Psalm 23: The Good Shepherd (8- Audacious Confidence)

Lord, that, no matter what may try, lord, that then, like a flood, you will always raise up a standard against everything that would try to exalt itself against the knowledge of Christ.

Your word says, lord, the greater is he that is in us than the he that is in the world.

Lord, your word says that we have been born of you.

The enemy cannot touch us.

Your word says, god, that you don't give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind, and that, god, you are for us more than we can imagine.

Your word says, lord, to be anxious for nothing but in everything, with prayer, with thanksgiving and with asking, but we are to make our requests known to you and then the peace of God, which passes all understanding, it will guard our hearts and our minds in you, christ Jesus.

We're so thankful, god, that for every problem there's a promise in your word that says you go with us and that you are for us in all things.

And, god, as we get ready to continue to worship you by getting into your word, we just ask you, Holy Spirit, to continue to speak to every heart and to change every life.

Lord, challenge us, motivate us, convict us, encourage us.

God, do whatever you want to do.

We have come here excitedly waiting, because we know that you only reveal what you intend to heal, and so, god, we ask you to heal us, have your way in our lives.

We're going to be so careful to continue to give you all the praise and all the glory In Jesus' name.

We pray Amen and amen.

Come on, let's put our hands together, let's celebrate the Lord.

Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord, amen, amen, amen, amen.

Well, before you have a seat, look at somebody, give them a high five and say happy springtime to them.

It's not spring, but it'll be here soon enough.

Come on, let's do it.

Praise the Lord, happy springtime.

It feels like it, so we're going to take it in Jesus' name.

I hope all of you had a wonderful time of swimming your way to church this morning and having a good time with it.

And it is so good because the good thing about rain is after that, all of the flowers and stuff, those things start to bloom, and so do all of the things that cause allergies.

But we won't get into that.

We're just going to enjoy the fact that all the flowers are going to be here.

So, if you will.

I want you to go ahead and get your message notes out and turn with me to Psalm 23.

We're going to be at verse 5 today as we continue our series on the Good Shepherd, and while you're doing that, I do want to say real quick a quick hello to everybody watching online.

We know that there's still some of the sickness stuff that's going through.

Thank you so much for not coming to church today, because we don't want to catch whatever it is you got.

Okay, the color of your snot is your business, not ours.

Okay, so make sure you let us know in the comments that you are okay and you are with us today and make sure you get your message notes out.

So get a piece of paper.

We're going to have fun in the house of God and on your couch today.

Okay, all right, if you have been with us for a while while you're getting all of that together.

Kind of the seed of this series was in this book right here, a Shepherd's Look at Psalm 23,.

Because what the author of this book did as a shepherd is he began to realize that Psalm 23 was so much more than what we thought it was, and I want to say that if you don't have one of these, we have a free copy of this for you out in the Welcome Center.

All you have to do is just say I need me my book and they will give you one.

And I kind of have this, this quiet little desire to throw one at somebody.

So anybody here not have a book and want one, all right, yeah, there you go.

Sir, almost, you did make it.

Yes, praise the Lord, and you are welcome.

Yes, that made my day more than you realize.

Okay, yes, I'm doing that in the next service.

It's going to happen.

Okay, everybody's awake now?

Yes, yes, you are that.

Just, I mean, I'm telling you like I'm good to go home now.

We're good, I got to throw a book at somebody.

But here's the thing so many of you have said you have read it and you're already on your second time through it, because it's awesome, as it is helping us understand more about God than we ever realized, and that's been my hope of this entire series, and so it's blessed my heart to hear so many of you say that you didn't know this or that about God, and that's what I hope we continue to do, and so, if you're taking notes, my hope is that by the end of our series, that you will say this, and that is that the Lord is our shepherd and because we know that we can follow him, that no matter what it is we go through in life, we can follow him, and that's been one of the things we've been focusing on in 2025.

And that is that we want to grow together.

We want everybody to take a spiritual next step in their walk with God and then turn and help somebody else take that next step.

Well, where are we going?

We're going wherever he leads because we can follow him.

And one of the things I have loved about Psalm 23 is that it is doing two things.

And number one for some of us, it's just teaching us things about Jesus we never knew.

We didn't know that God did that.

We didn't know that God wanted to be involved in that area of our life.

But for others of us, we've been around God and church for a while, but we've forgotten the goodness of God.

We've forgotten that God wants to be involved in every part of our life, and so it's just kind of breathing fresh air into some of the areas of our life, and I've been enjoying it so much.

And so let's read Psalm 23.

And I don't know about you, but the more we learn about it, man, the more powerful it is becoming.

So let's read this together.

God's word 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.

This is where we're going to be today.

You prepare a feast some translations say a table for me in the presence of my enemies.

You honor me by anointing my head with oil and my cup overflows with blessings.

Surely, 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, it's so powerful, as we're beginning to understand what God's word is saying, how powerful it is, and we've been learning so much about God's word, and today my hope is is that, before you leave today, you will say with me that, because the Lord is your shepherd, we can live with an audacious confidence, because the Lord is our shepherd, we can live with an audacious confidence.

And here's is our shepherd.

We can live with an audacious confidence.

And here's a word we don't ever use.

When is the last time you used the word audacious?

Okay, like when I count to three?

Say it out loud One, two, three.

It just feels weird, right, you just don't say that word.

We say other things ridiculous, amazing, silly, all this but I did that just so you could have an excuse to use the word audacious and I'm going to say it about a million times because it is a fun word to say.

But because the Lord is our shepherd, we can live with this absolutely ridiculous audacious confidence.

We're going to talk about why we can live with that level of confidence as we go throughout the message.

But to kind of catch everybody up with kind of where we're at, remember that this is a Psalm that David wrote and it probably wasn't called Psalm 23 at the time.

It was called the Lord is my shepherd song.

Let's sing the shepherd song because most of the time it was the title of the title was the first line and it was most likely written to be sung in the temple, so they would worship God by singing this song.

And what David does is he says man, I want to testify to you that the Lord is my shepherd and because of that I have all that I need.

And then he begins to sing about the reasons why you know.

It's all.

These are all the reasons why I know God loves me and he's for me, and we've been learning about the different things that he says.

Like he said that God is our contentment, that God is our peace, he is our restoration and he is our guide and man, he is our protector, and last week we talked about he is our assurance.

We have the ability, when we don't know what's going on, we can look up and see that our king is still there, and today we're going to talk about how he is our confidence.

God is our confidence and we need that every day.

So let's kind of define what we're talking about when we say an audacious confidence.

Pastor Brandon's definition, and maybe yours too, when it comes to God, audacious confidence is a type of trust that makes no sense to anyone who has not witnessed the amazing faithfulness of God.

An audacious confidence is a confidence, is a trust that makes simply no sense to anyone who has not witnessed the amazing faithfulness of God.

It is a position of your heart that when other people say, why in the world do you have that kind of trust in the Lord, you just say, listen, I know it doesn't make any sense to you because you haven't been where I've been and you haven't seen what I've seen.

But if you have been where I have been and you have seen what I have seen, I can't help but have just this audacious confidence in the Lord.

And so here's kind of the question, since the metaphor that David is using is that between a shepherd and sheep, let's ask the question why does sheep need a trustworthy shepherd?

Why is it important for a sheep to have a trustworthy shepherd?

The reason why is because sheep do not think ahead.

I don't know if you've noticed that or not, but sheep are great at wandering into trouble.

Now, that's important because you're like, well, yeah, they're animals.

Okay, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Listen, god made some animals with common sense.

Like an ant will gather food all year long for the wintertime.

That's what they do.

They have been given an instinct of common sense.

There are plenty of animals elephants, bear different things, whales, all this who migrate because they have sense and they know they have to go to certain places at certain times of the year.

Even birds fly south of the winter.

So do some retired people in Jesus' name, okay, yes, because they've got sense.

They're not up here with us getting rained out and froze out all the time.

Right, They'll be back.

They'll be back and we'll make fun of them because they can't handle it right.

But sheep have no common sense.

They just wander around.

Well, everybody else is trying to figure it out.

They're just chilling.

I'm sure it's fine.

I'm sure everything is just fine.

Yes, I'm freezing.

Yes, I'm about to.

It's fine.

They have no planning at all, and the reason why that is a problem is because they have to move from place to place because of the different seasons and the different ways that the grass needs to grow in certain areas, and because of that they have to wander around and as they do, there are so many hazards waiting on them.

And this just from shepherds.

What they will say, especially in that time of the year and in that area, that if sheep are not guided by a good shepherd, the first thing that they will do is they will eat poisonous plants.

So the thing is is there are plants and shrubs and weeds that will grow in that part of the world that some animals can eat and are fine, but if sheep eat them it'll kill them.

And the thing is is that there's no warning label on these weeds.

They look good, they look amazing, and if a shepherd doesn't go in front of them and remove the weeds and use his rod and staff to kind of steer them away from those weeds, they will eat them because they're there and they don't plan ahead.

Here's another one.

It's that they will be bitten on the legs by snakes.

In the areas that they will walk through there is either an asp or an adder I can't remember which one but there is a snake, a not fun.

Any snake is not fun, but these snakes are really not fun and they happen to burrow down into some of the areas where sheep are and when the sheep are walking it will disturb them and they'll come up and bite the first thing they see.

And so if they don't find a way to go around all that they're not led by a shepherd they will be bitten, crippled and sometimes killed, and then you got that.

They will be eaten by wolves, bears, pretty much anything.

I mean a rabid cat, anything can eat a sheep okay, because that's just the way they are.

I mean, they just have.

No.

I mean the thing is is a sheep will be walking this way.

He will see a bunch of wolves and his first thought is it's fine, it's fine, I'm just going to keep going this way.

No, no, there are wolves over there, all right.

And so the thing is is they need to be led by a good sheep, a good shepherd?

That's why we have to have an audacious confidence in the shepherd, because we need to have confidence to know where he's leading.

Why is that important for us?

Well, as we said last week, is that everyone has a private battle you know nothing about, and so many times we can get so distracted by that battle that we're going through that.

If we're not careful, we will just start wandering through life because we feel so discouraged and we're in such a difficult place because of that private battle.

And if we are not guided by the good shepherd, we will self-medicate and get poisoned by sin.

We will want something that looks good, it seems to be all right, but if we don't listen to God's word and let him lead us, then we will end up self-medicating with that sin, and it will cripple us, it will poison us.

So we need a good shepherd to tell us what to eat and what not to eat.

We will become crippled by unseen what-ifs of life.

We'll constantly be wondering and worried about what might spring up next.

When's the next shoe going to drop, when's the next bad thing going to happen?

And then, when it does, we're crippled because we always knew it was going to be that way and we can't ever enjoy what God is doing.

And then we become easy targets for the devil, that we can see what the devil is doing, but instead of being guided by the Lord, we just decide to ignore him and not engage in spiritual victory, and we ignore what's going on and we end up wandering into a mess.

And so what we need is we need a shepherd that we can have an audacious confidence in, so that, no matter where he leads, we know that he's going to be faithful.

So that leads to the question of the day, and that is that we all may have different battles in life.

How can we have ridiculous audacious confidence in the face of so many obstacles, in the face of so many private battles?

Well, I'm so glad that you asked, because God's word tells us three reasons why we can have an audacious confidence, no matter what we face in our life, and I'm so excited I want to.

I want us to kind of testify to each other this morning, because I'm telling you, if you had seen what I'd seen, if you had witnessed what I witnessed in my life and for so many of you, you wouldn't be able to help yourself, but just trust that God could do it.

If you'd seen what I'd seen, you would trust him too.

And so I want us to do something.

I want us to have some fun this morning.

Okay, listen, this is not for you, this is for your neighbor.

Okay, you are good, you brought your own sunshine with you this morning.

But your neighbor look at them, they're struggling.

Okay, you really looked at them.

That was great.

Okay, look, they're struggling.

Okay, so this is what we're going to do Just have some fun with me.

Okay, look, have some fun with me.

I want you to look at your neighbor and just say, hey, neighbor, that's some of my favorite thing and say, if you'd seen what I've seen, you would trust him too.

That is absolutely our testimony this morning, for so many of us.

I want to tell you three reasons why, if you've seen what I'd seen, you would trust him too.

Here's the first one, if you want to write this down.

The reason why is that, no matter what we face, we are confident that God will guide and provide.

We are confident, we have an audacious confidence that if you've seen, if you have seen what I have seen, if you have been where I have been, if you have seen how the deck was stacked against God's people and how he came through every single time, you couldn't help but have an audacious confidence that God is able to guide and provide in every situation.

Look what God's word says.

It says the Lord is my shepherd.

I have all that I need.

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

Now, let's just stop and just address the sheep in the room.

Okay, the elephant in the room what is a sheep doing sitting at a table?

Okay, I mean what exactly?

I mean?

This is the mental image that comes to my mind when the sheep has gotten up to the table and he's snagging what looks like.

Well, it's gone, he's already eaten it.

I don't know what it was, but what does that mean when he says that you prepare a table for me?

Well, actually, what's going on is David is now dealing with multiple metaphors at the same time.

On one end, he's talking about as God, as King, welcomes us in fellowship to his table.

On one end, but on the other end, he's still also talking about what it is to be a shepherd.

And the reason why is because, depending on the translation you're reading, it may not have said feast, it may have said table.

And the reason why that's important is here is the Hebrew phrase, and you're welcome to try it.

Okay, that's a.

That's a really long phrase that we're not even going to experiment with this morning, but what it means is is it means you set in order what I need before I even need it.

You set in order what I need before I even get there.

You set in order what I need in advance.

And the reason why that is important and so it doesn't matter which metaphor you use that's important because I know that God guides and provides even before I know I need him to guide and provide.

That's why I have an audacious confidence is because whenever I encounter an issue or a need, I know that that's not the first time that God's heard about it.

He's already on the move, and the reason why that would have been so amazing to the people who heard this the first time is this is kind of what, like the table lands would have looked like during the time, and it's kind of a plateau area, and what would happen is during the summertime, that is where the sheep and the shepherds needed to be.

That's where all of the best grass was gonna grow.

There was plenty of it there.

There was plenty of water there.

This was a place where they also could see the different obstacles that were in the way.

It was the place you needed to go.

The problem is is you didn't just get there, if you notice.

You got a plan on how you're going to get there.

You got a plan when you're going to climb, when you're going to rest, how you're going to go about it.

And so when the people who would have heard this for the first time heard that God is with us and he prepares a table land before me, it would have blown their mind, because that means God's going to hang around a while.

God's not just going to say go and enjoy, but he is going to lead us, no matter how long the journey takes, and he's actually going to go ahead of us and provide for us, even before we get there, that he is going to chart the course so that he is with us all along the way.

Can I tell you God is charting a course in your life and he is with you more than you think that he is with us all along the way.

Can I tell you God is charting a course in your life and he is with you more than you think that he is actually with you.

And if you've seen what I had seen, you couldn't help but believe that too, with an audacious confidence, because God is with you.

And what I love about that is we see that all throughout God's word.

But there's this one that I love so much, and it is a scripture that is in the book of Nehemiah, and for those of you who've been reading God's word with us, we've been reading at Jeremiah about how the nation is about to be destroyed and they're going to go into exile for 70 years.

Well, at the end of the 70 years, one of the leaders who is tasked to come back as a guy named Nehemiah, and he has this seemingly impossible task.

He's got to go and get these defeated people organized, rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and start the process of preparing to build the next temple.

I mean that is an absolutely impossible sounding task, but Nehemiah says let's go.

He had this audacious confidence that it was going to happen.

And so when he got through doing it and he was worshiping God he kind of let everybody know.

He tipped his hand so you could see where his confidence came from.

And the Bible said this as he was worshiping God, he said you sent your good spirit to instruct them and you did not stop giving them manna or water.

For 40 years you sustained them.

Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not even swell.

In other words, he's saying I remember a long time ago when it looked like it was impossible because you took a slave nation and you set them free and they had no idea how to take care of themselves and they had to get from Egypt all the way to Canaan and there was about 3 million of them in a wilderness, in a desert, and they were there for 40 years.

That sounds like a no-win scenario.

But, god, you took a no-win scenario and for 40 years you sustained a people in the middle of a desert and you provided for them.

He said you provided for their daily needs.

You performed miracles and you kept a steady pace so they could make the journey.

So he provided for their daily needs.

The Bible says that for 40 years he gave them free food.

I'll take whatever coupon I can get right, but he gave them for 40 years.

And here's the best thing too, that they said that manna tasted probably a little bit like honey.

He gave them honey bread.

I'd have been happy with anything I could get, but he gave them sweet tasting food.

And then he gave them water in a desert, in a desert.

And so what he would do is he would move them from here, and the Bible said they would follow the cloud wherever it would go and it would stay here for a while and then it would go over here for a while and it's like God was charting their course, and when it was time to go to the next water source, he would send them so way beforehand.

But even what's more amazing is that their clothes didn't even wear out, and I know that for some of you that would be very horrible, because your clothes wearing out gives you an excuse to go shopping again, right, but you don't have to, because, since nobody else's clothes is wearing out, we're all wearing the same style for 40 years.

And here's the thing that's amazing to me, because the oldest thing I have is a pair of socks, and it's they're about five years, and they're falling apart, all right, and so it's on principle that I'm keeping them, but they had 40 years of clothes.

And then what I love too is it says their feet didn't even swell.

In other words, he kept them at a steady pace that he, he knew how far they could walk before they needed to rest, and so he let them walk.

And then he let him rest.

And he let them walk, he planned it out, he knew what was going on.

And now, a thousand years later, nehemiah is looking at an impossible task and he's like guys, I know we can do it.

How can you be so confident?

Well, if you remembered what I remember that God took a slave nation and set them free, and then he kept them alive Three million plus people in a wilderness for 40 years, giving them supernatural food supernatural, basically, water in a desert.

And then they didn't even have to go to Kohl's one time and get new clothes, and they didn't have to get a new pair of shoes.

That's a miracle.

And if God can do that, what else can he do?

And you know how they were able to do that.

It's because the Bible says back then in Exodus, that God told Moses fill a two quart container with manna to preserve it for your descendants.

Then later generations will be able to see the food I gave you in the wilderness when I set you free from Egypt.

In other words, he said I am going to prepare now so that when somebody needs it they can remember that God is faithful.

Can I tell you, sometimes, when we're going through a difficult time, we need to remember what God has done to give us confidence.

But sometimes, when we're going through that season, we need to write down what God is doing so that one day, when we have a problem, we can remember God's faithfulness.

Because if you've been where I've been and if you saw what I have seen, you would trust him too.

And you know what I believe Is.

I believe that audacious confidence says that God has a plan for your life and that you are not wandering around in a wilderness without purpose.

And I tell you the nation of Israel for a season.

They may have wondered God, why are we here?

What is all this about?

What is all of this worth?

But God was planning and preparing beforehand.

And now that we look at their life later, even when we go through seasons where we don't always understand, we don't always know, and maybe the private battle in your life is just feeling like God, where is this leading?

What exactly am I doing here?

Can I tell you.

You can have an audacious faith in God, because he has never led anybody to a dead end.

He has never led anybody off a cliff.

He may lead you right beside one, but he's always gonna turn you and get you exactly where you need to be.

And I'm gonna tell you if you've seen, if you had seen what I have seen, you would believe, like I believe, that God doesn't waste anything.

God knows exactly what he's doing and exactly where he's going and because of that we can have that audacious confidence that we know that God is faithful and he will guide and he will provide all along the way.

Amen, amen.

I want you to look at your neighbor and we're going to do it again and say, hey, neighbor, if you've seen what I've seen.

You would trust him too.

You know what I've seen.

I've seen that wherever God guides, he always provides.

He always provides.

You know what else I've seen?

I have seen that we can trust him and we can be confident that the presence of an enemy is not the absence of God.

We can trust and believe that the presence of an enemy is not the absence of God.

It may feel that way sometimes, but many times it's because our focus is so much on the enemy.

We don't see what God is doing and later we call it luck.

Isn't it amazing how we just kind of get out of that?

No, not really.

If you begin to understand what God can do, and you begin to understand and have an audacious confidence in God, you begin to see it less as luck and more as the timing of what God was already working on.

Because he guides and he provides.

God's word says it like this Because he guides and he provides, god's word says it like this the Lord is my shepherd.

I have all that I need.

He prepares a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.

In other words, god doesn't take a consensus, he doesn't take a vote before he does something in your life.

He doesn't check with all of your enemies to see if you have earned it, if you have deserved it.

He does what he wants to do and he does it despite what everybody else says.

That's what I love about this.

This is actually a fun one to say.

The Hebrew phrase for this is naged, so rei, rei, naged, so rei, rei.

You want to try that with me?

Ready, naged, so rei, ray, ray.

That's what that means.

It means, right in front of any hostile force, that God prepares a way for you.

Right in the middle of people that don't like you, of situations that are not favorable, god says, okay, I see, situations are not favorable, I see that this is going on and I love them too.

I'm doing something in their life.

But I'm not going to consult with your enemies before I determine what I'm able to do in your life.

We say, well, pastor, I got saved, so I wouldn't have any enemies.

Well, god's word says, yes, that sounds great, but everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will have enemies, will suffer persecution.

That doesn't mean we go looking for them, and the Bible says that the weapons of our warfare are not physical, they're not carnal but spiritual in nature, that God is doing something.

People are not your enemy, the devil is our enemy, but we're gonna have them.

But what the amazing thing is is that God doesn't say well, I was going to do something in your life, but them enemies, he doesn't do that.

As was going to do something in your life, but them enemies, he doesn't do that.

As a matter of fact, as we were talking about a minute ago, like for a shepherd, they have to prepare for poisonous plants, for snakes and for wolves.

You know, in our life we're going to have opportunities, be poisoned by sin, crippled by unseen possibilities and destroyed by aggressive enemies, by the devil.

But the thing is is that God sees all of that and he says let's go.

That's the one thing about the table lands is that it was in an elevated position, and so the shepherd was able to see in advance where all of the other enemies are, and he didn't wait for the enemies to go away before he started doing something.

Instead, he said in the presence of those enemies we're going to move forward anyway.

Many times that's what God does in our life.

Some of us are waiting for all of our problems to go away so that then God can do something.

Actually, it's right in the middle of those difficulties that God wants to do something in our lives.

One of the greatest examples of this is a story in the New Testament about a guy named Paul and Silas.

Have you ever heard of what happened to poor Paul and pitiful Silas?

What happened in their life actually was kind of awesome, but I'm talking about that Paul too, the one who wrote 13 letters in the New Testament.

But what happened was is Paul and Silas went on a missionary journey, both to see some of the churches that Paul had had the opportunity to plant and then also to plant some new churches, and they went into this one city and while they were there, they were preaching the gospel and telling people about the goodness of God, and there was this one young lady who needed some help, and so God used them to help this young lady, and the city did not like it.

They did not like that people were being set free by the power of God and that people were turning to Jesus, and so they decided they were going to do something.

Well, nowadays you get canceled on social media.

Back then they beat the dog out of these guys.

I mean they beat the mess out of these guys.

I mean they beat them within an inch of their life and then threw them in jail.

Thanks, guys, I appreciate that.

We were trying to help people.

Now we're in jail.

That's called having an enemy right, and the Bible said this.

It said that the jailer actually put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in stocks.

Thank you so very much.

And so, because they were political prisoners, basically they beat them half to death and then they threw them on the inner dungeon.

Now what that means is is there was no windows in their room and they didn't have bathrooms, they didn't have anything else, and so they were smelling stuff.

They're walking in stuff.

It's bad, it's terrible.

That's their room that they're in, but they can't walk because not only have they beat them, they put their feet in stocks, and that would have been it for me.

All right, that would have been it.

I'm in like okay, you beat me, but now I can't walk around.

You know how hard it is to get comfortable when you can't move your feet.

You know you have a backache forget being beat to death, but you have a backache and you just wanna kind of you can't move, just miserable, just miserable.

They can't dress their wounds.

There's no telling what all's I mean.

It's a horrible situation, but you know, what's amazing Is right, is right in the middle of this.

And here's the thing too we now know they didn't die the next day.

They don't know that, for all they know, tomorrow morning they're gonna die.

This is the last night they're going to live.

They've been beat up, they're in stocks, everybody's staring at their feet, they've got.

They're in the inner dungeon smelling who knows what.

And there they are.

Last night on this earth, for what?

And this is what the Bible says?

Around midnight, because they ain't sleeping anyway, paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the other prisoners were listening.

So you know what they were doing.

And this dark, terrible night, after experiencing a horrible day, they look over at each other and I don't know the Bible doesn't say we use our imagination.

Paul looks over at Silas and says hey, silas, you dead.

No man.

But that was hard, that was really hard.

I know it was hard for me too, but you know what?

God's so good, what an opportunity we've had.

You see all those people that were praising Jesus.

It was awesome.

I sure wish they hadn't beat us up, but that was really, really awesome.

I know me too, man, what are we going to do?

You want to sing?

No, paul, you can't sing for nothing.

All right, yes, yes, but we're not going to do anything else while we're here.

What do you want to sing?

Okay, sing.

What was that song they were singing the other day?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know what a beautiful name it is, what a beautiful.

It is dark and they're singing the name of Jesus Christ, my King.

They smell who knows what, and they're still singing.

What a beautiful name it is.

Now, if they're in jail, some of the jailers are going hey, man, that sounds terrible.

Stop, appreciate you the name of Jesus Christ.

And there's just, there's worshiping God.

You know why?

Because they realize that it's dark and it smells and there's prisoners, but that's not all.

That's in the room, that God's also in the room, and so they start focusing their attention on the king, not just the problem.

And the Bible said that they started singing this.

Suddenly there was a massive earthquake.

In other words, jesus decided to dance.

Okay, because whenever God dances, the earth moves.

I don't know, I just made that up.

That's not in the Bible, but the prison was shaken to its foundations and all the doors immediately flew open and the chains of every prisoner fell off.

It didn't just deliver them, it delivered everybody around them.

I wonder if they kept singing.

Hey guys, paul Silas, can y'all keep singing, maybe something else will happen.

Okay, you have no rival, you have no equal.

Now and forever, god you reign.

The jailer comes in.

He hears some kind of singing, he hears a commotion, he doesn't know what's going on.

And back then, if a Roman soldier lost a prisoner, they killed you.

He's about to kill himself.

And so they stopped singing long enough to say no, no, no, no.

We're all still here.

Why would you still be here?

Because you hadn't heard about Jesus yet, and I trust him.

And so let me tell you about Jesus.

You imagine they finished the song.

What a powerful name it is.

Because now them, the prisoners, and the jailer and all the jailer's house know Jesus, because when everything was horrible around them, they focused not on their enemy but on Jesus, on God, and God made the difference.

Can I tell you, in this life we will have enemies, but we also have God, and what that means is is that audacious confidence remembers that your enemy is not the only one in the room.

He's not the only one.

Your enemy is not the only one that is doing something.

He's not the only one that's messing with stuff.

And sometimes the greatest miracles happen right in the presence of the darkest struggles.

I have never heard a testimony that started off with man.

I was, I was doing great, Everything was awesome.

I couldn't have been blessed anymore.

And then guess what else happened?

I've never heard that.

You know what I've heard?

I've heard that the doctor came in the room and I knew they had done tests and they told me it's the worst.

It's not what we hoped, it's the worst.

I'm going to leave you in here, I'm going to let you collect yourself, and I'm going to let you collect yourself and we're going to come back in and we're going to talk about next steps.

And then they leave the room and you're there by yourself, and there's nobody else in the room except for Jesus, and that's enough.

And in that room, by themselves, they start singing.

What a beautiful name it is.

What a beautiful name it is the name of Jesus Christ, my King God.

I know cancer is here, but I also know that you're here and that's enough.

I've talked to people who've walked into a quiet house when all they wanted was the sound of their children and the sound of their spouse.

But something else is going on in their life and they're afraid that it's always gonna be this way and they're afraid that they're all alone.

But while they're there they remember that the enemy is there.

But they're also aware of the presence of Jesus and they started saying you have no rival, you have no.

That's what testimonies are made out of when your boss calls you and you've been hearing the rumors that they're going to downsize your part of the company, and you find out it's true when you're driving on the way home.

What a powerful name it is, what a powerful name it is.

I'm not denying I've got enemies.

I'm just aware of the presence of God, and if you could ever see what some of us have seen, then you would realize that I don't want any bad thing to happen.

But I'm not afraid, because I know that God comes to and that he leads us and that wherever he guides, he provides, and that the presence of an enemy is not the absence of God.

And actually the greatest miracles happen right in front of the biggest enemies.

And so you can have that audacious confidence too, when you remember that God is for you more than you can imagine.

So one more time, not for you, but for your neighbor, I want you to testify to him and say hey, neighbor, if you knew what I knew, you would trust him too.

You would, you know why?

Because you know what I've seen in my life, and so many of us have seen it in our lives.

We have seen that God will guide and God will provide in more ways than we can imagine.

You know what I've seen, and I know you've seen too, that the presence of an enemy is not the absence of God.

And one more and that is this, and this is the greatest one that God has invited us to his table, that God has invited all of us to his table.

You remember that there's two different metaphors.

That's working in this.

One is talking about the table lands and being with us on the journey, but the other is as God, as an amazing host who has invited all of us into his place of safety and of joy and of provision.

And he says it like this he says you prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.

And we have to remember that David is constantly reminding us that we are not the subject of this song, that God is the subject of this song.

Yahweh, the personal name of God, he is the subject of this and that's amazing, because God could have inspired David to use any other of his names.

Like we all have different names, right, like for me, my name is Brandon.

I'm also known as Mr Cannon.

That's usually, if you don't know me, that some people who are a little old school, they call me Brother Cannon.

That makes me feel uncomfortable, but it's fine.

Some people, just because of just, it's just a nickname I have, they call me PB.

But there's only two people in the world that gets away with calling me daddy, and it ain't none of y'all, okay, because they ain't in here.

You're welcome to call me daddy, but it's going to immediately redefine our relationship.

I'll be honest with you.

Okay, you ain't calling me daddy.

There's only two people that will, and that's my girls.

And, to be honest with you, I don't like it when they call me Mr Cannon.

I don't like it when they call well, they better not call me Brandon.

Okay, call me daddy.

Can I tell you God doesn't want just to have a formal relationship with you.

He wants you to know him personally.

He wants you to be in fellowship with him.

Can I tell you personally, he wants you to be in fellowship with him.

Can I tell you?

That's what salvation is.

Salvation is the greatest miracle we could ever hope for, and we've already received it, if we know him.

And that is when we went from having a head knowledge that he is the king of the universe to where now we have a heart knowledge that he is my heavenly father and that through the blood of Jesus, my sins have been washed away.

It reminds me of a story about a guy named Mephibosheth and we're going to call him Chef, because Mephibosheth is really hard to say and he's a guy in the Old Testament.

The story goes that David was the second king of Israel.

The first king was a guy named Saul and he had a son named Jonathan, and Jonathan was David's best friend.

Well, one day, king Saul and Jonathan, the crown prince, were both killed in a battle, and because they didn't know what was going to happen when David took over and they didn't know what was going to happen if he didn't take over that when that happens, those who are left alive.

They go and escape to save their lives.

And at the time, sheth was just a baby and they were grabbing him up to get him out of there because they didn't know what was going to happen.

But a nurse didn't mean to, but she dropped him, dropped him on his feet and he broke his legs to a point that he was lame the rest of his life.

And because he was lame and now he couldn't contend for the throne and there was all these other issues, that they put him away and forgot about him.

As a matter of fact, they put him in a town called Lodabar, which literally means someone without pasture, someone with no shepherd, someone who's been forgotten.

That's where he was.

But one day the Bible said that David asked is anyone in Saul's family still alive?

Asked is anyone in Saul's family still alive, anyone to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake?

And they didn't know what he's going to do with that.

But they said, yeah, yeah, there's somebody.

You probably don't want to meet him, why not?

Well, he's got issues, but his name is Mephibosheth or Sheth, and he's one of Jonathan's kids.

Please bring him, bring him.

And so they brought him.

And they didn't know what David was going to do.

And so he gets down, and he gets down on his, on his hands, and he's like here I am expecting David to kill him.

But instead David comes down to where he is and he hugs him and he says I knew your daddy, I love your daddy, which means I love you.

I'm gonna give you all of his land, I'm gonna give you everything you never that you thought you had lost.

And you gonna come eat with me.

What?

Why would you do that?

Who am I?

And he even literally says why would you want to do this for such a dead dog as me?

And David says it's not about you, it's about whose you are, it's about who you belong to.

And the Bible said that Mephibosheth got up that morning without anything, went to bed that night in the king's palace.

And the Bible said that Mephibosheth, who was crippled in both feet, lived in Jerusalem and ate regularly at the king's table.

And do you know what that is?

That's a picture of what salvation is, because something happened to all of us in our life at some point and something happened and something dropped us, something broke inside of us.

We sinned in our life and we were now separated from the goodness of God.

We didn't know what to do, we didn't know where to go.

All the battles were big in our life and we thought we had been forgotten by God.

But one day God said where's my kids?

And instead of just shouting his love from heaven, he came on a rescue mission himself.

And then, when we came before God, expecting to receive judgment, fearful and wondering what God was going to do, the king himself came down and he picked us up and he said I love you, I'm gonna bless you, I'm gonna wash away any debt or any sin that you have.

Why would you do that?

Because of who your daddy is, because you're mine.

Can I tell you If we could realize what salvation is and that the greatest miracle we could ever hope for we've already received?

Why would a God like that leave us now?

The answer is he won't.

He's with us more than we can imagine, and we can have an audacious confidence because of what God has already done in all of our lives, because wherever he guides, he provides, because the presence of an enemy is not the absence of God, and because that he is with us and he's invited us to his table, which reminds me of Peter.

Now, if you've been reading God's word with us, we've been reading through Jeremiah and we have been in Jeremiah for at least 12 years.

It's been a long journey and I love Jerry, but I'm ready to stop talking about Jerry for just a few minutes, right, and we're going to finish Jeremiah at the end of this week, and so if you'd like to read God's word with us, it's the perfect time to do that.

You can text RLCBIBLE to 94000 and we're gonna read one of my favorite books in the New Testament, 2, peter.

And here's why, about two to three years before this was written, rome, the Rome burned.

There's a lot of speculation throughout history who started it?

I know who didn't start it, and that was the Christians, but Nero needed a scapegoat, so he blamed the Christians, and so then he started arresting all the prominent Christians in Rome, which means he arrested Paul.

That's why Paul was in prison.

Later he arrested Peter and he would later kill them both, and we don't know exactly who died first, peter or Paul, but most likely they knew the other was in prison and they knew it was a pretty dark time.

You could tell the winds of change were coming and there weren't good winds.

And it's amazing because in the first Peter it's beautiful Greek and it's written, you know, by somebody who probably was kind of like wrote as he dictated it, and they're probably somewhere.

Second Peter is written like a fisherman, would who's learned how to write in Greek.

It's stunted English and it's you can tell it would who's learned how to write in Greek.

It's stunted English and you can tell it's somebody who's in a prison and they know the end is near.

You imagine, after, at that point, spending 30 years serving Jesus and all the things that he had seen, and now he's in prison and he knows, as a Roman citizen, you were given the honor of being beheaded.

As a non-Roman citizen, he was likely to be crucified.

Knowing that's coming, he could have said any number of things in his last letter to the church, but look at what one of the first things he says.

He says by his divine power, god has given us everything we need for living a godly life.

God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.

We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence, peter.

What are you talking about man?

You're in prison, I know.

I know I'm in prison, peter.

They're killing Christians left and right, and you're one of the prominent Christians.

They're probably going to kill you next, I know.

Do you're one of the prominent Christians?

They're probably going to kill you next, I know.

Do you realize what they do to non-Roman citizens?

Yes, what do you say about that?

God's power has given me everything I need to not give up, to take the next step, to look in the face of fear and say, yeah, fear is here, and so is my king.

I'm never alone.

I've got God with me.

Peter, how can you say that?

If you had only seen what I have seen, then you would believe what I believe.

Peter, what have you seen?

I remember when Jesus called me out on the water and I was doing pretty good for a little while, and then I got to looking at the water and the waves and I began to sink.

Man.

I had nothing but fear, but the King grabbed me by the hand and he picked me up.

And what you jokers seem to forget is that we walked together back to the boat.

He said I was there when we ran out of food and the King started breaking it and handing it out and we fed 5,000 people with a kid's lunch.

He said, man, I was there when I was in the courtyard beside where they were, they were had Jesus on trial and I guys, I denied him three times, but I was also there when he called me back to himself and he told me he still loved me and he still had a plan for my life.

If you had seen what I had seen, you would believe what I believe, and that is we have everything we need.

But then he finishes the verse with this and he says in view of all of these things, make every effort to respond to God's promises.

In other words, what he's saying is is God is willing to guide and provide everywhere we go, that the presence of an enemy is not the absence of God, and that he has invited us to his table.

But he stands like this, saying come be part of this with me.

We don't have to make a miracle, we get to reach out to him.

He's saying reach out to God, reach out with your brokenness, reach out with whatever it is you need, and he's going to give you everything you need.

Maybe he works in an amazing healing in a moment.

He's going to give you the strength you need.

Maybe he heals you through a process.

He's going to give you the strength you need, whatever it is.

Maybe he heals you through a process.

He's going to give you the strength you need.

Whatever it is, he's here.

So, in other words, he left it on us to reach out.

Can I tell you, one of my favorite things I've ever heard was I was listening to someone talk about one time about how they were being trained to do scuba diving.

And as they were being trained to do scuba diving, they said in the event of an accident and something starts to go wrong, we need you to do us a favor, and that is we need you to be a participant in your own rescue.

So what does that mean?

That means you do your part and we'll do ours, and that is don't fight us, just do your best.

Don't fight us.

Let us do the hard stuff.

Can I tell you?

I feel like maybe God's word for some of us is stop fighting.

Stop fighting the Lord, stop trying to do it your own way.

Do the best you can, but be part of your rescue and instead of throwing your hands up and instead of giving pray harder than ever.

Believe God more than ever.

Try again one more day and, instead of fighting against him, say God, I'm yours, whatever you want to do, and I'm going to lay down everything at your feet and watch what God does.

I'm going to tell you something If you'd been where I'd been you've seen what I'd seen you would trust him because he's done so many amazing things.

In just a moment, the band's going gonna lead us in a song of worship and I wanna ask you that question what are you fighting against God?

With what are you fighting?

What are you not giving to him?

What are you not surrendering to him?

You're trying to do it all yourself and you know it's not working out.

What is it you need to turn over to him today?

Maybe you're in here and you don't have.

Can I tell you, just like my story just a moment ago about Mephibosheth God wants to invite you to his table, but you've got to go all in with him.

You've got to confess your sin, you've got to give everything, surrender everything to him, and you'll experience the goodness of God.

Are you fighting against God today?

Instead, trust him and you can have that audacious confidence that God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly, above everything you could ask or think, according to his power that works within us.

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 in every way.

Thank you, god, that you see every one of us in here.

And, lord, we know and we believe that everybody in here has a private battle that only you and they know about.

And, god, no matter what that is, if it's big for them, it's big for you.

Your word says to cast all of our anxieties on you because you care for us.

God, sometimes we don't even realize that we're fighting against you.

We just think we're trying.

We're trying to figure it out ourselves and, God, you don't mind if we work the problem.

You just don't want us to do it without you.

You want us to get you involved in every area of our life, god.

I pray today, holy Spirit, that you'll reveal to us any area of our life that we need to turn over to you and then, in just a moment, god, we'll have the courage to take a step in your direction.

God, I pray for anybody here, lord, that they don't know you.

They know all about you, but they've never made you their King and their Savior.

Lord, I pray that you'll help them to realize Holy Spirit that's you, that's drawing them close to you.

The lie of the enemy is the one that says that you don't want them or that they could never have freedom.

The way buying that in the name of Jesus, and we release you, holy Spirit, into our lives.

We ask you, god, to have your way in this moment.

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 a final song of worship and I to ask you this question what do you need to turn over to the Lord today?

What do you need?

To have?

An audacious confidence that God is able.

Some different ways that you can do that.

Number one is maybe right where you're sitting.

You just need to have a moment with God and, as they're singing this song, you just release that to the Lord.

Maybe you want to find a quiet place up here and just symbolically lay it at the altar.

Maybe you want to go back to the back and you want to have someone pray with you about whatever's going on.

Maybe you need to receive Jesus today.

Can I tell you it's the best decision you'll ever make.

We'd love for you to not do that by yourself, but join us at the prayer table.

We'd love to talk with you about what salvation is and celebrate with you as you come into the