Joy in God's Presence | Psalm 23

Thank you, Nathan, and honor Nathan for leading us into the

Psalms last week. And it's encouraging.

I think it was that was his first sermon.

And so here's to many more to come.

And it was really a blessing to hear from you.

His life is certainly one that's marked by sacrifice and, and

uncomfortableness and being comfortable.

I don't know if that that really makes sense, but that's

something that I really admire about him and something that you

can really get from him when you speak to him too, is never

getting comfortable in here on earth or within our nation, but

always looking to what God has next for us.

And so, yeah, just as you, as we saw from the video, the purpose

of the Psalms is to is to strengthen ourselves in the

Lord, and they're doing that there.

And I loved the examples that John gave and the stories that

he gave. I think they fit right in with

what we're what really what we're going after.

And it's really to prepare us with a deep relationship with

God so that we can actually be more effective in our workplaces

in the city and all that God's calling us to do.

But yeah, summers are super interesting.

There's this paradox that I love.

It's like the troops are being mobilized and people are coming

in and out and all over the place and taking and, and taking

land. But it's like once you go out,

you come back and you're strengthening and recovering for

the next for the next battle and next hill.

And so we're going to be continually getting these

updates. I'm sure the videos may get

longer as we go. I could tell that John was

talking really fast to try and get as many of these testimonies

just because there's so much richness and happening.

It was even cool to be able to see that we're reaching other

nations. Like the like there was a guy

that was from Japan, I think that they said that he was

studying opera. So hopefully it's kind of cool.

That's like, Oh yeah, we've got friends in Japan as well, and

maybe there can be a connection there.

But yeah, so I'm super excited for this series.

And I don't really recall a time where we did, where we've been

able to do a deep dive specifically into the Psalms.

Maybe we've done, maybe John has taken a break and done one or

one here, one there. But it's really cool that we get

to really uncover more of the psalmist hearts.

And there's such a deep, rich theology and understanding that

we can get through God through the Psalms that helps us in the

good times and in the bad. And so it's, it'll be fun to see

how the Psalmist pen leads us to understanding more about our

amazing God. But we'll be looking at one of

the most well known and most beloved Psalms of all.

And that's none other than Psalm 23 for many.

And I know John did this last year, but I'm sure we could

preach on Psalm 23 every month and we would all be edified and

built up for it. And there's something that I

think the Lord wants to bring specifically this morning for

each and every single one of us. But for many people that don't

even know their Bibles, a lot of people know Psalm 23, and it's

been etched on gravestones. It's provided comfort in the

midst of grief and loss and death.

It's been solitude for those that are that are on their sick

bed. And for many it was, it's, it's

been their last words even before even as they were saying

this Psalm, even before they died and went to see the Lord.

And so it's very, it's a Psalm that's very close to me

personally. It even has a place even in, in,

in me coming to this church and coming to the Lord.

But we'll go ahead and dive right into it.

And so those of you that have your Bibles, some of you might

not even need your Bibles, but I'll go ahead and we'll go ahead

and preach it. So, yeah, the Lord is my

shepherd. I shall not want.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures.

He leads me besides still waters.

He restores my soul. He leads me in the path or He

guides me in the path of the righteousness for His name's

sake. Even though I walk through the

valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for He is

with me. His rod and His staff, they

comfort me. He prepares.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You have anointed my head with oil.

My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will

follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the

House of the Lord forever. Amen.

So just kind of zooming out and taking a a high level view.

It's believed to have been written by David with his

attribution to God as a shepherd.

David was also a shepherd. He also talks about dwelling in

the House of God towards the end of the sermon, which you see

that theme through many of the Psalms that he's written.

And so it's no surprise that this is where a lot of the

theologians have landed landed. But that the that first, that

first kind of part of the first verse, the Lord is my shepherd.

I can go on for so long just in this one sentence.

And when we look at God as a shepherd, the verse, there's

many verses all throughout this that nod to Jesus Christ.

And remember, this was written before Jesus actually came on

the scene in John 1011. Jesus says, I am the Good

Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays his life,

lays down his life for his sheep.

And so I love those parallels just back and forth that you can

draw between the two. Another note is that about the

Psalm is that we are, that we're the sheep.

And I think it's funny specifically that the Lord chose

this example because sheep aren't the smartest animals in

the world. They're very difficult to manage

because they're and they're so needy.

They get into trouble easily and fast.

And it's oftentimes it's a full time job just taking care of a

flock. And, you know, right when they

get out of one thing, they get into something else.

I found this. I found a funny video.

Maybe we can put it up on the screen.

Yeah, So you can. So does anyone relate as a

follower of Christ? Yeah.

So it's no, it's kind of it's kind of funny.

Sometimes I'm like, is it kind of it's it's a it's a perfect

example, but I feel like God's got some humor in it.

And like that he's like, Oh yeah, you guys are my sheep.

And then I see videos like that and I'm like, oh, OK.

But yeah, it definitely is humbling.

But there are only they're one of the only animals in the

animal Kingdom that actually need human intervention and

guidance in order to stay alive. They can find themselves

wandering and getting stuck. Their coats, if they're not kept

trimmed, it can become heavy and matted.

They can die easily from exhaustion if they get caught up

in something through stress. Some cases they can easily roll

over to one side lopsided, kind of like a turtle on its back,

and then it can't get up and the gas will build up and they can

die from that. And so there's, there's like

1000 ways. There's like 10,000 ways for a

sheep to die. Maybe there's a something out

there like that, but it's a yeah.

But David demonstrates his love for the sheep because he was

doing it for God. And a shepherd was not

necessarily the most favored because it, it required being

around these kind of stinky, smelly animals for like 24/7.

And it just it when I was thinking more about like this

sacrifice many of us in America, I just want to bring to the

forefront, just to, to all of your minds, the mission field

that there are those even even today that are laying their life

down. They're not gathering in, in AC

in a freezing cold building in Oviedo, but they're out in the

field risking their lives each and every single day.

And I was even just thinking, you know, of anything in my life

that I could think of, of anything that hit close to home

with missionaries. And I remember it was a while

ago, I think it was with TMAI, we were getting updates from the

like some Ukrainian missionaries and pastors that were out there.

And when the war first started, we were getting like, we were

getting updates and prayer updates.

And then the updates stopped coming.

And I never, I never, I never heard from that or if they if

they kept coming in, But I think I think it's safe to assume that

they probably have been missing ever since or, or they want to

be with the Lord. And so I just want to keep that

on the forefront that that is what at the end of the day, if

it came down to it, we are to risk our lives for one another,

just as Christ laid his life down for the church.

And so, yeah, So coming back to it, I think one of the

weightiest things is that that word, my in the first sentence,

my, the Lord, the Lord is my shepherd.

There's something so sweet when you see that the possessiveness

of that word, and it's probably the weightiest word in the whole

song is because when anytime we talk about someone close to us,

we say my, we say my friend, my wife, my son, my daughter, my

mom, my dad. And it just shows that we are

built for relationship. And then the next part of that

verse, just the I shall not want shows that you know that we're

we're not in wanting we're not to be discontent and that God

really is the provider of everything that we need to go

through this life. And so moving on to through

through the verse 2, he makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me besides still waters.

When I was praying, the first thing that came to mind is how

cry, there's a there's a physical laying down, but

there's the physical and spiritual are always together,

right? So the thing that came to mind

was when in Mark 437, when the when Jesus calmed the storm, it

says, and there arose A fierce Gale of wind and the waves were

breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already

filling up. Jesus himself was in the stern

asleep on the cushion. And they woke him up and said to

him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

And he got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Hush,

be still. And the wind died down, died

down and became perfectly calm. And he said to them, why are you

afraid? Do you still have no faith?

They became very much afraid and said to one another, who then is

this, that even the wind and the sea would obey him?

It shows that he, that God, Jesus Christ, he has the power

to bring peace to our hearts even in in the midst of life's

greatest turmoil. And it could be, you know,

inner, inner sin, anxiety, these other things.

It could be external in this in this sense, it was very

external. But we we need to have this

belief that he can be the one that saves your brother or your

in laws, your family, your friends, your neighbors, that he

has the power to save. He can provide a way out of that

difficult work situation. And maybe he's inviting you this

morning if you have, if you've had a hard week, or maybe if

you're concerned or uncertain about the future, maybe you just

need to hear him say, hush, be still to your anxious and

stirring heart. And so his immense power is

enough for what we're believing for.

And we should do ode to Christ to go and get time with him in

the morning, for Him to speak into those things in our lives.

Go on walks with Him, pour out your heart to Him, and you'll be

surprised at what you'll hear as you Mull over His word and pray

and what He speaks to you through prayer.

He restores my soul. He guides me in the path of the

righteousness for His name's sake.

So He restores us, but He also shows us the right way to go.

Psalm 119, it says Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to

my path. And so there's many others all

around the world that are saying we need a new way, we need

something new, we need something fresh.

We need some newly packaged way of doing therapy or we need a

new way of, of explaining things or here's a new perspective and

coming trying to come up with all these different ways to help

people, which is, which is good and its intention.

But what we need is we need the ancient way and we need the

ancient paths. And so this is we need to point

people to, hey, we don't need the new way, we need the old

way. And it's kind of funny.

There's like these trends that are happening right now amongst

Gen. Z and everything where

everything is kind of going back to traditional because they're

tired of the this progressive jargon and these ideas and all

these new things because there's such so much information with

everything online between social media and AI, we're in a, we're

in information overload. And so like getting rid of your

phone, finding blockers and all these things are kind of all the

rage because people want that personal connection.

Again, Praise God that he's leading a lot of the, a lot of

Gen. Z and all these newer

generations closer and coming back to him.

But I think they're just tired of, they're tired of lies.

They're tired of their trust being broken.

And so there's a great opportunity for us as a church

to be able to bring them the truth that to be able to bring

them the truth. But even as John has mentioned

before, it's extremely hard because they're, there's been so

much trust broken that it's hard to mentor someone that doesn't,

that doesn't have that first level of trust.

So we need to be praying, continuously praying and even

praying while they're over there in Bologna talking to college

students and reaching out to college students.

That there would be a soft soil and that the word would land.

And so going through, coming into the valley of the shadow of

death, I shall fear no evil, for you're with me.

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

When the shepherd would lead his sheep throughout many different

seasons and theologians will give you something different

depending on what you read. Some are saying, most of them

are always saying like yes, the valley of the shadow of death is

bad. But what's an interesting

perspective that I heard is that the that the valley is actually

a low lying area. And usually in low lying areas,

there's a lot of water that will gather.

And so you'll have streams and rivers and these areas and the

sometimes the sheep could possibly get swept away or flash

floods or these different things.

But it's also really rich. There's a lot of grass there.

And so it's a place where the sheep can get really fed and

nourished. And so they kind of akin it to

going through like a hard season of rapid growth in your life.

And that's how how many of us know that that's when we usually

grow greatest in God in relationship with him is when he

takes us through something hard. And the dangers are all still

there because there's an increased water flow and

increased foliage. There are more shadows, there's

more places for predators to hide.

And so it's even harder work for the shepherd to be able to make

sure that the that the sheep are caught are kept safe.

So it kind of reminds me of like the valley kind of reminds me of

like, oh, this sweet, lush place, kind of like America,

where you have all your needs met, but there's like even more

dangers and things that can grasp you and pull your soul

away. And so I thought that that was

kind of an interesting thing as I was reading the rod in the

staff. You guys probably heard before

the rod some some say that the rod is or the rod is meant is

like a bludgeon. It's like a weapon that's used

to fend off bears and wolves and all these things.

And the staff has a hook on it so that the shepherd can easily

wrangle the sheep, either pull it and guide it in the right

direction or by the leg. And these different things.

And sometimes the the bludgeoned would they would fashion things

to it, make it more dangerous. But the main thing to take away

is that that God is a God. God protects us as as sheep, but

he also guides us and leads us in the right way.

And he does that because, and that's one of the greatest

things of the mystery of God's love is like, why would he love

us? I mean, and that's why this idea

of the sheep is like, they don't really, it's like you put so

much work, how much do you get back from them?

I mean, I don't know. I mean, it was, it was helpful

for them, for their wool and for clothing and different things

like that. But it's a tremendous amount of

work and you get nothing back. And it's the same thing with,

like with the Lord. He loves us unconditionally.

David loved the sheep unconditionally.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You have anointed my head with oil.

My cup overflows. This one is probably could

probably be the most offensive verse in the entire entire Psalm

because there's this idea of almost like the Lord is boasting

in his people like you prepare a table before me in my enemies.

And some scholars say that in the ancient E, the host was

required to protect the guests at all costs, even with their

life. And so in this God is preparing

a table for us. And so he's our host and it's

the preparation in front of your enemies is key is because even

in the midst of pressure and even in the midst of hardship of

maybe those that want to destroy you.

God is saying that he will he will not only protect us, but

he'll continue to bless us even in the midst of that.

And I was just reminded of Matthew 1618.

Jesus says, I say to you that you are Peter and upon this

rock, the rock being the big rock, which is him Christ, I

will build my church and the gates of Hades will not

overpower it. And it's, it just it's amazing

that God uses humble small churches and he puts them in

some of the hardest places on earth that he's building

churches and small areas of light at the at the at the gates

of hell and that they won't be overcome.

And I think God does that on purpose because he wants to show

his greatness and his immense power over over evil and

darkness. And so people will mock us

verbally. They may punish us physically

right liable online, spew all sorts of lies and half truths

and evil against you, but he'll continue to uphold, support and

and bless. It's just what he loves to do.

Psalm 3712 through 15 it says the wicked plots against the

righteous and gnashes at him with his teeth.

The Lord laughs at him, for he sees his day is coming.

The wicked have drawn the sword and bent their bow to cast down,

to cast down the afflicted and the needy, to slay those who are

upright and conduct their sword will enter their own heart, and

their bows will be broken. And I just want to prophetically

speak even over our own church that because His word says so

and the enemy that the enemy won't, well, it's not going to

rain and draw close as we draw close to the Lord, the close

range attacks will, they'll will ensnare them in their own net

and the long range attacks will be useless.

And so we mustn't be afraid in this hour, especially because

God's doing so much through our church and through our city

through I mean, we had that Easter outreach not too long

ago. And it's just so encouraging,

just the footprint that we have all over the place in our city

and God's just continuing to grow it.

And so and Jesus said in Matthew 1342 that the enemies of God

will be thrown into the furnace with the weeping and gnashing of

teeth. An apologist I remember told a

story once about how he had a couple of family members who

were brothers and. They were his uncles, and he

remembered a time, I think he was in when he was in high

school. He went to a wedding and he

could look at the two of them. He knew that there was animosity

between them. But he said that he couldn't

describe anything more than the disdain and the hatred that they

had for one another, than the weeping and gnashing of teeth.

They didn't even want to be in the same room with one another.

And he said that it's this, this feeling of such a vitriol and

violence and hatred and intolerance to someone that you

know that you should have a good relationship with.

They know that they should be in good relationship with one

another, but they, they refuse to do that.

Enemies of God and his people. They, they gnash their teeth in

hell because of a couple reasons. 1 is that they

recognize that once they bow their knee, I mean, they, they

know it now, but once they bow their knee to the great throne

that they know that they deserve to be there.

And they're, they're full of the, the regret for not saying

yes and accepting the sacrifice of Jesus.

And now they have, they, they know that they have, they're

duly being punished for what they deserve by Christ for all

of eternity. And two, they are actively being

judged by Christ for all of eternity.

And they are, while in active judgment, they know that they

should have perfect relationship with him.

I can't think of something more tormenting and awful than that.

And that's what they feel. That's what people feel when

when you're living righteously, when you're living above

reproach, when you're living for God and others see that.

And God continues to bless you even when you keep a humble and

gracious mindset towards them. And so it's, it's amazing that

we, that we live in this state or in this story.

And sometimes I have to remind myself that, hey, we, we win in

the end. Like God is going to make

everything right. He's going to come back.

He's going to set everything straight.

And so we don't need to go and, and act vengeance.

We just need to wait for him to show up and wait for him to work

it out and be patient. And so and then this final

verse, surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me

all the days of my life and I will dwell in the House of the

Lord forever. An interesting thing, and this

is what I learned is that the word follow might not even be

the best word to use in this situation because digging more

into it, it actually means pursuit that God, that or like a

chasing that even as you, you may blow it, you may you know, I

tend to be someone that beats myself up even more than than

others do. I'm like, man, why can't I just

like get it straight? And I just have to remind myself

that that this loving kindness, this mercy and this grace, God

chases you. He it's like a it's like it's

consuming, it's unfathomable love.

And those that don't know the Lord or those, those of you that

do know the Lord understand that even if you drift, God's always

pulling you back in. It's like that song that talks

about the, the fetter. The fetter is the, the chain,

the kind of the ball in chain. I've felt that where it's like

I've, I've drifted, but it's like no matter.

And even sometimes I'll like look at the world.

I'll look at how other people are living the amount of time

and the things that they can do for themselves.

And every time I entertain that thought and in my mind, I'm

like, I, I feel, I feel like I, I just can't.

Like God is like, no, I'm, you're, you're mine.

You know, it's, it's a good feeling.

It's that feeling that he is my, my secure salvation and, and

savior. And of course we're always like

looking at our faith and, and, and reviewing and, and growing

and growing. But no matter how far we drift

off, God is always there to chase us and bring us back with.

And it's, and it's not like, Oh, I got you.

It's like a come here. I'm going to, I'm going to wrap

my arms around you. I'm, I'm going to feel, feel my

embrace, my love, my grace, even in the midst of your failure,

even in, in, in the midst of you not measuring up.

And so the final section of the verse is the statement of David

saying, I will dwell in the house, O Lord forever.

And so he, he not only understands that it's God that

secures him with the with how God chases us with his grace,

but he understands that it's a it's a personal commitment too.

He's saying I will do, I will stay in the game, I will remain

in Christ and he and he will never give up.

He will never throw in the towel.

He may have his rough days. We can see him emptying out his

emotions through the Psalms, but he understands that it's God who

keeps and sustains him. And so it's a little bit of a

shorter message today. I'll go ahead and have the band

come on up. But God, I said before that this

Psalm was very is is very close and very personal to me.

And I think personally, I've always had this, I guess,

disrespect towards the Lord, but I never really understood my

brokenness until I got into college.

So my parents were, I want to honor my parents and the fact

that they raised me up in the way that I should go.

And I would say around 18, it was kind of weird.

It was kind of like 1/2 conversion.

It was like, OK, Lord, I believe you.

I know that you're real and, and, and that it was kind of

like an atheist to theist. But then I didn't understand how

broken I was until I got into college.

And I remember I was many of you know, I was pursuing a degree in

character animation. Everything was perfect on the

outside, friends, success finances were fine, but I felt

like I was gaining the world but losing my my soul.

And so I would even, you know, in order I would have trouble

sleeping at night. I had really bad insomnia and I

found I was like, well, my family typically has struggled

with alcoholism. And so there was a part of me

that was, I guess a little prideful in the sense I was

like, well, I'm not going to do what they do.

I'm not going to give myself over to alcoholism.

I'm actually going to do something else, which wasn't

healthy at the heart level, but I would work out and exhaust

myself because that was the only way that I could fall asleep at

night and get the, the, the thoughts and the anxious

thoughts out. And so I remember I was at one

of the apartment complexes, one of the student apartment

complexes on Alafaya and I would run like 30 minutes to the UFC

gym. I would work out for an hour

like heavy, pretty heavy lifting.

And then I would run, I would, I would do, I would run like

Sprint all the way back to the apartment complex and then like

knockout. And so I was, I was literally

running from my heart and the condemnation and mainly the

uncertainty is because I had all these desires like, and I, and I

was, I would say I was actively praying, but I was not God.

I was not God. I would not say I was God's.

I was, I was going to God in prayer and saying God either

take my life or do something with it because I can't keep

living like this. There's no trajectory for me.

I'm going to probably move somewhere, have my name at the

in black and white at the credits of a movie that no one

will ever see, and then that'll be all that I have to show for

the world. And I wanted a wife.

I didn't see anyone with the character and or the heart of

God. I didn't have any concept of

grace. I felt like I was pretty like I

was a pretty condemning person or a pretty critical person as

well. So, you know, between the

inefficiencies and my pride that I saw in other people and even

myself, I was like, Lord God, I don't this is impossible.

I don't see any way out of this. And so I gave myself over to

pornography and I was deep into pornography addiction.

Between that and the working out thing, I was lonely, but on the

outside I looked good. I looked, I was, I was dead in

an empty tomb. And I just remember being broken

and weeping one night and I said God, like I, I don't know what

to do like anymore, like either take me or change me.

And so I looked up, I, I researched on Google and I, and

I looked up what is, are there any Bible verses that can help

me sleep? And I came across Psalm 23 and I

opened my Bible on my phone for the first time in probably

years. And I, and I started reading it

and I read it over and over and over again until I fell asleep.

And eventually I didn't need the Bible because I had it written

on my heart. And so just really helped me

during a really hard time. And, and I believe I don't maybe

not all of you this morning, but I think some, maybe a couple of

you need to feel that again this morning is that you need to feel

the closeness of God and you need to feel the peace of God to

be able to study, to study your, your anxious heart and soul.

And so I believe that God wants to show you that this morning.

And so I'm just going to pray for all of us.

If, if God is tugging on your heart this morning, I'm going to

pray that you that he gives you the courage to be able to put

your hand on someone next to next to you and ask for prayer.

And feel free to come up as well.

And so, yeah, I'll go ahead and pray.

Yeah. Lord, thank you so much for your

word. Thank you for this Psalm that

has affected me and so many other people.

And Lord, there's so many. Your scripture is rich.

The poetry and just the way that it reaches our hearts is

supernatural and unmatched. And Lord, I pray that if there

is any of us in here this morning that is feeling the tug

on our hearts and any areas of repentance or maybe where we

feel like that we've gotten off track with you or maybe our

lives, or maybe we're on the fence.

Maybe we've been walking. Maybe we say with our mouths

that we love you. But Lord, that there is that

there is an emptiness and that there is a lack of

transformation. And so, Lord, I pray that right

now that that would be broken and once and for all, or that we

would be able to be commissioned to I to living for you and to

being able to enjoy this marvelous relationship and the

peace that only you can bring to an anxious and unsettled heart

in Jesus name, Amen.