yourself. Well, turn with me in your Bibles, if you will. We're going to just read one verse of scripture to start off with, and then we'll be looking at several as we go through. But Psalms chapter number 23, if we could, and we're going to read verse number one. I just wanted to bring something tonight I thought would be an encouragement and would be a blessing to us. I don't know about you, but as you turn on the news and you listen to all the things that are going on, I just, as I was driving here to church a little bit earlier today, I looked and the gas from last night jumped up 20 cent a gallon. And I tell you, you can't help but think, where's it gonna stop? Where's all this going? And like I said, the news and the wars and everything that's going on, all the people that are going through a terrible time over in Ukraine, I tell you what a terrible time those folks are going through. Insurmountable odds that they're facing. And really, to think about it, they have, practically speaking, they have no hope. because they really have no chance of winning, but yet, they're standing tough, they're standing courageous. They say they're gonna stand no matter what, and you know, that's just tough. It's tough. And I don't know about you, but some of this stuff, as I've been thinking about it, and as I've been going through these last few days and weeks, I tell you, it's been a challenge to keep my focus on the Lord and remember that God is in control. And you know, folks, I don't know about you, but I've thought a few times that, you know, Russia is not that far from us. If you go to Alaska and you look at the map there, I mean, it's just, it's pretty close. And what Ukraine is going through now, if we're not careful, we'll say, Well, I hope God will bless those folks and help them. And really, we won't be that concerned about it. But folks, I'm going to tell you, that same thing could be happening to us. And I tell you, we sure do need to be in prayer. and remember that God's in control. But listen, God has told us that we're to pray and we're to ask and we're to seek him and ask for his protection. Folks, we need God's protection. I mean, if there's ever been a country that had a target on their back, United States of America would certainly fit that bill. And I tell you, there's many nations that would like to see us fall, like to see us go down. And I believe God has had his hand on us, and God has protected us for many, many years, and we're thankful for that, thankful for his protection. But that could change, I'm just telling you, it could change. I don't know what the Lord has in store for us, but I know this, that when it's all said and done, no matter what, one of these days I'm gonna be in heaven. And everything's gonna be just right, just right. when we get to heaven. We don't understand everything now, just like the song, you know, we were singing that song. We don't understand everything now, but I tell you, one of these days we're gonna be able to look back and say, I can see God's hand in everything that happened. And we're thankful for that. I tell you, we have a good God. We have a great God that we serve. And he sure does love us. And so as we think about the Psalms, we're gonna be looking at three different Psalms tonight. Psalms 22, Psalms 23, Psalms 24. They all go together. They fit right together. And can I just tell you that as we think about this, we're gonna see some things about our shepherd that's gonna encourage us and help us tonight. And just help us to remember that, like I said, He's in control and He's gonna take care of us. Psalm 23, verse number one, the Bible says this, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Let's bow for prayer. Lord, as we come before you, we are grateful and thankful, Lord, for your many blessings, and I pray that you would bless, you'd speak to our hearts tonight. Lord, help us, encourage us from the word of God, and help us to, Lord, keep our eyes on you. And that, Lord, that, Lord, you would bless the message tonight and use it to speak to each and every heart. Lord, no doubt, people here have all kinds of concerns. They've got problems in their life. Lord, they're going through tough times. Lord, folks are facing cancer. There's just all kinds of things that's going on in our life. And I just pray that, Lord, you'd help us, encourage us today. Give us something that'll carry us through the rest of the week here, and we're sure gonna thank you for what you do now. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, Psalms 23 verse one is the key to your life. If you don't have Psalms 23 one, really, you need to stop what you're doing and get that settled, get that taken care of. Psalms 23, the Lord is my shepherd. And you know, as we think about this passage of Scripture, we need to remember and we need to understand that, you know, David is writing this, but David was a shepherd himself. And as he's writing this, he is writing this psalm from the experience, no doubt, that he had as a shepherd. Now, you know, the Bible doesn't tell us everything about David, but he tells us a lot about David. He had a lot of experience as a shepherd, like I said. But you know, David started being a shepherd as just a young man. Now, again, we don't know how old he was, but he was just a young guy. And when Samuel was calling for Jesse to bring all of his sons there, David wasn't even considered. He was just a youth. He wasn't even considered for this. And so they just left him out on the field. He was out in the field watching the sheep and stuff like that. But from an early age he was a shepherd. And David had a shepherd's heart. You don't have to read very much about him to see that David had a shepherd's heart. And I believe that was one of the reasons why God was able to use him in such a great way. David loved those sheep, and he took care of them. He gave his life for those sheep. He was ready to protect them at all cost. He was not a hireling. You know, the Bible talks about not being a hireling, and that just means somebody that just watched the sheep because they had to or because they were paid to do it. David wasn't like that. David cared for these sheep, and he was going to protect them, and he was going to watch over them. Even though they were his dad's, I guess he would consider them probably his own and all. But really, David, they weren't necessarily his sheep, but he cared for them as if they were his sheep. Now, the reason I say that, and the reason I'm bringing this to your mind, because the Bible tells us and paints pictures for us that helps us to understand and helps us to get a better picture, really, of what God is trying to tell us in His Word here. Like I said, Psalm 22 and 23 and 24, they all fit together, and they all give us a different view of the shepherd and how much he loves and cares for his sheep. David loved and cared for his sheep, and he would give his life for the sheep. You remember how David was telling, as you know, he was going to face Goliath, And he was just telling some things about his experience out there in the field and out there watching the sheep. He said, listen, I was out there one time and a bear came and took one of the sheep and I was able to, God helped me, enabled me, and I was able to go and get that sheep out of his mouth and get him and slay him. Now I don't know about you, but here's a young man. Like I said, he's just a young man. And now a bear has come after one of the sheep and has took one of the sheep. And this young man is willing to go and risk his very life to protect that sheep. Now what picture does that paint for you? What does that say about you? If David would do that for a sheep, that really was not all that valuable, how much more would the Lord do for us as our shepherd, and we are His sheep, and how much more would He do for us? I tell you, it just causes your mind to think how much He must love us, how much He must care about us. And on and on, we can just go on and on about that. But David, was a shepherd from his early age, and he had a shepherd's heart, and boy, he loved his sheep. And then of course, you know, we could talk about the lion, but you know, the same thing about the lion. And listen, God used David in a great way. God said, David was a man after mine on heart. And so when you think about David, and you think about especially Psalms 23, it's a Psalm that most of us are just very familiar with it. And we see these things and remember that David is writing them because, listen, he's lived this before. He's done this. Many times he's had to take the sheep out and find green pastures and find still water so he could feed these sheep and take care of them. I mean, listen, it was a challenging job, no doubt. And He loved those sheep, and He would do whatever He could to make sure that they were taken care of. But listen, if He would do that, how much more would God do for us? Listen, we're going to look at some things tonight, like I said, and hopefully see some images, see some pictures of these shepherds, or the sheep and the shepherd here, the relationship that they have, and see how much God loves and cares for us. Psalms 22, 23, and 24 are sometimes called the Shepherd Psalms because they speak of Jesus Christ and His shepherding ministry. So all three of these Psalms are going to speak to us about His shepherding ministry, about the Lord and how He is going to shepherd His sheep. Psalm 22, The Good Shepherd, dies for his sheep. In Psalm 23, the great shepherd lives and cares for the sheep. In Psalm 24, the chief shepherd returns in glory for the sheep. And if you're one of his sheep, your every need is met as you trust him and follow his lead. Listen, the Lord is going to take care of us. If he would send a shepherd, he would send a man to take care of his sheep, then listen, he's going to take care of us. All right? Isaiah 53, we won't turn there, but most of us would be familiar with this. Isaiah 53 tells us that all we like sheep have gone astray. Now listen, the Bible describes us as being sheep. I'm sure we've all heard some of these things before, but sheep are not very smart animals. They can't take care of their self. They can't do a lot of things on their self. They can't defend their self. They can't go out and find food by their self. They can't find water by their self. Really, they're pretty much helpless. And I don't know if that rang a bell with you as I was describing this, but this is what the Lord is saying. This is the way the Lord is describing that we are. Without Him, we are nothing. Without Him, we can't do anything. Without Him, we can't take care of ourselves. Listen, how many of us think that we could read the Bible and get the food that we need, the nourishment that we need, without the Lord's help? If the Lord didn't open up the Scriptures to us, how in the world would we be able to get anything out of the Word of God? Listen, God feeds His sheep. God keeps His sheep safe. God takes care of His sheep and makes sure that they have everything that they have need of. By the way, can I tell you that the sheep, as you look through these passages here, the sheep don't own anything. They don't have anything. The only thing they have to offer is if they get fed right and they get enough water, their wool grows enough to where they can take that wool off and they can use that for something. But other than that, there's not a lot of use for sheep. That's us, right? Y'all with me? As we're talking about sheep, remember, that's who we are. He's the shepherd, all right? And so Psalms 22, as we look at that, we see the Lord is the good shepherd, Psalms 22. And here, it tells us, and if we read through there, we won't take time to read through these 31 verses here, but if we read through here, we would see the similarities of Jesus dying on the cross. I do want you to look at one verse, look at verse number 16 there, the last part of that verse. It says here, well, we'll just read it off. It says, For dogs have compassed me, the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. In other words, here's the Lord, He's describing the scene here. Really, it's David writing of what was going to happen on the cross, but it's really the Lord is saying, listen, my enemies have surrounded me. By the way, if you just think about it, When Jesus was hanging on the cross, all of His enemies were there. And they were around Him. And they had enclosed Him. And by the way, they were the very ones that put Him on that cross. And so, as you read through there, they have enclosed Me. And then He says this, they pierced My hands and My feet. And so here, even though this hadn't happened yet, this was going to happen, he was telling what was going to take place many years down the road, but he says, they're going to pierce my hands and they're going to pierce my feet. Listen, here's the Lord. the Good Shepherd, and He's going to take care of His sheep by dying for them on the cross. Now, if you would hold your place there, and we're just going to look at a couple of verses over in John chapter number 10 if we could. In John chapter 10, He tells us a little bit, or gives us a little bit of a glimpse of why He came to the cross, or why He went to the cross to die to pay for our sins. John chapter 10. And look at verse number 10. And the Bible says that the thief, this is Jesus talking, the thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I'm come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. Now, we understand what he's talking about here. He's talking about the shepherd's relationship again to the sheep. And he says, now, listen, I'm the shepherd here. And the sheep are in danger. They're in constant danger. Why? Because the thief is coming. The thief is lurking. The thief is outside the gate here and they're just waiting to pounce on those innocent sheep. The thief cometh not. but for to steal. In other words, if the thief could get in there, he would steal the sheep. He would kill the sheep. He would destroy the sheep. But Jesus said, listen, I'm not going to let that happen. The shepherd says, I'm not going to let that happen. I'm come that they might have life and they might have it more abundantly. Jesus says, listen, I've come to give the sheep life. I've come to protect them so they can have a life and they can have an abundant life. Jesus said, listen, I'm going to take care of them. And then he goes down in verse 11, he says, listen, here it is, I'm the good shepherd, and the good shepherd giveth his life. for the sheep. Jesus was willing to give his life for the sheep. What sheep is he talking about? He's talking about us. Jesus said, listen, I was willing to go to the cross and to die for them. Why? So they might have life, so they might have protection, so they might have a superabundant, overabundantly supernatural kind of life. God says, listen, I'm gonna give you that kind of life. And so the shepherd went to the cross to suffer, to bleed and die for the sheep. Without Psalms 22, you can't have Psalms 23. Jesus had to die on the cross to pay for our sins. If Jesus didn't die to pay for our sins, there would be no hope of salvation. There would be no hope of heaven. Jesus had to do that, that He might pay for our sins. The shepherd proved his love for the sheep. David, like we mentioned a while ago about the lion and the bear, David was willing to die for his sheep and Christ, the good shepherd, who gave his life for the sheep, us. He did that for us. And then we see the second thing here. the Lord is my great shepherd. Psalm chapter 23, if you go back over there, we're familiar, like I said, we're very familiar with these six verses here, maybe some of the most familiar verses in all the Bible. Probably, Other than John 3.16, maybe the most popular verses in the Bible, I don't know. A lot of times we use this passage at funerals and stuff like that, but really, can I tell you that Psalms 23 really tells us and portrays everyday life for us. Now he uses, like I said, he's using the image of sheep and shepherd, but really, it's really how the Lord takes us through our life and how he supplies every need that we have. The great shepherd lives to give victory over sin. When Jesus died on the cross, he delivered us from the penalty of sin. From the penalty. Hey, the wages of sin is death. And when Jesus died on the cross, by the way, If you put your faith and trust, and I have to take, you have to take that just a little step farther, but when you put your faith and trust in Him, if you're saved here and you're here tonight, listen, Jesus died, and when He died, He delivered us from the penalty of sin. There's no more penalty for our sin. We're not under the penalty of sin anymore. Praise the Lord for that. Not only that, but as He lives, He is also He's also helping to deliver us from the power of sin. Now the power of sin is the power of sin to influence our life. Now I don't know about you, but I'm going to tell you what, that's still alive and well in America today, in our hearts and lives today if we're not careful. The power of sin will overcome us. If we're not careful, the power of sin will take us away from the Lord. If we're not careful, the power of sin will wreak havoc in our life. But it don't have to. Don't have to. Why? Because the Lord has delivered us from the power of sin. We do not have to sin. Don't have to. And we shouldn't. By the way, we shouldn't sin. We shouldn't do it. And God helped us not to do it, right? And so He has delivered us from the power of sin. And by the way, one day, and we'll talk about that in just a minute, He's going to deliver us from the very presence of sin. Can you imagine a day to where there is no sin anywhere? No sin. When we get to heaven, guess what? There's not going to be any sin. When we get to heaven, we'll be able to go all day long without sinning. Can you imagine that? Don't hold your hand up. Tell on yourself. But folks, I'm telling you, I don't know about you, but I long for that day. Well, I wanna see that day. I want to be a part of that day. No sin, no sin, no bad thoughts, no anger. I mean, just go through the line. Just go through the list. I mean, whatever it is. One day we're gonna be delivered from the very presence of sin. All right, well, can I just give you just a couple of things here in this psalm here. As we're talking about Psalms 23, there's just so much in here, but I want to give you a couple of things. The Great Shepherd, He feeds us and He leads us. Look at what He says here, "...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 path of righteousness for His name's sake." So here, He's talking about He feeds us. He makes us to lie down in green pastures. And again, here we go with David. And David, no doubt, many times, many times searching high and low, traveled many miles, walked up and down hills, go through the valleys, trying to find green pastures for his sheep to feed on. Guess what? As we think about us, we don't have to get out and walk up and down mountains. We don't have to go through the fields. We don't have to search and search and search to try to find green pastures. God just lays it out for us right here. We have all we want to eat right here. We can have, we can have anything, you know, eat anytime we want to. It's right here for us. And also the still waters. But he talks about, he talks about feeding us and meeting the needs that we have. And he talks about leading us. He talks about leading me beside the still waters. He talks about leading me in the path of righteousness. Listen, the Lord will take care of us. He's gonna meet every need. that we have. But then, look at verse number 3 here. The Bible says, He restoreth my soul. He restoreth my soul. Now, I was reading today and I saw some things that I thought was really good. I thought, here's a new thought. I hadn't thought about it like this right here. You know, when it talks about, Restoreth my soul, it actually means to bring one back, to put back into place of something that has gone away, but now you've brought it back. He restores my soul. And I wonder if David was talking about when he had messed up in his life. You know, David was a great man, and the Bible describes him as a man after God's own heart. He loved God. I don't have a doubt. He loved God with all of his heart. And for the most part of his life, David, listen, David tried to live for God. We see that. But you know, there was a time that he got away from God. You know what happened when he got away from God? It may have been as much as a year God let David alone. He let him alone. And David, and like I said, I don't know all the reasons behind that, but maybe it was to see if David would be willing to come back on his own. Maybe it was to see if David would recognize that he's away from God. recognize the fact that, listen, he's not where he needs to be in his relationship with God. Do you know, as a sheep, they tell us that sheep, they just really have no sense of direction or anything like that. And a sheep will start eating, and they'll just start nibbling around, and they'll see a clump of grass here, and they'll follow that, and they'll go here, and they'll go there. And before you know it, that sheep, he looks around, or he looks up, and nobody's there. He's wandered away. What's that? He's wandered away from the herd. He's wandered away from... Is it herd? Sheep have herds? Herd sheep? Sheep, herd, flocks. He's wandered away from the flock. And you know what? If you'd ask that sheep, how'd you get here? You know what he'd say? I don't know. I don't have a clue. All I know was I was eating. I was having a good time. And next thing I know, I don't know where anybody's at. I'm out here all by myself. I'm lost. Well, you know what happens to us? We do the same thing, don't we? We get our eyes off the shepherd. We're not watching the shepherd. We're not seeing that he's trying to lead us and that he's trying to keep us on track, keep us all together there. We lose sight of that. And the next thing you know, we've wandered off from God. Well, you know what? God doesn't let that happen. Don't let that stand. He does something about that. You know what he does? He'll leave that nine and nine there, and he'll go out and look for that one. Praise the Lord, he'll go out and look for that one, and then he'll bring him back. He'll bring him back, he'll restore him. He restoreth my soul. And so, listen, the Great Shepherd, He feeds us and He leads us, but He also seeks us and restores us, puts us back where we need to be. I tell you, I'm thankful for that. I tell you, I'm thankful. I'm glad the Lord hadn't gave up on me. I was thinking about our brother as he was preaching. I think it was on Sunday night that he was describing and talking about all the things that God has done for us. And one of the things that He's done for us is, you know, even when we sin, God doesn't turn His back on us. God doesn't cast us away. God doesn't push us off. And you know, and God loves us, He always loves us. He's willing to take us back at any moment. And He made this statement, He said, if God would be like, if that's the kind of God we have, and it is, then why would we want to be cheap with Him? I thought, you know what, that's exactly right. My goodness, how much has the Lord done for us? How much? You know, think about where you'd be if it were not for the Lord. Think about what your life would be like without the Lord. And then we would say, well, you know what? I can't really trust him to give or whatever. And I thought, man, that sure was good. The great shepherd lives to give victory over sin. The great shepherd lives to meet all our needs. In Philippians 4.19, He says this, my God shall supply all my needs according to his riches. And you know, I remember reading this many years ago and I've never forgotten. I think it's one of the great passages of scripture in the Bible where it talks about God meeting his needs, our needs, taking care of us according to his needs or his riches. And as you think about this, You think about my God, and you think about who he is. You think about how much he loves us. He's my God. I serve him, I love him. And I don't always do right, and all those kind of things, but listen, that doesn't change who God is. God's still God, and he's a great God, and he loves us, and he wants to take care of us. But not only that, but his riches. Think about his riches. Now, when we think about God, we don't necessarily think about His riches, but you know, God owns it all, doesn't He? Now, there's a few men in the world that have great wealth, but they don't own it all. No one man on earth owns it all, but God does. God owns it all. And if He needed something that He didn't have, He could just speak the word and make it come into existence. He doesn't have to dig for gold, go in a mine and dig up gold if he needs some money. If he wants to, he can just speak it into existence, but God doesn't need money. Now, if I was gonna tell you, Randy, if I was gonna tell you, listen, I want you to go buy, I want you to go to the car dealership. I want you to go and I want you to pick out any car you want to. I'm gonna pay for it according to my riches. How would you feel? Maybe we could get a co-op and we could get several of us to join in on that. It just wouldn't do that much for me if somebody that I knew that had the riches I had come up and said, hey man, just go get whatever you want according to my riches. But when God says, listen, I'll meet your needs according to my riches, that means something, you know? That means a lot. God can supply anything that we have need of. And by the way, Dr. Preacher was saying, it's not always financially. You know, we are needy people, don't we? Well, there's all kinds of things that we have need of. And I tell you, God can supply and meet those needs, all right? And so then the last thing I want you to see here is the Lord is my chief shepherd. Look over, if you would, hold your place and just turn to a verse of scripture, 1 Peter. And 1 Peter chapter five and verse number four. The Bible says, and when the chief shepherd shall appear, he shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. You know what we're looking for? I don't know what you're looking for, but you know what we're supposed to be looking for? The Lord to come back. And the Bible says that when the chief shepherd shall appear, we're gonna receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. You know, the next great thing on God's calendar is his return. It could be today, it could be tomorrow. Boy, the sooner the better. If I had anything to say about it, the sooner the better. Of course, I'm not in control of that. I'm glad the Lord is. But I tell you, I look forward to the day that He comes to take us out of this world. I tell you, this world is in a mess. This world is headed for disaster. This world is going downhill. And folks, listen, the only thing that's gonna solve it, the only thing that's gonna change it or correct it is when the Lord comes back. And when the Lord comes back, then things are gonna be different. But you know, he talks about their receiving this reward. You know, the Bible tells us that in heaven, we're gonna be judged according to our works. There's gonna be some things that hopefully, that we're gonna be able to say, We did something right, and God's gonna reward us for that. There's gonna be some, no doubt, there's gonna be some things that we're gonna have regrets about, all those kind of things, but you know, there's five crowns the Bible talks about that we can win or we can receive those rewards. I look forward to that. I sure hope I have something to lay at the Lord's feet, by the way, for His glory. I sure do. I hope there's some crowns that I could get to do that. But you know, Can I tell you that really, in reality, the greatest thing about all of that is that we're gonna be able to be with the Lord forever, for eternity. Now folks, if you're here tonight and you're not saved, you won't be there. You won't be there. And that's a sad thing to think about, but that didn't have to be your case. I mean, you can trust Christ as your savior. And I hope that you'll do that. If you're not saved, I hope that you'll turn to him and you'll get saved before it's too late. But he goes on down here in Psalms chapter number 24, and there's the last four verses, seven and eight, are real similar to verses nine and 10. Listen, let's read it. The Bible says in verse number seven, lift up your heads O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. And they say that this is probably David as he's went off to war and he's fought a battle and he's won and he's come back. And he comes up to the gate. He comes up to the city gate there. And of course, you know, they know who he is. They know what he's done. I mean, news has already come back. They know what's going on here. But this is part of the ceremony. This is part of some of the reward or the honor for David and his men as they come back. It's like, it's almost like the start of the parade. And so here's David, he comes back, and he comes up to the gates, and he says, hey, lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up. You know what he's saying? If you'll open the gate, I'll come on in. That's what he's saying. That's southern vernacular talk there. But he says, lift up your heads, all right? The everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come in. Verse number eight is on the inside, the gatekeeper answers back, who is this king of glory? Who do you think you are? Who are you? Here's what he says. The Lord. Strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. You know what David was saying? Listen, hey, we won the victory. We fought the battle and we won. But folks, can I tell you, in the future, or when Jesus died on the cross, many folks say that this represents what took place on the cross. Jesus fought the battle and he won. He defeated the devil on the cross. And he goes back to heaven, and he says, lift up your heads over your gates, be you lift up your everlasting doors, and the king of glory will come in. And they answer, hey, who is this king? Who is this king? He says, the Lord. The Lord, strong and mighty. The Lord, mighty in battle. Listen, I've defeated I've defeated singing. But wait a minute, there's another set of verses, verses nine and 10. When is this gonna happen? When is this gonna take place? Well, many folks believe it when the Lord comes back and he takes his bride, the grave are gonna give up the dead, those that died in Christ. And he's gonna take those and he's gonna go back to heaven. And when He gets there, He's going to say, lift up your heads over your gates. Even lift them up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. That's our God. That's our shepherd. And folks, can I tell you, the shepherd loves his sheep. He loves us. And he is gonna take care of us no matter what. Now, I'm gonna tell you, we're not gonna understand everything. The Lord does, and sometimes we wonder, Lord, why'd you let that happen? Or why'd all this take place? But you know, and you know, everybody has questions. But I can tell you this. I have lived for the Lord or tried to live for the Lord as best I could for many, these last many years. And you know what? I've never, I've never seen the Lord let me down. I don't know of anybody that's ever give the testimony that said, you know what? I served the Lord, but it just didn't work out for me. I've just never seen that. Folks, listen, God's in control. He's the great shepherd. and he's going to take care of his sheep. You don't have to worry about that. Amen.