an announcer.
The Little Things That Drive Us Crazy
I'm going to ruin sports for you from now on. They'll say, "The Iowa Hawkeyes, they need to win today." What's the "they" doing in that sentence? Every guy puts it in there. "Peyton Manning, he threw for..." No, "Peyton Manning threw." Not "he." Those things drive me nuts. When the boys come over, they'll go, "Papa, will you turn it?" because I watch almost all the games muted. I can't stand to listen to this.
Is that a big thing? I'm embarrassed to tell you that, except I know you're as goofy as I am, and you've got the same thing. The shepherd comes along and says, "Let's take those distractions away."
Freedom from Hunger and Want
Here's the fourth thing: it's freedom from hunger. "I'll meet your needs." I see that as bigger than just food. We've talked about sheep before. From what I'm told, a sheep can be here and food there. They don't hunt. If the shepherd doesn't get them there, they don't eat. A sheep can put on 100 pounds in 100 days, I'm told.
All of a sudden, I can quiet your spirit. There's a fear that I should have, and that's the fear of the Lord. But He said, "Listen, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. I'll make you lie down. I'll make you rest." That yearning, that searching stops.
I remember Sally Field. There was an interview with Sally Field after she'd won the Oscar. Remember her speech? "You like me, you really like me!" And they're doing an interview afterwards. She said, "I've had this thing in my life since I was a little girl. I don't know what to call it. I'll call it a yearning."
The Universal Yearning
We all have that yearning, that quiet discontent. No person, place, or thing will satisfy it. But the shepherd comes along and says, "Buddy, we need to put these things in proper perspective. You won't want. You can relax. You don't need to be afraid, and you're not lacking anything. So take it easy."
I was in a meeting yesterday with a church in town that has a model similar to ours. By that, I mean they have multi-congregations with different preachers, not video. They were picking our brain about various things. The guy finally said something - I'll get it close, certainly have the meaning - he said, "You don't seem very concerned about..." and there were all these questions about how to navigate different challenges.
I said, "Probably because most of it doesn't matter." I'm going to give you a definition of faith. If I was a note taker, I'd write this down and think about it. I'm watching a guy the other day, and he said, "I want to talk about faith. Here's my definition: seeing things from God's perspective." I thought, that's really good.
Putting Things in Eternal Perspective
Putting things in their right perspective, in the eternal perspective. As God looks at my calendar for the day and my events for the day, what, if anything, is important to Him? In that context of what's important to Him, is it equally important to me?
This is a great tip I got on premarital counseling. This guy said, "I only learned this by screwing it up, which is the only way we learn." He said, "I'd take the husband, or the fiancé, and the guy and the gal, and I'd say, 'List the top 10 things that are important to you.'" They'd list them. He said, "What typically happens is you go, 'Oh wow, dancing, dancing. Nice house, nice house.'"
But he said if you're just satisfied with that, you miss something. "Rank them in order of importance." He said dancing was one example. "I had a couple where she wrote dancing was important. She liked to dance, line dance, or whatever dance she liked."
So he put dancing down. Well, he meant, if we go to a wedding reception and have three glasses of wine, I'll dance. She meant, every Friday night, we're going to Cave Creek and dance. So they're looking and going, this is a great thing. They're looking and going, yeah, it's on my list, but where is it? It's a 10 here, it's a one here.
Well, list your things of what you think God thinks are important. And you may find the same things on your list, but are they ranked or valued at the same level? The Lord is my shepherd. And because the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. And He makes me lie down in green pasture. He makes me rest.
Four Steps When Crisis Comes
As those things come in, four step, you've got to go. It's time. Let me give you four things quick. This is a repeat from a couple of weeks ago.
As these things come into your life, don't know what they are. Number one, acknowledge that this is an issue for you. Acknowledge, I'm afraid, acknowledge it's whatever it is.
Secondly, think theologically. That's what we just did. Here comes this crisis. Well, theologically, the Lord's my shepherd.
Number three, powerful word, remember. Remember what God has done. Yesterday, as I'm talking to this guy, the guy said, I heard your story. I've heard about the last 15 years of your life. Heard about the suffering and the pain. And I said, really? I don't think that. But how God's been faithful.
And then here's the fourth thing, is trust Him. Be still, quiet, rest, and know that I'm God. I've got it under control.
Trust Him - Everything Is Under Control
There's a plaque. The way Sandy has arranged our house and our master bedroom, there's four bookcases there, or five, filled with books and pictures. And there's a picture of us. There's a picture of Sandy when she was five with her dog. There's pictures of me and my mom and all this stuff. And there's a little frame, and in it, it's really, really well done. It says, Tom, trust me. Everything is under control, Jesus.
That's that final piece. That's that trust Him. Psalm 46:10, be still and know that I'm God.