Psalm 23: The Good Shepherd (2- Contentment)

his shadow this morning, and so that means he has prophesied six more weeks of winter.

But we just bind that in Jesus' name all right, because it feels like early spring already and we're just gonna pray.

It's gonna stay that way.

But I do wanna say good morning everybody, to you and, if you have your Bibles, and wanna open up with us.

We are so excited to be in the second part of our brand new series entitled Good Shepherd, a walk through Psalm 23.

And so, while you're getting your message notes, your Bible notes, all the notes and everything out, I do want to say a couple of things real quick.

Number one, I want to say good morning to everybody who's watching online.

Everybody, when I count to three, say good morning.

One, two, three.

We have got so many people who are out sick today, and we are so thankful that you are not here today.

We mean that in the very best possible way, but we're glad that you're here.

We got some coughing folks up in here today too.

Yeah, we're so glad that you are watching, and I want you to let us know in the comments below what color is your snot today.

No, no, don't do that, don't do that, don't do that, but just let us know, you were there and we absolutely are so excited that you are home.

In Jesus name, all right.

Something I do want to tell you guys that we are so excited about is today is life group launch day.

We put our hands together and celebrate that, yes, we truly believe that life change happens in the context of relationship, and so we'd love doing life together, and we would love for you to consider joining a life group, and so there's there's two ways that you can do that, actually, three ways.

The first one is you can scan this QR code and it will show you the life groups that are still available.

Several of them have closed.

The second thing you can do is go to any of the displays around our facility today and you can look at those and see which ones are open, or you can find anybody wearing a life group t-shirt.

That means they are life group leaders and they will at least act like they know about all the other groups.

Okay, and so make sure you ask them and, especially if you find one of them, ask them about a group you think they would have no idea about, just to make them feel uncomfortable and you're welcome, all right, but we absolutely love it and they do begin this week.

Also, in honor of our brand new series, don't forget, we have a free gift for everybody today, and that is a copy of the book A Shepherd's Look at Psalm 23.

Copy of the book A Shepherd's Look at Psalm 23.

And I know some of y'all were going yay books.

It is actually a good thing.

I would tell you, outside the Bible, I would put this book in a list of top 10 most life-changing books I've ever read, because what it does is it walks through the Psalm that we're walking through right now, but from the point of view of a shepherd, and it is just powerful and it is amazing, and that's why I have a free one for you.

And so what you need to do is, after the service, stop by the Welcome Center and the code to get it is I Needs Me my Book.

Okay, you have to say it.

Like you're from the South, I Needs Me my Book.

And they will give you a free copy of this book and I absolutely can't wait to hear how much you're reading it, because it was the beginning of the series that we're in now, which I am really excited about Because many of us.

We are aware of Psalm 23 in some form or another.

We may not be able to quote it or anything like that, but we've all heard it.

It's in songs that we sing.

If you've ever been to many different types of presentations, funerals or commencement services and all of this, you will hear this Psalm because it's just powerful.

But the problem with it is is that for a lot of us it kind of has gone over our head on really just how beautiful it is.

And that's kind of my hope for this series is that we'll get a little bit of a fresh perspective on God through this series, and kind of one of the ways it makes me think of is so like, let me give you an example, and that is I know that everybody has grown up in a different place around here because we're just from all over the place, but I grew up in an area where there were some other options, but the number one place you had to go to if you wanted to get groceries was the one and only food land.

Okay, how many has ever heard of a food land?

A few of you, yeah, a few of y'all are from the goodness of God country, and this was the place.

There were others, but this is the one, and, as a matter of fact, you could gauge what you needed, because if they didn't have it, you didn't need it.

All right, that was the way this grocery store was.

It was awesome and it was amazing.

But there was a problem, and that is when my family moved to Bowling Green.

We got to looking around, for the goodness of the Lord, and we couldn't find a single food land within a hundred miles of here.

And so then, like, the immediate thought is well, I mean, I'm kind of setting my ways a little bit.

What are we going to do?

How are we going to eat?

How are we going to live?

And then we went by this facility called Kroger and we went by another one, and, because we live in Bowling Green, we went by this facility called Kroger and we went by another one, and, because we live in Bowling Green, we went by another one.

All right, there's at least a million of those things.

But then there was all these other ones.

There was an IGA, there was a Meijer.

Did you know?

They have groceries at Walmart.

They even have groceries at the millionth dollar general.

That is on every corner, they're everywhere.

And it actually once I opened my eyes to see you could buy groceries wherever you want, and it actually turns out all of these are even better than food land.

What in the world does that have to do with anything?

Many of us, I think that's the way we think about God.

We have gotten in our mind a certain way to see God and that's the only way God is.

But if we could just open our eyes, we would see that God is doing so much more than we can imagine.

God is all around us and doing things in our life that we had no idea that's what God was doing.

We had no idea that's who that was, and so my hope for us is that we're gonna see God differently than we've ever seen him before, and we're gonna see that there's actually so much more and actually the view that we have had of God is probably the least of what God can do and that he's actually doing so much more than we can imagine.

That's why I love Psalm 23 is God's word gives us all these different aspects of God that we've never noticed before, and my hope is is that for some of us, we're going to see God that we've never seen him before and for others.

We're gonna see God in a fresh way that we've seen him like that before but we've forgotten because of time and trouble and difficulty, and it's gonna make it fresh.

It's gonna make him fresh to us all over again.

So if you're ready, let's read Psalm 23 and see what God's word has to say.

It says this.

It says 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, and even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you walk close beside me.

Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me and you prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.

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

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

And my hope is, as we continue to read through this Psalm, we will realize and we can all say that the Lord is my shepherd.

Therefore, we can follow him.

As we dissect and dive into this particular Psalm, we're going to realize like never before that no matter where our journeys take us, no matter what happens in our life, we can follow him, and so all of this that we're going to read is going to talk to us about this.

But specifically, today we're going to focus on verse two, the first half of verse two that says he lets me rest in green meadows and what my hope for you is to realize that, because the Lord is our shepherd, we can live in an oasis of contentment.

Because the Lord is our shepherd, we can live in an oasis of contentment.

Because the Lord is our shepherd, we can live in an oasis in a special place of contentment, because the Lord leads me to lie down in green pastures.

Now, as we talked about last time, for many of us the idea of Psalm 23 is rather different than the worldview we have, and that is because, unless you currently work at a place where they operate and are sheep farmers from 3,000 years ago, there's a little bit of a disconnect, and so we want to kind of put ourselves back into that timeframe so we can understand what the Holy Spirit was inspiring David to say.

And so, first of all, kind of remember Psalm 23 was not the name of this song.

Okay, it was first of all a song, not a Psalm, and it was written by King David.

Now we know that back then, the main type of instruments they used was like flutes and this thing called a lyre, which looked you know a little.

Anyway, it was.

It was L Y R E, not L I E.

It was one of those.

Uh, they, they might've used a tambourine we're just going to let that one go and they use various kinds of drums, but it was very, very different.

And so I don't know, whatever works for you is what it sounds like.

I mean, since we're so close to Nashville, you may want to, in your mind, think it sounds a little bit like country music.

I mean, it's not sad, so it won't really fit country music, but we can.

I mean, I always think of, because, you know, david was a fighter, he fought all of his life.

I've tried to think of it as having a little bit of a heavy metal tone to it.

You know, the Lord is my shepherd.

That's just me.

Okay, that's just me.

Maybe it's nice and sweet, the Lord is my shepherd.

Whatever it is, whatever it works for you, but it was a song that they would sing and remember.

Back then they didn't call it Psalm 23.

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

So the title would have been the Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need.

Let's, let's sing.

The Lord is my shepherd song is what they would do.

And so what David did is he named his Psalm and then he spends the rest of it talking about the relationship between the Lord Yahweh and all of us, and so that's what the whole song is about, and what he says is he says the Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need, and then he spends the rest of the song proving it.

He said let me tell you how.

He's all that I need.

And isn't it amazing that the very first thing that David talks about is this deep need that we all have for this thing called contentment.

And so let's define what contentment is for the sake of what we're doing, and that is contentment is not about settling.

It's about resting in the goodness and promises of God.

Contentment is not about settling.

It's about resting in the goodness and promises of God.

Contentment is not about settling.

It's about resting in the goodness and promises of God.

In other words, it's not a lack of desire.

That's one of the things that we have to understand.

Is that contentment is not saying that I don't want better, I don't want to do more, I'm not expecting these things.

It's not that it is simply saying I am confident in God, but I'm right where he wants me to be.

Right now and as long as I'm doing the best I can.

When he's ready for me to move forward, he will.

But right now, in this moment, I am able to rest in the goodness and the confidence of God.

It's like a deep sigh in the soul, because I know God is in control, and so what I want you to do is I count to three, I want you to take a big deep breath in and then let it go and do a sigh Ready.

One, two, three deep breath in.

That's what contentment is supposed to feel like, but for your soul.

And that's what David is saying is when and I knew there was gonna be at least one cough, I knew it, that's okay.

It's okay Me too, my friend, but the thing is, is that's what he's?

Is that's what David is saying is when the Lord is my shepherd, I sigh deep in my soul and I'm able to rest.

Well, rest where?

Well, he says he lets me lie down in green pastures.

What he's talking about is what we would call today an oasis, because that's what would be going on, because this whole area where they live was very dry, very arid, very inhospitable, very difficult place to live, but all throughout the area there would be water and wherever the water was, you could create some different vegetation.

It would look a little bit like that.

You see where they got all this ugly all over the place.

And then right here, right around the water, is some shrubs and some different things.

But actually what would happen a good shepherd would do is he would take this water and he would start to cultivate a field.

He would start planting grass and different things, and it actually would take a lot of work.

A shepherd had to be a part farmer because he would have to cultivate this whole area and then, once he had it cultivated, he would have to lead his sheep from a place he'd already cultivated all the way over to this oasis, from a place he'd already cultivated all the way over to this oasis.

So it was a big job to actually do this to lead the sheep to this place.

And then you would think, once the shepherd had led the sheep to the oasis, he's done Praise the Lord, eat and be merry and all the things right.

But no, that is actually not true at all, because, unfortunately, sheep do not rest well.

That is actually not true at all, because, unfortunately, sheep do not rest well.

Sheep are expert worriers and remember what God called all of us.

I know that's very offensive, but God knows exactly what he's talking about and he's saying he actually said sheep are really good at worrying and so actually what would happen is, even though he would lead them there, it would be difficult.

Because shepherds say there are four things that bother sheep, that stop them from being able to actually rest here.

They are what steals a sheep's contentment?

It's not in your notes, but number one is a fear of predators on the outside.

Remember, they have no natural defenses, so they are always on the lookout, worrying about a wolf or a bear or a lion or something like that.

Another one are fears from enemies on the inside of the flock, because everyone knows that guy, he just wants your seat.

He doesn't want the seat beside you, he wants this seat.

There's always a pecking order in every society, including in a sheep fold, and so they're always jostling for position.

The constant aggravation of parasites, bugs and different things that would just drive a sheep crazy, because a sheep can't just sit there and fix its hair and so it would be messed up and then the fear of not having enough would worry about just constantly looking around outside of the oasis to make sure that there's other grass over there, just in case.

I mean it was amazing how much a sheep would worry about, rather than just enjoying, what the shepherd had provided, to which that sounds so familiar.

I mean, think about for just a moment.

I've got in your message notes.

What is it that has a tendency to steal your contentment?

Here's a couple of ideas from the sheep.

Maybe it's some fears from external issues, things that you can't control, health issues, family issues, stuff you can't control.

Number two what about thoughts and internal conflicts?

The tape player constantly playing in your head, the lies of the enemy constantly telling you that you can't be content because of this, that and the other?

What about the little aggravations that keep us anxious?

The things that are just?

It's not one thing that's a problem, it's 10,000 things that, all of a sudden, always have our heart in motion and our RPMs are always at 90 plus, and what it does is it keeps us in this hurried state where we're shaking on the inside because of all the little things, or what about the fear of the future?

Will this be enough?

Can God take care of me?

I want you to put in your message notes what steals your contentment.

Some of you are going.

Can you leave that up, because I need to write down all of them.

Okay, yes, I get that.

Pick one, and if you've got one of those you would say, yes, I will admit that I want God to be my leader and I want to enjoy this oasis of contentment which is resting in the goodness of God.

But I have a question, which is a great question.

And what if it was?

So?

I may and I'm not going to do the sheep noise you can act as though I did.

I may.

There it is just for you.

Okay, that sounded more like a goat.

That's fine.

All right, I may have some issues with contentment.

How can I be content when there is so much unsettled in our world?

How can I possibly be content?

Have you watched the news?

Have you watched what's going on in my own house, have you?

If you only knew what was going on in my own soul, how could you dare say that the Lord can lead me to a place of contentment?

You have no idea.

And here's the honest truth.

I may not know exactly what you're going through, but you know.

What I do know is that David was a real person.

David had to deal with all kinds of things.

David had a mother-in-law Okay, that's what I'm trying to say.

He had all the different things.

My mother-in-law might be watching, so that was just for her.

But he was a king of an entire kingdom.

He had things and stuff.

And David is saying, as I look back over my life man, the Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need.

You know, the number one thing he does for me is he helps me find contentment in a desert full of difficulty.

Well, david, how, how can I possibly find rest in the middle of all this mess?

And I want us to look.

Just the very simple thing he says.

And he's going to show us three ways that we can find contentment in the middle of any mess we find ourselves in.

And so let's do this, let's take notes where God's word says that we can live in an oasis of contentment when we open our eyes and focus on who is leading, when we focus on who is actually leading.

When you write that down, look at your neighbor and say I can rest in Jesus.

That was horrible.

Look at somebody else your second choice and tell them I can rest in Jesus.

Why?

Because I'm going to keep my focus on him.

I'm going to focus on who is leading me.

He said it like this.

He says the Lord is my shepherd.

I have all that I need.

He lets me rest in green meadows.

The important thing that David did is he started off talking about God and then he paused for a moment and started talking about us in the relationship.

But he quickly goes right back to God and he's like don't get it twisted.

This whole Psalm is not about us.

The Psalm is about Yahweh, and remember that's the covenant personal name of God.

It's the relational name of God, and what David was quickly doing is he was reminding us who this story is all about.

Who's the hero of this narrative?

And it's not us.

The hero is God, and he's saying one of the first things that steals our contentment is when we forget who's supposed to be the focus.

And, honestly, it's so easy to do because we live in a culture that tells us to do that.

We live in a culture that says you know what I'm just going to do for this next season of my life?

I'm going to focus on me.

I'm just going to take some me time.

I'm going to find my strength.

I'm going to focus on me.

I'm just going to take some me time.

I'm going to find my strength.

I'm going to find my peace.

And you know why they keep saying that over and over again?

It's because they're trying to convince themselves that that works.

But the reality is is it doesn't.

All it does is make us selfish, because that's not what God's word says.

God's word does not say focus on yourself in order to find contentment.

Actually, god's word says that you, speaking of God, will keep in perfect peace.

All who trust in you, all those whose thoughts are fixed on you, trust in the Lord always, for the Lord, god is the eternal rock.

So what he says over and over again is you have to fix your focus on who and make sure the who is God and not us.

And so here's something that, to be honest with you, one of the reasons why, when people go through difficult times, they begin to struggle as Christians is because the unfortunate reality we have to face is that Christianity is not about us.

Christianity is about Jesus.

We are the object of his love, but it's all about his love for all of us.

And so sometimes we struggle with contentment because we think that we're the hero of the story, when the reality is, jesus is the hero of the story, and so we have to focus on what we focus on.

We have to be so very careful that we take ourselves out of the center of the story and we put Jesus at the center of the story.

And when we do that and we focus on who is leading, david is telling us there's peace there and there's rest there.

It reminds me of a story in the New Testament where Jesus is going with the disciples here, there and everywhere, and finally there is a moment where he challenges them because they have to get into a boat and go to the other side.

And what really challenges me is what Jesus' focus was and what their focus was.

Look at what it says.

The Bible says Jesus got into the boat and he started across the lake with his disciples and suddenly a fierce storm struck the lake, with waves breaking into the boat.

But Jesus was sleeping and the disciples went and woke him up and they shouted Lord, save us.

We're going to drown, which is exactly what I would think I would do.

All right, I'm, I'm, I'm drowning here, I'm drowning, but look what?

Look.

I mean, think about this.

It is still storming, the water is still coming over the boat.

It looks bad.

And Jesus stops to have a life lesson moment.

Jesus, I mean, everything is happening, nothing else has, has, has finished, and all this is going on.

Jesus looks around and he doesn't look at the storm.

He looks at them and says why are you afraid?

As water is splashing all over him, as water is splashing all over all of them, as somebody's bailing water out.

And he is saying why are you afraid?

I will give you another reason.

Here's another reason.

Here's another reason why I'm afraid.

And he says oh man, guys, you still got so little faith.

Then he got up.

So, in other words, he's laying down, going why are y'all afraid?

Then he gets up and he rebukes the winds and the waves and suddenly they go oh, that's Jesus, y'all be quiet and they're quiet.

Then the disciples then look and go okay, actually, now I am looking at you.

Who is this man that even the winds and the waves obey him?

What bothered Jesus wasn't the presence of the storm, it was what they were focusing on.

He didn't deny there was a storm.

He didn't deny that there was a problem.

How about this?

The fact that they were following Jesus is what led them into the storm.

So that automatically teaches us that number one it's okay to admit there's a storm and it's okay to realize that in following Jesus, sometimes he will lead us straight into a storm.

But the reality is is his concern was not the storm, it was where they were focusing and he was saying you know why you're not able to rest like I am is because you're focusing on the storm.

But Jesus, it's big, I know, but Jesus it was strong.

I know Jesus, we could have died Me.

Focus on me, and when we do, there's joy there and there's contentment there.

Because the reality is this contentment is not denying the storms, it's noticing his presence.

Contentment, the rest in our soul resting in the goodness and the word of God, is not denying that there is a storm, as a matter of fact, would you even say that there can't be contentment unless there is the presence of a storm for you to understand the difference.

But it's noticing that he is there.

So here's my question for you, and that is what where is your focus?

Is it on the storm or is it on Jesus?

If you're, if you would tell me that you're struggling with that rest in the soul, the contentment, the oasis of contentment that God wants to give us.

If you're struggling with it, my question for all of us would be where's your focus?

Is it on who is leading or is it on the trouble all around you?

And the reality is is it's very hard to focus on Jesus when water's hitting you in the face.

That's why it's so important for us to focus on him when the water's not hitting us in the face, so that we know what to do when it is.

And what David is saying is he is saying the Lord is my shepherd, we can follow him, and the very first thing he does for me is he answers the deepest desire in my soul, and that is to find that rest within my soul, and the number one way to do that is to focus on who I'm focusing on.

But then the second thing he says is is it's also about focusing on what he has promised.

It's about focusing on what he has promised.

And when you write that down, look at your neighbor and say I can rest in Jesus, go back to your first choice, Go back to your first choice.

That was that one was horrible.

Look at them and say I can rest in Jesus, that's better, that's very, that was a lot better.

I can rest in Jesus why?

Because, number one, I'm focusing on who he is, and then I'm going to focus on where, on what he has told me he would do.

He said this.

He said the Lord is my shepherd.

I have all that I need.

He lets me rest.

I love how the King James version says he makes me rest.

He says ah, come on back over here.

And the idea of rest is because, if you think about it, if it's a sheep a sheep, first of all, they cannot rest unless they are in complete and total safety, because they'd be looking around everywhere, right.

But then, once that happens, what a sheep would tend to do is they would still stand there looking around.

I'm resting, I'm resting, you know.

And so it's kind of like for us to take a knee, but acting like we're at peace, which is why David knew to say this.

The actual Hebrew word for this is rabatzne, which doesn't mean just to take a knee.

It literally means to lie down and to stretch out.

It means take a load off, take your shoes off, put your hands back, to literally be completely vulnerable because the king has got you.

And here's the thing.

For some of us, that's easy enough, but there are some of us I'm gonna raise both my hands, and if I could get both my feet up, I'd say I would be one of these that does not do that easily.

And so, for a few of the stubborn sheep, what the shepherd would do is what we like to call sweep the leg.

If you've ever watched Karate Kid, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Okay, what he would literally would do is he would go up to this wonderful stubborn sheep and he would get on one knee and he would put his arm around where his neck was, like this, and literally he would sweep the leg.

He would sweep the leg and then slowly lay him down until he is like that.

And then what he would do, because now, all of a sudden, the sheep is wondering what's going on is he would sweep the leg, he would put him down and he would stand there and hold him down until the sheep decided I might stay here for a little while because I'm not getting up anyway.

And that's what the word picture that David is saying is is he sweeps the leg, he puts me down and he makes me settle there until I get used to it, because he knows what's best for me.

Can I tell you, for some of us, we're good at resting.

For some of us, I wonder sometimes if the reason why everything in life kind of goes haywire so we can turn back to God and that's his way of sweeping the leg just a little bit, and he's saying listen, I need you to rest for a little bit.

Let me show you what it looks like and the sermon on the mount.

Let me show you what it looks like for the king to sweep the leg on everybody and kind of slowly body slam them to the ground, because he says this is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life.

This is him getting his arm around the sheep right, whether you have enough food and drink or enough clothes to wear.

Isn't life more than food and your body more than clothing.

That's him being nice as he's getting ready.

Look at the birds.

They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly father feeds them.

Aren't you far more valuable to him than they are?

Can all of your worries add a single moment to your life?

And why worry about your clothing?

Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow.

They don't make a work or make their clothing.

Yet Solomon, in all of his glory, was not dressed as beautifully as they are.

And if God cares so wonderfully for the wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you.

That's where he sweeps the leg and he puts them on the ground, and then he holds them there by saying why do you have so little faith?

So don't worry about these things.

Saying what will we eat, what will we drink, what will we wear?

These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly father already knows all your needs.

Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

That's him saying.

I'm going to keep you here until you realize I really am trustworthy.

And the reality is is if we could realize how loved we are, it would change how we see everything else.

We wouldn't base God's goodness on how quickly or if he answered our prayers exactly, we would realize he's good.

Either way, and many times that's what God wants to do is to put us in a place where we have to sit there for a little while and remember God is good, god is good.

God is good, god is good, god is good.

Until all of a sudden, it becomes not just words from our mouth but a position of our heart where we realize that he lays me down and reminds me that he's in charge.

And in the middle of no matter what's going on in my life, I can have peace, not because everything else is okay, but because the king is in control, because the shepherd is having his way and he's doing what he can do, and I can trust him.

And that's why it reminds me of what we're reading right now.

And if you're, if you're reading God's word with us, we're in the book of Jeremiah and we're reading one chapter at a time.

And if you'd like to join us, you can text RLC Bible to 94,000 and we'll send you a text message every day.

And I just got to tell you the book of Jeremiah it's all about.

God is our hope in the darkness because there's a whole lot of darkness in the book of Jeremiah Like the nation of Judah is just turning away from God over and over, and Jeremiah was tasked by God to go to the temple like daily and argue with the false prophets and all these things, and there's just all this destruction that's happening.

But what I love is right.

In the middle of all of this destruction, god declares in chapter 31,.

He says I have given rest to the weary and joy to the sorrowing.

In other words, he's saying in the middle of all of this crazy silliness, I'm still looking for people that I can lie down.

I'm still looking for people that I can give contentment to.

Like I know all this is is is is messed up and whatever, but if you will just trust me, even in the middle of all this chaos, I want to give you rest and I want to give you joy.

And so the reality of it is is that we have to focus on who is leading us.

But then also we have to realize that contentment is remembering the goodness of God.

Contentment is remembering God's faithfulness, remembering that if the king would leave heaven, born of a virgin, live a sinless life, die on our cross, rise from the dead.

If he will do all of that, don't you think that he's watching over you right now?

That's easy compared to what he's already done, and so my question for us would be what is dominating your thoughts?

A future uncertainty or promised faithfulness?

What's dominating your thoughts?

Make sure that you don't let the enemy choose what you think about.

Make sure that you choose what you choose to dwell on.

We do that by focusing on what we focus on, and that's what David is saying is he's helping us understand that we can follow this shepherd.

We can follow him, and as we follow him, he is going to lead us into all the things that we need.

And the very first thing he says is he leads us into this oasis of contentment, and what that means to us is that rest of the soul where we realize that, even when everything else is not the way we want it, we're still okay on the inside, because we trust in God's goodness and we trust in his word.

How do we do that?

We do that by focusing on who is leading us.

We do that by focusing on what he has promised.

And then one more, and that is we focus on where he is leading.

We focus on where he is leading when you write that down one more time, look at somebody and say I can rest in Jesus.

Now look back at him with an attitude and go, wait a minute, you can rest in Jesus, tell him what's up just a little bit here.

Yes, of course I can.

You can, all God's children can, we can all rest in Jesus.

And I love how he says this.

He says the Lord is my shepherd.

I have all that I need.

He lets me sweeps the leg to rest in green meadows.

Now that's lost on us because we live in Kentucky.

Now our meadows are not green, they're blue, but we have blue grassy meadows all over the place.

But remember where David lives, he lives in the Middle East.

There's not blue grassy meadows all over the place, and so it was a big deal, and that's why the Hebrew word for that, or the phrase, is despinoets, which means a fresh, life-giving home.

Now, green would have been a big deal to them.

They went oh man, not just any meadow, but a green one, which of course symbolized that the farmer, the shepherd had been working hard to develop something worth having and it symbolized life.

So he has settled me down in a life-giving place.

But what I love too is that word benoits actually is a double word.

That can mean a meadow and it can mean a place to settle forever, a home.

And so what David is doing is he's using a double word that says it's a meadow, but it's a meadow you're supposed to stretch out in.

It's a place that you're not supposed to visit on the weekends, it's a place you're supposed to live and dwell forever.

And what he is saying is is that my God is so good that he brings me to a place and says you can stay here forever, you that he brings me to a place and says you can stay here forever.

You don't have to wander in and out of my contentment, but you can stay in my contentment.

That's what God said himself when he was using this metaphor of a shepherd in the book of Ezekiel.

He said I myself will tend my sheep and give them a place to lie down in peace, says the sovereign Lord.

I will search for my lost ones who have strayed away, and I will bring them safely home again.

I will bandage the injured and strengthen the weak.

That's what God's hope for all of us is is that he wants us to focus on who he is, what he has promised, and that we are part of this journey that he has with us.

And the journey is to constantly find contentment, not in what's going on around us, but on what God is doing on the inside of us and where he's leading us on the inside, to which, once again, I get the kind of the pushback and that is but, pastor, you don't know what I'm going through.

You don't know what I'm having to deal with.

You're not married who I'm married to with.

You're not married who I'm married to.

You don't have the kids I have.

You don't have the boss I have.

You don't understand.

And the answer is you're right, I have no idea what you might be going through, but you know who might have an inkling of what it is to go through a difficult time?

The apostle Paul.

The apostle Paul, after he got saved, it was the best and worst thing that ever happened to him, because it was the best thing ever, ever, because now he knows Jesus.

It was worse because now nobody likes him.

And everywhere that Paul went, he planted a church and somebody tried to kill him and if you look at it from the world standard, that's pretty rough.

You look at it in the kingdom of God standards, that's the most amazing thing that could ever happen.

And so he's going from place to place and one place he plants a church, one place they stone him half to death.

Another place he plants another church, another one, they beat him half to death.

All this stuff is going on and finally they put him in jail like forever, until they're eventually going to kill him.

And he writes a letter back to a church called Philippi and it was one of the later letters he wrote.

He's pretty sure at this point, probably, that he's going to be killed.

But even though he is in jail and he's in a Roman jail, which means this is not a good place it's a really bad place, to the point he's having to yell outside of the window so somebody else can write it down because he's in jail.

And while he's doing that, he has the audacity to say I have learned how to be content with whatever I have.

I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything.

I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it's with a full stomach or empty, rather with plenty or little.

How, paul, you are in jail.

How in the world have you learned this contentment?

Because, to be honest with you, I'm not in jail and I struggle with contentment.

How have you learned it?

And you know what he says.

I've learned it.

It's because I've realized I can do anything as long as Jesus is with me.

You know what he says.

You know I've learned it.

It's because I've realized I can do anything as long as Jesus is with me.

With Christ, he is the one who gives me strength.

In other words, he's saying I'm not motivated by what I see around me.

I'm motivated by Christ in me and where he is leading me.

I am on my way to eternity with heaven.

This jail is just passing through.

I'm gonna be out of here at some point.

Whether I get out through the front door, I go out through the back door, either way to live as Christ, to die as gain.

What can you do with somebody like that?

The answer is nothing, because you can't unplug their strength, because it's connected to the king, and the reality of it is is that he realized that when I focus on who I'm supposed to focus on, when I focus on who I'm supposed to focus on, when I focus on what he has promised and I focus on where he is leading me, not where I currently am.

Man, I can be content with almost anything, and that's the challenge for us is that the beginning of fear is forgetfulness.

The beginning of fear, the beginning of losing our contentment, is when we forget who is in charge.

We forget that the king is on his throne and that he has never once been nervous.

He's never once been afraid.

He doesn't care about your boss, he doesn't care about the difficulties you're going through.

He loves all of them, but it's got nothing to do with his love for you.

And when you realize that, that's when David said he offers me the chance to actually lay down in green pastures.

David had to fight a giant.

He had to run from his mentor Saul, he had to go and hide in caves and in different places, and then he was only king over Hebron for a year or for seven years, and then eventually he became king over all Israel, and then his son tried to have him killed and he was constantly having all these bad things happen.

All these bad things happen, but at the end of it he says but you know, what I love about my God is that he makes me lie down.

When I see everything else around me, he says come on, lay down right here, yeah.

But God don't you see?

Absolutely.

I see, come lay down right here, yeah, but what about them?

Come on, come on, lay down right here.

And contentment is not saying I don't want more.

It's not saying that I need God to do something about these things.

It's saying I can rest.

I can rest because I know his goodness and I know that he has spoken his word over me.

And so I want to ask you what is the thing that steals your contentment from God, and what is it you need to turn over to him today.

In just a moment, the band is going to give us an opportunity to respond to his word and sing one more worship song, and you might be in that place where you're having to figure out which one of those sheep things are you having to deal with.

But I do want to talk about one other desert animal that might be you, and that is the dear old camel.

Isn't he cute, right?

Yeah, dear old Mr Camel, all right, here's the thing about camels.

Camels are the unsung heroes of the desert.

All right, they are the workhorses of the desert.

These guys are awesome.

They are very reliable.

They are tough as nails.

They are amazing.

They can go for miles and miles and miles and never drink anything, never eat anything.

They are workhorses.

Long before Abraham was there, these camels were taking people across the desert.

These guys are awesome Not the same camels.

They do die, but other camels were taking these people across, and it's awesome.

They can walk right on by an oasis and keep on going.

The challenge is, though, is it's that very strength that is also their biggest weakness, because a camel will not tell you he needs to rest.

A camel will not look at that oasis and start veering off.

You know what he'll do he will work, work, work until he falls down and dies.

Never once complaining, never once having an attitude.

He's just gonna keep on going until one day he doesn't get up again and he's not in a coma, he's dead because he doesn't know any other way to be.

That's how he survived this long, and he just thinks if I keep on going, surely something better will come.

I guess, and the reality is, what a camel needs is a good owner who will pay attention to how far that camel has gone and at some point say, hey, buddy, come over here and eat some of this good pasture, come over here and drink some of this water.

And I don't know, the camel probably like, hey, yeah, but we got to get across this.

You know this, this silk road here.

We got to do this.

No, no, no, come on, come on over here, come on over here, yeah.

But what about the come on, come on, come on.

And then the camel's got no problem laying down.

He stretched out with the best of them.

Once his owner says it's okay, we're not a sheep, we act like camels, and that is.

We have been so strong for so long for everybody else that we kept pushing past the oasis that God has for us, because everybody else needs us, everybody else needs something.

We're okay, we got this, we got this, we got this.

But if we're not careful, what's happened to our soul is?

We got up one morning and we felt spiritually dead because, as our own owner, we didn't take care of our own soul.

But the whisper that you hear in your heart is the whisper of your heavenly father, who is saying come on over here.

Come on, yeah, but we got to go forward.

This is how I've always done.

I just throw more work hours at it.

I just try a little bit harder.

I know I know, come on.

Come on, I got an idea for you.

All that's waiting on you.

We got a lot more adventures that we got to have, but you're not going to get there if you don't learn how to rest.

So come on, don't make me sweep the leg and let's rest a little while.

So I don't know what you are.

I'm not calling you a camel.

You might be calling yourself a camel.

You might be a sheep and you got 99 issues and you'll tell the world, but for both different kinds.

This is God's promise for all of us, and that is to not love money.

In other words, don't be satisfied with the things that can't satisfy, but be satisfied with what you have.

For God has said I will never fail you and I will never abandon you.

You know what that means For all the sheep.

That means that in his presence is fullness of joy.

At his right hand are pleasures forevermore.

For all the sheep, that means don't be afraid, don't live in fear.

I got you.

That doesn't mean you don't try your best.

That doesn't mean you work hard, doesn't mean all those things.

It just means you stop worrying about what happens on the other side of the equal sign.

That's God's business.

But instead I can have a hurried pace but a restful soul, because I've learned to be content and trust in my savior.

But for somebody else that you're the camel and you just keep pushing forward, it's going to keep throwing hours at.

I'm going to keep.

I'm going to keep working.

I'm going to keep working.

I'm going to keep working.

Eventually it'll get better.

You know what he's saying to you.

He's saying I'm not going to fail you, I'm not going to abandon you.

So why don't you trust me?

Do you trust me and rest For both?

The answer is to trust the Lord, and I don't know which one of those you need.

Maybe you're in here and you don't have a relationship with Jesus at all.

Can I tell you I'm so thankful you're here today.

He is the answer for the weariness in your soul that no amount of rest is ever going to be able to fix.

You can do all of this and it won't work unless you know Jesus If going to be able to fix.

You can do all of this, and it won't work unless you know Jesus.

If you don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ, can I tell you he loves you more than you can imagine.

You've never been more loved than you are right now.

And your very best next step, in just a moment, as we worship the Lord together, is on the back of your connect card.

There is the plan of salvation, the prayer of salvation, and what your next step is is to receive Jesus as your Lord and as your Savior and allow him to move in your life.

That's the first step to finding contentment in your soul.

But maybe you're in here and you know Jesus, but you forgot what it's like to go to bed with peace.

You forgot what it's like to not be worried because you think it's all up to you.

Can I tell you that doesn't mean that we don't work hard, that we don't do the best we can.

It means that we trust God to do all the things that we can't do.

The Bible says with man, things are impossible, but with God, all things are possible.

What is it that you need to give him today so that you can be flooded with the contentment of your 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, god, you're not ashamed of any one of us, you're not embarrassed by any one of us, no matter what we have done, no matter where we have gone.

God, you are thankful that we're in this moment and in this room.

And so I just bind, in the name of Jesus, any spirit of shame, anything that would try to come against the work of God, any lie of the enemy.

I just bind it in the name of Jesus and I just release you, holy Spirit, to speak again to every heart, to remind them how loved they are and how your hope for us is to provide that rest of the soul.

So, no matter what goes on around us, we can be concerned, but never in fear, because you lead us.

You are our shepherd, god.

As we worship you in this moment, we ask first of all for those who've never made a commitment to know you as their king and their Lord.

I pray, holy Spirit, you'll give them the courage to turn everything over to you.

Let today be their spiritual birthday, lord.

For those who would say they feel more like that camel, it's so hard for them to lay their worries and their cares down.

I pray you will help us to remember God, that what's too heavy for us is just right for you and you want to be the one who carries those burdens and for those.

Maybe they would say that they're a sheep and they're consumed with the fear and consumed with the worry.

Help us to remember God.

Your word says you have not given us a spirit of fear or intimidation, but of power, of love and of a sound mind as we turn our lives over to you.

We're thankful for you today.

In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.

Now would you stand with me all over the house this morning the band is going to lead us in a final song of worship.

I just want to ask you this question what do you need to lay down to the Lord?

What is it that's trying to steal that contentment that God wants for you?

Maybe the way you need to do that is just to raise your hands in this time of worship and say God, to the best of my ability, I lay down that fear and I lay down that worry.

Maybe you'd like someone to pray with you.

I have a prayer team standing in the back.

I would love to pray with you.

Maybe you have questions about salvation.

I'd love to answer any of those questions.

Or maybe you just want to find a quiet place down here and just symbolically lay your burdens down to the Lord.

But whatever you need to do, let's take some time and take some next steps with Jesus.