Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Who takes care of you?
[00:00:06] Who takes care of you?
[00:00:09] Kids? You're probably like, that's easy.
[00:00:13] My parents take care of me.
[00:00:15] And if you are ready with that answer and happy about that answer and feeling good in that answer, that man, I got parents that take care of me. I am so glad for you.
[00:00:27] Do you know there are a lot of kids who can't so readily say that?
[00:00:31] So maybe this morning just the reality that God has given you people to care for you and your parents, kids will be a reason you can thank God.
[00:00:40] And did you know, kids, that as you get older, maybe you've noticed this in adults?
[00:00:49] We're not so certain about how to answer that question. A lot of times when we're asked as grown men and women, grandparents, working people, stay at home, moms asked, who will take care of you? I think we probably wonder a lot.
[00:01:11] Adults doubt who will take care of them.
[00:01:16] We live with some worry about that question.
[00:01:21] I wonder how you see it. Who will take care of you? How do you answer that? Do you have a ready answer to that? Do you have many doubts?
[00:01:31] Well, this morning we turn to the Psalms for help and hope and comfort and answers.
[00:01:36] The Psalms as a whole are a compilation of songs and prayers and poems and laments that are meant to lead God's people in their worship and life with God. Psalm 23 is like many of the others written by David, who was a shepherd boy turned king of Israel.
[00:01:55] And the psalm, which many of you probably could recite by heart, opens with the phrase, the Lord is my shepherd.
[00:02:03] And that's the orienting idea of the. Of the whole psalm.
[00:02:08] In each verse, David considers the benefit to himself because the Lord is his shepherd.
[00:02:16] Today we're going to follow David and his lead and see how having God as our shepherd addresses the answers, the concerns we have. Some of the most basic concerns we have as human beings.
[00:02:34] My prayer for us is that our relationship with the Lord is going to deepen in this time, become sweeter, as we take time to reflect on how good of a shepherd he is to us.
[00:02:48] So this morning we consider verse one. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
[00:02:58] And here is what I hope. We all go away believing, being persuaded of hearing from God's word together.
[00:03:07] Because you have a committed shepherd, you will always have what you need.
[00:03:17] Because you have a committed shepherd, you will always have what you need.
[00:03:24] My sermon will unpack that in the two kind of phrases in that idea. First, we'll consider that you and I have a committed shepherd.
[00:03:36] And then secondly, because we do, we have what we need.
[00:03:42] So let's begin seeing that we, you, I, we have a committed shepherd.
[00:03:50] We don't know exactly when David wrote this psalm, but since David was himself a shepherd at one point, we know the subject area he's illustrating from. This is all well known territory to him. So David may have written this psalm at the end of his life as a kind of praise filled reflection on how faithful God had been in leading him through his life.
[00:04:17] We could also easily imagine him writing this as a young man long before he would become king, sitting watching his own flock of sheep. As his thoughts turn, they turn to God, the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
[00:04:36] Scripture says David was always after the heart of God, yearning to know God, yearning to know him through His Word. Perhaps he was thinking about his care and commitment to the sheep under his care and appreciating in that how the Lord had been the same even more towards him.
[00:04:57] In this opening phrase, the Lord is my shepherd, David says that God is his committed caretaker.
[00:05:06] Scripture being God's word, given as it is through many human authors, here is affirming in this way that this is a way that God himself wants to be thought of by his people.
[00:05:22] This is an image as shepherd he wants you carrying around as you think. Who is God? Who is he to me?
[00:05:29] Of all the images God would have us carry in our hearts and minds about him, Maker, creator, king, master, shepherd, that has to be one of the most personal and comforting.
[00:05:51] God commits himself to the responsibility of our personal care.
[00:05:56] A shepherd entrusted with a group of sheep is the sole means of that flock's provision, leadership, protection. Without a shepherd, sheep scatter.
[00:06:09] They end up vulnerable, in danger. A shepherd therefore binds his way of life to the pattern and needs of his sheep. He is with them constantly. He is tending to them constantly. He is watching over them all the time, mindful of their well being.
[00:06:29] What kind of God is the Lord?
[00:06:35] He is the Almighty God who rules all things in majesty and in the splendor of holiness, who commands angels and galaxies and and takes a personal interest in his creatures and commits to care for us.
[00:06:58] What lengths does the Lord go to shepherd us? Well, this is where the committed care of the Lord defies all understanding.
[00:07:08] David writes, the Lord is my shepherd. And then, as we heard from John earlier in the service I, a few hundred years later, Jesus comes and speaks. John 10, 11. I am the good shepherd. To what lengths will I go to care and commitment to my sheep? I am the good shepherd who lays down his life for the Sheep.
[00:07:32] Our God sent his Son Jesus to provide us with the close, attentive, specific, loving, tender, merciful care of a shepherd Jesus committed to our safekeeping no matter what.
[00:07:50] Jesus didn't flee at the first sign of danger to himself like the hired hand in John 10, verse 12. And to that we say, thank you God, thank you Jesus.
[00:08:02] He saw the cost ahead of time and still took us as his flock. And anyway, knowing that we faced threats and dangers from our own sin and the curse that laid heavy on all of us that would have easily and was overcoming us, Jesus stepped in and said, I will trade my life for these people.
[00:08:26] When Jesus says he lays down his life for the sheep. In case you didn't know and you're new to the whole idea of church and Christianity and Jesus, let me just explain for you in detail what he means.
[00:08:39] He is talking about his death on a cross.
[00:08:44] There. Jesus died in our place. The punishment of our sin falling upon him. Our great enemy, death which demanded that we pay for our crimes against God's perfect law. It threatened to take our life.
[00:09:02] And Jesus Christ offered his life, his righteous, holy, perfect life as a payment.
[00:09:11] He shed his blood instead of ours being shed. His righteous life given in exchange for our sinful life.
[00:09:21] So how do you evaluate the level of a person's love for. For you or for another?
[00:09:32] Well, no greater way, no greater way to see one's love than the committed sacrifice Jesus makes for his sheep.
[00:09:42] Jesus, the Son of God, dies caring for his people.
[00:09:48] The ultimate expression of his committed love for you Christian.
[00:09:53] The ultimate assurance that he will remain committed until the end.
[00:09:58] His death is the only way any really say the Lord is my shepherd.
[00:10:06] We could say the Lord is a shepherd or the shepherd, but this is how it becomes personal and real for us individually. The forgiveness he provides on the cross makes us new and free from from the guilt of our sin. His resurrection takes away this thing of death from us and brings us into this new life in his spirit.
[00:10:28] It's interesting to see this in the order of Psalm 22 and then Psalm 23.
[00:10:36] Psalm 22 is actually the famous psalm Jesus quotes on the cross where he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[00:10:49] It describes in detail how low Jesus went to lift us up.
[00:10:54] So for those who believe in his sacrifice for them, you have the comfort and assurance that can say the Lord is my shepherd.
[00:11:07] And we see purpose in his death to become your shepherd. He died in order to take you as his people, in order to lead you in order to be committed to your care for the rest of your days.
[00:11:23] This is what Jesus the good shepherd does.
[00:11:27] Do you have a good shepherd like him?
[00:11:34] Do you have anyone, let alone God, who says they will commit to your care even at cost of life to themselves?
[00:11:45] If not, look to him in trust, in faith.
[00:11:50] Tell him you want to come out of whatever sin it is you're hidden under and burdened by or hiding.
[00:12:00] Tell him you want to come home from your wandering that has left you to this point, lost and doomed.
[00:12:09] If you'd like his life, the Lord Jesus the good shepherd will lead you out of your death.
[00:12:16] No one is as committed to our well being as the Lord.
[00:12:26] We must have had the death and resurrection of Jesus applied to us in order to say God is my shepherd. And if we're to continue in appreciating Jesus as our shepherd, we must embrace what the Lord is my shepherd says about us.
[00:12:43] If he's our shepherd, that makes us sheep, his sheep. Yes, wonderful sheep to be sheep. Nonetheless, this is a most unwelcome label for the proud heart.
[00:13:01] Sheep are vulnerable. They're needy, short sighted, dependent.
[00:13:07] A sheep only thrives when owned and led by a good master.
[00:13:15] So the Lord is my shepherd is just as much a glad acknowledgment of our need as it is a welcome reception of God's care.
[00:13:26] The people of God are people who rejoice with humble anthems that exalt our God and humble ourselves, like Psalm 95, 6 and 7. Come, let us bow down in worship. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.
[00:13:53] So church, the joy that you have our joy in the goodness of our shepherd will increase with our humility.
[00:14:06] Those who know they're weak and helpless without the Lord position themselves nearest to Jesus the Shepherd.
[00:14:14] We know that it's his shadow that is our safety.
[00:14:19] His nearby hand is our help. To be within the sound of his voice is to know that we are not lost.
[00:14:29] And I'll just tell you, if you haven't figured it out, you're not going to be encouraged to stay near to Jesus in this world.
[00:14:39] Instead, you're going to be enticed by your own strength, yourself as your own master, to go your own way, to trust your own instincts, to go with your gut, to follow your passions.
[00:14:54] So listen attentively this week to the voices from within and the voices from without and ask God to help you hear his loving shepherding voice above the false appeals of false Guides.
[00:15:12] Jesus calls each of us by name.
[00:15:15] And then he leads us out together as one flock.
[00:15:21] UBC he goes ahead of you.
[00:15:26] You are his people, the sheep under his care, the people he intends to lead with his clear voice.
[00:15:37] Follow him because you know his voice.
[00:15:43] All other voices will we run away from because we don't recognize strangers voices. And his voice is the voice that is going to lead through hard things.
[00:15:53] His voice will be the voice that will lead through things that are unclear.
[00:15:58] To keep following him will mean and require of us that we embrace our humility, especially when he says to forgive or to work, to understand each other, or to be patient in miscommunication or gentle intention or committed through trials.
[00:16:25] But this way does become easier.
[00:16:28] It becomes easier when we recognize that our shepherd's voice tells us to follow him in this.
[00:16:34] To follow him this.
[00:16:38] See, it's about him, who he is.
[00:16:42] It's easier because we know Jesus is a good shepherd.
[00:16:46] He commits to love his sheep.
[00:16:50] So we turn to the second part of the verse. Now, having thought about the committed care of the shepherd for you and me, we go on to find that having God as our shepherd answers our human needs.
[00:17:03] The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
[00:17:08] Other versions translations clarify what want means, means lack or need. I have what I need. Or the Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing, as one version says.
[00:17:22] So here's the second thing for us to hear the Lord telling us in this verse, because you have the Lord as your shepherd, you will always have what you need.
[00:17:35] Because you have the Lord as your shepherd, you will always have what you need. There isn't a because in the verse I'm not intending to add to Scripture, but it does seem to be David's logic, doesn't it?
[00:17:48] He can only say the second part of the verse because of the first part of the verse.
[00:17:55] This is important because not everyone here has the Lord as your shepherd.
[00:18:04] If that's you outside of Christ, not putting your life in his hands and trusting his lordship, if that's you, what will you put at the beginning of this phrase?
[00:18:18] What will shepherd you to the place where you can say, I will have all that I need?
[00:18:26] Let's try some other shepherds out and let's see if they can provide the same security as God.
[00:18:32] Money is my shepherd.
[00:18:35] I will always have what I need.
[00:18:39] But isn't it so often the case that those who give their hearts to money end up only wanting more and never satisfied?
[00:18:51] Okay, can't be Money, sex and intimacy is my shepherd. I will always have what I need.
[00:19:00] While certainly a good gift within the context of marriage, sex alone cannot be trusted to comprehensively provide all that we need in this life.
[00:19:12] Here's another one. Let's try this one out. I am my shepherd.
[00:19:17] I will always have what I need.
[00:19:22] Oh, our hearts do love to believe this one, but our human limitations tell the truth.
[00:19:32] You and I mess up.
[00:19:35] Our own intuitions are not reliable 100% of the time. Getting our own way damages and destroys relationships a lot of times isolates us from others and our bodies break down and die despite our best efforts to exercise and heal them.
[00:19:56] See, we can see how dangerous it is if we flip the verse around.
[00:20:01] I lack nothing, therefore the Lord is my shepherd.
[00:20:06] That would be a problem, wouldn't it?
[00:20:10] This would make our trusting God's care contingent on whether or not he gives us the job promotion or fills the bank account or takes away the sickness.
[00:20:22] James 4, verse 3 levels with us so many times we fill our prayers with selfish asks, things that we want God to give us just so we can satisfy what we crave.
[00:20:34] So our own hearts cannot reliably tell us our true needs.
[00:20:42] The truth we start with makes all the difference in where we end up.
[00:20:49] There is only one way I will not want can be absolutely true all the time. And it is when the person saying it has the Lord as their shepherd.
[00:21:05] Do you realize that before considering any of our other needs, which we'll do in a moment, our greatest need is to know this shepherd.
[00:21:17] Isn't that what Romans 8:28 underscores? And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who know him, who who have come to know him and love him because they have been called by him according to his good purposes.
[00:21:38] To know God as Father is at one and the same time.
[00:21:43] To know all your needs will be taken care of.
[00:21:47] Can I say that again?
[00:21:53] To know God as Father is at one and the same time.
[00:21:59] To know all your needs will be taken care of.
[00:22:07] There is never a time, not even for a second, when the child of God needs to be concerned that they won't have what they need.
[00:22:16] David expresses this with absolute certainty. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
[00:22:26] When you come into God's family through Jesus Christ, the Father welcomes you at the door and says, everything I have is yours.
[00:22:36] Everything.
[00:22:37] Every promise I make, it's yours.
[00:22:40] It applies to you. I set it for you. I mean to fulfill it on your behalf.
[00:22:46] Christian. Our days will bring many questions, and they will come with uncertainties and fears and anxieties and worries. So before every day, remember God speaks over your day, this promise Today you will have what you need.
[00:23:08] In Psalm 23 if you're curious about what is meant by these needs, what kind of needs are we talking about here? You just go through the psalm and he lists some of them. Rest, guidance, a way through death, protection, food, eternal life, our most basic needs.
[00:23:28] Our shepherd promises also to meet our physical needs.
[00:23:33] Turn over to Matthew, chapter 6, verse 25, and let's hear our Good shepherd speak to us about this matter.
[00:23:40] For don't we all have worries and stresses and anxieties, even today and this week, about our physical needs?
[00:23:47] We asked him to speak.
[00:23:52] Maybe this part in the sermon is the part he wanted to speak especially to you.
[00:24:00] Matthew 6:25 Jesus says, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them.
[00:24:22] Are you not of more value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life?
[00:24:29] And why are you anxious about clothing?
[00:24:32] Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was was not arrayed like one of these.
[00:24:40] But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
[00:24:52] Therefore do not be anxious, saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
[00:25:03] But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
[00:25:09] Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
[00:25:21] Our Lord provides for every physical need. He also provides for every spiritual need.
[00:25:26] In Second Peter, verse chapter one, verse three, he says, his divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
[00:25:43] But I recognize we might say I have a hard time believing this, Philip, because there are needs that I have that God hasn't provided for.
[00:25:57] I pray for a spouse, but I'm not married.
[00:26:02] I've shed so many tears and prayers for the baby that is still not here.
[00:26:08] I've yearned for friendship and loneliness still seems to be the meal I eat morning, noon and night.
[00:26:18] I've agonized in financial insecurity, living paycheck to paycheck.
[00:26:25] I do think some of the most confusing times in the Christian life result from seeing and hearing God call things good, like marriage and then not giving them to us.
[00:26:46] But God in Christ has not withheld himself, And in Christ, we are told, he will resource us with everything needed.
[00:27:03] Romans 8:32 he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
[00:27:23] I don't know what God intends to do in your yearning for the needs still yet to be fulfilled for those longing for what hasn't yet come.
[00:27:38] Wait on the Lord.
[00:27:40] He's your shepherd. He knows you by name and he loves you.
[00:27:52] The absence of something in our life does not mean that we are actually living in lack or want.
[00:28:02] We are not living in want just because there are more things we want.
[00:28:10] There's a truth embedded in Psalm 23, verse 1 that will revolutionize how we think about what we need if we allow the Spirit to shape us with the Word according to Psalm 23, verse 1.
[00:28:24] My true needs are what the Lord my shepherd promises to give and does give My true need My true needs are what the Lord my shepherd promises to give and does give.
[00:28:47] Because God always does what he says.
[00:28:49] This means we need never doubt that our needs will not be met by him and to receive this from him, and to believe it and have it come live in our hearts, not just from our mouths, but what we believe and rest on is to be unburdened from the fear that we won't have what we need unless we get it for ourselves, unless we're responsible enough, unless we think far enough ahead, unless we plan accordingly.
[00:29:25] When my kids were younger, we would go on hikes and I would always pack a backpack.
[00:29:31] Really, My wife would lovingly pack the backpack, thinking of future needs, and I would carry it. And when our kids would say they were hungry or thirsty, the solution would come from inside the burden I'd been carrying on my shoulders.
[00:29:48] Though my children may have not even noticed that I was carrying that backpack.
[00:29:55] The burden to provide for your needs has been hoisted onto the shoulders of the Lord.
[00:30:08] Yours is to follow and wait for him to take down the pack and give you what you need.
[00:30:20] I have to ask myself, why is this so difficult for me to functionally believe to really rest on and act it out in faith in my life, why do I keep finding myself trapped in worries or lingering in discontentment with what I have?
[00:30:41] In part, I think it's because we focus more on the shepherd's choice than on his voice.
[00:30:49] We, like sheep, look longingly at a promising pastor somewhere off in the distance.
[00:30:55] Instead of appreciating the security of knowing we can hear Jesus voice right where we are, make it your aim to hear the shepherd's voice and trust that whatever his choice is for each of us, it is what we need.
[00:31:18] Maybe we have a hard time believing Psalm 23:1 because we view God's withholding certain things from us as evidence that he doesn't love us, as evidence that he for us is not a committed, caring shepherd.
[00:31:33] So we find that we don't trust him with everything because he hasn't given us everything we've asked for.
[00:31:42] I don't pretend to know all the purposes of God in your life, or individually or as a church, frankly.
[00:31:51] But can I testify to what I've seen Him do in my life to encourage you?
[00:31:58] I have seen him work through wilderness years in my own life in order to teach me that he is my reward.
[00:32:10] Sometimes our shepherd loves by not taking you to that particular pasture you wish he would for you, he may be saying, not yet.
[00:32:22] For some, it may be not ever.
[00:32:27] When our days open with hopes for something and they close without that desire being met, brothers and sisters, we still lay our heads down in the security of a watchful shepherd.
[00:32:42] He took us another day with him, and we know tomorrow will be no different.
[00:32:52] Part of Jesus work for us was to come and know what want feels like.
[00:32:59] That's what we praised him for and thanked him for. In his condescension earlier, he knew hunger, he knew thirst, he knew fatigue and disappointment and loss of friendship and betrayal. On a physical level, he was well acquainted with the lot of not having a lot.
[00:33:18] He is with you in poverty, for he was poor.
[00:33:23] He is with you in fatigue, for he often had nowhere to lay his head.
[00:33:28] Jesus the shepherd always walks alongside his sheep.
[00:33:35] If your present unmet needs seem insurmountable and you doubt God's love for you and what you face, can I suggest something you might not have thought of?
[00:33:44] Maybe you have. Maybe you've just been reluctant, not acted on it yet, talk to someone else about that.
[00:33:51] I would encourage you especially to talk to an older Christian.
[00:33:58] Talk to a brother or sister who has walked through something you don't think you could Ever face Question the saints for your own spiritual benefit.
[00:34:10] Question the saints who have gone before in Christian biographies and here in the Bible, they will, with David, testify to the unfailing goodness of the Lord.
[00:34:22] The history of God's people proves the reliability of David's claim, as does your own life when it is done.
[00:34:32] Because Psalm 23, verse 1 is true. I know, Christians, that the details of your life are always testifying to the truth of Psalm 23, verse 1.
[00:34:46] Maybe we've forgotten all the details and are focused on only some of the details to help us remember and rest in God's care for us today. Psalm 9, verse 1 recommends we regularly rehearse what God has already done. It says, I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart. I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.
[00:35:09] So here's a homework exercise. If you want some spiritual homework one day, every day this week, take a moment to write one need that the Lord has provided for you.
[00:35:26] Now, that might be a struggle for you right now. So I would say as far out of a zoom lens you need to take, fine, get the juices running for the rest of the week. So if it's basically like, lord, I thank you that I'm alive, great, great start there.
[00:35:48] And then as the week goes on, each day try to get a little more specific.
[00:35:54] Try to zoom in a little bit more to your life right now.
[00:35:59] Each day get a little closer to today.
[00:36:02] Maybe you need to zoom into the decade, the last month, the last week until you can finally, maybe by Friday, say, lord, I thank you that today this is a way you're providing for my needs.
[00:36:20] And then be amazed at the work that can do to help you with tomorrow.
[00:36:28] As you see more clearly and clearly about today, it will start to shape how you trust him with the certainty that he will be there in what's next.
[00:36:39] I think you'll find that as you think about how faithful God has been in recent days, you will also be readier to receive whatever he brings you today as more of the same care he has always shown you.
[00:36:52] And can I just ask, can I just ask of the people of the Lord today?
[00:36:59] Could we mark if prompted, if pushed, could we mark even one instance where he has betrayed us?
[00:37:11] No.
[00:37:14] No.
[00:37:16] But how many pages could we fill with how kind and gentle and tender and generous and faithful and merciful and long suffering he has been?
[00:37:35] How specific in specific times when we were in certain places we knew not how to get out of, he was there as the shepherd with precisely the rescue required, precisely the provision to cause us to go from that point on precisely the word of encouragement that buoyed our spirits and our hearts when all other hopes had given way.
[00:38:04] One day to the next, one month to the next one year to the next, one decade to the next. The Lord has faithfully shepherded us.
[00:38:16] So here's something to talk about after church, at lunch, around a meal, later this week, or maybe even in life groups. How has the shepherd met your needs?
[00:38:26] How encouraging it will be to other Christians to hear each other testifying of the unfailing love of our shepherd.
[00:38:34] So maybe you can do that today.
[00:38:37] I think part of spiritual maturity and progress is having our eyes and our hearts open to see and appreciate what what Jesus has given us.
[00:38:48] First Corinthians 2, verse 9 through 13 says, this is what the Spirit is working in us to open our eyes to appreciate what he has freely given us. Listen to this. But as it is written, what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him, these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit.
[00:39:12] For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
[00:39:16] For who knows a person's thought except the Spirit of that person which is in Him.
[00:39:21] So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God.
[00:39:32] Why that we might freely that we might understand the things freely given us by God.
[00:39:44] Huh?
[00:39:45] Huh?
[00:39:48] Interpreting Spiritual truths to those who are spiritual One feature then of Spirit filled people that I know you aim to be as a church is that you will evidence that in the way that you understand what God has freely given you.
[00:40:09] In other words, the process the Spirit has us on is away from grumbling envy, coveting, striving discontent, and the Spirit is moving us toward gratitude, thanksgiving, satisfaction and praise which results in peace.
[00:40:40] Do you see where the Spirit intends to take you in his purposes to help you understand what he's freely given and where he means to take you away from.
[00:40:56] The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.
[00:40:59] When we can fully say this with the psalmist, that's when we know our hearts are at peace.
[00:41:06] I think that's when we'll live in an experience of a relationship with God that's marked by trust and appreciation day by day for the specific care he's showing over our lives.
[00:41:18] True peace proceeds from a faith that is confident in God, not in the expectation of a specific provision.
[00:41:31] True peace proceeds from a faith that is confident in God not in the expectation of a specific provision.
[00:41:43] The content heart rests in the knowledge that God knows because of who that heart knows God to be.
[00:41:54] And as you as a church rest here, continue to look to him as your shepherd who leads you in paths of righteousness for his name's sake into valleys and meadows.
[00:42:06] I think as you dwell on this, you will become a more generous and benevolent people.
[00:42:11] As you think about how he's freely given you all things, you will be more open handed with all the things he's given you. After all, it's not what we give away that we need. It's what God promises to give to meet our need.
[00:42:27] We can never outgive God's ability to provide.
[00:42:32] Christian. Draw deeply from all there is for you in these words I shall not want.
[00:42:41] Because you have the Lord as your shepherd, you are personally and certainly cared for.
[00:42:51] Right now you are cared for.
[00:42:54] Later today you are cared for.
[00:42:57] Tomorrow you are cared for.
[00:43:00] You are cared for unto death.
[00:43:04] And you will be cared for into life.
[00:43:07] Even at the end, when death comes, you will still be cared for. When you need resurrection life, who's going to be there to give it to you? Your shepherd, you will not want. He'll be there to lead you over death and into life everlasting. And if we have that, if we have absolute security even in death, surely we lack nothing. Besides, because you have a committed shepherd, you will always have what you need.
[00:43:48] Let's pray.
