Let's pray, and then we'll go to Psalm 23. Father, thank you for this moment. Thank you that Mark and Sherry have listened to you, trusting you, walking by faith. And God, together, we want to listen to you, trust you, and walk by faith. God, continue to restore, we pray, in the deep places of our lives, Jesus, your restoration, your presence, your touch, your grace, as we receive, as we draw near to you. Thank you for being our good shepherd, and we pray in your name, Lord, amen. Our God restores and Jesus is our good shepherd. We've been focusing on Psalm 23 and taking different aspects of that rich Psalm. Also reading that Psalm each day, why? Because we want to memorize, meditate scripture. Sometimes we're busy and our minds are in eight places and we've lost, overlooked how powerful it is to meditate on God's word. That's why we're not rushing through this series. In this series, The Good Shepherd Restores, we talked about green pastures where God nourishes us and physical restoration, still waters, emotional restoration that we need. And then also relational restoration, Jesus invites us to the table. And today we read the phrase in Psalm 23, Jesus restores our souls. Jesus restores our souls. In a materialistic world, it's easy to overlook our souls. We have the phrase in our culture, soul care, but often that's synonymous for self-help. I just go to my favorite place. I binge watch my favorite shows. But soul care is actually drawing near to Jesus, drawing near to the good shepherd. Let's talk about our souls today and let's receive from the Lord his restoration. There's three truths with souls. The first is you are an eternal soul. You and I are eternal souls. Going back to Genesis chapter one. Genesis, this book of foundations. It's so important to spend time in the book of Genesis. In Genesis chapter one, verse 27, we read, so God created mankind in his own image. In the image of God, he created them, male and female, he created them. There are gonna be attacks from the enemy, and the devil's gonna show up early in the book of Genesis. And what is the attack on? First of all, God. God is good. God is real. If anyone tells you that God's not real or God's not good, that is a direct attack. And that was the lie in Genesis as the enemy tempted Adam and Eve. Well, what else do we see here? Marriage is from God. Marriage is good. A male and a female, Adam and Eve. And the enemy attacks marriages. What else do we see? Gender, male and female. Just think about how much gender confusion there is right now. But look what's laid out in Genesis, male and female. And then what comes next? Adam and Eve be fruitful and multiply. And children, and who does the enemy attack? Children, this youngest generation like never before. It's interesting as you open up the first chapter of the Bible and the foundations that God lay, nothing's changed, nothing's new under the sun. There's a battle for souls. There is a battle that rages as you open up Genesis chapter one that continues today, and you are a soul. This started with Genesis chapter two, verse seven. And we read in scripture, then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And the man became a living being. That word living being, it's also soul. And when you think about who Adam is, when you think about who we are in this foundational truth, we are souls. George McDonald says it this way, you don't have a soul, you are a soul. You have a body. You are a soul in a temporary physical body. Your physical body right now is not eternal, your soul is. We're gonna receive new bodies thanks to Jesus Christ and his resurrection, and we're gonna receive those resurrected perfect bodies in heaven. We are souls. The Hebrew word is nefesh, and it's over 700 times in the Old Testament. Now it means soul, living being, or person. Those are all describing us. In the Greek, in the New Testament, the word is psyche, and you think of the word psychology that we have today. Psyche, soul, is your life, your inner being, and it is the deepest, it's like the real you, your soul. God made us, we are souls, and because we are souls, we are designed to worship our creator. He has made us to worship him, to know God, to be close to God. Our souls are made for Jesus. There's a God-shaped vacuum in every person that only Jesus can fill. That's what Blaise Pascal, the philosopher, said. We are souls that need to be close to our Savior. That's who we are, and sometimes we get so distracted and busy and worried and to-do list that we forget that foundational truth of who we are, who Jesus is, and what we need more than anything else in this world. Psalm 104 verse one, talking about the greatness of God. Praise the Lord my soul, Lord my God, you are very great. You are clothed with splendor and majesty. See, we are designed to be in awe of God, to worship God with reverence. We have no greater treasure than God. There is nothing greater. that we could desire than God's presence, than God himself. And so we worship him because he is so great in our souls. We respond to his greatness, his goodness, his faithfulness, what he's done, and that stirs us to worship God. We are made to worship God, don't settle for anything less. Don't drift into the patterns of the world. Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold. Don't just be materialistic. No, we are spiritual beings. We worship God in spirit and in truth. Jesus said it this way in the New Testament. In Matthew chapter 22, he was asked a question. In fact, it was one of those scholars of the law that was trying to trick him. There was corruption with the religious leaders and they tried to trap him. They were asking him different questions. They said, okay, in the scripture, what's the greatest commandment tell us? And he said, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second, love your neighbor as yourself. You will not love your neighbor as yourself until you love God with all of your soul. And it's not part of your soul, it's your whole being. You are most alive when you are closest to Jesus and worshiping him. And worshiping him is not just one hour a week, but it's the way we live. And then it flows vertically to horizontally into all of our relationships. Now, what's so good about walking with Jesus? Our good shepherd fully knows us and fully loves us. There's no one else in this world that fully knows you and perfectly loves you. That's where we find security for our souls. That's where we know we are loved and when to receive that love from Jesus, that's when we're changed. Instead of that love, sometimes we find replacements and we think, my possessions, my money, the toys I like, my house, my car, that can take the place of being close with Jesus. or we think it's gonna be praise if people like me and admire me and they make comments on social media and they enjoy my posts and they appreciate me and they say nice things about me, then my soul will feel satisfied, but that can't satisfy. Or politics, if we have the right politicians, if we have the right policies, if we can just get the laws of the land straight, then we'll all be fulfilled in our souls. Well, the laws of land are significant, but they don't fulfill our souls. Or we think people, if the right person, if I get married to the right person, if I have perfect kids, if my kids are doing perfect, if I can get everyone doing perfectly and all the people are perfect, then I'll finally be satisfied in my soul. But no person can do that. No person's perfect. We can't put that pressure on people. We're all growing, we're all learning. People don't satisfy our souls, that's Jesus. And we're living in this confused culture. God is not a God of confusion. Jesus has living water. We have thirsty souls. We are souls that need our Savior. And we're going 100 directions instead of the direction. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him. Our favorite spiritual song is not Amazing Laws, how sweet the sound. It never will be. Maybe you went to a church where that was the hymn every week and it was legalistic and they just thought if we could get a couple more laws in church and a couple more laws in the land, everyone's gonna be straightened out. Well, what changes our heart is the kindness and grace of Jesus. We sing amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that Jesus saves a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. We are loved, we are known, we have a good shepherd, and our souls rejoice. In Luke chapter one, verse 46, Mary, Mary said, my soul glorifies the Lord. This was the beginning of her song, her magnifica. This is what she is overflowing with. Praise to God, why? She has received Jesus. Now Mary has a role that none of us will have. She's gonna be mom to Jesus, but receiving the Lord, the Savior is here. Her soul glorifies the Lord. When's the last time you've been singing that song? My soul glorifies the Lord. Overflowing, knowing who you are, knowing who Jesus is, worshiping Jesus, drawing near, Jesus restoring your soul and you because of the grace of God saying, my soul will glorify the Lord. And all I say and all I do, that's fully alive, that's worship, that's what we're designed to do. The world again wants us to settle for less, get distracted. Do you know how many people these days are just pointing fingers? Pointing fingers, resentment, pointing fingers, gossip, slander, point fingers, resentment, that's the pattern of the world. And it's easy to point fingers at everybody and everything else that's doing something wrong, but what do we need most? It's our own souls restored. And who does that? Jesus. Jesus. So today, receive afresh from the Lord. Receive afresh in deep ways what Jesus wants to do in our souls as a good shepherd. Not only are we eternal souls, but also it's important to know the condition of your soul. Now, this is both eternal condition and daily condition. When you think about eternal condition, Jesus didn't mince words. Matthew 10, verse 28, now he's sending out the 12, and in this send out, he gives them his perspective, because they're going to be killed eventually, almost all of them, and they're gonna be persecuted, and it's gonna be so difficult, and there's gonna be so many who oppose them, but he says to them, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Someone could kill your body, but they cannot kill your soul. Rather, be afraid, fear reverence for the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. What Jesus says over and over again is that we are eternal souls and we will spend eternity in one of two places, either with God in his presence or apart from God forever. You can call the one in his presence heaven, It couldn't be better. If you try to describe it, that would be a pale comparison of what it actually is. Heaven is beyond what our minds can even comprehend. How do we get to heaven? Through faith in Jesus Christ. It's not our own righteousness. It's not earning and striving. It's by the grace of Jesus because he died for our sins and he's risen. If you don't know Jesus today, don't harden your heart. Today is a day of salvation. Put your trust in the Lord. Receive this gift of eternal life. Because the only other option, there's no purgatory in the Bible. The only other option is to spend eternity apart from God. Eternity apart from God. And there's a lot of different words. In our culture, we say the word hell. But hell is not gonna be like this rowdy Friday night party that you hope you don't get caught kind of thing. Hell, there's no blessings in hell. God doesn't want anyone to spend eternity in hell. That's why Jesus gives so many clear pictures and warnings. There's heaven and hell. Jesus died, couldn't do more so that we spend eternity with him in heaven. But the reality is if we reject him and we say no to his presence, no to his love, we think I'm gonna save myself, I don't need a savior. It's a real description of our two eternal options that comes from Jesus over and over again. but it's a great invitation, and don't wait any longer. Put your trust in Jesus. So there's an eternal peace, and right after this verse, Jesus talks about sparrows, and when God talks about sparrows, he says, you're more valuable than them. The animals are a blessing, but you're more valuable than the animals, because going back to Genesis, you're made in God's image. God is inviting you into this relationship because he loves you so much. Don't harden your heart on his love. That's the message that Jesus brings with salvation. But then there's also experiences we go through in life. And maybe you know, I'm saved, I'm gonna spend eternity in heaven. I know that because of the promises of God and the finished work of Jesus. But I'm down, I'm pretty low. Jesus had low points. In Matthew chapter 26, this is in the Garden of Gethsemane before he went to the cross. He said to them, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. Notice how Jesus describes a condition of his soul overwhelmed with sorrow. Jesus never sinned. It's not a sin to be overwhelmed with sorrow. We go through times we're overwhelmed with sorrow. What did Jesus do in those moments? Continued to abide with the Father, say yes to the Father. Trust the Father. And during those low valleys, even though I walked through the valley of shadow death, I will fear no evil. You are with me. Trust the Father. Still say yes to the Father. Doing the next right thing. That's what Jesus did in the lowest valley. So he modeled that for us. His soul was overwhelmed with sorrow. We also know that there's a battle for our souls. There are also false teachers. Peter warned of this. There's suffering, there's false teachers, waging war on our souls. And he describes it in 2 Peter 2, verses 14 and 15. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning. Now you can do a cross-reference when you read, References in the Bible, you can do a cross-reference, go back to Old Testament, you're gonna see Balaam selling out. There's some money involved to curse people. That's just an example of a false teacher, this false prophet. Now, what's the description? Adultery, eyes are full of adultery, experts in greed. What do we battle with in our souls? Three things. We have evil desires within us. Then we have the world around us and false teachers and lies. There's the enemy, the devil, and we also have the patterns of the world. And as we walk through that, we're gonna need God's help. Know the condition of your soul. Know what is pulling your soul down. Know what's happening. Pay attention to that. On that dashboard we've talked about, how is your soul really doing? There was a man Nebuchadnezzar in the Old Testament. Daniel was in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar, he ruled and reigned. He was the most powerful man in the face of the earth. And it went to his head and he had pride. And sometimes we have blessings or pride or positions and so forth experience. It can go to our head and he was full of that pride. But then the condition of his soul was not good. And then there was a dream Daniel had interpreted. And it was the king's dream. Daniel interpreted it and Nebuchadnezzar was humbled. And in Daniel chapter 4, look at verses 33 and 34. This man, you look at where he was, where his soul was, and then what happened to him. At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raise my eyes toward heaven. This is when things start to change in his soul. My sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High. I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion. His kingdom endures from generation to generation. Nebuchadnezzar thought he was God. Then he was humbled and realized that all these blessings, he doesn't have ultimate control over them. And then what happened? He lift up his eyes, his soul for the first time looking up to God, acknowledge God, praise God, honor God, his sanity was restored. What was really happening with Nebuchadnezzar's life? It was a battle for his soul. And when things weren't well with his soul, don't we love to sing that song? It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. Nebuchadnezzar couldn't sing that. He had all the blessings of the world, what everyone thought was the most important stuff, but his soul was not in a good place. And it wasn't until he humbled himself and acknowledged the God, the living God, that the restoration happened, including his soul. So what do we learn from that? What do we need in the spiritual battle? Hebrews chapter four, verses 11 and 12, let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, that Sabbath rest, that rest for the soul so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. For the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitude of the heart. In Ephesians chapter six, there's a spiritual battle and the only offensive weapon, the sword is the word of God. It's the word of God. It would not make sense for someone to show up in the spiritual battle and not have the sword, not have the sword. They would say, what are you doing in this spiritual battle with no sword? No sword. You bring the sword to the spiritual battle. In this waging war on our souls, we need the sword. It's the word of God. It's living and active. It brings depth, soul and spirit, joint and marrow. There's metaphors in the Bible. God's word is nourishment. It is food for our souls. Our souls get hungry. more hungry than our stomachs. We pay attention to our stomachs being hungry, but our souls, there's even a deeper hunger, and we need the word of God. It's our nourishment. The Word of God in the Bible also has the metaphor of a fire. It's like a fire in my bones, like a fire in our souls. Our souls, we get kind of complacent, kind of lukewarm. We need the fire back in our souls. And then also, God's Word is a light into our path. This world is dark, the lies are dark. God's Word is the light and it's a clear path forward. We need scripture. When I think back at this last year, we've had a lot of different series. We talked about Ignite, 28 Days of Hope. We talked about Unite, 12 Weeks of Unity. And then 84 Days of Soaring, Take Flight, going through the Book of Acts. In all these different series, 21 Days of Healing, we've been intentional to pick scriptures, daily devotions, encourage you in the home pray together, read scripture together, cultivate that habit of getting in God's word. Why are we doing that? Because Ephesians four, we wanna build each other up. Well, how are we gonna build each other up? It's gonna be in the word of God. If you just come Sunday and get the word and don't have the word the rest of the week, you're not in that spiritual battle, you don't have that sword, you're not gonna see the same victories. And we believe that God's word is living and active. We believe that God changes life through his word. We believe there's victory through his word. There's truth through his word. His spirit and his word go together. So we've been intentional this last year to say, again, in a culture that's confused, that's stumbling to say, let's come back to the Word of God. Let's come back to prayer. Let's see God win the homes. Let's bend the knee at home. Let's see God at home. Let's do this daily. We believe God for renewal. We believe God for great things. So let's be intentional to get in the Word daily. If there's one thing at grace you can't miss this last year, it's let's receive God's hope. His word is full of hope. And this image in my mind is like the Red Sea, the Red Sea. You know how God parts the Red Sea. Here's what we see in our culture. The culture has this lie that it's all about us. It's just all about us. And it leads to a lot of narcissistic tendencies in our culture. That's not the answer is to get more and more full of ourselves. That's not going to satisfy the soul. And then the culture has a materialistic message, just get more money, just get a better house, just get better clothes, just get a better car. If you can just get a little better retirement fund, if you can just add 10 more thousand, if you can just like money's the answer. And that's not the message. And then what else we have in the body of Christ denominations and tribes that think that they're all that and everyone else is second rate. Like that's confusing so many people right now. And then there's new methods and technology and AI. And some people are just thinking, wow, with that, you know, that's the answer right there. AI is not the answer for our souls. And I'm just preaching the obvious at this point. Some people caught up in patriotism and nationalistic is the answer. If America's just awesome, then our souls will all be fulfilled. Well, we want to see God's blessings in America. He's been patient with America. We want America to be all God's designed us to be. But the answer for our souls is not nationalistic and patriotism ultimately. And also we find so many other gods right now, it's just pluralistic. And the attitude is, well, the God of the Bible is kind of nice, but there's 40 other options and they're all kind of equal. No, they're not. Like there's one God, he's the God of the Bible. He will not share his glory with another. And what I believe God is doing in the mud and the mire and the confusion and the darkness and the stumbling right now, God is just parting the Red Sea and saying, Jesus is the good shepherd. Follow him. He's the way, the truth, and the life. His word, his word is perfect. His spirit is with us. Just walk forward with the good shepherd who will restore and renew and refresh your soul. It's important to know that we are eternal souls. It's important to know the condition of our souls and the last truth that the Lord Jesus alone provides the deepest peace, contentment, and refreshment. It's not easy as a church to walk through fasting for three weeks. There's a lot of smiles today like, back to feasting, please. Back to feasting for 49 weeks. Three weeks of fasting, please. 49 weeks of feasting. I mean, there's just some relief. It felt good to eat some of those foods this morning. But having said that, what did you hear during these three weeks? How is God restoring you? For me, it was kind of like a reset. The last big reset was COVID. And this was like a reset these last three weeks. Here's the three words if I was gonna summarize what I'm hearing, and it's these three words, come to me. Come to me. Matthew chapter 11, verse 28, come to me. That's what Jesus says. All who are weary and burdened. Let me ask you, is it hard to find people who are weary and burdened these days? Do you have to look far for that anxious, weary burden? Is that hard to find these days? Not hard to find. Come to me all, not some, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. That means receive. That means it's not hard to come and receive. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. That's be humble, be teachable. For I am gentle and humble in heart. We can trust the Lord, good shepherd. You will find rest for your souls. You're gonna find renewal in your souls. You're gonna find refreshment in your souls. There's restoration for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And we just need to come to Jesus and say, Jesus, I'm carrying all kinds of things that I don't think you want me to carry. And I'm gonna give it to you today, Lord, because your yoke is easy and your burden is light. And that's worship. And we don't just come alone, we come together. Proverbs 11 30 says this, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and the one who is wise saves lives. The soul winner, lives, souls, he who is wise, she who is wise, saves souls. We don't literally save souls, Jesus is the only one who saves. But what does that mean? We abide with Jesus and then together we come to the Lord and bring others with. When you're in life group, and I'm so great, our church is just full of life groups, we come to the Lord. He restores souls. Every Sunday, let us go into the house of the Lord. What does God do here? Why do we gather every Sunday? We encounter Jesus. He restores souls. He's moving in our souls. It's that encounter with Jesus. And David in the Bible looked everywhere else for satisfaction. Psalm 62, verses one and two. He landed in this. Truly my soul finds rest in God. My salvation comes from him. Truly he is my rock and my salvation. He is my fortress. I will never be shaken. And you could say, well, David was the king of Israel, king of the 12 tribes. He was the king of, and you could go king of, king of, king of. And for a lot of us, we would say, I'm the king of this, and I'm the king of that, and I'm the king of this, and I lead this, and I do this, and I'm the king of this. We have all kinds of responsibilities, but it was not, his identity was not found in what he leads. It was not found in what he does or how well he does it. His identity is found truly when he finds the king, the king of the land, the most respected king that Israel had is declaring how much he needs the king. And we also are gonna find that security and satisfaction in the King of Kings, Jesus. Say, why do we have church? I remember when I was in seminary, there's this acronym, and the acronym was WIFE. And you think about the body of Christ and the bride of Christ, and the acronym was WORSHIP, INSTRUCTION, FELLOWSHIP, and EVANGELISM. What do we do at church? And for seminarians, you know, new Christians going out to lead ministry, like what are we gonna do in church? We're gonna worship God. We're gonna have instruction from God's word. We're gonna have fellowship and authentic relationships, and we're gonna reach people. And it was kind of like this simple acronym, you know, WIFE. And Jesus said in the Great Commission, make disciples. And that's what we're doing. Sometimes we skip past the most important part. And that's why at our church we say, abide and respond. Abide as relationship. Why do we gather here? You know why we gather here? Number one, Jesus. To encounter Jesus. Jesus is the lead of this church. He's the head of this church. It's been that way for 75 years. Why do we gather here? So we meet with Jesus. So we seek Jesus. So we hear from Jesus. We have an encounter with Jesus. Don't settle for less than that. Come, come early, come prayed, come prepared in worship, in the word, just come to meet with Jesus. And as we meet with Jesus, he's gonna change our relationships, there's gonna be unity, joy, love, peace, there's gonna be serving, but don't skip over the encounter with Jesus. First Peter chapter two verse 25 says this, for you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the shepherd and the overseer of your souls. Who is Jesus? He's our Good Shepherd. He's the overseer of our souls. And this word restore means renewal, refreshment, revitalize. We've been talking about Psalm 23, and we're going to close today by saying that together. But don't miss that Psalm 22 comes first. It's the same David. David is restless. There's agony. Psalm 22 describes Jesus on the cross. It's a messianic prophecy. Psalm 22 is part of our experience. There's a death before the resurrection. There's pain and confusion before the restoration. Psalm 22 is part of our journey. but then it leads into Psalm 23. Psalm 23 is that encounter with our Good Shepherd. It's that receiving from Jesus. So we're gonna close with Psalm 23, and I want you to think of that invitation, come to me. If you're here today and you've never put your trust in Jesus, make a decision today to follow him, because he achieved it, you can't. His death, his resurrection, just like we celebrated with the baptisms. And then if you know Jesus, what's the condition of your soul today? The restoration from the Good Shepherd that you need today. What is the restoration that you need today in your soul? We don't have to stay where we are. We can receive from Jesus. And it's not a slick formula, it's a relationship. It's not just a program a church puts together, it's a relationship. And you've got no better place, I've got no better place than to go to Jesus himself. His word, his spirit, just bring us into his presence. Come to receive, not to impress, not to achieve, just come to receive. We're gonna close by reading Psalm 23 together. We made this our habit the last 21 days to just meditate on God's word. Psalm 23, our good shepherd. Let's read it at a slower pace. And just meditate means almost like marinate. If you like, let's say something on the grill and you like that seasoning, it just marinates in there and you just enjoy, you savor it. Savor God's word, savor his presence. Let's read this together. The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right path for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. God, may it be that we would declare it is well with our souls. It is well with our souls. Jesus, we draw near to you. Thank you that you are faithful, you are kind. Jesus, we want to walk closely with you. Protect us, we pray. God, we pray in our homes there would be your unity, your presence, your peace. God, in this church, we pray that our eyes would be on you. God, in our land right now, that you would bring restoration in souls. God, we thank you for each person today that's deciding to follow you, each person that's returning to you, each person that was baptized today. God, thank you for the ways in the last 21 days, how you're preparing us for what's to come this year. Help us to walk by faith together, confident in you. God, new victories and new breakthroughs, and we commit it to you in Jesus' name. Amen, amen. Our prayer team is so wonderful. And at the end of the service, we always invite you to come forward for prayer if you want it. We have prayer on both sides. Now the team is on both sides. So that makes it easier. If you're on this half of the room, you don't have to walk across the room. So please receive prayer today. And then let's follow the Lord together this week. you