Psalm 23: The Good Shepherd (9- Overflowing Hope)

with the Lord.

I want to tell you about three things really quickly.

Number one is today is the esteemed Mr Brandon Gillum's birthday.

I don't know if y'all knew that.

All right, so when I count to three, I want you to say happy birthday in the most obnoxious way you can.

All right, one, two, three Happy birthday.

Yes, celebrating the anniversary of his 25th birthday today, so excited, and we love Mr Brandon Gillum and make sure you go by and embarrass him real good by telling him happy birthday.

The other thing is I don't know if y'all know this, but Easter is just around the corner.

Yes, we are so excited about this, and so you're gonna hear more about this as it is coming.

It's about five weeks away.

Starting next week, you're going to get some invite cards, and so it's an opportunity to remind you.

It's a wonderful chance to invite someone to church.

Also, it's going to be Baptism Sunday and we're so excited about that.

If you want to take that next step, stop by the Welcome Center, and it's our annual opportunity to invite you on a missions trip to the wonderful mission of the 8 am service on Easter Sunday morning.

Should the Lord speak to you to enter the mission field, we will be so glad for you to join us at the 8 am service.

God does move at 8 am and we're so excited that you will say yes to Jesus and join us so we can borrow your seat for one week in Jesus' name, all right.

Also, as we are jumping into this, we've only got about two or three more weeks of this series, but we still have some books available, and that is this series.

Kind of the seed of this was from a book we read a long time ago called A Shepherd's Look at Psalm 23.

And it is a shepherd's look at Psalm 23.

So there's your title, right, and it is a wonderful way to see how God's word just comes alive to us as we look at his word from kind of a different perspective.

And so we have a free one for you out in the Welcome Center.

But you got to remember the key words, and that is I needs me my book.

Okay, if you do that, you will get one of those, and it is just a joy to hear so many of you who are on like your second and third reading of the book, because it's really short and for some of you there's at least one picture in there.

So it'll help you, you can color that picture and it'll be good, all right.

And it is a wonderful, wonderful journey through God's word, and that's one of the reasons why I love doing this is because God's word is rich and powerful, and there's so much about God's word that we don't know if we just run right through it, and that's especially with one of the most famous songs in the entire Bible, psalm 23.

There's so much in God's word that we just pass right over, and that's where we want to stop and park and learn for a little while.

And my hope for you is is that if you don't get anything else out of this series because of walking through Psalm 23, you will say, kind of our key statement for the whole series, and that is that the Lord is our shepherd and we can follow him.

That's the goal of this series is, for some of us, we don't know that God wants to be involved in every area of our life, and so one of the great things about Psalm 23 is it talks about different aspects of our life and how God wants to be in all of them, and so my hope for you has been that God has opened your eyes so far to go.

Wow, I didn't know God wanted to do that and to be in that area of my life and for others of us.

We've kind of been Christians for a little while and through time and trouble and circumstances we've forgotten that God is faithful, not just in the big things, but in the day to day little things, and my hope for you is that you are also being reminded that God is for you in so many ways and we've been learning different aspects of it.

So let's read God's word and I'll tell you.

Every time we read this, every week, it gets more and more special to me as we are journeying through every single phrase.

Let's read this together and see what God's word has to say.

It says the Lord is my shepherd.

I have all that I need.

He lets me rest in green meadows and 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.

That's where we're going to be, but let's finish it up.

Surely, your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.

Wow, I love reading that with us because the more we go through that, the more we're seeing God's faithfulness.

And my hope for you today, as we read through this, is that if you don't catch anything else, you will catch this idea today, and that is that because the Lord is our shepherd, is that because the Lord is our shepherd, we can live with an overflowing hope.

That, because the Lord is our shepherd, we can live with an overflowing, overwhelming hope.

Look at your neighbor and say I need some hope.

Okay, it's going to be one of those days.

Okay, I got you.

Okay, look at somebody else, anybody else.

Look at me and say I need some hope.

We do.

We need some hope.

I know you heard the HVAC doing a weird thing, but God's still good.

Okay, I know, there you go.

We're all in the same room at the same time.

I hear it too, but God's still good.

Okay.

And the good thing is is that we have an opportunity to have David toward the end of his life, and what he was writing is he was writing most likely for this to be sung in the tabernacle in the temple as they were worshiping, and what he wanted to do is to set up this idea of the Lord is our shepherd, which is how he started.

His journey was as a shepherd, and he actually makes a pretty profound statement when he says I have all that I need.

Somebody say all I have, all that I need, and then he says let me tell you about all the different alls that I need.

And he goes through and talks about all the different alls that he needs and he says I'm going to tell you.

He is my contentment, he is my peace, he is my restoration and he is my guide.

He is my restoration and he is my guide.

He is our protector and he is our assurance.

And last week we talked about how he is our confidence, which is something that we need in our that trusting that he will in our day to day.

But we also are learning that he is our hope, which is for our today and for all of our tomorrows, and he's saying that God gives me an overwhelming, overflowing hope, and that's the thing about the word hope is it's very, very, very fluid.

For a lot of people, hope can mean different things to different people, for different reasons and in different circumstances.

So to kind of bring everybody into the same room, what kind of hope is David talking about in this context?

And that is this that an overflowing hope is a position of the heart that declares my God is bigger than this, my God is bigger than this.

So what?

This is God bigger than?

And that's anything, anything that you're looking at, anything that you don't have figured out.

It gives us the courage to face anything that we don't understand.

That's what an overflowing hope is, is, whatever that happens to be, we can look at it with a sense of defiance, as David would look at Goliath and say God's bigger than you, buddy, god's bigger than this.

That's what an overflowing hope is.

And so why is that a big deal?

And so you know, we've been kind of using this metaphor that David did of shepherds and sheep.

Why does sheep need a dependable like hope in their shepherd?

Why do they need that?

Well, here's the reason why, and that is that we would think at this point in the journey you know we've been through, you know peaceful streams and pastures and dark valleys and all this kind of stuff.

And finally we get on the you know the table land, the mesas, the plateaus, you know kind of our summer home, summer vacation for sheep and it looks like everything's okay.

Now, right, like we're good, we got all the food, they're taking care of the snakes you had to be here last week for that one we got all these other things that are going on.

We're good.

But here's the problem it's outside.

Therefore, what you have to understand about sheep is that sheep are not house pets.

So therefore, sheep live outside.

And if you live outside, that means sheep constantly need time and attention.

Just because they have made it to their summer vacation, where all of the things are, it doesn't mean that the shepherd is done.

As a matter of fact, that's when the shepherd really has to get to work, because it's one thing to kind of get to the place that God wants you to be.

It's another thing to be able to maintain and sustain your passion for God when now you are in the things that you used to pray for and then the circumstances that you used to hope for.

It can be difficult sometimes, and so for sheep, now that they finally got there, the journey hasn't ended, it's actually just beginning, and there's so many different things that a sheep and a shepherd have to deal with, but give me just three of them.

That they have to deal with is why they need to have hope in a good shepherd, and that is this that they live as they live their lives.

They're always in the outside elements.

So, therefore, if sheep don't have dependable shepherds here's the first one they will get worms in their head in Jesus name.

I mean, come on, that's enough to terrify me.

Worms in their head.

This is what happens Like.

So during the summer is all about flies.

I'm going to ask Noah, when I get to heaven, why didn't you just squash them two flies when they got up, tried to get on the ark?

We get to heaven.

Why didn't you just squash them two flies when they got up, tried to get on the ark?

We wouldn't be dealing with this now, right, but he didn't.

And then here we are, and so there's all these different kinds of flies.

The main fly that would mess with sheep were called nasal flies, which is exactly what they are.

They would get into the nose of a sheep and they would lay their eggs in the nose of a sheep.

The eggs would hatch and go north into the sheep's nasal cavity and create an irritation and a pain.

That was so bad that a sheep would start rubbing its head up against rocks and up against the ground, and even get so bad that it would start banging its head up against rocks to where, in the most extreme circumstances, it would cause brain damage and kill itself trying to get relief from fly larvae in its nasal cavity.

That's gross, disgusting and terrible.

I hope you got a good shepherd when that happens.

The other thing is is if that doesn't get them, then they will develop infections due to dry and cracked skin.

They're living in an arid area and so as their skin is getting dry under their wool it'll begin cracked.

It'll get open open sores.

They walk around like zombies going somebody got anything, I mean, they're just dying.

And here's the thing is, if they don't get some help, they will actually get infections and they will die right in the middle of where they're supposed to be having their summer home.

And then here's the thing If they don't die from worms, they don't die from worms, they don't die from infection due to dry and cracked skin.

They will actually wound each other with conflict.

And, by the way, in case you're wondering, that is AI's version of a samurai sheep.

Okay, that's just for you.

That was so great, I had to include it, okay.

But what will happen is they start getting mad at one another and, literally because they're bored for some of them, they just start locking horns back and forth and they will end up injuring each other and they could kill one another over just constant conflict.

Why in the world does that matter to us?

I'm not a sheep and I don't live outside, unless I kind of want to under a tent, right?

Why is that?

It's because, even though we're not sheep, we have determined everyone has a private battle you know nothing about.

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

I don't have one, but you got all of them All.

Right, that's what you're saying, right?

And here's the thing If we don't have hope in our dependable shepherd, you know what those private battles will do.

What happens in our heads will hurt us.

We'll get inside our head with those private battles and if we're not careful, it's almost like worms in the brain.

It'll slowly start to destroy us and so we start banging our head up against anything that we think will bring us relief, but all it does is destroy us from the inside out.

If we're not careful also, we will become spiritually dry and discouraged, because we get so dry in our relationship with God because of those different spiritual battles that cause us to isolate away from God's presence, isolate away from our brothers and sisters in Christ, that before we know it we get spiritually infected and we could die right in a place where we're supposed to be experiencing the goodness of God.

And then, if those things don't get us, then our conflicts can create deep wounds and I don't know who's in more trouble, the young man or the lady who's getting ready to go to war.

Okay, either way, somebody is going to get in trouble that day.

And here's the thing is I don't know about you, but sometimes the enemy ain't got nothing on my brother and sister in Christ.

When it comes to conflict and it comes to wounds and it comes to difficulty, sometimes I'd rather face the devil than face my brother who was hurt at me.

And if we're not careful, we got to figure out if our good shepherd can do something to help us, which leads to the question, and that is.

We all may, and I have given up on my sheep sound.

Okay, I'm just done.

It's not going to work.

We all may have different battles in life.

It seems like some people not me, of course, some people not me, of course, but my neighbor we fall out of from one trouble into another.

How can we have hope?

Okay, how can we have hope?

Here's the thing Like.

If it seems like we're constantly either in a struggle, we're just coming out of one or we're just about to go into one, how could we possibly have overflowing hope?

And here's the reason why Because we're never going to go through those things alone.

But what this text actually reminds us is no matter what we go through, god is on the move in our life.

And God is going to do more than we can imagine.

If we stay in the fight, if we don't give up, if we let God continue to move in our life, he's always doing more than we can imagine.

And here's the thing you may not need this message, but your neighbor might.

You might have just conquered your private battle and you might be on that mountaintop and enjoying this, but your neighbor might be right in the middle of the darkest battle in their life, and so I want you to encourage your neighbor.

Can you do me a favor?

You may not need this, but your neighbor might.

So I want you to look at them and I want you to tell them.

Whatever you're going through, go and tell them One of those days.

I mean, look at somebody else and say, whatever you're going through, god's bigger than this.

I got no idea.

Don't tell them this.

I got no idea what your battle is, but you look terrible.

It must be bad.

Don't tell him.

I said that.

Don't tell him.

I said that.

But here's the thing Whatever it is, god's bigger than this.

How do we know that?

Here's three reasons why we know that God is bigger than every battle that is.

Overflowing hope comes from knowing our God has chosen us.

The reason why this text is so powerful is no matter what we're going through, we know that our God has chosen us, and we know that our God has chosen us.

And can I tell you we gotta be so careful that we don't skip right over that and go okay, that's great, give me something.

No, that's the thing is that our God has chosen us.

Look what it says.

It says Eventually, it says oh, I turned it off.

It says the Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need.

You honor me.

Wow, I know we want to skip right over to the next thing, but David is constantly reminding us that the point of the whole story is not our greatness, but God's greatness in our life, and he goes back to reminding us that who is the one who honors us, who is the one that anoints us and overflows our cup?

But Yahweh, the personal name of God, and that God is personally involved with all of us and it's so very important that we don't forget the most fundamental reality, and that is that God is for you.

You know, back during the time, and remember, we're kind of dealing with two different analogies here, paul.

I talking about the shepherd and the sheep metaphor, but he's also talking about the idea of being at a banquet table with God and God being a great host.

And when it comes to that metaphor, back during the time, that the honored guest was the one who would receive oil to anoint their head, because it was a very dry climate that they lived in and so, in order to kind of prepare themselves for dinner, they would receive this anointing oil that they would pour over their head, kind of wash their face and wash their hands, and everywhere they would walk, you could tell they were the honored guest.

You could smell them before you saw them, because they were the honored guest.

And what David is saying is all of them because they were the honored guest.

And what David is saying is is he's saying he has honored me, that I can live my life, that you can live your life realizing you weren't God's last choice, you were his first love, that he honors us above all other things.

And one of the things that steals our hope is when we forget about the simple joy of our salvation, the simple reality that God has chosen to love us and there's nothing we can do to earn it or deserve it.

All we can do is receive it.

It reminds me of the nation of Israel.

They had been going through the wilderness for 40 years and as they're getting ready to go out of the wilderness and into what will be the promised land, they know they've got a lot of battles they've never faced before, and this is almost as if they're wondering okay, whatever it is that God had that we had, that God was on our side.

I wonder if he will stay with us as we go into this new era.

So they're wondering, you know, is God going to be with us?

You know, whatever it is, can we continue to do the thing?

And so God answers the question when he says this.

He says the Lord did not set his heart on you and chose you because you were more numerous than the other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations.

In other words, that's God's way of saying you and I both know that nobody else would have chose you.

Thanks, god.

I appreciate that he's saying you, and I both know that you are not the largest nation.

So then, therefore, god, what do I have to offer you?

The answer is, rather, it was simply that the Lord loves you.

You know why he saved you?

Because he loves you, because he's decided kind of like you, I kind of want to keep you around.

Therefore, since he loves you, because he's decided, kind of like you, I kind of want to keep you around.

Therefore, since he loves us, let us understand that the Lord, your God, is indeed God.

He is faithful, a faithful God who keeps his covenant.

So, in other words, he's saying don't focus on what lies ahead, focus on who God is Because, no matter where you go, god's going to be with you.

Okay, how can I earn that?

You can't.

All you can do is realize that he loves you.

That's why one of my favorite verses in the entire Bible is John 3, 17.

That says God didn't go through all the trouble of sending his son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was.

You know what he did.

He came to help and to put the world right again.

Why is it that we have hope?

We have hope because the same God that saved us is the same God who's holding on to us, the same God who loved us enough to not simply shout his love from heaven, but came and entered into time, space and our eternity.

And he came in.

He lived a sinless life, died on a cross, rose again.

If God would do that, why would he destroy you?

Now?

He said God wouldn't go through all that trouble of sending his son merely to go and that's enough of you.

But instead he came to put the world right again.

And we got to be so careful that, as Christ followers, if we want to have an overwhelming hope that can look at anything and say God's bigger than that we have to never miss this point, because the reality is is why do Christians have hope?

Because we have already received the greatest miracle and the Lord's not even done yet.

And so I want to kind of push on you just a little bit.

I want to push on you, ask you this question when is the last time you thought about the goodness of salvation?

When is the last time that you thought about the fact that you're going to heaven and not going to hell, that the enemy can't touch your salvation?

He can't, he can't make you unsaved, he can't touch that in you.

That if you've given your life to Christ and you're a Christ follower, your eternity is sealed in heaven.

And can I tell you that if you're not a Christ follower, that's the gift that God offers you today is that, no matter what happens in your life, it can't touch your eternity, that you don't have to die in your sin and have to pay for it yourself, but you can go to heaven to be with God and let Jesus pay for all of your sins.

You tried everything else.

Why not give your life to Jesus?

And can I tell us?

For some of us, we need to remember the simple joy of our salvation.

That doesn't mean that we don't have 99 problems, it's just that Jesus isn't one of them.

And to realize that he is for us and not against us, let us never get too far from remembering where we came from, that before we had Jesus and now we do.

And now because we have Jesus, no matter what happens to us in this life, it can't touch our eternity, and for some of us, that's the hope that we need.

We've forgotten the simple truth that we're saved, that God is for us and not against us, and so we have an overflowing hope, not because everything is great, but because it can't touch our salvation.

And no matter what happens in this life, god is bigger than this.

And so, once again, I want you to testify to your neighbor, because they got all kinds of issues.

Okay, they look at them.

They look so sad right now.

Look at them and say I don't know what you're going through.

Go and tell them that was so much better, okay, but then tell them this Say God's bigger than this.

God is bigger than this.

How do I know God is bigger than this?

Have you seen yourself?

Have you seen who you were based on, who you are?

Now that you know Jesus.

I know you're not where you want to be, but thank goodness you're not where you used to be.

Look at what God's doing in your life.

The Bible says that, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ, god's still working on me to make me who I ought to be.

It took him just a week to make the sun and moon, earth and stars, jupiter and Mars, pluto and Neptune too.

Right, how loving and faithful he must be.

God is still working on me.

If it took him listen, I don't know about you, but if it took him a week to make the universe, it's going to take him a lifetime to fix me.

Okay, but the thing is is he's here for it?

And the reason why we have an overflowing hope is because God chose us.

Here's the second one, and that is this that he also cares for us.

He also cares for us.

I hope, as your pastor, that I say this so many times that you start to be amazed by this, like me, and that is that after Jesus saved us, he owed us nothing.

But what was amazing is, after he saved us, he turned around and started healing us of every broken place in our life, and every time he delivers us.

That's one more thing he didn't have to do, but he did it because he loves us.

And the reason why we have an overflowing hope is because God chose us and then because in the middle of the seasons that we're in, god's always working in our life and doing all these things.

The Bible says it like this that he honors me by anointing my head with oil.

By anointing my head with oil.

Now, the Hebrew phrase is that You're welcome to try it if you want to.

But there it is.

And here's the thing and this is where it's a little bit different, because when we think about the idea of being anointed, you know, like in Isaiah 61, it says the Lord has anointed me to preach the good news.

You know, we think about it being like, you know a king, and you kind of bow down and he kind of hits you with the sword.

Now you've been anointed.

That's not this anointing there.

One is the anointing for service, the other one is anointing as in applying something to yourself, like, in other words, you anoint yourself every morning, god willing, when you wash your hair and wash your face.

That is this type of anointing.

You are anointing yourself, and so what this phrase actually means is to refresh and make healthy that you anoint.

You apply what is needed to my life, and I love the idea that, when we think about what's going on in these the different sheep, you know they've got one of them's got you know an issue where they're banging their head up against a rock and somebody else is you know they're walking around like a zombie going anybody got anything right and then you got somebody who's just looking for a fight.

If you don't know what's going on, you might look and go.

These sheep are crazy.

I'm out of here.

You know what God says yeah, they're crazy, but they're my crazy.

And so he steps in and he cares for us, no matter what flavor of crazy we got, because he loves us, and there's so many ways that he does, but in keeping with the main things that happen to sheep, there's three main ways that God wants to care for us when we're dealing with these private battles.

Here's one of them.

That is, he cares for us with continual fellowship.

He cares for us with continual fellowship, that God wants to be involved in every single area of our life, not just on Sundays but every day.

Because the way this would work is especially in the summertime, when the flies were really bad and the nasal flies are laying their eggs in the nose and all the gross stuff, right?

Well, you know, what a shepherd would do is he would have this oil, and what this oil would do is it would be very fragrant oil and he would go and he would apply it to the nose of the sheep.

And as he would apply it to the nose of the sheep, the smell of it was too intense for these flies and they wouldn't be able to make their nests in the nose.

They couldn't do it, so they applied the oil and that would stop the flies from doing this.

But here's the problem, because the sheep would lick it because of just everything else they were doing.

The oil would not last very long, and so the shepherd would lick it because of just everything else they were doing.

The oil would not last very long, and so the shepherd would continually follow these different sheep and he would continually watch and continually have to apply the oil to their nose so that they wouldn't get infected.

And so the reality of that is is that sometimes we can have an experience with God and we think we're good.

But the problem is, life happens and we leak.

And as we begin to leak and as we begin to dry up, we need the continual flow of God in our life.

That's why Ephesians 5 says don't be drunk with wine, because it will ruin your life.

In other words, don't let yourself be medicated with the things that don't satisfy, but rather be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And the important thing is is to realize this phrase.

To be filled doesn't mean that you have like a jar and you fill it up and then you're good.

It's not like you pour the jar and now you're good.

You walk around with that.

It's.

The symbol is a waterfall, and so it's.

So you're not filling up a jar, but you're stepping into a waterfall and it's constantly pouring over you and keeping you saturated with the presence of God.

God wants to be involved in our lives all the time, to an extent that the enemy doesn't have a chance to lay eggs because we're constantly in the presence of God.

So for some of us, spiritually, if you're going through a difficult time right now, maybe the reason why our hope is so drained is because we're not spending continual time with God, because if we get into his presence every day by reading God's word and worshiping him, he'll anoint us fresh every single day.

So for some of us, we need to look like little kids during allergy season, just walking around like this all the time.

Come on God, come on Jesus.

Just hold our nose out to the Lord.

I'm going.

I tell you, when I go through difficult seasons, that's what I do I walk around with my nose out.

God, I need more of you.

I'm going to sneak away and find any kind of time I need with you, because I need more oil in my life, because I got too many enemies trying to get in my head and I need to constantly have the presence of God.

But that's not the only thing.

He cares for us with continual fellowship, but then he also fixes our focus.

He fixes our focus.

Now, the way this works for shepherds and sheep is the sheep.

When they get this dry skin on them, the only thing you can do is they'll make.

The shepherds will make these vats of oil like tons of oil, and when they make this, what they will do is they will pour the oil all over the body and the head of the sheep, just kind of saturating them so that it just keeps their skin moist.

And they have to do this and just really lather it in, because they've got wool and things, and so it's a process that takes time.

It doesn't happen quickly.

They have to sit there and just stay with the shepherd and just he just kind of lather it in.

But here's the problem Most of the time, from what I was reading, sheep don't mind that.

It's like a massage.

That's fine, that's good, but don't touch my head, bro, all right.

And so apparently, what will happen is is a sheep is fine as long as you're anointing like you know the rest of him, but you get to his head and he becomes like an NBA basketball player and he's bobbing and weaving all over the place and he's not going all over.

And so apparently, what a shepherd will have to do is he will have to grab the sheep by the head and plunge his head underneath the vat of oil.

Some of y'all look horrified right now.

It's either that or have his eyes bleeding, which would you have, right?

And so what'll happen is is he'll plunge his head under there and then he'll come up and the sheep is like, ah, let me go, no, back down again and come back up again.

Okay, I've had enough.

Not quite Back down again and back up again to make sure his head is fully saturated, because he doesn't want him to get sick.

And so he says I'm going to have to focus your attention on this.

Well, how does God's word do it?

It's just to fix our thoughts, to plunge ourselves into the truth, to the honorable, to the right, to the pure, to the lovely and the admirable, to think on these things that are excellent and praise and full of praise, and then keep putting into practice, keep on putting our head under into all that we have learned and received from you, in other words, god's word, and then the God of peace will be with you.

Then we have to stop bobbing and weaving away from God and just get into his word and just focus our thoughts.

We're not denying that there's problems.

We're denying that.

That's all that there are is problems.

And when we begin to focus on the continual fellowship and fixing our focus, our hope begins to rise, because God is with us and through this he cares for us.

With that fellowship, with fixing our focus, our hope begins to rise because God is with us and through this he cares for us, with that fellowship, with fixing our focus, and then also by changing our perspective, by changing our perspective on how we begin to see the world around us.

Now, the way this happens with sheep is I was telling you how sheep have this tendency to fight like a lot, especially as it gets into fall and the different things are happening, and they have these horns that are like faced backwards, you know, and so they have to fight like a lot to do damage, but they're here for it, and what they'll do is they will sit there and just beat each other up.

And so what a shepherd will do this is really cool is he'll actually take that same oil and he will just lather up their head and their horns.

So then, when they get mad at each other dude, that was my patch of grass, I know you saw me eating that grass and they get mad at each other and they square up and they run at each other.

When they go to run at each other, as soon as they start to hit each other's heads, they will skim off of each other and go fall over there somewhere and they'll get back up.

Oh, I, and they'll try to do it again, and apparently it takes like three or four times, with them just glancing off of each other before they finally go.

You know, he's not that bad.

I'm really kind of tired now.

I'm gonna go sit down and eat some grass.

Okay, you have that patch, I'll get this patch.

We're all friends and that's literally what they would do to keep from hurting each other.

And isn't it amazing that God tells us to do the ourselves in him, that we don't see another enemy but we see someone else that could be loved.

God's word says it like this Since God has chose you because, remember, we have the joy of our salvation Since he has clothed you, or chose you to be his holy people that he loves, you must clothe yourself with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, and make allowances for each other's faults.

Let them have the grass and forgive anyone who offends you.

Remember that the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

Wow, how in the world am I supposed to forgive someone who offends me when you see that they're not the ultimate enemy, that they need forgiveness, just like you do, to realize that hurting people hurt people?

Isn't it amazing that we love that phrase when we're talking about ourselves, but when we're talking about somebody else, they meant to do it.

We tend to judge ourselves by our intentions and judge others by their actions.

But the reality is is they're hurting just as bad as we are, and that doesn't mean what they did was okay.

It does mean that they may not be the most evil villain in the world, but it may mean that they're more broken than we are in that moment.

And should we give them the same mercy that we hope we receive when one day we're broken and one day we're lashing out because somebody stole our grass and we need somebody to help us?

Yes, but how do we do it?

We don't do it just because we decide to.

We do it because we clothe ourselves in the tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Those are the character traits of Christ.

That as we clothe ourselves in the character and the nature of Christ and we allow the fruit of the Spirit to grow in us, then we're able to see through the eyes of God and see not someone to be defeated but a brother and sister to be loved, and then we can see them as somebody that then not only do we have overflowing hope, but then we can share what God has given with us, given to us for them.

That's what overflowing hope is is when we don't see a room full of enemies, we see a room full of people to be loved, because God is for us and not against us.

And no matter what else happens, no matter what else comes our way, god is for us and so, no matter what we have, we have a dependable shepherd that has chosen us and that he cares for us every day.

And so one more time, look at your neighbor who may have this private battle, and tell them this and say, listen, I don't know what you're going through who may have this private battle and tell them this and say, listen, I don't know what you're going through, I don't, and say it must be bad.

But God is bigger than this, bigger than what Anything, anything that we face.

And how do we keep this hope in our life is, by number one, experiencing the joy and the simplicity of our salvation all over again and just realizing that God has chosen us.

And then realizing that God is at work in our life and we have that overflowing hope because he's constantly moving and constantly working.

And then here's the great joy that we have, and that is this that our God has more than enough for us.

That God has more than enough for us.

God's not on a budget, he's not on.

God's not got just enough grace for me, just enough grace for you.

But if something else is not on sale, we're gonna have to do without.

That's not God.

He's got all that we need and more.

Look at how it says it like this that God is more than enough because he says I have all that I need.

You honor me by anointing my head with oil.

My cup overflows with blessing.

My cup overflows with blessing.

The Hebrew phrase for that is Yawaha Karasi, karasi.

You want to try that?

Yawaha Karasi, one, two, three, yawaha Karasi.

It sounds like a karate move, doesn't it?

I mean, yeah, you're ready now, but it simply means full to saturation from your goodness.

What is he overflowing me with the fact that he has honored me, the fact that he has anointed me, and the fact that now it is overflowing into other areas of my life, that I am saturated to the full?

It's like having a sponge and you have that sponge and then, after you have it, if it starts to get full, it starts to leak out over everything else.

That's the mental image that God has, is the mental image that God is gonna so saturate our lives with his goodness that it becomes contagious on everything else around us.

And one of the greatest things about life is that he is able to move in our life and that what he does in our life can then be a testimony into the lives of others.

That's God's hope for us.

It's not that we would just receive hope and then just go around being hopeful, but that we receive hope that becomes contagious, so it begins to overflow on others.

God's word says it like this.

It says I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust him.

Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit that, as we trust him, that joy and that peace will then overflow into the lives of others.

That's God's hope for all of us.

The hope is only half done when it fills us up, but it begins to go into completion when it starts to get on our neighbor, and so kind of a way to see that is through a life by name of Elijah.

I don't know if you know who Elijah is.

I'm aware he needs to back off the camera a little bit.

In that picture he's a little close, a little close, but that was the best one I could find.

But Elijah was one of these guys that he saw God do so much in his life.

Elijah is in the Old Testament and in one place, because the nation was so terrible and so bad, he said I want to show you how real God is.

For three and a half years, according to the power of God, it's not going to rain and it didn't.

That's pretty audacious.

And then he got all the prophets together, all the prophets of Baal, and he said God's bigger than you and we're both going to have a contest and see whose God answers by fire and whoever God answers by fire.

That's the real God.

God answered by fire for Elijah, not for the prophets of Baal, and he killed them fools.

I mean he's crazy.

I mean he y'all messed with Elijah.

He's crazy.

And then he went for 40 days and 40 nights without eating because he was on his way to Mount Sinai.

This guy, he's got hope for days because of what he's seen God do in his life.

But can I tell you, the great thing about what Elijah did is, he didn't just keep it for himself, but he shared it with others.

And right in the middle of that dry season where, because God was sending judgment to the nation, it didn't rain for three and a half years, in an already dry area, the Bible said that one day Elijah's walking through town full of hope.

He knows God's up to something.

He's good, but not everybody else is.

And so he walks and he sees this lady and the Bible said this, that he's talking to her and she says I don't have a single piece of bread in the house.

I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jug.

I was just gathering a few sticks to cook the last meal and then my son and I will die.

A few sticks to cook the last meal and then my son and I will die.

That's called no hope.

I mean she literally is going to go to this jar, maybe go to her cupboard where her flour and her oil is, one more time and after that she's going to die.

That's the end of her hope.

Elijah hears this and he realizes no, god's up to something, god's going to do something.

God has got more going on than you realize.

How can I get her to go back over and over again to God's source?

And so he challenges her with something that sounds terrible at first.

He says this he says no, no, no, don't be afraid.

Make me a little bread first, then use what's left to prepare a meal for yourself and your son.

Now, at first you're like you, jerk, she's got enough left for one sandwich and you want it.

Praise the Lord, brother, you know.

But here's the thing.

The reason why is because he needed her to go back again.

If she only trusted God one time, then that would have been it.

So in my mind and the Bible doesn't say I don't know, but I don't think that he gave her this bread and then, or she gave him the bread and he grabbed it and went away.

I think he took it and said no, go try again.

Because the Bible says that this is what the Lord says there will always be flour and oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again.

So in other words, he said it's okay.

I know this looks bad, I know it seems like all hope is lost, but you haven't seen what my God can do.

You haven't seen the things that I have seen.

The hope that I have didn't come from nowhere.

It came from watching God do miracles over and over again.

Can I show you?

Let me show you I want you to make that bread, but you don't eat it.

I want you to hand it to me and then go try again.

Watch what God can do.

And the Bible said that there was enough for the flour and oil in the container, just as the Lord had promised through Elijah.

And so what happened is?

She made that bread for Elijah and he yelled it.

And he said go watch, go see, go see what God can do.

And she goes back and she sees just enough oil to make enough for her and her son Where'd that come from?

And she cooked it and she ate it.

And then they ate together.

And then they got hungry again and he said go watch what God can do.

And he she went back again.

There's more oil here, there's more, there's more flour here.

And she goes and she makes some more.

And every single time she needed the hope of God.

God was always there, over and over again, until the crisis was over.

And one of the greatest things that we can do is not just to let people feed off of our hope, but teach them where to go find hope.

Teach them to go find where the goodness of God is and that he's always faithful and that he's always good.

And for many of us, the greatest ministry that we could have right now is to tell people I don't know what God's going to do in your life, but I know a guy and his name is Jesus, and every time I go back to him he continues to give me an overflowing, overwhelming hope.

And one of the greatest things that we can do is to realize that because of Jesus, he's got more than enough.

Overflowing hope for me and for all of you, and maybe for some of us.

That's what God wants to do in our life.

But my question for you is is are you willing, in spite of impossible circumstances, to have hope and then to share it with somebody else?

It reminds me of what we're reading in God's Word, and I've had so many of you, by the way, if you're not reading God's word with us, you can read it with us, one chapter at a time.

You can text RLC Bible to 94,000.

And some of you have told me you're so excited that we're out of Jeremiah and we're into 2 Peter.

I know, me too, praise the Lord, I love Jerry, but he's sad.

I mean he's real sad.

But here's the thing 2 Peter's got three chapters and then we get to talk to Jerry one more time in the book of Lamentations.

And you know, god knows what he's doing.

God's so faithful and we planned this out two years ago.

But I've not seen a more fitting book of the Bible for us to read than the book of Lamentations.

And here's why Because Jeremiah is gonna write a few chapters about what happens when the worst happens, what happens when your worst nightmare happens.

And for him, his worst nightmare was he loved Jerusalem.

He spent his life trying to encourage.

We saw it.

We saw his whole life trying to encourage the nation of Israel to turn their lives back over to God.

Turn their lives back over to God, or they wouldn't do it.

And so he was there when the Babylonians stormed the gates, killed so many people, destroyed his favorite place of worship, the temple.

He saw the worst thing imaginable.

But what's amazing is, right in the middle of him processing and dealing with that grief, he learned something, and I wrote it like this, maybe big enough for you to take just a moment to write it down.

And that is sometimes.

You have to hit rock bottom so you can see that God is the rock at the bottom.

Now that's not my hope for you, because I hope you never hit rock bottom.

I hope that you go from glory to glory to glory and you go from raise to raise and from promotion to promotion.

Every time you go to the doctor they go how are you so healthy?

I hope I don't live in that world.

I live in a world that's fallen due to sin and because of that.

In this life Jesus told us we will have trouble and sometimes you gotta get to the bottom before you see that God is the rock at the bottom.

Sometimes you have to get to the end of your strength before you find the beginning of his.

And Jeremiah is there, seeing his wonderful home, seeing his worst nightmare has come true and he's grieving.

Can I tell you, if you've never subscribed to our Bible breakdown and read with us, you need to read with us this week and just watch how God is not upset with your hurt.

God's not angry when you tell him.

God, I mean, I'm here for it.

But this hurts, this is difficult.

I don't know what to do.

Jeremiah says all this, all these, like God, I knew you were going to do it, but did it have to be this bad?

Right in the middle of it, right in the middle of losing everything, all of a sudden he remembers and he says this.

He says yet I still dare to hope when I remember this the faithful love of the Lord never ends.

The faithful love of the Lord never ends.

His mercies never cease.

Great is his faithfulness.

His mercies begin afresh each morning and I say to myself I will hope in him.

Jeremiah isn't saying this on the other side of pain.

He's not saying this after the Lord has conquered everything and everything is great and everything is wonderful.

It's in the middle, where he's saying I'm having to check again every single morning to make sure and yes, every single morning, his faithful love and his mercies and his faithfulness, they're still there.

They're still there.

I had to look again.

They're still there.

I had to look again.

They're still there.

I got up the next morning.

I wasn't so sure, so I had to rush back to God.

Okay, they're still there.

And every morning when I wake up, I dare to hope that God will still be there, and when I look, he's always there.

He's always there.

I don't know what your private battle may be.

I don't know what your private battle may be.

I don't know if it's the threat of what could happen or maybe if the worst thing has happened.

Can I tell you, god is there.

God is there every single morning and he never promised that we wouldn't go through difficult times.

He just promised that he would go to and for some of us who've been through some of those valleys and come out on the other side, one of the greatest ministries that you could do right now is to not keep it to yourself but to share it with somebody else.

Our mantra this year is that we grow together.

What would it look like in your life if you grew by helping somebody else?

Not give up and say listen, I don't know what you're going through, but I know from experience God's bigger than that.

How can you be so sure?

Because he has chosen us because of the simple joy of salvation, because God is caring for us and he is actively moving in our life.

He doesn't just move in our life on Sunday, but he does most of his work on Monday through Saturday and he's always moving.

And then God is.

I know that he is there because he's not just moving in my life, but I know he's moving in yours too, and I know you can't see it, but come walk with me until you do.

What would that look like, can I tell you?

It truly is more blessed to give than to receive, and if you start sharing your hope with somebody else, it will exponentially increase your hope too, because you get to see two miracles you get to see God encourage somebody, and then you get to see them encourage you.

That's why we're supposed to do life as the body of Christ.

It's because God's got more than enough to go around.

So I want to ask you this question as we get ready to pray If you were to write a book of lamentations like Jeremiah, do you have the courage to say yet I will still dare to have hope when I go back and look every single morning and I realize I can put my hope in him.

Are you willing to try one more day?

Sometimes that's all God asks of us is just go to bed, get up, don't give up, and that's enough.

In just a moment, the bands can lead us through a song of worship.

And I don't know what.

Maybe you need to give to the Lord this morning.

Maybe you're in here and you don't know Jesus.

And can I tell you, I'm so excited that you're here because the Bible says that this one thing to know about the love of God, quite another to experience him for ourself.

And if you will give your life over to Jesus, that's where the foundation of your hope can come from.

You've tried everything else.

It's time to come home to Jesus.

Inside your worship guide, on the back of your connect card, is the plan of salvation.

And in just a moment, as we lift our voices and we worship God, the greatest act of worship that you can give is to give your life over to Jesus and experience the eternal hope that only comes through Christ.

But we don't want you to experience that alone.

If that's you today, I want you to take that connect card.

In just a moment, I want you to slip up, slip out and go back to the back, and we want to agree with you.

We want to pray for you While the Bible says you're born again into the kingdom of God.

We want to do this as a church family, so we want you to go.

We want to join with you in this.

Maybe you're here today and you know Jesus, but you also know lamentations.

You know pain, you know what happens on the other side of the worst thing that could happen, and maybe you're hanging on by a thread.

Can I tell you what happens If you lose that thread?

And if you fall, you'll still hit rock bottom and see that Jesus is there.

Sometimes, when we lose that thread, we think all is lost, but really what we do is we find ourselves on him.

We find ourselves on firm foundation.

So don't give up, and maybe that needs to be your prayer today is as we worship the Lord, your prayer needs to be God, give me the courage and the faith to not give up one more day and to share my story with somebody else.

Let's pray together right now.

God, thank you so much for today.

Thank you, god, that you were with us and that you were for us in all things.

Lord, I'm so thankful that for everybody who is in this room and everybody watching online, no matter where we find ourself, lord, you are there.

Lord, you are there with the person who wonders if they've gone too far and if they've done too much.

Holy Spirit, I pray you will silence the voice of the enemy and make your voice strong in their life to say you've never gone too far, you've never done too much, that my love can't reach you.

And that today, lord, you'll give them the courage to take a step of faith.

Lord, I was there myself one time.

That first step was the hardest, the second was the easiest, as I started running toward you, lord, as maybe somebody runs to you today.

I pray, holy Spirit, that you will change our lives from the inside out.

God, I pray for maybe somebody else in here, that Lord, they know you and they love you, but, lord, they're going through that private battle.

We know that you are the same God in the sunshine and in the rain.

And, god, I pray in this moment, lord, as we do, as Jeremiah did, and we just say, god, I have now seen the worst and yet I still dare to hope that your faithful love endures forever.

I pray that your encouragement will overwhelm us this morning to remember the joy of our salvation and then to share that hope with somebody else that, no matter what we go through, god is bigger than this and it gives us that overwhelming, overflowing hope In Jesus' name, and it gives us that overwhelming, overflowing hope.

In Jesus' name.

We pray amen, amen.

Would you stand with me all over the house this morning?

The band is gonna lead us in that final song of worship and I don't know how you need to run to God this morning.

Maybe you need to slip out of your seat and go back to the prayer table.

Maybe you need to talk about what salvation is, or maybe you just need someone else to pray with you.

They're there for various different ways they can connect with you.

Maybe you wanna find a quiet place up here and just go and all in with God again and say, god, I'm never gonna give up, I'm never gonna give in, I'm gonna hope one more day, maybe just right where you are, you just surrender to him.

But whatever it is, don't waste this moment.

Take this moment to give whatever you have over to him.