He didn't act like he appreciated me this morning, but today's a new day. No, I appreciate him. We pick around a lot, but I sure love him and appreciate him and appreciate you. I was thinking about this, seeing Matt up there singing. Boy, I'm getting to the stage in life and ministry where I've seen stages of life with people. You know what I mean? Kids coming through. And growing up and thinking about, of course, I say a lot about Kristen because I've seen her and all her, you know. But even when her and Justin got married, I said, I said, you ain't kidding them McCrayers down in Coolumia, are you? He said, yeah. I said, I know your people, right? But then I see Matt up here singing and think about he and Emily and them coming to church separately. we all made them get married in California we were all on a trip and we're like y'all need to start courting or whatever and I remember one of them was seeing somebody I saw that needs to stop and yeah and then they got married now they're having kids and and it's a blessing and that that's what You know, I was talking to someone Wednesday night, I think, it may not have been Wednesday night, Brother John and Miss Beth and I were talking about, we were out in the parking lot talking about family and how when you start viewing church as family, and that's what it should be, instead of just a place that you go until you decide you want to go somewhere else, right? And unfortunately, what's happened among Christianity is We're nomadic Christians. We go from one watering hole to the next and, you know, well, I'm not getting fed here so I'm going to go here. Well, you realize when you feed yourself, right, and then you embrace this as family and, you know, good, bad, or ugly, we're in this thing together, you learn to work out your differences. And if you study your Bible, that's really what the Bible teaches, that as Christians we are to work out our problems with each other. As a local body believers, we're to assemble together and we're to work together. And, and, uh, when you start looking at things that way, it changes, um, for most people. I mean, let's be honest. There's some people, they can't get along with their own family. I mean, you know, and, uh, it's sad. It's sad that you see that. But then it's sad when you see all the drama that goes on in churches sometimes. You hear about church splits and people forming a coalition to get rid of the pastor and the pastor doing all this crazy stuff to church members and all this. And I'm like, it's something bigger going on, should be going on. And so I just want to tell you we appreciate you and love you and appreciate your support. I realize this, over almost 23 years, I've not done everything right. I've had the right intention. I've not always done the right thing. And I think because of our relationship and my heart for you and your heart for me, you understand, we understand that we're doing things for what we feel like the right reason, even if it's not always the right action. That's a whole lot different than always being skeptical of everything. I want you to turn to Psalm 23 this afternoon. Has anybody never heard of Psalm 23? If so, we probably need to have a meeting after church in my office. If we're honest, we know Psalm 23 is probably one of the most read, quoted. I remember memorizing Psalm 23 when I was in third grade. It's amazing what your mind picks up. And Miss Susan played that song for Penny March Wednesday night. And I remember learning that as a child. I'm talking about like eight years old, right? Do Lord, oh do Lord, do you remember me? And see, I even, even with my messed up brain, I remembered a verse Miss Susan didn't even remember. But when you think about that, you learn these things and those things stick. I can't remember a lot of things. Sometimes I can't remember what did my keys, but it's amazing what God can implant in your brain at a young age and it will come up. when you need it most and so Psalm 23 may be one of the most quoted scriptures and a lot of times you'll hear it at funerals, right? Because it says, yeah, I'll walk through the valley of the shadow of death and I will fear no evil and so people automatically say, well, that ought to be read at a funeral. Really, Psalm 23 is a living Psalm. It's not a Psalm of death and we look at Psalms 22 and 23 and 24. And, and they kind of go together, but here the, the Psalm of David, he writes this, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want, he maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. And yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou prepares the table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And so I think this, that probably David is one of my favorite characters in the Old Testament, maybe in the whole Bible, because I can relate to him. He's very human. I mean, when you look at his life, he was a shepherd boy. He really wasn't raised in a king's palace, and God called him out of kind of an obscure occupation to be the leader of a nation. Right? And, and, and then you look at David's sin and you look at the fact that he tried to cover sin and, uh, but, uh, it's amazing to me. And we come to Psalm 23, he's writing this Psalm. And then we know in the new Testament, we look and, and the Bible tells us, David is a man after God's own heart. I mean, he. committed adultery had a man killed he did a lot of messed up things and sinned quite a great deal what we would consider pretty pretty vile things yet God knew his heart and you start reading the Psalm and a lot of the Psalms are Psalms of David in repentance he realizes what he did he wasn't condoning it or Covering up is trying to make some things right and so David to me seems more human than I Mentioned it Wednesday night was talking about Elijah and and James chapter 5 that we know the Bible says that Elijah and and others are men after they're basically humans and But then you see them and we think they're super Christians. Now you come to David and David, it seems like every turn is messed up. And yet David is used of God to lead the nation of Israel. And we see the lineage of the Savior coming through him. And so I'd say this, that God paid him the greatest compliment when he said he's a man after God's own heart. So David made one of the greatest contributions to mankind, I believe, when he penned down Psalm 23. And so it's probably been the most memorized, more than any other scripture, and it's probably blessed more people than any other passage. And yet David had been through life. I mean, his life was not easy. David had lived life. And he'd been through it. He'd lost children. He had had people trying to kill him, right? I mean, pretty much when you think about trials and tribulation, that's David's life. And so now he describes his shepherd. Brother Shane, it's interesting. Here's a man who intimately knew what a shepherd's life was all about. This isn't a man writing about something he has no idea. David was what? A shepherd, right? And so he understood his love for his flock, and now he likens the Lord Jesus to a shepherd. He likens him to a great shepherd. We know in the New Testament he's a great shepherd. And so what does this psalm tell us? And again, I know people read it at funerals and it brings great comfort, but I believe this is more of a psalm of living than dying. And it tells us about our life and our shepherd. And so, uh, there's a few things I want to share with you. I got, uh, oh, I got a lot of points. Praise God. Hold on for a while, praise the Lord. So let me share with you some thoughts about this. Number one is the person of the shepherd. Now what's he saying in verse one? The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. So what is a shepherd? Well, we don't really understand that today because most of us are not shepherds. We don't know shepherds, right? But in that day, a shepherd was a an occupation many had. It was a lifestyle that many had. It was not just a nine to five job. You many times were out there with long hours, spending the night out there with the sheep. And I heard this said about pastors. A pastor's an under-shepherd. A good under-shepherd ought to smell like sheep. In other words, he ought to be around the people. And someone who always at the end of service runs off to their ivory towers is probably not going to be a very good shepherd. Probably not going to be a good pastor. He might be a good preacher, but probably won't be a good pastor. Same thing with the shepherd. If David was not around the sheep, he wouldn't know all the infirmities and he wouldn't know their character and wouldn't understand their likings and their dislikings. And so when we think of the person of the shepherd, the first thing we think about the Lord Jesus is that he is compassionate. Amen, he's compassionate. What do you mean by that? He's tender. He's gentle. He's forgiving. He understands the frailty of the sheep. The Bible said that when Jesus came, he was like we are. He was God in flesh. David, because he spent much time with the sheep, understood there were times you had to drive them hard and there were times you had to lead them gently. There were times they did need to be sheared, but there were a lot of times they needed to be comforted. And friend, may I say this, I'm glad we serve a God that's just that way. There's times that he does have to pull out the whipping stick, so to speak. But how many more times is this old cat compassionate and tender and gentle and there to hear us. Hey, let's be honest, if I were the shepherd and I were God, and you'd probably say the same thing, I'd probably get tired of my whining all the time. Look, Johnny, how unfair life is and how unfair people are, but he's compassionate and gentle and tender and he's forgiving. Aren't you glad God doesn't forgive us the way we forgive other people? Amen. He understands. I mentioned it Wednesday night. Sometimes too often we look at other sheep and we'll say, well, they've been in the flock for a while. They ought to know how to act. Well, listen, may I say this? I'll say it again. Everybody don't know how to act. You always have some sheep that aren't gonna get in line, amen? So instead of focusing on the other sheep, you know what the sheep did? They just focused on the shepherd. See, the sheep didn't lead them to green pastures and the sheep didn't, it was the shepherd they kept. May I say this, if you'll just keep your eyes this afternoon on the shepherd and off the other sheep, you'll appreciate so much the shepherd. and understand the frailty of the sheep. He's compassionate. Now like this, the Bible said the Lord is my shepherd. He's a personal shepherd. Hey, he can be yours, but I'm glad he's mine. He can be mine, but you ought to thank God he's yours. Amen? He's not the shepherd to a few. He's the shepherd to whosoever will. I'm glad he's personal. I can call on him anytime I want to, Brother Ken. When nobody else will listen to me, I can call on him because he's a compassionate shepherd. But then, may I say this? He's a complete shepherd. Notice what he says. He says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not what? He's everything you need. He's everything that you want if you'll let him be. May I say that there's been times that I've had want but it's been my flesh not because God didn't give me what I needed. Amen. The fact is he's everything we need. Can I say this, young people? You better stop expecting someone to fulfill your life. You better stop expecting something. If I only had this, if I only had this dream job, if I only got to go to this school, if I only had this kind of car, if I only had this kind of spouse, you better stop because he's all you need. And if you don't let Him be all you need, your need will never get satisfied. Amen. So He's everything you need and there's no need to looking for another. May I say this? Since I've gotten saved, I'm talking about really got saved. I'm not talking about some cheap profession I made when I was a kid that didn't change me. I'm talking about when I truly got saved, I'm not going looking for anything else. I've not experimented in Buddhism. Listen to me. I've not had this desire to check into mysticism. I've not decided maybe the Mormons are right. I mean, let me tell you, when I really got it, it's all I needed. Amen. I'm less worried about all the stuff I don't know. Listen to what I'm saying. You better get this. If you'll get to know him, all the stuff out there that you don't know won't matter. I'm serious. This world will drive you crazy. There's too much out there. There's too much unknown. And I've seen too many good Christians go down rabbit trails, right? Get caught up in some of this crazy mindset stuff. I'm saying you better know him. What about this religion? I've had people ask me, they say, hey, preacher, won't you do a study on all these other religions? Why? Why do I want to waste my time with it? What about we just we know that book well enough and know and know our Savior good enough. Now I understand if you're trying to witness to Muslims it probably does help to learn some stuff about their culture and what they but I think sometimes we're so we want to learn this stuff so much. Why don't we why don't we start just worrying about learning the Bible. Amen. Right? I mean, if He's all I need, if He's sufficient, if He's all I could want, then maybe if He's that complete, I need to know more of Him and know more about Him and how I can become more like Him and more intimate with Him than trying to figure everything else out. Just get close to Him. Well, those sheep, they didn't care about everything. They didn't care about all the other shepherds. Listen to me. They cared about their shepherd. They weren't worried about what all the other sheep were getting from their shepherd. See, that shepherd was so intimate with them that all they, the only voice they knew was his. He's complete. Not one time do I, I've never been a sheep. But I'm just guessing they didn't go looking across the field and go, I wonder if them sheep got it better than we got it. I wonder if their shepherd's better than our shepherd. I wonder if it'd benefit us if we changed from this flock to that flock. No, no. See, their shepherd been real good to them. So they said, we'll just get closer to ours, right? This world will tell you, hey, come our way. But if you'll get closer to your shepherd, you'll realize he's really all you need. Amen. Amen. So number one is the person of the shepherd. Number two is this, is the provision. Now notice here, the Bible said in verse two, he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still water. He restores my soul. So there's two things I see here. First is the rest. He's making me to lie down. Sheep like to rest after they eat. I see that on your faces. So the shepherd knew where to find the best nourishment. That's why we don't get up here and get book reports. That's why the Bible said preach the word. That's why we don't get up here and do political rallies and political updates and box scores and nifty little stories about Andy Griffith and we're going to do an Andy Griffith Bible study because that's not preach the word. Preach the word is just give them the nourishment, right? Feed my sheep. That's what he told Peter in John 21. He said feed my sheep, right? Feed my sheep, feed my lambs. What are lambs? Little sheep. Three times he said feed them. How do you feed them? You give him what nourishes him. What will nourish him is the word of God. So a shepherd had to find rest for him and so shepherds would find the best nourishment that satisfies and then he finds the most peaceful place to rest. You know where the most peaceful place to rest is? Under his wings. You can't stop the storms. You can't stop the howling winds and the lightning and the thunder, but you can get under his wings. Amen. And so there's a rest. He finds the most peaceful place to rest. How many of you have been like this? You've gone to a reunion or gone to eat with folks and it's not too hot. Maybe it's in the fall, maybe it's in the spring. You start, your eyes start getting like that, you know, and you go get under a shade tree, and that breeze starts blowing a little bit. Not yet, but it will after service. Starts blowing just a little bit, and you get that little nap in. And you're not totally unconscious, but you're not, I mean, you know what I'm talking about? I call it the zone. You kind of know what's going on around you, but it's like, whoa, right? That's a good place, isn't it? See, those sheep didn't know how to get to the zone. The shepherd would feed them and he'd say, I've already scouted out a place up here. It's going to be a lot better than these old rocks here, right? It's the rest and it's the refreshment. Notice what he said, he makes me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters. And so that refreshment is not tumultuous waters but still waters and the calmness and peace that only he provides. And see if you've ever noticed, I understand that that rushing water is attractive. Right, I mean you think about You don't go whitewater rafting in a pond. You go whitewater rafting where there's rapids, right? Where there's whitewater. Here's the other thing. That's dangerous. You get out there messing around with those rapids, right? And all of a sudden you slip and you're about 14 states away. See, that shepherd would take them right at Stillwater, where the good stuff was. There's something about the calmness that he brings, isn't it? How is it that you can have family and go through cancer and death and all these things and there's still a calmness and peace there? Because of the shepherd. Number three is the pathway. He says this in verse four. Verse 3 and 4. He said, He restores my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. And yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thou rod my staff, they comfort me. And so the pathway of the shepherd is that of restoration. And notice what he said. He restores my soul and He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. So in that restoration, He's guiding us because let's be honest. We're going to take, normally, we take what we think is the easiest path. Not the righteous path, the easy path. Agree? That's just our nature. I'm not critical of you or you or me, but you know, it's like this. We were talking to the teens today and I said, you won't remember this. I said, Miss Anne, I will. There's time where you did not have, I said, what is that thing? All you got a TV. How do you change the channel with a remote? They had that look like, duh. I said, there's time there was no, we were the remote, right? And when I got one of the kids off the bus, he was like. So you had to get up and program, or hit the buttons. There wasn't no buttons to hit, you turned it. Right? Then somebody, somewhere in their mind, they thought, I'm tired of getting up out of this chair, having to turn the channel. And so they figured out some way to turn the channel with a remote that was tied, we had a cord. Right? That hooked from the remote to the VCR. Then somebody figured, what are you saying? All of it come out of convenience. So everybody's life has gotten quote unquote easier because of, I didn't say better, easier, right? And that's what we want. We like easy. We don't necessarily want to rush. I mean, you can go to McDonald's and it's easy meal, but it's not as nutritious as going and cooking it at your stove and putting the right stuff in it, right? So what I'm saying is when we get off the path, he gets us back on. And a lot of times we don't like that because we want God to bless us and go our own path, but if the shepherd loves the sheep and there's a cliff down there, he's not gonna let him go down that path to fall off the cliff. And so that gentle nudging, he'd take that shepherd's crook and he'd... Right? He'd guide him with that. Come on. But if they kept on, maybe it was more... And if it really got bad, he'd take those little lambs and he'd break their leg. He'd split them up. Brother Shane, he'd put them... That shepherd had a coat. He'd put that little lamb in there. And he'd be there right by his heart. So that little sheep didn't go where the rest of them went. He just went where the shepherd went. He'd sleep with the shepherd. He'd hear his heartbeat. He'd mend him up. Well, that little sheep, when he got healed up, you know what he'd do? He'd just stay right behind that shepherd. See, he's trying to restore you. He's not trying to hurt you. He's trying to keep you on the righteous path, on the right path, on the path that leads to the still waters and the green pastures. And let's be honest, we want to go down the rocky path oftentimes. He's a restoring shepherd, but then also he's a righteous shepherd. The Bible said paths of righteousness. Well, that's not the easy path, is it? And sometimes needing to go through rocky terrain to get to the best pastures, we've got to go through that terrain to get to where we're going to go. And when we go through that, Brother Jerry, we still have to trust the shepherd because he knows where we're going. So there's the righteous path. And then number four, the presence of the shepherd. He said, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil for thou art with me. Thy rod and staff comfort me. Well, it speaks of darkness. As you study the valley of the shadow of death, I read this, that it was a a path into the Holy Land and it was a narrow path about four and a half miles long and ten to twelve feet wide and fifteen hundred feet high on either side and it was dark and dangerous so wild animals would wait in the shadows waiting to pounce on the prey and the shepherd walks with the sheep through the valley every valley you've ever walked through he's walked with you everyone you may not know it Because let's be honest, when we go through those valleys, the shadow of death, you know what we often do? Instead of just keeping our eyes on Him. And there's the defense of the shepherd. The rod and staff were used to protect the sheep. It wasn't just to get them on the right path. See, they didn't have guns. So they would have to protect the sheep with what they had and that was the rod and staff and the presence. Protection of the shepherd being peace to the sheep. Then number five, the preparation of the shepherd. Notice what he said. He said, verse five, thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. And so there's the anointing and the shepherd would bind up the wounds of the sheep. Well, that oil, there was some medicinal purposes to it. A lot of times we think of oil today, motor oil, right, or canola oil. But that oil was medicinal. Think about this, those sheep, if you've got an animal, right, and they're going through woods and rocky terrain and all this stuff, they're going to get nicked up and maybe even as the predators came and Attacked them that they'd have wounds on them and that shepherd would take that that oil and rub it on them Heal them It's amazing to me But Dennis people get hurt and they'll have they'll have things in life that hurt them And I mentioned it this morning instead of running to the Savior. They'll run away from me That'd be like that'd be like being sick and run away from the doctor Well, maybe it wouldn't be like that. That's not always a bad thing. But it's amazing. We get hurt and it's like, well, we're going to run away from the shepherd. No, he's the one that wants to help us and heal us. So there's the anointing of that oil to heal us, but then there's the abundance of it. He said, my cup runneth over. Our shepherd gives abundantly, above all that we think or ask. That's what he said. He said, not me, well maybe you're not thinking and asking big enough. Then finally is the prospect of the shepherd. He said in verse 6, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. So there's the surety of it. You say, I don't know if I can believe that. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me. What is that? That's God's word. And what surrounds us, the surrounding is this, the goodness of God and the mercy of God. He's so much better to me than I deserve. Can I be honest with you? I do not deserve, Brother Shane, to be pastor in this church. I don't. I don't take that lightly. I don't think God owes me a thing. I don't look at you as lower than me. It's simply my privilege to serve God here. I don't deserve it. I don't deserve that woman back there. I don't deserve these kids. I don't deserve you being my friend. I don't deserve him. He has surrounded me with goodness. And he has surrounded me with mercy. Let me tell you, I'm going to give you a secret and I'm done. I'm going to tell you how to be happy. Some of you need it. I can look at your face and tell you you need it. When you realize you don't deserve not one thing that you have. Not one thing that you have do you deserve. Do you have little things that irritate you? Do I? Yeah. Every day. When you pillow your head tonight and you're laying in that bed And if your spouse is beside of you, or they've passed on, if you've got children upstairs, downstairs, or you've got them out somewhere else, you pillow your head tonight in that bed, and you've got your heat turned on, or your air conditioning turned on, and before you go to bed, you eat your meal, and you reflect on this service today. You reflect on this service that we had this morning. You go down there and, I wish we'd have had something different. I don't like soup. Right? I mean, you realize how spoiled we are? We had 14 different soups down there and people, I don't like soup. Some people, you put water, you boil some water and put some onions in it and they're like, that's soup. Man, that ain't soup where I come from. What we had down there was soup. They'd give anything to eat what we just ate. They'd give anything to come in. Brother 4, you know what? There were some people, they got done eating, they got out of here as quick as they could. I got to go home and get me a nap. Right? Whatever. That's them. I ain't worried about them. But even some of us say, well, we've got to have this afternoon service. You ought to thank God we're having service. You don't think travel two hours to the west. There's some folks up there that like to be in service today. There's some people wouldn't mind having that, what you had down there, wouldn't mind having the clothes you got on your back or the car. You see what I'm saying? You want me to tell you how to be happy, you realize you don't deserve not one thing you got. Neither do I. And all of a sudden you'll wake up and say, God, thank you. old preacher you don't understand all my health concerns maybe not you don't understand mine but I promise you go to Baptist Hospital walk through the halls of that place go up to the burn unit smell that and tell me how bad you help problems are huh go in there and look those folks that they're inside their bodies burned out with chemo because they're trying to heal some cancer and then tell me aches and pains and how bad you got it you with me The Lord's my shepherd, and I wanna say this in closing. He's been a good shepherd to me. He's been real good to me. Let's close in prayer. Father, I love you. Thank you for this church. Thank you for being our shepherd. We pray that we've exalted, magnified you today. Thank you for allowing me to pastor this church. You've been real good to me. Been good to our family. But you bless this church. May we be grateful and thankful. We love you in Jesus' name we pray, amen.