What a privilege it is to stand before you and to proclaim the Word of God. I don't have words to say today to address really how much each of you has meant to us and all the good things that the Lord has done in you other than to say we love you, we will miss you, we're grateful for the way God has worked through you in our lives and our lives will never be the same. because of the impact you've had on us. And I'm grateful that God does that. He uses different people in our lives to teach us, to guide us, all part of the Lord working all things together for the good of his people and his ultimate glory. And so I trust that the Lord will use this last time opening the word together with me being here, proclaiming it, to minister to you and to help you to grow and follow the Lord. We're going to be in Psalm 23 again, so I'd ask you to turn over there. This week, again, I'm going to be reading from the King James Version. purely for sentimental reasons for me. And these are the words that I memorized this psalm in. And I wanted to preach from this old Bible with this. So if you found Psalm 23, would you stand with me? Or if you're able, even if you haven't found it, it'll be up on the screen. The 23rd Psalm. 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 restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 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 preparest 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. Let's pray together. O Lord, You truly are our shepherd. You are our hope, our strength, our shelter. You are our joy. You are our rock. Lord, you are always there. Our circumstances change, our relationships with others change, but you are unchanging. Rock, shelter, shepherd, friend, father. And we give you praise. Lord, we thank you today how you work through your word in our lives. And we thank you, Lord, how you also work through your people in our lives. And even as we are preparing to move to a different place, Lord, we know that you will be continually working. in each of our lives through your word, your spirit, and through your people. And so God, we pray that you might help us now to do what we just sang, to turn our eyes to Jesus and see that he is the shepherd that we need and he is the shelter that we so desperately need. We pray these things in Christ's name, amen. Amen, you can be seated. Well, I don't know if you've ever been caught in a storm without a shelter. And I don't mean a storm like last night where a little bit of rain descended from the sky. I mean a scary storm, the kind that brings you to the place where you have no security. It strips away your confidence and your hope. The cold wind is blowing hard. The rain is drenching. Maybe it's impossible to see because of the storm that's going on, and the lightning strikes, and the thunder is rolling. It is a time where you realize just how small you are. The storm seems so big and powerful. What we need, what we need is a shelter. What we need is safety when we're in a position like that. And Psalm 23 speaks to that need. There's no storm in view, but there is the Lord who is our shepherd. And he not only cares for us, but the picture of the Psalm shifts in the last two verses from being sheep in a pasture to being guests at a table. It's not that David has abandoned this metaphor of the Lord is the shepherd, but this is how the shepherd cares for his sheep, like a host cares for his guests and provides lavishly for them. The need for a shelter in the storm, I think, is very vividly illustrated in the well-known story of Martin Luther. As a young man, Luther was caught in a storm that literally changed the course of his life. It was the summer of 1505, and Luther was traveling on foot when a violent thunderstorm overtook him. The sky darkened, the heavens opened with fury. Lightning struck so close that it knocked Luther to the ground. In his terror, he cried out to one of the saints, and he said, Saint Anne, help me, and I will become a monk. It's kind of the familiar thing. You're in danger, and so you cry out and make some promises to God. At that moment, Luther sought the only shelter he knew how, and that was by vowing to devote his life to God. True to his word, he entered a monastery. Shortly afterward, and he hoped to find peace and safety for his troubled soul. He turned from a storm on the outside to a storm on the inside, because no matter how much he fasted and prayed and confessed his sins and did all the things that the Catholic Church told him to do, he could not find the peace that he longed for. He was haunted by the holiness of God in comparison to his own sinfulness. And no matter how much he did, it was never enough. The storm of fear raged on and Luther despaired of ever finding hope. Then one day as he was studying the book of Romans, he had his eyes get fixed on the phrase, the just shall live by faith. And it was through this time, Romans 117, through this passage that Luther realized the shelter he needed was not to be found in his own righteousness. which was never enough. His own good works could never give him what he needed and longed for. He realized that righteousness, the righteousness he needed, would be found only by running by faith to Jesus. The hope for his soul was not to be found in some saint or some church, but in the Savior, Jesus. This storm changed Luther's life and led him eventually to find the true shelter that he needed. I pray today that God would use this psalm to help you to find the shelter you need in Jesus. That your hope would be found in Christ and in Christ alone, as we sang. Because God offers us the comfort The protection, the companionship, the home that we so desperately need. Today, we're going to look just at the last two verses of this psalm, and I'm going to go ahead and read them again for you. It says, Thou preparest 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. I want you to see in these words first how the Lord hosts. How does the Lord host his people? Verse five begins with a direct address. You. If you are paying attention as we read through Psalm 23, you notice that he has been talking about the Lord in third person. The Lord is my shepherd. He makes me lie down. He leads me. He guides me. And now he turns to you. You. prepare a table before me. The Lord hosts us personally. He is very, very personal. He doesn't just provide the food, he prepares for it. He's not just the wealthy person that tells his servants to go set the table. It says he is the one who is preparing this. The Lord is not a distant host that's just kind of ordering things around and not personally invested, but he is the one preparing his active care is seen all through this. It says in verse 5 thou prepare us, you're preparing your anointing my head with oil. God is the one actively carry. There's such a difference here. with this personal attention. I've been to a ball game at Dodgers Stadium. You could say that the Dodgers hosted me, right? I'm their guest. But I never got to meet the Dodgers players. I certainly didn't meet the owners or the VIP people that were there at the stadium, that's reserved for a very select few. You know, the owner has his own box, his own section where he sits and those he invites can be with him. Only those people really get hosted In the way that we're talking about here, the Lord is inviting his people into his presence, not to just be one of the crowd that's out there cheering, but to be personally at his table. Not that he's paid someone to set, but that he himself prepares for you. Friend, there's no need to be distant from God when he invites you to come. You may feel sometimes as you read the word or as you go to God in prayer, you may feel that he is distant. Do not trust your feelings. They are frequently wrong. Feelings are not facts. The facts are that the Lord prepares a table for his people. You may feel distant, but he is near. This is how the Lord hosts us personally. He invites us in. We are the recipients of his generosity. He also hosts us lavishly. As David describes this hosting, he says that you anoint my head with oil and my cup runs over. This meal has been prepared, everything has been said. Have you ever been somewhere where you felt like, wow, they really thought of everything. You know, everything that I need, everything that I would want, things I didn't even know I wanted, now they're provided for me and I think this is just perfect. I don't know if you've ever had that experience, maybe even just being a guest at someone's house and the thoughtful little things they did to take care of you. Perhaps you've had the opposite experience, you know, and you've left a review on Google Maps to say what a terrible hotel this was because they thought of everything to make it miserable in their experience there. Maybe you've had that experience, but you understand what it means to be well cared for and to be neglected. No one ever comes to the Lord's house and says, you know what Lord, this was so great. But, you know, have you ever had one of those conversations, right? Everything is wonderful, except, but there's no room for that at the Lord's table. There's nothing that could be perfected, nothing that could be improved upon, nothing that could be better. The Lord hosts personally, lavishly. This anointing that's described here with oil certainly represents a customary kind of greeting and caring for but a bit of abundance and luxury. It's used for festive occasions and the normal verb for anointing isn't used here. This one focuses instead on the kind of refreshment that you experience from this anointing with oil. There is a blessing that's brought on you through this anointing. Guests arriving at a banquet were anointed as a sign of honor and a symbol of the festivity and joy. David is saying the Lord welcomes us and blesses us and rejoices over us. This overflowing cup certainly pictures the abundance. I grew up in Georgia, and most places in Georgia, when you go to a restaurant, almost all of them serve sweet tea. If not, they should probably go out of business. No, they do. I remember this particular barbecue restaurant that we used to go to, they would bring you sweet tea in what seemed like it must have been a quart container. It had to be pretty close to it if it wasn't. And if your cup got like this far down, the waitress was running over. and filling it back up. Like you never tasted the bottom half of that cup of tea or jar of tea because it just kept getting filled up, filled up. There's there's an abundance. There's more. We're not going to run out. This is the picture here. David says this feast that the Lord has provided is not only everything I need, but there is more than enough. There's more than enough. Friends, if we remember this, it will keep us from so much. It will keep your heart from temptation. When you think that the world has what will satisfy you, it's not true. The devil is a liar. He's good at making claims, but bad on delivering. The Lord has a table that's set. And it has everything you need, everything you need to satisfy you, everything you need to bring you joy. How often our hearts chase after things that do not bring that joy, that do not satisfy, that aren't full of the good things that the Lord provides. Meanwhile, there's a table waiting, a table prepared. Friend, if you have been looking at the things of the world to bring you joy and satisfaction, if you've been chasing after the lusts and desires of your flesh, thinking that is what you need, let me tell you, today is the day to repent. Today's the day to turn to the table that the Lord has prepared for you. There are good gifts the Lord hosts lavishly personally. What could be better? All of this display brings honor to the host, doesn't it? If you go over to someone's house and they just really take care of you, you walk out of there thinking what a wonderful host they are, how kind they are, how generous they are. The Lord's blessings he pours out on us, lead us to give him glory, and God delights in displaying his glory, just like a good host delights in taking care of their guests and honoring them and treating them well. All of God's generosity shows off his glory. But back up to verse 5, the beginning of it again, this table is prepared He says, before me in the presence of my enemies. Now, just in the verse before, David talked about taking a trip through the valley of the shadow of death, those dark and treacherous paths that we sometimes find ourselves on. And now he talks about enemies. It's clear that even if the Lord is our shepherd, it does not mean it's all green grass and bright sun and beautiful waters. There are some dark valleys to go through, and there are enemies that are out there. It's not naive in ignoring those, but what verse five makes very clear is that David is happily enjoying this feast, even though the enemies are still there. Even though there's still danger out there, there's not danger in here at the table. When you're in the presence of the king, there is no need to fear. That's what he's just said in verse four, right? I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Since you're here, there is nothing to fear. The Lord hosts us fearlessly. He gives us the opportunity to dine with him fearlessly. You see, it doesn't matter what circumstances the world throws at us. It doesn't matter who the current elected officials are in our government. It doesn't matter who your enemies are, maybe at work, how grumpy your neighbor is. It doesn't matter any of that. You can enter into God's presence And you can find a place of blessing and joy. What an amazing privilege. If you think back to right before Jesus was crucified, what did he do right before he was arrested? Now, he was praying in the garden, but prior to that, he sat at a meal with his disciples. He had the Passover meal with them, a table prepared in accordance with the the law of the Old Testament and the traditions there, they celebrated the Passover meal together. And at the end of it, Jesus introduced something new, a ceremony that involved the cup and the bread, and that was used to depict, he said, this is my body, which is broken for you. This is my blood, which is shed for you. We celebrate it typically the beginning of every month here. The Lord's table, the Lord's supper, he prepares this table. It is such an amazing, amazing display of what Christ has done for us. That he came to rescue us, not by sending Moses to do it, not by sending Paul to do it, not by sending Elijah or Elisha or one of the prophets, but God Himself, God the Son personally came and prepared a table for us by laying down His life to pay for our sins so that we could be forgiven and we can be invited into His presence and be with Him forever. We do not have to fear the punishment for sin if we come to Jesus. Just like Luther found hundreds of years ago, there is a shelter in Christ because Christ has come to be the savior of sinners. He has come in the presence of his enemies to lay down his life that you might be forgiven and cleansed in him. I don't think we even truly comprehend what a lavish sacrifice Christ made for us. Friends, if if you feel insignificant, this psalm should tell you you are not. Because the Lord Yahweh, the God of heaven and earth, he's prepared a table for you. You are welcome into his presence because of Jesus. You are not forgotten. You were treated as the most precious guest. After all, if the father has laid down and given his son for you, is there any good thing that he would withhold? How can we not respond to God with worship and joy and gratitude when he has hosted us in this way? What an amazing, amazing gift. Jesus welcomes sinners, invites them to his table. So verse five shows us how the Lord welcomes us, how he hosts us. Now, in verse six, we're going to see two final things. First is what the Lord sends. I love these words in verse six. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. If you have been around church for a number of years, you probably know a little chorus. Surely, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. You know, a chorus with these words in it. This is what the Lord sends. Now, in verse number six, it says, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me. You might get the idea of just something that's tagging along. You know, if you have small children and you go somewhere, they follow along. Our dog, you know, he somehow got in the sermon a lot last week and now he's slipping in there again this week. Our dog will follow us around, right? My wife says when I'm gone and she's at home, she goes in one room, the dog comes and follows her and he's got to be there. That's not the idea of this verse, that goodness and mercy are just kind of tagging along, wandering around behind us as though they're afraid they'll get lost if they're not with us. The Legacy Standard Bible translates this word follow in a way that I think is very clear. It says, surely goodness, and it uses the word loving kindness, will pursue me, pursue me. Now, follow can certainly mean that, right? When you think about the police following a getaway car from a robbery, they're pursuing it. They're after it. They're not just meandering along. They're determined to get it. They're chasing it. That's the sense of the following that God's goodness and mercy do for his people. They're not just hoping to stick with us while we navigate life. No, they are out to get us. They're pursuing us. What a comfort. What does our Lord send to his people? His goodness and his mercy to chase after them. Now, we can lose someone we're trying to pursue, just like the police can lose track of a suspect. They can get away. But Proverbs 15 3 tells us the eyes of the Lord are in every place. There's no escaping his sight. There's nowhere you can flee from his presence. Psalm 139 tells us that there's nowhere that God is not. He sees all. He knows all. If he is determined to send these things to pursue us, then you can be sure they're going to do it. They're not going to get lost. He will relentlessly pursue us. If you use GPS navigation in your car when you're driving or on your phone, you know that no matter which way you turn, as long as you know everything's working properly with the technology, that route is going to relentlessly change and redirect you, right? You make a wrong turn, it's gonna tell you exactly what to do. You make another wrong turn, it's still gonna tell you what to do. It's just going to keep on bugging you. I don't know, sometimes I set a destination to go somewhere and then I decide I need to stop by somewhere else first. And so the thing is just giving you no peace, right? It's like, you need to turn around at the safest place, make a U-turn, turn right. And you're like, no, I want to go here. It won't let go. This is the picture of God's mercy and goodness. It is doggedly, relentlessly following, pursuing. Even when we rebel and wander, God does not wander from his care of his people. And can you think of a time when you have felt this kind of pursuit by God's goodness and mercy? It may not be what you're feeling this moment. So I'd encourage you. I'd encourage you to look back on the times where you know God's goodness was out to get you or you know his mercy and his loving kindness. His loyal love was on display and write those down. Remind yourself of them. Because we forget. You know, this past week for our family has been so hectic as we're making preparations to leave and wrapping things up here. And so many times over the last even couple weeks, I've been, I've said to someone around me, like, what day is it? I don't even know what day it is, what's going on. But no matter what my state of mind is, God's goodness and mercy are pursuing me. God has not abandoned his post. He's never confused and says, you know, I'm not really sure what's going on down there. Can somebody help that guy? No, he's never like that. This is our shepherd. This is our host, a relentless pursuit. Keep a list, write it in the back of your Bible, write it in your journal, write it on your phone. Just keep it in your mind of the instances where you know God has shown his goodness and mercy to you and remind yourself of those. Because the Lord always sends those. These terms goodness and mercy or some translations translate mercy as steadfast love or as loving kindness. It is a word that is kind of difficult to capture in one word in English. The Hebrew word is used throughout the Old Testament to describe God's loving commitment and his devotion to his people. It gets expressed in good things for them. It gets expressed in mercy for their sinfulness. It gets expressed in his faithfulness, even when they are unfaithful. This is all wrapped up in this term, God's commitment to his people. It's a it's a love, it's a goodness, but it is a covenant love and goodness. He is bound himself to display this to his people, and he's relentless in doing it. When you see goodness to you, even if you can't directly point to God doing something extraordinary to provide that goodness for you, all those goodnesses are glimpses of God's character. They're glimpses of His kindness, of His mercy, of His goodness. You know, we get to see God's goodness and mercy on display through His people. That's what makes us love one another so much, is because we see God at work in us. We experience His love and His care. We experience His hands. We experience His hug. through the love and care of his people. And it's a special bond. It's a great treasure. It's a glimpse of God's goodness and mercy. I'm glad those pursue us in good times and in bad times. You might be going through a period of time where your mind is filled with doubts. You might be going through a time when you're full of fear. You're full of despair. Even there, God's goodness, his mercy, his loving kindness are following you. Surely they are. It's difficult to remember that when it doesn't feel like it. In times of darkness, times of pain, times of suffering. We can question, Lord, where are you? Where is your goodness? I don't feel this loving kindness surrounding me. Often we can only notice those things when we're looking backwards. You know, in the moment, we may not see it. We may not feel it. We may not appreciate it. But looking back, we can see it. So by faith, Paul says this in Romans 8.18, he says, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. It's like the future glory is so great that it's not even in comparison to the things that we experience now. Someday we will stand in God's presence and we will look back and we will see goodness and mercy pursuing us all the days of our life, all the circumstances, all the events. We will see all things working together for good and for God's glory. Now, I told a story a long time ago, and Lee always reminds me of it. So I told him I had to figure out a way to work it into my last message here. It's not really a story as much as it is imagining, all right? Imagine this ceiling is the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It's painted with just amazing, amazing work and you can stand on the floor and you can look up and you can see its beauty and you can see the details and you can see how all the shades of color of dark and different colors, black, they all blend together to make a beautiful picture. But if you didn't have that perspective and instead you were just the little ant that was on the ceiling and you were looking around at your surroundings, you might conclude very different things about what was on the wall. If you were in a corner that was very dark, you might conclude that this ceiling is just black and terrifying and not something you could enjoy. And in fact, it's something you want to get away from. Often life is like that, all right? Our limited perspective, what we can see, what we can take in, doesn't look pleasant. It doesn't look enjoyable. It doesn't look to be a part of God's big plan for the world. And if it is, we think, God, this part of your big plan is kind of lousy. I don't like it. But if we could see the whole picture, the whole story, which in this life, looking back, we get glimpses of the whole picture. But from God's perspective, the whole thing is in view. And what may look like a dark spot actually makes the whole picture beautiful and amazing. Someday, we will be in the place where we can look at all that God has done. all the things that he brought our way, good things, bad things, sad things. And we can say, surely, goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life. What a blessing to know that God is that faithful and that good. We need to remind ourselves of that. You know, we need to remind ourselves of Psalm 23. It's a passage that's so beloved and so well known because there's such comfort to be had here. Run to it over and over and over again. So we've seen how the Lord hosts in personally, faithfully, lavishly, We've seen also what the Lord sends our way. He sends his own goodness and his own mercy. And lastly, I want us to think about the last words of verse six and see where the Lord leads. Because you can rest assured that God is leading through the valley of the shadow of death to a destination. He's leading us home. He's pursuing us, chasing us forward, if you will, through this journey towards himself, his own presence. That's what makes heaven home, is that it is where God is. In Psalm 23 says, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. There is a variant with the Hebrew text where the Hebrew text actually reads, I will return to the house of the Lord forever. And that was understood to mean that we're gonna return to dwell in the house of the Lord forever. We're going to turn back home. If we were made by God for his glory, for his pleasure, that means that home is with him. That's where we belong. And that's where God's people will be forever with him. Back to what we were made for. Our true home. We long for a place of belonging and rest and peace. And that place is with him. That place is with his presence. You know, as we go through this life, we're not wandering aimlessly. The shepherd is not just leading us around, meandering with no point or destination in mind. In everything that comes our way, God is leading us more to his presence. He's leading us to see his goodness more, to see his faithful, loyal love to his people more. He does it through the good things, the bad things. He does it through meeting new people and departing from people. In all of these things, God is leading us towards himself forever with God. Forever. Can't even understand it. Forever. What does that mean? We don't know forever. Because everything changes here. People die. Jobs get lost. People move to the other side of the country, right? Forever is like, what does that even mean? I don't even know. I can't even wrap my mind around it. Forever just transcends everything we know. Because everything we know is bound by time. There's today, tomorrow, next week, next year, forever just is forever. That's how long the Lord intends for his people to be with him. That's pretty wild. That's pretty crazy. Because there were very few people that you would want to dwell in the house with for a week. You know, never leave, just always be there with them all the time, always talking with them. I mean, think about how many people there are in the world that you would like to dwell with for a week. Hopefully you're thinking of the people that currently live in your house, but it's a small number, isn't it? Forever? That's a long time, right? Company comes, you love to have them come, you enjoy them and you love to have them leave, right? So just be honest. The Lord says his plan for his people is to be with him forever. Now that is a steadfast, committed love. That is a special commitment. That's the shelter we need. The place we're welcome at the table. Not just come on in, find yourself something, but there's a great spread laid out. It's lavish. God has made us for his glory. He's made us to enjoy him and his presence and his goodness and his mercy forever. And if we could just grab a hold of that. Wouldn't that change everything? We're made to forever be with and enjoy our great God. In the song we sang, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, the first verse said, The things of earth will grow strangely dim, and the light, I think it says, of your glory and grace. If you get a glimpse of being welcomed into the Father's house, it changes the way you live in this world. Because this isn't forever. The best things we enjoy now They fade. They get old, they fall apart, they break. But to be in God's presence forever. Why would we put our heart? Why would we invest all of our time and our energy into things that will not last forever? Yes, we enjoy the good gifts God gives us here, but we treat them as we are pilgrims on our way home. We are strangers in this land. We're exiles here. This is not our kingdom, our dwelling places with the Lord. Our purpose is to be with him. and His people forever. Home is God's dwelling place with us. Revelation 21.3 says, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. It's the eternal state to be with God forever. What an amazing psalm. There's so many things to say about and think about it. I know that I've just scratched the surface of it in these two weeks. But I think this is an invitation maybe that some of you really need to hear. Maybe some of you are like Martin Luther that I mentioned at the beginning. Desperately trying to find this place of peace and the blessings that are outlined in the psalm. You need to know that coming to church and fasting and praying and giving money, all of these things will not secure that for you. I can't give that to you. Other people can't give that to you. But Jesus can. Jesus can. Come to Him not thinking you're good enough for Him to bless you with this. No, come to Him thinking you need what He has to offer. Come to Him confessing that you are guilty and you need forgiveness, that you're lost and you need to be rescued, that you are alienated from God, separated from Him and you need to be brought close. Come to Him admitting you're an enemy because you've gone your own way. And you need him to bring you into the family. Come to Jesus as a sinner and you'll find that he is the savior that you need. He is the shelter that you're looking for. And then, dear believer, you've already come to Jesus. But we all are prone to wander away. We're prone to Go looking for the things of this world to satisfy us. We're prone to turning back to the old ways instead of pressing forward and following Christ. We need to come. We need to come to the Lord. He's the shepherd that we need. He will guide, He will redirect, He will correct, but He will bring you in. He will bring you in. Do not fear to run to him again, even if it's for the thousandth time and say, Lord, I've messed up again. The table is open. It's open because Jesus has laid down his life to pay for your sins and he is the sacrifice that satisfies. He pays it in full. Run to him. Run to him. If you find yourself in a dark valley, meditate on these words of Psalm 23. If you find yourself not feeling the Lord's care and protection and provision for you, run to Psalm 23 and believe the truth. God is the shelter that you need. May the Lord help us. each one of us to respond with a grateful heart to what he has done, to respond with a trust that is growing stronger, to rest in him, and a deep longing for home, real home, not Covina, Glendora, or Virginia, or wherever you may have in mind, but with God's presence, with him, that's home. That's where we belong. That's where we're made for. And that's where, by the grace of God, His people are headed for. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.