Psalm 23: The Good Shepherd (4- Fresh Life)

You are here because you are stuck in your house for other reasons.

Thank you so much for joining us and I want you to put in the comments below what best describes your day.

It might be just a bunch of water, it might be a tornado.

Whatever it is, let us know and we're excited to worship with you.

All right, and the thing is is that it could be worse.

You could be dressed like an Easter egg, which is kind of what I'm dressed like.

This morning, when I asked one of my daughters like I was tired of wearing black, and I was like, hey, dress me in something else.

I didn't realize it was going to look like this.

So I've had more than one person say pastor's a little early for Easter this year.

So it hurts my feelings a little bit.

Let's go ahead and get that out there, and it is so good to see you as we get into our series and if you are just now joining us, we are walking through the Psalm 23, one verse at a time.

And we also have a gift for you.

We're going to continue to mention this and that is that this kind of the seeds of this series were born out of reading this book A Shepherd's.

Look at Psalm 23.

And so if you do not have a copy of this, we have a free one for you out in the Welcome Center.

And there's a code you have to say or you don't get it.

And the code is I needs me my book.

Okay, when I count to three, I want you to say it like you're from the South I needs me my book.

Okay, one, two, three, you'll get it.

You'll get it.

That's the only way.

If you say, might I please have a book, they're just going to tell you to keep on walking Okay, but if you have the Southern drawl, just a little bit, you and I've already talked to a few of you who've already read the whole thing and have started reading it the second time, and I'm just saying, man, it was just so powerful when you see God in a different light and that's kind of the goal of our series and that is that my hope is is that by the time we're done with this series, there'll be some people who see God in a fresh and a new way.

You didn't know that God could do that and God was doing that in your life and for other people.

You're going to be reminded of the goodness of God and be reminded that God does do those things in your life.

And that's one of the things I love about Psalm 23, is it is just a list of the different ways that God cares for us as our shepherd.

And there's so many things that, honestly, we have to get into those environments before we realize, hey, god can take care of that too.

Right, and one of those is one that kind of as an example, to kind of get us started on this idea.

I don't know if you've ever experienced this or not, but there is an environment that you can get in.

That, to me, is one of the scariest things, because you don't know it, you're not planning for it, but it happens.

And I'm not talking about going to see someone who owns a cat Okay, that's, that's a different kind of evil.

Right there.

I'm talking about a moment you didn't ask for, but all of a sudden chaos just happens.

And if that's, if you don't know what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about when someone experiences an asthma attack.

I don't know if you have asthma in here, but if you've ever been around someone where they have an asthma attack, it is terrifying because you're just minding your own business and all of a sudden they're dying, I mean, they can't breathe.

And the thing is is I have been involved in many of these and I fail every single time.

If you have asthma in here and you have an asthma attack, don't come see me because I'm going to be panicking right along with you.

Okay, and I actually remember one time I was with somebody and someone came up and kind of scared both of us.

Well, he had asthma, real bad, and it got him into where he couldn't catch his breath and and he's kind of, you know, he can't, he's he's trying to breathe and he can't, he can't breathe.

Well, now I can't breathe because I'm terrified.

I'm like man, what do you need?

And he has this look on his face that is part terror and part you're an idiot, because I'm asking him what he needs and he's like I would love to tell you, but I can't breathe.

And so I'm like what do you need, man, what do you need?

And he's like you know, and finally a good-hearted Samaritan went over to this guy's bag and pulled out one of these miracles called an inhaler.

And it was awesome, because my poor friend is just and he breathes this thing in.

And all of a sudden he starts catching his breath and he's so much better and but no one went to help me.

I'm still over there, is he, is he, is he okay?

You know, it's like I need a drag of that.

I need to help me out just a little bit because I'm now struggling.

But it was terrifying.

And can I tell you, many times when we go through life, we don't always expect it, but sometimes things happen to us and we panic.

The good news is is that we could call God a spiritual inhaler.

Whenever we lose our breath, whenever we lose our way, whenever we get weary, god has the ability to calm every storm.

We just got to know where to go looking for him and then we can find him.

And that's my hope for us out of this series, and that is that by the time we're done with this, you could say you know what?

I may not know everything in life, but I know that the Lord is my shepherd and we can follow him, that no matter what I go through, no matter what comes up in my life that's expected or unexpected, that wants to steal my breath, kind of steal my joy, I trust that I can follow the Lord, and one of the reasons is because over the course of this series, we're going to see God in so many fresh and new ways.

Let's read God's word and see what it has to say to us today.

The Bible 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.

That's where we're going to be today, but let's keep going.

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 before me in the presence of my enemies and you honor me by anointing my head with oil.

My cup overflows with blessing.

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.

One of the promises that God gives us when we allow him to be our shepherd and we follow him and live in the community and fellowship of being sheep of his pastor is this that because the Lord is our shepherd, he will bring life to the weary.

That he promises us that if we will let him be our shepherd, that he will bring life.

He will bring rest, help us catch our breath, bring life to the weary, and that's one of the things that I don't know about you.

But if you would want to describe my life, the idea of having an asthma attack can sometimes best describe my life, and that is that I can be minding my own business, everything can be just fine, and all of a sudden something unexpected happens and now I kind of lose my my breath, lose my spiritual momentum, lose the, the excitement I have in God, or maybe it's the other way around, and that is that I didn't expect it, but slowly I start to lose that spiritual momentum.

Well, the great thing is is that, wherever you find yourself today, god's word promises us that he will bring life to every weary place in our life.

And so let's kind of get ourselves back into that timeframe so we can remember, kind of what God's word is saying, and that is that we're going through Psalm 23, if you remember, which is a song written by King David, and it was most likely written toward the end of his life, and he is writing and recounting all the different ways that God had been fateful in his life, and that's what we talked about is back then they wouldn't have called it Psalm 23.

Most of the time, the title of the song was the first line of the song.

So if they were wanting to sing this song at the temple one day, they would say let's sing that song that the Lord is my shepherd.

That one and that's what he did is he said the Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need.

And then he spends the rest of the Psalm celebrating the different ways that he provides for all of our needs.

And what we've been doing over the past couple of weeks is we talked about.

Two weeks ago we talked about how he brings contentment, and then last week Brandon Gilland did such an amazing job talking about how he brings peace into our life, and I love how he put both of those together and that is that contentment is allowing myself to be where I am, because that's where God has put me, and peace is being okay, no matter what happens as a result of that.

And it was this amazing marriage of the two.

But then, right after saying God brings contentment and God brings peace, then David says he also brings renewal, he brings restoration to our life, and so obviously that is super important that when we have contentment and have peace, he promises us renewal.

So if you want to write this down, let's go on.

What is the definition of renewal and that is to renew something is to bring it back to a place of wholeness, purpose and life.

To renew something is to bring it back again.

To bring it back from wherever it was, to a place where it can't catch its breath or to a place where it feels almost dead, if it feels like it's in a difficult place.

To bring it back to a place of wholeness, purpose and life.

And one of the things we want to talk about is how God breathes life into us.

But I don't know about you.

The question that I usually have is I mean, that's good and all and I love that, but the question is how do we get here?

Have you ever thought about that before?

Like, how is it possible that everything is going fine until all of a sudden, boom, we look up and we don't have any breath anymore.

We're struggling, we're on the edge of giving up.

We need God to bring something back to life.

How do we even get there?

Well, the reason why we do can be a thousand different reasons, but since we are talking about the shepherd and the sheep, let's look at what actually can happen to a sheep and see if maybe that happens to us.

And that is this something we need to know about sheep, and that is that sheep often need rescue.

And here's the thing they are actually experts at getting into trouble.

Sheep are really good at getting into trouble.

And the thing is about sheep is they can get in trouble 99 different ways, like.

There are so many reasons and one of them that, if I'm honest, it is probably one that is, it seems the most silly, but it happens so much, and that is there is this thing that the that sheep can get into and it's called being cast, and that sheep isn't actually a rough situation.

I know he looks like he's taking a load off and he's kind of relaxing in the meadow, but actually he's in a dangerous spot.

To be cast means a sheep has become upside down.

They cannot get up and will die without assistance.

Now, don't worry, no sheep died in the construction of the sermon today.

But this old boy, he's actually in a rough spot if someone doesn't help him and actually, if it is hot outside, he could die like this in the matter of a few hours.

If it's cold outside, he could die like this in the matter of a few hours.

If it's cold outside, he will slowly suffocate to death over the course of about 48 hours If he doesn't cry out for the shepherd to come find him.

And what is so amazing about that is that they can be in a green meadow beside a peaceful stream and be slowly dying.

We've been talking about how God brings contentment and God brings peace, and we can be right beside those things and be dying on the inside because something has caused us to lose our breath and because of that, while everybody else is celebrating and we look like we should be because we're right in the middle of it, we're actually dying on the inside.

Well, how do they get like this?

Because that looks.

I mean, wouldn't you think if you're like that, you could just slowly kind of use momentum and kind of get up?

But they can't do that.

Apparently, once they get there on their back, they are there, I mean, they are just, they are absolutely there, and they cannot get up without just saying help me.

And there's three main reasons, according to shepherds why they will go.

And apparently this is a thing.

Because if they see a whole bunch of sheep and they just see four hooves up, they're going.

Ah there, they go again and they go find them.

And there's three main reasons why a sheep would do this.

Here they are the reason why a sheep can become cast or upside down, where they can't fix themselves, is because they try too hard to be comfortable.

This actually happens, that they will be in the green meadow and they'll be like you know that grass is good, but it'd be a little bit better if I got just a little bit, just a little bit more.

Until they boom, they fall over and they weren't happy with where they were.

They kept going a little bit further until now.

They need help.

Another one is they become weighed down by too much wool and collected debris.

So as the season goes and as their wool gets more and more and more and they will brush up against trees, against bushes and shrubs and other things, they'll collect debris, limbs, leaves, rocks, and it will get heavier and heavier and heavier until they can't go anymore and they'll just lay down and because of the weight of it it will then turn them upside down and they need help.

And one more is they say they fall over, they just get lazy, they just decide they don't want to, and so they just will plop and roll right on over.

Help me, you know, it's like someone will come along soon, it's just fine, right, that's that.

And then what happens is they go from just whatever their reason is to now they're in desperate need of rescue.

And you know why that bothers me so much is because in my own life and in the lives of other people that I know and love, I have seen them become spiritually cast, where they're upside down in their life, their spiritual life, and they don't know what to do.

And there could be 99 reasons why, but you know some of them, I see.

Sometimes the reasons why Christians become cast is because we become too comfortable with sin.

We keep on getting a little bit closer and a little bit closer to sin.

It's all right, it bothers everybody else, it doesn't bother me.

Well, maybe the fact that it doesn't bother us should bother us, and we get a little bit closer and a little bit closer.

Until before we know it, we're no longer playing with sin, but now sin controls us and we're in trouble.

Another one is because we get overwhelmed by the cares and the pains and the worries until we finally just can't go anymore.

And the worries until we finally just can't go anymore and we just fall over, we lose our breath.

Or how about this one?

We become spiritually lazy.

We think Christianity is a spiritual spa, but we just come in and lay back and go do it to me Jesus, just give it all to me, jesus, and we realize that, yes, god wants to bless us, but that's not all that God does for us.

And we get spiritually lazy because we think it's all about us.

And I've actually got a blank in your message notes and I want to ask you this question what tends to make you cast and steals your breath of the different things that could happen in your life spiritually?

What is it that sometimes steals that spiritual breath in your life?

And I don't know what it is, but what I do know is that God has a promise for us.

Because Because here's a really good question for us today, and that is so.

I may, that sounded like a horse.

I've been working on the sheep sound.

It ain't working for me, so I may have become spiritually out of breath.

I may I'm not going to admit to anything around here, but I may have become spiritually out of breath.

How can God help me when I feel so upside down?

Because you know what the problem is a lot of times it's because the hardest thing to do when we feel spiritually just weary is to admit that we're spiritually weary, to admit that we're not okay, to admit that we have gotten turned upside down, and there's a thousand reasons why that's the first thing that's so hard to do.

The second thing is to take the first step, to wonder God, are you gonna be with me when I do this?

And so I wanna tell you that God's word has promises for us that if we find ourselves weary, find ourselves out of breath, he wants to breathe his breath, his wind, his love back into us.

With three different promises from this verse.

And so, if you're taking notes, and if you would say that you tend to be spiritually cast, spiritually get upside down and don't know what to do, god has three promises for us today, and that is this God's word says that we can find fresh life in him when he leads us.

We can find fresh breath and fresh life in him when he leads us.

Why don't you look at your neighbor and say he renews my strength.

Tell them that.

Say he renews.

He renews my strength.

Whatever I'm going through, whatever I got going on, I got 99 problems, but Jesus isn't one of them and he says it this he says the Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need.

He renews my strength.

We've been saying this over and over again, and so if you've been with us, you kind of see a pattern developing and that is that the first thing that David does when he starts to talk about a new thing that God does is he reminds us that it's God that does it.

But there's something a little bit different in this, and that is that it's talking about Yahweh, which is the covenant name of God.

But this word is a compound word, which actually means Yahweh leads and guides us.

He's not just saying Yahweh, but Yahweh actually takes us somewhere, that we have to follow him if we want to be renewed in our life.

And that's so important because many times, if we're not careful, we'll look to other people to be the ones to renew our strength and be the ones to lead us in those ways.

And if we look to other people and try to follow other people.

There'll be moments of strength, there'll be moments where we'll feel better.

But God isn't interested in making us feel better.

He's interested in bringing healing to our life.

And if we allow him to lead, he can always lead us through any difficult season that we find ourselves in.

And he promises that if you will let me lead, I will lead you and I will guide you.

It reminds me of in the book of Exodus, which also reminds me of the weather we're experiencing right now.

But in the book of Exodus, they got freedom from Egypt because of all the plagues and all the things, and they were right there, on the edge.

They had crossed over the Red Sea and they were going to have to travel across the wilderness to get to the promised land.

But none of them had ever been there before.

And so, right there as they were, on the edge of an unknown place, god says this to them, or God did this for them.

So the Israelites camped at the edge of the unknown, at the very edge.

The Lord went ahead of them and he guided them during the day with a pillar of cloud and he provided a light with a night with them as a pillar of fire.

This allowed them to travel by day or by night.

And so what god did is he actually put a pillar, so it's like a just a long up cloud that would go from the ground all the way up to the sky, so that, no matter how far you were, it could have been between two to four million jewish people, so it had to have been a really tall one from the bed of sea.

And he said go this way.

And he would do it so that they would know where to go during the day and they would have the comfort of knowing that God was still with them at night.

And they have one job, and that is let God lead.

Don't follow anybody else.

Don't follow the local herdsman that will tell you you're going the wrong way.

Follow where God leads and he'll lead you in the right way.

And sometimes, when we get spiritually desperate, we start following anything that promises us relief.

Instead say no, I'm going to follow where God leads me.

And here's the reason why that was so important.

It's because when we lose our breath is when we start to not trust where God's leading us.

No, god, this is taking too long.

God, I thought we would be there by now.

God, I thought that what you had promised me would happen right now, so I'm going to go this way.

That's what it means to lose our breath and get weary when we start going a different direction.

But what we know now is that cloud that God sent.

Every time he would lead them.

He always led them to water sources.

They were in the desert, and so he didn't lead them straight to the promised land.

He led them the long way because he knew that his people wouldn't survive if they didn't have water, and so it looked like he was taking a detour, but he was actually taking them toward life.

He was taking them to exactly where they needed to be, and so he would lead them to every water source along the way.

And if they didn't follow him, they get out in the desert and die.

But if they followed him, it was actually the best way that they could go, and what God promises us is if we will follow him.

It may not always look like the fastest way, and many times it's not the fastest way, but he's always leading us in the right direction.

It reminds me of you.

Know.

Right now we're reading through the book of Jeremiah, and if you would like to read God's word with us.

You could text RLC Bible to 94,000.

And we're, we're, we're getting through there and we read this amazing chapter yesterday, jeremiah chapter 18, or, excuse me, day four yesterday, jeremiah chapter 18.

Jeremiah 18 · chapter mention Jeremiah 18 · chapter mention

It was some point this past week, jeremiah chapter 18.

Jeremiah 18 · chapter mention

I can't remember right now, but we read this wonderful analogy of how God was saying this is what it looks like when you let me lead and when you walk away, how I want to bring you back.

And he was talking about this potter and clay.

And God was talking to Jeremiah and he said go down to the potter shop and I will speak to you there.

So I did as he told me and found a potter working at his wheel.

But the jar that he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over.

And then the Lord gave me this message and he said oh, israel, can I not do to you just as this potter has done to his clay, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so you are in my hand, is in the potter's hand, so you are in my hand.

And what he was saying is that many times we get started out right, but something happens and we get off balance.

It looks kind of like this so we start off as this lump of clay, which also looks like some fudge.

But this is clay, don't eat it, it won't taste good.

But we start off as this lump of clay and so what the potter does is he takes it and he puts it on this wheel and he starts making something out of it.

And when it's not done, it doesn't look done, it looks, it looks messy.

And I love how, how, how the potter gets messy in the process.

God gets down into the mess with us and he starts to make us and mold us.

But for a thousand different reasons, because we don't follow the guiding hand of the potter, or something else happens.

We end up getting cast, getting turned upside down, doesn't turn out the way we thought, and you know what happens Is that if we depend on anything other than God, they can't fix us.

Our spouse can't fix us, the perfect job can't fix us, our church can't fix us.

If we try to get on anybody else's wheel, it won't work.

But you know what happens when we come back to God and we say God, I got off track.

I didn't let you lead me.

I'm so sorry.

You know what he doesn't do.

He doesn't throw us away.

He puts us back on the wheel and he starts making us and he starts molding us and he starts developing us.

And so can I tell you, if you feel like in here that spiritually you've lost your breath, you feel weary, god has a promise for you and he says if you'll let me lead you, I want to bring you to that rest.

But you got to let me lead you.

You got to let me come in and you got to let me take you and put you on my wheel and make you and mold you, because I know what I'm doing.

So you got to trust me.

So the first thing we got to do is we got to trust him and let him leave.

But that's not all that God said.

He said if you want to find that fresh breath and let me bring you back to life again, you got to let me lead.

And then the second promise that he gives us is that we find fresh life in him when he brings healing to us.

He promises not just to lead but to also bring healing to us.

And if you believe that look at your neighbor and say he gives me strength, he gives me strength, he renews me, he restores me and he gives me strength, he leads me and he leads me to a place of healing.

Look at what it says.

It says the Lord is my shepherd.

I have all that I need.

He renews my strength.

Now, if you're reading a different translation, it may say he restores my soul.

But he renews and restores and actually those words kind of mean the same thing.

If you want to, kind of, your hebrew word for the day is yasabeb.

Say that with me.

Say yasabeb, now you gotta yeah, you gotta get like you're mad just a little bit.

Yasabeb, try it again.

I think someone spit on a couple of people.

That's okay, all right, yasabeb.

And what that means is is it literally means to bring back?

It means to, to breathe in, to restore.

Literally.

A word picture of that would be an inhaler.

It would be to restore, to bring back, to put breath back in something that has been deflated.

Our lungs are not there and he brings it back in.

And there's so many ways that he promises that.

If you will let me lead, I'm not interested in just bringing relief, I'm interested in bringing healing.

And, if you'll let me lead, I want to bring healing.

And there's so many ways he does, but one of the number one ways he does if you're taking notes how is through his word.

He brings us healing through his word.

And here's, here's how God's word says it.

He says it like this he says the instructions of the Lord, his word, are perfect, renewing, reviving, literally deep breath in the soul.

The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy.

So it makes wise the simple.

The commands of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart.

The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living.

Reverence for the Lord is pure, lasting forever.

And that's one of the reasons why we focus so much on reading God's word at real life churches because we want to take a deep breath and breathe in the goodness of God.

And one of the ways we do this is by seeing the promises of God in his word.

Because if you don't know God's word, you don't know for sure if God's going to take you back or not.

When you get weary, you're not sure if you can trust him, you're not sure what he does to people who get weary and who mess up.

But when you know his word.

There's promise after promise after promise that God's not mad at you, that God, instead of throwing you away, he wants to lead you and he wants to bring healing, and we need that.

I want to give you three reasons, or three ways that he actually will bring healing to us.

He brings us healing every time we fall.

God's word promises us that he wants to bring healing to us every time we fall, and we can see that in his word.

Let me give you an example.

There was a guy named Simon Peter.

If you know who he is, he was one of the leaders of the 12 disciples, probably the leader, and when it came time for Jesus to be arrested, you know, peter was like no, you're not going to be arrested, I won't allow it.

That's a lot of confidence, right?

I shall not allow it.

And if you are arrested, I shall go with you, jesus, and if I have to die beside you, I will die beside you.

That joker turned his back on Jesus as fast as he could and he ran out of there.

And here's the thing, too, that we know from looking at the different gospels, that he then denied Jesus within earshot of Jesus.

It's one thing to be whispering in a corner.

I don't know him.

I don't know who that guy is.

It's another thing to be like I don't know him.

Sorry, jesus, jesus, I mean, can you?

You know what he did.

He failed, he fallen so bad, right.

But then the amazing thing is is Jesus rose from the dead?

And you know what Jesus told the women who saw him?

He said I want you to go tell my disciples, and don't forget to tell Peter that I'm alive.

You know how awkward that probably was.

Hey, pete, jesus wants to talk to you.

Dude, can you imagine I'd be like well, you know I've got a lot to do.

I'm fishing.

You know I got some stuff.

But here's the amazing thing is that when Jesus saw Peter no-transcript, well, how could you?

Why would you?

Why'd you fall so bad?

You know what he actually said.

He said Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

Yes, lord, of course.

Peter replied you know I love you.

Then get back to work.

I've not given up on you.

I still got a plan for you.

I still got work for you to do.

Who told you I counted you out?

No, no, I need you to get back in the game.

Come on, come on, get back up, it's all right.

He put him right back into that position that he thought he had lost forever.

Can I tell you, sometimes one of the things that we carry around that makes us so weary is the shame of having fallen in our relationship with God.

And God is not interested in how many times you fall.

He's interested in how many times he can get you back up again.

But if we don't read God's word, we think that one time that we fall and we're done, rather than the greatest people that God used were a mess, but they got back up one more time.

Then they fell down again.

And what would it look like in our life If we received the promise of God, saw you when you fail and he was immediately working to pick you back up again.

That's what kind of a healing he wants to bring to you.

He doesn't want to just bring us healing when we fall.

He wants to bring us healing every time we fail, every single time that we fail from what we wish we had done for God.

Another example of this is in the Old Testament.

One of the most famous stories in the Old Testament was about a guy named Jonah.

It was a guy named Jonah who had the wonderful, wonderful promise that if you'll follow me, jonah, I'm going to use you to reach an entire city for the kingdom of God, like he was going to go, and it was the capital city of his greatest enemies.

These are some bad dudes.

They were horrible.

And God said if you'll go and tell them that I'm going to judge them, they'll repent.

So here's this wonderful moment that God said get up and go to the great city of Nineveh.

Announce my judgment against it.

I have seen how it's wicked people are.

But Jonah got up and went the opposite direction to get away from the Lord.

God said go left.

And he's like how quick can I get a trip to the right?

How can I?

How can I go this way?

He didn't want to go.

That's called failing.

And if we don't read God's word and we don't know the promises of God, when we find a way, when we fail, we forget what God wants to do.

But here's the thing God doesn't give up on us.

Now don't get me wrong.

He had a whale of a time getting back on track.

Dad joke of the day right there.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, read Jonah, but look what happens.

He comes back again and he said the Lord spoke to him a second time hey, jojo, get up and go down to the great city of Nineveh.

This time, jonah went as fast as he could to get back to where he was supposed to be.

You know what.

You know what that blesses my souls, because there's been times when God told me to do something, I didn't do it, and that creates weariness.

But you know what God wants to do.

He promises that if you'll let me lead you, I will guide you in the right direction, and if you will let me, I want to bring healing through my word Every time you fall, every time you fail, and then one more, every time we forget, every time we forget who God says we are.

You know, we live in a world that wants to constantly tell us who we are, where we're supposed to be, who we're supposed to vote for, where we're supposed to work, what we're supposed to vote for, where we're supposed to work, what we're supposed to do.

He's supposed to tell us everything, and so if we don't let God define us, there are a thousand things that will define us for us.

That's why God's word says in Romans it says you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves.

Instead, you receive God's spirit.

When he adopted you as his own children and now we call him Abba, father Abba is an Aramaic word that just is an endearing form of father he said I call you a close father, for his spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children.

Since we are his children, we are his heirs.

God's word reminds us that we are his.

One of the reasons why we have to read God's word is so that we can remember what the Holy Spirit says we are, and that is that we are God's children.

Don't let anyone ever tell you that you are less than God's child, which means that spiritually you are holy and righteous in God's sight because of what Jesus has done.

And when we forget who we are, many times we become cast in our soul because we just give up, just like the sheep will do when they get heavy and they get just downtrodden they just plop Some of us.

Spiritually, we've plopped.

We just gave up on all of it.

But God has a promise and he says that if you'll let me lead, I can lead you right out of that spiritual darkness.

I can lead you, I can push you right back over again so you can gain your strength again.

But you got to let me lead, you got to let me guide you.

And then he also says I got a promise for you, and that is that I want to heal you.

I don't want to just make you feel better, I want to heal your soul so that every time you fall, every time you fail, every time you forget, I want to bring life back to you again.

I want to restore you.

And those are wonderful promises.

But can I be honest with you and tell you, for many of us we have no problem with that.

We have no problem with crying out to God, going God, I need you to lead me, because for some of us we have discovered we don't know where we're going.

We can't get there by ourself.

For some of us, we have no problem receiving the healing of God.

We need it.

The last one is the hard one, and that is this that God promises us that we will find fresh wind, fresh life, if we will let him lead, if we'll let him bring healing to us.

And then here's the last one we will find fresh life in him when he has all of us.

When he has all of us.

If you're taking notes, I want you to circle the word all and then look at your neighbor and say he renews my strength.

Say it to him.

Say he renews my strength, he gives me back my breath again, he gives me back my life again.

And he does that by leading me, by healing me.

But there's a catch, and that is he has to have all of me.

He says it like this.

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

And he renews my strength.

Depending on the translation you're reading, it may say he restores my soul.

That word right there, the word there is called napsi Napsi, and what it means is it means my soul, my life, every part of us.

In other words, he's saying everything that creates strength.

That's what God gives us.

He brings back to life every part of us that we're willing to give him.

And can I tell you, god wants to bring life to any weak place, any struggling place in our life.

There is no limit to what God wants to do.

That's why God's word says it like this, when they were asking Jesus, jesus, how am I supposed to relate to God?

What is the greatest commandment.

He said this you must love the Lord, your God.

In other words, you must give to God all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind and all of your strength.

He said I want to be part of everything, I want to get involved in every part of your life.

I don't want 99% of you, I want all of you, and it's when we allow God to have all of us.

It's amazing what God will do, and the reality is is the Lord wants to bring life and breath back to every single part of us, and for some of us, that's the problem, that's the issue that we deal with, and I was thinking about this and I've mentioned this before.

But there's this thing that these Chinese art workers have done for literally like a thousand years, and it's called Kintsugi.

Have you ever heard of that?

It's actually the art of repairing broken vessels with gold, and so what they'll do is is that once a vessel is broken and as best I can tell, they don't break it on purpose, but once it is broken what they will do is is they will start to repair it and then they will paint over the broken places with gold, and so when it's done, it looks even more beautiful than before they broke it and it's amazing artwork and it's extremely expensive for someone to do this and it's valuable.

And I was looking into this because it looks so good and because I'm really clumsy, and so I may need someone to fix a couple of bowls for me at some point.

And I was looking at this and there was a disclaimer on one of the websites that you could send this to, and they said we can only fix it if you give us all the pieces.

I can't fix it, but they can't fix it if you give me half of it, if you give me most of it.

If you can't give us all the pieces, we can't fix it at all.

The only way we can heal a broken vessel is we have to have all the pieces, otherwise it won't work.

And the reality is for many of us.

The reason why we struggle to be renewed in our spirit is because we don't want to give God all of our pieces.

We want to give him some of them, but we hold some back.

And the thing is, the question is is it possible?

The reason why we are so weary is because we are not giving everything over to the Lord, because God wants to renew us, but we have to give him all the broken pieces.

And the reason why maybe for some of us we're weary is because we want to give God what maybe is where is hurting right now.

But God doesn't want to give us what's.

He doesn't want to fix just what's hurting, he wants to fix all of it, that it all goes together.

God is not interested in just being your physician, he wants to be your friend.

He doesn't want you just to come to him when you're in pain, he wants you to do life with him.

And the reality is is that there is a weariness that no vacation can solve and that no antibiotic can heal, because it's not a weariness of the body, it's a weariness of the soul.

And the truth of it is is that you cannot change jobs enough, change marriages enough, and you cannot change churches enough, that maybe it's time to stop changing and start bringing our broken pieces to him and allow God to piece them back together again.

That's one of the things about the promise of God that we don't always understand, because Jesus said come to me all who are weary and carry heavy burdens and I will give you rest.

He talks about that.

We talk about the idea that all of us can come, and all of us who are weary and all of us who give us rest.

But he says first, you gotta come, you gotta bring everything to me the things that you're proud of, the things you're embarrassed by, the things that you think is none of his business, the things that you think, well, I got this.

He wants all of it, and the promise that he gives us is this, and that is that is why we never give up.

Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.

You know why we don't give up when we get spiritually weary?

It's because our bodies might be dying.

We might be going through troubles and difficulties and all the different things, but our spirits are constantly being renewed in the presence of God.

And so what God's word is telling us is that the Lord is our shepherd.

We have all that we need.

He lets us lie down in green meadows, he leads us beside still waters and when we follow him, he renews our strength.

The promise he gives us is that, because the Lord is our shepherd, he is able to bring life to every weary place.

And I want to ask you this question Would the illustration of that person who is just can't get their breath, can't get their breath, would that describe you spiritually?

Maybe you're just going through a season and every time you think you've got it figured out, something else happens and something else happens and before you know it you're just hyperventilating.

Spiritually, you just can't seem to kind of get your bearings again.

You can that that place of peace again, and you're just struggling over and over again.

And it'd be just like you know, just like the sheep who kind of get turned upside down and and everybody else looks and looks at you and be like man.

Why don't you just turn over, like, in other words, just just fix yourself?

And you're like dude, I'd love to, but I can't, I'm stuck.

And the reality is is that for many of us, we're embarrassed.

We're embarrassed to admit I'm not okay, because you look at the sheep, it looks hilarious, you're like sure, sure, he can fix himself, but the reality is that she's dying and if he stays prideful and doesn't cry out to god for help, he'll die in his pride.

And so what do you do?

When you get upside down like that?

You cry out to your shepherd, shepherd, I need help.

I can't do this on my own.

You know what the shepherd will do.

The shepherd will go over and they don't grab him by the legs, because that would be painful for him, but instead what they do is he gets down on the ground with him, puts his shoulder in him and he pushes him over.

And as he pushes him over, he gets under him and he pushes him over.

And as he pushes him over he gets under him and he picks him up again.

But because the blood has gotten out of his legs he can't hardly walk.

You know what the shepherd will do he will hold him there until he gets his balance back and then he will slowly walk with his hand on the sheep, letting him get his balance, letting him catch his breath, until he rejoins the fold again.

I'd say that's what God wants to do to some of us today.

And if we would just cry out to him and say, god, I don't, I'm lost, I'm struggling, I'm upside down, you know what he's not going to do.

He's not going to come over there and kick us and say, man, get up.

You know what he's going to do.

He's going to meet us right where we are.

He's going to get down there with us and he's going to help us to roll over.

And then he's going to help pick us up.

And then he's not just going to once again kick us and say, get back at it.

He's going to say I got you, I'm going to carry you until you get strong enough to walk on your own.

That's what a good shepherd does.

And for some of us, we're afraid to bring things to God because we're afraid of what he'll do, we're afraid of what he'll expose, we're afraid of.

God loves you more than you can imagine and he will heal whatever you will bring to him.

And so, just a moment, we're gonna have an opportunity to bring everything to the Lord, to cry out to him.

And maybe you're in here, maybe you're not going through that season, maybe you've been through that season before and you're in a great place now and God has moved in your life.

And maybe what your prayer needs to be is God.

I remember, I remember when I was upside down.

I remember when I couldn't do anything else except cry out for you and God, you didn't embarrass me, god, you didn't.

You didn't turn me away.

Instead, you picked me up, and maybe your prayer today needs to be a prayer of thanksgiving, and can I encourage you to share your story with someone today about how God picked you up and helped you along your way?

Maybe you're in here and you don't know the Lord.

You're turned upside down.

The whole world is upside down.

You don't know what to do.

Can I tell you, jesus loves you and if you will just cry out to him and you'll give him everything you have, he wants to wash away all your sin.

He wants to be that Lord and savior and best friend in your life and inside your worship, god.

On the back of the connect card is the prayer of salvation and you can do one of two things, right where you are as we worship the Lord in just a moment.

Maybe your worship to the Lord is God, I give you everything.

I ask you to wash away all my sins.

I'm going to pray this prayer and I'm going to believe it in my heart.

Or maybe you want to go back to our prayer team and have them pray with you and say watch you walk into the kingdom of God together.

Or maybe you're in here and you would say, yeah, I love Jesus, I'm part of his flock, but I'm upside down right now.

I'm weary, I don't have my breath anymore.

I want to cry out to him and, whatever the enemy wants to lie to you and tell you, don't believe it.

Instead, realize that he says if we will draw close to him, he will draw close to us.

And for some of us, we can't draw close in any other way than just to yell out God, I need you, and watch what your shepherd will do.

He will come to you, he'll get down where you are, he will push you back to your feet and then he doesn't leave you and walk away, but he stands there until you're steady again and he'll walk with you.

But we have to bring it to him and then he will revive our soul.

Let's pray together right now, god, thank you so much for today.

Thank you, god, that you see us and that you know us in this place and that you are with us and that you are for us in every way.

God, I believe right now that everybody who is in this room and everybody who is watching online right now, that you love them more than they will ever imagine, that you have a plan for them more than they can understand, and that you are with them even now, more than they can comprehend, god, that you are with us in every moment.

Whether we understand it or not, you're with us, god.

I pray for those who have been through that valley and that they find themselves in a good place right now.

I pray, lord, that you will just help them have a thankful heart and give them a heart to share with others the good things that you have done.

Lord.

I pray for those who don't have a relationship with you To realize, god, that the greatest moment of our life is when we let your love rush in and wash away all of our sin.

And I just bind in the name of Jesus any lie of the enemy that would tell them it's too late or they've gone too far, but to realize that you came all the way to this earth, died on a cross and rose again.

And if you would do that, you'll never stop chasing after us.

And I pray you'll give them the courage to turn their lives to you, god.

I pray for maybe somebody else that they're honest, they're weary, they're hurting, but for some reason they're struggling to cry out to you.

I pray, god, that you'll remove those objections in their heart.

They've tried everything else.

Why not turn their lives over to you and to realize that you want to lead us, you want to heal us, but we got to give everything over to you and when we do that, we get to see a miracle in our life.

In Jesus' name, I pray.

Amen and amen.

Will you stand with me?

All over the house this morning, the bands will lead us in a song of worship.

I don't know what your next step needs to be.

Maybe you just need to find a quiet place up here and just symbolically, just lay something down to the Lord.

Maybe you'd like our prayer team in the back to pray with you about something going on, or maybe, right where you are, you just need to, in your own heart, cry out to the Lord and say God, I need you in my life and I promise you that if you will come to him, he has more than enough for everything that you need.

Let's worship the Lord right now.