Hearing the Voice of the Shepherd

Good morning, Springhouse! Well, it's

a great day to be in the house this morning, and

I am, I am glad to see you all. Before we get— I say before

we get cranking, we're already cranking. I'm just continuing the crank. Okay, here we go.

But this afternoon, immediately following this gathering, we're having a

luncheon in the fellowship hall. Celebrate Recovery, we're going to be launching in

August, and so if you are. If you

are interested in learning about that ministry, we invite you to come to be a

part of that. Even if you didn't sign up, you can come over and learn.

We have plenty of food today for you as

well. And then Easter is coming! Are you guys excited

about that? Easter's coming, and we

are going to have church on Easter Sunday. It's going to be good!

9 and 11 o'clock, and you know, wrapped

around the Easter season, some of you know, one of

the core testimonies that we find in this The house, of how

people arrived here and they stay, is I got here and

I did not expect the level of authenticity

and community that was available here at

this house. And so, what we do, you know, anybody know anybody that are

those Easter churchgoers and then that Christmas churchgoer, and that's about

all they do, you know? And so, around the Easter

time, what we've done historically is we've offered an

opportunity for you to invite people back to church after

Easter, Easter by bringing something special to the stage. So we've had the Skit Guys

here, we've had Jonathan Evans here, we've had other

people here, and so this year we are going to have a guy by the

name of Mike Goodwin, Bow Tie Comedy, and he's going to be

here. He will be ministering through comedy and laughter, and he

ties it in the end with a strong message. And so this is

an opportunity for you to ask your friends and those people who

you bring on Easter Sunday if they would come back. Now, why do we want

to do that? We want to do that so that when we're in those hallways

and when we're in here that we have opportunity to build relationally

with them so that they might come back and be a part of something that

they're not necessarily a part of regularly. And if they do continue

to come back, we'd like them to come the following week to our

Newcomers Luncheon to learn about SpringHouse, to learn about our church.

If they have questions about who we are, our pastoral team will be

there and our leadership. And so that is— all of that

is strategic in that window of Easter for us to

offer an opportunity for people to plug in and get to know us

and be a part of our family here at Springhouse. And some of you have

the testimony of, "I came at Easter and I continued to

come." And so praise God that you are continuing to journey with us.

So today we are going to continue— well, there's him

again. Today we're going to continue our series Abide. So we did have

the Abide Conference that closed last week, but we are still in this series Abide

for a few— we're in the series of Abide all year, but this section

on Abide is— we have a few more weeks leading up to Easter. And so

today we're going to talk about hearing the voice of the shepherd.

So if you'll stand with me, we're going to read out of The Message version

of the Bible. That is John

John 10:1–5

10:1-5 and 27. And

if you would read as if you're trying to get somebody saved this morning,

okay? Let's read real, with some real gusto. Here we go. Let me

set this before you as plainly as I

can. If a person climbs over or through the

fence, of a sheep pen instead of going through the

gate, you know he's up to no good. A

sheep rustler. The shepherd walks right up to

the gate, the gatekeeper opens the gate to

him, and the sheep recognizes his voice.

He calls his own sheep by name and leads them

out. When he gets them all out, he leads them and

they follow because they are familiar with his

voice. They won't follow a stranger's voice, but will

scatter because they aren't used to the sound of

it. Everything I have done has been authorized by

my Father, actions that speak louder than

words. You don't believe because you're not my

sheep. The Father who put them under my care is

so much greater than the destroyer and

thief. No one could ever get them away from Him.

I and the Father are one heart and mind. Father, I

thank you for your Word. I thank you that we can trust it. I pray,

Lord, that you would speak today through it. God, let my words fall to the

ground. Let those words that would be

eternal be eternal and do its work, in Jesus' name. And everybody

said, amen. Amen. My

friend Dustin Howell and I took a trip to Ireland

together. It was a really fun trip. This was several years ago.

In fact, I think it was before— the year before I got married. So this

is pre-Shari, and we went, and one of the things that— one of

the notable things that I took away from Ireland was there

are sheep in Ireland, and the sheep are

everywhere. If you've seen stray cats or dogs running around

anywhere here in Smyrna, Murfreesboro, Nashville,

sheep are everywhere in Ireland.. They are

just walking the streets, and you know, they won't get out of

your way necessarily. They're just there.

And sheep, you know, many of you know this, but sheep historically are

just known to be dumb.

And so are we. And that's

why Scripture calls us sheep,

because like sheep they cannot cannot defend themselves, they cannot find

their way home, they cannot protect themselves from predators, and

as much as we think that we on our own strength can do those things,

we can't. So probably more important than us being called sheep is

that scripture repeatedly calls God

our shepherd. We need

a shepherd. When it comes to sheep, something real interesting

will happen. Flocks will merge together and you'll see a variety

of different sheep in a, in a pen or in an area. And what

will happen is a shepherd will come and

call out for the sheep. And what's interesting is the

sheep that belongs to that shepherd will make a move or an

adjustment to go toward the sheep the minute it hears the

shepherd's voice. And so as dumb as sheep are, the one thing they've got going

for them is that they know the shepherd's

voice. They know the voice of their leader. Can the

same be said about you? Do you

know the voice of

the shepherd? Do you know the voice of the shepherd? Jesus

said, "The gatekeeper opens the gate to him, and the sheep recognize

his voice." I want us to start here with this point: The voice

of the shepherd protects you from the one who seeks to destroy

your life. The voice of the shepherd protects you from the one who

seeks to destroy your life. In other words,

the security of the sheep is not the fence. The security of the sheep

is the voice. It's a voice. Do you know the

voice of God? This is not a popular teaching in a lot

of Christian circles, but I have to tell you, I'd be remiss as your pastor

not to equip you and inform you that you have a

real, breathing, live enemy. Enemy that is

after you. This enemy wants to steal, he wants to kill, he

wants to destroy you. Now, here's the great thing about

our great glorious God. If you belong to the kingdom, the enemy can't

touch you. He has no power. Greater is he who is in you than

he who is in the world. And so he has no power over you,

but we sometimes gloss over this understanding that, guys,

we are at war. Now, I know that in our cushy seats with

our latte and with everything, you know, seeming we've got

everything at our fingertips. It might not seem that way, but there

is literally an active war going on right now for

your soul. There's an active war going on for— now here's the great glorious thing

about the war that we're in. We know who has the victory at the end

of the day, and the one who has the victory is also the

same one who's inside you, who gives you greater power

than any enemy that can come against you. But there

are these things called battles along the way. Has

anybody ever succumbed to a battle and lost? My

hand's up. Lost the battle because I got wayward, or

I lost my way, or as we're going in the vein of

today's topic, I lost sight, or I lost earshot

of the shepherd's voice. And so the

security of the sheep is not the fence, it's the voice. Jesus says

that the sheep will recognize the shepherd's voice and they

run from strangers. My experience is that we don't

run from strangers, we tend to run to strangers. And might I

go a step further? We run to strangers and we will build our whole life

based on what a stranger says about us. Now sometimes, here's the

thing, sometimes those strangers manifest themselves on TV programs that we watch

at 4 o'clock because they don't really

know us. And so we can grab— there's no conflict in people who don't know

us who are speaking into our lives, so we'll just grab one little thing that

they say and build a whole theology on it, or build a whole foundation of

our lives. The voice of the shepherd protects us

from danger. The voices in the world are all around us, and they're trying

to lead us somewhere. They're trying to lead you. They're trying to lead you toward

life. They're trying to lead you toward destruction, some

of them. But a shepherd's voice will always protect you.

The ability to hear the shepherd's voice comes from proximity, and

that's why abiding trains your ear to hear

His voice. Jesus says, "Remain in me, and I will remain in you."

So as we abide in him, we are learning

the voice of our Creator. As we remain in him— let me

tell you, all of you guys could be talking to me at one time, and

Shari could be sitting here in the front row, and if Shari says something, I'm

going to be able to pick out her voice more than anybody else in

the room because I live with her. I'm in proximity to

her. I know I know what Shari's voice

sounds like. The closer you are to your King, the

more you recognize what His voice sounds like. The closer

you are to your God, the more you recognize what's His voice

and what's the world's voice. I heard the pastor tell this story one time. He

was talking about this blind girl, and she was up on the third floor of

an apartment complex. That's where they lived. Now, she wasn't rendered

unable to do things. She was make her way around, but she

was legally blind. And so, the father went to the grocery

store, and the apartment complex that day caught

on fire. She was stuck in the apartment that caught

on fire, and so she goes out to the balcony, and the police had come,

the firemen had come, and they put out that big trampoline type

thing that they jump into, you know, to be safe.

And so, she gets out there on the balcony, and everybody is yelling

at her, "Jump!" Jump! Jump! Let's go! Come down! Come

down! They had no relationship with her, they didn't know that she was

blind, but there she was in this burning fire not responding to all of their

cries. Well, the father got the call at the grocery store that the apartment was

on fire, laid his buggy down, got in his car, got to

the place, jumped out of the car, and

said, "Jump!" She took off and jumped and saved

her life. Why did she jump for her father, but didn't jump when everybody

else was saying, "Jump"? Because she knew

his voice. There is protection in the voice that you

know. There's protection in the

shepherd's voice. Hearing His voice is not accidental, it

is trained. It is trained. Again, Jesus says, "Abide in Me,

and I abide in you." When you abide long enough, His voice

stops sounding unfamiliar. The sheep that hear the

shepherd the clearest are the sheep that stay the closest,

because closeness creates familiarity. And

so we want to recognize and distinguish His voice, because sometimes

the loudest voices we hear are our

own. I succumb sometimes to the voices inside my head that are bathed

in fear, bathed in preferences, in

ambitions, or opinions, or emotions., and then we are so

quick to attach a spiritual label on that.

Might I suggest this morning that not every voice inside your head

is the shepherd? Not every voice that's

inside your head is the shepherd. We live in

one of the loudest— no, we don't live in one of the loudest, we live

in the loudest culture

of all history. Let that sink in for just a moment. We

live in the loudest culture in all

of mankind in history today.

Phones are going off like crazy, the news is shouting at

us, people's opinions all around us. Everywhere we turn somebody's trying

to tell you what to believe, what to think, what to

fear, what to chase, what success

looks like. And external noise is not the whole

problem, it's just part of the problem. The other problem is

that sometimes the world tries to

imitate the shepherd's voice. One of the most dangerous

phrases that you and I can say— listen to this, believers— one of

the most dangerous phrases you and I can say is this,

"God told me." And we throw that phrase around like seed hitting the

ground for birds. "God told me." Because

"God told me," you're talking about

the Star Breather, Sovereign God, Creator of the universe,

and when we say, "God told me something," there's not anything

else to say about the conversation. If God told

you to do something, if He literally, if He said to you, "Do this,"

it doesn't matter what I think, doesn't matter what I say, doesn't matter what anybody

else says, That's something you better do. If God said it, if the God of

the universe said it, you better walk in obedience. And so, so

often I hear somebody say, "God told me," and I turn around, I don't see

them doing what they say God told them, and what it really was was, "I

really wanted to do this, so I labeled it as God told me

to do it." And when we do that,

it is destructive. Destructive in our lives,

and destructive to others. Because if God didn't say

it and we claim that He did, we are putting His

name on something that originated with

us. And that's

problematic. That's problematic. Discernment matters because

not every voice inside your head is

the shepherd. John 1, Jesus, as

John 1 opens it says, "I am the the Word. He says, "In the

beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was

with God." And so what we learn in that is that the

written Word and the living Word are never going to

come in disagreement to one another. A

surefire way of knowing whether you've heard the Shepherd's voice

is to test it against the Word of

God. This is truth. There is

foundation here that we can rely on and that

we can trust. Now sometimes people will take, you know, "I

like page number 826 of scripture, so I'm going to take this little portion here,

I'm going to base my entire life on it." And we run with

that, forgetting that there is an entirety of scripture here that we're supposed to

live and abide by. And so this is why it's very important

for us to be familiar with the Word of God. We need to know what

the Word of God says so that whenever we're testing what God is

saying to us, we know what we're testing it against, that

we actually understand the Word of God and that it is true, that we

actually know what His Word says. So that if somebody says, "God told me to

do this," and it doesn't line up with scripture, you know that was

not from the Shepherd. That was not from the Good Shepherd.

So how do we discern God's voice? Let's look at 4 ways

that we can discern God's voice, okay? The first one we've

talked about already. It's the Word of God. Psalm 119 says

this, "Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light

light unto my path. And so we take the

Word and we test whatever it is that we feel like we're getting

in terms of discernment,

direction, whatever the idea is, whatever motion we're

trying to set into the course of action, we test

it by God's Word. Now, when something happens in

my life, some dramatic event, something at

work, some financial crisis, something emotional, whatever,

the first question that I think is good to ask is this, how did I

How did I get here? How did

this happen? How did I arrive here? How did I arrive to this dilemma? How

did I get here? The second question,

after you've discerned, how did I get here? The second question is, what

does God's word say about this? Now, here's what

we have the propensity to do. How did I get here? Okay,

I got that answer. What does God's word say about

it for them? What does God's Word say about it for their situation and the

part that they played? What's the truth that they need to

hear that they're not hearing? But see, what we

need to do is we need to turn that around. We need to

understand that it's, "How did I get here? And God, what is Your Word

saying to me about this dilemma? What is Your Word saying

to me about how I'm supposed to respond? What is Your Word saying?

What does Your truth say about my thought process about what's going

on? What is your Word saying about my opinion about what's

going on? And everything surrenders and bows down to the

truth of God's Word.

Church, say, "Amen." Your circumstances,

your problems, your drama, your emotions, they

are not your rock or your foundation. The truth of

God's Word is your foundation. It is where your peace comes

from. Holy Spirit is the second thing. First thing is the Word.

The second, we've been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. John 16 says, "When

the Spirit of Truth comes, He

will do," what? He'll do what? Okay, I need

a guide. I need a guide. So I've got truth, which is the path. Now

I need a guide to the truth. So I look at the Holy Spirit kind

of like a flashlight. It's like, okay, here's the

direction you're going, and He's going to illuminate reality right in

front of you. He's going to be able to separate truth from lies. He's

going to be able to point you in the direction. He's going to allow you

to walk with Him. And here's the thing, most of the time what

we are looking for, what the Lord is looking for, is that you are

taking a step with Him. That you're taking a step

with Him. That you're taking a step, and as you walk faithfully with Him,

He will order your steps. We're going to talk about that in just a few

seconds, okay? But it's like a flashlight. He looks

at He lets us look at our situation, our

experience, whatever is in front of us through the mature spiritual

lens, through a biblical lens, and then we can

begin to move. The third thing, if we have the Word and the Holy Spirit,

the third thing we look

for is peace. Is peace. I do

not find many situations in scripture where the person who

was in charge moved or did anything when they were not

at peace. Peace. God comes down, has a conversation with them, they get straight

with the Lord, they're looking at the Lord, and there's peace. And a lot of

times, listen to this, friends, a lot of times what the Lord does is

He strips them of everything that they brought to the table, and then

He gives them peace to move. But, but God, you don't understand what

they did. You don't understand what they said. You don't understand how this is affecting

everything. God says, lay that all down.

Look at me. I have a friend who, I have a friend who has been

married for a very long time, and she

has every biblical ground to leave her marriage. She has every biblical ground

to leave her marriage. She wants to leave her marriage. She wanted to

leave her marriage. And she came across the crossroad, and the Lord said, "I want

you to stay. I want you to stay."

And she did. These are the types of things that happen in the

kingdom of God. These are the types of things that you need a shepherd who

gives you the strength when you're weak to

continue to endure. Just because you have the right to do something doesn't mean it's

what God tells you to do. Colossians says,

"Let the—" I highlighted the wrong word here. "Let the peace

of Christ rule in your heart." Let the peace

of Christ rule. Guys, when your peace begins to get off kilter, it's time

to be still and get close to the Creator. When your peace is

not— when your peace is out of whack, that is not the time to be

making big decisions. That's not the time to be— that's not really the time to

be talking to people. It's not the time to be texting or posting

on Facebook or posting on Facebook or posting

on Facebook, right? When you don't have peace, when you don't have

peace, let me— okay, any football watchers here? Okay, when you watch

a football game, okay, and you see a play that has happened and

the ball's gone out of bounds or something has taken place and the ref

blows the whistle, you know, if you're an avid football watcher and you know the

game, you know what's about to happen. You know the call that they're about to

show you on the screen, and then they show you the call and then they

move on and you move on with them. Okay? Peace is

like that referee. Peace is like illuminating what you already know by

truth in the direction of the Holy Spirit. Peace gets in there and says, "You're

going in the right way. You're going in the right direction." You

can trust in this peace, okay? So you have the Word, you have the Holy

Spirit, you have peace, and the last thing, and guys, we poo-poo

this away like

crazy, godly counsel. And the reason that we poo-poo away godly

counsel is because here's what godly counsel really means to a

lot of us. Godly counsel It also means, "I've come to inform you about what

I've already

decided to do." I can't tell you how many times I get calls every

week, I have meetings with people, and, "Pastor, I've just come to let

you know this is what I've decided to do. This is a big decision in

my life. This is what I've decided to do. This is the choice I've made."

And I'm thinking, "Okay, I don't know why we're having this conversation

right now. I appreciate the information, but were you asking me to pray for you?

Did you want me—" Because what we want is we want people to surround us

to affirm us in the the things we want to do. We want, we want

somebody to come say, yeah, that's good. I'm good with that. You know, I had

a call just the other night. Somebody was just kind of sharing their heart

with me or whatever. And I mean, they got through everything they want to do.

And my first two words were,

absolutely not. Absolutely not. That I do not agree with. I do not think that

at all. That's the direction that you're supposed to go. This person was emotional. It

was a, it was a good call. Listen, godly

counsel is super is super important. God confirms His voice

through wise believers around us.

We have behavior issues at the school sometimes, and we've got a— I've

got my authority, her name is Debbie Landers over in East Tennessee, and sometimes I

have to call her and I have to say, "Hey, listen, we've got this particular

situation. What do you think about this?" And she'll give me some counsel.

We'll talk as an administrative team. I'll call Vonda or Rachel and say, "Hey, we've

got this issue. What are your thoughts about this? Before we take action,

what are the thoughts?" Because because there is wisdom in

getting other perspectives. There's wisdom in

getting other counsel. And so, when we're looking for counsel, you

want to look for people who have a track record of a

grace gift in whatever it is that you're trying to get counsel for. So, for

instance, if I need the Lord to give

me some calculated information, I need to grab some counsel on

administrative functions, I'm probably going to go see I go see Mark Laughlin because he

has a consistent track record of being calculated and being able

to have this administrative grace gift, and so he

can impart some information into my

life. James. James and I have been friends for a long time. He's a guy,

you know what he sows into situations? Peace.

He's a peacemaker. If there's a situation going on, he always comes in and he

will speak peace to a situation. Wisdom. There's times when I

need concrete wisdom, whenever I got a situation going, I need to get some wisdom

on which direction to go, and I'll go see Ronnie. I'll go see I'll tell

you, there's been so many lunches I sit down and Ronnie will just put a

nugget of wisdom on the table and it will blow my mind because he's got

a grace and wisdom. There is, there

is wisdom in having a multitude of counselors. This is what the

scripture says, "Where there is no counsel, the people fall, but in the

multitude of counselors there's

safety." There's safety. And so, Amongst all those

things, the Word, the Holy Spirit, peace, and godly

counsel, where do we get off kilter? Well, I think the biggest culprit

in all of that

is distraction. Distraction is the

enemy of discernment. This is

my puppy Emmett. Come

here. Hey, buddy. Now Emmett came right to

me. Emmett knows my voice. Let me tell you something,

Emmett knows my voice, but every now and then

when

he goes outside, I can be screaming at the top of my lungs

with my voice, and, and he is more concerned about the squirrel going

up the tree, the field before him, the birds that

are flocking around, and this guy can run!

This guy can run! And I have ran after

him with no avail. And so when he's getting away, do you

think I'm screaming for Emmett to come back to me because I don't want him

to play with the squirrels, or I don't want him to play with the birds,

or I don't want him to have fun in

the field? I'm, I'm, I'm calling him because he doesn't see the

Mack truck that's on the road that's about to end his life.

And if he will listen to my voice, he will come back

to the place of safety. Are you picking up what I'm putting

down? And so what happens is, is we got this little contraption

on his, his neck here that is controlled

by this little device. And if he doesn't listen to my voice,

I push this little red button and boy, he makes a

beeline right to me. Okay, here's what I want

you to understand. The God of the universe loves you so much

that He will push the red button to get you to come running back to

Him. He will allow you to go through

some difficult, hard circumstances to allow Him

to become the focus.

I love this boy. Don't make

me push the button! Abiding creates

space to hear God clearly. So here's the deal, guys.

Let's just be real. There are times in our lives where we have a mountain

in front of us. The mountain can be a work situation,

could be a financial problem, it

could be a relational fallout. It can

be some type of contentious thing that's going on. It can be,

and it feels like a mountain. It's weighty. Anybody

ever had a mountain? Yeah, it's weighty. It's, it's,

it's real. It's there. You wake up thinking about it. You go to work thinking

about it. You drive around thinking about it. You emote about

it. You, it comes up in your conversations because it is right there in

front of your face. There this mountain, and it is huge.

And if you're a believer and you're really close to the Lord, what you're doing

is you're seeing this mountain and you're crying out to the Lord, and what you're

saying to the Lord is, "Get this mountain out of my way! Tell me what

to do here! I've got to make a decision here about this mountain!" And

what you talk about more and more and more is about the mountain, far more

than what you talk about Him. And what happens

is the mountain becomes so, so illuminated and

huge in our lives, and here's the deal, It's

so tiny to the Creator of the universe.

It's so small in comparison to everything else. What

is ruining your day is tiny to the Star Breather.

Are you with me? And so the Star Breather

says, "Take that mountain and surrender it to me so

it becomes this big." Now, here's the thing. The mountain's not gone away.

It's just become a molehill now. And so here it is,

and you've got this mountain in your peripheral,, but you've

got Jesus in front of you and He's so much bigger than

this, and all of a sudden you start to see

things at a different perspective. You start to come in line with the truth.

You start to get yourself in line with His precepts and, and what the Lord

says, and all of a sudden your response

to this mountain shifts, and it changes, and it

evolves to line up with the Shepherd

Whose voice you're listening to. And so this mountain

becomes small. The Word tells us this is what this really means in real time.

We don't like— listen, if nothing's going on, we don't care about this verse, but

let there be a mountain in front of us. This is the truth

of God's Word. Trust in the Lord

with some of that problem. Trust in the Lord with a few things.

Trust in the Lord with everything else but the mountain. Mountain.

No, trust in the Lord with all your heart,

and do what? Lean not on your understanding. But

God, you don't understand what

they, what it, what— No!

Lean not on your understanding. Now, I don't know how to get here

when I'm facing a mountain, because everything in my understanding wants

to pull out the the Lord wants

to throw my opinions, my attitude,

my emotions, everything within me wants to use what I think I know

is

right to fix the problem. But things that the Lord is really trying to do

in us and heal us from are the reasons why mountains get erected in

the first place. I'm doing Celebrate Recovery right now, and one

of the things that I'm learning about myself is the biggest struggle that

I have in my life, one of the biggest struggles, got a lot of them,

is the fear of rejection. And so what happens is, is when I feel

like I'm coming up against some rejection, a mountain will

be erected in my path. And so all of a sudden, what will happen in

my life is I'll begin to make unhealthy

decisions, and unhealthy choices, and unhealthy conversations fueled

by me wanting to fix the rejection issue. But here's what

the Savior says. He says, He says, "Don't you know that I've accepted you, Kevin

O'Day? Don't you know that the rejection of your past should not fuel or be

a foundation with which you are making decisions on today?" You understand

what I'm saying? And as I surrender that to Him,

then my mountain becomes a molehill, and I look at it and say, "Wait a

minute, God, you are so much greater than this little thing over here." And

all of a sudden I'm walking in peace, and I'm walking in grace, and all

of a sudden— I don't know what your thing is. Everybody's got I

don't know if yours is

rejection, but everybody's got stuff. I call them

mountain erectors. A mountain comes up. You know that verse over,

I think it's in Matthew 17, where Jesus is talking about if

you have faith like a mustard seed, right? He says you

can tell this mountain to move. Now, He could

have been talking about a literal mountain.

But the context of that scripture is that the disciples

could not cast out the demons, and they come to Him and He says, "You

have such little faith. If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can take

this mountain and cast it into the sea." I believe it works

metaphorically too. I believe it works that you can take that mountain,

whatever it is that you're facing today, whatever that

mountain is that consumes your thoughts, consumes everything going

on, that your text messages are about, and your phone calls about, and your mind

is wrestling, you can't sleep at night, whatever that mountain is, Jesus says,

"I believe with mustard seed faith you can take that mountain and say,

'Get out of my way! Get out of my way!'" Let's look at

some examples in scripture, okay? First of all, the shepherd always leads like a shepherd.

Let's see how that happens here. Here we go.

Moses at the Red Sea. Moses at the Red Sea.

The people were saying, "God, Moses, God, do you not see this

army behind us?" If you go back and read that the messenger.

God does not address the army. "Look at this army back here!"

You know what He does? He says, "Trust in my—" You know, in fact, Moses

is crying out to Him, and you know what God says to Moses? "Why are

you crying out to me? You have everything inside you

that you need to move forward." And I'm telling

you today, you have everything inside you,

you need to move forward. We make the issue the

army. He's get the pathway forward. What's next? Feeding of the

5,000. The disciples come to Jesus and say, "Hey, we don't have

enough. This is an impossible situation. We don't have enough food for all

these people." You know what Jesus' response was? "Oh no, what

are we going to do?" No. Jesus looks

right at them and says, "Kirk, you feed them."

Isn't that what He says? "Susie, you feed

them. Scotty, you feed them." "With what,

Lord?" "You have little faith. Don't you know that the Creator

of the universe is literally talking to you in front of

you? Have you not seen anything?" Gosh, we

make it so much about things that it's not really about. Okay,

Peter walking on the water. News flash,

the problem wasn't the water. Jesus didn't go,

"Now, water, get it together!" The problem was, "You took your

focus off of me, Peter. That's

why you can't walk anymore." And lastly, "Lord, won't

you tell my sister to

get up and help me?" "Arthas, you are

worried about so many things. The best thing right now is," what? "Come

on, what?

To spend time with me." Guys, that mountain,

that mountain can be deceptive. It can mess you up. It

can cause you to make decisions in

your life that are wrong. Dangerous.

Here's the thing, the shepherd's voice

always will lead toward

life, and Restoration and righteousness. Am I listening to the Shepherd's voice? Is it leading

you to places of life? Is His voice leading you to

places where you're being restored? Relationships

being restored? Is it leading you to places

of righteousness? Of right standing? Meaning

you can't continue to sin. He's leading you out of sin. He's

leading you out of destruction. Restoration. That's where His voice leads you. He woos you

to life. He woos you to restoration.

He woos you to righteousness.

Anybody ever been to Buc-ee's? I don't struggle with anxiety. That's just not a

struggle that I've had to contend with. Closest I ever came was the

first time I went to Buc-ee's.

I walked into that store and everyone was screaming. Everyone

was running. There was no semblance of traffic I

walked in there, I hyperventilated for a

minute. It was a moment. Guys, here's the

honest truth here in 2026. 2026,

our lives look like Buc-ee's. I was up here a few months ago talking about

that red ball. You know what I'm talking about? Truth of the matter is

there's 52 red balls happening every day at all times, everywhere across the way. It's

just all the time, is it not? Am I telling the truth? Amen? Isn't that

the truth? The distractions are enormous,

and it is so vital, believers in this

room, that we know the voice of our Savior.

That we know the voice of the Creator of the universe.

The one who knows your name. That when He says, "Be

still," we know that's the voice that's telling me, "Be still." When

He says, "Go," that's the voice that's telling me, telling me to

go. When He says, "Stop," that's the voice

telling me to stop. Do you

know the voice of your

Creator? Have you measured His voice against the Word,

the Holy Spirit, the peace, and godly counsel? Are

you contending with a mountain this morning? Or have you contended

with a mountain that you haven't settled

up He has peace to offer you. There was a guy in

the Old Testament who I think had a real good handle on this whole

shepherd thing. His name was

David, and he wrote this,

"The Lord is my shepherd. I

lack nothing." Everybody say, "Nothing." When you trust

the shepherd, you lack nothing. Listen, the prerequisite of lacking nothing

is not what your bank

account says. "The Lord is

my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me

to lie down in green pastures." We do

not like that word "makes." He suggests that you might take up a

spot on the green pasture here. Maybe this might

be a good idea if you just took up some— No, it

says He makes. That's what the Word of God says. He makes us to

lie down in green pastures. You know what that communicates

to Kevin? He says, "Lay down the worry that you're caring

about this mountain, and come lay with

Me in this pasture. Because the more you worry about this mountain in front

of you, the more it consumes you, the less you believe that I

am bigger than that that thing, whatever

it is. But he continues. He says, I— he says

this, he leads me beside

rushing waters that are fierce. No, who knows their

scripture this morning? He

leads me beside quiet waters. And you know what he does in that? You're

laying down beside the quiet waters. Robert, what does it say?

It says he He refreshes my soul.

Has He refreshed your soul? I want to be in a place of refreshing

all the time. Here's a pathway.

Come lay down. Come stop. You refreshed, April? Come

on, are we refreshed this morning? He

guides me along the right paths. This shepherd, not for me,

not so that Kevin can get glory. So

it's for his name's sake. And it says

this, even though, even though, which means I can be walking through

the midst of a dark valley, even

though I walk through the valley of what? The shadow

of death, where things are deceased, where things are falling off, where

things seem to die, where relationships are dying

all around me, where work situations are dying all around around me, where I

thought I had purpose and it's dying around me, although these perceptions

are all around me, even though

I walk through that valley,

he, my shepherd, comforts me. I fear no evil because you are with me. It

says his rod and

his staff. There's a distinction. One of

them is used for discipline. One of them is used

for protection. Do you welcome the discipline of

the Lord in your life? Because the Word says a good— listen,

if I did not discipline my 5 daughters, I would not

be a good dad. If God Almighty did not discipline you, he

would not be a good Father.

But he doesn't just discipline, he protects. He

protects the shepherd dog. He does. And then it says

this, "You," I love this, "You prepare a table

before me in the presence of my enemies." Anybody ever felt like you

got a target on your back? No

one, just me. Okay, well, in the presence, it's not, "Hey, come around here, we're

going to let your enemies do a thing." He literally

brings the table to them and says, I don't care nothing about

what y'all trying to say, what you're trying to do. We're going to sit

here and eat and watch you lose your minds at the peace

that we have right now. Your enemies should be losing their minds

that you are at such peace. They should be losing their

minds that you're at such peace. This doesn't faze me. You know

why? Because it's so small compared to the

great, glorious God I serve. He sets this table, and

then he says, "In the presence of the enemy." And then guess what? He says,

"He anoints your head with

oil." He gives you purpose. He said, "I'm gonna give you something to do, and

I'm gonna give you the power and the strength to do it right there while

your enemies are watching, all under the protection

of the shepherd." "My cup overflows," because with

the Lord, everything's always

more. It's always more. Overflows. Surely

your goodness and your love will— what? Will follow me. Who needs

his goodness and love to follow them all the days of their life?

I need his goodness and love following

me. But you can't recognize his goodness and love when

you're looking at the mountain. And I will dwell in

the house

of the Lord forever. Forever. This is our

shepherd. This is the one who knows your

name, cares about you, created you, sees you,

knows you, and guess what? Yes, he sees that mountain

too, and he says, "Stop thinking about that mountain and

start looking at me. Start listening

to my voice. Let me take care

of that mountain." for you. The best things that have happened in my life

have been when I have relinquished control. When I've

backed up and said, "God, you do it." The best things

that will happen in your life is when you relinquish control and

you back up and you say, "God, you do it." Would you

stand with me this morning? I would like

to be a church known known for

people who actually hear the voice of the shepherd. I

would like Springhouse— when they talk about Springhouse, they're talking

about a group of people who know his word, who know the

Holy Spirit, who know what peace looks like,

and that participate in godly counsel. That the whole package is there

because we are listening to the shepherd. And so that when people out

in the world are contending with their very mountains. You

don't have people guiding them the wrong way because they're listening to their

own voice, ideas, and opinions, but they are listening to the voice of the shepherd

by the example of the people around them. If you're going to pray with people,

would you come forward this morning? In a group this size, there's got to

be people dealing with some mountains. I just, I just feel that. I just believe

there's got to be people this morning. You got mountains. It's been consuming your

week. You've been thinking about it. There's been relational fallout because of it. Of

it. There's been text messages, all these things. It could be financial, it could be

a work thing, whatever it is, there's mountains in this room, and I

believe today that God wants to address those mountains. Now, one of the ways to

get godly counsel is for me to be able to go to Mel Galeoni over

here and say, "Mel, I have this issue. Would you agree with me? Because I

can't see it. All I see is this mountain, and I need you to speak

truth, because I believe that you have truth inside you to speak over me." You

can say, "Kevin, the way you're seeing that mountain is Actually not the perspective of

what's really happening. Let me tell you what God's saying about this. And they speak

into your life, and they begin to get your frame of

mind. And it takes humility. It takes such humility. But I

believe that the Lord wants to help us overcome some mountains

today. So that's you. Today's the day of salvation. It's the day to do

business. He's alive and well today. Come, let's worship.