Psalm 23: The Good Shepherd (10- Truly Blessed)

It is so good to see you in the house of the Lord today.

What a wonderful opportunity we have to worship the Lord.

And so, if you got your message notes, you got your Bibles, your Bible journals, all the things you wanna open up with me to Psalm, chapter 23, verse six.

Psalms 23 · chapter mention

As we are almost finished with this series, and while you're getting all that ready, I wanna tell you about something that you're probably sitting on right now.

So, if you wanna kind of reach over and kind of grab this where you're sitting, you have got a little Ziploc bag with two invite cards, because, believe it or not, easter is like four weeks away.

I mean, it's like three weeks, four Sundays, something like that.

It's coming and we love celebrating our risen Savior every week, but especially on Easter, we take everything and we just take it up a notch just to celebrate who the Lord is.

And I want to tell you it's a wonderful opportunity to invite someone to church who doesn't know Jesus.

Statistics say that 80% of people who are invited to come to church on Easter will come if you invite them, and so that's why we want to do is want to give you these cards.

I want you to start praying over who you're going to invite to church, and then I want you to get the courage together.

Tell your life group you're going to them and I want you to tell them hey, I would love for you to come worship with me on Easter Sunday morning and you tell them there's three services 8, 9, 30, and 11.

You pick which service and I'll come to it, because I'm already praying that they're gonna say you know, I'm a morning person, I like getting up real early.

So do you mind if we go to the 8 am service and you're gonna say yes, in Jesus' name, because this is also our annual opportunity to pray and ask some of us to take an annual missions trip to the 8 am service for one Sunday, so that we can borrow your seat in Jesus' name for one week.

I promise God does speak to people that early in the morning, and we will have plenty of coffee ready for you.

No one ever does, but I ask every year anyway.

Okay, because I get it.

So make sure, though, for real, that you ask someone to come with you.

I'll tell you it's one of the most amazing things ever when you are there worshiping and you just know God is speaking to your neighbor.

It's just an amazing, amazing thing, okay, all right.

Well, if you're just now joining us, we are walking through Psalm 23, and kind of the genesis of this was several years ago we read a book called A Shepherd's Look at Psalm 23 and just blew our mind at how little we knew about this amazing Psalm and all the wonderful things that there were.

That's in God's word, if you dig just a little bit deeper.

And so we've been preparing for quite a while to walk through Psalm 23.

And because this is the second to last week of the series, we still have some books available for you, and so, if you would like a free copy of this some people have already read it through twice.

It's a very quick read.

If you'd like to read it, you are more than welcome.

To remember, you got to go by the Welcome Center and say I need me my book okay, that's the key phrase to get it.

And if you don't get it within the next two weeks, we'll still give you a copy after that, as long as they last, but it sounds like there's a limited time offer here, so make sure you go by and get yourself a book as quickly as you can, okay, because what my hope is for several of us who've been walking through this series for a little while, we've been kind of embracing this statement and that is this that the Lord is our shepherd and because of that we can follow him.

The Lord is our shepherd and we as a church body, as a family, as a single person, whoever you are, that we can follow him as a single person, whoever you are, that we can follow him.

And one of my hopes and it's been happening for many of us is that for several of us, this series was going to be an eye-opener, to remind us of the things that God wants to do and who he wants to be in our lives, that we had no idea that God wanted to speak into that and God wanted to be that and to do that.

For others of us, we knew that, but through time and trouble we've forgotten that God wants to be involved in every area of our life.

And so my hope is, as we've gone through this, is that you can say with confidence, man, I am so thankful that the Lord is my shepherd and it is my honor to follow him with my neighbor, and I tell you every week that we read Psalm 23, and as we've kind of dissected each verse, it just means more and more.

And that's my hope as well that you never read Psalm 23 the same way, ever again.

And so let's read this together and let's see what God's word has to say to us today.

God's word says the Lord is my shepherd.

I have all that I need.

Somebody say all All that I need.

He lets me rest in green meadows, he leads me beside peaceful streams.

He renews my strength.

He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.

Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me.

Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.

You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.

You honor me by anointing my head with oil.

My cup overflows with blessing.

This is where we're gonna be today.

Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life.

And then the rest says and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.

Wow, what an amazing set of promises that God's word has for us, and I'm excited to get into this.

Surely, your goodness and unfailing love today.

Because if we were to sum this up into one statement.

If you're taking notes, I want you to write this down, and if you're not taking notes, I want you to write this down.

And if you're not taking notes, I want you to write this down.

It says because the Lord is our shepherd, we can walk through life feeling truly blessed.

That we can walk through life.

And if you want to take extra notes and you want to just add something I would love for you to put, we can walk through every season of life.

No matter what season of life we're in, we can walk through it feeling truly blessed.

And we're going to talk about what it looks like to be truly blessed and what it looks like to be truly blessed in every season, and so let's kind of bring everybody up to speed, and we will step into this today.

So, if you're just now joining us, we've been walking through this one passage at a time, and this was written by King David, most likely toward the end of his life, and it didn't start off as a poem.

It started off as a song, and so what he starts off with is he says the Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need, and then he spends the rest of the song telling you what he needs and how God meets all of those needs, and we've been talking about this throughout this series that he is saying God is our contentment, he is our peace, he is our restoration and our guide and our protector and our assurance and our confidence and our hope.

And today he's going to talk about how God is our blessing.

Look at your neighbor and say that's good, it is Well, pastor, I don't know why.

It's good you haven't talked to anybody yet.

Good, I'm glad you're with me, because I haven't explained it yet.

But here's the thing we got to first define what it is to be kind of like, talk about what it's not, and then we can talk about what it is to be truly blessed.

So this is not in your notes, but I want you to know that what we're saying is is being truly blessed is not about what you have, it's about who has you.

Now I know some of you guys have been saying I go through my slides way too quickly, might.

I encourage you to get out your phone and take a picture, okay, cause we ain't gonna stay here very long, and if I know you're doing that, I'll like pose, like you know.

So I counted three.

It's the only time I'm going to do this One, two, three.

I saw a couple of you take a picture.

That was awesome.

All right, yes, just crop me out, cause that was weird, all right, but listen, truly blessed is not about what you have.

Now, there is an element to that, but that's not what we're talking about today, because you can be blessed and not have as much as somebody else.

It's not about what you have, it's about who has you.

And so if that's not what it is to be truly blessed, then let's have a working definition.

And that is.

It is a sense of thankfulness, because I know God is good all the time.

That I know, no matter what I'm going through, no matter what's happening, god is good all the time.

And for some of y'all who grew up in church, you can't help yourself, can you?

I know, I heard it.

I heard it.

You went ahead and said it all the time God is good.

All right, yes, I know that For some of you, uninitiated among us, I don't know who started it, but it's stuck.

Okay, the Christian version of Marco Polo is God is good.

And then y'all say All the time.

I say all the time.

God is good.

There's a bunch of Christians up in here, right, if you're in here and you're not a Christian, we're glad you're here too.

Okay, we're going to initiate you here in just a few moments, all right, but God is good all the time and that's important.

It's important not just for us to say that, but it is important that we remind our neighbors that God is good all the time.

So we're going to go ahead and practice this and I don't know, y'all might need to take a five second kind of like huddle because y'all don't want to both say at the same time but I want you, you ready, one, two, three, four, five.

Say God is good.

Come on, that's weird, all right, that's just chaos.

What?

That is All right, but it's fun.

It's fun, god is good all the time.

Now, why does a sheep need to have a good shepherd?

We've been covering this, but David is kind of summing it up, and that is this that sheep never graduate.

Sheeps are always sheeps.

Okay, they always are All right.

Sheep never outgrow their need for a shepherd, like they're not a caterpillar.

They don't go through a metamorphosis and turn into a pretty little butterfly and then float away.

They don't do that, they just get old and die.

Okay, that's all that happens.

The shepherd is in no way trying to graduate the sheep okay, he understands they're gonna be doing life together for all of their life.

And so sheep are on the move all their life and if they don't have a shepherd who is watching out for them, they will get lost, they will lay down and get left behind and they will lose sight of their shepherd, which means they'll panic because they know how much they need their shepherd.

And why is that so important for us?

If that's important with this metaphor that David's using between shepherd and sheep, and that is because and I'm going to say this one more time in this series for maybe the people in the back and that is everyone has a private battle you know nothing about.

Look at your neighbor and say he's still talking about you.

Everybody, the sweetest old grandma, you know she's struggling with something, maybe how perfect she is, but she's struggling with something.

And if we don't have the good shepherd watching out over us when we deal with these private battles, we end up feeling like we're lost.

We end up feeling like we get left behind in life and we lose sight of the shepherd, and all that surrounds us is our fear and worry and our thought that God has left us, even though he hasn't, and so we need a good shepherd that is holding on to us, which leads to the question of the day, and that is this.

We all may and for our season series finale next week, I'm going to try it one more time, but that's not today.

We all may deal with different issues.

How can I settle my heart on being truly blessed because of whose I am?

Because, remember, we're not blessed because of what we have, we're blessed because of who has us.

How can I feel truly blessed when everything else around me doesn't seem to resemble what I have in my mind sometimes about being truly blessed?

What is it about that?

How can we be truly blessed?

Well, we can do that because of looking at the scripture and pulling away three promises in God's word that if we can truly grab onto these, no matter what season of life we're in, no matter what's going on on the outside, on the inside, we can say I am truly blessed, and no matter what's going on, god is good all the time.

So we're going to try this again, because it was a dismal failure last time.

I want you to look at your neighbor and when y'all say God is good, somebody else say all the time you ready, go, yeah.

At this point we're all saying it, and that's fine with me too.

Okay, you're just all doing it.

Okay, here's how we know God is good.

And that is this we can feel truly blessed because we know all the Lord has already done.

How can we feel truly blessed and go?

You know what God is good all the time.

All the time God is good.

Brandon, how can you say that?

Because we realize all the Lord has already done.

Can I tell you, god doesn't have to do anything else in your life.

If you're a Christ follower, that means your sins have been washed away, you're going to heaven and not hell.

And on top of it, he's probably done a million miracles just to get you sitting here right now.

He's already done so many amazing things, and we're going to talk about it, because the first thing that David says is he says the Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need.

And then he just gets excited and he says surely and I'm not saying surely, right, surely.

Well, what does that mean?

Well, that definition of that word is I guarantee, without a doubt, no cap, for reals.

Count on it, won't he do it?

That's basically what he's saying.

Look at your neighbor and say won't he do it?

That's what?

Because what David has done right here is he is now at the climax of his song.

He is like coming, he's coming out of the bridge, he's winding into that last chorus and he's looking back at everything he just said and he was like, surely, after I talk about all of that, how could God not be good?

When I think about it, and what he's been talking about is he's saying, man, when I think about the contentment that he brings and the peace that he brings, and how he restores me every time I fall and he guides me when I'm lost and he protects me in valleys, he assures me that he's never going to leave.

I have the confidence that he is for me.

I have the hope that he will be with me, man, I realized just how blessed I am, and so he's turning around and he's looking at all the things that God has already done and he just says man, surely if he's been with me this far, says man, surely if he's been with me this far, man, I'm truly blessed.

He's going to be with me the rest of the way, and can I tell you that's good when you're having a good day.

It is vital when everything's falling apart.

There's a story in the old Testament where David is on the run from Saul for doing nothing more than being anointed by God.

And there was a bunch of men that surrounded David and they're all on the run from Saul.

And as they're on the run, one day they go to a town called Ziglag and they're hanging out there and they got to go take care of some business in a neighboring area.

And so they leave their family, leave all their stuff in these houses over in Ziglag.

Well, while they're gone, someone comes in, breaks into their homes, kidnaps all their family, takes all their stuff, burns their houses down.

What would you do if you went home and your house is burned down and your family has been kidnapped, with a note that just says we got them.

They ain't never coming back?

Well, you know what his men did Fell apart, just like I would.

They absolutely got so upset that they even looked at David and said David, if you hadn't sent us out on that errand, we could have protected our home.

And the Bible said that they actually thought about killing him because they were so just angry and upset and just in mourning over what happened.

David lost everything too, so he's lost everything.

His mentor is trying to kill him and now his brothers are trying to kill him for something that he didn't do.

Should we fall apart now?

That'd be a good idea.

You know what the Bible said.

The Bible said that before he did anything else, he went and got by himself and he encouraged himself in the Lord.

He encouraged himself at what God was doing.

We don't know exactly what he said, but most likely it was something like this.

And he said this is my fate.

The most high has turned his hand against me.

In other words, this is bad.

I this is my fate.

The most high has turned his hand against me.

In other words, this is bad.

There's a lot of bad stuff happening.

I don't know what I'm gonna do, but then I recall this All Somebody say, all All you have done, oh Lord, I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.

They are constantly in my thoughts.

I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works.

In other words, when he got there and got by himself and he started thinking about all that God had done to get him there.

At some point he just says man, surely, surely God didn't bring me this far.

Surely God didn't keep me from Saul all these years.

Surely God didn't bring me this far.

Surely God didn't keep me from Saul all these years.

Surely God didn't surround me with all this.

God didn't bring me this far to leave me.

How do I know?

Because I remember all the things that God has done.

Can I tell you, one of the reasons why you can live truly blessed is not because you've got everything that you want, but you know that God is already all that you need, and if he's been with you this far you need, and if he's been with you this far, he's not going anywhere.

And so the question I have for you at the bottom of your first line is how has the Lord been faithful to you?

It's a good question how has the Lord been faithful to you?

Because sometimes the current battle is so big that we forget about his faithfulness in the past.

And here's the thing at some point we gotta stop holding God hostage to our next prayer request.

If he's been faithful 99 times, why are we wondering if he's gonna be faithful this time, god, whether or not you do it my way, I have to trust you.

Why?

Because surely he will be with me.

Why Because he already has.

And so here's your homework.

All right, we already got homework.

And that is this.

If you struggle to think about what you're thankful for in your life and it's not because you're not thankful, but because maybe the battle is so fierce right now here's your homework and here's three ways to remember.

You're truly blessed, and I would encourage you for the next seven days, do this every day.

Think of one thing in all three of these.

The first one is think of you're thankful for this general.

Like I'm thankful for oxygen, I'm thankful for baseball season.

I'm thankful that football season will be coming around again, in Jesus name.

Well, I'm not that thankful because I'm an Alabama fan, but I was at one time.

Something general.

Then here's number two, something recent, something that happened in the past 24 hours.

I am thankful that today is merch day.

By the way, we've got some merch out there for you.

If you want to partner with us, man, I'm way.

We've got some merch out there for you.

If you want to partner with us, man, I'm thankful I got on some merch.

I'm thankful for Hope Cafe.

Tater Rounds.

You know what I'm saying.

If you look at the Hebrew definition of manna, I think it said Tater Rounds.

Okay, that's how amazing those things are.

And then here's one more, something new.

What is?

Something brand new you've never thanked God for before, and that causes you to think.

But you know what starts to happen as you start to remember the wonders of God.

It doesn't matter if you're in a good season, if you're like David and you've lost everything and even the people closest to you are thinking about betraying you and walking away, that you can walk right back into that environment and go.

Surely, surely God is good all the time.

How can you say that?

If you only knew the million little miracles that God has already done, then you would say, like I would say and that is surely, and I tell you, you're more blessed than you realize and you can live truly blessed when we realize all the things that God has already done.

So I want you to look at your neighbor and I want us to try it again.

God is good all the time.

Go ahead and tell them, and all the time God is good.

You know he is, you know he is.

Surely he has to be, because look at what he's already done, and we know that.

When we look at what he's already done, and then, number two, when we realize that his goodness and love actively pursues us, that his goodness and love actively, not passively, not on weekends, but actively, aggressively pursues us, what does that mean?

Well, the Bible says that the Lord is my shepherd.

I have all that I need.

Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me.

Now, I know, depending on the translation you learned this in, especially if you learned it at King James English, it would have been surely thouest goodness and mercy will followest me.

Right, that would be the way you learned it.

But the thing is, is that word pursue the most literal translation of that, for how our context works today, is not like the idea of somebody walking beside you and like, if you need a high five, he'll give you one?

It actually means it's that word and it means to actively, aggressively chase down and to overtake.

This is one of the only places in the Bible that it is used in a positive sense, and every other sense of the word when two armies are fighting and one starts to retreat and the other one goes to chase them down?

That's the word.

Is they go to chase down and overtake, and now they're in charge?

That's the word.

Is he saying that?

Surely your goodness and unfailing love will be aggressive, that's not gonna wait for my permission, that's gonna overtake me, that's gonna continue to pursue me.

I'm not gonna have to run to God, but God's already moving on my behalf.

God is not passive in this, but he is aggressive in this, that he is not just in front of me but he's also coming up behind me to do all the things that he's called to do.

And the reason why that's such an amazing word picture is because so far we've been kind of dealing with this image like you've got the shepherd in front and then you, you've got all the sheepses right here, right, this is all of them.

This is me, right, and I don't know which one you are, but there I am right Because I'm in the back.

And the thing is is that we've been looking at the shepherd, who's either leading the way or he's walking beside them.

I don't know about you, but what about when somebody takes a left turn?

Or I went down to kind of eat something and now I look back up, I don't know where everybody is.

Does the shepherd just keep on going?

Well, what they had back during the time is they had this secret weapon called sheepdogs, and what they would do is is they were an extension of the shepherd.

They would be trained from from a little puppy to just even the body language of the shepherd.

They would know what they needed to do and they also would learn how to slowly get the sheep this way and this way, and so they would move them this way and move them this way, and so if there was one of them that got off track, he knew his job was to get them back on track.

If one of them decided they were going to sit down and rest, he would go and he would nose them until they'd get up again.

If one of them got complaining too much, he'd bark at them until they'd start moving forward.

But their goal was is I'm going to actively pursue you to keep going after the shepherd?

That's the word picture that David is pointing for us when he was saying surely, when I look at all the things that God has done, I realize that God's got a couple of sheepdogs called goodness and unfailing love, that when I start to get discouraged, I start to fall behind, I start to wonder if I can still follow God.

Goodness comes and reminds me, love comes and compels me that I keep on moving.

God just isn't just in front of you.

God's even behind you, not giving up on you, moving you in his direction.

That's why David is going.

Man, when I think about the goodness of God, surely his goodness and love will continue to move.

You see it all the time in the book of Psalms.

How many times have you been reading a Psalm and David starts off with God where are you?

Why would you?

How could you?

I'm offended, god, and by the time it's over with.

Oh God, you are so good, your unfailing love is just with me.

You know why?

Because one of these kind of say hey, come on, come on, it's all right, come on, keep on going, keep on trusting.

And he kind of puts them back where they're supposed to be.

What does this look like in the Bible?

And the Bible looks like this.

I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love.

Neither death nor life, nor angels nor demons, neither fears of today nor worries about tomorrow, not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love.

No power in the sky or in the earth below, indeed nothing in all creation, will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed at Christ Jesus, our Lord.

In other words, no matter what happens, goodness and love are reminding us to keep going, to keep moving, that God is faithful, that we're truly blessed.

So what is goodness and love?

Well, here's the first one, and that is goodness, is the Hebrew word to ab, and it means he guides our steps, that he gives us the promise that he guides our steps.

God's word says it like this.

He says we know that God causes everything.

Somebody say everything, good, bad, indifferent.

He causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.

And what would happen a lot of times?

As they're on the move, after a while some of these sheep would just slow down.

Just, we're never gonna get to the green pastures, we're never gonna.

I'm sure the shepherd knows what he's doing, but I'm getting kind of tired and so let's start slowing up a little bit.

Slowing up a little bit, and they start kind of creating a little bit of a gap.

And you know what the sheep dog's job is to do.

His job is he actually would walk alongside them and he would rub up against them until he got them back in motion, and so he would actually almost like grab a hold of them with the side of his body, because he was usually about as shaggy as they were and he would move them back in again.

And basically what he's saying is come on, man, trust the shepherd, keep going.

You got this, don't give up.

I gotta tell you one of the greatest things about our God is that when we start to lose our way, he helps us find our way again.

He doesn't just let us fall by the wayside, but we can trust that his goodness is always working in us.

And the reality is is that when we get discouraged and don't think we can keep going, we are constantly reminded that God is working things out.

That's what his goodness does.

We're truly blessed because God's sheepdog called goodness is constantly pushing us back in.

Come on, let's do it again.

Let's do it a little bit more.

Don't give up.

God's doing something in your life.

You know he is.

He's already done so much.

Look at else what he's gonna do.

And so on one side you've got his goodness and on the other side you've got his unfailing love, which rescues us as we trust in him.

And we don't have time to go into this word, but this is one of the most important words in the Old Testament and this is your Hebrew word for the day and it says CH, but it's meant to be the one you know when you spit on somebody, and that is the chesed.

So I want you to try that with me when I say it one more time chesed, yeah, all right, now.

Now.

Now look at your neighbor and do chesed, no, don't do that, don't do that, don't do that, or you're not friends anymore.

All right, that's not good, especially if you've been sick.

Praise the Lord, all right.

But the thing is, is that that is the word that when the nation of Israel is talking about the goodness of God, that's what they're talking about is his chesed, that his unfailing, unrelenting, unrelenting, aggressive love and mercy?

In other words, when they're at the temple and they're praising God because they had a chance to dedicate the temple, and when they say for he is good and his chesed, his faithful love, endures forever?

When they started praising him for his faithful love, the glory of the Lord descended upon the temple so that the priest could no longer stand in there to worship as they celebrated his unfaithful love.

It said 1 Corinthians, or 2 Corinthians says, his comforts us in all our troubles so that we are so full of it, the comfort of the Lord, we can comfort others and when they are troubled, we are able to give them out of the storehouse of what God has given us.

Because of how many times God's love would not let us go, how many times that we got lost and we wondered off.

But God's love came and found us.

Because, remember, true blessing is not what we have, it's about who has us.

And the reality is is that when we get lost and cannot see the shepherd, it's God's unfailing love and mercy who rescues us.

That's how we know we're truly blessed is God doesn't just save us and then keep going and hope you can keep up.

But as we're continuing along this journey, from time to time we're going to have that private battle, we're going to get weak, we're going to have difficult times, we're going to have crisis moments in our life, and God doesn't just expect us to keep up, but instead his goodness and his unfailing love say hey, don't give up, I'm doing more than you can realize, keep going.

And then, if you go over here, he's going to come get us and say, man, listen, I'm not going to give up on you.

I know this is the 99 time I should put a bell on you, but I'm not going to do it.

Come on back over here again, it's going to be all right.

He on us.

And the amazing thing is, is that the same grace, goodness and mercy that he has for me, he has for you and he has for everybody.

God never gives up on us, and that's most important when we're going through difficult times, like it reminds me of.

We actually sang about it this morning a guy by the name of Daniel, if you've been reading God's word with us, we just finished up reading Jeremiah, and Jeremiah was talking about how the nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem was going to be just ransacked, and then Lamentations was about what that looked like.

And then he said for 70 years they were going to be in captivity.

They were going to be shipped to the capital city, babylonia, where they didn't want to be.

Daniel was one of those guys who didn't want to go, but he had to go.

He wanted to stay where he was and worship God.

He was made to go to the city of the capital of the Babylonian empire and while he's there, he still wants to serve God and it's amazing, as you watch his life, how God's goodness and unfailing love continue to guide him and continue to rescue him.

In one place.

The Bible says that Daniel soon proved himself more capable than all the other administrators and high officers.

Because of Daniel's great ability, the king made plans to place him over the entire empire.

So, in other words, god was moving in his life and he's just constantly going.

Daniel, I got you.

I know you don't want to be here.

You're growing where you've been planted.

Keep going, buddy.

It's going to be all right.

And God started blessing him for growing where he was planted.

God's goodness was with him and guiding him.

But sometimes we need goodness and sometimes we need his rescue, because the Bible said that there were people who were also in positions of leadership in the city at that time who didn't like Daniel, because Daniel made no mistake in telling everybody I worship Yahweh.

I know I'm a long way away from my hometown.

No mistake in telling everybody I worship Yahweh.

I know, I'm a long way away from my hometown but I worship God.

And so they decided they wanted to try to defeat him and thereby also defeat his God.

And so they went to the king.

And this is crazy.

They went to the king and they said hell, king, you're kind of awesome, you know, you're so awesome.

We think that nobody should worship any God except you.

They're from the South, right?

Except you, all right.

And they said, matter of fact, I want you to sign into law which is binding, that nobody can worship anybody except you.

Now, who's not going to sign that if you're not a God follower anyway, if you're like, that's pretty good, I mean, I am that awesome.

So I mean, sign it away.

And so he signed into law that if anybody worshipped anything other than him, they were going to throw that person into a den of lions.

Can you think of anything worse than being thrown into a pit full of cats?

I mean, come on, that's already the worst thing ever.

And so when they signed this into law, the Bible said that Daniel learned that the law had been signed and he basically knew that was his death warrant, because he was gonna worship God.

He went home, knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, with the windows open toward Jerusalem, and as he prayed three times a day, just as he had done, giving thanks to his God.

And then the officers, or officials went together into Daniel's house and found him praying and asking God for chesed, asking God for rescue, asking God for his unfailing love to help him.

And they thought we got you.

God can't rescue you now because you just broke the law.

Buddy, you're a long way from where your God lives, according to them, in Jerusalem.

And so they went to the king and they said hey, king, you know this guy that you want to be.

You know your number two.

Well, he's praying to this God called Yahweh, and he actually thinks that Yahweh can save him.

You're supposed to be God and he's not praying.

And Daniel didn't.

The king did not want to put Daniel into the lion's den, but he had no choice because he had signed it into law.

And so, as he's getting ready to do this, he tells Daniel may your God, if he truly is God, may he rescue you.

And so I was trying to think in my mind what it would look like to get thrown into a pit full of cats, and I asked AI, can I tell you, don't ask AI.

Ai thought it looked like that Said nobody ever.

Okay, listen, you're getting thrown into a pit with a bunch of cats and you're smiling.

No, no, no, it looked a little bit more like that.

Okay, listen, he's sitting there going God, why don't you put me in this?

Because here's the thing too is, they didn't escort him in, they boom, dumped him into this pit full of lions that were hungry and they had to wait all night long.

And here's the thing too is, it was at night, so it's pitch black.

Can you imagine being pitch black at night and you hear them walking around, you hear them yawning.

One of them brushes up against you a little bit the idea of God.

Listen, I was planning on going to see you.

I wouldn't plan on being tonight, but, okay, I sure need your chesed, I sure need your love, I sure need your mercy.

Well, the next morning came and the Bible said that the king ran out, didn't sleep all night and he said Daniel, servant of the living God, was your God, to whom you serve so faithfully, able to rescue you from the lions?

Daniel answered no, I'm dead.

No, I'm plain.

He didn't say that.

He said my God sent his angel and he shut the lion's mouth.

Don't you love angels?

All right, shut the lion's mouth so that they would not hurt me, for I have been found innocent in his sight.

And the king was overjoyed and ordered Daniel to be lifted out from the den and not a scratch was found on him, for he had trusted in his God.

That's how God's love works.

And the reality is sometimes God saves you from evil cats and sometimes God saves you in spite of evil cats, but cats will not overwhelm you.

In Jesus name, okay, I just had to throw a little bit more shade at the cats, okay.

But the reality of evil cats but cats will not overwhelm you.

In Jesus name.

Okay, I just had to throw a little bit more shade at the cats, okay.

But the reality of it is is, no matter what you go through, god is able to have his goodness and his love, no matter what you go through, and whenever you're going through it, it's his goodness that reminds us.

Man, god is good.

All the time he's leading my steps because I wouldn't even get here if it wasn't for him.

And then his love comes up and he says man, I wouldn't bring you this far.

I wouldn't leave you.

I got you.

You're truly blessed, and so the question I have for you to consider is how can you lean on God's goodness and mercy during this season of your life?

Right now, I'll go ahead and tell you that your answer should be completely it's like listen, sheepdogs, I'm going to need you to make some kind of like a cot so I can just lay on you for a while because of some of the situations that some of us are going through.

But it's the idea that God had no intention for you to do this thing called life by yourself.

But you follow him with everything you have and then, with time and trouble and pain, you find yourself starting to lean back.

Lean back.

God doesn't give up on us, but instead his goodness comes up and he says hey, don't give up, I'm directing your steps, don't give up, I'm with you.

You're more blessing, you realize.

And then his love comes up and his love says hey, man, I didn't bring you this far to leave you.

I'm going to rescue you every time, I don't care how many times you go.

I don't love you based on how perfect you are.

I love you based on the fact that I love you that I have a plan for your life and because of that we're truly blessed.

Not because of what we have, but because of who has us.

Amen, amen.

One more time I want you to look at your neighbor and say God is good all the time.

Go ahead and testify that to them and now and now, just for me, say this, and all the time, of course he is.

You know how?

We know that.

It's because, number one, that he reminds us of all he has done.

We're truly blessed.

He reminds us that while we are going through it, he doesn't leave us alone, but his goodness and love are pursuing us all the days.

And then I love this last one.

It reminds us that God is just getting started, that we realize that he's not done, but God is just getting started in our life.

I love how David says this.

He's zooming out at all the things he has talked about God doing, and then he just gets excited he's going.

Surely the goodness and unfailing love of God will pursue me all the days of my life, and I looked that up.

The Hebrew definition of all the days of my life is all the days of my life, and I looked that up.

The Hebrew definition of all the days of my life is all the days of my life.

Perfect, yes, all the days of my life.

The only difference is the word days, and that is he's not just talking about days of the week, he's talking about seasons, no matter what season of life you're going through.

And can I tell you, whatever season you're in young, seasoned, single, married widow, grieving, divorced If you're in an introverted season which is most of our lives for some of us extroverted, if you have small kids, if you're an empty nester, if you're in a joyful season, god will be with you all the way.

God is in this for the long journey.

God wants to be with you through every single season of life.

That means when a season lasts longer than it was supposed to, god's not going anywhere.

When you thought you would be further than you are right now, god's not embarrassed by you.

When you thought that everything would have worked out and you're in a very different place than you really thought you were going to be, god is not embarrassed by you.

The Bible says his mercies for you are new every single morning, in every season of life.

We are truly blessed because every time we get up, god's already there, he's already working in our life and in every single season, god is there.

That means for everyone who has small kids, troubles won't last always.

It's going to get better.

And for some of y'all going I love this season, I know it's fine, but for those of you who don't, troubles won't last.

If those of you have teenagers, just pray and the Lord will be with you and we're going to make it through this together.

If you're an empty nester and you're trying to figure out what life looks like in this season, god is with you.

No matter what you're going through, god is with you, which is why we always need to have at least one Christian in our life who's been on this journey a little bit longer than us, so that they can encourage us to say, yes, I've been through a lot, I've been through so many seasons and you know what.

Every single season, god has showed himself faithful, and it's almost like a kaleidoscope.

Every time I get into a different season, I look and he's just as faithful, but in a new way.

He's just as good, but in an unexpected, beautiful way, that God is continuing to be faithful in our life and we get to the end of it.

We just go, man, surely, surely, the goodness of God will be with us all the days of our life?

This is how Paul said at the end of his life.

He's talking to Timothy and he said the Lord stood with me and gave me strength, he rescued me from certain death.

Yes, and the Lord will deliver me from every evil attack and will bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.

All glory to God, forever and ever.

You know what he's saying.

Surely, surely, the goodness and love of God will follow us, will pursue us all the days of our life.

God is good.

All the time I've been there, I've seen that, and the Lord who delivered me before will do it again.

The same timeframe, the apostle Peter, right before he's about to die and he's getting ready to pass on what he's learned to everybody else.

He says you love him even though you have never seen him.

Though you do not see him now, you trust him.

You rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.

The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your soul.

You know what he's saying.

Surely, surely, as you follow him, I know and I believe that this is not all there is.

I've seen what God is doing and I can't wait to get to the other side, because surely his goodness and love will follow us all the days of our life.

And can I tell you, no matter what season you're going through, it's not going to last forever.

And as long as you're in it, god's right in the middle of it with you.

And if we could understand that God's not going to last forever, and as long as you're in it, god's right in the middle of it with you, and if we could understand that God's not going anywhere but he's going to walk with us through every season, then no matter what we go through, we can say man, god is good, all the time with tears in our eyes because we know that we're never going to go through it alone.

Which reminds me of first John.

If you've been reading the Bible with us, we've been reading one chapter at a time and we finished Lamentations up yesterday.

Tomorrow we're starting 1, john.

And when you realize what's going on, it's even more powerful, because John is the one who the Holy Spirit inspired to write the Gospel of John.

He also wrote 1, 2, and 3 John, and he's also that guy who wrote the book of Revelation.

He's that guy.

And when you realize who John is.

John was probably closest to Jesus than anybody else.

John was the only person, only one of the disciples, who came to the cross and, according to history, after Jesus rose from the dead, he actually invited Mary into his house and he took care of Mary the rest of her life in the city of Ephesus and he honored her.

And that's why some people think some of the stories that came from in the gospel of John probably came from some unique situations that only Mary would have known about.

And so you think about he's writing this now, at about 95 AD.

He's seen it all.

Some scholars think that he was a disciple of John the Baptist before he followed Jesus, and so he got to watch John the Baptist come out of nowhere, this wild man saying repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

And then one day Jesus comes walking up and this wild man says that's the lamb of God and he starts following Jesus, and for three years he got to walk with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and then he was the only one at the cross and then he was one of the first ones to the empty tomb and then he was with the guys who went fishing one day and they saw Jesus on the shore.

And then Acts, chapter two, he was one of the ones when the Holy Spirit descended upon the people.

He was one of the ones who helped start the early church, and he was going out like everybody else was, and at some point he ended up becoming a pastor over the seven churches.

He writes about just continuing to just tell people about the goodness of God.

But then along the way he also saw what else was happening, that the, that Rome started persecuting the Christians and it started getting worse.

And it started getting worse until finally Rome burned and Nero blamed the Christians, even though we didn't do it.

And so he arrested the prominent Christians in Rome and John would have remembered when he got word that Paul had been beheaded.

He would have gotten word when he would have heard that Peter had been crucified upside down and then, as the other ones went out all over the known world, he would have heard about Thomas, who ran through out in a place called Ethiopia, that Matthew was probably torn limb from limb because he wouldn't deny Jesus and all of his friends, all of his brothers, had all been killed.

He's the last one.

They tried to kill him, but God wasn't done yet.

They tried to boil him in oil, and all it did was just make him sunny side up.

I guess it didn't work.

They finally exiled him to an island called Patmos, and while he was there, he has a vision that we now know as the book of Revelation.

He has seen it all, and now, as he is about to die, he writes a letter to his churches.

And what is his last statement?

At the very end of the final chapter, he says we know that God's children do not make a practice of sinning, for God's Son holds them securely and the evil one cannot touch them.

In other words, what he's saying is is that Christians don't give up, christians don't let the pain and the brokenness cause them to fall into traps of sin over and over again, because they have a powerful Savior and, no matter what goes on, he holds them securely.

And we say I've been there, I've walked with him.

I watched Peter as he walked on water and he fell because he did, and Jesus picked him back up again.

We made fun of him.

I was there.

I was there when nobody else wanted to be there, and I was there and I took care of Mary until she died and she was precious up until that moment, talking about how she got to have the son of God in her life.

And I was there when I got word about all this.

And, yeah, there's been bad times, but through every single one of them God held us securely.

That's what it means to be truly blessed.

We're truly blessed not because we have all the things, but we realize who is holding us.

Then we can look at anything that we go through and we can say, man, god is good all the time, sometimes with tears in our eyes.

Brandon, what are you talking about?

Look at what you're going through.

I know what you see.

But if you knew where I've been, if you knew what God has done, if you knew the promise I have in my heart that all things work together for good of those who love the Lord, if you knew about the rescue of God that's in my life, and if you only knew that tomorrow is not all there is, but through all the seasons of life, god is gonna be with us.

That's how, through tears, through crying, through grief, I can say God is good all the time.

It's because I feel truly blessed that God holds me securely, can I tell you, no matter what's going on in your life, you're truly blessed, not because everything is going your way right now, but because God holds you securely.

If you know him, in just a moment the bands can lead us in a song of worship and give us an opportunity, and for some of us in here, we may need to just ask God.

God, can you open my eyes?

I'm going through such a season right now that I feel like all I can see is all the bad things.

You open my eyes to see your faithfulness and maybe that's your next step is just God, help me to see past all the things that the enemy's put in front of me.

Help me to see you more clearly.

But for some of us in here, you need to give your life to Jesus.

God holds securely in his hand those who are his, and he wants you to be one of them.

The Bible said that, for God so loved you that Jesus was willing to come to this earth, live a sinless life, die on a cross, taking your place to paying the penalty for your sin, and then he rose again.

And the Bible says God would not go through all that trouble to point an accusing finger, telling you how bad you were.

He came to help and to put your eternity to put your life right again.

You've tried everything else.

Why not come on home to Jesus today?

Let him hold you securely in his hands, but you gotta give him everything you got to give him all of you, and what you'll get in return is more than you can imagine.

To live a life that's not based on what you can see, but based on what you know, and that is that he holds you securely In just a moment, as the band leads us in that song of worship.

I don't know what your next step is, but if you need Jesus today inside your worship, god on the back of your connect card is the plan of salvation.

It's leading you in the steps to make Jesus the Lord of your life.

But we don't want you to do that by yourself.

As we're going to be standing in just a moment worshiping God, it's going to be your opportunity that you can slip out of your seat and go back to our prayer table and tell them I want to come home to Jesus and as you do that, they want to pray with you, they want to celebrate with you.

Nobody wants to.

Nobody wants to watch somebody be born and then be by themselves.

We all want to celebrate when you come into the kingdom.

Today's your day.

Today's your day to be saved.

If you're here and you need to be reminded that God is better than you remember, god wants to open our eyes, to realize we are truly blessed.

Let's pray together right now, god.

Thank you so much for today.

Thank you, god, that you are with us and that you are for us, and as many people that are in this room are the many different ways you want to speak to us, god.

For some of us in here, we love you.

But, lord, the battle has gotten so big.

It's gotten so great, so fierce, that we feel like all we're doing is just trying to stay above the water.

We've forgotten, god, that it is you that are holding us above water, that it is you that are holding on to us.

I pray, holy Spirit, that you will open our eyes to see that the whole time, it wasn't us fighting, but it was you fighting for us, and that you have made us truly blessed because it's you who hold us close.

I pray, holy Spirit, as we begin to worship you in just a moment, lord, that you will open our eyes to see you've been there all along that yes, there are dangers and there are troubles, but there's also blessing, there's also goodness, and that you hold us.

God, I pray for maybe somebody in here today that they don't know you, they don't have a relationship with you and God.

When we were talking about you holding us securely, immediately the conviction of the Holy Spirit came and asked the question is that me?

I pray you will help them to realize that after today, it will be because you're going to give them the courage to take that next step, to give their life to you.

They're going to experience the love of God for themselves and they'll say why did I wait so long?

I am truly blessed because of you, jesus.

We celebrate in advance all you're about to do.

In Jesus' name, we pray Amen, amen.

Would you stand with me all over the house this morning, the band is going to lead us on that final song and it's actually according to the text that we had today, and I wanna ask you this question what next step do you need to take?

Maybe you need to find a quiet place up here and just say God, I'm so sorry that I've let the battle get so strong that I've forgotten about your faithfulness.

Remind me that I'm truly blessed.

Maybe you're here and you wanna receive Jesus.

As soon as the music starts, I wanna invite you to step out of your seat, go back to the